{Maria}

"So..." Rin began to say, "what's going to happen to me?"

As the three of them walked away from the ruin, Maria quickly rattled off some of the side effects that Rin could expect to see in the coming days. Like any good adventurer, she had these, and the side effects of many other monster-related diseases, memorized.

"Well, firstly, if the disease is allowed to progress, which I don't intend to allow, it's going to be kind of hard to sleep tonight because your body will begin to undergo some changes immediately. Physically, you're going to get stronger, and more resilient, but the sun is going to make you feel itchy. Emotionally, your pride and your ego are going to receive some big boosts but you'll find that you'll lose your temper often, sometimes for no good reason."

Personally, Maria had seen this happen a few times. It wasn't uncommon for the adventurers around her to misstep from time to time, and against these sorts of monsters, one wrong move usually meant that if you did walk away from the fight, you'd do so with some lasting damage. She'd never fallen victim to vampirism herself, however, because most of the time any vampires she fought would die well before they were able to get close enough to infect her.

"Uh... But... Am I going to turn into a vampire?" Rin asked, sounding nervous.

"Probably not," Maria replied. "As long as we get you some help soon. It takes three days for vampirism to fully manifest and kill a human off, which is when you're then resurrected as a vampire. We can get you cured before then."

"What can we do about this?" Eve asked, flying ahead of Maria. Her face looked so full of worry that it was endearing.

"Don't worry," Maria smiled. "It's fairly simple. First, we need to get an assessment of the level of the curse that we're dealing with here. Not all curses are created equal, after all. Even though the vampire you both fought was a fallen one, if that creature was powerful before it turned undead, or if Rin herself holds a bit too much latent, untapped, power, then the curse makes itself a little harder to deal with. If it's low-level, then Harriton should be able to handle it. If not, however, then, well..."

"Yeah?"

"... If the curse ends up being high-level, then, Rin," she glanced over at the raven-haired adventurer, "I'm going to have to take you to Cradle."

Eve's eyes widened when she heard that. Rin didn't have much of a reaction at all. That was fairly surprising to Maria, considering how most foreigners often treated Cradle more like an abstract concept rather than a place. It was almost mythical in the way people who had never been there viewed it. Rin, however, appeared to be a little too distraught at this infection she was facing to really care about the novelty of visiting the Ancient City.

[I should try to ease these worries,] Maria thought. [If they truly did beat the vampire, then they did quite well for themselves. This is more so an inconvenience than anything else.]

"Rin," Maria said, walking over to the girl and placing a hand on her shoulder as they reached the road to Libera. "You're going to be fine."

At that, her student nodded.

"I-I know," Rin replied, though she quickly took a shuddering breath after saying that. "I know. I just... This feels weird."

Maria raised a brow.

[I suppose a bit of irritation is to be expected. I wouldn't know how strong it is, since I've never felt it. But, this feeling inside of her shouldn't be too strong. It'll pass.]

"Cradle..." Eve said dreamily, above them. Maria giggled and nodded.

"Indeed."

"Uh, can I come?" Eve asked.

"You don't have to," Maria said. "If you want to wait for us back at the Academy, that's okay."

"N-No, I mean, I want to go," Eve clarified. "I want to make sure she'll be alright."

"I'll be fine," Rin said, waving a hand dismissively. "Maria said so."

"She's right, Maria said so," Maria said with a smile. "But, if you want to accompany your friend, you can do that."

Relieved, Eve gave her a little smile as the trio continued down the road, passing by broken-down cars and strange road signs.

They arrived at Libera just a short while later. Once there, they made their way back to the Academy and paused for a moment outside.

"Harriton is probably with some of your classmates right now," Maria told Rin and Eve. "We'll have to wait for him to get back from their mission before we can ask him to inspect Rin."

"Oh, okay," Eve replied before flying close to her friend. In a much softer tone, she asked: "are you okay? Do you want any water or anything?"

"... Sure," Rin replied, swallowing. Her eyes didn't meet Eve's.

"Alright, come on, let's get you some," Eve said with a reassuring smile.

It warmed Maria's heart to see that.

[... If those two keep supporting each other into the future, then I have high hopes for their careers. They complement each other well.]

"I'll let you know when Harriton returns. I'll just wait out here until he comes back," Maria told the two of them.

"Thanks, teach'," Rin muttered. "Uh, sorry for letting this..." Maria cut her off before she could finish.

"What are you apologizing for?" She asked with a tilt of her head. "This sort of thing happens. It's part of the job. It's okay."

Rin took that information in silence for a moment before she finally nodded back at her.

"Okay, go get that water. I'll see you in a bit," she told them, and with that, the two of them went into the building.

As Maria was left alone, she leaned against a wall and began to wait, hoping that Harriton would arrive sooner rather than later. If it turned out that he was at the Academy, he'd likely walk out soon to get the next team out, so she was confident she'd end up seeing him either way.

While she stood there, though, a few memories began to roll into her mind's eye. Some of the missions she'd gone on early into her career where her partners had experienced similar things to that of Rin's current situation.

It had been a long time since those days, though. And Maria held enough power now to where she knew she wouldn't have to worry about that sort of thing anymore. And yet, just the thought of walking out into the world and fighting monsters again like she used to made chills go down her back.

