Demon Queened (Remastered) - Chapter 5 - Dog Gone Tired

Devilla

The rain kept pouring for another half hour. The townsfolk spent the entirety of that time trying to dissuade me from my course of action, shouting such things as, “a young lady like you shouldn’t be putting her life on the line!” and, “Let the real adventurers handle it!” Among them, however, was a surprising ally.

“If she says she can do it, then I’m sure she can,” Lissera told the crowd. She hardly looked convinced herself, repeatedly sending glances my way, but she nevertheless managed to deliver the line firmly before turning to me. “But are you sure you don’t want to wait until morning? They’re more active at night…”

“I’m sure. I intend to camp out tonight, in any case, so taking care of them before bed would be ideal.” That was another lie, of course. I intended to sleep in a comfortable bed, back in the Tower. I couldn’t tell the townsfolk that, though.

“I told you that you could stay at my place tonight,” Lissera reminded me. She had a pout on her lips, but I didn’t think she was actually that upset about my refusal. It seemed to me that she was rather more worried about my plan.

“I’ll be fine,” I told her, my voice gentle but firm.

“Oh, just let her handle it,” declared a blue-haired woman, slamming her leather jack on the table. If there’d been any alcohol left in the thing, it would have sloshed over the sides from the force she’d put into it. “We’ve spent half an hour trying to convince the fool woman already. Why should we care if she wants to throw herself to the wolves, all the same? It’s not like there’ll be a body left for us to worry about burying.”

“Mother Reliz,” one of the villagers protested, “you surely can’t be suggesting that we condone this madness?”

“I’m suggesting that we stay out of her way and mind our own damn business,” Reliz declared. “And that someone should get me a damned refill…”

Tasha hurried forward to take the woman’s leather mug, bringing it over to the cask for a refill. I, for my part, did my best not to stare at this so-called ‘Mother Reliz.’ She was the one who’d helped me shoot down Jackson earlier that evening, which had somewhat endeared her to me up until this point. Hearing her called ‘Mother,’ however, told me that she was likely a priestess, an affiliate of the church that vilified my people. Just knowing that caused a surge of anger and disgust to well up within me, though I quickly shoved it down. The woman didn’t seem particularly terrible, so far. Perhaps a little grouchy, but that was all. Nevertheless, I decided it would be in my best interest to avoid her henceforth.

“The rain seems to have stopped,” I declared, making a show of putting my hand to my ear. In actuality I’d been tracking the sound even as it trailed off. “I’d best be going now.”

“At least let me get you a lantern,” Lissera suggested, her voice a touch frantic. “She can borrow a lantern, right Tasha?”

“I’ll be fine without it,” I told her before the innkeeper could reply. “It would just ruin my night vision anyway.”

“But you can’t even see the moon through these clouds! You need a lantern,” Lissera insisted. “Come on, Tasha, please? I’ll pay it off if she doesn’t come back with it.”

Tasha hesitated for a moment, looking conflicted. To her mind, giving in would probably mean saying goodbye to a perfectly good lantern. Furthermore, with the merchants avoiding the area, it was uncertain when she’d be able to replace it. Despite that, she slowly, somewhat reluctantly, nodded.

“I’ve got an old spare I suppose I can let you borrow… It’s just a candle lantern, mind, but it should give you a little light.”

“It’ll do fine,” I promised, eager to get underway.

Tasha gave me a resolute nod and headed toward the stairs at the back of the room. I stood silently in wait, ignoring the quiet murmurs of the worried townsfolk around me, as well as the concern evident on Lissera’s face. Even though she’d supported me, she was still clearly concerned about whether I could actually back up my claims.

“I do hope you know what you’re doing,” Monica muttered from her seat. “Lissera really doesn’t have the money to be replacing a lantern.”

“Monica!” Lissera cried out, blushing bright red. “It’ll be fine! I know you’ll bring it back in one piece.” So she said, but I could hear the faint tremor of uncertainty in her voice.

“It will be fine,” I insisted, giving her a confident smile. “I’m stronger than I look.”

“Are you?” Monica asked, voicing the doubt on behalf of everyone in the building. “I’ve seen plenty of escorts whose strength outstrips their physique—and I’ve heard from them that some of the strongest people barely showed any muscle at all. But building up power like that takes hard work, and I got a good look at your hands earlier—I didn’t even see a single callus.”

