Riku II

"Huh?"

"I can clean and cook and I can carry your things and I know you probably need a squire since you're a knight and all and I can find things to be useful to-

'What the hell is this? Who invited this kid?' Riku thought to himself as he watched the young boy anxiously spit words like a machine gun. The boy was talking so much he was getting ahead of himself.

A shaggy head of curly light brown hair on his head was accompanied by a sun-kissed face dotted here and there with freckles. Big doe-like light brown eyes stared back at him with wonder and awe and even a bit of fear within. The boy was tall and strong for his age, but not freakishly so. Though Riku was no expert on this matter. People were different everywhere, and in some regions they were taller, in others stockier and so on, so who was he to say whether the boy was tall or not for his age compared to his peers? Compared to the few other boys in the village he had seen, he wasn't particularly conspicuous. But those were merely semantics. At the end of the day, the boy was just that. A boy. A regular boy. Unimpressive at a first glance.

And now this unimpressive regular boy wanted to come along with them. Why? Because he heard a story? Because he was impressed by Riku's tale of heroism about how they killed some swamp monster? Riku knew the damn thing had been causing issues. He knew it claimed the lives of some of the villagers, and had apparently been living in the vicinity for the past year or so. And Riku didn't have any guarantee that this bug would be the last of its kind.

For all he knew, these events were commonplace across the world. Monsters harassing villages. This village may be no more unlucky than the others. Maybe that's why the boy wanted to go with them?

For safety?

Or maybe the boy's parents were dead and he had no one left?

Or maybe the boy just wanted perhaps a better life for himself, that of more than a peasant, and he thought that by latching himself onto these two travelers, he could achieve just that?

He didn't know.

In Riku's mind, what the boy was doing was foolish. There were no guarantees of safety for the boy. Riku and Rin may have been very well disguised human traffickers.

It was a common enough thing on Earth.

Going with strangers, complete strangers, as a child, was not a good idea.

It was unsafe to say the least. And that was the least of it.

Riku and Rin were strangers in a strange land. And though they were both adults, there were adults and then ADULTS. They had never really, either of them, raised children, taken care of other people, or traveled to other places. They were learning things as they went along, truly.

And this boy did claim he knew things and could be of help. That would be useful, certainly. Having a guide and all that. But how many things did a boy of… how old was the boy again?

"How old are you, boy?" Rin asked sharply, almost as if she read his mind. Her question interrupted the young boy's rambling and forced him to do a double take as he composed himself.

"I'm not a boy! I'm nearly a man grown, with three and ten summers!" The youth answered.

Rin scoffed before she turned toward Riku and shot him a blank look.

"What do you say? Child labor, yes or no?" She asked.

Riku didn't really know what to say, so he just muttered an uncommitted "I don't know…"

It then occurred to him that they were still standing on the stairs in the middle of the inn. Though not many customers were there this early in the morning, there were still a few, and Riku didn't want a crowd to form. He had had enough of them for the past day.

As for the boy… he was of two minds about it. There were reasons to accept, yes… but just as many to decline as well.

"Let's…go outside, okay? We'll talk there." Riku told the lad, who took that sentence as something positive by the way his posture suddenly relaxed. He could tell that the lad was holding in a great deal of stress.

The boy looked at them and then apparently had some sort of idea.

"Miss magic caster, do you want me to help you down the stairs?" The young lad asked Rin.

For a moment, Riku thought she might do something foolish, but nothing of the sort happened.

Rin merely swiftly declined the 'offer' with a head shake and continued down the stairs, leaning on Riku's shoulders all the while.


Beneath the shadow of a large oak tree that brought relief from the not-yet-but-soon-enough scorching sun, nestled away from the main part of the village, were Riku, Rin, and the young lad.

He was off to the side, at their request, to give them time to speak in privacy.

Riku was standing and trying to rotate his shoulder in an awkward fashion in an attempt to ease his pain. It had become a bit stiff ever since the battle.

Rin was seated on the grass with her back straight against the tree's large oak frame.

The condition of Rin and Riku was what one would expect.

A bit more than a week in the New World. Dropped on a mountaintop without rhyme or reason, without aid or warning, forced to make their way to civilization all by themselves despite neither of them not having any prior experience with hiking or surviving in the wilderness.

