The hero can’t die… He’s looking bad… I have to do something… What do I…? Anything! Move on and do something already. Something like...? What about…? Yes. This!

“Get our horses, princess!” I shouted to the armored princess as she was trying to make sense of the situation and then pointed to her sister. She was surprised at first, as expected, but soon got the idea and glanced at the stunned coach and the half-broken royal carriage.

“You are…”

“Yes, I am.” I interrupted her with the most serious tone I could and then tried to make myself look better even with my unstable legs. “Get them both and… No, get one to your cart and have the other rush to those priests. You do that, Elen.”

I turned to my companions leaving the remains of our vehicle and started to order them around without thinking too much. Both Eve and Elen were a little taken aback by it, or at least I think such, but the chaotic princess soon got a smug smile on her face and nodded.

“You’ll be owning me one, you cheeky leech!” She answered in an excited tone while ordering the confused coach to help. “And keep that bleeding dumbass alive while I’m at it, Eve.”

“Yes, your Highness.”

“Wait. What is…? I can’t let you…”

“You!” I interrupted the more serious princess again as she tried to say something to her sister even if I wasn’t so sure of what I was doing by now. “You’re wounded too, right? There’s… blood? And your armor… Armor? Yes. You have to rest too! The hero can’t die, but his team has to survive too. They have…”

Yes, the hero can’t die, but he’ll want to leave if he’s not attached. He needs companions. They have to survive too… I think… This is a little hazy… Why so…?

The maid is looking at me now too… Stop it and focus on the hero, dammit! He’s bleeding a lot, I think, and is it black? Huh? Black? This looks bad… Wait, I know that already… What a mess... Is that because I hit my head…? That's bad too...

“Your name is Illia, right? I thank the help, but you don’t look…”

“The hero can’t die, but I’m fine... Fine!” I tried to get her to move away already, but as I kept talking, my head got more and more unfocused. “Focus on him… This is… fine…”

Then, almost too suddenly, my body tilted forward as I lost balance and headed to the ground. I never reached it, though, since something a little soft held me in place before it happened, but I couldn't put strength in my legs anymore. Even understanding what was happening was a little hard by now.

Someone should be holding me. And since I could see a maid uniform, it should be Eve, something that got confirmed right as she started to speak.

“I will deal with her, your Highness. Don’t worry about us and hurry to the palace, please.”

“It’s still my…!”

“Leave it to me, sis.” An Elen riding one of the horses while pulling the other closer to the cart spoke up. “Helping you is my job, remember? And this one is my hero, so you don’t need to worry about her. She can’t get weirder anyway, so don’t worry about it…”

Yes, move on. Go save the hero or I’ll be in trouble… Real trouble… Now I’ll take a nap, I guess… Don’t really want to, but what can I do, right? Right…? Just remember that the hero can’t die, everyone… He can’t…

“Milady? Milady?”

“This crazy girl… I’m hurrying out, go deal with your problem, sis. I will…”

Then, with the voices around me going further away, the damage caused by a good hit on the head finally reached me and I went out again.

That’s two times in a month already, isn’t it?

That's a lot...

I never thought someone could dream after being knocked out, though. Very unexpected if you ask me, and a little annoying too since I seemed to be conscious this time. No dream of mine was ever worth remembering, and this room of darkness with a single hazy figure talking in the most annoying voice I knew wouldn't be different.

“Are you hearing me?”

“How wouldn’t I, stupid dream?” I answered with the mirror of the other voice.

“It seems to be a failure again…”

“Roasting me for free, is it?” I sighed as it seemed to be just the usual. “Now that’s more like you…”

“If you ever hear me, remember that you used your magic already. You already know how it works even if you cannot see the how…”

“What are you talking about…?”

“I hope you hear me sometime…”

“What is… happening… here…”

My consciousness wavered again before I could understand what this weird dream was, and I started to open my eyes, this time back to the real world. I was still feeling floaty and the reddened sky over me meant I got down for some good hours, but I seemed to be fine. I was moving around too, but it was caused by the fact someone was carrying me.

