Qin had been locking his shop’s alleyway door when he heard his guest leave the workshop area and vaguely hesitate behind him, as if she was unsure what to do.
Which, was understandable, he had practically pushed her into the shop when all was said and done. Though, if she was going to continue lollygagging from near that doorframe, he was going to have to—
However, that line of thought was interrupted by his guest’s solemn voice “My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, and I’m here to…begin our discussion.”
Louise Françoise Le Blanc…well, it would have to be shortened. That name, as far as Qin was concerned, was a mouthful. Louise de La Vallière would be easy enough to remember, he supposed. Shame the girl was proud enough of her name to say the entire thing at once.
Qin nodded, “Louise de La Vallière, then; as reasonable a name as any other, I suppose. I trust you won’t take offense at my shortening of it?” though worded as a question, his tone presented it as anything but.
“That would be…fine” Louise struggled out, her fingers unconsciously picking at her new clothing in the process, “I…what do you want?” the nervous noble asked in a quieter voice, “I can’t give you anything for this.”
“I am…unsure at the moment” the old man truthfully answered, “To be honest, you gave me quite the surprise in that alleyway.” Qin admitted, “In fact, I would have been exceedingly more distraught with you had those chemicals not been an issue. However, that point is moot. Now that I’ve had enough time to think about this in further detail, I find myself vaguely questioning my sanity.” at that point, he chuckled.
The noble couldn’t believe what she was hearing, “I could…leave?” Louise asked in a hopeful tone.
“Now, no need to sound so happy about it” Qin remarked, amusement in his voice, “I’m not that bad.”
“I-I didn’t mean it that way” Louise quickly tried to correct herself, failing to hide an embarrassing shade of red that was beginning to cover her face, “It’s just that—” she began, fumbling her words, “—What I mean to say is—“
“None of that” Qin promptly interrupted, raising his cane to poke Louise lightly in the stomach, causing her to unintentionally let out an ‘oof’ sound, “and in response to your question; No, you can’t leave. Want to know why?” the old man asked rhetorically as he reached into his sleeves, made a show of pulling something out, and grabbed ahold of one of Louise’s hands, causing her to flinch.
Within the silence of Qin’s shop, three pieces of metal could be heard dropping dramatically into Louise’s hand, “Because you are now my assistant!” Qin continued, voice filled with elation as he smiled widely towards her.
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You have completed the quest, Perfect Timing!
You received: Blue Collared Clothes!
You have received a Job offer!
If you accept, you will become an assistant to the old alchemist, Qin, at his storefront northeast of the city marketplace.
:You will be paid 3 copper pieces per day.
Yes | No
Louise could do nothing but stare at the three copper coins in her hand as scores of blue windows appeared and disappeared before her vision. With confusion, the noble lifted her eyes hesitantly away from the coins, towards Qin; and then back to the coins again, several times. Louise would have thought she was in a dream by this point, if it hadn’t been for the long interlude she had spent in the abyss; even then, she wasn’t so sure anymore.
Slightly scrunching up her face in an amalgamation of emotion, as she had been put off balance so often since her arrival here, Louise settled for a nice and simple response; that is, she laughed.
“When I made that decision, I did not envision laughter to be your response”, Qin stated, voice tinged with confusion.
Yet still Louise laughs, she just couldn’t help it. It had been one thing after another since her summoning ritual, each making less and less sense, and now this. Really, why hadn’t she seen it before?
“I’m Insane.” she attempted, and partially succeeded, to say over her laughter, “You, This World, That Abyss; all of it is a nightmare. I’m somehow in a waking delusion, or in a coma, and just haven’t woken up yet! It’s the only solution that makes sense!” Louise continued, her laughter now coming out in choking gasps as she gestured frantically about with her hands.
Qin, for his part, wisely chose to stay silent, and listen.
“I must be Insane.” Louise repeated, “It must have been the ritual; I just failed, like always, I never agreed to anything, did I? Coming to in a city full of elves – of all things – the bane of humans, while they chat with nobles and common traders, as if we care about nothing they’ve inflicted upon us?!” once again, bubbling hysteria bursts forth and the pink-haired noble is sent to the floor in another bout of laughter.
“And the Orcs!” she struggles out amidst tears, “Since when were the Orcen actually intelligent?! Child-Eaters, the lot of them. No civilized child of Brimir would barter with such savages, not even if their life depended on it!”
“And you!” the hysteric noble shouts as she points a shaky finger Qin’s way, “You’ve just confirmed it! Would you believe that I was actually scared?! That I came to this place, stripped of what visible assets I had, given such disgustingly coarse commoner clothes and junk; then I run into you, of all people?!”
