[Rex’s POV]
It was unfortunate that mine and Rose’s birthdays had to come at such an inconvenient time, especially after all I put her through this year. I felt my present to her ought to be a little more thoughtful than the usual wooden carvings, but I wasn’t exactly in a position to go shopping.
There were only five days left as well, so even if I immediately sent a carrier bird to the capital, it likely wasn’t going to arrive in time. Maybe if Bubblin cast Haste, it would work out.
I decided it would be best to send a simple letter first, and worry about the gift when we saw each other in person. At least then I didn’t need to rush anything.
Then again, Clara’s birthday was just a month after ours. Then her parents were in the same week after that, followed by Jasper the week after.
I let out a troubled sigh. Gift giving was never really my thing. The holiday seasons were already bad enough, but having four birthdays back to back? And all of them direct relatives? It was implied that they would be comparing presents to measure how much thought I gave to each of them individually.
Another deep exhale escaped my weary throat.
“Is it really such a bother to take a walk with your Princess?”
Alma kicked me in the shin with a look of displeasure.
“Ow! It’s got nothing to do with you. Although…”
“What?”
“Don’t you have like a dozen siblings? How do you guys handle birthdays?”
“Is that what concerns you? What a strange set of priorities you have. You do remember that you’re heading back to Farrowgate tomorrow?”
“War is simple, family is stressful.”
I shrugged.
“Wow. We really are alike. Alright, I’ll tell you how I handle it.”
She seemed to be taking pride in giving advice on this matter, as she straightened her already rigid posture and allowed a smug grin to leak through her icy exterior.
“Send money to their personal assistants and let them choose something. They’re more likely to know what they need at any given time anyway.”
I silently judged her.
“What’s with that look? What’s wrong with this method?”
“It’s so impersonal.”
“What would you suggest then? Guess what my eclectic rabble of a family wants, and end up disappointing all of them?”
She seemed legitimately offended at my criticism.
“Well, what do they give you then?”
“Money.”
She answered bluntly.
“They don’t know anything about what tools or materials an artificer wants, so they just give me the means to purchase them myself.”
She clapped her hands as if she had received a revelation.
“There you go, send your family some money. Problem solved.”
I decided further discussion on the matter would be pointless.
“You’re sure this person has what I need, right?”
I changed the subject while we made our way around a corner, where an imperial supplier had recently arrived with provisions.
“Of course. It's not as though the item you requested is difficult to come by.”
“Maybe in Kronenstadt, but here, they're impossible to find.”
The supplier—a young woman in her 20s—took one look at our approach and immediately pulled out a small birdcage covered with a cloth.
“Rex Jaeger? I have your order here. That will be 50 silver.”
“What a reasonable price!”
I happily threw in a little extra and took the cage from her.
“How'd you know it was me, though?”
“Her highness gave a description in her letter. There aren't many young men with red hair who smell like a forest after rainfall.”
I looked at Alma with a blank expression.
“What? It's accurate. My whole office reeks of nature because of you.”
Sniff sniff.
I checked the claim and verified its integrity.
“My dormmates don't complain.”
I shrugged and eagerly lifted the veil to reveal a sleeping bat.
“Can't say I've ever had this kind of request before, but considering the price you paid, I can't complain. Even if I did get nipped a couple of times.”
Personally, I felt 50 silver was way too cheap, but I wasn't going to say that out loud.
“Show me the bites, please.”
The woman hesitated, but apparently decided there was no harm in it, removed her glove, and held out her hand.
“Hm… Wow, they must like you.”
I nodded with relief.
“Real bites would leave black splotches around the wound and cause necrosis of the fingers and toes. These are bites of affection.”
She scoffed and withdrew her hand.
“Is he serious? This is just some run-of-the-mill bat I found in some old lady's dusty old cellar. There's nothing special about their bites.”
Ignoring her, I reached in and delicately fed my finger under the bat's feet. As planned, it automatically shifted to me without awakening.
“Hmm… Yep, it's definitely what I wanted.”
With a satisfied smile, I inspected the creature carefully with my eyes, careful not to touch and wake it up.
