Chapter 5 – Adjusting
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Chapter 5
As a town that all traders heading north and south were bound to travel through, Northpost apparently had far more inns than it had any right to, given its size. Alex's favorite was a dusty little place that had a faded picture of a bull running with a sword in its mouth painted on the sign out front. The moment we stepped inside a shaggy-haired boy, who'd seemingly just started to grow facial hair greeted us with a wave.
“Alex!” The boy shouted running over to us.
“Johnathan, you look older and wiser every time I see you.”
Johnathan grinned at Alex before turning his attention to me, gasping as if he'd just seen a celebrity. “Woah... who's she?”
“Liz,” I replied before Alex could say anything. “Alex is my Dad.”
“You had another daughter?!”
“It was a surprise to me at first,” Alex chuckled placing his hand on Johnathan's shoulder. “Where's your mum, we'd like a room.”
“She's in the back, but I can get you sorted. How long you stayin?”
“We'll do a single night for now, I'll extend it if I have to.”
“Sure thing, one silver.”
“Only a silver eh? Prices have gone down.”
“They just opened another inn in town, Mom says we're hurting for business.”
“Another new one eh? With the war going on I figured everybody would be tightening their belts, guess someone's balsier than I thought.”
Alex handed over a coin, and Johnathan ran off, returning with a key. “Let me know if you want any hot water brought to your room.”
“Hot water?” I turned to Alex curious if he had a habit of drinking tea before bed when he stayed here.
“For bathing,” Alex replied.
Suddenly it hit me, the one aspect of fantasy worlds that I had neglected to even consider prior to now, the lack of bathroom facilities. It was one thing to have to rough it when we were camping, but now that I thought about it... even when we were staying in town, I couldn't expect things to be much better. Maybe if magic was more prevalent I could've expected something akin to modern bathrooms, but as things stood such a hope was completely impossible.
“You're starting to look a little pale Liz, everything alright?”
“Umm... can we go to the room now, I have some really important questions for you.”
Alex led Willow and me up to the room we'd rented. It looked every bit what one would expect from a cheap inn in a medieval world. A pair of desks, a desk, and a shared nightstand between the beds with an oil lamp on it. “So what did you have to ask?”
“So, in towns. How exactly... does one use the toilet?”
“Ah,” Alex chuckled walking over to what I assumed was a closet door. Inside was a rather large-looking pot, it looked like a prehistoric version of the little seats given to toddlers for potty training. “You do your business here.”
“You're... kidding.”
“Was it different in your world?”
“Very very different. We had pipes running under our houses, when you used the toilet you'd press a little button causing a rush of water to force your waste down into the pipes and away. I'm starting to understand why there's this awful smell lingering everywhere... I thought it was all the farms.”
“Sounds impressive, nothing like that exists here I'm afraid.”
“Ugh... it's going to be bushes and pots for the rest of my life, this is torture.”
There was one other bodily function I was a bit worried about as well, but I doubted Alex knew much about it. Hopefully, it was something that the heaven-touched never had to deal with, and I wouldn't have to worry about discovering just how terrible medieval hygiene products were.
“I'm surprised with how much magic you know, that you don't have a spell to deal with it.”
“We just... didn't have need for it.” I couldn't think of a single MMO in existence that required players to manage their character's bathroom habits. As much as I never thought of it before, now I sincerely wished the developers had included such a feature, just so I wouldn't have to suffer now. Stupid magic system. Now I really wanted to meet the spellcaster Alex knew, the faster I learned how it worked, the faster I could start experimenting for the greater good.
“Ugh,” I collapsed onto one of the beds. “I'm practically an angel, I shouldn't have to use the restroom at all.”
“Onee-chan, you're an angel?!”
“I'm interested as well, Liz. This is the first I'm hearing about your divinity.”
“I'm not an angel, I'm just related to angels. Like I guess my great great great grandfather was an angel or something,” The heaven-touched were the descendants of celestials. Their bloodline of course was so distant they'd lost all connection to the divine realm and ended up settling in a hidden village deep in the elven forests. The fact that their village was so cut off from the rest of the world was the game's reasoning for why they didn't show up as a playable race at launch. In fact, until you had at least one character on your account that'd beat the storyline of the base game, you couldn't even make a heaven-touched, even after purchasing the expansion.
I wonder what would've happened if I'd been reincarnated as Margaret? My first character had been a Minstrel, a class specializing in buffs and debuffs. In my head's canon she was the runaway noble type, trying to prove herself to her father in a bid to inherit her family's lands. To help her live up to her noble status I equipped every gaudy piece of jewelry and fancy armor I could obtain. She was a walking treasure chest.
“If you were to tell anybody else such a thing, they'd believe you were a heretic. Angels are ageless beings that serve the gods, we have no stories of them having children of their own.”
“Got it, I need to distance myself from the divine as much as possible.”
“It would be for the best if you did, and that means no more flying.”
“Ugh... rude!”
“Just a bit of advice, unless you want to be whisked off to the temple and worshipped as a god's herald for the rest of your life.”
“No! Nobody can take Onee-chan away from us!”
