While running down the street, suddenly, Raphtalia came to a stop. She looked back at me. "U-Um… I don't actually know where we are going."

I laughed, a little out of breath. I pulled out my map, and it read off another point of interest. "We're looking for a shop that sells different kinds of basic living needs, such as brushes, soap, toothbrushes, etc. We seem to be on main street, and looking around it looks like…" I turned around. "It's right here."

In front of me stood a horribly decorated store. Everything was bright pink, as far as I could tell, though most places didn't have glass for windows, so I couldn't see inside. There were small rose bushes planted in front of the store, and the door was bright pink as well. "How the hell is this store still standing?" I incredulously thought to myself.

"U-Um, Mr. Maddox? Do we have to go in there?" Raphtalia asked uncomfortably.

I took a deep breath. "Unfortunately, yes. I already hate it, but it would be worth enduring in order to stay in good condition." I sighed. "Let's get this over with, shall we?" I took Raphtalia's hand and we walked through the pink door.

The room was full of candles, and the smell was almost overpowering. The brightly lit room had shelves of different products, such as toothbrushes, regular brushes and little bags labeled different types of soap flavors. However, it was a little different from what I was used to. For one, the toothbrushes and hairbrushes seemed to be made of wood, with a strange bristle-like material stuck to the end of it. I guess they wouldn't have access to plastic yet, but it still was strange. Second, the products seemed to be extremely limited. There were only about two or three bags of the same soap, though there was still a very diverse collection. They probably can't mass produce items like these the same way they do back in my world.

Anyway, there was a counter, and behind it stood an extremely fake looking woman. "Hello! What can I get for you today?" Her smile was absolutely gigantic. I didn't even know that facial features could stretch that far. Raphtalia hid behind me. I cleared my throat, and my mind, cause I knew talking to this woman was going to stretch my patience thin.

"Hi, I just need a basic set of toiletries for me and my companion. Just two toothbrushes, a hairbrush, and two of your soaps would suffice."

The woman smiled even wider. "Why of course! Now, you said you needed toothbrushes, yes? There are a couple of options to choose from. Most of the bases are carved out of wood, however the bristles are made of different materials. We have one that is made from a certain monsters fur, another from a plant source, and even one with very, very thin metal filaments!"

"Metal filaments? That'll shave my teeth off!" I thought for a moment. "Could I see the different toothbrushes?"

The woman nodded. "Of course! They are all on the shelves over there. You said you were looking for soaps as well, maybe you'll choose one of the many different scents from right over there!" I walked over to the shelves, and she seemed to still be staring intently at me. I tried to ignore her eyes boring into the back of my head.

"Raphtalia, why don't you choose a soap you like?"

Raphtalia nodded. "Okay!" She walked to the other part of the store and started opening different bags and smelling them.

Looking at the toothbrushes, however, it was certainly a sight to behold. One of them had a strange, fur like substance on the end of it. The material was sticky, and it suggested it wouldn't be very effective for getting into the cracks of your teeth. On top of that, it would be hard to brush with, assuming the material would stick to your teeth. The second was made of plant material, but it looked like it was just a wooden stick with brambles on the end of it. It looked like it would leave scratches all over your teeth, and if it hit your gums, it would possibly cut it. It would NOT be pleasant to brush with. The third, however, looked more like what I was used to back home. This toothbrush was made of dark wood, and on one end little metal strands have been implanted closely together. I tried to brush against it, and it bent across my finger accordingly. "Suprisingly, this seems like the best option."

I looked at the price tag, and holy shit I was not expecting it to be so high. "A gold and a half for a goddamn toothbrush?!" In fact, all of the toothbrushes seemed unordinarliy expensive, pricing at 100 and 110 silver.

"U-Um, Mr. Maddox? Am I reading this correctly?"

I walked over to Raphtalia, and sure enough it was exactly as I expected. "A whole gold piece for a single bar of soap. Insanity."

I sighed. "Unfortunately, yes you are Raphtalia. We're never coming back here again." I walked over to the lady. "Hey, what gives you the right mind to sell all of these for such high prices?! How can anyone afford these?!"

The lady laughed politely. "Well, you see, most of our customers are nobles. We don't get much folk like you, if any. I'm afraid you're just out of your league." She continued to laugh, though I take back what I said about it being politely. I looked at the shelves one more time, and I saw the one item that wasn't ridiculously overpriced.

"All right, this is all we need." The woman looked a little shocked.

"You want… that?" I nodded. What I had grabbed is what seemed to be the most shoddily made hairbrush that would still get the job done. It looked functional, and that was all that we really needed.

"20 Silver. Or else I'm leaving and I'll tell everyone that you are overselling your products by a mile." The woman's smile faltered for a moment, but she quickly put the wall to her emotions back up.

