South’s words made sense. In the heat of the battle Wolf had started loudly chanting the Arcana for Finger of Death. While it’s true that he didn’t get too far with the spell, Anna was still a Mage apprentice, and would probably realize what he was doing once she calmed down.

Wolf considered things for a moment before agreeing with his big brother. Even if he decided to ignore his friend’s trauma, which Wolf wouldn’t, Anna couldn’t be allowed to remember today’s happenings.

“Ever since I’ve arrived in Silver City I’ve set aside a spell slot for Subtle Alter Memory,” Wolf said. “It can only tamper with the last quarter of an hour of memories, maybe a bit more, but it should be enough to help Anna.”

Wolf was nervous. This would be his first time tampering with a manling’s memories, and his father had warned him that this process could be dangerous for the person whose memories were modified. This was mostly related to the Tenth Order spell Reforge Mind, since that one could change the entirety of a person’s memories and even their personality.

Because of this, Wolf was afraid to test out Alter Memory on a live subject, and this would be the first time he’s casting it ever since he’d forcefully learned it. Hopefully he’ll be able to remove Anna’s trauma without inflicting any.

While the two bums were talking, Anna was sitting with her back against the wall. She shook like a leaf, hugging her knees and staring blankly at the dirty wall two-odd meters in front of her.

She didn’t look like she was going anywhere, so Wolf decided to clean up the scene first. If Anna suffers another shock from seeing corpses he’d be back at square one, with no spell to fix the problem.

I need to prepare more than one Alter Memory from now on. Wolf thought as he directly stored the assassins’ bodies and pools of blood into his Ring of Holding.

I can throw out the bodies later, and use their equipment as donations for people of Oakwood Freeland. Wolf thought as he moved next to the bodies of Anna’s guards.

He collected the pools of blood, but left the bodies there after covering their heads and upper torsos with rags.

The scene was cleaned in less than two minutes, or at least the obvious gore was gone. There was no cleaning South’s alley.

Wolf gave the alley one final look-over to make sure there wasn’t anything that could trigger the deleted memories, then nodded. There was no disturbing content, just trash and South, who’d gone back to drinking from his wineskin.

After taking a couple of deep breaths to calm down and focus, Wolf turned to face his friend. He walked over to her in a nonthreatening fashion, but he didn’t have to try to be so careful, Anna didn’t notice anything happening around her.

Wolf slowly chanted the mantra for Alter Memory and then began speaking in a gentle voice. He told Anna to forget the scene that had happened today and then narrated a fabricated one.

“...and, just as you were about to faint, you saw a shadow of a mysterious man flash before you. Now, you’re exhausted. You should sleep until you feel well rested,” with those words Wolf finished the hypnosis.

This method of fabricating memories really is subpar. The process takes too long, and the memories will end up blurry, since there’s no way to add enough details in such a small time frame. Wolf thought with a sigh. The method was great for erasing memories, but crap for adding new ones.

Once he was done with Anna, Wolf eyed South. “I have a question I wish to ask before Anna wakes up... That’s not quite right. I have several questions for you. Mind if I ask them, Big brother?”

South smiled slyly, and took a big swing from his flask. “Ahhh. Ask away little brother. You’ve already paid for all the answers I’m going to give, so there’s no need to be so hesitant about things.”

“Thanks,” Wolf said, then hesitated.

He wanted to ask South for some of his wine, but decided that the thing is probably too vile. A bottle of good cooking wine appeared in Wolf’s hand and he also took several big gulps to calm down.

He really thought Anna could die today. From now on he should prepare a couple of Subtle Finger of Death spells. But where was he going to find all the tapestries he needed to prepare them?!

“Hey! I thought you were a growing boy. Are you sure you should be drinking something like that?” South almost sounded like he was preaching and Wolf didn’t appreciate the tone.

“What’s wrong?” Wolf asked. “You tried to get me drunk on so many occasions and now you’re acting all shocked because I’m drinking this? You have an unlimited amount of wine in that flask of yours, why do you want to take mine?”

Wolf decided he didn’t like wine. It was too strong. Kind of bittersweet, with a strange aftertaste.

