The cobbled streets eventually gave way to a lonely dirt path at the outskirts of town. A tall, dilapidated building loomed at the end of the path, its windows boarded up. Sections of wall panels hung loose, creaking whenever the wind howled past.
There were no lanterns here. The only light came from the orange glow of the harvest moon seeping through the gaps in the roof.
The sickly-sweet stench of stale vinegar, burned incense, and decay wafted over us as we drew near.
The little girl stopped before the length of faded, rotting rope that cordoned off the building. A wood placard dangled off it, swinging. It read: “Warning: Plague past this point!”
“She’s in there. She used to answer me when I called her. But these days it’s mostly coughs.” She pulled nervously at her hemp dress. “I’m sure she can hear your singing from here.”
“I told you before, I don’t have my voice right now,” I admonished her gently. “I will need to see her up close.”
“But she’s not allowed to come out.” The girl hung her head, looking dejected. “It could get everyone sick, they say.”
“Then, I will go to her instead. You stay out here, and don’t let anyone else come in. If anyone shows, tell them to wait for me.”
The girl stumbled a step back from me. She looked me up and down, her large eyes focused upon my beige knitted-wool dress. “You… you don’t have the beaked mask, or the wax cloak! The wardens wouldn’t even step close without their leather and their herbs. You can’t go in there like that!”
I stepped up to the rope. “I will be fine. She’s the only one there?”
“Everyone else had already passed. She went in healthy… to take care of my brother.” She rubbed at her eyes again. More tears dripped from her face down to her frayed shoes. “Please, you can’t go in like that. You’ll be lost just like her. Everyone will blame me! I’ll be stoned!”
“No one will blame you, and no one will harm you. I won’t let them.” I knelt down to reassure her, squeezing her shoulders.
“Then… let me… go with you. Then if you die…” she gasped between sobs.
“I won’t die. The plague won’t touch me. You’ll see.”
I didn’t mention that the [Tiara of Solace] would keep me safe since I still sensed the other pair of eyes on me.
It’s never good to reveal too much.
I wiped the girl’s cheek with my sleeve. “Now, what’s your name?”
“Lottie,” she answered sniffling.
“Lottie. I will cure your mother, but it’d break her heart if you got sick afterwards. So stay out here for her, and remember what I asked you to do.”
I left a set of [Shadow Fingers] behind just in case.
Stepping over the rope, I made my way into the house.
—
The heavy door shrieked as rusty springs slammed it shut behind me, sealing me in the suffocating darkness.
The smell of vinegar was stronger here, making my eyes water. Burning incense churned the air with a bitter, medicinal smell, but all the scents couldn’t hide the fact this place reeked of death.
The lack of light was no hindrance to me; my [Shadow Fingers] found the way easily enough.
I ascended the stairs, and the wood creaked beneath my supple lambskinned shoes.
This place hadn’t been well maintained.
No need to repair a place that people are tossed to die in. They’d rather just not think about it.
I entered a large hall. Thin beams of moonlight poked through the perforated, rotted ceiling above. They lit up rows of beds stretching out before me, pale white sheets stretched over mattresses with bits of straw sticking out the sides.
They were empty, but a few still bore the body imprints of their previous occupants.
At least they bothered to take out the dead.
A beaded bracelet left on a bed caught my eye. It looked like one worn by a child, a little girl’s even.
If I had known earlier, would I have come here to save her?
But there were plagues occurring everywhere in the kingdom. Even Aaron’s diary mentioned them.
I can’t save everyone. My bracelet’s ‘clear one ailment’ ability only recharges once a week.
And what if Mama, the Maids, or someone from my family got sick?
I know… I’m just making excuses.
A weight pressed down upon my chest.
I came to a stop at the end of the row. A woman lay on the last bed, curled up in a frayed blanket, shivering. Her condition wasn’t great. Her sweat-drenched hair clung tight to her pale, slick skin. Her breaths wheezed raggedly.
A wooden cup of water and a meager chunk of bread sat on a tray on the floor nearby. The tray was askew, likely shoved there by a warden using some sort of stick, and neither the bread nor water had been touched.
They hadn’t starved her, but they hadn’t made sure she actually ate or drank either.
Just another sacrifice, left alone to die and be forgotten.
“Lottie’s mom? I’m here on behalf of your daughter. She’s waiting for you outside,” I whispered as I sank down beside the bed.
