Antonia and I stop our training shortly after our conversation, I don’t know how I feel about it, but I have run out of mana and it seems she’s also running low, though I don’t know what spells she used, so we’re walking back to Timotei’s house, this time we’re walking at the same speed.

Antonia is not wearing her leather jacket, she’s carrying it on her shoulder, so she’s only wearing her leotard now, she looks pretty nice.

My uniform shirt is also open, training is like blacksmithing, you need ventilation, or you will get tired very quickly.

I notice Antonia looking at me, so I ask her “So, what are your spells anyway?”

“Huh? I practice one technique!” She points at me “The <Colorful light wind chime>!”

“???” It’s not a very descriptive name, and I don’t think you were doing anything wind or light related anyway. It’s not very colorful either…

“It’s a set of skills me and my dad managed to get thanks to Makoto, it contains spells, skills and martial arts!” she seems really into it “Right now I can only use the normal <Wind chime> It’s a basic movement technique and a spell that allows me to move faster.”

I nod “So that’s why you walked so fast before?”

“That’s right! In a fight speed is one of the most important things! It doesn’t matter if you can defeat your opponent in one hit if you can’t actually hit them!” Antonia is completely absorbed into her own explanation “Of course, this doesn’t mean raw strength isn’t important, it doesn’t matter if you can hit your opponent if you can’t damage them!” Antonia then points at me again “Balance is the most important thing for a battle! You’re only as strong as your weakest part when you’re in the battlefield.”

I scratch my head “Are you speaking from experience?”

“That’s right! in my hometown of cinnamon there’s these annoying things called bark monkeys, they aren’t very strong, but they are fast! I couldn’t manage to hit one of them until I was 17! and they like to steal stuff, so if you can’t deal with them you can legitimately lose a lot of money!” She’s making a circle with her thumb and index finger and lifting up the rest “But there’s also snapping tortoises, you’re never going to see a bark monkey beating one of those! Their shell is just too hard.”

Antonia flexes her arm, I can see her bicep lightly showing “And for that reason, I was practicing the <Colorful chime> today! That one increases the raw strength of the body! I made good progress, but my skill with it is still not great.”

Makes sense, but there should be another one, right? “There’s a colorful one and a wind one, so what about the <Light chime>? “

“It’s a regeneration skill” she looks at my arm…  “It can’t heal a broken arm… but it allows me to ignore most bruises, cuts, and other small injuries! At least at this stage.” Antonia then looks a little dejected “I’m no good with that one, the theory is hard to understand and it’s the most difficult one to practice, since I need to get hurt first…”

I smile jokingly “I could shoot you.”

“No thanks!” She jumps a little.

You don’t actually think I’ll really shoot you, right?

Right?

Just because I shot Bianca doesn’t mean I’ll just do that to whoever I see.

Hmph. “I can try to help you with the theory, something like that has always been easy for me.”

“Really!? Thanks!” Antonia looks really happy, and proceeds to ask me about it without any reservations.

Most of her questions are about basic stuff, but there’s also a few of them I can’t answer, they’re way too complex for me, it’s very bizarre to hear a very complicated question sandwiched between two extremely basic ones.

It’s obvious Antonia hasn’t received any education on any of this, but that Makoto guy is very strong, isn’t he? Why didn’t he tell her about it? I’m sure he should know at least some of the more basic stuff.

Whatever, that guy is a weirdo anyway.

We continued talking like this until we finally got to Timotei’s house.

Once we enter the house we see Anton and Luca drinking.

Antonia rushes to her dad’s side “Dad! So how did it go?”

Anton sighs “It was ok, the loan will come through in two weeks, and we should be able to leave basil in 3.”

“So fast!” Antonia looks a little surprised.

He makes a nervous laugh “Haha! Don’t doubt your father! You don’t have to worry about a thing!”

“Would it be possible for me to take a loan too?” Even if I have to work off the debt with two arms it should be much easier.

Anton shakes his head “Not possible, the merchant’s guild only gives loans to their members, and even if you could take a loan they’re unlikely to let you borrow the massive amount of money you need.”

Luca also adds “That’s true, only people with more than 4 patterns and large businesses use so much money, so if anyone lend you that much money the interest would be so high that you would end up as a debt slave.”

