The next morning he was, again, woken up by a knock on the door.

“Excuse me, are you awake?” a female voice asked.

“Yes. Thanks for waking me up.” Markus was rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

After a moment of silence the voice spoke up again “Are you up already?” Going by the question asked, it was probably Abigail.

“No, but you can come in. I’ll stay under the blanket.” Markus wanted to ask her something.

“Good morning” Abigail came in, bringing a new bowl with water.

Staying under the blanket like promised, Markus asked her “Do you know if the man with the leather ware shop sells shirts? I only have the one with horse crap on it.”

“Hmm… I think so. But it’s still very early, I guess you should wait for a bit before going there.”

“Thanks. Could you bring me the breakfast to my room today? I don’t really want to spend much time in the dirty clothes.” Markus was used to changing his clothes on a daily basis from his old life, and after getting his new outfit he felt like he wanted to avoid wearing the dirty clothes as much as possible.

“Sure. If you’d like to, I can wash the dirty shirt for you. – But I suppose they won’t be dry until tomorrow. I heard you will leave today.” She was cheerful until now, but somehow sounding a little different when saying the last part.

Right, he had already been here for two nights, so he should move on afterwards. It wasn’t a long time, but Markus somehow felt comfortable having the tavern as his ‘base’.

“Yeah, that was the plan at least. If you could wash the shirt either way, I would appreciate it.”

Nodding, Abigail left the room. A short time afterwards she came back, carrying a tray with a similar breakfast like yesterday. “Mom said the shop should be open in an hour or so.”

“Thank you, see to you later then.”

After Abigail left, Markus got up. He put on his underwear and the new pants and shirt after giving himself a quick wash. As long as he remembered to switch the outfit before going outside, everything was fine.

Not having anything else to do, Markus wanted to complete the sole item on his to-do list. Pulling out the linen cloth and scissors, he cut up a bunch of small sheets to be used as toilet paper. He soaked one half in water and then put them all into his inventory.

Markus then pulled out the sewing kit. He already had the cloth in front of him, so perhaps getting a new skill wasn’t a bad way to spend his time. Markus cut and then sewed, producing what was meant to be a pair of indoor shoes made of linen. He had good intentions, but the result was terrible. The material was thin and he had nothing to use for the soles, so he had sewn two additional layers of cloth at the bottom. It was basically a pair of poorly made socks. He got a new skill when finishing them though, [Tailoring].

After raising it to level 5, he had much more confidence in his ability, so he tried again. His stitches were much better, the design actually functional and the result looked like a real pair of slippers. Perhaps rather like ballerinas, but that didn’t matter. The material was still a bit unsuitable, but wearing them felt comfortable.

Judging that it was time for the shop to be open, he changed into his dirty clothing and went outside.

The shopkeeper luckily had a few shirts on stock. They were of poor quality, but that did not matter to Markus, as they were clean. He also bought a pair of pants while he was at it. Both together cost him 3 silver coins. After going back to the tavern and changing, Markus gave his shirt and pants to Abigail, who promised to wash them before lunch.

He was looking forward to working with the two people at the base he had not met yet, the magician and the alchemist. Greeting the guards at the gate, he went straight into the main building. Asking around for the location of the two people, he was told that the alchemist was on the first floor, while the magician was upstairs, next to the infirmary.

The infirmary… - Markus had nearly forgotten to stop by there. He had not seen the young Wynn girl after she had arrived here two days ago, so she was probably still there.

When he arrived at the infirmary, he saw the door standing open. After knocking anyway, he entered the room.

There were a few beds lined up on the walls, most were empty, except for one. A blonde haired girl was lying in it. In contrast to when he saw her the last time, she was looking a lot better. Not only was she not soaked in her own blood, but her complexion was back to normal.

[Coraline Wynn

Level 13

HP 91%]

When she saw Markus, she smiled and tried sitting up, but was struggling. Markus walked over to the bed.

“Need help? Don’t strain yourself, you can just lie down if that’s better” He handed her a second pillow from the bed next to hers and put it behind her back.

“Thanks. I’m OK though, my side is just still hurting a bit. You are the young man who helped carrying me back here, right? I don’t really remember much from that day”

“Yea, my name is Markus. I came across your group on my way here, so I was just helping out a little. Good to see that you are recovering.”

“My name is Coraline Wynn. Everyone said that without you things would have ended badly for me, even Lieutenant Clement. So, thank you very much for your help. I don’t know how I can ever repay that favour, but I will do anything in my power.” She was looking up at him with big eyes full of gratitude. The ‘do anything’ gave Markus some improper ideas, so he quickly assured here it was fine.

“Don’t sweat it. The lieutenant has already allowed me to stay for a bit and annoy the people working here, I am very happy with that as a reward.” Markus was looking around the room. There was a cabinet and a small desk, but nothing else that would indicate that this room was a medical facility.

“Mind if I ask how your injuries are treated here? No offense, but two days ago you were in a terrible condition. You look much better now.”

“As I said, I can’t remember much about what happened on that day I’m afraid. When we arrived here at the base, I was already wrapped in bandages and had been stabilized. Since then, Sergeant Hendrix has regularly performed healing magic on me, but I am basically just recovering. I heard they will bring a healing potion soon, but I think it’s wasted on me.”

“If you make a full recovery, then it should be fine.”

