“And there we go… Ria, I’m done.”
“Mm…”

Ria nodded in reply, sitting down in her own chair. Karen and I both sat down behind her.
Now… We were going to wait.
Most of our work with Ria was just helping her with the preparation it seemed. She never talked all that much, which did make it a little hard to work with her… Especially on your patience.
After all, not knowing what she wanted or waiting until she finally managed to say what you were supposed to do… Was a little straining.

“Oh? You are already done?”

Only a short moment after we sat down, the curtain opened and someone entered.

“Captain.”
“Mr Captain!”
“Mm. Good evening. Seems you started quite early today, Ria.”
“Mm… They are… helpful…”
“That’s good to hear.”

Korwen came in and sat down in the chair opposite of Ria.

“Then, since I’m already here already, go ahead and give me a check-up.”
“Mm... Will do...“

Ria leaned forward, extending her hand to Korwen’s chest, stopping only a little before touching it. Then she didn’t move at all. I was a little confused for a moment until it dawned on me.

She’s probably examining him with magic, huh… But I can’t see any mana moving at all.

It could’ve been just her mana sight, of course. But while mana sight wasn’t exactly a form of magic and wasn’t noticeable simply from the movement of mana, there also wasn’t a point in extending her hand, was there?
Oh, suddenly, Ria moved. Down to the Captain’s stomach. After a while she went to the sides then to his arms. Slowly, she examined every corner of his body.

“Mm…”

Having finished, Ria sat back up and stared at the Captain for a while.

“Is something wrong, Ria?”
“Mm… Captain…”
“... Y, yes?”

Oh, even our stalwart Captain was nervous in such a moment.

“You’re lacking… sleep… Aren’t you?
“... It’s not like I can help it, you know?”
“It’s no good… If it continues…”

She turned to the tray with the medicines and picked up a bowl as well as a small wooden container. She filled some of the ground powder from the bowl into the container and handed it to Korwen.

“Take this… Before sleeping.”
“... It won’t make me oversleep, will it?”
“Before sleeping... Take it... With water... No alcohol… today...”
“... Will do.”

Korwen sighed, giving up surprisingly quickly.

“Good… Now… Captain… Strip…”
“Okay.”
“... Nn?”
Strip? Did she just say… strip?

I hadn’t misheard that, have I? Ah!
Korwen stood up and started undressing., just as he had been told by Ria.

“Ohh?”
“... Wow.”

This was… Impressive.
I knew Korwen had a good build but… His upper body was effectively muscles. Muscles, muscles and more muscles. If I tried to hit him, those muscles probably would break my hand. Not like I could break it.
Anyway, you could very clearly see every bulging muscle on his body, from his chest, to his arms and his legs and more.

There aren’t any scars at all…

I honestly had expected to see a scar-ridden body from him. Instead, there wasn’t any scar at all. Not even one. Usually, every person had at least one or two, right? Yet… Nothing. In fact, his body had no blemishes at all.
Having stripped down to his underwear, he addressed Ria again.

“Good enough, Ria?”
“... I said… strip…”

Eh?
He was already down to his underwear, wasn’t that enough?!

“Ria.”
“...”
“... You can do it just fine like this.”
“... Understood.”

Why did she sound a little disappointed there? Ria, he’s a married man…
Although I do agree that looking at him like this is quite something. Although, it was more a sense of admiration. For me, at least.

“Captain… Any discomfort… Recently?”
“Except for being rather stressed? No.”
“Mh…”

She motioned for Korwen to turn around, showing his back. And once again, no scars at all, only his well-defined muscles.
Muscles, muscles, muscles. I hope I wasn’t going to dream of muscles today. If every mercenary was even half as muscled as Korwen, it would end up turning into a veritable muscle macho festival.
Time to look for something that was more comfortable to look at.

“Yumi?”
“Nn.”
“Why are you suddenly staring at me?”
“Purifying my soul.”
“... What?”

Karen furrowed her brows at my reply. It probably did sound like nonsense to her but… It really was purifying my soul.

“Hey, you two, could you stop flirting there?”
“Nn… Impossible. Captain, you got too many muscles.”
“Too many? How is this too many? You can never have enough muscles! Can’t you see these awesome back muscles? Look!”

I didn’t want to look though. Especially now that he was starting show them off to me.

“Captain… Calm down… Hold still...”
“Tsk.”

He didn’t click his tongue now, did he?! Were those muscles that important to him?!