“That’s because I’ve always healed myself with magic,” I fibbed, meeting her eyes and refusing to break contact. I knew of the phenomenon she was referring to concerning muscles. It was common enough among demons, after all. Our strength was primarily supernatural in nature, and the stronger you got the harder it became to give your body an actual workout. It was interesting to know that humans worked the same way in this world. “Believe me or don’t, as you will. All I can do is promise to return.”

Monica’s brown eyes searched mine. I’m not sure what she found, but after a moment she shrugged her shoulders and looked away. A moment later, I heard the sound of heavy footsteps walking down the stairs and Tasha arrived with a lantern, already lit.

“Thank you,” I said, smiling as I reached out for it.

For a moment, Tasha’s hand remained firmly on the handle. “Be careful out there,” she told me, voice pitched low. “Getting this taken care of soon might be what’s best for the town, but the last thing we need is your corpse on our collective conscience.” Only after delivering this warning did she remove her hand.

“I really will be fine,” I promised, trying to reassure everyone once again. Nobody responded this time, so I shrugged my shoulders and turned toward the door. I had it open already when I heard Monica whispering to Lissera behind me.

“You’re going to be paying that lantern off for months, you know.”

“Shut up,” came the whispered reply. “She’s gorgeous, and I don’t want her to die.”

My cheeks again flushed bright red, and I hastily opened the door and stepped through it. The air outside was all but frigid, especially compared to the inn’s warmth, but as when flying high above the ground I didn’t seem to mind it in the slightest.

The night was pitch-black beneath the clouded sky. That normally wouldn’t pose a problem, with my eyes, but—as I’d predicted—the lantern light was interfering with my night vision. Everything seemed to fade away into darkness no more than twenty steps ahead. Combined with its apparent price tag, as well as poor Lissera’s promise to pay it off on my behalf, it was clear to me that I couldn’t bring the thing into battle with me. I kept it with me while walking through town, but once past the final gate I immediately opened the glass door and blew out the light. From there, it was a simple matter to slide it into the Empty Bag before I began walking down the path and toward the forest proper.

I also released the spell that made my hair look brown. While I’d made a big deal of my strength in front of the villagers, I really had no reason to restrict myself to physical fighting. There were at least twenty opponents, after all, and I was under no obligation to fight fair.

As far as finding the wolves went, I decided to simply stomp through the forest and make noise until they found me. The villagers had painted them as fairly aggressive, and I was hoping they would rush to defend their territory. If it didn’t work I always had the option of searching for them with magic, but I was hoping to avoid that. Just as I had felt Lissera’s magic when she’d cast her upon me, I was sure that the wolves would know if I used magic to scan for them. Who knew how they’d react to it? If they came searching for the threat, then all was fine and dandy, but if they fled I’d likely never find them.

In the end, I didn’t need to worry about it. I was less than a quarter-mile from town when I heard the low growl of a predator, and a moment later a single wolf emerged from the underbrush to my right. It looked more or less like a traditional member of the canine family to me, sleek in form but well-muscled. Its coat was pitch-black, glossy and obviously well-cared-for. Its titular horn, meanwhile, was set in the center of its forehead, its color a sinister red far too resemblant of blood for my tastes.

The wolf walked casually around me, keeping its eye trained on my form even as it circled me. When it reached the center of the road directly in front of me, it let loose another growl.

More wolves emerged from the bushes in response to this call. Monica had warned me there’d be at least twenty, but the count seemed closer to thirty to me. Most, like the leader, looked sleek in form, well-groomed and well-fed. There was one on the smaller side, however, perhaps two-thirds the size of the rest. It seemed much thinner, and its fur was matted and dirty. I was curious about its circumstances, but once it took its place in the circle amongst the rest I knew I had to treat it as an enemy.

The lead wolf was the first to move. It lowered its head and charged, intent on skewering me with its horn. Its attack was telegraphed, however, and easy to avoid. It didn’t stop, however, even as it passed me. Instead, it kept running straight forward until it rammed its horn directly into a tree.

The sharp instrument pierced through the wood like a needle through cloth, showing off both the horn’s sharpness and the brute strength of this lupine monster. More concerning than that, though, was the way the bark around that horn was darkening and crumbling away. When the wolf pulled its horn from the tree, a large chunk of the trunk dislodged with it, crumbling to ash and falling to the ground as the creature shook its head. Then it turned to me, with an expression that seemed almost smug.

