Chapter 16: Deepen

Chapter 16: Chapter 16: Deepen

The next day.

Amelia hadn’t said anything about the knife in our conversation. She simply stated that her father would know about it and that she would ask him in due time. The old man would likely speak when he had something of importance to say.

Meanwhile, the manor was in chaos as always. Allan paused at the gate and watched.

There were going to be more profits ffor Oakwood. Allan liked that. The people of Oakwood were making money, and therefore their eyes were drawn. And eyes always wanted something.

A long, thin dagger rested in the pocket of his coat. He pulled it out. The blade of the knife he had used to cut the bodies in the Hollow Root lay in his hand. A crest adorned the hilt of the dagger.

After the dungeon he’d written the guildmaster a hasty note and had since promised a full report, which would, he admitted, have to wait a few days, given that he’d just returned. He set off through the manor to find Seris and Lira, but they didn’t appear to be awake yet.

"Fine. I’ll study."

He locked the door to the study, went to the desk, and laid the knife on the wood.

He couldn’t stop looking at it.

The leather looked very fine, and the thin cord used to stitch it had been done with great care. The hilt sat below the guard and bore a small silver emblem. A burning tree surrounded by three stars.

Let’s see what you’re hiding.

Using a appraisal crystal, gifted by the guild master, He activated it. Grainy, translucent letters surfaced.

[Basic Appraisal Activated.]

Object: Emberwind Knight’s Dagger

Quality: Rare

Origin: House Emberwind

Condition: 87%

Previous Owner: Unknown

Allan tapped the crystal with one finger.

"Unknown?"

He had paid ten gold for this crystal specifically because its specialty was reading an item’s past. Yet it had just refused to look. A Basic Appraisal should have given him an owner and recent history.

The screen flickered.

[Additional Information Detected.]

[Warning: Residual magical interference detected.]

[Attempting analysis...]

The result appeared several seconds later.

Residual Magic: Blood Magic

Allan’s mouth flattened. "Blood magic."

He picked up the dagger, feeling how cold it was, much colder than he had expected. Turning it over in his hand, he looked for the pommel. There, at the base of the blade, was a faint, dark red stain, like dried blood.

He touched the crystal to it.

The screen flared.

[Trace detected.]

[Bloodline signature partially preserved.]

[Analysis incomplete.]

Allan’s thumb stopped over the stain.

"Someone used this for a ritual?"

His mind went to the intricately arranged bodies in the Hollow Root, killed with an almost equal amount of precision. He sighed but added this to his ever growing list of problems.

He pulled a sheet of paper close and started to write in heavy black letters, three words for the three places that had begun to form some sort of connection in his mind.

Emberwind. Hollow Root. Blood Magic.

Then he added a fourth, more slowly.

Arclight...

This was Amelia Arclight of House Arclight. She was already tied to him, and if the events at the Hollow Root were tied to the disaster at the town of Emberwind, he would have to get her involved as well.

Allan frowned.

I really should stop collecting problems.

Knock. Knock.

He covered the dagger.

"Come in."

A senior worker from the outer buildings entered, wearing the usual respectful smile. "My lord, a merchant from Westbridge is here. He has a contract that needs approval."

Allan glanced out the window. Three wagons waited outside in the bright light of the day.

"Tell him I’ll get to the contract in ten minutes. And send word to the guild that I’ll deliver a fuller report tomorrow."

The worker bowed and left.

For the next few hours, Allan was nothing but a lord of commerce, sitting in a hot room with three merchants and piles of papers, while outside his wagons waited, ready to carry the produce of House Arclight off to market.

He thought of going back to the Hollow Root, of returning to the many mysteries left for him to solve, but the thought was an uncomfortable one. He was, after all, currently tied up in a plan to go off and fight a dragon.

About an hour or so later he sat reading through documents signed in his name for three merchants, stacks of parchment covering most of the surface of the large, heavy wooden table in front of him.

"Twelve percent increase in transportation fee?"

"Is the western road more dangerous?" Allan asked.

"Rumors say bandits."

"Then why does the same caravan company charge House Arclight and House Emberwind less?"

The merchant’s hands stopped moving. Allan watched them, and smiled.

The man swallowed. "I... I believe that is a special arrangement."

"Indeed. Of course, of course it is."

As Allan signed the contract, the merchant’s shoulders slumped. He let him take two steps back.

"With such high different rate," he said. "I will be contacting other merchants, hence forth."

The merchant’s relief vanished.

As the door closed, Allan turned the contract around to read it. Money bought things, information bought better things, and leverage meant he didn’t have to buy anything at all. He didn’t have to win every negotiation; he just had to make the other party believe he could.

Allan hadn’t been sitting for long before the door burst open and Lira strode in.

She dropped a stack of documents on his desk.

"Your accountants are going to murder you."

Allan looked at the pile. "Huh! What did I do?"

"Nothing. We are just growing to much. The soc called delivery service, you started is making everyone even more busy. "

"Indeed, that was my whole intention, we are not going to manufacture, we will only become a connection to the creator’s and consumers."

