“Well … welcome to my house,” Lorena introduced us to her home, a multi-familial house built due to the village’s need for homes after the bandits burnt everything down. “Then again, my family is sharing it with another family, so I don’t know if we can really call it ‘ours,’ yet.”
Opening the door, she welcomed us in. “Uhhh, make it yourself comfortable? Excuse me, the house isn’t exactly fit to welcome somebody from your status, Lady Hestia. Chief Colwyn and Harriet would be mad if they knew. I don’t even have anything to serve you as drinks.”
“Oh, if that is the case then let me make some tea for us,” Saori offered as she entered her home.
“T-tea? Oh, that drink you three gave me when we first met.” Lorena bumped her open palm with a fist, remembering our first meeting. “Ahh, I heard from Harriet how expensive good tea can be, so is it really alright for me to have even more although I haven’t even paid for the first? It was very, very delicious but …”
“That’s all we needed to hear, don’t worry about it. We don’t need any payment like I’ve told you a thousand times already, Lorena,” I told her to ease her worries. “We’re doing this for a friend and you’ve already answered our question, so consider that our payment if you will. You’re one of the few villagers who aren’t acting submissive in front of me, so I’d like to have our relationship stay that way.”
On our way to Lorena’s home, we asked her if she knew anybody who had an oven or if there was anybody who baked in the village. She told us two families were responsible for the bakery in the village, but similar to everybody else, their bakery burnt down after the bandit raid. They still haven’t had the time nor chance to get the ovens rebuilt.
So be it, not like the village had the time to do so. So instead, I asked Lorena if she could introduce me to them the next time we had the chance.
If there aren’t any ovens in the village, then it is time for me to bring out the craftsman inside me and build it myself. Nothing will stop me from eating some cake!
Although Saori and I didn’t have any other reason to visit Lorena’s home, we still did it anyway just for fun. She was one of the few villagers who treated me like any other person, if you overlooked the part that Harriet and her parents forced her to address me with “Lady” at the very least.
“I thought it would be awkward to suddenly change it after we got along at first. But I can understand why the other villagers can’t adapt. They don’t know you, after all,” Lorena stated, before having to pause as she witnessed Saori taking teacups and a teapot from her [Storage Magic]. “W-wow, mages are amazing. You can do so much with the Origin God’s power.”
Watching Lorena dazed by this mundane sight was surprising. To me, this was something that happened every day, in fact, watching people walk around so peacefully inside this village was more interesting. It was a far cry from the time in the Belzac forest. Magic was wondrous for her, while her simple life was calming to me; once I understood that, I nodded in satisfaction and entered her house.
The interior was made in a very similar style to ours, only larger as it was supposed to hold multiple families inside. The floor was practically just grassless earth and the walls were made from stone blocks, supported by wooden pillars. The roof consisted of a combination of thatch and rice plant straws, hastily assembled together to finish the house. There were signs that it needed maintenance, but I guess Lorena’s family would do the repairs once the village was rebuilt.
The furniture inside was also basic. A few crudely made wooden chairs and tables, four family-sized beds, and a hearth where the cooking was to be done. Aside from these inanimate objects, Lorena’s family also kept farm animals in their house.
Chocochuckles were literally chickens without their innate cowardice. Due to them being a bit larger than our lovely Earthen chickens, their eggs were also larger with a very sticky and firm yolk. Even without baking powder, I had the feeling that I could make any cake if I used them as an ingredient.
The two gheeper variants respectively were the sheep and goat versions of Peolynca. At first, I didn’t really recognize the wooly gheeper as a sheep as they looked more like rice balls with how overgrown their wool was. However, to nobody’s surprise, the wool was so soft that it felt like a real cloud. Colwyn mentioned that he would like to give us pillows and bedding filled with gheeper wool, so I couldn’t wait.
On the other hand, the horned gheepers were a bit of a disappointment. It honestly surprised me how pathetically cowardly they were. If horned gheepers didn’t recognize you as one of its owners, then their first instinct was to run away. At least their milk was pretty delicious. The only good thing about them, in my opinion.
‘Never judge a gheeper by their appearance,’ huh? I should ask Tasianna if that is an idiom or not.
However, as you would expect from keeping farm animals indoors, the smell of animal dung was intense.
“Urgh,” I groaned, holding my nose with a hand to block the smell.
As I was checking out the animals, despite the smell they were exuding, Saori prepared the tea. She poured water into the pot with [Create Water], then placed it on a small stone table that I made, stacked some twigs under it for kindling, and then …
“Ah, Saori, let me get the flint for you,” Lorena offered, but before Lorena could actually run off, Saori stopped her and asked me for help.
I snapped my fingers, causing a spark, which grew into a flame after I poured a bit of mana into it. Using [Pyrokinesis], I moved the levitating flame over to the kindling before pouring even more mana into it to allow it to grow faster, shocking the already baffled Lorena.
“I-Is this magic? There was no circle-thingy this time though…”
Come to think of it, I never did show her that I could produce fire with my claws, right?
After blowing the dirt off a chair with a wind spell, I sat down and called Lorena to join me, before elucidating the truth to her. Lorena couldn’t understand it fully, but once I visualized it by spreading some scale-dust in the air and creating another small spark, Lorena took it as a dragonewt version of a flint. Fair enough summary, honestly.
After Saori served us tea, I took out some fruits, especially a lot of fragassas, from my storage. Lorena told us how she saw a lot of them at the farmer’s market in Firwood, the closest town around. Since they went to town to sell their produce and dairy products, buying random fruits would be a waste of money for the impoverished family, so she never had any before.
Unable to accept us being the only one to offer something, as the host, she took out some gheeper milk for our tea. It wasn’t a lot, but it was enough for us to share with each other.
Also, to the tea itself, it was alright. Definitely not Tasianna-tier, but I could see that Saori took some pointers from her. It was crazy how much you could do to make warm leaf water taste better, huh?
“Mhmm, after getting a feeling of how much all of this might cost me, I can’t help but think that you two are really generous,” Lorena stated with a beaming smile, having just tasted the tea and fruits. “I bet the others would like it too.”
“That might be true … but I don’t think they can calm down with me around. Aside from the people I helped out during the bandit raid, none of the villagers really seem to like me.” I frowned, chomping down on a fragassa as I reminded myself of the interaction I just had with those two girls.
Lorena shook her head at my response. “I am sure they don’t dislike you. We are a small village, so words spread quickly. People know you saved lives and my parents … It’s just, we’re peasants. Nobles, especially noble ladies, don’t stay inside our village, they go to the lord’s mansion. I would be nervous, too, if I didn’t know you personally.”
Her saying that stung my heart a bit, as I knew they treated Saori pretty well. I really hated people only judging you for your appearances and “status,” without trying to know them properly. It reminded me too much of my time with those bitches during my trainee years.
“I told everybody, especially Colwyn, that I wasn’t a priestess or shrine maiden. It doesn’t make sense. Why is everybody just ignoring what I say?”
“Then, why are you still wearing your robe, Lady Hestia?” Lorena suddenly stated, pointing at my white-red robe I was wearing like a cape. I raised an eyebrow at this, prompting her to explain. “Our Goddess’s priests wear beautiful white robes whenever they visit our village to give sermons and offer white graces to our sick and injured. Uhm, if you hear anybody call you a ‘manablood,’ then they are referring to you as a noble, although in a belittling manner. I apologize if that offended you.”
Lorena mentioned how there were commoner and noble clergymen, and the easiest way to differentiate them was how nobles had their robes embroidered with their family crest and other patterns. There were also a sub-faction of priests called the shrine maidens; women who wear white and red robes similar to mine responsible for taking care of church artifacts and altar management.
When we first met, Lorena thought I was one of the latter due to my clothes. She even reminded me how she told the guards I was a shrine maiden when we first visited the village. I had Saori accidentally make a religious piece of clothing just ‘cause I wanted to cosplay white mages from one of my favorite RPG games!
