"Hah... Haha!" Vera laughed at the Otherworlder's words. Then she stopped and waited for his response. When the Otherworlder kept staring at her with a blank face, she laughed again and then stopped again. After repeating for a couple more times, Vera grabbed her head with both her hands.

"What? How does that even make sense? How can you just, use up all your luck? Is it stat or something?"

The Otherworlder stuck his tongue out. "I-It's just something I can do."

"Well, no shit!" The serene and calm visage of a noble lady was nowhere in sight as Vera snapped back at the Otherworlder. "What now? What can you even do without that absurd luck of yours?"

The Otherworlder narrowed his eyes at the rude comment and curtly replied. "It's just a temporary thing. And anyway, it has happened plenty of times before."

Hearing that it was temporary finally gave Vera some peace of mind. She sighed and shook her head exasperatedly. "How long?"

"Um, I used up quite a bit, so I think a bit more than a month and a half?"

Another sigh escaped Vera. "Fine, I guess that's some good news."

The Otherworlder suddenly winced. The stinging pain all over his insides increased in intensity. He slowly laid back down on the bed and closed his eyes.

Vera's eyes sunk at the Otherworlder's state. With a bitter look, she placed a hand on his forehead. "You should sleep a little, our physician gave you some medicine a while back, it'll work better when you are asle—"

He had already fallen asleep.

Vera held back the urge to flick his forehead again.

┈ ┈ ┈ ⋞ ⟨ ⏣ ⟩ ⋟ ┈ ┈ ┈

Two more days passed as the Otherworlder remained in the Blume County to rest and heal enough for him to walk around by himself. The stinging pain too had dropped to a bearable level with the help of some painkillers the county's doctor prescribed to him.

Over the span of the two days, the Otherworlder's extensive bad luck held back none of its fierce punches.

In the short time, he was almost splashed with two steaming hot cups of tea, thrice, a leg of the county's overly comfortable bed broke, and the worst was definitely when the chef mistook the salt for sugar in the cookies they brought him. Definitely the worst.

Thankfully, Vera had stuck to him for the most part of the day. Whenever he would fall asleep Vera would stay by his side, and if she left, she would come back before he woke up. She ended up protecting him from most of the dangers that would befall him each day, for which the Otherworlder was greatly thankful.

"Say, Vera," he said. With nothing else to do, the two of them were playing chess with the Otherworlder still on the bed. It was a game from the world Vera was originally in. The game of chess existed in the Otherworlder's world too, though it was a bit different.

"What?" She asked, placing her pawn on b4 from b5.

The Otherworlder was very thankful for her sticking around all the time, so that's why he couldn't help but notice how odd her doing so was. He could only imagine how busy someone would be with losing an entire town in their estate, especially the current heiress.

Taking his pawn two steps ahead from c2 to c4, the Otherworlder spoke up, "I think I should go back to Aborg now."

"Hey now, have you seen what all happened in just the last two days?"

"I'll be fine. As I said, this isn't the first time this has happened."

Vera stared at the Otherworlder for a few seconds, then, she shifted her gaze back to the chessboard and moved her pieces again. "Alright then, I'll tag along with you." Saying so, Vera moved her pawn from b4 to c3 and took away his pawn at c4.

The Otherworlder hid his smile, looking back at the chessboard himself. 'If she was so worried she wouldn't have let me go at all. She's avoiding the rest of the county for some reason–'

"–Hey! That's cheating!"

"Nope, it's a fair move. By the rules."

"Fair my foot!"

┈ ┈ ┈ ⋞ ⟨ ⏣ ⟩ ⋟ ┈ ┈ ┈

The Otherworlder was handed back his original garbs by the servants in the palace. With his long wheat hair tied up into a ponytail, he put on his mended mahogany coat over his white tunic-like shirt.

Though the bandage from his forehead was removed, he was still covered in them from his neck all the way to his hands and feet. With only his face and his fingers peeking out of the bandages on top of his dark-colored coat, the attire gave the Otherworlder a unique look.

"You look like a clown."

"Shut up, cheater."

"Am not!"

Exchanging jabs at each other, the Otherworlder and Vera went up to her room where she had prepared the waypoints for her teleportation spells. Unlike spells of master wizards and mages, Vera's spells needed a lot of conditions to be fulfilled before she could pull them off. But being able to replicate high-level spells already at her young age was proof enough of her genius.

Reaching her room, Vera extended her hand toward the Otherworlder.

The Otherworlder hesitated a little. Though he was going there to talk to Vera calmly, a big reason was also to see what had become of the town he had in a sense settled at since he came here.

Their homes were destroyed. Their cheerful mornings and lively nights, the hundreds of memories of their ages of living in that town, all of it was gone. Just imagining the air in the place made the Otherworlder nervous. It was strange. He didn't feel this way at all when Andata was overrun by zombies and then burnt to the ground.

Was it because he was involved first-hand in the destruction of the place? He wasn't sure.

"What's up?" Vera asked, pushing her hand towards him again.

"It's nothing," the Otherworlder said, taking her hand.

Vera nodded and closed her eyes and chanted an inaudible verse under her breath. With the snap of her fingers, the world turned black.

The subtle scent of lilies vanished and was replaced by the fresh smell of blowing breezes carrying along with the presence of broken wood and rubbled concrete. The Otherworlder blinked his eye to see the dim blue sky above himself. Around him were large chunks of stone from the caved ceilings of the place alongside the few shelves of books that remained intact.

"Even this place was destroyed, huh?" the Otherworlder mumbled, looking around. The sight of the bustling and vibrant town that he had gotten used to was all gone, dunes of stone and wood and sinkholes through the roads taking their place.

"Right. It's strange that the old man's not around." Vera said, inspecting the remnants of the wall that had her waypoint magic circle engraved on it.

The Otherworlder nodded and stepped down from the pile of rubble they had teleported on. He was sure he would have his feet stuck on some extruding debris and fall down, so he remained extra cautious with his steps. Vera saw him descending and overtook him. She then gave him her hand and supported him down.

The two of them left the remnants of the bookstore and got out to the streets.

"This pretty place is now in ruins, what a shame," Vera said. Debris from all the destroyed buildings covered their path. Where there was no debris, the ground had caved in.

"Yes, it definitely was a pretty town." The Otherworlder answered.

With Vera in the lead and the Otherworlder closely behind, they made their way out of the northern ends of the town and moved towards the central parts. The further in they went the flatter the ruins of the town became.

There was not a person in sight in the town as they navigated through it. As they reached closer to the central zone of the town, soft murmurs made their way to their ears.

The Otherworlder and Vera carefully trod towards the sounds coming from the central parts of the town. Soft sounds of strings and melodious hymns added to the murmurs and giggles that got louder and louder with each step.

Passing by a turn through a large chunk of stone, a familiar sight entered the Otherworlder's eyes.

Birds chirped and cried in harmonious tones as the sounds of lyres and the singings of bards gave a breath to the air. Elf and human children ran around in circles while the adults danced to the music. Some creative ones sketched the scene down to their canvases while the rest clapped in beat with the songs. The smell of fresh meat being cooked wafted through the air as some of the adventurers grilled their game from the forests nearby.

"Oh!" One burly adventurer dancing to the song looked their way and exclaimed out loud. "Look! It's Iatra Fors!"

"What? Hey, it's him!"

"Come over here! We were all waiting for you!"

The townsfolk stopped and waved at the Otherworlder while one ran over to fetch him up. The person that defeated the giant snake, the one that had saved all their lives had come back.

"Say," Vera said, gazing at the Otherworlder. "I think it still is a pretty town, right?"

"Hah. Yes, it definitely is, a pretty town."