Chapter 22 - The Hero, Just One Step Away

By the next day, I had made preparations to head to the mountains.

Our supply of herbs was finally getting low, and we hadn't had many rust-eating

mushrooms in our inventory to begin with. With winter coming, different medicines

would become more critical. I was going to have to stock up on everything.

"All right, I'll be back soon."

"Take care. And here's your lunch."

Incidentally, I had made almost the entire lunch. The crunchy, over-easy egg was the

only portion Rit had made. I'd wondered why she had come into the kitchen all of a

sudden early in the morning. She'd said she wanted to give me my lunch when I left.

Evidently, it wouldn't have felt right if she handed it to me without actually

contributing some part of its contents at all. Thus, I'd had her cook me some fried eggs.

"Mfh." Rit looked satisfied as she gave me the packaged meal.

As I headed for the mountain, I saw that a knight was still standing in the middle of

the bridge, blocking everyone who tried to cross. It would be annoying to deal with

him, so I just took the long way around like last time.

Does he just have a lot of free time on his hands or something?

Nooo, I don't want to! I practically screamed the thought.

Before me was the drainage ditch where the village's wastewater, sewage, and all sorts

of other trash were dumped. In the muck, there was a wooden wyvern toy floating,

caught up on some garbage.

"Waaaaaaaaaaah!"

A boy was crying as he pointed to the bauble in the ditch. He had probably dropped it.

There was a stomach-churning stench rising from the gulley, and various unknown

objects had precipitated out. Each was so unpleasant that I wanted to look away.

If that kid would only have given up and left, I could have endured it. But he wouldn't

quit, and he refused to stop bawling.

Maybe he knew about my peculiarity. Perhaps his crying was calculated. I didn't think

that was the case, but once that seed of doubt had been planted in me, it swelled and

turned into an incurable hatred that scorched my heart.

I am the Hero. I can't turn away from someone in need—even if I was younger than

him. It didn't matter that I was on my way to go play somewhere. I'd done something

like this before and gotten my clothes dirty. My mother had beaten me for it and had

told me never to do something like this again, but that was of no consequence.

My blessing paid no heed to my personal circumstances.

I can't take it anymore. I was going to jump down, trudge through all that filth, and ruin

this whole day for the sake of a toy that wasn't even worth a single bronze coin.

I started limply walking toward the drainage when someone grabbed my shoulder.

"Leave it to me."

He didn't hesitate at all to jump into the ditch. He grimaced as he walked waist-deep

into the muck, marched firmly toward the toy, picked it up, and walked back.

"Here. Don't drop it again. Also, it's dirty, so go wash it off."

"Thank you, Gideon!"

The boy who had just been bawling smiled happily and ran off, clutching the soiled

toy.

"Haaah…" My savior looked at the spectacle he had become and smiled bitterly.

I started to move closer, but he frantically stopped me.

"You'll get dirty."

"…Big Brother…"

My protector was my one and only big brother.

"I'm sorry."

"Why are you apologizing? You didn't do anything wrong."

"But…"

"I just did it because I wanted to. Don't worry about it."

"I understand... Big Brother…"

"What?"

"Sorry. I can't."

I embraced him, even though my clothes would get dirty. Big Brother tried to push me

away at first, but when he noticed that I was crying, he accepted it and let me hug him.

"Let's go wash our clothes."

"Okay."

A real hero was someone more like my big brother. He was the kind of person who

would jump into the sewage of his own volition. I only did it because my blessing

compelled me to.

I wanted to defeat the demon lord because it would save the most people in need. That

way, I wouldn't be troubled by urges to perform small acts of mercy like this.

I couldn't have cared less about something like the fate of the world.

Ruti and Tisse were proceeding along the road toward Zoltan.

Ruti was not wearing her usual armor, nor was the Holy Demon Slayer hanging at her

waist.

When Tisse had pointed out that those would draw too much attention, the Hero had

obediently put them into her item box and then disappeared off somewhere for about

ten minutes.

While Tisse waited, wondering where she had gone, Ruti came back holding a sword.

And for some reason, there were three goblins following behind her. They were

carrying baskets woven from tree branches that had dried river fish inside.

"Uh, um, did something happen?"

"I noticed that some goblins were nearby, so I borrowed a weapon."

The sword in her hand was a two-handed weapon with three holes in the blade—a

goblin blade. Tisse was worried it might snap in half as Ruti casually swung it.

"Well, if it's in a sheath, no one will know… And what about those goblins behind you?"

"The chief of their settlement had collapsed because of some illness, so I used my

Healing Hands. As thanks, I got this weapon and some food."

"Huh? Ah, you don't say?… Is it really okay to be aiding goblins?"

"It's fine. Their village wasn't involved with any pillaging. Around forty percent of all

goblins survive off hunting and simple farming. They don't all go out raiding. These

kinds tend to live far away from humans, though, so you don't see them often."

The Hero's strength lay not just in defeating villainy, but in recognizing what was evil,

too. Tisse was filled with a newfound reverence for Ruti.

"Understood. That sword might be good for looking the part of a simple adventurer.

Let's put the food away into our item boxes."

"Okay."

The Hero smiled happily after Tisse approved of her actions, but the smirk was so faint

that Tisse didn't notice it.

With the goblins thanking them, the two of them turned away and left the airship.

Zoltan's grasslands billowed in the wind.

The northern forest where Ruti and Tisse had landed the airship already showed signs

of winter, but Zoltan still seemed to be in autumn. The plains were changing color from

green to brown, lending the landscape an almost forlorn sort of feeling.

"It's still quite cool despite being farther south."

"It is," Ruti responded flatly.

Because of Ruti's Environmental Resistance, cold was nothing more than a trivial bit

of information. From extreme arctic frost to scorching desert heat, no temperature

was capable of impeding the Hero. After walking for a little bit, the two of them caught

sight of a crowd.

"What's this about? I'm going to go check it out real quick."

Tisse used her small frame to slip through the gathered mass. She quickly returned

back to Ruti.

"Some knight is apparently blocking the bridge. A supposedly capable adventurer

challenged him but was defeated. It would be a bit of a detour, but there is another

way around. Shall we go that way?"

"No, we'll cross here." Ruti headed straight for the crowd. "Out of the way," she ordered.

"Hey, Missy, be careful. There's a weird knight barring passage over…" A man started

to say something, but partway through, he realized that his legs were quivering. "Oh…

Whoaaaaa…"

He instinctively yielded the path. Seeing that, the other people naturally formed a

route for Ruti. It wasn't until the blue-haired girl had left that they finally realized

they'd been frightened of her.

On the bridge was a knight wearing armor and wielding a spear with cloth wrapped

around the tip to avoid killing his opponents.

He was a large man, over six and a half feet tall.

"This is a toll. If you want to pass, then you'll need one hundred payril," the knight

declared.

"Why?" Ruti asked, tilting her head.

"Why? Because I want to."

"I see. Then I don't need to pay." Ruti advanced right toward the man but didn't even

move to draw her sword.

"Wha—? Who the hell are you…?" Though his opponent was an unarmed girl, the

knight couldn't bring himself to attack. For some reason, he could only envision

himself getting killed.

Tisse predicted that the knight would throw down his weapon and surrender before

long. However…

"Uooooooooooh!!!" The large man roared and took a big step forward, loosing a

powerful thrust. "…Huh?" The knight, who was supposed to be the one attacking, made

an absurd sound, not understanding what was happening.

Ruti had casually caught the high-speed spear attack with her right hand. It looked

like she was gingerly holding it with a single hand. That was all it took for her to keep

her opponent's lunge from hitting her.

"You're in my way," Ruti muttered softly. She lifted the knight's body by the spear. The

powerfully built man floated up into the air and then went flying.

"Whoooooa?!"

Ruti cast him aside, and he plunged into the river.

"Let's go, Tisse."

"R-right."

Tisse followed after the Hero, at his wit's end wondering why Ruti had gone and

defeated him in such a spectacular way when the pair were supposed to be incognito

as regular travelers.

As I was walking, I heard some kind of groan. Thinking it was a bit suspicious, I headed

toward the source of the voice.

"Ugh… so cold."

What I found was a big man shivering next to a fire. He only had undergarments on.

His clothes were hung to dry on a nearby tree.

"I almost drowned and had to take off my armor in the middle of the river. That full

plate armor was expensive…"

The man was murmuring to himself, teary-eyed, as he broke a stick and tossed it into

the fire.

All right, I'll just pretend I didn't see anything. Swiveling around, I started to leave, but…

"Wait! You there! Wait!"

Gh, he noticed me.

The man stomped over toward me.

Sensing it would turn into something annoying, I wanted to run away, but the freezing,

nearly naked man hadn't even said anything yet. Ditching him would have been a little

too harsh.

"Ah, did you need something?" I asked with a polite smile, exerting my best nonverbal

"This is really a nuisance, though," sort of aura.

"My name is Otto. I'm a Drake Rider and commander of the glorious Fafnir Knights'

raiders."

"That so?"

Drake Rider was a top-tier blessing in the Knight tree. As the name implied, they

specialized in forming a bond with a drake and had the creature carry them into

combat.

Even when both were mounted, a person with Drake Rider tended to be stronger than

someone with the more common blessing Wyvern Rider.

There were several reasons for that, but the main one was that those with the Drake

Rider blessing had the skill Dragon-Rider Link, which allowed them to share their

skills with their mount.

Drakes had their own blessings, of course, so when it gained strength from an

additional one, it could overpower an enemy who would have otherwise been on a

similar level.