W-what?! Why did nobody ever tell me that?! T-Tasianna!? Wait, maybe this is only a Kingdom of Artorias thing, so I guess Tasianna couldn’t have known that…
Fuck! And here I thought, I made a cool white mage reference, but I just doomed myself! Maybe I should take it off … but I really like wearing it …
After that little revelation, we drifted away from that topic and talked about something more important to me. Festivals, celebrations, and holidays; humanity has always loved to celebrate ever since they started congregating into large groups.
Afterparties, Christmas, Thanksgiving, the founding of a country; if you were creative about it, there was always a reason for somebody to just celebrate. People loved to slack off and just take it easy, have a drink with buddies, feast with the family, or just spend money to make somebody’s day.
To assimilate myself into Peolynca, I learned how to speak and read Common, the universal language for this world. The next step was to adapt to its culture. Luckily, Lorena knew that I wasn’t from this kingdom, so it was easy to draw information from her.
Dedicating a song to a holiday would also be great. I mean, on Earth, we produced so many Christmas songs that I wouldn’t be able to count them up. An idol’s job was to bring happiness to people’s hearts for just a moment, touch their souls with music, as my papa liked to say. A song that fitted the festive mood would be too perfect.
While I did learn of quite a few events, there were only three close enough for us to focus on.
On the 28th to the 30th of this month, they would have the “Barracuda Migration” event. Barracudas, and other fish, would stream down the river of Carine village towards their spawning place. The villagers would use this opportunity as their last chance to acquire meat for their winter rations. This sounded pretty similar to what a grizzly bear would do when salmon migrated.
Next month on the 7th, they had something called “Origdiviel Arashan,” which directly translated into “Thanking Origin Gods.” “God Thanking Festival” was the general term for it. Essentially, it was Thanksgiving, where the whole village would celebrate together with a feast, as this would most likely be the last time they could before the snow began. Compared to the former event, this was a universal one throughout Artorias.
The last event of the year was during “New Year’s Eve,” on the 31st of AutumnMoon. The day that I would give my first idol concert … Hopefully, it’ll be good enough to send them well into the next year.
“So … Lorena.” As time flew by as we had fun, I suddenly remembered something that I wanted to ask her. “Well, uhh, I know you don’t want to talk about it but have you … have you told your parents about that yet?”
Lorena looked down into her cup of tea, frowning deeply as she slowly nodded. Understanding what she meant, I asked her if she wanted to continue talking about it, considering it was a sensitive matter.
Lorena let out a sigh, closing her eyes as she wrinkled her mouth a bit. “They were just glad it didn’t go any further. They told me of some horror stories how some nobles and rich merchants would just … violate young commoner girls. Pick them up from the streets and throw them away once they were done.”
Lorena’s eyes suddenly started tearing up a bit. I wanted to tell her about it, but Saori grabbed my hand, holding me down. She shook her head, telepathically telling me to let her release her pent up stress and feelings.
“I-I didn’t think about it until I told them. Those stories just reminded me of everything again … how that person would just continuously hit me, laughing and calling me how he ‘would enjoy me.’ Like I was just an object. What in the Goddess’s name was that person? How can something so corrupt continue living like that? I-I just don’t know …” Lorena scratched her head in frustration before she wiped away her tears and sniffed. “The worst part was how my parents mentioned I could still be married since I wasn’t deflowered. What in the Goddess’s name … urgh. I know they said it out of love and they went through their own share of pain, but it still … stings.”
Lorena continued scratching her head, to the point I saw some of her medium-long strands fall from her hand. She was truly letting everything out, even hurting herself physically for it. “Oh, and they just wouldn’t stop talking about it every night! Telling me I should get married already so no rumors come out that I was ‘not pure’ anymore. Was I still their daughter, or did they only see me like an object? Why should rumors matter?! Nothing happened! Argh … I just want to get away from them!”
I couldn’t leave her like this any longer.
I stood up and went to her side, giving her a hug. Patting her back while letting her cry a bit on my shoulder, I tried to calm down her tension. “Do you know what your parents said to me when I first met them? They asked, ‘Is Lorena ok? Is our daughter alright?’ even though they looked even worse than when we found you. They worried so much for you. It’s as you said, they probably meant well but it probably didn’t sound good with how they worded it.”
“Parents are also human, too, even if we love them,” Saori interjected. “Sometimes they mean well and we can feel their love and warmth, but that does not make them perfect. Your parents also went through a traumatic situation where they thought their daughter was forever taken away from them, and that, of course, would make any parent worried. Any family member. Their words were crude, but running away wouldn’t help anybody. It would not calm you down.”
“Then what would?” Lorena eked out meekly, her tears drenching my clothes.
“Talking. Communication. Misunderstandings happen because we do not want to speak to others after a heated moment. You need to give them a chance, and you need to tell them to give yourself a chance to speak. It is important to respect and love your parents, but you are an adult. You need to stand your ground as one, without increasing the tension. Calm down.”
Lorena’s tears didn’t stop as I hugged her, nodding after she listened to Saori’s advice. She was dirty from a day’s work, but I didn’t care about it as I allowed her to warm herself with my body. She was a bit taller than me, but it didn’t feel awkward when she cried her eyes red.
As she was slowly calming down, the door suddenly opened up, letting light through as a man stood there and shouted, “Father! Mother! Ron! Wendy! Are you here?!”
“R-Ruld?” Lorena uttered, raising her head once she recognized the man’s voice.
“L-Lorena?! W-What are you doing here, no, that can wait for later, where are my-! W-Why are you crying?! Who are these two people?!” Without anybody welcoming him in, the man strutted inside, waving around his brown medium-long hair. “Hey, what did you two beastmen do to-OOF! L-Lorena?”
But before he could say anything else, Lorena tore off from me and jumped onto him, embracing him roughly as she silently muttered, “I missed you, Ruld …”
After a tender moment of Ruld blushing like a ripe tomato and stuttering to say a word, Lorena let go of him and spoke, “Why, why, are you back? It’s winter, you shouldn’t come back when you need to start preparing for winter.”
“I-I’m sorry but I heard news about what happened to the village,” the guy replied with a pained expression. “It took me so long until I could convince my foreman to let me leave. Dammit, I wish I could have come earlier but at least you’re alright, thank the Goddess. How are my parents and yours?”
“They’re alright, don’t worry,” Lorena stated. “The bandits burnt down the whole village, stole all our winter rations aside from the animals and what we still had on the field, and also kidnapped a few villagers. My parents and I were amongst them, but we were lucky enough to have Lady Hestia and her retainer Saori there to save us.”
She then pointed at us, drawing the young man’s attention back to us.
“I-is that true? A-a ‘Lady?!’” He dropped his brown bag causing a heavy thud, while also noticing the white robe I had. “Oh shit-ah, please forgive me, m’lady! I beg you in the Goddess name to forgive my sinful actions, I didn’t mean to do anything! Please, I didn’t mean any offense, m'lady!”
… This white robe really is effective … fuck.
After Lorena calmed him down and explained to him that I was not like other nobles, he finally calmed down enough for us to talk, although he was still shivering. After introducing ourselves, Lorena asked him to explain why he was in the village so late in the month.
Although hesitating while I was there, he reluctantly explained to us that he heard from a few adventurers that Carine village was attacked. While he was repairing their shoes and boots, they told him how a large group of mercenaries was defeated by the bandits and that a rank C party had to go handle it.
He wanted to return back so badly, however, since he had taken up a few work requests, he was forced by his workshop to stay and fulfill them, otherwise his worker and housing contract would’ve been nullified. He worked tirelessly for the last week, fulfilling every single request.
As he worked, no word came from Colwyn nor his family, so it was obvious he would be desperate to come back. It seemed that after he became of age at 15, he left for Firwood to work as a shoemaker at Firwood, and would rarely come back to the village due to work.
“Wait, stop!” Saori suddenly interrupted the story. “Could you repeat that. You said you are a shoemaker? A cobbler?”
“Huh?! Uh, yeah,” Ruld confirmed, not expecting Saori to interrupt him like that. “I actually got my tools with me. I thought I could help out the family by fixing people’s shoes, so I brought them with me. Although it’s the workshop’s, my foreman told me that I shouldn’t let my skills rust while I’m gone.”
