AA305 - Loot (Patreon)

“I’m just not comfortable with the idea of robbing the dead,” James said. “I mean, I know he was a bad guy…”

“You can’t be too squeamish about handling corpses in this line of work, Arjun said as he efficiently stripped the body of Varek Shuun of everything it was carrying. For reasons that James didn’t want to think about, that included his robes.

“This line of work? Exactly what profession are we in?” James asked, his voice going a bit high.

“Adventurers!” Harue said brightly. She was dragging a demon corpse outside to be burned. Shugen had insisted it was necessary, and Harue had been happy to help start a pyre with her foxfire, after gathering enough flammable debris from the tower’s lower level.

The newly freed villagers were helping, gathering firewood and zombie remains to be burned as well. James imagined that it was going to stink up the place something fierce, but that was why they were doing it in the abandoned tower courtyard.

“I was going to say mercenaries, but it amounts to the same thing,” Arjun replied. “The important thing is to get paid—however you can.”

“The possessions of those whom I have defeated belong to me,” Kana declared. “That is the natural order of things. The principle can be expanded to the group as a whole.”

Arjun gave her a sidelong glance, but seemed to accept what she said. “…Yeah. Not like the dead have got any use for jewellery. Hey, Kat, d’ya like the look of this?”

He tossed her a ring he’d just pulled off Varek Shuun’s dead finger. Katarzyna caught it easily and examined it at arm’s length.

“Ew. This is why you’re not my type,” she said. “And I grew out of decorating with skulls when I was sixteen. Also, it’s probably cursed.”

“Think we can get something for it?” Arjun asked.

Shugen looked over from where he was pasting charms on the wall. “Keep it,” he said. “It’s a storage ring.”

“It’s a what, now?” Katarzyna asked.

Shugen frowned. “I know you have storage rings on Earth,” he said. He pointed at Suki. “She’s using one!”

Everyone looked at Suki, who raised her hands in front of her. “I’m not wearing any rings,” she said.

“Don’t be obtuse!” Shugen yelled. “I’ve seen you pull your sword out of nowhere!”

“Oh, that,” Suki said. “That’s not a ring, that’s just a… special function of… me.”

“What are you blathering about?” Shugen asked.

“It’s just a… trick that one of my sisters taught me,” Suki said. “I don’t like to talk about it because I don’t think I’m supposed to be able to do it. It’s an imperfection.”

“What’s a storage ring, then?” James asked quickly, hoping to forestall any more questions. It worked. Shugen looked distracted for a moment, then he went into lecture mode.

“A storage ring is a sealed-off bubble of space that can hold objects,” he said. “The ring acts as an interface, allowing the user to place and remove objects from the space. They come in several different types and sizes.”

He stomped over to examine the ring Katarzyna was holding. James wanted to take a closer look as well, but he thought Suki needed a hug. She leaned into his embrace, and he realised that he needed a hug as well. He wasn’t comfortable around all these corpses.

Shugen was still talking.

“Bah! It’s sealed.”

“Does that mean I don’t get the goodies?” Katarzyna asked.

“Most rings will unlock on their owner’s death,” Shugen explained. “Any honourable man would be happy to know that his possessions went on to benefit his family, or the person who found his body.”

“Or his murderer?” Mitsue put in from across the room.

“If he was killed in honourable combat, then yes,” Shugen said. “However, this Varek Shuun wished to keep a hold of his treasures even after he died.”

“Or he thought he would be coming back from it,” James suggested.

Everyone looked at the corpse.

“That’s why we burn the remains. Can’t be too careful with necromancers.”

“Does that stop them?” James asked, appalled.

“Sometimes. Makes it harder, at least.”

“If we burn the corpse, we probably won’t be able to get the bounty—if there is one.”

“There will be,” Shugen assured him. “A man like that, eager to turn villagers into his army… he has enemies somewhere, I guarantee it.”

“He kept going on about some Prince Khaelor,” Amilie said. “But… you’re talking about carting the head around, right? I don’t think I want us to do that.”