T-that can happen!?

I’ll definitely avoid taking loans then.

Antonia doesn’t let too much time pass “I got too carried away and used all my mana! I’m going to rest a little!” she rushes somewhere upstairs.

What are you fleeing away from?!

Don’t leave me in this awkward mood now!

I’ll shoot you!

While I’m thinking useless stuff in the middle of the living room, I hear another loud voice.

“Hey you! How long are you going to space out like an idiot!” Bianca sounds a little grumpy.

I turn and look at her “Ah, sorry about that.”

“Hmph! You better be!” she shrugs “It doesn’t matter we’re going out right now.”

We are?

“Where?”

“Are you dumb? Or maybe did you hit your head?” Bianca looks annoyed

“I did hit my head around two weeks ago actually.” How did she know?

Bianca’s face looks even more annoyed now “Just shup up! Shut up shut up shut up!” she puts her hand over my mouth “Just follow me! I’ll kill you if you don’t!”

She starts walking, and I follow her, I don’t have many other options anyway, I look behind me and see that Luca is making an amused smile and giving me a thumbs up, while Anton is saluting me.

 

* * *

 

“Where are we going?” it’s been about 15 minutes, I think it should be ok to speak again.

“You haven’t figured it out already? Maybe you really hit your head after all.” Bianca makes a smug smile “we’re going to the alchemist.”

“But I don’t have the money.” What are you trying to do?

“Haha, ‘I don’t have the money!’” she imitates my voice, and then looks at me. “This kind of thinking will get you nowhere! You have a very strong and beautiful friend, and you don’t even think about asking her to use extreme violence to help you! You should be ashamed of yourself!”

“What’s the catch?” Even just a snack from you is dangerous!

I just learned not to take loans!

I won’t to become your debt slave!

“Haha I wonder.” Bianca makes a mysterious smile “But I don’t think you’re in a position to worry about that, 50 golds is a big fucking amount of money, even in the <Sycamore gang> that’s something we would make in a whole month, you can forget about ever making that much money by yourself!” She then claps her hands “But this alchemist is someone I know, and I’m confident I can beat her ass.”

“Really?”

“Yeah!” Bianca claps again “In this area there aren’t many people with more than 4 patterns, especially ones that are loose and don’t belong to any organization. The <Sycamore gang> has worked with her in the past.”

“Why are you helping me?”

“I already told you that you aren’t in a position to care about that, are you retarded? But if you really want to know the reason…” she stops walking and claps again “It’s because I think sex would be more fun if you had both hands.”

Just that?!

It is true though.

We don’t talk a lot after that, and just keep walking until we reach a small, abandoned building. We followed the directions Luca gave us “Is this the place?”

“Yup!” She opens the door, and we enter the building.

It’s completely empty, and the only thing I see is a rug in the middle.

Bianca walks right to the middle and stands on the rug.

“What are you waiting for? I don’t have a lot of patience!”

“Yeah.” I also walk into to the rug.

Suddenly, I get a really itchy feeling all over my body, and a bright light blinds me!

I find myself in another place… A forest?

There’s lots of trees and animal noises around me, the sun is still shining bright too.

How does this work? Did we teleport or is this something else?

The itchy feeling in my body doesn’t disappear, it’s making my arm hurt like hell

Bianca is making an amused smile “Haha, the itchy feeling disappears after a while.” The air suddenly becomes colder “This is going to be easy as fuck!” She begins moving forward and I follow her.

It doesn’t take us a lot of time to reach a house in the middle of this forest.

An Icicle the size of my arm begins forming in the air, and it quickly shoots itself to the house’s door, breaking it.

After a moment a tall woman is standing on the other side “Don’t you think that’s a little violent?” She has flowing chestnut colored hair and is wearing a big robe that covers her body, but still shows an ample cleavage, she’s one head smaller than Bianca.

The air around us becomes even colder “His arm is really fucked up, and you’re going to treat him” Bianca says in a way that leaves no room for arguing.

Another icicle forms in the air and shoots itself towards the woman!

You’re not going to kill her, right?!

I still need her to heal my arm!

The woman moves to the side and evades it “Am I? well, I can take look at him.” She makes a pleasant smile and moves inside her house.

