The door burst open.
Aria stood in the doorway, her chest rising and falling from the run. Her robe was torn at the sleeve, fabric hanging loose. Dirt streaked across the fabric.
"Is he—"
Her eyes found Kaito immediately.
She crossed the room in three quick steps and dropped to her knees beside the bed. Her hands moved without hesitation—one finding his wrist, the other carefully checking his face, his neck, searching for wounds with the kind of practiced efficiency that spoke of training.
I watched her fingers still against his pulse point. Saw her shoulders drop slightly.
Relief.
The tension that had been holding her rigid eased all at once. Her other hand lingered near his face for a moment longer before she seemed to catch herself.
Then she went completely still.
Her hands stayed where they were—one on his wrist, one near his cheek. But her expression shifted. Like she'd just realized where she was. Who was watching.
She withdrew her hands carefully. Folded them in her lap. Her face went neutral, but I caught the faint color touching her cheeks.
The embarrassment flickered across her face for just a moment.
Then it changed into something else entirely.
Fear.
Her hands tightened in her lap. Her eyes darted between us—Sister Maria, me, Boraz—like she was trying to read what we were thinking. What we'd seen.
She's afraid we suspect something.
The memory flashed through my mind. Purple lightning. The way the air itself had felt wrong. Boraz's words: "When she lost control... if your hero hadn't snapped her back..."
"Why isn't he waking up?" Sister Maria's voice cut through the silence, worry evident in her tone. "The holy water should have—"
"He's just exhausted."
Aria's voice came out louder than I'd expected. Clear. Almost too relieved.
"He'll wake up soon." She looked down at Kaito, then back at us. "His body just... gave out. He pushed past every limit. But he'll be fine."
The certainty in her voice was absolute.
Sister Maria's expression softened. Understanding. But something flickered behind her eyes—questions she wasn't asking.
Boraz stood quiet near the door, watching.
The silence stretched.
I could see it building in Aria's posture. The slight tension returning to her shoulders. The way her breathing had become too controlled, too measured. Like she was holding herself together by force of will.
She thinks we're going to ask. Push for answers. Demand to know the past she's keeping from us.
"We'll wait."
The words came out before I'd fully thought them through. But they felt right.
Aria looked up, surprise clear on her face before she could hide it.
"Until you're comfortable sharing your past with us." I kept my voice steady. "We won't push. We'll wait."
Sister Maria nodded immediately. "Of course, Aria. Take whatever time you need."
Boraz's gruff voice followed. "Not my business, butterfly. We saved the kid. That's what matters."
Something shifted in Aria's expression. The fear easing, just slightly. The wariness still there, but no longer quite so sharp.
Her smile came small and uncertain. "Thank you."
I felt my own expression soften. "Get some rest, Ay. He'll be fine." I paused. "Though when he wakes up, he'll probably be hungry."
Despite everything, I caught the almost-smile that touched her face.
"Yes," she said quietly, looking back at Kaito. "He should be."
Everything else could wait.
The questions sitting in my mind—about Boraz entering the holy land, about Aria's power, about what had really happened in that forest, about that purple lightning and the wrongness I'd felt—they were still there. Still demanding attention.
But watching Aria kneel beside Kaito's bed, seeing the worry in her eyes, the care in the way she'd checked him over—and underneath it all, that fear of what we might think of her...
Some things were more important than answers.
For now, at least.
We all stayed still for a while. The silence wasn't uncomfortable—just heavy with unspoken things.
After some time, Sister Maria left to bring something to eat for us. The soft click of the door closing behind her seemed louder than it should have been.
Boraz stood in the same place he'd been the entire time. Not even flinching. His eyes closed, but I could tell he was aware of everything. Like he was absorbing it all—the room, our presence, every small sound.
Aria sat on the floor where she'd knelt earlier. Her eyes stayed fixed on Kaito, watching his chest rise and fall with steady breaths. Occasionally her gaze would shift—quick side glances toward me, toward Boraz. Like she was still wary of us. Still waiting for questions she didn't want to answer.
