It had changed a lot, though nothing had really changed.
Katachi looked about at the various trees and branches, at the birds and the lizards and the rodent sneaking in the grass, and the small snake creeping up on a nest. The world was nothing he had imagined it to be - Cold, cruel, callous, all of that had been thrown out of the window.
A soothing bliss flooded his mind. He felt, for the first time in his life, 'at ease'. Katachi got up from the rock on the floor, and looked around him once more. Everything had been filled with meanings he had never even humanely thought possible.
A small hatchling looking up and out into the sky, waiting for its mother's return; Just as he would normally look out into the streets, hoping for Mother Rinnesfeld to come back safely. Hitting the parent birds would have left the hatchlings orphaned, to die without the sustenance, warmth and nurturing provided by their mother. It was, therefore, wrong to kill.
The small ants by the side pick up everything they see, and carry it back to their nest under a tree; Everything and everyone is equal, and just as the ants carry the objects back without judging or complaining, just as Segus has said, "One ought not to compare others, just as others ought not to compare oneself."
A strange, small and slow-moving creature with a shell on its back laid down to rest in the warmth of the sunlight, before walking again; Much as life is hard, tedious and tiresome, a little rest every now and then helps a great deal before resuming the journey. It was a painful journey for Katachi thus far, with ups and downs and fate throwing him in the strangest of directions, but it reminded Katachi to never forget the reason he began this journey - To end the potential conflict for the Words of Power once and for all.
The small bird by the side attacked and distracted the snake, and in the end was devoured; A mother's love for their child is great, so great that she would give her life to ensure her children are safe. He remembered for a brief moment, how Mother Rinnesfeld defended Katachi from a hurled rock with her body, when he was walking with her on the way home.
He saw, with utmost clarity, what Segus had meant with his words. Life is a precious, and beautiful thing to have indeed, enough for people to throw themselves in harm's way to protect what is important.
It was strange, scary and almost cruel how Katachi felt this calm about killing the fat man and skinny lady now. It was true that all things die, but killing them may have been overdoing it a little. Now... The world didn't seem as bad as he thought.
Katachi felt relieved, somehow. Nothing remotely similar to guilt welled up within him, for some reason. Perhaps this calmness is the effect of 'meditating'? Katachi couldn't quite tell, but he no longer felt like hating the world. It may seem cruel and all, but in fact, it was perhaps the most just and righteous course of action.
The act may be horribly wrong. It may have been a lie to himself, a fluke to ignore the fact that killing was killing, and the lives had been taken, matterless of the cause. But Katachi felt a strange, unnatural, and wicked serenity he had not felt before, and decided it was the better course of action since Katachi could not stay in the town. He had to continue going out into the world, and hunt the Words of Power down. For now, that was the most important thing that needs to be done.
*** ***
*Cozy's Notes : I haven't yet discussed something really important from Messiah 17. So, allow me to use this small space to put in a critical detail, while the story's focus is still around Katachi - The difference in how Words of Power are used for normal people, and Anikans.
For normal people who can't speak Anikan, they need to think of the word, and define the effects itself. For example, Fixate ______ needs to be defined clearly. This is because they do not possess a root for Anikan, and so cannot use Anikan fluently enough to utilize the full power of the Words of Power.
For Anikans, however, they can use the Words of Power in sentences. For example, if Katachi learns to speak these words, "请大家解释一下为什么我不能戒酒", everyone in the room will explain why he can not stop drinking. Not that he's a drinker, but it's an example. Eh.
Anikans have a staggering amount of advantage over normal Scholars because of their ability to use the Words of Power in full sentences and making it come true. If you think Katachi's having an edge over his opponents because of his 'victories' thus far, you've got another thing coming.*
*** ***
M : "What do you think they're saying, Troy?"
Mandred sipped on the cup of tea offered to him slowly, savoring its strange taste. His eyes were, however, fixated upon Troy's posture of leaning his ear against the wooden wall. If anything, he was clearly not savoring the tea at all, and did it in order to blend himself into the surroundings better - It wasn't the most effective disguise, with their odd mannerisms standing out from the standard etiquette in Anik, but it would have to do.
T : "Shh!" Troy hushed his partner and his eyes looked away, unfocused. He concentrated his attention onto the conversation taking place at the table right next to theirs.
...
"你说什么!? 旺估那家伙死了?! 是谁干的好事?!"
"我听说, 是一个奥得的小孩和一个锣骨娜的少女把那两个夫妇给宰了."
"一对小孩和少女?! 这是什么胡扯!?!"
"给我安静点, 你想让全世界知道这件事吗?"
