Coda Ryoma had no idea where they might be, but the girl did not look confused, nor did it seem as if she had any bad intentions, actually she looked rather adorable with the blush on her face.

"Where exactly are we?" he asked after a moment, of her just stammering in embarrassment.

"Earthly Treasures Pavilion's Old Vine Forest." she told him right away, as if it would not be anything special to just hop to another place instantly.

"We can return whenever you like, but I think it might be better to wait a bit longer, otherwise whoever has been hunting you might still be in the area."

Space magic was not really rare, as it was commonly seen in storage items, but it was hard to ever find on this scale. For the first time, Ryoma took a closer look at the girl in front of him. The 'girl' was actually more of a young woman, she was just rather small for her age, which made the situation even more awkward.

The young woman was wearing a black and red outfit that had slight similarities to those worn by sect members with a symbol of a tree and a mountain that he had never seen before. The material was definitely not something common and he suspected her to be some important disciple from one of the many hidden or foreign sects.

'A sect disciple? She mentioned something about an Earthly Treasures Pavilion, is that a sect? Whoever she might be, her status is way beyond mine, I should better get going as soon as I can.' he thought to himself

Relaxing a little bit after he could not find any dangers, he started to stuff the plant that he just recently 'acquired' into a simple cotton bag, lacking anything like a proper backpack.

"Why would you run around with a poisonous plant in the middle of the city? Are you an assassin and killed someone?" the girl asked all of a sudden.

"Poisonous? This is a healing herb, called the Royal River Thornleaf, it's not a poisonous plant." he answered her, a bit surprised that she would worry that he was an assassin.

'Who does this girl think I am? Also, if I were really an assassin, wouldn't it be dangerous to point that out to someone? She could be killed to keep her quiet or something. Is she not scared that I might be an assassin?'

Yui just shook her head and pointed at the herb he had just put into the bag.

"That's not Royal River Thornleaf, it's Three Blood Thistle Grass. Royal River Thornleaf has two thorns on its stem and both thorns are completely green, while Three Blood Thistle Grass has three thorns on its stem, and they have a blood red shade." she explained confidently.

Royal River Thornleaf was after all one of the spirit herbs in their Old Vine Forest. How could she not know about its looks or even the plants that it would be easily confused with.

Ryoma took out the plant again and inspected it once more, finding that her words were totally correct. He dropped the bag in anger and sat down on the ground putting his face between his hands.

"All this trouble for nothing, what am I supposed to do now! It's not like I can go back there to look for another one."

Ryoma could clearly feel the stare of the girl now. He wondered if she thought of him as a fool now, after all this matter didn't really concern her at all.

"Why do you need a Royal River Thornleaf?"

The question took him by surprise, but as she helped him escape after all, he could not really just avoid the question.

"My daughter is sick. I had hoped I can use it to help her recover, but there is not enough time to save up such a large sum of money to buy it." he answered gloomily.

As this herb was not what he needed, it was pretty much useless to him. Perhaps he could sell or trade it for what he needed, but he was not very hopeful. The guards would watch out for anyone selling such a stolen plant now.

"You have a daughter? You don't look that old!" she seemed rather surprised.

"She's only 3 years old, I'm 19, it's not that strange is it? She's all that I have left. I can't lose her as well."

Yui was obviously flustered, both by his emotional state as well as the kid. It really did not seem strange for this world to have kids at a young age though, she was simply not used to it. Having a kid with 16 still seemed quite surreal to her.

"Follow me." she mumbled after some time.

Expecting her to lead him out somehow, he followed her closely, but it did not seem as if she was walking toward some exit, more as if she was looking for something.

They walked from one place to the next, paused for a few moments while she looked around and then continued their walk.

"Found it!" she shouted all of a sudden, making him wonder what she had been looking for. A secret exit?

When she kneeled down at a spot and started using a little shovel to dig something out of the ground he finally realized what it was that she had found.

"Royal River Thornleaf!" he exclaimed excitedly.

"Alright, guess its time to go." Yui waved her hand to put the herb into her storage pouch and transported both of them out of the forest back into the alleyway.

"Lead the way please." she told him with a shy smile, not handing him the herb that she had just dug out of the ground.

"Where am I supposed to lead you to?" he asked, still a bit confused.

"To your home obviously. If you really have a sick daughter, I can lend you this, but I wont give it to you if you just want to sell it for profit. You obviously have to pay it back somehow, but don't worry I give you a fair price and won't let you do anything too hard or morally wrong."

Finally understanding her intentions, Ryoma let out a sigh of relief. At least she would give him the herb and he would be able to save his daughter. Everything else, he would manage somehow.

'It makes sense that I have to pay her back for the herb, likely her sect would punish her if she just gave it away for free and she might still get into trouble even if he paid her back.'

"Thank you very much miss …"

"Tai. My name is Tai Yui. Just call me Yui though, miss Tai sounds awkward." she answered him, blushing a little bit. People in this world seemed to use first names in many situations and Yui somewhat adapted to this situation as well, at least somewhat.

Titles and formal situations would still use someone's family name, there was not really any strict rule for using first names though and people would not be offended if their first name was used by a stranger either.

On the way to his home, the young man introduced himself to her as Coda Ryoma. She quickly learned that his wife had passed away two years after their daughter was born, leaving him without anyone to properly take care of the child and he was forced to spend more time at home.