"All right, dearie. 20 Silver."

I handed it over to her, and I snatched the brush off the counter. "Let's go Raphtalia." I grabbed her hand and led her out the door. By now the sun was really setting, and it was gonna be dark real soon. "Raphtalia, we gotta hurry if we're gonna make camp by sundown. You ready to run?" Raphtalia nodded, though I could tell she had something she wanted to ask. It would have to wait for later though.

We quickly dashed off down the streets, and suprisingly the gates to the city were still wide open with nobody guarding them. "Strange. The doors should at least be closed, though maybe it has to be darker for that to happen."

The suns orange rays were skimming the horizon as we made our ways to the fields. I looked at the map while we ran, and there seemed to be a river close by to the front of Melromarc's Capital.

"C'mon Raphtalia! Can you keep up?" Raphtalia was struggling now, panting heavily and coughing quite a bit. I quickly skid to a stop. Raphtalia sat on the ground, trying to catch her breath and stop coughing. I kneeled down beside her. "Hey, wait a second. I am so sorry. I just pushed you way too hard, didn't I?" I completely forgot that Raphtalia's current condition wasn't the best, even if she acted a lot happier than I thought she would.

"N- *Cough* No, Mr. Maddox, I- *cough* I-I'm fine." She managed between fits. She tried to stand up, but she fell back down, but this time she couldn't even manage the energy to sit, she just layed on her back and tried to breathe. "Shit, shit, shit, SHIT! I pushed her WAY too hard. All of today she must have been exerting a ton of energy she didn't have."

I looked around at the grasses. It all seemed so similar, so I just grabbed a handful just to see what happened. Then, a collection box popped up. "Medicinal Herb." I breathed out a sigh of relief. Though the quality wasn't good, I figure I'd try my best. I put the herb in the shield. "Craft health drink." I spoke to it.

I assumed I couldn't make a drink that had any specifications with just the herb I collected, though I just wanted to stave it off for now. She had to get better, but we had to deal with what she was going through right now first. Her coughing had started to ease, but the health drink was still taking time to craft.

"Okay, it's ready." By now Raphtalia seemed to have recovered her breath. I looked over, and to my horror I realized she was unconscious. "R-Raphtalia!" I quickly climbed over to her, and to my relief I could see that she was still breathing. In fact, she seemed to just have fallen asleep from exhaustion. I sat back and tried to calm my beating heart. "Everything's fine." I said to myself.

"I need to be more careful in the future. I was treating her as if she had grown up already when she is still just a kid. I can't let this happen again." We had traveled far enough to see the river, not to far away from it. I picked up Raphtalia, and I realized she was actually very light. Looking at her arms and legs, she seemed malnourished as well. "I am so sorry, Raphtalia."

I promised to her and myself that I would learn from this and never push her this hard again. I reached the riverside, and there was a small outcropping of rock that I figured we could make base camp along. Thankfully, the bed was made of sand, not pebbles, so I lay Raphtalia underneath the overhang of rock.

"Now then, what should I be doing?" I figure we needed some food, but I also wanted to prioritize making medical drinks for Raphtalia. I thought about it for a while, but I ended up deciding food was the best option.

Heading out into the river, I decided to try my best at hand-fishing. Walking a little upstream, I found a place where the river had a small waterfall. I stood patiently to the side of it for a moment, waiting for the fish to drop over it. Suddenly, a fish leapt over it, trying to get over the waterfall. I wasn't prepared for the fish to go up the waterfall, but I suppose that's what they did back home.

I reached out and grabbed at it, but I slipped and fell into the river. I was washed downstream a little ways. Discouraged, I picked myself up and tried again. "Ugh, I wish I had learned more about survival skills before coming here." I thought begrudgingly to myself.

I stood at the base of the waterfall, watching for a moment. Another fish jumped out, and I made a grab at it. Sadly, I just barely missed, grabbing at the end of it's tail but it managing to escape my grasp with it's slippery scales. I got ready to try again. After what seemed like forever, a third fish jumped out over the waterfall, and I managed to scoop it up in my hands.

"Huh. I honestly thought it was gonna be a lot harder than that. I wonder what happens if I put it into my shield." Holding the still flopping fish by the tail, I dropped it into my shield. I half expected it to bounce off, but it did in fact drop inside. A little notification read to me,

Red Salmon (Alive)

Quality: Good

"Hmm. I guess it's possible to put living things inside of the shield. Question is, do they stay that way or do they deteriorate over time?" I quickly caught a few more fish, then tredged back to my soon-to-be makeshift camp.

Raphtalia was still asleep, so I figured I'd get the fish cooking. "I can use the sword and a rock to act like a makeshift sparking source, and I can find some dry grass around for kindling, but what about actual firewood?"

