You know how the story goes; from there I entered another less than narratively satisfying time. I collected the chikans due to me, and I headed to the battlefield to collect more minions. As my control got better, I would have been able to regain more mana and create more Skeletal Laborers each day, but with each new laborer the difficulty rose, making me plateau at 30.

This was followed by a day in the village, and then another day scavenging the battlefield. That provided 60 more low class skeletons. The population explosion of bugs was halted due to my interference, and clever collection strategy. Grabbing bodies from around the larger swarms and reducing leftover flesh to earth, while there were still insects around, I had kept them from exponentially growing. Most of the goblin flesh suffered too much to be used by then, but the bones were still good.

After a day on the battlefield, I returned to the village to work through the night. Outside, the winds had turned rather nippy, tingling at my extremities. As morning approached, I finished my eighth Skeletal Elite over the past two days to add to my horde. Saturday, and according to Pan it would be the last day before fall. Given the weather, it wasn’t hard to believe.

Now as one of the days I spent in the village, not much was going on. Of course, the reason I'm bringing up that Saturday isn't merely because it was the day before autumn. The official changing of the seasons lacked a holiday, that was for slightly later on. Instead, there was a scene that gave a sense of deja vu; as I helped work in the fields, helping to cut and sheaf the wheat analog, I spotted a figure off in the distance.

Not from the west, but the east. That was strange, as the road the village was situated on generally only led as a shortcut to Medean in that direction. Glaucen’s history went back further than Medean’s and sat further from the woods. In Derriad, population movement tended to be towards less developed areas. Primary inheritors kept power in the old lands, while the children who couldn't be supported moved outwards.

A minor digression as to the continued stagnation of the nation. In light of people moving to more rural areas, it would be easy to expect that area to become urbanized as well, slowly expanding the lands. These had been my thoughts at first as well, however one must also consider the nature of the world. The church did not sponsor such excursions, and patrolled strictly within an approximately 140 mile radius from their cities. Except for the very outskirts, this was an incredibly safe zone. However the further from that edge you moved, the more dangerous it would become. While settlements built up outside that radius for periods of time, eventually they would be destroyed by a raging pack of this or that beast.

In spite of the danger, note that the circumference of this patrolled radius is almost one thousand miles. The lands around the city’s territory are vast, and there are many places to settle. It is only the vast quantity of numbers and time that lead to the inevitable destruction of an outlying village. Most survive for many generations, and so those backup heirs head off to make their fortunes in the backwoods. Off did they depart from old Glaucen, but seldom did any return.

Meaning this traveler from the east was a rare sight indeed. Though curious, he was still quite a bit distant, so I finished up a few more bundles of wheat before heading towards the road. As she walked down the road, I tried getting a read on her. Not that I expected more ‘spies’, but it’s a force of habit.

At a distance, the easiest things to notice were hair and clothing. She kept a long auburn braid down to her lower back, perhaps a little too long. It bounced about irregularly from side to side, and she even batted it when the rhythm of her steps sent it swinging around to the front. Her clothing was a bit too fine for a peasant, but not quite the level of the ostentatious dresses of Glaucen. A dark beryl dirndl, with a full length skirt, and a tightened bodice with a ruffled and poofy blouse underneath. On her back was a frameless rucksack, sagging sadly as in indication of few remaining supplies.

Despite looking prepared and slightly well off, she didn't seem to be carrying a weapon. Though she might have a concealed dagger, in a world where you could run into monsters, only those who could fight should travel alone, and even then it was unwise. Given her clean state of dress, had she merely been lucky to pass unhindered?

Seating myself on the western bank near the shallow ford, it seemed the children had already spotted the traveler and awaited her arrival. Since Rion had been on such good behavior recently, I decided to change up my target. As the woman was about to come near, and the children looked on with interest, I used to drip cold water down one of their necks. The traveler looked over as the boy yet out a yelp, tumbling into the stream out of surprise.

A lady may be able to make it through the wastes by luck, but the traveler responded too quickly to seem like such a ditzy person. From the moment Terin started to shout, she was already stepping back into a readied stance, one suited for agility. Watching the arms move up and back, she realized soon enough that there was no threat. It was enough motion to give me a hint, and now that the distance had shortened, I could tell that two daggers were holstered between her and her pack. It seemed like a slightly uncomfortable, but that would be lessened with a smaller load and there was no doubt it was a very stealthy design. 

Most of all was the look of relief when it turned out there was no danger. Whatever her business happened to be, she was the high-strung sort; cautious about every move. I couldn't help but be intrigued.

“Hey, where are you from lady?” Oh Ronnie, you’re really helping aniki out; I'll make sure that your aunt treats you well when I'm gone. 

The curious and unreserved child asked innocently as the woman stooped to refill her canteen; a bit of an oversight, showing she was feeling a bit of pressure. Had it been just the one, she may have tried avoiding it, but on the opposite shore stood a swarm of interested children. Even brats have a certain weight to them when in large numbers. I threw her a way out.

“Head upstream a little ways before filling your water. This is a fishing village, you’ll catch scales and guts like that.”

“... Yes. Thank you for telling me.”

Hesitantly, she looked upstream, but decided to cross in the shallow water instead of skipping across the rocks further upstream. Some stones were mossy, but judging by her physique her balance shouldn't have been all too poor. Choosing to pass through the ankle deep ford, as she approached, the kids began making a ruckus again.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“So where are you from?”

