22: Date?
In a small, empty room, a man wearing heavy, gaudy jewelry was trembling.
“No! You can’t take that, too!” He screamed as a group of knights were taking furniture from his home.
Baron Slake, a pathetic and vile man shivered.
“How is this possible?!” he shouted.
Baron Slake had made certain bets.
Rather, he had essentially gambled his fortune away. How?
He had offered to pay certain parts of the kingdom and the empire to start attacking the union. And then, as if this plan wasn’t risky or dumb enough, he stockpiled most of the resources that the union once sold. Arms, weapons, rations, as he expected that if the union fell, he would be able to sell them for a profit, give what he owed to the kingdom and the empire, and come out with money to spare, intending to use that money to track down Eliza and take her.
And, even though he wouldn’t admit it, it wasn’t just about Eliza now and how he wanted to ‘claim her’ for himself. It was now his petty pride, refusing to let someone that he believed belong to him escape.
Yes, Baron Slake was once again in charge of the problems Eliza had been facing.
But this time…
His pathetic attempts failed.
The nobles of the kingdom and the aristocrats of the empire both came knocking, intending to collect on the debt he owed them.
Now, even with the money from his uncle, the duke, he was left near penniless. Slake had yet to ever make an effort to earn money on his own without schemes or tricks, so now he was left penniless in a land full of commoners who slowly began to feel the water rising.
His wealth was gone, and to make up for what he couldn’t pay back, they began taking his furniture, his jewelry, and all of his ill gotten gains.
But then, from the entrance of the house, a loud, booming voice could be heard.
“Who dares to treat my nephew this way? Look at this house! It’s filthy! Where are the maids?”
Duke Alvin Rose had arrived at the scene.
His appearance was similar to that of other nobles of the kingdom. Blonde hair, blue eyes, and a strong body, and he was wearing the traditional military garb of the kingdom. He was clearly not overweight, like his nephew, but as one of the men on the front lines leading the kingdom, that was to be expected.
Even though his hair was blonde, like most kingdom nobles, it clearly had patches of grey becoming visible through time.
But in a world with constant war, only two types of men grow old. The strong or the cowardly.
And Duke Alvin was the first variety.
He wasn’t a great person. Nor was he a purely evil person. The commoners of his territory did not starve, though they did not have the highest quality of life.
Duke Alvin listened to his nephew intently.
When the matter was done, he felt… disappointed in his nephew.
‘Starting a war just because you can’t handle your own failure…? Even more… Losing the own war that you started?’
Duke Alvin sighed.
‘Is he really Anastasia’s son? Anastasia was like a bright shining star… And she would have never lost any battle she herself planned out! He had the same education as her, so how is he unable to do the same things she could?’ he thought, looking at the sweating greasy pig in front of him. ‘How did she have a son so vile and disgusting?’
But he relented. Even though he felt supreme disappointment in his nephew right now.
“You mentioned that the cause of all of this is a commoner of the kingdom, yes?”
Duke Alvin Rose watched as his nephew nodded rapidly.
“But for now… You need a lesson in financial literacy, Slake!” He yelled, beginning what would soon become a several hour long lecture with his nephew.
Soon, over a week later, the birthday party of Lily was about to arrive.
Lily’s birthday party was calm, mostly without event. Except for when Lily got upset at Mary, who had been so excited to learn magic that she barely spoke to Lily.
To make up for this, Eliza bought Lily everything she thought her daughter would want… yet again.
Funnel cake, ice cream, fresh fruit, and more.
She did tone back the gifts this year, on Olivia’s forceful demand. Olivia had noticed Lily’s personality getting a bit strange, and she simply told Eliza…
“Ya’ need ta’ stop spoilin’ yer’ daughter so damn much, Eliza!”
And then, an example of that showed itself in front of them.
Lily wasn’t upset with the gifts so much she had gotten.
Lily, licking the ice cream, kept silent.
“Humph!” She pouted in an exaggerated manner. It had been several days since Mary had last talked to her, and she was only now remembering to speak to Lily on her sixth birthday party.
“Why’d you ignore me til now?!” Lily pouted.
