That it had taken this long for a true setback to materialize was nothing short of a miracle, but Malwine was still a little bit peeved.
Intangible as her double appeared to be—so long as she didn’t go out of her way to try and interact with objects around her—she suspected there would be no issue traveling during The Fire, but she still wanted to avoid it if she could.
Testing [Earthless Glory]’s maintenance cost had been easier than she expected, as it seemed to be consistent.
[Toll] 21 → 22
Not for the first time, Malwine wished she had a way to properly track time. She’d have to get a Trait for that at some point, though she didn’t prioritize the matter. An hourglass would work just fine, and she’d finally managed to catch a glimpse of one. One of the maids had one, though what she was using it for was beyond Malwine.
Hours would probably still be the same time here. Right? Her mind had barely recovered from the differences in months and years, so she tried not to theorize too much for now.
Still, the [Toll] would be accrued roughly every minute, perhaps slightly over. It meant that after the initial cost of creating the double—assuming she didn’t have to unmake it and remake it to change the Skill attached to it—she would have a little more than 73 minutes to walk around with it. And she could do it twice a day if she allowed [Toll] to decay naturally and timed everything right, perhaps thrice if she meditated.
Putting more points into Circulation was starting to sound more and more imperative.
As for the first real setback… to explore, Malwine would have to make it to the nearest settlement—probably Beuzaheim, though Kristian’s description of it as relatively close was not encouraging.
But a more pressing issue was that asshole who kept patrolling the area past the wards.
Malwine had taken to shrouding her double in the most obnoxious black veil she could still see through—the outfit beneath now all black as well—and trying to run as far through the path as she could manage before she noticed movement and dismissed the double.
She knew this had to be the path that led to Beuzaheim—it was the one Kristian had left through to get those baby supplies she’d yet to confirm the existence of, after all—but actually crossing the distance was being an absolute pain.
If she was lucky, Veit would just assume it was one of those monsters he’d warned her about, and not actually some crazy veiled lady. Hopefully. As an intangible double, she did not particularly care for his reactions, just for not being identified. Covering her face through the stretch had simply been necessary, since she really wanted to use the widow’s appearance as a front-facing persona.
In this run, she’d remained undetected for over ten minutes, as her [Toll] helpfully supplied. At least she could simply return to the last spot she’d been in rather than be forced to start over—her carefully curated patience about it might implode if her progress was reset every time she had to dismiss this form.
Beuzaheim was far and Kristian was a little liar. Between all her attempts, she’d been walking for over an hour, and she’d yet to catch sight of it. However, the distance between herself and the area that seemed to belong to the family’s estate had clearly grown. She suspected Veit would no longer be an issue this far out, not anymore.
As for the location itself, annoyed as she was by not having a name for it beyond ‘the estate’, Beuzaheim might have been as good a place as any to get information.
Malwine still made a note.
MAIN THINGS TO FIGURE OUT:
— Why was Beryl cursed?
— How can I make Elflorescence regret existing and/or possibly handle the aforementioned existing?
— How did I become me if Beryl’s kid was supposed to be dead?
— When was I born and how did stasis affect the timeline for me?
— I should get everyone’s birthdates while I’m at it, it’s essential information.
— Who does {Ore} come from?
— What’s up with Katrina’s parentage?
— Was OBeryl in a cult?
— What the hell do you mean, ‘history of fell presence’?
— Seriously, what is this area called?
Either way, being outside of that area left Malwine with just, well, having to continue walking through a gravel path while wearing an oversized veil that she could not remove because it wasn’t real, and while the double felt realistic enough, it wasn’t actually made up of separate parts.
She flinched as she heard voices, and noticed how at the next turn of the path, there was a wagon by the side. A group of young people either lounged or slept around it, and she got the impression that they were drunk.
“Keep the drinks coming, master Michel!”
It was certainly more than just an impression now, and this mysterious Michel was either nowhere to be found or the man who appeared to be passed out over the edge of the wagon.
