As they walked on, Lina remembered something.

“Hey, you didn’t answer my first question, why did my healing work less well on the both of you than on myself?”

“Ah yeah, I totally forgot.” Sayu slapped her forehead.

“For two reasons. Firstly, due to our training and higher mana capacity, our bodies are much stronger than yours and thus need more mana to heal. Secondly, for you to influence us with your magic, you need to overwhelm us, which is very difficult even if your target is significantly weaker than you. If we hadn’t let you in, you wouldn’t have been able to do anything. That’s also why life magic isn’t good for combat, which is a good thing, just imagine how scary magic that can kill you from inside would be.”

Lina shivered at that thought. She imagined tumours growing inside an unlucky foe, their meat splitting apart, teeth and appendages growing everywhere while their vital organs got squished as the victim grew into an unsightly Cronenberg creature and was suddenly relieved that her magic powers weren’t that good. For one, she didn’t want to be targeted by such hideous powers and more importantly, she would never have been able to inflict something like that on others.

Shaking her head vigorously, she forced herself to think about healing again and noticed an issue.

“How does that work with unconscious people? I’d wager many people in need of healing aren’t conscious enough to concentrate on letting someone in, as you put it.”

“There are two possibilities. Thankfully, most people who fall unconscious do so in battle, which means their reserves are almost always empty, so they thus hardly resist at all. The second possibility is, to use a ritual and a source of energy like a condensed magic for example to overpower them with external help. That isn’t advisable, though, since the amount of energy needed to successfully do that, is so exorbitant, that it can hurt someone’s pathways. Well, and it is pretty damn expensive, most people couldn’t pay for that, so they either wake up or die.” Sayu explained much too cheerfully for Lina’s liking.

She talked about people dying as if it was nothing, but Lina didn’t point that out. It wasn’t her place to judge, given that she knew nothing about this world. She could always try to impress her morals on the locals when she knew what she was talking about, after all, how did the saying go? ‘When you don’t know what you are talking about, just shut the fuck up.’, so she let the matter go and opted to talk about less dark topics.

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After their conversation, they all felt much more comfortable. Getting to know each other really made things easier and gave Lina a better perspective, and she had learned a lot about her new home. For example, people here counted their age in seasons, which seemed to align with the seasons on Earth close enough. If she was right, they were a bit longer in this world, from what they told her about how people grew up in this world, but she couldn’t be sure. For now, she would assume, that she was right because why not? After asking the siblings about their age, she was surprised to learn, that Sayu was only somewhere between 19 and 21 years old, she had said 79 seasons so, adjusting to the longer seasons, Lina would round it up to 21 years, give or take. Konrad was a bit older, about 23 years or 90 seasons, which apparently was something noteworthy. People in this world liked multiples of 10 too, it seemed.

Lina smiled at that, for all that was different, people were still people and ascribed value to the most meaningless things, which comforted her. Of course, they had asked her how old she was too. Lina had felt a bit insulted, when their eyes almost fell out, when she told them, that she was about 92 seasons old, a bit older than Konrad. They couldn’t seem to believe her and at first, she didn’t understand why, so when Sayu told her the reason, she was a little surprised at the explanation. They really thought she was a child, but not just because she was short.

“But... your arms and legs are so thin and your chest and abs are… Well, not what I would expect from an adult.” Sayu tried voicing her doubts diplomatically, which didn’t really work, while Konrad tried to hide his laughter at Lina’s affronted expression.

“I am just not fit! You are both training regularly, probably daily, but the last time I ran at all before coming here was several yea… many seasons ago. I am just not as muscular as you two Greek demigods.” She explained indignantly while gesturing at them as if to point out the obvious.

“What’s a Greek demigod?” Sayu asked, confusion thick in her voice.

“It doesn’t matter. The fact is, that I am not a child!” Lina shouted.

“You sure sound like one, when you throw a tantrum like that.” Konrad chuckled, which got him a seething glare, that would be enough to make small children cry.

“Thin ice, Mister ‘I let bandits steal my sword because I sleep while I am supposed to be on watch’.” Lina retorted.

“She got you there.” Sayu laughed while patting her brother, whose complexion was quite a bit redder now, on the shoulder.

Failing to hide her grin and giggles behind her hand, she turned to Lina. “Now, calm down, we didn’t intend to disrespect you, it’s just that most people work on the fields or something like that, so seeing someone as thin and soft as you are is rare. You should try to not get offended so easily, I doubt this is the last time someone thinks you are a child.”

Lina grumbled but acknowledged the truth in her words. If everyone was as ripped as those two, she really would look out of place.

“You will see for yourself soon, we are almost at the border village. Just… remember that it is a small village right at the border of the weald, sooo they are careful and don’t like outsiders too much, just stick with us.”

Lina nodded slowly, a bit surprised by the warning, but she didn’t think about it further and dropped the matter. Sayu was probably worried about nothing.

Instead of replying, she took out her wine and took a long swig. The wine wasn’t what she would usually drink, very heavy, sweet and much more alcoholic than your standard drinking wine, but not too bad. What she hadn’t expected was the reaction of the two siblings, who stopped and stared at her.

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“Is… is that your hereditary gift?” Sayu asked tentatively.

“Hmm? Yeah, it is. Is something the matter? It also allows me to store things in some kind of dimensional subspace inventory thingy, I don't know how it works.” Lina shrugged.