"Yes, hence, updating price everyday, hence taking massive amounts of stuff everyday. Hence... you’re working us to the bone."

"Work is how people get paid."

Lira’s face went expressionless as Seris walked over to the two of them, handing Allan a cup of tea and placing the other on the edge of the desk.

"You were gone for two whole hours, Master."

"Oh yeah, Did you find anything?"

His gaze jumped to the drawer and back. Lira’s eyes caught it. She always did.

"What did you find?"

"Something inconvenient. Something really... inconvenient."

Lira glared. "I see, master, you really have talent to attract problems it seems."

"...And women too. You’re not exactly handsome, but women keep hovering around you. I wonder why?" Seris added, with a hint of smile.

Allan almost smiled.

"I’ll explain when I know more. Maybe I have this hidden talent of incubus of some sorts."

Lira’s eyes narrowed. A part of her accepting that fact. But she let it go.

[Emotional Bond: Stable.]

[Minor strain detected.]

[Investment Network remains intact.]

Lira didn’t seem to mind that he didn’t have anything to say to her yet. She trusted him to sort it out for now.

Before Allan could even answer the knock, the door burst open.

Diva walked in while Allan was drinking his tea.

Seris glared at Lira after that comment. "See, I told you..."

Diva was short for a woman, red haired, and so full of a grin that she looked as though she had already won. There was a long sword slung over her back, a travel cloak over her other shoulder, and it seemed her determination to go with him to the Hollow Root had soaked through every inch of her.

"Look, we can stop pretending here. I know you’re planning another trip into the Hollow Root soon."

Allan stared at her gleeful smile.

"Indeed..."

"...I already asked the guildmaster for permission to join any future expeditions with you. Of course, she said yes."

Allan slowly put down his cup.

"And?"

"So I’m here, obviously. When do we leave?"

Allan looked at Lira. Lira looked at Diva. Then both looked at Allan.

Diva folded her arms. "So?"

Allan sighed.

I thought I’d finish work here for the day and and spent some time with the girls... Now it seems my problems are walking right through my door.

"Let’s go, then."

***

Diva followed him into the training yard.

"By the way, I want to see what you can do before we go into the Hollow Root together," she said.

"Didn’t we already do that? Hence the B rank?"

"Anyone with simple vision could tell you were holding back. Let me guess, you’re more than level forty..."

Allan said nothing. The only answer was movement.

I really need that skill for what came next.

In the game, Diva had been a boss with a health bar and a loot table. She would drop all sorts of goodies, including Blade Scripture: First Form, one of the strongest physical techniques before the endgame.

Now here she was as a real person, holding a wooden sword and adjusting her grip on it. The morning wind rustled through her hair.

The System had already flagged her for skill transfer once. That window was still open.

"Are you going to keep staring?" Diva asked.

"I’m thinking."

"...That’s usually dangerous. People die in that process. You don’t think in battle. You just move."

"Wow. Thank you for the tip."

Diva smiled. "Come on, Lord Oakwood."

Allan reached for a wooden sword and strolled forward. Diva charged at him before his foot came to rest on the ground.

Instead of hitting him because of his strength or speed, he was caught off guard by the timing of her attacks; he hadn’t anticipated her attacking in the exact spot where he would be moving to.

He shifted and swung the wooden sword. She would duck under the blow, he figured, since she always seemed able to. And so she did, the wooden tip of her sword pressing into Allan’s ribs.

Thud.

Allan looked down.

Diva grinned. "Dead."

Allan stared at her.

"Again."

Allan fought Diva again and again, and every time he lost. It was as if his strength and speed weren’t even a factor, for no matter how hard he struck at her, she was never where he thought she would be.

In fact, every time he launched a blow at her, he could tell by his own reaction time that the real blow would not be that one. But he had no way of knowing which one it would be.

By the seventh match, Allan was exhausted. He had not expected Diva to keep him at it for so long. She looked surprisingly fresh. In fact, she looked almost relaxed.

"You’ve got a problem."

"I’ve noticed."

"You fight... like a monster."

Allan raised an eyebrow. "That’s an insult?"

"Your body is ridiculous," she said. "But you fight like you’ve only ever had to rely on it."

Allan was left with a lot of unanswered questions. However, he believed he had made progress. He would find out, when he returned to the Hollow Root, whether strength and speed would be enough.

Diva held up her wooden sword.

"Let’s start with a few things: you can’t seem to get a grasp on distance, you can’t seem to control the center, you’re a direct attacker, and when someone changes up their rhythm you just end up reacting instead of deciding what you want to do."

Allan stared at her.

Yeah, becasue that’s how I fight in the game. He thought.

"Hahahaha...indeed."

Diva blinked. "What’s funny?"

"Nothing."

But that matters not, for the best possible reward. i need to deepen it. Our relationship.

"Teach me, then."

Diva stared at him.

"hmm?"

"Your fighting style."