Perhaps it wanted to warn me of the power of its horn? To keep me from fighting back? A moment later it let out a bark, causing the other wolves to growl in unison as they lowered their heads towards me. Then they started to close in, some wolves dropping back to make a second row as the circle tightened bit by bit. I wasn’t sure if they could actually penetrate my skin with their horns like this, but I had no reason to believe they actually needed penetration for their magic to take effect.

It was a good pack tactic. The wolves had me surrounded on all sides, meaning I couldn’t simply run through them. They weren’t running forward, so there was no chance of them hitting each other as I dodged either. At the same time, were I to devote my attention to attacking any one of them, I’d leave myself full of openings for the rest. I had assumed that the horned wolves—that monsters in general, perhaps—would be no more intelligent than base beasts, but it was clear they were capable of organizing themselves and making plans.

Not that it would save them.

“I’ll give you one chance,” I told the wolves, on the off-chance that they might understand Solla’s common tongue. “If you submit to me, and allow me to lead you somewhere less populated, I’ll let you live.” I considered letting out a burst of magic energy with my words, but chose not to. If the wolves broke rank and scattered, I’d never be able to clear them all out.

The wolf I’d pegged as the leader—the first to emerge—made an odd sound. It was like a growl, but with pauses built into it. A laugh, I suspected. All the while, the wolves continued to walk toward me, their horns growing closer and closer.

A sigh slipped from my lips as a familiar tickling sensation ran down my back, and my black wings spread wide-open behind me. A single flap took me up and into the air before the wolves could even react. They stared up at me in surprise, then glanced at their leader, who growled in response

Though it was hard to gain much understanding from a simple sound, the movements that followed made its intentions clear—it was personally preparing to jump into the sky and drag me down. I was simply grateful that it hadn’t decided to flee, as it would save me some trouble. Just… not thankful enough to give it or its pack a second chance.

Holding a hand out toward the leader, I allowed energy to build up within my palm. For its form, I imagined crackling electricity, akin to that which I’d been so determined to avoid. Whether because it was my own magic, or because I was simply far more durable than I realized, the lightning I formed merely caused my palm to tingle.

I saw the wolf move, saw it gather power in its hind legs as it prepared to leap, and in response I let the gathered energy shoot forth to strike it in the chest. Instantly, its fur stood on end as it stiffened in place, unable to move as the current ran through it.

Of course, I didn’t stop there. Rather than merely traveling down the pack leader’s feet and grounding itself, the electricity jumped to the next nearest wolf, burning its way through them even as I continued to pour electricity into the leader. From there, it traveled to the next wolf, and the next, moving faster than they could possibly react to it, until every last wolf was frozen in place. When I cut off the stream of power, each of them slumped and fell upon the forest floor.

All in all, it took less than a minute to end the wolf pack. The ease of it made me feel a little guilty. It was more than likely that even if their horns had hit me, I’d have been fine. Which in turn made it more than possible that they’d never posed any real threat to me at all. They had been a threat to the villagers, though, as well as the merchants and anyone else they’d come across. Their aggressive territorialism meant that relocating them by force wasn’t an option either. 

I’d done what I had to do. I knew that. It didn’t change the fact that I’d just slaughtered nearly thirty living creatures, though.

Grimacing to myself, I landed on the ground and made my way to the lead wolf. As the first one to be struck, it had been exposed to more electricity than the rest of the pack and was in pretty bad shape as a result. I could smell charred meat and burnt fur. The horn on its head still gleamed red, same as ever, so I reached out and carefully snapped the thing off at its base. I’d bring that back to the village as proof. As for the formerly-horned wolf itself—well, it wouldn’t really do to leave so many cooked wolves lying around, would it? I decided to put them all in my bag.

It was a little strange to feed them into it—visually, I mean. The bag itself was no bigger than a fist, after all, with a small opening to match, and yet the wolves still fit. I was actually watching their dimensions distort in real time, their bodies narrowing down to fit inside the too-small hole and then disappearing into depths that shouldn’t have existed. I wasn’t entirely sure how it worked; assumedly through holy magic of some sort. It had come from Heaven, after all.

Regardless, the process went smoothly, and I soon arrived at the final wolf. It was the one I’d singled out as emaciated at the start. Up close, it really was skin and bones. Weak and small, with matted and dirty fur. I couldn’t help but think that the other wolves must have been mistreating it, though I couldn’t say why. Perhaps because it was on the smaller side? Nature truly could be cruel. Unfortunately, I too needed to harden my heart.

