"...So, Elijah, take care of our beautiful black-haired friend, alright?" - Ayla says.

"Sigh" - Elijah answers – Does a sigh count as an answer?

To summarize, Cass and Ayla are leaving to do something, when I asked she pondered for a bit, then said:

"Boring, bureaucratic stuff that could make even you fall asleep" - And with that I agreed, or to say, I lost interest.

About being black-haired... You see, Cass and Ayla were giving each other some side-eyes, then gave me this wig, "it's better this way", she said while nodding to herself. Apparently this wig is something our elf girl uses to hide her hair color and pointy ears. Seems like some places discriminate against elves, so it is convenient to the 'boring, bureaucratic stuff' she does.

So now I have black hair! Though, it IS a downgrade from my beautiful white hair, not that I ever got to see my full face.

"Let's get going, I'll show you around" - I hear Elijah say, oops, guess I got distracted.

"What does this place have to offer?"

"What was that? Can you repeat?" - He says.

"I said, what does-"

"What?"

Ah, the language. Ayla has been teaching me the human language of this world, these classes are the reason I still don't know magic, "Communication is more important than magic" and all.

And Elijah right here is making me use the human tongue! How dare he!

"Umm... What does this prace hwav-"

"Pffftt"

How dare he laugh!

—

Apparently, other than taverns, inns, the merchants and adventurers guild, this place has a public library and an apothecary. Elijah recommended that I go read there when I have free time. He was made my babysitter, is dumping me in a library the equivalent of letting a baby to the television?

Then he led me to the inn, on the way we crossed a certain road...

Elijah looked over to a carpenters shop, a man around his forties, probably the owner of the shop, looked back, then looked down. Never once have I seen in the three heroes the amount of emotions this man just showed. Sorrow, disappointment, hate, you name it.

Our beastman frowned as if rejecting the idea of talking to the man, but he still went to greet him.

"Mr. Victor, can we see her?"

"Another useless check up? If her condition is worse, will you give us false hope again? And this new girl, another one of yours I assume..." - The Carpenter, apparently named Victor, said with harsh words, although seeming like a coping mechanism.

"..."

Elijah said nothing, the man disinterestedly waved his hand to his home. No words said, we walked in.

I followed behind to a bedroom where a kid around ten years old was lying in bed staring at the ceiling.

"Mira, good to see you" - Elijah compliments the girl who only takes a glance at him, then at me, and looks back up.

"Please take another dose of this medicine."

The girl in question is pale, her body isn't malnourished, but it seems really fragile. Her long black hair is also a mess, it probably has been a long time since it has been washed. Her lips are dry and eyes are lifeless.

"What's the point? I'll die anyways, y'know that delaying it only causes more pain to me and my dad, right?"

"But..."

"Take that remorse off your face, you promised to heal me, and you didn't, although my father might, I blame none of you. Being alive is painful, if I get cured, then I'm too old to start school, too dumb to do smart people jobs and too weak for manual labor, just let me die."

This kid, she's in deep depression... A child, before anyone else, shouldn't feel like this, so I decide to say something, slowly, of course, so I don't stutter.

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"Out of curiosity, if you got healed, what would you like to do?"

"Ha, does it matter, even?"

"'Course it does, if you hold no value as a member of society, then your existence matters only to you. The lack of people to help you also means there won't be people there to criticize anything you do, it's like... Absolute freedom."

"That's a twisted way to see the world, miss, and surely you shouldn't say that to a child, should you?"

"You understand how everyone feels, you just don't have the energy to care. Few adults reach such cold logic, good or bad, your maturity is far beyond that of a child."

"...I have two wishes, if I were to get well, one is to see the world, the other one, guess I'll take it to the grave with me." - Mira finished her piece with a smug smile, as a chess player who just checkmated his opponent.

"Then let's bet! When you get better, you'll tell me that secret wish of yours, alright?"

"Did your friends teach you how to give people false hope too? ...Alright, just don't dare to say that line in front of my father."

"Okay then. For now you take your medicine, see you later!"

"Hope there's no 'later' for me!"

And with that I left the room first, Elijah administered the medicine and left too.

—

We got to the inn, two single beds, one double bed, I hope a certain cliché dialogue won't happen. The room is better than those I saw in images in my old world, though I think this is the power of money. But back to the topic.