Saori’s eye widened, smiling a devious grin as she drew closer to Ruld. “Can you already take requests?”
“Huh?!” he flinched backward from Saori, who was baring her fangs excitedly.
“My Lady, another companion, and I require footwear as you can see.” She pointing at her feet. “I can offer you fresh meat, fruits, vegetables, and other rations if you accept it. We can also provide you with the leather. We need them desperately, so let us get started now, Mister Ruld.”
Astonished, I looked at Saori pressuring Ruld to take out his tools. I then looked at Lorena, smiling when I saw her sadness disappear the moment this guy appeared. “She knows how to take advantage of a situation. Well, I wouldn’t mind some boots, really. Walking around the village would be much easier with them.”
“Hiehie,” Lorena couldn’t help herself from giggling, nodding in response.. “Yeah, that’s Ruld, alright. He can be assertive when it comes to people he cares for, but when it comes to women, he always gets bullied by them. Even my friends used to bully him for being like that, but I always liked how he would work extremely hard when others asked him to. That’s how he got his apprenticeship as a cobbler.”
“Hey, did you forget that you two have to share a house together, now?” I poked her sides, prompting her to blush in embarrassment.
After Saori got Ruld to accept her request, she called me over to have my feet measured. Being the one to design our clothes, Saori also took the helm of designing the appearance of our shoes, adamant that it should fit stylistically.
Using a wooden tablet, she drew with a charcoal pencil a general appearance of the boots, while also showing him the leather she wanted him to process. Unfortunately, all of our rank C monster pelt were too thick for him to process with his tool. I audibly heard him softly complaining to himself for not asking his foreman for better tools, as he worked on our request.
“Jeez, never would’ve thought I would work for a noble, a shrine maiden even. Damn, hopefully I can do this,” he muttered as he meticulously tested out each pelt, looking for ones his tools could work with.
After a few attempts, he finally settled on a few weak rank D and below materials. Once Saori chose one of the options, he told us that he would get it processed with his father.
Lorena couldn’t help but smile as she watched, finding joy in seeing Ruld’s excited face. As we were still working on the design, the door once again opened up roughly, revealing a woman this time, a very familiar woman.
“Lady Hestia, Miss Saori, are you two here?!”
“Harriet?” I uttered.
“Thank the Goddess you two are here! I was at your house and Miss Tasianna told me that you were looking for Lorena, but I didn’t think you would be at her house,” Harriet confessed, looking like she had been running around the village since morning. “Please, you must come with me immediately, my Lady. Lord Count Helvas has sent his steward to deliver a missive to you, and Miss Tasianna isn’t allowing them to enter your house.”
Looking at Harriet’s mortified expression, I could hazard a guess that Tasianna was about to blow up. She wasn’t a fan of humans in the first place; suffice to say, she wouldn’t let any enter our house without my permission, even if they were a king, I suppose.
“Lorena, don't forget to tell your parents about everything, okay? Saori and I will support you no matter what, so talk to them, alright?” I tapped her shoulders, before excusing myself. “Saori, let’s move. Harriet, lead the way, please.”
Rushing out of Lorena’s house after saying our goodbyes, we sprinted back to our house only to see a group of black suit-wearing men next to two carriages standing before it. Tasianna was adamantly blocking the door from two knight-looking men.
“My Mistress is not home yet, and neither has she given you her permission. I ask you to leave, gentlemen.” Although her words were polite, her tone and eyes were telling me otherwise, sending a chilling aura towards the two armored men.
However, instead of the knights, the man behind them spoke, “Pardon our unannounced visit, Miss Elf, but we only wish to deliver your mistress our Lord’s present. As the representative of the feudal lord of this land, I ask of you to allow us entry so we may do our work.”
Even from this distance, I could see cold sweat on his face, clearly unnerved by Tasianna’s presence. However, compared to the knights who were slowly backing off, the man wearing a fine black outfit fitting for a butler, stood his ground, forcing himself to smile despite being on-guard.
“Your thoughtfulness is remarkable, however, without my Lady’s permission, I will not back away,” Tasianna repeated herself, nowhere close to being calm. “It might be true that we do not own this land, but the village representative gave us your lord’s, Lord Count Helvas, permission to stay here. Or are you saying that your lord does not respect the privacy of my lady? You must only deliver your message, not enter our house, especially not unannounced as you said.”
It would seem like our little talk with Jecht has been fruitful as he delivered my message to Count Helvas. I did notice that no spies were around us today, so that was something good.
The entourage was quite large just to deliver a message though. The men around the carriages all seemed like butlers, wearing a less finely made version of the black suit the man talking to Tasianna had. As he was flanked by two knights, I guess he had to be the steward Harriet mentioned.
I knew they would contact us eventually but coming unannounced? I knew this was Count Helvas’s land but he should know basic courtesy like giving the receiving person an hour’s notice to prepare for the arrival. Colwyn and his spies should have told him about me, and even if I hadn’t admitted my royalty status, a “supposed” shrine maiden should earn some respect, right? At least, that was the impression I got from the whole village.
“Excuse me, Mister steward,” Harriet rushed over to him the moment we got close enough, bowing to apologize. “I apologize for taking so long but I have brought Lady Hestia to you.”
As she was doing that, Saori went over to speak with Tasianna who explained to us with a relieved smile about what happened.
“Retainers of Lord Count Helvas have arrived to visit Lady Hestia, Miss Saori. They asked for her presence but after explaining to them that our Lady isn’t at home, they wished to replace our furniture with their ‘presents.’ I declined them until permission was granted but they kept insisting.”
“Thank you very much, I believe I understand the situation,” Saori answered before telling me to “play along” through [Telepathy]. She then turned towards the steward and gave him a polite Japanese bow. “I do apologize for not being here to greet you, Sir. My name is Saori Segawa and I am a retainer to Lady Hestia Atsuko. How may I help you?”
Pausing for only a second, the man’s smile never faded as he bowed politely from the waist, “No, it is I that must apologize for my rudeness, Miss Segawa. I acted on my rashness and pushed your companion, for that, I personally apologize. Let me introduce myself, I am Barathan Kiesmay, steward and head-butler of Lord Count Andre Helvas, Lord of Carine Village. I am here today to deliver your mistress an invitation to my Lord’s manor for dinner and also his welcome presents to you. May I?”
Saori stepped aside, signaling to me that it was time for me to “play along”. But what the hell did she mean by that? What was I supposed to do in this situation? She said three lines, listened to him speak, and then threw the hardest part to me. How the hell was a “noble lady” supposed to answer in this situation?!
Verdammt nochmal, this stupid white robe! Why did you want to be funny, huh? Hestia?! Verdammt, oi, parallel minds, I need your help, now!
Running through all the books, movies, tv-series, and mangas I’ve consumed in my past life, I hoped something would help me solve this problem. There was a big difference between casually acting like a noble and actually being one, okay? Even with [High-Speed Calculation] and [Multi-Thought Processing], I only had a few seconds to think about it and that certainly wasn’t enough to go through everything I experienced in my past life.
But the biggest problem was that I didn’t know any etiquette rules in this world, or in this kingdom specifically. Every country had different cultural and social rules after all. But one rule that would always exist would be to never imitate a noble, and using my [Princess] title to get me out of that situation should be a last resort.
Barathan stepped forward, bowing from his waist up with his right hand on his chest and left hand on his back, “Under her gaze, I would like to apologize to you, my lady. Please, be assured that my intrusion was not under the wish of Lord Count Helvas, only mine.”
For now, let’s actually ‘play along’ and stick to something safe. You can do this, Hestia.
“You may rise,” I responded, lifting my hand up a bit. “I accept your apology. Do not let this happen again.”
“My deepest gratitude, my lady. May the Goddess bless your gracious soul,” Barathan responded before taking an envelope from his jacket pocket, bowing his head before handing it to me with both hands on it. “This is an invitation to Lord Count Helvas’s manor to join him for dinner. As you are the most recent guest in his domain, he wishes to express his goodwill. More information will be contained inside it.”
I took it from his hand, gave it a short glance, and then gave my thanks, “I thank you for your time with my deepest gratitude, Mister Barathan. I will consider it.”