“Mm… Okay… You can… dress again…”
“Mhm.”

Seemingly a little bit disgruntled, Korwen put on his clothes again. The muscles finally disappeared beneath the clothing. I had never noticed just how well-trained he was below those clothes. They hid it quite well.

“So, Ria. Your verdict?”
“Mm… The very… picture… of health… But…”
“But?”
“... You might want… to hold back… a little… Your night… activities… with your… wife…”
“...”

Korwen froze.

“Or are you… intending to…”
“... Haa. Yes. Yes, we are.”
“I see… Good luck.”
“... Thank you.”

Korwen nodded silently and left the tent.

“Huh? Uhm, Miss Ria? What did you two mean with that?”
“Mm… They want… To have another… child…”
“... Huh?”

A… child?
Ah. Ahhhhh…
That… It was like that, huh… Like that…

Good Luck, Captain.

I heard he already had a daughter but… Well… I sure hoped they would succeed in that case.
Just…

“Nn, Ria. Is that going to be fine, though? For Mrs Korwen. She’s… not that young anymore, right?”

The people here seemed a lot more healthy and lived quite a bit longer than in my own world. Maybe it was the presence of mana that caused this or something. Nonetheless, age was still something that would inevitably catch up with them even in this world.

“Mrs Korwen… She should be… fine… The bigger… problem for her… is getting… pregnant…”
“Huh…”

That… I probably shouldn’t dig too much here, should I? This sounded a little bit too personal, after all.

“I hope… They will… succeed… May the Great Spirits… bless them…”

Ria put her hands together and closed her eyes, in a gesture of prayer. This was the first time I had seen her doing this. She never striked me as the religious type…
Then again, those Great Spirits… might very well exist, right?

While I was lost in that thought, Ria had finished her prayer and the next person entered the tent.

---

“Thank you very much, Miss Ria!”

The last man Ria treated left the tent, holding the small wooden container with the medicine tightly in his hand.

“Haa… That was the last one, right?”
“Nn...”

Korwen had been the very picture of health. Outside of the fact that he was rather stressed and exhausted.
But most people didn’t come here for a simple check-up like Korwen had. They came because they had actual problems.
In general, what Ria had done to them was mostly the same she did with Korwen. A general check-up to locate the problem and the administering medicine.

“Mm… You two… Don’t have... to clean up…”
“Eh? Are you sure?”
“You still got… work left… Don’t you?
“Ahh…”

Cooking duty, it was…
Technically, that was only my job, though. Karen still helped out since she wanted to stay with me and was free.

“Miss Ria, are you sure we don’t have to help? I mean, that…”

Karen glanced at the buckets in the corner. One of which was stuffed with red pieces of cloth. Deep red… Or in other words, bloody bandages. The immediate surroundings of the bucket were also quite blood-coloured…

“It’s fine… I am used… to this… Go...”
“Okay...  Yumi, let’s go.”
“... Nn.”

Karen forced me to turn away from the bucket and we left the tent.

“Nn… That sure was quite the experience.”
“Ahh… You sure can say that.”

Ria was treating a quite large selection of various maladies. Things like stomach aches, headaches or back pain were one thing, but also injuries, and even problems regarding someone’s diet. To boot, there were even things I never knew about, like the mana sickness. There was also one couple that came to Ria to consult about their… night activities. Or rather, the problems regarding it.

Sure didn’t expect Ria to be able to make something like an aphrodisiac…

Obviously, she hadn’t made any in advance, so she’d make it later and give it to the couple.
Still, what really surprised me the most were the mana-induced illnesses.
Raw mana was rather harmful to the bodies of most living creatures. As such, they had to defend themselves against the natural mana in the air. But just like all body functions, sometimes they didn’t work as well as they should, resulting in too much raw mana being accumulated in the body and thus turning into the so-called mana sickness. And from there, many various other illnesses could occur if it was left untreated.
Ria gave us a few examples of what could happen and… they weren’t nice. Most of them were fatal, too, if left untreated.

“But, we learnt a lot, haven’t we?”
“Nn. We sure have.”

It was definitely a valuable experience. Ria was also glad she had some help, and that I could treat others a little with Life-attributed mana was also rather convenient. I used up quite a few mana crystals in the process, but Ria said I shouldn’t mind it.

“So, now we only have dinner left and then we’re free?”
“Nn… I honestly want to take a look at those puppets later, though. Ria said I could just come by whenever I had time so…”
“Ah… Then, should we do that after dinner? Although, I still want to take a bath, if possible…”

Karen looked down at her body, stretching her clothing where it was clinging to her body.

