Chapter 3: The Stranger From Lucada

Once Ishida reached the gate and the barbed wire fence, he stopped to wipe the sweat on his forehead. He sighed in relief— no one had tried to chase him. 

Ishida was still breathing heavily from the terrible fright the incident had given him when suddenly, he heard a distressful call for help from somewhere in the distance. 

The voice did not sound like that of anyone on Mount Lagoda. It was a rather pleasant voice— a voice that resembled the sound of a small stream of fresh mineral water slowly trickling down a hill.

“Help!! Somebody, please help me! I’m drowning!” the voice called over and over again. 

Ishida immediately forgot about what he had discovered in the abandoned factory and hastily climbed over the gate. 

Upon reaching the safety of the inhabited side of Mount Lagoda, he sprinted down the slope towards the river. 

There, he saw that a beautiful girl had fallen into the river and was about to drown.

The stranger was still desperately calling out for help, but her cries were growing softer as she began to sink into the water. 

To make matters worse, the swift current was driving the drowning stranger towards a wooden water wheel that belonged to a cotton factory. 

The water wheel spun rapidly, threatening to devour and chop to pieces anything that came in its path.

Without hesitation, Ishida took off his jacket, dove into the river, and swam towards the drowning girl. He had gone swimming in this river multiple times in his childhood and was able to make his way to the stranger and grab hold of her in the nick of time. 

The girl seemed to have either lost consciousness or descended into a coma. 

Ishida carried the stranger on his back and hurriedly swam towards the river bank to get away from the menacing water wheel. 

Upon reaching dry land once again, he gently placed the person on a patch of grass and tried to wake her up. 

“Hey! Are you alright?” Ishida asked the girl he rescued, who had just opened her eyes.

“W...where am I? And who are you?” she asked, sitting up and looking around. 

Ishida was glad that she was alright after all. 

The girl appeared to be about his age or perhaps a little younger. She had beautiful almond-brown hair tied in one long braid and sky-blue eyes. She wore a grey leather dress that didn’t look very expensive.

There were indeed a few pretty girls who lived on Mount Lagoda and were about the same age as Ishida. Of all of them, no one was nearly as gorgeous as the stranger Ishida had just saved.

“You can call me Ishida,” the young man told her. “You’re on the foot of Mount Lagoda, the largest industrial center in this country! Now it’s my turn to ask questions. What were you doing in the river? More importantly, where do you come from? You don’t seem very Lagodan.”

The stranger looked him in the eyes. “Are you the one who rescued me?”

“Yeah, I heard you calling for help,” 

“Thank you, thank you a hundred billion times! I owe you my life...”

The girl stretched her arms out as if to embrace him, but she ultimately settled on shaking his hand.

Ishida smiled. “You’re very welcome. Feel free to stay here as long as you’d like. My house is on the top of the mountain.”

“My name is Rhina, by the way. I come from Lucada, a city past the Planum Plains, beyond the Coleis Plateau, and over the Montibus Mountains,” the girl told him. “It’s near the Jecoba River Delta.”

“The Jecoba River Delta?! You must have come a very long way!” 

“I took the train to Bazantrum first, and then I walked here,”

“You walked here from Bazantrum? How in the world did you manage to do that?!”

It was then that Ishida saw the blue star-shaped earrings that the girl was wearing. They seemed to have enchanted him in some way.

“Woah, these earrings are amazing! They look like they’re magical,”

“Do they? That’s because they are.” Rhina winked, tapping one of her earrings. 

She then strode to the riverside and motioned for Ishida to come. “If you trust me, hold my hand.”

Ishida shrugged. He followed her and held her hand. 

“Now don’t let go!” Rhina said excitedly before stepping onto the water.

Ishida watched in amazement as Rhina placed both of her feet on the rapidly flowing water without falling in. 

The young man stood there on the sand with his jaw dropped. He pinched his cheek as hard as he could, but he didn’t “wake up.” 

“Impossible. Unbelievable,” he muttered. “This has to be a dream! Yes, I’m dreaming, that’s all. I’ll wake up any moment now.” 

“It is possible! Everything is possible.” Rhina smiled.

Ishida tightened his grip on his cheek, which was beginning to turn red. 

“Stop doing that, you’ll hurt yourself!” Rhina laughed as she pulled Ishida’s hand away from his face.

“It can’t be true. I don’t believe it!” Ishida mumbled. “Do me a favor, will you? Slap me on the face as hard as you can.” 

“You aren’t dreaming, Ishida,” Rhina told him. “Come on, give it a try! Step onto the water.” 

Ishida closed his eyes and took a step forward. To his surprise, the water felt as solid as the ground. 

He took another step forward and opened his eyes. He was standing right on liquid water! He crouched down and slid his hand across the solid yet rapidly flowing river. 

A large smile appeared on Ishida’s face.

“I’m standing on water!” he shouted, laughing hysterically. “So it is possible after all!”

Ishida was so overjoyed that he began jumping up and down and prancing to and fro. 

“Don’t let go of my hand, or you’ll fall!” Rhina warned.

But Ishida did not listen. As soon as Rhina lost her grip on his hand, the young man tumbled into the water with a big splash.

“Ishida, no!” Rhina gasped.

Bubbles began to rise to the surface, creating ripples in the water.