Lily processed Lan’s words in time with the reddening of her face. Then her hands gesticulated wildly as no words would come from her mouth.

‘No!’ she finally managed, ‘it’s just that it will be easier to heal you without them. It’s not like I was trying to see you without your clothes… not that I wouldn’t like to.’ she added quickly before her eyes grew wider. ‘That’s not what I meant.’

Lan laughed, feeling like he should rescue her from herself, ‘It was a joke, Lily.’

‘Huh?’ she blinked, ‘oh, that joke.’ She blushed deeper, making him laugh harder until his ribs reminded him why he was there.

‘Ugh!…’ Lan sounded as he leaned against the table. ‘Ouch…’

‘Serves you right.’ Lily huffed. ‘If you are done, the faster you undress, the quicker we can get this done.’

‘Yes, Ma’am.’ Lan groaned as he grabbed himself off the table.

‘Honestly, I thought you were too mature for jokes like that,’ Lily huffed as she unfastened Lan's cloak.

‘In my defence, I don’t think I had much of a choice, and a little part of me always wanted to make that joke.’

The joke in question was the first dirty joke he had heard. Although through working in a warehouse, he had heard it hundreds of times and told just as many ways since. The only thing that mattered was the punch line.

The joke was about a beautiful woman of ranging ages and backgrounds falling for a kind and handsome young man whose only shortcoming was being utterly oblivious to the point of debilitation.

From this point, the joke differed wildly depending on the skill and the vulgarity of the teller's mind. The skilful tellers could spin a weaving tale that covered all the woman’s increasingly desperate attempts to catch the eye of the young man who would seem to misunderstand all of her signs. While others would take this time to tell as lewd a tale as possible. However the teller got there, the joke ended with the woman losing her mind and lunging at the man in the middle of the town square, and as she ripped his clothes off in front of everyone, the man would look at her and say.

‘Oh, Greta, I didn’t know you felt that way about me.’

Lily huffed again before watching as he worked on the straps of his armour. Once she saw what he was doing, Lily loosened the straps on his good arm and helped him work his way out of the shaped steel and leather.

Once done, Lan considered just cutting himself out of his shirt, which now seemed much more snug than when he had left. But before he could, Lily started to lift it up. He almost stopped her, but she was already moving to guide his injured arm out of his sleeve and looked up before he could.

‘Something wrong?’ she asked, looking up at Lan innocently as if she didn’t have her hand on his bare chest.

‘Oh, it’s nothing.’ Lan said, once again realising how pretty her eyes were, like shaped emeralds given a gold lustre from the candlelight. Once they were able to get his shirt off. Lan caught a glimpse of himself in the window.

His changed face was one thing. At least then, he could still recognise himself a little. His body, on the other hand, was a whole other story. Not only was there definition in muscles he didn’t even know he had, but his shoulders were also a little broader than before. He was still far from the figure that his father had cast, but he now looked like an adventurer.

Not to mention he was covered in cuts held closed by his Health Points, making him appear covered in blood-red war markings. He had been hit far more than he had thought, which Lan guessed happened in the hollow.

Lan was about to joke if Lily could leave him with a few scars, but as he turned, he found her staring at him.

‘Something wrong?’ Lan asked as Lily continued to stare.

‘Huh?’ she blinked, ‘it’s nothing!’ she said before darting off, leaving him standing unsure of what just happened. Lan looked at his reflection again. Maybe this wasn’t the best time for jokes, he thought.

Lily returned with a bucket of steaming water and a cloth sometime later and gestured for him to sit, which he did so, quickly taking the seat next to him before starting to clean his wounds. Although there was still a little colour to her cheeks, and she wouldn’t meet his eyes, she seemed to have returned to her usual self.

‘Honestly, how by the Light did you end up like this?’

‘Well, I wasn’t lying about the Goblins.’ Lan laughed before going into the story as Lily cleaned his cuts, leaving out the parts with Tyr, who seemed to find far more interest outside of Lily’s home than what they were doing.

‘Hmm, it sounds like you had a hard go of it.’ Lily said, sounding as though she was picturing it. Seeing this, Lan felt a knot starting to form in the pit of his stomach This was only their second time meeting, and this was her reaction. How would his mother react? After seeing so much pain in her eyes upon his first return, could he go through it again? Could he put her through it again?

‘Well, at least I know what to expect for the next time.’ She said, not noticing how her words hit Lan like a punch or how he felt a little ashamed for doubting her when she looked at him with resolute eyes. ‘Right?’ she asked innocently.

‘Right…’ Lan answered as Lily put on her glasses and Looked up at him.

‘Ready?’

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‘Yeah.’ Lan said, once again noting how good the glasses looked on her.

After some time, Lily was able to knit Lan’s ribs back together. At once, both let out a sigh; Lily because she hadn’t made any mistakes, and Lan, as tension he didn’t even know he was holding, melted away like snow in spring.

‘That should make sitting through the rest easier.’ She said, taking a sip from a mana potion.

‘Yeah, I think every coin I spent up until now is worth it for just that.’ Lan smiled, making Lily blush.’

‘You’re welcome.’ She said with a small smile of her own before looking up with a playful frown at him. ‘Well, aren’t you going to ask about the story of how I learned how to heal?’

‘I figured you would tell me once you felt like it.’ Lan tried to shrug before he was reminded that his shoulder was still injured.

‘But you still expected me to tell you eventually.’ She said, playing more into the frown.

‘Eventually,’ Lan half shrugged with his good shoulder, making her roll her eyes.

‘Well, I can’t say you aren’t a part of this now.’ She sighed. ‘As I told you, this is my family’s estate. We were a Knighted House, although one of my ancestors won that title. It was lost a few generations ago, but we were allowed to keep the land. Which is the only way that I could attend school in the capital to study when my family decided to pack up and leave for another land.’ She said as if the thought still brought her no end of aggravation.

