Stephan_Pi

Yeah, I went a little overboard with this chapter, it ended with 4.5k words :/

There is two warnings for this chapter, the first is that Raven is rather dumb in regards to common things like a computer or what is normal, the reason for it is that she lived in a secluded city/tribe that lived by other standards of common sense.

The second warning is that in this chapter will have some commentary on religions, fictional ones obviously, it is relevant as Raven's city/tribe were very religious pacifists that believed that they themselves should be cleansed of all types of evil, but if you know the comics them you know what I am talking about. And this religion bit is necessary to show how the mc and her daughter dealt with them while not being a human, racism am I right?

{A bird’s eye point of view}
Its been a month since I arrived here, I could only live in the streets, surviving by stealing a clothe here, some food there, but I sometimes ate the food that was given away to homeless people on those shelters, I even met a nice old man named Bruce there, but yesterday I couldn't go there as I accidentally let my other side take over, so I ended sleeping in a alleyway i often visited, both to rest and also to meditate and get my emotions in check.

But differently from the times I wasn't even noticed by others or simply ignored by those passing by, I woke up to a tall woman standing in front of me, she was wearing clothes of a really high quality and couldn't be less out of place, if you asked anybody if this situation was suspicious their answers would always be a definitive “yes”, and to make this situation even more suspicious, she offered me a place to sleep, free food and a job that paid well, my first thought was to simply sink in my shadow and appear in a place far away from here, but as I avoided showing others my abilities my next option was to simply run away, but the woman noticed my intentions and started explaining herself.

She told me she opened a hotel and needed somebody to test some games she put on the computers there, she even gave me a card with the name of the hotel and it's address, it was named “Revna’s hotel”, and from the looks of it she seemed to be telling the truth about the whole hotel thing, after some thinking I hesitantly accepted her offer and started following her towards the hotel.

Outside of asking my name, she did not speak much during our walk towards the hotel, or even speak at all for that matter, but despite the fact that she was walking in front of me I could still feel her gaze on me, and something like this normally would be very uncomfortable to anyone, but for some reason, her gaze had a warm touch to it that made it strangely comfortable, but I didn't tell her about her gaze and we both remained silent for the duration of our walk.

And talking about our walk, we walked for something like 40 minutes until we reached a street like any other, she then pointed to a alleyway in the middle of the block and said “It's on that alleyway”.

I still had some doubts about this as I basically received a suspicious offer from a suspicious woman that was leading me to a suspicious location, but I thought better about it and I noticed that if she wanted to do something to me, she could have done it when I was sleeping on a deserted alleyway instead of doing the whole offer and the whole walking just to do it on another deserted alleyway.

Upon arriving on the alleyway I noticed that it was a normal one, with the only noteworthy thing being that it was more empty of objects and was more clean. We walked to the middle of the alleyway and there was a open double door there, but outside of a few plant vases and a mat that says “Welcome” it had no indicative that it was a hotel, it didn't even had a plaque with the hotel name.

Nonetheless, we entered through the door and what I saw was somewhat surprising, the room itself was what I assume to be a normal reception room but it wasn't what surprised me, what surprised me was that behind the reception desk there was a woman identical to the one who guided me here, identical except for the clothes, the one behind the desk was dressed more like a homeless person which created a huge contrast with the very well dressed woman who guided me here, I am guessing that they were twins or something like that.

The woman who guided me here led me to the reception desk and stepped aside, leaving me facing her twin, the twin working as a receptionist took out a key from under the desk and gave to me while saying “Here is you key, it's on the first floor, room 2, consider the clothes and books a gift” even their voices were the same! But I did not focus on it, instead I focused on the gift part, but neither of them explained what she meant and I doubt they will, so I was about to leave to see the room when the twin at the reception desk spoke to me.
“For the moment, take a shower, change clothes and meet me at the dining hall, you must be quite hungry" I indeed am, she continued speaking " i will guide you to your room and will show you the interior”.

The woman in the nice clothes gestured for me to follow her, and I found rather odd that she was the one guiding me instead of the other one who said that they were going to guide me, but I could only nod to say yes and continued to follow behind her, I found their behavior somewhat strange but I chose to follow the well dressed twin in silence.

We quickly arrived at my room as it was essentially a small hotel, I opened the door and entered, and I don't know what I was expecting, but for sure wasn't this. The room was really spacious, from the door alone I could see a nice and spacious living room, a fully equipped kitchen and a corridor that leads to somewhere, those first two rooms alone were in line with what I thought a mansion average room would be.
The woman entered along with me and started presenting the rooms, she introduced the living room and kitchen but proceeded to the corridor and gestured for me to follow her, which I did.

