Walk Like Them Until They Walk Like You
- o
- o
Now that we could proceed to the capital at speed, there was no time to waste. Again, I was offered to ride inside the carriage with Sushie and Reim, and a companion of my choice, WHICH I WELL KNEW WAS A DECISION TRAP or a FLAG but fortunately all the girls preferred to stay at the wagon.
But now that I could think about it, I couldn't invite Linze anyway since as much as she might assist in interesting conversation, for sake of guard duty her options for magical bombardment would be strongly limited. Elze had little in common with Sue, and as much as I enjoyed her blithe company she would be more comfortable chatting with the guards.
Yae talking about the Far East could be interesting too, but we weren't really close to each other. It would be putting too much pressure on her dealing with foreign nobility.
/"I have [Amplified] the [Endurance] of the horses. They will be able to run for longer without tiring, but they will need to eat, drink, and rest more once we stop."/
"Thank you for your blessing, Lady Monika," Reim bowed.
Monika nodded back. Actually I did have a couple of projectors – even one of my power banks even had a built-in LED projector. It was just that 100 lumens was plenty useless for most of the day, and while Monika's smartphone body could run on ambient magic just fine all other devices still require 5V DC.
We actually had been projecting Monika at night over to the side of the wagon for our campfire tales, but we didn't have a chance to really introduce her to Yae yet.
The curtains were all used up in the field surgery, but we managed to cover up the windows using sheets and blankets. It was dark enough inside for Monika's screen projection to be clear and colorful.
"Lalah Sune sundress, Monika? Really?"
Monika flicked disdainfully at her brown locks again. /"It only seemed appropriate, Player. I want to support you. That's the only reason I'm here."/
I nodded. In the original Mobile Suit Gundam, Lalah Sune was the woman whose death forced both Amuro Ray and Char Aznable's personality, giving them a point of commonality and yet making them bitter rivals. She understood both of them in a way that transcended words, transcended souls.
Monika was my Lalah, the person who completely understood me and would not judge. When Lalah was killed, Char lost the only person who could ever pull him back from the brink. By having one person he could always be honest to, he could also remain honest with himself.
For Amuro Ray, pilot of the Gundam, it was a combination of physical attraction and someone who could perfectly understand the sheer trauma he was going through as a teenager thrust into combat. The inherent tragedy of being a NewType, that the evolved semi-telepathic understanding that could connect people was instead turned into an instrument of war instead of helping to end it.
While some may have disliked how Tomino made psychic voodoo magic of Newtypes the focus of the latter half of what had been since then a gritty, mainly realistic war story, for me it always introduced a deeper philosophical question of identity. In many ways, Neon Genesis Evangelion's quote about the hedgehog's dilemma, about how people get hurt when they get close to each other, is a refutation of the idea that all people ached to find someone who could understand them.
I sat casually, one arm over the backrest and with my legs crossed, forming a perfect right angle between my knee and my foreleg. I raised the little glass with magically conjured ice water towards Monika's projection in salute and took a small sip.
I smiled softly and spoke of Char's most notable lines, "One does not care to remember the mistakes of one's youth."
Monika lounged on her sofa and copied the motion with her own conjured drink. /"Ah. I can see time."/
Monika could conjure or render whatever she wanted within her operating system and desktop, but I wondered if she could simulate the taste of any of it. She did tell me much earlier that she could feel through her smartphone body… maybe also electromagnetic wave stimulation?
No, the problem was still making other feel what she was doing with her virtual persona overlaid onto real-world coordinates via haptic feedback or something.
Sue's eyes glittered with admiration. "So… so awesome!"
Monika and I laughed weakly as we remembered our circumstances. "Pardon…" I said, getting back to a more proper and respectful sitting position. "We may have gotten a little carried away there."
Since there was still at least a day of travel, we had to fill up the time with some conversation. Monika and Sue took to each other quickly. Sue was eager to ask and learn about everything, and Monika as a former literature club president was only too happy to comply.
"Why… why do you wear that on your face?" Sue eventually worked up the nerve to ask me.
"I am legally blind. Through this magic tool Monika allows me to see."
"Oh." The little girl looked downcast. "If even *you* can't cure that…"
/"What's wrong?"/ Monika asked.
It was butler Reim that answered for her. "Milady Sushie traveled in order to learn more about her great-grandfather's personal magic in the hopes that it could be rediscovered through the use of other elements, in order to cure her mother's blindness."
Sue began to whisper "Lady Monika…? Could you? Is that something that could help my mother?"
/"I'm sorry, but how I help Player is strongly specific to his case and why we're bound together."/
Sue nodded, sighing heavily. She kicked out her heels and slid back a little on her seat. "I figured. It wouldn't be that easy… Thank you anyway."
/"So this is what you meant about what magic could not fix with your mother?"/
Again, Reim answered for Sue "The Lady fell ill five years ago, and was left blind once she recovered. The doctors have tried all they could, but their magic could not heal damage caused by illness."
