The sun shone gently on my face as I stepped out of the cathedral, Luna right by my side. She kept looking at me strangely every second during the time we walked towards the entrance to board the carriage once again, and even during the travel back to the estate. It was quite the weird atmosphere between us in which I wasn’t really able to strike a conversation.
She just kept on replying in short sentences which wasn’t really the best foundation for senseless chatter. I was still more than willing to go through with my plan, which was exactly why I grabbed her wrist hallway in between carriage and mansion.
“What´s up, Luna?” I asked while looking at her back in concern.
“I … I have gained a title.” She muttered while looking back at me. Her emotions were quite a mess, but in a bad way. Even though she tried to hide it, her eyes and soul were brimming with happiness.
“That’s amazing!” It truly was. Not only were titles able to increase the stats of a person, but they also gave one special powers. The king for example was somehow able to feel the sentiment in the population, while a master alchemist had his chances for a successful potion vastly increased. The usefulness depended heavily on the title though. “What is it?”
“Saint´s Follower…” I could feel my smile freezing on my face. “I … it apparently increased all my stats by two and … I think … I think there is a magic only I can use. I don’t know how to do it yet, but I feel that with time, I can do something which shouldn’t be possible.” Her explanation did sound great on the surface, but the title brought a great deal of trouble with it.
And apparently, I wasn’t the only one to notice how much of a hindrance this title could be. Luna did too.
“We have to do something … otherwise everyone will find out.” That title wasn’t exactly mysterious in any way. Saint´s follower could only mean I was awake and that alone was to mess my peaceful time up.
“Okay … Luna, could you get Hannah and ask your mother for permission to leave the noble district?”
“I never left the noble district on my own and I don’t think … I don’t know if she will agree.”
“Tell her … tell her you love her. And that Hannah will accompany us.” She was still like the old Mary I knew, that much was obvious. I was sure that this way, she would let us leave. Luna approved of that plan even though she wasn’t entirely convinced. After I patted her shoulders twice, she nodded and walked towards the door.
Surprisingly, the door opened up before she was even remotely there. Not the guards opened it for her though, but rather Hannah who first looked at Luna´s uneasy expression and then towards me. They met exactly in the middle, greeted each other friendly and then strolled past each other. Luna was visibly more uneasy in her footing around that time as she had yet to grasp what Hannah, then dressed in her usual black attire, was for me. But that would come with time.
“Why now?” It took a mere split second for me to figure out what she was talking about.
“The tick on my soul didn’t act up and the voices in the back of my head remained the same during the time we didn’t see each other. Meaning either that someone from the outside was subtle enough to subvert the defences of my soul without me noticing, or that it was a coincidence that the title creation was so late.” I explained while scratching my cheek. The former was quite unlikely to happen while the latter would mean that the system periodically checks for new possible titles like the ‘Saint´s Follower’. “I presume you know a place to create a limiter?”
“I do … I am not sure if we can hide that title though. The title ‘King’ for example will never be hidden and I doubt that title is any less powerful.” We still had to hide it at costs though. And a limiter would be to the only solution to that. If it worked or not would only be revealed after we had one though.
“Luna talked about a magic only she can use. Do you feel the same?” I asked with interest.
“No … no, I don’t feel any different. The usual knowledge about a new skill or magic wasn’t transferred to me. I´ll get our money before Luna comes back.” She said and dashed off towards the stables to retrieve the bag of gold coins we retrieved from Tom. At these times I was quite glad to have a subordinate who didn’t mind being extorted.
Both of them came back a few minutes later without issue. Hannah carried a backpack with all our stuff inside while Luna had dressed in something less noble like. She wore clothing made out of cotton, just like a commoner would. Unlike them though, her attire was completely new and had not even a bit of dirt on it.
“I … I thought we should try to be a bit less catchy.” Truly, it wasn’t the worst idea. The thing was … I didn’t have the luxury to switch my clothing that easily. At least I thought so until Hannah leaned over and whispered into my ear that we did indeed have simple commoner clothing from me. Provided by Tom, of course.
Sighing, I jogged towards the stables, picked out a brown shirt and trousers from the saddle bags and changed myself under the curious gaze of a few horses. A bit weirded out by the experience, I carefully laid my precious dress to the pile we had and walked out of the stable.
“How do they do that?” Luna asked Hannah when I was close to them once again.
“Try to ignore it.” Hannah answered while I scratched the side of my belly.