Malwine tried her best to ignore them and hope they weren’t some staff who got lost. That would certainly make things awkward when she finally started keeping track of them.
A woman waved at her, unsteady on her feet. “You alright?”
Feeling her eye twitch, Malwine wondered why—apparently—people felt the need to interrupt her perfectly normal walks no matter which form she took. “I shall visit Beuzaheim for the first time, and I am in a rush.”
“Oh, dear, walking?” the woman’s eyebrows went up in tandem, and she hiccupped once before speaking again. “You’re still ways out, should have hired a carriage.”
If they hadn’t been drunk, Malwine might have asked them whether they were also headed for the city. “How far?”
“Eh? It’s around half an hour unencumbered? Walking, I don’t know.”
Again, Malwine hoped they had the same idea of what minutes and hours were. “Thank you.”
At that, she broke into a clumsy jog, trying to get further away from those people before they could drag her into another unwanted conversation. Running as her double wasn’t as tiring as it would have been to a real person, but she’d literally wrapped herself up, so it wasn’t sustainable.
She’d half a mind to just dismiss the double and eat the cost of summoning it back with whatever she could pass as era-appropriate exercise clothes. She’d seen Thekla wear pants before, anyway—it just wasn’t appealing when trying to play dress-up in a new world was an option. In this case, it would have to do for practicality’s sake, though.
Malwine slowed as she continued seriously considering the matter. It’d cut her time as the double shorter, but she could probably make it further this way.
With a sigh, she did it, dismissing the double and resummoning it in long-sleeved jogging clothes that appeared to be knitted. It was about as believable as a ‘historically’ retextured outfit in a game would have been, but it would do.
It didn’t take long for her to notice that while the double wasn’t a genuinely physical being, it did seem to take into account how fit she was. Namely, not very much, as far as both the widow and Malwine went. She’d never have been able to run like this as herself, but true speeds were beyond her.
Going with the completely arbitrary assumption that she could go at roughly a third of the speed a faster carriage would go in, this would still take longer than this round would last.
[Toll] 65 → 66 Your [Earthless Glory] Skill has improved! 2 → 3 You have reached Level 61!
Malwine smiled, dumping the thousand attribute points into Circulation. Her [Toll] capacity leapt to 105. Her smile faltered once she realized that’d mean she had no excuse to not run for even longer.
I might have seriously underestimated just how tedious actually getting there would be.
Exploring Beuzaheim would be worth it—probably. It would beat being stuck home all day, at least.
The rest of the run was uneventful, aside from Malwine frequently questioning the wisdom of the decisions that had led her to this point.
[Toll] 104 → 105
She slowed down and dismissed the double before it could collapse—better to quit than to lose, or however it was that the saying went.
Though it hadn’t been exactly planned, she’d ended up playing around with the double during a meal again. The timing between the end of the first meal and the start of the fourth was just about enough for her [Toll] to clear out.
Boredom followed soon enough, though. If things were going to go anything like the past week, some random staffer would show up and take her to her room.
That reminded Malwine of something important—it was never too late to start taking the census!
She’d initially started thinking of it as a joke, after that maid annoyed her, but it was actually a good way to figure out who worked here, and to learn their names. Even if she didn’t properly learn them, she could always just check.
Malwine resummoned her family tree panel to ensure she got the ages of everyone right on that front. She was sure she could recall them without it, but it was always better to verify the source when you had it on hand.
Unknown (Rīsan?) + Unknown (Rīsanin?) - - - - Someone with {Ore}?₁ + Beryl Skrībanin₂
\ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . /
Kristian Rīsan + Katrina Skrībanin †
|
Beryl Rīsanin
₁Isn't dead???