He raised his head, showing me a smile that certainly sent a shiver down my spine, before talking again, “Thank you. My Lord has also sent you presents, will you accept them?”
I glanced over to Saori, signaling her to take over.
“Certainly, Mister Barathan. However, this is not your responsibility as the task belongs to us, our Mistress’ retainers.” Saori gestured to personally bring the presents into our house.
With another bow, Barathan accepted the suggestion. He told the other butlers to unload everything and then to place them beside our house. He then gave another bow but this time to tell us farewell, driving away with his group in the carriages.
After thanking and seeing Harriet off, the three of us entered our house. I let out a small sigh before looking over to the others. “Do you think I did everything properly?”
“… I’m not sure, Lady Hestia. Fairy etiquette is pretty lax, compared to other races, I believe. At least I saw no wrong,” Tasianna replied, worry on her face.
“Well, we can only hope that we did everything properly. You made the correct choice by not letting them in, Tasianna, good job,” Saori tapped Tasianna’s back, causing her to smile.
“True enough, nice one, Tasianna. Now, we only have to deal with the presents and this letter, but before we do that …” I paused before jumping on Saori’s back, grabbing her long wolf ears and pulling them up as if I was trying to tear them off. “Verdammt nochmal, du Dummkopf! Warum zur Hölle musste ich alles tun, während du zur Seite standest und drei Zeilen blabberst!“ (Damn it, you idiot! Why the hell did I have to do everything while you stood by and said three lines!)
“Ahhh, Hestia, I can’t understand German! Ow, ow, ow! Stop pulling on my ears, please!” Saori cried out in a panic, struggling to move as I controlled her like a rat would a chef using his hair.
After I cooled down from Saori apologizing to me, I opened the envelope, taking out a letter made from parchment. In it, the letter stated that Lord Count Helvas invited me to come to him on the 27th to join him for dinner, which would mean that I had six days to get ready for it. There would be a carriage to pick me up and that I may come in my priestess outfit or whatever else I liked.
I knew that nobles loved using fancy doublespeak due to Earth’s media, so I guess this letter was also filled with it. Both Saori and Tasianna never experienced any, so all three of us were pretty bad in deciphering this … if it even had any “codes” in the first place.
However, I did understand what he meant with “whatever else I liked.” He was considering me a noble priestess right now, so I had to act that way. Fine dresses and no punk style, I guess.
Shame, and here I was thinking of coming in my dragon form. ‘How do you do, Lord Helvas? Would you like to experience a firework?’
Heh heh…
“Alright, that settled it, let’s go you two,” I announced, handing Saori the letter for safekeeping.
“Huh?” they both uttered.
“What’s there to ‘huh’ out? We have six days to prepare, so that means I have the time to evolve,” I answered with a grin. “You guys wanted me to do it, right? So let’s do it before I second guess myself, again. Let’s visit the saurians.”
With my mind set, we first placed all the presents inside our house before leaving the village, entering the woods where the saurians were camping. There, I told them of my intentions which naturally excited Master Kushlek’zar to the point that he took out his tablet and charcoal pencil.
Upon his suggestion, we moved deeper into the woods, as far away from the village as possible, where the risk of being detected was lower. Mister Kushlek’zar materialized a massive [Xohulotel’s Scaled Barrier] while Saori placed her mana threads among the trees like a spider web. This was sensitive information, after all, so we needed to be sure that nobody could enter the area and see me.
After Mister Kushlek’zar told Krim-Slak, Grazlahta, and Akasht where to guard while I was evolving, he told me that he wished to see Saori’s and my original forms. We agreed to it, knowing that he deserved to see them, but before we actually did it, I gave Saori a wooden tablet for the recipe for homemade yeast, telling her that we will need it for the cake once I woke up.
Activating [Humanize], mana mist emitted from our body. As agreed, so did Saori. From the mana mist, the silhouette of my dragon and her cadejo form revealed themselves.
How long has it been since I was last a dragon? Damn, I didn’t look at myself after I had my little accident with Danterno. I got so used to being a dragonewt, huh?
“Oooooooh, magnificent!” Master shouted, sticking his tail up to the sky. “Tasianna is a rare fairy, Saori is a mighty wolf, and Princess Hestia is such a beautiful dragon. Incredible, a sight to behold. How I would like to use [Identify] to learn more about you!”
[“Master, you’re actually embarrassing me here. I personally think I look intimidating instead of beautiful, really,”] I gave my honest opinion. It wasn’t even self-deprecation, I actually liked how cool and edgy I was.
“Ahh, [Telepathy]. I guess it must be hard to talk with your throat, my apprentice. I bet Akasht would love that skill,” the saurian priest looked over to the giant sarcosilian, who nodded firmly.
Having established a telepathic connection with everybody, Saori began talking, [“So, Hestia. What evolution will you take? [Young Ragnarok Dragon]?”]
“Hmm?! I know this is your choice, but please don’t consider such a blasphemous choice. You might still be young but please remember that the Gods are holy, even if you have defied some of them,” Master warned me. “I personally believe that [Young Angel Dragon] would be the best choice. Do not forget your duty as Goddess Aurena’s blessed candidate, young scale. It would do you good to show her more devotion.”
“If I may, I would like to agree with Priest Kushlek’zar, Lady Hestia,” Taisanna chimed in. “You’ve shown your dislike to God Danterno so [Young Infernal Demon Dragon] is impossible. Taking God Kargryxmor’s evolution choice might also worsen your [Battle Frenzy] condition, while [Young Angel Dragon] sounds like a serene choice.”
[“Hmm, I understand what you guys are saying.”] Frowning, I responded as I could see their perspective as Peolyncians, but I still shook my head as an answer. [“However, I won’t be choosing any of those choices, because I will take [Young Sunfang Dragon].”]
The saurians widened their eyes, clearly showing that they couldn’t understand why I would just abandon the thought of taking a god’s evolution choice. Tasianna, on the other hand, could only show a wry smile, maybe already anticipating this choice before she gave her opinion.
[“Hmmm, may I ask why?”] Saori sent me a telepathic smile.
I giggled as I thought of my reason, slightly embarrassed at how childish it was. [“I actually already decided on it the moment I saw it. I knew that it was the correct choice for me. I will become an idol, and an idol always seeks the spotlight to become a star. If you think about it, the sun we see in the sky is just a star for all the planets outside our solar system … maybe it’ll even reach other dimensions …”]
“‘Solar System’? ‘A sun is a star’? What are you talking about, Hestia.” Master squinted his eyes, telling me his curiosity almost tipped him over to his researcher mode.
Ignoring him, I continued my speech, looking up into the blue sky, staring deeply into it. [“If I become a sun, could I become a star for those far away from me? To the people that I’ve disappointed, who I told that I will become a star, could I actually become one now?”]
While the saurians were looking extremely confused at this point, Saori and Tasianna stayed silent, knowing exactly what I meant with my words. They gave me a small nod, before telling me to “go for it.”
System, I wish to evolve. My choice is [Young Sunfang Dragon].
Ja.
Those familiar words … How long had I last heard them? With this evolution and my new life in this kingdom, I guess the next time I would hear them would be a ways off. Rank A sounded like a huge journey.
But that was okay. Even if it would take a while, I would reach it eventually. And so would Saori. Tasianna too would become as strong as us. I saw the burning fire in their eyes when they talked back to me, shining so brightly that it was able to dwarf mine … It really made me realize how I always did things how I wanted. Always moving forth, barely ever giving and listening to my companion’s wishes. I had to be better, I had to grow up.
One of the few things that Saori told me when I made her my retainer was that I needed to build up more “confidence,” which I had to agree with. [Young Sunfang Dragon]’s description mentioned it was a calm dragon. Well, I hoped it kept to its promise then! Just like a star, I wanted to shine brighter, but also grow up into a responsible person.
Before I finally lost consciousness, I sent my friends one last telepathic message, [“Trust you guys. See you tomorrow~”]
And darkness consumed me as I fell to the ground.
AbyssRaven The choice was a bit obvious, no?
