When I arrived, Leo was looking at Sarah with a grim expression. "Rick… what should we do?" He asked me, completely horrified.
I could understand why he was like that. The red-haired girl's face, that had always been full of life, now was incredibly pale. The only color in it was the trail of red blood on her forehead, and her red lips were as dry as desert sand.
Different from her typically tsundere behavior, full of energy, the girl looked like she had fallen into an eternal sleep. Her body didn't move an inch.
"Leo, please stay back." The blond guy was by her side, and I politely asked him to leave her to me. With no offense, he was a warrior, not a healer. Between me and him, I think I had a better chance to save her.
Rick's dad was an Alchemist, and he had helped his old man treat sick and injured people before. Among them were villagers, and some were adventurers. So with his body and knowledge, I was the team's "doctor." Rick was a proper choice. Any healer class would do a better job, but he was the best they had.
I brought my ear closer to her chest. My mind wasn't focused on her soft mounds. No, I just needed her body to show me one signal. One single sign of life.
"Bump…" It was weak, but I could hear it. A weak heartbeat. I checked if she was breathing by putting my hand close to her nose. I could feel a faint flow of air coming from her.
"She is still breathing!" I said to Leo in an urgent tone.
Sarah was still alive, but she was very weak as a consequence of the tackle she endured.
In this situation, I thought that the best approach was to make her drink a potion. I still had one flask, from the same type of mixture that I gave to Leo.
I put my arm around her back, lifting her body and cradling her head. From the touch of her skin, she wasn't as warm as she had been before, when we were alone.
I didn't like seeing her like that one bit. I preferred her old nagging self. She could be really annoying sometimes, but I would give everything to listen to her complaints once more.
'Don't worry, Sarah. I'll save you!' I thought inwardly.
With my free hand, I brought the flask to her lips and made her drink the medicine. She swallowed the green liquid.
I wasn't sure if it was going to work. The concentrated potion worked just fine with Leo, but due to his strength, he wasn't in such a pitiful state. But then…
"Cough, cough!" Sarah started to cough, finally reacting to the potion.
"Sarah! Are you ok?" I asked in a worried tone.
"Yeah. I think I'll be fine." She said, smiling weakly.
"I'm so relieved." I couldn't hold my happiness. Seeing her bright blue eyes felt like seeing the sky for the first time. Her cheeks, that were so pale, were finally regaining their previous lively tone. I was so happy that I pulled her closer to me.
"Hey, Rick! What are you doing?!" She said, startled by my sudden hug.
She got agitated by my gesture, and it looked like she was about to pull away, so I embraced her tightly.
"Rick?" She said in a calmer voice.
It was my fault. I was weak, and because of my weakness, she tried to protect me and almost died in the process.
"Never do such a thing again, stupid!" I said to her. I wasn't angry at her. I was angry at myself, and only myself. At that moment, I made a vow to never be a dead weight.
I would become stronger, so I would never see that kind of thing again. I would become stronger so I could protect the woman that I love.
"Hey, who are you calling stupid, stupid?" She said. I couldn't see her face, but I could swear she was puffing out her cheeks.
"Who else could I be talking to? There is just one idiot here." I replied.
We were close. I could feel her calming down now.
"And you are the stupid one. Do you think that I would just watch you die without doing anything?" She said in a gentle voice. "Don't ask me that."
If we could, we would stay like this for hours and hours, but then someone intervened.
"Ahem!" Someone behind me coughed, clearing his throat.
"Leo!" Sarah said, reacting to him. When she noticed that we weren't alone, she pulled away from me, completely out of shyness.
Leo didn't seem to care about our hug or Sarah's embarrassment, but as our comrade and childhood friend, he smiled.
"Good to see that you are back on your feet." He said, grateful that she had woken up.
"Did you think that a single sheep could take me down?" She said in a more playful tone.
"No, this was a really serious situation. You could have died back there." Leo's expression became more serious. Then he turned his gaze to me. "Rick, thank you."
"Eh?" I was taken completely by surprise. 'Why is the MC from SCRL thanking me?'
"You don't need to thank me." I said nervously.
"No, I had to thank you. If it wasn't for you, not only Sarah, but I as well would have died by now." He said, his voice filled with gratitude and respect.
"Oh, that's true. How did you guys defeat the monster?" Sarah asked curiously, but before I could say anything, Leo answered.
"Rick deserves all the credit for this victory." He said.
"Is that true?" She asked me with shining eyes.
"Well, yeah…" I said shyly.
It took me completely off guard being praised by the protagonist of "SSS-Class Ragnarok Legend", but I didn't expect Sarah's response in front of him.
"So this means that you're our hero, hm?" She said with a smug look on her face. "I wonder how I should reward you."
"Yeah, he needs a good reward for that. You deserve the best item that we can find in this dungeon." Leo innocently said.
'Leo, I don't think she was talking about something like that…'