“No… not her as well.” The wretched woman groaned, twisting against her blanket. The wild mess of her hair spilled around her. Her eyes were still closed as she coughed, her fingers clawing at her throat as she struggled to breathe.
I grabbed her hands, stopping her from tearing into her skin with her nails.
I should know. My experiences with such things are still fresh in my mind.
“Easy… She’s not here. I didn’t let her follow me.”
At that, all the tension left her muscles and she sank back into the bed. The coughing stopped, but she was still wheezing.
The expected dialog box appeared, superimposed over her shivering body.
I focused on the “Accept” button, and the wheezing finally stopped.
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She blinked, looking up at me. “What… Are you Death? Will I see my boy now?”
That’s a first. I have never been mistaken for Death before.
The thought made me smile.
“No, you will live and see your daughter. She needs you still.”
She tried to sit up, and I helped her. I raised the cup to my lips first, tasting the water. It was clean enough. I gave her a sip. The bread was hard, and I didn’t want to risk it, so I told her to rest while I got things ready for her to come out.
Even if I did clear the disease from her, I had no idea if she was still contagious or if her clothes were.
Better safe than sorry.
I went outside to Lottie, who was still in tears when she saw me exiting the building.
Another momentary spurt of dizziness took hold of me and I sank down on one knee.
“Lady Flower!” The girl shouted in alarm, running toward me.
“No. Stay away until I can get cleaned up. This is just… my usual sickness.” Waving her back with one hand, I slowly pushed myself back up.
“Your mother is better now. But can you go get a change of clothing and some fresh food for her? Actually…”
I mentally opened up my bracelet inventory. A silver coin appeared in my hand, the pale moonlight glinting off of it.
“Here, take this.” I tossed the silver over to her. The girl scrambled to catch it, jumping with a start as she realized what it was. “Buy some food. And get someone from the inn to bring over a bucket of water and a towel. Heated water, if they have it…”
After a few more instructions, she ran off, leaving me alone in the night.
I turned to the deep shadows between two trees. “It’s just you and me, now. You can come out for whatever it is you wish to do.”
A figure stepped out. She wasn’t wearing her samurai outfit anymore, and instead had on only simple trousers and a rough linen shirt. Her straight black hair which had flowed down her back before had been crudely chopped short.
But her face I instantly recognized. “Ishikawa Ayaka, it’s been a while.”
She looked at me with those very same jet-black eyes, burning with intense hate.
The bitter taste of her soul can be only one thing. The way Leticia had looked at Anthony is the same as the way Ayaka is staring at me now: wrath.
“So you came to take your revenge? I already told you it was in self-defense? But I suppose that wouldn’t matter to the likes of you.”
“You’re sick. I saw you stumble before, and just now,” she noted in her heavily accented Avatinian.
“Does that mean I can take a postponement on this meeting? Or…” I narrowed my eyes, looking at the sword sheathed at her side. “Is that the reason you’re showing yourself now?”
She drew her sword, and to my surprise, it wasn’t a katana but a rapier. And judging by the quality, it wasn’t an upgrade.
After her escape, she must have had to make do with whatever she could scrounge up, which would explain the clothes, and her general unkempt look—so very different from when I last saw her.
Given my current condition, I decided to risk an Identify, just to verify what I was seeing through my eyes.
She had gotten substantially better since I last saw her, and was now above Takashi’s level when I faced him.
Right now, her [Atk] and [Def] were above mine.
Of course, stats aren’t everything.
“You! What did you do to me?” she growled at me, clearly disturbed by the use of my Identify.
“You’ve been training hard. Did you go to a dungeon?”
“None of your business. Today you die.” She raised her rapier.
I could stop her with my spells. I could even simply escape with my [Shadow Shroud]. But that felt wrong to me.
She had stayed in the Kingdom instead of going home, and trained non-stop in this unfamiliar land.
She had poured all her body and heart into this revenge.
It felt cheap to just flick it away with magic.
Let’s see what she has in store for me.
“Do you need some time? You don’t seem very steady.”
She gritted her teeth, aiming the point of her rapier at me. Her stance was off. The blade wavered.
But even without that, the gap between her and me now isn’t greater than it was with Count Dorlin.
She deserves a chance.
“Then come.” I curled my fingers, beckoning to her.
