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Light starts to pass through my eyelids as my consciousness slowly wakes up. When I finally open my eyes, I see the back of someone with silver hair.

“…Na…ia?” Hearing my weak voice, Natalia turns around and rushes to my side. Yeah…I knew it was Natalia.

“Young Lady, are you awake?”
“Ye…ah…”

I’m struggling to get the words out.

“Claire, go tell Fan-Yen she’s awake.”
“Woof.”

It seems Clarissa was in the room too. I try to turn around to see her, but I only catch a glimpse of her golden tail leaving through the door.

I try getting up next, but that only makes a sharp pain assault my whole body. It’s not unbearable though, so I keep trying, but then Natalia puts her hand on my forehead and pushes me down.

“Please don’t get up. Your injuries are too severe.”

Natalia sounds really worried, so I give up on getting up, and instead look around the room. The floor, the furniture, the ceiling…I’ve never seen such designs before.

“Where are we?”
“This is a room in Fan-Yen’s mansion. You’ve been asleep for four days straight. Your injuries and wounds have been treated already, but you should rest until you’re fully recovered. Especially your left arm, don’t even think about moving it.”
“Hm? …ah! It hurts!”

I try turning my body wondering what she’s talking about, and my whole left arm flares up with pain. The movement is enough to knock the blanket covering my arm aside, letting me see how it’s completely wrapped up in some stiff bandages.

Oh yeah, now I remember. I sacrificed my left arm to block an attack during the fight.

“I just told you to not move… Just try to keep still. The doctor said it should heal back to normal after enough time has passed, but the more you force yourself the longer it’ll take.”

Natalia sighs loudly as she says that, then sits on the bed and starts patting randomly like she’s trying to soothe a child.

“Natalia…”
“What is it?”
“You’re touching my chest.”
“Ah, I’m so sorry!”

Natalia quickly pulls her hand back and bows while apologizing.

Darn it! She would’ve done it for longer if I kept quiet. Though seeing Natalia get all red is also cute.

“I don’t mind if it’s you though?”
“I’m not touching you!”
“Do you like it more with nothing in between then?”
“That’s not what I meant!”

Natalia refuses with a more desperate tone, but I wouldn’t mind. Or rather, I want her to touch me, there, and in other places too. I also want to touch her. And not just her body, but also the clothes she’s always wearing. I mean, she’s always touching my underwear when she does the laundry anyway.

Actually…thinking of Natalia touching my underwear every day is turning me on a bit.

“Should I touch you then?”
“We’re not touching anything!”
“This isn’t the time to be flirting, you two.”

I didn’t notice that the dragonborn I fought, I think she’s called Fan-Yen, had entered the room together with a male dragonborn.

“W-We weren’t flirting-”
“Try to be more mindful, she’s hardly recovered from her injuries.”

Just as Natalia tries to deny it, the male dragonborn interrupts her.
Oh yeah, now that they mention it, I did get beaten up pretty bad.

“Olivia, I’d like to ask you some questions about how you’re feeling, if that’s alright with you.” The male dragonborn seems to be a doctor, and asks me a lot of questions.

“Hmm, some pain is obviously normal while recovering, otherwise you seem to be doing pretty well. It might take quite some time, but if you’re careful and rest enough you’ll make a full recovery one day.”

After he’s done with all his questions he gives us a pretty optimistic outlook, at least a better one than I expected. The injuries were pretty bad, but I’m glad that they’ll go away.

“One more thing, Natalia told me that you’re often subjecting yourself to physical stress through magic as a form of training. Please refrain from ever doing that until you’ve recovered, as that type of magic makes for a bad combination with the medicine and healing magic we used.”

Nevermind, things are looking pretty bad.

Training with that magic is really important for me. I don’t know exactly how long it’ll take for my body to recover, but staying so long without training will definitely get me rusty.

Or maybe…

“Young Lady, don’t even think of doing it in secret.”
“Ughh…okay fine.”

Natalia warns me while looking straight at me, so I have to agree.

“That’s all for me, so I’ll be taking my leave now. Please take care.” The male dragonborn says that and leaves the room.

At least now I know that I’ll recover.

“By the way, Olivia. Aren’t you hungry?” When Fan-Yen asks that, I realize I’m starving. It makes sense considering I’ve been asleep for four days.