I leaned back against the wall, letting the cool stone press against my shoulders. My muscles ached from the tension I'd been holding. The room smelled faintly of herbs and incense—Sister Maria's doing, probably.
Then I thought: This is my chance. Now or never.
"Please help me get stronger."
Two pairs of eyes landed on me.
Boraz looked at me with an expression I couldn't read.
Aria's face showed concern. "You're already doing enough training, Grey. You don't have to push yourself. You and Sir Kaito arrived no more than three days ago. Yet you've improved remarkably."
Boraz's eyes flared—a little bit of amusement flickering there, though barely noticeable.
"Tch!" He clicked his tongue. "I didn't know you came with the hero."
He seemed to understand what Aria meant.
"Yes, Sir Boraz." Aria's voice was steady. "As you're aware, he's from Sir Kaito's world."
"How did that happen?" Boraz's tone sharpened. "No heroes came with others. Only themselves."
Aria's eyes dropped to the empty floor. Not meeting our gaze. "I accidentally brought him along when I teleported Sir Kaito here."
"You teleported them here by accident?" Boraz's eyebrow rose. "Isn't the summoning process different from direct teleportation methods?"
Her voice went quieter. "The summoning had been failing for years. Ever since the previous hero fled back to his world fifteen years ago."
"I didn't know that," Boraz said. "But what I know is until one hero dies, another can't be summoned. Everyone knows this rule."
Aria nodded slowly. "The previous hero died about two years ago. The holy sword tried to summon again—it chose heroes, reached out to them. But..." She paused. "The sword kept returning empty. No heroes came through."
My chest tightened. That's what the demon meant.
"Those bastards." Boraz's voice went low and dangerous. "They were killing them before the summoning completed."
"Yes." Aria's hands clenched in her lap. "The demons found a way to track the holy sword's magic. Every time it tried to bring a hero through, they'd locate them and kill them before the summoning finished."
"How many died?" I asked before I could stop myself.
Aria's eyes stayed on the floor. "I don't know exactly. But the sword tried repeatedly. Each time it failed." She paused. "So I went myself to find the cause."
The room went quiet.
"You went yourself?" Boraz's words weren't a question.
"I analyzed the holy sword's summoning spell. Studied how it worked, the magic structure, the way it locked onto coordinates." Aria's voice steadied as she explained. "I copied it. Reconstructed it. Then I used the same coordinates the sword had been trying to reach—the ones it kept failing to complete—and I fed them into an advanced teleportation spell."
She reverse-engineered divine magic and used it herself! That's crazy!
The thought hit me with strange force. That level of skill, that kind of understanding—
"You went to another world." Boraz said it slowly, like he was still processing. "Alone."
"I had to know why it kept failing. If there was a way to succeed." Aria finally looked up. "When I arrived, I found Sir Kaito. He'd just defeated the Minotaur that had been sent to kill him. And Grey was..." She glanced at me. "Wounded. Badly."
I remembered. The axe. The pain. Kaito's desperate face.
"I gave Sir Kaito holy water to save Grey's life. Then I tried to teleport Sir Kaito back here, to complete what the holy sword couldn't." Her voice wavered slightly. "But Grey grabbed his hand at the last moment. The spell pulled them both through. Luckily both of them came through unharmed."
Boraz let out a long breath. Something like respect flickered across his face. "You teleported yourself to another world, found the hero, saved his friend, and brought them both back. And you call it luck?"
"The timing was luck," Aria said quietly. "If I'd arrived even minutes later..."
She didn't finish.
I stared at her. This girl who looked our age. Who'd accomplished something impossible. Who'd saved my life without even knowing me.
Then the anger hit.
"Wait." My voice came out sharper than I intended. "You said there's no way to send us back. That we're stuck here until all of this ends." I stood up. "But you just explained how you traveled between worlds. If you can do it once, you can do it again. You can send us home."
Aria's eyes met mine. No hesitation this time.
