Chapter 13 – Lewiht, Melaia, and the Argent

“There’s no proof, Captain.”

Ria and Lewiht had gone back to the captain’s quarters. Captain Nellard smoked his pipe and exhaled, glaring at both of them. “Then tell me who killed Hut, Argent.”

Ria glimpsed at Lewiht. “I’m not saying he didn’t kill Hut. I’m only saying there’s no proof. I’ll still keep an eye on him. Even if he’s the killer, he won’t be killing anybody from now on.”

Captain Nellard rose from his seat and slowly approached Lewiht. “You better thank your friend’s father, kid. If there wasn’t money involved, I’d have thrown you to the ocean already.”

“If you care about money that much,” Lewiht said, “Then you shouldn’t let your crew member stab your prize in the first place.”

“I would’ve done what was necessary if you had come to me instead of killing him.”

“Yeah?” Lewiht frowned. “Like you did for Melaia?”

Nellard frowned. “What are you talking about, kid?”

“You let your crew use her like a fucking toy, is what I’m talking.” Lewiht didn’t stop and pulled out his brother’s dagger, shoving it into the captain’s hands. “That should be more than enough to cover her price. She will not work on this ship anymore. Neither will I. Understood?”

The captain studied the blade with wide eyes. “Holy Azrodan’s tits, kid, this is worth more than a slave kid. You sure you wanna give it away like this?”

“I am.” Lewiht turned his back, slowly walking towards the door. “It’s not worth more than anyone’s life, though I wouldn’t expect someone like you to understand that. Also, it is you who should be thankful, Captain. If I didn’t need this ship, you would’ve received that dagger in a much different manner.”

Then he left the captain’s quarters.

***

Lewiht was sitting on top of a crate, grimacing as he was cleaning his wound with an alcohol-soaked piece of cloth. Aside from his stab wound, he was feeling better overall. He could breathe much easier and most of the bruises on his face only hurt when he touched them.

He heard someone climbing down the stairs to the cargo hold, and saw Melaia’s small figure hesitantly looking at him in the doorway.

“Hey,” Lewiht said, gesturing for her to enter. “I never thanked you for your help, so thank you. And as a show of my gratitude, nobody’s going to touch you on this ship anymore. You don’t even have to work.”

Melaia averted her gaze. “Because… Because you killed Hut?”

“I…” Lewiht hesitated for a moment. Maybe he shouldn’t have lied anymore since Ria backed him up against the captain. “No, that’s not it. It’s because I bought your freedom.”

“What?” Melais clasped her hands to her chest, grinning. “Really?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you so much, Master.”

Lewiht frowned. “I’m not your master. I don’t own you. As I said, I bought your freedom, not you. You’re free to leave this ship at our first stop, even before we arrive at the Archipelago.”

“But… How can I do anything on my own? I don’t know anything and I don’t have any money.”

Lewiht finished bandaging his thigh and smiled widely. “Then alternatively, you can tag along with me. Not as a servant, but as a friend.”

Melaia’s eye’s welled up, her lips twitching. “Why? Why are you helping me?”

“Do I need a reason to just be a good person? Anyone would’ve done the same.”

“No,” she wiped her tears. “They wouldn’t. They didn’t. Nobody tried to do anything good for me. You’re the first.”

Lewiht wanted to go pat her little head and say that everything was going to be alright, but he decided not to, thinking that it would be too awkward. “Still, though. I can’t be around forever, and you have to learn things. You need to become stronger. As do I.”

“How am I going to do that? I’m just ten years old.”

“Being stronger doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be stronger physically. I’m not strong either but I managed to… beat someone at least twice my size.” Lewiht hit his forehead with his index finger repeatedly. “It all depends on here.”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“What do you mean?”

Lewiht pointed at the rum bottle sitting on top of the crate. “I assume no one would give a slave a free bottle of alcohol. That’s why I can also assume that you stole this, am I wrong?”

Melaia averted her eyes, not saying anything.

“You might be small, but that can be an advantage. Most assassins, for instance, are small. Or at least that’s what I’ve heard, not that I know any.”

“You want me to assassinate someone?” Melaia exclaimed.

“I… Well… I’m just giving you examples. You’ve been traveling on the seas for a while, you probably heard about Dartlias, right? The Pirate King.”

“Of course.”

“It is said that he was a slave once too. Now he’s the most fearsome pirate to sail in Delmorra. Not that I’m saying that you should be a pirate like Dartlias, but you can be strong. Strong enough to not depend on anyone. Strong enough to protect yourself.”

“My mom used to read me stories of Galaharis the Savior. How he managed to gather an army enough to conquer the Meteor Zone even though he was just a villager at first. Like that?”

“Exactly, Melaia. Exactly like that.”

“Am I interrupting?”

Lewiht looked at the door to the cargo hold and saw Ria standing there, watching them. She was wearing a leather backpack and carrying her shield in her hand.

“No,” Lewiht replied. “We were just chatting.”

Ria entered the room and looked around. “I wasn’t lying when I said that I was going to keep an eye on you. So I’m just going to stay here too, make sure you don’t go and kill someone else at night.”