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“Well … welcome to my house,” Lorena introduced us to her home, a multi-familial house built due to the village’s need for homes after the bandits burnt everything down. “Then again, my family is sharing it with another family, so I don’t know if we can really call it ‘ours,’ yet.”
Opening the door, she welcomed us in. “Uhhh, make it yourself comfortable? Excuse me, the house isn’t exactly fit to welcome somebody from your status, Lady Hestia. Chief Colwyn and Harriet would be mad if they knew. I don’t even have anything to serve you as drinks.”
“Oh, if that is the case then let me make some tea for us,” Saori offered as she entered her home.
“T-tea? Oh, that drink you three gave me when we first met.” Lorena bumped her open palm with a fist, remembering our first meeting. “Ahh, I heard from Harriet how expensive good tea can be, so is it really alright for me to have even more although I haven’t even paid for the first? It was very, very delicious but …”
“That’s all we needed to hear, don’t worry about it. We don’t need any payment like I’ve told you a thousand times already, Lorena,” I told her to ease her worries. “We’re doing this for a friend and you’ve already answered our question, so consider that our payment if you will. You’re one of the few villagers who aren’t acting submissive in front of me, so I’d like to have our relationship stay that way.”
On our way to Lorena’s home, we asked her if she knew anybody who had an oven or if there was anybody who baked in the village. She told us two families were responsible for the bakery in the village, but similar to everybody else, their bakery burnt down after the bandit raid. They still haven’t had the time nor chance to get the ovens rebuilt.
So be it, not like the village had the time to do so. So instead, I asked Lorena if she could introduce me to them the next time we had the chance.
If there aren’t any ovens in the village, then it is time for me to bring out the craftsman inside me and build it myself. Nothing will stop me from eating some cake!
Although Saori and I didn’t have any other reason to visit Lorena’s home, we still did it anyway just for fun. She was one of the few villagers who treated me like any other person, if you overlooked the part that Harriet and her parents forced her to address me with “Lady” at the very least.
“I thought it would be awkward to suddenly change it after we got along at first. But I can understand why the other villagers can’t adapt. They don’t know you, after all,” Lorena stated, before having to pause as she witnessed Saori taking teacups and a teapot from her [Storage Magic]. “W-wow, mages are amazing. You can do so much with the Origin God’s power.”
Watching Lorena dazed by this mundane sight was surprising. To me, this was something that happened every day, in fact, watching people walk around so peacefully inside this village was more interesting. It was a far cry from the time in the Belzac forest. Magic was wondrous for her, while her simple life was calming to me; once I understood that, I nodded in satisfaction and entered her house.
The interior was made in a very similar style to ours, only larger as it was supposed to hold multiple families inside. The floor was practically just grassless earth and the walls were made from stone blocks, supported by wooden pillars. The roof consisted of a combination of thatch and rice plant straws, hastily assembled together to finish the house. There were signs that it needed maintenance, but I guess Lorena’s family would do the repairs once the village was rebuilt.
The furniture inside was also basic. A few crudely made wooden chairs and tables, four family-sized beds, and a hearth where the cooking was to be done. Aside from these inanimate objects, Lorena’s family also kept farm animals in their house.
Chocochuckles were literally chickens without their innate cowardice. Due to them being a bit larger than our lovely Earthen chickens, their eggs were also larger with a very sticky and firm yolk. Even without baking powder, I had the feeling that I could make any cake if I used them as an ingredient.
The two gheeper variants respectively were the sheep and goat versions of Peolynca. At first, I didn’t really recognize the wooly gheeper as a sheep as they looked more like rice balls with how overgrown their wool was. However, to nobody’s surprise, the wool was so soft that it felt like a real cloud. Colwyn mentioned that he would like to give us pillows and bedding filled with gheeper wool, so I couldn’t wait.
On the other hand, the horned gheepers were a bit of a disappointment. It honestly surprised me how pathetically cowardly they were. If horned gheepers didn’t recognize you as one of its owners, then their first instinct was to run away. At least their milk was pretty delicious. The only good thing about them, in my opinion.
‘Never judge a gheeper by their appearance,’ huh? I should ask Tasianna if that is an idiom or not.
However, as you would expect from keeping farm animals indoors, the smell of animal dung was intense.
“Urgh,” I groaned, holding my nose with a hand to block the smell.
As I was checking out the animals, despite the smell they were exuding, Saori prepared the tea. She poured water into the pot with [Create Water], then placed it on a small stone table that I made, stacked some twigs under it for kindling, and then …
“Ah, Saori, let me get the flint for you,” Lorena offered, but before Lorena could actually run off, Saori stopped her and asked me for help.
I snapped my fingers, causing a spark, which grew into a flame after I poured a bit of mana into it. Using [Pyrokinesis], I moved the levitating flame over to the kindling before pouring even more mana into it to allow it to grow faster, shocking the already baffled Lorena.
“I-Is this magic? There was no circle-thingy this time though…”
Come to think of it, I never did show her that I could produce fire with my claws, right?
After blowing the dirt off a chair with a wind spell, I sat down and called Lorena to join me, before elucidating the truth to her. Lorena couldn’t understand it fully, but once I visualized it by spreading some scale-dust in the air and creating another small spark, Lorena took it as a dragonewt version of a flint. Fair enough summary, honestly.
After Saori served us tea, I took out some fruits, especially a lot of fragassas, from my storage. Lorena told us how she saw a lot of them at the farmer’s market in Firwood, the closest town around. Since they went to town to sell their produce and dairy products, buying random fruits would be a waste of money for the impoverished family, so she never had any before.
Unable to accept us being the only one to offer something, as the host, she took out some gheeper milk for our tea. It wasn’t a lot, but it was enough for us to share with each other.
Also, to the tea itself, it was alright. Definitely not Tasianna-tier, but I could see that Saori took some pointers from her. It was crazy how much you could do to make warm leaf water taste better, huh?
“Mhmm, after getting a feeling of how much all of this might cost me, I can’t help but think that you two are really generous,” Lorena stated with a beaming smile, having just tasted the tea and fruits. “I bet the others would like it too.”
“That might be true … but I don’t think they can calm down with me around. Aside from the people I helped out during the bandit raid, none of the villagers really seem to like me.” I frowned, chomping down on a fragassa as I reminded myself of the interaction I just had with those two girls.
Lorena shook her head at my response. “I am sure they don’t dislike you. We are a small village, so words spread quickly. People know you saved lives and my parents … It’s just, we’re peasants. Nobles, especially noble ladies, don’t stay inside our village, they go to the lord’s mansion. I would be nervous, too, if I didn’t know you personally.”
Her saying that stung my heart a bit, as I knew they treated Saori pretty well. I really hated people only judging you for your appearances and “status,” without trying to know them properly. It reminded me too much of my time with those bitches during my trainee years.
“I told everybody, especially Colwyn, that I wasn’t a priestess or shrine maiden. It doesn’t make sense. Why is everybody just ignoring what I say?”
“Then, why are you still wearing your robe, Lady Hestia?” Lorena suddenly stated, pointing at my white-red robe I was wearing like a cape. I raised an eyebrow at this, prompting her to explain. “Our Goddess’s priests wear beautiful white robes whenever they visit our village to give sermons and offer white graces to our sick and injured. Uhm, if you hear anybody call you a ‘manablood,’ then they are referring to you as a noble, although in a belittling manner. I apologize if that offended you.”
Lorena mentioned how there were commoner and noble clergymen, and the easiest way to differentiate them was how nobles had their robes embroidered with their family crest and other patterns. There were also a sub-faction of priests called the shrine maidens; women who wear white and red robes similar to mine responsible for taking care of church artifacts and altar management.
When we first met, Lorena thought I was one of the latter due to my clothes. She even reminded me how she told the guards I was a shrine maiden when we first visited the village. I had Saori accidentally make a religious piece of clothing just ‘cause I wanted to cosplay white mages from one of my favorite RPG games!