“Who does this?!” Louise ranted, “Who welcomes someone that wronged them into their house? Gives them clothes, far softer than the trash I had, and then offers them a-a job, of all things?!” shakily standing to her feat, Louise points an accusing finger towards Qin, “You’re not real!”
Turning away from Qin, Louise stomped her foot hard into the shop’s wooden floor, “Your dreaming, Louise! Wake up!” she yelled out within the shop, “Wake—!”
That was his cue. With a speed betraying years of practice, Qin lifted up his wooden cane and brought it down upon his new assistant’s head with a loud *thwap* that echoed throughout his shop and left his cane wobbling with the force applied. The target of his attack, for her part, was now tearfully clutching her head; visibly trying to withhold her tears, but slowly failing in that endeavor.
-30 Health
Afflicted with: Staggered!
“Do you not feel pain?” Qin asked, his voice calm and forceful, “Are you not clutching your head, trying not to cry?”
Lowering his cane, Qin brings it down onto the wooden floor with a loud *thump*, “Do you not feel the vibrations of the wood beneath your feet? Hear the sound of force as it meets object?”
“Did you not just painfully run into my door some hour and thirty minutes ago?” he continued, lightly tapping his cane against the wooden floor as he spoke, “Can you not see the sights around you; hear them? Are you so distraught that you cannot smell the dried herbs and other scarcely used ingredients that pervade this place?”
“You can sense such things; in fact, you are experiencing them now. And if I am experiencing these same things as you?” Qin finished at last, lightly poking Louise in the arms as he spoke, “Then I am real; and you are not dreaming.”
“Then how?” Louise asked, exhaustion coating her voice, “What other explanation is there? How are creatures such as them allowed to wander this place with such abandon?”
Slowly, the pink-haired girl began to curl into herself, “I’m a noble; I might be a failure of one, but I’m still a noble; a Vallière. I was at the academy, before this. How am I here now?!” as if to emphasize her point, Louise slams her body into the wooden floor in a fit of defiance.
-5 Health
New Stat: Resilience
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“And why, by the holy void, do I keep seeing these blue windows?!”
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Qin allowed a few moments of silence to pass between the both of them as he thought upon Louise’s words. He hadn’t at all been sure of the soundness of his decision in offering the girl a position. She had appeared from nowhere, after all, and the choice had involved more of a flight of fancy than actual logic. However, what he had previously assumed to be coincidence was revealing itself to be anything but.
Qin had expected disbelief, suspicion, or perhaps even thanks. What he got, on the other hand, left him very alarmed. The girl, Louise, hid her feelings well. His offer should not have caused such an extreme reaction as hers, but it did; and he could now see, plain as day that she was far from what one should normally expect of her kind.
The girl’s assumptions were disturbing, her actions were on a hair trigger, and there wasn’t anything he could see that hinted towards either of those changing anytime soon. Which left Qin exceedingly confused because the girl was obviously one of the Freed; but she just wasn’t acting like it. Something was very, very wrong; the freed always journeyed to the realm with purpose, if this was not the case…
He would have to get her talking again.
“You are lost.” Qin began, staring at Louise intently through his aged vision, looking for a hint of movement, “You don’t know where you are, and so you’re confused, scared, and so many other emotions. You see things that you do not understand, events that are foreign to your experience of how the world works; or your culture.”
There! There it was; movement.
“You say you’re a noble; that you aren’t from here.” pausing briefly, he gently nudged the girl with his cane, “Did you speak with Gaea?”
He could hear the girl stirring, and hair tumbling as his blurry vision sees Louise slowly sit up and stare at him. The grip on his cane tightened at her response, “Who’s Gaea?”
“Someone you should know, if even vaguely.” Qin answered in a serious tone, “The first sight you saw of this city was the square, yes?”
He heard the shuffling of hair; sees the blurry form of Louise’s head rising and falling, “All who come here, see Gaea” Qin tries to explain, “What did you see before the square?”
The girl tells him.
Outside, he hides his expressions well; but inside, he is horrified.
[p=center]*^*[/p]
Louise stares at Qin with a confused expression on her face as she tries to clear out her emotion ridden thoughts. The old man’s attitude had taken on a sudden shift since her exhausting outburst. His face, which had smiled, worried, even frowned; now showed nothing. His was as expressive as a brick for all the good she could tell.
The change had started with his questions. Questions that Louise had answered; but also left her feeling drained, even more so than her previous outburst. Then the old man asked her to describe the abyss; and now she couldn’t even feel herself think, let alone pay attention to his words. She felt…numb, was a good word for it.
