We Can Be Heroes ...?

2

Shion tried to sleep, but adventurers continued to arrive throughout the night and her father continued to say the exact same words to every single one of them. Every time he would ask for money, the tinkling sounds of coins would come, but her father never held any money. She tried to talk to him, but her Papa only spoke to the adventurers and, after yet another adventurer received her healing without a single coin passing between them and her father, Shion had had quite enough.

"No." She said to the tall, incredibly thin old man with mismatched armour and eyes that looked as though he were almost blind. "Give me the coins and I'll heal you, but I need to see the money."

"Bu' I'm suppose' to give 'im the money." The man didn't even look injured, standing there as though he were leaning against something that wasn't there. "Tha's 'ow it works."

"Give me the money, or you don't get healed." She planted her feet, hands on her hips, staring up at the man with every ounce of authority she could muster. "My Papa is ensorcelled. I need that money to find a powerful mage to fix him."

"Tha's not even a real word." He ran a hand through his long, straggly hair and shrugged his shoulders. "Alrigh'. 'Ere."

He waved a hand towards her, the tinkling sound erupted and Shion saw nothing in the hand she held out to the man. He must think her a fool. A backwater idiot that didn't know how money worked, but she did. Or, she thought she did. When she thought about it, she couldn't remember the last time she had actually seen a coin, let alone used one to buy anything. In fact, she couldn't remember buying anything at all. Ever.

"Where's the money? Why are you trying to trick me out of coin? We're only poor farmers! Look at our house! You people, you come here and get healed and our house never gets any better. You pretend to pay my poor Papa and take advantage of the fact that he is ensorcelled, compelled to help you, and I've had enough!" She prodded the man in the chest, causing him to step back. "Give me what you owe and I'll heal you!"

"I already 'ave! Look!" He grabbed her hand, waving it upward in front of her and something incredible happened. "See! Five hun'red gold. Nah, are you going' 'a heal me, or wha'?"

Shion couldn't answer him because she had become fascinated by the magic before her. Something similar to a parchment had appeared in the air before her. She had never learned how to read, but she could read now and she had no idea how. The magical parchment had her name at the top, with 'NPC' beside it and, there beneath her name, she saw the word 'Gold:' and '500' beside it.

She reached out to touch the parchment, but her hand passed through it. Clearly, she, too, was ensorcelled. She stumbled backward and the parchment disappeared. This was some kind of dark magic that she had never heard of before and she most certainly needed the help of a good mage to break the spell.

With an absent mind, she laid her hand upon the adventurer, allowing her healing magic to flow, but nothing changed upon the man. For certain, he still looked half-blind and sickly thin. Her magic could not heal that, but he appeared happy enough about her healing capabilities and, as her Papa bid the adventurer good day, the tall man began to walk away.

Shion waved her hand upward, as the man had shown her, and the parchment reappeared. She took a closer look and saw several other things upon the magical paper. It mentioned her dull, brown dress and that it had '0' armour. It mentioned the little knife at her belt and her poor quality shoes. It even mentioned her underclothes. At the top, it had long, coloured boxes that had the words, 'Stamina', 'Magic' and 'Health' above them.

At a thought, she held her Papa's hand, making it swipe upward, as the adventurer had done for her, and she saw where all the gold had gone upon a magical parchment of her father's. It was a lot. In fact, if she knew her numbers as well as she thought she did, her father held several million gold coins, according to the parchment. She touched the number and something changed