Was that a dream, though? It felt different…

“I see you finally woke up, milady.” The maid carrying me through the palace’s main gate spoke up as I started to move. “Please don’t move too much. I gave you first aid, but we should go to the palace’s chapel to be sure.”

As she said, there were bandages on my forehead and I couldn’t feel the icky wetness of blood anymore, but being carried around was still weird. More than weird, though, being carried around meant she could feel my weight and maybe other things too… Not fun at all.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Can you set me down, please?”

“Only after you’re treated. These were your Highnesses’ orders after you forcefully organized their leave from the waystone.” Eve continued after nodding to some knights guarding the outer gates and continuing with her march forward. “She wanted to have us both in the cart, but it was packed already as it was and their situation was much worse than yours. It’s weird that you took so little damage, though.”

“You heard why they were wounded, to begin with?”

“Not really. The situation was too frantic to ask questions and I was the only one left behind by the end. They even forgot to leave me anything that could help get transport…”

“So you…?”

“Walked the whole way here? Yes. It took only some two hours with an extra one to be sure you were stable.” She answered bluntly even before I could finish my question. “By the way, could I ask why are you so much heavier than you look? I understand that you’re much more muscular even if you don’t look the part, but still…”

“Why don’t we leave it as a genetic disorder and never talk about it again?! Sounds good, no? Yes, it sounds. Then let’s do that.” I hurried to change subjects as I don’t really like this subject at all and wouldn’t like to explain it.

“If that’s what you wish, milady…”

We then kept moving through the outer gardens a little longer. My weird dream was still rolling in my mind as I tried to understand what happened there, which was a fool's errand. When we got to the palace proper, though, my nominated protector was waiting for us already.

She seemed bored at a random set of stairs close to the gate but started to move in a hurry when she saw me and Eve approaching.

“Took you two long enough! At least our secondary hero seems to be doing well enough… Dad would straight-up execute me if he heard we got you down, Illia.”

“You forgot to leave any gold, your Highness, so I had to walk the whole way here…” Eve complained even if you couldn’t get it from her tone. “What would you do if Lady Illia’s wounds were dangerous?”

“You would’ve managed something, I guess… But sorry anyway. That mess got me unprepared too...” Elen apologized, though her expression and tone showed so very weakly before changing to a very serious one. “We have more worrying things to talk about either way…”

“’Worrying things’? Now that’s something I don’t like…”

“And I guess you’ll like it even worse when you hear it...” She continued making me feel very dreadful about what happened while I was out. “That guy won’t be waking up anytime soon, and even if he does, we’re unsure if he’ll be able to fight by then. Hells, we don’t even know what got the brat down like that… All we know is that it didn’t seem to be anything demon-related, if you get me.”

“That’s… Troublesome indeed." I answered with the rush of worry getting to me again. "Get me down, Eve. No complaints this time, please.”

“But, milady…” The dark-haired maid tried to say something, but a look on my expression made her give up on it and stop holding me in place. “Don’t overdo it, milady.”

“What you’re planning to do, Illia? I mean, it’s troublesome, but it doesn’t affect you right away. It's not like we would gain anything from having you fight as is, and you don't seem to be a general too...”

Her words only worsened my worries. If only fighting was mentioned, then things could be good, but when a general goes into play, then we're in more serious waters. The kind that involves neighbors and armies...

She was saying it wouldn’t affect me, but that was wrong too. Even ignoring the whole mess that would be caused by this country not having a hero, I was in huge danger still.

I went around parading as someone with dangerous skills and the hero’s favor, so what would happen when one of these went away? What would the people who know about me think if I couldn’t do the fighting a hero would need to? And what would the ones I tricked do when they noticed the trick?