“Nn. I’ll try not to take too long.”
“Well, if you don’t, you have to deal with the smell.”
“Let’s not bath today.”
“Yumi?!”

What did she expect after such a statement? I even told her earlier that I quite liked her smell, didn’t I?

“Haa… You’re seriously a pervert, Yumi.”
“Nn. We both are.”
“... I still want to take a bath if we have time, okay?”
“... Nn.”

Oh? So it was fine if we didn’t have time? Great. I was sure I could delay the whole thing long enough.

“Ah. That’s right, in the worst case we can just take a washbasin again and use that. Better than no bath at all..”
“...”

Right. That was an option. That was totally an option. But why did you have to think of that right now, Karen? Couldn’t you just forget about that.

“Speaking of washbasins. Didn’t Wanda say she’d be done with our clothes tomorrow.”
“How did you go from a washbasin to Wanda?”
“They’re for laundry as well, right?”
“Ahh…”
“Anyway, we should go pay her a visit as well.”
“Nn.”

It had taken surprisingly long for Wanda to finish. She couldn’t enter the town to buy cloth which had delayed it unnecessarily. She also didn’t want to use old clothes for everything.

“I wonder if she made progress with… Those clothes as well…”
“Ahh… I don’t think she will manage those anytime soon, Yumi. Elina did say it would take quite some time.”
“Nn…”

Too bad. Elina had managed to somehow reliably make the thread but the process was still slow. We could give Wanda only a small amount of it until Elina figured out how to make more.

“We’ll just have to ask her tomorrow. We’ll probably see her anyway.”
“Nn. True.”

No point in wondering about it right now.
For now, we arrived at the place where the cooking was done.
Time to work again.

---

“Ahh… I’m stuffed! I’m stuffed!”
“Lily, that’s bad manners.”
“Not like anyone really cares, Karen. Today was tiring. Let me relax a little.”

After dinner, we made our way to Ria’s place again to look at the puppets. Lily and Rina were rather interested as well, so they decided to join us. Despite both of them being rather tired.

“Hey, Lily, how was the guard duty?”
“Mm? Boring. Nothing happened. And the guy I was working together with didn’t say a word at all either. I stood there for half the day not doing anything.”
“Ahhh…”

I wasn’t envious of that in the least. Poor Lily.

“I was glad when it was over… It’s good that I don’t have guard duty that often. But rather than me… Yumi, you said you wanted to take a look at those puppets again, but you didn’t yet say why.”
“Nn? I didn’t? I want to know how they were made and if I can copy that. If I could make puppets like that, wouldn’t it be convenient?”

They could serve as a means to defend myself, or even more.

“Ohh… But, aren’t they just a large version of your dolls?”
“I don’t know if they are. That’s why we’re going to take a look.”
“Mhm…”

Lily squinted her eyes a little, her ears twitching.

“Something wrong?”
“No, not really. Just wondering how strong those puppets even were.”
“Good question… They were at least quite fast on their feet…”

Also, that woman used them for her own protection after all. The moment they were out of commission, she left me alone. It was quite possible they were her only means of attack. Otherwise, she surely would have forced me to come along.

“But how strong they really were, I don’t know. I don’t think I could judge their strength anyway…”
“I guess we’ll see when you try to make them yourself. I’m quite curious about that.”
“Ahaha… I’ll try my best.”

While we kept talking, we arrived at Ria’s tent once more.

“Miss Ria, are you inside?”
“... Karen? Ohh… It’s… you girls… come in...” 

Ria poked her head outside when Karen called for her and then invited us inside. We had been here just a little earlier, but she had cleaned up the mess from earlier already. The medicines and everything were gone. Instead, on the table was a large puppet.

“Oh? The Cursed Brat and her friends? Are you also here for this?.”
“Miss Elder…”

Much to my surprise, the Elder was also present.

“I guess we have good timing.”
“Nn.”
“Miss Ria, were you also investigating the puppets?”
“Mm… The Elder… was telling me… about the magic... she used…”
“You mean, the magic that protected me?”

Ria nodded in reply to my question.

“It’s nothing really impressive on the level you people would call a spell. I have simply asked the trees to observe and protect the Cursed Brat, nothing more.”
“Observe…”

I… probably could let that slide, right? They did protect me after all…

“What surprised me more is the manner in which they decided to protect her.”
“Nn? The manner?”
“Brat, do you have one of your dolls here?”
“Ehh… I can call one if you want?”

