Does Remilia and Patchouli's relationship seem to be quite a comparison to Kirche and Tabitha's? The quiet studious one and the over energetic bubbly one. Of course, Kirche isn't a loli but still.
I could probably continue this chapter but its night here and I don't have the time for the next few days. Really sorry about that. Reality is annoying like that.
Josette watched in subdued awe as the steep of the dry mountains crashed down onto the road below, completely burying the dirt road below. The hard motion of the rock fall kicked up billows of dust and debris that spread out onto the mountain covering the Alpes range.
She withheld her shiver as she contemplated facing Patchouli Knowledge. A part of her wanted to forego her planned venture at the possibility of facing one that possessed magic that may be comparable to a greater spirit. With a few mere murmured words, she had used magic that was just as monumental as her small star and rainstorm feat.
Bravery and fear is entwined. She silently murmured the long practiced words her deceased father passed down to her and her sister. The words she used to steady her path. To be brave is to be afraid, but have to will to move forward regardless. Cowardice is only wh-
"Can we leave now?" she heard Patchouli say with the usual disinterested tone she speaks in, her amethyst eyes looking at her for confirmation to whether the blockade was adequate.
"Of course." She mildly replied. She glanced at the leader of the disguised Knights of Northern Parterre, who gave a slight nod before waving his men to reform. The gathered knights snapped out of their stupor to quickly return to their positions.
Before long, the entire caravan was off again, going back the trail they came from; the knights solemnly silent but chatty as soon as they passed by fellow travelers.
"Our next destination is Tristania." Josette said for Patchouli's benefit. She knew the woman had a basic geography of Halkegenia but doubted that she delved into the finer details.
"The capital of Tristain?" Patchouli questioned as she slide a book from her cloak to her hand.
"Yes." Josette answered, not surprised that she knew more than she had assumed. It was a lesson she learned rather quickly with their time together. Patchouli tended to know far more than she had thought. "According to the information provided by his highness, Fonquets crimes are centered on the city. By the King's own advice, we should begin our search there."
She hated having to structure her sentence in a manner that would glorify the man that ruined her family. But she knew that the knights already suspected her of treachery and a single misstep would lead to her death.
"And how do we proceed from there?" her companion asked. It was a very good question that the king had decided to leave to them.
"The King provided no further instructions." She replied. He liked doing that. Intentionally leaving out information and allowing her into dangerous situations to see how she would react to them and whether she would survive.
"Typical." Patchouli said, sharing the same sentiment as her.
"How do you advise we proceed then?" Patchouli asked her.
This was a nuance she was unsure about. Whether Patchouli really didn't know what the best option was or rather she did not bother and relied on her.
"We should enter Tristania first. From there the knights can begin by asking fences for information." she advised.
Even if Fonquet was a prodigious thief; that did not change the fact that he would need to use fences to exchange stolen goods. While the thief may have kept their identity a secret from the officials, he may have been more lax about secrecy around fences.
"I thought fences did not sell out their suppliers." Patchouli added. "It certainly would not help their business."
"Yes. It's considered professional courtesy to not sell your fellow criminals out. Honor among thieves, I suppose." she agreed. But everyone had a price and if it was too steep... well, there was a limit to everyone's pain tolerance.
"Honor among thieves is a joke. Their trade does not add to society and is a destructive path. Those that steal as a necessity are pitiable. Those that steal for simple convenience are scum not worth mentioning. " Patchouli noted with some disgust, likely with some past experience with the latter type.. Though who would be bold enough to steal from someone so powerful, that summoning a storm didn't even affect her in the least, was beyond her.
"Could we not simply look for the single colored haired person in the shadiest parts of the city?" Patchouli asked.
She understood her intent and would have to disagree with it. There were plenty a noble that had plain hair. It was just that Patchouli's interactions with nobles outside herself, the king and Isabella were nonexistent.
Though she would not discount it outright, by some lucky chance, they may just come across the thief simply because he had a unique hair color like bright green or some other unusual pigment.
"Of course, I will pass it along to the knights." She replied. Neither she nor Patchouli was particularly suited to direct field operations as usual, thought for different reasons. She lacked the strength and the practical skills to do field work while Patchouli was simply not subtle enough and seemed not the least concerned with maintaining her masquerade.
The woman she had been assigned to was an anomaly by herself. She was actually interested in the world that she came from; Patchouli clearly seemed to hold humans here in disdain but seemed more respectful when mentioning the humans in hers.
Her sudden appearance had originally thrown her plans into disarray and she had set them back until she could better understand the inhuman woman. A ridiculously powerful bodyguard to the King was going to be a huge obstacle.
It was by good luck that the king had for some reason place her as a assistant/ advisor to his new familiar. While that bit into her other contacts, she come to see that the relationship between master and familiar was just cordial and Patchouli did seem loyal beyond keeping her word.
Admittedly the time she spent with Patchouli was more... 'Fun'. While the constant research and sorting through books was tedious at best, it was certainly felt vastly more rewarding than plotting sabotage and assassinations for the king. The act of ending one's life was something that she could do without batting an eye and that was a fact that she was not proud of.
She felt bad that she was only being so helpful because it would make Patchouli's deposition to her rise up. Her grand scheme needed Patchouli to side with her over her current master. In fact her grand scheme could fall apart rather easily otherwise, but it could also be so much easier just as simply.
