Stepping back onto the wider plains, a temperate wind blew in. The sky remained clear, without the usual clouds indicating an incoming drizzle. Cold wind came in all on its own, a signal autumn should be just around the corner.

Odd, I thought I'd arrived during a rather warm period; more like midsummer. It could just be an anomalous breeze, but either it was later in summer than I thought, or it would get a lot colder soon. Winter is coming indeed.

Other than being coarse, the tunic given to me by Pan kept the cold at bay. One layer could only do so much though; they may have more layers kept aside somewhere. Given the state of the village I doubted there would be many, but you couldn't get through a chilly winter with a single layer of fabric. I realized that's how Ross and Troy managed to stay busy all the time; the village really needed firewood during the winter.

Walking to the village, twilight almost reached its end, but between the stars and moons there was plenty of light to see with. Looks like Ria and I will be having a late dinner, but that’s fine every once in awhile. I didn't expect anything to happen, so it was surprising to see Pan at the storehouse.

“Alric! Good, I thought so.” He looked satisfied, an improbably worry squashed. “When you disappeared after taking those two, people started to worry.”

“Evening Pan, sorry, the *mana* called out to me and I needed to go do some research. I should have given you a heads up, but what was all the worry about?” Pan followed me in as we talked. Picking up a small sack of oats, I scooped out the amount for dinner, aware to not take too much.

“I did explain what I knew to them, but it still looked like you were defying the Church. It wouldn't be much of a surprise if you were to ‘disappear’, either of your own volition or not. We may be grateful towards the Patriarch, but are aware that not all his followers express gratitude towards outsiders.”

“Well, er, speaking of disappearing…” Hmm, how to bring this up. “How many days are left before the Paladins begin passing through?”

Pan quieted, clever enough to figure out what I was implying.

“There are still around four weeks remaining; is that not enough time?”

“Not at the current rate of progress, and it’s not a permanent fix right now either. There are a lot of ways to deal with it, but I haven't seen anything nearby that would help.” I paused, if he guessed what I would say it would come as less of a shock. “I can take her with me during my travels. At the very least she can be hidden from paladins that way. It’s...not an elegant solution, but it may be better than waiting around here.”

“You won't make it in time—but you plan to keep trying. That’s...good.” Not only composed, he actually acted accepting as well. “Forgive me if it is a secret of your *mana*, but can she travel in her condition?”

Ehh? These are shockingly practical concerns Pan. Shouldn't you be more worried about your daughter being taken away to strange lands? I'm sure there are plenty of dangers; who knows when or if she can return? Well, I was going to convince you out of these positions, but this isn't how I thought this would go.

“As the treatment progresses, even if her appearance does not return to normal, she will end up able to act on her own. Until then, my magic will provide.”

“I am thankful.” Pan lowered his head, as I returned the bags of oats and grains. Almost leaving he stopped me, speaking tentatively. “Will you tell me?”

“Excuse me?” My foot hesitated, halfway lifted from the ground. I turned back to look into the warehouse where Pan had seated himself on one of the crates. “Tell you what?”

“A serpent eel shouldn't be enough to go to these lengths. At first I thought as a foreigner it had just been a passing amusement, but you stayed longer and longer—Taking care of Ria, helping the village, the children have taken a liking to you…then you say you're willing to risk enmity with the Church to help her.”

“I said I'd fix her didn't I? The church don't make me nervous, especially if it’s only hiding. Besides, this is the sort of life a man should lead, sticking to his word. Ria will definitely be safe with me.”

My words left Pan speechless; Derriad didn't foster heroism. I did, I wanted to have a chance to be a hero in a real world. One that went against the odds and hopeless situations without fear. A hero helped, I helped. Pan, without millennia of stories didn't realize how much this sort of thing was worth. Altruism is its own reward.

“Then I'll leave her in your care.”

“Isn't that what you've been doing?” I shook my head with a slight smile. My deeds may have been a bit more than the usual Good Samaritan, but the way Pan was so hesitant to accept I would just help out felt a bit—well it made me happy he accepted the gesture in the end.

I still wondered about Pan and his history, he was too on the ball to be a normal villager. At that point, it became its own mysterious background and I didn't want to look into it, lest I shatter the mystique. Instead I made do with rampant speculation; perhaps he used to work in some ruthless field where he learned never to trust good intentions.

Reaching home, I floated my bowl of food over to my table. It had been the cot Pan arranged for me; but as sleeping outside was more comfy, the straw had been removed and was where I set things down when inside. Due to my nature as a bit of a pack-rat, I accumulated some gewgaws that I knew I didn't want taking up space in my Inventory, like a few neat rocks, some wood carvings done with , that sort of useless crap. Even if I call it crap, I still didn't get rid of it.