Which left me wondering why in the world I’d left it alive. I’d made a point of striking it with electricity last, with a lower charge and for the smallest duration. I’d intended to knock it out while I decided what to do with it, but apparently I’d gone a little too easy on it, as its eyes were open and trained on my form.

“…Your pack attacked me first, you know,” I pointed out. “I suppose I was hired to get rid of you all, but if you hadn’t decided to attack someone you saw as defenseless none of this would have happened.”

The wolf stared silently at me. When I stepped closer it tried to stand, but its legs wouldn’t support it and it quickly fell back down. That didn’t stop it from snarling though, its lips pulling back to reveal sharp teeth. It was supposed to be intimidating, I imagine, but it really seemed more like a desperate last stand to me. I could see nothing but fear in its eyes.

I hesitated for a moment, then stepped closer to it. It growled again but didn’t even try to get away, even as I walked up right next to it and kneeled. Slowly, I moved my hand towards its side.

The horned wolf moved faster than I’d thought it capable of, snapping at my hand. I didn’t pull away fast enough and the teeth grabbed hold of my wrist. I could feel the pressure of its natural weapons against my flesh—but there was no pain, no blood. No wounds. It wasn’t even strong enough to break my skin.

“If you’re quite done?” I inquired, arching an eyebrow. It continued trying to dig its teeth into my wrist, though. There was such desperation in its eyes, I didn’t think it would ever stop. So, I decided to test something I’d been wondering about and sent forth a wave of raw magic from my hand to wash across the creature’s body.

Its reaction was both instantaneous and dramatic. It immediately let go of my hand, whimpering and lowering itself to the ground as it tried to make itself as small as it possibly could. Perhaps because it was a monster, it seemed able to sense my magic power well enough to realize it stood no chance.

“Good. Now that we have that settled…” I reached out toward it again, ignoring the fearful whimper it let out when my hand touched its side. I could feel its rib cage beneath my fingers, each bone standing out sharply beneath the skin, and I again felt a twinge of pity for the poor creature.

“…I can’t believe I’m doing this,” I muttered, more to myself than the wolf. I was already calling upon my magic, though, the warmth of it flowing through my body, concentrating in my hand and flowing outward into the creature. As with Abigail, a mental image popped into my head as soon as I did so, detailing the anatomy of the beast before me. 

It didn’t seem that my spell had dealt much damage to it—or her, I suppose. It was merely that the wolf hadn’t had much strength to begin with. She was weak from malnutrition to the point that I wasn’t sure how long she had left. Her calcium deficiency must have been particularly bad, judging by the state of her bones.

I’d never really tried to heal someone with magic, my attempts at recharging Abigail aside, but I was confident I could manage it. I’d never received any training on this—or perhaps simply hadn’t paid attention when the tutors tried to teach it—but Jacob’s high school biology classes provided more than enough data to cover the basics. I simply needed to imagine cells replicating and repairing themselves, and then provide the energy to make it work. I felt drained, afterwards, tired in a way I hadn’t ever felt before, but it was worthwhile to undo the damage my spell had caused.

Of course, that alone wasn’t going to be enough to get the girl in good shape. Not considering the condition I’d found her in. For that, I would need to go further. Starting by providing the proper nutrients.

As for how… well, it was a little macabre perhaps, but without knowing exactly what the wolf needed I had little choice but to pull nutrients from her own packmates, reaching into the Empty Bag and imagining the proper vitamins and such flowing through me and into the wolf. Again, a touch grim, but considering the fact that they’d seemingly pushed her into this sorry state to begin with, it felt only right that they provide the nutrition she needed.

Once I had taken care of my patient’s immediate health issues, I shifted my focus to her appearance. Her fur was a matted mess, with knots and dirt aplenty, among other things. Hardly a good look on her. I first drew water from the air, enough to absolutely soak her—something she very much did not appreciate. I ignored her wide-eyed whimpering, instead focusing on magically pulling the water off of the wolf and then wetting her again, and again, until the dirt in her coat had loosened its grip. I then used another spell to gently tease the filth from her body, forming a giant clod of dirt, twigs, and even a few leaves next to her. Then, for the final step, I ran my fingers through her fur, undoing any knots I found.

The wolf was mostly silent throughout the procedures, her whimpers trailing off shortly after the first watering. She looked confused to me, but seemed to be slowly coming to the conclusion that I didn’t intend her any further harm. I didn’t speak, either, content to let my actions speak for me as I worked upon her coat.