They weren’t always around me, after all.

“No need. The dolls of yours are made from the remains of the trees, aren’t they?”
“Nn.”
“Yet, no matter how much I would ask them, they would never obey me. The spirit of nature has left them.”
“Eh?”

Well, they were my dolls, so I’d be troubled if they would suddenly obey the Elder…

“But the puppets of this woman you met. They, too, are made with the remains of a tree. And yet, watch.”

She put her hand on the wooden arm of the puppet. A second later, a small branch grew out from it, growing larger, forming leaves and the like.

“... These are mere imitations. They are not under the thrall of that woman.”
“Huh? Wait, you mean, you could control these puppets?”
“If I willed it, it would be very much possible, yes.”

And she couldn’t do it with my dolls. Was that what she was trying to say?

“Brat, the magic you use is close to the origins of mana. One of the most basic, most primal magics. But you know yourself, how hard it is to use, don’t you?”
“Nn…”
“What you call Life Magic might not be a primal magic, but it is close to the root as well. It is powerful, and similarly hard to use. The abilities of us elves could never hope to interfere with this type of primal magic. Assuming it was cast in the proper way.”
“So… That woman wasn’t one of Yumias’ children… is what you want to say?”

The Elder nodded at my question.

“At the very least, these puppets were not created by one of her kin.”
“I see…”

So, the Elder thought so as well.

“But it is curious… I had heard that those worshipping the witch existed since long ago but I never expected they would ever be able to use any of her powers. Even should it be a mere imitation.”
“Nn, is it bad that they do?”
“No, not in particular. Magic is but a tool. There are many kinds of magic out in the world that are far more dangerous.”

I honestly wasn’t too sure what to think about it being shoved aside simply because there were more dangerous ones around…
It still meant that it was dangerous, wasn’t it?

“Anyway, Cursed child. What do you think, as a child of the witch, of these puppets?”
“Nn? Well…”

I stepped forward to take a look at the puppet. It was mostly featureless, just a smooth piece of wood. Although, it was far better crafted than my dolls. It had joints, proper limbs and no roughness at all.

“It… has no mana crystal?”

There was no mana coming from the doll at all.

“Mm… There was… one… but it… broke…” Ria answered from behind me.
“It broke?”
“It was… already broken… by the time… we found them…”
“I see.”

So it had a mana crystal, huh.

“Mhm… Other than that, it just… looks like an ordinary puppet?”

It was crafted well but… That was also everything. I couldn’t feel any mana coming from it anymore nor were there any other notable features. It was just a large piece of wood. With fresh branches sprouting from it, thanks to the Elder.

“I can’t really see anything else…”

Oh, there were a few damaged portions on the side… Probably where Ria had shaved off a piece.

“Nothing… So even the Cursed child says there’s nothing else about it…”
“Mm… Then… there really… isn’t anything… we can do… with this…”

The two hadn’t figured anything else out from it either, huh…

“Yumi, can’t you try and use your magic on the puppet?” suggested Karen.
“Nn. I could… Miss Elder, Ria, is it fine if I try that?”
“That’s fine… by me…”
“Go ahead, Cursed child.”

Having gotten permission from both of them, I took another look at the puppet. It was a large piece of wood, saying it bluntly. But, it was pretty large.

“Sis, do you have some mana crystals?”
“I do. Are these enough?”
“Nn, I think so.”

Karen handed me the small pouch with the crystals. Now then, it was time to see if this worked.
Draining the mana from the crystals, I converted it to the Life attribute and then slowly inserted it into the puppet. I could feel the wood turning soft below my palm. But, I didn’t want to knead it this time, I only wanted to animate it.

Nn… This is a little tiring…

The puppet was large and I had to keep draining more mana crystals. At this rate… They might not be enough…

“Nn... This is difficult…”

Another problem showed itself quite quickly. I was controlling the mana myself. And until this thing started to move… I had to keep the mana under my control.

“Yumi?”
“Not now, Sis.”
Uhhh! Come on, start moving.

The mana crystals were nearly all used up by now, only few of them remaining. There was a sizable amount of Life mana inside the puppet by now but… It still didn’t move. It probably needed enough mana to fill the entire body.

Only a little more.... Ah… No crystals left.

And then, I had run out of crystals.
What to do now...

“Yumi! The mana! The mana!”
“Nn? Ah.”

