Races: Online

Why did it take him far too long to realize that he was friends with someone like Timothy? This guy was too suspicious. Sarcasm aside, Han gulped and tried not to retch then and there—he had his own guts nearly spilled out before with Donovan. This was fine. He could take this. 

Except someone else was injured and not him, and the friend that he thought Timothy was, he still seemed to be a culprit regardless of what they said. He didn't want to be a downer but, "If she's going to die—I think we need to tell the Academy."

"I already gave her a Healing Potion."

He scratched his eye and looked at the man, "That doesn't sound like a cure-all to me." There had to be some limit to how much healing one's body could do right? Healing potions repaired tissue and knitted them—but it didn't replace blood.

"It's not a Panacea, but…" Timothy frowned and glanced back at the young woman. "She's alive. I know she is." He said it, but there was a touch of worry in his tone. Even if he had given her a potion, whether he could actually tell if it worked or not was something else.

So was that denial?

Han Jing came here for fantasy and adventure—he wasn't dabbling in with crime thrillers at all. He didn't even know where to hide a body at all, nor did he want to get involved in this situation. He should retrace his steps right now. He shouldn't have dropped by here at all. But the person that Timothy had with him had a terrible similarity to his neighbor. He didn't know why—but it was obvious to him.

… is it supposed to mean something?

[ You Have Received A New Message ]

Han swiped the notification away from him—now they decided to message when he was in the middle of a mess? He moved towards the girl and bent down, avoiding the icky black puddle and reached for her neck, checking for any pulse. Her complexion was pale, pallid even and as his fingers made contact with her neck, it was cold and sweaty.

"W-What are you doing?" Timothy asked. "Don't touch her."

He ignored the man for a moment and concentrated—just a small beat. Was her heart that weak? He couldn't find… and there it was. "It's faint but she's alive." He glanced around the room and shuddered. The blood wasn't that much, at least compared to what he experienced but it was still enough to render her unconscious. "She needs to rest better."

"I told you that she is, I got her a Healing Potion." Timothy informed him. His tone wasn't as sharp as it usually was. "...we'll need to get her on the bed to rest properly. I'll do it." The man ended up kneeling beside him and lifted her up into his arms.

She needed to recover.

He watched his friend place the girl on the bed and he took note of her clothes. "Kind of looks like she needs to change." There were some splatters of blood in it—he glanced back at the tome and back at the girl. If a native like her had difficulty with the tome, he could only imagine how much trouble it'd give him.

Han didn't like the fact that Timothy didn't mention it though. The two of them were supposed to be Companions, what happened to that?

"What?"

"I'm serious. Unless you don't mind explaining bloodstains to whoever collects our beddings. Someone's supposed to get our laundry or something right?" Han scratched the back of his head and took a deep breath. If he focused on the small things, minor things like laundry—he'd have enough headspace to deal with this situation.

This was probably normal in this place though.

Then again, it was Timothy dealing with this—the guy who came from one of the farthest villages. Well, they had come together but his point still stood. Gargoyles were still the most dangerous thing that had happened then… it was the only thing that had upturned the idyllic village they had been.

And now was this situation.

"Get my bag, I have her clothes there."

Han blinked but followed the man's orders. He didn't even realize he was doing it as he pulled out some granny-looking duster-dress. He looked at Timothy and made a face, even Han Jing's sister wasn't going to wear anything like this. The drab color—he handed it to Timothy and rubbed his face.

There was another important matter.

"You're going to dress her right?" Han asked with a cough. This could have been a good time if Ellynn was here—she could do it without batting an eye. "Do you want me to ask for Ellynn to help us?"

"And how are you going to explain this situation to her, idiot."

Han rubbed his face, "Well, you can't hide her here forever you know? I mean I discovered it already—and it's been like two days since the Wyvern thing. So that's already something in this plan of yours. Better to have someone like Ellynn do it than us." He was putting too much concern over this, as Timothy held the clothing in his hand. "But do you want me to do it? You don't look like the type to have any experience with this."

Han Jing dressed his little sister when she was much a toddler—he could imagine it like that.

