This Clueless Hero

I looked at the ink stains that spread out across the table. Although they looked pretty cool, the table was now in a mess. As for the table itself, it was made out of some sort of marble.

...If I didn't think of something quickly, it was probably going to leave a stain.

I stood there like a fool for a few moments, just staring at the mess I made. Using the spell diagram parchment was obviously a bad idea, as that would just exacerbate the problem. It would basically ruin it, so that it could no longer be used.

As for the piece of paper I used to redraw part of the spell diagram, it was already really wet with ink. But... it could be used.

My eyebrow twitched.

...Was this a stupid idea?

Probably.

But there was only one way to find out.

I grabbed the edges of the parchment and tried to push off the ink like the parchment was a duster.

...But in the end, the wet ink from the parchment fell off the paper and ended up staining the table further.

As expected, it was a dumb idea. Yet, I still went through with it.

Cleaning... cleaning...

Wait, Mildred was a maid, wasn't she?

That meant she had to have some sort of cleaning utensil or at least something like that.

With those thoughts in mind, I rushed across the palace, up the stairs, and up to Mildred's room. Upon raising my hand up to the door, a little hesitation welled up in me. However, it only lasted for a second or so.

My hand pushed aside the door, revealing the inside of Mildred's room.

Mildred was still sleeping as she had been before. My eyes darted around the room for somewhere she could've kept whatever she used to clean.

But then they froze on Mildred.

Looking a little more closely, I recognized that Mildred's skin had become unnaturally dark. Not like a tan, but as though her skin was beginning to decay.

I took a few steps closer and observed her a little more carefully.

Her eyelids seemed to have sunken in while the skin of her body had dried and hardened. When I held my hand above her face, I could only feel a very weak breath every five seconds or so.

...In other words, she was dying.

This made me throw out any thoughts of cleaning the ink stain from before. There had to be something I could do, right?

Mildred looked horribly dehydrated even though it hadn't been that long since her last drink. Somehow, she resembled someone about to die of dehydration.

Water... I needed to get some water.

My mind began casting the water spell, but I soon found myself at a loss. There was no container for me to put the water in. It was probably a bad idea to just let it splash onto Mildred's face.

I gave the room a quick scan, but found nothing useful.

In a fluster, I retained the almost completed water spell in my body and bolted back, down the stairs, and into the kitchen.

After grabbing an arbitrary wooden cup, I made my way back up the stairs, into Mildred's room.

My breath was a little ragged, but nothing too crazy. I hurriedly cast the water spell above the cup, filling it up and splashing the excess water on the floor. My eyelid twitched, as I made a mental note to apologize to Mildred later.

I carefully kneeled down next to her bed, holding the cup of water next to her face. It was only at this point did I realize how difficult this was going to be.

I tilted the cup slightly, letting some water fall onto Mildred's lips.

The water seeped into her mouth soon after, which seemed like a good sign. I let a little bit more water drip through, but soon realized something was wrong.

Suddenly, my mind picked up on an old memory, where Ned told me there was no way to feed Mildred since she wouldn't be able to swallow it in her current state.

It was interrupting her breathing patterns.

...No, Mildred wasn't even drinking the water in the first place. She was breathing it in, meaning the water was going into her lungs.

I furrowed my brows.

What... what was I supposed to do?

...The healing spell.

Last time, it seemed like casting the healing spell was able to restore Mildred to some extent. Although it couldn't bring her out of unconsciousness, it should do something, right?

With that in mind, I slowly cast the healing spell. My anxiety made me want to speed it up further, but I knew there was no immediate rush.

I slowly raised my hand and stuck out my forefinger towards Mildred. A soft blue light shot out of my finger, wrapping around Mildred.

It was slow, but Mildred's complexion gradually restored. Her skin went from frighteningly dark, to a healthy rosy red. When I held my hand above her face, I could feel her breaths. While they were not strong by any means, they were not weak either.

...She was fine now.

I looked at the water in the wooden cup in my hand. Then, I brought it up to my lips and threw my head back, drinking it all.

As the clear refreshing water went down my throat, I realized how thirsty I had become. The tension rapidly left my body, before a pain flared within my mind.

...I was feeling a little tired.

No... not a little.

It wasn't readily apparent to me before, but it seemed that whatever was numbing the pain to my body was gradually leaving me. A pale moonlight shone through the window.

...Night had already descended.

Now that I think about it, the last time I slept should've been over an entire day ago by now. Because I ended up sleeping at weird times and woke up in the middle of the night.

I tripped, before falling onto the floor.

With a smack, my rear landed on the ground, while the palm of my hand rubbed against my temple.

...This was definitely bad for my health.

Does this mean I ended up pulling an all-nighter like Ned said?

It was a little ironic.

I chastised the other people that did this sort of thing and even looked down on them in my heart. After all, they knew it was a bad thing, but did it anyway. Wasn't that just foolish?

...Yet here I was.

Neglecting my own sleep because I was unwilling to stop working.

Chasing an illusory sense of extra time, when in reality, I was losing it.

My eyelids parted slowly, but with great difficulty. After confirming Mildred really was fine, I decided to hobble my way over to my room, push aside the door, and fall onto the bed.

...

A bright light shone in my eyes, forcing me awake. However, I was still far too tired to want to get up. The raging pain in my head from last night still remained strong right now.

All things considered, there was no way I was going to get up now.

In the end, I would just fall asleep once more anyway.

With those thoughts in mind, I went to sleep once more.

...

By the time I woke up, the sun was shining strong, even through the curtains. It was probably sometime late in the afternoon.

...I really didn't want to get up.

Although the pain in my head had more or less disappeared, there was still this strange feeling of unwillingness that spread throughout my body. It sapped at my motivation like my body was telling me it had enough.

But realistically, I was already well rested. I had already rested for longer than what I normally slept at night, so that much shouldn't be stretching it.

And so, I forced myself up.

...Well, I tried to, at least.

It was as though the air had become mud, weighing me down heavily.

A soft sigh escaped me.

"...I still have to water the farm."

With that in mind, a strong motivation flowed through me, and I forced myself up.

For real this time.

My eyes still didn't really want to open, but I freshened up and made my way downstairs. The only thing on my mind was to go water the farm, then get a new parchment, and finally, begin practicing again.

After all, I was so close.

But before I could leave through the palace entrance...

"Jay?"

I turned to the side to see Ned.

He was far off in the distance with a plate of food in hand. He passed by a cased opening just when I was about to leave.

I blinked a few times, still unable to keep my eyes open all the way.

"Ah... Ned. I slept through the time we cooked through again."

...The others helped me so much, but I only took advantage of that.

I even told Alyx that I would help her cook.

It couldn't keep going on like this.