“Try to ignore what?” What could I say? I wasn’t that keen to be left out of their conversation after all.
“The itch.” Oh. That was the solution to deal with the issues I had since stepping out of the stables? Seriously, these trousers were itching, my shirt was itching and worst of all, I couldn’t even hide the ring on my finger. I was so short of going back and changing as Luna took my hand and smiled happily.
“Look, we have quite the partner look now, don’t we?” We certainly did. I wouldn’t say it looked good, but we both wore insanely similar clothing.
“Aye!” I answered and threw all thoughts about changing once more out of the window. Holding her hand just a bit tighter, we all walked towards the gate. After quite the lengthy conversation with the guards about if we needed the carriage or not, we were finally left out on our own six foot. Hannah immediately took the lead, mostly because I forgot most of the way during my two hundred years of living on the archipelago world. Remembering other stuff was easy for me, but the recalling the way towards the tunnel was challenging.
At least Hannah got us there within a bit of time. As the tunnel was surprisingly still in use, we had no trouble of entering through the hidden hatch and soon found ourselves in a rather dark place.
“I had no idea these tunnels existed.” Luna said amazed. Without the issues we had with being controlled at the gates, I would never had dragged her out of the noble district through the tunnel because they were illegal. And I seriously didn’t want her to think of me as a criminal.
“It is a remnant of the days where the nobles still feared an invasion by the elves.” I explained full of hesitation as I really didn’t want to lie to her.
“That’s so cool. It´s like seeing history for yourself!” She exclaimed and traced the walls with her fingers. I had to turn around as she was falling behind a bit and smiled towards her gently.
“On the flip side, this tunnel hasn’t been maintained since years ago, so I´d rather hurry up.” I said and waved her over to me. Quite fast, we managed to cross underneath the noble wall and resurface at the ruins of a burnt down house.
“Let´s go.” Hannah said after helping both me and Luna out and took the lead once again.
“She is dependable, isn’t she?” Luna asked as we walked out onto the streets.
“I don’t know anyone else I can rely on like her. She really is amazing.” Tom would be another candidate, but he had quite the depraved mind. I was aware that he wanted me to live out my sadistic side as much as possible, while Hannah didn’t care about that. Additionally … well, he was rather prone to betraying me at some point when it wasn’t beneficial for him anymore.
“Since when … since when do you know her?” Luna asked in awe.
“Two hundred years ago, a smol Lucy White strolled through fire to save as many residents of the slums as she could. And there, I found a young elf shunned by the world around her and then … things happened.” I explained, leaving out how I threatened to throw her away, how she made me bleed or how I got her into torturing others.
“So you grew up in an orphanage, Hannah?” Luna asked with a hint of pity in her voice. Truly, times have changed drastically if she was that oblivious that kids back then didn’t have something like an orphanage.
“… something like that.” Hannah mumbled while guiding us onto the main street. It was packed with humans the moment we set foot on it. There was barely under a metre between me and other pedestrians and as I couldn´t look above the others, I had to grab Hannah´s mantle to stay with her. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be impossible that I got lost.
“Can you … can you tell me more?” Luna said right next to me while trying to overtone a fruit merchant to our left who was basically screaming in my ear.
“Hmm … Hannah and I lived in a time which was a bit different from today. Magic was more of a fringe phenomenon, even though most nobles still tried to learn it. Except a few magical tools given to us by the gods there wasn’t really much use in learning it. Surely you were able to get a prestigious position, but the vast majority of those who learned to control their mana didn’t use it after graduating the academy. It was just too tedious to learn, too impractical to use and most importantly, not necessary. We didn’t have magically grown crops, nor did we have the alchemy of today. It were darker times for the kingdom, especially because we weren’t able to feed everyone.”
“So that’s how it was bs.” She pronounced each of the letters, but even that didn’t help me with figuring out what she meant with bs. Bullshit? Maybe … probably not.
“bs?” I asked innocently.
“Before saint. It is … it may be a little weird for you, but that’s how we measure our time.” She explained while averting her gaze.
“I see … wait, what?” It was apparently the year two hundred as, or after I fell into coma. That these puny humans based their time on me was quite flattering, but they seriously overdid it this time around.
“Uhm … we also have a special day because of you…” I could only shake my head in denial at the thought alone. I knew for sure I would hack myself apart that day, mostly because I wouldn’t celebrate what I did for this world. NEVER!
