Chapter 52
Inside of the tent were many dead bodies but Gren could only recognize one. She was much larger than the rest even with her body torn apart. He didn't know much about her but she was nice to him in their short time together. If he just left her here she'd probably be thrown into a ma.s.s grave with the rest of her sisters. Gren stored her body away and due to that there was barely any s.p.a.ce left in his pocket dimension.
Underneath Jane's body was the chest with the doll, Sheila. It was soaked in her blood but Gren didn't want to leave it behind. The doll was already part of his history and he thought the girls might like it after it was cleaned up.
He couldn't find Sh.e.l.ley's body anywhere so he hoped that she escaped. "Come look at this." Gren set down the doll and went to where Georgia was after hearing her call for him. Georgia found a rectangular chest that interested her but there was no lid on it.
"It's a magic puzzle box. Inside are a bunch of mechanisms that need to be activated with magic. They're pretty good for training magic control so even if nothing's inside it you'll still get some use out of it." Other than the magic puzzle box they couldn't find anything interesting and there were no survivors that they noticed.
The knights left first while Gren began to carry the magic puzzle box out. "Ah!" Georgia stopped and looked at Gren, thinking that something was wrong. "Go ahead, I just forgot the doll and I need to go back to get it." The magic puzzle box was too big to carry with one arm so Gren put the doll on top of it and carried the two of them together. He couldn't see in front of him that well but someone held the tent's flap open for him when he got near it. "Thanks."
Gren slowly walked to the carriage. There were a few times he almost b.u.mped into something but there was a hand that pulled him away from the obstacle. He reached the carriage after a minute or so of unstable walking and set down what he was carrying before stretching. The carriage rocked and Gren noticed that Georgia was sitting in the driver's seat. "Thanks for the help, Georgia."
"Do you need me to help you lift the stuff into the carriage?" Georgia looked back at Gren and was preparing to get down before Gren stopped her.
"No, I can get
"Georgia, do the knights need to eat anything before we return?" Gren didn't prepare any food for them but the knights still had their own saddlebags with some food in them just in case they got separated. Gren was sure that he saw at least one knight snacking but didn't know if all of them had eaten already.
"Yeah, everybody else ate while they were in the village. They didn't want to eat after moving the body parts since they might get blood on their hands." Since everybody ate already, Gren would need to give them twice as much the next time they took a break. They should still have some food left but it's best to fill up their bags just to be safe.
"Understood. I'll eat in here when we're on the move so don't worry about taking a break for me." Gren now had time to learn the basic spells in the other spell books he hasn't read yet. He realized that he could just open up the window and stick his hand out.
Gren wasn't sure if he could control where magic was emitted from earlier when he first started to learn magic but after using healing magic in the village he realized that it was quite easy to control. He could even use two of the same spell if he concentrated hard but that didn't seem useful right now.
Since he wanted to eat, it was pretty important to wash his hands. He did just touch b.l.o.o.d.y things. He covered his hands with washcloths and opened up the book on water magic. The t.i.tle was Water Magic: Your Personal Oasis. It didn't seem like it had any attack spells in it but right now Gren just needed a ball of water to help clean his hands with.
Gren found it hard to flip the pages with them being covered but he didn't want to ruin them. Gren managed to reach the first spell after using his chin to flip the pages. It was the same spell that the blue-robed acolyte used in the cathedral. Just thinking about it, Gren could earn one gold coin every time he used it; not that he needed the money.
After setting down the spell book, Gren opened up the window; sliding it towards the back of the carriage after releasing a small latch. The washcloths were in the way so Gren removed them before practicing the first water spell. Getting the spell to work was tricky; the ball of water would break down while he tried to form it because of the speed that the carriage was traveling.
There was still water that he could use so Gren decided to hold both arms out the window. This time he used the arm closer to the front of the carriage to gather the water and catch it with his other hand. In order to wash his other hand properly he needed to open the window on the other side and repeat his actions there. After doing this a few times with each hand--using a soapy washcloth to help clean them--Gren was satisfied with how clean his hands were.
Gren forgot to eat before falling asleep earlier and was feeling really hungry. He pulled out some more of the jerky he brought and bit into it, trying his best to chew the tough meat. He also had some vegetables but his dagger was b.l.o.o.d.y so he couldn't peel them or cut away the nasty parts. The meat alone wasn't really a meal so Gren brought out an apple and set it down on the seat while finis.h.i.+ng his jerky.
It felt good to eat after a day of putting in effort. Using magic didn't tire him out physically but he was mentally stressed out. He didn't feel as useless as he did when he left Adierton so his self confidence was improving; he would just need to make sure not to be complacent since his abilities weren't enough to protect what he cares about. His physical strength wouldn't grow so rapidly but magic would be the best way to accomplish his goal.
Finished with his jerky, Gren reached for his apple. It was strange. The apple was hard when he put it on the seat but now it was squishy. Gren turned to look and noticed a pudgy arm reaching over from behind the seat. Connected to that arm was a pudgy girl. "Hi."
So she survived after all.