I Can Save You

Half awake, the woman thought, Who am I, and why am I here?

She remembered nothing. Not her name, not where she had come from, not why she was in this place.

Raw red scraps of flesh lay scattered all around her, tangled with the heads and hands and feet of people who had only just died. Something terribly tragic had clearly befallen them, but the particulars were beyond her. The carcasses of dead monsters were strewn everywhere; this was probably their doing.

Even so, she was perfectly safe now. Whatever had been dangerous seemed to have been dealt with, and the place had become safe.

The woman looked ahead.

A man was leaning against a rock. With no memory, she could not tell whether she knew him, but he, too, was safe to her. His torn side was soaked crimson with blood, and he looked incapable of doing anything at all. The dying man watched her through clouded eyes.

"I……"

Even as she wondered why she was saying such a thing, she said it.

"……I can save you."

Where did that confidence come from? Memory or no memory, she knew how hard it was to save someone hurt this badly, someone whose breath was on the verge of catching and failing.

The man gave a disbelieving huff of laughter.

"If miracles are a talent of yours…… go ahead and try. I'll wait, so long as I'm still breathing."

The woman looked at him and thought, ……Should I just leave him to die? I don't even know how.

Then she realized she had come to a stop still holding a bag. She opened it and found it packed with medicine bottles no bigger than a finger. She took out a handful, lined them up on the ground, picked one, and worked the lid free. A sweet smell rose. She turned the bottle upside down and poured what was inside over the man's wound.

"Hhk."

He flinched and clenched his teeth. She opened another bottle and poured. Bloody foam welled up, and the wound began to knit. It must have hurt fiercely; his breath came rough and ragged.

She opened a third bottle and set its mouth to his lips. Startled, he said,

"What are you—"

She tipped his head back, poured the medicine down his throat, and pinched his nose shut.

A gulp. A choked swallow.

His eyes went wide.

"This is the only way to treat the wounds in your organs. I can hardly punch another hole in your stomach and pour it in, so just drink."

When she reached for yet another, the man caught her hand in a hurry.

"Stop. The price of two houses just went into my body."

"Two houses or ten, you have to live first."

"One would have done it. Half a house, even. It was a simple wound. Save the rest for when things are truly desperate."

"You were open clear through, from your belly to your back."

She stabbed at the empty air to show him. From where he sat, the gesture made his stomach ache all over again. He sighed, then leaned back.

"……It was simple. A deep wound, cleanly made."

"A single-blow wound, you mean. It should close quickly, then. Cut paper is easier to stick back together than torn paper."

"The explanation…… is apt. I'd like it better if we weren't talking about my torso."

The woman looked inside the bag. If three bottles came to two houses, then this was a treasure pouch that could buy an entire village. I'm rich.

"And……"

He forced the word out.

"And?"

"That……"

He folded.

"……"

Down he went.

The woman set a finger beneath his nose. Alive. He had simply held on and held on until he fainted. After losing that much blood, of course he was spent.

Seeing the face laid utterly bare in unconsciousness, she found it rather fine. Thick, soft black hair, a straight nose, a handsome jaw—a striking face. His eyes were a deep grape color. She seemed, somehow, to like the color of grapes. She was thinking it was a color that pleased her.

She had been looking down at him when she drifted off without meaning to, and when she woke, this time he was the one looking down at her.

"Sleeping well."

"You slept too."

"I passed out."

"Close enough. I was so, so sleepy."

"How is that the same?"

"In that neither of us could hold out?"

He let out an incredulous breath, then said,

"You can fall asleep beside corpses?"

"They're already corpses. They aren't dangerous."

The woman stretched long and slow, then looked at him. That fine face was a mess of blood. She rummaged through the bag, drew out the bundle of cloth inside, and held it out.

"Wipe your face with this."

"Rather a magnificent thing to wipe blood on and throw away."

He said it after taking the cloth. It was a glossy pink piece embroidered with red strawberries, hardly suited to wiping blood. Judging by his bewildered expression and her own faintly mortified feeling, it did not seem like something an adult ought to be carrying. It was large, too—less a handkerchief than a cloth for wrapping belongings, or a baby.

He brought a corner of it up before his eyes. Letters had been stitched there in a firm hand.

"Is that your name?"

"……Maybe."

"Maybe?"

He tilted his head and frowned. It was the most awkward answer a woman who had appeared out of nowhere could possibly give, because it meant she did not even know her own name.

"This is all I have. There's nothing else. No name, and no memories. If I picked up someone else's, then there's nothing to be done about that either. I have no way of finding out."

"You have no memories?"

"None. When I came to, I was here. More precisely, I was on my way here when the memories vanished, and by the time I realized they were gone, you were in front of me."

"And you don't know why you came here, either."

"That, I do know. I came because this place is safe."

"What does that mean?"

"I don't know what it was like before I arrived, but when I got here, it was completely safe. It still is."

"How do you know?"

