64. Silver Glow
“No no no, that’s way off center!”
“You insolent fey, clearly you should get your eyes checked!”
“Excuse you, I have perfect vision!”
“You can’t even see in the dark!”
“And what the fuck does darkvision have to do with seeing in the daytime, huh?”
Isaac observed from a few feet away, watching the demon and fey bicker. Ever since Olzu had stepped into the magic circle and promptly floated upwards with a very high pitched yell, he’d been attempting to “fly,” which mostly meant controlling his direction given that Rosalinde’s magic was taking care of the vertical aspect (for now).
Aster, despite not knowing how to fly herself, apparently had a lot of opinions about proper flight form. She and the demon hadn’t stopped yelling at each other, and throughout the encounter, Rosalinde and Isaac had mostly stood off to the side, unable to get a word in. Still, the two did seem to be making some progress. Probably.
Isaac shook his head and sighed. He glanced over at Rosalinde, who was watching the scene with gentle amusement. His eyes shifted down to her palm, which was still glowing steadily, then back over to the pillar of silver light rising up from the magic circle. It hadn’t faltered once, nor had its size shrunk at all in the past hour. He frowned.
The scale of the magic being displayed was well beyond what Rosalinde’s current stats indicated she was capable of. From what he remembered, her [REPEL] skill was level 16 on her stat sheet, but looking at it now, Isaac could easily see it being double that. Maybe even higher, if the woman’s ease was any indication. She didn’t look remotely tired or seem to be struggling at all from such prolonged use.
Not taking his eyes off the magic circle, he said in a casual voice, “You know, updating your stats doesn’t mean you actually have to fight.”
Rosalinde laughed lightly. Her voice reminded him a bit of Lilith’s, except much softer. If Lilith’s laugh sounded like a ringing bell, then Rosalinde’s was more like wind chimes. “I knew you would notice,” she said, not actually answering the question. Isaac frowned and glanced in the woman’s direction. Her smile was as serene as ever.
“I can update your stats right now, if you want, or just that skill. It wouldn’t take much time,” he said. Rosalinde hummed in acknowledgement.
“I suppose you could, yes.”
“…Any particular reason you don’t want to?”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
It was true that some people didn’t bother updating their stats, usually because they didn’t plan on getting into any fights and thus saw it as a waste of time. That being said, he couldn’t understand why Rosalinde wouldn’t update them now that the opportunity was right there and would in no way inconvenience anyone. All Isaac had to do was hit a button, point the tablet at the magic circle, and it’d be done.
“It might be useful one day,” he continued. “What if someone else starts a fight and the system isn’t updated?”
“Then I’ll take the loss,” Rosalinde said without batting an eye. Olzu and Aster’s argument rose in volume as the demon swerved sharply to the side, almost flying out of the pillar of light. Thankfully he caught himself just in time and managed to make his way back to the center, though not before unleashing a string of what sounded like very detailed demonic curses.
“Is it like a principle or something?”
The woman laughed. “I suppose you could say that.” Rosalinde adjusted her posture, and her long hair swayed with the movement. “It’s a reminder to myself.”
Isaac stayed silent, waiting for her to continue.
“I was a very different person before the Collapse,” she said simply. Isaac couldn’t detect any particular emotion in her calm, controlled voice. “Admittedly I’m not the most proud of my past. Now that I have the opportunity to build a new life for myself, I intend to take full advantage of it. Keeping my stats low is simply an affirmation of that desire.”
Isaac’s eyes drifted back to the magic circle, to the intricate silver lines drawn across the ground. “I see.” He shifted his weight. “You know, you might be the first person I’ve talked to who likes it better after the Collapse,” he joked.
Rosalinde chuckled. “Really? I’m sure there’s more of us. Of course, I don’t blame anyone for calling the sentiment foolish.” She raised her head slightly, staring up at the deep red sky of Solonell City. “I sometimes think so myself. What is it they say? The past never dies?” She shook her head. “Well, at the very least I’m well aware that I can’t simply ignore everything that’s happened before the Collapse. But I do prefer to separate my current self when I can.” She finally turned away from Olzu and Aster, giving Isaac a curious look. “Aren’t you going to ask about who I was before the Collapse?”
Isaac hummed, still keeping his eyes on Aster and Olzu. It seemed their argument had shifted away from wing alignment, and they now looked like they were fighting over “proper flapping motion.”
“Nah,” he finally said. “It’s none of my business, and if you’re trying so hard to move on from the past, then it’d be kind of shitty for me to bring it back up.” He’d be a hypocrite if he asked about it, considering he himself avoided talking about Lloyd with an almost desperate vehemence. Even just hearing Casimir vaguely reference the Upper World had felt so incredibly wrong. He didn’t know how he’d respond if he ever heard someone in the Underside say his brother’s name.
That’s an insane amount of compartmentalizing. His own words towards Casimir rose up in his mind, unbidden. He frowned and staunchly pushed them back down. This was different, he told himself. Isaac was just maintaining a healthy work-life separation, and Rosalinde, it seemed, was focusing on the future. It wasn’t anything as absurd as what the angel was doing.
Above the magic circle, Olzu’s shriek snapped Isaac out of his thoughts. Somehow, the demon had flipped upside down and didn’t seem to know how to flip back over. Isaac winced and hurried to help before Olzu’s panicking worsened the situation. As he stepped forward, he thought he heard Rosalinde say a quiet, “Thank you.” He just nodded and continued moving towards the steady silver glow without stopping.