A New Star Chapter 77 (Patreon)

Xera

I examined the armor laid out on the table at the side of the smithy. It wasn’t anything fancy, both in that it didn’t have any ornamentation, something I was glad about, and that it wasn’t all that incredibly of a set. Sure, it was a clear cut above what another smith or team could have made on short notice, but this wasn’t anything I was going to be battling a pantheon in or anything like that. I made Gungnir appear to a set of gasps, the loudest from head smith, funnily enough, but I then ignored them as they set about examining the spear. Emily had looked surprised at the weapon, but the captain had seen it before some years ago; one would have thought it would be hard to forget witnessing a godly relic, but maybe the dear captain saw so many of them that it just slipped her mind.

I put on the armor as the smiths broke out in heated debate over some facet of the spear, making sure all the pieces fit. Even without have done a test fitting first, the armor was almost glove-like in how it hugged my body, with enough straps and soft pieces that it could be let out a little bit. I was still growing a bit, and I would likely gain another couple inches in height and likely breadth of my hips before I was done maturing. Or maybe it was better to say Alexandra’s body had a little bit of growing left to do before it was in its final form, depending, of course, on how much further improvement of my body affinity changed the body I was currently occupying.

I finished with the armor long before the smiths were done examining Gungnir, though they would examine it the rest of the year if I let them. That was why I didn’t feel any shame in already prying them away from the spear to check the fitting and make any adjustments they thought necessary. It didn’t take very long, the head smith clearly having a very high forging skill, as he was able to make two adjustments just with a few quick motions of his hands even though it involved manipulating some metal. Afterwards, they went back to the spear and I stood there for a moment before rolling my eyes and getting the Count and Silver Lady to follow me.

“You’re just going to leave it with them?” Emily asked as we returned to the front to pay for the armor.

“Trust me, it would go worse for them if they got any devious thoughts,” I said, not elaborating even with the confused expression on her face.

“Let’s go,” I said after paying the last bit that was owed for the armor, returning to the street and the rest of the captain’s squad.

“I take it the captain’s presence indicated you found something?” the Count asked as we walked.

“I take it the assassin is still safely in our custody?” I asked in return.

“She is detained at the manor. Just because it was easy for her to get in, do not think for a moment it will be so easy for her to get out!” the Count returned firmly.

“Good. The trail led back to the Royal Guard, in a manner of speaking,” I said, raising my hand without even looking to interrupt the captain. “And, yes, Captain, we will not discuss this any further until we’re within a secured location.”

“Thank you,” she said, recovering from her surprise at being so effortlessly pre-empted.

“I could make it so no one-“ the Count started.

“Please, my dear Count. No one is going to die, or should be dying, at any rate, if we wait another five minutes to discuss this,” I said, waving a hand idly.

We walked the rest of the way, not in silence, of course, as the Count had to engage Emily and her squad in conversation, but the Count’s manor was not all that far. It was always amusing for me to see people interact with the Count, even those used to dealing with power, as many just could not remove the fact that he was a Y-ranker from their minds. It was a bit good that the Silver Lady was more taciturn and withdraw with others; hell, even with me, whom she had spent plenty of time around, she often said no more than a dozen words to me in a given day. I think even Emily, used to dealing with powerful people, including the royals, who were powerful in a different manner, would have been fully overwhelmed at the combined attention of a Y- and Z-ranker. The Silver Lady, for all intents and purposes, was one of the ten or fifteen strongest living being in the Settled Lands. Talking to her, even being in her presence, was very much being in the presence of the most powerful that one could get.

Now, just one moment on that topic; we couldn’t travel to any other continent currently because the deep sea leviathans and monsters were too strong for even Z-rankers to fight. That pointed to a few things, one being that it was just not possible to sail there and the only way to explore the rest of the world would be through other methods. I thought, for several reasons, that that was rather unlikely, making me generally dismiss it as logical. However, if that were the case, and traveling via sea was possible, the only other option of that binary, really, the logic followed that there must be some way to either hurt the sea monsters or bypass them. Now, there could be several solutions to that problem, but from the things I had both learned and encountered, something was already telling me that Z-rankers were not the be all and end all that was out there. Also, as amusing as it was, the Settled Lands were the smaller part of our continent, and there were things that lurked in the Untamed Wilds that made even Z-rankers afraid. It was clear that the current civilization we had wasn’t at the strongest it could possibly get, and I intended to push those boundaries.

That was for later, as now we were ensconced in the Count’s manor, and he insisted on a recounting of my long night before we saw to the assassin. I didn’t personally envy the young woman, as her treatment was going to be harsh; the current society in all five of the countries didn’t look kindly on those less fortunate being forced to do what they could to survive. A heart of charity and generosity the current society did not possess, and that was also something that would have to be worked on. I didn’t really know how my aging would work, considering all the weirdness round and about me already, but I had lived a thousand years and more in my last life, only my duel with a dark god managing to stop me. Even given the current rules of this continent, I could expect several centuries of life, and that was based on people like the Count, whom I was sure didn’t have any more than a tier three body at most. With a tier seven body, and my knowledge of body cultivation, well, let’s just say that I wasn’t expecting to engage in that final sleep, which turned out to be not-so-final, again any time soon.

