We returned to the inn in the early evening. As it was the middle of summer, the sun hadn’t set yet, but the general ruckus of the small village was already quieting down.

We entered the inn through the front door and Misha greeted her mother with an energetic, “I’m back!”

Maria was talking to the first evening guests and filling up their cups with what was without a doubt an alcoholic beverage.

“Misha, where have you been so long?” Maria brushed her annoyance off and added, “Pastor Ignacio wants to see you. You should go over to the church and talk to him,” she ordered.

“Um, you sure you won’t be needing any help here?” Misha looked rightfully concerned considering the circumstances.

“Don’t you worry about that. This has been a rough couple of days, and you should look out for yourself. And I think the pastor is exactly the person who can help you with that.”

I kinda got the vibes that Maria wanted to hook her daughter up, but I didn’t want to make wild assumptions, so I asked, “The pastor certainly has a reputation here, doesn’t he?”

“Yeah, he is probably the strongest mage in town after all. And also, he makes a good counselor,” Misha explained. “Actually, if there is any issue at all, you can count on him. The good he’s done to our village is beyond comparison. Anyway,” Misha took a step back to face our group, “I’ll be going then. Have a good night in case we won’t see each other later.”

She made a quick wave, told her mom she loved her, and scurried away.

“Thank you for looking after her.”

Maria approached us and held out her hand. For some reason I had expected her to bow, but that probably was due to all the Isekais being written by Japanese people. I wondered for a split-second if maybe I was hit by a truck, but given I was living on the fifth floor that was highly unlikely.

Aurelia firmly grasped Maria’s hand and answered: “Don’t sweat it. After all we are here to help.”

“Of course. Now, would you mind eating dinner? It would be on the house.”

I wondered if she wanted to compensate for something.

“No, you don’t have to-”

“Yes, with pleasure!”

Raynard and I accepted the offer the same time the princess tried to decline it. Past experiences told me to always accept gifts from strangers, or you would regret it. I figured maybe Raynard was the same, although I didn’t know much about his background.

Though wasn’t his brother a historian or something?

...

Hmm, that’s no guarantee for having money though.

Anyway, brushing that thought aside, food was on its way, and we decided to have a little team conference about how to proceed.

Raven was there too.

“How did you know we-”

“I smelled you.”

“That’s disgusting. Please, continue,” Aurelia said, though that second statement was directed at Shelly.

“I think after dinner we should go get some rest. Especially you, Nathan.”

“Oh great, doing nothing is one of my few talents. I’ll be fine.”

Raynard and Aurelia chuckled while Shelly looked at me as if she expected better of me.

“But yeah, I guess we should sit down.” I motioned awkwardly towards an empty table, flinching after realizing maybe I shouldn’t move my arm around too much.

“Maybe you should see a medic,” Aurelia commented.

“You mean the priest?” Raynard suggested jokingly, which made me chuckle.

“For real though, I think it’s nothing serious. As long as we change those bandages every couple hours, I should be fine. I mean the bleeding has basically stopped. I think. My arm is numb actually.”

We talked like this for a couple more minutes, until our dinner came. After quickly finishing our food, Maria handed us some tea to accompany our digestion ... oh, and our discussion of course.

“We should consider our next step,” Shelly suggested.

“Well, I think, we should try to catch the culprit in the act,” Aurelia proposed.

“Agreed. Considering we haven’t made any progress so far, this seems to be our best bet,” Shelly confirmed.

“So, what? We’re gonna stay up the night and watch the graveyard?” I asked.

“Keep it low, dude,” Raynard hissed to stop me from speaking too loudly. “Why are we even discussing this here? Anyone could hear us,” he spoke into the group.

He was right. I mean theoretically ... Normally the general mumbling that by now had settled in would drown out our conversation for most people in the room. Unless someone decided to eavesdrop.

As I was sitting against the wall, I decided to cautiously look around the room.

“Well, if someone would be spying on us, it wouldn’t matter, whether we are sitting here, or in our rooms,” Shelly explained. “In fact, I think it is more likely to get away unheard in a room full of talking people.”