The sun shone gently on my face as I stepped out of the cathedral, Luna right by my side. She kept looking at me strangely every second during the time we walked towards the entrance to board the carriage once again, and even during the travel back to the estate. It was quite the weird atmosphere between us in which I wasn’t really able to strike a conversation.
She just kept on replying in short sentences which wasn’t really the best foundation for senseless chatter. I was still more than willing to go through with my plan, which was exactly why I grabbed her wrist hallway in between carriage and mansion.
“What´s up, Luna?” I asked while looking at her back in concern.
“I … I have gained a title.” She muttered while looking back at me. Her emotions were quite a mess, but in a bad way. Even though she tried to hide it, her eyes and soul were brimming with happiness.
“That’s amazing!” It truly was. Not only were titles able to increase the stats of a person, but they also gave one special powers. The king for example was somehow able to feel the sentiment in the population, while a master alchemist had his chances for a successful potion vastly increased. The usefulness depended heavily on the title though. “What is it?”
“Saint´s Follower…” I could feel my smile freezing on my face. “I … it apparently increased all my stats by two and … I think … I think there is a magic only I can use. I don’t know how to do it yet, but I feel that with time, I can do something which shouldn’t be possible.” Her explanation did sound great on the surface, but the title brought a great deal of trouble with it.
And apparently, I wasn’t the only one to notice how much of a hindrance this title could be. Luna did too.
“We have to do something … otherwise everyone will find out.” That title wasn’t exactly mysterious in any way. Saint´s follower could only mean I was awake and that alone was to mess my peaceful time up.
“Okay … Luna, could you get Hannah and ask your mother for permission to leave the noble district?”
“I never left the noble district on my own and I don’t think … I don’t know if she will agree.”
“Tell her … tell her you love her. And that Hannah will accompany us.” She was still like the old Mary I knew, that much was obvious. I was sure that this way, she would let us leave. Luna approved of that plan even though she wasn’t entirely convinced. After I patted her shoulders twice, she nodded and walked towards the door.
Surprisingly, the door opened up before she was even remotely there. Not the guards opened it for her though, but rather Hannah who first looked at Luna´s uneasy expression and then towards me. They met exactly in the middle, greeted each other friendly and then strolled past each other. Luna was visibly more uneasy in her footing around that time as she had yet to grasp what Hannah, then dressed in her usual black attire, was for me. But that would come with time.
“Why now?” It took a mere split second for me to figure out what she was talking about.
“The tick on my soul didn’t act up and the voices in the back of my head remained the same during the time we didn’t see each other. Meaning either that someone from the outside was subtle enough to subvert the defences of my soul without me noticing, or that it was a coincidence that the title creation was so late.” I explained while scratching my cheek. The former was quite unlikely to happen while the latter would mean that the system periodically checks for new possible titles like the ‘Saint´s Follower’. “I presume you know a place to create a limiter?”
“I do … I am not sure if we can hide that title though. The title ‘King’ for example will never be hidden and I doubt that title is any less powerful.” We still had to hide it at costs though. And a limiter would be to the only solution to that. If it worked or not would only be revealed after we had one though.
“Luna talked about a magic only she can use. Do you feel the same?” I asked with interest.
“No … no, I don’t feel any different. The usual knowledge about a new skill or magic wasn’t transferred to me. I´ll get our money before Luna comes back.” She said and dashed off towards the stables to retrieve the bag of gold coins we retrieved from Tom. At these times I was quite glad to have a subordinate who didn’t mind being extorted.
Both of them came back a few minutes later without issue. Hannah carried a backpack with all our stuff inside while Luna had dressed in something less noble like. She wore clothing made out of cotton, just like a commoner would. Unlike them though, her attire was completely new and had not even a bit of dirt on it.
“I … I thought we should try to be a bit less catchy.” Truly, it wasn’t the worst idea. The thing was … I didn’t have the luxury to switch my clothing that easily. At least I thought so until Hannah leaned over and whispered into my ear that we did indeed have simple commoner clothing from me. Provided by Tom, of course.
Sighing, I jogged towards the stables, picked out a brown shirt and trousers from the saddle bags and changed myself under the curious gaze of a few horses. A bit weirded out by the experience, I carefully laid my precious dress to the pile we had and walked out of the stable.
“How do they do that?” Luna asked Hannah when I was close to them once again.
“Try to ignore it.” Hannah answered while I scratched the side of my belly.
