A Desperate Plea in Velsen Forest

“Ah… ungh… help… help me…” A faint, desperate cry echoed from within the forest.

“Hmm… no, that’s not right,” Umi declared, a hint of dissatisfaction in her voice. “Mom always screams ‘no, no’ and things like that, but she’d never scream for help!”

“Umi… it sounds like someone is crying for help,” Jing interjected, her tone uncertain. “They seem to be injured and need assistance.”

“Someone… someone please save me…” The voice from the forest was barely a whisper, as if its owner was expending their last reserves of strength.

“Umi, let’s go check!” Jing exclaimed, hearing the desperate plea. “Someone really needs help!” She immediately dashed into the forest, heading towards the source of the sound.

Locating the voice was not difficult for Jing. Although they were only near the outskirts of the Velsen Forest, individual magical beasts occasionally wandered into this area.

Thus, Jing cautiously placed her hand on the red hilt of the blade at her back as she ventured deeper, moving towards the sound.

“Help… help me…” As Jing drew closer, she recognized the voice as belonging to a young man, though it grew increasingly feeble with each utterance.

Sensing no immediate danger nearby, Jing quickly broke into a run, rushing towards the person crying for help.

The person calling for aid was a slender man, clad in a long cyan mage’s robe. His left leg was bleeding profusely, and Jing deduced from the wound that it had been torn open by the sharp claws of some large beast.

“Sir? Sir?” Jing called out, feeling a surge of helplessness. The young man’s eyes were unfocused, his gaze distant from the significant blood loss.

The young man had already lost consciousness. His face was alarmingly pale, a direct consequence of the severe bleeding.

“U… Umi… what should I do? What can I do?” Jing’s mind was a whirlwind of panic. Even though the man before her was a complete stranger, she couldn’t bear the thought of watching someone die right in front of her.

“C-calm down!” Umi’s voice was also tinged with an unusual urgency. “Let me think, let me think.

First… first, stop the bleeding from his wound, then take him to Mr. Hake in the village. Mr. Hake might be a quack doctor, but he should know how to treat a wound like this!” Despite her panic, Umi offered a sensible suggestion.

“Stop the bleeding… stop the bleeding…” In her haste, Jing frantically scanned her surroundings, searching for anything that could be used as a tourniquet. Her gaze finally fell upon her own plain dress.

With a determined grit of her teeth, Jing forcefully tore a strip from her skirt hem. She then used the fabric as a makeshift rope, tying it tightly above the man’s wound. Although blood continued to seep, the flow had significantly reduced compared to before.

Jing unstrapped the two long blades from her back. She then carefully hoisted the unconscious young man onto her shoulders.

Jing was not particularly tall, which meant the man’s feet dragged along the ground. However, her physical conditioning from years of training ensured she could carry someone much heavier than herself without much effort.

With the man securely on her back, Jing gripped her two long blades in one hand. Her long, fair legs, now exposed by her torn skirt, moved steadily as she began the arduous trek back to the village.

“Mr. Hake! Mr. Hake! Please help!” Jing cried out desperately. “There’s a man here who’s barely alive!”

She had carried the young man to Mr. Hake’s small cabin. As it was still early, most of Balyaas Village’s residents were not yet awake, so Jing pounded on Mr. Hake’s door while shouting at the top of her lungs.

“Who is it, this early in the morning… Haha, if it isn’t our village’s cutest Jing!” The door creaked open, revealing a middle-aged man with a full beard, his eyes still heavy with sleep.

He shielded his forehead with a hand against the glaring morning sun, speaking with an initial note of impatience. “Oh dear… oh my, what… what happened to this person? Come in, let me have a look!”

Upon recognizing Jing, his expression instantly brightened into a wide grin as he greeted her. However, his smile quickly faded as he noticed Jing’s worried, pretty face, her fair legs exposed by the torn hem of her skirt, and the unconscious young man she carried on her back.

Mr. Hake immediately grasped the gravity of the situation. Seeing the blood on Jing’s skirt, he swiftly took the man from her back and turned, ushering them into the house.

Mr. Hake gently laid the unconscious youth on his table. He flipped open the young man’s eyelids, observing his pupils, before his gaze fell upon the wound on the left leg and the tourniquet tied above it—a piece of… skirt.

“This wound… it must have been inflicted by a Laughing Bear’s claws,” Mr. Hake stated definitively after examining the injury. “Jing, you did a good job treating it. But, if you don’t mind me asking, what’s your relationship with this person?”

“Mr. Hake, Jing doesn’t know this person at all!” Umi chimed in, preempting Jing’s response. “Jing was actually on her way to the lake to find Grandpa Joseph when she heard this gentleman groaning on the path near the forest!”

“What? Groaning…?” Mr. Hake looked puzzled.

“N-no… not groaning…” Jing stammered, her face flushed as she frantically waved her hands in front of her chest. “It was… a cry for help. By the time I found this gentleman in the forest, he was already unconscious…”

“Oh, I see. Well, I haven’t seen a Laughing Bear myself, but I once saw an adventurer who was torn apart like this by one. His entire chest was practically ripped open back then. Good heavens, it was utterly bloody! Haha, sorry about that, Jing, your Uncle Hake isn’t very educated and speaks his mind directly.”

