The next few days were spent training and working when necessary. It seemed my crying had been enough to get Nash to trust me more, and I decided that I would be willing to be a little more transparent with how I felt about certain things. This change in his demeanor wasn't unnoticed, even Lissana seemed to be a little more open toward me regarding my stay here. She was still working on a way to remove the curse on me, after all, but considering Cier was no longer required to accompany me, it seemed she deemed I wasn't going to wander around and get into trouble.

Draxkatar seemed to be pleased to have someone to chat with, though sparingly, and enjoyed hearing about my world, and Beatrice was fascinated by some of the schematics I had on my phone and found the periodic table of elements to be the most fascinating and useful of it all.

"Please hold still." Cier said as he carefully took notes. "I need to observe fully how the cursed items interact with you." Cier had asked me to assist in seeing how the various cursed items in storage may have changed since they were last examined.

According to him, a cursed item was usually the result of the creation of a useful enchantment somehow failing, or otherwise changing over the years. "You're not the one wearing an extremely itchy shirt." I snapped. Studying them on a living person was considered a punishment meant for criminals, but my resistance meant a low risk, high reward opportunity. When a curse was fully understood, techniques could be developed to both remove them and prevent accidental ones from being created.

"Alright, now let's try this..." He touched the shirt and spoke an incantation, and the itchiness went away, instead being replaced by a feeling of silk.

"Oh, that's a lot better." I said.

"Good." He said. "The College of Arias will be appreciative."

If a minor curse could be removed or changed, I was allowed to keep the items if I wanted, and well, the shirt was comfy, so I decided to keep it.

Some items had been designed with a curse in mind, like the mask, these were kept aside because they were typically difficult to destroy. A mask that's hard to take off ironically makes excellent face armor, which Cier hesitantly agreed to let me have. The softness of the inside of the mask did cushion some of a blow, which was good.

We'd gone through a handful of items, such as a tiara that was meant to make one smarter, but instead made one dumber, the hand mirror that caused one to become enamored with their reflection, a choker that literally choked the wearer, a gold ring that liked to turn the wearer into gold, and a knife that could only ever cut the wielder.

The next item on the list was a pair of gloves that were meant to turn into a set of noble clothes that instead became a form-fitting suit of white cloth.

"Alright." I said as the cloth grew past my shoulders and around my neck. "We've reached the point of no return."

"I am aware." He said. It covered my face, before it covered my lower body.

"Ah, that's the problem." He said before blasting me with fire. The fire burned away the parts that had grown over my body and the gloves became inert. "Next."

"How many more of these do we have to process?" I asked.

"Enough to meet our yearly quota." He replied. "Which is twelve." He glanced at me. "You taking the mask is considered a success, as the allocation of a cursed item to an individual who can nullify the curse by their nature is considered adequately dealing with it."

"Good to know." I replied.

"A ring that confers the strength of a bull, worded literally." He said as I put it on. "I see transformation spells are slowed for you, this makes for excellent observation."

"It's itchy." I said as the hair on my arms slowly began to thicken. I felt a dull ache on my head and felt it. A pair of horns had started to grow. "It's mildly painful." I remarked. "Will it literally turn me into a bull, or something akin to a bull beastman?"

"The latter." He said. "I believe the root of the problem lies in the wording of the enchantment... Ah, it seems they cut corners and instead of saying, 'become strong like a bull', they said, 'become a strong bull'.

"Please hurry, I can feel my brain growing dumb." I said.

He spoke some funny words and the transformation began to revert. "Cool, I look physically stronger." I remarked.

"Yes, but there is still a minor drawback in terms of intelligence." Cier said. "It will still be classified as cursed, but will be considered a success."

I gave him the ring and he set it aside. We continued working for a bit before he said, "You seem happy."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Exactly what I mean." He replied. "I've seen you smile multiple times, and that smile you just gave, I believe it's the first genuine smile I've seen." He looked at me. "Then again, I could be mistaken."

"I was thinking about how even if this is boring to me, even a little, that I'm expediting a strenuous process that will help a lot of people." I said. "Doing good feels good."

"Doing good feels good." He echoed. "I suppose that's as good a reason as any."

I laughed. "But it does also feel nice to be appreciated for your work, even if in the grand scheme of things you're not really putting much effort into it."

"What is effort but an arbitrary ideal you compare your virtues to?" He asked. "Hard work hardly works, and if you're working hard to achieve something, then you are either learning incorrectly, or you are following the wrong path." Cier held out a fountain pen. "Meant to create unlimited ink, it draws directly from the user's blood."

"Okay, if that's the case, then what about the expectations of your parents?" I asked. "What if they wanted you to become a famous healer or something?"

Cier laughed as I tried the pen out. I sucked my teeth as I felt a sharp pain in my wrist. "There is no such thing as a famous healer." He said. "Only one who is widely sought after. A healer's job is thankless, they are expected to do their job, why thank them for it?"

"Because they must have wanted to do it."

"In this world, such lofty ideals are irrelevant. If you can perform a task and perform it well, then you have all you need to live."

I took a sip of a healing potion, I felt a little better. "And what if you're expected to learn so much that you could do anything?" I asked. "What if your ability to have a stable job was reliant on what was expected of you?"