"I just…… know. Why I know, or how…… that, I don't. I have no memories. I know it instinctively. The way I know that is red, and this is yellow."

"How long have you been like this?"

"Not long, I think. I'm not hungry, even though I don't remember eating anything. Probably…… two hours at the most."

The woman looked at the hair spilling down around her. The pale gold was clean. That, too, was proof she had not wandered long.

"From the state of your body, I'd say you weren't a demon's captive, or a slave."

"What makes you say that?"

"They brainwash humans so they can work them. Even water and a meal have to be ordered before those people can take them. And…… people like that don't keep as much of their wits as you have."

"If I had been a demon's slave, could my memories come back?"

"No."

The man shook his head.

"Most of them don't."

"Oh."

"You don't seem particularly sorry about it."

"I don't know what memories I lost. You can't be sorry for something you don't know. Um, then—you there. Sir."

"Ilesin."

"What?"

"My name is Ilesin. So you don't have to call me sir, or you there……"

Ilesin looked at the corner of the cloth again, then said,

"Artila."

"Has that become my name?"

"There isn't anything else here to guess a name from."

"That does make a certain amount of sense."

Artila nodded, perfectly serious. Besides, it did not sound unfamiliar. Maybe it really was her name.

"All right…… Ilesin. Where is this, exactly?"

"The forest of Pobern Castle."

"So it's a place-name somewhere. That much I understand."

"And you don't know whereabouts that somewhere is?"

Artila nodded.

"Yes. That's right. I don't even know why I'm here……"

She looked around, then said,

"You were dying in a place full of human corpses and monster corpses, so I imagine you have a special story of your own."

A man dying alone needed a special story just as much as a woman out of her mind. It was a strange question for a moment like this, but Ilesin decided to let go of what could be let go. She was out of her senses. Of course she would say senseless things.

"A week ago, demons invaded Pobern. They brought a great many monsters with them, and brainwashed slaves……"

A monster host appeared at Pobern.

The demons who had destroyed neighboring Moravik had come for Pobern.

Ilesin brought everyone inside the castle, then made ready for war.

Because he had prepared in advance, the first battle went smoothly in their favor. The monster army withdrew, only to return a few days later with people numbering in the thousands. Humans under the demons' brainwashing magic had appeared.

Unable to feel fear or pain, those slaves seeped toward the castle as slowly as flowing mud. After two grinding, agonizing days of war, Pobern won again, and the demons and monsters abandoned the humans and fled into the forest. The people on the plain died of their own accord. Their minds had been destroyed so completely that they could not even draw breath by themselves, and so they simply died.

Pobern's forces went into the forest for the final purge. Unfortunately, far more monsters lay hidden there than anyone had expected. There were several giant beasts with the heads of bulls, and more than a dozen lesser demons besides. The purge party Ilesin had brought did kill every last monster, but aside from Ilesin himself, it was annihilated. He, too, was struck by an axe hurled by the last of them, a creature already nearly dead. He took the monster's head, then pulled the axe free, and blood poured out in a rush. The wound was fatal.

He had always lived with the end in mind, and still he had not known it would end here, today. The hollowness of it staggered him. All of this, only for this. Only to finish here.

Some choices are grave mistakes and yet, by luck, you slip past them. Some choices are only what anyone would have done, and still the price is far too steep. There is no repayment for love. The repayment for hatred is always excessive.

And then—

A strange woman appeared.

Fatigue had shadowed her face darkly, but she did not look wounded. She wore ordinary trousers and a tunic, and though exhaustion made her sway, she held a heavy bag with stubborn steadiness.

She had barely managed to walk this far. Then, right in front of Ilesin, she suddenly sank to the ground.

A moment later, the eyes that had been cloudy as muddy water began to clear……

"I……"

The woman said,

"I can save you."

Ilesin spoke to the woman who had become Artila because Artila was written on something she carried.

"So…… you have an ability that lets you find a safe place?"

Artila nodded.

"Yes."

"How many dangerous monsters would you say are still in this forest?"

"There are still some. It's dangerous here and there. Oh—there's one right beside us. Kill it. Quickly."

Ilesin sent his sword flying at once. The blade pierced the crown of the monster's head. The thrashing body soon went slack. It was not large, but its claws were venomous. Had they not known it was coming, the wound would have been fatal.

Ilesin drew the sword free, then said,

"Can you find a path that will get us safely out of this forest?"

"There is one."

"Then let's leave together. I can't handle every monster on my own, and you don't have a weapon either. If you help me with that ability, I think we can get out without too much trouble. Once we're out, I'll pay you for it."

"What can you give me?"

"A place to stay, and food, until your memories come back. With no memories, isn't that what you need most right now?"

"All right. Then, before that."

Artila took out a bottle of the remedy.

"There's nothing to eat, so have this, at least."

"You're spending two houses on a single meal?"

"One mouthful is enough. About a room's worth."