‘This is our difference, and why you will never set foot outside of this village in your life without immense luck.’

Erika paused in front of the door. Then she lifted her hands and knocked.

“Enter.”

She pushed the door open and entered the room. Ottfried the messenger sat at a desk, furiously scribbling away at a piece of paper. Erika closed the door behind her and waited patiently. Ottfried continued for a few minutes, occasionally dipping his quill until he finished. He blew on the paper, then put it aside to dry.

“I knew you’d come,” Ottfried said.

“You did?” Erika asked. That fight she had with Ian forced her awake. “How? Did you hear me coming up the stairs?”

“No. I knew the moment I took you out into the forest,” Ottfried said. “I looked at you and knew that you were a brave enough spirit to endure the life in the wilderness...

“...like hell. No. I knew that you’d come because bravery is a step from stupidity, and you might be the most stupid girl I’ve seen yet. I’ve seen people with your eyes, and they end up dead. A few who have Awakened their Souls survive, but most end up torn apart by the claws of one monster or another,” Ottfried growled. “And so I ask you, are you sure you still want to learn to read and write? To pursue that foolish dream of yours?”

Erika nodded silently and put the coins pouch in front of Ottfried. “This is all I can pay you.”

Ottfried pushed it back. “I don’t take the money of dead people. Sit down.”

Erika sat on the bed, huddling to disturb as little as possible, then looked attentively at Ottfried. Ottfried took one last long look at her then took out a clean piece of paper. He began to write out each letter of the alphabet and read it to her. Every time he read a letter, Erika stared at it for a moment, saying the letter in different ways.

There were only two dozens or so letters in the alphabet, so it didn’t take long for her to memorize it. Ottfried even gave her the paper so she could review in her own time.

Then came the grammar and vocabulary. Even with Erika trying her best, the grammar still took most of the night. She paid for the candles they used with the tuition fees Ottfried refused, then bid him farewell until they met at night again.

That day, Erika was working at Objar’s place again. The old man took one look at the cut and bruise on her face and flew into a rage. “Erika! Who did this to you?”

“It’s okay, Objar. I just got into a fight with Ian,” Erika said expressionlessly. “It doesn’t matter.”

“How can it not matter?! Your face is ruined! That bastard had better take responsibility!” Objar seethed.

Erika stared at him wordlessly. The logic didn’t connect. She should marry Ian because he hurt her face? Finally, she shook her head. “I’ll be fine. It’ll heal cleanly. More importantly, what’s my work for today? It’s not weaving again, is it?”

Objar took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. “No. I have a few shirts that need to be repaired, and laundry. Just those for today.” Erika nodded and walked past him into the house.

Sewing was a skill she’d picked up early on during her time here, so she was quite adept at it. In fact, those crafts that involved strings seemed to suit her, weaving and embroidery being the other two.

As such, repairing the cloaks didn’t take her long at all. Laundry was even faster, and she just left the wet clothes in the backyard to dry. She could pick them up later when it was time to dry. In hindsight, it was probably better to do the laundry first so it dried faster.

Still, what had been done was done, so she couldn’t do anything about that now.

Since she kept Ottfried up all night, he was probably asleep. On the other hand, she probably couldn’t fall asleep even if she felt like it.

Learning to read and write was the first step on the road out of the village.

Hang on… she just learned the grammar patterns and alphabet of an entire written language in a night. Erika stilled. Something wasn’t right.

That’s impossible, even for a child. Yes, she can clearly remember the letters of the alphabet, the rules of the language, and some crucial vocabulary that Ottfried taught her while explaining the grammar.

Then she calmed down. How silly of her. Grammar was used even when speaking. She’d been so excited she’d forgotten that simple fact. Laughing slightly at herself, she decided to head over to Tabitha’s house.

She knocked on the door. “Hello, is Tabitha home?” she called.

The door opened shortly and Tabitha smiled at her, holding a baby girl in her arm. Her smile quickly faded. “Erika, your face!”

“Do me a favor and don’t worry about it. There are far more important things to think about, like Sigrun and Ilya. I had something to do last night. Sorry, I didn’t help you,” Erika said. She played with Sigrun’s soft cheeks and smiled when the baby girl swatted it away. She played with Sigrun at the door while Tabitha blocked her way in.

“...Ian came over last night to look for you,” Tabitha said, finally.

“Don’t worry about it,” Erika replied.

