I hung out with Rapunzel and Melly until it was time for dinner, which was amazing as usual. I did notice everyone sneaking glances at me, though. They were obviously curious about how things went, but our food is too good to waste with such heavy topics, so, everyone decided to wait until the end like usual. I couldn’t help but be curious as to who would breach the topic, though. Would it be the Hero, our effective leader? Maybe Gregory, the curious mage? It could even be Hansen! Well, probably not Hansen. I am curious as to how he’d ask though.

After we finished eating, Gregory called out to me. “Miss Elizabeth, may I have a moment of your time?” The curious mage it is. Makes sense, he’s the only one that has some understanding of the topic other than myself. Melly is impressively knowledgeable about the non-magical side of things though. So… the most important part. Huh.

“This should be about my ability to use magic, right?”

“Correct, I understand this may be a difficult topic, so I ask for your forgiveness. We were curious as to how you were fairing with regards to your current predicament? You do not have to force yourself to talk should you find such things difficult, we may also speak in a more private setting, should that be easier for you.”

“You don’t need to worry about anything, I’m doing quite well.” I answered. Ah, I know what I should do! I cast one of my rare area healing spells upon my companions. “As you can see.” I finish with a smile. Sadly such spells are notoriously inefficient, wasting a vast majority of their energy to the environment. They have a strict cost and effect, and even if you have the absolute optimal amount of injuries to heal, a good third of the mana is completely wasted. And that’s not counting how it’s a general heal instead of a precise heal.

“Ah, I see. It appears that your situation is progressing quite well. I would like to remind you to not push yourself, though. While we are eager for your situation to be relieved, we do not wish for you to strain yourself to do so.”

“Thanks for your concern, but I’m fine, at least for now. I am a bit worried about tomorrow though.” I mutter.

“You are worried about tomorrow?” Rapunzel asks with concern.

“Yeah.” I sigh. “I’m probably going to struggle with my magic tomorrow morning, at least at first.”

“Why, you are doing so well right now?”

“That’s because I’ve been continuously using magic. If I stop for a few hours though, like when I sleep, I will lose my… familiarity? Comfort? Whatever, I’ll lose whatever is allowing me to comfortably use magic. Haa, tomorrow I’ll probably have to struggle a bit to get back to how I am now.”

“So we are going to have a repeat of earlier?” Rapunzel asks with concern.

“Well.” I start, before being interrupted.

“Don’t worry, Eli! Even if I have to repeat today’s struggle, I won’t give up!” Rapunzel proclaimed with confidence.

“I’m glad that you’re so willing, but please don’t! Besides, it shouldn’t be nearly as bad as today.” I say, lacking confidence. “I hope.” I whispered to myself. For both my and Rapunzel’s sake.

“It appears that, while not fully under control, you understand your current situation. I believe we can leave everything to you. Remember, we are concerned about your wellbeing, so if you are having any difficulties, you have but to ask. We will assist you to the best of our abilities.” Gregory offered. “I wish you a pleasant night, Miss Elizabeth.” He finished before heading off to his room.

“Thank you, Gregory.” I respond before stretching. “I’ll head off to bed as well, hopefully tonight ends peacefully.” I say before heading to my room. While yesterday was horrible, at least I fell asleep easily. Both times even! Though, the first time doesn’t really count, as I just knocked myself unconscious.

Hmmm. I could do that again. Mmm, nah, that can’t be healthy. Casting it only a few times though, that might be fine. Well, I should only start thinking about that in the future. For now I should at least try to sleep normally. Hopefully I can sleep easily on my own soon. It’s still something to think about though.

Both Melly and Rapunzel decided to sleep with me tonight. While I’m glad, the bed is a bit cramped with the three of us sharing it. I’m fine being sandwiched between Melly and Rapunzel though, as it’s a surprisingly comfortable position, but they are hanging off the bed. Especially Melly, she can barely fit on the bed on her own. She’s so tall that she makes Rapunzel and I look like children in comparison. I mean, Rapunzel is fairly tall, but she still pales in comparison to Melly, being a full head shorter. It makes me look tiny, despite being of average height for a woman.

Well, even if I did ask about their discomfort, they’d probably just tell me that they're fine. Haa, they probably feel that any discomfort they experience is insignificant compared to my suffering or something, so them complaining would just feel petty. That’s probably just my pessimism talking, though. Haa, while I’m glad they care about me, I wish they would think about themselves more so I don’t have to worry about them as much. Well, there’s no point worrying about that for now, so I should just go to sleep.

