Chapter 5: The guard
After a moment to catch her breath and think about what she just experienced, Eliza decided to simply ask.
“Exactly… who are you two?” She asked bluntly. The drunkard in front of her, and his young trainee swordsman… Each of them seemed to be special, in their own way.
The drunkard smiled.
“I’m Sorin. If you didn’t live in the middle of a backwater town that took us weeks of travel to reach, you’d have heard of me, I’d bet.”
Eliza didn’t know how to respond to that.
“Alright, mister Sorin, I-” She began, but was cut off by the novice swordsman from earlier.
“You should call him sir Sorin!” he said, seemingly quite angry by her words.
But then, Sorin smacked the young swordsman on the back of his head, frowning.
“Theodore, this lady here is my equal in strength. By your own logic, you should be referring to her as lady, not…” Sorin scratched his chin for a moment. “I don’t think I actually know your name, now that I’m thinking about it, miss.”
“... I’m Eliza.” She said, looking at Sorin. The contrast between the serious man who had cut down the orc earlier and the man in front of her… it was as if Sorin had two personalities in one body.
And then, it hit her. Sorin and Theodore came from outside of the town, yet knew their way here.
“Ah, if you don’t mind me asking,” she interjected. “Do you two have a map, with some other city or something on it? I’m planning to find a new place to live soon.”
Sorin heartily laughed.
“Well, lucky for you, having all sorts of maps is something of Theodore’s specialty. Can’t quite give you any of em, but you’re free to copy them, if you’ve anything to write on.”
Eliza smiled joyfully.
“That’s great! I…” Eliza looked down.
She remembered how much she actually truly owned… Could she perhaps mark it down on one of the boards of wood she taught Lily English on?
‘System, is there any map copying function? Could you maybe bring up a map of the area now that I’ve seen this map?’ Eliza asked, hoping for a miracle.
[Negative. No functions like that exist.]
‘... Damn you.’ Eliza sighed. She knew that the system was nothing but a net positive to her, yet… couldn’t it be a bit more helpful, sometimes?
“I guess I need to find something to copy it down with, later. I didn’t bring anything with me like that.”
Sorin smiled, once again.
“That’s no problem. We’ll be in your town for a week or so, checkin the place out for any issues. We’ll be restin up in some kind of inn, in the center of town. Heard your town is a small one, so it’s got no name, just ‘inn’, but you can probly find it, eh?”
She sighed. Asking for directions would be hard with the way the townsfolk treat her, so she’d have to walk around the town on her own.
As she thought, though, her gaze was brought back to the sword in Sorin’s hands and how he had unleashed his aura from it moments ago. Even though she had a plan for the future, to potentially raise her daughter well, she still couldn’t help but think about that aura.
“Before I leave… could you mind explaining to me… How it is, you push your ‘inner world’ out and use aura?”
Sorin looked at her and laughed.
“If explaining it could have you learn it, there’d be countless swordsmasters out there, not just so few. It’s different for each and every person. Just… think about what’s important to you. Remember that the things important to ya are also a part of the world, Eliza.”
Sorin and Theodore went on their way, out of the camp… But not before Theodore accidentally tripped over a tripwire Eliza had set up to protect herself against monsters.
Eliza was still there, in the camp, thinking about how right now… she already knew what her inner world likely represented. Lily had quickly become her most important thing, the only thing attaching her to this world… Eliza believed that Lily was likely the only thing she had inside of that world.
She decided to head back and check out where the inn was, then go back to Lily. Tonight was a good night, with a haunch of orc waiting for Eliza to eat. She tied up a piece of the corpse to the tree with some vines to drain the blood, and then made her way back to the small unnamed village.
She looked through the market street and considered starting a fight with the merchants who refused her trade, but she decided against it. As she walked, she happened upon a familiar face. The old lady who had helped her so much.
“Oh! It’s you, miss!” Eliza said, a smile on her face.
“Oh?” The old lady asked. Eliza could see a hint of surprise on her face, as if she hadn’t planned this encounter.
Eliza smiled.
“Thank you for all your help, miss.” She said, looking at the lady in front of her. Out of all the townsfolk here, she was the only one Eliza truly had any level of care for in her heart.
The old lady smiled.
“Now, now. Just stay living, alright? That’s what’s important, okay?”
Eliza nodded, thankful for the woman's existence.
“I’m glad to tell you this, miss. I can finally leave this place… I wanted to thank you for all your help before I left.” She said to the old lady in front of her.
But as she did… instantly, all eyes on the road turned to her. Every single person on the scene felt chills and a panic arise within their hearts. Many in the crowd didn’t just disperse… They ran. Even the old lady in front of Eliza seemed shellshocked at what Eliza just said.
“I-I… I need to be excused, Eliza dear.” The old lady said, leaving without vanishing like the previous few times.
Eliza was confused.
‘What’s going on? Why is everyone acting so strange… And did I ever tell that old lady my name?’
She ignored her thoughts, instead continuing to explore the town, hoping to find the aforementioned inn that Sorin had mentioned to her.
It took quite some time, but she did eventually find it. The only inn in the village was the largest building she saw,
When she did, she noticed that the street was… oddly empty.
The people on the road were few and far between, as if they were avoiding something... Or running from it?
She wondered exactly what they were doing, so she decided to secretly observe a few of them, just to find out.
