James and Eliana

James woke up to find himself suddenly floating about in a strange space. As he looked around, he found that the place was disorderly, chaotic and without any cohesion at all. 

It was mostly a dark and blank void and as he continues to wander in it, he can't help but question 

"Where exactly am I?" 

He didn't really expect to have an answer but suddenly... 

"Think of it as a realm in your mind, deep in your subconscious" 

A gentle voice sounded out near him. 

"W-What" 

He looked around, trying to find out where it came from, but he sees nothing but darkness. 

A few moments after though, not quite far away from him, a figure slowly materialised. 

It was a young woman with a slender hourglass figure with shoulder length dark hair, velvet-coloured eyes and full cherry pink-lips. Her body covered by a loose nightdress that fell to her silky-smooth thighs. 

"Oh my" 

James was stunned. Even though he had seen such a sight already not long before, when looking at it from an outsider's perspective, it really drove it home, this girl was... 

"Hehe I'm quite beautiful aren't I" 

The young woman said in a gentle yet smug and arrogant voice. Her looks are something she always took great pride in after all. 

"Mm, you are" James replied honestly 

"Thank you, you're not quite bad yourself, that divine entity did say you were quite a cute looker yourself, and it seems she was not joking" 

James finally inspected his body and he realised he was back in an appearance he never thought he would ever see himself in again, dressed in a simple t-shirt and pants. 

'I look just like I did back on Earth' 

He didn't know how to feel about it, some part of him was happy, some part not, it was a strange thing, he chose not to dwell on it though. 

"What's going on here" he asked 

"We'll get to that, but shouldn't we introduce ourselves, even though it's quite obvious at this point?" 

"Hello James, it's nice to meet you, I'm Eliana" 

She said with an inviting smile on her face. 

"Uhm Hi... I'm James, it's a pleasure to meet you too. So, what exactly is going on here and where are we?" 

"As I said earlier, think of it as a realm in the deepest recesses of your mind. They said this explanation would help you understand better, but it doesn't seem to be doing much at all" 

She spoke. 

"Yeah, I don't really get it" 

"Well, just think of it as if we are in a dream, look at this" 

She made a little gesture with her arms and James wondered what exactly she was doing when the dark empty void they were in suddenly turned into a large, elegant room. The style of it didn't seem all that different from Eliana's bedroom in reality but there was no bed, just a round table with two chairs facing each other. 

James was surprised at this and wondered how did she do it so seamlessly. 

"As I just said, just think as if you're in a dream, don't think about it too much...So, do you like tea?" she said nonchalantly. 

"Uhh, I don't hate it" 

"That's alright as well" 

Two cups of piping, hot tea then materialised on the table. Even though he was still confused by how all this was happening, James just chose to sit and listen to what she has to say...That Goddess did say Eliana was reason they were here in the first place. 

They sat in silence for a few minutes, it wasn't awkward or anything. In fact, you could say it was actually quite comfortable. James ultimately couldn't hold his curiosity for any longer though and asked. 

"So, what's going on" 

"I had some things I wished to speak with you about, it's not every day you wake up and hear there is somebody else inhabiting your body now is it" she replied 

"I am really sorry about that" 

"I really didn't know you were actually 'alive', to be honest, in the back of my mind, I just thought you were dead so I didn't think much of it until I was made aware of it" James spoke quite nervously. 

"It's alright...to be fair, I should've been dead a long time ago, I don't really know why I am still alive anyway" she replied. 

When James looked at her, he expected to see some slight sadness or melancholy on her face but she wore a light smile as if what she just spoke wasn't much at all. 

"I can't even remember the last time I was able to stay conscious enough for even a few minutes. I honestly thought I would never wake up again." 

"Imagine how surprised I was when I finally did and the first thing I see is some beautiful divine being, I really thought I was dead then but it turns out I was actually meeting one in person, not the afterlife...Haha those winged bastards would kill for such an opportunity" 

She laughed heartily 

James was even finding it hard to believe this was a person who had gone through something so awful. 

"Winged bastards?" he asked curiously, an idea forming in his mind. 

"Don't worry about it, we'll meet them some time in the future after we have left this space" she said as she took a sip of her tea. 

James nodded, but as he processed her words in his mind, he was stunned. He even wondered if he had heard her correctly. 

"W-What do you mean when 'we' leave this place" 

"Huh, didn't she tell you that we are going to be one person from now on? she could've merged our souls with a flip of her hand honestly but I asked for a chance to meet you and let it happen naturally in this place guided by her remnant power" 

James was absolutely stunned by what she just said, he didn't really understand where it came from. What kind of sane person would be okay with becoming an amalgamation of two people? 

"Why would you want to do that?" James asked. 

"Why? There's not really that much of a reason. For me, the last time I was conscious, I believed I would never wake up. I had known I was going to die eventually and I had already wholeheartedly accepted it" she said quite nonchalantly as if she was speaking about something simple instead of her own death. 

"Your family finally found an antidote for the poison though and you would've woken up after a while even if I never showed up so I don't really get why you would want to do this" 

James truly was perplexed by this. He was feeling immense guilt earlier when he learned that he could've potentially stolen somebody's chance at life but now, as he sits with said person and listens to them speak, he doesn't really know how to feel. 

"Heh, they finally found something? After how long? it's probably been more than a year since I was afflicted with that poison but they only found it now...How Ridiculous!" she laughed hysterically. It wasn't necessarily a crazy kind of laugh but it was filled with disdain and contempt. 

"..." 

James really didn't know how to respond to this, he thought she would be happy but it seems her situation with her family was a quite a strange one. 

