“Country roads, take me home~ to the place I belong~” Due to a lack of entertainment I sung a rather long line in front of the commoner gate at the capital city. Holding the reigns of my black horse in my hand, I looked at the ten or so people before me happily. Some even hummed with me, even though the melodies I sung were unfamiliar to them.
As soon as I finished these melodies, a few people before and behind me clapped loudly and even the grumpy grandma in front of me turned around to smile at me, even though she did have trouble looking upwards.
“You do have a very angelic voice, young lady.” She said with a hoarse voice. If one word would describe her perfectly, it would be ‘old’. She was truly one of the oldest humans I have ever seen in my life.
“Aww, thank you.” It kind of sucked that my voice was forever connected to something holy. “My voice is so similar to the Saint that some even mistook me for her.” I answered and smiled friendly.
“Oh, that must be harsh.” She commented while looking down. No matter what I would do, my voice was forever linked to kindness which was harsher than harsh. It was cruel.
“Yeah, I don’t know if it is a blessing or a curse to be compared to such a person.” I said with a wavering voice.
“Everyone is unique, my dear. Take your own path and don’t bother with these comparisons.” How sweet of her to say that. I turned around to Hannah who raised an eyebrow in suspicion. I smiled brightly and turned around once more, facing the old woman for a second time.
“That is … thank you for the advice, but I already know my path. I want to become a herbalist!” I exclaimed happily. I squatted down a bit, placed my hands on my knees and took a deep breath through my nose. The smell of wild peppermint permeated through the gaps of her woven basket, covered by a lid.
“A herbalist? That is a lovely idea.” She said immediately.
“Thank you so much! Can I have a look?” I asked innocently and pointed at her closed basket. Reluctantly, she opened the lid slowly and showed me its contents. There were a multitude of plants and stuff in there, most of which I didn’t know of course. I wasn’t a herbalist, and neither did I aspire to grow plants in my garden. One plant stood out though. It was a rose, a very particular one though. Its petals were ominously black, surprising even me.
“That rose doesn’t look too pleasing.” I commented and looked in her eyes. They were wavering a little, but she didn’t get the time to answer the question as it was her turn to place a hand on this strange machine which revealed the status.
I looked away from her screen as it was apparently seen as an intrusion in her privacy, but still couldn’t help but peek as the guard didn’t wave her through right away.
“You are under arrest.” Woah … kind of hasty, wasn’t he?
“For … what?” The grandma sounded seriously surprised which made me tilt my head a little.
“You have been sentenced to prison because of theft.” How cruel. I liked it. Sending an old woman to prison where she could die was seriously my take on comedy. And yet, I had something against that.
“There must be a mistake.” I chimed into their conversation and stepped beside the old woman. Truth to be told, there wasn’t a mistake. Her status screen did indeed show the title ‘Thief’.
“And who are you?” The guard asked while Hannah behind me took the reigns of my horse.
“I am a student at the royal academy, Emilia Mirfälltgradkeinnameein. It is a pleasure to meet you.” I curtsied while smiling about my choice of name. Longer names mean a wealthier family, at least I read that somewhere. “May I inquire about your name?”
“It is Robert Wache. If you are a student, then you should be aware that this is none of your business.” The guard said.
“But it is! Can you imagine her stealing something? Even walking properly is a very hard task for her, so how do you expect her to run away? There must be a mistake.” The guard looked strangely tired all of a sudden and looked at me as if I was ruining his day. “I know that I am making things harder for you, but could you please reconsider taking her into custody? I myself will talk to the authorities and will investigate this issue.” I proposed while grabbing my new knee long green dress.
“The rules are the rules.” He said half-heartedly. Reluctantly, I put my hand on the bulb and presented him my status screen, obviously twisted in more than one way. For example, he knew for sure I was a priestess of life, a noble and was called Emilia Mirfälltgradkeinnameein afterwards. And we all knew that priests following a good faith don’t lie, so it wasn’t that surprising as he only sighed loudly and made way for the old woman, me and Hannah.
I was honestly a bit disappointed it was this easy to sneak into the city, but still thanked the guard for his crappy service repeatedly.