W-what?! Why did nobody ever tell me that?! T-Tasianna!? Wait, maybe this is only a Kingdom of Artorias thing, so I guess Tasianna couldn’t have known that…
Fuck! And here I thought, I made a cool white mage reference, but I just doomed myself! Maybe I should take it off … but I really like wearing it …
After that little revelation, we drifted away from that topic and talked about something more important to me. Festivals, celebrations, and holidays; humanity has always loved to celebrate ever since they started congregating into large groups.
Afterparties, Christmas, Thanksgiving, the founding of a country; if you were creative about it, there was always a reason for somebody to just celebrate. People loved to slack off and just take it easy, have a drink with buddies, feast with the family, or just spend money to make somebody’s day.
To assimilate myself into Peolynca, I learned how to speak and read Common, the universal language for this world. The next step was to adapt to its culture. Luckily, Lorena knew that I wasn’t from this kingdom, so it was easy to draw information from her.
Dedicating a song to a holiday would also be great. I mean, on Earth, we produced so many Christmas songs that I wouldn’t be able to count them up. An idol’s job was to bring happiness to people’s hearts for just a moment, touch their souls with music, as my papa liked to say. A song that fitted the festive mood would be too perfect.
While I did learn of quite a few events, there were only three close enough for us to focus on.
On the 28th to the 30th of this month, they would have the “Barracuda Migration” event. Barracudas, and other fish, would stream down the river of Carine village towards their spawning place. The villagers would use this opportunity as their last chance to acquire meat for their winter rations. This sounded pretty similar to what a grizzly bear would do when salmon migrated.
Next month on the 7th, they had something called “Origdiviel Arashan,” which directly translated into “Thanking Origin Gods.” “God Thanking Festival” was the general term for it. Essentially, it was Thanksgiving, where the whole village would celebrate together with a feast, as this would most likely be the last time they could before the snow began. Compared to the former event, this was a universal one throughout Artorias.
The last event of the year was during “New Year’s Eve,” on the 31st of AutumnMoon. The day that I would give my first idol concert … Hopefully, it’ll be good enough to send them well into the next year.
“So … Lorena.” As time flew by as we had fun, I suddenly remembered something that I wanted to ask her. “Well, uhh, I know you don’t want to talk about it but have you … have you told your parents about that yet?”
Lorena looked down into her cup of tea, frowning deeply as she slowly nodded. Understanding what she meant, I asked her if she wanted to continue talking about it, considering it was a sensitive matter.
Lorena let out a sigh, closing her eyes as she wrinkled her mouth a bit. “They were just glad it didn’t go any further. They told me of some horror stories how some nobles and rich merchants would just … violate young commoner girls. Pick them up from the streets and throw them away once they were done.”
Lorena’s eyes suddenly started tearing up a bit. I wanted to tell her about it, but Saori grabbed my hand, holding me down. She shook her head, telepathically telling me to let her release her pent up stress and feelings.
“I-I didn’t think about it until I told them. Those stories just reminded me of everything again … how that person would just continuously hit me, laughing and calling me how he ‘would enjoy me.’ Like I was just an object. What in the Goddess’s name was that person? How can something so corrupt continue living like that? I-I just don’t know …” Lorena scratched her head in frustration before she wiped away her tears and sniffed. “The worst part was how my parents mentioned I could still be married since I wasn’t deflowered. What in the Goddess’s name … urgh. I know they said it out of love and they went through their own share of pain, but it still … stings.”
Lorena continued scratching her head, to the point I saw some of her medium-long strands fall from her hand. She was truly letting everything out, even hurting herself physically for it. “Oh, and they just wouldn’t stop talking about it every night! Telling me I should get married already so no rumors come out that I was ‘not pure’ anymore. Was I still their daughter, or did they only see me like an object? Why should rumors matter?! Nothing happened! Argh … I just want to get away from them!”
I couldn’t leave her like this any longer.
I stood up and went to her side, giving her a hug. Patting her back while letting her cry a bit on my shoulder, I tried to calm down her tension. “Do you know what your parents said to me when I first met them? They asked, ‘Is Lorena ok? Is our daughter alright?’ even though they looked even worse than when we found you. They worried so much for you. It’s as you said, they probably meant well but it probably didn’t sound good with how they worded it.”
“Parents are also human, too, even if we love them,” Saori interjected. “Sometimes they mean well and we can feel their love and warmth, but that does not make them perfect. Your parents also went through a traumatic situation where they thought their daughter was forever taken away from them, and that, of course, would make any parent worried. Any family member. Their words were crude, but running away wouldn’t help anybody. It would not calm you down.”
“Then what would?” Lorena eked out meekly, her tears drenching my clothes.
“Talking. Communication. Misunderstandings happen because we do not want to speak to others after a heated moment. You need to give them a chance, and you need to tell them to give yourself a chance to speak. It is important to respect and love your parents, but you are an adult. You need to stand your ground as one, without increasing the tension. Calm down.”
Lorena’s tears didn’t stop as I hugged her, nodding after she listened to Saori’s advice. She was dirty from a day’s work, but I didn’t care about it as I allowed her to warm herself with my body. She was a bit taller than me, but it didn’t feel awkward when she cried her eyes red.
As she was slowly calming down, the door suddenly opened up, letting light through as a man stood there and shouted, “Father! Mother! Ron! Wendy! Are you here?!”
“R-Ruld?” Lorena uttered, raising her head once she recognized the man’s voice.
“L-Lorena?! W-What are you doing here, no, that can wait for later, where are my-! W-Why are you crying?! Who are these two people?!” Without anybody welcoming him in, the man strutted inside, waving around his brown medium-long hair. “Hey, what did you two beastmen do to-OOF! L-Lorena?”
But before he could say anything else, Lorena tore off from me and jumped onto him, embracing him roughly as she silently muttered, “I missed you, Ruld …”
After a tender moment of Ruld blushing like a ripe tomato and stuttering to say a word, Lorena let go of him and spoke, “Why, why, are you back? It’s winter, you shouldn’t come back when you need to start preparing for winter.”
“I-I’m sorry but I heard news about what happened to the village,” the guy replied with a pained expression. “It took me so long until I could convince my foreman to let me leave. Dammit, I wish I could have come earlier but at least you’re alright, thank the Goddess. How are my parents and yours?”
“They’re alright, don’t worry,” Lorena stated. “The bandits burnt down the whole village, stole all our winter rations aside from the animals and what we still had on the field, and also kidnapped a few villagers. My parents and I were amongst them, but we were lucky enough to have Lady Hestia and her retainer Saori there to save us.”
She then pointed at us, drawing the young man’s attention back to us.
“I-is that true? A-a ‘Lady?!’” He dropped his brown bag causing a heavy thud, while also noticing the white robe I had. “Oh shit-ah, please forgive me, m’lady! I beg you in the Goddess name to forgive my sinful actions, I didn’t mean to do anything! Please, I didn’t mean any offense, m'lady!”
… This white robe really is effective … fuck.
After Lorena calmed him down and explained to him that I was not like other nobles, he finally calmed down enough for us to talk, although he was still shivering. After introducing ourselves, Lorena asked him to explain why he was in the village so late in the month.
Although hesitating while I was there, he reluctantly explained to us that he heard from a few adventurers that Carine village was attacked. While he was repairing their shoes and boots, they told him how a large group of mercenaries was defeated by the bandits and that a rank C party had to go handle it.
He wanted to return back so badly, however, since he had taken up a few work requests, he was forced by his workshop to stay and fulfill them, otherwise his worker and housing contract would’ve been nullified. He worked tirelessly for the last week, fulfilling every single request.
As he worked, no word came from Colwyn nor his family, so it was obvious he would be desperate to come back. It seemed that after he became of age at 15, he left for Firwood to work as a shoemaker at Firwood, and would rarely come back to the village due to work.
“Wait, stop!” Saori suddenly interrupted the story. “Could you repeat that. You said you are a shoemaker? A cobbler?”
“Huh?! Uh, yeah,” Ruld confirmed, not expecting Saori to interrupt him like that. “I actually got my tools with me. I thought I could help out the family by fixing people’s shoes, so I brought them with me. Although it’s the workshop’s, my foreman told me that I shouldn’t let my skills rust while I’m gone.”
Saori’s eye widened, smiling a devious grin as she drew closer to Ruld. “Can you already take requests?”
“Huh?!” he flinched backward from Saori, who was baring her fangs excitedly.
“My Lady, another companion, and I require footwear as you can see.” She pointing at her feet. “I can offer you fresh meat, fruits, vegetables, and other rations if you accept it. We can also provide you with the leather. We need them desperately, so let us get started now, Mister Ruld.”
Astonished, I looked at Saori pressuring Ruld to take out his tools. I then looked at Lorena, smiling when I saw her sadness disappear the moment this guy appeared. “She knows how to take advantage of a situation. Well, I wouldn’t mind some boots, really. Walking around the village would be much easier with them.”
“Hiehie,” Lorena couldn’t help herself from giggling, nodding in response.. “Yeah, that’s Ruld, alright. He can be assertive when it comes to people he cares for, but when it comes to women, he always gets bullied by them. Even my friends used to bully him for being like that, but I always liked how he would work extremely hard when others asked him to. That’s how he got his apprenticeship as a cobbler.”
“Hey, did you forget that you two have to share a house together, now?” I poked her sides, prompting her to blush in embarrassment.
After Saori got Ruld to accept her request, she called me over to have my feet measured. Being the one to design our clothes, Saori also took the helm of designing the appearance of our shoes, adamant that it should fit stylistically.
Using a wooden tablet, she drew with a charcoal pencil a general appearance of the boots, while also showing him the leather she wanted him to process. Unfortunately, all of our rank C monster pelt were too thick for him to process with his tool. I audibly heard him softly complaining to himself for not asking his foreman for better tools, as he worked on our request.
“Jeez, never would’ve thought I would work for a noble, a shrine maiden even. Damn, hopefully I can do this,” he muttered as he meticulously tested out each pelt, looking for ones his tools could work with.
After a few attempts, he finally settled on a few weak rank D and below materials. Once Saori chose one of the options, he told us that he would get it processed with his father.
Lorena couldn’t help but smile as she watched, finding joy in seeing Ruld’s excited face. As we were still working on the design, the door once again opened up roughly, revealing a woman this time, a very familiar woman.
“Lady Hestia, Miss Saori, are you two here?!”
“Harriet?” I uttered.
“Thank the Goddess you two are here! I was at your house and Miss Tasianna told me that you were looking for Lorena, but I didn’t think you would be at her house,” Harriet confessed, looking like she had been running around the village since morning. “Please, you must come with me immediately, my Lady. Lord Count Helvas has sent his steward to deliver a missive to you, and Miss Tasianna isn’t allowing them to enter your house.”
Looking at Harriet’s mortified expression, I could hazard a guess that Tasianna was about to blow up. She wasn’t a fan of humans in the first place; suffice to say, she wouldn’t let any enter our house without my permission, even if they were a king, I suppose.
“Lorena, don't forget to tell your parents about everything, okay? Saori and I will support you no matter what, so talk to them, alright?” I tapped her shoulders, before excusing myself. “Saori, let’s move. Harriet, lead the way, please.”
Rushing out of Lorena’s house after saying our goodbyes, we sprinted back to our house only to see a group of black suit-wearing men next to two carriages standing before it. Tasianna was adamantly blocking the door from two knight-looking men.
“My Mistress is not home yet, and neither has she given you her permission. I ask you to leave, gentlemen.” Although her words were polite, her tone and eyes were telling me otherwise, sending a chilling aura towards the two armored men.
However, instead of the knights, the man behind them spoke, “Pardon our unannounced visit, Miss Elf, but we only wish to deliver your mistress our Lord’s present. As the representative of the feudal lord of this land, I ask of you to allow us entry so we may do our work.”
Even from this distance, I could see cold sweat on his face, clearly unnerved by Tasianna’s presence. However, compared to the knights who were slowly backing off, the man wearing a fine black outfit fitting for a butler, stood his ground, forcing himself to smile despite being on-guard.
“Your thoughtfulness is remarkable, however, without my Lady’s permission, I will not back away,” Tasianna repeated herself, nowhere close to being calm. “It might be true that we do not own this land, but the village representative gave us your lord’s, Lord Count Helvas, permission to stay here. Or are you saying that your lord does not respect the privacy of my lady? You must only deliver your message, not enter our house, especially not unannounced as you said.”
It would seem like our little talk with Jecht has been fruitful as he delivered my message to Count Helvas. I did notice that no spies were around us today, so that was something good.
The entourage was quite large just to deliver a message though. The men around the carriages all seemed like butlers, wearing a less finely made version of the black suit the man talking to Tasianna had. As he was flanked by two knights, I guess he had to be the steward Harriet mentioned.
I knew they would contact us eventually but coming unannounced? I knew this was Count Helvas’s land but he should know basic courtesy like giving the receiving person an hour’s notice to prepare for the arrival. Colwyn and his spies should have told him about me, and even if I hadn’t admitted my royalty status, a “supposed” shrine maiden should earn some respect, right? At least, that was the impression I got from the whole village.
“Excuse me, Mister steward,” Harriet rushed over to him the moment we got close enough, bowing to apologize. “I apologize for taking so long but I have brought Lady Hestia to you.”
As she was doing that, Saori went over to speak with Tasianna who explained to us with a relieved smile about what happened.
“Retainers of Lord Count Helvas have arrived to visit Lady Hestia, Miss Saori. They asked for her presence but after explaining to them that our Lady isn’t at home, they wished to replace our furniture with their ‘presents.’ I declined them until permission was granted but they kept insisting.”
“Thank you very much, I believe I understand the situation,” Saori answered before telling me to “play along” through [Telepathy]. She then turned towards the steward and gave him a polite Japanese bow. “I do apologize for not being here to greet you, Sir. My name is Saori Segawa and I am a retainer to Lady Hestia Atsuko. How may I help you?”
Pausing for only a second, the man’s smile never faded as he bowed politely from the waist, “No, it is I that must apologize for my rudeness, Miss Segawa. I acted on my rashness and pushed your companion, for that, I personally apologize. Let me introduce myself, I am Barathan Kiesmay, steward and head-butler of Lord Count Andre Helvas, Lord of Carine Village. I am here today to deliver your mistress an invitation to my Lord’s manor for dinner and also his welcome presents to you. May I?”
Saori stepped aside, signaling to me that it was time for me to “play along”. But what the hell did she mean by that? What was I supposed to do in this situation? She said three lines, listened to him speak, and then threw the hardest part to me. How the hell was a “noble lady” supposed to answer in this situation?!
Verdammt nochmal, this stupid white robe! Why did you want to be funny, huh? Hestia?! Verdammt, oi, parallel minds, I need your help, now!
Running through all the books, movies, tv-series, and mangas I’ve consumed in my past life, I hoped something would help me solve this problem. There was a big difference between casually acting like a noble and actually being one, okay? Even with [High-Speed Calculation] and [Multi-Thought Processing], I only had a few seconds to think about it and that certainly wasn’t enough to go through everything I experienced in my past life.
But the biggest problem was that I didn’t know any etiquette rules in this world, or in this kingdom specifically. Every country had different cultural and social rules after all. But one rule that would always exist would be to never imitate a noble, and using my [Princess] title to get me out of that situation should be a last resort.
Barathan stepped forward, bowing from his waist up with his right hand on his chest and left hand on his back, “Under her gaze, I would like to apologize to you, my lady. Please, be assured that my intrusion was not under the wish of Lord Count Helvas, only mine.”
For now, let’s actually ‘play along’ and stick to something safe. You can do this, Hestia.
“You may rise,” I responded, lifting my hand up a bit. “I accept your apology. Do not let this happen again.”
“My deepest gratitude, my lady. May the Goddess bless your gracious soul,” Barathan responded before taking an envelope from his jacket pocket, bowing his head before handing it to me with both hands on it. “This is an invitation to Lord Count Helvas’s manor to join him for dinner. As you are the most recent guest in his domain, he wishes to express his goodwill. More information will be contained inside it.”
I took it from his hand, gave it a short glance, and then gave my thanks, “I thank you for your time with my deepest gratitude, Mister Barathan. I will consider it.”