They were, after all, the children of a metal world, born of bottled lightning and man-made toxins. They didn't know the first thing about nature.

But somehow they survived. They made it to civilization. They managed to negotiate some sort of agreement with the locals. They had slain a monster for a reward, only to find their reward ripped from their hands.

Plans they had, and those plans would need to change. If they had to survive, that is. And if they were to survive, they had to work together, both of them.

But what if it wasn't just them? This was a question which led to the purpose of this emergency meeting.

"Let's lay out all the facts on the table." Riku suggested, and Rin merely extended her hand in a sort of 'Well go on then' gesture.

"We've been here for a little over a week. We don't know how or why we got here. We don't know where 'here' even is. We only know the name of the village, but not the region or the country or the continent or the world and what not. We are completely clueless. We are broke, we are almost out of Yggdrasil consumables, and some of our equipment is damaged and needs to be repaired."

"Lovely." Rin commented but Riku chose to ignore the sarcastic remark.

"We know a few things for certain though." Riku held up a fist in the air. "We can grow stronger, both of us, by killing things. Just like in Yggdrasil." He extended his thumb.

"We speak the native language, somehow." Rin added, and Riku extended his index finger.

"Yes, or do we? Or do they speak our language? Or is it some sort of automatic translation? We know their lips aren't synced with the sounds coming out of their mouths. So how does it work?"

"It works awfully like those automatic translator chips. You know the ones." Rin stated.

"Yeah… but those are configured to only the languages installed in the chips, and they have trouble with dialects. I think this is leagues above that. I don't see anyone walking around with blinking red lights beneath their ears…"

There was a silence between them for about a dozen seconds that was broken as Rin began to hectically scratch her leg.

"You shouldn't do that." Riku said.

"Shut up." Rin replied and continued to scratch her leg for a few more seconds before she stopped and exhaled deeply.

"Fine… you're right."

There was another silence, this time far shorter.

"Hmm…I wonder… Do you think it works based on intent?" Rin asked as she began to rotate her left wrist in some fashion, probably to keep her mind off the pain and focused on another body part.

Riku perked up. "Intent? What do you mean?" He asked.

"Intent. As in, when we talk to them, we obviously want them to understand us. But what if you and I spoke to each other without wanting anyone to understand us. Would that make our words unintelligible gibberish to them?"

Riku put his hand on his chin, which already had the beginnings of a stubble. It itched furiously.

"I… don't know? Maybe? Or maybe it automatically translates Japanese and our intent doesn't matter." He replied.

"Hmm. We should do a few tests. Tell me, do you speak any other language besides Japanese?" She asked.

"I speak some English." Riku stated with some small shame.

"Define some." And Rin asked him instantly before she proceeded to stare at him for a good few seconds until he was forced to confess.

"I… know a few words, and phrases. I can understand some things and kinda read but…it's pretty scuffed."

"Why am I not surprised…" She muttered to herself. "Anyways, we can do those experiments later. For now, let's get back to the list. We are in a new world, we can grow stronger, and we can understand the natives but not read their tongue. Anything else?"

Riku held out another finger.

"We still have our biological processes. Those that were in Yggdrasil, such as eating and drinking, and those that weren't. That means all of them. All of them."

"Well… most of them, at any rate. There's a few that there hasn't been enough time for us to truly know." Rin retorted, which prompted a look of confusion from Riku.

"Most of them? What do you mean?" He asked.

Rin merely shot him a look that one could translate as 'Are you an idiot?' and averted her gaze.

"Aging…and other things."

'What other things? Does she mean…Ooooh, oooh, I get it. I think I do, at any rate.' Riku thought as realization dawned on him that men and women actually had different bodies.

He cleared his throat. "Moving on. This boy…Jan was his name, right?"

Rin nodded.

"He's a local. So he probably knows a few things. A few. He could tell us some things, help us hit the ground running when it comes to interacting with actual people. He knows the customs, the traditions. He's probably been to the nearby city, which we still don't know the name of, by the way, and he is willing to come with us."

"Yes. And he's thirteen. A green boy."

"An orphan boy."

"So you're comfortable with the idea of child labor?" Rin asked him sharply.

"Is it child labor? He's not working in a factory. He's just going to come with us and be our guide. For a while. Carry our things." Riku elaborated.