"I can somewhat predict what you are thinking about. To someone ignorant of the scope of my family's influence, they would say I am ungrateful when they finally found an antidote to a possibly unknown and deadly poison after toiling so hard just to save me but if they truly wanted to, they could've done something about it in a week, a few days even" 

"Why do you say that" James asked 

"Even if they couldn't find a cure on the market, they could've spoken with the races or tribes who innately use poison as their means of combat to find something that could cure me or even at least somewhat mitigate it's effects, but no, they let me suffer for so long, they were content to hear my screams of agony and despair as they filled my room as that poison seeped into every part of my body, down to my very marrow" 

"Hell, they could've even exchanged or even custom-made a few treasures for those snobbish elves for a drop of their tree's elixir but obviously they did no such thing" she said as her voice became marred with resentment and bitterness. 

"They were most likely punishing me though and to be completely honest I don't blame them for it either, the situation was ultimately my fault in a way" 

"What do you mean" James asked. 

"You might have been thinking that somebody in my family poisoned me, right?" 

"Well, it seems plausible" 

"Sadly, it wasn't, it was done by an outside party" 

"How?" 

"It's a bit of a story so bear with me" she said sheepishly before continuing 

"I had convinced my little sister and a few friends of mine to join me in challenging an F-rank dungeon the month before our awakening ceremony, they initially refused but I insisted and promised them a beating every time I saw them if they didn't agree and they finally did" she smiled lightly, her expression lighting up at the mention of her little sister, it was hard to tell if it's due to a tenderness or if it's something else. 

"We challenged the dungeon and it was going well, we were on course to complete it but suddenly the situation changed. The monsters suddenly increased in frequency and no matter how much we killed, they just spawned more." 

"We had thought of the possibility of this occurring as dungeons are quite unpredictable but maybe due to our own arrogance, we neglected just how serious it actually was and didn't prepare for it adequately" 

"That doesn't sound too bad though, I'm guessing something else happened right?" James queried. 

"Mm, the dungeon wasn't a regulated one but newly spawned so there was nobody supervising the area around it yet, so when we teleported out, as opposed to meeting a whole flurry of individuals, we were greeted by the eerie silence of the forest. We assumed everything was still normal, nobody was following us when we came there earlier so we took a moment to catch our breaths and recover so we could head back since our trip was a failure... and then it happened " 

"A group of masked individuals suddenly attacked us. They were well equipped and efficient in their movements so we assumed they were part of some group of assassins, nothing out of the ordinary apart from the fact that they were awakened individuals at the F-rank" 

She continued, her grip on her cup tightening as she told this part. 

"If they had targeted any other group, they might have succeeded but not us. After a drawn-out fight, we had killed almost all of them, not without sustaining injuries ourselves but nothing too serious that it was life threatening. Only two of them were left so maybe we got complacent or was it the fatigue who knows." 

"One of them then landed a fatal hit on my sister before retreating and disappearing into the forest but not the last one, he seemed a bit incensed to have been brought to such a state by us so he wanted to at least finish my sister before leaving as that would've been quite a good outcome but I obviously wouldn't let such a thing occur, so I got in his way, lodging my spear into his throat before he could even get the chance." 

A small hint of pride appeared on her face before it receded, her expression making its way to sadness once more. 

"He ultimately stabbed me with the poison before he took his last breath but I didn't think much of it. We just hurried home to get aid for my sister before she bled out and we made it but obviously we got into serious trouble but I won't bore you with that. It was then I realised the seemingly unimportant poison he inflicted me with was actually quite a deadly one that ultimately caused this situation we now find ourselves in." 

James didn't really know what to say after such a story and he knew any words of comfort he could say now was useless so he chose to not utter them, he still wanted to know why she wanted to not live her own life anymore though. 

"From that story, it would seem you have a few friends and a lovely little sister, so I don't get why you want to not live anymore" 

"You're speaking as if I am actually going to die" 

"Aren't you though, if we merge into one person could you still even be called the same person anymore" 

"It doesn't really matter...but if you want to hear my real reason for proposing this then fine, I'll tell you" 

"Please do" James said 

"First of all, living every day for more than a year in constant pain isn't something anyone can manage and I had reached my own breaking point, it's not so farfetched that I don't want to live, there's also nothing I was really living for apart for certain things and the way my family reacted to me being poisoned was an indicator how much they really care about my existence..." 

"Apart from certain individuals like my adorable little maid but she'll probably be fine without me and the other person, well they'll live, it's not as if I am the first person they have lost in their life anyway even if I really were to die so I'm sure they wouldn't judge me too much if they had to hear my thoughts" 

"Secondly, as I had said earlier that poison seeped into every part of my body, irreversibly damaging it. I am not aware of what they used to heal me but I'm certain it's not enough to heal me back to the way I was before so even if I were to wake up after a while...my life would never be the same" 

"What do you mean" James asked 

"Every person in the world is born with a set talent for mana at birth, you can increase your talent by using certain treasures but they are exceedingly scarce and not just for anyone...when you lose part of your talent, you are doomed to a life of mediocrity." 

"If you are crippled though...living will be a fate much more painful than death, especially in a family like mine. With the state of my body, my capacity to use mana might be non-existent or small enough to the point it's also useless" 

There was not much James could say to persuade her otherwise if she was so resolute in her decision so he just remained silent. 

They sat like that for a little while before James realised something... 

'That elixir in my inventory, did the Goddess tell her she could regain her talent in mana if we merged since technically that elixir is a gift for me or did that Goddess gift it to me specifically for this??' 

When he came to that conclusion and looked at Eliana, he found her slightly smiling at him.