“How did the dagger from before turn into this?”
Giving her a strange look, “That dagger is in the trash bin. It was an experiment. However, I saw the way you looked at it. Since it is part of my natural style, I only realized after that you were memorized it because of my other works. For that reason, I etched the style in. You’re far too weak for me to make any custom designs for you. Even if I were to make you something vastly stronger. If you’re just not careful, if you’re found to have a material unsuited to a Grade E, it could do you more harm than support you.”
With a heavy sigh, “The best I can do for you is make something comfortable and durable. Even if someone realizes the blade is durable, it isn’t to a level that will invoke greed. Since it is in your comfort zone, you, yourself, contribute to a large portion of the durability in your maintenance. There is also the issue of dependency. You’re in your growth stage, if you start using a weapon that you can completely depend on it will only hurt your future. If you really want a custom design, make it to Grade C.”
Showing a bit of embarrassment, she couldn’t help but awkwardly give her thanks, “Thanks.”
“I am under the impression you will be returning home before going off to look for a dungeon to breakthrough.” Somewhat rhetorical, he was looking for a confirmation. Once he received it, “You will likely not return for a large amount of time. Since we didn’t get to have one last time I will be seeing you tonight.”
This time there was no embarrassment as the excitement from her new weapons was still there, “Okay, see you later!” As she left, she waved to the back of Victorina. Once she left, she strolled around the town aimlessly. Seeing the sun was starting to set, she made her way to a rather small shop that was in the corner of the town. After stepping inside, she was able to see that the place was empty.
Like usually, there was only Uncle Beast and Victorina in the shop. In the kitchen window, she could see a new person starting to gather the dishes as she stepped inside. Victorina sat at the small counter while she sat down with her uncle at a table. As the night went on, Victorina and Beast continued to drink. Normally, Jessica didn’t drink. Only time she drank regularly was during her meals with her uncle. Very rarely, sometimes the old man would be there with them. Because of this, she was a light weight.
They continued until she wasn’t able to stay conscious. Once she wasn’t able to keep going, they quickly stopped. Both Beast and Victorina were heavy drinkers. While they had flush faces, they didn’t stumble even the tiniest bit. After thanking the chief, they left. Not unusual, the two moved away from the shop as they took Jessica to an inn near the gate.
As a budding and bustling commercial district that was growing by the day. It wasn’t strange for there to be a number of places to stay. As the management of the cultivation chamber was handed off to merchants, the town continued to grow until the point, a city was starting to take shape. Because of circumstance, the inn closest to the gate wasn’t of the best quality. Still, this was the easiest place to leave from in the morning.
Once in the room, Beast put his hand on her abdomen. After a second, it was possible to see the red cheeks of Jessica start to disappear as her breathing calmed down as she entered a deeper level of sleep. Pulling up the blanket, he soon turned around and left. As he was closing the door, he glanced at the side of the bed for a good ten seconds before turning away and closing the door.
Waking with a bit of stiffness, she couldn’t help but look around. Seeing it was an inn, she knew she had drank too much the night before. Still, it was a period she could let her guard down. Here and home. Those were the two locations it was fine to relax. A waste, if she didn’t allow herself to relax at times like it this. Would there really be a better way to describe it?
Moving through the gates, the two made their way on the road. Since it was the morning, they had seen a number of caravans moving to and from. Not like when they moved between locations, she turned down the few offers she received for a ride. The offers she did receive were always from small and low level caravans. They always had lower number of guards and didn’t have that many goods, easily seen from the number of carriages they had.
Returning home meant that the questions she would need to ask or when she left, it left too many clues. Jessica hadn’t ever been told never bring anyone or not leave traces as she returned. Instead, all of these things were done subconsciously as she used to travel with the old man. When she was younger, he would take her out at least once a month. Usually to Aruna, sometimes other places. At those times because he was an elf, they received much more fanfare.
As time continued to trickle by, the number of carriages started to dwindle. Soon they weren’t seeing any traffic. Even those traveling to the town started to lower. Foot traffic in the morning was not very high, at least for those leaving. There were a number of individual or small groups already making their way into town. Dissimilar to human cities, dwarves didn’t discriminate if you were poor. They didn’t go out of their way for no reason, but they wouldn’t go out of their way to make things difficult. For this reason, there were a number of rural settlements and even a village or two near Aruna.
On the second day they had to stop as they felt some mana behind them. It was only a dot on the horizon, “There is someone approaching from behind.” By this time, the second rune was nearly at full completion. Leo hadn’t done it perfectly, but he was able to get it working, he now had a tiny bit of mana he could store. This allowed his senses to reach further than before.
Seeing a man on the coachman seat. Only once they came closer was she able to feel that he was probably of a high grade. Since he was sitting, and she didn’t have a way to sense the mana, she could only gauge him by how he was able to sit so comfortably on the seat without any cushion while driving faster than normal.
A white horse was pulling the carriage. There wasn’t any markings that she could make out. She couldn’t help but move a step back to stay out of the way. Combine the coachman with the white horse pulling a two horse carriage while speeding along. These were two red flags telling her not to get involved. Worse was that she could feel the coachman inspecting her. From the uncomfortable state, she took a few more steps as she was now on the grass on the side of the road.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Once the two met, the carriage soon slowed to a stop. This caused her heart to drop before a woman was seen opening the door looking at her with a smile. She could feel a type of feeling from her that raised her guard even higher. She didn’t have mana, at least not like a graded being. There was one type of person that had this type of feeling. Those from a church.