“You see the veins through the webbing on the wings? Note the slight glimmer here.”
Alma and the supplier both leaned in, squinting.
“No.”
The supplier shook her head.
“Kind of?”
Alma's squinting became so intense that it felt a little intimidating. And right on cue…
Kiriri?
The bat moved one wing aside to peek out at the commotion and came face to face with her.
Kree!
It bore its fangs and bit her nose.
Alma, ever the warrior, didn't even flinch. She quietly glared at the bat even as blood trickled down her face. And then she slowly produced her firearm.
“Whoa! Hey, calm down!”
I nestled the poor, frightened creature into my bosom, where Tiara quickly emerged from my jacket to pull her new roommate in.
“Bring out the offender, Mr Jaeger. We can find a new one, I'm sure there's plenty around the forest at night.”
“No! I told you, these ones are unique, look!”
I grabbed a hand mirror from a nearby open crate and held it out to Alma.
“Yes, beautiful.”
She nodded sagely.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Not that, look at the bite marks.”
“Hm? Ah, black splotches.”
She commented dryly. A bright silver glow travelled beneath her skin, up from her chest and into her face. With a faint hum of power, the wound spat out a viscous dark fluid. She then wiped the blood clean with the back of her hand.
“Wh-what the?”
The supplier looked baffled at the quick exchange.
“It's just aura cycling to remove impurities, nothing difficult. Though it did confirm that this creature contains some strange toxin…”
Alma put away her gun and addressed me curiously.
“What is this thing? And how did you know about them?”
Now that she was ready to acknowledge the greatness of my find, I proudly prepared to introduce my amazing friend.
“This... Is a regular bat.”
I paused for effect, then quickly continued when Alma reached for her gun again.
“A bat that has consumed a staggering amount of mana and has become a magical beast as a result.”
Alma folded her arms. No longer hostile, but still expectant.
“Father Bernhard once told me about them. The priests have to regularly clear them out from the sewers, or they'll start to mutate after feeding on all the magical waste that comes through their home. It's mainly due to all the wizard towers in Kronenstadt. I'm surprised you didn't know this.”
Alma shrugged, but the supplier came to her defence.
“I've lived in the capital all my life, and I've never heard anything about this.”
“Really?”
I felt confused. Were they just unaware, or was this not common knowledge? Father Bernhard certainly made it sound like a common nuisance that all members of the church had to deal with, so I figured everybody in the city knew about it.
“Well, it's true, that's what that stuff is.”
I pointed to the liquid that had been expelled from Alma moments earlier.
“Basically, it's dirty mana. Since the bats aren't natural born magic users, they don't regulate their mana properly, and it stagnates within their bodies. When they bite down hard, it gets pushed into the victim, which contaminates their mana as well.”
“Oh, I see why you wanted this so bad.”
Alma nodded thoughtfully.
“In your hands, this accident of nature could become a legitimate threat to magic users.”
“Exactly. Impressive, isn't she?”
I pulled back my jacket just enough for the wide-eyed little bat to be seen.
“...Fine, I'll forgive the beast. Though I want to know why you didn't do this earlier.”
“Screwing this fusion up could cause some big problems for me. Now that I have Inner Forge, it becomes much safer.”
Fusing with one of these bats would put their dirty mana directly into my body. I may be immune to poisons, but if I didn't purge the bad mana from the inside, it would still eliminate any future mana that enters my body. In other words, even after fusing with Tiara, magic would be permanently inaccessible to me until the blockages were cleared.
“I see. Does this mean you have everything you need now?”Alma nodded to the supplier and led me back out, keeping her voice low as we walked.
“Yes, we can go get Skrake’s gift and start practising right away.”
We made our way to the flower shop where Merk had formerly set up his base. It was still abandoned and was one of the few buildings that hadn’t yet been repaired at all after the attack. Likely because it served no function, so it sat at the bottom of the priority list.
We waited until the coast was clear, then ducked inside and locked the door.
The interior had undergone a significant revamp compared to before, with proper furnishings and a new coat of paint to cover the previous damage. This was all done quietly by Alma, or rather, the mechanical creations Alma had hidden there.