“Where’d you get those pretty clothes?”

“Why’s your hair so long?”

“Hehehe~” I laughed quietly as the isolated children descended upon their new novelty. There were many stories I remembered from Earth, but not many made for oral tradition were meant for younger audiences. She stammered a little answering the kids, I felt something was a bit off, but it wasn't a strong feeling. Maybe she didn't like being around children, or perhaps I just read into things too much.

The woman, whose name I caught to be Therese, walked by with a steady squelching noise.

“Do you not have a second pair of shoes?” Trying not to sound sardonic and keeping a smile off my face, I pointed towards her feet. The footwear of the world already wasn't very good, she was going to get blisters rather quickly like that.

Therese did not seem to appreciate the sentiment, caught in a flurry of embarrassment and indignance flushed, unsure of how to react. Her shoes were already wet at this point, and I'd just told her about the fish guts in the river; it was one mistake after another. She was high strung, but the plan wasn't to snap her, but see what notes she played when plucked.

Following a moment of indecision, she composed herself. It seemed that she was the type who could control their anxiousness, and planned around all possible setbacks. That kind was admirable; Therese walked past me to find a spot to collect clean water.

“Hey Alric! Why don't you fix it?” Oi, Ronnie, you’re spoiling aniki’s plans! I'll tell your aunt to never get you anything good even after I'm gone!

Luckily, as Therese was passing my way, the crowd of children were following. That meant I was able to thwap the kid on the back of the head after he said so. Ahh~, he didn't mean ill by it, but it seemed that my presence had definitely made magic exceptionally acceptable in the village. I wanted there to be no way for them all to be accused of heresy; chipper oh asking me to do magic did not nice with that. Well, I was an officially documented mage, so all would be well.

“” I actually dual cast the spell, once for each shoe. It wasn’t strictly necessary, but it was a bit of practice. Therese looked on in shock; strangely her gaze was not focused on me, but the children around. “Ah, so you know, I’ve registered in Glaucen. The *haramaki* is just a pain to wear all the time.”

“You’re a wizard?” She asked in disbelief, still staring at the kids around me. There was definitely a discrepancy in her reaction, it looked like Therese was more interested in the fact the kids didn’t seem to mind. Silently casting to tap and slightly turn Tagalong Girl’s head, it took a moment for her to get what I was doing. Then she gave a nod of affirmation, which due to my practice mentally multitasking, I was able to pick up without giving any hints to Therese.

“A wizard? Most call me a mage.” I shrugged, tapping my neck. Realizing the gesture was meaningless in the new world I clarified. “What I mean to ask is there a difference between a  mage and a wizard in Derriad? My homeland thinks of wizards as being a bit more of a scholarly sort than myself.” The mention of my homeland got her attention, yet she still seemed reticent to speak. It was either an inner debate on whether to talk to me, or because of the young jabbering children around us. On that front, at least she was doing a skilled job of answers without answers. 

I could remove one of those factors myself, let’s move this conversation along.

“Alright little *gakis*, adult talk time. Catch!” Possessing a few small stones in my Inventory, I cast several times on them and tossed them over. Taking a few moments for each, I realized that I my training was lax for that spell, only occasionally practicing it during the night. My night vision wasn’t too bad, so it had fallen by the wayside. Such is optimization, but in the future I promised I would at least bring it up to dual insta-cast levels.”Scurry along now, you have your entertainment!” Poofing some s into the distance, they followed the shinies away.

“So tell me, what is the discrepancy *betwixt* a mage and a wizard?” Patting the ground nearby, she remained standing.

In fact she almost seemed more alert than before. It probably had to do with figuring out that she was a mage, or perhaps wizard. Though not expressly stated, Therese realized that I had come to that sort of conclusion.

“There is not much difference. A mage is one forced to work for the church, while a wizard has managed to escape the bonds of the Oouei.”

Oouei? Oouei-gooey, no tarudy; shinks from minks and all is phooey. The silly sounding words had me rhyming a bunch of hooey. My mental strength may have improved, but my focus sure hadn’t.

Though I’d never heard the word, with context clues and knowing how words formed, I could make a few guesses. The Derrish numeric system(luckily base ten, although otherwise would have been rather interesting), went ooul(0), ro(1), di(2), sha(3)...well, and then others. Interestingly enough, the majority of numbers had an associated element. I explained that there were multiple words for soul with an associated element; for example stei was the word used in what I’ve translated as aquasteel, referring to a ‘watery’ soul, comes from est(5). Rei was an airy soul, eid was an earthy soul, and so on. They could be combined further for ‘non-primal’ things, deik was a bloody soul(surprisingly not in the murderous sense), formed from eid and kei(fiery soul). Keid was taken by magma, which for some reason wasn’t included in a fiery soul.

As you might expect, even in the Derrish language, zero manages to be an exception to things. Though I hadn’t heard the term Oouei before, in general adding zero didn’t refer to a specific element. It would also be a bit disingenuous to say it meant ‘nothing’, rather a more accurate description might be a cross between ‘undefined’ and ‘lacking’. 

So in a more literal sense, the term oouei referred to those that lacked a proper soul.

None of that muggle gibberish; this was a right and proper slur.

A/N:AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!