“Ah, yes…quite hungry actually.”
“No need to be reserved around me. Let me fetch you something real quick.”
“I’ll help too. Claire, Akane, Erika, watch over the Young Lady.”

Fan-Yen leaves the room, and Natalia follows her.

I’d really like her to stay here with me, but I also don’t want to cause trouble for her, so I won’t say anything. Also, she just mentioned Erika but I can’t see her around?

Just as I think that, a large shadow passes by the window.
Ah, I forgot she doesn’t fit inside a room.

We arrive at the kitchen and get to work right away.

“I feel like you could’ve let me do this alone.”
“If I did that you would’ve just made bar food, for a convalescent person.”

I’ve spent the last few days in this mansion, and I’ve tried plenty of Fan-Yen’s cooking. I’d say it’s rather tasty overall, but it’s always salty and spicy food most suited as snacks while drinking. Clarissa always complains that it’s too spicy to eat, and it definitely isn’t something I’d feed Olivia, who didn’t eat anything for the past four days.

As far as the dragonborn go, they don’t need to eat a lot to survive, with one meal a week being enough most of the time. They’re intelligent and skilled, so if they put their minds into it they can cook some really delicious food, but due to their metabolism they mostly see food as an accompaniment to enjoy drinking a bit more. Personally, I feel like their talents are going to waste.

“Then what do you suggest we make?”
“Well, I was thinking a medicinal soup made with the herbs from around here would be pretty good.”
“I see, I’ll start boiling some water then.”
“Thank you.”

I explain the recipe I’ve thought of, and we quickly start working.

I separate the ingredients by how long they take to cook and if they give out any flavor the longer they’re boiling, and put them into the pot in order. A soup of only herbs feels a bit bland, so I also add some thinly sliced bird meat.

And then comes the star of the show, Roaring Dragon Carrots. They’re known as a cure-all medicinal plant around here, and look similar to ginseng from my past life. The roots also look like a roaring dragon, which is where the name comes from.

I cut them up thinly and then put them into the pot. Now we just have to wait for everything to simmer.

“That’s impressive. You’ve adapted to Longshan’s local produce faster than I anticipated.”
“It’s just part of my job.”

Actually, I only got used to it so quickly because it’s really similar to Chinese food in my past life. I never had the right ingredients to make these dishes before, but now I have all of them readily available.

We continue talking for a bit until it’s done cooking, a fragrant aroma wafting from the pot. I pour a bit of the soup into a small dish to taste. I feel like it’s come out really nicely, but just in case I also serve Fan-Yen a bit so she can give me her opinion.

“Could you taste it for me real quick?”
“Let’s see… It feels a bit bland?”
“She just woke up, I wouldn’t want to upset her stomach with harsh flavors, so I think it’s better that way.”
“Wait, I think I know what can really elevate its flavor.”
“I’m not putting any alcohol in it.”
“…How did you know?”
“Anyone could tell.”

Fan-Yen has been drinking every single day we’ve been here. Or rather, she’s almost never sober. It was the worst our first day here, since she spent the whole night drinking, saying that the exhilaration of battle would not leave her. That sounded fair and all, but I didn’t really know how to react when she said that it was also nice how her bruised organs hurt from the alcohol, like she was relieving the fight.

“Wait, don’t tell me Olivia isn’t fond of alcohol then?”
“I already explained that she just woke up. Also, she was still a minor until earlier this year. She’s never tried alcohol before.”

It’s not like I’m watching over her 24/7, but I never noticed the scent of alcohol coming off her. She’s also been pretty serious about following public norms, so I can’t see her drinking in secret while underage.

“Hmmm, I did notice that she’s young, but I didn’t think she’d be that young.”

Olivia is tall like her mother, so I can see why people would assume she’s older. People would often think she was older back at the Academy when she wasn’t wearing her uniform too.

“If she says she wants to drink, I won’t stop her. But don’t bring that up while she’s still recovering.”
“Hm, that’s a pity.”

Fan-Yen’s shoulders droop, showing she actually feels disappointed about it. I still wish she would stop seeing everything through the eyes of a dragonborn, assuming others recover as quickly. Drinking alcohol will slow down the healing process, and can cause a bunch of other issues. Olivia’s health is more important right now.

After that I fill a bowl with soup and bring it to Olivia.