"Eremita?! But what about the pursuers?!" Virgilia objected and Carmine put her finger on top of Virgilia's lips
"Come on, you'll be only staying over for a week. Besides, if you're so worried about pursuers, wouldn't it be nice to not have a load on your team?
And honey,
Now I'm Carmine. Eremita... Was merely a beast."
And so began our training.
And by training I mean massive errand demands.
It began the next day after I've recovered for the battle and us beginning to settle in the tiny house of hers.
"Okay, so I need to restock my supply; usually I would be selling beef, but get whatever you can get your hands on. Don't want to lose my turf!"
"Hmm... I have an idea - but it requires my department, as the potential stock is far away. Could you look after my crew? I think you're already familiarized yourself with the new face here."
"Of course. This is the sum I'm willing to pay for a restock. Now you better bring me something good!" She hands over a heavy money bag to Virgilia and she departs, leaving us at the hand of the cranky tyrant.
"You brats have cleaned my house, but I can tell you haven't cleaned my barn. Ya better make a move in that, that'll raise your fortitude."
From seemingly more than a couple of weeks of disuse, the farm isn't too bloody (she's a self proclaimed butcher after all), but damn it does it stink so bad.
"Prepare them buckets and mops. You better make this place look like it's fresh. Cute little animals like being in neat places after all..."
"Says the butcher..." Aden grumbles and gets a light smack at the back of the head "Oi!"
--
"Good day again, sir. How's the sale going?"
"Not good... It seems none of the locals would want to buy any of my sheep... I can't bear to look at these babies be without a place to stay..."
"Well... Hup!!!"
"!!!"
"We're willing to buy."
"R-Really?!"
"Yeah. My associate wants to buy your stock with this amount of money."
"Ooh... Miss, do you think it'll be enough to provide for us?"
"Assuming your daughter gets a new job... I would say it should be enough for your pension."
"Thank you... Oh, so I'm so thankfull..."
"Um... We haven't discussed a prize."
--
"Nice and clean! It's even better than when we first purchased the place!"
"We?"
"Ah, Virgilia and I bought this place for real cheap. I heard someone here recently died in a gruesome way by the time we arrived here; thinkin' that the homeowner's place is haunted. Well, since we're no superstitious folk, we bought it and I've been living here ever since!"
"Wow... She buys some entire houses for you... While I'm stuck here because of the bail debt..."
"For your information, little brat, I've worked with Virgilia for three years; and having to tolerate those pipsqueaks is no small feat. Hell, there were even more pipsquatches here and there, but oh well..."
By the end of the day, Virgilia returned with a flock of familiar sheep and Carmine was overjoyed.
"Such lovely cuties. Too bad they won't live for THAT long."
"How did you lose your stock anyway?" Virgilia asks and Carmine sighs
"I was about to have my bovines breed for the next batch, but "those" asshats had occupied this village too, even my little business here was taxed. They basically overwhelmed me, stripped me of everything I had and left: had to pretend that I'm dead in order to not get killed for their troubles."
"Oi, if "they're" is what I think they are, then wh--"
"Don't worry, they come like once in two weeks, and they came like three days ago last time. So unless YOU did something stupid, it should be fine."
"Yeah Bijou is probably seething too..."
"Uhh... What are they talking about?" I ask Aden and he tells me that it's that syndicate from which Bijou escaped from. They're that notorious huh?
"Don't worry too much about their talk, bud. They're both old ladies, so they talk like old lady stuff..."
"I HEARD THAT!!!" Carmine hisses
And after we had retrieved sheep, I became pretty much Carmine's apprentice.
At night it was an actual magic training; while everyone else slept, we would practice haemomancy
"Night is the time of calm. There's way less clamoring going around in these parts, and while casting magic, it is important to stay calm focused... Now, cut your finger and focus..."
But during the day me and the fellows were here errand children. Aden and Émile were responsible for delivery and selling, making sure that they got the right price - while I am responsible for butchering with her as my supervisor.
"Uhh... I genuinely don't want to do this..."
"Unfortunately you'll be doing this a lot. Now suck it up. Have no mercy."
...
"It was so alive moments ago... And now..."
"Oi, Virgilia told me you were convicted for murder. Wouldn't that be kind of an old news for you?"