However, that did not necessarily mean that Drake Rider was an incredible blessing.

It bore a critical weakness—you could only form a bond with a single drake. All the

powerful skills they had access to would be gone, never to return, if that one beast

died. If that happened, the remaining skills granted by the blessing were nothing more

than what the lowest tier Cavalier blessing had access to. All the points spent on skills

for their partner would suddenly leave them even weaker than a similarly leveled

Cavalier.

Thus…

"…And so my partner was killed by the horrid giant Grendel as I slew it."

It was used for lots of "I used to be really strong" sort of tales.

"Hmm? What? The Fafnir Knights?"

Mogrim the blacksmith mentioned a creature named Fafnir before, didn't he? Maybe the

word was some new sort of trend.

"Yes, the Fafnir Knights! We may not be well-known to people living out on the frontier,

but there isn't a soul in the capital who doesn't know the glorious Fafnir Knights, third

only to the renowned Bahamut Knights and the ruthless Tiamat Knights! I was a Drake

Rider for that resplendent faction."

"I've never heard of them."

"Well, you live in Zoltan, so it isn't surprising that you're not up on the current news

in Central. It's nothing to be ashamed of," Otto said as he patted my shoulder to console

me.

I glared coolly at the man.

Once upon a time, I was second in command of those Bahamut Knights you so callously

mentioned.

"So what does the noble knight need of me? I was in a bit of a hurry."

"Right! I wanted to ask you a favor."

"A favor?"

"You see, the reason I've come to Zoltan is to slay the hill giant Dundach and claim its

castle to become a land-owning aristocrat."

Now that was something I was familiar with.

Three years ago, five hill giants had appeared, attacking the castle of a lord who

resided to the northwest of Zoltan and claimed it for themselves. Zoltan had sent out

a force to exterminate them, but they were routed. The giants had already killed the

nobleman, so everyone in Zoltan had been content just to let it be ever since.

Brash adventurers with dreams of owning a castle would occasionally try to take back

the keep—never to return—but other than that, the giants never caused much trouble.

"Hmmm, I see. Well, good luck with that."

"Wait, wait, wait! Let me finish."

I had started to leave, but Otto frantically called me back.

"That's why, to find someone capable of fighting the giants at my side, I've been

challenging the people crossing the bridge."

"Oh, so you're that troublesome knight?"

"And then, today, I was finally able to meet a woman who was my equal in strength.

This must be fate! I'm going to find that warrior, and we shall defeat the evil hill giants

and claim the castle!" Having made his gallant declaration, Otto flushed a bit, like he

was slightly embarrassed. "And then I will propose to her, and we'll live together in the

castle."

"Oh, I see. I hope it works out for you two."

"Wait, wait, wait! I'm almost done. I'm getting to the point."

Otto frantically called me back as I started to leave again.

Just get on with it already, please.

"So what is it that you want me to do?"

"It's really nothing that big, but…" He was fidgeting nervously. Seeing a six-and-a-halffoot-tall man act like that was hardly endearing.

"When I was thrown into the river, my weapons, armor, belongings, and all the money

I had on me were washed away… Could you lend me some coin? I'll repay you once I

have my castle."

"Not interested," I fired back immediately.

"Even if I got on my knees?"

"Yep."

"You leave me with no alternative, sir! I will use force if I must! Set all of your money

on the ground!"

At that, Otto raised his hands and charged me in his underwear.

"If you don't want to be hurt, then jus— Arrgggggghhhh?!"

The next thing either of us knew, I had plowed a full-powered fist into his face.

Agh, that's no good. I just reflexively punched him. I generally made a point of not biting

when someone was fishing for a fight so I wouldn't stand out, but honestly, something

about him got to me on an instinctual level.

Otto flew backward, falling into the river again with a big splash. His body floated up

to the surface and drifted downstream.

He was only a highwayman, so I guess that much is fine. I'd best keep moving.

Zoltan experienced short autumns.

I hadn't gotten a chance to enjoy the season on the mountain before the leaves fell, and

it transformed into a desolate winter landscape.

"Even if the snow doesn't stick, the cold still limits the herbs you can find this time of

year."

There were ones that could only be found in winter, too, like polyp mushrooms, an

ingredient for medicine that treated cholera. There were also snow vines that helped

with the infections one developed from open wounds. Thankfully, you could still find

gray starfish grass and rust-eating mushrooms, too.

But it would hurt not being able to gather the henbane used for hemostatics and

disinfectants or koku leaves for antidotes or all the other ingredients for medicines

that were in high demand.

I needed to gather up as much as possible while there was still anything left to be

found.

"A greenhouse sure would help to deal with seasonal plants."

I made a note to ask Gonz about it when I returned home. But for now, I needed to

focus on gathering.

If you chimeras are going to keep watching me, the least you could do is help out, too.

The monsters staring at me from a distance dashed away in a panic when I glanced

over at them.

My name is Tisse. A long time ago, I was an assassin, but now I'm just a person at my

wit's end.

Naturally, the source of my troubles is the Hero.

"I'm just a traveler. I'm not suspicious at all."

Those were the exact words she'd said to the guardsmen at Zoltan's gate. She was

carrying a greater giant frog that looked like it weighed a thousand pounds over her

shoulder.

Why?

Not ten minutes ago, I had given one of the gatekeepers a false story while slipping

him a little bribe. Everything was going just fine. All the Hero had to do was wait

patiently. There should've been no issue.

"U-um, Ms. Ruhr."

Ruhr was the Hero's alias while we were in the town. Incidentally, my moniker was

Tifa.

The basic story was that Ruhr was searching for her father, who had gone missing. I

didn't know much about the alchemist that the Hero was actually seeking, but given

that we were looking for someone, making the target of the search a family member

seemed acceptable. Once we found the alchemist, we could just write it off as him as

being the wrong person who just happened to resemble Ruhr's father. Yet somehow,

we ended up in this compromising predicament.

"What's with that frog on your back?"

"It was hibernating in the ground nearby. I thought it would be dangerous come

spring, so I exterminated it."

"Y-yeah. Well, okay, I guess. But why are you carrying it?"

"?"

"Come on, please don't just tilt your head." I groaned.

"If you defeat an animal or magical beast near a town, you turn it in at the local

exchange," Ruti stated matter-of-factly.

I mean, yeah, but come on!

A guard tapped my shoulder. I turned so stiffly that I was afraid my joints were creaking

audibly. When I met the man's eyes, I saw that they were practically sparkling.

"Your friend there is amazing. I'll go get a cart from the butcher, so wait here a bit."

The Hero seemed aloof, unbothered by the praise and curious gazes she was garnering

from every direction.

"Ms. Ruhr, a guardsmen said he'd get a cart from the butcher. So you can set the frog

down."

"Okay."

There was a resounding, rumbling thud as the massive amphibian hit the ground.

Argh, I'm sure there will be rumors about us spreading around the town now.

So much for keeping a low profile…

At this time of year, the nights on the mountain were cold. I shivered as I wrapped

myself in a sleeping bag.

The campfire was crackling.

I slipped a heater I had made into the sleeping bag and sighed as it worked its magic.

Because the mountains were close to the Wall at the End of the World, the wind was

freezing. The gales that came from the north were especially biting.

"I miss my bed."

In the past, I'd never felt particularly attached to my house. Truth be told, I'd even

considered erecting a little lodge up here. Being able to stay in the wilds for two or

three nights would have significantly increased my spoils. However, those plans had

been shelved.

I wanted to spend as much time back at the house as possible.

"Hmm, I guess this is what it means to have a 'home.'"

I fell asleep amid thoughts of Rit waiting for me.

The next day, I gathered all that I could, and when it started getting dark, I headed

down the mountain.

While no one is watching, I should use Lightning Speed to get back to Zoltan as soon as

possible.

Eagerly, I sprinted full speed back toward town.

"Heeeey!" I shouted, waving down the guard who was about to close the gate.

"Oh, is that Red I see? Back from gathering medicinal herbs?"

"Yeah. Can you let me in?"

"Too much work. Just climb over the wall there."

"I don't want to. That's too much work for me."

We bantered a bit as the guard waited a little longer to finish shutting the barricade.

Zoltan's ramparts were little more than a stone wall that barely rose beyond six feet.

If you wanted to, it wasn't that hard to climb over.

Adventurers who were too late and missed the gate closing for the night just hopped

the wall, but there was an unspoken agreement that everyone turned a blind eye to

the practice.

People sneaking in after dark would have been a big problem anywhere else, but in

Zoltan, folks were laid-back enough to laugh it off.

"You sure are good at coming in just at the last moment."

"That's because I take the rules seriously."

"If that's true, then how about getting back before the eleventh hour next time!

Anyway, I'm heading out now. How about a drink?"

"Thanks, but no. I'm going home."

"Where's the love? Choosing your girlfriend over me?"

"Damn straight."

"You don't have to be so blunt about it… Fine. How about just the one drink?"

"Weeell, it has been a long time since we went out for a mug. Sure, I guess. I'll stick

around to down one with you at the food stall."

Spending time with friends was important, too, but I had no intention of staying out

late.

We left the gate and went to a mobile oden stand along the border between the harbor

district and the working-class neighborhood.

"Welcome."

Usually, a gruff, unmarried old man greeted you when you approached the cart. Today,

however, it was a platinum-blond, slender, well-proportioned, and stylish high elf

woman.

The shop's owner was getting up there in years. When he'd mentioned retirement, the

high elf Oparara had said, "I can't bear to see this place close, so if you're going to quit,

then let me succeed you!"