I climed up to the top of the rock, and I noticed that there was a forest nearby. However, by now the sun had set, and it was pretty dark out. I needed to hurry.

I jumped off of the rock and decided to check on Raphtalia one last time. "Still asleep, huh?" She had rolled over since I put her down, and a lock of brown hair was covering her face. Gently, I brushed it behind her ear. "I am so sorry, Raphtalia. I'll be back soon, and hopefully you'll wake up by then so that we can eat. I'll answer any questions you have as well."

Standing up, I looked at the base camp one last time, though it didn't look like much. Then, I dashed off towards the forest. It didn't take long to get there, and from what I could see there was plenty of sticks on the ground that could be used for a fire. I went around picking up big branches, and I collected a little dry grass as well.

This continued for about 15 minutes, when suddenly I heard a high-pitched scream, coming from the camp. I froze for a moment, then quickly put all the wood I had collected into the shield, and ran as fast as I could back to camp. Brandishing my shield, I prepared for battle. But whenever I arrived, nobody was there. I turned to look at Raphtalia, and she seemed to be having a terrible nightmare.

"Raphtalia! Are you okay?" She didn't respond, only moaning about her mother and father. "Mama! Papa!" She cried through tears. I quickly walked over to her and held her in my arms. She still was crying, but it seemed to ease her pain a little. "Raphtalia… you need your rest, but should I wake you up whenever you are having nightmares? I don't know what to do in this situation."

I held her for a long time, and eventually she seemed to ease back into a deep sleep. "I gotta get this fire going, but I don't want Raphtalia to have her nightmares return. That might attract monsters."

Come to think of it, I don't think I had seen a single monster since arriving to this world. It was strange, especially since balloon-type enemies should be very prevelant around these parts.

Anyway, I figured that we needed to get this fire going, and fast. I carefully detached Raphtalia's sword and sheath from her back, and I sat legs crossed with her on my lap, leaning her against my chest.

I consider myself to be a regularly sized dude, maybe not as bulky as a lot of people, but I was tall and had averagely broad shoulders. Maybe that was another reason why the waiter thought I was an adult, back at the tavern.

I carefully took out the firewood and dry grass out of my shield, then I grabbed a rock from nearby. Standing up the sticks, I put the kindling underneath it, then I started scraping the rock against the sword. Sure enough, sparks flew from it, and I soon had a roaring flame. I grabbed some sticks I had left over, but as I was taking the fish out of my inventory, I noticed something strange.

I had an object which had a garbled name. In game terms, it looked like it was corrupted code, or perhaps something that hadn't been coded at all. In any case, it looked out of place and didn't seem to be intentionally there.

"Hmm. Now the question is, do I take it out of my inventory, or do I let sleeping dogs lie?" I thought about it for a while, as I killed the fish, put them on sticks and waited for them to cook. I was pretty troubled, as I might've already messed up something that I shouldn't have messed with.

After a time, the fish were done cooking. Still sleeping, I heard Raphtalia's stomach rumble. With a twitch of her nose, she seemed to know there was food, even in her sleep. Though she still slept on. "I'm a little worried, but a trick like this always worked with me in my world." I picked up one of the sticks of fish, blew on it to cool it down a bit. Then I pressed a fleshy part of the fish to Raphtalia's lips. Her lips trembled, then suddenly her eyes flew open and she chomped a big bite out of the fish.

"Hot! Hot!" She mumbled around the mouthful of food. After she swallowed, she seemed to be a little dazed. She tilted her head back and she looked up at me. I looked back and smiled. "Hungry?" She looked at the fire, then at the fish, and it seemed she finally realized she was sitting in my lap. Her face flushed bright red.

"I-, Uh-, Um-," She quickly scrambled out of my lap and sat across from me at the opposite side of the campfire. She tucked in her knees and she put her chin on them. I sat silent for a moment.

"Soooooo… You aren't hungry?" Raphtalia quickly looked up at me.

"N-No! I mean, if you are sharing…"

I passed over a couple of fish sticks and she quickly devoured them. She seemed really efficent at doing it too, carefully nibbling at every bone, making sure to get every bit of meat. After she ate, she just sat quietly and looked at the fire. I let her think for a while, but right before I was gonna say something, she asked me a question.

"Mr. Maddox? Are… Are you disappointed in me?" I was a little surprised.

"Huh? Why would I be?"

Raphtalia scrunched her legs a little closer. "W-Well, after you spent all that money on me, I just… collapsed on you. I couldn't keep up, despite you always telling me nice things and giving me hope. I kinda feel like I let you down…"

I was pretty surprised. "You think you let me down?" Raphtalia nodded, a little insecurely, and looked away. "Raphtalia." I started, "You didn't let me down today. I let you down." Raphtalia looked back up to me.

