Chapter Forty Six: Hidden Powers

The woman who is only covered in a bath towel quickly turned around to face them.
“That’s what I want to know!! why is it that a hole suddenly appeared in my house!!??” she yelled at them as though it was their fault.
….……………!!?? what is going on here? What is she doing? Is she trying to help us?
She stood her ground and played the innocent role while pushing the blame towards an ‘unknown existence’ as she called it.
The story she told them goes like this “A boy brought an injured girl into her house and seconds later, the ground started shaking fiercely. Before she knew it, the floor had collapsed and a deep hole was in the ground.”
Their were over five men and women from different races who came to question her. They all looked hesitant but casually changed the subject.
“You…….. who are you?” their attention turned to me as they all walked closer.
“I……. I…………” I turned my voice into that of a person who was frightened and spoke to them.
“We came from the capital. We planned on visiting this town directly but my friend wandered off on her own. When I found her, she was laying on the ground close to the barrier.”
“Close to the barrier!?” they shockingly commented.
“This is bad. What if a high level demon has entered?” “We should sound the alarm quickly!!”
Within seconds, they all turned around and left.
It seems I have made a really huge lie in order to cover up our asses.
The woman stood speechless looking at me then to Meila. 
She finally sat down on the floor when she realized she was still just covered with a bath towel and that people could see inside from the hole that I made when I was hit by Meila.
She stood up and rushed upstairs. Her little brother was already upstairs hiding even before those guys arrived.
Some minutes later, she came down to the first floor fully clothed with a long skirt and a shirt. On the first floor, she moved a locker that was next to the hole on the wall and blocked it. That way no one will be able to see inside.
“I covered for you guys, so at least tell me the truth…………. who are you guys, and I mean you especially.”
Figures she’d ask that again. After all, I healed Meila and at the same time caused her to go on a rampage.
The idea of healing her came to me when the woman mentioned how strong healers are able to heal people using their bloods.
I might not be a strong healer in a sense, but I’m able to heal myself a lot more than any healer can. That was the first lead I had.
The second was the incident with Etis, she became really strong then passed out after our lips touched for just a split second.
If a healer is able to heal just by using their blood and I’m somewhat able to cause that change in Etis just form kissing her, I thought that at the very least, some change will happen to Meila if I kissed her when I did.
But I cant say all that to this woman who saved our butt.
At the same time, I cant just lie to her by telling her that I’m a healer when I came in desperate need for a healer.
What do I do? This is a lot harder than it looks. I don’t want to lie to her.
“I……….. I gave her some of my strength. To tell the truth, I didn’t think it would work.”
That answer I gave her brought up a lot of questions. She looked really surprised when she asked “Then…. just how strong are you for her to become that strong?”
I tried answering some of the questions I could answer. The truth is that even I don’t know anything about my abilities. I had nothing to tell her in that regard.
I managed to convince her that I trained really hard to become strong and we left it at that. Even though her house was in shambles, she didn’t say a word about the repair cost or how I should pay for it.
“You can stay until she wakes up.” was what she said when she went back to the second floor to see her brother.
“Phew!” that was close.
It seems the whole town is in panic. Those people who left have sounded an alarm for a demon in town and everyone is frightened to death. 
That serves those bastards right. To think no one wanted to lend us a hand when we arrived. If it wasn’t for this woman and her brother, I would have wished for a real demon to appear.
Some minutes later, the woman came down “Sorry I took so long. I wanted to calm my brother down a bit.”
She then walked to the seat where Meila was resting and sat on the floor just like how I was. She faced me and smiled.
“I didn’t tell you my name right? I’m Taht and my brother’s name is Burte.” she introduced herself and told me a little about herself.
It seems this house belongs to her now. She is in her early twenties and is practicing to become a healer.
All that was told to me so that she can ask for a favor.
“Will you mind sharing some of your strength with me as well? As someone who wants to become a powerful healer, I cannot overlook how perfectly healed your friend became after you healed her. Please show me how you do it.”
