Chapter 380 - Pledge III

It took a few moments for everyone to calm.

Sylvia returned to her seat as soon as she was done, but though she hungrily eyed the food laid out on the table, she left it untouched in favour of leaning against her bestest friend. The fox wasn’t stricken with tears or otherwise transformed into a bumbling, snotty mess like most of the others, but neither did she have her usual energy. The performance had been just as emotionally draining for her as it had for the listeners, only she had given it form through her voice in place of another means.

She wasn’t out of breath, like she was when she had summoned Yrild-ikurh, but she huffed and she puffed regardless.

“That’s the gist of it.” Claire spoke up after about a minute of silence. She had refused to cry in front of the others, but it wasn’t like she was unaffected. There was a slight tremble in her voice and it lacked its usual strength. She wasn’t fooling anyone, even with her expression as frozen as ever. “Pollux’s death led Cadria to declare war on Vel’khan. We managed to convince them to do it by proxy. So here we are.”

There was a brief pause as the Paunseans fought to gain their composure. The Vernelles themselves were more heavily affected, so it was the resident human who first raised his voice.

“Are you stupid?” Belyaev—Lia’s teacher—paused for a moment to sniffle. “You’re putting yourself in the line of fire for one little girl.”

“What he means is, thank you,” said Liliya. “Really. Thank you so much, for telling us, and for everything you did for her.” She clenched her fists before bringing them into her lap and forcing a smile.

Her father tried to say something as well, but he was too much of a mess to put his thoughts into words. He broke into a sob every time he opened his mouth before falling into his wife’s lap and crying out his heart. Every once in a while, he struck the floor, both with his tail and with his paws.

“I’ve barely done anything.” Claire took a breath before turning to the cat’s master. “And they had me in their sights regardless. Cadria’s been looking for excuses to go to war ever since my father took the throne.”

“Yeah, I guess I can’t say you’re wrong about that.” The human twisted his lips into a frown. “I can tag along if you need another hand to fight back the Cadrians. I know how much of a pain they are.”

Claire took a second to scan him. Her moose instincts confirmed that he wasn’t just prey. At the very least, he seemed capable of standing toe to toe with Porcius and his ilk. She suspected that he already had some experience against the Northland folk and he could grow powerful enough to threaten their champions if he joined them in the Langgbjerns.

Still, she shook her head. She couldn’t take from the family any more than she already had.

“I would rather we sparred,” she said. “And you taught me the techniques that she had failed to inherit.”

Belyaev raised a brow. “Yeah, I dunno about that one. You don’t have the right muscles for any fancy rapier work, and you clearly aren’t the type that’ll make any good use of my runes.” He scratched the back of his head. “But you know what? I don’t think I’d be against it.”

“You’ll need to wait either way.” She took a breath. “First, we need to handle Lia’s inheritance.” Her fingers began to bleed as she formed an icy rapier. Material aside, it was identical to the weapon that Lia had always wielded. “Her killer broke the original. This is the best I can do.”

Belyaev accepted the weapon, only to flinch as he first touched it. “It seems a little cold.”

“It’s made of true ice. You’ll need a glove to wield it.”

“No wonder,” he said, before suddenly raising his head. “Wait, did you just say true ice?”

Claire didn’t bother answering the question. She had already shifted her gaze to Lia’s parents.

“This is for you two.” The diary and the glasses rose from her pouch—they had been temporarily returned so the table could be set for dinner—and hovered in the space in front of Lia’s mother. “It’s like I said earlier. These are her mementos. She left a lot of gold as well. It’d be best if you accepted them.”

Liliya reached for the items, only to blink at her hand as she found herself incapable of pushing them away.

“We’ll be fine without them,” she said, quietly. “She’s sent us more than enough gold to last both our lifetimes, and I’m sure that these mean much more to you than they do to us.”

“You were her parents. I was just a friend.”

“Still.”