We stopped on the middle of the corridor where there was 2 doors on each side and one at the end, when I started wondering what she wanted me to see, the four doors to the sides opened on their own and showed their contents, they were four identical spacious rooms, and i swear they are bigger on the inside than the outside, but i did not comment on it as the woman also didn't comment on it.

Then the woman said to me after the doors opened "You can pick any of these bedrooms, they are the same, and each one has the same essential things like a bed, closed, dresser, a empty table and a table with the computer and a few bookshelves with some books in them, each of them also has a bathroom with a shower and a bathtub and other obvious things, and you might have noticed but, your room is fully furnished and equipped with mundane things like cutlery, toothbrush, toilet paper, a few technical books and the like, but you obviously can bring other things to fill you room as you like".

From what i seen, they make me think that they are offering me a permanent home for some reason, but i again did not comment on their peculiarities and picked the first room to the left, we entered it and it was as she described, it was very spacious and fully furnished, curiously the bed was a massive one, it was massive even if you consider it a couple's bed.

She showed me the bathroom that was to the side of the bedroom and said "Remember to meet me at the dining hall, i will be waiting there, and just pick some clothes from the closet and bring with you to the bathroom so you can put them on after cleaning yourself" before leaving the room, well, it was closer to a home in comparison to a hotel room.

After she left i did as she suggested, when i opened the closet it was full of clothes, it even had cloaks similar to the one i am wearing, i have no idea how they filled it with clothes for my size or even how they did have time to fill it at all, as i basically met them less than 50 minutes ago.

But ignoring the implications it brought, i simply accepted their gift and picked a few clothes, a clean cloak, a body towel and a pair of black sandals from the closet and brought them to the bathroom, it was quite spacious like the other rooms, the interior was made from a type of white marble with golden details, even the floor was made of squares of this same material, and it obviously couldn't possibly fit here as it was where the other bedroom should be, but i just accepted it and put the clothes on a table nearby and went directly for the shower, its been more than a month that i don't take a decent shower and i couldn't wait to finally take a warm shower in a place where i don't need to worry about my survival every moment.

...

It was a very relaxing nice shower, after the shower i put my new clothes and went explore a bit more of my new house, the first thing i did was to go see what was the door at the end of the corridor was, i opened the door and to the surprise of no one, it was again a spacious room that couldn't possible fir there as it would be where the next room should be, but this time it was a simpler room with a few counters, sinks and machines to wash and clean clothes i assume, i put my dirty clothes on a counter and left them there and went explore the other bedrooms, and well, I only discovered that they were identical to the one i picked, but strangely enough, on the closets there was only things like sheets, bed sheets, pillows and similar things, no clothes to be seen, i guess they somehow correctly guessed which room i would chose, or maybe they had very good luck, maybe they somehow were able to predict our encounter and my choices, I quickly put such thoughts aside as the answer would change almost anything on my current situation.

From the bedrooms i went to the living room and to the kitchen next, I saw a little of them when I first entered this… if I am not mistaken the best definition for this kind of residence would be “apartment”, so I think i will use that. As I was saying, I already saw a little of it when I first entered this apartment so I will only take a quick glance over them.

…

Well, my little exploration took something like 6 minutes based on the clock on the wall, and as i don't want to keep the twins waiting i quickly went the dining hall, it wasn't really hard to find, it was just on another hallway close to the one with the apartments, but this time i couldn't ignore what I saw when I arrived at the dining hall, the dining hall was simply of immense proportions and from what I was seeing I doubt it could fit inside this city block! it could easily fit more than 700 people and still have room to spare!

After looking at the dinning hall with a silly face for a few moments I quickly recomposed myself and immediately found the twin that was at the reception desk sitting on a empty table close to a few counters with foods in them, i easily spotted her because the hall was completely devoid of people, even devoid of staff, which makes me wonder how the twins manage this strange hotel alone, well, if they have such strange hotel then they must use strange means as well, maybe they use invisible workers? I probably will ask them about it later.

I approached her and she got up before saying “Sorry, because I wasn't expecting you and it is still morning, we only have food suitable for breakfast, with the most filling one being rice and beans on that counter”, she gestured to the counters and said “ Pick whatever you like, they will always be fresh and warm”

“Isn't possible that somebody could just enter your hotel and steal your food?” I asked ignoring the last part of what she said.

Her response was to just say “hmmm” and look at the dining hall entrance just to look back at me after a moment and say “ Fixed. Thanks for pointing that out, I don't know how I missed that”, i could not see how she supposedly fixed such problem with just a look, but my empty stomach was speaking louder than my brain, and without ceremony I went to a counter, picked a large plate and started filling with the food, that in all honesty was making my stomach plead to be filled with them just from the smell alone.