That old dog was a sucker when it came to beautiful women, so after standing his

ground for about thirty seconds, he gave in to Oparara, and the two of them had

started pulling the stall together. Lately, Oparara was running it on her own more

often.

Seeing her reminded me of my old comrade, Yarandrala, though there was no

comparison when it came to bust size.

High elves ruled the Kingdom of Kiramin, making them the only other race besides

humans to wear one of Avalon's official crowns.

The dwarf king who lived on Sir Beard Mountain only bore the official title of duke,

and Sir Beard Mountain was just a self-ruled territory, not a kingdom.

Unlike the colloquial phrase for a hereditary ruler, a proper king or queen only

referred to one of the officially recognized kingdoms' monarchs. On Avalon, those

territories all belonged to either humans or high elves.

That was why high elves professed themselves to be noble creatures. Humans, perhaps

not wishing to think on it too deeply, had no problems acquiescing to that declaration.

However, half-elves, who were the descendants of the wood elves who once

dominated the continent, and the wild elves, who had stepped away from civilization

but were nonetheless directly descended from the ancient elves, regarded their

haughty cousins as merely urban things—city elves.

As for me, well, I just called them high elves. I mean, I'm human, too, and calling them

urban elves was an excellent way to piss them off.

Fundamentally, high elves tended to be quite open about what they thought and felt,

always speaking their mind. If they got upset, they would not hesitate to insist that

they had been hurt by what you had said. In one sense, that made them difficult to get

along with, but in another, it made them easy to get to know.

Of course, each high elf had their quirks. There were plenty of them who could talk

out of both sides of their mouth, too. They weren't incapable of putting up a front. It

was just that, as a rule, high elves generally didn't like doing so, and thus they didn't

bother. If they put their mind to it, they were capable of being far more devious than

humans. In particular, the captain always used to say that you could never trust the

Kiramin royalty.

On that point, Yarandrala was straightforward and agreeable. As I recalled my time

with her, I wondered if she was still traveling together with Ruti and the others. The

journey was undoubtedly rough, but I hoped she was doing well, regardless.

"I'll have daikon and beef tendon, egg, and hanpen. And a beer, please," the guard said

as he pointed to various things floating in the square pot.

"And I'll take daikon, a wiener, and some chikuwa, too. And a cup of beer."

"Gotcha!" Oparara responded with a forceful, high elf voice that sounded like a bell

chime.

She fished our orders into a pair of wooden bowls with a practiced motion.

"That reminds me…"

Oparara glanced at the bag of herbs on the ground as she passed me my meal.

"Are you not selling mustard seeds anymore, Boss?"

Oparara used to call me Red before she opened the stall. Apparently, she'd even started

adopting the cart's previous owner's speech patterns. High elves sure were

meticulous.

"Ah, I don't go into the mountains as often as I used to. Any spices I gather, I use myself,"

I replied.

"That's too bad. I'm going to have to find a steady source in town, then."

The going price for mustard seeds was five payril per kilogram at the trading post. And

it got higher once it went to market. The spice went well with oden, but it wasn't free.

That was why the guard and I hadn't asked for it.

A lone girl appeared at the counter.

"Welcome!"

"Daikon, beef tendon, egg, and four chikuwa. And mustard."

"Gotcha!"

Taking the bowl from Oparara, the girl didn't hesitate to add in all the mustard

provided on a small plate at the side.

That style, that regal way of eating oden! It was so carefree. It practically screamed "I'll

just ask for more if I run low!"

Amazing!

Four chikuwa was its own sort of unusual, too. I guess she just really liked them.

Anyway, she was a new face. Short, but her body had clearly been well trained. Her

black hooded outfit had been worn down some from travel, but it was high quality.

There was a shortsword at her waist. Inside the cloak, she had three throwing knives

strapped beneath her armpit. The shortsword had a magical enhancement and some

other kind of special effect applied to it. It also bore some concealing magic to hide all

of that. There was mithril chainmail woven into the underside of her garment.

Her gear emphasized practicality, and it had been designed to appear like everyday

items to avoid standing out.

She's a strong one. Maybe an adventurer who's been wandering for a while… Seems like

she's trying to keep aloof. Probably some kind of job where she needs to be careful not to

be noticed. A thief or a spy… or else maybe an assassin?

At that moment, the girl suddenly glanced over at me.

"Yes?" she asked expectantly.

"Ah, sorry. I was just curious since I hadn't seen you around before. And it looks like

you're doing well enough for yourself to order the mustard, too."

"Mustard is a must for oden."

"I hope I can make enough to be able to say that, too, someday."

It had only been a sidelong glance, but she'd noticed I was looking her over. She's pretty

good. Who is she?

At that moment:

"Ah, you're the one from yesterday!" the guard exclaimed after eyeing the girl for a

moment.

"What, do you know her?" I asked.

"You wouldn't believe it, Red! The girl she was with dragged this fat frog hibernating

in the mud near the gate out of the ground with just one hand and used some crazy

martial art I had never seen before to kill it with this beaten-up old goblin blade!"

The girl's cheek twitched. Apparently, this was a topic she would rather not discuss.

Her expression was too subtle for the guardsmen to notice, however.

"What was your friend's name again? Ru… Rurt?"

"Her name is Ruhr."

I thought she would just ignore the gatekeeper, but apparently, having her comrade's

name mistaken bothered her because she made a point of correcting him.

"Yeah, yeah, Ruhr! And if I remember right, your name was Tifa? If you two are planning

to stick around Zoltan for a while, you should definitely go by the Adventurers Guild.

There are never enough skilled quest takers around here. There are extermination

jobs posted for other beasties like that fat toad that'll become trouble in the spring,

but no one's taken any of them."

A greater giant frog could be a surprisingly dangerous monster, despite how it looked.

It used its tongue as a weapon to catch its enemies and eat them. Though possessed

of slippery skin, its teeth were like razors that could easily chew through chainmail.

Even if the creature found something it couldn't gnaw through, it had the problematic

habit of just swallowing whatever it caught whole.

D-rank adventurers weren't up to that sort of challenge, and even C-rank adventurers

couldn't risk letting their guards down, even if they attacked in a party.

If this Ruhr character had defeated a greater giant frog by herself, then she had to be

a high-level C ranker at the very least—possibly even a B ranker.

The girl named Tifa glanced at the guard as he rambled on.

"Hey, let's leave it at that. I'm sure we're bothering her," I interjected.

"Eh, really?"

"Yeah, she came here to eat oden in peace."

Tifa nodded in response.

The guard rubbed the back of his head apologetically.

"My bad, I got a little carried away."

"It's fine. Pardon me, I'd like to take the rest of this to go. Could I get it packed up?"

Tifa stood up with that, ordered an extra chikuwa and a konjac to go with what she

had left, and then walked away.

"See, you ruined the mood for her," I chided as I finished off the beer left in my cup.

"Anyway, I'm headed back now."

"Aw, come on, go one more round with me. I feel bad about bothering her, so comfort

me a bit."

"Don't wanna."

"Gh. Oparara! Can I get a chikuwa, too?"

"Yeah, can I get chikuwa, daikon, and some chicken to go, please? I'm going to take

some back for Rit."

I put a quarter payril and a few commons on the counter to cover my bill.

Tisse returned to her lodge in the harbor district after several roundabout detours

while ensuring she wasn't being followed.

"What is it?" Ruti asked, noticing Tisse's caution.

"Please be careful. There seems to be a troublesome person here in Zoltan."

"A troublesome person?"

"He's a young man. It was just a brief encounter, but he noticed my clothes and knives,"

Tisse explained as she pointed to the garments interwoven with mithril chainmail and

the knives hidden beneath them.

Tisse's equipment had been designed not to make a sound louder than a pin drop no

matter how violently she moved. She was quite sure that an average person, or even

someone with the Investigator or Detective blessing, would not be able to spot them

readily.

"Not only did he see through that, but he is also quite powerful. Most likely, he has a

level similar to mine. If I was forced to fight him on his terms, I doubt I would win.

Obviously, that wouldn't apply to you, however."

Even if Tisse paled in comparison to the Hero, she had been chosen by Ares and was

one of the best in the Assassins Guild. She was not going to feign modesty about her

strength. It was a simple fact that she was skilled. And with that assessment of herself,

she could also say that that man at the oden stand could end up being one of the

highest-tier opponents she had ever encountered.

"There is no way someone that powerful would be living in obscurity. He's undoubtedly

the strongest adventurer in Zoltan," Tisse decided.

"The story at the tavern was that the strongest person in Zoltan right now was a Brank adventurer named Bui," Ruti replied.

"As far as the public is concerned, I'm sure. The way he carried himself had a certain

elegance to it. If I had to guess, I'd say he learned proper etiquette in some knight

order."

"A knight order…"

The face of a very familiar person flashed through Ruti's mind.

There were many knights in the world, though. That guy on the bridge she couldn't

really remember anymore had called himself a knight, too. Ruti curbed the rising tide

of her thoughts there.

Tisse continued without noticing any of that.

"A former knight—and probably a valiant warrior who fought on the front lines

against the demon lord's armies throughout a storied career. Maybe he suffered some

dishonor and drifted out to the frontier. Adventurers wouldn't pay much heed to a

little bit of dirt, but as a knight, it causes problems for the entire order."

"I see."

"I can't say for sure what it would have been, but…" Tisse paused in thought for a

moment. "This is just a guess, but being so young and skilled, his superior officer may

have held a grudge, and he forced him into a duel where he slew the officer. Maybe

something like that. I can't imagine someone that skilled merely running away after

some sort of lesser failure."

"I see."

