After an unknown amount of time, Roya faintly opened her good eye.
Through her blurred, sluggish vision, she could vividly see someone carrying her battered body in his arms. She fainted right after.
When Roya regained consciousness again, she opened her eyes to a completely different world.
Before her was a bright blue sky. Golden sunlight was slipping gently through the lush branches of a tree above her.
She could vaguely see a man's face leaning over her, his striking azure eyes reflecting the light.
(Is this... the afterlife?) Roya thought, her mind foggy. (He looks like an angel...)
"Unfortunately no, brat."
Roya violently snapped back to reality.
It wasn't an angel. It was the blue-haired guy from the transport cart, looking down at her with his usual smug, entirely unbothered expression.
"What are you doing here?!" Roya blurted out.
"What do you mean, what am I doing here?" he scoffed. "You should be thanking me right now."
Roya ignored him, quickly looking around. She realized she was resting under a tree. Worse, she realized she was resting directly on the guy's lap.
Her face instantly flushed a dark shade of red. "Let me go this instant!" she snapped, aggressively pushing her hands against his chest.
He didn't even blink. He suddenly shifted, dropping her straight off his lap onto the hard dirt.
"Ouch!" Roya yelped, a jolt of pain shooting through her. "What did you do that for?!"
"What? You asked me to let go," he replied smoothly.
Roya realized her left leg was still broken, but the pain was a little less. It had been splinted and bandaged. In fact, all of the deep cuts and burns on her legs, her arms, and her face had been meticulously cleaned and wrapped.
Then, her face flinched. She looked down at herself. She wasn't wearing her ruined clothes. She was wearing a completely different, oversized traveler's shirt. She quickly placed a hand inside the collar to check her chest wrappings.
Meanwhile, the blue-haired guy crossed his arms, his smug face returning. "What an ungrateful brat. I saved you, bandaged you, and this is what I get in return?"
SWISH.
A vicious kick aimed straight at him cut him off. He casually raised his left arm, catching her ankle. Roya immediately followed up with a desperate, wild punch. He caught that too.
"Hey! Stop that," he sighed. "Who in the world kicks and punches their savior right after waking up?"
"These are not the clothes I was wearing!" Roya shrieked, her face flushed with a mix of utter embarrassment and rage.
"Oh, well, of course not. There was nothing left of your clothes anyway, so I changed you into the spares I had in my bag," he explained calmly.
"What's the issue?"
"How can you do that to a young lady?!" Roya yelled, using her little remaining physical strength to push against his grip.
"Have you no shame?! You even bandaged that part!"
"Oh, no, no. I didn't see anything," he replied, shaking his head. "I closed my eyes during that."
Roya instantly shot back, "Do you think I'm dumb? No one can bandage properly like that with their eyes closed. Not even trained medics."
He let out a heavy breath, releasing her foot and her hand. "Okay. I lied a bit." He leaned forward, looking at her with blank indifference.
"So what? You're a brat anyway."
CRACK.
Roya swung her fist and punched him squarely in the face.
"Ahhhh! Crazy brat!" he yelled, grabbing his nose. "I think you broke my nose!"
Roya slowly started to calm down, her chest heaving. "I'm not a brat. I am sixteen."
The blue-haired guy kept a hand on his nose, his bland, smug face returning almost instantly. "So what? Still a brat."
Roya punched the ground in pure anger, thinking, (I should have actually broken his nose when I had the chance!)
But as she hit the ground, the reality of the situation rushed back into her mind. She whipped her head toward the village, which sat smoking a little farther away.
"Mother..." Roya called out in a soft, trembling voice. "Mother..."
She desperately tried to get up, but her broken leg gave out. She collapsed back into the dirt immediately, a single tear slowly escaping her eye and rolling down her cheek.
The blue-haired guy placed his hand gently on her shoulder.
"I think it will be better if you don't go back there," he said quietly. "You should just head to the village near the Great Forest."
Roya stayed silent for a second. "No. I have to go. Even if I have to drag myself there."
He let out a sigh and crouched down in front of her, turning his broad back to her.
"Get up, brat," he said.
"No way," Roya sniffled. "Not even in my—"
"Stop yapping and just get up," he cut her off bluntly. "You want to see what happened, don't you?"
Roya hesitantly placed her hands on his shoulders as he picked her up. It was the first time she noticed he was quite a bit taller than her—at least four inches taller than her own five-foot-six frame.
He carried her down the dirt path and into Oakhaven.
There were very few people around. Mostly, she saw terrified children roaming the streets or villagers hiding from them behind locked doors. He walked right through the village without caring for any of them.
Slowly, they reached the empty rice fields.
Roya was absolutely shocked at the sight. The field was littered with bodies sliced cleanly in half. Heads lay severed from their torsos. Nearby, a pack of red hyenas was already trying to eat the remains.
"You... you did this?" she finally asked.
"They deserved worse," he replied with a blank, slightly disgusted facial expression.
He carried her to the center of the field. The massive wooden logs of the pyres had been completely burned to ashes, with absolutely no presence of her mother's body left behind.
"Take me to my house," Roya asked softly.
As he started walking up the hill, he asked, "Don't you want to collect the remains of your mother or something?"
"There is no need for that," she replied. "She is gone."
After she reached the smoking ruins of her house, she asked him to let her down. Standing with the support of his hand, she limped around the burned-down home with him.
Meanwhile, he was busy yapping. "What am I now, your personal butler or something? What are you looking for in this burned-down house anyway?"
Roya just ignored him and kept looking. Finally, she found the burned-down metal box that belonged to her father. It was completely destroyed, with only metal pieces remaining. The medical diary was burned away, too.
But one thing remained. There was something she had found inside the box's secret compartment while trying to put the diary away days ago.
She reached into the ashes and pulled it out: a silver ring with a white, diamond-like stone on it, with intricate designs carved all around the band and the stone.
She took it, holding it tightly to her chest.
(Mother, Father...) Roya thought, her chaotic grief slowly settling into absolute clarity and acceptance. (I will be taking this as a part of you, and keep it close. I hope in the next life, both of you don't have to suffer.)
She took a deep breath, fully accepting her new reality.
(And Mother... I will fulfill my dream. As you said... I will explore the entire world. I will learn many new things. I promise.)
With her mind completely calm and her resolve solidified, her Aether responded. It covered her entire body in a brilliant purple light.
The bandages wrapped around her arms and legs slowly started coming apart. As she focused, her deep wounds, burns, and broken bones rapidly stitched themselves back together.
After a few minutes, her whole body was completely healed.
The blue-haired guy watched her, his smug expression replaced by a genuinely shocked face.
"Ha," he breathed. "No wonder they called you a witch, when you can do things like that."
[End of Arc 1: Ashes of Oakhaven]