₂Might have died around The Fields of 5750
---
Children born to Kristian Rīsan + Katrina Skrībanin (—The Cold of 5786)
1. Beryl
2. Thekla
3. Anselm (The Fog of 5769—)
4. Kristoffer (The Fog of 57??—)
5. Alaric
Children born to Kristian Rīsan + Bernadette fon Hūdijanin (The Forgetting of 5769—)
1. Matilda (The Snow of 5792—)
2. Paul
3. Adelheid (The Forgetting of 5798—)
4. Benedikt (The Fields of 5802—)
With that, she started populating the table she intended to turn into her census. The fields were a bit harder to choose—age was a must, but other details sounded like they might be harder to fill. For one, while she very much would ask people for their marital status, would they actually answer? I guess I could always go with the old ?? if they don’t.
And if she was going to include that, she might as well add others she might not be able to fill! Malwine chose to make the relation field relative to the House itself as an entity, however, rather than to Kristian himself. Grandfather or not, he did not give ‘head of household’ vibes. Besides, she could do literally whatever she wanted in her own panels.
As she started adding her family members, Malwine found herself wincing. What did any of her family members do for a living? Did they work at all? She was pretty sure Bernie was just into household management, and Anselm clearly didn’t do anything other than hide in his room, but what about everyone else?
Kristian got bumped off the first spot on the list as she thought about it. After that, Malwine couldn’t help but think about how—wow, Kristian has a lot of kids. Again, it was far from the highest count she’d seen, but it was… a bit much, seriously. Johann Fastēn and Veit went next on her list, though she added some light quotation marks to the latter’s name, just as he deserved.
Malwine resisted the urge to add Abelard somewhere, then started staring at the maid that stood a few feet away with a broom. The other one had walked by a while ago, but Malwine had long since decided she would be the last on the census, after all.
“Hi.”
The maid turned to her, but did not stop cleaning. “Hello.”
“What’s your name?”
“Anna.”
“Just Anna?”
“Anna Franziska?”
“Cool,” Malwine nodded with a smile, adding the information to her list. “How old are you?”
“Thirty— Is this a special interest kind of thing?”
“What?” Malwine blinked. Probably? “I’m working on my homework, which is learning that people have names, and that sometimes they are Grēdôcavan.”
She could have sworn she heard the maid mutter something along the lines of ‘What in any Devil’s name is going into lessons nowadays?’ before Anna Franziska answered. “I am thirty-three years old. That’s eleven times three if you’ve started your tables. I am indeed also Grēdôcavan.”
Malwine’s smile widened as she took notes. Granted, to Anna Franziska, she probably just looked like a strange toddler looking at nothing.
“Were both of your parents also Grēdôcavan?”
“…Yes? That tends to be the case for most people.”
“Okay, and…” Malwine stopped herself from just phrasing it as ‘What’s your marital status?’. How would an actual child phrase that? Even if she didn’t have to be extremely careful, she didn’t want to be too weird. “Are you married?”
“No,” Anna Franziska tipped her head, finally forgetting about her broom. “Were your parents married? I know your mother is Rīsan’s eldest, but I’ve yet to hear who your father is supposed to be.”
Is literally everyone in here looking for Beryl? Malwine knew she shouldn’t complain, but it was still unexpected. “I don’t know. Beryl’s my mother, I don’t know who my father is.”
Anna Franziska nodded. “Maybe once your mother is found, she will tell you.”
Oh, how I wish. Though by now, Malwine was just assuming the guy was an asshole, and she was going to show him what it meant to be reverse disinherited if she ever met him.
“In any case, you’ll find most people aren’t married unless they have potential,” Anna Franziska continued. “No one really cares what you do with your assets or who you have kids with if you’ll never be able to cultivate. It’s not a bad thing, mind you. Only nobles and cultivators care.”
That was one thing Malwine didn’t expect—she’d been working on the assumption that this was a place along the lines of some stock European landscape. While in the widow’s family history it had certainly been true that no one really gave a damn about what common people did, she hadn’t thought the same would apply in a place like this.
Still, I didn’t expect a ‘most people aren’t married’ type of situation.
“How do people know who their fathers are, then?”
Anna Franziska had resumed her work, so at the question, she froze again, wincing. She probably thought it was a sensitive matter for Malwine. “You normally just tell them. I have a child myself, and she knows her father is Malcolm. There really is no reason to not make it known.”
