"Oh for fuck's sake, Orisa! Can you live a single day without getting bad dice roll?"

Kanai was loudly cursing while checking Orisa's condition with diagnostic spells. Her fever was high without a doubt, but he found no traces of severe infection or other things that could cause such a state. The only conclusion he could draw from these facts was that she either caught a simple cold or overworked herself. Considering it was Orisa, both assumptions were probably correct, topped with the huge stress she went through. A pitiful and worrying but not so grave condition.

"I swear, next time this happens, I'll switch with Iten. Stupid, helpless, hopeless girl..."

Despite his grumbling, Kanai gently removed straps of Orisa's backpack and tenderly wiped her face. Dropping his own backpack as well, he bent and picked his partner, holding her like a bride.

"Damn, your ass is too heavy. I'll cut your meat portion down, you hear me?"

The distance they had traveled several minutes ago took Kanai more than five times longer. Having no way to look under his feet, he tripped thrice but managed to keep Orisa safe. By the end of this short trip, he was all wet and dirty; the hood of his raincoat fell back, and now his silver hair was all over his face.

Kanai left Orisa inside the same cavern and, after casting Regeneration spell, ran back to pick their luggage. He prepared a nest further into the cavern, stacking two sleeping bags on top of each other. Both blankets were ready nearby when he moved Orisa there. She ended up in a giant cocoon with only her head visible under the mountain of warming cloth.

Pleased with his work, Kanai nodded to himself and went to make a wet towel. Orisa's fever had gone up a bit more, so Kanai took his wand and used his most potent healing:

"Lifespring!"

The spell drained most of the Mana Kanai had but did almost no good. Orisa's fever dropped down a little, and her breathing steadied, but that was all. That left him with no choice but to go to the village again and ask more about treatment methods. He placed a bottle of water by her side before leaving, gave her one last check and then jogged outside.

The rain was only getting stronger.

---

---

"So you are saying I can't help it at all?"

"That is correct, mister. I may recommend this medicine if you are set on trying something, but it will mask symptoms. Don't expect anything beyond that, sir. You'll have to wait for it to go down on its own."

"What's wrong with this damn world? You can heal back missing limbs, but there is no cure for a freaking cold?"

Kanai rolled his eyes and complained a bit more to the apothecary before purchasing said medicine. It took quite a bit of running to find this shop, and now Kanai was cold, wet, and dead tired. Despite that and the revelation about the sickness, he appeared quite pleased:

"Well, at least something is still better than nothing, I guess," with that, he shivered from the thought of getting soaked again but steeled himself and moved back out under the rain. While the village was rather small, at least it had paving stones instead of the usual dirt.

Kanai stashed the medicine inside his coat and strolled forward, towards the village's southern exit. An unexpected obstacle blocked his path - while going by the tavern's entrance, his stomach growled loudly, demanding an emergency refill. Sighing tiredly, Kanai changed his direction and muttered under his breath:

"Hope ten minutes won't kill this unfortunate idiot since I haven't eaten a single thing most of the day."

While waiting for his order, Kanai dropped at the corner table where the street and entire hall were both visible. Barely several seconds had passed after that, and three guards stopped by his side:

"Sorry to bother you, kid, but can we see your tag?" said one of them, probably a senior officer.

"And why is that happening, pray tell?" Kanai was clearly not in the mood, with hunger adding more to his already sour state.

"I don’t need to state my reasons, boy. A tag check is what we, the Police, do."

"How should I know that you are really from the Police?"

A little irritated, the man in charge waved his tag in front of Kanai's face. Resigning to a pointless and tiresome activity, he took out his tag and dropped it on the table, turning to the window to look at the street.

"So? What's this all about?" he asked after several seconds of silence.

"I'm sorry... sir," the senior guard fretted, acknowledging the superiority of his opponent.

When it came down to authority in emergencies involving people, the Police was superior, and even the lowest rank would outclass anyone except captains and commanders. But outside of crime scenes and other related matters, Kana's Hounds were one rank above the Police, letting him ignore even commanding officers if needed.

"Explain yourself, officer."