"Huh?"

I cracked my neck, this time more of an excuse to look away rather than to actually crack it. "Raphtalia. You see… I… I've been treating you like an adult this entire time. I thought that was the best way to get started, to let you know that your are in control of your own decisions. I also treated you as if you were in great health, both physically and mentally. I had you overexert yourself despite you not only being malnourished and sick, but also mentally broken. Yes, I understand that I gave you hope, but hope isn't just going to fix all your problems. In the end, you are just a kid, a kid whose been through more suffering than any adult should go through. I'm sorry Raphtalia. I'm sorry for taking too many steps ahead, and not dealing with the problem at hand. I was too busy looking into the future, and I couldn't focus on our immediate needs. I'm sorry for letting you down, and I promise I'll do better in the future."

Raphtalia looked shocked. She took a moment to process what I said. "Mr. Maddox. I… I…" She struggled to find a way to somehow make it her fault, so that she would take the guilt off of my shoulders.

"Raphtalia. This isn't your pain to bear. I messed up, and I need to take accountability for it. Times like these, while it's important to support those you trust, sometimes you gotta let them take a hit for the team. Sometimes, you'll need to take a hit for the team. But right now, I'm gonna take a hit for the team."

Raphtalia still looked like she wanted to protest, but she seemed to understand a little bit better now. "Okay, Mr. Maddox. I accept your apology, but I have a promise to make in return." "Alright," I said, "Let's hear it." Raphtalia took a deep breath. "I promise that I'll work hard and become strong enough to live on my own and protect myself, and the ones I care about, so you never have to worry about me ever again. I wanna prove that I can be strong enough to save people, including…" She trailed off.

"Raphtalia, I'm glad you have a desire to become stronger, and to prove yourself. Just remember that I'll never stop worrying about you, even if you were the strongest person or monster alive."

Raphtalia looked like she wanted to argue again. "But… Why would you still worry about me then? I could obviously take care of myself, if I was the strongest person alive. I could easily take care of you as well at that point." I chuckled.

"Well Raphtalia, there are a couple of things about that statement, first and foremost being I care about you. Why wouldn't I worry about the people I care about? Second thing, I'm glad that you said you wanted to take care of me. That shows a lot of trust that you put onto me, and I hope I can take care of you too. I think now is a good time to answer some of your questions. So, ask away."

Raphtalia nodded. "All right. First question: How did you know my name when we first met?" I scratched my face. This was a hard question, and I didn't really know how to respond without giving too much away.

"Well. I've known about you for a long time Raphtalia. Whenever I was in my world, I had some knowledge of this world, though I won't say how, but you were by far the most important thing I knew. At the time, I thought that this world was impossible to get to by any normal means, so my relation with you was pure idolization. I wanted to get to know you, but I couldn't because we were born in different worlds."

"But why am I so important to you?" Raphtalia interrupted. "I haven't done anything worthy of being of such importance." I let out a half-laugh.

"Well, I really admire your humility. Being able to take responsibility and knowing that real confidence comes from being humble is important. I admire your perseverance and strength through hardship. I admire your kindness and desire to become stronger in order to protect those you love. That's just a couple of things I like about you, Raphtalia, not to mention to be the cutest demi-human girl in any world."

Raphtalia's face turned red. "C-C-C-Cute?! You think I'm… cute?"

"Uh oh. I may have crossed a boundary, not just between she and I, but also between the law and morals."

I quickly scrambled for a correct response. "I-, Uh… Y-Yeah. I think you're cute…" Now my face was starting to turn red. We sat in an uncomfortable silence for a moment. Clearing my throat, I said, "Alrighty! Next question."

Raphtalia thought for a moment. "Okay, so why didn't we stay at that tavern earlier today, instead of rushing to come all the way out here?"

I said, "Well, it saves money for one, but two it makes us not very… what's the word… traceable."

Raphtalia's face scrunched up. "But why do we need to hide? Have we done anything wrong?" I considered my response.

"Well, as I've said before, slavery IS illegal, so that's reason enough for you to be taken away from me and I recieve punishment. Other than that, I haven't done anything wrong. However, just me being the shield hero basically makes me a public enemy to Melromarc."

Raphtalia nodded. "I don't know the details, but I knew that the shield hero has always sided with demi-humans in times of strife, despite more often than not being human themself. I did see some people glaring at us in town though, I just didn't know if I should've said anything." "People glaring at us? I never noticed anything like that."

I cleared my throat. "Raphtalia, would you tell me more about the people you saw? Did you see exactly what they were wearing or which of us they were glaring at?"