Tisse removed her sword belt. Sitting down on a bed, she heaved a sigh.

"I had thought it was strange. There aren't any proper adventurers in Zoltan. The

strongest is only B rank. So how did they manage to drive an upper-tier demon away?"

It wasn't much, but Tisse had at least heard a bit of what had happened in Zoltan when

Ares was interrogating Albert.

An upper-tier demon and a B-rank adventurer had conspired together and had been

defeated by some skilled mystery man. However, according to what Tisse and Ruti

heard in Zoltan, the guards and a wandering adventurer had resolved things together.

That adventurer was currently registered as a B ranker.

"That was the story told to the public. The gallant who stopped it was surely that man

at the oden cart. And if that's the case, then he must have been with that guard to

gather information about anyone who visited Zoltan. And the reason he got up so soon

after I did was that I put him on edge. The fact that he was drinking from a cup instead

of a mug must have been out of habitual caution to always move freely without

impairment. The sort of person who always maintains battle readiness, has no interest

in fame, and considers his achievements reward enough in themselves."

Tisse reflected on her inadequacy and how she had been worrying about the amount

of trouble she would have covering for the Hero on this excursion. The Hero's journey

was never going to be easy. Even if they were in Zoltan, enormous barriers would

always stand in Ruti's path.

"We are going to have to set our plan of action."

"Plan of action?"

"Whether we cooperate with that man or face off against him. I suspect that, as a

knight, his thoughts will tend to follow a similar line as yours."

"That might be difficult. The alchemist I'm searching for is apparently in the infirmary

in the local prison."

"They're in jail?"

Ruti had seemingly gathered some information herself.

Tisse was a little worried that maybe she had caused some uproar or something, but

the fact that no one had raised a fuss about it so far meant that probably nothing had

happened. And it was not like the Hero hadn't ever done digging before.

However, her style of gathering information was to tap someone on a shoulder and

ask, more menacing than a give-and-take…

Ruti had learned from the contract demon that the alchemist who had produced the

medicine was a close associate of Bighawk. However, after she had taken Devil's

Blessing, the contract demon stopped talking. In the end, she had not been able to

learn any identifying qualities about the person she sought…

But all of Bighawk's closest associates had been thrown in prison. A person who fit the

bill of being an alchemist was currently in the jail's infirmary after being cut in the

shoulder during an incident.

"Given that I'm hiding the fact that I'm the Hero, it will be impossible for us to negotiate

the release of the alchemist into our custody."

"That's true… Which means a prison break?"

"Yes."

"That would require taking an antagonistic stance toward the town—and toward that

man as well."

"Should I meet with him directly?"

To Tisse, Ruti's question had the added implication of "Meet and defeat."

"…There is no way that you would lose, of course. That goes without saying. But I

imagine he has also considered the possibility that he might be bested. An encounter

without knowing what he's got up his sleeve seems unwise."

"I see."

The Hero nodded as she tilted her head slightly.

It would be hard to blame Tisse for her surplus of caution. With all the ambitious

people and schemers she had encountered as an assassin, there was no way she could

imagine that the man in question was just aiming to enjoy a relaxed, easygoing, slow

life.

The two young women discussed their plans going forward deep into the night until

the sun started to rise.

Meanwhile, Mister Crawly Wawly had curled up and was sleeping in Tisse's bag.

The next day.

Ruti was gathering information around Zoltan again.

What we need is…

As she walked along a street in the northern district, the phantom of a man appeared

in Ruti's mind and started walking alongside her.

"Okay, all we really need to know is the room where that alchemist is being held. Still,

there's no guaranteeing someone knowledgeable about the prison layout is just

conveniently hanging around. Inquiring about such a topic would definitely draw

suspicion. We don't know this town well, and we don't have any connections. There's

nothing to do but investigate on-site."

"You're right. We don't have enough time to check in a more roundabout way, so let's

take the usual approach."

The man was a young but battle-tested warrior.

He had been a member of the Kingdom of Avalonia's elite Bahamut order of knights

before even reaching the age of ten, a hero who could list dozens of accomplishments

domestically and on foreign soil—Gideon Ragnason.

Ruti's swordsmanship and her knowledge of traveling had all been taught to her by

her older brother, Gideon. He had kindly, but without any compromise, taught her

everything from the fundamentals of gathering information to developing the knack

for recognizing what intelligence was true and what wasn't, to the tactics needed to

fight a pitched battle in the field or siege a fortress, and countless other things.

Even now, while Ruti was far more powerful than Gideon, Ruti's entire line of inquiry

started with the question of what her brother would do in her situation.

"What we need is the jail's daily itinerary. That and the location of the prison's infirmary.

If possible, a general count of how many staff work in the sickroom would be nice, too."

"Agreed. I'll try listening from near the prison until the evening."

"Good thinking. With your perception, you should be able to tell the location and

movements of the people inside from their footsteps."

Gideon smiled… and then disappeared.

He was just a shadow created by Ruti's mind.

He had only grinned because Ruti had wished for it… It was an empty expression. Ruti

could feel her heart aching. The emotions that the Hero's blessing had suppressed

were gradually starting to push against the container trapping them in her heart.

I miss him.

Ruti wanted to see him and talk about so much. She could convey a lot more now than

before. She would not be left standing there sad and alone, unable to do anything as

her big brother departed.

No, I will meet him.

The Hero's resolve warped the air around her, sending birds and stray cats fleeing in

terror.

It was fortunate that there weren't any people around.

The workshop at Red & Rit's Apothecary.

The morning rush of customers had tapered off a bit, and I was grinding down

medicinal herbs with a mortar.

Lately, rumor had it that a cold had been spreading in some of the settlements and

villages near Zoltan. As a result, I had been getting orders for medicine from traveling

merchants and had been able to sell out my entire stock at once.

That also meant that many people were suffering from sickness, so I couldn't get that

excited about it.

All I could do was continue to prepare more remedies to get into the hands of those

who needed them as soon as possible.

"Red."

Hearing my name, I stopped my work and turned around. Rit was standing there with

her red bandanna around her neck, holding four leather bladders in her hands.

"What's all that?" I asked.

Standing up, I took two of the bags from her. Shaking them a bit, I could hear the slosh

of a liquid.

"Liquor?"

"Yep!" a shrill voice responded. A small, winged figure appeared from behind Rit. "It's

strong red wine!"

"A fairy dragon?"

Its scales had a fundamental green tone, but the way they reflected the light that came

in through the windows gave them a rainbow shimmer. The tongue flickering out of

the creature's mouth was a bright flaming red. It had sharp claws at the end of its four

limbs, and its tail was swaying gently.

While it looked like a typical dragon, its wings were closer to a butterfly's, and it was

the size of a kitten.

The fairy dragon fitfully flittered around me.

"Hello!"

"Hello. I'm Red."

"I know! I'm Kurukururu."

"I see. Nice to meet you Kurukururu."

Fairy dragons looked like dragons, but they were actually a type of fay.

I hadn't spoken with any like this since coming to Zoltan, but when I was traveling with

Ruti, there were times when we went to fairy settlements looking for magic items or

help solving issues for villages troubled by some fay prank.

It had been rough, but compared to the bloody incidents caused by the demon lord's

army or various monsters, dealing with fay creatures could be rather charming. I could

still remember bursting out laughing when some sprites had poured a bucket of water

over Danan's head as a joke.

"So then, what is it?"

"Ummm, could you please help us?"

"Apparently, a disease of unknown origin is spreading through a fay settlement," Rit

elaborated.

Ahhh, so the wineskins are to pay for diagnosis and medicine, then. Fay liquor was rare,

and you could trade it for prices.

"I don't know how much I'll be able to help, but let me see those afflicted."

The fairy dragon let out a cute little roar.

Rit used her magic to summon a spirit dire wolf that we rode. It took us about four

hours.

We left the road far behind, going deep into a muddy wetland region and through

meadows that had seemingly never been touched by humans before, arriving at a fay

village located at a lake with sacred lotuses floating all around.

"Welcome! Welcome!" the fairy dragon riding on my head shouted in a cheerful, shrill

voice.

Drawn by its voice, several tiny little figures flew out from behind a fallen tree.

"Kurukururu is back!"

"I'm here! I brought Red!"

"Yaaaay!"

It wasn't just fairy dragons, either. There were pixies with pale, translucent wings and

fifty-centimeter-tall brownies with large heads. Curiously, all the little beings seemed

to know me already.

I couldn't remember interacting with any fay since coming to Zoltan.

"So this is what a fay village is like. Look over there, Red—that big mushroom has a

window! They stretched a droplet of water to be like glass!" Rit certainly appeared

amused as she took in the sights around the tiny village.

"Were there not any fay villages in Loggervia?"

"I've heard stories about there being some, but normally you'd never get invited into

one. I did meet a brownie that lived in an old house once, though." Rit's Spirit Scout

blessing granted her the power to control spirit magic, so she naturally fit in well with

fairies and their ilk, since so many of them used spirit magic, too.

I knew from the past that fays hated large mountain ranges like the Wall at the End of

the World for some reason, so I would have thought you wouldn't find them in Zoltan,

but they had built this settlement reasonably close by.

"We hate that mountain! That's why we're on the other side of the river!" a nearby

pixie explained when I asked.

Apparently, it was safe as long as they had a river between them and the mountains.

Maybe there was some magical significance behind it.

I would have liked to ponder that a little longer, but that wasn't why we were here

today. Shaking my head, I turned my attention back to the job at hand. "All right, shall

we get to work?"