"Well, sir, we saw you come and go twice today, and you are clearly not from here. It looked rather suspicious, and we decided to check. If you don't mind, what are you doing here? I think this village is quite far in regards to the Hounds' field of expertise."

Kanai looked at him for a moment as if gauging whether he should answer to a lower-ranked person or not. In fact, he was frantically looking for a good explanation:

"Isn't it obvious?" he finally said in an offended tone. "I'm looking for our disgrace whom you've probably seen on a new poster."

"You mean the girl that killed some Noble?" All three guards tensed quite a bit, looking at each other with a hint of fear. "I heard she is completely nuts and dangerous. Do you think she is somewhere around these parts?"

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"If I thought that way, our entire division would have been here already. I'm just scouting possible escape routes, nothing more. But," he looked at them with steel in his eyes, "if you happen to see her, immediately retreat unless there are at least ten of you. And find me."

"Yes, sir! Are you staying at the Boar Hat?"

"That is correct. You can leave a message there, or call for me in case of emergency. Although I'm spending most of the time looking for clues. Or Beasts." Kanai thoughtfully rented a bedroom for two days, which made for a perfect cover and temporary storage room.

"Yes, sir. Thank you for taking care of our village and sorry for bothering you. Have a good day."

Fifteen minutes later, two pairs of eyes followed Kanai's departure from the tavern. The rain was pouring like a waterfall.

He left through the northern gate and went further down the road for five minutes before getting off the path and entering the forest. While it was hard to navigate among densely growing trees, and even more so under the rain, he memorized several landmarks and marched forward without any difficulties.

Two pairs of eyes followed him, lurking among trees, hidden by rain.

Kanai didn't bother with the Sealing bracelet, so he wasn't all too surprised when a meter-sized spider dropped just a few steps in front of him.

"Corrosive Ray!"

Kanai's wand jumped into his hand, and the most powerful spell in his arsenal turned the Beast to ash in three seconds. As usual, his breathing became ragged, and face turned all sweaty after spending half of the Mana pool on a single spell. He leaned on the closest tree and rested for a minute, before continuing to the hideout that was not far ahead.

One pair of eyes followed him with an intent gaze.

At last, Kanai made it to the cavern and immediately checked Orisa's condition. The fever was still there and even higher than before; she breathed hard while sweating buckets. Despite her state, Kanai still had to wake her up to take medicine. Dissolving some of it in a bottle of Mana-infused water, he shook her shoulder until Orisa woke up.

"Wha... I... Uh..."

"Here, Orisa, drink this," he immediately helped her sit and pressed the bottle against her dry lips.

"What... Where..." Orisa tried to get up from her nest, but Kanai pressed her down and covered with blankets again.

"It's okay. It's okay. Everything is fine, don't worry and go back to sleep."

Orisa tried to say something, but her lips stopped moving midway as she went back to sleep almost immediately. Satisfied with the outcome, Kanai got back on his feet and went to get a book from his backpack.

Everything they had in terms of warming power was used to build Orisa's bed, so Kanai had to sit on the edge of the blanket since the stone floor of their base was ice-cold. Sighing tiredly, he turned to look at his partner, gently brushed a lock of wet hair from her red face, and opened the book on various magic techniques that Dippo gave him before the departure.

A book with the strange name Hitchhiker's Guide to Mana Formation was one of the greatest reads for spellcasters among the Hounds' archives. The book touched many aspects of Mana transformation, ways to empower and enrich magic. Such a hard material was written in an informal and easy to understand language, which was a plus. On the other hand, the guidelines weren’t as detailed and left too much information outside of the book for the reader to discover by themselves.

Engulfed in reading, Kanai had almost caught a heart attack after being startled by a sudden male voice:

"Get away from her. Slowly."

Kanai jumped on his feet, his wand aimed at the entrance to the cavern. Four silhouettes were blocking it, at least one of the armed. Two of them were tall, bending slightly because of the low ceiling, and two others were way smaller.

"Who are you, and what do you need here?" Kanai asked aggressively.

His mind was racing frantically and looking for ways out of this situation. Even if he could manage to down these four, the probability of more people waiting outside was not low. He could also run if not for Orisa. And leaving her here was not an option, at least not for him. His white hand squeezed the wand, and he was mentally prepared to give it his all.