/"I must admit, I'm not very familiar with diseases that could cause blindness as an after-effect. Paralysis, permanent muscle injury, nerve damage… but nothing so specific as blindness. The eyes are very sensitive and easy to damage, but they're also largely insulated from the rest of the body's organs for that reason."/
"Is there really no hope? There's nothing anyone can do? It's not fair!"
/"You'll find the world is full of a great many unfair things, little Sue. But hope? Hope is everywhere. Don't give up just yet."/
To take Sue's mind away from her troubles, we started to tell stories. Sure, we could have been lazy about it and simply played some movies… but there was something magical about real storytelling, drawing images with nothing but words, allowing the listener to build the world inside her own imagination.
Monika could play the source material in a small window in my vision space, and it was something like a lit jam as we had to describe what was happening and make voice-overs. Monika could adjust my voice slightly, overlaying it with her speaker output. Enthusiasm was really more important than accurate copying.
Sue looked attentive, but didn't seem to enjoy very much the classics of Disney animated canon like Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. I suppose tales of princesses and princes were silly things to actual royalty and a world with actual dwarves and dragons in it. She was more invested when Maleficent cursed the whole kingdom and turned into a dragon, but it was more exciting than… marvelous.
Monika and I looked at each other, then at Sue, then back at each other.
And so we skipped ahead and began to tell her the story of Fa Mulan.
This one worked much better. There was a lot of dialog Monika and I could play off one another. She laughed gaily at the antics of Mushu. I was much more confident at being able to attempt Freddie Murphy's snarky little fire lizard rather than Robin William's incredible performance as the Genie.
And there was of course the "I'll Make a Man Out of You" song.
It certainly wasn't as powerful as "Exert Oneself to Be a Hero" theme from Once Upon a Time in China. But the different voices made it funnier, and we painted a picture of a sorry lot exasperating their trainer, and Mulan desperately hoping she didn't get found out through it all.
Sue clapped happily. This was certainly a much more relatable adventure to her.
She listened attentively as we wove the tale of how she marched to war, how she collapsed the mountain on top of the enemy, and how she was found out. Her reward for saving their lives not to be killed for deceiving the army, and Sue cried out at the injustice.
Then the chase and infiltration of the Imperial City, and saving the Emperor's life, and Mulan returning home.
Sue raged that Mulan would only be a dutiful daughter from now on, after she accomplished so much, and then calmed down. If that was what she decided to be, that was fine too. As a noble herself… she understood that women had their own duties too. You can't be so selfish, you need to know what you are doing will also affect others.
And then she beamed happily at the ending, at Mulan finding true love and a man who really respected her. Sue regaled us with what she most enjoyed about the best parts of the tale until even that began to tucker her out. Sue fell asleep soon after, Monika whispering a slow lullaby while I idly fanned the insides of the carriage with a magic breeze.
Reim laid her out to sleep straight on the carriage bench, while he moved to sit down on the floor.
/"… Player, I never really cared as much as you about giving me a real body again, you know?"/ Monika said softly, staring down at Sue's peaceful sleeping face and her long golden hair trailing down the padded carriage seat. /"But more and more I really wish I had hands to touch with."/
She looked at me from the side, and clenched her fists over her chest. /"A waifu can never give you something a wife can. So, Player, someday I hope – sooner than later - you get bored of this game."/
"Monika, that's not-"
But she just left my view again, leaving me alone with nothing but my thoughts.
After a while I exhaled roughly, leaned back crossing my arms, and settled in to sleep as well.
(Why can't I just WIN the damn game, huh?)
- o
- o
In my dreams there was a path going through deep dark woods. It was a cold night, and I was wearing a hooded jacket and in my hands a flashlight.
For some reason I decided to shuck off the jacket, taking my arms out of the sleeves and wearing it again like a cloak.
And I began to walk.
Step by step walk like them until they walk like you.
Step by step leave behind your shame.
Step by step leave behind your pain.
Walk like them until they walk like you.
The chill night wind grew stronger, and I huddled even tighter under my mantle.
/Walk like them until they walk like you./
- o
- o
The next day, just after lunchtime -
"Look, we're almost there!" Sue excitedly pointed to the lake shore once we emerged from the forests.
The Royal Capital of Belfast, Alephis, was situated along the banks of the inland lake Palette. Which was an odd choice, I thought, until I saw the waterfalls feeding that lake, coruscating in a rainbow of colors. Belfast had a comfortable climate, that and the fair rule of its king made it a relatively peaceful and prosperous country. Their silk goods were famed as among the highest quality in the world, and business was the pride of the kingdom.
As we approached closer, we saw a white castle built along the banks of the lake, from which radiated the rest of the capital city. While the castle itself was built on an artificial white hill and looked faintly smooth and organic, the main city walls were imposingly tall and almost endless, wrapping all around the capital city. Guards conducted inspections at the gates before allowing anyone inside, but they quickly waved us through as soon as they saw Sue and Leim's faces.
We rolled through streets paved with white limestone and a little while crossed a stone bridge that spanned a large river that cut through the city. There was another checkpoint at the middle of the bridge, not the entrance as I'd expected. I supposed in times of war a gate in the middle of the bridge was easier to defend. It's not like the enemy would have any room to pull back from the defenders on top, and then they could pull back again to the last gate at the far end.