"I used coordinates the holy sword provided. Exact coordinates that had been calculated and refined through divine magic over years. I followed a path that already existed." Her voice was firm. "I don't have coordinates to send you back. I don't know where your world is in relation to ours. Without that..."
"You could figure it out," I pressed. "You analyzed divine magic. You reconstructed a spell that shouldn't be possible. You—"
"Without proper coordinates, the teleportation would be random." She cut me off. "You could appear above the clouds and fall to your death. Underground and suffocate. In the middle of an ocean. Inside solid rock." Her eyes burned with intensity. "I won't kill you trying to send you home, Grey."
The words hit like cold water.
Boraz grunted. "Kid's got a point, boy. Magic without direction is the same as suicide."
I wanted to argue. Wanted to push back. Wanted to demand she try anyway, find a way, do something—
But I looked at Kaito lying there. Unconscious. Wounded from fighting to protect this world.
He'd already chosen.
And I'd chosen to stay by his side.
"Fine." I took a deep breath to calm myself and sat back down, frustration bleeding out of me into exhaustion. "It's already decided anyway."
Aria's expression softened slightly. Relieved, maybe. Or grateful I wasn't pushing further.
The silence settled again.
But this time, it felt different. Less heavy. More like understanding.
After the argument died down, we sat there just like before. The air felt lighter somehow, even though none of us spoke.
Sister Maria brought us some sweet potatoes with honey to eat. The sweet potatoes were steamed, soft enough to melt on my tongue. The honey was warm and golden, dripping down the sides.
Aria and Boraz didn't take any at first, but I did. The stress had already made me hungry.
But my mind was heavy with thoughts, so I couldn't eat more than five. Each bite felt mechanical—chew, swallow, repeat. The sweetness did nothing to ease the weight in my chest.
Sister Maria was the one who broke the silence. "The supplies arrived. Can you help organize them?"
Aria stood up, brushing invisible dust from her torn robe. "I'll come," she said.
"You both can stay with the hero kid. I'll go help them." Boraz pushed himself off the wall he'd been leaning against. "And Grey, is it, boy?"
"Yes. What is it?"
"Don't be hard on yourself." He said it with concern clearly showing in his eyes. The gruffness in his voice had softened.
"You're the one who said I'm a helpless kid. Did you forget?" I said with a little annoyance.
He smiled—a rare expression that changed his entire face. "You just tagged along with the hero and even after seeing all these things, you're still not shaking or crying. Taking rational steps after careful consideration. That means you've got guts, Grey boy!"
He left with a thumbs up. Sister Maria followed him, giving us a gentle smile before closing the door behind her.
Now, me and Aria were alone with Kaito.
The room felt different with just the two of us. Smaller, somehow. More intimate. I could hear Kaito's breathing clearly now—slow and steady. The rustle of Aria's robe as she settled back down beside his bed.
My pride didn't have to stay up above my head anymore.
So I let my anger drop. The weight of it fell away, leaving only exhaustion and something that felt like shame.
"Sorry. Sorry, I..." My voice came out quieter than I intended. I rubbed the back of my neck, unable to look at her.
"You don't have to apologize." Aria replied immediately, her voice firm but gentle. "I don't deserve your apology."
"No, I should." I finally looked up at her. She was watching me with those careful eyes, the same ones that had been so afraid earlier. "What I did was wrong. I'm the one who asked you to let me stay by Kaito's side. I should take responsibility for my actions from the beginning."
Her expression softened. She reached out, hesitated, then let her hand fall back to her lap. "You're scared. Anyone would be."
"That doesn't make it right."
"No," she agreed. "But it makes it understandable."
We nodded in agreement, a small gesture that felt heavier than it should.
And then we waited for Kaito to wake up.
The silence this time wasn't uncomfortable. Just tired. The kind of quiet that settles after a storm, when everything has been said and nothing more needs to be added.
I watched Aria's hand rest near Kaito's, not quite touching. Watched the rise and fall of his chest. Felt my own breathing slow to match.
Whatever came next, we'd face it together.
For now, that was enough.