3: Broken Sword

As the swords clashed against one another, many in the audience began dispersing. Were fights common enough that people had grown disinterested in seeing a life and death matter right in front of them?

Or were the lives of the common folk so busy that watching a fight such as this would put them in danger of their work not being completed in time?

Eliza ignored it. Her thoughts were less on the people around her… and more how she could use this situation to her own benefit. Should she pickpocket the people who are distracted by the fight? Loot the corpse of the loser?

But then she realized… At minimum, Eliza wanted Lily to be a girl who could be proud of her mother. Would doing these duplicitous actions actually make Lily proud of her when she grew up? Not likely.

But even though she decided against her original actions, Eliza continued to watch the fight. It was more than likely that one day she would need to protect herself in this world, so watching the fight might give her inspiration for techniques to follow if she ever ends up wielding a sword on her own.

And… there was truthfully something about it that was completely enthralling to her.

“Glorick! How could you try to kill me over something such as this?!” Blake, the man being attacked shouted. He blocked once more with his sword, but at that moment, Glorick gave an eerie grin and…

Crack!

A small chunk was torn off of the edge of the sword in the midst of the duel. That was enough of a distraction for Glorick to press further in and get the direct advantage from his distracted opponent. Glorick’s undamaged sword was thrust directly into Blake’s chest, then removed just as quickly as it was inserted. As it did, those crowding around the area got squeamish from the blood leaking from Blake, whose eyes were slowly dimming.

Eliza was stunned, seeing blood for the first time… Yet unlike the townsfolk, many of whom were looking away, Eliza felt her heart race. She knew she had better things to worry about, such as her daughter, or securing a food supply…

But the stab that Glorick used was practiced. Swift. It was clearly a movement made by someone who had used a sword for a long time. Eliza looked at the sword, still stabbed into the chest of the man.

Looking at the equipment of the two, Blake had old, used equipment, but Glorick had clean, new equipment. His sword was now slightly damaged, showing wear that it didn’t have before. The first time this new sword was used, it was for murder.

Eliza thought about it for a moment. How much would a sword cost? Probably quite a bit. And yet, right before they ‘happened’ to have something to fight over, Glorick bought a new sword? He was planning to kill Blake even before this… Or at least, Eliza assumed so.

“Hear me, townsfolk!” The adventurer shouted. “I am Glorick, hired by the lord of this region to keep you all safe! My companion here, Blake, was a traitor to our cause! So long as you remain faithful to our lord, you have my protection!” he shouted.

Eliza almost laughed.

This was essentially a public execution. She had guessed it was probably a message sent out to a specific person. Like ‘Don’t cross me, or you die.’

Remain faithful to the lord?

What kind of lord would use people who worked for them as a sacrifice? A lord who throws his own men away will inevitably be surrounded by men who will eventually throw him away in return.

But looking at the corpse on the ground… Eliza was curious. What would she have done in Blake’s shoes? She would have been distracted by the sword breaking too, that’s for certain, but… Would she have died so simply? Strangely, she felt like the answer was no. She imagined that in such a situation, she would have backed up instinctively. But then, she would likely have to rely on cheap tricks, such as kicking dirt into the enemy’s eye, or throwing her sword directly at Glorick to wound him and then running like a coward.

Anything was better than death, after all.

Even ‘dishonor’. Dishonor was just a term created to shackle people, she felt.

After a moment, Eliza looked away, slightly ashamed.

‘I just saw someone die, and instead of dealing with that, or my new body… I waste time thinking about how I personally would have tried to counter that attack? Why am I acting like this?’

But… seeing that the crowd had dispersed, and other than a few valuables plucked off of Blake’s corpse… nobody had touched it yet.

The sword was still there. The one that had been cleaved apart near the top of its edge.

But other than that, several scratches, and a few chipped parts of the blade… it was still perfectly usable.

“I’m just… taking a sharp object out of the street, so children can’t accidentally get hurt, right?” Eliza said, attempting to convince herself. “Any modern person who got the chance to see a sword would want one… yeah?” she said, aloud, despite the fact that people could potentially hear her.

