As the demon disappeared, so too did the disgusting feeling plaguing Mican.

“…” He lay there in shock, staring up at the smiling Melinda. “What did you do to him?”

“I sealed him away.” Turning her head down at him, the inky blackness disappeared behind her. “Only a god can sever a demon’s immortality, but we mortals also have our tricks in dealing with them.

While the caravan leader’s tone was light and gave off the feeling of innocence, shock still ran through Mican’s body as he stared at her. It seemed as if she was much, much more capable than he had initially been led to believe.

Why show him this though? Did she mean something by it? No, it wasn’t like she was hiding her strength in the first place…

Multiple thoughts ran through the young man’s head before he snapped to attention, shaking them off.

“Wait, the Archbishop.” Mican instinctively shot his body upwards, but before he could properly sit up, his body gave out on him.

His head fell, but Melinda’s soft pair of hands broke his fall, laying him back onto her lap.

“Ugh…” Mican shut his eyes tight, a groan sounding out from the pain shooting through his body in protest at the sudden movement.

Now that he was no longer in a life-or-death situation, his had body stopped pumping him adrenaline. As due result, the pain and fatigue quickly caught up to him. He had no strength to insert left in his body, but he refused to just sit around as a sense of urgency filled him.

“Calm down.” A gentle voice sounded out above him as if to sooth him, as a soft pair of hands clasped both sides of his face.

Gently tilting his head upwards, Melinda stared into Mican’s eyes, upside down from where he was looking.

“It can wait until you have at least recovered slightly.”

Reaching into her red cloak, the caravan leader pulled out a small vial containing a viscous, blood-red liquid, that shone with vitality. A pop sounded out as she uncorked it, tilting the young man’s head up with her free hand.

“Here, drink. It will help you recover your strength.” She smiled at him as she spoke, coaxing him like a mother to her child.

Mican recognized the exact vial and liquid to be the same one she had traded with from Aubin, a few days earlier. According to his words, the potion was a “second life”. He didn’t want to owe her such a debt, but what choice did he have? He might really die from these wounds if left untreated.

“Thank you, then.”

Opening his mouth a sliver, Mican slowly gulped as the liquid ran down his throat, surprisingly smoothly, as opposed to its viscous look.

Strawberry…

“Yes, that’s good. Keep going.” The caravan leader’s eyes rose into two moons as she encouraged Mican, patting his head as he drank.

The woman was quite cute looking, but she was surprisingly motherly. The contrast with her looks didn’t match at all in the young man’s mind.

“ARRGHH!” Upon finishing the last drop of the elixir, a scream tore itself out of the young man’s throat.

The elixir quickly brought back basic control of his functions, granting him relief. Though, as his bodily senses came back to him, so too did the intense feeling of pain, coursing through his form from the various large wounds on his body.

The pain was understandable, seeing as to how such wounds would have long killed a normal human, but it was nearly unbearable.

A horrible pain screamed in his face as his nose visibly shifted, the bones fixing itself. The feeling was terrifying, as he could literally feel his nose moving.

Multiple loud cracks sounded out in his body as his bones shifted around, and his wounds tore anew as blood seeped out, staining his shirt, before closing themselves back up at a rate visible to the naked eye.

The two teeth he had been missing sprouted once again, miraculously, and his eye that had been reddened from blood quickly cleared. Air flowed through his lungs, and his heart began pumping at a speed that seemed almost inconceivable to him as his body worked at a pace like never before. If he hadn’t known better, he would have thought himself to be having a heart attack.

Despite drinking the supposed second life though, the pace quickly slowed. The young man’s wounds that had been closing couldn’t seal themselves fully, slacking at the ends as blood continued to drip out. From the large impact, several large bruises still remained, plaguing him with intense pain.

While his major wounds had healed, the pain still left him weak, numb, and feeling funny. He almost felt like bursting into laughter from the strange feeling of giddiness that came with the pain.

He lay there on the ground, panting heavily as sweat dripped from his brow. At least he now knew that the caravan leader wasn’t lying when she had said that he was worth more than it to him.

“R-right.” Turning his head, he greeted the smiling young woman. “The Church of War, he alerted their archbishop of our location.”

“Hmm… yes, I remember now” A thoughtful expression appeared on Melinda’s face. “Alfric Alabaster, you killed his grandson, did you not?”

“I did, yeah…” The young man frowned with his eyes as he spoke. “You had mentioned that Enbarr was out of the Church of War’s jurisdiction, right?”

“Of course, Mican.” Seeing the worried young man, Melinda only smiled, soothing him as she patted his head. “Don’t worry, everything will be alright. Before you decide anything, as a member of the Willow Caravan, this problem involves us by extension.”

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“…”

Shifting his body around, the caravan leader hooked her arms beneath his legs and his back, hoisting him up in one fluid motion into a princess carry. The shock of the sudden movement left him wide-eyed, and tongue-twisted.

Even more surprisingly, the movement seemed almost effortless to the young woman. It was as if he was as light as a child, as he swung there in her grip. A more than fully grown, muscular man, being carried by a small and petite woman. It made for a strange scene.

“Let’s talk with the others before we decide on anything.”

Holding him up, she began walking out from under the moonlight, towards the open entrance to the clearing. Her clothing quickly stained with the blood from his clothing, but she didn’t seem to mind at all, only continuing to smile.

Despite the blood, she seemed almost inviolable under the blue light of the moon, the colours blending with her hair. She seemed almost otherworldly, as if the dirt and filth couldn’t touch her, instead becoming a part of her, sharing in her grace.

“…”

As he looked up at her face, contrasted with the massive head in the sky, he narrowed his eyes, deep in thought.

“What’s wrong?”

The small action did not escape her notice, as they were in such close proximity.