"IT WAS OUT OF DESPERATION!!... It's just... I was given the opportunity to finally break free from my broken home. Finally to be a normal person... Yet now..."
"Hmm... I suppose that's the case. Honestly I too didn't want to kill anything, but due to my condition - I had to now. I was ailed with unquenchable thirst for blood - so I had to kill in order to survive. Can't even stop drinking and kick the bucket, that newfound instinct inside me drives me to keep on surviving."
She then teaches me how to remove unnecessary parts and skin.
"This world... Is ugly. Even if you don't want to, you will still get glimpses at how horrible it is. Yet in spite of this, you must learn how survive in it. Not saying that you have to be exposed to absolutely depraved ugliness all your life - I know one person who did that mistake - and that'll break you. I didn't ask to be the bloodthirsty undead, yet here I am, learning how to deal with all that stuff, trying to make the life easier for everybody."
"... I suppose that's the truth..."
"Now, let me teach you how to cut it."
With Carmine, I tried to be desensitized to seeing dead bodies. And while the process of processing meat is much more smoother after a while, I still can't get rid of that disgusting feeling.
"... You know, maybe that little lesson session is a bust." She then said one day
"H-Huh?..."
"You know, trying to get you used to death sort of training. It seems you have a sympathetic heart inside you."
"I-Is it a bad thing?"
"... No. In fact, I think you're even better than Virgilia in that regard. This means that you're still human after all."
"Uh..."
"Having to see what was once living and thriving just suddenly die... Bah. At this point it feels like I'm torturing you. At least Virgilia didn't sympathize with her enemies."
"Um... What about Aden and Émile?..."
"Let me tell you.
Aden had to imitate it to finally earn it.
And Émile had lost theirs long ago."
...
After a while, my mastery began to improve, now being able to control my blood ever so slightly
"Yes... Yes... This it... You're getting somewhere, my boy..."
"That's so cool, bud! Soon you'll be able to kick some asses yourself!"
"Please, don't say it like that..." I grumble and from the small cut, a needle was formed. And then another... And then another...
"Be careful not to injure yourself in the process. Many practitioners had needles and spikes form inside of the body, leaving them heavily disfigured. It is a forbidden art for a reason."
And by the end, a dozen more were made. I started to feel dizzy and Carmine let me to sit down and take a breather.
"Generation is one thing, now using them is another whole deal. We're done for today."
"Oi, Fortune." Aden the waves "Since you've been pretty busy being under Carmine's apprentice, why don't we unwind for a change?"
"Ah... Yeah..."
He leads me back to the village, where we see Émile just sitting on a bench, looking at the mirror.
I was about to walk up to them, but then catch a glimpse of the mirror.
The mirror reflects a different person.
The Émile that is with us is currently calm, wearing an awfully neutral expression.
While the Émile that is in the mirror is smiling uncannily.
They notice me, and immediately pull up a smile.
"Heya Fortie! Decided to finally get some fresh air?"
They were usually a bit of an air-head in the house; doing things by their whim, within limits of course.
But sometimes they would get oddly silent, always out of sight.
"Uh... Yeah..."
"Great! Hey, why don't we sight see this village in full, eh? Émile was getting so bored being on their own!"
And so we walk around the village.
It's odd to see villages that aren't a miseryfests like mine is, everyone seems to enjoy their life, even if a little high-strung due to potential of being attacked by the daemons.
"Hmm... It's nice that the tree lady opened up her shop again, but she's still pretty unnerving."
"I wouldn't allow my kids to go near that place, who knows what they'll see in there."
"Actually, I think people are way too judgemental. She hasn't done anything to harm us, and as far as our interactions went, she was pretty cordial. Plus, as a fellow farmhand - judging by the meat quality - she does truly care for the little ones even if she leads them to demise."
We then saw Bijou taking a drag out of the cigar in the far away place, leaning against the tree with the grim look on her face.
Come to think of it, it's my first time seeing someone smoking cigarettes.
"Oh! Hello guys! How's it going?" She perks up and I hide behind Aden.
"H-Hey, Bijou doesn't bite..." He tries to get me off of his back and she laughs.
"Oh this guy is silly. So um, what's your name exactly?"
"... Just Fortune."
"Ah! Trés stylé! This is a very lucky name you have!" She grasped my hand and began shaking it.
