13 This is too expensive.

"Um... Thanks," Darius said, taking her hand. She yanked him onto his feet, then took out a small cloth from her pouch around her waist to stop the bleeding.

The wound was only a little deep, and blood was flowing quite a bit. She wrapped a cloth around it, all the while lamenting, "Now I'll have to sew this dress too. It was the only undamaged one. Damn it."

Darius, upon seeing her injury immediately, took out a potion from the system inventory. The shop inventory could only be used once, and that too for system shop-bought items.

He extended his arm, holding the potion, and said, "Drink this. This works better."

Fiona looked at the potion in his hand, astonished to see one. Healing potions were costly, from what she remembered; even the lowest quality ones were sold for quite a bit of money.

She had only purchased a healing potion once in her life. It was before the drought struck the village. At that time, she had just kept it, not daring to use it for herself.

And now, here was Darius, offering her one, and that too for only a small scratch on her arm. To say the least, it was touching, while also thinking that this boy was too naive. "Darius, dear... I don't need this for a small scratch like this. Moreover, this potion is too precious. It is better to save it for critical times."

She explained gently to him while giggling. He must have misunderstood that her wound was too deep and life-threatening.

Well, from the way it bled, it was not surprising. However, instead of listening to her, he insisted.

"No." He said, firmly, "You are bleeding too much. Drink this."

"But--"

"I'm not listening until you drink this." He shook his head, forcefully giving her the potion.

"...This potion costs nothing compared to your life." He grinned sideways, making himself look seductive and hot.

And as he expected, she was touched to the core and wanted to throw herself at him. Patting himself on the back, in his mind. He thought, 'I'm a genius--'

Fiona howled in laughter. Her laughter was like the jingling of bells; beautiful and melodic. However, much it might be tuneful that laugh had managed to irk him.

"What's so funny?" Blankly, he asked. Here he was worrying about her and she was laughing.

"You're..." She guffawed, "You look--"

She again laughed out loud, her finger raising and pointing at his face; which was beginning to morph with annoyance.

After some time, she calmed a little.

"Is it out of your system now?" He said, his eyes blank.

"Yes. Sorry. It's just that," An occasional giggle, "Your face looked really funny, like that of an idiot. You're really funny."

Her words gave him mixed feelings; not knowing whether to be happy that she called him funny or that he looked like an idiot. He decided to ignore her words lest he attract further humiliation, "Now drink the potion."

"Okay." She nodded smiling at the care he showed. Her fingers pulled the cork on the vial and in one go gulped the green liquid.

She felt the pain lessening. The wound closed at a visible rate, shocking her further. She looked at him with wide eyes, exclaiming, "Did you see that!?"

"Yes?" He was confused.

"It healed! The wound healed!" She exclaimed again.

"Of course, it healed." He remained confused, "You just drank a potion."

"But, but this is a Rank: E Healing Potion. They are not supposed to heal a wound so fast." She explained her surprise.

And now it was Darius' turn to be surprised, "What?!"

"Yes, a Rank: E Healing Potion takes five minutes to heal a small wound like mine. But this one healed it in seconds which makes it a higher-rank potion, this is at least a Rank: D or even C potion." She explained the reason for her astonishment.

This was reasonable as she had said, even the lowest ranking potions were sold for a high price. So for him to have a potion of such high rank, he would have to be either a noble or an alchemist.

She ruled out the possibility of him being an alchemist; for the reason was that he was too weak. So, she assumed that he must be a noble or the son of a noble, who left his territory for adventure.

This assumption of hers also explained, why he would waste such a precious potion on her; a commoner. She presumed that he must be a kind noble, unlike the ones she had heard about.

And his actions thus far had only bolstered her presumption.

Poor Darius remained unaware of her thoughts. Nevertheless, this thought process of hers would be the catalyst for the change in her bleak future.