Gathering up the usual grains and some vegetables from the storehouse, I headed back to my hut. Stoking the fire with wood stacked on the outside wall, the flames brought the room from temperate to mildly warm. Being a simple pit, smoke that came off it just floated up into the space, and luckily could escape the ceiling. One of the benefits of subpar housing is it has great ventilation.

Hey Democritus, look at this fancy knot I tied around the firewood; I bet you’re impressed, aren’t you?

As Ria improved over the weeks, more substantial food was added to her diet. I currently worked on slow-roasting a chikan—stewing it would probably have been a more effective option, but I didn’t have a pot on hand. In fact, the village had a surprisingly small number of pots. A fishing village would usually make a lot of fish stock to minimize waste, which required something to boil the ingredients with. For some reason, the village didn’t partake in this, which I realized was due to the pseudo-bronze age environment they lived in.

While Glaucen was a prosperous city, even it only teetered near the end of the iron age, and the temple showed signs of early medieval periods at the latest. Without people striving for technological advancements and more or less working to maintain the status quo, it showed a fancy surface with simple underpinnings.

The surroundings likewise did not advance, but apparently after an arbitrarily large number of generations, those small profit gains that they made allowed most people to end up with such basic goods. Iron cookware and farming implements were usually kept in a village for ages, and due to the low turnover, the market was just free enough for smiths to charge large amounts of money for them. It only ended up affecting those who didn’t have much capital.

At the very least, can’t this place have a few more pots? There should really be a limit to this arbitrary destitution. As close to the wilderness as you could get while still actually being on the city limits probably affected that.

The savory scent of chikan filled the air, as I wished I learned to actually cook. I could make steaks, Monte Cristo sandwiches, and baked goods—everything else was made by actual chefs. A bit strange considering how much I loved cooking and food, but once you know how to cook the best foods, why bother with soups?

Thankfully sticking a chikan over a spit wasn't difficult at all, and you couldn't go wrong with meat. Umami meals were hearty, and given the general lack of them in the village it would probably do her some good. From the goblins I learned that food probably wasn’t always processed in the way I was used to, but meat was still seen as a luxurious food that was good for one’s health—though that could always be a superstition.

As the chikan finished cooking, I withdrew my dagger that originated from Underworld of Armok to begin cutting it into strips to place in the bowl with the porridge. Letting it sit as it cooled so the flavor could seep in, I nudged Ria awake from a distance.

“Hey, wake up. It’s dinner time.” With time, Ria also gained a fraction of her motor skills. The amount of mana she could absorb indicated her general level of progress. Outside the short window of time after being magically supplemented, and following fit of narcolepsy, Ria began to be able to form full sentences, even if they were garbled by poor fine motor skills. It showed a great deal of progress from only being able to leave the catatonic state in short bursts.

“Heeey you Doc-tor.” Grumpily slurring as she woke, the irregular cadence of her voice and unhappy face made it look like she wanted to ex-ter-min-ate me. “Just lemme eat by m’self. Icn do it, so g’way.”

“Try and get used to the idea of me accompanying you. You’ve made progress, but it’s really not to the point you can operate independently yet.” Saying that, Ria continued struggling to sit up. Having shown her distaste for my close proximity to her, I refrained from helping her immediately, but in the end she couldn’t sit upright without some aid.

“Accompnyme? No you want to take me ‘way. Usin’ your magics to get me all close tyou.”

“If you keep making things up, then how can you see mistakes? It may be a bit hard, but try using your head.” Sighing, as usual Ria scooped at her porridge in futility. Scooted back against the wall to support herself more firmly as she tried eating. Ria’s arms didn’t move as slowly as they did before, but they were looking much less coordinated. The zig-zagging meant had more work than usual to do.

“Alright, you’ve wasted enough food for today.” Reaching my limit, there was only so much to go around. Ironically, due to the relatively small fields and the excessive fishing, grains were a more palatable meal. Everything came with a bit of fish, so it was nice to get a simpler taste every once in awhile—and Ria was flinging the deliciously mild porridge everywhere with her jitters.

Confiscating the bowl and spoon from her was slightly easier than taking candy from a baby. Babies at least reflexively kept their hands balled up around an object. A bit of a discouraging observation, it was an improved state of affairs and there was no sign of it slowing. Well, Ria would be a dependant for a while yet, so I hoped she would get used to the situation soon.

“Whydyou have to do this? Let Rion do it, I don’t wantya to.” Turning her head to the side, for a second I thought about making airplane or train noises. To be honest, I was trying not to focus on Ria’s words too much. Traveling together was going to happen or not, and Pan said she needed to acclimate to me; I just tried to keep our relationship from degrading any further.

