Looks like our money issues are solved for the time being. And living arrangements. Sometimes taking things that look worthless to you pays off! And we figured out the mystery of the village, to boot. All it took was having someone explain it to us. Who would’ve thought?

Karine gave us the reward money and a document that we should give to the innkeeper for our free stay. The rest of the reward are a bit more… Esoteric.

“Can I ask how you came across them?” She asks with genuine curiosity.

I place my right index finger in front of my mouth and wink. “It’s a secret.”

Avilia groans. I can’t believe she was less than pleased with my turn of phrase!

I jest. It was bad.

“But,” I continue, “Could you tell us what they were for now that you have them?”

She gives me a confused look. “You had them in your possession without knowing what they’re for, but you didn’t read any of them…?”

Oops.

I look at Avilia. I can tell that she realized my mistake at the same moment I did.

I can’t believe that already slipped my mind! Avilia just told me about the high literacy rate in this world. Magical script is readable by anyone with basic reading comprehension! And of course a family of people who literally work with magic would use that!

Oh well. What's done is done. I decide to take a risk with Karine and just tell her the truth. It’s generally not the best idea to start a possible, fruitful friendship with lies.

“Well, you see,” I start and place my right hand on the counter, “To me, magical script looks like an illegible mess.”

“A mess?” She replies with a question, looking thoughtful. Obviously rhetorical. “Even if you were illiterate, it shouldn’t look that off. The only reason I can think of that could cause that…”

“Is that I can only read script that it can’t translate to,” I respond, interrupting her thought.

She nods. “Yes, that’s exactly right. How is that possible?”

Avilia sighs, seeming a bit irritated by my meandering. “It’s because she’s not of this world.”

Well, shoot. Beaten to the punch by Avilia! I was just going to say as much myself. I’m sure that I were to interact with this girl any more than this, my being an outsider would become glaringly obvious soon enough.

Karine goes from looking surprised to having that cold, calculating gaze she had before in seconds. Is she trying to evaluate my usefulness or something?

The coldness goes away, and she looks thoughtful instead. “I’ve never heard of an outworlder not being blessed with language before.”

She sure is making it obvious she's questioning my not being from this world. I can understand that. But that’s easy to prove. Last time, I used my eyes, but this time…

“Then, this is the easiest way to prove it to you.” I raise my right hand up and spread my fingers.

This has become like second nature to me. I may hate it, but this is who I am.

Sometimes with augmentations, you have to do basic maintenance yourself.

The skin on my hand splits open and reveals the metallic endoskeleton underneath. The skin isn’t real. It looks real, it feels real, but it isn’t actual human skin. It’s as artificial as the rest.

The two of them look flabbergasted. In this moment, I remembered that I had only told Avilia about my cybernetics, and even though she had seen the seams, she hadn’t really seen what was lurking underneath. Knowing about it and actually seeing it are two different things.

Then, the skin goes back to place. The seams disappear. My hand looks as it did before.

“I hope that’s proof enough,” I say as I lower my right hand.

By now, Karine looks… Excited. Like a child in a candy shop. “I’ve never heard of an outworlder with mechanical arms, either! I didn’t even know such functional limb replacements were a thing!”

Well, I guess it’s better she’s excited over my arms rather than disgusted or something?

I let out a deep sigh of relief. “Now that you know my secret, could you tell us what you needed the documents for?”

“Oh,” she says and picks up the stack of papers with great reverence, “These? They’re just filled with family secrets about staff making, and our license to make them to boot. With these, I can finally take up the old family practice!”

The two of us just nod along.

She puts them down the counter again. “You see, we used to be known for our staves! We haven’t been able to make any ever since the disaster at the town. Thanks to my great grandparents leaving these things there, they weren’t even allowed to impart their vast knowledge to the next generation.”

She makes an exaggerated gesture of regret and sorrow. I haven’t seen anyone look so forlorn in my life. “Truly, a tragedy.”

Avilia and I look at each other as we continue nodding along. Is she for real? Also, why would they leave something so important there? They didn’t just forget that their documentation was in the safe, did they?

She perks up. “But thanks to you,” she says cheerfully pointing at me, “All that’s in the past!”