“Who wants your wine!” South muttered, acting offended.

“Smartass,” the drunkard added quietly. “Were those the questions you wanted to ask me, Little brother?”

“No,” Wolf began, wondering in the back of his head why people enjoyed wine so much. “I wanted to ask whether you were a high grade Body Refiner?”

“So what if I am? By the way, that question was hardly worth a lunch,” South said slyly before taking another long swing out of his wineskin.

“Have you ever heard about the Star Body Body Refining art?” Wolf asked, ignoring the jibe.

“Naturally,” South replied after pouring an ungodly amount of wine down his throat. “Sorry, I needed that. They nicked me a bit just now.”

Wolf was confused, then examined South. His clothing were in one piece, and there was no blood. Maybe one of those assassins kicked him before they died?

Wolf ignored the comment, and continued with the more important matter at hand. “Do you by any chance have the manuals for the Star Body Body Refining art?”

“I used to have the manuals for the first six stages. But now I’m only left with the first three volumes, as well as the fifth one. I have to warn you that reaching the second and third stages is very painful and for masochists only, each more painful than the last. Also, the concoction for each stage requires materials that are progressively more difficult to acquire.

“I guess the whole thing’s just meant to be a test of drive and character.” South looked at the skies above as he spoke in a manner of a sage that had seen everything under the blue sky. “I guess your fate is to suffer, if that is your choice.

“The art itself is crap,” the vulgar words drowned the sage before Wolf even got the chance to appreciate his wisdom. “You need to practice it at least to the third stage, just to have a visible advantage over a complete, easier to practice Body Refining art. The first and second stages are quite inferior to other arts.

“The upside is in the later stages. If you practice it above the sixth stage, your physical body would enter the realm where it will be comparable to actual stars and not the flabby thing you have now.” South took another swing of wine, while Wolf’s mind raced.

Those words meant that compared to South’s body Wolf’s was now soft and weak. He wondered how strong his big brother was.

“Ahhh. If you want to learn, I can lend you the volumes,” South said generously with an ugly expression. “I can even tell you where you can find the manuals for the fourth and sixth stages. But, I have no idea how to estimate the value of these books.”

“You mean they are priceless?” Wolf asked, already knowing that these arts were a real treasure, but he couldn’t allow himself to give up.

“What can I do for you to get those books?” Wolf continued with a hint of desperation. “I can just borrow the ones you have, and I promise to return them! I’ll even read them here. It’s not a problem. And, what can I do to get the two books you’re missing?”

“You can’t do a thing. You’re too weak now,” South said sadly, while shaking his head. “The items you have aren’t worth anything either, so I really don't know what to say. On the other hand, those manuals are full of shit, so it’s not like they are worth much either.”

Huh? For the second time today, South’s words left Wolf blinking stupidly with a blank expression on his face. Those two books held priceless information that could help Wolf restore his body to normal! Not just that, following them would allow him to make it stronger while he was at it.

Seeing that his little brother was at a loss for words, the big brother continued talking. “Look, in my eyes all those books are nothing more than decent toilet paper. Otherwise, I’d still have those two volumes. Are you following what I’m saying Little brother?”

Wolf wasn’t. He really wasn’t. He could understand what each of South’s words meant individually, but once they were cobbled up into a sentence they made no sense whatsoever. Wasn’t there a nicer way to say a book was useless? Calling them expensive toilet paper was really… way too metaphorical for Big brother to say… ‘Otherwise I would still have those two volumes…’ No... No, no, no, no, he wouldn’t? Would he? I’m drunk, that’s got to be it.

South could see that realization was dawning on Wolf, but his common sense was fiercely fighting against it.

“Little brother, these books really are nothing more than fine toilet paper for me. Don’t you wonder why I have tomes one through six without four and six?” South paused, waiting for his words to sink in.

When he saw that Wolf wanted to cry and scream, South knew his little brother had understood his words. “The pages of the fourth tome were made from such soft leather that… well, you get the picture. The sixth was even better... So, to me, the meals you prepare for us, and the way you feel are a much greater treasure than these books…”

And Wolf finally exploded. “Of course they are more important!”