Quickly, she removed the sword and sheath from the corpse, taking something that wasn’t hers at all. She felt guilty. There was no downplaying it, she felt that what she was doing was wrong, taking the belongings of an innocent man who was unjustly murdered in the middle of the street.

And then… she realized that nobody even cared about the random corpse in the street. It seemed like dying really was an everyday occurrence in wherever she lived. Should she… give him a burial? It seemed like the minimum she could do, especially since his death is improving her own quality of life…

Silently, Eliza tried to pick up the corpse to carry it, only to find out she wasn’t able to do so. She could see others staring at her… But Eliza felt like she had to do this.

She had already started acting differently than her former self. She was aware of this. In some way, she felt like if she gave up and stopped here, she would truly be a different person than the one she used to be.

She didn’t know how to give him the bare minimum of respect, of not letting the strangers who witnessed his last moment see him as a corpse… So she did yet another disrespect to the poor man. She dragged him across the ground, to a ditch behind her house, just near the forest.

“I’m sorry, Blake.” Eliza said, feeling a strange feeling arise in her chest.

It was a combination of guilt that she didn’t understand, fear for her and her child, and uncertainty that finally came after watching someone die.

She didn’t experience shock like she had thought a normal person would… Rather, it gave her drive. A drive to ensure that no one can do to her what Glorick did to Blake.

‘System… How strong was Blake? He was an adventurer, yet he still died,’ she asked the system on her way back to her house.

[Blake, the adventurer, had a physique of 634 and a body of 31. For an adventurer, he was weaker than average, but he was approximately 22% stronger than a commoner such as yourself.]

Eliza paused.

‘What is the difference between physique and body…?’ she asked, seeing her house in the distance.

[Physique is the current state of the body, akin to its current state. Training muscles, stamina, and more can improve the quality of one’s physique. Body is the state of the body, such as health and your natural state. Physique can be improved by simple exercise, but body can only be improved through either rare elixirs or healthy eating practices combined with exercise over long periods of time. One silver flint has been deducted for a question pertaining to Lily’s growth.]

Eliza stopped at the last words.

“That’s… a lot of money to deduct for just a simple question.” She said, entering the house.

When she did, she noticed Lily, bright and awake, playing with a small doll.

“Mommy, you’re back!” Lily said, smiling.

Those three words made Eliza feel warm inside hearing, but she had to stop smiling.

“Lily, mom has some food for you, okay? I have a roll, and we can dip it in some water to make it softer for you to eat. After that, mom is going to go get some more food, okay?”

At those words, Lily frowned.

“Okay, mommy…” She said, looking down at the doll in her hands. It was nothing more than a small, wooden carved doll, but Eliza could tell it was meant to be a representation of herself. She wondered if perhaps her previous self had given it to Lily as a way for the two to ‘not be apart,’ but she didn’t know.

Right now, she really wanted to be there and spend time with her daughter, but…

They had nothing to eat. She may have had those two rolls, but how long could two rolls feed the two of them? 

“I’ll be back soon, okay?” Eliza said. “I want to find some wild plants that we can eat. I’ll… even try to hunt some animals, so we can get some food, okay?”

And then, looking at her daughter, who still seemed sad, Eliza realized that she was hesitating. Everyone already left her daughter alone… so the only one her daughter really could be friends with was Eliza…

She sighed, realizing that sooner or later, for Lily’s mental health, she needed to move out of this city eventually.

“I don’t want to leave you just yet, okay Lily? How about… I… tell you something? Like a story?”

At that, Lily’s face returned to a bright smile.

“Story! Tell me a story, mommy!” Lily said, her face beaming.

Eliza felt her heart warm from looking at her daughter being energetic like this. Lily always seemed to be smarter for her age than expected, so maybe if she handled this well and taught her daughter well, she could be the smartest person in the world?

