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Chapter 78 – Delving in
🕑 Added 2023-03-06 14:19:22 +0000 UTCMireille did end up having to be the one doing the convincing.
It had been a simple process of elimination really. Olivia was stuck doing proper [Doctor] work for the day, it would be risky to have Marie act too [Lady]-like right now, and Fayette… Well. That one didn’t need much additional explanation.
The hunters had all been called up in the morning to the square, where the man in charge, Cadeau, had given simple instructions: Most wouldn’t have to do anything today, merely stand ready in case anything went wrong, while others would accompany [Mages] further into the city for some sorts of preparations.
Fayette’s party was assigned to standby duty.
The more relaxed orders had a calming effect on most of the hunters, and only few were actively wearing their plague masks now. Even Fayette’s party only wore theirs strapped around the neck, so that they could be pulled back up at a moment’s notice.
So, as the others dispersed to rest for the day or to tend to their duties, it was only their party who remained on the square. Cadeau had began to walk off back to his quarters, but seeing them waiting for him, he paused, a questioning look on his face.
“You have something to ask?”
Fayette studied the man with her [Maidsense], feeling puzzled. His class itself felt normal enough, like most of the other [Mages] did, but there was an odd twist to it. She realized what it was when she saw that the man didn’t have a plague mask anywhere on him, only a cross of the faith at his neck. A cross which seemed to emanate a class of its own, like an ornament stapled onto the man’s proper class. What the heck is that?
Mireille didn’t notice what Fayette did, and only nodded at the man. “Sir—we were just wondering, aren’t you going to send out any of us inside the city, just to help the civilians trapped in their homes? With how some patients have been successfully healed, shouldn’t we be collecting civilians here?”
It was something they actually did want to do, and were curious about, so they had decided to use the pretence of saving civilians as a cover for investigating matters more on their own.
The toad-faced man grimaced, as if he had swallowed something foul. He sighed, crossing his arms. “I’ve had a word with the [Doctors] on matters, and it’s too soon to say whether the supposed cure is actually a long-term solution. A lot of the recoveries are a tad dubious, and proper oversight to make sure there are no errors will take weeks. I’m not wasting that time.”
Fayette felt a sting of anger, but reined it in, letting Mireille handle this one. Not that the [Seamstress] was feeling any less insulted by the words, of course—her brow was very furrowed.
“Still—” Mireille tried, “—wouldn’t it be alright to save at least some civilians? If you are against bringing more potential infected in, we can have a [Doctor] verify any we let in.”
“I fail to see the benefit of this,” Cadeau snapped. “[Grand Magus] Mondoug will purge the disease within two days. He has matters in hand much better than any of the [Doctors] here could. That is the end of it. The civilians have held on for this long, they can last a few more days.”
Is the [Grand Magus] really that good? Fayette had some doubts, but the man didn’t seem to want to budge at all.
Mireille shrank down, biting any scathing remarks on her tongue, but it was Marie who came to the rescue. The [Lady] stepped forward, a cunning twinkle in her eye. “Sir, with matters like this, it’s not only the practicalities that matter—one must also consider the optics. How will your role in this look if you let a superior handle everything? Rescuing some civilians, it would surely lead to…”
She didn’t say the last words, just motioning her arm at the man, and that let him fill the gap. “…reputation and initiative, I see.” He muttered. The [Mage] looked up at Marie, more careful now, curious. “You do have keen insight, hunter. Perhaps there is value in this…”
He went silent for a good two minutes, mumbling silently to himself, running a calculus only he knew. Finally, he snapped his fingers and his eyes focused back on Fayette’s party, or more specifically, Marie.
“I’ll allow it. I’ll arrange the matter on this side… Do well in this, and I may see you rewarded. Do you know the way to the city?”
Mireille answered him with a nod. “I believe the party Mousetrap were in charge of monitoring that underground passage? We’ve talked with them.”