Raphtalia started to look nervous again, but she nodded. "W-Well, from what I could tell there were two groups of people that took notice of us. One of the groups seemed to be ordinary commoners, wearing just shirts and pants, though I think I saw a heavily-plated, gold-armored man at one point. He was really the only one I noticed was glaring at you in particular."

I nodded. "Alright. Go on." Raphtalia went on.

"The second group of people I saw were women dressed in church garbs. They looked like they were gossiping about something, but from the way they were watching, I think they were talking about us."

I thought for a bit. "Hmm. Well, the churchwomen were obviously from the church of the 3 holy heroes. Of course, I'm not included in that count, so they are most likely going to conspire against me. I think the other people were just commoners, some probably that discriminate against demi-humans. The gold-plated armor guy… I assume that to be Itsuki's party member. Why would he be watching me?"

I shook off these thoughts as I stood up. "Alright, we can talk more in a bit, but how about we get washed up first?"

Raphtalia's face started to turn red again. "W-W-Washed up? W-What do you m-mean?"

I cracked my neck. "Well, we're covered in dirt and grime, aren't we? I'd like us to get clean up so that we can be ready for tomorrow." Raphtalia's face was still red, but she nodded. I could tell she was a little embarrassed, so I decided to give some reassurance. "Hey, I'm not gonna watch you like some sicko. I'll be downstream, so if you need me, just give a yell."

I walked away from the fire, and positioned myself downstream where I couldn't see camp because of the rock overhang in the way. As I said, I'm not such a sicko where I'd want to bathe with a 10 year old girl. In fact, I was a little nervous about dipping into the water myself.

"What if some traveler comes along? I know it's the middle of the night, but adventurers basically never sleep if they want to make ends meet." I decided to keep my pants on, just in case. I took off my shirt, and holy shit I saw something I was NOT expecting.

"Do I have… ABS?!" I said astoundedly to myself. I had never worked out a day in my life, and though I wasn't fat by any means, I certainly wasn't muscular either. Now, however, I had a rough 6 pack of abs, as well as my arms and legs gaining more definition. It wasn't like I was crazy jacked or anything, but it looked like I could consistently keep up with certain runners and track stars.

Another thing I was noticing was that my shoulders had gotten a little broader as well. I had been a tall, lean, fairly skinny type of kid back in my world, but now that I had filled out a bit, it looked like I had grown up to be a man. "What in the hell. Being a hero is a hell of a drug."

I was a little confused as well. Back in the castle, I thought for certain that my transformation was not applied at that point. I had bathed and everything, and I never noticed any difference about me, aside that this whole world was basically an anime. Maybe I missed something, I doubt a transformation could happen this quickly, even demi-human aging took longer. Then again, I hadn't noticed it was an anime until it hit me square the the face, so maybe this situation was similar.

"Oh well. I'll just be happy with this gift I've been given." I shrugged, and got in the water. It was flowing past me at a fast rate, and though it was dark, it still seemed super clear and clean.

I was scrubbing my now muscular back when I heard another high-pitched scream back from base camp. Rushing out of the water, I quickly grabbed my shirt and ran back to camp.

"M-Mr. Maddox!" Raphtalia screamed. I turned the corner around the rock, and I saw three orange balloons cornering Raphtalia. Unfortunately, Raphtalia had been in the middle of bathing at the time, so the best she could do was hold her dress up to her chest and pray to any god that nothing would show.

"F-Fuck, Raphtalia, put your clothes on!" I leapt at the balloons and grabbed them all at once, hugging them close to my chest. I had my back turned to Raphtalia, to preserve some of her privacy.

"Mr. Maddox!" She cried out. "I'm fine! Just put your goddamn clothes on, then stab these things!" Raphtalia squeaked a bit, then I heard a faint rustling, then silence. "Hey, you good?!"

I still didn't turn my head, just in case she was still getting dressed, but then she appeared in front of me, stabbing at one of the balloons. "HA!" She cried out, and the balloon popped.

Now with my grip loosened, the other two mange to escape for a moment, but I used my newly-found fish-grabbing skills to quickly catch them before they could get too far. Raphtalia swung her sword again, popping another balloon, then with a third strike she popped the last.

"Whew. Glad that's over." I said in relief. "You okay Raphtalia?"

Raphtalia was hiding her face in her hands, though I could've sworn I saw an eye peeking out. "M-Mr. Maddox! W-W-Would you mind please putting your shirt on?"

"Huh?" I looked down, though I saw nothing wrong with my front. Turning, I tried to look at my back. "Is there something on my back or something?" I asked.

"M-Mr. Maddox!" she hid her face deeper into her hands. "Nothing is wrong, just please… put your shirt on!" I shrugged it on, though if nothing was wrong I wondered why she was so adamant about it. Was it weird for guys to not wear a shirt occasionally in this world? I didn't know.