Normally I would want to repay her kindness by teaching her anything she wants as long as I can do it. But in this case, isn’t the only way to teach her by kissing her just like I did to Meila? Does she realize what she is saying?
When I pointed that out to her, she said in full determination “I don’t care about that as long as I can understand the secret behind your powers.”
Her eyes spoke for her. Her determination was clear to me and I couldn’t afford to let her down.
“Okay, I’ll do it.” 
The moment I agreed to do it, my barrier glowed a faint dark color. I should have stopped when that happened but Taht already had her eyes closed with her lips pushed out.
“I’ll only place my lips on her’s without having our fluids meet.” was what I thought when I moved my head closer to hers.
The barrier became dark all of a sudden. Not as dark as it was before, the outside could be seen though not as clearly.
Here goes nothing.
“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”  
My eardrums almost burst because of how loud she screamed. She screamed for about 14 seconds straight before passing out.
The damage this time around was prevented by my barrier. After she passed out, the barrier disappeared. I noticed that the house didn’t change in the slightest after that. It seems even her screams didn’t escape the barrier. The glasses would have shattered if that had been the case.
“What have I done?” 
Taht passed out and seconds later; a huge amount of liquid flowed out of her skirt. That’s the same thing that happened to Etis.
Two girls were now unconscious because of me.
Meila laid on the cushion and Taht laid on the floor away from the hole. A little while later, her little brother came down to the first floor and froze over his sisters body.
His eyes turned pale and was about to scream when I hurriedly explained what happened to him. I promised him that his sister is going to wake up before he finally agreed to not scream.
Looking at him now, he’s just around 9 or 10 years old. He is the only person that came to my aid in this town.
I bowed deeply and thanked him for his kindness. It wouldn’t have ended this way if it weren’t for him.
The two of us stayed on the first floor close to the resting ladies for several hours. Taht gained her consciousness after about five hours but Meila was still out.
“It felt incredibly good………. I mean strong. I felt so strong it was almost impossible.” was her comment.
Her brother moved close to her with a glass of water in his hands. Taht continued lying on the floor as if she doesn’t want to get up. 
She stayed like that with dreamy eyes for an hour longer before she sat up.
“Your friend…….. what happened to her hair?” 
Her question surprised me. I turned around on the cushion and glanced at Meila’s hair. It was the normal brown color.
“What happened to her hair?” I asked curiously.
“Well…… I thought she had silver hair. Now it’s brown. Did your magic do that as well?”
Brown hair? How is that possible? Other than me, everyone should see her with silver hair. What happened to change that? Is it possible that her deception magic is not working because she’s unconscious.
I had to play it off to see if she was able to see her brown hair “What do you mean? Her hair is silver colored right?”
She took a long look at Meila’s hair before finally agreeing “You are right, it is silver. What has gotten into me? Maybe I am the one affected by your magic. Hehe~” she also laughed it of bashfully.
While we talked, Burte left the house and returned seconds later “Your dragon…… it’s waiting for you.” he said looking at me.“Oh right. I almost forgot about him.”
While I stood up to check on Duddul, I heard the boy saying to his sister “He has a red dragon!”
And she also followed me to see him.
“Wow…….. it’s really red!” she looked a little too excited for someone her age just because of a dragon.
The first thing that caught my attention after setting foot outside the house was the quaked ground. It was surprisingly quaked about 40cm wide. The quake started from the area surrounding Taht’s house and spread over like roots on the ground.
I cant believe Meila caused this much damage just by making contact with my saliva. It was a good thing I didn’t allow my saliva to meet with Taht’s. what would have happened if they had met?
I turned my eyes away from the destruction and focused on Duddul I didn’t feel guilty in the slightest. If anything, I wish it was more than that. The people in this world can all die for all I care. 
No. I shouldn’t say that. There are still good people like Etis, Taht and Wrok. I shouldn’t curse them just because of their treatment towards me. I should look at things from their point of view as well. Maybe there is some kind of force preventing me from getting along with them.