Tabitha nodded and moved aside to let Erika through. Erika had been here many times, so she knew where Tabitha left Ilya. Both the boy and the girl looked like Tabitha with soft blond hair, but blue eyes darker than their father’s. Erika’s own eyes were so light Tabitha once told her it was like looking at ice.

Picking up a bottle of cloth teats, Erika began to nurse the boy. At first, Ilya coughed up the warm milk, but soon settled into a rhythmic suckling. Across from her, Tabitha mirrored her movements,

The peaceful atmosphere did not sit well with Erika. She sighed to herself. This kind of life really wasn’t for her. Soon, Ilya stopped suckling and Erika helped him burp. Putting him down on his bed again, Erika sat back in her chair again, examining the bruises on her hand, then opening and curling her fingers, fidgeting.

“What’s wrong?” Tabitha asked her.

“Mm, it’s nothing. Just the usual. That traveler’s name is Ottfried.”

“Is he going to take you with him?” Tabitha asked. Erika shook her head and Tabitha sighed, disappointed for her. “Why not?”

“The usual reason. I’ll be a burden,” Erika said. “But this time, he agreed to teach me to read.”

“Oh, so that’s where you went last night!”

“Haha, as expected of you, Tabitha, I can’t hide anything from you.”

Tabitha stopped feeding Sigrun and went to sit by Erika’s side and nudged her encouragingly. “Don’t worry. All the travelers so far are by themselves. I’m sure that after you learn to read and write, a group will definitely take you in! I’ll miss you then,” she said.

Erika nodded absentmindedly.

All travelers were by default Seekers with Awakened Souls. How could someone like her be taken along, no matter how useful she was? Sometimes, protecting a single person was too risky. If the group ran into trouble and everyone could escape on their own except her, she was doomed.

“Speaking of travelers,” Tabitha said, “more came today. In a group.”

Erika looked up. “Group? What are they like?”

“Mm, they’re kind of loud, but they seem more friendly than most travelers,” Tabitha described, thinking hard. “Helpful too.”

“Do you think they seem like the type that’ll take me?” she asked.

Tabitha shook her head. “They’re all men! I don’t think it’s safe. You should wait a bit longer,” she said, staring at Erika’s face.

Erika covered the bruise on her face and glared at Tabitha, but her friend just shifted her gaze to her arm. Finally, Erika just sighed. “Alright, you win.”

Tabitha leaned forward conspiratorially.

“Last night, Ian came to apologize…”

“For what? Oh, the other boys were talking about it. He grabbed your arm. His parents were furious,” Tabitha commented. Erika glared at her until she hushed, then continued.

“He made a rose for me, but I told him I wasn’t interested. When he found out I was going to Ottfried’s, he got angry and threw the rose at me. I’m sure he didn’t want to hurt me, and I didn’t really explain I was going for lessons, but Ian needs to learn to back off,” Erika finished.

“Ahhh… does it still hurt?” Tabitha asked, touching her face. Erika felt her cold soothing fingertips on her bruise, then winced when she pressed on it. She heard the dry sound of Tabitha’s nails on her scab. Tabitha frowned and patted her leg to make her stay, then began to heat a basin of water. “You need to take care of yourself, Erika.”

“I am taking care of myself. The bruise won’t last and this wound won’t leave a scar either. You’re overreacting,” Erika replied. Still, she sat quietly when Tabitha wiped her face, softening the scab.

Tabitha also gave the babies a quick bath while she was at it. Sometimes, Erika felt a bit guilty when Tabitha treated her as preciously as her own children, even though they were only four years apart.

Tabitha made it seem like it was only natural to take care of her. In a way, Tabitha took the role of her mother, passing down all her knowledge to her.

After Tabitha finished, Erika stood up. “I’ll take the water out. I need to go see the travelers,” she said. Tabitha nodded, and Erika took the basin of water outside where she poured it on the plants. After she put the basin where Tabitha usually kept it, she said her goodbyes, then headed toward the inn.

She went into the back.

“Ronja! Do you need help?” she called.

“Oh, perfect, I was just looking for a hand. One of the travelers brought in a monster boar. They’re much better for the body, but they’re a pain to butcher.” Ronja patted a boar bigger than she was; it was probably a dozen times her weight.

“Couldn’t you take it to the butcher?” Erika asked.

