Reawakening in the Cave of Rahesia
I was floating in a haze of confusion when consciousness suddenly returned. What the hell is going on here?
I desperately tried to recall my memories.
And a moment later, it all came flooding back—the Eye of Rahesia I had swallowed, the moment my mind had blacked out. Only then could my soul, still drifting weightlessly, be reunited with my body.
Once fully awake, the first thing I did was assess my surroundings.
The vision that had vanished in an instant had returned. Shadows of the cave danced in the flickering torchlight all around me.
And directly in front of me, a horned woman stared at me with eyes full of worry.
“Isana…?”
“You recognized me? You’re back with us now… I can’t believe what just happened…”
“But… I was sure… kulkk…! Kulkk! Kulkk!”
Even as I spoke, an enormous cough suddenly ripped through me. My eyes and skin felt raw, and my entire body shook with the chill of a terrible fever. I was trembling violently.
I remembered it had been a long time since I’d taken the holy water. I reached into my pocket, my hands shaking as I barely managed to pry open the bottle and gulped the blessed liquid down in one desperate swallow.
Only then, when the power of the holy water spread through every fiber of my body, could I finally feel the vicious energy that had been devouring me begin to fade.
I pushed myself up, leaning my back against the cave wall and trying to find a comfortable position.
“Kulkk… haa… Isana… I was sure I told you I was coming up the mountain alone… were you secretly following me?”
“Secretly following? Hey!! What kind of person do you think I am, saying something like that?!”
When I asked Isana, she shouted in a fit of rage. I must have been wrong—she hadn’t been spying on me.
The worried expression she’d been wearing vanished, replaced by blazing fury that consumed her entire face.
“We waited for you for hours, but you never showed up. So I had no choice but to climb the mountain to find you! What if something happened to you? That would be all my fault as your guide! I came looking for you out of worry, and all you have to say is that?!”
“We waited for you for hours…?”
It seemed I really had misjudged her this time. I asked carefully, and she answered everything with a grumpy tone.
“That’s right. We agreed to meet three hours later, but you never showed up. So I had to come after you. At first I thought you were just taking a nap lying on the cave floor, so I was about to kick you, but when I got closer, something felt off! Not to mention there were two eyeballs rolling around right next to you! I thought something terrible had happened, and I was only trying to help when you woke up and started talking about me secretly following you? That’s just ridiculous!”
I couldn’t defend myself against Isana’s rapid-fire words. She had truly acted out of kindness, and I had wrongly suspected her.
“…I’m sorry. It seems I made a huge misunderstanding. I have nothing to say for myself.”
“Haa, it’s fine. I was expecting too much from a human. Sigh…”
Ordinary apologies probably wouldn’t calm her anger at all.
I had done something wrong this time, so there was no helping it.
I turned my body toward Isana, lowered my head until my gaze met the floor.
“Eh? Eh? Eh?!”
Isana, startled by my sudden movement, looked flustered and didn’t know what to say.
“I’m sorry. It was my fault—there was no excuse. Could you possibly forgive me?”
“A-ah… eh? …Hey!! You’re a noble, and you’re bowing your head like that? …Whatever, fine!! I accept it, I accept it!! I’ll forgive you, so don’t do that!! It makes me uncomfortable!!”
Seeing my actions, Isana clutched her chest and took a deep breath. Her expression suggested her anger was slowly subsiding.
With her permission, I quickly straightened my posture.
“Isana, those eyeballs lying on the floor…?”
“U-uh? …I thought maybe they were yours, so I peeked under your eyelid. Fortunately, all yours were back in place properly. Just in case, I put these two aside separately.”
Isana handed me something carefully wrapped in a white cloth. When I loosened the knot, the fabric unfolded with a soft rustle, revealing what was inside.
“This… it looks just like my eyes…”
Curious, I examined them closely. They weren’t exactly the same as the ones I had seen earlier. The dull gray color was unmistakably that of the Reed family.