Mican’s brows furrowed as he stared at her, meeting her gaze with an unwavering one of his own.

“How long have you been watching me for?”

It was a question that lay in his mind, but he wasn’t completely sure as to whether he should ask it or not.

“…” The caravan leader paused in place, tilting her head at him in silence.

There was simply no conceivable way that the skinless monsters would be able to hold her for so long, not with her capabilities.

“Since the beginning.”

“Hm, I see. Why didn’t you do anything?”

“It was a test.”

Upon hearing her response, the smell of the sun wafted past his nose. According to his strange sixth sense, she was telling the truth. There was no room for interpretation in her words, and he nodded in reply, merely silently looking forward to the entrance of the clearing as he lost himself in thought.

The entire base of his plan had been to rely on Melinda beating back the creatures and coming to his help, which he now saw was a potentially fatal one. If he hadn’t successfully beat back the cambion, what would have happened to him? Would she have let him die, or rescue him?

It was immediately obvious to the young man that he had been relying too much on his strange new ability. Just because the caravan leader had said that “she meant him no harm”, did not mean that she was there to take care of him or save him. It was a moment of lapse in his judgement, an oversight which he would never make again.

Mican held no grudge though, seeing the young woman’s actions as completely reasonable. He didn’t even know how much he owed her, with the prices of the favours all mixed up, as opposed to her owing him anything. Feeding him an elixir and carrying him were already things to be incredibly grateful for. If she had been trying to force him into a favour then it was a different matter, but he had brought this problem onto himself.

In the first place, he had never held any trust in her from the beginning. His plan had been on the basis that he was worth anything to him, so he felt no sense of anger or betrayal seeing as to how she didn’t help him.

Thinking back to the intense greed in the demon’s eyes, the insatiable lust and desire, Mican shivered slightly. It was now abundantly clear to him that he was worth more far more than he had originally thought.

What was it that Rose had referred it as? A minor god? It was something that he now planned to research extensively.

“What’s wrong?” Melinda’s soft voice called out to him as she walked, staring at him gently, her brows furrowed in apparent worry.

Meeting the young woman’s gaze, Mican silently watched. Through her eyes, felt intense emotion as well.

The emotion was of longing, and desire. Intense, powerful desire.

Melinda’s emotions were quite different from Rose’s, being a soft, warm, and everlasting flame as opposed to a violent and roaring bonfire.

The emotion was extremely… beautiful.

Her desire was not ugly, like Rose’s, but was childlike, and pure. If the young man had to put it into words, it felt like a wish upon a star, cast by a small, innocent child.

It reminded him of his own desire as a child, hoping to find meaning in his life, to escape from the eternal boredom.

Her desire was not directed directly at him, like Rose’s was, but it was instead as if she expected something from him. What it was though, like she had already said, he would clearly only know with time. While he quickly began valuing himself more and more, and began trusting others less and less, he was alright with the young caravan leader.

Such emotions, along with how honest she was, gave him the sense that she was being completely transparent and sincere with him, both in her actions and in her thoughts. It was something that he found acceptable, and it was why he continued accepting her help, allowing her to carry him to safety.

He didn’t know how he could sense such emotions, but he simply could, as soon as he looked into her eyes. While he didn’t know what brought about this strange… empathy, it was clearly related only to special individuals, such as Melinda, or Rose, or even the giant head in the sky. Comparing the three, he found basically no resemblance.

Was it a matter of great power? Or some special nature? He knew that he would have to dig further into this.

“Do you mean me any harm?”

“No, I don’t mean you any harm of any sort.” Giggling gently, Melinda replied in a soft tone, her eyes curving into two small moons.

Despite having heard the question so many times, her answer was just as patient as the first time.

“Melinda, if you refuse to treat me like a member of the caravan, then don’t call me a member of the caravan.”

“Hmm, isn’t it more like, you refuse to accept yourself as a member of the caravan?”

“…I suppose you’re right.”

Melinda wasn’t wrong, seeing as to how the young man purposely distanced himself from the young woman and others, not expecting anything out of them. It was a very reasonable response, and one he could accept.

“Mican.” The young man jolted slightly as the caravan leader stopped her advance, pausing in place.

“…?”

“Would you allow me to please formally invite you this time? To be a part of my Willow Caravan.” Her brows slightly furrowed, Melinda stared at him under the light of the moon.

A small breeze blew past, softly blowing away the scent of blood. The young man’s black hair, along with the green blades of grass, blew softly in the night.

“…” Mican only looked at the caravan leader in deep contemplation, not losing himself.

The character of three of the caravan members had already been tested before his very eyes, and it proved a great deal to him in the way that she handled her caravan. While it didn’t mean that he trusted the rest, those three alone were people he didn’t want to separate with.

Besides that, he owed the woman a great deal already, how could he say no to her personal requ-

“Please, don’t think of this as a favour to me. Join me on the merit of me, and my caravan.”

As if reading his thoughts, the young woman interrupted him. What she had expected of him clearly wasn’t a small deal to her, seeing as to how she didn’t want him repaying her anything.

“Are you saying you don’t want me repaying you any favours?” He didn’t like the sound of that.

“Don’t consider it a favour, you owe me nothing. I had told you that you were worth more than any number of elixirs and crystal balls, and those words remain true. Anything I have done is inconsequential and irrelevant in the face of it.”

“…”

“I promise you; I won’t ask anything of you that you don’t wish for. Please consider it.”

The conditions seemed almost too good, but no matter what, she didn’t seem to be lying. This was the first time that he had heard a promise come out of her mouth.

“…I will consider it.”

With a smile, the young woman continued forth, clearly much more cheerful than she previously was. Seeing this, Mican quieted down as well.

No matter what, they had more pressing matters to deal with.