"There we go. Does that work?" Raphtalia looked relieved, but also a tad disappointed.

"Y-Yes, Mr. Maddox."

I sat back down by the fire, and pulled a couple more sticks from my inventory, and threw them onto it. We sat in silence, trying to dry off from the river. I didn't really know what to say to start the conversation.

"Hey, uh, Raphtalia. You did a good job fighting off those balloons earlier. I know it was probably hard to bring yourself to kill another creature, but you did a great job of overcoming your fear. So what I'm trying to say is, uh… Thanks."

Raphtalia looked mildly surprised. "T-Thanks? For what?"

I looked to the side. "W-Well, Raphtalia. I appreciate you coming and helping me out like that. No matter how, uh, unfortunately it started, that was our first battle of this world. Most people in my world would run away from the sight of a monster, even if it is just an orange balloon. Even my friends I feel wouldn't have my back. So, what I'm trying to say is… and I've said it like 50 times now… I appreciate the relationship we have now, and I appreciate you."

Raphtalia looked really moved by this. Most times before whenever I said I cared for her she just looked doubtful or confused. Now I feel she really thinks I meant it this time.

"W-Well, Mr. Maddox. I appreciate you too." She said.

I nodded, perhaps a little shyly. "A-Anyway, do you have any more questions for me?"

Raphtalia thought for a moment. "Actually, yes. I notice you do a weird neck motion sometimes, and occasionally flick your middle finger or tense your arms. You blink quite a lot too. I got a little confused whenever you were talking and you would wink at me mid sentence."

I chuckled. "Sorry about that, I didn't mean to give you the wrong message. Also, I admire your observantness. I don't think I could catch someones muscles tensing if I'm not looking for it." Raphtalia blushed a bit. "Anyway, back in my world I was diagnosed with Tourettes Syndrome. I don't know if you guys have it here, but basically my body is forced to do certain actions in order to feel comfortable. I honestly don't notice it myself most times. I've gotten used to it, though every time I do my neck tick I pop it, so that's the most noticeable for me."

Raphtalia looked fascinated. "Does it hurt or anything?"

I shook my head. "No, not really. Sometimes it gets uncomfortable, but I don't think it hurts ever. Think of it like a sneeze. The buildup to the sneeze is uncomfortable, but it's a wave of relief once it's over. It's like that, only it's like seven or eight parts of my body, all at once, every five seconds."

Raphtalia looked astounded. "Wow. That must be hard to live with."

I shrugged. "Eh. I was born with it, so it doesn't matter to me. I don't know any other way how to live. Sometimes I get angry about it, but then I realize it won't change anything, so I kinda just relax."

Raphtalia got a doubting look on her face. "I honestly doubt you'd get truly angry at anything, Mr. Maddox. I think I would've gotten angry with me a long time ago."

I leaned forward. "You kidding me? I had serious anger issues as a kid. I was the kind of kid to go around throwing shit when I'm mad. As for you, I think you're giving yourself too much credit. Compared to other ten year olds back where I'm from, you are super mature and responsible. I don't think you've really done that I would be even mildly annoyed about in any way."

Raphtalia averted her eyes. "W-Well, we come from very different lifestyles. I'm sure the standard is different cause the worlds are different."

I still felt adamant about this. "Well, where I come from, you have a better head on your shoulders than some adults. I really feel I can talk to you about a lot of important matters, and I can trust you to listen and at least try to understand. Honestly, it's like you're a grown up already."

Raphtalia's face grew a bright red, eyes still averted. "I-I d-don't really k-know how to f-feel about that, Mr. Maddox…"

I leaned forward and looked at her closely. "Hey. Are you…doing alright?" Raphtalia looked up.

"H-Huh?"

I sat back. "Well…I realize that this is only our first day of meeting, though it seems like forever already. I'm just worried that I'm going to fast or if I'm doing things that make you uncomfortable."

Raphtalia's face grew to one of surprise and what seemed to be a little of embarrassment. "W-Wait, Mr. Maddox! You have the wrong idea! Honestly, I enjoy your company. It's better than a lot of slavers I've been with, though I admit that isn't a very high bar. You make me feel… happy. I feel like I can trust you, Mr. Maddox."

I smiled, not one for someone else, as I've done for most of my time here, but for me, cause I'm actually really happy. "Raphtalia… I'm glad I can make you happy. If you don't mind, could I ask a question?"

Raphtalia nodded. "Sure, what is it?"

I prepared myself for what I was about to ask. "I was just curious… why do you trust me the way you do? I understand that I've done a lot of things for you, to help you get to a better place, but I feel your mental health and trust in me is a little premature, especially after all the things you've been through. I'm not saying I'm dissatisfied with it, I'm just… wondering."