Flittering sprites and fairy dragons guided us to the fallen tree. Ducking through the

small door in the timber, we entered and saw that the inside was the size of a normal

house—maybe some fay spell.

"What is this? It's so cute."

Rit was looking at a small, round, alabaster, seemingly child-size teapot. As she stared,

the object transformed from a glossy white to red.

"Huh?"

Rit was taken aback by the change as the pot twisted its porcelain body and started to

spew a white steam from its mouth, seemingly embarrassed by the attention.

A pixie flew around Rit, laughing cheerfully before grabbing the pot by the handle with

both hands while another fairy brought a small cup and poured some piping-hot tea.

"Here you go!"

"Th-thank you."

The fay creatures were frolicking around, enjoying Rit's reactions. It was a delightful

scene, but I nudged Rit to continue into the next room.

"Sorry. But wow, fay villages sure are amazing."

"They're behaving themselves because they know we're here to cure some of their

sick, but normally, there would be no end to their pranks."

"At least it'd keep things from getting boring."

"You can't really get in without an invitation, though."

Ares could probably force his way in using his magic, but doing that would mean

dealing with the sort of serious prank that the fays reserved to drive out unwanted

guests.

"Over here!"

The fairy dragon that had guided us this far waved its tiny arms while floating in front

of the door to the next room. That must have been where the afflicted were resting.

Rit and I headed through the doorway and into a chamber designed for human use.

There was a cute, rounded wardrobe and an ordinary wooden table and chairs. But in

the stand on the wall was a bottle with shimmering sunlight insects instead of a

candle.

"I brought Red," the fairy dragon exclaimed in its shrill voice as it flew to the bed next

to a window.

There were six pixies and one shimmering, beautiful maiden lying there.

"Now, this is a surprise."

The woman was an undine—a member of the four clans of archfay, one of water.

As the name suggested, archfay were powerful fay. Typically, undine were found in

secret, secluded areas. I hadn't known they could live in places so close to human

settlements.

"Welcome to my humble little pond. It is a pleasure to have you, Red. And you as well,

Rit."

The undine listlessly raised her upper body from the bed. The blanket slipped down,

revealing her almost-translucent skin and the beautiful curves of her breasts as they

quivered ever so slightly.

According to legend, there was once an artist who journeyed far and wide in search of

an undine. Upon finally meeting one at the end of his long adventure, he went blind at

the sight of such beauty.

The figure of the archfay before me was almost like a work of art in its extreme

elegance, so I could understand how a story like that had come to be.

Wait, she's not wearing clothes? Well, fay were generally split on that. Some had the

habit of covering themselves, while others didn't. For example, a pixie in the room was

naked, but the brownie next to them was wearing some garment made of cloth.

"Red!"

There was a slightly angry voice from behind me as Rit's hands suddenly covered my

eyes.

"Please put some clothes on, Undine!"

"Oops, I'm sorry about that."

With my vision blacked out, I could hear the water creature sounding apologetic,

though there was also a trace of a childlike thrill in her voice. Even if she was "arch,"

she was still a fay—and thus prone to teasing and trickery.

"Sheeesh!"

Rit was still annoyed. I could feel her chest press against my back.

"Rit, it's true that Undine is beautiful, but if I had to describe it, it's more of an artistic

sort of allure. I might feel moved, but nothing more. I love you, and what I feel for you

is far more than that. So I'm not quite sure how to put this, but— Ummm, feeling you

like that on my back is making me lose my composure, so could you please let me go?"

"Really?… Fine…" Rit was still a little bit miffed, but that at least got her willing to

release me.

The watery being clad herself in a thin garment she had conjured up with magic.

"Good grief." I awkwardly smiled as I saw Rit looking sullen.

Still, Rit getting jealous was sort of cute, and I blushed just a little bit.

"With the presence of an archfay of water, it all makes sense. You were watching me

even when I was by myself," I deduced. She was the one who had called for me by

name.

The undine nodded.

"However, saying I was watching you is not exactly right. Sensing all the movements

an expert of your level made is difficult even for me. All I saw were the memories of

the water that saw you. But even that was enough to prove that you are not a normal

being."

"I guess there is at least some benefit to having a high blessing level, even if that's all

I've got." I rubbed the back of my head, feeling a bit embarrassed. I would never have

guessed there would come a day when an undine praised me. I had intended to be on

guard against various detection skills, but even then, I hadn't considered that the

water itself might've been watching, too.

"All right. Shall I start the examination?"

Pulling myself back to the task at hand, I turned to the undine and the pixies.

"So what sort of symptoms have you been having?"

"Look at this."

At my question, the undine suddenly moved her face so close to mine that our lips

were almost touching. Unlike Rit's sky-blue eyes, the archfay's were an aqua shade,

one that invited you into their depths.

"Wha—?!" Rit exploded indignantly behind me.

Haaah… This fay is having fun messing with us…

Her goal wasn't merely to vex us, though, as I quickly realized there was something off

about the undine.

"It's faint, but there are bags under your eyes."

"Exactly! It's unthinkable for my face to become muddied like this!" the undine

exclaimed as she furrowed her brow sadly.

"Bags?" Rit tilted her head a bit at our back-and-forth. "Fay can get those?"

"They have blood flowing inside them, too, just like humans, elves, and most monsters.

But their life force is much stronger than humans', so the poor circulation that would

lead to bags under the eyes shouldn't happen. Normally, at least," I detailed.

This suggested something highly abnormal.

"Have you been experiencing anything unusual?" I asked.

"I feel terribly heavy. Like my body has become mud."

"It's so hard to fly."

"Too tired to play pranks."

"Flower nectar doesn't taste good."

Their symptoms almost sounded like exhaustion. Going for weeks without sleep or

rest would be tiring, even for sprites and fairy dragons. However, so long as there wasn't

some outside influence, they weren't the sort of creatures that'd push themselves to

that point. I decided to check, to be sure, but they said they had just been playing

around as they always did, and there was nothing that came to mind for them.

I concentrated and activated a skill from my blessing.

"I see."

First Aid mastery: On-the-Spot Diagnosis. It was a skill that allowed the user to

discover how to ease a sick or injured person's symptoms, even without knowing the

root of the problem.

"…A medicine for soothing the heart. It seems like a remedy that heals spiritual

damage would be good here."

"Magics like Mind Pain and Forget can cause spiritual damage, but it's quite rare for a

disease to be the source."

On-the-Spot Diagnosis was generally a skill for buying time until someone with a

blessing with access to an advanced inherent skill arrived, but knowing what

treatment lessened the syndrome's effects was still valuable information as a general

reference.

"Did everyone start experiencing their symptoms at the same time?"

"Yes."

"By chance, do the fays here that are feeling unwell have a higher level than the

others?"

"Yes, that's right! How did you know?"

So that's what it is.

"It was odd that you, who are surely the strongest fay here, would start showing signs

straightaway. If an undine and pixies, all higher fay, are affected, why are none of the

weaker brownies or fairy dragons suffering? It's unnatural. Whatever the illness, it

wouldn't make sense for the strongest ones to be the first to collapse."

Rit nodded along with my explanation.

"Which means that this isn't an illness that spreads through infection. It's likely a sort

of magic—probably a curse—that targets beings with more strength."

"A curse?"

"I suspect this is a hex that absorbs spiritual energy. What you are experiencing are

the symptoms of your energy being absorbed faster than you can recover."

The undine asked the fairy dragon at her side to bring a cup of water. When she touched

her fingertip to the liquid's surface, it splashed all around. The droplets started

sizzling as they turned into steam.

Undoubtedly, it was some fay tactic for detecting curses.

"When did such a powerful curse…? I never noticed it."

"It must be quite potent to go unnoticed for so long. I wonder who could have cast it,"

I remarked.

Even with medicine to heal the spiritual damage, real recovery was impossible as long

as the hex remained. The only answers I could think of off the top of my head were

removing whatever the source of the curse was or erecting a barrier to block it out.

Unfortunately…

"Sorry, but I don't have the ability to trace back the source of the hex, nor do I have the

power to erect a barrier capable of protecting you from such a mighty curse."

"Me neither. I can use several barrier spells, but I only have access to spirit magic. I'm

sure you fay possess more impressive spells than I do." Rit was a warrior worthy of

being called a hero, but curses were not really her area of expertise. My old comrade

Theodora, with her Blessing of the Crusader, would have been perfect. Ruti's Healing

Hands would work, too.

"Is there anything you can do with your powers, Undine?"

"Even at my best, I don't believe I'd be able to handle this affliction, but I'm hardly at

full strength at the moment."

"So there's someone in Zoltan more powerful than an archfay." There was a sense of

excitement in Rit's voice as if her blessing was throbbing. However, she quickly

reverted to a calm expression, shaking her head to brush away the impulse.

"The destruction of some powerful hex isn't a job for an apothecary," I stated bluntly.

"I see…" The undine looked despondent.

"However, there is a medicine that can nullify the effects of the curse."

Apparently, archfay were capable of going wide-eyed in surprise. The undine's

statuesque, otherworldly face blossomed in joy, just like a young girl's might have.

"This curse possesses effects similar to the spell Nightmare. That being the case, there

is a medicine you can take that disperses dreams. If you imbibe it, you should be able

to prevent your spiritual energy from being absorbed."

It was difficult to make a medicine that could remove a hex without having a high level

in a blessing that specialized in them, like Witch or Shaman. I knew of a remedy that

could dispel the curse, but it could not be made with just the common skill Elementary

Preparation.

However, just like it was possible to nullify an illness's symptoms with medicine, even

without removing the underlying pathogen causing the disease, it was also possible

to negate the effects of a potent curse without doing anything about the source magic

itself.

