Before I could say much, Rebecca slung me over one shoulder and the corpse over the other before running further, faster than Emily had managed while dragging the wagon at the very least. I was hanging over her shoulder as she ran at full speed, and it was not until we reached a small lake that she set me down and dropped the corpse a few feet away from the water.
She let me breathe for a few moments before she pointed at the corpse. “Do you wanna loot him?”, she asked. “Or I can do that if you don't want to; it's just less messy now than after I made sure he′s dead.” She looked between the corpse and me.
“Uhm… did you have a plan? Should I have waited?”, she asked honestly, as if she expected me to tell her that lying on the ground getting whailed on was part of a bigger plan on my part. Her belief in me would have warmed my heart if I weren't still coming down from the adrenaline of almost getting killed.
“No, no. I didn't. I really didn't. You saved me, thank you.”
Rebecca looked at her sword for a few moments. “Have you killed before?”
“Flies.”, I said, “Mosquitoes. Pretty sure I stepped on a snail before.”
Rebecca hesitated before asking in a concerned tone: “Would you feel better about the whole killing thing if I didn't make sure he was truly dead?”
“You already got XP for him, doesn't that mean he′s dead?”
“Yeah, for now. You guys don′t have Returners?”
“Like people that come back from the dead?”
“No, silly, people can't just wake up after dying. But a returner could return their soul to their body and revive them.”
“We don't have that, but the term we use is necromancer.”
“You don't have them, but you have a word for it?”, she asked, unbelieving. I shrugged in response.
“You call them returners?”
“No, we also call them necromancers, but I felt like you might have an easier time understanding Returner.”
“I appreciate it.”, I said. “But if you don't mind im gonna ask you going forward rather than you translating a term I might not know.”
Rebecca furrowed her brow in an annoyed confusion before shrugging. “Fine by me. Maybe a past Rolander introduced the term necromancer. I think one of them had something to do with zombies.”
“Having said that, I told him Im a Rolander to buy the others time. So I'd prefer him not…”
“..... being able to spill the beans.” Rebecca finished my sentence.
“Yeah.”
She nodded, removing her cuirasse and tunic, standing before me, only the top half of her torso covered with fine bandages as a sort of makeshift bra. I could see her well-shaped abs, glistening in sweat. “Then I'm about to make you a man.”, she said, stretching her arms. With a few quick movements, she removed the bandages as well. It was at this point that I looked away.
“What are you-”
Rebecca guided my face to look at her face before she took my hand and slowly pulled off my gauntlet, looking me in the eye as she did so.
“Uh- Rebecca?”, I asked, my voice shivering in a wholly other type of nervousness.
“Yeah?” Rebecca tilted her head. “What's the matter?”
“Are you sure this is the time for it? I mean, there might be someone coming any moment-”
“Yeah.”, she said, laying my gauntlet down and pulling my shirt sleeve back. “That's why we gotta make sure we′re quick.”
“I- I-”, I took my hand away. “Let- let me just.”, I took a few deep breaths, while she looked at me encouragingly. “It's ok, the first time is stressful. Especially under pressure. When I went to become a woman with my father and brothers-”
“You did that with your family?”, I interrupted.
Rebecca's ears perked up.
“Henry, I think we might be stumbling across a language difference here.”, she said. “Why don't you explain to me what you THINK I just meant?”
I, very much not nervously, and not madly blushing, and with a firm and confident tone, explained to her what I thought she was talking about. She stared at me for approximately a minute before she broke out in laughter.
“No, no, Henry. By all the gods.”, her laughter felt like caramel for the ears, sputtered from her, and it took her a few moments to calm down. “I-”, she broke into more laughter. Eventually, she managed to calm herself.
“Henry.”, she said softly. “If anything like what you just described is going to happen between us, then I can assure you of two things. It's not gonna happen at a time or place like this, and I'm gonna clearly communicate with you what is going to happen beforehand. Ok?”
I focused on looking her in the eyes. “Ok.”, I said, my voice a bit more stable.
With that, she let go of my hand.
“Back in my hometown, the warriors of some families are only considered men and women after they killed an enemy that could be resurrected and performed the[Rite of True Death] on them, to make sure they couldn't be resurrected. If that is not possible, then sometimes we make a body out of dough and fill it with offal and bones. That's what we did for my younger cousin when the red fog- but I digress.”, She pulled a needle-like dagger from her belt.
Then, in a clear and focused voice, she began incanting:
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“I, Rebecca Argos, of the first Clan, hereby perform the [Rite of True Death]
She lifted the face of the Squire.
“I herby sever this body from the Authority of the Goddess Medulla.”
I will be honest and admit that I spent the rest of the Ritual in which she invoked the gods Medulla, Dantian, Gastrika and Curaonus, bending over myself, losing my lunch. That is all that I will say about the ritual that happened.
*She sat down with a satisfied sigh. “And now, even the gods cannot undo his death anymore.”, she said. “If I did everything right, that is. But I have no reason to doubt myself, so I'll assume I did.” I could hear her starting to rummage through the body′s pockets and pocketing items from it, among those a coin purse, apparently.
