Hello everyone, welcome to another chapter of my fanfic, I would like to say that I'm having a lot of fun writing this story, but before starting the chapter I would like to answer some questions from the reviews.
Juampy
Questions:
-Rose is really 13 years old? Because according to the wiki, in the novel she was 17 years old
-Has Rose already killed and met Michael? Because Rose supposedly only starts killing whoever and meets Michael after the events of the novel in her own prologue in the game, but in the previous chapter you made it clear that Rose has already done all of this before she even entered the brothel. Or at least that's how I interpret it.
Answer: When you asked me this question about Rose's age I revisited her wiki page and it actually says she is 17 in the novel, but according to the timeline page also on the wiki if you count the year in which Rose was born until the year she is captured and sent to Cathedral City she would be about 13 to 14 years old, and if you count the rest of the years until the game starts Rose will be 19 years old just like her wiki page, someone correct me if I'm wrong. Don't take my answer for granted I could be wrong or the information is inconsistent, it wouldn't be the first time this has happened in Drakengard and Nier Automata.
No Rose hasn't killed anyone yet, and she hasn't met Michael either, according to Rose's novel she killed for the first time when her attempt to escape the brothel failed, but since in this story she managed to escape Rose didn't have to kill anyone, for now she is just a normal person, but she will start killing and meet Michael later on, sorry if I left this information it was confusing, but no Rose didn't know Michael and she didn't kill anyone. I also have some writing problems at times since so much of Drakengard's story is open to interpretation, should I take a certain event literally or does it have some hidden metaphor?
I hope I have cleared your doubts.
Qrious writ3r
Well, I was going to ask in the Nier fic if this one is related to that one... guess they are(?).
Answer: A bit, at first I just gave the protagonists of both stories the same name for fun, but then I realized the potential to utilize Drakengard and Nier's multiple universes and timelines. But I won't exaggerate, I'll put little references to both stories here and there, I don't intend to open a portal in the middle of Cathedral City and let the two Alans meet. So if any Drakengard characters appear in my Nier fic and vise and versa assume they are from a timeline where Alan doesn't exist and everything happened according to the history of their universes.
Enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 6 — Settling in Cagliamola.
Plans in the Shadows.
Alan's POV
Another day in Cagliamola and another day having to put up with Rose's snoring maybe I'll find some earplugs with the merchants, I sat on the bed and stamped my feet on the floor, the wooden floor cracked a little, damn, this strength will become a problem in the future won't it? Rose was waking up in the bed next to her "Good morning!" I told him while smiling.
"Good morning idiot!" She said while smiling, I sighed, well it looks like that's my nickname now.
"Let's get some morning coffee" I went downstairs with Rose by my side.
Alan's POV
We went down to the tavern part and guess who was there drinking? The monk I bribed looked at me horrified I just nodded and smiled; we sat at the table and ordered our food "So what are we going to do today?" Well I was thinking of going to the markets, but I would like to go alone, I want to surprise Rose, and I would also like to find a house to live here in Cagliamola, I have not given up on finding a way back home, but I cannot do That's living in an inn, I need a place to prepare myself, and that I can come back to if I need to travel.
"You know what, how about we part ways for today; I've just been dragging you all over town, why don't you go have some fun?" I said to Rose as I gave her a small bag with some coins, it had bronze and silver coins, and two gold ones. She kept looking between me and the bag "Are you sure?" Rose asked me, I put my hand on her shoulder and bent down to face her eyes "Sure, go have fun you deserve it, we'll meet here at the inn at dusk ok?" She nodded and smiled.
We left the inn and went our separate ways, I hope she enjoys it, now which way is the market?
Rose's POV
I was walking through the city streets thinking about what to do, I was frantically looking left and right, so many people on the street I never left that brothel I just attended client after client now I'm nervous I don't know where to start. As I was walking a delicious smell came to my nose, the smell of roasted meat there was a stall on the side of the street and in it, a man was roasting meat on a skewer, my mouth started to salivate, well I already know what I'm going to do first I stopped in front of the stall " Hey sir!" he stopped and roasted the meat and looked at me and smiled "Good morning miss how can I help?" I opened the bag and looked at the coins, I noticed a problem, I don't have the slightest idea of the value of each coin, you know what, I'll find out in practice "How many can I get with this?" I told him while holding out a silver coin, he smiled from ear to ear.
I left the tent smiling from ear to ear too, I had a meat skewer in my mouth and one in each hand, now that I have the opportunity I will try the best food that this world has to offer, meat, chicken, cheeses, and cakes, hmm! Cakes have never tasted one wonders what the flavor is? Another delicious smell attacked me, when I looked at the street to my left my eyes widened as I saw a street full of stalls selling all over various categories of food, I quickly ate the meat skewers and ran towards the street, this is it. The Paradise!
