World Traveler 040

Finishing the dinner, all of us leisurely sat around the dining table. The blood and corpse stench had subsided since this afternoon due to the wind.

Ah, I said all of us. However it didn’t include the earl.

"Everyone. Prepare to depart tomorrow. We have got a confirmation and we will go to the Border City of Magnolia.”

“Got it. By the way, how did you get the confirmation? I was so sure that the earl will make things difficult after all we have done.”

I looked at the Frank. The culprit who caused quite a bleeding on the earl’s head. He still got that look of guilt since last night.

“Don’t worry. We got our own way. Just get ready.” I said while biting on an apple.

We found this stash of ‘apples’ in the basement along with other fruits and vegetables. Looks like this food stashes were separated from the warehouse for the officers here. We were grateful for that as there was no way we were going to eat blood stench fruits. Were they?

“I have hoped this Kuru fruit won’t taste strange in my tongue but...”

I looked at the ‘apple’ in my hand. I can’t help it though. I expected an apple but my tongue tasted an orange. It was discomforting.

“I know how you feel but you will get used to it soon.” Yuni grabbed a kuru and wiped it a bit before biting off a big piece of it.

“Why is it strange? Isn’t this the normal taste? I just hope it will be more sweet and fresh.” Frank chimed in from the side.

Sadly, I didn’t have any apple in my storage. I will shut him up real soon. I finished my kuru and then washed my hand.

“I will check the perimeter. Anyone want to accompany me?”

“None. Be on your own. I am going to check up on the fainted girls.” Yuni cheerfully stood up and grabbed a few more Kurus before heading off to another room.

“I am going to!” Alishia quickly rushed to Yuni’s side.

“Girls?” I asked while looking at Mary.

“Ah right. The armored warrior… Or I should say the soldier judging from the ornament is a female.”

“I see. Well then, I am off.”

I grabbed my rifle and walked out.

*********************

Mary walked into her room and saw Alishia playing staring games with the child. The child looks determined not to lose and stared back at her.  

The child was around seven or eight years old. She has fox ears and tail. Her hair is a long, bright reddish color like a red fox fur. However there are a lot of entangled hair and dirt on it. It looks like she hasn’t bath for a long time.

“What are they doing?” Mary asked.

“They have been staring at each other for 3 minutes.” Yuni said from the side.

“What happened?”

“Alice looked like she wanted to touch her ears. When she stretched out her hand, she suddenly woke up.”

Noticing a movement from elsewhere, the child moved her sight, ending the awkward game.

“Hello. Want one?” Mary greeted her while lifting a plate of cut kurus. She placed the plate on the table beside the bed. Alishia picked one of them and presented it to the child.

“Come on. Eat one.” Yuni said while chewing on one of the kuru.

The child timidly took one from Alishia and then ate it. Soon she began to eat it vigorously like she hasn’t eat for a while.

“How is it? Is it sweet?” Yuni patted her head.

“Nn…” She nodded once and began eating again.

Mary watched on for a while before directing her sight elsewhere. Beside the child a beautiful woman is sleeping.

She was in her twenties, making her the oldest among them. She has a long brownish hair. Her hair is also messy like the child. She wore a simple white dress after Mary and Yuni struggled to get her out of the dented armor.

She grimaced from time to time due to her broken limb and bruises around her bodies. The child also got injured and much more severe at that. She has recovered since Mary accelerated her recovery abilities for the whole morning. Unfortunately she couldn’t help the woman with her limited mana.

Mary wiped the sweat from the woman’s forehead.

“She still hasn’t woken up yet. It’s going to be hard to move her around with her injuries too. Maybe we shouldn’t depart tomorrow.” Yuni said.

“No. We need to move. Staying around a place where there are a lot of corpses nearby isn’t a good idea.”

Mary took a bowl of water nearby and heated the water up. She then took a towel and dipped it in. She slowly and gently wiped the woman’s arms and face. Then she took an ointment from a box nearby. She applied them on the bruises on the woman’s body.

Meanwhile…

“Hey, what’s your name?” Yuni asked the child.

“Maria.”

“How old are you?”

“Ten.”

“Ten? I thought you will be seven or eight.”

Yuni stared at Maria for a while. Now that she looked at her, she looks malnourished and skinny. After the treatment[1] this morning, it would have made her condition worse.

“Come. Eat more. After that, go take a bath with Alice.”

Feeling sorry, Yuni started picking more fruit for her. The room is lively for a while.

****************

In the middle of the night

“Erm… Ouch.”

The woman woke up from her sleep. Disoriented, she tried to move her body but a sharp pain stopped her. Her left arm had been tied to a short stick to stabilize her broken arm.

“Where am I?”

When she sobered up more, she sensed warmth from her side, hugging her right arm. Panicking, she tried to pull her arm from whatever was hugging it.

“Erm…”

The ‘thing’ hugged back even tighter when it sensed she tried to get away. When she was about to shout for help, she noticed that it is a little girl with a fox ears. She recognized her and slightly calmed down almost immediately.

“Haa… I thought I have been captured and…”

She shook her head to erase the thought. She then looked around after her eyes were adjusted to the dim light. There are two other girls in this room and they are sleeping soundly. The view outside the window told her that it was in the middle of the night.

*clack*

Suddenly the door was opened. She quickly turned her head there and raised her vigilance. She glanced around for things to defend herself.

“Ah. You woke up.”

With a torch in her hand, Mary walked in. She quickly turned the torch off so she did not wake the others.

“How are you? Is it still hurts?”

The woman stared stunned at her for a while. However, she recovered quickly.

“A bit. Where is this?”

Mary took out a plastic box from a drawer and opened it. She picked one Kuru to eat before offering it to the woman. The woman smiled wryly and looked down at her arm.

Mary smiled and picked one for her.

“Welcome to Ether, a world different from your own.”

The woman chewed the fruit for a while. After she gulped it down, she asked.

“What did you just said?”

“Welcome to Ether, a world different from your own.”

The woman stared at Mary for a while. Maybe noticing that Mary was not joking, she looked down.

“Don’t worry. You’re safe here so rest up.”

Mary picked a few more fruit for her. After she ate them up, Mary pushed her to lie down.

“Now, sleep first. You need to rest. Whatever it is that your people fought against… They are not here. I promise.”

Mary put the blanket over her and then patted her head. She applied a soothing magic called [Serenity]. With her mind disturbed, the magic was more effective. Once she released her tension, fatigue started to attack her. She fell asleep soon after.

Mary tidied up the blanket and climbed to her bed.

“Tomorrow is going to be noisy.”

Mary murmured and closed her eyes.

[1] Treatment by magic will use the body's nutrition reserves to accelerate its healing capability. It can be suplemented by magic but it will use up much more mana to do it. In this case, Mary use most of her magic power to treat the malnourished and severely injured Maria so she can't treat the woman right after.

Chapter end