"A wisp?" Back in the cabin with the goblin queen, Haruki was perplexed by her assessment of what might've attacked Riley.
"Scorchen Gaia is supposed to be filled with those invisible floaters, and to be honest, nobody knows why," marking Riley's chest with a blood sigil, the goblin queen tapped it lightly to alleviate some of the pain she was suffering through. "Magic doesn't work on them, so you have to rely on sigils and Arcane magic to take them out."
Standing at the edge of the bed, Haruki's mind ventured into thought. From a far distant memory, he remembered Asmodia mentioning something about Arcane magic, but exactly what it was had escaped his mind.
"Not even my healing worked, so I'm guessing other abilities like rejuvenation won't work either?" Bringing up a salient point, Asuka moved out of the chair and walked closer to Riley. Running her hand over the discolored patterns on her skin, she tried to revert her skin's composition back to its original state with body disfiguration.
However, to no surprise of her own or the other two, the ability failed to change anything. Taking hold of Asuka's hand, the queen of goblins drew it away from Riley.
"She might be unconscious right now, but I'm quite certain she can still feel pain when touched on those marks," giving her the polite explanation, she turned back to address Haruki who was deep in thought trying to figure out a way to deal with the wisps. "I'd suggest taking an illusionist with you."
Peering up at her, Haruki wondered if she was intentionally mocking him with the suggestion.
"The Lamenians gave up their land pretty easily, but Moriyana will still need to keep the distractions going in other kingdoms so the others can settle into the kingd-'' Hearing the front door creak open, Haruki cut his sentence short.
Peeking in through the half-open door was the slime girl with lustrous rainbow hair. Scanning the room with her diamond eyes, she let out a gasp upon noticing Haruki.
"You're here!" Rushing towards Haruki with her arms wide open, she pulled him into a tight hug. "Mommy told me you'd be away for much longer!"
Puffing up her cheeks, Stella glanced up at Haruki, verifiably a bit annoyed. Bamboozled by all of this, Haruki couldn't believe how much she'd grown once again in such a short span of time. From a baby to an infant that could walk around and mumble, and then now even a young teen with a much more competent vocabulary.
"Hmm?" While Haruki worked out how he felt in his mind, Stella glanced sideways at the unconscious Riley laying on the bed with her body discolored in a pattern of patches. "Oh no! What happened to Aunt?!"
Letting go of her adoptive father, she threw her arms over Riley's belly. Worried for her aunt, she was tearing up in her eye despite not having a clue as to what had happened.
"Stella!" Once again a voice from the front door made everyone turn to look who it was. "I told you not to run away from me like that again…"
Noticing the crowd inside the cabin, Fay's words trailed off and were replaced by a moment of silence.
"When did you come back? And why didn't any of you tell me?" Looking around at everyone, her eyes first stopped at Asuka. "Asuka, at least you could have informed me mast-I mean my…uhm, husband was back."
Right in the nick of time, she saved herself from a long list of questions that would've come out of Stella's mouth had she referred to Haruki as master.
"We had an emergency, come to think of it, maybe you can help," stepping away from the bed, Haruki invited Fay to take a look at Riley's body.
As was just making her way over, a radiant beam of light emerged from Stella's direction. Blinded by the light, they all shielded their eyes with their hands until it eventually retreated back into Stella's body.
"What happened?" Asked Stella, picking herself off of Riley's belly.
Not sure herself, she glanced down at her aunt. To her surprise and that of the others, the marks on Riley's body were suddenly all gone. Wincing about, an incoherent mumble left her lips before she finally opened up her eyes.
"Ughhhh…" her hand pressed against her aching head, Riley pulled herself up and looked around at the people gathering around. "Wh-Why are we here?"
Recognizing the space inside the cabin, she was utterly confused as to why they weren't back on Scorchen Gaia. Still perplexed by what had just happened, none of them had any clue how to respond to Riley and explain the situation to her.
"Fay…Did we check what affinity Stella has yet?" Unsure what to expect, Haruki asked to somehow make sense of the situation.
"I-I didn't check yet," her reply opened all kinds of speculations.
"It's due time then," the goblin queen butted in.
Standing in between the middle of it all, Stella looked around confused with her index curiously pressed against her chin. With no clue what they were talking about, she tilted her head while looking at her adoptive mother.
"I'll explain it to you later," Fay told her.
Brushing the matter off for the moment, Haruki decided to check up on Riley's physical condition. And when everything seemed fine, he pulled her off of the bed to see if she could move around without any hindrance.
"I'm fine, but…" Shutting her eyes tight, she looked through her screen of stats at a new passive ability she'd just acquired. "I got a new section in my stats called, blessings? And there's a blessing in it already, benevolent actor's blessing."
'Benevolent actor?' Turning to Stella, Haruki couldn't tell how she could've imprinted Riley with a blessing. Shifting his gaze between the goblin queen and Fay, Haruki nodded to have them try to figure out more about what was happening.
'This could be useful to us, but I don't want Stella to be put in harm's way so keep it a secret.' Talking to everyone through their minds, Haruki warned everyone against spreading the knowledge about her ability. 'Also, don't forget to find out about her affinity while I venture back out into Scorchen Gaia.'
Nodding back at him, Fay and the goblin queen took Stella out of the room and left the three on their own.
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