Chapter 9: Introducing Exliya
"Huh? Where am I?" Mika's eyes were opened what he first saw was the night sky. Mika couldn't move his body and was left with just his eyes to move to see.
Sougo and Lusina were safe and sound, resting by the a campfire.
After he had awoken, Lusina immediately came up to him with a bowl full of porridge.
"Here you go, say ahh..." Mika was given some porridge by Lusina. Mika took the spoonful of porridge and opened his mouth to eat it.
"Hot hot hot!" The porridge must have been still hot since Mika awoke just a minute after it was finished cooking.
"I'm so sorry!" Mika's tongue was accidentally burned by Lusina's carelessness in forgetting that the porridge was still too hot.
"Forget the porridge; how are we doing? Are we secure here?" Mika was unable to move and was unaware of the location.
"Well, I can't say for sure. We departed far, remember? And I don't know for certain your abode's at and your horse's left leg is injured." They stopped for a break not far from the woodland after Lusina admitted that she couldn't recall where Mika's house was.
"Which is it? The front or the back?" Mika enquired as to which of his horse's legs was hurt. Lusina replied, "The front."
Mika inhaled deeply and made an effort to stand. To his surprise, everything in his body—aside from his five senses—was shut down. He began to feel foolish since the circumstances were so intolerable. He soon gave up trying, though.
Mika coerced himself to move to avoid remaining impotent.
"Enough of your foolishness, boy. You are not in shape, rest until you are ready to move." Sougo yelled at Mika that he needed rest.
"Says the man whom I told not to move while recovering. We're in the same boat here! Besides, I'm not acting like one; it's you two that have me worried. On nights like these, there ought to be monsters emerging from the woods every second." Mika attempted to tell his friends to relax at a more secure location out of concern for their safety.
"But... He already took them all out." Lusina made an effort to soothe Mika by informing him that Sougo had already dealt with the creatures.
"What?" Mika carefully turned his head to the side to discover the truth. It was as though Sougo protected them alone—a pile of animal cadavers had covered the ground with their blood. The only thing Lusina did to assist him was to enclose the area with spiky plants.
That caused Mika's jaw to gape open as a result. Although Sougo's ability to secure the location was fairly outstanding, he had serious doubts that Sougo would survive after the exhausting battle with the Unabī.
"Damn, I have scarcely enough energy to move, I can't even move a finger... hahaha..." Mika endeavored to move his body once more but was unable to accomplish so due to fatigue after using the destructive powers twice.
Lusina had yet to heal him as she'd used all of her mana while keeping watch over the location to heal Sougo. Sougo didn't appear overly worn out while maintaining a constant state of alertness to guard.
"He's been like this for three hours." Lusina laughed, amused by Sougo's stamina which was far more astounding than the two of them put together.
"I was out for three hours?" Mika was utterly startled to learn that Sougo had been guarding the area for three hours after Lusina made that claim.
"You two are acutely strong, thanks for looking after me but we must move! You guys can leave me here, and after you find a good spot to rest, you can come back to me." Mika insisted on not worrying about him and asked them to find a better place to take a rest.
"You're too naive," Sougo spoke as he stood.
"You've always been like that ever since we met; rescuing a stranger armed with a blade and you think too rashly about saving others than yourself; there are overall different ways to settle the matter, and you only choose one." Sougo bemoaned Mika's haste, believing that he had gone too far and forgotten himself.
Mika did know he had many available options; what Sougo said was an axiom statement for Mika. And Mika agreed with what he said.
"I'm sorry, sir." Mika took a sincere apology because of what he did.
"Ryoutomei Sougo. I go by Sougo." Once more choosing to sit near the campfire, Sougo introduced himself to Mika.
Mika smiled cheekily, expressing his happiness at Sougo revealing his name.
"Ryoutomei Sougo... what an odd old-fashioned name... It seems very ancient in some way, more like a clan name." Lusina commented on Sougo's name specifically about "Ryoutomei".
Sougo noticed that Ryoutomei was unknown, but he realized that this world wasn't his. "I am from the Ryoutomei clan, and over the years, I've sought serenity by engaging in war. Being one of the selected warriors who left his family behind to fight in battle, I frequently clash with several clans."
"I was suddenly sent to this realm after what I believed to be my death. This world is different from what I've seen, despite remarkable similarities—albeit in a more idyllic sense—between it and mine." Sougo told Mika and Lusina he wasn't from this world and was sent unknowingly.
"Oh yeah, I remember you mentioned "earth", is that your homeworld?" Before they went to save Mika, Sougo had told her about earth that she wasn't anticipating that it was his homeworld.
Mika then introduced his world named Exliya.
"There is a lot about your planet called earth that I don't understand, and I think its name is a lame one. In my opinion, "earth" simply refers to a solid surface or, to put it in literal terms, soil. To me, that sounds lazy." Mika expressed his uninterest behind that confused face, he commented that "earth" was a very lazy name and a banal one.
"In Exliya... let's see, we have 5 suns and 5 moons, over 394 regions, 2,988 countries, and 189 different biomes. And there are over 11,029 languages too, of course, you can shorten it into 128 because those are the official language." Mika presented the whole thing about his world with an unfazed gaze along with Lusina as well.
Sougo, however, eyes widened a little over how vast this world was. He couldn't perceive the image of this world but it was certainly way larger than his world's. It was very far different from earth as he anticipated to be.
With that being said, he now had many inane questions along with a stupendous amount of answers needed. But by the fact that this world is larger than his, he seems calm about it and eager to explore more. He has nothing in that world, so to start a new life he made his decision to stay.
As they yawned except for Sougo, they went to sleep till dawn while Sougo remained guard.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone