“This is our difference and why you will never set foot outside of this village in your life without immense luck.”

Erika paused in front of the door. Then she lifted her hands and knocked. The reply came quickly.

“Enter.” Even muffled by the wooden door, Erika thought that Marian’s voice was as pretty as ever, for some reason. Her low spirits from her earlier encounter with Ian lifted just a bit.

She pushed the door open and saw Marian sitting at a desk. It was an old desk, and Erika remembers it even now since it was one of the last pieces of furniture that she had been allowed to watch be made. 

The traveler was furiously scribbling away at a piece of paper, so Erika closed the door behind her and waited patiently. 

Marian continued for a few more minutes, occasionally refilling her beautiful fountain pen. Once she finished, she blew on the paper with a gentle breath and put it aside to dry. Erika’s heart began to race at the sight of Marian’s sharp eyes, but this time there was no smile on Marian’s face.

“I knew you’d come,” Marian said.

“You did?” Erika asked. That fight she had with Ian forced her awake— shaken her out of her daze. “How? Did you hear me coming up the stairs?”

“No. I knew the moment I took you out into the forest,” Marian said, leaning back in her seat. “I looked at you and knew that you were a brave enough spirit to try and escape your caged life in the village...

“...as if! No, I knew that you’d come because bravery is a step from stupidity, and you might be the most stupid girl I’ve seen yet,” Marian growled. “I’ve seen people with your eyes. They all end up dead! Only a few who manage to awaken as Rovers, but those people are in the minority.”

Erika noticed that Marian’s hand had crumpled up the paper that she had just written. For some reason, Marian cared about her choice a lot more than a stranger should. Perhaps one of those people that Marian talked about who died was someone close to her.

Unaware of Erika’s thoughts, Marian sighed and let go. She smoothed the paper back out, but the ink had already smudged.

“I ask you again, and this is the last chance I’m asking… are you sure you still want to learn to read and write? To pursue that foolish dream of yours?” Her voice had become quiet and gentle, almost pleading.

Even though Erika knew that someone like Marian would probably be too proud to accept her pity, Erika still felt sorry for the traveler. However, regardless of how Marian felt, Erika did not want to give up. She nodded and put the coin pouch in front of Marian. “Yes, please, but this is all I can pay you.”

Marian stared at the pouch for a moment before she pushed it back, shaking her head. She pointed at the bed on the other wall of the little inn room. “I don’t take the money of dead people. Sit down.”

The bed was made and neat. Erika sat on it, huddling to disturb as little as possible, and looked attentively at Marian. The traveler took one last long look at her before she took out a clean piece of paper. 

She wrote out each letter of the alphabet, speaking them out each time. Every time Marian read a letter, Erika stared at it for a moment and repeated after the traveler.

There were only two dozen or so letters in the alphabet, so it didn’t take long for her to get through the whole thing. Marian even gave her the paper so she could review it in her own time.

Then came the grammar and vocabulary, which wasn’t that difficult since Erika already knew how to speak the language. Still, the sheer volume made it so that the lesson took most of the night. 

In the end, Erika paid for the candles they used with the tuition fees Marian refused, then bid her farewell until the next time they met.

 

That morning when Erika went home, she saw that her father was still home instead of drinking with his friends or working at the forbidden workshop. The last time she spoke to him had been a week ago. She expected their silence to continue, but her father looked up from his rum as she came in. 

He took one look at the cut and bruise on her face and flew into a rage, slamming his mug of rum onto the table. The liquid sloshed out and spilled. “Erika! Who did this to you?”

“It’s okay, Father. I just got into a fight with Ian,” Erika said expressionlessly. She was looking at the mess— she was going to be the one to clean that. “It doesn’t matter.”

“How can it not matter?! Your face is ruined! How can you get married if you look like that?” Darton seethed. “That bastard had better take responsibility!”

Erika stared at him wordlessly. She should marry Ian because he hurt her face…? Besides, whether or not she got married was none of his business, considering they were barely family anymore.

Finally, she shook her head. “I’ll be fine. It’ll heal cleanly. More importantly, why are you still home? Nothing to do today?”

Her blunt reply seemed to have reminded her father of their current relationship. Darton frowned and pulled his mug toward himself again, ignoring her question. “I have a few shirts that need to be repaired, and there’s laundry.” And that was that.

Erika nodded and walked past him into the back of the house.

“I will speak with Ian.”

“Please don’t,” she replied without turning back. She had just gotten rid of Ian, or so she hoped. She didn’t need her father waltzing in and messing things up for her. It would be terrible if her father suddenly decided to betroth her to Ian before she had a chance to leave.

Although she was tired from the lesson she had just come home from, there was work waiting for her. Sewing was a skill she’d picked up early on from Tabitha and her mother, so she was quite adept at it. In fact, those crafts that involved thread seemed to suit her, embroidery being the other. For just those two skills, she was almost Tabitha’s equal.

As such, repairing the working clothes her father damaged didn’t take her long at all. Laundry was even faster, and she just left the wet clothes in the backyard to dry. She could pick them up later when it was time to dry. In hindsight, it was probably better to do the laundry first so it would dry faster.

Still, what had been done was done, so she couldn’t do anything about that now.

Since she kept Marian up all night, she was probably asleep. On the other hand, Erika herself probably couldn’t fall asleep even if she tried.

Learning to read and write was the first step on the road out of the village. Erika didn’t know how fast other people picked up the written language, but she felt that she had done admirably memorizing the alphabet on her first try… 

Laughing slightly at herself for her arrogance, Erika decided to visit Tabitha and make up for her absence yesterday.

 

She knocked on the door. “Hello, is Tabitha home?” she called. 

