With the book containing my possibly earliest memories in my backpack, I strolled through the camp following Hannah. We did have a specific target, which was inside the supply corps. It was still dark, but the sunrise loomed already on the horizon.
As such, we had to hurry a little and only stopped to greet the guards standing around nicely. But at our destination, a larger tent with loud snoring inside, we weren’t greeted as nicely though once the dwarf inside woke up.
“Who … what do you want during this time?” The blacksmith asked while I looked to the portable melting furnace with a bit of hope.
“Maybe we just wanted to visit an old friend?”
“My saint, your friend here shouldn’t joke around during this unholy time.”
“She’ll stop. I have to ask you for a favour.” I said and put the backpack onto the ground. Fishing around it a little bit, I quickly found the lengthy round object I was searching for and took it out. Opening the case, I revealed my broken glasses to the blacksmith and handed it over to him. “Can you fix this?”
“You might need to ask an alchemist for that.” He proposed which made me look at him a little dumbly. Did he see any alchemist running around or was there something else I missed?
“There is no one nearby. Can you do anything? It should be magical. Maybe the magical circles are just broken?”
“For me it looks like a glass has been nearly shattered.”
“It usually repairs itself.”
“It does? That’s weird … these glasses have no magical signature whatsoever.” They didn’t? I always assumed it was barely noticeable and not enough to track me down. “So maybe … no, infusing mana into it doesn’t work either.” I could have told him that would be useless as well. I never did so before after all. “These look like normal glasses. Brilliantly made, but still normal sunglasses.”
“These are the reason I can see during the day. Is there nothing you can do?”
“I may be able to help if you can tell me how they work.”
“They … ehm …” How should I know? I merely used them. Any effort into finding out how they worked seemed like wasted time so far. I mean, they came out of an old shoe from a beggar, so applying logic to it in the first place was kind of a hopeless cause. The only lead I had was that Irminsul seemed to know something … and then she vanished.
“I can’t help you.” Well, if that was his final answer, then so be it.
“Fine.” I said and retrieved the case along with the glasses right away. “Are you coming with us?”
“So it’s true? That you intent to forage all the meals you need?” He asked while I went over to the furnace and knelt down in front of it. Stirring the embers in it a little, I smiled brightly and turned around to access my backpack right away.
“It is … we need a skilled blacksmith who can work with whatever we find though.” I admitted and pulled out the rather heavy book in front of him. As he didn’t react to it at all, my guess was that it wasn’t magical as well, even though it certainly was in my eyes.
“Is that a challenge?” He asked while I turned around once more and threw the book into the furnace. The book directly started to burn nicely and flames erupted from it.
“It certainly is.” I said quietly and stirred the fires further by using a iron rod.
“I can’t say no then, can I?” The dwarf asked, slightly interested in the book I burnt, but not enough to go out of his way to find out anything about it.
“Great. Bury these ashes please. Have a great day.” I didn’t want anyone else to know the contents of the book. They could be used against me … somehow? Well, my point was that nobody needed to know about it at all, which was why I was more than willing to burn it. After patting the shoulders of the dwarf a little which wasn’t received that well, Hannah and I strolled out of the tent and made our way back into the castle, with me putting the broken glasses on my face. At least they still worked for the time being. I seriously needed to watch out for them as I couldn’t afford to lose the majority of the second half of my vision as well.
Knocking onto the door of the constable several times, we only needed to wait a few minutes for him to step in front of us, fully donned in flexible battle gear.
“It is time. Gather all your men and wait north of the castle. Tell the others as well.” The constable nodded right away, scooting off to do his tasks admittedly a bit too exited. Hannah was apparently not the only maniac in that group, but certainly the worst offender of the bunch. Her fingers were already gripping the sword tightly before we even began to do anything.
Quite amazed by her, I tickled her sides until she laughed and pushed me away a bit angrily. Then, I looked in her eyes and smiled a little bit.
“This is it. No more waiting, no more playing around. Either we win, or we go down trying.” I stated and laughed quite happily. Betting everything on one card wasn’t my style, but it certainly had quite the charm as well.
“Or the third option. We don’t even find them.” Hannah said, making the first step to head outside once more.
“That would be … unfortunate.” I stated and followed after her in silence. The adventurers and the supply corps were slowly waking up by the bells ringing while we strolled northwards, out of the castle towards the hundred men strong mercenary corps.
Slowly but surely, all of the others started to come by as either small groups or single persons. At last, everyone including the four idiots finally made it there and I stepped onto a stool to be a bit taller than the front row. Looking over to Hannah, she nodded right away, signalling that my voice would be much louder than usually.
