When Aurelia’s consciousness returned, the scene of her desperate battle with Laurence was still vivid in her mind.
—
Following that came the rumbling sound of wagon wheels over cobblestones, the indistinct calls of vendors, and the faint laughter of children playing.
She tried to sit up abruptly, but her body responded with a dull, lingering ache.
It wasn’t strong, and it was nothing like the excruciating, deathly pain of shattered organs she had felt before.
—
She was alive. And her wounds… seemed to be completely healed?
‘Wasn’t I on the brink of death? How could wounds like that possibly heal this fast? Wait, no… this is a magical world. Getting stabbed through the heart probably counts as a minor injury here, right?’
Aurelia instinctively reached down to touch her abdomen.
The spot where Laurence’s armored boot had struck her only held a faint, residual soreness now, basically negligible.
Was it the effect of that potion from the gray-haired uncle?
Or had she received other treatment while she was unconscious?
—
“Sister Lia, how are you? Feeling better?”
Helen’s anxious concern sounded in her ear, followed by the little priestess’s still somewhat timid voice. “Aurelia… how does your body feel?”
Aurelia turned her head and saw Helen’s large face only two fists away from her own.
Behind him stood the little priestess Rena, her hands clasped in a prayer-like pose, the holy aura around them not yet fully dispersed—clearly, she had just finished using a Divine Art.
Startled by Helen’s suddenly close face, Aurelia instinctively flinched back.
This pulled on her abdominal muscles, and the slight pain made her hiss softly.
“Ah! Sorry, Sister Lia! I-I was just so worried about you! Here, wipe your sweat!”
Helen took two hurried steps back in a panic, quickly grabbing a clean towel and handing it to Aurelia.
‘Why is this little brother losing more and more of that honest, earnest air he had at the beginning? When I first picked him up, he seemed so proper, like a classic main character template—the kind that rises from the ashes after thirty years or something.’
Aurelia took the towel, looked at Helen’s still-youthful face, and sighed helplessly.
“Thank you.”
Then, she turned her gaze to the little priestess.
“And thank you for the trouble, Rena. During the time I was unconscious… you must have used Divine Arts quite a bit, right? Thank you.”
Hearing this, Rena quickly waved her hands.
“No trouble at all! Compared to how much you’ve helped me, Aurelia, this is nothing!”
—
Aurelia gave her a light smile in return, then stood up and stretched.
Her body felt… noticeably lighter than before.
Apart from the faint ache in her abdomen, she felt full of energy compared to when she was first expelled.
She even felt lighter and more agile than she had been back in the Sword of Saint Radiance.
“Sister Lia, that gray-haired uncle who saved you said he got you a week of leave. Today’s only the fourth day. You should rest more, right?”
“Leave, huh…”
Aurelia pondered for a moment and quickly thought of Ragnar, that inexplicably caring Gold Rank uncle.
‘I don’t know why that old rascal uncle is so concerned about me, but I really should thank him properly…’
After all, recovering from the brink of death to this state in just a few days couldn’t have been achieved by Rena’s Divine Arts alone.
That uncle must have used some incredibly precious potion or item to have such a miraculous effect.
Having made up her mind, Aurelia prepared to get up and go to the tavern to find that old rascal uncle. But first…
She felt inside her clothes.
The small packet of hard candy she had bought for Helen earlier had been completely crushed into powder during the fierce battle, leaving only a small, sticky pile of sugar residue and torn oiled paper.
‘Ugh… can’t give him this. Have to buy it again…’
“I’m going out to get some air and buy a few things,” Aurelia said to Helen and Rena, stretching her shoulders and wrists.
She needed to get used to this body, which seemed lighter and more energetic than before she was injured.
That was probably another effect of that miraculous potion.
“Huh? Sister Lia, you just woke up and you’re going out already?”
Helen sounded uneasy.
After all, Aurelia had said she was just going out last time, and she came back looking half-dead, almost leaving them forever.
“Just going for a walk nearby. I’ll buy some things and come right back,” Aurelia said, her tone softening immediately as she saw the undisguised worry on Helen’s face.
“Look, I can walk and jump now. Before…”
She paused.
She had been about to say, “Before, I got into a fight with a blind, truth-ignoring bastard redhead,” but she swallowed the words back.
This kind of thing… it was better not to tell the two of them.
“But—”
Helen tried to say more, but Rena beside him gently tugged his sleeve and shook her head at him.
Then she turned to Aurelia.
“Aurelia, your injuries just healed. How about… I go with you?”
She said, her face showing a hint of nervousness, but her eyes were firm.
Clearly, she was also still shaken by Aurelia’s last “trip out” that ended with her severely injured and near death.
“No need, Rena,” Aurelia smiled, reaching out to pat Rena’s head.
However, the height difference meant Aurelia had to stand on her tiptoes to barely manage it.
Ahem.
Being one hundred and sixty centimeters tall is still a bit lacking…
I should get some height-increasing insoles one of these days.
“It’s less conspicuous if I go alone. And I really am just going to buy a few small things. I’ll be back soon, I promise.” She looked at Helen and added, “The candy I brought you last time got crushed. Sorry. Wait for me, I’ll buy you a new bag this time.”
—
Hearing about the candy, Helen’s eyes lit up.
Then, realizing his lapse, he coughed lightly twice.
“Then… then Sister Lia, you have to be careful! Ever since the night you were injured, the patrols by the Church Knights seem to have gotten more frequent!”
Hearing this, Aurelia immediately thought of Laurence.