"Can you explain what the deal is with that carpenter?" - I speak in perfect Exilia language, the language of humans, so he won't dodge the subject.

He looks around, then down, sighs and starts to speak

"That man... No, that man's daughter, Mira, she suffers from an illness called 'Aura Putrefaction', although this world doesn't have the medicinal knowledge, it is caused by a bacteria that attacks the aura within the body, it progresses slowly, but at one point the aura affected is more than the aura naturally produced."

"It's not deadly, but people from this world naturally have a stronger resistance to illnesses thanks to the aura in them, with that aura gone, many diseases have an easy way into the person, those are deadly."

"...I'm assuming there's no cure?"

"There is a cure, from the petals of a Desolaris, flower that needs to be covered from all sunlight right after blooming, it is also extremely hard to be cultivated, it just rejects to bloom anytime the seeds are manipulated"

"And none of you could get the cure?"

"Only in Aioniyos, the Forest of the Elves, can it be found, just the heavy rains and winds could change the landscape to cover the flowers after bloom, you won't find it anywhere else. The problem is..."

"Is the medicine expensive?"

"There's that, include the travel cost from here to Aioniyos, and no way could a simple carpenter get his hands on the medicine"

"But what's your part in it all?"

"You see... Ayla is nobility over there, she should be capable of getting the medicine rather easily, So when she heard the situation, she jumped right in, promising the man to bring the cure, Cass and I both agreed..."

"But you couldn't get it, right?"

"Sigh... We got there ready to pay, Ayla and her organization pulled all the possible strings, Cass even used his status as the prince, yet... Because of some arbitrary laws, we never got it, doesn't matter how much money we offered"

"And the current situation is because the man convinced himself that you guys would get the cure, but when you came back empty handed..."

Elijah nods. I think I can fill in the gaps. Being called "The Heroes" and failing a mission they promised to accomplish... Is bound to leave a burden.

"There's no way to get the flowers, at least?"

"If we had them, any apothecary could do it. But they can only be found in the perfect environment..."

I see... So the dad is just waiting for the daughter to die.

"And that medicine you gave her?"

"That's a highly concentrated aura pill, it delays her death by adding aura to her body, something similar to giving insulin to a diabetic person... Now is my turn to ask questions, that theory of yours, that 'absolute freedom' thing, do you truly believe that?"

"...I used to. The disease is a minor problem compared to her mental state, my 'theory' is just the means for her to be willing to walk, from there she just needs someone to allow her to run"

"..."

—

The sun is setting, Elijah went to sleep. Is there really no way to save the girl? What a terrible day to be incapable of sleeping... Though, even if I could, I doubt I'd manage to fall asleep. I've got free time on my hands, so I guess...

"We're back!" - Ayla says as she enters the room, Cass behind him.

"Oh, what mood is this?"

I looked at her, I guess my sorrow showed. She glanced at Elijah lying down, I guess she could see his expression behind all that fur, because she frowned even more.

"I'll tackle the library, see you two tomorrow morning"

—

It's morning. I spent all night in the library. Turns out the Desolaris is the same flower as a Solaris, after blooming, it changes the percentage of aura absorbed from the ground depending if there's sunlight or not. The Desolaris has more aura in it, it cures the Aura Putrefaction by overdosing the bacteria.

In the end, it can be found anywhere under the right conditions, so I studied this place's geology.

"There's a forest northeast and another one west from the village. The one northeast has a depression and plenty of sinkholes form around there. We might find a Desolaris there. Wanna give it a try?"

"First of all... Why did you stay at the library for so long?"

"...What?"

"You left at night two days ago, stayed the whole next day there and came back right now during morning"

"No I didn't"

"Yes you did, I went to check up on you, twice"

Did I really stay there that long? How can someone lose track of time for a whole day? I mean, sure, there aren't many windows at the library, but still...

"Well, anyways, what do you think?"

"...Aria, don't give that man more false hope."

"He doesn't need to know, if we fail, no one needs to know, if we manage it, the girl is saved! None of them are expecting anything to change anyways!"

"..."

"Wanna give it a try? Might be the last chance to redeem yourselves"

"...Alright" - Elijah said with a smile overflowing with confidence.