"That's our question, don't you think so, kiddo?" asked another voice, female this time.

By the sound of it, these two were not that young, at least mid-thirties if not more. When Kanai was about to attack, another voice chimed in:

"Mom, kick his ass and save Big Sis!"

"Lif, be quiet, and stay away!"

"Wait, what!?" Kanai snapped and almost yelled. The first shock was the voice of a child, and the fact that she called another person 'Mom' added a strawberry on a cake. "Stop-stop, timeout. What the hell is going on? And, seriously, your Mom!? Who are you people?"

Kanai's mind was going haywire. A rather awkward silence at the entrance to the hideout was interrupted by a no less awkward:

"Oops, sorry..." This time, the voice belonged to a boy.

"Okay, I get it. You are the kids she had saved earlier today?" Kanai lowered his wand and straightened, relaxing a bit. Mostly because his mind solved the mystery of this bizarre incident.

"How do you know it, you thug!?"

"Lif, keep your mouth shut, or I'm going to double your punishment today," the woman said sternly.

"What's wrong with the girl? She isn't moving," asked Oudr, still gripping the handle of his axe.

"You can come and check this idiot yourself," Kanai sighed and moved behind Orisa's nest, giving people at the entrance space.

All four cautiously moved inside, and the woman was first to check Orisa's condition:

"She has a fever. You didn't tell me about this."

"She was okay!" both kids protested in unison.

"I assume she got wet in the rain. And all the stress caught up with her as well. When we were about to leave, she suddenly collapsed, so I made this bed from our sleeping bags and blankets."

"Who are you?" Oudr asked warily.

"Her partner, of course."

The family exchanged doubting looks and stared at him. After several moments of silence, the boy pointed at Kanai and protested:

"But I heard you saying that you were after her!"

"Yes, I was there, too!" added his sister.

Completely relaxing, Kanai smacked his forehead in understanding. He let out a dry, tired laugh, and muttered:

"What was I supposed to say? Hey, guards, I'm actually helping this wanted criminal, you don't mind, right?"

"Okay, I don't care about this nonsense, but this pipsqueak is clearly sick and needs help."

"I already gave her this," Kanai said and handed the woman leftover medicine. "If you can help more, please don't hesitate. I can pay."

The woman gave Kanai a long look, then checked the medicine's name and tasted a pinch of it with the tip of her tongue.

"This should be enough, I suppose," she said after a long pause. "Keep her warm, and she should be okay after resting for a few days."

"Um, what can I do to keep her warm? No way to make a campfire. And I don't know any spells for this purpose either."

"Are you, perchance, dumb?" the woman stared at him as if he was a complete moron. "Just remove these sweaty clothes from her, then get under the same blanket, undressed. For god's sake, is it that hard?"

"W-w-w-what!?" Kanai's face turned bright pink.

"What?" the woman gave him a dubious look. "Also, wipe her at least once a day. It's bad to let the sweat stay for too long. Got it?"

"Y-y-yes..."

"Okay, I'm done here."

The woman stood up and turned to her family that was standing a few steps away, clearly wary of their mother's temper and behavior during emergencies.

"You aren't mad that we didn't offer to take her with us?" she said with a bland, emotionless voice.

"Too dangerous for you and us, as well," Kanai answered in a similar way.

"Good. Keep the kid warm, hydrated, and clean. If you need anything, our house is third from the southern exit."

With that, the father and mother both left the cavern. Two kids remained for a moment longer:

"You keep Big Sis safe!"

"Or we'll kick your butt!"

Kanai was left overwhelmed and speechless as the family disappeared into the rain.

---

---

Orisa finally came to her senses the next morning. She slowly opened her eyes, suffering from a headache, fever, and thirst. Her mind was still hazy, so she felt rather disoriented and lost while staring at a dark stone of the cavern.

But something bothered her even more than the symptoms. Something hard was poking her right thigh. Slowly turning her head in that direction, Orisa appeared face to face with Kanai who was sleeping soundly by her side. Her mind flipped. In one swift motion, she raised both blankets and looked underneath only to find herself and Kanai almost completely naked:

"WHAT THE FUCK?!"