Raphtalia thought for a while. I just asked her a hard question, and I don't expect too much of a detailed response. Maybe all she would say is 'I don't know.'

"Mr. Maddox. I'm sure you aren't aware of it, but do you realize you are coated in a special… aura?"

What was she talking about? An aura? "N-No, I didn't. Could you tell me more?"

Raphtalia nodded, a little unsurely. "W-Well, it's hard to describe exactly. It's somewhere between an aura and a scent, though both of those still seem a little off. It's… calming, almost. It helps relax my mind and gives me a little bit of security. I think the best way to describe it is like… a blazing fire."

"A blazing fire? I asked.

Raphtalia looked into the fire in front of us. "I've witnessed a lot of your fire like how the one in front of us is. Controlled, warm, comforting. But there was one time where I saw it blaze very brightly, like of the brink of becoming a hazard. To be honest, I was a little scared."

I was a little shocked. "When was this?" I asked. Raphtalia looked like she was a little nervous about saying her thoughts.

"W-Well, it was in the tavern, when that red-haired lady came up to us out of nowhere. As long as she was around, that fire blazed brighter, going from comforting to a little frightening."

I gritted my teeth. "Malty S. Melromarc." Raphtalia pointed at my chest.

"See, it's doing it right now. It's because you are thinking about her, right?"

I was suprised at how good she was reading me already. "Y-Yeah, you're right." I mused for a bit. Fire, huh? I guess that could describe my personality pretty well. Pretty uncontrolled and wild, but most times, if handled properly, not harmful. Though I do suppose I have my moments.

"Another thing," Raphtalia said, inturrupting my thoughts. "It's hard to explain, but your fire changes based upon your emotions. This aura isn't a tangible or seeable thing, but it brings different… colors, maybe vibes to mind whenever your emotions change. Like right whenever you were talking to that lady, it was… boom! Bang! A lot of explosive energy. But whenever you think long and hard, it brings to mind a subtle blue or purple kind of color, and maybe an image of a book? I'm not too sure."

I was very curious about this whole aura thing. I decided to take a moment to conduct an experiment. "All right, what does my aura feel like right now?" I was thinking about the best moments I had with Raphtalia today, one of which being her trying the chocolate milk for the first time, and another being us simply running down the street.

"Hmm." Raphtalia closed her eyes and focused. "It's like… warm. Very warm, though not uncomfortably so. It feels very comforting, like I'm being hugged by someone I care about. I also get visions of colors, like bright orange and a deep red, though I also see some pink showing through. Now that I'm focusing on it, the pink has grew and grew, not obscuring the other colors, but conjoining with them in harmony." She opened her eyes. "Who were you thinking about?"

I started sweating a bit. "Uh oh. What should I say?" I cleared my throat. "I-I, Uh, shouldn't say right now." Raphtalia looked down, disappointed. "But! Uh, I'll tell you one day. How about once you reach level 40, after your class up?"

Raphtalia looked back up in excitement. "R-Really?"

I nodded. "Sure, I promise."

Raphtalia looked especially motivated right now. "All right! A deals a deal!" We shook hands.

"This is going to bite me in the ass later, isn't it? Well, at least Raphtalia will have a short-term goal to work towards." Raphtalia seemed to be drawing something in the dirt on her side of the fire, though it was hard to see through the smoke. I continued my musing. "An aura, huh? Maybe that's why the old guy and the tavern waiter were so nice to me. I wonder if Naofumi had an aura too, but nobody brought it up with him. I assume it's probably a lot different than mine."

Raphtalia looked like she had another thing to say. "Um, another thing. A reason why I trust you. You seem… familiar. It's hard to say for certain, but it's like I've met you before. I don't think we have though, but I have a faint image of a man with a shield standing before me. Maybe that was you?"

Suddenly, I got a chill down my spine. "A faint image of a man with a shield?" I thought back to the old guy's shop, where I heard that faint whisper. I started feeling very cold, and I had a image of isolation in my mind. "You aren't supposed to be here." The words played around in my mind, breaking apart and reforming together to form the same exact thing. "I'm not supposed to be here…" I murmured to myself. Then, the world came rushing back to me, as I felt a hard slap on my face.

"Oh my gosh! Mr. Maddox! I am so sorry!" Raphtalia was standing over me, and I was holding my back up off the ground with my elbows. I snapped back to reality.

"Oh! Think nothing of it, Raphtalia. I just got lost in my own thoughts a bit." Raphtalia still looked really worried.

"I called your name several times Mr. Maddox, and I shook your shoulders quite hard. It seemed more than you just being stuck inside your head." I shook my head to clear my thoughts.