He raised his head, showing me a smile that certainly sent a shiver down my spine, before talking again, “Thank you. My Lord has also sent you presents, will you accept them?”
I glanced over to Saori, signaling her to take over.
“Certainly, Mister Barathan. However, this is not your responsibility as the task belongs to us, our Mistress’ retainers.” Saori gestured to personally bring the presents into our house.
With another bow, Barathan accepted the suggestion. He told the other butlers to unload everything and then to place them beside our house. He then gave another bow but this time to tell us farewell, driving away with his group in the carriages.
After thanking and seeing Harriet off, the three of us entered our house. I let out a small sigh before looking over to the others. “Do you think I did everything properly?”
“… I’m not sure, Lady Hestia. Fairy etiquette is pretty lax, compared to other races, I believe. At least I saw no wrong,” Tasianna replied, worry on her face.
“Well, we can only hope that we did everything properly. You made the correct choice by not letting them in, Tasianna, good job,” Saori tapped Tasianna’s back, causing her to smile.
“True enough, nice one, Tasianna. Now, we only have to deal with the presents and this letter, but before we do that …” I paused before jumping on Saori’s back, grabbing her long wolf ears and pulling them up as if I was trying to tear them off. “Verdammt nochmal, du Dummkopf! Warum zur Hölle musste ich alles tun, während du zur Seite standest und drei Zeilen blabberst!“ (Damn it, you idiot! Why the hell did I have to do everything while you stood by and said three lines!)
“Ahhh, Hestia, I can’t understand German! Ow, ow, ow! Stop pulling on my ears, please!” Saori cried out in a panic, struggling to move as I controlled her like a rat would a chef using his hair.
After I cooled down from Saori apologizing to me, I opened the envelope, taking out a letter made from parchment. In it, the letter stated that Lord Count Helvas invited me to come to him on the 27th to join him for dinner, which would mean that I had six days to get ready for it. There would be a carriage to pick me up and that I may come in my priestess outfit or whatever else I liked.
I knew that nobles loved using fancy doublespeak due to Earth’s media, so I guess this letter was also filled with it. Both Saori and Tasianna never experienced any, so all three of us were pretty bad in deciphering this … if it even had any “codes” in the first place.
However, I did understand what he meant with “whatever else I liked.” He was considering me a noble priestess right now, so I had to act that way. Fine dresses and no punk style, I guess.
Shame, and here I was thinking of coming in my dragon form. ‘How do you do, Lord Helvas? Would you like to experience a firework?’
Heh heh…
“Alright, that settled it, let’s go you two,” I announced, handing Saori the letter for safekeeping.
“Huh?” they both uttered.
“What’s there to ‘huh’ out? We have six days to prepare, so that means I have the time to evolve,” I answered with a grin. “You guys wanted me to do it, right? So let’s do it before I second guess myself, again. Let’s visit the saurians.”
With my mind set, we first placed all the presents inside our house before leaving the village, entering the woods where the saurians were camping. There, I told them of my intentions which naturally excited Master Kushlek’zar to the point that he took out his tablet and charcoal pencil.
Upon his suggestion, we moved deeper into the woods, as far away from the village as possible, where the risk of being detected was lower. Mister Kushlek’zar materialized a massive [Xohulotel’s Scaled Barrier] while Saori placed her mana threads among the trees like a spider web. This was sensitive information, after all, so we needed to be sure that nobody could enter the area and see me.
After Mister Kushlek’zar told Krim-Slak, Grazlahta, and Akasht where to guard while I was evolving, he told me that he wished to see Saori’s and my original forms. We agreed to it, knowing that he deserved to see them, but before we actually did it, I gave Saori a wooden tablet for the recipe for homemade yeast, telling her that we will need it for the cake once I woke up.
Activating [Humanize], mana mist emitted from our body. As agreed, so did Saori. From the mana mist, the silhouette of my dragon and her cadejo form revealed themselves.
How long has it been since I was last a dragon? Damn, I didn’t look at myself after I had my little accident with Danterno. I got so used to being a dragonewt, huh?
“Oooooooh, magnificent!” Master shouted, sticking his tail up to the sky. “Tasianna is a rare fairy, Saori is a mighty wolf, and Princess Hestia is such a beautiful dragon. Incredible, a sight to behold. How I would like to use [Identify] to learn more about you!”
[“Master, you’re actually embarrassing me here. I personally think I look intimidating instead of beautiful, really,”] I gave my honest opinion. It wasn’t even self-deprecation, I actually liked how cool and edgy I was.
“Ahh, [Telepathy]. I guess it must be hard to talk with your throat, my apprentice. I bet Akasht would love that skill,” the saurian priest looked over to the giant sarcosilian, who nodded firmly.
Having established a telepathic connection with everybody, Saori began talking, [“So, Hestia. What evolution will you take? [Young Ragnarok Dragon]?”]
“Hmm?! I know this is your choice, but please don’t consider such a blasphemous choice. You might still be young but please remember that the Gods are holy, even if you have defied some of them,” Master warned me. “I personally believe that [Young Angel Dragon] would be the best choice. Do not forget your duty as Goddess Aurena’s blessed candidate, young scale. It would do you good to show her more devotion.”
“If I may, I would like to agree with Priest Kushlek’zar, Lady Hestia,” Taisanna chimed in. “You’ve shown your dislike to God Danterno so [Young Infernal Demon Dragon] is impossible. Taking God Kargryxmor’s evolution choice might also worsen your [Battle Frenzy] condition, while [Young Angel Dragon] sounds like a serene choice.”
[“Hmm, I understand what you guys are saying.”] Frowning, I responded as I could see their perspective as Peolyncians, but I still shook my head as an answer. [“However, I won’t be choosing any of those choices, because I will take [Young Sunfang Dragon].”]
The saurians widened their eyes, clearly showing that they couldn’t understand why I would just abandon the thought of taking a god’s evolution choice. Tasianna, on the other hand, could only show a wry smile, maybe already anticipating this choice before she gave her opinion.
[“Hmmm, may I ask why?”] Saori sent me a telepathic smile.
I giggled as I thought of my reason, slightly embarrassed at how childish it was. [“I actually already decided on it the moment I saw it. I knew that it was the correct choice for me. I will become an idol, and an idol always seeks the spotlight to become a star. If you think about it, the sun we see in the sky is just a star for all the planets outside our solar system … maybe it’ll even reach other dimensions …”]
“‘Solar System’? ‘A sun is a star’? What are you talking about, Hestia.” Master squinted his eyes, telling me his curiosity almost tipped him over to his researcher mode.
Ignoring him, I continued my speech, looking up into the blue sky, staring deeply into it. [“If I become a sun, could I become a star for those far away from me? To the people that I’ve disappointed, who I told that I will become a star, could I actually become one now?”]
While the saurians were looking extremely confused at this point, Saori and Tasianna stayed silent, knowing exactly what I meant with my words. They gave me a small nod, before telling me to “go for it.”
System, I wish to evolve. My choice is [Young Sunfang Dragon].
Ja.
Those familiar words … How long had I last heard them? With this evolution and my new life in this kingdom, I guess the next time I would hear them would be a ways off. Rank A sounded like a huge journey.
But that was okay. Even if it would take a while, I would reach it eventually. And so would Saori. Tasianna too would become as strong as us. I saw the burning fire in their eyes when they talked back to me, shining so brightly that it was able to dwarf mine … It really made me realize how I always did things how I wanted. Always moving forth, barely ever giving and listening to my companion’s wishes. I had to be better, I had to grow up.
One of the few things that Saori told me when I made her my retainer was that I needed to build up more “confidence,” which I had to agree with. [Young Sunfang Dragon]’s description mentioned it was a calm dragon. Well, I hoped it kept to its promise then! Just like a star, I wanted to shine brighter, but also grow up into a responsible person.
Before I finally lost consciousness, I sent my friends one last telepathic message, [“Trust you guys. See you tomorrow~”]
And darkness consumed me as I fell to the ground.
AbyssRaven The choice was a bit obvious, no?
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