With the ritual over, I looked up in the sky, careful not to look at her when she was like this. “So that's why you… took off your clothes.”, I said. Rebecca nodded. “Yeah, gets pretty bloody.” She got up. “I'm gonna wash that off for a moment and come right back.” She stepped into the water before adding a cheerful: “Try not to be too obvious when peeking.”
“I'm not gonna peek.”, I responded quickly and maybe a bit too loud.
“I know.”, she said in a tone that took my words seriously. “I trust you more than enough. I wouldn't let just anybody stay during this.” The gentle splashing of water was heard.
“So Simon and Emily know about you being a Rolander now?”, she asked.
“Yeah. I felt like it was the best chance I had to buy time.”
“For what?”
“I don't know.”, I admitted. “You, maybe?”
“I'm flattered.”, she responded. I could hear her step towards the edge of the water and her further steps towards her clothes.
We kept quiet for a little while until Rebecca finally stepped in front of me. Her hair and sleeve were still moist, but it didn't seem to bother her too much. She offered me a hand.
“So, do you think he′s gonna take us back?”, she asked.
“What do you mean, take us back?”
“Not everybody likes Rolanders.”, Rebecca said. “Some think they are more problems than what little they are worth. Roland did well, so did a few of those after him, but some…. are not to be dwelt on.” She hesitated and added: “They frequently appear in romance stories, whisking young women away on adventures, so Emily and Simon might feel very differently about you being one.”
“He blamed me when we fled town.”, I said. Rebecca nodded.
“That makes sense. He′s a merchant; any town he can't visit anymore is a problem. Either for selling and buying or just to rest and restock food.”
“So he might just fire us?”, I asked.
“Yeah. It's very possible. And if it happens… what do you want to do?”
“What I want to do?”, I asked. “Adventuring was your dream.”
Rebecca nodded. “And it still is. But you were worried about not being strong enough, weren't you?”
I had to agree with that.
Rebecca put a hand on my shoulder. “Before or after we get officially registered as adventurers, we′ll have chances to get you stronger or give you other abilities or spells. We′ll get stronger together.”, she promised. “But we can talk about that later in an inn.
We left the body where it laid. Maybe someone would find it, maybe they wouldn't. I could not find myself caring too much for a man who had tried to kill me, and Rebecca did not comment on it.
We made good way for a couple of hours, not speaking much.
“He gave me enough XP to gain a Stat Increase.”, Rebecca said finally. “Any thoughts on where to invest it?”
She looked at me for a few moments, waiting for an answer.
“They′re your stats, aren't they? You should decide”, I said, but Rebecca shook her head.
“I thought of that, but your stats are half of mine, right? So I think we should at least think of that together.”
“I appreciate it.”, I said, and we smiled at each other for a few moments. My pulse rose a bit, seeing her smile, but I was sure this was only my imagination.
“So what did you decide on?”, I asked. “What would you increase?”
Rebecca′s ears flicked. “I thought about increasing my Power. Getting it to Level 4. That should be enough to hit another tier above my weight class with the broadsword.”
“What do you mean?”, I asked.
“My Skill, [Swordfighting (Basic)], gives me a 50% Power boost to my attacks. At my current level, I managed to break somewhat into the squire′s armor. At a higher level, I might′ve had enough Power to cleave him in half in one go.
“Sure.”, I said. “Go for it.”
Rebecca opened her Grace and tapped on it. After a few moments, a small sound played when the skill increased. I opened my own grace.
The gods are disappointed at your survival.
I looked at my stats for a few moments, waiting for a change to happen.
“Nothing happened.”, I said.
“Cause its half rounded up?”, she suggested, “You said that's how it worked, right? I went from 3 to four, so it's still half, just not rounded up anymore.”
I looked between her and my Grace and sighed. “I'm never gonna get stronger like this.”
“Strength is more than just stats.”, Rebecca said, patting me on the back. “I mean, look at my Water Core Breathing, it has nothing to do with stats, and it's not a Skill either.”
“That's true.”, I said. “And Items. The flickchain works like a skill would, but it's only somewhat related to my Stats.” Gears turned in my head. “How do Stat Boosting Items interact with [I'll be your strength my love] ? Do we both get an increase, or only the person wearing it?”
Rebecca nudged me. “See? There you go, there′s a bunch of things we can try out.”
I felt warm inside when she said those words, a warmth I had rarely felt in my past life, yet it was unrelated to the words themselves.
_________________________________________________________________________
Current Status:
Stats:
Power: 2
Agility: 1
Toughness: 3
Mental: 2
Perception: 3
Mana: N/A
Effects:
Night Vision Lvl. 1
Overlapping Protection Lvl. 1
Poisonous Blood Lvl. 1
Protection against Natural Poison and Venom Lvl. 1
Skills:
[Behind every great person, there's their spouse] Lvl. 2
[Emperors Gaze] Lvl. 2
[New World Mental Block]
Known Ritual Spells:
[Determine Value]
[Rite of True Death] (Taught Incorrectly)
[Simple Transportation Magic]
Thank you in advance.
Would there be interest in some side content that doesnt fit in the regular story? (This could be lore, character sheets, scenes that are too gorey or adult for the rest of the tory or reader requests.)