Sadly, I couldn’t sleep peacefully tonight. I initially fell asleep fairly easily, all things considered. Melly and Rapunzel being there really helped. The problem came when I was jolted awake in the middle of the night. The worst part though, at least for me, was that I woke up with a scream, probably waking up half of the inn. I was so worried about bothering other people that I actually forgot about the nightmare that woke me up. Melly was definitely confused at that.

“But I woke everyone up!” I say, trying to whisper.

“Eli, it’s okay. Everyone understands that you are having nightmares.” Melly repeats, not understanding my worry.

“Our party might, but there are other people at this inn.” I argued.

“Eli, you have more important things to worry about right now, stop worrying about something that might not even be a problem.” She says, laying me back onto the bed.

“But!” I try to continue.

“There’s nothing you can do now. Just go back to sleep, you can worry about that tomorrow.” Melly tells me. “Unless you are still uncomfortable about your nightmare.”

“Honestly, I was so preoccupied by my scream that I actually forgot why I screamed.” I say with a rueful smile.

“Haa, I don’t understand why you’re so concerned by this.”

“It’s probably fine, Melly.” Rapunzel interjected. “At least Eli isn’t suffering from her nightmare.”

“You’re right.” Melly reluctantly agreed. “Don’t worry about waking me. I would rather you wake me up than find out that you spent the whole night suffering.”

“Aye.” I accepted. I would feel the same in her place.

“Good. Good night then, Eli, Rapunzel.”

“Sleep well everyone.” Rapunzel followed.

“Night.” I finished.

Honestly I’m confused why Melly doesn’t think waking people up in the middle of the night is a problem. It certainly was a problem at the church. I mean, you didn’t get in trouble for it (unless you did it on purpose), as it’s hard to become an orphan without at least some scars and trauma. Everyone understands and does their best to help each other, but being woken up in the middle of the night, sometimes multiple times, isn’t enjoyable. And with how many of us there were, being woken up was annoyingly common. Most kids eventually felt bad about it, so they usually did their best to quiet themselves whenever they experienced nightmares or had panic attacks and the like, at least while everyone was sleeping.

Haa, once again, there’s no point worrying right now. I should just go to sleep, as I can only deal with this tomorrow anyway.

As I drift off to sleep, I can’t help but wonder if I can use my magic. While I am curious to find out, I’d rather not deal with the aftermath should I fail. Doubly so since that would confirm I’d also have to struggle tomorrow.

Haa, I knew this journey wouldn’t be easy, but I really didn’t think it would go like this. We’ve only just started, how troublesome is the rest going to be then?

______

I woke up the same as usual and went down to breakfast. While Melly said everything would be fine, she was wrong. While I was eating, I heard a few people complain about being woken up by a scream. I couldn’t help but sink into my chair out of embarrassment, while sending a glare at Melly.

She looks confused so I motion towards the people talking. She looks over before saying “It’s fine” with a shrug. I can’t help but pout at that.

Fine! If I can’t get Melly’s help, I’ll solve the issue another way. “Gregory, do you know any magic to silence, or even muffle, sounds?” I ask.

“I knew that you guys were close, but not that close.” He responded.

GREGORY?!?!

My jaw dropped as I stared at him with wide eyes. What was that! I couldn’t even respond, I was so shocked.

I turn towards everyone else to get some help, only to notice everyone laughing. It took me a minute to understand what had happened.

He’s teasing me. I did not expect Gregory to tease me like that. I thought he was too serious for that. I guess I don’t really know all that much about him though.

I was really not prepared for that. Honestly, I didn’t think anyone in our group would joke like that. I mean, the Hero might, but no one else seems to be the teasing type.

I did grow up with a few people that enjoyed teasing others, though, so I’m disappointed with how shocked I was. I guess surprise is just that powerful.

Well, since he’s fine with teasing me, he should be fine with my retaliation.

I start to prepare my magic to mess with him the same way I did at the church, the good ol’ tickling spell, an old healing spell that happens to feel pretty ticklish, though it's no longer in use because of how inefficient it is. I initially learned it to expand my horizons, but when I tested it, I found that it was quite useful for messing with people. A lot of the younger kids really enjoyed it, but anyone older usually felt quite embarrassed.

It was at this moment, I knew, I messed up.

I had forgotten that I can’t just can't use magic yet. I could feel my mana start to squirm. I did quickly stop, but by then, it was already too late. I clenched my fist while I struggled to calm down. At least it’s not nearly as bad as before, so I can deal with it for now.