The [Mage] gave a curt, almost military nod. “Excellent. Do this operation of mine today—the sooner the better.” With that, he began to walk off, but Fayette still caught his mutterings on her [Eavesdrop]. “…will have to arrange the [Scribes], and get the proper news out for this…”
“What a guy,” Fayette simply said, once he was far enough away. She shook her head, then gave Marie a disbelieving look. “Was he really that easy to manipulate? You didn’t use some secret [Lady] skill, did you?”
Marie sighed. “I had hoped to stay a bit more discrete, but men like him… you just have to consider his perspective. It’s pretty evident from how he’s acting—this is the first time he’s really been granted authority, but it’s not truly his. Any method to fortify that grasp…”
“—and he’ll take it, even if it’s offered in such a blatant way,” Fayette finished.
The [Lady] smiled, “Exactly. That is the first time I’ve managed to be so convincing actually!”
She looks cute when she’s being all proud, Fayette thought. Then she looked to the side and saw Mireille’s pout. Somehow, Marie’s cute looks a lot more adult than Mireille’s cute…
The [Seamstress] finally snapped. “You really made me start that conversation when I specifically asked not to, then solved the thing in the end anyway!” Mireille grumbled.
Marie gave an apologetic bow. “Sorry, I had hoped he would bend easier.”
“Enough bickering,” Fayette said. She reached into her apron, taking a broom into hand. “We’ve got work to do.”
—
As the whole point in securing the shipyard and fortifying its wall was to make a safe haven from the plague, naturally entrance into the city proper beyond wouldn’t just be done by simply opening the big gate—too many risks of mishaps that way. Luckily, the people who had first built the shipyard had shown foresight, and arranged for a hidden tunnel under the wall.
It was inside the small shack housing the entryway there that Fayette, Marie and Mireille encountered two of the three Mousetrap members again, ostensibly keeping a close guard. In reality, the party were busy playing cards, with one of the [Doctors] as the third player.
“Oh, didn’t know more folks would be heading through this morning!” Edmond boomed, slamming his cards down onto the table.
“Hey, I was just about to win this round!” Louis complained, but he nodded at the girl’s too. “Good to see ya. The [Doctor’s] not with you today?”
“She’s a bit busy with the whole try to cure the plague thing, understandably,” Mireille said, rolling her eyes.
“Is she really managing that? I thought it was an exaggeration.” The [Doctor] at the table said, laying down his cards. He was a man probably above thirty, judging by the lines on his face, but he didn’t feel that high level to Fayette.
“If you doubt her abilities, go see for yourself,” She snapped, giving him her signature glare. Maybe I can make that into a skill.
“Hey! I’m doing an important job here! I’ve got to check everyone who comes through for signs of disease.” He answered, frowning. His eyes focused for a moment, and Fayette felt some sort of pulse go through her. “You three are clear at least.”
“Of course we’re clear, we’re going from the inside to the outside,” Mireille said, rubbing her forehead. “Just… We need to pass through to the city. Can you let us through?”
“Give me a moment,” Edmond said, then got up from the table. The broad-shouldered hunter walked to the room’s back and rolled a thick carpet to the side, showing the trap door that had been underneath. He unlocked the bolt on it, revealing a ladder leading down. “Do you need a light for navigation? The tunnel is dark.”
Fayette looked at Mireille questioningly, but the [Seamstress] shook her head. “These two have decent vision skills, we’ll manage.”
“Good luck then you three, make sure you don’t get infected. Say hi to Mark for us, he’s watching the other end.”
So that’s the third one’s name…
“Will do,” Fayette said, pulling her plague mask up to cover her face, then climbed down first. It was dark and damp, but with her [Maidsense] she got a general measure of the layout and moved a few steps forward. Mireille followed soon after, with Marie coming in last.
Fayette’s right hand was busy balancing her broom and bucket, so she held her left hand back, letting Mireille grab onto it for guidance, then started leading the way. They walked in silence, the tunnel sloping upward steadily. It had been a good few weeks since Fayette had last been in almost complete darkness down in the mines, but she found her steps surprisingly steady. Is this one of those skills you never forget, a result of the skill upgrade, or have I just gotten better?
Whatever the case, it pleased her to feel stronger than before. If a giant spider were to jump at me right now, I bet I could sense it coming easily. Wait, is that a jinx?