Louise was startled from her thoughts when she saw the old man’s mouth begin to move again.
“Please, say that again?” the young noble asked for the umpteenth time, it was getting harder for her to concentrate.
“You should not be here.” Qin repeats, slower than before, “If you are telling the truth, then you were unwillingly taken from your home, and should not be here.”
Dark thoughts clouded Louise’s tired mind at those words; because she already knew that.
“You are what we call, ‘Freed’; those who are not native to this world.” Qin continues, trying to explain further, “The continent of Versailles is watched over by the gods, and over them, by Gaea. It is she who enables the Freed to make the journey here. You should not be here. No, it shouldn’t even be possible for you to be here; because all Freed must be willing, and wish to make the journey, for it to take place.”
The old man pauses, as if realizing something, “Gaea does not connect to others, others connect to her.” With a sense of urgency, Qin pokes Louise once again with his cane in order to get her attention, “How did you connect to Gaea?” he asks.
Louise blearily stares at the old man before sluggishly massaging her temples, “The Springtime Summoning Ritual” she tries to explain to the old man’s blank face, “But I failed, just like I always do. It’s supposed to summon something, not…” the noble gestures tiredly around her, “…this.”
A quiet ‘Ah’ escapes Qin’s mouth as he stares at her, “Then you were willing.”
Exhaustion briefly leaves Louise as she yells at Qin with an offended look on her face, “I was not! The ritual doesn’t work that way! It brings things to you, not the other way around!” she finished angrily, turning her face away from the old man, “And what do you know, anyway?! You’re a commoner! I don’t know why I even bothered.”
Moving exhaustedly to try and leave; Louise was stopped by a firm hand, “No” Qin stated with a shake of his head.
Louise’s face took on a shade of pure rage to match her angry expression, “What—“
“I am not a commoner, Miss Vallière” Qin interrupts with a hard tone and a firm hand, turning the girl towards him while holding her in place, “You are a very angry girl” the old man continues, his voice containing a hint of something indiscernible, causing her to unconsciously shiver as a result, “but do not let your temper control you in this. Peace.”
Louise, for her part, stares at the old man with rapidly fading anger and a face that might as well have been carved from ice, “How?” she asks, her voice full of suspicion.
“What I do cannot be learned, or practiced, without sacrificing much.” Qin answers with a voice that could chip stone, and eyes that somehow find their way into Louise’s despite the fading of his sight. He holds her gaze for a few moments, causing her unease to grow, before finally sighing to himself and looking away.
“Your ritual brought forth a connection to Gaea, which is not hard to notice.” the old man explains, steadily tapping a foot against the wooden floor in a calming rhythm, “Through that, you unintentionally agreed to Gaea’s offer and allowed yourself to be sent to this world.”
“But…” Louise begins before unexpectedly trailing off, “But I can get back…right?”
Frowning at the question, Qin absentmindedly strokes his beard before answering, “Of that, I cannot say. The Freed somehow manage it, but it is through their own methods and the will of Gaea.” Closing his eyes, the old man turns away from Louise, “Though my offer was originally intended to be a choice, I do not think such applies any longer”
The old man turns towards Louise with a grimace on his face, “I’m afraid I must insist you stay now; if only to learn the way of things so that your survival here may be eased.” reaching into his clothes, Qin pulls out a silver coin and holds it towards the young Vallière, “Take this, and consider it advanced pay. You will be given a three-piece per day of work, and I will also provide room and board.”
You have received a Job offer!
If you accept, you will become an assistant to the old alchemist, Qin, at his storefront northeast of the city marketplace.
:You will be paid 3 copper pieces per day, as well as Room & Board.
You cannot decline this offer
When Louise didn’t move to take the silver coin, only staring at his hand as if it was a live snake, Qin grabbed one of hers and placed the coin within, “I was doing this out of the good of my heart, before. Now, I am doing this because of necessity.”
Congratulations, you have accepted Qin’s offer!
You are now Qin’s assistant!
“A native of the Versailles can move countries” the old man says as he moves away from Louise, “but a Freed of Gaea can move worlds.”
Tiredly, Louise looks at Qin, a silver coin clenched tightly in her hand, “Just tell me where I sleep.” she finally demands.
Lightly lifting his cane, Qin takes the end and actively nudges Louise towards his shop’s second floor stairway, “The guest room upstairs. It is the red door on the right.” The old man answers before pausing in thought, “You'll want to close the curtains, you look like you'll need all the rest you can manage.”