"What things? We don't have things. Besides, we still have access to the Inventory system. That can store a lot of stuff. You're telling me that you'd rather our things be carried on some boy's back than in the safety of a pocket dimension or whatever the Inventory system is?"

"You're… you're right. As a pack-mule, he's pretty useless." Riku scratched his itchy chin. "And as a guide… he's a peasant boy. We're going to learn whatever he has to teach us very quickly, and once we do…he'll no longer be of use."

"That's putting it mildly. He'll be a hindrance. Another mouth to feed, another person's safety to worry over. And what happens when he does eventually stop giving us useful info? Do we just dump him on the side of the road?" Rin asked the last question pointedly.

A memory came to Riku's mind, the first time he saw an orphan on the streets of Tokyo.

A child lost to the machine, consumed by the callousness of a world grown too big for its own sake.

"No." Was the reply.

"So what? We bring him back here? We probably won't even know where here is. We don't know if we will have the time or the capacity to bring him back. And that's not even the worst of it. Imagine how the kid will feel if we take him and then decide to bring him back or worse dump him off at the first place we can. His confidence will be crushed. It'll be nigh on impossible for him to recover emotionally. Are you comfortable with that idea?"

Riku shifted uncomfortably.

"Or what if he dies? What then? Are you comfortable with a child's death on your hands?"

There was no answer.

"Thought so. The boy remains behind. We cannot take him."

"She's probably right. If he comes with us there's no guarantee of anything good happening, and we don't know how resurrection works here… if it even works."

"Yeah… you're right. You're always right. The kid can't come with us."

Rin seemed pleased at Riku's statement, and perked up a bit and sat up straighter.

"Now then, the plan is to head to the city where this count…whatever the fuck his name was?"

"It's Count Zovran. His older brother was the ruler of this region before him.. Apparently he did a good job, and Zovran was relegated to just a spare. However, he inherited last year after his older brother and his infant son died in a bandit attack while traveling to the capital for something, I don't know what."

"Damn. That's dark. Do you think…" Her sentence was left unfinished.

"Zovran killed them? It's entirely possible, and peasants love to gossip. But apparently there have been a lot of bandit attacks and monster attacks and what not. The roads are unsafe. A lot of people died, a few of them were important."

"I see. And what's the name of the city that Zovran rules. Is Zovran a family or first name? What's the name of the region? The nation? We know this village is called Taewe, and there's a marshland and a mountain nearby… and that's the extent of our knowledge." Rin stated and then stared at Riku for a few seconds, waiting for him to understand her implication.

"Well… I know that the entire Kingdom has been having issues of all kinds. It seems to be a tumultuous period."

"Is that all you learned last night during your drunken escapade?"

Riku had the shame to look down at his feet before apologizing.

"...yes. Sorry for not remembering more."

Rin waved his apology away.

"It's fine. We'll figure it out. And besides, you're at that age where you get drunk regularly. Don't let it become a habit."

Riku protested. "I'm not a drunk…"

"Not yet anyways. Moving on. We need knowledge, we need to recover, get our money and grow stronger. How do we do that?"

"The knowledge will come on its own with time, I think. The recovery…there's probably healers somewhere. As for the money, I think we will get rich eventually. No need to fuss about it right now. We can leave Zovran for later."

Rin scoffed at the notion. "It's not about the money, it's about sending a message. No one steals from us. We cannot tolerate this theft. We bled in the filth and muck and our prize was plucked away. I'm not going to let that slide."

Riku exhaled in frustration.

"Why is she so set on this… I don't get it. Just let it go."

"What's the point? We don't even know how much money the peasants were going to give us, and what we could have even gotten with that money. Is it really worth antagonizing the nobility of a nation, especially when we're this clueless? Just let it go, and we can move forward." Riku moved toward Rin and crouched on his knees until they were about eye-level. As he did, he noticed Rin's eyes staring at him.

"So much anger on that pretty face… It ain't right. I need to cheer her up."

"Listen…" he began to explain. "We don't know the capabilities of the people here. If we end up being weaker than them and we try fighting the nobles, we are going to get screwed. It's as simple as that. This guy may have mercenaries and a household guard and magic casters on his payroll and whatnot. And what if he has allies? Other nobles? Maybe his sister is married or he is to another noble? Why risk it? Let's just get stronger, and then once you can shoot out sixth tier magic like it's nothing, we come back and then we handle the bastard? Who knows, by then, maybe we'll be so rich that it'll be chump change, not even worth the time?"