However, she noticed townsfolk all heading in one direction… in a way, the movement reminded her of the duel between Blake and Glorick.
‘Why are they all heading that way? Is there something going on…?’ she thought to herself.
Internally, she wanted to continue, find Sorin and Theodore.
But her instincts told her… she needed to go towards the crowd. She couldn’t tell why, but it was like something deep inside her told her that if she didn’t go now, she would regret it forever.
So she ran.
And far away, at her goal, several armored soldiers were all marching towards one direction.
A large patchy area, with no dirt.
An old house that everyone in the village knew well. All of the nearby townsfolk knew what was happening.
They had never seen the guards do anything but protect the interest of the lord of the region.
Other than that, the only ‘official duties’ anyone had seen from them were drinking and occasionally repelling goblins from the forest, as rare as that was. Many of them truthfully did not even know this town had guards, even though they had lived here for quite the time.
But each villager saw them approaching the nearly vacant lot with the same small house…
The house of the young woman they were forced to shun.
Within moments, the negligent guards had arrived at Eliza’s house, before she had even had a chance to get close.
But instead of Eliza, the woman they were sent for, all that was in the house was her sleeping daughter, Lily, still wrapped up in covers. She was initially sound asleep, but the moment they entered, Lily woke up, confused at what was going on.
Lily looked around, scared at the strange people entering her house. She tried to scream, to call for help, but one of them yelled at the girl.
“Quiet! Where is she?!” he shouted.
The soldiers didn’t care about Lily. They were under the direct order of the lord to bring back Eliza, whether they had to get through her daughter to reach her or not, they simply didn’t care. But… the soldiers weren’t idiots. They grabbed Lily, who was likely important to Eliza. If they held her and threatened her, they could potentially force Eliza to comply, even if she wouldn't normally.
“Where’s mommy?!” Lily shrieked. She thrashed in the arms of the soldier, but it was pointless. No four year old child, even if they were a destined swordsmaster, could escape the arms of a trained soldier.
The soldiers recognized that Eliza hadn’t told her daughter, so they instead were preparing to send some out to go find her, while the others held her daughter hostage.
But right at that shriek, the soldier saw someone approaching.
A woman with bright white hair, blue eyes that seemed to almost flicker gold, holding a broken blade.
She quietly approached, all of the passerbies unconsciously stepped away without knowing why. The cold chill that bit their bodies made them stare towards the woman who was approaching.
And then they saw her. The woman of the hour, Eliza, approached the guards, seeing her daughter held in the hands of a foolish guard.
Eliza felt a cold chill. She approached, cautiously, trying to get close without them spotting her. But of course…
The killing intent she was emanating made the guards acutely aware of her presence. For a swordsman who had mastered intent… The intent to kill alone could make those who were mentally weak freeze.
“Put down your sword!” The man holding Lily shrieked, reaching his hand down towards Lily as she tried to escape his arms.
Eliza couldn’t hear him. She saw her daughter being held by a man who was reaching his hand towards her. With the way he was moving… He intended to hurt Lily.
All she felt was a sense of urgency. A demand to take action right that instant. If the guard in front of her moved just a slight bit more, Lily would get hurt… And any injury on a four year old child is one to be taken seriously, especially in a world with no hospitals, or modern medicine.
She was completely and utterly enraged. Had Eliza checked her status screen right now, she would see something quite unique. Previously, her emotion stat was 795 when she had first acclimated to Tiola. However, seeing that soldier reach forward to harm her daughter… Whether she knew it or not, that number had skyrocketed.
It was as if numbers could not describe the rage she felt. The audacity of that man to harm the child she loved and cared for…
A small, miniscule strand of rationality, of the man she used to be, the life she had on earth… It all snapped.
Eliza pulled her sword out, feeling an icy chill. And swung.
Despite the distance.
Despite the fact her daughter was mere seconds from being struck.
And despite her worries or trepidations about killing someone, they all went away in the end. Because she only had one thing in her mind.
Cut that man down before he can harm Lily.
As her sword fell down in a practiced manner, ice erupted from the blade. Where there once was a scrap heap of a sword, now there was a frozen longsword with the chips missing from the blade being filled in with ice. Her will and desires had manifested a physical phenomena, exerted through her blade. The mark of an expert swordsman.
And then… A shadow passed from where her blade moved.
Even though she was a good distance from the soldiers, each one of them felt a cold feeling in their chests… And then fell down to the ground, their chests cut open.
It made no sense.
There was no way for a single sword slash to cut open the chests of seven soldiers, a far distance away from her, yet it did anyways. She had overwhelmed the world with her willpower, even if it was for a short moment.
And with that done, Eliza lunged forward, grabbing her daughter right before she could fall to the ground. The remaining guards, who were not yet slain by Eliza’s slash, either scrambled, or stayed in place, frozen from fear. But… all of them returned. They still had something they had to do.
As Lily was recovered by Eliza, the girl kept staring at the place where the sword had passed.
A grey shadow.
A silhouette of the movement of the sword she had just seen. The path the sword took.
And within her, a spark was ignited. A desire that would grow, and grow, and grow.
Someone in the crowd took notice of that desire. An old man with greying hair, who seemed as if he was about to step forward.
“Hah! Like mother, like daughter!” he laughed heartily, moving towards the situation. Whether the guards cared or not, Sorin was coming to resolve this situation.
Though he knew the guards wouldn’t quite care for the way he did so.
