Chapter Ninety-One: Flashback to a Boy Named Haruka
SAI tumbled onto the floor with the boy. In a hoarse voice, he asked, “Who…are you?”
The boy didn’t have curves on his chest, and the bones in his shoulders and arms were pronounced, so she knew that he was a boy right away. If she considered only his face, however, he looked like the most beautiful girl she had ever seen or could imagine.
The boy, pretty like a doll, had a firm grip on her wrists. “Who are you?” he repeated. Disbelief clouded his face, as if he was still struggling to come to terms with the existence of the girl he had tugged from the window.
Sai stood up, pinched the skirt of her dress, and curtsied. “My name is Sai Cutrettola.”
He tried to greet her in return, but pain distorted his expression and he collapsed in a heap on the ground. Frantically, Sai ran to him and stroked his back. She spoke in a hushed voice so that no one would overhear. “Are you…all right?”
“Thanks,” he said briefly in gratitude before staggering back to his bed. A groan of pain slipped past his gritted teeth. The wings on his back were moving noisily as if they had a mind of their own.
Sai climbed onto the big bed with him and held the older boy’s hands.
His eyes widened. “What are…you…”
But before he could reproach her, Sai sucked in a deep breath and prepared to release her mana. The most critical concern right then was to render first aid.
“I am Sai Cutrettola. The Wagtail Priestess under the protection of the Wagtail.” She hesitated as though searching for the right words. “Umm, what next… I, Sai, shall share my mana with the big brother in front of me. Something hot flows out from inside my stomach, and this mana goes through my hands…and into him.”
Sai shut her eyes and pictured herself sharing mana with him. Technically, that method wasn’t possible unless she knew his name, but she wanted to relieve his pain as much as she could immediately. Sai aimed the force of her magical intonation at herself and started by gathering mana in her abdomen. She imagined it flowing through her chest, her arms, and their connected palms into the boy. She could only pour in half of what she could have achieved with the proper technique, but gradually…the tension left his body.
The boy closed his eyes and let out a long exhale. As he accepted Sai’s mana, his expression grew peaceful and pleasant as though a weight had lifted from his shoulders. After taking several deep breaths in and out, the boy finally opened his ash-blue eyes to look at Sai.
“Your magic is so strong… I see, your innate mana is already powerful, and then you’ve also been training it properly for a long time. That’s why you noticed mine going on a rampage over here and came to help me.”
Sai nodded. His speech had an unfamiliar inflection, and she could tell that it was the same accent as the officer that she had met at the gate earlier. His accent, however, was much more subdued and smoother than the guard’s, so it was easier to understand him.
“Thank you,” he whispered. “But if someone finds out, you’ll be charged with a serious crime. Don’t ever…do something so dangerous again.”
“I am the Wagtail Priestess. I cannot ignore someone who is suffering.”
“…You’re very kind.”
“But you are right, big brother. I am very sorry. I will never come here again.”
He nodded. “Yeah. That’s for the best.”
“So…” Sai clasped his hands and met his eyes with determination. “Please let me heal you more today.”
“Huh?” He looked startled. “Did you hear a word of what I said?”
“I can heal you. I am the Wagtail Priestess. Let me heal you.”
Silence.
Sai looked up at him, pleading. “Please…?”
“I’m grateful that you think that way, but…” He lowered his jewellike eyes. “You’ll be in deep trouble if someone finds out, and—”
“I am already in deep trouble. I came in without permission and talked to a secret person who grew wings. I am already a big…” She hunted for the word. “…Criminal.”
His eyes widened again. Then he glanced up at the big wings extruding from his back. A wry smile found his face, and to Sai he seemed very sad and lonely. “Yeah, you’re right… You’ve already seen my wings, so I can’t hide anything from you.”
Sai squeezed the boy’s hands. “If being found out after healing you is just as bad as being found out after not healing you, please let me. Please. It will be over really fast. It won’t hurt either. I can make it go away for a while. I swear.”
“What a reliable little doctor we have here.” For the first time, though it was feeble, the boy smiled. It was like watching a flower bloom, and Sai’s heart thumped loudly in her chest.
“When was the last time I got to talk to anyone?” he wondered. “When was the last time someone talked to me while looking me in the eyes…?”
“Eyes…?”
“You see, because my magic is strong, if it isn’t someone like you…people go blind the moment they look into my eyes. Bet you didn’t know that.” Sai gasped and covered her eyes without thinking. The older boy laughed as if her reaction was the funniest thing in the world. “It’s already too late. Aha ha, are you a smart one or a silly one? I can’t tell.”
Sai was a little taken aback at his friendly laugh. It belonged to a carefree, ordinary boy, not the delicate doll before her. Suddenly, her new brother seemed more like a normal human—a boy she would come across on the street.
“You were rather careless,” he said, “but I was too. Ha ha, we’re two peas in a pod. I guess I can’t blame you for what happened today.”
“Big brother, can you tell me your name? The Wagtail Priestess can use the most mana when we know someone’s name.”
With an impish smile, he placed his index finger on his shapely lips. “You won’t tell anyone else?”
“I won’t.”
“I’m…Haruka.”
“Lord…Haruka?”
“Yeah. In the Orient, it means ‘fruit borne in spring.’” He paused. “Apparently I was named that in the hopes that I would bring spring and fruits to my nation.”
“It is a wonderful name. Lord Haruka… I will remember it.” Sai repeated his name several times before she grasped Haruka’s hands.
“Lord Haruka,” she chanted. The instant she said it, she felt power rushing into every part of her body, evidence that she’d managed to form the connection correctly using his true name. Okay, it should be fine now.
She intertwined her hands with Haruka’s, pressed her forehead against his, and shut her eyes. “Lord Haruka. Soon a warmth flows into your hands and shoulders, and your whole body feels nice.”
His breathing hitched.
Sai whispered, “Please relax, Lord Haruka…”
Through their connected foreheads and entwined fingers, she could feel both of their bodies heating up. The sensation was completely different from earlier.
“Lord Haruka.” Sai faltered and thought, Umm, what should I say for something like this? She recalled how her father slowly and carefully mixed ointment that had hardened in the cold, kneading it in his palm to soften it. Ah, that’s right. I’m doing the same.
She finally decided on “You are putty in my hands, Lord Haruka. Let your body relax…” Sai envisioned pouring all of the surging heat within her into the boy on the bed.
Haruka had to stifle the scream threatening to leave his throat.