Yes… That short lapse in attention was more than enough… More than enough that I had lost control over some of the mana.

“Get down!”
“Eh! Ah!”

Something pulled me down to the ground.

And then the next thing I saw was a bright, pink light filling my vision.

---

“Is… Is everyone fine?”
“Nn…”

My head hurt… I probably hit the ground a little too hard.

“Oh… my…”

I forced myself to sit up and take a look at my surroundings…
Well, to keep things brief.

The sun was shining down on us.

Or in other words… The roof of the tent was gone…

“Uhm…”
“Mm… I need… a new tent…”
“...”

The walls of the tent collapsed as well, having lost their stability from the roof. The puppet wasn’t on the table anymore… Parts of it were strewn in the surroundings. Some other things inside the tent had collapsed as well or fallen over…

“... Did it… explode?”
“As you… can see… It has…”
“...”

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
It exploded?! The mana I had been controlling simply exploded cause I lost control for a moment? Just like that?
And now…

“Wait. Sis. Lily. Rina. Are you okay?!”

In a panic, I turned around, looking for them. Karen was lying on her back, staring at the sky. She seemed fine, except for the momentary shock. Lily had covered for Rina and the two were lying behind me. A weird shimmer lay over them. Though it was quickly disappearing. Maybe Lily had used some magic or so. Still, both of them seemed safe as well.

“Haa… They’re safe…”
“Hey, Cursed brat. You could at least worry for me a moment as well. Or at least thank me.”
“Nn?”

A voice came from… below me?

“Miss... Elder?”

For some reason… I was sitting on top of her stomach…

“Ah. I’ll get off.”
“Mm. Thank you.”
“Ehhh… Why was I...”
“I pulled you down. I do not believe you wanted to get blasted by your very own magic. Or did I assume wrong?”
“... No. Thank you, Miss Elder.”

She had saved me there, huh…

“What are you smiling about, Cursed child?”
“Eh? Ahh, that is… I… I was happy that you saved me, Miss Elder.”
“... You’re quite blunt, aren’t you?”

She averted her eyes, seemingly embarrassed.

“Yumi… Are you trying to flirt with her?”
“Eh? Sis? No, I’m not.”
“... Are you sure?”
“Yes, I am.”

I only wanted to thank her properly. And it wasn’t wrong to be happy when someone saved you , right?
Right…
Okay, maybe I was a little too direct there… I didn’t think all that much about it at that moment.

“Haaa… Anyway, you sure… did quite a thing…”
“... What do we do about this?”

Karen sat up and looked around the mess I caused… I did have a history of making elemental stones explode into my face but this was… a completely different level.

“Hey! Are you all safe?”

A voice called out from behind us. A group of mercenaries had gathered, probably due to the noise, looking worriedly.

“Ahh… This was Miss Ria’s…”
“... So she did it again?”
“And here I was worried…”
“Don’t scare us like that. Seriously…”

Some mercenaries spotted Ria and started murmuring and shaking their heads…

“Hey, are you all okay?”
“Eh? Ah, yes… I think so…”

The mercenary asked again so I answered in a hurry.

“That’s good. You should maybe come out of there, before everything else collapses.”
“Eh?”

Everything else?
There were… some crates stacked… a shelf... All looking a little… No, quite a bit damaged…

Yep. Let’s get out of here.
“Lily, Rina. Can you stand up?”
“... I think so… Rina?”
“Mmm…”
“... I’ll carry her.”

Lily slowly forced herself to stand up and carried Rina—who was completely out right now—in her arms.

“Sis.”
“I’m coming.”

The Elder and Ria were already on their way out. Well, not really ‘out’ since we weren’t inside the tent anymore. The tent was, after all, gone…
We followed them and… got a clear view of what had happened…

“... I think this is bad, Yumi.”
“Nn. It is.”
“Mm… It’s going… to be fine…”
“Ria… I don’t think it is.”

The remains of the tent had flown all over the place. The puppet, too, had burst into pieces and had flown quite some way away from the former tent… Some parts of it had struck other tents, though, luckily none seemed to have damaged them.
As for the other stuff… Glass… Paper… Weird stones… A book… Parts of a shelf… Everything had turned into a mess and was all over the place.
I didn’t even know where to start describing it. Like… It was… Simply… a mess. What else could I say?
At the very least, nobody was injured.

“Yumi.”
“Nn?”
“... Mr Captain is coming over.”
“Ahhh…”

This… wasn’t going to end on a nice note, today, right?

I really did it this time...