“Well, I will probably keep a small scar, but that is OK. Every proper soldier has one or more of those.” The girl smiled, then continued “Hendrix said there is a danger of some internal injury remaining, which is why he is still casting his magic every few hours.”

Then a man’s voice could be heard “That’s right, and also why I told you not to sit up as much as possible.” The source of the voice was a soldier coming from the door. He was in his late twenties and already balding. Markus remembered seeing him before, he was one of the soldiers who were in the first rescue group on horses. Not wearing any armour today, he did not look very impressive. The man was rather short and slender.

“I suppose you are the fabled ‘young saviour’ then. I am Sergeant Hendrix Ruthby, in charge of this place.” By this place he probably meant the infirmary. The man’s tone was neither friendly nor outright hostile, but the sarcasm wasn’t lost on Markus.

“My name is Markus, I was just checking in on your patient. You must be the healer who spent so much effort on rescuing Private Wynn that he himself fainted. Thank you very much!” The lieutenant had said he only ‘nearly’ fainted, but Markus couldn’t help but annoy him a little.

“I only got a little dizzy, don’t misunderstand. Do you need anything else? Because I have to treat my patient now.” Hendrix was getting a slightly red in his face, but kept his tone professional. If it was anger or embarrassment, or both, was hard to tell.

“Hmm… If possible, I want to stay and watch you perform your healing magic.” Markus said so. He had not seen anyone cast a spell from up close, so he was certainly curious.

“Stay and watch?!” It was Wynn who said so with a slightly shocked expression.

“I see. I was expecting you to stop by yesterday. But you waited until Guthrie left, so you could exploit the lieutenant’s favour…” Hendrix didn’t seem pleased for some reason. “Unfortunately, it would be troublesome for Miss Wynn. Even the lieutenant won’t go as far as allowing you to harass her.” Markus didn’t understand, but if it wasn’t possible he would not fuzz over it. The army magician will be a better source of information anyway.

“N-No, it is OK for me. If you really like to see the treatment, I even want you to stay. There is nothing else I can do to repay my debt to you.” Wynn was looking determined, but her cheeks were gradually reddening

“I don’t think you owe me, but I have never seen healing magic performed, so I am curious.” With all the discussion around it, Markus wanted to know what the big deal was. Perhaps healing magic was very pleasurable and she would be making weird noises?

“Then please stay. Hendrix, you can go ahead.” Wynn carefully raised her arms. It seemed like the movement caused her some pain and she was clenching her eyes shut, but she finally had both arms over her head.

Hendrix looked at Markus with reproachful eyes, but then turned his attention towards Wynn. Grabbing the hem of her shirt, he pulled it up and then off altogether. Wynn then put her hands on her head. It happened quickly, but Markus understood why there was objection to him staying here.

There were no bandages. The goods were in full view, and they were looking good. Markus noticed a small, purple scar underneath her right arm, where the arrow had penetrated the skin, otherwise her upper body was quite perfect. His eyes were automatically drawn towards her chest though. They were a perfect C-cup and defying gravity splendidly. The raised arms only made it look more sexual and with Wynn still clenching her eyes Markus felt a mix of guilt and arousal.

Hendrix meanwhile pulled a long rod from a sheath on his belt. It was made of silver metal, had a small blue gem above the hilt and was otherwise just a cylindrical object with a rounded tip. From the context, it was a wand, although a bit thicker than Markus would have imagined one to be. In fact, in the current situation it reminded Markus of a sex toy.

Extending his arm, Hendrix closed his eyes and started mumbling gibberish in a low voice. The words had a slurred and weird pronunciation. After a few seconds of mumbling, a swirling, green sphere appeared in front of the wand’s tip. It was slightly larger than a golf ball and nearly transparent. Hendrix opened his eyes, then moved the wand towards the scar while focusing on the wand. The sphere followed with a miniscule lag.

When the sphere made contact with the skin, Hendrix closed his eyes again. Markus tried looking closely at the wound to notice if anything changed. It was hard for him to focus on that spot though, with other interesting things in close proximity. He saw the green sphere slowly shrinking. Then Hendrix moved wand closer to her skin, making the ball disappear inside Wynn’s body.

He moved the tip of the wand around the front of her chest, then back to the scar and finally along her back. When he pulled the wand away, the sphere was noticeably smaller, only around the size of a pea. Hendrix cancelled the spell and put the wand back into its sheath. He was looking a bit pale and had beads of sweat on his forehead.

The small scar on Wynn’s side had lost a bit of its colour and became less noticeable, like what normally happens over time. Hendrix helped Wynn back into her shirt, while Markus turned his head away. The healer then left without saying another word.

“Well… thank you for letting me watch. It feels like I am now the one owing you though” Markus said so, smiling at Wynn.

She buried her face into her hands. “Uhhh, don’t say that. It was more embarrassing than I thought.”

“It was very interesting. If I had known what to expect, I would not have asked to watch though.”

“Please promise me to forget about everything that was not the healing magic” That was an impossible request. Markus decided to wrap things up.

“I need to leave now, I only have the rest of the day to meet with some people here. Do you need anything? I can ask someone to bring you water or something.”

“No, it’s fine, my aunt will stop by soon I guess. Thanks for stopping by though. I really wanted to meet you.”

“Yes, I hope you get back to full health soon. OK, bye then, I hope we meet again.” Markus was smiling at her. Wynn seemed to have gotten over the situation and smiled back.