"Yeah, it was kinda weird. I might've had some sort of anxiety attack of some kind."

Raphtalia frowned as she sat back down. "Are you sure you're okay?"

I smiled at her. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for worrying." Raphtalia still looked concerned, so I decided to change the topic. "Hey, is your hair still wet?"

Raphtalia ran her hands through her hair, and replied, "Well, not exactly wet, but it is still damp."

I opened up my shields inventory. "That works. Do you mind if I brush your hair?" Raphtalia's face grew to be one of surprise and slight embarrasment.

"H-Huh? I mean… I suppose."

She stood up again and walked over to me. I scooted back from the campfire in order to give her so room, but she didn't sit down. She stood over me, her face growing redder by the second. "Hey, you okay?" I asked. She nodded, but didn't meet my gaze.

"U-Um… i-if you don't mind… can I… um… sit on your lap?" I was pretty surprised.

"Oh, uh… Alright, as long as you are comfortable with it." I pushed myself back up to the fire, and she sat down in my lap, arranging her tail accordingly.

Taking the brush, I tried my best to comb through her hair, being careful to avoid her ears. It was a little bit of a struggle, as she had a lot of knots, but the dampness of her hair helped ease the process a bit. She smelled a lot better too. I could tell she's really putting steps forward in order to heal her mental and physical health. Not only that, though it's only been a couple hours, I don't think she has barely coughed at all since that fit she had sundown. Maybe it was less of a sickness and more of a lack of a will to live. In any case, I hope she's feeling better.

I continued to brush a little longer, and even after I got all the tangles out I continued stroking, just cause it made me feel good. "There we go. That should do it." Raphalia still stayed silent, just sitting there. "Raphtalia?" I asked. Then, she fell back against my chest, snoring gently. "I suppose she fell asleep."

I sat there for a while, just enjoying the moment. I don't know how long I had left with her, at least in her child form. I intended to enjoy every minute of it. "Honestly? I'm gonna miss Raphtalia being a kid. I like being able to take care of another person."

I had never wanted kids in my world, but with Raphtalia here with me, I couldn't suppress the feeling of wanting to take care of her. I don't know how much time had passed at this point, but the moon was now high in the sky, once again. "I'd better get some sleep. I'll probably be super tired tomorrow."

I laid Raphtalia down, away from the fire, then I kicked some dirt over the fire in order to put it out. Luckily it was a warm night, so there wasn't much need of a blanket or even to keep the fire going. "There's that done, I suppose." I thought to myself.

Looking back at Raphtalia, she was still sound asleep, though I thought I could see the cracks of a bad dream slowly start to seep through her facial expression.

"I want to keep holding her for a little longer, but I don't want to invade her personal space too much. I don't think she'll mind too much if I lay next to her, especially if she has a nightmare." My back turned to hers, I laid down on my side. I continued to think for awhile, just pondering the events of the day, when I heard Raphtalia start to moan again. Not a panic attack, like last time, but a soft, sad cry of anguish that made me feel her pain deep inside of me. I turned over to look at her, and she was shaking and crying in her sleep.

"Urg. Should I wake her up? I don't want to inturrupt her sleep though, plus I don't think she'll even want to go back to sleep after this, no matter how tired she is." I thought for a moment. "Well, in Naofumi's adventure, she did sleep better whenever she had physical contact with him, but I don't think I have the same relationship with her as of now as he did then. Maybe I should wake her up."

Raphtalia was still crying in her sleep, and it was really paining me to see her like this and not have the decisiveness to do something about it. Almost instinctively, I started to rub my hand across her back, soothing her the best I could. She gasped, and after I realized what I was doing, I quickly pulled my hand back.

"What the hell do I think I'm doing? I probably just made it worse." After pulling my hand back, she started to cry harder, but her breath was just sporadic, gasping bursts. I felt that sort of crying was felt by someone who was literally breathing in despair, like there wasn't anything they could have faith in or have any sort of emotion other than pure hopelessness. My resolve hardened.

"Fuck this. I don't care about what anyone has to say about this, I'm going to protect her. If that means getting over my own anxiety and the social norm, so be it."

I turned her over and pulled her closer to me and curled up into a ball, with her at the center. I wanted her to feel as protected as possible. When I did so, she gasped in her sleep again, and a pause of the crying. Then tears fell from her eyes once more, but not a cry of hopelessness like before. More like a relief at something horrible being over, or at least a reprieve of the pain.

I held her close, and she soon started to drift off into a deeper sleep. Now that she was sleeping sound, I started to drift off to sleep. My last waking thoughts were about how I had hoped the previous night that I could hold Raphtalia one day, just like this. "Maybe dreams DO come true." I thought, and with that last comforting thought in mind, I soon fell asleep.