“It’s a red dragon!!” 
By the time I finished scanning the town, a lot of children had gathered next to Burte. They were all admiring the dragon
“You must be someone important having a red dragon like this one.” Taht commented with a smile on her face.
“Not really…… besides, this dragon is green.” I felt a little embarrassed and joked about his color.
But my joke wasn’t taken as I had thought it would. It became no short of reality to them. 
“Green…………” Taht stared at Duddul blankly.
“Of course. He is green.” she muttered.
And slowly, all the kids dispersed saying “He’s just a green dragon after all.”
….…………..!! I was shocked to death seeing their changed reactions. I couldn’t understand a single thing that was going on anymore.
Did I just make them believe that Duddul is green when he is in fact red? How can they see him as green just because I said so?
But that wasn’t the only thing that felt strange. Taht believed me when I said that Meila’s hair was silver despite her claiming it had turned brown. 
My mind calculated all the instances that happened since my kiss with Meila.If I’m able to deceive people like this then what am I? Meila?
It doesn’t make sense that I have deception abilities.
I asked Taht for a bucket of water which I gave to Duddul before keeping him in the shade and going back inside the house to check on Meila.
I wanted to try a few things when I told Taht that the floor doesn’t have a hole in it. She believed me and continued walking around the house as if there was really no hole. For some reason, whenever she was about to fall into the hole, something stopped her and she moved away from it.
Is this how deception magic works? But I cant use magic.
Everything felt strange to me.
I hoped that Meila would wake up so that I can understand a bit of what was going on. 
But she didn’t wake up until two hours after that. The first thing she did was scream before opening her eyes “Don’t kill me!!”
We all surrounded her instinctively and watched as she sat up in a single movement.
“Sis, why isn’t she wearing……….” “Shh!” the sister stopped Burte from saying what he saw.
He was able to tell that Meila was only wearing a long shirt that wasn’t even properly covering her upper thighs.
“She is fully clothed right?” I said looking at the boy. he glanced back at Meila and nodded back at me.
Deception……….. is this how it is?
After sitting up, Meila scanned through the house and the new faces when she asked “Where am I?” staring directly at me. I was the only person she knew.
“That’s a long story. More importantly, are you alright? What happened back there?”
“Back there………..” her head moved around as if drunk when she looked at her body and legs.
“KYAAA!!??” her scream was that of surprise.
“What happened to my body? Why is my magic not working!?” she frantically yelled.
So it’s really not working? Then how come I’m the one using it?
It became noisy all of a sudden after she woke up.
When she mentioned her magic not working and her hair turning brown, Taht asked me what she was talking about since the hair on Meila’s head that she could see was now silver.
It took a lot of lies before I finally made everyone quiet down. I lied in Meila’s favor to make them perceive her the way she wants. But Meila knew that everything wasn’t alright.
Her pride and joy had been taken away from her. Her deception magic that is.
Taht borrowed her some of her clothes to cover herself for the time being. It was a milk colored dress that properly covered Meila’s knees.
After everything was now in order, it was time to repair the house. I took out the Dauka that I always carry with me and asked Meila to remove 10 gold coins from it. I gave the money to Taht and asked her to repair the house.
Even though the floor looked normal to her, the rest of the house was in shambles. 
Taht didn’t want to take our money but she had no choice since she couldn’t afford to pay for the repair. And together, after she took the money, we went into the town to get the repair materials needed.
Normally, a really skilled magician will take care of all this repair before anyone else notices. Someone like Leila will take care of this in just a few minutes but that’s not allowed. Apparently, people have to pay for things even if they can get them easily by using their magic. That’s one of the laws of this country.
The town was still in uproar when we passed through the buildings. Because of the alarm that was sounded; almost everyone had gone back home and locked themselves in. Fools, what good will it do when a demon that’s able to destroy everything shows up? They might as well be on the streets all the same.