Mary, who had been spending more than a week excitedly practicing magic whenever she was alone or with the prince, had neglected to actually do anything with Lily from then until her birthday.
“I’m… sorry, Lily. I was so excited that I had something special that I forgot about you.”
“Alright… I forgive you…” Lily said, still moping.
It was a surprisingly acceptance of Mary’s apology for Lily… though she didn’t actually internally forgive her.
Mary, despite being an incredibly responsible and mature child, was still dealing with Lily, a 6 year old girl who had yet to actually grow up and become responsible.
Not that if Lily were 7 too she would be responsible, but simply that Mary is much more patient and understanding than Lily is.
And then, seeing Mary be so understanding, Lily seemed to get upset even more, absurdly enough.
“Why are you so good? Why are you a good person?” Lily said, annoyed, poked Mary in the cheek.
“Good person?” Mary asked. “I don’t know what you mean.”
Lily puffed her cheeks up once again, and looked away from Mary, still annoyed.
Some of the bystanders, such as Olivia, Sorin, Rin, and Lucas all laughed at that.
Lily seemed upset, but still let Mary have funnel cake, and was even willing to share the ice cream Eliza had bought her with her best friend…
Even if she was now giving Mary the silent treatment.
It was clear that Lily had a weirdly strong moral compass and was able to recognize right from wrong… But that still didn’t stop her from actively doing wrong things.
Or rather, she knew the difference between right and wrong, but would impulsively do wrong things without even thinking about it. She hated hurting people, and would always apologize if she accidentally broke something, but she would argue with even Eliza recently, or argue with anyone who upsets her without trying to mediate.
Eliza realized that Olivia was probably right. It was normal for a child to be a little bit emotionally immature, but if she didn’t take steps to address it and help Lily grow, she might remain this way forever.
The girls continued eating, with Mary feeling guilty, and Lily also feeling a mixture of being upset, and feeling guilty for being upset.
So… in their next classes, Eliza began discussing the intricacies of swordsmanship, and discussing how expert swordsmanship differed, using it as a lesson to teach Lily how her own talents were special too, and capable of similar things of magic.
Only for Lily to get upset at realizing her mother was good at both swordsmanship and magic and then get upset once again.
Lily once again gave Eliza the silent treatment.
Three days later, Eliza was enjoying her day off by ignoring all of the work she would have to do when she returned, and had even bought a bottle of wine at the adventurer’s guild.
While she may not have been a big fan of drinking on Earth, she began drinking to celebrate around once every two months after the attack from the drake. She realized that she was pleased simply to be alive.
But when she was about to drink it, Rin showed up and suddenly began speaking to her.
“Let’s go.” Rin said, grabbing her arm.
“Huh?” Eliza said as she was dragged out of the adventurer’s guild bar by Rin. Her bottle of wine was laying on the table, still not even having been drunk.
The two were quickly running through the streets, where eventually Rin brought Eliza to the market street.
She quickly walked up towards a funnel cake stall and brought out four flints.
“Two funnel cakes.” She said, handing the coins to the stall owner, a large burly man.
Once the cakes were handed over, the two sat down on a random bench on the street, each feeling a bit awkward.
Eliza quickly ate her funnel cake, not sure of what to say. She was still thinking about that bottle of wine, somewhat wishing she had asked the guild to hold it for her.
“So… What’s this about, Rin?” She asked, feeling a little excited. Rin usually never acted this spontaneously at all.
Rin spoke up, smiling.
“I’m… very thankful that you considered me close enough to invite me to Lily’s sixth birthday party.”
Rin felt like she was nearly about to bite her tongue.
First, she took Eliza on a date and bought her funnel cake, and now she was talking about how she’s glad to be in Eliza’s daughter’s life?
‘Way to be obvious…’ Rin thought to herself, wishing she could just disappear into the shadows and hide away.
She still wasn’t confident about how she felt about Eliza, but she didn’t dislike her, for certain.
Whether this was a ‘friendly’ date or a romantic date still she didn’t know, but Rin hoped she could get closer to Eliza either way.
After a moment of quiet, Eliza was the one to break the silence.
“Well… Are we doing anything more? Or just talking about my daughter’s birthday?” Eliza asked, still thinking about that bottle of wine back at the guild.
