Qin felt his hunger growing at the veritable ensemble of ingredients that he had gathered together for breakfast. However, the star of the morning would once again be rice, just as it had been for the last month and a half. Now, he would admit that he had always been one for some variety; but the dish kept well, was cheap, and played nicely with others.
Although, Qin wondered how kindly his guest would take to it. He assumed she would be out of her room momentarily; he had given her ample enough time to sleep after all…
“Oh?” Qin wondered aloud as he noticed his tired, gloomy guest uncertainly shuffling about in front his kitchen door. “Thought you might come down,” the old man chuckled ruefully as he lightly fanned the flames within his iron stove, “I had half a mind to make you eat after we finished our little conversation yesterday; but you looked dead on your feet as it was.”
Louise’s stomach decided to make itself known by that point, though she distinctly lacked any outward sign of having noticed. Morosely, she looked down at her feet. Something was different about her.
“Well? Sit down.” the old man continued, ignoring the girl’s unusual behavior, for the moment, as she worked her way over to the kitchen table and found a chair. “There,” he said after a pause, closing his fan and setting it aside before turning to Louise, “Now, have you had tea before?” Qin asked.
“Of course,” Louise responded tiredly, resting her head against the kitchen table as her pink hair began to sprawl itself across its surface. “Mr. Qin.” the pink-haired girl suddenly began, “I…I would very much like an explanation.”
Audibly sighing, the old shopkeeper picked up a rather rough looking teapot and began to pour a particularly murky liquid into two porcelain cups that he had taken out from one of his cabinets, “I don’t suppose you could wait till after breakfast?” he asked curiously, “You’re not exactly up to the task, from what I’m seeing.”
“No, it can’t.” Louise insisted quietly as she continued to rest her forehead on the table, “I had—hoped…“ she explained, her voice cracking in the process, “…I don’t—I can’t…”
The young girl paused in an effort to better articulate her words, before letting out a shaky, world weary sigh, “I don’t know what I had hoped…” she finished lamely, before chuckling self-depreciatingly, “First my magic, then my nobility, and now, all this.”
Heading over to Louise while she continued speaking, Qin wiped away a large swathe of her hair from the table before setting down two nice, clean cups of tea onto the table, one on his side, the other by Louise’s head. “It would help…” the old man began slowly as he sat down, across from her, “…If you could be more specific.”
“What’s the point?” Louise asked rhetorically.
“Indulging the whims of an old man,” Qin responded calmly, lifting up his cup and taking a small drink, “Now talk.”
“Fine,” Louise replied with a sigh, not even seeing the point of resistance as she tiredly lifted up her head before looking away from Qin, “I was hoping that I would have woken up after I fell asleep; a lot of good that did.” she explained quietly, “It feels like everything I do and everything I try to achieve either blows up, is impossible because I just blew it up, or is slapped out of my hands, crushed and mutilated, because the universe just simply doesn’t want me to succeed.”
“Is that it?” Louise asked Qin, morbid curiosity filling her voice, “Is it that I’m not allowed to succeed?”
“I’ve had to crawl, endure, and tear my way through almost every single aspect of my life; and this is what I get?” the distraught noble asked the old man before her in wonder, “What about those books that told stories of victory against amazing odds: What about General Martel, the only man to succeed against the elves aside from Brimir himself, or Captain La Hire, who defended the capital of Tristain, against all odds, and did not fall!”
“Where’s my victory?” Louise quietly asked as she lightly rested her head against the table in front of her once more, “Where’s my success?”
“I was ready,” the young girl practically whispered, “to trek over mountains, through forests, orcen and even the elves themselves, to get home; because, I believed I’d succeed, despite everything else, in spite of the past.”
Louise gestured up lazily with her right hand, “Then I look up,” she continued, “And see an alien sky. No familiar stars to light my way, not even the ever present light of the Twin Moons to guide my path; just one moon: pale white, uncaring, and harsh.”
“At least I could choose when to be a zero before this.” Louise muttered to herself bitterly, “Now I can’t even do that.”
“So, please give me an explanation, some information about the Freed, anything…” the young Vallière found herself asking, almost begging Qin as she raised her head to look directly his way, “Because if I’m going to be stuck here for the rest of my life, I at least want to know where here is.”