I stopped to rest on a bench in the street, with a slice of cake in my hand, I was sure the cake is delicious, but I believe that it can be better, I finished my cake and looked across the street to a clothing store and in front of this store a mannequin about my size he was wearing a black dress, the dress was beautiful and I want it, without thinking twice I entered the store.
Rose ran towards the store, but if she had been more attentive she would have noticed that she was being followed since she left the inn, a man followed her, blending into the crowd.
Alan's POV
Finally, I got to the markets, it was a street full of shops and stalls, a cacophony of merchants advertising their wares and people haggling attacked my ears, all this noise bothers me, well I can't do anything about it. I passed several stalls, the merchants trying to draw my attention to their wares, one of them tried to offer me jewelry, for the low price he was charging me the jewelry was fake, and another tried to sell me miracle medicines that promised to cure any illness, I believe I have a greater chance of getting sick taking these supposed drugs, lastly one of them tried to sell me products that promised to increase my performance in bed, if you know what I mean, not to mention the toys he displayed in his store, I hurried past before he could remember what I looked like, I wasn't interested in this store's products, I sure as hell wasn't.
I finally arrived at the place I was looking for, this merchant's shop was on an empty street, it was a wooden counter with crates in the back with piles and more piles of books, now where was the merchant?
"Help." I heard a voice, but it was muffled "Is anyone here?" I asked.
"Down here!" This time the voice was louder, I looked inside the store and on the floor buried by books there was a person, I could see only a hand coming out.
"I'm on my way!" I jumped over the counter and started taking the books off the person.
Underneath the books was a short old man, bald and with a long beard almost touching the ground, he wore blue robes, he looked like an RPG wizard.
"Thank you, young man!" The old man said as he extended his hand to me, I accepted the handshake "No need to thanks". The old man stopped behind the counter "Very well! Young man, my name is Faust, may I know your name?"
"Alan."
"Nice to meet you Alan, but let's cut to the chase, how can I help you?" Faust said as he rubbed his hands together and smiled at me "I'm looking for books" as soon as I said that Faust looked around his shop and then gave me a look as if to say 'Really? Did you come to a bookstore looking for books?' Perhaps I should be more specific. "I look for books to teach someone to read and write, and books on the history of Midgard as well."
"Of course, of course, I have these books here, are they for you?" Faust asked while looking for the books in his store "No, they are for a friend." Faust dropped another pile of books "Must be a special friend then?" Fausto placed four books on the counter "You could say so." I leafed through the books, I recognized the literacy and history books, but there was one that I didn't recognize, it was a gray book, opening it looked like a literacy book, but I didn't recognize the letters, they looked like squiggles, letters made of straight lines with little circles at their ends "Hey what's this book about?"
"This book teaches the language of chaos, you see, we humble commoners speak the ancient languages of before the Great Cataclysm, languages like Portuguese, French, and Spanish, while the language of chaos is the language spoken by wizards and nobles, it emerged after the Great Cataclysm, let's just say the upper class doesn't want the plebs to know about their secrets." I see, wait! That old man just called me a commoner! I'll show him who the commoner is! "I'll take all the books!"
Faust gave me another smile, I just realized I had fallen into a trap "It was a pleasure doing business with you, come back anytime!" Well at least I got the books, paid Faust, and turned around to put the books in my backpack "By the way what time do you open tomorrow?" but when I looked back Faust's shop was no longer there, I looked left and right, there was no one just a space on the street "Noir did you see where the old man ended up?" Noir replied from inside his backpack.
"Unfortunately not Lord Alan, but there was something strange about that gentleman, perhaps his sudden disappearance was for the best."
"Maybe but I wonder if I'll see him again he was nice" Well it doesn't matter now let's go to my second goal finding a place to live I went back to the busiest street but couldn't get rid of the feeling of being watched, it must be my impression, after all, unlike Tokyo, this city is full of people.
Rose's POV
Today was an interesting day, I thought as I went back to the inn, I tried new types of food and bought new clothes, the sun was already setting on the horizon and the shops were closing, getting close to the inn I could see Alan at the entrance, he saw and waved at me, I waved back "So Alan how was your day?" I asked.
"Very productive, by the way, could you come with me? I have a surprise for you Rose." He said while smiling at me.
A surprise? Hmm? What will this surprise be? "A surprise? For me? Where?" I can't lie, I'm excited.