The door opened shortly, and there was Tabitha, smiling at her with motherly warmth. She was holding a baby girl in her arms. However, Tabitha’s smile quickly faded. “Erika, your face!”

“Do me a favor and don’t worry about it. There are far more important things to think about, like Sigrun and Katia.” Erika waved it off, trying to sound carefree about it. No, she was carefree. When the whole world was waiting for her to explore, Ian didn’t matter at all. “I had something to do last night. Sorry I didn’t help you.”

She reached out to play with Sigrun’s soft cheeks and smiled when the baby girl swatted it away. “Sigrun, why are you so cute?”

“...Ian came over last night to look for you,” Tabitha said, finally.

“Don’t worry about it,” Erika repeated. She was determined to not talk about him.

Tabitha nodded after a slight pause of hesitation and moved aside to let Erika inside. Erika had been here many times before, so she knew where Tabitha left Katia. Both girls looked like Tabitha but with the soft blond hair of their father. However, they had blue eyes lighter than their father’s, whose blue eyes were so dark they were almost black.

Erika’s own eyes were so light Tabitha once told her it was like looking at ice. Tabitha even joked that Sigrun and Katia looked more like Erika’s children than her own and got a slap on her arm in return.

Picking up a bottle with cloth teats, Erika began to nurse the girl in her arms. At first, Katia coughed up the warm milk but soon settled into a rhythmic suckling. Sitting down across from her, Tabitha began to feed Sigrun.

The peaceful atmosphere that Tabitha loved so much did not sit well with Erika. She sighed to herself. This kind of life really wasn’t for her. Soon, Katia stopped suckling, and Erika helped her burp. After she put Katia down on her bed again, Erika sat back in her chair, examining her bruises. She opened and curled her fingers, twisting her wrist, fidgeting restlessly.

“What’s wrong?” Tabitha asked her.

“Mm, it’s nothing. Just the usual. That traveler’s name is Marian, by the way.”

“Is she going to take you with her?” Tabitha asked. As Erika’s closest friend, Tabitha had been the only person Erika had told about her future plans. At first, Tabitha had been sad that Erika would leave, but she quickly came around to it and supported Erika instead, albeit with lots of worries.

Erika shook her head, and Tabitha sighed, disappointed for her sake. “Why not?”

“She didn’t say, but I suspect that it’s because I’ll be a burden,” Erika said. “However, she agreed to teach me to read.”

“Oh, so that’s where you went last night!”

“Haha, as expected of my best friend, Tabitha, I can’t hide anything from you.”

Tabitha stopped feeding Sigrun and went to sit by Erika’s side and nudged her encouragingly. “Don’t worry, I’m sure that after you learn to read and write, a larger group that can protect you will definitely take you in! I’ll miss you then,” she said.

Erika nodded absentmindedly.

According to Marian, most if not all travelers were Rovers with awakened powers of some kind. Why would anyone take someone like her along, no matter how useful she was? Sometimes protecting a single person was just too risky. If the group ran into trouble and everyone else could escape on their own except her, she was doomed.

“Speaking of travelers,” Tabitha said, “more came today. In a group.”

Erika looked up. “Group? What are they like?”

“Mm, they’re kind of loud, but they seem more friendly than most travelers,” Tabitha described, thinking hard.

“Do you think they seem like the type that’ll take me?” she asked.

Tabitha shook her head. “They’re all men! I don’t think it’s safe. You should wait a bit longer,” she said. She began staring at Erika’s face.

Erika covered the bruise on her face and glared at Tabitha, but her friend just shifted her gaze to her wrist. Finally, Erika just sighed. “Alright, you win.”

Tabitha immediately leaned forward, her gaze shifting left and right like a thief. If Tabitha had the ears of a cat or dog, they’d be perked up, ready to absorb gossip.

“Last night, Ian came to apologize….”

“For what? Oh, the other boys were talking about it. He grabbed your arm. His parents were furious,” Tabitha said, getting more and more excited. 

Erika glared at her until she hushed.

“He made a rose for me, but I told him I wasn’t interested,” she said, continuing. “When he found out I was going to Marian’s and that I was leaving, he got angry and threw the rose at me. I’m sure she didn’t really mean to hurt me, but… I’m still mad. A little mad. Actually, I don’t really care.”

She shrugged.

“Ahhh… does it still hurt?” Tabitha asked, touching Erika’s face. 

Erika felt her cold soothing fingertips on the swollen cut, then winced when Tabitha pressed on it. She heard the dry sound of Tabitha’s nails running over the scab. Tabitha frowned and patted her leg to make her stay. 

Tabitha left for a while, and when she returned, she carried with her a small basin of warm water. “You need to take care of yourself, Erika.”

“I am taking care of myself. The bruise won’t last, and this wound won’t leave a scar either. You’re overreacting,” Erika replied. Still, she sat quietly when Tabitha wiped her face, softening the scab.

Tabitha also gave the babies a quick bath while she was at it. Sometimes, Erika felt a bit guilty when Tabitha cared for her as if she was one of Tabitha’s own children. They were only four years apart, yet Tabitha was so much more mature. Tabitha always made it seem like it was only natural to take care of Erika as the older one of the two. In a way, Tabitha took the role of Erika’s mother, passing down all her knowledge to her.

After she helped Tabitha dress up the children again and lull them to sleep, Erika stood up. “I’ll take the water out. I want to go see the new travelers.”

Tabitha nodded, and Erika took the basin of water outside, where she poured it on the plants. After she put the basin back where Tabitha usually kept it, she said her goodbyes, then headed toward the inn where the new travelers were sure to be.