Wreath of Lilies, Cauldron of Poison

Chapter 175

Unintended Insult

The week passed in successions of snowfall in Greyvault, and the people had to endure the cold as they shoveled snow from their front doors, lest the snow froze and sealed them shut. The Town’s Guards shortened their patrolling hours, and often returned from them with feelings of burning in their hands and ears.

During these days, Harrison was staying mostly indoors, where the fireplace provided enough warmth for him and his men. One of the perks of working in administration. Not to say that he was lazing about. Instead, he had so many things to do that he had to resort to take his lunch at his desk.

He had so much paperwork to do that it got to the point that going to the dining room became too much of a chore. After finishing the last of his work for that afternoon, he took a cup of tea which was proffered to him by his assistant, and stealthily poured a good glug of whisky from a flask in his pocket.

While he was enjoying his adulterated tea, a messenger came in with a face like he had seen a ghost.

“Mayor Harrison. T-the supplies have come.”

The overworked Mayor smiled with relief. Due to the shortage of food, Greyvault was having a hard time currently. Fortunately, Martell - with the aid of the Golden Sparrow’s badge - managed to have food sent over from the Capital with the highest priority.

“That’s good then, so why do you look like that?” he lifted the cup to his lips and sipped the lukewarm tea.

“T-that’s because the Hero’s Party is with them!”

Harrison spurted out the tea that he was in the middle of drinking and coughed fervently. “H-Hero of Calendia? Here?! What’s he doing here?”

“He said he wished to meet the Lady.”

The Mayor took the cloth that was offered to him by his assistant and wiped his wet face with it. “Where’s Mister Martell and Mister Nick?”

“Last I saw, Mister Nick was having his men cleaning up the Demon Skull because of the heavy snow last night. I don’t know about Mister Martell.”

“Get a man to look for Mister Martell, then. The two of them are the ones that can best represent Our Lady. I will go and greet them,” he looked down at his wet shirt and grimaced. “After I changed my clothes.”

Harrison and some of his men rode down to the Entrance Gate as quick as they could. They saw a gathering of people gawking at the men in armor. He quickly dismounted and walked towards them with all smiles.

His eyes quickly scanned the surrounding and saw a few men that looked of high stature wearing armor, and young girls that looked well groomed, one of them having the air of arrogance afforded only to Nobles.

“Greetings and good morrow, Sir Hero,” Harrison greeted the only man with black hair and black eyes. “Lords and Ladies,” he continued awkwardly. Being a normal man before being dragged and pushed to his current position, he had had little experience talking with those above his station. Except for Connie, but she did not count as she liked things simple and to the point. “I am Harrison, Mayor of Greyvault.”

“Ah, my name is Sakagami Akira,” Akira then introduced his entourage, whose titles were making Harrison even more nervous.

“I thought that the Mayor was a Noble named James Hordin,” Klein said.

“Ah, he was removed from his station a while ago. Lady Steelheart had appointed me as his replacement,” the man replied, deliberately avoiding saying what happened to the ex-Mayor.

“By the way, I’m curious, we saw a large building outside of town just now. What’s that for?”

“That’s the Treatment Center built by Lady Steelheart to take care of people who suffered from drugs spread by a local gang,” the man said. “But the drugs and said gang had been eradicated, thanks to the Lady. We are immensely grateful for her kindness. We have more people helping thanks to the Clerics from the local church.”

“Sounds like there’s a story here,” Donovan commented.

“Look, it’s very chilly here. Can we continue this somewhere else?” Hannah complained as she let out a breath that condensed into a white fog.

“Yes! Yes. Where are my manners? Please, let me take you to the Mayor’s Mansion. I forgot that you came from the Capital. It must be a good deal warmer there,” Harrison said before turning to his assistant. “Take over for me, would you?”

The assistant saluted and headed over to the representative of the local Merchant’s Guild who was there to oversee the handover. The representative was spooked by the Hero’s sudden arrival and was not sure if he should interrupt or not. He wished that Mendehl did not have a meeting with the Guild's member today. This was way above his pay grade.

The Hero and his entourage then mounted their horses and went towards the Mayor’s Mansion, led by Harrison.

Ever since he was tasked by Connie to learn from Rhoddes about kindness, the Anukaran Nankhudi had been taking him to the Treatment Center.

Though he did not find it useful, Martell still followed him to the Treatment Center and watched him heal the spirits of the Daydreamers. The Priest of Anukara would call out to those who could not answer, and spoke gentle encouragement to those who could not respond.

All this, without a trace of annoyance. His actions made no sense to Martell.

So, he sat, trying to make sense of it. On the third day he was there, the boy found himself bored out of his mind and decided to play a simple tune.

When he did, all eyes were on him. Though his music was foreign to their ears, the gentle melody he caressed from his string made those who heard it feel their hearts soothed.

A child of a Daydreamer who was there, came to him and sat down, eyes full of expectation. This was followed by another, and another.

He was confused, and bewildered. He had never seen such eyes. Eyes that looked at him with such…innocent curiosity. Interest or attraction, yes. But never something like this.

It freaked him so much that he quickly was about to store Wild Geese when he heard one of the children, a kid with a snaggle tooth asked, “Can you play another song?”

Martell looked at him as if he was crazy, but finally he said, “…Yes.”

Ever since then, he would play his Guqin to the people in the Treatment Center. And every time he did, the snaggle toothed kid would be at the front, listening to him with eyes filled with pure enjoyment.