"Yes a surprise, but I need you to come with me."
"Ok."
Rose's POV
We were walking for some time, we left the commercial area and arrived in a part of the city where there were only houses "Are we there yet?", "Just a few more minutes." I sighed, I hate walking.
"We're here!" We stopped in front of a house, it was an average house, not too big or too small, with a ground floor, I was confused by this "Alan what is this?" He came close to me and put his hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eyes "It's our home".
My eyes widened, I couldn't believe it, did I hear that right? Our house? Do I deserve this? "Come on, what's the problem? You may come in." Alan said as he unlocked the door, I stopped at the doorframe, one step and I would go in, but is it okay? I looked back at Alan he just smiled at me, looked back at the door, and took a step forward.
"Our home," I said.
"Our home," Alan replied.
TIMESKIP
Alan's POV
It's been a few months since Rose and I lived here, over time we got to know Cagliamola and its inhabitants better, while walking down the street I met some of these inhabitants, I passed Maria's sewing shop, Antônio's bakery, and I met Faust occasionally in the streets, I was waved at them as they passed, I just got out of my job, thanks to my increased strength I have been doing all categories of heavy duty, working on construction sites, carrying heavy materials, because of that I gained a certain fame in the city, but it wasn't just my strength that increased, my senses got better I can see better, hear better, smell better.
I stopped in front of a flower shop and inside was Rose, and Miss Agatha the owner of the flower shop, she was an old lady full of energy and with wandering hands, I lost count of how many times she tried to grope me, Rose was leaving the store "See you tomorrow Miss Agatha!" looks like her shift is over, Rose stopped in front of me "So let's go home?", "Let's go." I replied.
As we walked home I looked back and there they were, there were two men following us, they had been doing this for a long time, at first it was just an impression of being followed, then the feeling of having someone looking at me through the window of the house, I once pretended to go to work and watched Rose at the flower shop and in the distance I could see a man spying on her at work, I need to do something about it, but beating up two supposedly innocent men in the middle of the street would tarnish my good reputation in the city, I couldn't let go of the feeling that something bad was going to happen today.
We finally arrived at home, time to prepare lunch, Rose was helping me, one day I was preparing lunch and he asked if I could teach her how to cook and to my surprise, she has an absurd talent for it reaching my level in a few more days a little bit and she will get over me, we put our plates on the table and start to eat and I had to deal with another habit of Rose that bothered me, but I'm too polite to complain, her total lack of table manners.
Rose was putting as much food into her mouth as possible and chewing with her mouth open, saliva and food scraps flew out, without speaking of course the chewing noise, she stopped eating and looked at me "What?" she asked, I was making a disgusted face probably "Nothing, nothing" I replied, she shrugged and went back to eating, a piece of meat falls from her plate to the floor she simply took this piece off the floor and put it in her mouth, I took a deep breath, best to ignore it and focus on my food.
In the afternoon I taught Rose to read and write, and at her request, I taught her basic math, bought some children's story books, and gave Rose to read and practice, at night while Rose was sleeping I studied the language of the chaos and the history of Midgard, in our room, there was a bookcase full of books about Midgard and its peoples and magical creatures, unfortunately, I didn't find any books about magic which doesn't surprise me too much, I doubt the Lords will let anyone learn magic without their permission, a funny thing is that I started hiding Noir and Rubrum among the books on the shelf I could observe them there, Noir was not explicit, but I noticed that he liked to come out of the backpack, well it's time for bed I blacked out the candle on the table and went to my bed.
The streets of Cagliamola were silent that night, everyone was sleeping inside their houses, and not a single noise was heard except for a group of men one of these men had an injured arm, but even so, he managed to break the lock on the door from the front of a house, the man pushed the door slightly forward, the man walked out in front of the door making room for another man to enter, this other man was wearing dark leather clothes, a black mask that covered his nose and mouth, and a hood on his head.
The masked man walked through the living room of the house looking around, arriving in front of the door of a room he opened the door a little giving a view of the interior of the room, a girl was sleeping in the bed, that was his target, the girl should be taken alive and the boy must die, the man slowly opened the door, entering the room he approached the boy, taking a thief's knife from his pocket the man walked towards the bed, but before he could get any closer something grabbed the man's head "What!?"
The man screamed in confusion, he didn't have time to react as he had his head ripped from his body, the skin tore exposing the muscles, the muscles tore exposing the spine, the spine took more work to break so the thing twisted the man's head like a claw cap, blood spurted across the room then the head was ripped off, the headless body spurted blood across the room like a fountain, then the body fell off the floor with a wet thud splattering even more blood across the floor.