Eliza, who hadn’t been in a relationship since back on Earth, wasn’t quite sure of what to actually do on a date either. And moreover… she didn’t know if this was an actual date or not, or if Rin just spontaneously brought her out for her favorite food.
Rin paused.
“Do you, uh… want to…” She murmured, not actually having planned anything besides funnel cake.
Whenever she was near Eliza, she couldn’t come up with things to do. Normally, to seduce someone, she’d take them out to a fancy dinner, show them things they’ve never seen before, and try her best to leave an impression.
But… She didn’t want to seduce Eliza. She genuinely cared about her in a deeply personal way, whether that was romantic or not she didn’t know.
Eliza… was the first person she actually let down her guard near. The first person that she felt she could talk near.
It was only now that Rin began to feel like she understood why Grant wanted her to spend time with Eliza. It wasn’t to enter a relationship with Eliza. It was for herself, wasn’t it?
Rin’s personality… she felt like it was simply whatever she needed at the moment. Whether to fit in, hide, or seduce a target… None of them were her.
She may have been able to act the cheerful girl, the woman in a dress poisoning the wine, the hidden assassin.
But none of them were her. The real her was the slightly uncomfortable girl who didn’t even know what she really wanted for herself.
Rin sighed. But it was a sigh of relief.
She realized that if she eventually wanted to be with Eliza, she would need to understand more about herself. And when she did, if she felt that she was romantically interested in Eliza… Then she might consider it.
But then, she turned her head around. She felt like she was being watched, for a moment.
Looking behind her, she spotted it.
For an instant, she saw them. Grey skin. Glowing blue antlers. But then, as if a mirage, the creatures disappeared the moment she spotted them.
‘Demons? Here?’ Rin internally was panicking.
‘Why would they be here? Why? What’s…’
And then she remembered something.
Eliza’s supernaturally bad luck with dating.
‘No… That’s… impossible. There’s literally no way… No way that demons are messing up Eliza’s love life… right?’
She steadied her breath.
‘No. It matches.’ She said, her mind shifting away from the date. She was no longer able to keep being happy as she was before.
Rather, her mind was shifting into fight or flight mode. For an assassin like her, however, it simply made her cold and calculating.
Eliza instantly noticed this.
She herself was feeling like this was a date with how Rin was reacting, but right at the end, Rin got extremely cold and unresponsive.
“Anything… wrong?” Eliza asked, confused.
Rin looked forward with a neutral expression on her face.
“No. Nothing is wrong. I’ll escort you back to the academy, Eliza.”
The two began walking, with Eliza feeling incredibly awkward. Had she misunderstood what was going on?
‘For a moment, I thought this was like a date or something…’ Eliza thought to herself.
But Rin, who was looking around, couldn’t notice any more demons observing them. None.
‘Either they’re no longer watching… or they’re hiding themselves better.’ Rin was thinking.
The walk back was incredibly awkward, with Rin feeling incredibly alert and Eliza trying to salvage the situation.
“So… Are you, uh, okay?” Eliza asked, feeling awkward.
But at the front door, Rin nodded.
“I’ll see you soon, Eliza.” she responded without answering the question.
Eliza sighed when she got back in her room at the academy.
“Rin’s cute, but… she’s not actually into women, is she? I mean… I’m plenty attractive, and I…”
Then, Eliza tried thinking on it.
“Would I be able to marry Rin if we started dating? Would we… be a good couple?”
She couldn’t answer. She didn’t know what the answer was.
Eliza liked Rin, but she just couldn’t simply imagine actually getting together and marrying her. It seemed as if it would never work in her mind, no matter what. What if Rin spoke that cold way in the future, when something went wrong?
She wasn't sure. She liked Rin and genuinely cared about her, but the way her attitude flipped like a switch... it freaked her out.
She felt as if there was some romantic interest more suited for her somewhere out there in the world.
A girl she could actually have a life with had to be out there somewhere.
But… another part of herself felt like she was just thinking this way to avoid being bitter about Rin seeming not interested in her.
In a way, Eliza was just as immature as her daughter, Lily, a 6 year old child.