With the income even less now than the already meagre amount it was before, their situation turned from bad to worse. When his daughter caught a fever and fell ill, all his savings were spent on a physician. Even though he was told what was required to cure her, he had no money left to buy the medicinal spirit herb.

There was also no one who would lend someone like him any money, as the likelihood of him being able to repay it was close to none. Finding no other way, he decided to steal the plant, but as he was not very experienced with spirit herbs, he grabbed the wrong one by mistake.

When they finally arrived at a little rundown house, Yui was rather depressed and shocked by the living conditions.

It seemed clean and well taken care of, but that was about the only positive thing that she could say about this home. Too many things were broken and were repaired in a way that made it obvious that there was simply no money for such repairs.

There was barely any furniture and the few pieces that were there seemed ready to fall apart.

She handed him the Royal River Thornleaf and then sat next to the young kid on the edge of the bed. The little girl was moving around from time to time, in a fitful sleep, making Yui's heart ache.

"Crush the red flower parts of the herb into smaller pieces and then steep them in about a gō of boiling water for some time until the flower leaves have lost all of their reddish hue. That should do it."

While Ryoma was boiling the water and preparing the medicine, Yui was still sitting next to the three-year-old, taking her little hand into her own and wiping away the sweat on the little girl's forehead.

"What's her name?" she quietly asked, not even realizing how worried her voice had turned all of a sudden.

"Miyuki" There was a slight pause before the answer, as Ryoma was rather perplexed by Yui's emotional question.

By the time the tea like medicine was ready, Yui was totally focused on the little girl and close to tears. Miyuki was barely awake when Ryoma gave her the medicine, but quickly fell asleep again afterwards.

It was easy to see, that even though her fever was still high and there were no instant magical changes, that the little girl calmed down significantly, and her fitful sleep turned into a more relaxed slumber.

"You can't just keep her here like this." Yui mumbled, causing a questioning look from Ryoma.

"What do you mean? It's not like I have many options, otherwise I would have already moved to a better place with her." he sighed, knowing all too well that their home wasn't really a good place for his daughter to grow up.

"She can … you can just move to our place. The little girl needs an environment with a proper place to live, regular meals and someone to look after her."

Yui just voiced her thoughts, worried he would just refuse her offer.

"You can just look after her and help us out with the shop later when its closed, then I can keep an eye on Miyuki while you're busy." she tried to find some arguments that might make sense.

How did things work out until now? Did he just leave her alone here all the time? Or did he currently not work at all, because of his daughter?

"Wouldn't your sect or your family have a problem if I move to your place?" Ryoma asked, still rather bewildered by the offer. It wasn't exactly common for a young unmarried woman to invite a stranger with his daughter to live at their place.

Actually, forget about common, he had never heard of anything like this before.

"What sect?" Yui asked. "I'm not part of any sect. Also my only family member would be my sister and I doubt she would have any problem with you staying at our place."

"I thought this Pavilion is a sect. I must have misunderstood it then."

Shaking her head Yui tried to explain. "The Earthly Treasures Pavilion is our shop. It's near the southern end of the city on a little hill."

"I see. I don't think it is very appropriate for a young woman like yourself to …"

Before he could even finish his words, he was already interrupted by Yui.

"Do you think it is appropriate for a young toddler to be left all by herself while you are away, or that it is appropriate that she is shivering from the cold because the door and windows barely block the wind. Is it appropriate that her only blanket has holes in it because it is so old or that her clothes are ready to fall into pieces?"

Seeing the young woman in front of him now at the point where she was crying Ryoma felt rather embarrassed and did not know what to say anymore. While he still did not know why she suddenly got so attached to his daughter, Yui was obviously very emotional about it.

"I know you're doing your best for her, but please don't let her suffer just because others don't think it's appropriate or because of losing a little bit of face." she mumbled a lot quieter now, obviously a little bit self-conscious about her outburst just a moment ago.

Yui was trembling and with tears streaming down her face she made a rather sorry sight, but she still did not let go of the little girl's hand.

"I'm sorry." He sighed. "I didn't mean it that way. I just didn't want a nice person like you to get dragged into our issues."

"Then who is there who will step in and do something? Why is no one else doing something about this?"

No one seemed to give Yui an answer to her question. She was smart enough to know the answer herself anyways.

"Well there is none right, otherwise you wouldn't go and steal medicine for her. I might not be able to help everyone, but if I don't even help a little girl right in front of me, how could I ever watch myself in the mirror. I'd be disgusted with myself."

"I … well I guess I won't be able to change your mind about this anyways right?"

His question put a little smile on her otherwise sad face.

"Thank you. There's nothing really that I can offer you for your help, but I will do my best to repay this favor in the future."

Yui nodded and her mood improved visibly now that he agreed.

"I guess we just grab some important things and you can move everything else later." Yui mentioned important things but did not even let go of Miyuki.

With the medicine being rather effective against a simple cold, even if it was a severe one, Miyuki seemed more than stable enough for them to bring her to the pavilion. It was neither raining nor very cold outside.

She wrapped the girl in the blanket and picked her up, with a little smile.

Ryoma didn't offer to carry the girl after he had taken one look at Yui. Her smile was so obvious that he would not have questioned it if someone told him that she was here just to steal his daughter.

He just grabbed some items that seemed important and then followed her out into the city.