“Thank you so much … I don’t know how this happened to me.” The old woman said. The answer to how she was labelled as a criminal was fairly easy. Someone with the title of ‘Judge’ found her guilty of theft. The shenanigans one could do with such a system where everyone believed what the title screen said right away were nearly limitless, but I doubted someone threatened a judge to label an old woman like her as a criminal.
“Oh, don’t worry about that. I know someone who can help us.” I said with a bright smile on my face.
“I cannot burden you any more than this.” She said and bowed to me, at least as much as her hunched back allowed her to.
“Oh, no, it is fine. It is my duty as someone following the teachings of Irminsul to help someone in need. Or rather, I insist on helping you.” I proclaimed and found myself nearly biting on my own tongue.
“… thank you very much.” She said and extended my hand. Still very reluctant about everything in connection with the basket, she took her time to hand over the surprisingly heavy woven basket.
“Woa, that’s heavy.” I commented. It may have been my nearly non-existent strength which didn’t allow me to carry the basket without trouble as the sun was still setting, but it did still strike me as odd. It shouldn’t have been this heavy.
“Some herbs are …” I had never heard such bullshit before.
“Really? That’s amazing! Hannah, could you help her on my horse? I doubt she can walk all the way on her own.” Despite the grandma´s initial resistance, she agreed to ride my precious horse in the end. Through the hundreds and hundreds of humans who were travelling home in the evening, we moved westwards using Hannah´s superior wayfinding abilities. She didn’t even need a map, or a compass which was quite amazing. We didn’t talk much during that time, but I did catch the grandma looking at the basket from time to time. Right in the middle between the commoner and noble gate, I turned to Hannah.
“Hey, isn’t it around here? I´m always confused with these alleys that go into nowhere.” I said and winked to her.
“Yeah, we only need to take the next one right and then we should be nearly there.” Hannah replied, immediately understanding what I wanted, despite not knowing the reason for it. At first, the grandma said nothing, probably a bit too relieved to reach our destination. As the streets got more and more deserted though, she got a lot more nervous.
“Where are we going exactly?” She asked while looking around helplessly. She knew nobody would believe her if she claimed I was abducting her mostly because she was a criminal and I was a priestess of life, at least in the eyes of everyone else.
“To a friend. He is quite weird though …” I mumbled and walked into a completely empty alley, littered with empty alcohol bottles and a few wooden boxes. Luckily, it was even a dead end and as the horses blocked much of the view on us, we really didn’t have much to worry about. “Hannah, if you would be so kind.” I said and stared at the woman through my glasses.
She began to tremble a bit, but knew better than to scream outright. Hannah helped her down from the horse effortlessly and nodded towards the wall.
“What …” She mumbled, probably still troubled by the knowledge that I was a priestess.
“Oh, my. A criminal like you should know better. So, do you want to tell us the truth or do we have to squeeze it out of you?” I tilted my head and smiled as kindly as I could, even though I hoped she would take the second option.
“I swear I didn’t steal anything! It must be a mistake.” She answered a bit louder than necessary.
“Shh. So, truth to be told, I am not an aspiring herbalist. But I do know my poisons and this black rose here is called ‘Dying Wish’, a rather peculiar name, don’t you think? Especially because it only grows on land which has soaked up the blood of countless humans and as there isn’t a battlefield nearby, it was probably grown artificially. Sorry, but I do not believe you have these capabilities one second, which means …”
“… I only wanted to pay the tuition for my three grandchildren.” She even spoke the truth, it was just that I didn’t care too much about her motivation at least in the beginning.
“No noble would grow such a plant himself, but an underground organisation … you didn’t steal from ‘The Crown’ did you?”
“Please …”
“You should have known how they operate. Bribing a judge so that he could give you the thief title isn´t that hard.” I crouched down and opened the lid of the basket, only to rummage through it and lift up a smaller bag, filled with something I knew too well. “And you even bought drugs with you! How lovely, now I can shoot myself to the moon without any issue!” I danced around happily, much to the dismay of Hannah who would have to bear with me.
