After we held each other for a short while, Prince Wald finally let go of me. His eyes were a little red around the edges. As soon as we had seen each other again, he had buried his face in my chest, but I hadn’t heard a single sob out of him.
Despite that, he continued to tremble in my arms.
I figured that, as a member of the royal family, he’d been taught never to display any of his emotions too strongly. When his father and brother had both died, he hadn’t wailed then. When he had watched Croway burn, he had been crying, but the tears that had streamed down his pale cheeks had been accompanied by silence.
The only time I’d seen him surrender to his emotions had been when that transmigrator, Yde, had been kicking around that crown. Although, to be honest, I’m sure that would have pissed anyone off.
Unlike in my old life, a person at fifteen years of age in this world was already considered to be a full-fledged member of society. But his actual age aside, Wald was as mature as any adult.
Although the royal house might have considered someone burying emotions to be correct behavior, as a transmigrator, I couldn’t help but still see him as a child. Maybe I was overstepping to think this, but I felt that he should let more of his feelings out.
“Kariya, I’m so glad you regained consciousness.” I could tell from his words that he’d been worried about me as I slept those long days.
Wait a moment. Now that I thought about it, there was one mystery I still hadn’t solved. I asked Wald about it.
“About that... I think I must’ve died three times. Did you do something, Your Highness?” I asked.
“I pulled the sword out from your belly and poured this into your mouth.” He pulled an empty bottle from the pocket of his slacks. “It’s the elixir you gave me. I apologize for using it without your permission—I promise you will be paid in full for it.”
Oh, right, I had given that to him the time I had explained that I was actually an S-tier crafter. It was an elixir—the panacea that was even capable of resurrection. There had been so much going on that I’d completely forgotten about it. I guess the prince must’ve been holding on to it this entire time.
“Well, in my humble opinion, I don’t think you need to worry about that—you used it on me, after all. You saved me, so...thank you, for reviving me. But it looks like I took a long time to wake up,” I said, frowning. After all, it shouldn’t have taken that long to take effect. “Was, uh, the elixir of poor quality?”
Wald seemed taken aback. “You don’t know?” Puzzled, he studied me for a moment and then began explaining as if he’d figured out the issue.
“When elixirs are used on transmigrators, the effects are delayed,” he began. “People say this is due to a mechanic in the game of your old world called a ‘cast timer.’ Elixirs take effect instantaneously for the ordinary people of this world, but transmigrators take several days to convalesce. There are some other situations where this world differs from that of your game as well, which...” he trailed off. “Well, you would have been informed of them upon joining the guild.”
“Oh, right. I definitely hadn’t known that.”
Yikes, that’s scary.
Which, I realized, was a somewhat belated response for someone who was already aware that this world wasn’t completely identical to the game I had played. But while there might have been some other egregious differences, I really didn’t have the desire to join the guild at this point, even if they’d teach me the rest.
As I discovered later, high elixirs, unlike normal elixirs, apparently had the ability to revive transmigrators without a cast time as well.
But...since high elixirs were SS-rank items, I couldn’t make them myself.
“I should tell you what has happened these past few days. I knew you would be asleep for some time after drinking the elixir, so after I’d administered it to you, I moved us from the teleportation portal. As I didn’t know when we might be attacked by pursuers, I decided the wiser choice would be to leave the vicinity. I discovered this empty hut, so I decided that we ought to lie low here to keep from being discovered.”
“That makes sense. It didn’t seem to me like it’d been used in a while, so I doubt anyone lives anywhere around here.” I paused there and thought for a moment. “By the way, Your Highness, did you happen to see the number engraved over the entrance of the portal building?”
He was silent for a moment. When he finally replied, his voice was low and subdued. “It was 203.”
I was speechless. 203, huh? Or, more precisely, 02:03.
In Golden Dawn, the buildings that housed teleportation portals were marked with numbers. Teleportation stations were designated in successive single- or double-digit numbers. For example, Tachyrinn Station had been labeled “18.”
On the other hand, the small portals scattered all around the world that basically only connected to a single endpoint were designated with coordinates instead. The number used for portals located in the Central Nations indicated longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates.
Longitudinal coordinates went from 01 to 10, and we were at 02. As for latitudinal coordinates, they ranged between 01 and 15, and we were at 03.
“Well,” I began brightly in an attempt to lighten the mood. “At least there weren’t any letters. We’d be in a rough spot if we ended up in the edgelands!”
“I...suppose.”
Not quite the reaction I hoped for. Oh well.
“All right, then!” I said, trying to be chipper. “We have a lot of things we’ll need to figure out, especially about what we’re going to do, but firstly! Let’s have something to eat, then let’s do something about our clothes and bathing and stuff!”
“R-Right,” he said with a nod. Wald then began to pick up the oranges that lay scattered on the ground. “I gathered these earlier. I tried to get enough for you too...”