She didn't know what the king offered Patchouli in exchange for her aid. She could only hinge herself on the hope that Patchouli preferred her freedom from the Myoznitnirn runes over whatever the king offered. She certainly did not have the power to combat her.
Patchouli closed the curtains in a futile attempt to close off the insufferable noise of a city. She gave out a deep sigh as the action had no effect on the booming level of volume. She wished that she had invented a spell that could block out noise on a target in motion.
Unfortunately magic was not as convenient as that. While magic seemed to cover just about every possible thing conceivable it just was not as simple as that. Magic could not be used as a convenient tool all the time.
If it was, then she could the thief to appear in front of her right now. She could magic the runes herself instead of dedicating research to it. She could even magic herself a way out of this world. But then it would not make for a tale, now will it? There would be no problem or issue that magic could not solve.
"Quite lively isn't it?" de Orleans said, pointing out the quite obvious amount of people going on with their lives present. She was peering out the window to take in the dusty view of what she supposed was meant to be a market place.
"Indeed." Patchouli agreed with a sigh. It was far too noisy for her liking. Her attempts to drone them out like she did with de Gallia so far were failing. It was far easier to block out one person than several hundred at once.
"The Tristainian Academy of Magic is located nearby as well." de Orleans continued onto a completely irrelevant subject.
The Tristainian Academy of Magic? That was where her sister was at was it not? Looking for the Tristainian Void user if she recalled correctly. She wondered if she was successful, it would be useful to have a second subject of the void to study; after all the chances of de Gallia telling her if Tabitha was successful or not was little to nothing.
"That's where that sexual predator is? Isn't it?" Patchouli frowned at the memory of her in the de Orlean's estate. The constant jabs at her imaginary illicit relationship to de Gallia were incessantly annoying. It was almost on par with Kirisame's constant jabs at her 'bookworm' nature, Kirisame staying ahead because she committed herself to testing her defenses for her library.
"Do you mean Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt-Zerbst?" de Orleans asked, knowing full well who she was referring to.
"If that was her name, then yes." Patchouli played along. Her name itself was rather ironic. 'Kirche' meant 'Church' in German and she did not seem to match the description of a devout member of a Church in the least. That girl was trying very hard to be the opposite of a chaste member of a Church.
Though, she supposed that the standards of the church were not the same as her world. They did not seem to have hunters dedicated to hunt 'demons' and 'witches' for one.
But if all of them were like that von Anhalt-Zerbst… she shuddered at the thought of scandalous nuns and lusty priests running around spouting things like that girl did. It was… disturbing to say the least.
"Is there a particular reason that you would bring this up?" Patchouli asked de Orleans.
"Do you wish to visit it?" de Orleans asked, revealing her intent for bringing this subject up.
Did she wish to meet that von Anhalt-Zerbst again?
"No. No, I do not." She bluntly stated. She would despise a meeting with her again and would try to steer clear of her as much as possible.
"Are you sure? The Academy is famed to have a grand library. It would be a pleasant change to the Gallian Library." de Orleans insisted.
A different library? That was more tempting and she could admit that the Gallian Library was running out of useful resources. But de Orleans was a bit too insistent on this than she would consider normal.
"Is there a specific reason that you wish to visit it?" she asked her assistant. She was becoming pushier lately, now that she thought about it.
"Not in particular." She shrugged in response.
Patchouli did not push for an answer. She could imagine a very plausible one for herself.
It was clear that Josette held some deep affection for her sister and more likely than not hate for de Gallia, her uncle. The latter did not matter in this situation but with the former, she supposed that Josette wanted to meet up with her sister.
Why she would want to? Sisterly love, she supposed. Despite all the trouble that Flandre occasionally caused years past, Remilia's love for her did not seem to waver in the least. She gave into her whims for the most part as long as it was not completely crazy within the Gensokyo context where crazy things happened all the time.
Was there a point to visit it outside Josette's interest in meeting her sister? The library sounded interesting.
"And searching for Fonquet?" she asked. She could not forget their purpose here. Though, admittedly all she was doing was playing the role of a glorified messenger and could likely not contribute to finding the thief at all.
Then there was the point where she may or may not need to fight the thief. She would hope that she did not need to. While danmaku was all fun and good, real life battles where one could receive fatal injuries or even die was something she would rather avoid.
"The knights are better suited to this than we are. After all they are you know…" Josette trailed on in a manner that made it seem more dramatic. She wondered if a knack for dramatization was in the blue haired family genes.
"And I suppose that no one will notice some of our guards are missing." Patchouli asked skeptically. They certainly did not have the large number of guards needed so that no one will notice a few were missing.
"Tristain's security is terribly inadequate. It is ridiculously easy to infiltrate their facilities. " Josette tried to reassure.
Patchouli frowned. That was both interesting and good to know but did not answer her question. "That does not hide missing men."
"People will assume that our security will simply be typical Tristain. After all there are times where I question if Tristain even employs guards to simply watch the walls for something like siege golems." Josette said, greatly downplaying the level of security in an entire country.
So to be terrible at maintaining adequate protection was to blend in with Tristain. That was discouraging to know.
And her last comment was a joke. She did not know what a siege golem but from the name it was likely used to breach defensive walls. Logically, it must be quite large to adequately perform such a task. There was absolutely no way that one could infiltrate anywhere.
Omg! There's new Millet Soup. Huzzah! Emerald Megalith! Evolve into a giant Emerald Gun! Huzzah! And a big Shanghai! Huzzah!