The layout of this town is the same as the first one I was in. All the races have their own territories even though everyone is free to live anywhere they please.
The carpenter shop we are going to is in the elven territory. That makes sense since they practically live in trees.
Before getting there, we met with the guards of this town. “Hey you! Hurry up and take shelter, cant you hear the alarm sound!?”
Oh yeah. A sound was ringing throughout the town. This time around, the sound was not coming from the huge bell on top of the guild. It was from something else. Something like magic-made sound. 
It seems that the bells are connected to the barriers. When a powerful demon passes through the barrier; the bells sound to make an alarm.
In this case, it’s just a fault report going around town and there is really no demon here.
I know it isn’t my place to tell the guards something like this, but I just couldn’t help getting cocky since I can deceive people now “You think a demon would take so long to attack? I’m very sure he is far gone by now.”
There were three guards in total. All of them are males and they all have thick bears like some kind of vikings.
They pondered on what I said for a few seconds when they realized I was telling the truth.“You are right. Why didn’t I think about it like that?” “Let’s go stop the alarm.”
With that, they all moved together straight ahead towards the guild.
Our direction isn’t on the same side so we took a left turn on the street and aimed for the elven area that is behind the guild to the left.
Just like the previous town, the demi-human area and the elven area are adjacent to each other on the right and left respectively. Taht’s house is in the far right of town.
A minute or two after the guards ran towards the guild, the sound echoing through the town died down. The people didn’t come out right away, but that is enough to tell them that the threat is over.
The elven town was green everywhere. As if we had left the country all together; the surroundings completely changed from what they were seconds ago.
Thick giant trees stood out in rows several meters from one another. Aside from the giant trees, there are also a few buildings for other races. They are the normal types made with either wood or blocks. 
It seems the carpenter we are meeting has a shop in one of those normal buildings. We went straight for a single floor building that is between trees.
The building looked kinda rundown for a carpenter shop. Shouldn’t they repair their own shop first?
“Like hell I’m gonna repair your house when the alarm just went off. You want me to lose my life because of your damn house!?”
The owner who is an elderly elf furiously lashed at us then shut his door when Taht asked for his help.
I wonder how the people in this world live their lives if they cant help one another.
“Don’t mind him. We’ll find another one.” Taht positively declared after he refused us.
“Hmm……… I don’t mind fixing your house, but you’d have to wait until tomorrow or the next. I don’t feel like going out right now because of that alarm.”
This time around, the carpenter elf we asked gave us an honest answer.
Taht looked slumped because no one was willing to help repair her house “Who can blame them? I mean it’s kinda dangerous to think that a demon has attacked right?” trying to force a smile on her face, she commented.
It’s all my fault that this is happening. If only………………….
Hmm…..?
With Meila in front of me, I realized something odd. Her tail was standing up straight for some reason and she’s been awfully quiet for her usual self.
Every few seconds, her tail stands up straight then returns to its normal state. Her face is red and she looks hot even though the heat isn’t strong.
What’s wrong with her? Is she still not fully recovered?
But putting that aside “We cant leave the house like that for a whole day. Cant we repair it by ourselves?” I made a suggestion to Taht who was feeling down.
Her face lit up when I said that and she replied energetically “Yes…….! since we have the money, we can buy the equipment and everything!”
And so it was decided that we’d do the repairing ourselves. Taht knocked on the door of the second carpenter who asked us to wait till tomorrow. We never left his shop so he came out rather quickly.
“It’s you guys again………..” he annoyingly looked at us.
Taht then asked him to sell us the equipment and materials needed. That way, he wont have to leave the shop since he is too scared.
“I guess I can do that………..” 
He opened his shop for us and asked us to come in. Getting inside, the smell of wood filled the shop. 
On the wall, planks and boards of wood were arranged orderly from big to small. Just like in my real world; the shop has everything from nails, hammers, seesaw and many more. Most of them are hanged on the wall.