As I’m dealing with the emerging few worms, Gregory stops laughing and turns to me. “I apologize for my rude comment, but you appeared to be worried, so I believed that such a comment would distract you. I mean no offense.”

“Yeah, I was very surprised.” I struggle to say as normally as I could while also trying to keep my expression calm. I was distracted, though, so distracted I actually forgot my current ailment.

“As an apology, I will answer your question. I do, in fact, have a spell that can muffle sounds.” He starts, easing some of my tension. “Sadly, said spell is active, needing to be continuously sustained to continue working, meaning it is not suitable for your needs. It is also a wind elemental spell, so you likely would not be capable of learning it with your current expertise.” He apologized.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Ah, I see. I just asked on a whim anyway.” It’s sad, but I shouldn’t have expected much. Any spell that did what I asked for would probably need a magic formation to sustain it anyway. “I just need to hurry up and get better then.” I grumble in annoyance as my current mistake has left me quite irritated. At least my mana is slowly calming down.

“Yes, that seems to be the case.” Gregory awkwardly agreed.

Ah, I was distracted, so I accidentally let out my annoyance towards Gregory. Haa, I really need to hurry up so I can stop causing problems for everyone.

“I take it that you would like to start as soon as possible then?” Melly asks.

“...Yeah, that sounds about right.” I agree. “I’ll see you guys later.” I say as I quickly head back to my room.

Once I returned, Melly turned to me. “Are you okay, something seems to be bothering you. You got really tense after Gregory’s joke.”

“Haa, I messed up.”

“How? Is there anything we can do to help?” Rapunzel asks in worry.

I go over and hug her. “I tried to cast a spell to get back at Gregory, but it backfired, so I’m not having a good time.”

“You went to cast a spell? Did Gregory’s comment bother you that much?” Melly asks in surprise.

I guess she is used to more aggressive spells, so her surprise is normal. “I was going to cast an old healing spell, one that happens to be fairly ticklish. I used to use that spell fairly often at the church, either to entertain the kids or get back at anyone that teased me. I wasn’t going to use attack magic or something. I mean, I don’t technically even know any.”

“Ah, I see, that’s a fair response towards someone teasing you. I didn’t even know there was a spell like that.” Melly responded.

“Yeah, it’s been out of use for centuries. I’d be more surprised if you did know of it. I doubt you'd even find anyone that knew of the spell. I’ve only met a handful of people that even knew it existed, and they specifically studied the history of magic for their job.” I then get a mischievous smile. “Want to experience it yourself?”

“You don’t have too.” Melly says in worry.

“What, you scared of a little tickling?” I teased.

“I’m just worried that it would be difficult for you to cast in your current state.” She corrected.

Ah, yeah, she’s right. But. “I need to cast a spell anyway, it might as well be this one.” I pushed.

“Wouldn’t one of your usual mental healing spells make it easier to actually continue to use magic? Otherwise you might still struggle with the next spell you cast, ending up increasing your suffering.” She continues to argue.

“Yeah, you're right.” I pout. “Let's go with that then. Commence hugs, Rapunzel!”

“Right away, Eli.” Rapunzel salutes, going along with my act.

I ended up struggling for a few minutes before I could finally cast all of my spells. It was far easier than last time though, so there has been progress made, at least.

“So Melly, want to try the spell now?” I ask.

“What do you mean, what spell?” She asks.

“The tickling spell.” I remind her.

“Oh yeah. I forgot about that, I’m surprised that you remembered.”

“So, do you want to try it?” I asked again.

“You don’t have to, if you don’t want to. There’s probably a bunch of other spells you’d rather cast instead.” She continued.

“Not particularly.” I responded. That’s when I realized, Melly truly doesn’t want me to cast the spell. “You know, I don’t have to use the spell on you if you don’t want me to.”

“Uh, why’d you think I don’t want you to cast that spell?” Melly asks, her facade starting to crack.

“It’s fine. I won’t force you to try it, especially after everything you’ve done for me. I definitely wouldn’t have been able to get through everything without you, it was way too much for me to handle on my own. Even now, you are still helping me. I just wanted to let you experience something interesting, but there’s no point if you don’t want to.” I say.

“It’s not that I don't want you to cast it on me, I just don’t feel like it right now.” Melly tries to argue, clearly embarrassed.

“You don’t have to explain yourself. If you don’t want to try the spell, I won’t use it. You don’t even have to tell me why. Whatever the reason, though, know that I won’t think less of you.” I explain.