She also picked a plate and filled with some food, but not much.

We both seated on a table nearby with our plates in hand and I immediately started devouring what was on my plate.

Something I noticed is that I again could feel both her gaze and that she was smiling in the exact manner as her twin, even without looking at her, and while I was eating she suddenly said “You are quite a interesting child, you are almost a exact copy of my daughter, even the demon heritage thing”, I immediately chocked on my food, I couldn't fathom how she knew it and even more strange was that she seemed not to care about it, or she simply didn't understand what my heritage meant, but i doubt that last part.

I couldn't contain my curiosity and asked her about this daughter she mentioned.

“I don't know how you discovered it, but what you mean when you said I am like your daughter? I doubt she could have a story that comes even a little close to mine.”

“I meant more of your appetite and how you are the child of a creature that is often considered a demon or worse, but from what I can see, both you and her are children of something far more powerful than a demon” was her answer.

“I don't mean to sound rude but, did you sleep with a demon or something like that? You should know that it aways makes the child life horrible, in a way or the other.” I inquired with a depressed tone.

Her answer shocked me quite a bit as I wasn't expecting it at all.

“My wife was a human mage, and I am no demon, but the ignorants might mistake me for one”

Hearing that, I couldn't stop my anger from rising, I know well the lengths a demon can go to trick a mortal into having their children for them, my mother was one of such cases, tricked into having a child for the embodiment of evil, so while restraining myself to not attack the being seating in front of me I asked the big question while my nails were almost digging into my hand.

“How did you trick her? It was a contract? Or did you..?”

I felt her gaze turning into a distant one, as if she was remembering good old memories and her smile getting brighter before she answered my anger filled question.

“No trick, no contract, i guess I know what you are worried about, but me and my wife simply met normally, became friends, after some time we started dating, then married after some time dating, and after 100 years of being together we had a child, simple like that”

I couldn't help myself and looked at her with suspicion, but as I did not detect any lie I calmed my anger and returned to eating my food, after eating a little I asked her another question while still a little angry from just thinking about it.

“Your twin, does she have a similar story or does she lets her other side dominate?”

She answered with the tone of a nice teacher while eating from her plate “ I have no twin sister, if you are referring to the being that guided you here then “she” is just me, or a type of avatar if you want to be more specific”.

I was left speechless and unsure how to process such information, but she continued speaking as if she was blind to my lack of understanding.

“And I don't have a “other side” as you know it, i never had problems with my nature and as I said, I am not a demon”

Now I was curious as to what she is, and did she say her wife had a child while 100 years old? From the way she speaks she make it sound like her wife lived far more than a normal human.

“when I said the ignorant would mistake me for a demon I meant that those who know nothing always associate what they don't understand to something they hate, which in most cases are demons, as this unfounded hate is most often the result of religion indoctrination, the devil this the devil that, it's the same thing everywhere, here is not that much different”

I could not left it unsaid so I spoke my mind.

“You talk as if you know a lot about the subject?”

She answered as if her answer was a fact everyone knows about.

“I in fact do know about the subject, through my travels I met quite a number of different religious groups, but 9 out of 10 of these groups aways put the title of “bad” or “evil” on something and proceeded to put everything they didn't understand or refused to understand under the same class as that something.”

“One of these groups I met was a religion that believed in human supremacy, they viewed everything non human as animals or monsters, which was really stupid on their part as humans made only 14% of the population on that place, and in fact humans were quite weak and dumb in comparison to the other beings that shared their space, they were quite annoying to be around, my wife even beat up a few of them because they were talking “unnecessary” things to me and our daughter as we didn't exactly hide ourselves”

I am only believing her until this point mainly because i did not detect any lie from her words, and she remembers me of the elders I met before…well, before this, so I continued listening to her and i was even more curious about what she was, maybe she would tell me about it or let it slip between her stories, or maybe not.

Strangely enough she went from a completely serious woman to one who was playful and seemed to joke around with everything, she laughed a bit and said “There was even a funny religious nation that believed haha, believed that they were the chosen people or that they were blessed by a god or something, haha”

She took a pause from laughing and said in a somewhat serious tone, again changing her personality in the blink of a eye “But to the surprise of no one they we just like the group I just mentioned, they believed that humans were the best and should rule over everyone else, but somewhat differently from the previous group that believed non humans were only cattle at best, this group believed that all non humans should be their servants or slaves and that they should be proud of doing so”

She again assumed more of a playful tone and said after laughing a bit more “ You should have seen how they acted, it was hilarious, hahah! But while I found their silly behavior amusing, my wife was rather angry every time they mentioned how glorious they were or how happy other should be for being their servants, which they did all the time by the way, but my daughter only felt pity for how stupid they were”

I can feel her smiling almost ear to ear and holding back a lot from simply laughing until her lungs explode, but I remained silent while eating and let her talk, mind you that at this point I was far more relaxed and less angry about the misunderstanding from earlier, and from what I can see, she seems like a nice woman, albeit a little peculiar on what she considers amusing.

