I opened up my eyes.
Normally, something like that would be too small, too natural, too… everyday for me to care. But today? With my memory of yesterday perfectly fine, the fact that I opened up my eyes came bearing one hell of a significant message.
It meant that I did not die, not yet at least.
Initially, I felt like breathing a sigh of relief.
There was always the possibility that the saintess would kill me, or she would die herself by some silent predator, leaving me stranded in the jungle and effectively dead anyway.
Yet, as I blinked my eyes a few times to get rid of the oily film covering them, I looked around and - thankfully - saw no hints of anything like that happening.
Next, my eyes moved up, to where the treetops ensured I wouldn't be able to track the time of the day by judging the position of the sun, simply by covering up the great majority of the sky, leaving only some dots here and there through which daylight could pierce through.
Right now, however, there was no light anywhere near whatsoever.
The fire from yesterday's evening was long gone, with a small pile of ash left after it burned through all of its fuel. It clearly was still night, and yet…
Even without fire, my surroundings were just bright enough for me to make out pretty much the shape of everything around.
'Just a little bit before the morning, I guess?' I came up with the most likely explanation before mentally shrugging my shoulders and then propping myself up as I looked around.
By all means, it was still Saintess' watch.
According to her own words, she only needed half an hour of shut-eye to get herself fully rested. A notion I protested, obviously, wary of making myself into a greater burden than I already was, only to have the saintess dismiss all of my claims and protests.
Because of this attitude of hers, it should still be the time of her watch. She did promise to wake me up when it would be time for her to rest, after all. And yet…
I looked around, using what little light of the late, pre-morning hour diffused through the atmosphere to take a proper look around.
Nothing.
'As expected, I guess?'
I wasn't discouraged by the failure.
What sort of a genius would I have to be to be able to spot an experienced huntress, a damned sword saintess, if she wanted to remain hidden?
Then again, I was in quite the advantageous situation. I knew she would be within the narrow confines of the barrier she set up. And I also knew she was there for sure.
Just those two advantages alone were enough for a nobody like me to spend just a little over five minutes scanning every detail of my surroundings before finally locking my eyes on the target I was searching for.
Or so I thought, soon realizing it was just a huge boulder wrapped by a weirdly shaped tree root.
It wasn't until a further five minutes of observation and search that I finally managed to spot the saintess.
She was so perfectly still, not even her perfectly white clothes with blue and golden accents - each of the colors extremely unnatural to the dense jungle - made her stand out.
But again, she was an SSS-Rank Sword Saintess while I was so damn bad, even an FFF-Rank system decided to just abandon me first and then off itself when it failed to just bug out of existence.
With those thoughts in my head, I nearly turned my eyes away, calmed down by the soothing presence of this young, exceedingly beautiful woman.
And yet, I didn't look away.
Not because I had a blast just tracing the slight curves of the saintess' figure as she lay down pressed against the ground, not at all.
I didn't look away because I could tell - something was terribly wrong.
I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but…
'Wait, isn't she…!'
What happened next turned into a blur in my mind.
The saintess was still, too still. Her body position too unnatural, bent in ways that provided no benefit while giving testimony to something going terribly wrong.
And as I mentally calculated how she would look if not for the grasses hiding the general outline of her body…
'Fuck!'
Screaming out in my mind in panic, I jumped forth, caring not to uphold any pretense of calm.
Within the two steps I needed to take, I'd already fallen down to my knees by the saintess' side, staring with helplessness at her perfectly still face and her body frozen mid-convulsion.
It was as if she had a seizure, died, and just… froze in time, refusing the carrions local to the jungle their rightful meal.
Still.
Just like I jumped out the moment I noticed something was wrong, I refused to give up just like that.
It went against my instincts, against my upbringing to just sit down and do nothing, my own survival be damned.
This line of thinking was what condemned me during my middle and high school years, making me paint a massive target on my back when I stood up to the bullies for someone else's sake.
This girl needed help. And no matter how little I could do, there just had to be something I COULD do!
Terrified by the scenario before my eyes, I resorted to doing the first thing that came to my mind.
I reached down and pressed my two fingers against the side of her throat, just below her chin before closing my eyes and fully focusing on the potential for a very slight sensation.
And there it was.
Thump, thump, thump.
A slow but steady rate at which the vein below my fingers continued to bulge up, proving there was still a steady flow of oxygenated blood flowing through the girl's veins.
But if her heart continued to supply her bloodstream with oxygen… why exactly was she frozen in that seized-up position?
As baffled as I was puzzled, I opened my eyes and looked down, desperate to find some way to help this poor girl…
Only for my eyes to lock in place as I realized the saintess now had her eyes open.
If only things were that simple, though.
Her eyes, rather than the usual mix of shadowy gray and deep, vibrant blue, had now turned into intense gold, so intense they appeared to be shining with their own light!
And this pair of golden eyes was now locked on my face, directly on my own set of eyes to be precise.
The moment lingered, lasting much longer than I would ever expect it to do.
My eyes widened as I realized I still kept my fingers on the saintess' neck.
"Ah!"
I nearly jumped back, my heart beating in my chest like a drum.
But the intensity of the golden light in the saintess' eyes only grew, soon reaching the point where the whole world vanished, leaving nothing but me, this patch of ground, and the saintess' motionless body in it.
Then…
I woke up.
This time, though, I woke up properly, nearly jumping up from the ground with cold sweat trickling down my back.
My eyes darted around… But the situation was just like I saw it in that weirdly realistic dream. Silent jungle around, slight light diffused through the air as if to herald the near rise of the morning sun.
And then, the saintess, comfortably sprawled on the ground in the exact same spot I saw her in my dream…
But with her eyes wide open, allowing me to confirm one hell of an important detail - the color of her eyes was now back to normal.
'Was it just a weird dream?' I thought, looking around again as I pressed my lips together and breathed out a long sigh. 'Is this jungle affecting my mind in some weird way, or…'
My eyes turned back to the saintess, lingering on her for a moment before I gave up on this line of thought and laid back down on the cold ground.
'I won't be able to figure out anything about it. Not now, not here.'
With this thought in my mind, I finally allowed myself to relax… As much as one could relax stuck in the middle of a place as lethal as this jungle.
'Either way, I need to get as much sleep as I can,' I thought, forcing my eyes shut and stabilizing my breath. 'If I want to keep on going tomorro… today, I need as much rest as I can get tonight.'
With this determination in my head, I couldn't help but smile to my own thoughts.
'Even if it means just ten minutes of napping more.'