I stumble back as the maid slashes at me with her blades. The tip of her weapon skirts the skin of my throat, and I can almost feel the cold steel. The next second sees to me falling flat on my back. The second after that, the maid is leaping at me again. Right before her knives hit their mark, I tuck and roll to the side.

Scrambling to a stand, I watch as she hops deftly back to her feet. Our eyes meet.

That’s odd. I’d never been much of a dodger. In fact, last time I checked my agility stat had been 143 points. Out of 100,000 points.

The maid looks just as surprised as me, but she does not stop to think like I do. Instead, she lunges again with bared teeth.

“Wait, wait, wait,” I say, raising my hands up in the air.

She doesn’t wait and leaps. Another quick tuck and roll and she flies past me. And right into the mirror by the doorway. The glass shatters and rains in shards around her. Her knives are sent skidding to my feet.

Her eyes are wide. The red of her irises matches the red of the jagged cuts that have been carved into her body by the glass. Despite this, she still manages to send me a glare.

Frowning, I close the distance between us and fall to a crouch so that we are now eye level with each other. Her eyes widen again but they narrow not soon after. She lifts her chin.

“Do it.”

“Okay.” I shrug as I reach out for her. She closes her eyes and winces for some reason. I ignore this and place my palm above her shoulder. After I concentrate for a bit, light begins to spill out from my palm. As soon as the light reaches her dark skin, the cuts that lacerate her body shrink and disappear into nothingness.

Thank goodness. It seems like I can still use my healing magic. I’m sure my English teacher from my first life and my Elementary Magics teacher from my second life would say something along the lines of “knowledge is forever” if they were in my circumstances.

I pull back with a huff of pride and glance up at her face. She is staring at me with wide eyes.

“Did I miss something?” I ask with a frown. I look her over. It doesn’t seem like I did.

“H-How…?” She shakes her head. “How did you… heal…?”

“Well, I trained a lot in my previous life. I mean, my life before this one — not my first one,” I explain. “I’m just glad my skills transferred. I was a bit worried, to be honest. Starting from scratch when I’m an infant is fine, but starting from scratch as an adult is… well…” I trail off because the maid is now gaping at me.

“What are you playing at, Wrath?” She spits, pressing back up against the mirror. One of the shards of glass still fixated in the mirror bites into her arm and bleeds it red.

I reach out and heal the wound with a frown. “Hey, careful now. I’m all for letting bygones be bygones, but it does get annoying when people hurt themselves right after I heal them. I do have some pride in my work, you know?”

Her eyes are as wide as saucers again. Almost comically wide.

“Wow, you have beautiful eyes,” I say as I peer into them. Ruby red and sparkling.

Said ruby red eyes widen further and narrow. She spits out, “I don’t want to play your games, Wrath. Just kill me and get it over with.”

“My name isn’t Wrath,” I say. Oh, right. It all makes sense now. I raise my hands up in placation and offer a friendly smile. “I’m not the one you want to kill. And the very idea of killing makes me feel kind of uneasy. Actually, one time I went camping in the woods with my church friends, and they tried to get me to hunt rabbits with them. I tried to keep the one that I got away from them, but then we ran out of food supplies and, well, you get the picture... I still remember their names..."

The maid stares again. And then she throws back her head. And laughs. And laughs. And laughs.

What in the world? Has she lost it?

“You’ve finally lost it!” She finally pants as she meets my eyes.

Oh, so she thinks that I’ve lost it.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but you’re the one who looks like they’ve lost it,” I say with a frown.

Her laughter subsided and the last of it shakes loose from her shoulders. She regards me silently, turning my face over with her eyes. “Are you serious…?”

“You do look a little bit crazy.” I nod.

“No, not that.” She snaps as she slowly rises to her feet. Her body is still tense. Flight or fight. “Have you been cursed?”

“I have a passive ability that removes things like curses and inability effects,” I say as I raise my hands up and come to a stand as well. “I mean I used to—”

“Show me your stats,” she orders, still tense.

“Oh, I’m not really sure how to do that. I mean I did.” I laugh sheepishly. “It’s been a while. Besides, I really don’t like looking at screens. I used to look at them all the time in my first life. Not good for the eyes. Anyways, I feel like they sort of ruin the immersion. It's weird, you know? A fantasy world with screens popping up everywhere...”

She looks at me up and down like I’m crazy. “Show me.”

“Like I said.” I frown. “I don’t remember how—”

She flicks her wrist to the left and snaps her fingers. A screen appears.

“Wow, Wista.” I clap. “Those are some really amazing stats!”

“Do not call me that.” She snaps. She points to my hand. “Show me.”

“Okay, okay. Like this?” I flick my wrist and snap my fingers. A screen appears.

The MP stat flicks from the error message to 0 to 900/900 slowly. The Class stat flickers almost dizzyingly from ERROR to Knight to Healer.

Wisteria’s eyes widen.

“Those are some pretty impressive agility stats,” I agree with a nod. I point to the HP stat. “I think this is even higher than my paladin friend’s health, and he’s usually a tank. I hope he’s all right...” I blink down at the maid with a tilt of my head. “Blood Knight’s don’t usually have such high health, right?”

The maid gapes and me and shakes her head. “That’s not the point!” She jabs her finger at the MP stat and then at the Class stat. “What is the meaning of this?”

I squint at the screen. “Well, it looks like there’s an error…” I tap my chin. “Honestly, this is the first time I’ve seen something like this. And I really still don’t get how all of this works.”

There is a long beat of silence, and she regards me hesitantly. Finally, she asks, “Who are you?”

“I’m a Healer from Yin, although I was originally from this place called Earth. Twice reincarnated now,” I say before I tap my chin and look at her up and down. “I’m actually more interested in who you are. I mean, it seems like you have bad blood with Wrath. Bad blood with Wrath the Blood Knight.” I chuckle at the pun.

Wisteria stares.

“But I don’t understand why you’re working as a maid for him. Is it because you want to gain his trust and then kill him?” I try. “But why did you suddenly attack him—me—for then? I may not be the best strategist but that seems kinda rash. What if I wasn’t here? What if he was? Wouldn’t that be really bad?”

For some reason, she flushes. “Well, that’s—”

“Well, it’s all behind us now,” I say as I pat her on the shoulder. “It’s all behind us now.”

“Uh—”

I walk away from her and towards the bed where the armor is still laid out. “Do you think you could help me change into this after a shower?”

"... What?"