“Isana. Do my eyes look strange in any way? Shape? Color?”
“Strange? Well, I’m not a healer, so I can’t say for sure, but they don’t look abnormal at all. They look normal, and the color is exactly the same as yours.”
Isana brought a torch close to examine them and shook her head.
“That’s not enough… Isana, sorry, but could you turn off the torch for a moment?”
“Why turn off the torch… okay.”
Isana blew out the torch. The cave plunged into complete darkness.
I widened my eyes and focused my mana toward my vision.
At once, the landscape of the cave became clear, as if I were seeing it even in the darkness.
“Not as bright as daylight, but it’s clear.”
I marveled at the cave’s scenery, turning my head in every direction. After a while, a sharp pain shot through my eyes. I pulled back my mana, and my vision returned to pitch black.
I asked Isana to relight the torch, then leaned against the wall and fell into thought.
“Is the duration limited…? Or…”
Looking at the situation where I could suddenly see in the dark, it was clear the Eye of Rahesia had settled into my eyes. But since its power only lasted a short time when I used it, my skill level must still be lacking.
Still, hidden items shouldn’t have such a short duration. I would have to keep using it and level up its ability through repeated practice.
I recalled what had happened before I passed out.
Acquiring a high-grade item had felt great, but the situation just now was completely unexpected.
So the Eye of Rahesia had to be implanted by removing my own eyes and placing itself in their place? …
Just remembering the excruciating pain made my body shiver uncontrollably.
“Next time I use an item I don’t understand well, I’ll make sure to prepare thoroughly.”
Thankfully, luck had carried me through without major harm this time. But I couldn’t rule out the possibility of it happening again.
While I was lost in thought, Isana approached slowly and cautiously asked, watching my reaction.
“Hey… I’ve been curious about something since earlier, but I held back because I didn’t know your condition. Now that you seem better, I wanted to ask…”
“Curious?”
I countered, and Isana immediately unleashed a barrage of questions.
“Yes. How did you know these things are hidden here? This mountain behind us is well known to me, and I’ve entered this cave dozens of times, but I never imagined something like this would be hidden inside. How did a member of our race know? And these clothes, the staff, the necklace… they don’t seem like ours. What exactly are they?”
That was why she kept glancing at me suspiciously. For the question about how I knew about the items’ location, I had no answer she could understand. It wasn’t the kind of thing she would comprehend.
But the question about the items’ true nature… could I tell her?
After a moment of hesitation, I decided it was best to answer enough to satisfy her curiosity.
I didn’t need to reveal everything, but neither should I hide too much—otherwise it wouldn’t benefit our relationship.
“I can’t answer how I knew this place, but I can tell you the items’ true nature. These are holy relics left by the Saintess of the first hero party.”
“What? The first hero party…? The Saintess…?”
“Yes. The heroes who defeated the great demon that once descended to this world. You’ve probably heard of them? They’re not completely unrelated to you either. The miasma that poured from the body of the defeated great demon is what now covers the entire East Continent, and from that miasma was born your race.”
“No, of course I’ve heard… but seriously…?”
Isana looked doubtful. After all, these were relics used by legendary beings, so of course she wouldn’t believe it immediately.
“Believe it or not is up to you. Anyway, the reason I came is to return these sleeping relics to their original owners. The other random items were just byproducts. Ah, just as a side note, I recommend you don’t spread this information to people around you, including your master. You never know what kind of troublemakers might get involved. Well, I’ve explained everything I can, so let’s wrap it up here for today. I’ll wake up early tomorrow, so you should go to sleep soon too.”
Leaving Isana lost in thought, I lay down on the floor and instantly fell into a deep sleep. I was so exhausted that I didn’t have the energy to think about anything else and passed out without a second thought.
And that night, I dreamed I was receiving thanks from a woman in a bright white robe, her head surrounded by a halo, her hair a dazzling white.