"James?" Rosalía’s voice came from the other side of the door. "Can I come in?"
"Sure, come in."
The door opened slowly and Rosalía walked in with a small bowl in her hands and some clean bandages under her arm.
She closed the door behind her with her foot and crossed the room to sit on the edge of the bed, right beside him.
"Hey... about earlier," Rosalía said, not quite looking at him. "I wanted to apologize."
"For what?"
"My mother’s behavior," she replied, letting out a sigh. "It’s always the same with her."
James couldn’t help laughing quietly as he remembered everything that had happened.
"You don’t have anything to apologize for," he said, downplaying it. "I like your mother."
"...Really?"
"Yeah," he replied with a shrug. "She’s blunt, and I like that."
Those words seemed to put her a little more at ease, because the tension in her shoulders eased up.
"Yeah, well, she’s definitely blunt," she admitted with a small smile. "But sometimes she goes a bit too far."
"I noticed."
"Well, enough chatting," Rosalía said with a small smile as she set the bowl down on the nightstand. "Take your shirt off."
"Wow, so blunt... definitely your mother’s daughter."
"Ha ha ha. Very funny," she replied sarcastically. "Now raise your arms."
James obeyed, holding back a laugh, and pulled his shirt off over his head.
Rosalía began carefully removing the old bandages, working around his torso, and as the fabric came off the cuts were revealed.
While most of them were nothing more than superficial cuts that had already started to heal, the wound on his left shoulder and the stab wounds on his side still looked much more serious.
"This one still looks bad," she murmured, frowning as she dipped two fingers into the bowl. "This is going to sting a bit, brace yourself."
"What is th—ah!"
James clenched his teeth the moment she spread that greenish paste over his wounds.
It stung so much that for an instant he had the impression someone was pouring liquid fire on him.
"I told you to brace yourself."
"Warn me better next time," he complained through his teeth.
"It’s a mix of herbs my mother makes," Rosalía explained, still applying it. "Smells awful and burns worse, but it closes wounds in half the time... Trust me, you’ll thank me tomorrow."
"If I survive today."
She let out a little laugh and kept working in silence for a while, focused on covering each cut before starting to wrap it again with the clean bandages.
"By the way, I almost forgot," she said as she wrapped the bandage around his back. "My mother wants the two of us to go into the city tomorrow."
Rosalía applied more of that greenish paste on one of the wounds, making James wince slightly.
"We have to report the attack to the mercenaries’ guild," she continued. "When a village gets razed like this, someone has to report it, or the guild never finds out and the same thing happens again."
"I see..."
"Also, there’s a reward waiting for you there."
"Huh?" James said, raising an eyebrow. "Why?"
"Well, you killed most of those goblins on your own," Rosalía explained. "That counts as a contribution, and the guild pays for that kind of thing."
"Wait a minute," he said, frowning. "I didn’t do that for money, it was kill them or let them kill me."
"And what does that matter?"
"Well, it feels kind of weird getting paid for it..."
Rosalía paused for a moment and looked at him steadily, with an expression somewhere between amused and incredulous.
"James, do you know how many people would have died if you hadn’t shown up?" she said quietly. "Myself included."
"..."
"You earned it," she continued, going back to the bandaging. "So you don’t have to feel bad about it, alright?"
"Yeah..."
’Though thinking about it, some money wouldn’t hurt,’ he thought. ’After all, no matter what world you’re in, money is always essential.’
Rosalía finished securing the last bandage with a gentle knot and gave him a pat on his uninjured shoulder.
"There, good as new," she said, getting to her feet. "Well... almost new."
Then she picked up the bowl and the old bandages and headed toward the door.
"Get some rest, okay? Tomorrow we’ve got quite a stretch of road ahead of us."
"Wait, Rosalía," he said, sitting up quickly as he saw her leaving. "Before you go, there’s something—"
James had barely started talking when Rosalía cut him off. She set the bowl down on the nightstand and, without giving him time to react, leaned over him and kissed him.
It was a deep, tongue-filled kiss, as if she’d been thinking about doing it all night and had finally made up her mind.
James stayed completely frozen for the first second, eyes wide open and his brain switched off.
But by the time he finally reacted and started kissing her back, she was already pulling away.
"That’s for saving my life," she said, running her thumb over the corner of her lips. "Now, get some rest."
And without giving him time to say anything at all, she gathered her things and left the room, closing the door behind her.
"...That I definitely wasn’t expecting."
And then, as if it had been waiting for exactly that moment, the familiar translucent screen appeared in front of him with a soft blue glow.
[Side Quest Completed]
[Name: The First of Many]
[Result: Success.]
[Delivering reward...]
[Reward: REW̷A̴R̶D̷_̵E̶R̵R̴—]
The screen flickered, distorted for an instant, and then stabilized again, as if it had corrected itself at the last second.
[Reward: Skill Unlocked — "Restorative Touch."]
[Description: Allows the bearer to close wounds through direct contact.]
"Uhh... that sounds pretty useful," he said with a satisfied smile. "Let’s see if it delivers on its promise."
James looked for one of the small cuts on his wrist that hadn’t fully closed yet, and placed his other hand over it.
For the first few seconds he didn’t notice any change.
But then, a gentle warmth began spreading through his palm, and before his eyes the small cut slowly began to close until it disappeared without a trace.
"No way," he murmured, genuinely impressed. "It actually works."
Encouraged, James moved his hand to the deep cut on his left shoulder and activated the skill again.
The bleeding stopped and the wound began to close, though only to a certain point.
The cut was still visible, like a freshly formed scar, making it clear the skill wasn’t enough to heal wounds of that severity.
"So it only works on small wounds?" he said, examining the result.
[Restorative Touch is a skill that scales based on the user’s stats. With higher attributes, its effectiveness will increase.]
"It was too good to be true..." he said, letting out a sigh. "Meh, still pretty good though."
Then the screen slowly faded away.
James dropped onto his back on the bed and, for the first time since arriving in this world, felt like he could truly relax.
’Mission accomplished, damn...’ he thought as a long yawn escaped his lips.
And shortly after, he fell into a deep sleep.