“My brave comrades! Today, we will set foot on demon territory, but not in the planned way. We won’t invade their realm like we would fight another nation. We do not have the capability to do so. But fear not, I still have faith in you! Our target isn’t to get rid of every demon there is, but rather cut off the head of the snake. I know, I – the saint - shouldn’t take these words of warmongering into my mouth. I should be there for you. I should be the one to make your life’s better, and yet I am here, asking you to lend me your strength at the cost of possibly your own life. I am ashamed of myself, and yet I am standing here because there won’t be any home we can go back to if the demon king isn’t dealt with soon. For years, they are already attempting to cross the river behind me, for years they have attacked us already and for years, they attempted to exterminate us. All I can say is no more! It’s time for us to bring the fight to them!” Drawing my newest silvery sword, I pointed it to the sky, all of the men and woman in front of me following suit. “Let us make sure our children can live in peace!” I shouted out, even thought my voice was completely drowned by their roars. “For glory!” This time, my call was repeated by hundreds of throats, all chanting the same line. Satisfied, I seethed the sword once more and nodded towards Hannah.
“Listen closely. This Invasion will not go easy. Only the best of us will enter the demon territory, which was why the supply corps will not follow us for the most part. Make sure you take enough rations for a week with you. Do not carry what you don’t need. We may be forced to fight at any moment so we are travelling with light luggage. One last thing. The saint may have a big heart, but I have not. You may leave the army now, but everyone who attempts to desert from the moment we crossed the river will be punished by me personally. That’s all. We will head out in half an hour.” She shouted loudly with a magically amplified voice so that everyone could hear her easily.
Then, I stepped down from the stool and watched how they made their way back to the camp to gather their stuff while I and Hannah were given a rations by the constable until our backpacks were filled to the brim. The only partly unnecessary part in my backpack was a tarpaulin in case it rained, but I was definitely not the only one to carry such a thing with me. Switching out the silvery blade for one of Hannah’s black katanas, I felt more ready than ever before to face the mess this planet had become. Maybe I could even get some answers to all the questions I had.
And maybe, Irminsul would reappear along the way …. nobody knew what the demons had prepared for us.
But before we could find out, I apparently needed to hold a little conversation with Sofie first. She walked towards me quietly and had a rather uneasy expression on her face, but still stepped in front of me without any hesitation.
“Lucy … who was that man by your side?”
“Constable Marc Rutherford. Why are you asking …” Oh shit. She remembered him from eight years ago. I never thought these two would see each other again, which was why I never asked his face to be purged from her memories, just Hannah’s.
“He is … Even though he was called differently back then, he is the man who saved me eight years ago. And if I am right, that makes Hannah the leader of that group back then. I cannot remember her very well, but from what I have heard, that had to be the case.”
“It’s true.” Hannah didn’t even try to hide it. She knew very well that it was impossible to hide her involvement anymore, but at least she could throw Sofie a little bit off guard.
“Then … you two could have done more. Hannah, you are the most powerful warrior the coalition of humans and elves has to offer, but you … you didn’t go out of your way to do anything. And you, Lucy? Where have you been?” She asked, looking at us as if we were guilty of something. But I couldn’t be. I was the saint. There could not be any connection between her parent’s death and me, even though I literally told Hannah to save Sofie and nobody else.
“I was having an out of body experience at that time …” I thus excused myself, pushing all responsibility off my shoulders.
“Sofie, I may have been able to deal with all the demons myself, but my men weren’t. They were dying during every second we stayed there and I had to prioritise their life over the villagers. I’m a single person. Admittedly I am indeed strong, but even I have my limits, especially when I’m alone. I tire out, I cannot protect look all around me and I definitely cannot protect a whole village from hundreds of demons. Blame me for what has happened back then … but I know for sure that eventually you will understand.” Hannah told Sofie, apparently remembering what we had discussed regarding this weeks ago very well.
“I … I already do. It’s a simple trolley problem, right? And you made the right decision … to save as many possible. I was dumb to assume everyone could be saved … we couldn’t save the town from destruction either.” Sofie said and balled her hands into fists a bit depressed, but also angry. I didn’t know If her anger was directed at the demons or herself though.
“I do not know what a trolley problem is, but it seems you are less naïve than you were back then. I’m sorry for your loss, Sofie. I truly am. But don’t let that weigh on your mind right now. We have to do everything in our might to stop such a tragedy from happening again.” Hannah stated and lowered her gaze a little.
