Lilia's Tale: Freyja's Endeavor

Chapter 1: Comeback

Even through my advanced state of exhaustion, I was woken up by an unfamiliar sound. A squeal from a young girl. It took me a bit of time to manage to get back to my senses, as I looked over to my left to see a wall in front of me. I stood back up and looked back over, seeing a silhouette in front of me. White hair, pale skin, and her hands in front of her mouth.

I groaned in pain and rubbed my eyes, hoping I would see more clearly. As I was doing so, a voice I recognized cried:

"L-Lilia!?"

Right. Sayuri would be in the room eventually. What is she doing in the bathroom though? Was she planning to take a bath? Changing? Either way, I was now able to see clearly. It was Sayuri, crying, and she wasn't wearing a single piece of clothing on herself. She was likely to be taking a bath.

"Hi," I said, struggling not to groan in pain.

"Y-You're alive?"

"What do you mean I'm alive. Of course I am. Barely, but I am."

"B-But, you were underwater! Didn't you drown?"

"No. I can breathe underwater. Don't worry."

She didn't say anything else, pushing my attention back to my pounding headache. The rest of my body was barely working either. I sighed and got out of the bath as I could, slipping before even being able to get out and hitting my head on the floor. It made my headache worse, but wasn't any painful on its own.

Sayuri shouted my name again and rushed to me. To anybody, such a fall would be very dangerous, if not potentially lethal. I let the rest of my body fall from the bath as I didn't have the strength to properly get out of such an awkward position, barely failing to hit her with it as she got out of the way.

"Lilia, are you okay?" she asked.

"I don't know if I'll be fine but I sure as hell will have to be," I told her.

I got up from being on the floor using the bath's side as a handle, then walked out of the bathroom using the wall to keep me standing. I arrived in the front room and noticed Sayuri's pajamas placed in the fresh clothes basket. It took me an embarrassing amount of time to realise it means it was nighttime and she was changing to go sleep, so I looked around to try and find my clothes.

I couldn't find any. It was likely I had forgotten to grab them before getting into the bath. I pondered for a bit and looked backwards at Sayuri. I couldn't read her expression, but it wasn't a good one.

"Y'know what, Sayuri. Do you mind if I just stay in the water after your bath?"

"You'll drown again!" she screams as her tears get even worse.

"I never drowned and never will. Just, please, let me."

I heard the door to our room suddenly open. I didn't know who it could be, but I couldn't move from where I was anyways.

"Sayuri, what's wrong?" the man asked with a worried tone.

I could recognize from the voice that the person that got in was Mark. It seems there had been quite a commotion while I was gone, though I can understand why. I looked back at Sayuri, saw her naked, and didn't have to think too much before trying to find a way to fix the situation. However, this only made my already unbearable headache worse, making me fall on my knees in pain.

Mark quickly opened the door to the bathroom and saw me kneeling there. He shouted my name, as Sayuri did, and went to grab me.

"Mark-san, Lilia, she..." Sayuri barely managed to say.

"I'm telling you, I won't drown."

"Drown? What was she doing?"

"She..."