They weren’t anything like the robotic designs from Earth, lacking the sleek appearances meant to appeal to the eye. Rather, Alma’s creations favoured function over form, causing them to appear more like clunky, clockwork contraptions.
One such object was loudly rolling around the room on two wheels, a trio of long, metallic grabbers busily picking up the leaves that followed our footsteps from outside.
“You know, you could install a suction function, then this thing could clean the dust, not just larger objects.”
I commented as I sidestepped the little automaton.
“Not a bad idea. I suppose I could enchant one with a Vacuum spell.”
“Yeah, vacuum would be a good name for the machine, too.”
“What? Name it after its function? That’s stupid. I’ll call it a floor flourisher.”
I held my tongue, though it took great effort not to laugh at her terrible naming sense.
After spending so much time with Alma, I had grown used to seeing these machines here and there, though I still didn’t understand them very well. Professor Kuhn’s drones used spirits to move around and power the functionalities he installed, but that didn’t seem to be the case with Alma’s.
“You’re thinking of pulling it apart, aren’t you? I already warned you once.”
She read my mind as she caught me staring at the cleaning automaton. I only tried pulling apart the coffee maker once, and she still hadn’t let it go.
“I just thought maybe I could replicate it, that’s all. It would be handy to have a little metal maid that I don’t need to pay.”
“You can’t. Artificers are rare for a reason, you know? Our skillsets are highly advanced.”
She almost lovingly picked up the automaton and flicked a switch, shutting it down.
“If you really wanted to learn, you’d have to drop practically every class you’re in and withdraw from participating in any missions for at least ten years.”
“...Pets are better anyway.”
I immediately lost interest in pursuing the life of an artificer.
“Where did you put it?”
I changed the topic, looking around the room for the reason we were there.
“It? Usually, you would bite my head off for referring to your pets like that.”
“This one technically doesn’t have a gender. They reproduce via a process similar to parthenogenesis, though the embryo develops within a corpse rather than within the creature itself. It’s a fascinating process, if you ever want to look into it.”
“I don’t. That sounds abhorrent. It’s over here.”
Alma, barely containing her disgust, walked me over to a suspiciously protruding part of the wall. The same wall that Lily had found the bodies hidden behind, and that Merk had torn down for investigation.
“You were already aware of what transpired here, correct? Well, rather than fill in the area, I thought I would repurpose it.”
Alma pushed on the wall lightly. It clicked inwards, then automatically opened back towards us, revealing a small room. The floorboards had been torn out, and dark, foreign soil had been dumped in a mound on the ground. There were shelves with various glass jars containing a thick, transparent goo and different organs suspended within.
“This is… Better than I expected from you.”
I commented, legitimately impressed at the effort.
“What’s that supposed to mean? You’re the one who gave excruciatingly painful specifications for this habitat. Did you think I wouldn’t be able to follow them?”
“Well, considering the subject, I wouldn’t have been surprised if you half-assed some aspects.”
As if the topic of our conversation knew we were talking about them, they suddenly emerged from the soil.
It resembled a bone-white scorpion, no bigger than the palm of my hand.
It looked up at us and clamped its pincers expectantly. Understanding the signal, I took the nearest jar, opened the lid, and knelt down in front of the little creature.
Snip snip.
The scorpion raised its pincers and happily snipped the air. And then, an explosion of fleshy noodle-like appendages burst from its chest and began draining the contents of the jar dry.
“Gross.”
Alma frowned.
“What? Haven’t you been the one feeding it until now? You should be used to this.”
“I was referring to you. Why do you have that look of childlike glee after seeing something like that?”
“Do I?”
With one hand, I felt my face, confirming that I was indeed grinning.
“Haha, I guess I can’t contain myself. I’ve only ever read about these guys in the book Father Bernhard gave me. It’s exciting to see it for myself.”
I continued to admire the scorpion, even as it drained the jar and began tearing chunks from the necrotic lung within.
Marrowthief. That was the name of this creature. The scorpion we were looking at was just a shell. The remains of the host body this marrowthief was born into. Those stringy appendages were the real body, and wormed their way into the corpse, puppeting it around even when only a skeleton remained.
