Rash looked at me strangely as we returned from the arena.
The other teens in our cell had already been called out for their own fight, leaving only the two of us behind.
I was too tired to care and ignored his gaze.
Climbing onto my bed, I let myself fall onto the hard mattress. The blood of the beasts still clung to my body, mixed with sweat and sand. My clothes were soaked, sticky from dried blood.
But I didn't bother cleaning myself.
This wasn't the first time I had returned from a fight like this. The mattress that had once been white when I arrived here had long since turned into a dull mixture of red and gray.
The bed beneath me creaked as Rash dropped onto it.
At last, the cell was quiet.
Exhaustion took over, and I closed my eyes to rest.
But—
"Why did you do it?"
Rash's voice cut through the silence.
My eyes opened again.
For a moment, I didn't answer and just stared at the grey ceiling.
Not because I didn't want to.
I just didn't know what he meant.
So I waited for him to continue.
And he did.
His voice was softer now, almost a whisper.
"Why did you save me?"
My mouth opened slightly as realization dawned.
Ah.
He meant 'that'.
I closed my mouth again and thought about it.
The last moments of our fight replayed again in my mind.
Rash lying on the ground injured. The beast before him moved at once, claws reaching out for him.
Just before its claws could reach him, I had arrived.
I didn't even know how. My body moved on its own, pushing more mana into my legs and rushing between the beast and him, blocking its attack.
Why had I saved him?
If this had happened before I fell into this hell, the answer would have been simple.
Because I could.
But things were different now.
I knew exactly why I had saved the girl with the number 116 when she was assaulted.
Because she was a woman.
Because in my nightmares, I could still hear the screams of the women on that ship.
I couldn't just stand there and watch it happen again.
But Rash…
I didn't know.
I just saved him.
My body moved on its own, and before I even realized it, I stood before him.
Maybe it was because we had grown closer during the time we spent together.
Maybe it was because he made me feel like a human being again.
Maybe it was because I didn't want to stand alone at the end of this Blooding.
But in the end—
There was only one truth.
"I don't know."
That was the truth.
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't explain why I had done it.
After a long pause, Rash answered.
"I see."
Another moment passed.
Then he added quietly, "Thank you."
That was all.
Silence returned to the cell.
My thoughts slowly settled.
Soon after, I closed my eyes again.
And fell asleep.
***
Another duel with Rash came to an end.
We had fought for a while before he defeated me with one of his strange tricks again. After that, we fought a few more times.
The outcome never changed.
I lost.
Now we sat side by side, leaning against the cold stone wall of the arena while catching our breaths. The constant duels had exhausted us.
Even so, a faint smile rested on my lips.
The duel had gone better than I expected.
I had grazed Rash's cheek and even landed a few hits.
I was slowly becoming more familiar with the new way of using the sword. And it was all thanks to him.
A quiet silence settled between us.
Not awkward.
It felt comfortable.
We watched the other teens training in the arena.
That was when I noticed something.
The numbers.
Some groups had fewer members than before. One group was even missing.
Seeing that made me remember a question Rash had asked me.
Then, without turning my head, I spoke.
"Why did you ask how long I've been here?"
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rash turn slightly toward me. He didn't answer immediately. Instead, he seemed to consider the question for a moment.
"You just seem too different from the others," he finally said.
He paused, choosing his words carefully.
"You are the only one with shackles on your wrists and ankles, not to speak about the collar around your neck."
He glanced at the ceiling.
"Then your attitude toward our fights and your training schedule, as if you were already familiar with everything. It just made me curious."
I remained silent for a moment and just looked ahead.
Then I answered.
"Something over a year."
My voice was low, uncertain.
Even I wasn't completely sure anymore. Time had become strange in this place.
Rash's head snapped back to me, eyes wide.
"More than a year?"
Then he rubbed his chin as he thought.
A quiet murmur left his lips.
"I didn't count properly, but one or two months at most."
He spoke mostly to himself, but my sharpened senses caught every word.
"You counted the days?"
His chin rose as he looked at the ceiling.
"Yeah. At the beginning. But I stopped halfway through."
He sighed.
"Time feels strange here, and marking the walls was useless since we changed cells almost every day at first."
Then he looked at me again.
"And you?"
I thought for a moment.
"No."
When I first arrived here, I wasn't in any state to count the days.
And even if I had tried—
I would have stopped after the first Blooding.
Rash nodded.
Soon, he turned his gaze forward again.
I did the same.
Silence settled between us once more as we watched the other teens train.
***
Several days passed.
It was always the same.
Training.
Duels.
Soon, we would be called for our next fight.
During that time, my mana training finally reached its end. Every pathway in my body—and even the ones in my head—had fully adapted to the denser mana.
Finishing it filled me with relief.
That training had been pure torture.
Finally achieving it had made me happy since I could finally end this gruesome training.
I immediately tested my strength and pushed mana through every pathway at once.
If I had to compare the difference between Stage Two and Stage Three in numbers—I would say I was now at least three times stronger when using mana at full output.
The new strength didn't surprise me.
I had already felt it during the beast fights and our duels. But seeing the full picture now felt satisfying.
Another big change was my senses.
They sharpened even further.
Strangely, enhancing them felt easier, but that wasn't entirely a good thing. The sharper my senses became, the harder they were to control.
Now that my mana training was almost complete, I had more time to focus on something else.
My swordmanship.
And controlling my enhanced senses.
I could now spend more of my time on these two things and could rearrange my training schedule.
But while planning my future training, I ran into a problem.
During Stage Two, I had spent most of my time simply adapting to mana and my surroundings.
Mana control and sword training.
It was everything I did.
That alone had taken months until I gained enough proficiency in both.
Then I reached Stage Three.
But now—
Now came the problem.
I had no idea what to do to reach the next stage.
My pathways had already adapted, and my mana control felt nearly perfect. The only thing left was mastering my senses at full output, but that was still a long way off.
Besides the mana-related things, there was only my swordmanship left.
But those two shouldn't really affect my core or advancement.
I had reached a dead end.
I didn't know how to move forward from here on, and I knew almost nothing about the later stages of the Path of Mana.
Everything I knew about the Path of Mana came from Rash.
But before I could sink deeper into those thoughts—
Step.
Came the solution on its own two legs toward me.
Step.
With the same voice as always, he asked.
"Duel?"