Rin seemed to contemplate the idea for a time. For a long time, it seemed.

"I'll think about it."

That seemed to be about as good as Riku was going to get, so he dropped the topic.

Riku shot a quick glance towards the sun, and noticed it was steadily getting higher and higher in the sky.

He then shot another quick glance towards Jan, who was still standing off to the side where he couldn't hear them.

He hated to break the kid's heart, but it had to be done.

"So…the kid. He isn't coming with us."

Rin shook her head.

"Right then…best I tell him."

She nodded, not saying a further word.

"Damn…how do I tell this kid that he spent half an hour standing in one place… and however much he waited last night, all for nothing."

A twang of guilt struck Riku's heart, but the conviction that he was doing the right thing steeled his resolve.

"Hey, kid!" Riku shouted and waved the young boy to run over.

The boy instantly obliged and was in front of Riku and Rin within seconds.

"Can I come with you?" He asked all too eagerly.

"We were just talking about that and… it's not safe. Sorry kid. You'd be better off here, in this village."

"Oh." The boy slumped.

"We have nothing against you, it's just that…we don't really know what we're doing ourselves. We're kind of making shit up as we go along." Riku began to elaborate and as he did he noticed the body language of the boy. He wasn't making any sort of tantrum but it was clear he wasn't taking this well.

"Violence is going to follow us for the foreseeable future. And there is no guarantee of safety. No matter what kind of life you have here, it's probably safer than what you'll get if you were to come along with us, I can promise you that." Rin finished the explanation.

Riku approached the boy and placed a hand on his shoulder gently, almost like an older brother.

"Perhaps if we come back here, we might take you up on your offer. But until then… it's going to have to be a no."

For a second, it looked to him like the boy was going to cry. He could swear he almost saw tears in his eyes. But it was just a second. The boy had a stiff upper lip, and he didn't show his emotions. Well, he tried to, and that was commendable on its own.

"I understand." The boy said. Riku thought that was that, but then the boy continued.

"At the very least though, allow me to express my gratitude. For slaying the monster that killed my parents."

Riku lifted an eyebrow.

"There's a crone, an old woman, that lives in the village, or well, she lives a bit apart from it. She doesn't like visitors or people in general. But she likes me. She's not a magic caster, but with some herbs, can help heal you two up to a certain point and set you right before you travel."

Huh. How about that?

Riku shot Rin a glance.

"Well, what do you say?"

"I suppose so."


A while later, within a shack far away from the main part of the village, Riku and Rin had been escorted to the village crone.

An old and wizened woman with an oversized nose, pimples and pores, crows eyes, a wrinkled forehead, a hunched back, and a shawl wrapped around her thin white hair. The woman was the very definition of old. At Jan's behest, she accepted both Riku and Rin into her home, such as it was, and said she'd treat them to the best of her ability, but she would need some help with collecting herbs since her garden was running low on supplies.

To that end, Riku and Jan had been sent off to act as impromptu herbalists, and they returned within an hour to find that Rin had been engaged in some sort of row with the old woman, whose name he learned was Frenja.

They didn't seem to get along very well.

The woman healed Riku quite quickly. She cleaned his wound, rubbed some sort of paste on it and then a dried mud sort of cake on his shoulder. If he avoided scratching, eating acidic foods, or masturbation(he didn't understand why that would interfere with his shoulder injury until a while later), his wound would recover within days, and he'd be fully recovered within a week.

In comparison however, Rin's wounds were more severe, and a small chunk of insectoid flesh had been lodged inside her foot. Which of course, meant that the old woman with poor eyesight had to clean the wound, find the teeny-tiny chunk of chitin and take it out, sew up the wound, clean it again, and then apply the healing paste.

Suffice it to say, this lasted a while, and did nothing to engender Rin towards the old woman, who she was convinced was the Devil's own grandmother.

Riku wasn't a Christian, or a theologist, but he was quite certain such a figure did not exist in the Bible.

Not in the mainstream one, at any rate.

The important part was that… Riku and Rin had received medical attention…however bootlegged it may have been. And Jan was still here, as apparently the boy was an orphan and had nowhere to go and nothing to do.