“I know you don’t trust me anymore, Lucy … and you have all right in doing so, but let me tell you this. I will give my life so that others don’t have to experience the same pain I felt as I lost my parents.” She said and stared into my eyes with a determination I had never seen before in her. In return, I merely smiled a little and remained completely silent the whole time until a sudden question appeared in my mind.
“Hey, Sofie, this might be a little off topic, but do you know how it is to fly?” I asked bluntly as I knew no other way to confirm my hypothesis that the reincarnated actually didn’t have any memories of stuff like that.
“Eh … yeah? It’s … like … uhm … hard to explain?” Sofie said, clearly struggling to come up with something even though she should have known these things.
“Can you get even higher than the birds?” I asked curiously.
“Obviously?” She said quite worried where this was leading.
“And how is it up there?” I wondered and looked upwards towards the orange sky.
“Why are you asking these things?” Sofie said, clearly worried I had uncovered her little secret.
“Please.” I said, looking back at her.
“There is no gravity there which feels … how should I say it … weird?” So she couldn’t explain that as well. Albert told me there was gravity on every part of the spaceship, which meant that none of them actually felt how it was to be without.
“Thank you. It’s best if you pack your stuff now. We will move shortly.”I explained, unsure how I should confirm my suspicions even further. But her answers made me a bit more certain that the reincarnators were actually created for this world, along with me of course.
I thus waved happily as she turned around and walked back to the castle to pack her things as well.
“She has grown a lot.” I admitted watching her back with interest.
“She is still going to blame you if you use the others as pawns.” Hannah stated which was probably correct. Sofie would blame me if I sent someone to die.
“Maybe we don’t need to do that if Luna manages to use her magic for real.” But I also had high hopes that this case wouldn’t need to happen.
“You bet on her?” Hannah asked a bit surprised. So far, Luna hadn’t managed to apply her magic to strategic decisions, but I had high hopes that would change once she saw actual combat.
“Not completely. If she doesn’t get a hang of it, I will move my pieces as I see fit. And trust me, nobody will be able to separate a sacrifice from my normal moves then.” I admitted, conscious that Luna may not be able to achieve the feats she did in her last life. She didn’t have that much experience with her magic after all.
With the book containing my possibly earliest memories in my backpack, I strolled through the camp following Hannah. We did have a specific target, which was inside the supply corps. It was still dark, but the sunrise loomed already on the horizon.
As such, we had to hurry a little and only stopped to greet the guards standing around nicely. But at our destination, a larger tent with loud snoring inside, we weren’t greeted as nicely though once the dwarf inside woke up.
“Who … what do you want during this time?” The blacksmith asked while I looked to the portable melting furnace with a bit of hope.
“Maybe we just wanted to visit an old friend?”
“My saint, your friend here shouldn’t joke around during this unholy time.”
“She’ll stop. I have to ask you for a favour.” I said and put the backpack onto the ground. Fishing around it a little bit, I quickly found the lengthy round object I was searching for and took it out. Opening the case, I revealed my broken glasses to the blacksmith and handed it over to him. “Can you fix this?”
“You might need to ask an alchemist for that.” He proposed which made me look at him a little dumbly. Did he see any alchemist running around or was there something else I missed?
“There is no one nearby. Can you do anything? It should be magical. Maybe the magical circles are just broken?”
“For me it looks like a glass has been nearly shattered.”
“It usually repairs itself.”
“It does? That’s weird … these glasses have no magical signature whatsoever.” They didn’t? I always assumed it was barely noticeable and not enough to track me down. “So maybe … no, infusing mana into it doesn’t work either.” I could have told him that would be useless as well. I never did so before after all. “These look like normal glasses. Brilliantly made, but still normal sunglasses.”
“These are the reason I can see during the day. Is there nothing you can do?”
“I may be able to help if you can tell me how they work.”
“They … ehm …” How should I know? I merely used them. Any effort into finding out how they worked seemed like wasted time so far. I mean, they came out of an old shoe from a beggar, so applying logic to it in the first place was kind of a hopeless cause. The only lead I had was that Irminsul seemed to know something … and then she vanished.
“I can’t help you.” Well, if that was his final answer, then so be it.
“Fine.” I said and retrieved the case along with the glasses right away. “Are you coming with us?”
“So it’s true? That you intent to forage all the meals you need?” He asked while I went over to the furnace and knelt down in front of it. Stirring the embers in it a little, I smiled brightly and turned around to access my backpack right away.