“*Waiting for the dinner bell to do the bell thing, dinner bell, dinner bell, ding~*

“Oi, Ria, dinner time.” Sitting next to her bed, she seemed to almost rouse herself, struggling to sit up. A great show of progress but in the end, she was unable to do so. “You're looking a bit more energetic than usual.”

“Ioanna ee msff…” So not really any improvement on the language front; regardless, I could understand her anyway.

“Give it a shot.” I held out the spoon for her at shoulder height. Ria moved through invisible molasses, her arm rising during short bursts of focus before falling back to the cot. Apparently even keeping her eyes open was a struggle, and once she gave up on that, it seemed today was not her day either. “Alright, save it for another day. I get it’s a bit embarrassing, but you're getting better, be patient.”

Heh, be patient.

Chuckling on the inside, Ria was reluctantly fed. It seemed her mind cleared up a tad, even if she remained physically weak.

“Alright, do you have some questions in mind? Remember, there's a time limit of about 10 seconds, so none of this ‘what do you mean’ business unless you are actually asking for clarification. I’ll do a countdown from 5.”

Poking her horn, she jolted, but managed to slightly suppress that ‘Eep!’ sound. To my surprise and satisfaction, I lost two mana. Eyeing her I waited for a question; only for two seconds, when it seemed prompting her was the faster way.

“Do you have any questions?”

“Eh, yes!” Ria began hoarsely, but then coughed several times. She didn't have the ability to speak for long periods of time, and was out of practice with speaking. The real reason was because things don't go favorably for me so easily; the universe wanted this to be my plot apparently. I hoped I wouldn't die at the end of it. “Who are you?”

“I’m The Doctor, Alric; traveling mage of Brannish origins.” The question caught me somewhat off guard, but then I realized I pretty much poured over(pored over for you archaic twits) her and Ria didn't know much of anything about me. I did shave off my scruffy facial hair, so I shouldn't look creepy at all though.

“Well, uh Alric, why am I…” Ria glanced down at her skin. Her fits of lucidity probably gave her time to come to terms with it at least. At least I didn't have her trying to jump out of her own skin.

“It’s a magical ailment causing you to be dependent on mana. That’s why I’m tending to you, as a Mage I have a lot of mana. Also because of a neat serpent eel.”

“Eeehh?” Ria started a noise of surprise and turned red, right before she started losing her balance. Putting my hand on her shoulder to steady her, she batted my hand away; although it was more of a gentle flailing. “Vustay waycallin mda…” Ria stayed sitting up for the next dozen seconds or so, but seemed to be very mentally fatigued all of a sudden. While in possession of more body control of usual, it seemed to be a mental recovery phase.

Plopping back down at the end of her episode, caught her and set her down, as I'd already moved on to eating my dinner. Yummy oats. I idly hoped Ruffles occasionally got a cube of sugar. Castor did treat him well, so I probably didn't have to worry.

Rather, thinking of food, planning for rations was going to be a pretty big step in the adventure. There were three total people coming along on the journey, although I didn't have quite the need for food as the other two did. Considering the main goal of traveling was to hide Ria from the paladins, and the Derrish population in general, we'd need to become skilled at foraging. I could leave Tagalong Girl to watch Ria as I ran into settlements, but that would leave them fairly vulnerable. Most of the villages and smaller towns didn't seem like terrible places, but I was still unsure about sending Tagalong Girl to shop on her own as well.

Tagalong Girl definitely seemed to be the sort to try and pick up responsibilities she wasn't ready for. That irregularly matured mind would probably bring trouble at some point, I just needed to keep her out of it. That’s the kind of thing my role needed to take care of, not that I minded.

It was more than just proper Isekai protagonist behavior to grab a loli for the group(though I was going a more traditional hero route, the idea definitely affected my decision). Her desire to get out of the little Salt Village made me want to pull for her. I always wanted this, to be transported to another world, and I had the world available to me. Being trapped with no way out, even if it was a whim, it wasn't likely I could just pass her by.

Still, her presence would make things a tiny bit more difficult; or at least force me to be less lazy. Without her, Ria was only a blindfold away from being carried by a zombie palanquin. What a sight that would be, a demon empress borne by a legion of the dead. Necromancy seemed like even among the accepting villagers it would have to be taboo; I didn't plan on revealing it to anyone unless they got in major trouble.

Observing Zog in my Inventory I sighed. You can be useless a bit longer you stupid hunk of flesh. Then I went over the various fish and edible herbs in my inventory, trying to figure out how many more I needed to acquire.

A/N:AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I lied, I didn't check the H's this time either.

But I did request a donation button thing! I don't know how that works, but perhaps one day I could be *gasp*....a professional