"Uh..."
Still too much of a wuss to tell your real name?
Shut up.
"I'm a very close friend of Virgie! She may be a bit of a grump now, but don't worry. She's still a huge softie!"
Not this again.
"She's very susceptible to being teased, hehe~"
At that moment, Aden simply plugged my ears and there was some conversation going on, but I couldn't hear it - all I saw was Bijou being exaggeratedly offended. But after a while, Aden removed the fingers.
"What I meant is that if you slightly poke fun at her, she'll get all flustered. And she's an old lady herself, fufu~"
"Aden why did you plug my ears?"
"You don't need to know!"
"Also...
Um...
You were looking pretty grim earlier... Is everything alright?"
"!!!
Tch, perceptive aren't you? And I hoped that you'll be a naive one...
Yes, currently, as we stay and idle here, my mind was pretty damn restless. I was essentially sleeping with one eye open... Literally."
"Why is that?"
"Eh, it's something a kid like you should never, NEVER should be worrying about.
It's something that ideally, only adults deal with. And appropriate ones at that." She takes out a flask and begins sipping from it.
"Is it about Dark Ravens?" Aden asks and she spits out. Luckily it wasn't alcohol after all.
"Come on, Aden, have some bloody sense in you! You're just gonna scare the kid."
"... I just told him about them."
"Listen here then. Whatever you think of them, they're much, MUCH worse. Aden, what you saw back then was only a sliver of their cruelty. We're able to fight them off ONLY because of our magical advantage. If we were mere non-magicians, or worse, if they were magicians: none of us would've been alive at this point. Our organs would've been sold on a black market or fed to the pigs."
"Eek!"
"Oops... But yeah. If THAT guy blurted out something he shouldn't have, then please understand why I can be... A little on edge sometimes. And it's not about me specifically. It's about innocent people who are hurt by the actions of a megalomaniac lunatic. Seeing those people dread their visit... Is painful. The Corvids I knew would never have stooped so low. In fact... They would be aiding it."
"Huh?..."
"Well, it is just a dream after all. And there was a bit of truth about this lifestyle being unsustainable, but this is too much. You go scamper off. You're still innocent children after all. What you see... Is merely a fraction of the cruel underbelly of the world."
That's the same sentiment that Carmine shared.
Though instead of telling me to deal with it, Bijou wants me to stay away from the "ugliness" as much as possible.
"I genuinely wish that you guys had way better lives than this, but well, now you're under Virgie's wing. She may seem cruel in her approach, but that's because she doesn't want YOU to face the same heartbreak as we did at some point."
"Hmm..." Heartbreak?...
"Well! If ya feel like Virgie or Eremimi being too harsh - you can go to Auntie Bijou any time!"
"Any time you're not drunk that is..." I grumble.
"Eh??? Was this the turn off??? Hey, I can't help it!!!"
After we leave Bijou to her devices, we go to the local bakery to buy some snacks.
"You really like those apples, hm?"
"Shut up."
"Hm... Cream bun..."
Buying our sweet buns from the baker, we sit by the bench after a long walk; sight-seeing the tiny village. Leonid is guarding the carriage and Virgilia seemingly nowhere to be seen. Aden picked out a berry bun, I picked out the apple one, and Émile picked the cream one.
"Nice to eat something other than steaks or meat soup..." Aden munches.
"I suppose... I only had tiny jerky rations in the mines... And stew from the hospital..."
"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"
"Dunno about that! Émile only had a special solution."
"Hmm..."
We had a chat about nothing, just the world around us and reminiscing about the times we perceived as peaceful.
It wasn't much, but I feel like I missed this.
It's nice to talk to someone for once.
And with that, I feel like I'm getting closer to these two.
--
"The sea monster?"
"Yes, it was a horrifying sea monster - encroaching and all consuming one."
"How long has it been terrorizing you?"
"For while, I think? At first they thought it was a little girl, but then it started to consume them one by one."
"Hmm... Seems like a strong one..."
"Will you help us, the fungal witch? I've heard so many tales of your journeys, you must be a very strong magician."
"Oh, I'm way past my prime now...
But..."
We'll try to help. Hearing all the casualties... It must've been devastating.
And unlike with Bandersnatch, I won't let go off it next time."