“Nobody's taking me away, Willow,” I smiled and sat up to pull the young girl into a tight hug. “This is where I want to be.”
“Any other questions?”
“Well... I've seen a lot of humans, but are there not other kinds of people as well? Like... elves or something?”
"I've heard of elves before," Alex replied scratching the back of his head. "Can't say I've ever met one. Pretty much everybody who's civilized is human here. 'cept for witches and they started out as humans."
“I knew there was something about witches you weren't telling me. What are they doing that makes them not human anymore?”
“You really don't want to know,” Alex frowned. “Come on girls, let's go downstairs and get something to eat.”
“But I do want to know, it could be important for me to know.”
Alex placed his hands on either side of Willow's head, covering her ears. “If you're that desperate Liz, they... surrender their maidenhood to a devil.”
“Surrender their maidenhood?”
“You're old enough to know what that means.”
“Are you,” My face twisted as my mind finally supplied the image to make sense of Alex's words. “They do that... with a devil? Also... there are devils here? You have hardly any magic but you have literal devils that people can... do that with?”
“Not just anybody, only women can become witches, and only if they're maidens prior.”
“So when I was being accused of being a witch earlier... they thought that I... with a devil?”
“Yes.”
“Damn... I can't thank you enough for working fast to clear that up. That's really not a reputation I want to have.”
“Right, now then I'm going to release Willow before she starts to squirm, not a word of this to your little sister okay? Not until she's older.”
“Understood.”
With my curiosity sated, the three of us went downstairs to get something to eat from the innkeeper. As I picked at the rabbit stew I was given, my mind tried to make sense of why a woman would ever be willing to do something like that. Perhaps devils were just hot guys with horns, I'd seen such a thing in anime before. I could see myself falling for a hot guy with horns, and if I doing it gave me magical powers when I didn't have any, well that would just be an extra perk. But the disgusted way Alex spoke of it, as if it was some vile act, it didn't seem like a devil could be attractive. Alex was pretty level-headed, he accepted me and I wasn't human, so hot guys with horns had to be out.
Then what exactly could a demon possibly be?
“There she is!” Right as I was sifting through every mythological devil I could think of that would be gross enough to make Alex's reaction make sense, Theo and two of his soldier buddies burst into the inn. “Liz Stoneweaver you're coming with us!”
“You're not taking her anywhere Theo,” Alex sighed.
“She used magic to attack the highest-ranked officer, and acting commander of the Northpost garrison. Give me one reason I shouldn't arrest her and you for assisting her, Alex?!”
“Because she can do it again. There is no limit to the number of times Liz can make use of the goddess's power. Antagonizing her will only create more turmoil for you. Unless you liked barking on command for an underaged girl, Theo. Perhaps that's something you're into?”
“You know I completely forgot that my last name is Stoneweaver now,” I giggled. “We really are family.”
“Onee-chan... you didn't think we were family before?”
“Of course I did! It's just... only been a day, so it's still sinking in.”
Willow hopped out of her chair and ran over to hug me while Theo stood there watching us silently, his thick skull apparently taking Alex's words to heart.
“I'll be sending a report to the capital, Alex. The Bishops will be coming for her.”
“And they'll bring chests of gold and jewelry to sway her heart,” Alex smiled. “Because that's all they can do. It's up to her whether she'll allow herself to be bribed or not, I'll be proud of her either way. Can you say the same for your son? Is he not still struggling to make it as an artisan in the capital, after all those years you spent trying to force him into the military, what happened? You drove your son and your poor wife away.”
“How dare you bring them up now.”
“Are you not just jealous? I have added another happy member to my family, and you're drinking alone in the barracks every night. If you want to rage about the injustices of the world, you can spout your drivel at me. Leave the girls out of it, the last thing they need is a grown man spewing vinegar at them.”
“Alex, another word...”
“And you'll arrest me?”
“I'll beat your ass.”
“Finally talking like a man, instead of a soldier?” Alex grinned. “I've got some good ale, if the man in you needs a drink. I can sell you the whole cask.”
“Why the hell would I want to buy alcohol from you?!”
“Because you know where it comes from? Could make yourself pretty popular with the soldiers stationed here if you treated them to the good stuff every once in a while.”
“Fuck off, you're lucky I don't confiscate your whole wagon.”
“A half-gold and a promise to wait two weeks before you send off that report, and the cask is yours.”
“Damnit, Alex.”
“We have a deal?”
“I'm taking the cask now... you'll get your half-gold tomorrow.”
“Pleasure doing business with you, Theo.”
5
Thanks for the chapter! OMG bathroom issues, yeah, that would be hard to deal with. Why do I get the feeling Liz is going to need to show her wings in a time of need sometime soon? Was that a flag? LOL! No spoilers, I was just speculating.
I bet her little sister would love a ride while flying.
I'm sure she would love a ride too! The thought of Willow excitedly squealing, in half-panic/half-excitement as Liz flies her around is super cute.
@TomatoRoux That would be cute! Also, I don't think Willow saw her wings since she was sleeping at the time. After they get home I could totally see her begging Liz to show them and asking for a ride. What could possibly go wrong!
Thx for the chapter.