In the end, I must have spent an hour just prettying her up. When I was done, I gave her a little pat on the head and rose to my feet—only to stumble a little as a wave of dizziness washed through me. It was gone as quickly as it came, leaving me to wonder just where it had come from.

“You should be fine from here,” I informed the wolf, shaking off my worries in order to give her a small smile. “I know I must be crazy, letting you go like this, but I do hope you’ll stop making issues for the townsfolk. It would be even better if you relocated, but I suppose that might be asking a bit much… I’ll be quite cross, though, if I end up having to deal with you again. I certainly won’t be so merciful twice.”

The horned wolf didn’t reply, but merely stared up at me. After a moment, I shrugged my shoulders and turned my back on her. It was only a quarter-mile walk back to town, and once I reached it I’d be able to collect my potatoes. I would have to hurry home after that, though; it was already quite late, and I was starting to feel tired. Very tired, in fact. To the point where simply walking was taking a surprising amount out of me. Which, of course, made me all the more annoyed when I had to stop and turn around.

“Why are you following me?” I asked, placing my hands on my hips and glaring at the horned wolf. “If you’re expecting me to feed you, or some such, I’m afraid you’re barking up the wrong tree. I’ve got nothing on me but salt and shellfish, and I’m sure you know more about hunting than I ever will. You are in good enough shape to hunt now, are you not?”

The wolf didn’t reply, but simply stood in the center of the road. Her tail was wagging happily as if she were simply a pup excited to be getting attention. The blood-red horn on her forehead, however, reminded me that I was dealing with a wild monster. My impromptu healing session might have earned me some goodwill, but there was no telling if or when she would turn on me.

“I know you can’t understand me, but I certainly hope you know better than to waltz into town…” Sighing, I turned away and started again down the road. The wolf followed me for quite a ways, but stopped when we hit the edge of the forest, apparently recognizing that we’d entered human territory. I half-expected her to let out a whimper when I kept walking but she remained as silent as ever, simply watching me go. I tried not to worry about the fact that she was now sitting in the center of the road. She would likely flee into the forest once I was out of sight, in any case.

I drew the lantern from my bag as I neared the town’s outermost wall, lighting it with a spark of magic. I also took out the pack leader’s horn, so that I wouldn’t have to explain where I’d been storing it. As a final touch, I used a spell to make my hair brown again. I was getting very fatigued by this point, and my feet felt as if they were made of lead. Still, I forced myself to continue walking, placing one foot in front of another to move myself down the path. I knew at this point that I wouldn’t be reaching the Tower tonight, but I still needed to return the lantern and perhaps ask them to deduct a night’s stay at the inn from my reward.

When I reached the inner gate, I was surprised to see a figure waiting for me. My usually-perfect vision had turned into something of a blurry mess in my exhaustion, but I recognized the purple hair.

“You came back,” Lissera said, her voice confirming my suspicions. “Did you find the… wait—in your hand—you really got them‽”

“Yes,” I told her, forcing the word out. It was suddenly rather difficult to breathe. I wasn’t sure what was wrong with me. “I… inn… bed… need…” I was gasping for breath, and my vision was starting to blur. It was all I could do just to take another step forward.

“Woah! You don’t look so good,” Lissera observed, moving to wrap her arm about my waist. Without much choice, I took advantage of her support and leaned against her.

“Need… sleep…”

“Come on. My house is right at the edge of town—way closer than the inn. Let’s get you tucked in.”

Alarms were blaring in my head at the suggestion. I knew it was a bad idea, though I couldn’t say why. We were already walking forward, though, and forcing out words—of protest or otherwise—was difficult. I wasn’t even sure why it was such a terrible idea. A closer bed sounded like a beautiful thing, after all… Next thing I knew, the door to her house was opening, and a moment later I found myself stumbling into her bedroom. 

The mattress was stuffed with straw. Far from soft, it actually poked into my flesh when I collapsed against it. The pillow wasn’t much better—little more than a bundle of rags forced into a semi-rectangular shape. Despite that, I soon found myself closing my eyes, and drifting towards sleep.

There was something very wrong with this. Something downright terrible, even. I couldn’t put my finger on what, though. It was getting so hard to breathe. My vision was going dark. I couldn’t fall asleep, though. Not yet. I had to think. I had to figure out what was wrong.

Before I could, the darkness took me.