"Now should have been the good time to have cleaning spells." Timothy grumbled and then slapped a hand over his face. He once again motioned to his bag. "Wait, there's—check the books in the bag, there's probably some utility spells there. I took one besides the Evocation Spells."

"Are you telling me that you plan to learn a Spell rather than dressing her?"

"Yes. What do you take me for?"

Han coughed and grabbed for the bag again—he pulled out the food from the bag. Along with clothes and other assorted items until he found the books. He grabbed for the title and handed it to him. He didn't want to admit it, but this world's magic might have a solution to almost any problem.

Still they were too reliant on it weren't they?

Although Timothy was going to learn that Spell in one go again, didn't he? Han watched the guy flip over the pages of the book in search of a 'cleaning' spell. Nevermind that the Spell might be another Tier 0 or even Tier 1—it was still insane to think about it.

He glanced one more time at the unconscious girl and frowned. Was this some kind of sick joke? He opened the message notification and it was from the Wood Elf.

Wood Elf: Have you ever considered someone visiting you?

He blinked.

They didn't make any response to his previous questions, but this was a completely new topic in itself. And so the man formed the reply and sent it—he would have asked about the look-alike but it was better to ask the Moderator. Still, if this was what the Moderator had said about benefits… a Wood Elf visiting him?

How would it even go? And as with all meet ups with the people you meet 'online'—was it even safe? What exactly did they want?

That he had to know.

Still, he glanced back at the man huddled over the book and asked. "Are you done with the spell?"

"It's not that quick!" Timothy snapped at him, he was still reading it instead of doing the Spell in one snap of his fingers. Did they have more trouble with this kind of Spell? He'd done the [ Light ] before. So what was the problem with a cleaning spell? Weren't they the one who insisted on doing this instead of the simpler solution?

Wait.

A cleaning Spell would be inherently harder—removing already existing things compared to making one's mana become light. At least if he looked at it in that manner. Han approached the guy kneeling beside the bed and peeked behind their head, "What if I learned for you?" Maybe he could do this better, he still had Inspect if there was anything he could glean from it.

"...You can go back to your room if you want, thank you for the help but I'll take over from here." Timothy closed the book and gave him a look.

He blinked and stepped back, barely missing the puddle of blood with the heel of his shoes. "What? Are you sure… I still have a Healing Potion?" It was in his Inventory but he'll take it out if it was necessary. If it would help her then it was fine—forget what he said about relying too much on magic.

"Yes, it'll do better if you're not around."

Han narrowed his eyes at the guy. He wasn't being a hindrance here, he was already sticking out his neck by not saying anything. Well, it wouldn't do him any good if Timothy got in trouble, but something like this was probably against the rules. Even the fact that a girl and boy were in the same room—that was already scandalous in his own world. People got expelled for it—well, they received a strict warning, but still.

It was easy to assume that it was in a similar fashion here as well. And the girl wasn't a Student too, this was a lot of offenses no doubt.

"Don't make this argument last any longer. Just leave."

The guy was being pushy and uncooperative again. And Han was trying to help—two heads were better than one. Wait. Better to do if he wasn't around? He clicked his tongue and crossed his arms, "Are you going to undress her when I'm gone?"

"Don't make it sound like I'm doing a bad thing—you're the one who wants to stick around and watch."

"Hey, don't accuse me like that." Han clicked his tongue and ignored the sensation of a throb in his forehead. "I'm trying to help, I don't have any unsavory causes for staying here. I'll even try learning the cleaning spell if you can't do it."

Timothy sighed. "It'll take too much time, I already have problems… how would you learn it?"

"Ah, now you finally admit that you're better at me in magic."

"I never said that I wasn't." Timothy rubbed his face, "This is a nonsense fight so you can—"

"Can you shut up?"

Han wasn't the one who said that. The two of them glanced back at the bed, the woman's eyes were still squeezed shut but it was her who had spoken up. Timothy pulled up to his feet, "Iola? Are you alright?"

"No." She snickered even though she winced and peeked one eye open. "But I'm alive, right?"