This Clueless Hero

At any moment, I could release the healing spell. But Ned's words made me hesitate.

Although I didn't want Mildred to die, casting this healing spell had a very high chance of killing me. It had never occurred to me before that someone else could be hurt by my death, but...

I couldn't help but remember seeing Everett die in front of me.

Although I tried my best not to think about it, the thought remained in the corner of my heart, almost like a tiny splinter.

...Now that I thought about it, my death would defeat the purpose of saving Mildred in the first place.

I furrowed my brows.

"...Damn."

I cast the healing spell on myself. A gentle feeling coursed through my body, mending the accumulated damage.

However, I nearly blanked out just from the pain my mind was experiencing.

While my body was in proper condition to cast a spell, the same couldn't be said for my mind. As expected, it was going to be really hard to cast the healing spell.

But...

My eyes drifted to Mildred.

Her condition seemed to get worse with every passing moment. Instead of choking, it seemed like Mildred stopped breathing altogether. As for her skin, there were certain sections with a faint purple tint.

Ned looked at me with a bit of shock when he noticed my wounds healed. However, he quickly focused his attention back towards Mildred.

A frown formed on his face.

"This... this is bad."

Ned held the side of his head and furrowed his brows.

"CPR?... No, that might just make things worse."

He looked around the room, as though he would find something by doing so.

With the support of the bedposts, I made my way over to Mildred's side. While one of my hands was still holding onto the side of the bed for support, I lightly grasped Mildred's hand with the other.

Like the rest of her body, it was trembling violently. Even though she was only shaking, it was quite painful to hold onto her hand. It was as though her hand was trying to tear me apart.

I slowly closed my eyes.

"Mildred..."

At this rate, it seemed like she was going to die. The only chance I had to save her was using the healing spell.

However, it wasn't going to be so easy to do so.

...And even if I was able to, would that even save her?

I had already cast the healing spell on Mildred twice. Yet, the convulsing returned just moments after.

My lungs forced in a deep breath.

I... I could at least try, right?

Once again, gales of wind picked up around me while my skin tore open. There was an immediate resistance once I began casting the spell, almost like my mind was protesting against the abuse.

However, I stubbornly continued.

My mind felt like mush so much, it was as though my existence became a viscous liquid. Like I was a helpless slime that felt pain when my body was distorted. And it just so happened that my existence was being twisted in such a way.

Halfway through the healing spell, the pain suddenly spiked.

It was getting... harder to form coherent thoughts.

A wave of unwillingness swept over me. The pain was simply debilitating, like I was a person living on their last breath.

In fact, I almost gave up then and there.

But before I could, my eyes slowly opened to see Mildred in front of me. Her condition was only getting worse.

It reminded me of the reason I wanted to go through so much pain in the first place.

To save someone else.

It felt like the reason was for something bigger than myself. Though... I didn't really know the person I was saving.

Erin told me that I would never be able to truly understand someone else, simply because what they have experienced is fundamentally different from what I have.

But still, I wanted to learn just a little more. In other words, I wanted to live with Mildred for a little longer.

And so, despite the mind-numbing pain, I continued on.

For a second, I mistook myself as a rope, while the pain was a knife cutting through me. The knife had already made a decent amount of progress, cutting through some of the twine binding me together.

As I continued to cast the healing spell, that knife only pushed through faster. I had to toughen myself so that the knife wouldn't cut through as easily, else I would snap.

Thread after thread was cut through, slowly reducing the rope to a few strands. Those last few strands tightened to become far stronger than their predecessors, holding up against the relentless knife.

Then... the healing spell was completed.

The knife stopped sawing away at the rope, retracting back. However, it suddenly shot forwards, easily ripping through the last few threads.

There was a snapping sound.

And my mind blanked out.

...

I opened my eyes to find myself... in a wasteland.

The air was blood red, while both the moon and sun remained up in the air next to each other. It was as though they were two friends jeering at the misfortune of others.

As for the world around me...

Clouds of dust filled the air. Even at a glance, the strange orange color of the dust made it clear inhaling it would cause serious choking among a few other ramifications.

As for the air, it was uncomfortably warm, almost like the world had become an oven that was slowly heating up. On top of that, there seemed to be a strange weight from that air, as though it was so dense that it gained substantial weight.

As for the ground below me, it consisted of what appeared to be red stone. Hills and valleys extended across the horizon in the shape of sand dunes.

Far off in the distance, I could see countless frighteningly large cracks that snaked across the ground. There were so many that it was as though the land I was standing on was its own island among several others.

What was once part of a whole, had become something independent.

However, the most strange thing wouldn't be any of that.

It would be the old man kneeling down in front of me. The old man was wearing a set of rags, as though he was a beggar of sorts.

He had long white hair that just barely touched the ground in his kneeling position. It was as though the old man was praying to a god he believed in.

Yet, something told me that this wasn't the type of man to believe in gods.

Suddenly, the old man stood up. He looked around frantically as though he desperately needed to find something.

That's when his hazelnut eyes landed on me.

The old man ran towards me and stopped when he was a little over a meter away. The old man's yellowed teeth were in full view. He held out his trembling hands in front of him as though they needed to grasp something.

After a moment of silence, he spoke.

"I... I need help."

I was a little confused, but decided to hear him out.

"...What do you need?"

The old man looked to the floor and held his hands together.

"I-I am supposed to make a decision."

I took another glance at the world around me, one that resembled doomsday a little too closely.

What kind of choice could even matter when things have come to this?

I sighed.

"Um, ok. What is it?"

The old man took a few moments to gather the words.

"I... I was offered a choice."

The corner of my eyebrow twitched. Why couldn't this guy just get to the point?

"And?"

The old man's breathing became unsteady, as though instead of kneeling down, he had been running laps.

"I... I have the chance to..."

The old man swallowed uncomfortably, as though he was not willing to accept some truth.

"...make the world peaceful again. Everything, everyone will come back and forever live on happily."

The old man hunched over and shook nervously.

"B-But... I will have to die to do that."

He took a deep breath.

"I can either sacrifice myself to save the world or continue living on."

The old man looked up to me with eyes filled with both hope and hopelessness.

"...What should I choose?"

To continue living on...

He was already old, not to mention, there was hardly anything left to even live if the world was like this.

Yet, this old man was struggling so hard to make a decision?

I opened my mouth, instinctively about to say he should sacrifice himself.

But I stopped.

If I was given the decision of the old man, I would sacrifice myself after a little bit of hesitation.

...However, something about this was different.

In the end, all I could say was...

"I don't know."