***

When I awoke, I struggled to remember where I was. The bed beneath me was scratchier than anything I’d felt in either of my lifetimes, and the pillow was just as bad. The blanket over me was woolen: warm but also quite scratchy. When I peered around me, I could see that I was in a small room with shuttered windows. Just enough light was coming through them to inform me it was morning, but that did little to tell me where I was. The last thing I could recall was trudging back toward the village, intent on getting a room at the inn. Had I succeeded?

Suddenly the doorknob rattled. I reached for my magic, intent on covering my hair with an illusion, only to freeze in place. My hair was already a dark brown, without a hint of white to be found. What exactly had happened to me?

The door opened, revealing Lissera on the other side. At the sight of her, the memories surged forth—how she’d met me at the town’s gate, and led me inside. She’d taken me to her house, where I must have collapsed. Which answered the where, but not the how or why—had I truly been so tired after only a single day’s work? It was true that I’d never put much of an effort into things, so far as this lifetime went, but to collapse from it seemed a bit much.

“You’re awake!” Lissera exclaimed, her bright smile a sharp contrast to my frown. “I was getting pretty worried for a little while, there… Mother Reliz called it the worst case of magic depletion she’d ever seen.”

“Magic depletion?” I asked, eyes wide from shock. I’d never run out of magic in my life! …Then again, I’d never spent an entire day flinging nonstop spells, either. Considering the fact that I’d flown for over three hundred miles while maintaining spells the entire way, combined with everything I’d done at the beach, plus my flight back, my illusion in town, and everything that had followed—well, perhaps it wasn’t so surprising after all. In fact, I was starting to think it rather impressive that I’d held on as long as I did.

“That’s right,” Lissera confirmed, unaware of my thoughts on the matter. “You were out for three days, too. I’ve never even heard of someone taking that long to recover their energy.”

“Three days‽” I screamed, grabbing hold of the blanket and pulling it off of myself. I tried to stand, only to be hit by a rush of dizziness. My legs didn’t feel weak, precisely, but it was apparent they hadn’t been used for some time. What’s more, I was starving after three days without food, my stomach crying out for its fill.

“Careful,” Lissera told me, moving to help prop me up. I leaned against her shoulder, thankful for the help. “I don’t know how it works with demons, but if you’re anything like a human you’ll need to eat before we get you moving around.”

“De…”  I stared at her, my mouth opening and closing like a fish. “You…?” I couldn’t get the words out.

“I saw the white hair, Eena,” Lissera informed me, with a small frown. “No human your age has hair that color—and even if they did, they’d dye it like the older folks do. Because everyone knows that there’s only one being—one demon—who could pass for human, if not for that hair color. Your majesty.”

“I-I’m not…” I started to lie, then trailed off as Lissera stared at me. “...Why did you help me, then? If you knew?”

“You saved my town,” Lissera reminded me, a small smile flitting across her face. “Everyone I’ve ever known or cared about lives here, and you saved them. For potatoes. I don’t care who or what you are—I can’t think of you as anything but our savior, after that.”

“And… my hair?” I asked, gently touching the dark brown tresses.

“Walnut dye. My whole family works with clothing, so it was pretty easy to get my hands on some. I didn’t know what to do when you collapsed—I needed Mother Reliz to check if you were alright, but I couldn’t exactly let her see your hair like that, so…” she trailed off, shrugging her shoulders.

“So you dyed my hair… Thank you,” I said, putting as much honest emotion into the words as I could manage. I couldn’t know for sure how vulnerable I’d been, but if ever there’d been an opportunity for normal humans to injure or even kill me it would have been then. She would have been seen as a hero by humanity if she’d done so, and the Demon Queen line would have come to an end. Instead, she’d shown me kindness I’d never expected and wasn’t sure I deserved.

“You saved my town,” Lissera reminded me, again. “I mean, you… did save my town, right? You had that horn, and there haven’t been any attacks or sightings since you went out there.”

“I killed the wolves," I assured her, a faint smile on my lips. “All but one of them, that is, and if she causes trouble then I’ll finish the job.” It was the least I could do to thank the woman who’d saved me.

“Alright then. I’m going to get you some food—you wait here, okay?” Lissera guided me back to the bed as she spoke, helping me to settle down upon it. I nodded, relieved to be off my feet. Even though I wasn’t exactly tired, or weak, there was a level of strain that came from moving for the first time in three days that I most definitely hadn’t been prepared for.

