The Three of Us (4)
Rustilla felt water filling her lungs.
She was sinking.
The thought that she might drown snapped her back to her senses, and she began to swim. Then she noticed something odd. Her body felt far too light. Her gaze, which had been rising toward the surface, turned downward. A boy and a girl were slowly drifting toward the lakebed.
It was Eidel and Zernya.
Rustilla thrashed her arms desperately and swam toward them. She managed to seize their clothes in a dramatic grab.
Zernya was unconscious. Eidel was bleeding from the head, his eyes rolled back. The situation was critical.
“Puhah…!”
She squeezed out every last ounce of strength and hauled them out of the lake. The biting spring chill froze her to the bone.
[“Neither of them is showing signs of cardiac arrest. Small mercy.”]
Rustilla looked up at the sky. Heavy clouds promised rain. Scanning the surroundings, she spotted a large cave and began dragging the two toward it.
[“No carnivores inside. Go in.”]
She nodded at Vega’s voice and entered. The moment she stepped inside, her legs gave out. Rustilla collapsed with a thud, breathing hard.
It was cold.
The artificial planet’s atmosphere was generally frigid. Even after terraforming, temperatures rarely climbed above twenty degrees. Especially now, in what counted as winter, nighttime lows frequently dipped below freezing.
The school uniform’s waterproofing kept her clothes dry, but her body was the problem.
“Ugh.”
Her teeth chattered. Cold moisture met the dry cave air and kept evaporating, stealing heat from her skin. If she didn’t dry off soon, hypothermia would kill her.
Rustilla clasped Eidel’s and Zernya’s hands. Zernya was still warm, but Eidel’s hand was ice-cold.
Like a corpse.
“No way.”
She hurriedly stripped Eidel’s outer clothes. She lacked the courage to unbutton his shirt—the final barrier—so she simply pressed her ear to his chest as he was.
A faint heartbeat reached her.
It was not a normal rhythm.
Just hold on. I’ll fetch firewood right away.
Rustilla gathered an armful of fallen leaves and dry branches and returned. She ringed stones around the pile, stacked the kindling inside, and prepared a campfire.
“Fire…”
Now to light it.
How? I dropped the plasma sword.
She had neither the time nor the experience for primitive methods like a hand drill.
Rustilla’s wandering eyes settled on Eidel’s left hand.
The caliper…
A classic measuring tool long out of common use. The same device he had wielded during the practical exam and when he felled the monster. Even as he lost consciousness, Eidel had kept a death grip on it.
It was clearly more than a simple tool. Perhaps something granted by an Outer God. It might serve as a substitute for the plasma sword.
[“Don’t touch it.”]
Vega’s voice came from behind.
[“If it belongs to an Outer God, merely touching it could kill you.”]
But Eidel handled it just fine?
[“That’s because it recognized the boy as its master. Anyone else risks a penalty.”]
Rustilla shook her head despite the warning.
He saved me first.
Without Eidel, she would already be dead.
Besides…
Even if touching the caliper killed her, saving the other two would be worth it. Trading one life for two was the richest bargain imaginable.
Just as she reached for the caliper, it slipped smoothly from Eidel’s hand, spun once in the air, and plunged into the pile of wood.
Zzap! Sparks flew.
Startled, Rustilla fell backward onto her rear.
The fire was catching.
“……”
[“…That Outer God bastard.”]
Vega let out a short laugh.
Thanks to the unexpected help, they managed to light the fire. All that remained was to dry off and find their way out of the mountains to return to the academy.
Things did not go smoothly.
Rain began to fall.
A proper downpour.
“……Haa.”
The cold rain was sharp enough to draw visible breath.
Once the flames had strengthened, Rustilla moved to strip Eidel and Zernya. Eidel’s condition was the most urgent, so she started with him.
It was not easy. Removing the jacket was one thing; taking off the trousers was another matter entirely for a sheltered girl. She would rather do a thousand push-ups.
Still, she did it. She had to. It was medical treatment. Clinging to that flimsy excuse, she unbuttoned the shirt and pulled the belt free. Her vision spun.
I-I can’t go any further…
She wiped the moisture from arms, legs, and torso, then left the rest to the fire.
“What are you doing?”
“Eek…!”
Just as she reached for Zernya’s muffler, violet eyes snapped open and glared at her.
“Touch me and you die.”
Zernya swatted Rustilla’s hand away, then coughed and spat out water. After checking her soaked state, she casually shrugged off her jacket and sat near the fire.
“Not taking off the muffler?”
Rustilla asked carefully.
“It’s waterproof and insulated. No need.”
Zernya answered curtly. Her complexion was poor after waking from unconsciousness.
“Damn, my head hurts.”
“It’s the cold water. You’ll feel better soon.”
“That’s not it. I had a headache before we fell. What the hell is going on….”
Zernya sighed and pressed her forehead.
Rustilla blushed as she folded the jacket and skirt. She was not completely naked, yet the embarrassment remained.
“Ugh….”
Zernya, likewise removing her stockings, turned to look at her. She twisted her lips.
“Stop fussing.”
“…You’re calm even now.”
“I was educated that way from childhood.”
While speaking, Zernya gently massaged Eidel’s forearm. Her own cheeks, lit by the fire, were flushed as well.
She checked his pulse next.
“This is bad.”
“What?”
“His pulse is weak—almost gone. Is his heart still beating?”
“Y-yeah. It was.”
“No need for CPR, then. Hypothermia is the priority.”
Muttering that there was no other choice, Zernya wrapped both arms around Eidel’s left side.
Rustilla’s mind went blank.
“Y-you, you, you—”
“Medical treatment. This is medical treatment.”
Zernya gritted her teeth. Even she found the situation mortifying. Pressing skin against a boy she had only just met!
“You said you hated Eidel.”
“Hating someone doesn’t mean I want him dead.”
“……”
“I’m going to be a doctor. I’ll take over the Northern Trauma Center. Letting someone die right in front of me would ruin my record. I could even fail the character assessment. And since he’s a direct descendant of Rhineland, we might be held responsible if he dies. Yeah. I’m getting out of here alive, no matter what….”
Zernya rambled, suddenly declaring her future plans and then listing every reason she had to save Eidel.
“…Anyway, I refuse to become top of the class because he died. First place only shines when there’s a second. Without him, there might not even be anyone worthy of second. Yeah. That’s the correct view.”
Zernya’s lips trembled. Watching her, Rustilla found herself nodding along.
Yes. This was only to save a life.
Rustilla recalled her dream: to become an outstanding prosecutor, perhaps even reaching EX-rank or the highest Omega grade, protecting the Federation’s citizens and their property.
She had held that dream since childhood. She could not let a classmate die here.
Suppressing the wave of shame, she wrapped her arms around Eidel’s right side. Her cheeks burned.
Tap. Tap.
Inside the flickering campfire, the two girls fidgeted with their toes, passing the time. The space gradually grew warmer.
Night had fallen.
The rain grew heavier.
Consciousness that had been drifting like a plank on the ocean slowly returned. Yet opening her eyes did not mean she had returned to reality.
“Where… is this?”
A murky, lightless space. Sunlight refused to touch it; gloom and chill drifted like wind through the dismal place.
As she floated through the void, lights suddenly flared.
Beneath the white lamps writhed tentacles like flowing silk.
Following them upward, she saw several dark-blue skeins of thread scattered across the floor.
After scanning the fallen threads, she slowly raised her head. A woman’s voice spoke at the same moment.
“Slashing his own head before falling into the water.”
She grinned.
“Far more entertaining than he looks.”
Recognizing the speaker was simple.
Cartesia.
She had manifested before him, borrowing the form of an avatar.