In a simple way, I made a huge target and stuck it to my own back under the assumption no one could shoot at it. Worse even, if I couldn’t keep the lie going, dying wouldn’t even be the worst. Someone who was a little too kind for his own good could decide that sending me back was the more reasonable thing to do.

Something had to be done, even if I had no idea of what I could do… Or was the idea here already? Or actually, the idea was given to me.

The dream’s words crossed my mind. What if they weren’t illusions from a dream? Or better, what if they were that explanation from the gods people told me should happen?

The voice said I knew how to use magic already, so, if it wasn’t a hallucination, it had to be something I was doing. Something I could figure out and something I could use to buy enough time for the hero.

I had to figure out what was the crux of this magic of mine then, and fast.

But what could it be? What happened to me until now? Many people pretended I didn’t exist; I created a persona to get chummy with the castle's staff; planned a swindle scheme to take nobles down; and paraded around with a bunch of magical artifacts.

Getting ignored by most people and making others like me was normal. Swindling wasn’t something I was used to, but I learned how to negotiate and trick people a long time ago. It had to be related to the artifacts then. Elen said that it was abnormal that I could use many, but it was too little for a hero-level power. It had to have more there.

Was there something else then? Any other connection between these? Something that I forgot to add to the list? Maybe something I was ignoring, something I forgot or not considered important at all… Something that I did right at the beginning...

“The failed summoning!”

“What is it? What are you talking about?!” Elen asked as she was surprised by my exclamation after I spent some seconds in total silence, but I was too focused to answer her. I could feel a connection somewhere, and grasping it was sure to be more important than anything else.

If I took it from another angle then... What if my magic was only about the same sort of magic that fueled the artifacts, to begin with? It was a blind shot and I could only guess what would be the effect, but it was a possibility.

More than a possibility, it also explained why no common spell could work with me since artifacts were all made with magic no one could use. And since I still had my four items (the ring, the mirror, the gauntlet, and the saber), I could test things out first... That is, if I had the mana, at least.

“I need potions…” I mumbled again while thinking about the weird dream I had a few moments before and a test I could try. “You brought them, Eve?”

“They broke when the carriage was destroyed, milady. But why?”

“What in the hells are you talking about, dammit?!” An angry princess shouted at me as I kept on running with the subject that was only in my head. “Calm your ass down and explain things before moving on. You’re wounded too, so stop waggling and moving about without aim, goddammit!”

She… has a point. I got too focused on my own head and forgot there were people around me right now. Having a party is hard…

“So, I have a guess on what my magic can do… Or I have a decent idea, at least. If I’m right, then I can help with this whole mess, at least a little.”

“I see… And the potions?”

“Not sure of how much mana I’ll need to figure this out, and I don’t want to risk fainting.” I continued with the best explanation I could manage. “I’m also guessing that the other time it got me down was because I tried to do too much with too little.”

Just getting the overall rules would be hard enough when going by guesswork and blind tries like I planned to. Adding the fact I had to solve it before things got in motion only worsened it. If things were bad enough, then there was a chance all was already happening right now...

“That’s a dangerous way to take things… Again, I don’t know how bad it can be, but you shouldn’t be using potions like this.”

“Both overdose and several health problems can be caused by potions,” Eve added to back up her master’s claims. “And these are from the safest ones in their simple form. There are more powerful versions and more complicated potions that can easily kill someone in a few uses…”

“Quite bad, eh? I’m going to get some potions anyway, though. I need to have this thing solved as soon as possible, and neither of you has a faster method to get it, right?”

I took their silence as a confirmation of what I was saying and then nodded in satisfaction before continuing.

“Then, if you would…” I pointed to the gates in a sign to let the people who knew where the potions were lead the way, even though I had a good idea of how to get there too. “The faster we deal with it, the faster I’ll be able to show off.”

Eve seemed exasperated and Elen gave a small chuckle to my words, but they both conceded and started to head towards the palace as I asked.