“Are births registered or something?”
“Yes, there’s a registry somewhere in town. I don’t know how it works firsthand—it was he who went to register her birth.”
Internally, Malwine felt giddy. She had confirmation that there would be documentation out there. “In town as in Beuzaheim?”
“Yes.”
“Okay,” Malwine nodded. “Does Malcolm also work here?”
“No, he’s a tailor in Beuzaheim.”
That was a shame. And though she already knew there were no children around aside from her own family members, Malwine still asked. “Does your daughter live here too?”
“No, she lives with Malcolm while I work.”
Nodding again, Malwine debated how to handle this new information, and how it might affect her fledgling census. In the end, she decided to add a field to quantify offspring, resorting the columns while she was at it.
Now what? It wasn’t lost to Malwine that she could just ask Anna Franziska about the others, though she had initially intended to ask everyone individually. But in a real census, it wasn’t as though the census taker would have to ask every single person. On the examples she knew of, they just took one declaration for the household. That might impact accuracy, but Malwine could always make a new one later on.
Anna Franziska was back to cleaning, no doubt unaware of how the rest of her evening was going to go.
Malwine almost felt bad for her… no, not really. She was still smiling.
The maid was able to provide some facts Malwine lacked from the fields she’d filled on her own, like the antiquarian’s age—and though she didn’t know in which months they were born, she did know the ages of most of her uncles. They were apparently older than Malwine had been giving them credit for. If Anna Franziska’s numbers were correct, Kristoffer had to have been born in either 5781 or 5782, and Alaric in 5786—since in the case of the latter, Malwine could narrow it down thanks to knowing when Katrina died.
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Unknown (Rīsan?) + Unknown (Rīsanin?) - - - - Someone with {Ore}?₁ + Beryl Skrībanin₂
\ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . /
Kristian Rīsan + Katrina Skrībanin †
|
Beryl Rīsanin
₁Isn't dead???
₂Might have died around The Fields of 5750
---
Children born to Kristian Rīsan + Katrina Skrībanin (—The Cold of 5786)
1. Beryl
2. Thekla
3. Anselm (The Fog of 5769—)
4. Kristoffer (The Fog of 578?—)₃
5. Alaric (The ??? of 5786—)
₃Born on either 5781 or 5782.
Children born to Kristian Rīsan + Bernadette fon Hūdijanin (The Forgetting of 5769—)
1. Matilda (The Snow of 5792—)
2. Paul₄
3. Adelheid (The Forgetting of 5798—)
4. Benedikt (The Fields of 5802—)
₄Born on either 5794 or 5795.
Much better.
By the time someone did come to pick her up and take her to her room—and of course it was another Margreth, just her luck!—Malwine’s census had a dozen additional people on it. The only real issue had been how Anna Franziska didn’t know how to answer for the parent fields on most of the others, but again, that was something Malwine could handle later.
She did end up finding a married couple among the staff, too. Overall, it had been a productive endeavor. Malwine stared at it again as she went to sleep, all too overjoyed. There was undoubtedly room for improvement, but this would do for now.
