“In the name of the caster, the mana and the spell shape.

Glory be to Lord , his casting and his impartial cleanings. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, spell without end. Amen.”

Unclasping my hands I finish my impromptu prayer.

With that, Ria settled down and didn’t look like there would be anymore problems. Having waited long enough, I went outside to return to my language sessions.

My chibi-sensei wandered off with his friend, since I had taken too long. Can you really hold a grudge against a child for not just sitting around for an hour? I certainly could, but I was to be a hero. Must. Resist. Urge. To torment small child!

Whatever, I wasn’t that invested in holding my grudge anyway. Besides, wouldn’t it be more fun to go practice magic anyway? Since I’d knocked the cost of down by quite a bit in the morning, I decided to practice instead.

needed concentration to manipulate it, but letting it be after casting it in series was okay too. Learning to manipulate and cast spells simultaneously would be an experiment for another day.

It would last 640 seconds, 10 seconds per point of INT, 20 seconds per point of WIS, and doubled at Level 1. About a 10 minute long light, giving enough time to regenerate 29 mana. The spell cost 2 mana, although it was more along the lines of 4 or 5 at the moment.

I did some mental calculations, that was 6 spells every 10 minutes, 0.6 spells every minute, divide by three, multiply by 5, that was 100 seconds.

That was no good. That would only leave 6 s.

I flung my hands up in defeat, and started running, putting down spells as fast as I could. I thought it would be fun to make a chain of lights randomly through the air, but with 600 seconds, only getting enough mana every 100 seconds would leave me with a measly chain of 6 s!

Sometimes I have fun ideas, but reality gets in the way. It was kind of disappointing to realize that it still happened even in a fantasy world.

As it stood, my impatient recasting of burned me out of mana in under a minute.

Sighing, I looked over my string of a dozen or so glowing orbs. I’d placed them along the banks of the stream and it seemed to have lured Rion, Tagalong Girl and two of the kids from the day before to me.

Exactly as planned?

Planned or not, the rest of the day was spent trying to learn the language. After that it was a meal, feed Ria and go to bed.

The third day was much the same. Wake up, care for patient, learn the language, care for patient, learn the language, care for patient, go to sleep.

So went the fourth day.

So went the fifth day.

The monotony broke on the sixth day. At this time, my vocabulary hadn’t greatly expanded, but I’d stopped forgetting most of the words. It was on the afternoon of my sixth day in the village that Ria seemed to turn lucid as I was giving her water.

*There’s mucho agua in Nicaragua, mucho agua, ja mucho agua.* Naturally over the days I’d gotten used to my nursing duties and spent the time practicing my native language. Well, saying things not of the Derrian language. (Since I am more or less capable of speaking Derrian from this point on, ** will be marking when I speak AMERICAN)

“Whassatnoise?” Pushing away Xflask, Ria slurred, stopping my sonorous singing.

“Ah! You’re awake!” For a second, I almost pulled back, but then she would just hit her head. Instead, I was just holding her in my arm.

“Msshhrrrr.” Her eyes weren’t opening, but she was reacting to stimuli now. Progress! I was hoping that the results were actually a result of my care and not just a coincidence. Some accomplishments needed to be done by my own merits, I wasn’t Captain Tylor. That wouldn’t be too bad, but creating coincidences was a bit of an oxymoron.

“Riaaa. Riaaa. Can you hear me? Can you drink this by yourself?”

“Whshat? WhrmI…”

*Enunciate woman, I can’t understand a blasted thing you’re saying.* I spoke in a saccharine voice. Seriously, it was less of a pain when she wasn’t partially aware. Damping some cloth, I wiped her eyes. Ria closed her eyes tightly before fumbling to wipe the water away with her arm.

It wasn’t a cold bucket of water, but that would be a bit too much of a shock for the ailing patient. Although, slowly, it seemed to be rousing her. After about 32 seconds(due to magic practice, I was getting much better at judging time) she finally opened her eyes. They were crimson in color. Odd, I wonder…

If I hadn’t been holding her and the Xflask, I would have slapped my face. Somehow, I’d managed to forget that I was supposed to be fixing the fact her skin had turned red and she was growing horns. That was the real reason why I was hired by this stupid backwater!

In VR games in generally, tiefling, part-demon, and other monster races had red skin and horns. There were numerous variations on sentients in the games I’d played. This allowed me to easily overlook the whole, ‘human turning into a demon’ deal. Even with that excuse, I suppose that still qualified as being a bit of an air-head.

“Mmm, wha’s wrong?” Ria noticed the dour expression that was no doubt all over my face. Being pulled back to my patient, I dismissed the question with some idle chat as I looked her over, focusing on the proper issue this time.

“It’s nothing, how are you feeling?”

Examining her, the skin had thoroughly peeled to a little above the wrists, and partially up to her palms. A similar pattern was reflected on her legs, with some normal skintone on her feet, though it was dyed red by the replacement that was growing underneath.

“Waai’, who’re you?”  She seemed to be coming to her senses, but her head was still lolling about and she wasn’t totally with it.

“I’m the Doctor.”

“Oohhhh.” Ria nodded and closed her eyes again.

Damn it, that’s not what you’re supposed to say! I don’t care if it was a dated reference in a parallel world that you have no knowledge of! That was perfectly set up!