However, there was little research into such things since the vast majority of blessings

dealing with hexes tended to have impulses toward secrecy. That had made my own

research into curses rather difficult. If I hadn't been able to use my authority as a

knight to get access to the city library and the lord's personal collection, I would've

been as much in the dark on the subject as anyone else.

"Curses that disable their target are fairly common. If you take this medicine, you

should be able to prevent your mental strength from being stolen."

"Really?!"

"Yes, you can try it out starting tonight. I currently have three days' worth of this stuff.

Fortunately, the pixies should get by with a fairly small dose. I'll prepare some more

when I get back to my shop, so come again tomorrow to pick it up," I instructed.

After producing the curative, I retrieved a set of scales from my item box and divided

the powder into portions for each of those suffering under the curse.

"This is the dream dispersal medicine, and this is the spirit healing one. The former is

best taken about one hour before going to bed, but I guess fay don't really decide when

to go to sleep like that? It should be fine if you take it right before you lie down for the

night. You should only need to take the spirit-healing medicine now. So long as the

curse isn't getting in the way, you should all heal naturally. This one dose will just be

for easing the symptoms you're already experiencing."

"Is it bitter?" a pixie sitting on the edge of a small bed asked, looking worried.

"Yeah, it's a little bit bitter."

"Don't wanna."

"But if you don't, you'll keep feeling bad like you do now."

"I don't want that, either! I guess bitter is okay!"

Hearing that it would help them feel better, the pixies started getting excited. They

hadn't even taken the remedy yet, but it already seemed like they were improving.

"Whoever cast the curse probably has a powerful blessing, but I suspect they probably

aren't a curse specialist. Maybe they used a magic item. We should let the Adventurers

Guild know that there could be someone like that lurking in Zoltan."

Bui should be able to do something about this, right? I didn't know much about him, but

from what I'd gathered during the Bighawk incident, he seemed to have the sort of

real strength that was the exception out here in Zoltan.

"Yeah, the current Adventurers Guild should be able to do something about it," Rit

agreed with a nod.

She knew more about Bui than I did. From how she was acting, she appeared to believe

he could handle himself against an opponent more powerful than an archfay.

Hmm. I wasn't really one to talk, but why had such a skilled person come to Zoltan?

My train of thought suddenly came to an end as I felt the refreshing feeling of a clear,

cool, spring stream envelop my body.

"Thank you, Red!"

Snapping back to my surroundings, I saw that the undine had leaped out of bed and

was clinging on to me.

"I was so worried! If you hadn't been able to help us, I'm sure we would have shriveled

up like a dried-out lake!"

This time it seemed like she wasn't playing around. It was just pure-and-simple

gratitude. And because Rit understood that, she didn't say anything, though she was

still clearly bothered by it. As politely as I could, I peeled Undine away from me as she

kissed my cheek.

She seemed to have calmed down a bit as she smiled sheepishly.

"Feel free to come by to play anytime. And we would gladly welcome you if you wanted

to move out here."

"Come live with us!"

"Home is where you lay your head!"

"We can play every day."

The fay were flying circles all around Rit and me as they thanked us and entreated us

with impassioned invitations.

"We appreciate the sentiment, but we'll have to decline. Our home is in Zoltan."

"Rejected. Whatever shall I do."

Feeling better, Undine flashed a cheeky little grin as Rit and I departed.

Rit summoned her spirit dire wolf again, and we rode toward a village up the river

instead of heading straight back to Zoltan.

"The symptoms of that cold seem similar to the curse affecting the fay," Rit observed.

Although practically retired from questing now, Rit still had her network of information

and connections from when she was an adventurer, so she generally had a solid grasp

on whatever was going on in Zoltan.

If her guess was right, then standard cold medicine would be worthless. One of the

particularly nasty things about this curse was that it gradually weakened you, so

someone who didn't know any better would think they were just a little under the

weather at first.

There were undoubtedly those in Zoltan who could recognize it was a hex, but there

was no way they would go all the way out to a distant village to do an examination. I

was relieved that I'd prepared medicine that could help before things got truly urgent.

"Still, to think the day would come when I would get to visit a fay village," Rit said with

wonder.

"It looked like the pixies took a liking to you," I replied.

"But that undine was awful! She was having fun seeing me get like… like that!"

"Jealous?"

Instead of answering, Rit pinched my thigh.

"Ow!"

"Sheesh! It's not like I don't know… I know that you wouldn't betray me. But I get

hotheaded sometimes. So… even if I know that, my heart still starts racing." Rit seemed

both upset and a little bit down. "I want to be a little more composed, since we're both

in love, but…"

As Rit's shoulders slumped a bit, I gave her a big hug from behind. "I know how you

are. You were really cute back in the bewitching woods with Yarandrala, too."

"Geh?!"

Rit shuddered as she gave off a strangled shout. Her ears peeking out from her blond

hair were turning red as she recalled the embarrassing memory.

I had meant what I said. I could remember the lousy mood Rit had been in for a while

back when we had reunited with Yarandrala in Loggervia. While we were in the woods,

she'd gotten fired up with jealousy over Yarandrala. Unable to handle her feelings, her

tone had gotten pretty scathing… but the affection that underpinned it had been

appealing and not at all unpleasant.

Not that I had my own emotions in order back then, either, so I didn't know what that

pleasant sensation I experienced around Rit was, but… well, I was younger then.

"I love you, though, including that side of you."

"Nrgh?!"

The giant wolf slowed its sprint and glanced up at me. Perhaps it had noticed Rit's

agitation. I lightly patted the beast's back to reassure it. It snorted, almost as if it was

shaking its head at us, before picking up speed again.

"…Really? You don't think I'm a pain to deal with?"

"I love you. Both the way you were back then and the way you are now."

"…Okay…" Rit glanced down for a moment before suddenly jerking her head up and

staring at me. "I—I guess if you're going to say that much, then I'll forgive the stuff

with the undine this time! Be grateful!" Flushing scarlet, Rit tried to hide the grin

spreading across her face by burying her head in my chest. "I shouldn't have said that,"

she muttered after a moment.

"Why? You're so cute like this."

"Argh."

It would take another hour for the wolf to reach the village we were headed toward—

more than enough time for the two of us to start functioning correctly again. Thankfully,

that allowed Rit and me to act clumsily for a little bit longer.

"Hey, could you say it one more time?"

"No way," Rit said as she shook her head violently against my chest.

That, in its own way, was adorable, too.

After checking on the sick people in the village, I determined that the curse was the

cause there, too. After that, we gave out medicine in the town and then reported the

incident to the Adventurers Guild back in Zoltan.

At first, the guild seemed on the fence about whether to believe it, but since Rit was

the one who reported it, they would have to believe it. Bui or some other adventurers

would take care of dealing with whoever had cast the hex. If the whole point of the

attack had been to absorb spiritual energy, then the caster might have given up after

a medicine started to deny them that.

As an apothecary, I did my part and started making more of the remedy once the sun

began setting and then turned it over to the relevant Zoltan authorities. Other doctors

and apothecaries also seemed to be responding, so it should be fine. My job was done.

Today had been a good day for sales. And there was the fairy wine on top, blowing the

record for daily profit away just days after Rit and I had set it.

There was a nice sense of accomplishment, too, so I could feel fine about taking it easy

for a little bit now.

Morning, the next day.

Come winter, it was so painful to get out of bed. I had worked pretty hard yesterday,

and I could feel the desire to just lie around building up within me. But still, time

waited for no one, so I forced myself to throw the blanket off and stand up.

"Good morning."

For once, Rit had risen before me. She'd been tending to the herbs in the garden, despite

the chill. Her fingers were pale, so I wrapped them in my own. Her hands felt like ice.

"So warm."

Rit sat next to me with a smile.

She was also working hard. She didn't have alchemy, preparation, or any other

production skills. Still, her spirit magic helped to encourage plant growth, and it kept

pests away.

As a princess, Rit had been trained in etiquette, but she had also frequently slipped

out of the palace and interacted with common people. This experience had made her

into someone capable of dealing with customers in whatever way worked best for

them.

What's more, as a first-class adventurer, she knew as much about medicines as the

average apothecary, if not more. From the perspective of someone who used the

remedies, she could explain the less well-known aspects like side effects or what

happens when people with blessings that have various resistances take certain curatives.

Since the advice was coming from Rit the hero, even adventurers who lived on the

northern side of town had started going out of their way to patronize our store.

That Rit had trained the promising new rookie, Al, had also contributed to her

outstanding reputation. When Al had registered with the Adventurers Guild, one of

the shadier adventurers who had often taken jobs from Bighawk had gotten into it

with him. However, Al had used his small stature to his advantage, lured the man into

a narrow alley, and beaten the ruffian down with his dulled training shotel.

While there was a marked difference in blessing quality between Weapon master and

Warrior, defeating someone with a higher level than him had gotten Al lots of attention.

This, in turn, had spun rumors about just how great his swordsmanship master—

Rit—was.

Several adventurers and guards would look for a time when there weren't any other

customers and buy something while asking Rit for a bit of advice. The paintings that

Rit had brought over were well received, too. One day, an aristocrat from downtown

had come by looking to purchase several of them at quite the price. I'd refused, of

course. Yet that visit wound up attracting a few more wealthy customers who bought

medicines from time to time.

The reviews for the new anesthetic had been positive so far. After the whole incident

with the Devil's Blessing, people were paying more attention to things like addictiveness.

This created an increase in my sales.