“Oh, and it also allows me to identify things and get basic information about them.” Lina wasn’t sure why they reacted like this. It was a magic world after all, didn’t they have something like bags of holding?

“It is just… This ability is very valuable. There are a few storage rings with similar functionality in the kingdom, but they are very rare and expensive, a normal adventurer could never afford something like that, it takes a space-attuned condensed magic after all.” Sayu explained. “You should try to keep it hidden.”

Lina nodded, if items with a similar functionality were this rare, she could imagine what people might do just to get hold of it. It was incredibly convenient after all and if most people essentially had no hereditary gift, she wouldn’t be surprised if some rich prick would try to… improve his lineage with her ‘help’.

“If we had known that earlier, we could have taken more from that troll.” Konrad mused regretfully, but alas going back now wouldn’t make a lot of sense, other monsters and animals had probably already gorged themselves on the dead troll.

“Welp, no point in crying over spiled milk.” Lina shrugged.

“Is that a saying where you come from? What does it mean? Wait, no, don’t explain, I think I know what you are trying to say.” Konrad responded.

Not long after, the forest gradually thinned, the uncanny thick trees, weirdly dense bushes and the occasional fluorescent and thorny plants gave way to more ordinary growth, additionally, the atmosphere became a lot more pleasant, feeling less suffocating now that they didn’t have to be so vigilant. They had been lucky not to be attacked on their way out of the forest, but the constant need to stay alert was rather exhausting nonetheless.

As they entered the village, Lina was impressed by the many smallish fields surrounding it. She was used to seeing massive fields, that were all cared for by just a few people, but of course that wasn’t possible in a world without modern tools. Instead, people of all ages, even some children, tended to crops and animals, glancing at the group as they walked by.

Past the fields was a wooden palisade surrounding the village proper, it looked sturdy enough and Lina was surprised to see something like that in a small village like this, which couldn’t have more than two, maybe three hundred inhabitants. When they reached the palisade, they were stopped by a young guard in obviously worn, but sturdy leather armour.

“Names and reason for coming here.” He demanded.

“Oh, come on, you saw us leave for the contract, just let us through already.” Sayu puffed her cheeks in mock anger.

Sighing the guard answered, “You know the rules, I don’t make them, I just enforce them, and they say, that I have to register anyone coming and leaving the village, and you have actually brought someone new, did you just want to smuggle her in or what was your plan?”

Konrad rolled his eyes. “You know how it is, we are just tired and eager to get to the inn and relax. As you know, I am Konrad and this is my sister Sayu, the other one is Lina.”

The guard looked Lina over. “Why did you bring a child here and where did you even find her?”

As Lina wanted to tear into the guard for his impertinent words, Sayu answered the guard’s question.

“We found her in the weald and she doesn’t know how she got there.” She shrugged. “She isn’t a bad person and has some healing capabilities, so just let us in, Greg. Oh, and don’t call her a child, she is actually older than Konrad.” she snickered as Greg’s eyes went wide.

“I am so sorry Miss, I didn’t mean to be disrespectful, please enter.” He turned back to Sayu and Konrad “You brought her here, so she is your responsibility, if something happens, you’ll have to answer for it, understood?”

“Yeah, yeah, let’s talk another day about the troll we killed.” Konrad smirked.

“You killed a what now?!” The guard shouted in surprise, but the three were already past the gate and had no intention to stop.

“Was it really alright to just leave?” Lina asked unsure about the proper decorum in such a situation.

“Sure.” Sayu answered. “That’s just Greg, he is a friend, we know him from before he was stationed here.” She smiled.

As they walked on, Lina observed the village and the people. The village was not much more than one big street with houses on either side, that led toward a small market square with some more business-oriented buildings, she could spot a bakery, a butcher and even a small general store. The houses were mostly made of wood, but some had a base made of irregularly shaped small boulders and some kind of mortar. One was even 2 stories high with a base made from actual bricks, and that was precisely the building they were walking towards. What made her uncomfortable, however, were the stares people gave her, some even scrunching their noses up in disgust. Just then she noticed, that there were no humans like her, everyone, except Greg the guard, had colourful hair, sharp teeth and pointy ears. Lina had never experienced racism and she could have happily lived on without doing so, but they were essentially just staring and she couldn’t complain too much about that, given that she was staring right back. Like that, she saw exactly what Sayu had told her about, the people around her were all basically strongmen and bodybuilders, even the children had strong, wiry muscles, full of power. Thankfully, at least they didn’t seem to dislike her, they were just curious, which Lina could respect, they weren’t glaring at her as if she was a turd in a swimming pool like the adults did. Thankfully, she was rescued from the villagers’ stares when they approached their destination.

As they entered, they were greeted by thick air, laden with smoke and the stench of people, who hadn’t seen a bath in quite some time. As she scrunched up her nose, Lina remembered, that she hadn’t cleaned herself either since falling into the pond with the blood of the dark forest, so she surreptitiously took a self-conscious whiff of her own body odour and to her dismay discovered, that she was smelling just as bad, if not worse than the inside of what she identified as an inn. It hadn’t been too long since she fell into the pond, but blood and sweat paired with dirt, that clung to her body like glue, together with her sparse clothing made her smell and look more like a homeless person than she would have liked.

Lina sighed as she uncomfortably sat down at a table, which wasn’t much more than a round piece of wood on stilts with just enough room for four stools around it, together with Konrad and Sayu.