“But.” She starts before giving up. “Haa, thanks.”

“No problem.” I say with a smile.

“Can I try it?” Rapunzel asks.

“Sure.” I say as I cast it.

Rapunzel started to squirm a little as she brought a hand to her mouth. She is trying, and failing, to keep a straight face. Just before the spell ends, she even ends up releasing a small giggle.

“I see.” She comments. “That was pretty interesting. I can see why kids would enjoy it.”

“Right? I was asked to cast that fairly often, it’s one of my most used spells. It’s interesting how even obsolete spells can have a use. Sadly, that spell costs over triple the mana of a normal healing spell while taking almost twice as long to cast, all for a lesser result, so it will probably remain in obscurity.” I sighed. It is a fun spell, but most people definitely won’t spend the time and effort to learn it just to occasionally tickle people.

“Did you learn any other interesting spells?”

“Possibly, I learned almost every healing spell I could get my hands on, so a few of them are likely to be interesting, I just haven't noticed many.” I responded.

“Every one? Why? Doesn’t it take quite a while to learn a new spell, even when you are already familiar with similar spells?” Melly asked.

“Yeah, but the more spells you know, the faster you learn.” I defended.

“Yeah, but not nearly fast enough to make up for the time spent learning spells that are probably useless to you.” Melly argued.

“Yeah, spending hundreds of hours learning spells just to shave a few hours off of the time it takes to learn a new spell is inefficient, but I enjoyed doing it, so who cares if it was useful.” I shrug.

“I can’t argue with that.” Melly relents. “So, What’s the plan for today?”

“Shall we try out some of those spells? I’m curious to see If any of them are useful or have a strange quirk.” Rapunzel suggests.

“Sounds good.” I respond. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and find a neat little gem.”

I then spent quite a while casting various different spells. Sadly I couldn’t get through them all today. Because I needed to keep my mental spells at full power to maximize their effects, I had noticeably less mana at my disposal than usual. That, and a combination of needing to remember how to cast the spells and the spells being even more mana intensive than they are intended because I never spent the time getting familiar with most of them, made it so I needed to continue for the next two days to get through all of them.

I don’t know about Rapunzel and Melly, but I really enjoyed my time. It reminded me of my time at the church, going through tomes to learn anything that I could. I ended up learning hundreds of mostly useless spells, but I had fun, so it was fine. I thought that was all it was.

Apparently I was wrong. Learning all of those spells actually did more than grow my interest in magic and slightly increase the speed at which I learned magic. During these past few days, I’ve noticed an increase in both the power of and amount of my mana. I know just casting spells slowly does that as well, but casting a multitude of different spells was decently faster. While I need to do more testing, It appears to be vaguely similar to how different exercises work out different muscles in different ways.

Something else I’m curious about is if just learning different spells also improved your magic, regardless of whether you cast them. I don’t have any evidence at all, but it feels true to me. Though that’s probably just me wanting an excuse to learn new spells.

A final bonus is that I’ve almost overcome my subconscious fear of mana. It appears that the combination of casting a vast quantity of different spells, as well as reliving some of my childhood, has drastically increased the speed of my recovery. Using those with all of my mental healing spells and the support of my compan- friends, my friends, has made it so I only had to slightly push myself to cast a spell the next morning. While I still suffer from nightmares and the like, I am now fully combat capable.

Now we only need to wait for the Hero to finish with the potions and we’ll be set to continue our journey.

So, after dinner I decided to ask the Hero. “How are the potions going?”

“They’ll be ready early the day after tomorrow.” He responded with confidence. “What about you? How are you fairing?”

“While I haven’t overcome the initial trauma yet, as that will probably stick for a while, I am perfectly combat capable. So, I’m ready to leave as soon as you are.” I say with confidence, trying to imitate the Hero’s expression.

“Are you sure?” He questions. Everyone else also adds their concern for me.

“Don’t worry, everyone. I have gotten better far faster than I thought I would. So fast that I would probably be good to go today, the day after tomorrow will be a breeze.” I smile before standing up and bowing. “Thank you, everyone, for your concern and assistance through my difficult time. Especially Melly and Rapunzel, I wouldn’t have been fine without you. You don’t have to worry about me forcing myself either. I know that doing that would only cause more problems for everyone.” I say, giving the Hero a look.

“It seems like you truly are fine." The Hero nods. “Let’s do what Elizabeth suggested, let’s leave as soon as I finish the potions. Sound like a plan?”