When asked by Riku what he planned to do now that he was declined, the boy simply shrugged his shoulders and simply said 'I'll figure it out. Or I won't. We'll see.'

A rather grim outlook on life, but according to Rin, cynicism was a coping mechanism, so who was he to judge? He was of the school of life where the best way to deal with a problem was to simply ignore it and pretend it doesn't exist until it went away. A surprisingly effective strategy, but it did nothing here. He had to provide moral support, even by just standing there. If Rin called him a dickhead, well, that was one time she couldn't call the healing lady a dickhead, and that meant her treatment would go faster. It would be better for everyone.

Tanks tanked both physical and emotional damage.

From the side, Riku took a glance towards Rin. He contemplated telling her to not use [Magic Arrow] on the decrepit old woman, but that may backfire so he simply settled for telling her to not do anything too stupid.

It worked, up to an extent. Half the treatment was done and Rin had downgraded from threats to merely insults and japes. Surprisingly, the old woman gave as good as she got.

"It burns."

"Quit whining."

"I repeat. It burns a lot. More than it did when I sustained the injury. Clearly, you are doing something wrong. I would know, considering I am actually trained in medicine in a respectable institution."

"Uh-huh. And what institution would that be?" The woman asked as she used some sort of wooden stick covered in steaming hot honey to 'gently' go over the wound. Her half-hearted reply meant that at that point she was more focused on the wound than the banter, though that would change depending on the crone's mood.

"Juntendo. In Tokyo." Rin replied haughtily to the question.

"And do you see any healers from Juntendo, Tokyo, here?" The woman continued.

"No." Rin replied.

"And were you trained how to use herbs and poultices and roots and bark and ash to heal and sew and cleanse grievous wounds and stave off infections?" And there it was, the slow burn.

"Of course not. We used-

"Then you must shut up and stay quiet. This'll all be over in a bit. We went through the worst part already. Dear Gods, for a woman grown, you act like a little girl. It is embarrassing. If you continue on this path, you'll never find a man." And the one-two.

"I don't need a man. I need-" Rin let out some sort of grunt through clenched teeth as the woman moved on to do something with a metal pincer. It was hard to see from where Riku was standing, luckily enough. "fucking hell, are you trying to- hurry the fuck up."

"Clearly you do. Your cousin probably agrees, but he's a right proper lad and won't speak out to save you from the shame. Such things shouldn't be said aloud, after all. But, I am old, and I don't care, so I shall speak as I will."

That was another thing. For some reason the woman thought they were cousins. Maybe because men and women who weren't married but traveled together had to be cousins or relatives or something? Otherwise it was too scandalous. He didn't understand medieval culture. Or whatever passed for medieval here.

"We're not actually cousins though…" Riku muttered just loud enough from the side for the old crone to hear. But that ended up being a mistake.

"Oh. So she's adopted? A ward, perhaps? That explains her behavior." All it did was give her more ammunition.

"I'm not adopted, you senile old hag." Riku tried shooting back, but her verbal retort bounced off the old woman's crusty skin like water off a raincoat.

The old woman smiled an ugly but charming smile, revealing her remaining teeth which were in the single digits. "Of course you aren't, sweet golden girl. Now stay still and let old Frenja take care of you."

Rin looked towards the sky. Or rather, she tried to. All she did was look up at the wooden roof. There were a few holes where sunlight poked through.

She muttered a half-hearted prayer, or the closest equivalent to one that Rin could do at that moment.

"Buddha, Allah, Krishna, whoever is up there, please make this woman shut up."

At that moment, the woman continued digging into Rin's flesh until even Riku heard some sort of 'click' sound. Then the woman pulled with surprising strength and Rin screamed. He shot a quick glance at the side toward Jan who looked confused as all hell.

"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu- Rin screamed.

"There we go. All done." The old woman said as she pulled out about a two inch-long thin but chitinous needle from Rin's foot. "Isn't that better? Isn't there less pain than there was before?"

"Yes…" Was the only thing Rin could mutter in response.

"We're done here!" The woman exclaimed giddily which caused Rin to shoot her a look of confusion through her sweaty bangs that covered her face.

"Huh?"

"Well, not quite yet. I lied." The woman stated flatly and then took another horrific torture instrument. Riku averted his eyes and noticed that Jan was muttering some sort of prayer.