“Fayette, why have you stopped?” Mireille asked.
“I’m waiting to see if a giant spider attacks me,” she answered.
“Giants spiders!” Mireille and Marie both shouted, jolting back from Fayette.
“Relax! They’re not actually here. It was just a hypothetical.”
After a moment of silence, Mireille found Fayette’s outstretched left hand again, taking it back into her grip. But she gave it a bit of a squeeze, nails biting in. “Don’t joke around with giant spiders!” She hissed.
“Seriously,” Marie said, voice shaking a bit. “I’ve had enough of those for a lifetime… except Char of course, if she grows that big.”
Fayette shook her head and continued walking forward. No sense of humor…
Soon she sensed the tunnel coming to an end and gave the door at its end a curt knock. It opened, revealing a lanky man, pointing a crossbow their way.
Fayette smiled at the crossbow. “Hi, Edmond told us to say hello for his sake too.”
The man didn’t say a word, just looked them over quickly, then pointed a finger down, deactivating some trap skills that Fayette hadn’t even realized were there. He stood to the side, seeming to fade against the wall through some camouflage skill, then waved them forward.
Pull the silent guy act then. Fayette shook her head and walked through, finding herself in a dimly lit storage warehouse of sorts, though it seemed to be empty of any inventory. Her nose twitched at the smell of stale rat droppings and her brow creased as her [Maidsense] felt the dust all over, and she began to reach into her apron—
Then Mireille squeezed her hand again—hard. “Fay, rein yourself in. We’re not taking a cleaning break here.”
“Just a little one?” Fayette tried, looking back, but Mireille’s face, mouth and nose hidden by the mask, was iron.
Marie just seemed amused. “You dusted our rooms just a few hours ago. That not enough?”
Are they still mad about the spider thing? “Fine, have it your way,” Fayette said, snapping her hand out of Mireille’s grip. Looking at the wall, she saw that the door to the tunnel had already closed, and the man guarding it had faded away somewhere. Even with her [Maidsense], she couldn’t feel him at all. Huh—might need more ranks in that one if it’s that easy to evade.
“Let’s move out.”
First, the three quietly walked to the broken windows at one edge of the warehouse, then peeked outside, careful to not raise their heads up too high. What they saw was a thick forest of brick buildings, once painted in brilliant and pristine colors, but now in a slight state of decay. Windows were either broken or boarded shut, and Fayette got a dim sense of lifeforms all over.
There were corpses on the ground, but some were still twitching as if they might spring to motion at any moment. But mostly—things seemed oddly calm. Especially if the place was supposed to be as infested with monsters as the shipyard had been.
“Where are all the monsters? I don’t see as many as I should,” Fayette asked quietly, scanning the street. The few standing figures she did see stuck to the shadowy alleys, moving in hunched postures.
“We’re still near to the shipyard’s wall. The hunters were saying a lot of them have been attracted there in a big pack by all the racket,” Mireille said. “Will probably be a lot thicker on the streets as we get closer to the factory area.”
Fayette nodded, and thought she spied a bit of movement through the boards in one house. A curtain being closed, or perhaps opened, it was hard to see at this distance. People were out there—even if they were not all quite alive as they should be. She ran her eyes across the view, running a quick count at the windows. Guess the boarded-up places still have people hiding away inside, while the broken-up places not-so-much… How fast did it all happen here?
“If the sound and activity by the shipyard have attracted their attention, won’t us fighting through the streets do the same?” Fayette asked, backing away from the window. “We’ll get bogged down completely if they start coming through in numbers.”
“How are the other parties managing?” Marie asked. “It’s not like we’re the only ones out here.”
“Probably some specialized stealth abilities, or artifacts and help from the [Mages],” Mireille said, pacing in a circle. “Not something we can count on. With the situation like this…”
“We could try the roofs?” Fayette offered, shrugging her shoulders. She pointed out the window, indicating the closely built housing. “With our skills, I don’t think making our way up top would be that difficult. If anything—the monsters seem to dislike sunlight, so I doubt we’ll run into many up there.”
Mireille was nodding, hand on her chin. “That could work… Marie—does your magic work on roof tiles?”