“Try to ignore what?” What could I say? I wasn’t that keen to be left out of their conversation after all.
“The itch.” Oh. That was the solution to deal with the issues I had since stepping out of the stables? Seriously, these trousers were itching, my shirt was itching and worst of all, I couldn’t even hide the ring on my finger. I was so short of going back and changing as Luna took my hand and smiled happily.
“Look, we have quite the partner look now, don’t we?” We certainly did. I wouldn’t say it looked good, but we both wore insanely similar clothing.
“Aye!” I answered and threw all thoughts about changing once more out of the window. Holding her hand just a bit tighter, we all walked towards the gate. After quite the lengthy conversation with the guards about if we needed the carriage or not, we were finally left out on our own six foot. Hannah immediately took the lead, mostly because I forgot most of the way during my two hundred years of living on the archipelago world. Remembering other stuff was easy for me, but the recalling the way towards the tunnel was challenging.
At least Hannah got us there within a bit of time. As the tunnel was surprisingly still in use, we had no trouble of entering through the hidden hatch and soon found ourselves in a rather dark place.
“I had no idea these tunnels existed.” Luna said amazed. Without the issues we had with being controlled at the gates, I would never had dragged her out of the noble district through the tunnel because they were illegal. And I seriously didn’t want her to think of me as a criminal.
“It is a remnant of the days where the nobles still feared an invasion by the elves.” I explained full of hesitation as I really didn’t want to lie to her.
“That’s so cool. It´s like seeing history for yourself!” She exclaimed and traced the walls with her fingers. I had to turn around as she was falling behind a bit and smiled towards her gently.
“On the flip side, this tunnel hasn’t been maintained since years ago, so I´d rather hurry up.” I said and waved her over to me. Quite fast, we managed to cross underneath the noble wall and resurface at the ruins of a burnt down house.
“Let´s go.” Hannah said after helping both me and Luna out and took the lead once again.
“She is dependable, isn’t she?” Luna asked as we walked out onto the streets.
“I don’t know anyone else I can rely on like her. She really is amazing.” Tom would be another candidate, but he had quite the depraved mind. I was aware that he wanted me to live out my sadistic side as much as possible, while Hannah didn’t care about that. Additionally … well, he was rather prone to betraying me at some point when it wasn’t beneficial for him anymore.
“Since when … since when do you know her?” Luna asked in awe.
“Two hundred years ago, a smol Lucy White strolled through fire to save as many residents of the slums as she could. And there, I found a young elf shunned by the world around her and then … things happened.” I explained, leaving out how I threatened to throw her away, how she made me bleed or how I got her into torturing others.
“So you grew up in an orphanage, Hannah?” Luna asked with a hint of pity in her voice. Truly, times have changed drastically if she was that oblivious that kids back then didn’t have something like an orphanage.
“… something like that.” Hannah mumbled while guiding us onto the main street. It was packed with humans the moment we set foot on it. There was barely under a metre between me and other pedestrians and as I couldn´t look above the others, I had to grab Hannah´s mantle to stay with her. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be impossible that I got lost.
“Can you … can you tell me more?” Luna said right next to me while trying to overtone a fruit merchant to our left who was basically screaming in my ear.
“Hmm … Hannah and I lived in a time which was a bit different from today. Magic was more of a fringe phenomenon, even though most nobles still tried to learn it. Except a few magical tools given to us by the gods there wasn’t really much use in learning it. Surely you were able to get a prestigious position, but the vast majority of those who learned to control their mana didn’t use it after graduating the academy. It was just too tedious to learn, too impractical to use and most importantly, not necessary. We didn’t have magically grown crops, nor did we have the alchemy of today. It were darker times for the kingdom, especially because we weren’t able to feed everyone.”
“So that’s how it was bs.” She pronounced each of the letters, but even that didn’t help me with figuring out what she meant with bs. Bullshit? Maybe … probably not.
“bs?” I asked innocently.
“Before saint. It is … it may be a little weird for you, but that’s how we measure our time.” She explained while averting her gaze.
“I see … wait, what?” It was apparently the year two hundred as, or after I fell into coma. That these puny humans based their time on me was quite flattering, but they seriously overdid it this time around.
“Uhm … we also have a special day because of you…” I could only shake my head in denial at the thought alone. I knew for sure I would hack myself apart that day, mostly because I wouldn’t celebrate what I did for this world. NEVER!
