All right… Azeneth first. Then me.
She was still sitting among the remains of the jelly, examining her wrist with the loose bandage across her lap. Her fingers faltered as she reached for the cloth. I had spent a while talking to the system in my mind, and all that time, the cut on her neck was still open.
I was about to ask her to adjust her grip when the system interrupted my thoughts.
[A moment of your attention, please.]
What do you want now?
[Such delightful anticipation! Would you like to see what I was about to show you?]
I looked at the dried blood beneath Azeneth’s jaw. If the system had something to tell me that would help heal her, I wanted to hear it now.
Yes, please.
A window appeared before my eye.
[Name: Zaelia]
[Level: 2]
[Total experience: 100]
[Durability: 95/125]
[Mana: 20/20]
[Attack: 5]
[Defense: 10]
[Mobility: 0]
I paused at my Durability. My maximum had increased, but the damage hadn’t disappeared. Every time Azeneth shifted her grip, I could still feel that ache along my blade. I would have to repair myself properly.
[Next, the requirements for reaching level three…]
Wait. What’s the difference between Durability and Defense?
The system fell silent for a moment. Azeneth wiped the green droplet off her nose and gave the cloth a look that suggested little enthusiasm for our next encounter with a slime.
[Durability is the equivalent of your health. If it reaches zero, your body will be destroyed.]
I stopped paying attention to the cloth.
Even with ten Defense?
[Defense reduces incoming damage. It can help you withstand an attack, but it neither replaces your Durability nor prevents you from taking damage.]
So one helps me withstand blows, and the other tells me how much I can take before I break.
[Exactly! We recommend learning that difference before putting it to the test!]
I would have preferred to know that before meeting the knight. I hadn’t had much time to read while he was trying to skewer us, either, so I kept the complaint to myself and waited for the rest.
[Returning to the explanation: reaching level three requires two hundred experience points. Also, from level two onward, you regenerate one point of mana per hour.]
One per hour…
[No request necessary! Your reserves will recover even while you rest!]
It sounded slow, but at least I wouldn’t have to figure out how to drink a potion without a mouth. I closed the window and focused on Azeneth. I had read enough to start; I didn’t want to keep watching her try to clean a wound I could close.
“I think I can heal you.”
She set the cloth on her lap.
“Really?”
“I just need you to keep holding me.”
She carefully adjusted her grip and brought me closer, waiting. She watched me without pulling away or asking for another explanation. I went over the instructions in my mind once more; after seeing her trust me like that, I worried I might get even the activation wrong.
I used Healing I.
Light bloomed around my guard. Green threads spread across her hands, traveled up her arm, and lit her neck. Azeneth held her breath as the edges of the cut began knitting together. I didn’t look away until only dried blood remained on her skin.
She gently touched beneath her jaw.
“It doesn’t hurt anymore…”
I moved on to the marks left by her shackles. The light slipped beneath the bandage as Azeneth tried moving her fingers. Then I directed the healing toward the knee she had struck against the ground and the legs hurt by the slimes. She straightened one and bent it again, watching it as if she still expected to have to stop halfway through.
By the time I felt I could stop, I had spent ten points.
[Mana: 10/20]
“Thank you, Zaelia,” she murmured, closing her hand without difficulty. “Thank you so much.”
I wanted to say something worthy of her smile. I had spent our rest wishing I could help her, and now that I had managed it, I couldn’t find anything better to say.
“I’m glad you’re feeling better.”
To repair myself, I checked the numbers: I was missing thirty points of Durability, and each point of mana restored five. I activated the skill six times. Warmth spread through my blade with each use, until that persistent ache disappeared.
[Durability: 125/125]
[Mana: 4/20]
I still had four points left. Keeping them reassured me in case Azeneth got hurt again, though I hoped my debut as a healing sword would include a break between patients.
As Azeneth gathered up the case, the wind stirred the branches at the entrance, letting a strip of light fall across her knees. She finished wiping the jelly off me, checked her wrist, and adjusted my position so I could see her better. The clean bandage lay folded beside the jar. Looking at it reminded me of the shackles and something about her story that still didn’t quite add up.
“When they captured you… why did you have to tell them you were the Demon Queen? Didn’t they recognize you?”
“I was wearing a cloak. I put it on to sneak into the carriage unseen.”
“Did you still have it in the cell?”
“They took it off when they locked me up, but those lupine knights were of very low rank. The fort was small and remote, too.”
She brushed a blade of grass off her skirt before continuing.
“I doubt they’d ever seen the Demon Queen. They’d probably only heard of me.”
“But they saw your horns.”
“Of course. They thought they’d found a drunk demon.”