Maybe it was the wine, maybe it was the desecration of books, but the end result was a boy fuming with rage! South had used such invaluable tomes to wipe his ass!?

“Food is more important than what you use to wipe your ass with!” Wolf continued shouting. “You lunatic! Damn it! What else have you used to wipe your ass?!”

South seemed completely unfazed, and maybe even a bit proud at being called insane. He answered calmly, “Well, other books with softer pages of course. If you take the time to prepare them before you use them, one page can be used three times. You just have to cut them up into three strips of equal width. I came up with the idea after using up the softest book one page at a time. Oh, how I miss the softness of those pages…”

“You!” Wolf was still furious, but tried to restrain himself. “What were the titles of those books?”

“Well, the one that offered the most satisfying feeling was–” South started to answer, but Wolf stopped him.

“No! Stop! I don’t want to know! I think that the whole academic society would have a collective stroke if you were to say their names aloud... Do you have some other books? With pages!” Wolf was torn between wanting to know and not wanting to be angered to death.

South nodded with a perfectly cool expression. “I do, but I plan ahead so I have a general idea on how soft the pages of each of them are. I even graded them–”

“What if I found you something softer to use as toilet paper? Would you give me those books, if I can trade you with something you like better?” Wolf had an urge to save those poor books.

South gave it some thought before shaking his head. “I’ll let you read whatever you think you need. You don’t have to pay me anything. As for giving them to you permanently, I’ll only give you the ones that are not softer than whatever you bring over to me. That should be fair, right?”

Wolf slapped his forehead so hard that he’d actually left a red palm shaped mark. “Big brother, I’m really not sure whether you’re a genius or a madman…”

“I am beyond comprehension,” South smiled proudly.

After pausing for a couple of moments Wolf sighed and shook his head helplessly. “Do you have any idea where I could find something you could use to wipe your ass, other than priceless books? The softer the material the better...” Wolf mumbled the end of the sentence in defeat.

He couldn’t believe what was happening to him. Never in his life had he expected that he would ask such a question. To be honest, very few people of any sorts would ever expect that they will ask such a question. Doubly so since Wolf seriously and sincerely wanted to hear the answer.

“Well I know several places trading exotic fabrics, but you know it’s not just the softness. For instance I have one book with extremely soft pages. It used to be number three in my collection. However, its pages are too slick. Nothing sticks to them. I learned that the hard way when I used the first page of the preface–” South started sharing his experience, but Wolf really had no desire to hear about it.

“Please spare me the details. Your words cause damage on so many different levels.” Wolf wanted to plug his ears with his fingers, but managed to resist the temptation.

“All right. I’ll tell you the locations of those stores, but remember that it’s not all about how soft it is. The material has to have some traction as well…” South started giving detailed explanations on his requirements and locations of potential stores to visit.

The store details were surprisingly extensive. The descriptions of desired material properties even more so. Wolf was grossed out to the point of mental breakdown, but finally got the locations of all candidate stores. He was under the impression that his big brother was conning him. Much to Wolf’s dismay, even as he left South’s alley, the drunkard never said the words Wolf hoped to hear. ”Just messing with you” never happened.

Wolf princess carried Anna to his lair, then he started reading the Star Body Body Refining art’s manuals, and considering things stated within.

In the dead of night, Anna woke up in his fancy armchair, feeling completely refreshed. Wolf fed her a nonsense story about a caped stranger wearing blue and red coming over to save them.

The stranger scared the bad guys and drove them away. Wolf said that nonsense, because he was afraid of how Anna would take the news of people dying. In fact he could’ve told her whatever he wanted. There was no way Anna would believe the actual truth as long as she wasn’t there to personally witness it.

The next day Wolf escorted Anna to the city guards, then headed to South’s place. While walking he replayed yesterday's events, and shook his head when he recalled how South pretended to take out those large books from his coat’s inner pocket. That was probably the most insane way you could pretend you don’t have a Ring of Holding. Most children over five years old wouldn’t be fooled by it, and yet there South was, right in his element.