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I opened my eyes to the sunlight flooding from the window. It seemed that I had overslept a bit. It was natural after that battle with Gadius yesterday, but still early enough that Finia hadn’t come to check on me.

“Yaaaaawwwnn.”

I raised my upper body on the bed and stretched while yawning. Stretching my muscles felt very good.

“Fuh.”

The test we finished yesterday also counted as a Guild commission so we were paid accordingly. It totaled 10 silver coins. It was about three times what we were getting so far.

This pay was probably adjusted sufficiently highly due to the risk that followed leaving the city. Thanks to that, we should be able to spend a few days with some leisure.

“Nng, but the equipment adjustment still needs to be addressed.”

My breastplate just needed some belt adjustment, but Michelle’s was a bit more problematic.

It needs to be adjusted to fit her abundant mountain range. The expenses required for it were closer to ordering a new item altogether.

We were beginners so we didn’t have much leeway in the money. We had to earn money whenever we could.

While rubbing my sleepy eyes, I put my foot down from the bed, intending to go get changed. But taking that one step blew away all my sleepiness in one go.

“Fugii!?”

Sharp pain ran through my ankle. Looking there, what used to be a slender ankle was swollen in red now. I apparently sprained it with that sweeping finisher kick I did on Gadius in yesterday’s match. And quite severely at that.

“Aghh… That hard-headed b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲!”

‘My loss’ my a̲s̲s̲. Thinking about it, there was no way a little girl’s kick, regardless of the power behind it, would do anything to a guy that had enough stamina to even endure the Evil Dragon’s attacks. It would be the leg getting broken, if anything.

I won’t be able to get out of bed like this.

I quickly chanted and cast Cure Light. Naturally, this magic was only enough for peace of mind so it couldn’t heal me completely.

You may think it would be better to just overlap several of them, but healing spells had a flaw that any repeated spell’s effect would be weak until the previous spell’s effect was fully gone.

That only took a few minutes, but those few minutes could be fatal during battles.

The reason Maria was called a saint wasn’t only because of her instantaneous casting, but also because she had a great variety of healing spells at her disposal.

On top of elementary, intermediate, advanced, and top grade spells of the healing system, she even wanted to master the healing spells of interference and spirit systems, so she continued to cast different kinds of healing spells in succession and supported the frontlines.

Needless to say, I didn’t have such a variety at my disposal. Far from that, this elementary spell was my only healing magic now.

“…Well, it’s better than nothing I guess?”

Dull pain ran up my spine every time I put my weight on that leg, but it still recovered enough to walk.

Finia would worry if I didn’t leave the room, so I decided to show up for the meal at least.

As I headed down the stairs to the hall while pulling my leg, I saw Finia patting Gadius on the head. The Adventurers staying in this inn were looking at that with envy.

“Finia, what’s going on?”
“Ah, good morning, Lady Nicole. Lord Gadius apparently fell down and had a big bump on his head.”

As it turned out, the attack I put everything into was still enough to give him a bump. I felt satisfied even with that much. The fact that I wasn’t the only one who had it bad gave me some comfort.

“Rather, what happened to you, Lady Nicole? You are dragging your leg.”
“…I-I fell down.”

I hated to make the same excuse as Gadius, but I couldn’t think of anything else. Finia ran up to me in worry, squatted down and took my foot in hand.

“Ouch!”
“It’s quite injured. Goodness, Just how badly did you fall down…”

Her action caused pain to run through it once again and I reflexively exclaimed. But Finia used the healing of the spirit system and the pain quickly faded away.

Light and water attributes of the spirit magic had healing accelerating spells too. She seemed to have used one of them.

“Huh, Nicole, what’s wrong?”
“She apparently twisted her leg. Fell down or something.”

While I was being healed, Cloud showed up from the corridor leading to the backdoor. He got up surprisingly early in the mornings, so he was probably doing some practice swinging in the yard. His slightly sweaty face looked quite sultry.

Then, I noticed something strange. Michelle wasn’t anywhere around. She was an early sleeper and riser like most children. Yet, she still hadn’t woken up.

“Finia, where’s Michelle?”
“Well… She seems to have caught a cold.”

She knitted her brows in worry.

“Whaa?”
“Probably because she played in the water in this season.”
“Ah…”

It was still too soon to call summer. She had never seen a large lake, so she got carried away and messed around. The lake water was very cold as one would expect from spring water. Even if she was a healthy girl, that still proved to be too much.

“Now that I think about it, Finia and I had Warm cast on us, but she hadn’t, huh.”

The Warm spell lasted for an hour.

Even after we recovered Moria grass and returned to the surface to play, its effect still lasted for a while. Since there was no need to recast it on ourselves, we forgot to do it to Michelle. Yet she continued to have fun without needing such a spell.

And she was now facing the consequences for that.

Next chapter would finish the 12 years old arc