Chapter Forty-Four

I was counting the passage of time by episodes, not by minutes or hours. Despite Celia’s best efforts, within nine episodes I felt myself growing weary, I was swaying on my feet, the world was becoming dizzy, I missed a few falls and the moment the main character showed off his power to some religious fanatics and made them think he was a god.

“Nothing says you have to stand up.” Celia said and rushed to grab a chair for me, “Why don’t I help you out here? I don’t have near as much mana, but…” She shook her head and rolled her eyes, “I should have thought to offer in the first place. You’ll probably say no but…”

“Absolutely.” I answered at once and wiped my forehead with my arm.

“Wait, really?” She blinked a few times.

“Of course? You watch too much anime, what am I, some main character to valiantly refuse help because nonsense? No. If you can do this at the same time as me, it’ll be easier, and you know I love easier!” I exclaimed.

I nonetheless accepted her offer of a chair and the readout went up to twenty-five percent.

“Would this really take weeks?” I asked.

“Diminishing returns, remember?” She asked.

“Oh. I didn’t realize that applied to medical magic…” I grumbled, I was now very cross with Shugo and with Celia… but I knew that was just the result of what I was doing affecting my mood, not something real, so I kept my mouth shut.

Diminishing magical returns states that as you increase the amount of magic, you will get ever smaller results for what you put in, until you’re forced to put in a monumental amount of effort for a very tiny result. Kind of like how in role playing games where there’s a leveling mechanic, you gain the earliest levels easier and then it gets steadily harder to do as you get more and more powerful.

Even so, with two of us at it, I was seeing more progress. The mana that was drawn out of us at our palms blended together in a harmonious blue and green flow, blue from me, green for her, it was a winding river in the air of sparkling and shimmering light in whirling spiral patterns that wove in and out around one another until it glowed over Shugo’s sleeping body.

It took eight more episodes to get him to fifty percent, at which point Celia lost control over her swap and she reverted to her natural body. Personally, I found her to be very cute regardless of which body she was in.

Mine lasted about six more episodes than she did, at which point I was just barely conscious, and Celia collapsed to one knee. She looked up at my sweating, straining body as I gritted my teeth and the last drams of mana were torn free… and said, “You really are a prodigy.” She was breathing hard, looking up at me with big wide eyes that I can only describe as ‘admiring’.

I saw the readout hit the sixty percent mark and…

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

I went down. Her hand came up and caught me, steadying me so I didn’t fall on my back.

“Th-is w-as so-m-thing el-se.” I breathed out and gasped, huffing and puffing as I tried to steady myself. I’d gained a renewed appreciation for medical magic users, that much was sure.

“You… we-re, so-mething el-else.” Celia gasped and let herself fall partially on her side, stopping herself with one outward thrust of her arm so that her hand hit the carpet. I did the same in the opposite direction, but I had to deny it.

“We only got sixty percent. And there’s no way I can do more for at least the rest of today.” I grumbled, “That was exhausting and painful and I hate it.”

“So you want to quit?” Celia asked, and I actually glared at her.

“No.” I answered. She flinched.

“I’m sorry, I just thought, you know, since it’s hard that-” She tried to explain, but I cut her off.

“I know I seem like the sort who quits, but I’m not. I don’t quit. I like to be lazy and do nothing, but there’s some things that just need to be done, and I don’t get to quit on those, especially if I made a promise.” I asserted and when I saw she was having trouble looking at me, I reassured her.

“It’s all right. I know what it seems like. I just need a rest… uh… you know, it now occurs to me that I forgot something important.” I looked away from her and toward the bed where the pair slept.

“What?” Celia asked.

“Where do I sleep?” I asked.

“There’s the futon in the room you gave to me.” Celia pointed out.

“If you’re okay with sharing… alright. But didn’t this have various consequences in some of the shows we’ve been watching?” Celia asked with a sideways glance. “You’re not going to try anything that requires concealing fog or bright lights to conceal things, are you?” She asked.

I flopped down on my back and stared at the ceiling. “Do I look like I have the energy for that?” I asked.

“I’m not hearing a no.” She pointed out.

“Okay, no.” I answered with a weary puff, “For now I’m going to crawl over to the shower and climb in and wash the sweat off, then crawl into my pajamas as best I can… then lie down and just die for about ten or twelve hours.”

“That… that sounds good.” Celia huffed and fell over onto her back with her arms akimbo and added, “I’ll do that after you… and we can start fresh in the morning.”

“After a big breakfast.” I added.

“Yes. That is a good plan, I like that plan…and maybe a quick snack run?” She suggested.

“Of course…” I answered as both of our stomachs rumbled.

By morning our mana would be restored, but it took both of us all day to do this and we didn’t even get past sixty percent for one person. We’d also have to keep an eye on the rest of their body, make sure they got water, food, stayed clean, a process I will skip in describing, and otherwise look after them until we were done.

We did as we planned, and as I fell asleep after washing off the sweat and crawling into the futon and drifted off to the feel of Celia rolling over and flopping her arm over my side, I wondered… ‘What kind of people are they going to be like when they wake up?’