“It is … we need a skilled blacksmith who can work with whatever we find though.” I admitted and pulled out the rather heavy book in front of him. As he didn’t react to it at all, my guess was that it wasn’t magical as well, even though it certainly was in my eyes.
“Is that a challenge?” He asked while I turned around once more and threw the book into the furnace. The book directly started to burn nicely and flames erupted from it.
“It certainly is.” I said quietly and stirred the fires further by using a iron rod.
“I can’t say no then, can I?” The dwarf asked, slightly interested in the book I burnt, but not enough to go out of his way to find out anything about it.
“Great. Bury these ashes please. Have a great day.” I didn’t want anyone else to know the contents of the book. They could be used against me … somehow? Well, my point was that nobody needed to know about it at all, which was why I was more than willing to burn it. After patting the shoulders of the dwarf a little which wasn’t received that well, Hannah and I strolled out of the tent and made our way back into the castle, with me putting the broken glasses on my face. At least they still worked for the time being. I seriously needed to watch out for them as I couldn’t afford to lose the majority of the second half of my vision as well.
Knocking onto the door of the constable several times, we only needed to wait a few minutes for him to step in front of us, fully donned in flexible battle gear.
“It is time. Gather all your men and wait north of the castle. Tell the others as well.” The constable nodded right away, scooting off to do his tasks admittedly a bit too exited. Hannah was apparently not the only maniac in that group, but certainly the worst offender of the bunch. Her fingers were already gripping the sword tightly before we even began to do anything.
Quite amazed by her, I tickled her sides until she laughed and pushed me away a bit angrily. Then, I looked in her eyes and smiled a little bit.
“This is it. No more waiting, no more playing around. Either we win, or we go down trying.” I stated and laughed quite happily. Betting everything on one card wasn’t my style, but it certainly had quite the charm as well.
“Or the third option. We don’t even find them.” Hannah said, making the first step to head outside once more.
“That would be … unfortunate.” I stated and followed after her in silence. The adventurers and the supply corps were slowly waking up by the bells ringing while we strolled northwards, out of the castle towards the hundred men strong mercenary corps.
Slowly but surely, all of the others started to come by as either small groups or single persons. At last, everyone including the four idiots finally made it there and I stepped onto a stool to be a bit taller than the front row. Looking over to Hannah, she nodded right away, signalling that my voice would be much louder than usually.
“My brave comrades! Today, we will set foot on demon territory, but not in the planned way. We won’t invade their realm like we would fight another nation. We do not have the capability to do so. But fear not, I still have faith in you! Our target isn’t to get rid of every demon there is, but rather cut off the head of the snake. I know, I – the saint - shouldn’t take these words of warmongering into my mouth. I should be there for you. I should be the one to make your life’s better, and yet I am here, asking you to lend me your strength at the cost of possibly your own life. I am ashamed of myself, and yet I am standing here because there won’t be any home we can go back to if the demon king isn’t dealt with soon. For years, they are already attempting to cross the river behind me, for years they have attacked us already and for years, they attempted to exterminate us. All I can say is no more! It’s time for us to bring the fight to them!” Drawing my newest silvery sword, I pointed it to the sky, all of the men and woman in front of me following suit. “Let us make sure our children can live in peace!” I shouted out, even thought my voice was completely drowned by their roars. “For glory!” This time, my call was repeated by hundreds of throats, all chanting the same line. Satisfied, I seethed the sword once more and nodded towards Hannah.
“Listen closely. This Invasion will not go easy. Only the best of us will enter the demon territory, which was why the supply corps will not follow us for the most part. Make sure you take enough rations for a week with you. Do not carry what you don’t need. We may be forced to fight at any moment so we are travelling with light luggage. One last thing. The saint may have a big heart, but I have not. You may leave the army now, but everyone who attempts to desert from the moment we crossed the river will be punished by me personally. That’s all. We will head out in half an hour.” She shouted loudly with a magically amplified voice so that everyone could hear her easily.
Then, I stepped down from the stool and watched how they made their way back to the camp to gather their stuff while I and Hannah were given a rations by the constable until our backpacks were filled to the brim. The only partly unnecessary part in my backpack was a tarpaulin in case it rained, but I was definitely not the only one to carry such a thing with me. Switching out the silvery blade for one of Hannah’s black katanas, I felt more ready than ever before to face the mess this planet had become. Maybe I could even get some answers to all the questions I had.
And maybe, Irminsul would reappear along the way …. nobody knew what the demons had prepared for us.