She said it so casually that I had to find an answer that wouldn’t offend her. I had imagined a sovereign whose arrival would be announced by trumpets and armies. Mine had traveled incognito among bottles and had remained unnoticed even after losing her cloak.
“I see,” I managed to say.
Azeneth seemed satisfied and finished closing the jar. From where she held me, I could see part of the meadow beyond her shoulder. The slopes stretched away between outcrops of gray stone and patches of heather until they faded into a pale haze. Paths wound around the rocks, disappeared between rises, and reappeared beside hollows where water glimmered.
I couldn’t see a level stretch that would let her walk without watching where she stepped. A few trees grew at an angle, separated by stretches of grass moving in the wind. If Azeneth was going to carry me through there, I was glad I had healed her knee.
Azeneth followed my gaze and turned me slightly to show me the opposite hillside. A strip of exposed stone bore cuts that were too straight.
“A quarry,” she explained. “There are plenty around here.”
“Where exactly are we?”
“In Anymalia, the kingdom of the Anymari.”
I remembered the knight’s ears and tail.
“Like that man?”
“Yes. They’re demihumans with animal traits: ears, tails… There are lupine, feline, and other varieties.”
So this world had people with cat ears, too. I would have liked to start by meeting someone who wasn’t carrying a spear, though perhaps I was asking too much for someone who had only just arrived.
“Who rules here?”
“Queen Lisandry.”
Azeneth froze with the jar above her bag. I had time to wonder whether her wrist hurt again before her fingers tightened around my grip.
“Lisandry…” she repeated, wrinkling her nose. “That… that…”
She shoved the jar into her bag with a sharp thump.
“I hate her!”
The shout startled me.
“Azeneth?!”
“I hate her, I hate her, I hate her!” she insisted, settling me across her knees so she could fold her arms. “And she’s going to pay!”
She kicked a pebble. It struck another rock and bounced back to the toe of her boot. Azeneth frowned at it, as though its return were one more provocation.
“I’m not letting this go! Do you hear me, Lisandry?! I’m not letting it go!”
I looked toward the entrance, just in case. There didn’t seem to be any queens listening from the bushes. That reassured me far less than it should have; I was still on her knees, with no idea what had come over her.
“But… what’s wrong?”
She turned toward me with her cheeks puffed out. She opened her mouth, raised a finger, and closed it again without saying anything. I waited for her to find somewhere to start.
“That woman…” she muttered through her teeth. “I can’t stand her!”
She folded her arms again so forcefully that her twin tails bounced. I had only just healed her, and I was already considering asking the system for something to calm the nerves. Mine.
“What… what did she do to you?” I ventured.
Azeneth stopped moving her foot. Her lower lip stayed stuck out for a moment longer, but then she straightened her back and raised her chin so slowly that I began to regret asking.
“Something unforgivable!”
I waited. She kept her gaze fixed on the hillside.
“A sin so grave…” she continued, lowering her voice, “that not even the goddess Anathema herself could absolve her.”
I kept watching her from her lap, my eye still. A few seconds earlier, I had found her anger rather adorable. I decided to keep that opinion to myself, along with my desire to know more.
I’d better not bring this up again.
[Note recorded: Do not bring up the conflict between Azeneth and Lisandry again.]
That wasn’t necessary…
[Would you like to delete the note?]
Azeneth huffed. The pebble received another nudge from her boot.
Leave it for now.
[Excellent! A decision worthy of someone who wishes to keep all one hundred twenty-five points of Durability!]
That didn’t reassure me much. I kept watching Azeneth while she stared outside a little longer. At last, she unfolded her arms, picked up the cloth, and began folding it with such abrupt movements that she had to start over. The second time, she went more slowly.
“Hmph…”
She put away the cloth, collected the bandage, and closed the case. She was still frowning when she looked down at me.
“Are you all right now?”
“Yes. I managed to repair myself completely.”
Her thumb brushed my guard. She tilted my blade toward the light, and the tension slowly left her shoulders.
“Good,” she murmured. “I’m glad.”
She stayed like that for a few moments before securing the bag to her belt. She didn’t look back toward the hillside as she did so.
“I don’t want to think about her anymore.”
As far as I was concerned, we could ban her name. Azeneth slowly stood, checked her knee, and brushed aside the branches at the entrance. Her nose was still slightly wrinkled when she looked at me again.
“Well… shall we go back for my staff?”
The corner of her mouth began to lift.
“To the fort?”
“Yes! This time I’ll make sure I bring it!”
She gave me a small smile and waited. I looked at the path, then at her. My chances of going anywhere on my own remained the same.
[Mobility: 0]
“Yes, let’s go,” I agreed.
Azeneth stepped out of the shelter, holding me close to her chest. I wished my next evolution would include legs. At least then I could go along with her and feel as though I’d had some say in the direction.