We picked out the good looking hammer and a box of nails then bought some of the good quality planks. 
The hole on the wall was made when Meila knocked me out of the house. The size is that of my body without the legs. The big hole is the one on the floor. It is one and a half meter wide and 2 meters deep. We’ll need about 5 planks in order to cover it. 
“Now all that remains is the hole in the ground. How do we fill it up?” I asked Taht after we walked out of the shop.
“Don’t you worry. My magic is earth magic so I can cover it by myself. And besides, I feel really strong right now.” 
Earth magic huh? That’s nice. Kinda reminds of grandma. I hope they are doing fine. I’m sure they miss Duddul.
We bought 10 planks of wood all together. Of course they are heavy, but my abilities can be used like this. The only time I cant use them is when fighting the people. I piled them up in one place then lifted them on my shoulders. It almost feels like I’m not carrying anything.
Taht wanted to lend a hand but I told her to carry the other stuff instead. Burte carried the nails and hammer while Meila didn’t carry a thing. Her face was a lot redder now and she looked like she has a high fever.
“Meila, are you really okay? Tell me if there’s anything I can do.”
She understood what I said and nodded her head. Somehow, she didn’t want to talk.
“Let’s hurry up and go back home so that you can rest. You’ve been through a lot today.” Taht showed concern as well.The streets were empty just like before. Not a single person was outside except for the four of us who know the truth about the whole demon incident.
Taht, Burte and myself walked in the front with the equipment in our hands while Meila walked slowly behind us with a meter or two between us.
“Hurry up or we’ll leave you behind……..” I tried teasing her to get some reaction out of her. The normal Meila will say something like “Hey! How can you leave me behind!?” but right now she’s not her usual self.
She showed little or no reaction to what I said and continued to walk slowly with her eyes on the ground.
Her tail stood straight after every few steps she took.
I couldn’t help but ask her directly about it “Your tail……. why is it standing up?”
“Don’t ask her that!?” Taht desperately tried to stop me from asking that question. She dropped the equipment in her hands and closed my mouth with her palms when I said that.
“HIIIK!?” Meila made a weird sound and stopped in her tracks.
“Don’t say that out loud. don’t you know she’s embarrassed?” Taht whispered to me.
“Embarrassed? What do you mean? Isn’t she sick?”
“No she’s not. Don’t you know what happens when……….”
She paused before saying the important part.
“When what?” I begged to know.
“Never mind……. Let’s hurry back home shall we?”
“O-Okay…….. but first, tell me something. You lent Meila your clothes, so why do they have a tale hole? You are a human aren’t you?”
Even though she might have realized to some extent that I was ignorant on somethings, Taht was surprised by that question.
“.……………………” she didn’t know how to reply when she explained in whispers.
“I cant believe you don’t know how the clothing systems works. The clothes are made with magic right? So it’s only natural that a hole would appear on them when someone wears them.”
“Huh? So you mean to say that the clothes open up the hole by themselves?”
“Yes. The wearer’s magic comes in contact with the clothes. That way, the clothes will know that a hole has to be made.”
“Oh………. no one ever told me anything about that. So why is her tail getting erect?”“Ah! About that……..”
No matter how hard I tried, Taht didn’t tell me what I needed to know. And when we turned around, Meila was no longer with us.
“She went ahead of us while you two were whispering.” Burte explained.
“I-Is that so? That’s good. We should also hurry back home.” she led the way and I followed alongside her.
We talked about somethings on our way back. Whenever I mentioned anything about Meila’s tale getting erect, she changed the subject. 
None of the residents were outside just like before. Some of them peeked at us from their homes as we passed by.
It was after we took the turn that leads to Taht’s house that we saw a lot of people. They were all dressed in their gears and equipped with weapons. What’s worse is that; they were all standing in front of Taht’s house.
Directly in front of us was Meila standing still. She was also shocked to see that many people there.
We moved in closer to her and stood looking at the crowd.
“What going on here