Under Emily′s gaze, I tried sitting up, but Rebecca gently placed her hand on my shoulder and kept my head on her lap. With raised eyebrows, Emily looked between Rebecca and me, only for Rebecca to tilt her head, as if daring Emily to say something. After a few moments of eye contact between the two of them, Emily looked away.
“Where is Simon?”, I asked.
“Talking to the dwarves that brought you two here so quickly.”, Emily sounded a bit tense as she said that, but I couldn't tell why.
“Before we talk about who tried to kill you two, I got to ask. Are you really a Rolander?”
With a sigh i gave a nod. “Regretfully, yes.”
That seemed to confuse her. “Then why′d you bother disguising yourself rescuing my father? Your title alone should be enough to let him go free if you asked for it. How could he even get taken away? Don't you have some ridiculous high perception skill that you can just… sense what's happening eight towns over? Why do you have Rebecca fight for you when all the S-Ranks couldn't challenge you together?”
Despite her words, there was no judgement in her voice just yet. She kept it to herself until she heard enough to give me a piece of her mind properly.
I opened my Grace and showed her the screen.
“Are those the stats of someone strong enough to beat an E-Rank, let alone an S-Rank?”, I wanted to know.
With shivering hands, Emily pulled my Grace closer to her. “What?” Looking between Rebecca and me as if expecting either of us to pull out some illusion or something like it, proving her expectations of what a Rolander should be like correct. “
“Those are Stats an E-Rank would laugh at.”, she said instead. “And those Skills are… so basic.” For a few moments, she furrowed her brow when her eyes fell onto [Behind every great person, there's their spouse], something akin to triumph in her face for a moment, but that didn't last long, once she saw its effect.
“I told you.”, I said.
“What about Items?”, she wanted to know. “The Rolanders that didn't have stats had some sort of Items, a bracelet of power, or a sword that can cut gods, or-”
“Henry′s attacked the people keeping you hostage with a padlock on a chain. If he went back, chances are the blacksmith might still recognize him.”, Rebecca said dryly.
“Righ…. bands? chains, earrings? Or like the sixth Rolander, who had some sort of hidden prince as an item that gave him power?”
The viper band sparkled as I lifted it for Emily to see. “I bought this at the market for sixty Retrae.”
Rebecca leaned over me, looking me in the eyes. “Wait, did you lose your flickchain when you got buried?“
“I think I did- Wait-” I felt around for the tunic's pocket and pulled the chain I had found while crawling in the debris. It was indeed my flickchain. Even the night vision clip was still there.
“Lucky you.”, Rebecca said cheerfully.
“Right?”, I responded. The latch was ripped open but looked very fixable, and a quick check revealed to me that its effects hadn't vanished just yet.
“Mhm.”, Emily cleared her throat. “So, no items, no skills, no nothing?”, she asked. “Just some standard skills and the one named after a romantic poem?”
Like one person, Rebecca and I both looked at Emily. “Romantic Poem?”, I asked.
Her facial expression turning somewhat smug at her superior knowledge of ancient love poems, Emily folded her arms in a very teacher-like fashion.
“You didn't know? [Behind every great person, there's their spouse] is the title of a love poem written by Roland.”, she said. “Multiple parts, each for one of his wives. I think there were nine; it's been way too long since I read it. I tried learning it by heart, but for some reason it wouldn't stay in my head no matter how long I tried. I tossed the copy I had in frustration.”
She looked at my Grace again, swiping up and down as if hoping for more answers.
“Well, unless I'm completely mixing things up, the next skill should be [Let me help you, dear]. If I′m right about the poem, that is. It's been ages since I read it, so for all I know Im just paraphrasing here at best, on top of the whole “I couldn't get myself to memorize it no matter what I did” thing.” Grabbing her own hair in a clenched fist, she sighed. “But yes, with stats like that, I can hardly hold you keeping it secret against you. Id do the same I think.”
“Speaking of secrets.” Rebecca interrupted. “The people trying to kill us?”
“Right.”, Emily said as if that was only an afterthought to her right now. She pulled a small poster from within a ring that I hadn't noticed on her before.