“And buy back the good meat at twice the price? Much better to do it ourselves,” Ronja said. “Come, give me a hand.”

Eventually, they still had to call the butcher over because the bones were too solid for them to go through. Despite her earlier words, Ronja happily handed over the coins, but not without exchanging complaints.

“Ah, this is too expensive,” Ronja cried.

“Why don’t you just stop buying the meat then?” Erika asked.

“I don’t know when another traveler is going to bring another one in!”

“... Can’t you just hire them to hunt the monsters when you need the meat?”

A ladle was brought down on her head. “Foolish! We are supposed to create a restful environment for our patrons, not create more work from them in the forest they just came out of!”

The smell of chunks of boar meat over open fires filled the kitchen.

Erika’s stomach rumbled from the smell, but she obediently took the plates of steaming meat glistening with fat over to the patrons. She spotted the new group of four travelers immediately; they seemed more energetic than the others in the inn. She came close enough to single out their conversations several times during her rounds of serving and refilling.

“Check that out!” one of them said.

A whistle.

“That boar meat looks so good!”

“Why can’t you cook like that?”

When she served them, she felt a sudden rush of disappointment.

They looked clean like Ottfried before them, but nothing about them suggested the competence needed to survive in the wilderness. Their hair looked strange and illogical; done in a way that took way too much time every day to maintain, unlike the basic cuts that the villagers and other travelers had.

However, each and every one of them exuded the same power that all travelers and monsters did, if slightly weaker. It was a strange juxtaposition, like they had the power, but didn’t earn it.

“That boar was so weak. Even if ten of them came at once, I could still take ‘em!”

“Don’t joke. You’ll be done so quick you wouldn't have time to scream. Pee your pants!”

One of them seemed to notice her lingering attention and elbowed his companion. His companion leaned over and something was whispered into his ear. When the conversation stopped, Erika lost interest and left.

When she came out the next few times to refill drinks, she found the new group of travelers had spread out and begun talking among the villagers. She felt her heart settle as a tiny bit of worry for the group’s future survival faded.

At the same time, she decided to not even ask that group. Her gut feeling told her that they were unreliable and that she’d have the highest chance of dying if she went with them than if she asked any other traveler.

After she finished server and the patrons began to clear out of the inn, Erika headed toward the fields.

The forest behind the village was cleared out long ago to make room for a field of grass. The magic of the fairy rings sped up the growth of plants within, so even though the village had a flock of sheep, the whole flock had enough to eat.

At the same time, this field was the most spacious place in the entire village. When her mind wouldn’t stop working, the fields with the wind blowing through the grass and the occasional noise that the livestock made was where she’d usually go to unwind. She didn’t know when she fell asleep or how long, but she woke up to the sound of footsteps walking toward her with purpose.

Her eyes flew open and she stumbled to her feet. The four travelers that just arrived were walking toward her. She furrowed her brows suspiciously.

“Hello, is there anything I can help you with?” she asked. The travelers looked at each other with hints of “you do it!” flying back and forth, then one of them stood forward, slightly blushing.

“Ahem. You’re Miss Erika, right?”

She nodded.

“So it’s like this. Someone asked us to give this to you,” the traveler said, offering up a bundle of leaves held together by string. At a glance, Erika could tell that it was the leaves of the vorgras plant. It was great for small injuries but didn’t grow within the magic of the fairy rings. In other words, it was only obtainable outside in the forest.

For travelers, obtaining these plants should be easy, but this man in front of her claimed that someone asked them to give this to her.

Tabitha, Objar, and… Ian. It wasn’t Tabitha for sure. It probably wasn’t Objar either. However, the more she thought about it, the more she was sure it was Ian. And since no one else in the village was willing to face her for Ian, he was forced to turn to the travelers as the middleman.

Well, as long as he learned his lesson, she’ll accept his apology.

“Thank you,” she said. “How much do I need to pay you?”

“Oh, no, it’s free. He already said that he’ll pay us when we get back,” the travelers said.

Erika bit her lips, then placed a few coins into the traveler’s hands. “Is this more than he was going to pay you?” The traveler looked at the coins, hesitated, then nodded. “Then tell him the herbs are already paid for. Also, we can still be friends if he wishes.”

The traveler nodded, then departed with the others, but not before one last lingering look on her body. Soon, the group began laughing and horsing around in the distance like adolescent boys.

It occurred to Erika that she forgot to ask the travelers’ names.