“Please, I didn’t want t-“
“I do not care. I don’t care why you have drugs in there, nor why you risked your life for a ‘Dying Wish’. I´m not even after your life …” I turned around, went to my horse and searched through the bags until I found what I searched for. It was a substance we already used once which was apparently very effective.
“It is probably not worth it for the bit of life you have left, but this will make you forget things. Alternatively, we could also end your life here.”
“Please don’t you have any mercy? I want my grandchildren to have a better life than me, or my children! They deserve better than to live the life we did.” I already lifted a lot of peasants out of absolute poverty, and now they want even more? Greed was seriously running rampant in the capital city.
“And I. Don’t care. Will you?” I asked smiling happily while staring at her with an icy gaze. She took the drugs. Naturally she did. Between losing her life, and losing a bit of her memories, there was no reason to pick the first one.
As she sank down onto the ground slowly, I took out the drugs of her basket and strolled towards her. I opened the little bag and emptied a bit of the contents onto her clothing and threw the rest into the corner. After picking up the black flower from the basket, I looked at Hannah who stared at everything with a blank expression.
“Hannah, you know what to do?” I asked and walked toward the horses without giving the woman another glance. Hannah nodded and helped me to turn the horses around which was quite a hassle to be entirely honest. Through the tight alleyway I guided both out again while I could hear it rustling and clinging behind me. Happy to be understood so well, I turned to my left and strolled onwards.
A few minutes later, Hannah jumped down from house to my left and leaned onto the wall.
“And, where are we going to sleep now?” She asked as if there was an issue.
“In an inn?” I proposed.
“You are aware that tuition for kids from elementary to university isn’t that cheap?” She asked to which I could only close my eyes for a second.
“… let’s go.” I said, put my foot into the stirrup and swung my other leg over the horse. Hannah followed suit, riding beside me towards the only feasible destination. We couldn’t stay at an inn after all as we were broke even before we arrived in the noble district. Well, we could head back, but it was really beneath me to rob an old grandma who just lost her memories of either a week or more than that. But there were other people we could extort for money.
“Country roads, take me home~ to the place I belong~” Due to a lack of entertainment I sung a rather long line in front of the commoner gate at the capital city. Holding the reigns of my black horse in my hand, I looked at the ten or so people before me happily. Some even hummed with me, even though the melodies I sung were unfamiliar to them.
As soon as I finished these melodies, a few people before and behind me clapped loudly and even the grumpy grandma in front of me turned around to smile at me, even though she did have trouble looking upwards.
“You do have a very angelic voice, young lady.” She said with a hoarse voice. If one word would describe her perfectly, it would be ‘old’. She was truly one of the oldest humans I have ever seen in my life.
“Aww, thank you.” It kind of sucked that my voice was forever connected to something holy. “My voice is so similar to the Saint that some even mistook me for her.” I answered and smiled friendly.
“Oh, that must be harsh.” She commented while looking down. No matter what I would do, my voice was forever linked to kindness which was harsher than harsh. It was cruel.
“Yeah, I don’t know if it is a blessing or a curse to be compared to such a person.” I said with a wavering voice.
“Everyone is unique, my dear. Take your own path and don’t bother with these comparisons.” How sweet of her to say that. I turned around to Hannah who raised an eyebrow in suspicion. I smiled brightly and turned around once more, facing the old woman for a second time.
“That is … thank you for the advice, but I already know my path. I want to become a herbalist!” I exclaimed happily. I squatted down a bit, placed my hands on my knees and took a deep breath through my nose. The smell of wild peppermint permeated through the gaps of her woven basket, covered by a lid.
“A herbalist? That is a lovely idea.” She said immediately.
“Thank you so much! Can I have a look?” I asked innocently and pointed at her closed basket. Reluctantly, she opened the lid slowly and showed me its contents. There were a multitude of plants and stuff in there, most of which I didn’t know of course. I wasn’t a herbalist, and neither did I aspire to grow plants in my garden. One plant stood out though. It was a rose, a very particular one though. Its petals were ominously black, surprising even me.