"对... 对不起."
"总而言之, 旺估和梅兰的生意没戏唱了."
There were at least four people, their social class of aristocrats, at the other side of the small divider. From what Troy could make out, they were discussing about the death of the fatso Wang Gu and the skinflint Mei Lan, and the collapse of their business caused by their deaths.
"蛮可惜呀, 我挺喜欢这南部的妓院."
"我也是. 在整个安尼克里, 只有在这家妓院才能玩弄外国的美女."
*Cozy's Notes : In case you were wondering, this sentence above shines a very deep light into Wang Gu's actual role. In the whole of Anik, Wang Gu's brothel is the only one that features foreigners. Says a lot about his business, indeed - Since Anik is predominantly North of everything, his brothel is considered the most popular and holds the highest potential for foreigners (since it's the closest to other countries) Point is, unlike other brothels who have local employees and playthings, Wang Gu can trap and enslave foreigners in his brothel, making it the most welcome and interesting amongst these corrupt aristocrats.*
T : (Oh, for the love of- Stop using big words I don't understand, you jerks!...)
"外国的美女不错嘛, 胸部挺嫩的! 大数好过这儿的黄脸婆."
"是呀, 是呀! 呵哈哈哈哈!!"
T : (... Did that sick bastard just say something about breasts?...
... What is wrong with me!? Of all the things I want to know from that conversation, I understand the perverse things. Seriously? Damn it all... If only I understood what they are talking about...!)
Troy's fist clenched a bit, and Mandred awaited his translation. Out of boredom, his eyes began to wander off to kill time... Only for him to reach a shocking conclusion.
M : (... Is he in heat or something?) "... Dude..."
T : "What?... "
M : "... It's sticking up, yo. You in heat or something?"
T : "... What is wrong with you!? I'm trying to-!... I'm trying to listen in here, don't distract me with pointless chatter!"
M : "Yeah, I bet you are, you virile degenerate. The greatest story of 1570, written by Troy the pervert, eh?"
T : "Virile degenerate!? Excuse me?!"
Troy's bewildered exclamation drew the eyes of everyone in the inn.
*** ***
When Katachi returned, he was rather... Shocked.
Roberia had the strangest, most dumbfounded look on her face at the brown-haired lady wearing a burlap sack with holes for her arms and head, bowing in a servile manner. His sabots clopped against the ground, and the lady looked at his direction, before running up to him. Roberia was holding onto some sort of weapon, but that wasn't as important currently.
"You're the boy that rescued us!"
K : (She speaks Findeli?) "... Y- Yes?"
The lady cleared her throat, and began her explanation.
"... Well, there are a lot of girls hiding in an abandoned warehouse right now, and most of them are naked without any proper apparel to dress themselves with. It's... Uncomfortable for them to come out in the open, so I stand as a representative of all the girls who were trapped in that god-forsaken place."
K : (I think I remember her... Vaguely, at least. Her messy hair is familiar, but she looks like a whole other person without the blindfold and ring gag.) "... I- I see..."
"On behalf of all of us, who were enslaved against our will, I thank you."
The lady knelt down and prostrated herself before Katachi.
K : "! No, no, get up, please! This... This is unbecoming. You're finally free from slavery like the others, so please, you shouldn't."
Katachi gripped her frail body by her triceps, and hoisted her up. His palms were tiny, but he managed to raise the lady that's taller than him back onto her feet.
*** ***
*Cozy's Notes : If I wanted to turn this into an eroge I would make Katachi 'hoist' her by the sack vest and OHH YEAH, YOU GO MAN, STRIP HER CLEAN AND FUCK HER UP TH- My god. I sicken myself. XD I can't help it - I just finished an anime called Saikin, Imouto No Yousu Ga Chotto Okashiin Da Ga. It's a horrible anime, it has bad fan service moments, it's messed up thoroughly but uh... Uh... Why did I watch that anime? I... I... I- I don't know, but I enjoyed it, somehow. Music, comedic elements, character design, there's some merit among the waves of hate against it. Also, Mitsuki's stature... Is so much like Roberia's.
... I won't take Roberia as a waifu though. I mean, although I agree that she is totally waifu materiel, I didn't write the story to sate my own desires, though it may be built upon my desire for a distinctively different fantasy world, with a plot unfolding differently from how I normally see fantasy stories unfold. I'm writing the story for the sake of the story, because I think what I have for it is good, and I think it deserves to exist. Roberia and Katachi deserve each other as much as the story deserves its existence, no matter how cliche or deviant.