She places her hands on the counter. “So, do you have anything in mind that I could help you with?”

I lower my right hand onto the counter and tap it idly with my index finger. “Sure. You could help me learn how to read and write magic script, and how to use magic.”

She raises her hands and makes a theatrical gesture of thoughtfulness. “That’s all?”

What else is there? I raise my right hand off the counter and tap my cheek bone thoughtfully.

“Now that we’re legally permitted to make staves again, I could use our techniques on your arms! After some much needed practice, of course!”

I slam my hands on the counter out of surprise. “You could do what?!”

She takes a step back in surprise. “T-turn your arms into staves? You probably couldn’t use any magic through them as they are…”

I suddenly remember what happened last night when I tried to use the rune stone in the bathtub. I couldn’t do it without actual skin contact.

She’s probably right.

I raise my hands off the counter. “That sounds interesting.”

She goes back to looking excited. “Doesn’t it?! You could use magic more easily, and I could make arm staves! It’s a win-win!”

“Just one thing.” I raise my right index finger up. “You don’t need to do whatever you want to do on top of the skin, I hope?”

“No, not at all! I’m certain that If you can remove the skin from the entire arm like you did before with your hand, I can carve the runes and embed the magic crystals right into the metal underneath!”

… That’s ingenious. And she thought that up in the few minutes it’s been since I showed her my secret? Impressive.

I wonder if this means I could use magic to power my cybernetics? That’d make me less worried, for sure. Having that estimate of my expiry date show up in my eyes all the time isn’t doing much to make me feel good about things.

I glance at Avilia for reassurance. But there’s none of that to be had. She just has a puzzled look on her face. And a bit awkward, too. I guess she might feel a bit like a third wheel here?

I decide to quickly roll myself in front of her. Now, standing in front of her, I support my left arm with my right hand, tap my chin with my left index finger and look at her intently. As she notices what I’ve done, she stares at me, flustered.

I smile at her. I want her to feel more involved in this, it’ll have an effect on how we’re going to spend our next while after all!

“What do you think we should do?” I ask, with a gentle voice.

“U-um,” she starts, choking up a bit, “I think it sounds like a good idea. While I could teach you the basics of magic, I am not sure I could match an actual mage as a teacher.”

“But what’re you going to do while I’m here?”

“I might not look like it,” she says, sounding a little bit annoyed, “But I am an adult! Do not worry, I can function without your guidance.”

I sigh. I guess I should spell it out for her?

I extend my left hand onto her head and playfully ruffle her hair. A confused expression.

“I meant, we only met yesterday and I’m afraid you’ll take this as me trying to get away from you. And that’s not my intention.”

A shift in her expression, in her eyes. The confusion is replaced by… Happiness? Contentedness? The exact meanings behind her expressions aren’t always as easy to read as I’d like. At any rate, she looks happier now.

“Oh, I did not take it like that at all!” She smiles back at me. “I realize you need help in acclimatizing to this world, and I cannot help with everything.”

“Do not worry,” she continues, “I have things I can do. And if I get bored,” she says, winking at me, “I can just come and watch you study!”

This may be childish, but I feel a flush of heat on my face. She’s a fast learner, she caught me completely off guard! I didn't expect her to try to flirt back!

It takes me a good half minute to realize that I’m still staring at her with a surprised look on my face after what she just said. I still can’t tell if she’s doing the this because she shares my feelings or just out of thinking this is how friends behave with each other. Considering her responses, though…

Anyway, it’s settled then!

I deftly roll myself back to my original spot on Avilia’s right side and place my hands on the counter again. Karine had started reading the documents while we had our little conversation. Very considerate of her.

She looks at me. “You’ve reached a conclusion?”

I nod. “Yes, when do we start?”

Karine smiles and lowers the documents back on the counter. Looks like we gave her enough time to go through them fairly thoroughly already.

“Does tomorrow morning sound good?”

I look at Avilia. She seems to approve. We’ve reached consensus!

“Yes, sounds good to me.”

“Then we’ll meet again tomorrow! Just come up to the counter and we’ll get started.”

“Will do! ‘til tomorrow, then!”

She smiles and bows ever so slightly.

And so, Avilia takes my right hand and we leave the store.

What a productive start for the day!