Though it sounded rather sinister, they were typically harmless when they were born into such small bodies. They only liked the taste of decay, so they would either feed on leftovers like carrion or kill something small and portable, then save it for later.
That said, a marrowthief born into something larger, like a bear or a human, would need much more to eat. As such, it's not unusual for them to hunt humans and collect their bodies in a den somewhere.
“These things aren’t native in any empire territory, are they? Where exactly did you send that strigae to find such a thing?”
Alma asked.
“I don’t know where she went exactly.”
I shrugged.
“Strigae are known to breed them as assistants for their hunts. They’re basically no different from a hunting dog in their culture. Skrake said she had access to a ‘farm’ somewhere in another nation when I asked about them, though she refused to tell me the specifics.”
“But why a scorpion? Wouldn’t it benefit you more to get something larger? More intimidating?”
“Not at all. Fusion is about the soul, not the body. I benefit the same from this as I would from a marrowthief in the form of a dragon.”
“Alright, I get the theory behind it.”
Alma sighed and shook her head in disbelief.
“I can’t believe an entire port town is about to be shut down because of a bat and a parasite.”
“That’s assuming everything goes how I want it to.”
I offered my hand, and the marrowthief crawled up and latched onto my wrist, almost like a bracelet. I could feel the slimy strands tickling my skin as it familiarised itself with my scent.
“Your file says you need a strong bond of trust to fuse properly. Can you make that happen in just one night?”
“All these questions are coming a little too late into the game, don’t you think? We’re already committed to this.”
Alma fell silent for a moment, then relaxed her shoulders.
“You’re right. Still, put my mind at ease, won’t you?”
“Primal Soul has become more efficient since the attack on Borderton. I’m sure I can pull it off, but it won’t be without risk. The fusion should hold up physically, though I doubt I’ll be able to remain entirely myself, mentally speaking. This should be fine, though. In fact, it might even be preferable. I will need to be as heartless as possible, so an animal's mind could be more reliable.”
“You say that so casually. As if losing yourself doesn’t matter to you.”
“Of course it does. But it’s only a temporary thing.”
The conversation awkwardly petered out there. I had no way to know what was going through Alma’s mind, as she kept a perfect poker face as she continued to stare at me.
“Anyway…”
Seeing that she was neither leaving nor talking, I decided to move things along myself.
“I still need to figure out what form is most suited for this. I’ll be spending the night here testing things out.”
Alma just nodded, then walked out of the shop without a word.
I had the uncomfortable feeling that I was being carefully assessed.
***
[Alma’s POV]
I returned to my office, preparing to sleep on the couch, as had become routine for me since being stationed in Borderton.
Tomorrow, we would be marching on Farrowgate with the majority of our forces. If all went according to plan, Soleo would be forced into a paralysed state within a week, and it would only be a matter of time before they had to sit at the negotiation table.
Many of us had put in the effort to make this happen, and yet most had no idea we were so close to victory. In fact, even I couldn’t claim to be the driving force that carried us so far.
It was all thanks to one student. Barely a man, yet he acted with the maturity of someone who had experienced a full life already. The more I observed him, the more confusing he became.
It was certain that he intentionally misled people in some ways to protect himself, but it was only recently that I began to realise that he lied to himself more than anyone else.
He claimed that altering his mental state was fine because it was only temporary, but could such a thing be true? From the way I understood it, in his particular case, it was more than just hearing the thoughts of another and closer to truly becoming them.
That kind of perception shift had to carry with it some permanent side effects. And when one considers that he had to practice this for seven years before becoming proficient, one would have to consider just how much his mind has already been fractured.
How much of Rex Jaeger was still himself? How much had he already lost? Was he even aware of it?
Could he go so far because he was just that determined, or was it just because he had lost what made him human?
As I closed my eyes, his varied expressions rose unbidden in my dreams. Out of them all, the one that stuck with me was his genuine smile. One of pure happiness from engaging in his interests. One that held no calculations behind it.
It was a good look.