Disappointed by the incomplete reference, I ranted internally. I’d gotten her to finish the water in the meantime, so that was good.

“Hey Rion! Go get Pan!” Calling from the edge of the house, the boy came to me, instead of just getting his dad like I asked.

“What is it? It’s not time for you to be eating.” Rion acted a bit hostile as usual. He probably thought of me as a charlatan. To be fair, I wasn’t confident I wasn’t a charlatan, but all’s well that ends well.

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“Just go get him, brat.” Using , I dumped a handful of grass into his hair and laughed. He jumped up, cursing me before heading off. Serves the bugger right.

Tagalong Girl, who by the way still hadn’t introduced herself to me, surprised me by not shadowing Rion this time. She looked at me and then stared towards the house.

“Is she better?”

“She’s better, but not back to normal. I don’t have the things to get her totally back to normal.”

“That’s bad.” Tagalong Girl was looking more and more gloomy. Man I wanted cookies.

“She’ll probably be up and about in a few days. Even if she looks different, she’s still Ria.”

“No, it’s bad. When fall comes there will be ■■.” Tagalong Girl was shaking her head solemnly after saying a word I didn’t understand.

“Oi, what’s ■■~?” I tried copying the sounds.

“■■...they’re ■ ■■.”

Wow. That sure was helpful.

Clarification wasn’t exactly necessary in any case. From the way everyone other than Pan avoided the house, it had to do with Ria’s current demonic appearance. Some group that would probably take offence to that was likely passing through during fall.

Fall was harvest time, wasn’t it? Maybe that was the time when the local lord sent people to collect taxes. I knew the government structure was some sort of feudalism, but the details were fuzzy. Pan would be able to understand my questions better than this girl, so I would just wait for him.

“Hey *Tagalong Girl*, why’re you always following Rion?” As the first time she was away from him in my presence, I voiced my query. “Could it be young *looooove*?” Even though it was said in another language, the intonation made it clear what I was saying. She didn't bite.

“No. He has the best chance to leave here.”

“Eh?” The response was heavier than expected. Little Tagalong Girl only looked to be around 10 or 12, this was way too serious for her stature. “*Chibi*, you want out of this place?”

“Of course. Do you not look down on this village?” Well yeah, but it's a bit more harsh coming from someone who hasn't experienced plumbing and electricity.

“How is Rion going to help with that though?”

“He has ■■ potential.”

“■■~ potential? ■■~, explain.”

“You use ■■, the lights are ■■, you and Rion both have magic potential.”

Tagalong Girl was clarifying in a fairly monotone voice. Encounter small girl with troubling unchildlike behavior? Check.

I was still trying to work on Ria’s condition, and another plot line was being thrown to me. At first there had been nothing, then I found something, but figured I needed to take the slow path through a time skip, but the another plot thread cropped up. I wanted to snatch all the storylines I could, coming from a world without any it was a natural reflex.

“You're telling me because you don't want to wait.”

“You are strange, but there is no ■■■ Rion’s power will awaken. There is also the fact that you did not speak Derrian, so I am unsure of your origins. Rion also is likely to be attached to my wellbeing.”

*Cripes you're a manipulative blighter.* I sighed, running a hand through my hair. “We're not done here, *Tagalong Girl*. You know where I am.”*And to be honest, no matter how creepy, that was the most scintillating conversation I've had since arriving here.*

*Wait a minute, this wouldn't also happen to be my mandatory loli as well, would it?*

*Everything is going perfectly! Ahahaha!* I shut down the serious talk and turned to babbling when I noticed Pan and Rion approaching. They couldn’t understand the words I was speaking, but why risk anything?

Ahh, I need to remember to ask Tagalong Girl how she knew Rion had magic potential! I couldn't see it with , and needed to be picked during a level up. Could I even level up at all? Also, I should ask what magic potential was exactly. Mana was a good guess, but that would imply that only some people had mana, and I wasn't going to make that leap yet.

“Alric, what news do you have?” Pan asked. He only visited once a day, but other even if the surface wounds had disappeared, Ria didn't seem to change much.

I wouldn't say how I forgot the main purpose of the treatment.

“There’s some good news. Ria was able to move around and talk a little while ago. She’s fallen back asleep, but it looks like she’s acting normal.” This report alone seemed to lift a huge weight off his shoulders. But tension still remained.

“What about the curse? Are you able to break it?”

“Sorry, but I don't have the things to even figure out what it is. My...magic is able to tell that she’ll live through it though.”

“That is not as good as you make it sound.”

“Please explain.”

I managed to maneuver Pan into explaining why exactly what was coming in the fall.

“Do you understand the words sun, light, ■■, ■■, and ■?”

“The sun is from the sky and light comes from the sun and fire. I have an idea about the words. Is one about fighters who use swords which are good and light to get rid of bad?”

“Yes, those are Paladins.”

With my description, I acquired the word for paladin. 20 questions later, I learned the land I was in was one with a strong religious presence. During tax collection in the fall, priests would come along to bless the village.

Even the most stupidly large quantities of luck would be unable to convince the church that Ria was harmless. In the meantime, if I didn't stumble over something equally miraculous, she wouldn't be cured beforehand. Not mentioning the fact that I didn't know what kind of necromancy detecting magic they could use.

I planned to leave the village by early autumn, one way or another.