... Though, I am guilty of pretending to be Katachi and imagining how they would express their affections for each other. I've been pretending that my bolster was Roberia, and I held an invisible sponge, washing and cleaning her body thoroughly while assuming Katachi's position. That, well, I am guilty. It may be creepy, but uh... Consider this confession compensation for the lack of chapters. Eheheh.*
*** ***
"We thank you deeply, from the bottom of our hearts. They may not be present, but I'm sure the others feel the same way."
R : "So, she's here to thank you?"
Roberia walked over to them, with the two... Weapon-like things in her hands.
K : "Yeah. Most of the enslaved don't have clothes yet, so she's here to thank me on behalf of all of them."
R : "Makes sense, I guess." (It's surprising how they knew that this was our camping spot, though. How did they find us?)
The lady looked down and saw Katachi's left arm, held together by a flimsy sling made of two branches found in the wilderness and a cast made of a rather old and worn-out fabric.
"! Ah! Please, accept this as a token of our gratitude."
The lady reached out towards Katachi's arm, and began a chant.
"Whispers of wind and ciphers of waters,
Born of the earth and molded by fire,
Let aether seep in and speak to your soul,
Your will replenished, your flesh reborn whole."
K : (That's a spell used by Dardicel's right hand man, Sles Lepp, who combined the ideologies of Dardicel and Axia... At least, I think it is. Or, it could be an improvised spell. She didn't prepare anything beforehand, so it's got to be executed under some circumstance.)
A gentle light filled the area around his forearm, and Katachi felt it. Something was... Squirming under the bandages and on the side of his arm. It felt like his flesh was coming to life, and sewing itself back together. Katachi removed the bandages quickly, but by the time he was done his whole arm had fully recovered.
"I hope I've aided you in your journey in some way. Farewell, and until we meet again."
The lady nodded her head, and scurried off elsewhere.
R : "... Did she just use magic?"
K : "Yeah. She... She did."
R : "I see." (That would explain how she was able to locate us.) "She is rather rude, though. She didn't even tell us her name."
Katachi looked at Roberia, and paused to think for a bit.
K : "... Maybe she felt uncomfortable revealing her name. After all, she was practically naked with a blindfold and ring gag over her face, so it must have been humiliating."
R : "That... That would make sense."
Katachi looked down on her hands, and took a close look at the things in her hands.
They were... Scythes. But the design of the scythe was one he had never seen. Where normal scythes had a single blade and two handles, the scythes she held had two blades sticking out of each side. The blade portion was somehow stuffed into a slot in the wood chiseled for it specifically. One side of the blade was mostly dull and shiny at the rim, as a normal scythe ought to seem, and the other was completely shiny, almost to say it had been ground against a whetstone thoroughly to make it thinner and lighter.
*Cozy's Notes : Wood is a super tough materiel in this world. It's different from how wood normally performs in our world, so... Yeah. Don't be confused - Wood can't be cut with a saw, not when buzzsaws and sabre saws didn't exist yet.*
K : "... What are those?"
R : "Ah, these?"
Roberia held up the twin scythes in her hands, and grinned at the pair with a smile he hadn't seen before. Her eyes reflected an almost maniacal light, and she looked as though she were frenzied.
R : "I found a bunch of scrap by a side, and made these. They're scythes!"
Roberia swung and spun the scythes round and round by their handles. From the natural way she held it, Katachi was almost sure that she had handled something of that nature before, especially with the lethal tips of the blade whirring so close to her body that could stab into her if she wasn't careful. Perhaps she has made a tool like that before back at her farm, when she had time to try something interesting like those things.
K : "They... They look dangerous."
R : "I'll be fine. It's not the first time I've handled something like these!"
K : "I would think - The reach is a bit shorter than a normal scythe, but you've probably used those to hack away at wheat before, seeing how you hold it so naturally."
R : (Wheat? Oh! Right! He doesn't know I'm a princess yet.) "Ah, yeah, well, see, these are much lighter than normal scythes, and easier to handle, you see."
Katachi rustled his hair with his right hand, and stared at the scythes.
K : (It may be easier to handle, but those don't really look like farm tools. If anything, they look like real weapons. The reach is shortened, so the amount of wheat cut at a go is much lesser. More effort would be needed for cutting wheat, but perhaps she's found a way to use them tirelessly?) "... I... I guess. They certainly seem much easier to handle than a huge, two-handed tool... But, why did you make those?"
R : (... Uh oh. I honestly made these because I just felt like having some form of defense, but I didn't think a question like this would surface...) "Well, you see, you're on a perilous journey to collect the Words of Power, right?"