Mr. Hake continued, “The point is, Laughing Bears are magical beasts that only live in the heart of Velsen Forest. This poor fellow probably fled all the way from the forest’s center. To make it here with such severe injuries, I must say, he’s quite lucky to be alive, eh?” As he spoke, Mr. Hake retrieved a packet of needle and thread from his drawer and sterilized the needle over a flame.

“Alright, Jing, help me hold him steady,” Mr. Hake instructed. “I need to stitch this wound closed, or this poor kid will bleed to death.

Make sure you hold him down! If he struggles and makes the wound worse, there’s nothing more I can do.” He tore away the fabric around the young man’s injury, then aimed the sterilized needle and thread at the laceration.

“Y-yes!” Mr. Hake’s actions were so swift that Jing didn’t even have a chance to avert her gaze. Although she felt as if she hadn’t truly seen anything, her face still burned crimson with embarrassment.

As Jing firmly held the man’s shoulders, Mr. Hake decisively began stitching the wound on his thigh. His movements were remarkably quick.

Though the unconscious man struggled a few times due to natural bodily reactions, Jing’s strength kept him steady, allowing the entire wound to be meticulously sewn shut.

“Done! The stitching is finished,” Mr. Hake declared, wiping sweat from his brow. He looked at his handiwork with a satisfied grin. “As long as this poor kid doesn’t mess with it, he should be fine.

He lost a lot of blood, but judging by his attire, he must be a mage. Haha, right? How could someone who crawled back from the heart of the forest be an ordinary person?”

“Ma… mage? Are they very powerful?” Umi asked curiously, not quite understanding the new term Mr. Hake had used.

“You bet they are! The mages I’ve seen… I’m not exaggerating, they were incredibly formidable! They could summon wind and rain, fireballs and lightning, all with a flick of their wrist! Of course, this unlucky fellow probably can’t compare to them.” Mr. Hake washed his hands by the basin, speaking with a proud air.

“Oh! Oh!” If Umi had eyes, they would undoubtedly be sparkling with immense excitement at that moment.

“Water… water…” The mage, still lying on the table, mumbled weakly.

With Mr. Hake’s help, Jing quickly propped the young man up. She poured a cup of water and held it to his lips.

After taking a few sips of water, the young man seemed to finally regain consciousness. He struggled to open his eyes, eager to see the benefactor who had saved him.

The moment his gaze landed on Jing, a peculiar light seemed to ignite in his weakened eyes.

“Th-thank you,” the young mage, who introduced himself as Bo Aibiyi, said in a faint voice. “I am an adjutant to General Baro, the Lord of Morgan City. My name is Bo Aibiyi. I will surely repay this life-saving kindness…”

“Lord of Morgan City? Adjutant? What are those?” Umi asked, her curiosity piqued.

“Oh, this is Umi, my best friend!” Jing explained with a cheerful grin, pointing to the adorable little yellow chick hair clip on her head as she noticed Bo Aibiyi’s bewildered expression after hearing Umi’s voice. “She’s incredibly curious. By the way, my name is Jing. It’s a pleasure to meet you!”

“Heh, is this an alchemy product?” Bo Aibiyi politely inquired, looking at the little yellow chick on Jing’s head. “Why can it speak? Is it some kind of artificial intelligence?”

“No, it’s not,” Jing replied, gently stroking the little yellow chick on her head, her voice imbued with a touch of wistfulness. “Umi was a birthday gift from my mother. Mom said that Umi is a medium created from the lingering will of a deity who once resided within it before departing.”

“I see, how truly fascinating,” Bo Aibiyi responded. Instead of displaying confusion at Jing’s explanation, he offered a gentle greeting to Umi. “Well then, hello, Umi.”

“Oh no… this is bad!” Jing suddenly remembered Grandma Ila waiting at home for her and Grandpa Joseph to return for breakfast. She began to spin around in a fluster. “I forgot to call Grandpa Joseph, and Grandma Ila must be so worried after waiting so long!”

“Hahahaha~ Jing, go on now,” Mr. Hake said with a hearty laugh, ushering Jing out the door. “Leave this mage gentleman to me.

Don’t let my current appearance fool you; I used to be quite the caretaker back in my day!”

“Well then, Mr. Bo Aibiyi, Mr. Hake, I’ll be going now!” Jing said, standing outside the door with her two long blades in her arms. She turned her head to address Bo Aibiyi, seated at the table, and Mr. Hake by the entrance. “After breakfast, I’ll bring you some of Grandma Ila’s porridge~ Today, Grandma Ila made Uli Pork Rib Porridge!”

Bo Aibiyi said nothing, simply waving a hand at Jing by the doorway. Jing happily waved back at the amiable mage, then ran off towards the lake.

Mr. Hake, after watching Jing depart, slowly closed the door. He then turned and settled onto a stool beside Bo Aibiyi.

“Now then, you rather suspicious mage,” Mr. Hake began, his gaze unwavering as he looked into Bo Aibiyi’s eyes. “While Jing might not have noticed, I certainly did.

Ever since you woke up, you’ve been staring intently at the two blades by Jing’s side. Could you perhaps explain why?” He continued, his voice hardening, “If you harbor any ill intentions towards Jing, the entire village of Balyaas will make sure you pay for it.”