“Yeah, what she said,” I simply commented.

“But yeah,” she kept her voice low, “for this we should definitely sneak out after dark. I don’t want to get on the bad side of those people, so after we finished our tea, we should maybe get a nap, and then do our thing. Got it?”

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We nodded in unison.

----------------------------------------

“Oh, wow, that’s nasty.”

Raven was changing my bandages in our room. I was sitting on the bed, while Raven was sitting on the floor.

“Please don’t try to lick it alright?” I said, followed by a suppressed hiss as the bloodstained bandages peeled off my healing wound.

“Wow, this looks awful,” I commented again.

“I think it’s beautiful.”

I wondered for a moment whether Raven said that because of the spell that was controlling him, or because he probably had a past of slaughtering people.

I wanted to say something, but instead I just let out a meaningless groan.

The fact that I was the only one speaking was deeply unsettling, which is why I was unable to shut up. Raynard had already zoned out on his bed, and Raven was uncomfortably quiet for some reason.

“Is everything ... alright?” I asked him awkwardly.

“Well ... no, but for the sake of the argument let’s pretend I said yes.”

“Well, then for the sake of the argument let’s pretend you didn’t say that last bit.” I tried not to sound bitter, but I wasn’t quite sure if I managed to do it.

“Well, I had a lot of time to think lately, and everything is so ... strange. I thought about what happened over the last week or two. And I realized I barely spared a thought about what happened before we met. My sister is basically in jail, and I’m just running around like all that never happened. I don’t think I really changed from before. I still have the urge to do unspeakable things to those who oppose me, but you don’t want me to do such things, so I don’t do them. It all makes perfect sense to me ... except it doesn’t. I’m just ... confused.”

Guilt washed over me as he spoke. I could tell him the reason for his confusion obviously, but what would happen after that? I did not want to tell him. I really enjoyed things, how they were at the moment. It was selfish, but I couldn’t imagine how it would be if he wasn’t under basically my control. I was under control. I had someone I didn’t want to leave my side. Because that’s what would always happen. Because before, I never had control.

“Look, you are happy now, aren’t you?” I asked him.

He nodded.

“You should not challenge your happiness. Or you might lose it. And you wouldn’t want that, would you?”

He shook his head.

“Just because you have the power, it doesn’t mean you should use it recklessly, or you’ll regret it.”

How ironic.

“I don’t know how your life was with your sister, but you have been given another chance to lead a different life. So, you should take it. Or ... well, don’t. But if you have decided that the way things are right now aren’t for you, and you’ll get back to your old life ... this time there won’t be any turning back, alright?”

He smiled at me; I blushed realizing everything I just said.

“I know, someone like me giving advice to someone with your experience ...”

“That was actually really cool.”

“Of course it was,” I smiled gleefully.

“All done,” Raven said, after finishing my bandages, I barely noticed anything while talking. The burning slowly crept back, before subsiding due to some paste applied to it.

“We should get some rest as well,” I said, before laying on my side.

Raven put out the light and also got onto the bed, again hugging me from behind, being mindful of not touching the bandages accidentally.

----------------------------------------

Sometime later I jolted out of sleep, freeing myself from Ravens grip.

Weren’t we supposed to keep watch or something?

I glanced over to Raynard’s bed, which was empty. I figured they must have already gone without us.

I walked over to the only window in the room and looked outside. After scanning the area for a while, I spotted Raynard hiding alone in some bushes.

I got back to my side of the bed and picked up my bag containing the Grimoire.

Hey, do you know where Shelly is?

[Above.]

Above? Ahh, probably on the roof, or the attic or something.

I picked up my scarf that was thrown on the floor carelessly and wrapped it around my shoulders and arms, like some sort of improvised poncho.

I snuck out of the room, took a right turn, and went upstairs. This floor did not have any more stairs, instead a small ladder lead to a hatch, which led me to the rooftop where Shelly was. She lay on her stomach looking through a pair of binoculars, her elbows propped on a bag.