"Then your world is foolish, holding many to the same standard of competence means those with talent are ignored." He wrote something down. "You handle that pen well, have your writing lessons progressed?"

"Yeah." I said. "Your writing system is similar enough to Japanese that I can conceptually understand how it works, but it's almost simpler while still carrying the same level of complexity."

"Are you a linguist?" He asked.

"Not really." I replied. "I struggle with learning how to speak a language. Which makes whatever's translating for me convenient."

"You write stories, yes?" I nodded. "Then why learn something you may never need?"

"So my stories feel like they could happen." I replied. "Will I really need to know every city in a given state? Not really, but being able to describe them accurately in any work of fiction that I feature them in makes it more believable."

"Hm, this pen is vexing." He remarked.

"It's because you can't create something from nothing." I replied, setting the pen down. "To compensate, the magic is taking something, blood in this case, and turning it into ink. A form of equivalent exchange. Arguably, the pen is functioning perfectly, it's just the cost is dangerous."

"Hm..." He sounded. "Then perhaps if it took something else?"

"It's probably best to either destroy it or keep it locked away." I replied. "The body is a surprisingly delicate machine, take too much of something out of it, and it starts to fail."

"Then I will label this item as unresolved, but posit the use of healing items as a means to offset the negative effects. We will test this at a later date." He wrote a few more things down before setting his quill down. He looked me in the eyes and said, "Your worth is not measured in how much you know, but how you are able to use it. All I know is cleaning, cooking, doing laundry, managing an estate's worth of servants, and I know how to defend myself with only my bare hands. I was trained for this job, and I dare say I do it well enough to be worth the reputation of my family. I also wanted to be an Adventurer, but that was when I was younger and thus more prone to small desires."

"Did you go on an adventure?" I asked.

"I did. I went into a cave with a group of likewise adventurous youths to cull a den of goblins. They are considered easy fodder for those new to adventuring, but they are vicious, disease-ridden beasts that reek and will take advantage of any weakness they can find. My fellows only survived because I recognized this and fought dirty. The boy with the sword, who spoke of chivalry, almost chopped his own head off. The young priestess nearly found herself violated by an absolute swarm of them, the wizard, in fear, misspoke his spells and only made it out alive because I was that effective at fighting with just my hands."

"Do you know if they still adventure?" I asked.

"I do, and they do not." He replied. "The boy joined the town guard, it was safer that way. The priestess stayed with the temple and to this day serves as a healer almost exclusively to women who have been beaten and violated by man and monster. The wizard went to study the laws of magic to better teach how to cast magic in stressful situations. They are not Adventurers, but they found where they can use their skills to better effect."

"I see." I said. "So, are goblins seen as a non-threat?" I asked.

"Absolutely not." He said. "The Guild makes certain that a quota is maintained. Even high Rank Adventurers must muck about with the low-paying, yet high risk jobs before they can take on more low risk, yet high-paying jobs." He sighed. "There was a time when they were considered to be enough of a non-threat that nobody but the lowest Rank Adventurer took the jobs. Well, it took a massive horde wiping out the Capital City of Inis Tirath for the Guild to realize it had failed to do the one thing it is supposed to do."

"They had one job." I remarked grimly.

He nodded. "They had one job. Certainly, you can find fame and fortune as an Adventurer, and it is often a means to achieve noble status, but the risks are great, and that reward so far away that many die trying to achieve it."

I understood. It wasn't a matter of him telling me to only do what I was good at because it was my passion or because I was good at it, he was telling me more for the sake of doing it for my own safety and security.

"And learning to fight?" I asked.

"Learning to defend yourself." He corrected, though the expression he gave me told me he knew I already understood the distinction.

"It's funny." I said. "On my world, we have entire games centered around the premise of being an Adventurer, and yet, very few actually explore what that kind of reality would be like."

"That is nothing new here." He replied.

"Well, on a world where there are no monsters and Fiends, I suppose it's a way to escape from a cruel reality." I said.

He grunted in response before moving on to the next item. "A cape designed to unlatch itself and hang itself instead likes to sew itself into whatever garment the wearer is wearing. Or, if none is worn, their very skin."

"That might have paired nicely with the gloves." I remarked as I put the purple cape on. True to form, it became attached to my shirt. "How is it the cloth created by the gloves was burned off when my clothes remained untouched when you burned it?" I asked.

"It was a fire meant specifically to destroy magical constructs." He replied as he took notes. "I see how the curse works, it's simply the work of an inexperienced enchanter. In this instance, since it fulfills a specific function that can be easily anticipated, it could conceivably be considered a safe curse. Such as stating it's meant to be a permanent fixture to clothing." He removed it from my shirt without any damage to either and started to fold it up.

"You could add it to the Dark Knight armor." I said. "Since it's never meant to be worn, it could add some decoration to it."

He chuckled. "Very well. Go ahead and do it."

I took the cape and brought it over to the armor. I held it against the back of it, and it magically adjusted to attach to the underside of the pauldrons.

"There." I said. "Now the next person who finds themselves wearing it will at least have a little flair."

"Yes." Cier said. "Now they'll only look a little less ridiculous." The lunch bell rang and we gathered up what we needed and left for lunch...