Chapter 55: Proof is a Fickle Thing

Lilia trudged along the cobble streets, following Jyn who was just ahead of her. “I’m so tired…” she said, ending in a sigh. The two had continued to fight for several hours. Their superb swordsmanship meant that their swords weren't so much as scratched, and were even slightly sharper than they had started, but...was it worth it? Lilia sighed.

“Thank you for the bout,” Jyn said, looking back to her with a slight smile.

“I’m still no match for you.”

“Don’t play yourself down. I could never land a blow on you until the end, after all.”

Lilia ran up to Jyn’s side. “Because I called it quits when I realized I didn’t have as much endurance as you!”

She sighed. Jyn just chuckled. “Come on. The duel should be starting soon.” She looked back to Minimine, trailing behind them, distracted and curious about the food vendors lining the sides. “M-mimi”—she still wasn’t used to directly addressing a goddess so … childishly—“will you be coming with us?”

Minimine looked to her. “Will. Will,” she said, and tattled along.

The sun was setting. The tips of houses were orange-lit, everything else below nearly drowned in shade. People were hurrying to pack up for the day, and yet, others were just beginning to set up, peddling more … interesting wares.

“What’s that—” “Minimine, no.”

Jyn led her away from the herb dealer.

Soon enough, they heard the clashing of weapons, and when they reached the edge of the plaza, the crowd was as sizable as Minimine had first encountered.

“Stay still!” Helma screamed, her boyfriend transforming from a spear, to a sword; from a whip, to a gun.

“That’s cheating!” Viktor cut down the musket ball with his swords. He didn’t expect a gun to show up, though neither did he expect to amaze himself by cutting down a bullet mid-flight. It was amazing how flustered desperation shifted a man’s perception of the world into slow motion.

Princess Arpeggio shook her head. “Penalty to the Priestess of Love! Illegal weaponry!” she announced. She shook her head. She, a Princess, had been reduced to a mere referee for a petty fight—but hey, it wasn’t all that bad! She got to sit back and relax on a lounging chair in the plaza, reading a nice book with one eye and keeping a track of the duel with the other. Although, yes, she preferred to be out and about and moving her body, a little bit of winding down was good, too.

The sun blinked below the horizon, and the clashing of weapons and gunfire had yet to cease. She closed her book and stood tall. “This duel concludes with no victor!” she announced.

The weapons stopped, but almost immediately, Helma raised her voice.

“Viktor Redd! I challenge you to—”

“I, Princess Knight Arpeggio Selisie”—she interrupted, deciding to skip to the conclusion—“of Our Great Kingdom, hereby recognize the duel between Helma Kel of the Temple of Love, and Viktor Redd of the Harem Faith!” She paused. “Due to penalties incurred by the Priestess of Love, the Priest of the Harem Faith will have the duel’s privilege!”

“Damn you, Viktor!”

“Don’t I get any say in this? …”

Arpeggio hopped down from the wooden platform, cuing the onlookers to go home as well. She could still hear Helma throwing sharp words at Viktor. Poor guy.

He didn’t even have a choice to begin with. He may have been the Last Priest of the Harem God, but the Harem Faith had always been nitpicky about male pride and bravado.

—No, you may not hit (on) women. Women should flock to you.

—No, you may not turn down a challenge. Humble monologues are recommended before accepting.

So what happened when a woman challenged them? Exactly this: a man with no way out.

Arpeggio chuckled at the idea. She told her guards she’d “take another walk,” to which they collectively sighed and nodded. She loved that reaction out of them.

“Your Highness,” one guard spoke up. She was holding out a pair of gloves, with pronounced padding over the knuckles.

“Thank you, Seldi,” Arpeggio said. The gloves she’d been handed were soft, and even a slight breeze dried away the sweat of her palms. The knuckle padding, on the other hand, didn’t pad for crap. Royal equipment tended towards the “form over function” philosophy, which Arpeggio didn’t much appreciate in a fight. Perhaps it was an intentional design choice to dissuade royalty from fighting. Whoever thought that was a fair assessment should roll in the mud with the swine.

She exchanged the gloves for her previous ones, which were all torn up already. Seldi quietly sighed. Her ward was much too proactive.

Arpeggio, however, was just truly going to take a walk. Perhaps Shal-yen’s Maids would offer her some tea in the castle’s garden. There was a charming view from the balcony.

Anything to distract her thoughts, really.

She took five steps.

“Seldi?”

She paused. She didn’t recognize that voice.

“Who—” Seldi said with alarm.

That was strange, Arpeggio thought. Seldi was full-clad in black armor, and only the whites of her eyes could be seen through the visor. Who’d be able to recognize her in all of that, and all the way out here in the frontier, no less?

Arpeggio turned around and found an adventurer-seeming woman face-to-face with Seldi. Her guard was frozen still.

“Jyn?” Seldi said. She raised her visor millimeter by millimeter, as if trying to keep its hinges from creaking.

“So it really is you.” Jyn offered a soft smile. Seldi was taken aback by this. She had never seen Jyn’s soft smile.

“Jyn, I—are you okay?”

“All things considered, I’m doing quite well.” Jyn eyed the crest on Seldi’s chestplate. “You’re a royal guard? Are you on duty? Sorry, let me—”

“No, please, Her Highness had just left.”