But before we could find out, I apparently needed to hold a little conversation with Sofie first. She walked towards me quietly and had a rather uneasy expression on her face, but still stepped in front of me without any hesitation.
“Lucy … who was that man by your side?”
“Constable Marc Rutherford. Why are you asking …” Oh shit. She remembered him from eight years ago. I never thought these two would see each other again, which was why I never asked his face to be purged from her memories, just Hannah’s.
“He is … Even though he was called differently back then, he is the man who saved me eight years ago. And if I am right, that makes Hannah the leader of that group back then. I cannot remember her very well, but from what I have heard, that had to be the case.”
“It’s true.” Hannah didn’t even try to hide it. She knew very well that it was impossible to hide her involvement anymore, but at least she could throw Sofie a little bit off guard.
“Then … you two could have done more. Hannah, you are the most powerful warrior the coalition of humans and elves has to offer, but you … you didn’t go out of your way to do anything. And you, Lucy? Where have you been?” She asked, looking at us as if we were guilty of something. But I couldn’t be. I was the saint. There could not be any connection between her parent’s death and me, even though I literally told Hannah to save Sofie and nobody else.
“I was having an out of body experience at that time …” I thus excused myself, pushing all responsibility off my shoulders.
“Sofie, I may have been able to deal with all the demons myself, but my men weren’t. They were dying during every second we stayed there and I had to prioritise their life over the villagers. I’m a single person. Admittedly I am indeed strong, but even I have my limits, especially when I’m alone. I tire out, I cannot protect look all around me and I definitely cannot protect a whole village from hundreds of demons. Blame me for what has happened back then … but I know for sure that eventually you will understand.” Hannah told Sofie, apparently remembering what we had discussed regarding this weeks ago very well.
“I … I already do. It’s a simple trolley problem, right? And you made the right decision … to save as many possible. I was dumb to assume everyone could be saved … we couldn’t save the town from destruction either.” Sofie said and balled her hands into fists a bit depressed, but also angry. I didn’t know If her anger was directed at the demons or herself though.
“I do not know what a trolley problem is, but it seems you are less naïve than you were back then. I’m sorry for your loss, Sofie. I truly am. But don’t let that weigh on your mind right now. We have to do everything in our might to stop such a tragedy from happening again.” Hannah stated and lowered her gaze a little.
“I know you don’t trust me anymore, Lucy … and you have all right in doing so, but let me tell you this. I will give my life so that others don’t have to experience the same pain I felt as I lost my parents.” She said and stared into my eyes with a determination I had never seen before in her. In return, I merely smiled a little and remained completely silent the whole time until a sudden question appeared in my mind.
“Hey, Sofie, this might be a little off topic, but do you know how it is to fly?” I asked bluntly as I knew no other way to confirm my hypothesis that the reincarnated actually didn’t have any memories of stuff like that.
“Eh … yeah? It’s … like … uhm … hard to explain?” Sofie said, clearly struggling to come up with something even though she should have known these things.
“Can you get even higher than the birds?” I asked curiously.
“Obviously?” She said quite worried where this was leading.
“And how is it up there?” I wondered and looked upwards towards the orange sky.
“Why are you asking these things?” Sofie said, clearly worried I had uncovered her little secret.
“Please.” I said, looking back at her.
“There is no gravity there which feels … how should I say it … weird?” So she couldn’t explain that as well. Albert told me there was gravity on every part of the spaceship, which meant that none of them actually felt how it was to be without.
“Thank you. It’s best if you pack your stuff now. We will move shortly.”I explained, unsure how I should confirm my suspicions even further. But her answers made me a bit more certain that the reincarnators were actually created for this world, along with me of course.
I thus waved happily as she turned around and walked back to the castle to pack her things as well.
“She has grown a lot.” I admitted watching her back with interest.
“She is still going to blame you if you use the others as pawns.” Hannah stated which was probably correct. Sofie would blame me if I sent someone to die.
“Maybe we don’t need to do that if Luna manages to use her magic for real.” But I also had high hopes that this case wouldn’t need to happen.
“You bet on her?” Hannah asked a bit surprised. So far, Luna hadn’t managed to apply her magic to strategic decisions, but I had high hopes that would change once she saw actual combat.
“Not completely. If she doesn’t get a hang of it, I will move my pieces as I see fit. And trust me, nobody will be able to separate a sacrifice from my normal moves then.” I admitted, conscious that Luna may not be able to achieve the feats she did in her last life. She didn’t have that much experience with her magic after all.