[p=center]*^*[/p]
Louise was gasping; face red and breath short while she embraced the silence that filled Qin’s kitchen as a result of her quiet rant. It would probably be her last, as she just didn’t quite see the point in them anymore; they only hurt now, anyways.
She had always thought of the sky as the one thing that couldn’t be changed. No matter where she went in Halkegenia, it would always be there, always the same. None could change it, not even the elves, and that gave her strength; because, what was everything else in her life, when compared to something like that?
So, Louise was…done, finished; and though the Vallière in her wished to keep fighting, even in spite of that, what was there to fight? Nothing, not even her mother, had made her feel as helpless as she felt now.
With a loud *clack* of porcelain against wood; Louise was drawn away from her thoughts, and towards the old man sitting across from her. “You sound as if you’ve given up,” he said, voice carefully neutral as he lifted up from his seat and headed towards a boiling pot resting on top of the kitchen’s iron stove, “it hasn’t even been two days.”
Louise felt a small amount of shame at Qin’s words. He was right, she knew; but she could only delude herself for so long. “I had time to think on it, before I fell asleep; about what you said of the Freed,” she responded in a low voice, “If such a thing is possible; I’d fail it in some catastrophic, explosive way. I wouldn’t succeed.”
She sighed, rubbing her eyes as she spoke, “So, in a manner of speaking, yes; I’ve found myself resigned to the situation.”
“If I wasn’t a Vallière…” Louise began, shaking her head with closed eyes while her voice weakly tapered off. It was best not to think about that; it wasn’t a thought meant to be contemplated, anyway.
“I see,” Qin acknowledged with a heavy sigh, his back turned away from Louise as he stirred the boiling pot on his stove, “Alright, I suppose there’s no helping it then.” he began, his tone tinted with…something, “Would you like me to start from the beginning? Or do you have something particular in mind, first?”
Louise debated with herself over Qin’s question, taking that moment to finally reach for the teacup that had been resting by her side for quite some time, and looked to be cool enough to drink. Absentmindedly, she picked up the cup and took a sip; only to discover her stomach beginning to rebel from the murky drink the moment it touched her lips.
Qin’s Special Brew: Soothing Jasmine Tea
Thirst restored by 10 points
-10% Stamina
+20 Intelligence
+20 Wisdom
+10% Mana Regen.
It…needs some work, -Everyone.
Coughing quietly, Louise covertly spit the horrid mixture back into her cup before gently setting the porcelain container onto the table in front of her with an apprehensive expression on her face as she spotted yet another of those blue windows appearing before her eyes. The drink – as she refused to think of that concoction as tea – had caught her off guard; fortunately, she now knew, at least, what needed to be asked.
“I’m not crazy!” Louise finds herself blurting out to Qin, trying to assure herself, more than the old man, of that particular fact, “It’s just…I keep seeing things that shouldn’t be there; blue windows, covered in nonsense.” She quickly clarifies, before finishing lamely, “I-I’d like to start with that.”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Qin found himself chuckling, despite the panic in Louise’s voice, “Now, no reason to sound so worried; it’s not something to be panicked over.” He quickly assured with a light tone, continuing to prepare dinner as he talked, “Those are gifts from Gaea; as most of us affectionately call them. The Freed refer to them as something different; but it’s all semantics in the end, they’re all one and the same.”
Suddenly, the old man pauses before letting out a humorous chuckle and then outright bursting into laughter, startling Louise, “I’ve just had the cleverest of thoughts.” Qin informs the young Vallière, half of a mischievous grin blatantly showing itself on his face, “You fancy yourself a failure, yes?” he asked rhetorically, not even deigning to hear a response as he quickly continued, “What would you say if I could teach you some Freed Magic?”
Louise…isn’t quite sure she heard him right. The old shopkeeper’s words were too sudden, and she couldn’t find herself able to properly articulate a response, no matter how hard she tried. She mustn’t have heard him right; yes, that was it. She had misheard the man. However, either Qin hadn’t seen the blatant warring of emotions on Louise’s face, or he just wasn’t paying them any attention; because he quickly dropped what he was doing and practically leaped over to the kitchen table.
“Yes” Qin confirmed, his words practically painted over with a childish smile, “What if I could teach you Freed Magic?” he repeated his words, as if tasting them, before surging onward with a force almost akin to nature, “Here, repeat after me: Show Stat Menu!”