Having Rion nurse her wasn’t the worst of ideas, but familiarity breeds fondness. Or maybe contempt. Spending time with her would hopefully help repair the fire damage to the bridge, and if Rion spent some more time with his sister, he would probably become even more of a devoted little brother. I’d done a good job instilling him with the value of storge, too well by half perhaps.

Though Pan would oppose it(probably), if Rion and Ria spent more time with one another, Rion would no doubt get it into his silly head that he should accompany us. Embers of wanderlust dwelled within the boy, but the journey we were to embark on would not sate it. There were too many obligations for a true wanderer, and his care for Ria, while appropriate, would likely become too much of a focus to grow.

I also took into account Tagalong Girl, who until this point followed him around out of self interest. If Rion did attempt to come along, she would need to continue her facade, or hostilities could develop within the group. Even if they did not, a certain level of tension would remain.

The siblings should be kept at a reasonable distance. Enough to give Rion satisfaction, but not so much that it deepened the ties to the point where he needed to accompany us until Ria found closure.

“Rion needs to pay attention to life in the village. I’ll make sure he comes and visits enough before we leave, but your brother needs to learn to live his own life. He’s recognized you, but fanatical devotion is just as bad as not caring about you at all.”

“Stop, stop acting like you always know ‘vrything. Youj, just want your way.”

“Everyone wants their way. That’s the whole point of explaining things.” Rolling my eyes, I picked the spoon back up. “Now eat. If you’re so tired of being like this, just accept the care given to you and try to get better.” Pushing a spoonful of porridge towards her, she stopped resisting and ate.

“Alright, now that that’s done with, time for *mana*. Please don’t make too much of a fuss.”

“No!” It wasn’t said with enough force to be an exclamation, but Ria certainly did object with as much might as she could muster. Losing balance, she tipped over and I reached out a hand to help catch her. Even if she disliked it, it was better than hitting her head on something. Yare-yare, why do you have to get upset about this kind of stuff?

“In case you missed it, this is how the condition has become less severe. I won’t say there’s no other solution, but it certainly is the only way forward right now.”

“I don’t care, stop touching and doing that thing…”

Urk! Please stop saying such things. I understand this is great JP style innuendo, but this is already a difficult situation to navigate. These mood swings are going to give someone whiplash.

Having given my best effort to negotiate, there didn’t seem to be any chance of concessions on her part. So making use of my Agility, my hand just snaked around and brushed against one of her horns. Nobody wants to get a shot, but they are necessary, and it only hurts for a moment.

“Eeep! W-w-why? You don’t listen to anything I’m saying! Selfishly doing whatever you want…”

“Take into account that this is the quickest way for you to get better. I’m not trying to make you feel uncomfortable.”

Ria had none of it, curling up like a pillbug to ‘defend’ herself. A half-hearted maneuver to comfort herself, at least she didn’t go on endlessly complaining at me like Corsair had. It made the journey ahead seem much more trying, but I was resolute in my decision. The choice to get her out of the village was the best one if she was to survive, and though it had been a bit of a whimsical choice, I stuck to my promise to cure her. Even if it wasn’t shaping up to be the greatest of quests.

“*Right. I’ll just go over here and eat then.*” Letting out a sigh and mixing up my own meal, Ria somewhat relaxed as I headed across the room to my own bed to eat. Taking a bite out of the porridge, the chikan had a slightly burnt taste to it. Having figured out what had gone wrong, I summarily flavored it with . No point suffering from the easily remedied.

Taking a bite, as Ria slumped over into unconsciousness after a record-breaking 40 seconds, two stilled caught her and gently eased her down. Managing to continue eating while doing so, my ability to multitask seemed to have gone up a bit. Idly moving the hands about in concert, they persisted even while executing more complicated mental maneuvers.

Staring into the fire, I continued practicing my various magics as it died down. Most of the fatigue accumulated over the past two days had been psychological, the body could stand being awake a little longer. Using magic didn’t count as straining in this sense, the sensation was like being physically tired, but able to do finely coordinated motor skills. If totally burnt out the mind could become shaky while undertaking the tasks, but for the most part as long as I didn’t push it, magic could continue to be done.

Playing about with my magic continued as the flames turned to embers, flickering in the ground. As the darkness set upon the room and the shadows crept in, I thought back to those minions hiding along the outskirts of the forest, and those that had been stationed all the way back near Yhrack. Still persisting, it seemed that either Khtraal decided he was okay with a few loitering undead, or tKlor’t’t succeeded, the latter much more likely in my opinion.

Either way, that meant I still had a very large number of undead to deal with, that certainly weren’t going to be able to stealthily travel across Derriad.

What to do, what do do…

Go to sleep and think about it in the morning.