It probably wouldn't help, but it probably wouldn't do any harm, so he tried to focus on the words. Surprisingly, he couldn't understand them. He knew it was a prayer, but for some reason, the words weren't translated.

"Is this how these people's language sounds when it's not automatically translated? It sounds… nice even."

The boy continued his prayer.

'Kel vorem pacine kras kina kras…'

'Kel vorem remine kras dora kras…'

'Kel vorem hamine kras jana kras…'

'Kai vormea izamine kras cika kras…'

'Kel hav mel izan donal revan neka kras…'

'Kel hav mel bolan donal umor kara kras…'

'Amen.'

The only thing Riku could do at the end of that little prayer was stare in silence.

'Wait, what the fuck? Six lines, one for each of the supposed Six Gods these people worship, but what was that at the end? Amen? Isn't that from Earth? Why'd he say Amen?'

Right as Jan finished his prayer, Riku questioned him about the prayer.

"Hey, Jan. What was that prayer about? And what was that bit at the end?"

"Oh, that? That was a standard prayer to the Six. One line for each of them."

"Uh-huh. What was it about?"

"Didn't you hear me? It's in the lines."

"I… I wasn't paying attention."

"That's fine. So what would you like to know?"

"Tell me a bit more about the Gods."

"You don't have them where you're from?"

"No… we don't. But please, just answer my questions first, okay?"

The boy nodded.

In the meantime, Riku could have sworn he heard Rin calling Frenja a cunt, but he chose to ignore it.

'One thing at a time.'

"So, there's six Gods. One for each of the elements. Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Life and Death. Apparently the elements also encompass other things, like Fire representing passion and Water representing calmness, but that's something for the priests, I don't know too much."

Riku nodded for Jan to continue.

"May he of fire grant me courage. I think this one is because fire is brave and isn't afraid of anything?"

"Makes sense. Continue, uninterrupted please."

Jan nodded.

"May he of earth grant me tenacity. I think this is because earth is strong, and you need to endure life when it's shit."

'Don't gotta tell me twice about that one kid…'

"May he of wind grant me alacrity. This one is probably because the wind is fast and moves and you sometimes need to not hesitate in life. When you set your mind to do something, to do it."

Riku nodded.

"May she of water grant me clairvoyance. I think this is because water is clear and you can see through it? Or maybe it's cause clean water is necessary for life? I don't get it."

"I see… wait, she? So it's not a Water God, but a Water Goddess, correct?"

"Yep, the Water Goddess is a woman. Or she was a woman. I don't know, it's all complicated."

"Hmm. Carry on."

"And the last two. May the King of Life weave my threads with mercy, and may the King of Death weave my shroud with care."

"Kings of Death and Life? Life and Death Gods?"

"Yep. The King of Life, Alah Alaf, weaves every man and woman's thread of life before they are born. And then Surshana, the King of Death, snaps it, and the person's life ends. When Surshana is finished with weaving their burial shroud, they move on to the afterlife forever. That's why if you wait too long after resurrection, you can't bring people back. Because Shurshana has already welcomed that person into their afterlife. And it's also why you can't bring back people who die of old age, since Shurshana puts them into the afterlife as soon as they die, since apparently they have already waited too long."

"Fascinating." Riku muttered under his breath.

'Such lore. All of that from a simple prayer… and resurrection is confirmed.'

"Is resurrection common?"

The boy shook his head.

"No, but the village elder once saw a runner or a scout or something get resurrected a few decades ago. Apparently he died in a war carrying vital information and if he didn't get resurrected, it would have been lost permanently and the kingdom would have suffered. Resurrection is next to impossible unless a large number of super powerful and pious priests work together to achieve it. At least, so I've heard. I don't know if it's at all possible. Sounds like horse-shit to me."

"It does? Why?"

"Never seen it. Gotta see it to believe it."

'I suppose Yggdrasil doesn't count, so I can't really comment.'

"That's fair. But Rin over there is a magic caster. How do you know she can't cast resurrection magic?"

"Just a hunch, but killing a man is probably easier than bringing him back to life."

'Dark.'

"One final question. That bit at the end. That word you said."

"Amen."

"Yes, that one. Why do you say it?"

Jan shrugged.

"It's tradition. You say it at the end of every prayer."