“What? But I can’t!” Louise protested almost instantly, “It’ll explode! It always explodes! What about the Kitchen?!” the pink-haired girl demanded.
“No-no-no-no” the old man continues to insist, his mouth spread into a wide smile, “It won’t matter, I won’t care! Now, repeat them! Repeat the words!”
“I-I-AAAARRRGH!” Louise screams in frustration before tightly closing her eyes and shouting, “Show Stat Menu!”
…Where was the explosion? Did it already happen? Louise couldn’t bring herself to look, going as far as to actually try and turn herself away from the table as she continued to clasp her eyes tightly shut. Her body was shaking like a leaf; but whether it was from the growing death grip that she was beginning to exert on her chair, or something else, was hard to tell. Louise’s routine was breaking, the absoluteness of the status quo she had lived with for almost her entire life…wasn’t there.
“Where is it?” Louise whispered to herself in absolute horror as she sat there, frozen with indecision, “Why didn’t I hear it?”
Behind her, she could hear Qin’s quiet voice, “Open your eyes, Louise.”
With a quick blink and she was sent reeling; flinching back so fast that she might as well have touched molten metal with her bare hands. Once again, she opened her eyes, only slower and with caution; there, she saw it.
[quart=Character Name,Alignment]Let,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]1,None[/quart]
Title
None
Fame
0
[quart=Health,Mana]100,300[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]10,10[/quart][quart=Wisdom,Intelligence]10+[20],10+[20][/quart][quart=Luck,Leadership]0,0[/quart][quart=Resilience,]1,[/quart]
Vitality
10
Attack
0
Defense
3
Magic Resistance
N/A
-10% Stamina[1:58:28]
+10% Mana Regen[1:58:28]
It was a giant blue window, bigger than any of the others that Louise had seen. Nice, straight, and orderly lines flowed through the floating image, as if they belonged there, while foreign and indiscernible glyphs scattered themselves within the images confines. No, she couldn’t have done this.
She turned to face Qin slowly, her hands shaking, “This is a trick; it has to be.”
“No trick,” the old man responded, smiling, “Just replace show with close; those two can be cast in succession as many times as you like.”
Almost robotically, Louise turned away from Qin to face her blue window, “Close Stat Menu” she said firmly.
The giant illusion vanished; and the young Vallière almost felt the disappearance as akin to a physical blow as she rocked back and away from its previous position. There was…something emerging from deep within her chest; like a weight or a door simultaneously being lifted and opened. No, NO! What if…what if she couldn’t make it come back?
A wave of despair almost sent Louise crashing to her knees as she scrambled for her words, eyes slowly growing blurry as something wet and moist began to leak from her eyes, “S-Show Stat Menu” she shouted again, for the second time.
It couldn’t, wouldn’t appear again. Please don’t, the pink-haired girl found herself silently begging. She wouldn’t be able to bear it; not now, after she had finally figured come to a choice. Please—
Something gave in Louise at what she saw.
[p=center]*^*[/p]
His kitchen was a mess; Qin briefly noted as he looked on his surroundings. He could see that one of his chairs was toppled to the floor while lukewarm tea and porcelain shards could be seen soaking and scattered along his kitchen’s wooden floorboards. The rice boiling on top of his iron stove was likely overcooked by now; and would be more porridge than actual rice, if it were to be eaten. However, as he looked down at the wailing girl that was clutching to him for dear life; her face buried into his stomach as she actively, and quite messily, smeared tears and snot into his robes…well, he couldn’t quite bring himself to care about all that.
It was a good, healing cry in his humble opinion. Unlike the previous ones, which had been more fits of emotion and venting; this one was something else. As if the barrier leading to a stagnant pool had been broken, and was actively being drained.
Clothing status effect: Soiled
Taking note of the text, Qin dismissed the image before awkwardly reaching down to gently pat the crying girl’s back in sympathy.
He couldn’t help but feel a bit nostalgic from it, really; and could remember doing this in the past, once upon a time. Though, inevitably, the old man shook his head free of such memories; they had no place in this moment, after all.
Looking away from the pink-haired girl and back towards his stove, the shopkeeper couldn’t stop himself from letting out a small sigh.
He hoped the girl would like rice porridge.