“I know it might not seem like it, but Liliya’s right.” Lavrentiy, her father, spoke through a series of sniffles. “We have plenty of keepsakes already. We’d like you to keep something of hers, at least.”

Claire shook her head. “I can’t.”

“We’d appreciate it if you did,” said Liliya. “She would have wanted you to remember her.”

"And I will.”

Liliya smiled softly. “Lia was always really paranoid. She would’ve worried that you’d eventually forget her if you didn’t have something you could keep on your person.”

Claire stopped to take a breath. “Then I’ll take the glasses.”

“Take the diary,” said Lavrentiy. He paused for a moment to sniffle. “The glasses won’t last as long.”

“I—”

“It’s either that or everything.” The bipedal cat met her eyes. There was much more strength in them than the rest of his demeanour suggested. Even sniffling, even leaking tears, his gaze was firm and unflinching.

“Fine. If you take at least some of the gold.”

“Are you sure that wouldn’t hurt your travel funds?” asked Liliya. “Cadria is still a long way away.”

“We’ll be fine.” Claire ripped open the space behind her and connected it straight to the house. “Follow me.”

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Belyaev, Lavrentiy, and Liliya stared blankly at the wrinkle in spacetime, each person more confused than the next. It was a result that drove Sylvia and Arciel to exchange looks and giggle, with the former bounding through the gate, and the latter speaking up as she eventually stepped forward.

“It is a portal to Vel’khan. Do not be concerned, you will find that it is perfectly safe.”

No one else followed until Boris, who was still half asleep, lethargically made his way through the rift and buried himself in one of the cushions that lay on the other side. Belyaev and Liliya were only a little bit hesitant, whereas Lavrentiy found it almost impossible to cross. He poked at the portal with one of his paws and even hissed at it until he realized that everyone was watching. Only then, with his front paws behind his back, his eyes lowered, and his face a faint blush, did he step through to the other side.

The guests were placed in the building’s foyer, with the portal closing behind them to reveal the front door. The building was rather clean, thanks to the maids tasked with its maintenance, and everything was put where it belonged. But for most of the Paunseans, that was precisely why it felt so unnatural. It was almost like the building couldn’t decide whether it was supposed to feel lived in. In Paunse, even the noble houses liked to leave objects lying around as a means of making homes more welcoming, and furniture was occasionally arranged specifically with that in mind. Still, despite their discomfort, the human, the cat, and the humanoid cat followed the rest of the group upstairs.

Claire led them down the hall before stopping in front of Lia’s room. She waited for them to draw a little closer, so they could see the nameplate that the late catgirl had made herself, before twisting it open and revealing its interior.

At the lyrkress’ signal, Sylvia dumped the golden coins she kept in her tail. It flowed as it would from an endless fountain, rising over a meter off the ground and practically burying Lavrentiy alive. For everyone else, it went up to somewhere between their abdomen and their shoulders. An excessive amount in either case.

“This was her pocket change,” said Claire.

“How is this supposed to be pocket change!?” shouted Liliya, wide-eyed. “There has to be enough gold here to buy a castle!”

“Considering the relative size of a Paunsean estate, I believe one could easily buy three and still find some coinage to spare,” said Arciel.

“There’s three times as much buried behind the warehouse and about the same amount invested in one of Olga Popov’s businesses,” said Claire. “How much would you like?”

“I think a handful of coins is more than enough,” said Liliya. “I’m not sure what we’d do with this much money. In fact, I’m not sure what we’d do with any of it.”

Claire shrugged. “You might as well take as much as you can. We don’t know what to do with it either.”

“I always knew she liked money, but I didn’t think this is how that’d end up,” said Belyaev. “She really did learn all she could from Olga.”

“Olga remained one of her closest confidants, and I am of the understanding that they often communed to discuss their intentions for the future,” said Arciel.

Belyaev smiled. “I’m glad. Speaking of, how’s she doing anyway?”

“Her shop is like a twenty-minute walk if you wanna go check,” said Sylvia.

“I’d… rather not. We didn’t part on the best of terms.”