[Eh, I'm a teacher now,] she thought, inhaling deeply. [This is my life now. Those days are over.]

---

{Rin}

As much as her teacher had told her that she was going to be fine, Rin couldn't help but wonder if what she was feeling was genuinely normal. For one, as Eve took her to the cafeteria so that they could get something to drink, along with maybe a snack or so, Rin felt like the fairy started to smell better and better by the second.

She found herself thinking about running her tongue over her neck and then letting her teeth graze her skin before-

"Okay!" Eve said as she received a bottle from the lunch lady. "Here you go!"

Rin blinked before muttering a quick "thanks" and taking the bottle from her. She lifted it to her lips, let the water slide down her throat, and sighed.

[Did that help? I don't even know. I mean, I still feel weird.]

In the cafeteria were a few other students. Sara was sitting next to Lisa, who looked like she was trying to make conversation with the brunette and struggling. Alea was with Seth, John was with Carla, and at the corner of the room, Elisa was sitting alone just a table or two away. It looked like she was deep in thought, as she wasn't even touching the food she'd gotten. She was just staring down at the plate with a frown on her face.

[... By the Divine, I want to fuck her so badly,] Rin found herself thinking all of a sudden. She caught herself, however, and tore her eyes away from the blonde's image.

"We did well, didn't we?" Eve asked her.

"Hm?"

"On the mission," Eve said with a smile that seemed as guilty as it was hopeful. "I-I mean, aside from the end, we held our own, right?"

"Uh, yeah," Rin replied, taking a sip out of the bottle she'd been handed. Her throat felt dry for some reason. "I'd say so."

"Yeah... You were really cool out there! I could see those lessons with Maria paying off," Eve let her know.

"Thanks."

Rin's heart warmed up a little when she heard that, though, at the same time, she wondered if she should be content with her performance.

[I definitely could have done better...]

"It was scary, though," Eve went on to say. "Seeing a vampire for the first time like that. It was a fallen vampire, the weakest kind, and it was still so strong."

Rin sank a little in her chair.

"... Makes me wonder what the average monster is really like," she stated. "You know, if you were to, like, take every monster and just sort of line them up against each other. Is the average monster that much stronger than a kobold?"

"Probably," Eve replied. Then, she smiled. "We still handled it, though."

Rin glanced at her shoulder for a second before she replied.

"Yeah, we did."

At that point, Maria walked into the cafeteria, with Harriton next to her.

"Ah, Rin," he called out from the door, "come over here."

Quickly, both Rin and Eve made their way to the two teachers. Of course, Harriton's eyes quickly fell on the bite mark Rin had.

"Damn," he said, narrowing his eyes at it. "Been a while since I've done this, but I can inspect you real quick. Let's head over to my office."

"Okay."

The two teachers, and the two rookies, left the cafeteria and went all the way down to the first floor, where Harriton's office was located. Here, they passed by a few older students, some of which looked at Rin's wound and smiled as though the situation she found herself in was either cute or nostalgic in some way.

As embarrassing as it was, it was also slightly relieving to see that her experience might have been a normal one.

"Right this way," Harriton said, opening the door to his office. "Alright, let's make this quick so Maria and I can get your remaining classmates out on their missions."

"What do I do?"

"Just stand still for a second," Harriton indicated before he then, casually, began to draw out a spellsign. It was so complicated that Rin didn't even try to keep up with his motions, but Eve appeared to be enjoying every second of it, watching on with a glint in her eye as she watched his hand weave the spell together.

Finally, when it was done, Rin's body was wrapped in a dark sapphire aura. Something that, if the sudden frowns on Harriton and Maria's faces were to go by, was unexpected.

"I... Rin?" Harriton said as his concern then turned to confusion. "Forgive me, but, you aren't a mage, right?"

"Right."

"Is anyone in your family a mage? Or, did anyone in your family do limit-breaking?"

The question surprised Rin, but she quickly came up with an answer.

"My dad probably did," Rin said. "Limit-breaking, I mean. He fought, so, I imagine he must have at some point."

"Hm. He must have been damn powerful, then," Harriton responded. "Well, either that or the vampire was fairly strong in its human life."

"Why?"

"Because that curse on you is fairly advanced," Harriton said with a sigh. He then turned to Maria and said, "I'm guessing you...."

"I did," she cut him off.

"Alright, well, yeah," Harriton said, putting his hands in his pockets as the sapphire glow faded away. "Somehow, someway, you ended up with a high-tier case of vampirism on you."

"... Can you do something about it?" Rin asked.

"Oh, hell no," Harriton replied. "This curse of yours is well out of my ability."

"Seriously?" Rin asked. For a couple of months now, Harriton had been the premier authority in magic to Rin. Hearing this coming from him was shocking.

"Yep," he said. "Unfortunately, although I would consider myself talented, I'm an adventurer. My field is combat. Of course, because diseases are always a possibility out there in the wild, I have a rudimentary knowledge of dealing with them, but nothing to the level of a mage doctor. And, well, that's precisely the type of person we're gonna need to get that vampirism out of you."

"A mage doctor?"

"Or, someone just as powerful."

"Where can we find one?"

"Like I told you, before, Rin," Maria replied and Rin turned toward her. "Unfortunately, we're going to have to head over to Cradle."