“It could be worth a lot of money,” Arjun suggested. “But… I think you’re right. I don’t want to cart a rotting head around—especially if it might come back to life.”

“The ring is… distinctive,” Shugen said. “As is the jade pendant. They might serve as proof of his death.”

“As long as I don’t have to hand over my trophy,” Kana said. Still in her dragon form, she had repurposed the amulet as an earring, piercing her own ear in an impressive display of agility. James had wondered what would happen when she went back into human form, but she assured him that would not be an issue.

“That trinket is burned out, but a dragon enchanter should be able to fix it,” Shugen told her.

“I have no need for its defensive enchantments,” Kana told him. “My defence is already impenetrable.”

Considering that she had only just finished healing the damage the demon had done to her jaw, James thought she was overstating the case more than a little. However, he’d learned that the best course was to shrug and move on.

“Speaking of corpses…” James looked over at Shion, lying face up on the stone flagstones. “What are we going to do about her?”

“Beep boop, you can’t talk to me in power-saving mode,” Shion announced from the floor.

“We’re almost done cleaning up, Shion,” Suki told her. “No one is going to ask you to help anymore.”

“Well, in that case… Power-saving mode ended!” She jumped to her feet and looked around.

“No, I figured that was—” James searched for the word and went with “—theatrics. But what are we going to do about her face?”

“I thought you said it was going to heal?” Shion said, looking accusingly at Suki.

“It will—it is, I think—it just takes time,” Suki replied. “A few days, or maybe a week.”

“I guess I can wait that long,” Shion allowed.

“But we can’t let anyone see her like that,” James insisted. Once again, Shion’s face was gone, burned away by the power of her own attack. A lot of her exposed skin was showing signs of charring, actually, but it was only her face that was showing the metal skeleton beneath.

“I have a solution,” Mitsue said. He held up the tattered remains of the necromancer’s robe. “I can cut this into strips and fashion bandages out of them. We can cover her face and hands and claim she has a skin condition.”

“We’ve got real bandages,” Arjun said. “I’m not sure that is good for anything but burning.”

“Ah, but this saves us from using our supplies, as neither the smell nor infection is a concern for Shion,” Mitsue explained.

“That’s right!” Shion agreed. “No weaknesses of the flesh here.”

“And the smell will also discourage people from examining her closely. We can tell them it’s due to the disease.”

“Great plan!” Shion said, giving Mitsue a thumbs-up.

“Thank you for your confidence,” Mitsue said, starting to slice the stained silk with a small knife. “Ah… about that beam attack of yours. Can you just do it any time you like?”

“Anytime I want to burn my own face off,” Shion said. “So yeah, whenever I like. Kanon was always telling me that using it would draw Kotodama after us… but that’s not something I have to worry about here.”

“I see. And you don’t have to worry about it draining your battery or something?”

“The techs said my internal powerplant should last for twenty years without issue!” Shion said proudly.

“What happens after that, without Kotodama techs to, uh, service you?” Suki asked.

“The techs said my internal powerplant should last for twenty years without issue!” Shion repeated.

Everyone looked at each other awkwardly.

“Twenty years is a long time,” Mitsue said finally. “Perhaps the technology will become widespread by that time.”

“Woo! Why is everyone looking so glum?” Harue said, coming up the stairs for another load. “No need to answer; I was eavesdropping! Look, who cares if Shion only lives for twenty years—that’s more than most people get!”

“I’ve told you before, Harue, people get around seventy years,” James said tiredly.

“Isn’t it cute when they try to boast about stuff like that?” Harue asked Kana.

“Hmph! Indeed it is,” the dragon agreed.

“Just… take the corpse, would you?” Arjun asked. “And Shion, that attack will attract attention, and we don’t know who to watch out for yet, so try to avoid using it if you can, yeah?”

“Leave no witnesses, got it,” Shion confirmed. “You sound just like my sister.”

