Ifira came to visit, and this time, she went straight to our house. There aren't any guards with her and there isn't a weapon anywhere on her person, not that she needed any of those. Knowing Ifira, she can probably sink Flotol just by stomping her foot extra hard.

  "Are you gonna greet her Rontress?" Mom suddenly asked, she didn't move to open the door and was instead waiting behind me alongside everyone else. "She's not that scary, in fact, I'd say she's even pretty? Why are you so terrified of her?"

  Turning back and glaring at all of them didn't do shit to dissuade them from treating this entire thing as some kind of show.

  "You'll see." I say that but I hope Ifira doesn't actually do anything to them. Standing up, I moved past my family and headed down stairs. The door was easy to open. Strangely enough, I thought I'd hesitate more. "Ifira, I'm glad that you came to see me but what brings you to my humble home?"

  "Humble you say?" The young noble eyed our house curiously, her voice now having a hint of respect to it. Then as if it was never there at all, it was gone and Ifira is back to being condescending. "I suppose it is, you don't even own the entirety of Flotol do you? The church is the one who holds power here."

  Kind of? How do I tell her that we also have a village head around here who takes taxes from us and gradually spends it on preparing Flotol whenever things become bad? Will she even understand what I'm saying?

  "You can say that, yeah." Denying Ifira's guess felt wrong as well, not because I'm scared, well, I am, it's just that the church also has an influence over everyone. "Can you answer my question? Why are you here?"

  Me trying to get the conversation back on track could have been executed better, preferably, I should have worded it like I wasn't irritated at her for being here? Now Ifira is pissed and she's not giving the impression she'll let me off easily.

  "Rontress Owelline." It was like she was spitting out my name. "Born to Thomala and Atterson Owelline, your father works as a spear fisher but he retired recently while your mother is a house wife, you have a brother and he has a wife, or will soon have one."

  "What's your point?" I gripped the door so tightly that the wood creaked from the force. My face is pale from fear, Ifira can see it, she's just not mentioning it. "You gathered information about me, congratulations, now I wanna know what you're gonna use that for."

  "Nothing." Ifira smiled, she walked up to me and instead of hitting me like I expected, she patted my head. Her lips curved into something close to satisfaction, but not quite. "Do you want me to?"

  "... No." I shake my head.

  "Good, then you will now do as I say. Believe me, this arrangement is much better for you in the long run," is it though? I don't think anyone would want to be bound into servitude, let alone with someone like Ifira. "You look like you don't like it."

  "You're right." Why not deny it? Well, she already knows, lying will only make things worse. "I don't like it, I feel like you're just going to use me and then throw me away."

  "Well yes, of course." Ifira replied, her tone perfectly even, like owning someone through blackmail is normal to her. "That's the whole point isn't it? At least your family will be safe, that I can guarantee."

  "Okay," I nodded, relenting. Ifira can at least keep her word on this, that's the silver lining to this otherwise hellish situation. "So what do you want? Why did you come here?"

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  "I have done research about the "perfect vessel" you told me about, which you claim is me, and I believe you, everything lines up."

  Wait what? How?! Does Ifira just have a library full of the world's most guarded secrets or something? There should be no way for someone to know what the perfect vessel even is! Let alone have books that explain it!

  "You don't believe me." She says.

  "No, I don't." How could I? Not even the game has an answer to that question. "The perfect vessel isn't something you can just research, even Illumnia shouldn't have something like that?"

  "No, I'm pretty sure they do, the capital has the largest library in the known world, if my family's meager—" how the hell can she still sound arrogant while saying that? "— library gave me answers, then the full scope of my existence should be in the capital, I'd argue it might even be in the academy itself."

  "What? I don't..." Everything I knew is starting to crumble, there's information related to the vessel this entire time? "How?"

  "I can understand your frustration somewhat, it's not in any academic texts, rather they're in our myths." Okay, I'm willing to admit that does make sense, Ifira is a somewhat mythical figure back in the game as well. "Specifically the ones related to the Pricors, it is said that they were once searching for a figure who will usher in a new age, I believe I am that figure."

  A heavy breath came out before I could think about stopping it. Holy hell that's a pretty narcissistic claim isn't it? Did Ifira just call herself the Jesus of this world or was I mistaken? And she believed herself so readily too, how is she so confident when calling herself a figure of myth?

  "Okay?" There's a lingering question in the back of my mind, about why the Pricors are looking for the perfect vessel— and how they know about it. — but there probably isn't an answer anymore, everything about the ancient race got turned into a religion and that means it got sanitized, there's a good chance I'll come up empty even if I read religious texts.

  "You should be more impressed." The heiress glared at me, "you are standing before the one who would bring the Pricors back to this world, submit to me, kneel."

  "Whoa!" I had to take a pause, "did you just say that you're gonna bring back the Pricors? Where the hell did that come from?! And how are you not seeing the problem of doing that?"

  Even if they were peaceful, the Pricors are still an advanced race with their own military. If they come back to this world, there's no way in hell humanity would want to coexist with them without feeling antsy.

  And that's assuming the Pricors are peaceful, otherwise? We might all get enslaved.

  "Problem? Please, there's no problem with my plan, I will bring back the gods whose crumbling civilization set the foundation for humanity's rise! Imagine what would happen if they were actually here to guide us!"

  Yeah... "Guide" isn't the word I'd use for that, and I'm not being paranoid.

  "You..."

  "Anyhow, you will stay here and do more research, I have finished what I came here for and will now depart for the capital." Ifira poked my chest with her index finger. "You will be a good dog and continue your exploration of the runic language during this winter, I expect the two of us to work together come spring."

  "Let's go with that, sure." What luck, and here I thought Ifira is gonna stop me from staying out in the forest during winter. Guess I was worried for nothing. "Are you gonna leave now? If you wait I can bring back food that you can snack on during your walk back to Ghorise?"

  Alone. I tell myself. She's gonna go back to Ghorise alone, it's cold, dark, and dangerous out there, even though Ifira couldn't realistically be threatened by anything out there, that doesn't change the fact that she's alone.

  "Keep your peasant food to yourself, I don't want it." Orrrr she can go to hell! This bitch!

  "Fine! Do whatever the hell you want!" How dare she insult my family's cooking like this? If she wasn't so strong we'd both be in the ground by now! Tearing at each other's hair.

  I closed the door harder than I meant to and stomped back to the living room, where my mother stopped me and pulled me aside, a bundle of cloth was then shoved into my hands.

  "Here, for your friend. I know she said she doesn't want it but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try, this is bread stuffed with aberrant meat." A sandwich, she's giving me a sandwich. "There's one for you here as well."

  I paused and turned back, "why do I have one as well?"

  "Because you will be going with her, your brother ran out while you were talking and when he came back, he said that there's no carriage on the outskirts of the swamp." Ah, so my mother was thinking the same thing as I am. "She's not gonna go back home all alone, Rontress, you need to help her."

  "And what about me?"

  "You're old enough, now go!"

  I stared at her, flabbergasted. What the fuck? That's supposed to be my line!