Once the Count and the Silver Lady were caught up, they brought the assassin into the room, and Emily immediately engaged. In conversation, not battle, I should make clear. I would have just left at that point, but they wanted me to stay to corroborate some points, so I had to sit through what was basically an impromptu interrogation. Not something I was all that good at, but I had some understanding of the basics, likely better than anyone in this current society did. Building rapport was the best way to get through to someone, from my experience and studies in my last life, and Emily seemed to get some of that at an instinctual level.

“So, you were raised right here in the capital?” Emily asked after being introduced to the woman, still bound by the Silver Lady’s chains.

“Yes, that’s right. I was born to a poor mother and a father I never knew. We were able to just scrape by for a while; I don’t even remember those years. From the time I could remember, we were on the street, and we had to do whatever we could to survive,” she explained.

“There’s plenty of opportunity for even the poorest,” Emily’s second said with a sour look on her face.

“Just what a rich asshole would say,” the assassin bit back before realizing her position and calming. Emily had also held out a hand, interrupting her second from getting into further argument with the woman, who continued, “It’s great to say that there are opportunities, but if you’re a child that doesn’t even have an affinity yet, and your one parent is sick and can’t afford even basic medicine, there’s nothing you can do. Even the bread lines don’t help, as there’s a limited amount of food available, and even if you manage to get a crust, someone bigger and stronger just steals it from you. There were years, years, where it was close, and my mother died because we didn’t have enough food and she chose to starve herself to keep me fed. I had no choice, none at all, in what I did or how I did it. In my position, there were two options, and working as a whore is how my mother got sick, so it was the gangs. A runner, a pickpocket, a petty thief, and, when I woke to my powers, somebody who could hurt others, even kill others, for the gangs. I did what I had to, just to stay alive.”

“And there was no work in a workhouse you could get?” the Silver Lady asked, though it seemed more a point of curiosity rather than a condemnation hidden in the guise of a question.

“The few workhouses there are are a joke,” the woman spat. “They work you fifteen or sixteen hours a day, sometimes doing things more illegal than the gangs get up to, make you sleep on the floor or out in the yard, if you’re unlucky, and feed you sour gruel and rat meat. Scrabbling for bread and stealing from food carts on the street is safer and more wholesome.”

That started a debate, what would have gotten into a fierce argument between several of the people in the room and the would-be assassin, who was still basically a child, but I rolled my eyes and interrupted that. Workhouses were always a stupid idea; they cropped up in societies that were way more concerned with the idea of work, and that people that weren’t being, essentially, brutalized by those in power every hour of every day didn’t have any work. They were stupid ideas that had never, ever worked properly in any society I had every encountered among the stars; the best case was they occupied poor people doing meaningless drudgery for many hours at a time just to barely provide the most basic of basics, and the worst case was they were factories of abuse and neglect that allowed the rectors or overseers to grow fat off grift while, as the assassin had just described, the people the house was supposed to ‘help’ were abused and maligned.

“This is not the time for that,” I said, and I had infused my voice with power when I did so, which shut the room up. It helped that Gungnir returned to me at that moment, exploding into the room with a burst of power strong enough that even the Count was knocked off kilter, and I could hear the would-be assassin’s jaw audibly clack shut at my display. “Captain, we’ve delivered the suspect and any related materials to you. Is there anything further you need of us at this time, or anything you think we should do?”

“No, no, sorry, you’re right; now is not the time or place for workhouse debate,” Emily replied, shooting her second, who had been the most involved in the argument, a steely glare. “We’ll take over from here, and we’ll take her into custody.”

“Make sure, Captain, that she doesn’t face anything too harsh. At least, not yet; I have some plans involving this young woman. If I return from my little expedition and find that harm has befallen her, I will be very put out,” I said, giving the captain a forceful look, though she seemed to realize that my words were much more for the rest of her team’s, and even others they would spread the word to’s benefit, rather than directed mainly at her.

“I understand perfectly what you’re saying,” Emily said with a nod. “Silver Lady, apologies, can you release the restraints? We have our own methods of handling such cases.”

“Of course,” Jeanne replied, flicking a finger and making the chains vanish. A neat trick, but someone at a Z-rank affinity could do so easily. They could have taken the thief and let the chains disappear naturally, as they would for all but a creator, which the Silver Lady was not, but then they would have to watch for the time the chains vanished and rebind her. Much easier to do it this way, especially since I suspected a Z-ranker could cover the entire capital with their power passively, meaning the chains wouldn’t have dissolved until we left in another day or two for the dungeon expedition.

“We’ll contact you with further results,” Emily said before taking the assassin in hand, bowing to the nobles in the room, and then leading her squad out.

“Are you quite ready for the dungeon expedition?” the Count asked me after they left.

“I will need to go purchase a few more things. I also hate to leave this mess with that necromantic cult half done; I think I will poke around a bit before we leave,” I replied.

“Just be careful; they’re powerful, and there are some powerful people involved in this, based on what you have said and what we know so far,” the Count warned.

“I know what I’m about. Just make sure we’re ready to leave for this little dungeon jaunt at the appropriate time,” I returned before vanishing into The Dark, ready to see about a couple more errands, though I really had most of what I needed. I wanted to secure two more supplies before we left, but this wasn’t going to be some months long thing, despite how they were saying it was an expedition. It was delving a relatively short dungeon within less than a day’s travel, for our team, of the nearest large town.

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