Churches weren’t a large part of the continent. They usually only consisted of those in the human territories. Some could be seen in dwarf territory, but it was rare. They didn’t hold a lot of power. Though, they were also not powerless. Most common people that didn’t bother or those that were only low grades would generally go to such establishments. Churches were defined by the fact they didn’t deal with the physical but the spiritual well-being.
The insignia, that wasn’t able to be seen was on the back of the door. It was confusing why it was only there, but seeing it started to make her understand why. There was a tiger standing on the corpse of another animal. At least, from the simple almost crude depiction, there wasn’t much one could interpret otherwise. What almost caused a frown to appear was that under the tiger was a dragon. While rare it wasn’t like dragons weren’t spotted, it was common to hear about them at least once every decade. In most decades, there were usually at least seven reasonable possible sightings. Four of which were backed by other evidence to show they were completely real.
Smiling sweetly, she spoke politely. The gentleness in the voice was easily able to slip past her guard, “Please pardon my interruption, we appear to be going in the same direction. Would this one have the pleasure of your company on our shared journey?”
Jessica responded with a stiff smile, “I must apologize, I have a meeting arranged just up ahead.” Pausing slightly, she heard a line from beside her and had to stop herself from turning her head. With only a second pause, she bowed her head ever so slightly, “It is with my great sympathy I must decline your most generous offer.”
Without losing the sweet smile there was clear disappointment in her tone, “Then forgive me for interrupting your journey, stay safe my fellow sister.” After speaking, the carriage very quickly picked up speed, and she watched it disappear from her view.
“Are there cults in this world?”
Turning her head, she saw Leo looking at the horizon, “Yeah, though they are spoken about very rarely. You said there were churches and cults in your old world when we talked about temples. What do you think of those two from your world's standards?”
Looking back at Jessica, Leo spoke a bit hesitant, “It isn’t good to speak about people you don’t know. Especially when you have no information outside what other people tell you. So my general view of churches and cults is a terribly thin line that is often treaded on by one while the other doesn’t care and is often too indulged in self-satisfaction to see the line. That is what makes the one carried out in goodwill so dangerous.”
Pausing slightly, he only spoke after a few seconds, “If I had to say, those two were from a cult. Based on my world standards. A hypocritical smile that instantly faltered when you denied her request. In fact, the reason I told you to bow and apologize like that is because the old man at the front was giving off a reeking scent of blood. He shifted and seemed upset when you denied, only when you lowered yourself so much did he settle down without really being happy.”
After thinking about the encounter, he couldn’t help but ask as they got on the road again, “What was that fellow sister stuff? You had strange emotions when she said that.”
“Zelna. She is the pirate queen. In terms of personality, she is not a good person. In her younger days, she would often help other woman out. She cultivated a sisterhood that has since fallen as it was from over fifty years ago. Even still there are still remains of it because of her legends. She is the woman that changed the standard stereotype of woman that was soft and gentle to a force not to be fucked with.“
In a strange tone, “Though in terms of her overall personality much of it can be contributed to the fact she is a beast person, a White Fox. Though, it is also said that they went extinct, so it's hard to say if this is true. Therefore, if you’re her friend she is the best ally, but if you’re her enemy you better dig a grave and don’t bother getting a coffin. Your death won’t be clean enough, so at least with a grave she has a place to dump the remains. It has actually happened, so it is seen as a fact she will respect her enemies by burying them in the graves they make.”
****
In the toddling carriage that had traveled in the distance. “Why did you do that?”
“My lady, they were being too disrespectful.”
“I am on the run, what, my lady? Disrespectful to an entitled princess that could only run away when things got complicated?”
“Still… ” reluctant, the coachman tried to speak further, vent his dissatisfaction.
For the first time, her voice came out without the friendliness from before. There was a domineering type of feeling to her voice as she interrupted him, “Enough.”
Only after a few minutes did a sigh finally come out of the carriage. Hearing this, there was more doubt. So much, he risked reprimanded by speaking again, “Should we go back and take her by force?”
“No, I am sure you think I only invited her because of Zelna’s legends you used to read to me as a child.”
“Isn’t that so?” There was a bit of uncertainty in his voice.
Tinged with helplessness, the woman in the carriage could only speak with a bit of exhaustion, “No. I think she was the person I had foreseen that could save our family.” She could feel the carriage slow ever so slightly, “Sigfred, you have worked for the family long enough to know about our special gift.”
“I am just a lowly servant, how could I possibly know any secrets of the family?”
The woman finally spoke without any hint of emotion in her voice, it was cold and lifeless, “If you’re also going to treat me the same way as our family. Then stop the carriage and I will be moving alone from now on.”
Almost immediately the horse carriage that had slowed down sped up once more, “My lady, please forgive me. I have heard that without the blood of dragons, there are a select few who are said to be born with the gift of premonitions.”
“As you can imagine, I am one such person. It might confuse you, how is it that someone with said gift would be treated like I am. Only, as a four-year-old, my gift came and the vision I saw was the destruction of the family by dragons. Regardless of my gift, the only premonitions I have had were about the destruction of the family, therefore, nobody is willing to believe me and to quash it from being recognized as coming from someone with the gift I was thrown to the side.”
With another heavy sigh that seemed to becoming more common place, “Even after so many years. My visions haven’t changed. The frequency was maybe once every few years. Now it is becoming more and more common. The only change was a shadowy figure that is backed by a small picture of the family not destroyed. Within only a few years, it will likely happen.”
“What makes you think that she was that person?”
“There is a second vision I started to have since we left home. I haven’t told anyone this. You remember I told you not to follow me? That was because I will die on this journey. Who wouldn’t try to grasp at any lifeline. Only lifelines are tricky, if the hand won’t reach out, it doesn’t matter how desperately you scream or resist. It will only make the vision a perfect representation of the future by using force.”