“That’s good with me, Mr. Roosevelt.” I agreed. Haa, the Hero made that amused expression again. Is it his name? Does he find his own name amusing? Why? Maybe I’m missing something. Hmm, maybe I should try using his first name instead? I wonder if that elicits the same response.

As I was distracted, everyone else agreed, albeit hesitantly.

“Okay, The plan is to leave the day after tomorrow, but if anyone doesn’t feel up to the journey yet,” He looks over at me. “We’ll postpone it until we are ready.”

“We shall need to inform the inn that we shall be leaving earlier than anticipated.” Gregory points out.

“Don’t worry about that. Conveniently, the day I’m finishing the potions is also the last day that our stay at the inn has been paid for." The Hero informed.

“I see, that is convenient.”

“I mean, I figured I’d start by just renting for just the time I needed to make the potions, as I knew that we wouldn’t be leaving before then. And, by the time I had finished, I figured we would know how much longer we’d actually need to wait. Conveniently, we didn’t end up needing any extra time anyway, so it all worked out.” He explained with an amused smile.

So, after confirming our plan, we went to bed. As I was laying down though, I couldn’t help but think of the Hero’s smile. I can’t help but find it suspicious, it’s like he knew this would happen. I look over at Rapunzel’s sleeping face as I am reminded of the conversation I had with her the first night of our journey. The Hero seems to know too much, far far more than he realistically should. Possibly, if my gut is correct, more than should be physically possible for him to know.

It’s almost like he can see the future. But, even the Gods can’t do that! The most anyone can do is predict something like the weather. Anything more variable, like people’s behavior, is well beyond anyone’s, or anything’s, capabilities. But, even if I ignore how unlikely such a thing is, what then? What would be his goals? Kill the demon lord? But why? Even if seeing the future is all he can do, there are plenty of other things he could do with his power. Hmm.

As I’m confused, I remember some advice from a bad uncle I met. While he was a poor thief, he did, at least, give some good advice. One of the things he taught me was that one way to figure out someone’s goals was to look at what the various possible results their current actions might be, and what they could possibly desire. Then you just have to figure out how they might match up.

So, what happens after we defeat the demon lord? We get celebrated as heroes, are given vast rewards, etc. What about the Hero? At the end he is asked if he wants to continue staying here or … return home.

I see. It’s really simple isn’t it, the Hero just wants to go home. No wonder he seems like he’s in such a rush, he probably is. I see. If that’s his goal, I guess we wouldn’t have to worry.

Well, actually, we might. If he is desperate to return home, he might be willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish that. Possibly even sacrificing or betraying others.

The thought gives me chills. I mean, I don’t know how the Gods chose the Hero, maybe he doesn’t want to be here? If so, it’d make sense that he wouldn’t really care about anyone here. Angry would be an understatement for how I’d feel if I was forcefully taken from my home. I would be vengeful.

I’m starting to really panic now. I mean, why would he even care about us, right? RIGHT? Oh no, this might, might. WAIT! The Hero, wasn’t he sad about what happened to me? He cared then, right? Yeah, that's right. He shouldn’t hate us, at the very least. Haa, I’m just scaring myself now. Who knows, maybe he volunteered to help, but just wants to finish quickly. I can understand that. Why spend a long time working when you don’t have to. Especially when you are as skilled as the Hero, being great at cooking, fighting, navigation, and possibly even alchemy.

WAIT! It all makes sense. No wonder the Hero is so skilled, he must have been a hero before! He probably was recruited again. That might also explain why he knows so much, the Gods probably exchanged the knowledge from his last world with info about this one! It all makes sense!

Maybe.

Possibly.

I’m probably wrong, the uncle did say that making conclusions without proper evidence can be very dangerous, and were likely wrong anyway.

Let’s calm down. Even if this theory is right, it doesn’t really change anything. Besides, my earlier theory could also be true in the end.

Well, I just need to pay attention to what the Hero does and make sure it’s nothing bad. Hmm, I guess what I need to do hasn't really changed.

Haa. I need to stop thinking and just go to sleep, otherwise I’ll end up staying up all night. It was never worth it when I was a kid, and it’d just be even worse now. Ah, Melly would probably cry If I didn’t sleep, even if I told her what I was thinking about. She might even think I was just lying to hide why I didn’t wake her up when I was struggling with my nightmares or something. She might even delay our departure. Yeah, I definitely need to sleep.

I ended up cuddling Melly as I drift off to sleep, worried that I’d somehow worry her if I didn’t.