“I should have filmed that moment haha! The reason my daughter felt pity for them was that we discovered that the reason they thought themselves blessed, the cause for their arrogance and pride, the reason for their silly supremacy beliefs, was all because their nation was on top of a mana rich zone!”

I couldn't understand what she meant by that but I could clearly see that it must means something stupid as she was doing her best to supress a huge laughing fit.

She for sure was strange, sometimes she acted like any teenager and at other times acted like a serious and mature woman and sometimes like a normal old lady, which makes it hard for me to a concrete image of her personality.

After some time she finally recomposed herself and spoke to me in a tone that clearly was meant to be a praising one, but it mostly left me unsure on how to feel about it.

“You really is just like my daughter, even your interest in stories is just like her”

She was reminiscing of a old lady talking about their grandchildren, which seemed to be just another one her strange peculiarities, but from the looks of it, I will be hearing a lot more stories about her daughter or her wife in the future.

One thing I observed is that she don't seem to have a fixed mood as she went from almost rolling on the floor from laughing so much to a completely serious demeanor in instants.

And just to make me more curious about her strangeness, she simply gave me a notebook and a handbag that I have no idea where she pulled them out from, the notebook was a simple one with a few ravens or crows on the cover, and the handbag was filled with a few pens, pencils erasers and the like.

After giving these items to me she said “Use these to write down the stuff I talked with you in regards to the computers games, and I advise that you start from the starting game of each universe, for example, if a games has a version 1, 2 and 3, I would recommend that you start from the version 1 as I put them in the right order on the computers, so if you start from the third version you might miss things from the story that came on a earlier version”

Her words were on the right order and sounded right, but I couldn't get them quite right, but with a little of deciphering on my part I somewhat understand what she meant, and she spoke a little more before leaving to do whatever she did on her free time.

“I will pay you in advance today at 18:00, and I will pay you on the day 15 of each month on the following months, we already talked about what you need to do but just to clarify, you need to give me at least one of those reports on the games per month, if you do not give me a single report then you will get a penalty on you salary for the month you skipped work, you can start taking a look at the games whenever you like, and I will be leaving but if you have any question I will be at the reception desk or if I am not there, I will probably be at the room 1 to the side of your room, have a nice day”

She took her plate and left it on a empty counter separated from the others that had a few drawing on its side and left the dining hall, I just finished eating my food while thinking of the strange occurrences that happened from the moment of her invite to the hotel, to now, and the only thing I could think was that they were indeed too suspicious and strange but since I already dived head first on such strange path there is no going back.

And even if I wanted to go back there was nowhere to go back to, as I had nothing, whatever she is offering me seems better than living on the streets so I don't see I would refuse such kindness, even if it comes from a strange and suspicious woman that is very likely to not be a human at all, I still have no reason to refuse it.

I finished eating and drinking a juice i got from one of the counter and put the items together with the plate of the woman, and now that I think about it, I never asked her name, the only clue I have to her name is the hotel card that had “Revna’s hotel” written on it, but “Revna” can be her last name, or the middle one? Putting these silly thoughts aside I went back to my room, after arriving on my bedroom I was really tempted to just flop on my bed and sleep until tomorrow but I resisted this sweet temptation the comfortable bed was giving and went to the table that had what I assume to be the computer she mentioned.

On the table there was a board with many buttons with letters, a device with two buttons and a wheel, there was something that looked like a tv and another device that had a few different types of buttons and looked like it was held using two hands, all of these things were connected to a black box through cables, except the last devices i mentioned that is.

The computer seemed to be turned off and as there was a red button with a symbol on the computer, I pressed it.

The computer turned on with a small sound along the tv who also tuned on showing me a screen with a few icons, a bar with other icon at the bottom and a picture of a tree as the tv background.

After trying to use the devices on the table with some difficulty I finally managed to bring the pointer thingy to the icon that said “Games” and once I clicked on it, a smaller window appeared with icons inside it, there was only two icons at the moment, out of the two I choose to start with the one that I think resonates better with me, it was named “Dark souls”, it really sounded like a perfect match for me, so i immediately started seeing what it was all about.