“Just wait right there,” Lissera reiterated, heading toward the door. “Don’t go anywhere!”

I nodded, unsure why she was being so insistent. It was a little suspicious, in truth, but I was reasonably sure that she didn’t mean me any harm, all things considered. It wasn’t like I really had the energy or will to go anywhere, anyway. So I waited in the dark room with its single shuttered window, sitting still upon the bed.

She came back about ten minutes later with a wooden bowl in her hands. It was full of porridge—a sight that brought a small smile to my lips. When she handed me the bowl, I immediately began to dig in. It was bland, without even a hint of sugar, but I still ate every bite.

“So?” Lissera pressed after I finished. “Are you feeling better?”

“Very much so,” I confirmed, smiling and standing. My legs didn’t so much as quiver, this time, and I could feel energy flowing through my being. If a human had slept for three days I doubted they’d recover so quickly, but it seemed that I was made of sterner stuff.

“Good,” Lissera said. She looked relieved. “Alright. The villagers all gathered as many potatoes as they could for your reward, so I’ve got them in the main room for you. You should take them and get out of here. Quickly.”

“Is something the matter?” I asked, frowning once more. “Or do you simply want me out of the way now that you know who and what I am?”

“What? No!” Lissera refuted, shaking her head in a rapid motion. “It's not that. It’s just… there’s just been a little bit of a complication?”

“A complication?” I parroted back, my frown deepening. “What sort of complication?”

“Well, remember how Monica and I were talking about Trebill? The one with the horse? Went to the city to get an adventurer?”

“Yes, I remember,” I confirmed. “Is he back?”

“He’s back,” Lissera confirmed. ‘And he brought an adventurer with him. But when we told her that a single adventurer had taken on the entire pack, well… she decided she wanted to meet you. To make sure you’re okay, I guess. She even offered to heal you, but when I told her it was just magical depletion she decided to wait it out. She’s been coming by to check on your wellbeing pretty regularly ever since.”

“I see. But I don’t see what… wait. She? Are you saying Trebill brought back a singular adventurer?” I asked. A single adventurer, coming to slay an entire pack of horned wolves? That was fine for me, but hadn’t Monica said something about this requiring an entire party?

“That’s right,” Lissera confirmed, nodding. “And I really don’t think you want her pressing into your backstory.”

“...Could I ask this adventurer’s name?” I asked, my voice dry.

“Helloooooo?” called a voice from outside the bedroom. Lissera flinched. “I hope you don’t mind me coming inside, but the door was unlocked and nobody was answering my knocks, so I got a bit worried about the patient… I heard voices, though, so… You’re here, right, Lissera? How’s your patient?”

“Sh-she’s fine!” Lissera called back. “She’s absolutely fine!”

“Does that mean she’s feeling better?” The owner of the voice—a woman—walked into the room, not waiting for a response. Just by looking at her, you could tell she was an adventurer of some sort. She was wearing greaves that went up to her knees and a skirt made of leather straps with decorative gold studs. The armor that covered her upper body was somewhat form-fitting, hewing close to her stomach and sides. It didn’t show her breasts, or her cleavage, but it still made it clear that she had curves. She was wearing bracers, and her left hand was encased in a gauntlet, while her right hand was free. There was a large sword buckled to her left side.

She had red hair, and orange eyes, and she smiled brightly the moment she saw me.

“You’re awake! I’m glad—everyone was really worried about you! I mean, you basically took on an entire pack of wolves for the sake of the village, just for potatoes—which was a really nice gesture, by the way! I was actually considering refusing the reward, even though that always makes the guild mad, because I knew this village can’t really afford the quest they put up, but your idea of taking payment they can afford is a way better way of handling it!”

The woman paused, then laughed. “Sorry,” she told me, “I’m babbling and babbling, but I haven’t even told you my name!” She held her hand out toward me, a grin on her lips.

“I’m Lucy! The Heroine!”

~~~

Author's Notes

As always, I want to give thanks to my beta readers, including ByteOfBrie, Julx, and Wildfire Darkstar!

This chapter had the normal minor changes/rewordings, as well as a few little adjustments like having Devilla show signs of her magic depletion early (at the suggestion of one of my beta readers.)

I... really need to start noting changes as I make them, because to be honest I'm struggling to remember what else I changed. I know I adjusted Lucy's lines a bit to try and feel more... Lucy? Rather than proto-Lucy.