Numeration Name Relation to House Age Marital Status Children Occupation Nature Father's Nature Mother's Nature 1 Bernadette fon Hūdijanin Head of Household 32 Married 4 Homemaker Grēdôcavan ????? ????? 2 Kristian Rīsan Husband ? Married 9 ???? ????? ????? ????? 3 Thekla Rīsanin Stepdaughter ? Single 0 Unemployed? Grēdôcavan ????? ????? 4 Anselm Rīsan Stepson 32 Single 0 Unemployed? Grēdôcavan ????? ????? 5 Kristoffer Rīsan Stepson 20 Single 0 Unemployed? Grēdôcavan ????? ????? 6 Alaric Rīsan Stepson 15 Single 0 Dependent Grēdôcavan ????? ????? 7 Matilda Rīsanin Daughter 9 Single 0 Dependent Grēdôcavan ????? Grēdôcavan 8 Paul Rīsan Son 7 Single 0 Dependent Grēdôcavan ????? Grēdôcavan 9 Adelheid Rīsanin Daughter 3 Single 0 Dependent Grēdôcavan ????? Grēdôcavan 10 Benedikt Rīsan Son 0 Single 0 Dependent Grēdôcavan ????? Grēdôcavan 11 Johann Fastēn Employee 71 Single ? Antiquarian Grēdôcavan Grēdôcavan Grēdôcavan 12 'Veit' Employee ? Single ? Forester ????? ????? ????? 13 Anna Franziska Employee 33 Single 1 Cleaner Grēdôcavan Grēdôcavan Grēdôcavan 14 Maria Employee 52 Single 0 Cleaner Grēdôcavan ????? ????? 15 Friedrich Employee 49 Single 0 Cleaner Grēdôcavan Grēdôcavan Grēdôcavan 16 Helga Employee 44 Single 0 Cleaner Grēdôcavan ????? ????? 17 Maria Employee 27 Married 0 Cook Grēdôcavan ????? ????? 18 Johann Employee 28 Married 0 Cook Grēdôcavan ????? ????? 19 Maria Employee 36 Single 2 Cook Grēdôcavan ????? ????? 20 Franziska Employee 41 Single 0 Gardener Grēdôcavan ????? ????? 21 Gretel Employee 53 Single 0 Chef Grēdôcavan ????? ????? 22 Hilda Employee 45 Single 1 Attendant Grēdôcavan ????? ????? 23 Margreth Employee 46 Married 3 Attendant Grēdôcavan Grēdôcavan Grēdôcavan 24 Anna Maria Employee 47 Single 0 Attendant Grēdôcavan ????? ????? 25 Klaus Employee 44 Single 0 Attendant Grēdôcavan Grēdôcavan Grēdôcavan
Even as she fell asleep, her giddiness did not fade.
----------------------------------------
As she ate the meal she dubbed maybe-breakfast, Malwine’s spirits remained high. Perhaps, in her efforts to keep asking Anna Franziska questions, she hadn’t quite processed how close she was to finding actual records.
Using [Earthless Glory] was no longer simply a matter of exploration, no—there were answers to be had! Even if they didn’t let some random old lady view the records over at Beuzaheim, she just needed to get a general idea of where they were. She could then either fire off [Remote Reading] on her own, or send a double with it.
Having practically inhaled her oatmeal, Malwine sent the widow off again. To her perception, the world shifted, returning her to the path.
Back to jogging.
As much as it made her a bit self-conscious, there was just something about running like this that gave her a sensation of freedom. Without this double, Malwine herself would be years away from managing anything like this. Hell, the widow in her prime couldn't have managed this. Even if it was a double and this didn't physically tire her much… she would dare say it was far more fun than she expected.
Her newfound knowledge about the records was a factor, sure—if at the very least, birth records existed, that was already bound to be an invaluable opportunity.
Malwine was so caught up in her own reverie that it took a while for her to notice the feeling in the back of her mind—it wasn’t quite the screaming of [Unpacifiable], more of a dull ‘Am I forgetting something?’ type of sensation. It was probably nothing.
At last, Malwine caught sight of what vaguely looked like buildings in the distance. There did not appear to be noticeable city walls around it, at least from here. It was probably—
All of a sudden, she found her view obstructed by a wall of bright light. She stopped on her tracks, going right through it—she’d been pretty sure her double’s passage would indeed be hindered by things getting in the way, but she might have been wrong…
As she looked around, Malwine’s confusion only grew. Above, she could still see the same cave rocks as always. It was then that she finally understood, as she lowered her gaze, and noticed smoke coming from the loathsome obstacles she’d encountered.
Oh. I just ran into the literal The Fire, didn’t I?
Once again, she was incredibly glad that her double couldn’t quite feel things. She’d considered this might happen, but she had been so close. It was embarrassing, really.
With a sigh, Malwine continued running in the direction she believed was the one where she had seen Beuzaheim.
Really, the hardest part was resisting any and all urges to tell herself that this was fine.