Her Highness was just right there, though. Her Highness had also been wondering where she had heard Jyn’s name before… Ah. Could it be… Kalender had mentioned her as someone who could give a more level-headed description of Kalender’s circumstances. A quick Appraise informed Arpeggio that Jyn was a Knight. Level-headed, indeed.

Perhaps … it would be beneficial to interrogate Jyn and learn more about Kalender from her. She’d gotten off on the wrong foot, and she didn’t want to do so again.

She’d been to engrossed in her thoughts, however, to notice the developing situation in front of her.

“What do you mean ‘he’s kind’ ? Isn’t that the curse speaking?” Seldi said in a hushed but ill-tempered tone.

“Were you not our squad’s appraiser for long years? Appraise me,” Jyn replied with narrowed eyes.

“That Skill must be some sort of ruse!”

“It is not.”

“Come with us, Jyn. We can—we can help you!”

“What are you—”

Arpeggio had never seen Seldi like this. Of course, she had heard her story, about how her beloved squad leader from her previous assignment had been taken away by the Inquisition after being charmed. She had been emotional, then.

Seldi was a good Knight, but also an excellent appraiser who had worked under one of the Inquisition’s curse-hunter squads—an excellent and respectable complement to Arpeggio’s royal guard.

Then it all clicked in her mind. This is that squad leader.

“He—he must’ve done something to you!”

“He has not.”

Seldi gasped. “Mind wiping?!”

Jyn actually considered this for a moment, but she shook her head. “My memories are contiguous.”

“Memory replacement?!”

“Now you’re just being ridiculous.”

“You saw his power!”

“He passed the Carmine Test.”

Arpeggio’s eyebrow skyrocketed. Now that was interesting.

“C-clearly he wouldn’t have lasted 11 days!” Seldi’s arguments were increasingly made of sand.

Jyn sighed. “There’s no other option, I see…”

Seldi leaked a smile. She thought Jyn was agreeing with her, finally!

Instead, Jyn turned around, talked to a woman who had been behind her this whole time, then called out to a—c-child?! Wait, it hasn’t even been three months… A magic-born child?!

Seldi had heard the stories. The Temple of Fertility offered such services for couples who could not conceive. It came at a hefty sum, but it also meant not having to undergo nine months of hard work. How envious.

Jyn held the child’s hand and presented her to Seldi. “Appraise her,” she said.

What a strange way to say ‘Look, I made a child with someone.’ Seldi dispelled the thought and did as Jyn asked.

—Minimine, Vice-Goddess of Reincarnation

Seldi blinked. She, at once, believed it and not.

The child gave her a thumbs up. “My Champion is best Champion.”

At those words, Seldi connected the dots. She’d been wondering all this time what the heck a “Champion of Reincarnation” was. Gaia had a lot of Heroes, but no Champions. The Occupations sounded really similar, but for anything that had to do with the divine domains, linguistic similarity said nothing about what the person was actually meant to do.

Well, she still didn’t know what a Champion did, but this child-sized goddess’s words were literally unarguable. With those words alone, Kalender was instantly certified for good moral conduct by Heaven itself.

Also, there was a goddess in front of her.

Her knees buckled, prepared to revere Minimine, but Arpeggio caught her before she did.

“Y-your Highness?” Seldi gaped. Had she been there all along?

“The citizens’ eyes are upon us. Make no scene,” Arpeggio said.

While Seldi arranged herself, Arpeggio looked up to Jyn and Minimine. She would curtsy as a courtesy of equals, but … this was a public place. Already, there were several people watching them, wondering why the Princess and her guard were interacting with seemingly random “fellows of the Company.” Must be some type o’ shady deal! The rumour mill had already begun to churn.

“ ‘Her Highness’ ?” Jyn muttered. She looked up and down Arpeggio’s outfit. It was a dress of a striking contrast of black and white—the Princess Knight. She bowed. “Greetings, Your Highness. I am Knight Jyn.”

“Interesting that you still consider yourself a Knight despite being ejected from service,” Arpeggio remarked. “Incidentally, I had just spoken to Kalender a mere hour ago. I would like to speak to you about him, and—ah.”

She looked to Minimine. “If M’Lady wishes to engage in our matters, I will gladly receive.”

“I’ll go,” Minimine said.

Arpeggio looked to the woman behind Jyn, making for a casual Appraise. Some details jumped out at her. What’s a Tourist? Never mind that, what on Gaia’s with her hands? The callouses are—a swordswoman? “Would you like to come, as well?”

“A-ah, well, I—y-yes, Your Highness…” Lilia replied with a slight bow.

However, murmurs started to spread from the corners of Arpeggio’s hearing.

“Before anything—Seldi, Knight Jyn, would the two of you please put on a display with your swords?” she said.

Both Knights were taken aback. “Your Highness, if I may ask—”

Arpeggio stopped her with a gesture. “Make the onlookers here evaluate Jyn as an impossible standard to reach. It will spin the rumour’s story into my ‘finding talent under a river pebble.’ I cannot have the commoners think that I am so easily approached. Do you understand?”

Jyn and Seldi bowed. They took their places 10 meters from each other.

“A few seconds of demonstration will suffice,” Arpeggio said. “Impress me. Begin!”