“Enough about the old lady,” said Claire. “We need to figure out the money.”

“How about this? We’ll just grab a bag full of coins, and you can keep the rest?” said Lavrentiy.

“Take more.”

“It’d just go to waste. We don’t even have a place to put it. We do have an account at the local bank, but I’m not sure it’d be the best idea to trust them with a whole bag of gold, even if we have Belyaev on our side,” said Lavrentiy.

“They’d try to squeeze it out of us one way or another,” said Liliya. “It’s really more trouble than it's worth.”

“Fine,” said Claire, after a brief pause. “Do you want to see the warehouse?”

“What’s in it?” asked Liliya.

“All the silly things that Lia collected while she was in Vel’khan.” Claire smiled, softly. “Most of them were gifts from suitors or silly things she won in bets.”

“Maybe some other time,” said Lavrentiy. “We’ll have to clean up first. The house is cramped as is. We’d have to make space before we even think of grabbing anything.”

“That is a task that Chloe, my maid, can handle with ease,” said Arciel. “She is rather efficient and with the size of your abode, I would not doubt her ability to see it handled in a matter of hours.”

Liliya shook her head. “Thank you, Arciel, but I think we’ll be fine. Even if we were to collect something, I’d rather it be a personal item than something she left in storage.”

“Then take the diary,” said Claire.

Liliya smiled awkwardly. “Anything but that.” She tried to wade through the gold that filled the room, but she found that she was basically stuck. The sea of coins was too heavy for her to push it out of her way. “I’d rather have something from her wardrobe, maybe a scarf she wore often or her old military uniform, something that’d be nice to hug.“

“The diary is very huggable.”

The catgirl gave the lyrkress a miffed look and heaved a sigh. “We’re not taking the diary.”

“Why not?”

“Because I said so.”

“That’s not very convincing.”

“Well, neither are you! You haven’t even finished reading it!”

Claire tilted her head. “I’ve read the whole thing.”

“H-huh?” Liliya blinked.

“Do not be fooled. She is lying,” said Arciel.

“S-she is?”

“Yeah, Claire’s really good at keeping a straight face, so it’s kinda hard to tell, but everyone knows that she hasn’t actually finished it,” said Sylvia.

“I’m not lying. I finished it last night. While everyone was sleeping.”

“You were curled up like a snake last night,” huffed Sylvia. “You didn’t even wake up for dinner!”

“I was curled up. With the diary open.”

“Oh, come on! Now you’re just being stubborn,” said Sylvia. “Everyone knows that isn’t true!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Claire briefly closed her eyes. “We can knock out two birds with one stone.” She magically opened one of the drawers and retrieved a purse much like the one strung over her shoulder. They were marked with the same Paunsean logo and made of the exact same leather. Their colouring was identical, and their facades even bore the same marks. The only differences between them were that one was a product of her runecloak, and that the other had a few stitches in the middle of its strap.

It was soon joined in midair by the clothes that shared its drawer. The pants were pristine, but like the purse, the upper garments were imperfect. Both the blouse and the apron featured additional cuts of cloth sewn right into the chest. A clear sign of a later repair.

No words were necessary to convey the cause of the damage. The outfit was still fresh in all their minds. They had all seen it in the fox’s illusion.

It was the outfit that Natalya had worn on the day she died.

Claire opened the purse and filled it with gold without awaiting affirmation. She closed the clips once it was full and floated it to the catgirl’s mother. She briefly considered filling the clothes as well, but knowing that they wouldn’t hold, she transported them over as is.

“Thank you.” Liliya’s words were barely audible. She muttered them so quietly under her breath that they almost went unheard.

Sylvia tidied up as the transfer was completed. Raising her tail overhead, she sucked the rest of the gold back in, leaving the room only a little less organized than it had been upon their arrival.

Wordlessly, Claire left the room.

While the teacher considered the failings of his tutelage.

While the father clenched his fists and lamented his powerlessness.

And while the mother cradled her daughter’s belongings.