“Alright, Lily… Let me tell you about the tortoise and the hare…”

While Eliza was telling the story, she added several embellishments about the story, not having remembered the activities that the hare had done in the original story, she instead made up a tale about how the hare had taken a trip to the nearby beach to take a nap, had gone and made a food delivery, and had his dinner all before returning back to the race.

And then after Lily asked what a beach was and Eliza explained, Eliza finally got Lily to safely eat some bread. By now, Eliza realized that she might need to try finding more activities for Lily to do on her own, since a single doll probably isn’t enough for a child. And right now, Lily probably shouldn’t go on her own outside.

She felt guilty, but… leaving Lily in the house to play with the doll and think about the story she told her is most likely all Eliza can do, right now.

After a bit of traveling, where Eliza had already gotten used to the unusual stares delivered her way, Eliza was at the edge of the forest. She looked at the trees, growing more and more plentiful in front of her as she continued forward.

“It’s kind of frustrating, how everything in this world just goes unnamed. First I live in an unnamed village, and now I’m going in the middle of an unnamed forest to hunt for herbs… It sucks.” Eliza complained. 

But soon she realized that she didn’t actually know anything about what she should be gathering here, having not been a native of this world and having none of the common sense that would be expected of her. Let alone a name of her village, she didn't even know the name of what she would seek.

‘System… tell me what types of plants I can gather around here would be good food to feed Lily, please. I don’t care if it costs me anything, either.’ She pleaded. Thankfully, the system responded to her as she asked.

[There are three plants within the nearby forest that are perfectly suited for Lily’s current dietary restrictions. The stems of the Roam flower, the red berry that grows from vines on particularly tall trees, and the stems of the Yelse flower are all well suited for growing children. If crushed up together, these would be a perfect complement to the bread that Lily just had today.]

Eliza looked at the message, confused as to why it didn’t cost her a silver flint for that, but she wasn’t going to be upset at a blessing such as that.

After yet another question, where she asked how to actually identify those plants when found, Eliza began wandering through the forest in earnest, occasionally making marks on trees to ensure that she does not lose her path.

After a bit, she had found several stems of the two flowers, but no red berries. That was until she came across a large clearing with only a single tree in it…

But the clearing was already occupied.

A small, pale green sickly humanoid was resting in the clearing. It stood at no more than 3 and a half feet tall. It was covered in large, oily bumps on its body, and its stature was clearly weak and haggard.

Eliza instinctively pulled out her sword from its sheath with an unusual ease and held it at the ready.

‘Is that… a goblin?’ Eliza asked aloud.

The creature in front of her met all the criteria for fantasy goblins, but… it was just too damn disgusting. She was lucky that she was far away and couldn’t make out as many details, but… 

[The creature ahead is a goblin, a hostile creature that barely counts as sentient. Widely considered a pest due to their adaptability to survive in nearly any environment, they are often considered the weakest monster. A target such as this would be good for sword training against for novice swordsmen. Consider using one as a training dummy for Lily in the future.]

Eliza thought for a moment. If Lily will be able to take it on when Eliza is still here, that means she wouldn’t be an adult yet. So if a child Lily can kill a goblin, so long as she has a sword… Eliza has a good chance.

Slowly, she crept up to the goblin, which was distracted from pulling red dots off of a large tree and sticking them into its mouth…

And swung her sword at its head.

The head of the pale green creature fell to the side, and Eliza breathed a sigh of relief.

“I… didn’t expect it to be so weak. It felt like that thing had bones made of balsa wood…” she said, looking down at the corpse in front of her. And then, right in front of her, she realized something. The ‘red dots’ on the tree were actually a fruit she was searching for for her daughter.

And with this, she had Lily’s breakfast tomorrow settled. Vegetable pulp when she gets back, and red vine berries in the morning… She only needed food for herself, now. 

With the head of the goblin severed, Eliza felt a bit sick at what her mind turned to, but… Internally, she knew that she didn’t realistically have enough food for both herself and Lily yet.

So her mind turned to something that was right in front of her.

“System… are goblins edible?”