I ducked, and tip-toed toward her, before also laying down.

“Hey.”

“Nathan.” She looked up and asked, “what time is it?”

“What is time?” I asked, mainly because so far, I haven’t really noticed anyone having a portable way of measuring time. Well, except for the Grimoire of course.

“For real though, why did you leave me behind? I feel heartbroken,” I tried to radiate the same energy as the crying emoji as much as possible, but I am pretty sure, my sarcasm took over.

“Oh, we didn’t leave you behind. I woke up Raynard for watch when the sun set, but the princess is still sleeping as well.” She turned back to look through the binoculars. “I’m glad you didn’t just walk out to him though.” She pointed at Raynard hiding.

“Yeah, I’m not that dumb.” I also turned to look over the edge of the roof. “So, anything yet?”

“Nothing. I feel like this is a waste of time. If you don’t mind, I’ll hand those over to you, and go catch some sleep,” she said, as she handed me her binoculars.

“Ah, could you maybe bring me some new bandages and this medicine, whatever it is? They should be somewhere next to my bed.”

“Sure thing. I’ll send the princess up,” she said, standing up, and making her way back inside. A sudden gust of wind made me shiver, and I took the binoculars, from where Shelly laid them on the floor.

Well at least with you I won’t be lonely, right?

[...]

I sighed.

After a couple of minutes of trying not to completely doze off, a rattling came from behind me, and I turned back, to see a very ... eh, let’s not dive into that description further. The princess came my way, and after also laying on the floor she handed me over the bandages.

“Thank you,” I said feebly. “Have a look, would you?” I asked her as I handed over the binoculars, to which she just replied with a useless grunt.

I rolled off the bandages and took a good look at my scars. Whatever that balm was (unicorn poop probably) it was incredibly helpful. It did not look pretty, the skin around the wounds was a mess, but I did not feel any irritation whatsoever and it seemed as though the scars would simply close themselves overtime. It was still painful, but now it was more like a sore muscle than being burned alive.

While I was doing my thing the princess asked me: “How do you do? With that injury?”

I was thinking about whether to reply honestly or sarcastically, but I ended up just saying, “Well ...” and flailing my arms.

She chuckled and sat up laying the binoculars to her side. “Let me help.”

I’ve already applied the weird paste, so she took the bandages and began to wrap them around my arms.

While I was watching her, I desperately looked for a topic to talk about.

“You know, back home I had a friend. Unbelievable, I know. We would always sneak out together at night. This whole situation just reminded me of that.”

“Don’t tell me I remind you of her,” a cheeky smile showed on her face.

“First of all, it actually was a girl, so lucky guess, second, no not at all,” I chuckled. “I suppose you have a similar personality, but when it comes to looks, you’re not at all alike.”

“... Home ... huh?”

I exhaled heavily through my nose.

“Yeah.”

After a short while I said. “You know, since coming here, I barely spared a thought about going back. At least ... it is not a priority at the moment. I like it here. If there is no way back, I would have no problem with that. Do you think that is weird?” I asked her.

“Not at all,” she said, as she finished up the bandages and looked up. “Actually, I feel similarly. We probably have different upbringings, I take it, but I’m actually quite glad to be where I am right now. Which is not at home. My family ... is quite difficult, so I’m really thankful I don’t have to be around them all the time.”

I looked at her wide-eyed.

“Erm, I hoped that helped?”

I snickered. “It did. Thanks.”

“That’s good. If you want to talk, don’t hesitate to talk to me.”

“That’s not my strength. Talking about myself anyway.”

She chuckled as well. “I get that. Anyway,” she stood up. “Time to relieve Raynard from his duty. Have a good night.”

“You too.” I turned back to my goggles. I heard the hatch close, and after a while I spotted the princess through my glasses. She also looked for me and after a while directed a peace sign at me. I grinned and returned the gesture.

The night ended uneventfully, and we left our positions as soon as the sun rose.