“I… think so? But making bridges or something of the sort might make a bit too much noise.”
“I don’t suppose [Control Conversation] could silence something like that?” Fayette asked.
The [Lady] shook her head. “Not without one more upgrade to the skill at least. But I don’t think it matters—the alleys don’t seem that wide. I can jump over.”
Fayette couldn’t quite resist the temptation and decided to tease her just a bit. “You’ve kept up to my exercise regimen then? Just a few days ago you were getting left behind on the march…”
“That was different!” The [Lady] huffed, crossing her arms. “I can handle a few rooftops.”
Her pouting is quite endearing… I wonder if [Ladies] can get a skill for that? Fayette nodded, then walked closer, patting her on the shoulder. “I’ll make sure to catch you if there’s any trouble.”
“… sure. Thanks.” Marie replied, voice oddly wooden.
Fayette gave her an odd look. Is she actually nervous about this? Well, if she wants to put on a brave front, I guess I shouldn’t break it. “Let’s get onto the roof.”
Conveniently, the warehouse had a ladder leading right up to the rooftop, so soon the party was up top, basking in the plentiful autumn sunlight. Fayette shielded her eyes from the light with her left hand, balancing her broom and bucket in the right. Getting them up the ladder had been a pain. “The factory place is… that way, right?”
Mireille looked at the tall chimneys Fayette was pointing at and sighed. “What do you think, Fay? Of course it’s the damned—”
“Wait, I hear something—” Fayette suddenly said, holding up a hand. Her [Eavesdrop], cast wide from the rooftop had caught something, and now her eyes circled like hawks, trying to pinpoint the location.
Somewhere over there I think—that sound has to be…
“What is it, Fayette?” Marie asked, concerned at how serious the [Maid] looked.
“Need to move, hold this,” Fayette answered, handing her bucket of slime to a startled Mireille. Then she was running—fast. Her [Eavesdrop] sharpened as she accelerated, confirming her impression of the location. Moving just over there…
She jumped off the warehouse’s roof, landed on the next building over, then kept moving, pumping her hands. Holding the broom slowed her a bit, but based on what she heard, she couldn’t afford to put it away either. She heard footsteps, many footsteps—all running.
Many stomped hard, rushing through alleyways in a clatter of broken bottles and boxes. But the ones leading were soft and light—a child’s steps. Fayette ran faster. Two buildings forward, over there…
Fayette jumped to the next rooftop, a less wide building, then kept her momentum, hopping right over to the next, not slowing one bit. She heard the sounds without the skill now—a chase. But it wasn’t just from one direction, she heard one set of footsteps approaching from the opposite end of the alley too. About to be cornered.
The [Maid] rushed to the edge of the roof, and finally spotted her quarry, hurrying down an alleyway. A child, dressed in a grimy black outfit was rushing down the alley in a mad dash, clutching two loaves of bread in his arms. Two ghouls and two zombies were chasing him, almost nipping at his heels.
And one more ghoul was circling from the side for an ambush.
The boy rounded the building’s corner, saw the ghoul waiting in ambush right after, and tried to skid to a stop—too slow to stop his own momentum. The loaves of bread fell from his hands to the ground as he stumbled down, scraping his arms on the ground. The ghoul in front jumped at him.
And a [Maid] fell down onto the ghoul.
Fayette brought her broom down with her fall in a devastating plunging attack and crushed the ghoul's face right in, and the monster burst into blood.
The young boy watched with wide eyes as Fayette then activated her magic, and the cascade of blood seemed to miraculously circle right around them. In a panic, he began to stand up, remembering the chase right at his heels. “Miss, there’s—”
“I know,“ Fayette said, already moving over the boy’s prone form. She stepped over him, right as the monsters came around the corner, and threw a set of forks at the group. Her aim made hit eyes and wrists, slowing the zombie-types, but the ghouls shrugged the blows off as if they were nothing.
I really need an upgrade for that, Fayette thought, but her body was already moving. Another step forward, and her broom smashed into the first ghoul barrelling at her, resulting in another burst of blood.