The severed head was in a black and red colored hand, this black hand was attached to an arm, and the arm was sticking out of a book on a bookshelf in the bedroom, the boy in the bed got up he was not sleeping, The book came off the shelf and began to float in front of the boy, dropping the man's head at his feet as proof of a job well done "Lord Alan here is the head of one of the worms that dared to try to harm you" Alan took a few steps backward in disgust from the head so brutally ripped off "Good job Noir!" Alan said a little disturbed and Noir bowed.
Alan's POV
I took a slow breath trying to control the urge to vomit, I know I've killed two men before but it's still not easy to see people dying so brutally, at least Noir did his part, it was a good idea to ask him to protect us for the night he's been doing it ever since I realized we were being followed daily "Lord Alan there is a group of people outside, appear to be this worm's accomplices". Well there's no other option now, I got my metal bat from under my bed, prepared myself mentally, it's not going to end well, tonight I might have to kill again, I heard a noise beside me, Rose woke up to the noise, no, please don't, I don't want her to see this, I was hoping to finish it all without fuss, but it seems like there's no option, I prepared to explain the situation.
"Alan, what was that noise?" Rose stood up as she looked around, she was silent with wide eyes and open mouth, looking at a headless body, Noir floating, looking at the floor she saw the man's head, she crawled back on the bed in a panic, I realized that she was going to scream before she could do that I ran over and put my hand over her mouth "HMMMMM!" Rose tried to scream as she struggled, "Rose calm down! I'll explain what happened, but I need you to calm down, got it !? " She nodded yes "Very well! For days we were being followed, on the streets, at our jobs, at our house, so I asked Noir there to protect us at night." I pointed at Noir, he bowed slightly "Nice to meet you Miss Rose", "HMMMMM!" Rose tried to scream again "SHHHH!"
I put my finger in front of my lips "Yes! This is Noir a floating talking magic book, I also have another magic book called Rubrum, which I still don't know what it does as it doesn't talk much, both books were with me all the time, now I need you to stay in silence, I will take off my hand and you will not scream, understand?" She nodded yes "Fine" I took my hand away from Rose's mouth, and she stood up shaking her bare feet and stepping on the body blood, her face contorted in disgust, I went to the bookshelf and grabbed Rubrum I hope it works " Rubrum I don't know If you can understand me, but I need you to protect Rose while I solve this problem, can I count on you?"
A few seconds of silence passed, for a moment I considered how stupid it was to talk to a book "Yes," I heard a voice almost a whisper, it was Rubrum, it sounded like a little girl's voice, with Rubrum in my left hand I took the knife on the floor, I handed them both to Rose "Rose do me a favor, take this knife to defend yourself, I don't know what's going to happen out there, under no circumstances let go of this book, understand!?" Rose nodded yes great "Let's go Noir!", "Yes Lord Alan".
The group of men was still outside waiting nervously "What's taking so long?" one of them asked, "It can't be that hard to kill a guy and bring in a girl!" another complained "What the hell, I'm going in too" one of them finally lost his patience and entered the house, a few seconds of silence passed, the men outside looked into the darkness of the house, then a scream was heard " what in the ?!" then the man who entered the house flew out the door all his teeth were broken and his nose was crushed and blood was leaking from his mouth like a river, from inside the house came a person and beside him a floating book "Hello there!" the person said in an emotionless voice.
Alan's POV
Well there were five men on the street, not counting the one on the ground probably dead, "Noir what else can you do and how many of those arms can you create?", "I can use magic shots, and create two arms Lord Alan, unfortunately, my powers have not yet fully returned." Much better than nothing "Hello! Gentlemen, good night, don't you think? But there's a problem, you tried to hurt me and a friend of mine and I can't let that go unpunished, but before we start how about you tell me who hired you?" Didn't expect this to work.
"Kill him!"
Well a shame, let's get started.
All five came at me "Noir! ", "As you wish Lord Alan." Noir fired magic bullets towards the one closest, the middle man, he was pierced by the projectiles as if he had been machine-gunned, and the other four stopped in fright "He knows how to use magic!", well the intimidation worked but I can't shoot spell after spell there is a limit as per Noir's explanation, for example, let's say I have a mana bar each spell spends a specific amount of mana when that bar is empty I can't cast any more spells and I have to wait for the bar to fill again not to mention of course the physical exhaustion this causes Noir and me, magic uses our energy and I've never used magic before.