“That’s…” Lewiht stopped for a moment. Staying in the same room with an Argent for the next three months. This was a perfect opportunity. He jumped from the crate and even though his thigh hurt like hell, he still limped quickly towards Ria.

“Miss Argent!” Lewiht yelled and pointed towards Melaia. “Teach us. Please.”

“Teach you what?”

“How to fight. How to use magic.”

***

It took a while to convince Ria. She was unwilling to teach him at first because she still wasn’t sure if what Lewiht had done was the right thing, and she didn’t want to give him more power to continue killing people. However, when Melaia also started to try to convince Ria, she softened up a bit. Even an Argent couldn’t resist Melaia’s sad, pleading eyes.

So here they were, standing in the middle of the cargo hold.

“First things first,” Ria said, “There’s no such thing as magic. It is called the Elder Arts, and I cannot teach you that. At least not right away. You should strengthen your body first and start to learn how to fight before you could learn Elder Arts. Those are the standard steps for learning.”

“Why?” Melaia asked. “Why can’t we start to learn right away?”

“Because learning the Elder Arts is not only a mental effort but also a physical one. Your body needs to be able to endure the Elder Energy traveling through your body. That’s why we will first start with physical training.”

Ria unsheathed her sword. It was a basic steel longsword, though it was masterfully crafted. Its hilt curved towards the blade, which had small writing written on it. She handed over the sword to Lewiht.

“It’s not that heavy,” Lewiht said as he held the sword.

“Yeah. Swords are quite light, contrary to popular belief. Still, it’ll tire you quickly with constant swings. Also, it will probably be too heavy for Melaia, so we need to find something for her to use sometime.”

“Fondeioth,” Lewiht read the writing on the blade. “Which language is this?”

“Lykorian,” Ria replied. “It means The Verdict.”

“The Verdict.” Lewiht moved his fingers through the edge of the blade. “That’s a nice name. Are you from Lykoria?”

“My family is. They moved to Kel’daras before I was born. Though they moved back after I had enough money to let them retire. That’s why I’m going back to Lykoria. Enough chatting, though. Try to swing it a few times. Don’t focus on your form yet, just try to get a grasp on how the sword reacts to your movements.”

Ria made Lewiht swing the sword hundreds of times over the course of an hour, and Lewiht was already out of breath in the first ten minutes. It was just like she said—the sword was not heavy, but swinging it constantly put so much force on his joints and muscles, which tired Lewiht quickly. When his muscles burned in pain after the one-hour mark, Ria focused on Melaia while Lewiht was resting. The Verdict was indeed too heavy for her, so they found her a nice staff that she could use. Ria’s approach to Melaia was different—she made Melaia focus more on the form of her swings with the staff and her general footwork.

After both of their training ended, Ria prepared a workout routine for both of them. It wasn’t too intense, she just wanted to make them do some bodyweight exercises. Of course, both of them were too tired after their training session, so they decided to start tomorrow.

“You should stay here too, Melaia,” Lewiht said. It was already evening and they were getting ready to sleep. “It’s better than staying among the crew.”

“Okay,” Melaia said, smiling. “I’m sleeping on the floor anyway. I can adapt here quickly. Let me go grab my things.”

Melaia left the cargo hold, leaving Lewiht and Ria alone. The entire room was only illuminated by a single candle on top of one of the barrels. The ship was shaking gently, anchored to the sea floor—although they couldn’t see any land piece, they were still in the territorial waters which made it possible to anchor. They rarely traveled at night.

“You know,” Ria broke the silence. “You’re a good person, Lewiht Teremon.”

“Huh?” Lewiht looked at Ria in surprise. “What happened all of a sudden?”

“She’s smiling from ear to ear thanks to you. That’s worth something.”

“I don’t know,” Lewiht said, sitting under a barrel. “It’s hard to believe that when you’ve killed two people.”

“Well, for what it’s worth, I believe you are a good person despite that. I’ve met a lot of killers in my life and what I learned is that… The world is not only black and white, even if some people like to think that. I’m not saying what you did was right, but I’m not saying what you did was wrong either.”

Lewiht smiled bitterly. “Thanks, Argent.”

“Ria.”

“Okay. Ria.”

They stood there in silence for a while, the only sound breaking this comfortable silence was the sound of waves crashing to the ship. Then suddenly, Ria unfastened the straps on her armor and started to get undressed, starting from her gauntlets.

“What are you doing?” Lewiht asked, glancing away.

“You didn’t think I was sleeping with my armor, did you?”

“I… I actually did, for some reason.”

Lewiht took a peek at her and saw her smiling. God, she was so beautiful while smiling.

She slowly doffed her armor, revealing her muscular body. She only wore two pieces of loincloth. Beads of sweat were running down her toned body which made Lewiht feel… things.

“You know,” Lewiht said, trying to look away as Ria was drying her body with a towel. He failed. “You could take my small place there. It is the best spot in this cargo hold. It is surrounded by three different crates which makes it really good when the waves shake the ship. I can sleep like… over there too, wouldn’t be a big problem for me.”

Lewiht was just saying things for the sake of saying things.

Ria chuckled and put on a shirt. “No need, but thank you for your chivalry.”