“Is that new?”, I asked. Emily presented it to us. A small silver ring, adorned with what looked like a shiny black clay pearl. It was simple in design and had no additional decorations, but it felt heavy even though Emily didn't act like it was.
“An inventory ring, courtesy of the dwarves. If half of what dad says is gonna happen, he′s soon gonna try to just bring a chestful of these for transport. Im not sure if we′ll earn enough to pay for that. He′s a bit too optimistic in my opinion. But enough of that.”
She handed the poster to me. It had pictures of Rebecca and me.
I read through the whole thing. “We stepped right into that, huh?”, I said while handing it to Rebecca.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wanted for crimes against the Vide Family
The Vide family pleads with the public to stay calm and be as helpful as they can afford as they inform you of an Imposter pretending to be one of them.
While he might look like the well-known and beloved Henry Vide, the youngest son of the Vide family, this man is an imposter. He has partnered up with a rabid mutt acting as a guard to prevent people of honest heart and good intent from coming close and discovering his wicked imitation.
Though he looks like the youngest Vide son, and can change the color of his eyes, carrying stolen sigils of the family to give his word weight and a noble manner of clothing that cannot be discerned by a layman′s eye, he can be recognized by the fact that he bleeds red instead of blue like a true noble.
Any proof of his, the canid′s, or any of his coconspirators' presence in an area past, present or future, their plans, their capture, or their corpses, will be rewarded by the Vide family in a manner adequate to what is delivered. See below.
Stolen novel; please report.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“The sheer number in front of the currency symbol offered as reward money for my capture alive was eye-watering. Retrieving my corpse wasn't nearly as profitable, which made me wonder if the squire had only tried to kill me because he wanted to. He didn't seem too stable after all.
“I'm worth less alive than half what they′ll pay for your corpse.”, Rebecca commented. With a snort, she added. “Still worth around twenty-five Emily′s.” She gave Emily an amused look, which the other woman did not care to react to..
“Ill bring it up if I get the chance.”, I say, patting Rebecca on the shoulder, which was a bit of a struggle to do with my head in her lap. I should be terrified by the thought of being hunted down, but I wasn't. Maybe it didn't feel real to me yet. Maybe it was [New World Mental Block] I was getting so much mileage out of that skill lately, it wouldn't seem strange to me at this point. Or maybe it was the fact that I'd been figured out once so far and that had ended not too badly by all accounts. But something else bothered me.
“So now there are two groups after me.”, ,I said. I sat up and almost immediately felt my head spin, before Rebecca laid me down again without a comment. “Or am I missing something?
Both Emily and Rebecca looked at me as I said that. “Yeah, the guys yesterday said they′ll kill me in the gods name. Nothing about that in the wanted poster. “
A couple of moments passed before Rebecca spoke up. “The one group wants you cause you′re a Rolander, the others cause of the whole Henry Vide thing. Do you think its cause the Instigator Golem didn't manage to kill you?”
I could only shrug in response. I tried sitting up again. As comfortable as it was laying there, I felt weird looking up at everybody like that. My head still spun a bit, but this time Rebecca didn't push me down, allowing me to sit up.
“Could be.”, I said. “But I don't think it matters too much. The result is the same. They want me dead.”
As we sat there like this, the door swung open and Simon stepped in. “Ah, good you′re awake again.”, he said. He looked between us. “I was going to ask when we′d continue our travel.”
“You′re still willing to keep us as guards?”, I asked.
“Sure.”
With twitching ears Rebecca said in a voice that felt like someone smeared honey over sandpaper. “And is that related in any way to the fact that had we been close, you and Emily would have been just ignored by those nutcases in favor of hunting us down?”
Simon didn't answer immediately. “They wouldn't have managed to grab us had we had guards with us.”, he said instead.
“So you agree that running off and leaving us behind was wrong?”
With a deep frown, Simson asked: “What are your demands?”
“A pay increase, based on performance, to be determined on arrival in the capital.”
With a quick shrug, Simon gave a “Sure, let's do that.” I didn't think it would have been this easy to convince him before Rebecca continued.