"That's right, I can use magic! So who will be next?" I said as I opened both of my arms and took a step forward, the four men were standing in front of me, two on the left and right, two were further ahead and two were further back, and the two who were further ahead charged at me, idiots, both of them took out knives, I readied my bat "Noir you take the one on the right!", "As you wish", the man on the left swung his knife towards me aiming at my belly, I jumped back, another strike towards my neck, I bent down, when I got up I swung my bat towards his jaw, that was another image that disturbed me.
I ripped off the man's jaw and he started screaming a scream of excruciating pain echoed through the night, I swung the stick at his head, I heard the sound of the skull cracking and the man's eyes popped out of his head, hold the vomit Alan, hold the vomit, looked at Noir, he was using one of his dark hands to repeatedly hit the head from the other man against the floor, "Noir stop!" Noir stopped and tossed the man's corpse aside, the body rolling down the street repeatedly hitting the ground like a stone bouncing off the surface of a lake, leaving several bloodstains in its path.
The two remaining men realized that there was no chance of them winning and tried to run, I took a deep breath due to the order I was going to give "Noir kill the one on the right and shoot the legs of the one on the left", "As you command." Noir did just that, using one of his dark hands Noir grabbed the man on the right and started squeezing, I could hear the man's agonized screams, bones breaking and flesh being crushed, he was reduced to a red paste, Noir opened his hand and what was left of the man fell to the ground forming a red puddle of flesh, only one left now.
Noir fired the magic projectiles, they came down the street forming a line of holes until they hit the last man in the legs he started screaming in pain, ignore the screams Alan, ignore the screams, I went towards the fallen man I grabbed his leg and dragged him towards the front of my house "No, please don't! What do you want money? Information? I do anything!" an opportunity arose "Anything?", "Yes, anything!" let's start the questions "Very well! Who sent you, what do you want, and how many of you came here?"
"We were hired by the brothel bosses of Fool's March, they paid us very well to kill you and bring the girl, they wanted to know where the stolen money is, there were seven of us in total, wait! Where is Louis? Where is that bastard? He left us!"
Wait, Louis! The same Louis from the inn? I didn't have much time to think I heard Rose screaming from inside the house "AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" damn I kicked the man on the ground on the side of his head knocking him unconscious "Noir with me!" we ran towards the screams, I was dying of exhaustion using so much magic in such a short time, it finished me "Lord Alan are you alright?" I looked at Noir, I was seeing double, no, I was seeing triple, I felt something running down my nose, I put my finger in the place, it was blood "I'm fine Noir don't worry, let's go".
Rose's POV
What was going on out there? I heard screams, it sounded like someone was being tortured, CRUNCH! CRACK! AAAAAAAAA! I jumped back, what was happening outside, getting close to the bedroom door I could see the room was dark there was no one there, the front door was open I saw something being thrown across the street then I heard a whisper "Behind you" it was hard to explain what happened at that moment, my body moved by itself.
I turned around and saw Louis swinging a knife towards me, he entered through the bedroom window, before the knife hit me a red barrier appeared in front of me, the knife ricocheted and Louis was pushed back, I swung the knife at Louis' neck slashing his throat, blood spurted onto my face blinding me and staining my clothes, for a moment I could see the look on Louis' face he looked surprised, Louis finally dropped dead, I dropped the knife and looked at the book, it was you, wasn't it? Then I realized what I did I killed someone.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!"
Alan's POV
I got to our room and there was Rose, her face smeared with blood, she was hyperventilating and with, tears coming out of her eyes "Rose!" she picked up the knife that was on the floor and pointed it in my direction "Calm down, it's me Alan!" she put the knife down, she was shivering I took a rag from the drawers in the bedroom "Can I clean your face?" she nodded yes, I started to clean the blood "Rose, I promise to explain everything to you, but first we need to get out of here, we are going to spend the rest of the night at the inn, for sure there will be questions about what happened here, and I need to think about an excuse for all this."
We packed our things, clothes, and money and headed towards the inn, leaving the house Rose looked around and saw the dead bodies on the street and the situation they were in, crushed and torn apart "Come on" I extended my hand to Rose, she closed it her eyes and took a step back, I don't blame her, she knows I did all this, she opened her eyes and saw that nothing happened, then she accepted my hand "Alan are you ok?", "Yes, why what the question?", "You're bleeding from your nose and mouth" I put my hand over my mouth and saw blood on my hand, how did I not taste the blood before?
I spit a bubble of blood on the side of the street "Don't worry I'm fine" I smiled at her Rose jumped a little I suppose my teeth are full of blood it must not be a pretty sight I started to see triple again, but I managed to keep my balance, the sun was already rising, soon everyone will see the corpses, what the hell I just want to sleep now.
END OF THE CHAPTER