“That rose doesn’t look too pleasing.” I commented and looked in her eyes. They were wavering a little, but she didn’t get the time to answer the question as it was her turn to place a hand on this strange machine which revealed the status.
I looked away from her screen as it was apparently seen as an intrusion in her privacy, but still couldn’t help but peek as the guard didn’t wave her through right away.
“You are under arrest.” Woah … kind of hasty, wasn’t he?
“For … what?” The grandma sounded seriously surprised which made me tilt my head a little.
“You have been sentenced to prison because of theft.” How cruel. I liked it. Sending an old woman to prison where she could die was seriously my take on comedy. And yet, I had something against that.
“There must be a mistake.” I chimed into their conversation and stepped beside the old woman. Truth to be told, there wasn’t a mistake. Her status screen did indeed show the title ‘Thief’.
“And who are you?” The guard asked while Hannah behind me took the reigns of my horse.
“I am a student at the royal academy, Emilia Mirfälltgradkeinnameein. It is a pleasure to meet you.” I curtsied while smiling about my choice of name. Longer names mean a wealthier family, at least I read that somewhere. “May I inquire about your name?”
“It is Robert Wache. If you are a student, then you should be aware that this is none of your business.” The guard said.
“But it is! Can you imagine her stealing something? Even walking properly is a very hard task for her, so how do you expect her to run away? There must be a mistake.” The guard looked strangely tired all of a sudden and looked at me as if I was ruining his day. “I know that I am making things harder for you, but could you please reconsider taking her into custody? I myself will talk to the authorities and will investigate this issue.” I proposed while grabbing my new knee long green dress.
“The rules are the rules.” He said half-heartedly. Reluctantly, I put my hand on the bulb and presented him my status screen, obviously twisted in more than one way. For example, he knew for sure I was a priestess of life, a noble and was called Emilia Mirfälltgradkeinnameein afterwards. And we all knew that priests following a good faith don’t lie, so it wasn’t that surprising as he only sighed loudly and made way for the old woman, me and Hannah.
I was honestly a bit disappointed it was this easy to sneak into the city, but still thanked the guard for his crappy service repeatedly.
“Thank you so much … I don’t know how this happened to me.” The old woman said. The answer to how she was labelled as a criminal was fairly easy. Someone with the title of ‘Judge’ found her guilty of theft. The shenanigans one could do with such a system where everyone believed what the title screen said right away were nearly limitless, but I doubted someone threatened a judge to label an old woman like her as a criminal.
“Oh, don’t worry about that. I know someone who can help us.” I said with a bright smile on my face.
“I cannot burden you any more than this.” She said and bowed to me, at least as much as her hunched back allowed her to.
“Oh, no, it is fine. It is my duty as someone following the teachings of Irminsul to help someone in need. Or rather, I insist on helping you.” I proclaimed and found myself nearly biting on my own tongue.
“… thank you very much.” She said and extended my hand. Still very reluctant about everything in connection with the basket, she took her time to hand over the surprisingly heavy woven basket.
“Woa, that’s heavy.” I commented. It may have been my nearly non-existent strength which didn’t allow me to carry the basket without trouble as the sun was still setting, but it did still strike me as odd. It shouldn’t have been this heavy.
“Some herbs are …” I had never heard such bullshit before.
“Really? That’s amazing! Hannah, could you help her on my horse? I doubt she can walk all the way on her own.” Despite the grandma´s initial resistance, she agreed to ride my precious horse in the end. Through the hundreds and hundreds of humans who were travelling home in the evening, we moved westwards using Hannah´s superior wayfinding abilities. She didn’t even need a map, or a compass which was quite amazing. We didn’t talk much during that time, but I did catch the grandma looking at the basket from time to time. Right in the middle between the commoner and noble gate, I turned to Hannah.
“Hey, isn’t it around here? I´m always confused with these alleys that go into nowhere.” I said and winked to her.
“Yeah, we only need to take the next one right and then we should be nearly there.” Hannah replied, immediately understanding what I wanted, despite not knowing the reason for it. At first, the grandma said nothing, probably a bit too relieved to reach our destination. As the streets got more and more deserted though, she got a lot more nervous.