She hadn't noticed it, but by the time she did, she held her hand over her mouth by reflex.
R : (That was the worst thing I could have said! The absolute worst! He was just on about how he killed the two and he seemed so shaken up I thought he'd break, and I just asked if he wants to continue this journey of his. I must look so insensitive to him right now. This is the worst.)
K : (... Ahh... Those weren't actually made for farming. I can see how it works as a weapon - Swinging quickly, stabbing the enemy if they don't block the scythe properly, using both to hook a weapon and disarm the opponent by yanking it off their hands, they are definitely weapons. She didn't make these for farming, she made them for battling.)
A slight smile formed on Katachi's face.
R : (? He's smiling? Why is he smiling? )
K : (She seems eager to continue the journey though, I'll give her that. I would have asked if she wanted to settle down here and start a farm with me, but I think those scythes are a sign that she's not interested. Or... Maybe she made them so she could use them for farming if I chose to halt my journey completely? She seems to have thought about it thoroughly...)
His smile widened, and he patted Roberia on her shoulders with both hands.
K : (... I have no qualms continuing this journey. She may have felt uneasy about it, and have fretted over it for so long, but if she really wanted to continue this journey, I don't see why I shouldn't. I want to believe that collecting these Words of Power, and then destroying them, is the right thing to do.) "Sorry for having you worry."
Katachi let go, and picked up the bag by the side. The bottom part of the bag, once dampened by the wet floor in Wang Gu's laundry room, had dried up. He sashed the wooden dagger dangling by the side of his bag on the base of his spine.
K : "Let's go then, Roberia. We shouldn't waste time."
R : (He seems raring to go.) "To where?"
K : "... Good question." (To the North, or further to the uncharted West?)
R : "Hmm... North, then. If anything, head North. That's what I've always been told."
K : "Alright, then. North it is."
*** ***
K : "By the way, what is that sack you're carrying?"
R : "This? Some money I looted off the corpses of that fat guy and skinny woman."
K : "... Looted?"
*** ***
On the perch stood a gorilla-like teacher, with an unusually large upper torso and stubby legs. He wore a shirt and pants that were vertically striped, a rather cheap fabric popular for its elasticity.
"Mister... Yorn? Your mail."
Y : "Ah. Good, good. Thank you."
Yorn lifted one of his thick arms, and picked up the mail from the mailman.
"It smells fragrant, sir. Is that from your wife?"
With a glare, Yorn leered the mailman, and used his right arm to life his left sleeve. On his thick, left arm was a zipper sewn onto his arm. He pinched the tab and zipper up quickly, to which his huge, hulking figure vanished from his feet up, until he completely vanished.
*Cozy's Notes : Here's a fun fact - The zipper we know now was invented in 1913, by a guy named Sundback, if memory serves. The story is now in 1570, but Yorn's case is special - He is about the only person in the whole WoP universe to gain access to modern day items. It's not 'futuristic' items, but 'modern-day' items. Think about that for a bit - He doesn't have magic related to something like future sight where he can see into the infinite future and get stuff, but his trick with the zipper should give a good idea about his amazing (and almost OP) magic.*
"Wha-?!"
The mailman stood there, astounded by the disappearing act for a short while. When the place no longer held any interest to him, he left in a hurry to finish up the rest of his deliveries.
Yorn resurfaced from his original position, and opened up the letter with a small letter opener floating in midair. The letter unfolded by itself and Yorn read the contents carefully.
____________________
Yorn, my love. It has been a long time since I have sent a letter to you. I've missed you and our daughter dearly.
I hope you have been taking your medication regularly. It may be expensive, but please understand that I would prefer our family to be whole. Have you been sleeping well? The whole of Rugnud is in an uproar, and I'm afraid that's affected your workload, love. I hope the paperwork you've been doing hasn't increased too significantly, with the events and the classes and the various meetings and assemblies. Staying up deep in the night is pernicious to your health, so I hope that you've been sleeping well and sound. Even if you do take the medication, if you don't rest and nurture your body, I fear for the limited effectiveness of the medicine.
How is our lovely daughter doing? From the last I've heard of her, she's smitten with a boy she met at school. His name was Kozuba Katachi, I think? It worries me that his name showed up on the newspaper, stating that he had an affair with a princess from Rugnud. Do check up on her once in a while, love. You might be busy with your job, but I honestly worry for Bael. She's never the type to let bygones pass, especially not with what she did to the last boy she was infatuated with. Do spare some time for her at least, love.
I eagerly await yours, and her return.
Manoila
____________________
I eagerly await yours, and her return.
Manoila
____________________