"But do you know the meaning behind it?"

"Nope."

"Yet you still say it?"

"It's tradition. Gotta say it."

Riku was a bit disappointed in himself for expecting much intellectual alacrity from an uneducated peasant.

'Gotta manage my expectations.'

At that point he ruffled Jan's hair and gave him a sincere thanks.

"Thanks kid, you've been a great help."

"Does that mean you will take me along now? I know a lot of things. I can help!"

"Ugh… let's ask Rin again once she's all fully recovered all right? But I warn you, the answer is probably going to be no, again."

Problem delayed for later.

Meanwhile… Rin had murder on her mind.

The old woman was stitching her wound.

When Riku saw just how much random shit and blood there was on the worktable, he did a double take.

"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuckyouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!" Rin said calmly.

"Quiet."

"Bitch it burns!"

"It's supposed to burn."

"Where are your painkillers!? Riku! Stop being useless and get me some morphine!" Rin asked Riku for a favor very calmly.

"Let me hop down to the nearest pharmacy." He replied, not being able to withhold himself from the bit of provocation.

In response, Rin used [Mage Hand] to grab a pillow and throw it at him.

It slumped non-ceremoniously after hitting his chest, and Riku picked it up and walked back to the bed from where Rin took it to return the pillow to its rightful resting place. He did dust it off first though.

"Painkillers? What's a painkiller?" Jan asked from the side.

"Do you mean alcohol?" The old woman asked as well.

"No. I mean-actually, fuck it, do you have alcohol!?"

"Just rum, sweetie." Frenja responded to Rin's question.

"It'll do." She gritted her teeth and acquiesced.

The old woman turned to Jan and gave him a new task.

"Jan, be a dear and go fetch the rum. It's in the cellar."

"Ok Miss Frenja. Anything else?" The boy asked innocently.

"Some food if you have it. I am feeling a bit peckish." Riku commented from the side.

Rin shot Riku with a death glare. "Glutton. Traitor."

"What? I'm like 20 centimeters taller than I used to be and weigh 20 kilos more. Probably. I'm hungry. I need to eat." He defended himself.

"Keep this up and you'll end up as fat as an American."

"Americans aren't even the fat ones. That's an old joke. It's the Arabs that are fat nowadays. Don't you keep up with meme culture?"

"No, cause I actually did things besides no-life in my room once I got home from work."

At that point Jan had left and it was just the three of them in the room. Riku spared another glance around the room and found that it reeked of wealthy poverty. If that was even a thing. Like, the old woman was poor, but not dirt poor. She had some decorative possessions here and there. A carpet, some trinkets, a wooden toy knight placed in a corner. The room seemed like it had history.

There was silence between the three of them. The old woman worked, Rin suffered, and Riku stood there trying not to be useless. This silence lasted for but a few seconds though. The old woman broke it.

"You really shouldn't criticize your adopted brother. He endured the treatment without making a sound."

"He's a walking pile of meat! Look at him! Of course he didn't make a sound."

"Excuses. You have more muscle on you than every woman and more than half the men in the village." Frenja poked Rin in the belly, and found that it was hard instead of soft, proving her point. " But maybe it's not physical strength you lack, but spiritual, hmm? Maybe your parents coddled you too much because you're a woman? It happens in noble households, I'm afraid… Out here, in the countryside, we'd put you to work picking cotton, milking cows and grape-stomping since you were old enough to walk. The sun would be your best friend and every night you'd fall asleep within moments of closing your eyes while being soothed by the music of your snoring siblings, as the Gods intended. Like I said, you're way too coddled."

The woman finished her rambling. She must have been feeling nostalgic or something.

Rin shot Riku a shit-eating sarcastic grin that he instantly caught.

"Wow. It sure sounds like I missed out on a lot! Right Riku, don't you feel envious?" The sarcasm was almost palpable.

"Oh yes, most definitely. I wish I died of a curable disease at the ripe old age of seven."

This time it was the old lady who conceded defeat.

"Smartasses." She grumbled.

After a while, Rin asked the woman a question.

"You know, for someone who considers us to be nobles, you seem to have a loose tongue. No fear of losing it?"

"You seem like the type to spit back some venom instead of resorting to violence. And besides, you forget."

"Forget what?" Riku asked in Rin's place.