“Where are we going exactly?” She asked while looking around helplessly. She knew nobody would believe her if she claimed I was abducting her mostly because she was a criminal and I was a priestess of life, at least in the eyes of everyone else.
“To a friend. He is quite weird though …” I mumbled and walked into a completely empty alley, littered with empty alcohol bottles and a few wooden boxes. Luckily, it was even a dead end and as the horses blocked much of the view on us, we really didn’t have much to worry about. “Hannah, if you would be so kind.” I said and stared at the woman through my glasses.
She began to tremble a bit, but knew better than to scream outright. Hannah helped her down from the horse effortlessly and nodded towards the wall.
“What …” She mumbled, probably still troubled by the knowledge that I was a priestess.
“Oh, my. A criminal like you should know better. So, do you want to tell us the truth or do we have to squeeze it out of you?” I tilted my head and smiled as kindly as I could, even though I hoped she would take the second option.
“I swear I didn’t steal anything! It must be a mistake.” She answered a bit louder than necessary.
“Shh. So, truth to be told, I am not an aspiring herbalist. But I do know my poisons and this black rose here is called ‘Dying Wish’, a rather peculiar name, don’t you think? Especially because it only grows on land which has soaked up the blood of countless humans and as there isn’t a battlefield nearby, it was probably grown artificially. Sorry, but I do not believe you have these capabilities one second, which means …”
“… I only wanted to pay the tuition for my three grandchildren.” She even spoke the truth, it was just that I didn’t care too much about her motivation at least in the beginning.
“No noble would grow such a plant himself, but an underground organisation … you didn’t steal from ‘The Crown’ did you?”
“Please …”
“You should have known how they operate. Bribing a judge so that he could give you the thief title isn´t that hard.” I crouched down and opened the lid of the basket, only to rummage through it and lift up a smaller bag, filled with something I knew too well. “And you even bought drugs with you! How lovely, now I can shoot myself to the moon without any issue!” I danced around happily, much to the dismay of Hannah who would have to bear with me.
“Please, I didn’t want t-“
“I do not care. I don’t care why you have drugs in there, nor why you risked your life for a ‘Dying Wish’. I´m not even after your life …” I turned around, went to my horse and searched through the bags until I found what I searched for. It was a substance we already used once which was apparently very effective.
“It is probably not worth it for the bit of life you have left, but this will make you forget things. Alternatively, we could also end your life here.”
“Please don’t you have any mercy? I want my grandchildren to have a better life than me, or my children! They deserve better than to live the life we did.” I already lifted a lot of peasants out of absolute poverty, and now they want even more? Greed was seriously running rampant in the capital city.
“And I. Don’t care. Will you?” I asked smiling happily while staring at her with an icy gaze. She took the drugs. Naturally she did. Between losing her life, and losing a bit of her memories, there was no reason to pick the first one.
As she sank down onto the ground slowly, I took out the drugs of her basket and strolled towards her. I opened the little bag and emptied a bit of the contents onto her clothing and threw the rest into the corner. After picking up the black flower from the basket, I looked at Hannah who stared at everything with a blank expression.
“Hannah, you know what to do?” I asked and walked toward the horses without giving the woman another glance. Hannah nodded and helped me to turn the horses around which was quite a hassle to be entirely honest. Through the tight alleyway I guided both out again while I could hear it rustling and clinging behind me. Happy to be understood so well, I turned to my left and strolled onwards.
A few minutes later, Hannah jumped down from house to my left and leaned onto the wall.
“And, where are we going to sleep now?” She asked as if there was an issue.
“In an inn?” I proposed.
“You are aware that tuition for kids from elementary to university isn’t that cheap?” She asked to which I could only close my eyes for a second.
“… let’s go.” I said, put my foot into the stirrup and swung my other leg over the horse. Hannah followed suit, riding beside me towards the only feasible destination. We couldn’t stay at an inn after all as we were broke even before we arrived in the noble district. Well, we could head back, but it was really beneath me to rob an old grandma who just lost her memories of either a week or more than that. But there were other people we could extort for money.