The demand for heaters was steadily growing, too. While there was a limit on the

number of orders I'd take each day, it was getting to the point that I had to leave

tending the shop front entirely to Rit in the morning.

The sales were a far cry from back when I had first opened the shop. If things kept up,

the herbs I had gathered in the mountains only a short while ago would be exhausted.

Rit had pointed out yesterday that it might be better to just make a deal with a farmer

somewhere and set up a full-on herbal garden.

It took a fair amount of knowledge to cultivate medicinal plants, but the mountain

provided a steady supply for me in the meantime. However, if you measured based on

output per land area, herb crop still paled in comparison to what you could do with

vegetables that had been selectively bred for agriculture over hundreds of years. That

meant adding a percentage to whoever agreed to do the growing.

"But even with that, it would probably be cheaper than buying from the Adventurers

Guild."

Ever since I had stopped bringing them medicinal herbs, the Adventurers Guild was

always low on supplies. Because of that, the price of medicinal plants was going up.

Though, apparently, the price they were paying the adventurers to gather them was

still the same. If they handled things with a little more cleverness, I thought they'd

turn a better profit. Yet the Zoltan Adventurers Guild didn't seem possessed of much

interest in those sorts of things.

"Welcome!" I could hear Rit's voice from the front of the shop.

I smiled a little and then focused on the preparation work I had at hand and left the

counter to her.

We had pizza for lunch today.

With Rit watching the shop, I started in on the cooking a little bit early. I flattened the

dough I had prepared this morning and spread a fair amount of tomato sauce around

it.

"I had been wanting to try making a seafood pizza."

Zoltan was located at the mouth of a river, so it had good access to all sorts of seafood.

First, I laid some sliced cheese on top of the layer of sauce. Then I spread some deshelled clams, sausage, and tomato slices across the cheese. Lastly, I added a little

more cheese to top it all off.

While I was baking it in the oven, I grated some of the potatoes we had gotten from

the farmers to make a thick potato soup. The base was a broth made from ground meat

and vegetables that I had made many times before.

I salted the leftover sausages for a little flavor and then fried them in a pan. They

swelled up nice and round as they cooked through. When I took a bite to test the taste,

there was a nice little pop to it. For the finishing touch, I whipped together a salad with

tomato and lettuce. All I was doing was chopping them up a bit, so it wasn't incredibly

complex.

Opening the oven, I took the pizza out, and the smell of cheese and clams filled the

kitchen. The cheese was nicely melted, and the top had browned.

I sprinkled a little bit of chopped parsley over it and put a bit of red pepper on a small

plate on the side for spice.

Rit came in right as I was putting the finishing touches on the meal.

"That looks delicious! I'll take it to the living room."

"Sure, thanks."

Rit deftly lined the plates of food on the table. It was just second nature by now.

""Let's dig in,"" we said together.

Rit grabbed a slice of the pizza and munched into it. Seeing her smile as she held her

hand to her cheeks like that, I gave myself a little pat on the back today.

We'd finished lunch and were enjoying some herbal tea.

"Oh yeah," Rit began. "Apparently, there was a breakout at the prison this morning."

"A breakout?"

"Yeah, one of the guards who came in to buy some medicine mentioned it to me."

"Huh, that's surprising. Did they already catch the escapees?"

"Apparently, it was a pretty serious thing. The guard said that whoever it was had

destroyed a jail wall using some kind of special explosive that hardly made a noise."

"What?" I asked in disbelief. That certainly sounded like a pretty big deal. "Hmmm.

Was it some people connected with Bighawk, maybe? It seemed like the Thieves Guild

was glad to have him off their hands, but maybe the faction behind him there was

bigger than it seemed. A large-scale jailbreak is probably going to mean things will be

a bit more on edge around town for a while."

"The thing is, it apparently didn't turn out like that," Rit corrected.

"What do you mean?"

"It was the inner wall of the prison that was destroyed, and the intruders timed it to

happen during breakfast. Lots of convicts tried to escape, but the outer wall was still

intact, so none of them got out."

"That's pretty mysterious."

"Supposedly, there were prisoners who tried to climb the outer wall or take some of

the guards hostage, but they got everything under control in the end. There was only

one escapee."

Ah, a feint. That one person must have been the target from the start.

"It doesn't really make sense, though. Was there truly anyone that important being

held there?"

"It was that guy you cut. He was in the infirmary there. You know, the alchemist who

kidnapped Al?"

"Oh, him, huh…"

Rit was referring to the little man who had used adhesive bombs.

Despite how he'd seemed, he possessed a high-level Alchemist blessing and had, albeit

indirectly, put Rit in a tough spot with his sacrificial bomb. Letting him remain free

could be dangerous.

Then again, he'd been injured for a while before being taken to the prison infirmary for

treatment. Cure would have closed his wounds, but he still won't be able to move much

for a while.

"Hopefully they catch him soon."

"Yeah."

With that, we ended our break. Rit returned to the storefront, and I got up to head

back to the workshop. The two rooms were in the same building, only a few meters

apart, but Rit gave me a hug and a gentle kiss on the cheek, reluctant to be even that

far from me.

During that same morning, Ruti and Tisse were walking through the north district.

Their breath was white in the cool morning air.

Tisse was rubbing her cold fingers together, wishing she had bought one of the

Loggervian heaters that had recently gone on sale in Zoltan.

"Since it's a prison, they undoubtedly have some kind of anti-magic defense in place.

I'm sure an invisibility cloak won't be much use."

Countermeasures for illusions like invisibility magic and the like would have been the

first thing anyone would've implemented. An answer for every kind of magic was

extraordinarily difficult. Still, by targeting specific lines of magic, it was possible to

deal with the common threats while keeping within the local budget.

"We'll stick with what we planned to start," Ruti whispered.

Recently, Tisse's view of the Hero had changed. It was true that she had some blind

spots when it came to common sense, but she was by no means thoughtless or

incapable of planning. Indeed, she had managed a meticulous preparatory investigation

that even an assassin like Tisse had to acknowledge as thorough.

Ruti had researched the prisoners' and guards' daily schedules the other day and

gathered the data necessary to determine what timing would be best for her and

Tisse's infiltration.

After discussions, the pair had settled on the plan that seemed most likely to succeed

without significant collateral damage, though it would draw attention.

Unlike the stone wall that surrounded Zoltan, the outer brick barricade enclosing the

prison was quite tall, and sharp spikes were lining its top. Clearing it would be difficult

without having a blessing like Roof Crawler or Wyvern Rider that had access to the

skill Essence of Jumping. Unbothered, Ruti drew her hole-filled goblin blade.

"Martial Art: Boulder Splitter."

When Ruti brought her blade down, the wall was cleaved apart as easily as if it had

been made of wet paper. The two of them quickly and quietly slipped through the

square hole that had been gouged into the barricade. Once they were through, they

pushed the block back into place in the wall. Because the cut from the Martial Art had

been so sharp, there were no fragments missing, and the wall fit back together

perfectly. The traces of the slashes were invisible, barring a careful inspection. And it

had all happened in under a second.

Up in the guard tower, there was a bored guardsman on duty to keep watch, but by the

time he looked over in Ruti and Tisse's direction, the two of them had already snuck

into the shadows.

The bell for breakfast was ringing in the prison.

A guard was leading the prisoners standing around the tables in prayer before the meal.

There was a thump. The guard furrowed his brow but did not say anything.

"Kh, damn bug."

It was the sound of a bald-headed prisoner stomping on a big beetle crawling across

the floor.

When he moved his leg, the insect's insides were stuck to his bare foot. The convict

with burns on his face standing next to the bald-headed one grimaced at the sight of

it and spat. A middle-aged bureaucrat imprisoned for corruption was standing across

from them, looked fed up with their uncleanliness and lack of civility as he audibly

scoffed.

"You got summin' a say?! Huh?!"

The bald convict who crushed the bug stared the middle-aged man down, but the

former bureaucrat met the glare with one of his own.

The bureaucrat, despite his countenance, had a Grappler blessing. He'd engaged in

illicit activity because his profession had not been well suited for his blessing. He had

vented all the pent-up frustration from the urges he could not deal with in his job by

going goblin hunting on days off, so he had a reasonably high level. He was confident

that he could hold his own in an unarmed fight, even against an outlaw.

Meanwhile, the bald prisoner's blessing was Bar Brawler. He was a recidivist, having

been incarcerated for starting fights on several different occasions. The most recent

time, his trial had been finished in only a minute, and he was sentenced before even

having a chance to speak. He acknowledged that this was just the sort of person he

was, though, and he made his living day to day by either backing up someone looking

to start a fight or shaking people down for money. It was not a way of life to be bragging

to other people, but that was part of why he could not let it slide when he felt that

someone was looking down on his strength.

The burned man standing next to the bald one had been a day laborer with the Warrior

blessing. He had stabbed someone in a pointless scuffle, and unfortunately, the guy

had ended up dying from it. The burned man had already been in prison for a year.

The reason he had ended up in jail had nothing to do with his blessing. Whenever he

saw the prisoners' foolishness, he just regretted everything.

The three of them had entirely different values and blessings.

The bald man finally leaped over the table as the middle-aged convict raised his hands

and got into a stance.

Right as that happened, there was a loud bang. The three of them looked in the

direction of the sound, jaws hanging open. One of them shouted, but when questioned

later, none could be certain who that was.

At that exact moment, the three convicts with such differing circumstances all had the

same thought.

"Outside!"

There was a big hole in the wall of the cafeteria. By the time the guard had come to his

senses, the prisoners were all scrambling for the aperture. Everyone there thought

they had heard an explosion, but that had been a misconception.