“I'd like that to be added in writing in our contract.”
That froze him up. When he spoke, Simon made a sound akin to snarling. “I had to protect my daughter and those Harpies you just dragged along.”
“Then I bet you need guards, no?”
The two of them looked at each other, testing each other′s resolve before Simon relented and pulled out the contract. Rebecca stood up and looked over his shoulder as he wrote. She nodded along with his addition. “Pleasure doing business with you.”, she said while he grumbled angrily causing her to add: “Just be happy I didn't ask for an Inventory ring too.”
“Speaking off.”, Emily said. “Thost said he′d check our magic items when he sold us the rings, so I'm pretty sure he'd be down to check your viper band and flickchain too.”
“They went to bed.”, Simon said, with a tone so grim that one might have thought we had demanded his daughter be sold as a sacrifice to a demon. “As should we, we gotta leave tomorrow.”
Emily piped up. “Yeah, we′re taking a detour to the hot springs in Zerim.”
Simon immediately shook his head. “Sorry, honey bu-”
“YOU PROMISED.” Simon seemed to shrink in his clothes as Emily yelled at him.
“I- I know.”, he tried to deflect. “But our schedule won't work if we do. I promise we-”
Emily took a sharp breath. “If you tell me to wait another year, I swear by all the gods-”
“No. No. What I meant was-”, he swallowed dry. “- What I meant was, we could go to the northern springs. Past the capital, you know?”
Emily folded her arms. “That place? You said there'd be no way you′d manage to afford that unless you find gold or blackmail on some noble family.”
SImon shrunk more. “I- I did. B- but just think how much more we can sell this year. I- It'll be hard to fit in the budget, but Im sure we′ll manage.
Emily stared him down, and he seemed even more intimidated by that then when Rebecca had stared him down. Eventually, Emily gave a wide smile. “You′re the best, dad.”, she said and kissed her father on the cheek before skipping out of the room.”
Simon sat down, head on the table, and let out a sigh. “Did I ask for too much? I just wanted to hire two guards. Lea′s gonna hear from me. I dont deserve that.”
Immediately after, he too left, and Rebecca and I decided to go to sleep as well.
The bed was every bit as comfortable as Rebecca had said before. It really was like lying on a cloud, but for reasons we weren't sure of, neither of us could sleep right away, so we started talking. Time passed until the moon had risen to its zenith.
“Explain it to me again, why cakes?”, she asked. “I feel like there are easier ways to make something look like something else.”
I shrugged. “Probably because of that? So it would be more impressive to show off the whole “Which one is cake?” thing? Not really that interesting if you use clay or some other building material for that.”
“I guess you′re right.”
But despite that, I heard her murmur to herself only a few minutes later. “Let me just- boom, the horse is actually cake- so stupid.”
As I listened to her rambling to herself in annoyance, I could feel myself smile. Suddenly, my Grace opened.
The gods' disappointment is immeasurable, and their day was ruined.
Rebecca′s disposition towards you is high enough to reach lvl 3
Your disposition towards Rebecca is high enough to reach lvl. 3
Your disposition towards yourself is too low to allow for an increase in [Behind every great person, there's their spouse].
_________________________________________________________________________
Current Status:
Stats:
Power: 2
Agility: 1
Toughness: 3
Mental: 2
Perception: 3
Mana: N/A
Effects:
Night Vision Lvl. 1
Overlapping Protection Lvl. 1
Poisonous Blood Lvl. 1
Protection against Natural Poison and Venom Lvl. 1
Skills:
[Behind every great person, there's their spouse] Lvl. 2
[Emperors Gaze] Lvl. 2
[New World Mental Block] Lvl. N/A
Known Ritual Spells:
[Determine Value]
[Liquid Equilibrium]
[Rite of True Death] (Taught Incorrectly)
[Simple Transportation Magic]
Since there was interest in side content Id like to know what should get priority. I originally wanted to have a piece out for friday this week but with my schedule Ill be happy to manage the regular chapter by then. So Id like to know what I should work on first when I get to it.