But today, he did not sit where he usually sat. He hid behind a tree, fed up by how hopeless it all seemed to be.

What is kindness? Martell asked himself. How could I, wretched as I am, understand kindness?

He pondered, as he plucked the thickest string on his instrument, and the note hung heavy in the air. How could I, dirtied and tainted as I am, be kind?

Is what I am doing…kind? This…act of playing simple melodies to the Daydreamers? What value is this if there’s no benefit to me?

He expected there to at least be something that will move his heart. But he felt nothing, and felt the worse for it.

With a long sigh, Martell placed the flat of his hand on the strings, silencing them.

Then, he saw Hagen Sondt coming towards him with a strange look on his face.

“Mister Martell,” Hagen said, still unsure on how to address the boy. Martell was still wearing his Slave Collar, but his position was definitely not below the Mayor as the Mayor referred to him with respect.

“Yes? What is it?” the young boy snapped.

“Uh, well. There’s a Guard here; said he was sent by the Mayor. He told me that the Hero is here. He was looking for Lady Steelheart”

“Sakagami Akira?”

He had enough trouble as it is, and now came another. “Alright. Tell me where he is.”

“You did a good job here, Mayor,” Klein said as they rode through the main road. “I heard that you’ve been having a hard time with supplies, but the townspeople don’t look too worried. I daresay they looked very spirited, even in this cold.”

“Thank you for the compliments, Sir Klein. But that praise should belong to Lady Steelheart. You couldn’t have imagined the despair that ravaged this town before she arrived. The corruption, and the suffering we endured,” the man puffed his chest proudly. “But that’s all in the past. And I swore to myself that I will help the Lady to make Greyvault be a better place to live. Though, to be honest, a Mayor’s work is harder than I thought, haha!”

“This doesn’t sound like her. Not like her at all,” Hannah whispered to Akira.

“Perhaps, we judged her too early.”

As Harrison and the Hero’s party were about to pass the Square, their attention was grabbed by the humongous skull situated smack dab in the middle of it.

“T-that is…!” Eleanora quickly dismounted and ran towards the skull with speed uncharacteristic to her usual self.

The Guards moved to stop her, but they quickly stopped when they saw Harrison shaking his head furiously.

“Hey, hey little girl! This is restricted area!” Three men in thick clothes shooed her. All of them had scrubbing brush in their hands.

“Stay down, boys. That girl’s not as weak as she looked,” a voice came from the top of the skull.

“Is that…Nick?” Akira narrowed his eyes to look more clearly.

“The Hero of Calendia and his illustrious party. What brings you to this far South?!” Nick waved from the top of Bet-Zebek’s skull. He jumped down and offered a hand to Akira. “And you’ve got a lot of people with you!”

“Well, we have something to discuss with Cornelia,” Akira shook his hand with a smile.

He’s quite friendly. Maybe this will go smoothly after all.

“If you’re looking for Milady, you’re out of luck. She’s not here at the moment. And Goddess knows when she’ll return. It’s just me and Martell here.”

“Well, actually – “

“Oh! Oooh!! This is a skull is from a Named Demon, isn’t it?! I can tell. And this is an exceptionally powerful one too! The remnants of Mana still left inside it is enough to make my senses tremble!”

“And the cut that had split the skull almost into two is very clean,” Klein marveled at the cut. He could sense the refinement of the technique used simply by looking at it. “Who did it?”

“It was Mistress Cornelia’s deed.”

Akira heard the sound of fine leather soles on wet cobblestone. A young Beastfolk boy walked towards them with one hand behind his back while the other combed through his strawberry hair; all five fingers had Item Rings, an extravagance by its own right.

“Good afternoon, Sir Sakagami Akira and companions. It has been…some time,” Martell bowed with one leg scraping the ground behind him, the very image of Noble etiquette. Though the boy was all smiles, for some reason Akira could feel annoyance behind the politeness.

“Y-you said, Lady Cornelia…defeated this Named Demon?”

“Indeed. This belonged to an Ur-Nagud named Bet-Zebek that Mistress and I defeated a few weeks ago. Of course, the Mistress was the one who did most of the work.”

“Impossible! Defeating an Ur-Nagud with two people? An Ur-Nagud needed at least forty of our Elites working in tandem!” Hannah exclaimed in disbelief. Her recent talks with her teacher had enlightened her of the true dangers in Grea.

“We have no need to lie. We have witnesses,” Martell shrugged. “Also, you should keep your opinions of Mistress Cornelia to yourself.”

The Hero’s party looked around and saw the unpleasant stares from the people.

“While the Capital had ignored the pleas of the people from Greyvault, we came and took action. And this skull you see before you, is a symbol of my Mistress’s promise. This skull is a declaration to all who see it; those who touch Greyvault will pay the price!”” the sly young Beastfolk smiled innocently. “In short, you’re in our territory now, Mister Hero. So, you best behave.”

Akira frowned inwardly. I spoke too soon.

“On another note, for what purpose are you here?" the boy asked again. "I don’t think you’re here for a simple visit, are you?”

“They said they have something to talk to the Lady about,” Nick explained.

“Actually,” Donovan suddenly spoke up, his expression was unusually excited. “We are here to talk to you.”

“To me?” Martell raised an eyebrow quizzically.

“Would you like to join the Knighthood?” Donovan offered with a wide smile.

“…what did you say?”