It was Ruti's fist that had destroyed the barricade. Humanity's strongest fist slamming

into the wall had created a thundering noise that had resembled an explosion.

By the time the convicts had started running toward the hole, Ruti was already gone.

The intruder casually sauntered down the hall of the prison's infirmary ward,

unnoticed by anyone.

This infiltrator was strolling around the infirmary without drawing a second glance

from anyone, memorizing the rooms' layout and their inhabitants—and all without

using any magic. After examining every chamber in the structure, the intruder climbed

up to a window with iron bars across it, and they slipped through the gap between the

rods.

"Welcome back, Mister Crawly Wawly."

Tisse smiled when she saw her buddy return.

Mister Crawly Wawly waved a leg in response and then hopped onto Tisse's arm. Using

her Spider Understanding skill, Tisse communed with the arachnid. Because spiders

did not understand letters or words, the information came to Tisse as more vague

images. However, Tisse had done much practicing on her own to be able to interpret

those visions.

"Yes, I see. Thank you, Mister Crawly Wawly."

Mister Crawly Wawly raised his front legs as if to say "No problem!"

Because of everything going on with the attempted escape, all the guards had been

summoned to deal with the prison riot that had formed. Only one person had been left

behind at the entrance of the infirmary. And that one person had been knocked

unconscious by a precise strike by Tisse.

"Skill: Decoy."

When Tisse activated her skill, a person appeared in front of her that looked exactly

the same as the guard she had just rendered senseless.

Decoy was a skill that allowed her to make a copy of either herself or someone she

touched. The duplicate couldn't move very far or speak, but it could carry out simple

orders like "Walk back and forth along this path" or "Nod if anyone says anything to

you."

The copy was like a balloon with nothing inside. It was actually a summoning skill,

rather than an illusory one. This kept it from being exposed by anti-illusion abilities.

Tisse knew from experience that despite the copy's limited repertoire, it was quite

capable of buying a significant amount of time.

The rest would be a race against time. It was another thirty minutes after the guards

had put down the unrest before they noticed that Bighawk's coconspirator—an

alchemist named Godwin—was missing.

Ruti removed the gag in the man's mouth.

"Wh-who the hell are you?"

Having been dragged to a dark warehouse in the harbor district, Godwin was

trembling in fear. Every time he moved, he clutched his shoulder wound in pain. He

was no longer bound in any way, but he could tell that the two people there with him

were far more powerful than he was. There was nothing to be gained by trying to

resist.

Faced with that question, Ruti paused to think for a bit. "I want you to make Devil's

Blessing." Eventually, she decided to just come out and say it.

"Devil's Blessing…"

Now understanding the reason for his kidnapping, Godwin's breath calmed somewhat.

I see, so they wanna sell Devil's Blessing? I didn't think there was any way I would escape

a death sentence, but it looks like there's still some hope left.

Devil's Blessing was a medicine that rejected the faith and teachings of the holy church,

so Godwin had been sure that he would end up on the executioner's block since he'd

been the one who'd created the drug.

He'd been left with little hope of escape, and he had secretly been intentionally

keeping his wounds fresh while in bed in the infirmary to stave off the date of his

demise for as long as he could.

But I need a demon's heart to make Devil's Blessing. I can't do that without Mr. Bighawk.

If they figure that out, I'll be useless to them. I need to buy some time to get them to take

me someplace far away from here for safety.

Godwin's mind was racing desperately, searching for a way out of this with his head

still connected to his neck.

Maybe I'll say that I can't get the supplies I need in Zoltan anymore? Some backwater

place far away, without wanted posters. Or perhaps a city with a criminal network to

take me in? Yeah, Mzali would work. They hire escaped slaves to work in the mines there.

I could get a job making medicine for the people working in the mines and have a decent

enough new life.

All that was left was how to explain things. Godwin was feigning doubt about how to

respond to his kidnapper's request when…

"Here."

Ruti passed a paper to Godwin that immediately blew all thoughts of treachery from

his mind.

"Th-this is the recipe for preparing Devil's Blessing?!" the alchemist shrieked.

How had these two young women come by it? And if they knew how to prepare it, why

had they gone out of their way to spring Godwin from prison?

Intermediate Alchemy and Special Ingredient Handling were all that was needed to

make Devil's Blessing. It required a certain level, but it was not so high that there was

no one other than Godwin who could do it.

The reason Ruti had wanted him was that she did not have the knowledge of alchemy

that a specialist like Godwin possessed. The Hero wanted someone she knew was

capable of making the drug. Godwin, however, in his panicked state, could only see

Ruti as some fearsome, incomprehensible, all-knowing being.

"Wh-why…?" The question was meant to inquire how Ruti had the recipe and why he'd

been busted out of jail. However, Ruti misunderstood what Godwin was getting at.

"So I can use it."

For some reason, Godwin could not stop himself from shuddering as Ruti looked down

at him with her cold eyes and announced her intent.

"O-okay! I'll do whatever you want! So please stop looking at me like that!" he pleaded

desperately. A man who had lived his life in the dregs of society was cowering like a

child.

"Too many people know about Devil's Blessing in Zoltan," the imagined Gideon said, and

Ruti nodded her head in agreement.

Since that Gideon only existed in Ruti's mind, a nod was enough to be understood.

"And even without that, people will be on their guard around here with the uproar caused

by breaking this Godwin guy out. You have what you need from Zoltan, so you should

move to another location as soon as you can."

"But first, we have to heal his wounds at least."

The injuries Godwin had suffered from the adventurer who had cut him down still

hadn't recovered, and because of his efforts to push his execution date further into the

future, the wound would cause problems if Ruti and Tisse tried to travel with him.

"Can I just use Healing Hands to take care of it?" Ruti inquired silently to the visage of

her big brother.

Gideon shook his head at her question.

"No, it would be best to hide the fact that you are the Hero from him, if at all possible.

Healing Hands is a skill that only you can use. I doubt he's well versed in the Hero's skills,

but if it can be resolved without blowing your cover, that would be best."

"Yeah, you're right, Big Brother."

"—Hero."

Tisse's words broke in, causing Gideon to disappear. Ruti turned her attention to the

world outside her mind.

The morning sun was shining through the window, and she could hear gulls squawking.

"Good morning."

"Good morn—… Right, you don't sleep."

"Correct."

"So then, what shall we do today?"

"Go buy some painkillers and cure potions."

Tisse paused in thought for a fraction of a second before quickly realizing Ruti meant

that they were for Godwin.

Currently, Godwin was bound with rope and had been stowed in a large box inside the

warehouse. If he ran away, he would just be executed by the Zoltan authorities.

Regardless, his spirit seemed entirely crushed by Ruti's imposing pressure, so he was

behaving himself.

"Understood. Do you have an apothecary in mind?" Tisse inquired.

"I heard there is an apothecary for sailors here in the harbor district."

"The one here doesn't seem to have a good reputation. Apparently, they sell lowquality medicine because their clientele is all seafarers who aren't around very long,

so a bad reputation does not matter. They've been warned by the Merchants Guild

several times to address their problematic business practices, but…," Tisse trailed off,

the implication in her silence apparent.

"I see. Do you know of one?"

"Ah… Well, there is another apothecary in the central part of the town… Or maybe…"

Tisse hit her hands together as if remembering something. "Heaters."

"?"

Tisse frantically tried to explain as Ruti tilted her head slightly.

"Yes, the word is that there's a druggist in this town who is capable of making

Loggervian heaters. The store's reputation is good, and I've heard their medicine

works quite well."

"Loggervian heaters."

The battle in Loggervia. The image of Ruti's big brother injured from the fighting, the

warmth of his body as she held him close, the strong squeeze as he hugged her back…

The Hero blessing, weakened by Devil's Blessing, was unable to hold back the pleasant

emotions welling up in Ruti's heart.

"Let's try there," Ruti decided with a nod.

The working-class district and harbor area neighbored each other.

Ruti and Tisse left their inn near the docks, walked a little while through a wooded

path, and arrived at a modest but well-built wooden shop. The sign over the door said

RED & RIT'S APOTHECARY.

"This is the place."

A bell rang as Tisse opened the door. Because it was a druggist's in the working-class

part of town, she had pictured a shabby interior, but the inside was far tidier than

expected. Shelves lined the walls, displaying different medicines. There were also little

cases of herbs placed around the interior to keep any miasma away, and they spread

a faint, refreshing aroma.

There were several lovely paintings on the shop walls, and in the middle of the room

was a sculpture of a winged angel with loving eyes. Tisse did not know much about

the arts, but she felt like the gentle colors of the paintings, and the angel statue,

instilled a sense of peace.

Cure potions and various other magic mixtures were only available by asking the

person at the counter. The product list on display next to the statue was unexpectedly

comprehensive. It seemed the rumors about this apothecary being reputable were

true.

There was a single man behind the counter. He was arranging the remedies on one

shelf while chatting with a half-elf man.

"That's—?!" Tisse gasped. It was the incredibly skilled adventurer she had met at the

oden stand.

She was just about to warn Ruti when…

"Big Brother!!!"

"Ruti?!"

What Tisse saw in the moments that followed was a scene that shattered every

preconceived notion she had ever held about the Hero.

There were tears in Ruti's eyes, but she had a sparkling smile as she spread her arms

and hugged the man tight. The man was shocked but still caught Ruti as she came

flying in.

"I missed you! I was so lonely!"

The tense aura Tisse always felt around the Hero was gone. As Ruti smiled and cried

in the man's arms, she was just a girl.