I look at Bianca, and she seems very annoyed, but I start walking towards the house anyway.

I’m still here, so what’s the harm in having her checking me out?

Even if I don’t have the money, maybe she could give me a more realistic price?

I enter the house, and a few moments later Bianca also enters.

I see a lot of books, vials, and pots scattered around without any order all over the place.

The woman turns towards us “Please call me Amalia. Now Come over here so I can check you out.”

I go where she tells me, I try to move carefully to not knock anything, this woman should be as strong as Bianca, right? It shouldn’t be too hard for her to just squash me like a bug.

I definitely don’t want to make her angry, even if Bianca’s here, that doesn’t mean I should get into more trouble.

Amalia keeps smiling pleasingly “Very well, Now take off your shirt.”

I start doing so, but I don’t take it off completely, I’d have to take off my arm bandages for that.

Amalia moves in front of me “Very good!” and she starts touching… my torso?

What does this have to do with healing my arm?

Bianca is still doing her cold air thing, so it’s also quite chilly.

Bianca’s face looks furious! “You said you were going to give him a fucking checkup.”

The alchemist seems focused on me, and doesn’t bother to look at Bianca “Hehe, that’s what I’m doing, aren’t I?”

…Is my arm just going to stay broken?

An icicle forms in the floor at shoots itself towards Amalia, but she dodges it without much problem. “That’s no fun! I’m doing this for free, you know? Let me have some fun.” She hasn’t stopped touching me.

I feel like I’m being treated like a thing here.

The air keeps getting colder, Amalia doesn’t seem to care though, but it’s pretty bad for me.

“Alright Alright…” Amalia stops touching my torso and starts looking at my arm. “Hmm… His arm is completely useless now.” She just shrugs.

… AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! “I-is it that bad?”

Amalia looks a little surprised “You can talk? Your arm is completely useless, sorry about that.” She looks at Bianca and nods. “But it’s not like I can’t do anything about it.”

I know! That’s why I came here!

Are you and Bianca on cahoots!? I noticed that nod!

I also noticed very little ‘Ass kicking’ ever since we came here!

What about Luca! Is he on it too!?

Bianca looks a little annoyed “Just get to the fucking point.”

Amalia sighs but starts touching my torso again “50 golds, and I’ll need it in two weeks at most.”

“Wait what?” Wait what?!

Amelia doesn’t stop touching me, and now I’m feeling a little uncomfortable “You see, I can brew a [Shoggoth potion], I’ll cut your arm and the potion will grow it back.”

How scary!

Is my arm really that injured?

Wait a moment!

“Why two weeks?”

Amalia probably expected this question since she keeps touching me. “You see an important ingredient for the [Shoggoth potion], the octopus grass, only grows on august, and wilts once September starts.” … her hands are getting lower…

“Are there no other options?” 50 golds in so little time has to be straight up impossible, right?

Amalia doesn’t stop “There’s the [Bandersnatch potion], but you’re going to need 200 golds, I can guarantee its effectiveness, just look at the girl.” She points towards Bianca. “I don’t know if it can completely heal a whole arm though.”

So risky…

The air becomes colder again…

Am I going to get a cold from this?

“No way around that price? You’re basically taking his other arm!” Bianca looks even more annoyed.

“Nope, it’s already a very reasonable price since my brother send you guys~” Amalia’s hand is troublingly close to going inside my pants… “Most of it is just ingredient costs too, no way to lower it.”

“Hmph, let’s go!” Bianca just walks out, And I follow her.

I see Amelia waving “please come one of these days~. We can continue playing~”

She’s a creep, but her face is nice…

I’ll think about it once I get my arm in order.

 

* * *

 

Me and Bianca exit from the house, then the forest, and now we are in the streets of basil again, the sky is orange now, it’s getting late...

That whole experience was very weird.

Amalia just kept groping me, and I feel that she and Bianca had some sort of agreement.

But why???

Either of them is strong enough to just force me to comply, this kind of thing just seems way too troublesome.

I look at Bianca, what does she want from me?

She must have noticed me staring, because she turns towards me with a mysterious smile “Haha, I already told you that you’re not in a position to worry about what I’m doing, you need to make all that money really fast. So don’t waste any time.”