‘They disappeared, and I was kicked out of the Academy, and that’s what brought me back here, and you know the rest.’ She smiled.

‘What happened.’ Lan asked, and Lily sent mana into her eyes.

‘The reason I said I wasn’t a healer isn’t just because I didn’t finish. My studies were in magic development, focusing on healing magic. But the only thing I worked on was this.’ She pointed to her eyes.

‘Really, what’s different about it?’ Lan asked, having recently become invested in that kind of magic.

‘Well, like most Sight enhancement magic, it allows you to see more. The difference between this and other healing sight magic, which will enable you to see through a person's body, is that this only allows me to see in shades of silver. That is, until I send a wave of mana at someone. Then their whole body is painted before me, from Mana channels to veins. I can see it all through how they each react to the mana, and of course, like this, any injury becomes as clear as day.

‘That’s amazing.’ Lan said, finding it hard to believe that anyone could create something like that and that they were healing him and not the royal family.

‘It would have been if it had been complete. The spell was meant to work in an area of effect. Allow one healer to tend to the most gravely injured around them first. But before I could finish the spell, the instructor I was working with got the funny notion that not only was I making the spell for him to present as his own work but that I was doing so because I was madly in love with him. When I made it clear that neither was the case. He had me expelled and any potential reputation I had destroyed.’

‘Is that so…’ Lan breathed as he tried and failed to loosen his grip. Everywhere he looked, someone was abusing their power, and there was little honest people could do about it.

Seeing this, Lily smiled and placed her hands on his. ‘Don’t let it bother you too much. Looking around now, I am glad it happened. I got to meet the children, and now you because of it.’ she smiled, and Lan looked away as his anger was replaced by something else.

‘You wouldn’t happen to have the instructor's name. you know, just in case we cross paths.’ Lan asked, getting an odd look from Lily.

‘Oh, I wouldn’t worry about him. A few months after getting me expelled, he was found to have fathered a child with an extended family member of a high-ranking noble studying at the Academy and was executed.’

‘Oh… you don’t say. But then-’

‘The Academy has erased the names of everyone who interacted with the instructor.’ Lily interrupted him.

‘Hmm, right.’ Lan said. Well, there was always someone with more power, he reasoned as Lily returned to healing him.

‘Thank you.’ Lily said after a long moment. ‘This is the first time that... priest brought anyone with him.’

Lan didn’t answer for some time. He now knew why she had chosen to take care of the children, yet it only made the concerns he had before return.

‘I’m just glad that I was here,’ Lan forced a smile, ‘but about that, have you tried getting one of the other orphanages involved?’

‘I tried that back when there were only a few of them. Those that spent time with the Followers of Vivin are terrified of even the real orphanages now and will run and hide in the forest if I bring it up. The rest won't go anywhere unless it’s all of us, including me, and as I am a little too old to start training as a nun. I don’t see myself being allowed to stay with them.’ she ended with a sigh as if happy to get this off her chest.

‘Yeah, I can see how that would be a problem.’ Lan said, mulling over his thoughts. It wasn’t safe for them, and the fact that they weren’t technically allowed to do this meant they couldn’t get the guards involved. Either they would take the children away if there was space in an orphanage, or they wouldn’t do anything. In any case, he didn’t think they could keep things going like this, and from the look on Lily’s face, she felt so too.

‘Anyway, things should be quiet for the next week,’ she said before the two fell silent, the flickering candlelight and the soft, consistent whispering rhythm of Lily’s magic the only reminder that sounds still existed. What could he do? When he wasn’t even sure what he was allowed to do.

‘Well, I guess I could visit in about a week.’ Lan said. He didn’t know what he could do, so he decided to do what he could.

Lily blinked at him, smiling, ‘I am sure the children would like that.’

‘I hope you will too.’ Lan said, and as Lily started to blush, Lan went on. ‘Because I will probably need more healing.’ He laughed, getting another pout from the charming healer.

‘Next time, I might heal your bones incorrectly for breaking your promise.’ She said before smiling to let him know she was joking before returning to healing him.

An hour or two later, Lan stood looking at his reflection in the window. He would have said he was as good as new, but seeing as he looked better than new, that seemed like an understatement.

Lan rolled his shoulder, finding that he not only had full motion back but feeling too, without any aches or pains. Of his cuts, all that was left were hair-thin white lines that would fade in a few days.

From what Lan knew of healers, the smaller the lines, the more skilful the healing. If that were true, whoever had kicked Lily out of the Academy had wasted a talent.

‘This is amazing, Lily. Thank you.’ Lan turned to Lily, finding her smiling with a mix of pride and accomplishment.

‘Oh, sorry. You're welcome.’ She said as she pushed her fingertips together. ‘I have to say, I was never really interested in healing itself at the Academy. Whenever I have to heal the children, I am filled with panic until it’s done, so it’s nice getting to do some healing like this. Which is something that I never thought I would say.’ She giggled.

‘It really takes a unique person to be a healer.’ Lan said, puffing out his chest.

‘Is that so? Then why are you acting like you did it yourself?’ Lily prodded.

‘Are you kidding? I was the one that hired you as my healer and went through the trouble of getting hurt.’ Lan said with mock indignation

‘Oh, how kind of you,’ She rolled her eyes before the two burst out laughing.

‘Still, I have to say…’ Lily started before taking a long look at Lan. ‘You really do look like a different person.’ She said as a touch of colour returned to her cheeks.

‘Really? I am sure I was covered in blood the first time too.’ Lan smiled.

‘I guess you’re right…’ Lily blinked. ‘Try not to make that a habit, for me?’

Lan was about to answer but then remembered what was to come, ‘uh… no promises.’