I had no weapon, so attacking wasn’t really an option this time.
—
Her eyes move ever so slightly to a point behind me. Her front foot inched forward. Magic flowed around her in a pattern that was by now unmistakable to me.
It was one both Count Dorlin and her father had used.
I spun around just as she materialized behind me, thrusting her rapier at me. I wasn’t fast enough to catch her blade this time, but my sleeves were wide, hanging loose off my arms, and they were made of thick wool.
I presented my hanging left sleeve to her and her thin blade stabbed through it, but my body had already turned sideways in anticipation. My hand grabbed the wool-wrapped blade, and I yanked her toward me.
She was already committed to a lunge, over-committed actually. Her weight was too far forward, and her feet were not inline.
She might’ve only recently learned how to use the weapon.
My pull on her blade caused her to stumble forward. I stepped into her, and she threw an elbow at me out of desperation. But I had the center line with my lead leg between her off-balance legs, all it took was a shove to her chest to throw her to the ground.
Thud!
She landed hard on her back, and began gasping for breath, the wind knocked out of her.
I leaned over her. Up close, her cheeks and eyes were sunken, like she had been malnourished or starved. The reason she was shaking now became clear.
And right on cue, her stomach gurgled, a long and whining sound.
This entire situation made me burst out laughing. “Hungry? You know, even if you are afraid you might lose it, a proper meal is a good thing before any battle.”
She glared up at me with hateful dark eyes. “Damn you, demon spawn!” she spat at me.
My laughter dried into a chuckle. She’s rather close to the mark.
But there was something I noticed when I stared down at her, something I noticed last time as well: her eyes, the way they were drowning in anger and pain, those weren’t the eyes of a killer.
With one hand still gripping the wool-wrapped blade, I forced the hilt back into her trembling hands. Then, I positioned the tip against my throat.
“Go on, kill me. Push it up into the base of my throat, right here.” I dared her, pointing up at where the metal tip pressed against my soft skin.
She grimaced and closed her fingers around the hilt. She pushed upward, but there was no force behind it, and the blade wavered sideways.
I held the blade steady, not letting her pull or look away. The tip dug into my flesh, but it didn’t break through.
She struggled, her hands trembling as she attempted to push. Then finally, she squeezed her eyes shut and a ragged, broken scream tore from her throat.
“Nwwaaarrrghhh!!”
Her hands released the hilt and covered her face.
“I’m sorry, Father… I’m sorry, Brother…” she sobbed to their killer.
I stood up and let the rapier drop.
“Go home. Rest up. Get a sword like your old one. And train up. Then come back for revenge when you’re ready.”
She sat up. “I can’t go back. The Clan won’t take me. No one there left.”
“No mother?”
“Mother gone. Now, Father and Brother are gone. I am the last of my name!” She wailed, picking up the rapier again. “That sword was one passed down in my family for generations. Now that’s gone too. I sold my clothes to get this weapon, and it’s all I have!”
She screamed again, gripping the hilt of the weapon as she pressed her head against the blade.
Heavy footfalls pounded up from behind us. “You leave My Lady alone!” Beatrice’s voice rang out behind me.
She was charging down the trail at Ayaka with a rake in hand. I swung back to Ayaka, who had just caught sight of the attack. Her rapier shot up, no deliberation, no thought, no hesitation, just pure reflex.
My hand reached to bat the blade away, but it was at that point that another wave of dizziness struck.
Right at the worst time possible.
My mind was too scrambled to cast a spell. I couldn’t aim with my hand, so instead I fell forward, wedging myself between the two of them.
When it came to who was getting hurt between me and Beatrice, there was no choice.
The tip of the rapier stabbed through the wool and into the right side of my chest. The thin blade pushed through my flesh, slicing my lung, and grated against my ribs.
Ayaka’s eyes widened. She must have heard and felt it. The sound and the sensation weren’t that of metal against bone, but blade grinding against blade.
I winked at her, pushing myself up off the ground with the rapier embedded in my chest.
Pain throbbed and a moist, dark red stain spread from the shaft of the blade. But I was otherwise unaffected.
She stared at me in shock, dropping back into the dirt.
Had she realized there was no way she could’ve had her revenge?
Lust: Salt
Despair: Sweetness
Greed: Savory
Pride: Spice
Wrath: Bitter
...
Show I include a Character Key/Glossary?