“Just… I think we’re done here.” Arjun grabbed the feet of the Varek Shuun’s corpse. Harue had lifted the other end. “We got some coin, and a dagger that looks cursed, and some… pills? They seem pretty cursed as well.”

“Let me see,” Shugen demanded as they all trooped out. There didn’t seem to be much left in the tower. The next level up had been the necromancer’s living quarters, and the higher levels had been ruined and unsafe.

“Yes, best to dispose of the dagger,” Shugen said, examining it with a jaundiced eye. “It’s not cursed, exactly, but it has picked up a lot of negative energy from its owner.”

“Throw it on the fire,” Harue said. “Spiritual fire can cleanse that sort of thing. Not sure if it will be usable afterwards, but it won’t be cursed.”

Shugen shrugged. “I’ll defer to the priestess on that,” he said, and tossed the blade into the roaring pyre. The body soon joined it.

“The pills… ugh. Best burn those as well.”

“What are they?” Arjun asked.

“An alchemical concoction to sustain the body without food or water,” Shugen told him. “Quite common in certain circles. But these…” He gave the bag a dubious sniff. “Seem to have been made with human flesh.”

He tossed the bag into the fire without being asked.

“Ew,” Amilie said. “You mean they’re little balls of human flesh?”

“No, the process is more involved than that,” Shugen replied. “Human flesh is not required, or even preferred. I had heard that it was a common habit among necromancers, but I hadn’t seen it until now.”

He spat in the direction of the fire.

“Bye, Varek Shuun,” Harue said. “Everybody who knew you hated you, so stay dead, won’t you?”

She clapped twice and bowed. Then she turned to the others.

“Well, we’ve got the cash, so let's make a run for it, shall we?”

*

They did not, in fact, “run like they stole something”, as Harue kept insisting they should. The remnants of the village were grateful for their rescue and did their best to show the party their best hospitality. But with around three-quarters of their number dead, the villagers’ grief and fear for the future were overwhelming, obvious even to those who didn’t speak the local language.

They did stay the night, and chose to escort the captured girls back to the first village. Tearful greetings were exchanged, and gruff negotiations with Shugen began. It turned out that while they were grateful, they didn’t have all that much to begin with.

He managed to extract a little coin and some supplies for the road, and directions. It was four days to walk to the nearest city.

“We’ll be able to get maps there, and better information,” Shugen explained. “There are towns closer, but they’re not worth our time.”

Walking for four days straight was a new and distinctly unpleasant experience for most of them, but everyone managed to withstand the rigours of endless walking. They had camping gear and food, and it was an opportunity to start language lessons.

They were lucky that Amilie had picked up the language from her ghost possession, because Shugen was a terrible teacher and Kana felt that speaking the language was beneath her.

“Listen properly, fool. ‘Dragon’ doesn’t sound like that. The way you said it means ‘to drown.’ Again.”

Of course, just because he was bad at it was no reason to stop. Katarzyna, the target of his current ire, sighed and threw her arms wide. “Why didn’t I get possessed?”

“Short-sighted of you,” Amilie agreed. “You could even have gotten turned into a demon as a bonus!”

“I’m already a demon,” Katarzyna boasted. “Between the sheets or on the street.”

“Not at learning languages, you’re not,” Shugen complained. “Can you not focus?”

“I’ve been wondering, Shugen-san,” Mitsue said, forestalling Katarzyna’s angry retort. “Where did you learn modern Japanese? And English, for that matter.”

“From you,” Shugen replied. “And the other brats that were on the beach. It’s easy enough to copy a language using telepathy.”

“You’re a telepath?” Arjun asked.

“Not any more,” Shugen said sourly. He tapped an empty space on the top of his skull. “Your Academy saw to that. Severing an oni’s horn removes his powers.”

“You mean, if you still had your horn, you could have dropped another language right in my head?” Katarzyna exclaimed. “No studying?”

“I suppose,” Shugen said.

“This is your fault!” Katarzyna declared, pointing at James. “You’re making me learn things the hard way!”

“Me? I didn’t have any say in it,” James objected. “The first I knew about him getting released was when he showed up.”