Again, she used her magic to dodge the liquid, and readied herself for the next ones—
Then saw they were not coming.
The ghoul was backing away, and the zombies were opening their mouths, inhaling air. Her eyes widened. They’re going to call for backup!
She summoned spice to her hand to make the roars quiet but saw it wouldn’t be fast enough. No time for—
A slime fell onto the ghoul backing away, and two bricks fell onto the two zombies, and all three monsters crumpled down from the impacts.
Fayette looked up, and saw her friends, panting from exhaustion, but having caught up. Marie was readying another brick with her magic, and Mireille was putting away the bucket, switching to needles. Just in time.
Giving them a quick nod, Fayette moved forward to give the downed monsters finishing blows to the head, and soon all that remained in the alleyway were five wide splotches of blood which covered it all in a slimy layer—every bit except the spot where Fayette was standing, and where the child was lying prone.
[Excellent job cleaning up after your ward!]
[Progress towards next level: 35%]
Wait, that was a lot! I guess that counts as a new thing, and somewhat... dangerous?
The boy’s eyes were wide, and he was staring at Fayette as if she was an angel straight out of heaven. Fayette quickly made sure she didn’t have any blood on her outfit, then moved to the boy, giving him a hand. “Hey, are you alright?”
The kid caught himself staring, blinked his eyes twice, then finally grabbed onto the hand and let Fayette pull him up—right into a hug. Fayette froze as the boy buried his face into her apron, holding onto her with both hands. She couldn’t quite make out what he was mumbling.
Slowly, very slowly, she unfroze, and feeling very awkward, gave the kid a pat on the head. “There there, it’s fine—the [Maid] is here to save you.”
“Are you fine down there?” Marie asked, right in Fayette’s ear, and the [Maid] almost jumped—until she remembered the [Lady] had a skill for moving her voice where she wanted. Frowning, the [Maid] kept patting the boy’s head and looked up at the roof. She shrugged, not knowing what to say.
“We’ll be down in a bit,” Mireille said, having procured a thick rope from somewhere. She began to affix it to the roof tiles.
Fayette sighed, and looked down, noticing that the boy seemed to have quieted. “Hey, kid. Can you be brave and tell me what’s happened?”
Slowly, the boy unwrapped his arms from around her and took a step back. Surprisingly, his eyes didn’t have any tears in them, and Fayette noted with shock and quite a bit of appreciation that he hadn’t gotten her apron dirty. No—his eyes were shining as if he was looking at a hero.
“Boy, can you talk?”
He nodded silently, then caught himself, froze, and managed to stammer out a reply. “Um—yes, miss. I can talk. I’m no kid.”
Fayette squinted at that, as he was rather short, coming up well below her neck, and noted that his clothes seemed to be a uniform she was rather familiar with—if one that was a bit grimy from a chase down some streets. That would make him… 12 years old or so?
“Are you from an orphanage?”
The boy nodded, once again froze, then began talking in a sudden rush of words. “Yes, orphanage yes. We were all hidden in there, windows and doors boarded right shut until this all would get better, but the food was running out, even if the caretakers didn’t say, because I saw how they gave their portions to us, so I snuck out, and then—”
“Wait wait wait,” Fayette said, motioning him to quiet with her hand. “I get the picture now. You snuck out to find some food for everyone, then ended up being found by the nasty bad monsters?”
He froze again, seemingly realizing that he had rambled a bit, then sheepishly nodded. “…yes. That’s pretty much it.”
Fayette looked behind her and saw that Marie and Mireille had finally gotten down from the roof. Well, I guess this might be as fine a starting point as any. “Hey, you two. I think I found our first spot of investigation.”
She turned back to the boy, then tapped her [Apron of Holding]—very full of food as it always was. “Do you remember the way back? What am I asking, of course, you do. Let’s go get some food to your friends.”
Just in case, she used a [Disarming Smile] on the kid.
Feeding an orphanage under zombie siege? Fayette could just about smell the levels.
Why is he making such an odd face? Am I not reassuring?
A/N These in between scene transition chapters are always difficult. Tea parties are much easier. I should just write a bunch of tea parties.