"I am old, and do not care. I have more great-grandchildren than you have fingers and toes. If Shurshana takes me, my blood will survive and I'd have lived a good life regardless. I have been ready for death for many years now." The woman exclaimed proudly.

"Yet this death god fucker finds you so unbearable you're still here. Must feel like shit, to be so annoying you're forced to remain alive. How old are you, anyways? 100? No, wait, don't answer that, I don't want to know."

To her credit, the woman didn't answer. Perhaps Rin's words hit too close to home.

What must it be like? To outlive your children, or grandchildren even? He didn't know if she had, but odds are that she had outlived at least one of her descendants… Is that what his parents felt? Did they think him dead?

He crushed the thought without hesitation. Best not to think about it.

And right at that time, like heaven-sent, Jan arrived. He carried a loaf of bread and some stale hard cheese and handed it to Riku, which he began to nibble half-heartedly as he focused his gaze towards Rin.

She looked up at Jan and at the cloudy bottle of rum.

"Rum…never tried rum. Give it here." She grabbed it from his hand.

"And you claim I'm the drunkard…" Riku commented in between bites.

"Shut up back there. Let's see. Fuck. My leg burns."

Rin took a sip of the bottle. After a while, she let out a most unladylike sound.

"Blargh."

"What do you think?" Riku asked.

"Don't like it. This shit's too sweet. But fuck it. I feel better."

"Better?" The woman asked.

"Better." And Rin confirmed.

The entire process was nearly done anyways. After a few more minutes of Rin drinking, the old woman proudly proclaimed Rin to be free.

Rin tried moving her leg without bending her foot, and found it surprisingly easy.

"Huh…So… how long until I'm ready to travel?" She asked.

"Three days and nights, at the very least. You and your brother can sleep in my shed. I have an extra bed. But I doubt you'll have the patience to sit still and do nothing, and you're not good for working in your current condition. And I don't have any useless books for you to read, so you'll be very bored." The old woman replied.

"Ugh…"

"But you have me to keep you company. I'm sure we'll become the best of friends."

"It seems I have no choice in the matter."
"No… you don't. And, Gods forbid, you might learn a thing or two. Like patience. And politeness."

"Politeness from you, right?"

"Well… maybe the other thing. Patience is necessary when one lives in a village after all."

"I am patient."

The old woman merely chuckled.

"You're probably right… She's not too patient." Riku commented.

Rin defended herself from his slanderous accusation. "I'm patient when I have to be."

"This is one of those times." Riku stated.

"Unfortunately." Rin acquiesced.

"Three days and nights. At the minimum. But you'll barely last one by the looks of it. Some magic caster you are." The woman chided Rin.

"You know I can shoot fire from my fingertips, right? I could set you on fire, right now. I wouldn't even feel bad about it. Annoying old crazy woman."

"Yet you can't heal a simple stab wound to the foot."

"There was nothing simple about it. There were dozens of those flying bastards."

"You're overexaggerating. I'm sure there weren't that many."

"Oh? Then why didn't any of you clear out the damn monster in the bogs before we came along then? Now shut up, my head hurts and I want to rest."

"I don't bother with the other villagers. And I know my way around, well enough to stay far away from prying eyes and sharp noses."

"Probably because people can't bear to look at you. Or smell you. When's the last time you cleaned this place?"

"I clean it regularly."

"Using actual cleaning products, not…sand and ash and whatever passes for cleanliness in this antiquated society. For God's sake woman, you need to get rid of the germs. You do know what germs are, right? Germ theory has been discovered, right?"

"You claim you're so much better wherever you're from, but you got spooked by a donkey. Maybe they don't even have donkeys where you're from? Maybe you're the primitive one, did you think about that, little girl?"

"The damn thing snuck up on me."

"And we do have donkeys. At least we did. Do we still have donkeys now? Riku?"

"Some rich people keep horses and there's probably reservations and what not. There's probably a few donkeys as well in there, I guess?"

"I'll go check on the donkey, see if he's fed." Jan said and left.

'He must be feeling bored or something. Maybe he's not used to being idle for long.'

"You go do that sweetie. You handle the donkey and I'll handle the cow." Frenja replied with a mischievous gap-toothed smile.

Rin let out the thousandth curse of the day, but Riku could swear he saw the barest hint of a smile behind it.