“The Jade Path people went along with it, but it was the Academy Student Council that insisted on the removal,” Shugen said. “On orders from above—the Administration. The actual council members never knew the reason.”

“Wait, so you were reading the minds of your captors even as they were debating what to do with you?” Arjun asked. “That’s something.”

“So do you know who the Administration is?” Mitsue asked. “Names or faces… their existence keeps getting mentioned, but no one will admit to knowing them.”

“The Student Council don’t know,” Shugen told him. “Messages get delivered by a maid, and she never came into my range.”

“Hell of a way to run a school,” Arjun commented.

“It’s… an unusual school,” James confessed.

“Anyway,” Katarzyna interjected. “Isn’t the place where Mitsue’s sister went an oni forest? Wouldn’t there be oni there who could just hook us up with all the languages?”

“If we can get there, it will take months,” Shugen snapped. “And if it’s still oni territory after fifteen thousand years, and if—”

He cut himself off, breathing heavily. He didn’t continue until he had calmed down.

“The point is that you should be fluent before the forest becomes an issue, as long as you apply yourselves.”

“Yes, sensei,” James, Mitsue, Kana and Suki all chorused, startling James, among others. He hadn’t realised that the response had become a reflex. Of the students, only Harue and Shion had managed to hold back.

Well, Harue had held back. She was grinning delightedly at the way the rest of the group stared at the suddenly awkward students. Shion didn’t seem to notice, staring straight ahead down the road. But then, James didn’t think she made it to class that much.

The next four days continued in much the same way. They learned enough to exchange stilted greetings with the other travellers on the road. The presence of Kana made everyone they met nervous, but she didn’t deign to interact with anyone, which made them a little happier. No one dared to ask what she was doing on the road, which was a shame as they never got to try out their cover story.

Shugen kept an ear out for any reports of bandits, hoping for another money-making opportunity, but all they heard were rumours. Eventually, they crested a hill to see the city spread out before them.

Velisara sat at the intersection of two roads and a broad, slow-moving river. James could see barges piled high with bales of wheat and rice move downstream, while more barges laden with crates headed upstream, coming from the larger cities.

From here, James could see that most of the outer buildings were made of wood and whitewashed plaster, gleaming white from under a coating of dirt and soot. The city had long since spilled outside of its original wall, still visibly sealing off the inner city.

The whole place teemed with activity, too many people crowded into too small a place. After days spent on the open road, the sight made his skin itch.

“Let’s get this over with,” he stated. There were various murmurs of agreement.

The city didn’t have an outer wall, but it did have a gate. A short section of wall extended on both sides of the road, making it difficult for anyone with a cart to bypass it. Someone on foot could easily bypass it, but they were pretending to be legitimate travellers.

Something like legitimate travellers, anyway. The guards spotted Kana a fair distance away. James could tell by the way they started frantically urging the already waiting carts to go through. There hadn’t been much of a queue, and Shugen—in charge of interactions—was probably going to jump it, but by the time they got to the gate, it was empty of everyone except extremely nervous guards.

Shugen said something. It was supposed to be an introduction, but it sounded much more grandiose than that. James had learned a little of the language, but understood none of that.

There was a lengthy exchange of words between Shugen and the head guard. This was a little more familiar to James. He caught ‘inn’,’ guest’, and ‘human’.

Shugen turned and translated for them. “They offered to host us at the City Lord’s mansion—I declined, told them it wasn’t necessary as we were only passing through.”

James and the others nodded. This had already been discussed; the last thing they wanted to do was get involved in local politics.

“With that said, he strongly suggested that Kana take human form if she’s going to be staying at a human inn. She’ll be more comfortable, and it will reduce panic.”

“Hmph! Very well.” With a flicker of lightning, Kana assumed not her human form, but her horned humanoid hybrid. “Will this suffice?”

Shugen glanced at the head guard, who bowed. All his men followed suit.

“Then, your highness,” Shugen drawled. “Welcome to Velisara.”