‘That bastard redhead actually mobilized the Church’s forces to capture me and bring me back? Does he really want me dead that badly?’
She rubbed her temples, finding the stubborn, obsessed fool of a Brave indescribable.
She had explained things to him twice in a row, and he hadn’t listened to a single word.
She had even thrown the truth right in his face, and he actually called it a lie?
Completely unreasonable!
This world actually chose a bastard like that to be the Brave?
It seems both the heavens and I, who just transmigrated, are blind!
But… no matter what, she couldn’t just abandon the life she had finally started to build and go back to being a fugitive, right?
Life had to go on.
But after that previous… fight, the desire to strengthen her own combat power grew even more urgent in Aurelia’s heart.
“Thanks, I’ll be careful. Well then… I’m off.”
She nodded to Helen and Rena, pushed open the wooden door of the garret, went down the stairs, and headed for the tavern’s main entrance.
—
The main door wasn’t locked.
There was a faint sound of glass bottles clinking inside.
Pushing the door open, Aurelia saw Andre at once, standing in front of the wine rack, rearranging the positions of his precious collection.
He was still dressed in his tailcoat-like attire, his hair slicked back, silent and reserved, possessing the steady demeanor of a classical Western gentleman.
His vitality made it hard to believe he was approaching fifty.
Hearing the creak of the door hinge, he didn’t turn around immediately.
Instead, he unhurriedly placed the bottle in his hand securely on the shelf before slowly turning around.
—
His gaze fell on Aurelia, lingered on her face for a moment, then swept over her entire body.
She was still wearing the casual clothes she had bought herself.
The wound on her neck was mostly healed, but she still wore a white silk ribbon tied into a small, delicate bow at the side—whether out of habit or as a personal decoration, it was hard to say.
“Recovered from your illness so quickly?”
Andre’s tone was still indifferent, but a hint of concern could be faintly heard.
“Thank you for your concern, Shopkeeper Andre! I’m all better!”
As she spoke, Aurelia rolled up her sleeve, raised her arm, flexed her nearly non-existent muscles with effort, and patted her slender, delicate forearm.
“…Your work has been covered by someone else. Come back after your rest is over.”
He gave an unemotional “Hmm” in response to her display of health, then his gaze shifted to the white silk ribbon with the exquisite bow tied around her neck.
“These seven days count as paid leave for you.”
Paid leave! Hearing those words, Aurelia’s clear, beautiful eyes instantly lit up.
‘In my past life, I only ever heard about that from netizens! I never thought that after being reborn in another world… I’d actually get to experience it myself!?’
“Thank you, Shopkeeper Andre! I can’t repay your great kindness, except by—”
“Enough chatter. Rest properly when you’re resting, work properly when you’re working.”
Andre’s hand reached under the counter, then picked up a small money pouch and tossed it into Aurelia’s arms.
Aurelia caught the pouch, blinked, and nodded heavily at Andre.
“Mhm, mhm! Thank you, Shopkeeper Andre!”
Yes! I, the perfect logistics officer, have been resurrected at full health on the spot!
—
Watching the girl leave the tavern happily, Andre shook his head and let out a soft sigh.
“She… was such a lively girl after all?”
—
Remembering how pitiful Aurelia had looked when they first met, Andre felt for the first time that he might have misjudged her.
She had seemed like she should be a shyer girl, but her mouth was a bit glib.
—
On the other side, Aurelia hefted the money pouch in her hand, listening to the reassuring, crisp clink of coins inside.
The smile on her lips was impossible to suppress.
—
Paid leave, and a consolation bonus from the boss!
In my previous life’s rogue company, I wouldn’t even have dared to dream of such things!
Taking a deep breath, Aurelia felt that even the various strange, weird smells drifting through the afternoon streets seemed fresher now.
The gloom brought by the previous events seemed to have dissipated.
However, when she spotted two Church Knights marching past in step at a street corner, her good mood instantly plummeted by more than half.
‘What a nuisance,’ she muttered under her breath with displeasure, detouring around their patrol route and entering a general store.
Aurelia walked slowly between the shelves, her eyes casually scanning the strange goods, quickly finding the kind of hard candy simply wrapped in oiled paper.
“Hmm… three packs, then. One for Rena, one for Helen, and one to keep in reserve.”
—
As for clothes, the sizes she bought for the two of them last time had surprisingly fit well.
Using those measurements, Aurelia bought a set of easy-to-move-in gray-white casual clothes for Helen and a pure white dress for Rena.
—
Driven by her former logistics officer habits, Aurelia kept adding things the two of them might need.
By the time she returned to the garret laden with large and small bags, her small pouch of money was almost completely spent, leaving only a few copper coins for emergencies.
—
‘Who knows when this hard life will finally get better… Ah, right. Maybe I should start working on getting a proper base for the team.’
—
It was only then that Aurelia remembered—her “Expulsion Trope” script seemed to have only just gotten the “expelled” beginning?
The founding of her own team was still a distant prospect!
‘Wait, that’s not right either. Now I have the little brother and the little priestess. The minimum number of people needed to form a team… is still two short.’
She instinctively thought of that Gold Rank old rascal uncle, then shook her head.
‘There’s no way that uncle would join a team formed by a newbie like me. Even though he’s been very kind to me, he clearly has the strength to join a team but doesn’t. There must be a reason. No, that won’t work.’
So, for now, the only way was to start with missions related to the Power of Calamity.
—
Just like with the little priestess and the little brother, save those contaminated by the Power of Calamity, then invite him or her to join the team.
She only needed to find two more people.
That shouldn’t be too difficult, right?