Again, we simply breezed through that. "Beyond this point is the noble's residential district," Leim explained. Which meant the area we just left was the commoner and business districts.
Fair enough. I was familiar with citybuilding games like Stronghold, or Caesar and Zeus, which had 'unpleasantness' radiate from work buildings that reduced property value. Monika updated my minimap to show zones and streets radiating out from the castle. It actually reminded me of the fortifications of Constantinople, only instead of a narrow peninsula the defense was more flat and used the curve of the river in place of more defensive walls.
We traveled through streets filled with beautiful buildings and then arrived in front of a massive mansion and its huge white walls. As we stopped by the entrance, six soldiers had to work to slowly open the huge heavy metal-reinforced doors.
The carriage finally came to a stop in front of the steps leading into the mansion, and Sue swung open the doors with great gusto. A wall of maids and servants stood by and bowed.
"Welcome home, Young Miss!" they greeted her.
"Thank you!" Sue waved back. They arranged themselves in two rows showing a path to the open mansion door like an honor guard.
None of them betrayed any surprise when I emerged from inside the carriage next, as Leim prodded me to do so. They only had eyes on Sue, faintly nervous ones, as she waited there lightly shifting her weight from one foot to another.
Finally a man with a flowing cape emerged and came running down the red-carpeted staircase in front of us. "Sue!" he cried out.
"Father!" Sue ran and jumped up to embrace him.
"Thank goodness… thank all the gods, you're safe!" he whispered as he desperately hugged his daughter. "When I got that message about what happened to you – my heart all but stopped!"
"Didn't you get my note, father? I told you, we were fine! We had really strong people protecting us!"
"Note?" I whispered. "When did that happen?"
/"One of the guards rode ahead when we were close to the city. Figured it would be easier to trip any ambush ahead of time, and the loss of one guard would not be very much considering our combat power,"/ Monika responded privately.
But it turned out that [Amplified Endurance] horses were just only a little bit slower than a horse with a single rider, we arrived at the gates with little time for the Duke to send troops as reinforcement and escort.
Eventually the Duke let go of his daughter and made his way over to us. He was tall and fit, with long blond hair and a thick but well-trimmed mustache. He wore a tall-collared cloak with accented by thick tan shoulderpads and cuffs. He had a kindly face, but there was also a strong purposeful energy to him. This was a man who knew his share of violent confrontations.
"So you must be the adventurers who saved my daughter. You have my sincerest gratitude. Truly, thank you all so much for all your help." He bowed deeply from the hip, the brother of the king lowering his head to some no-name adventurers.
"Please, there's no need for that," I said. "We only did what anyone would do in that situation!"
He looked up and smiled. "I see. How modest of you, but nevertheless, you have my gratitude!" He grabbed at my right hand and shook it firmly. "If you had not interfered, my Sue would have been murdered or worse by now! So, just tell me how I could possibly help you out!"
"Aaah. Well… there is something..."
"Playa!" Elze gasped out in dismay.
I smiled and raised my hand, making a little wave towards her. "Don't worry about it. It's just… we have been on the road for days, you know? Summoned water can only go so far, might I just say I do not feel comfortable for any form of conversation right now?"
The Duke blinked, taken aback for a moment. This was clearly not what he was expecting. He looked at me, then to the girls standing stiffly and intimidated behind me, and began to nod in a caring and thoughtful manner.
"Oh. I see. Then you must pardon my impoliteness. Of course, come in, I will happily allow you to use our wash rooms. I will have the maid prepare a change of clothes and draw your baths."
I bowed. "Thank you so much, my lord. I am sure you would like to take this time to speak with your child and your servants about what happened as well."
Duke Ortlinde frowned slightly and stared at me with a much more calculating gaze. "… yes. That is a thing that we should be doing. Very well then, I invite you all as guests to my home, under my hospitality and protection. Let us speak again after you have refreshed yourselves."
"Is... is that really fine?" Elze squeaked out. "I really hope we're not offering any insult or anything."
"No, no, it is perfectly fine. This is the least I could do to express my gratitude for saving my daughter." He then beckoned some maids to approach. "Please simply send word to let me know when you are ready to talk. Perhaps over tea?"
"That would be most agreeable, my lord. Thank you."
"See you later, Sir Zah!" Sue said happily as she took her father's hand. The two then went into their mansion, leaving us be. The maids also peeled off leaving, the ones that were ordered to attend to us.
"If milord and miladies would just follow us?" they asked with a bow.
As we followed them inside, Elze yanked at the back of my collar and hissed, "Playaaah! What do you think you're doing?! How can you be so rude?!"
"Hospitality is sacred, Elze. We have guest rights now. Before he is a Duke, he is a father. I'd have asked for bread and salt, but I had a feeling that's not the custom here. He can't actually harm us now that we've been formally invited into his home, our safety is his responsibility."
"… no, even so… that's still too scary, Mister Zah," Linze mumbled. "Being rude to a noble can get you killed, you know?"
"Seriously, where DO you get all this confidence to mouth off to powerful people?" Elze muttered.
I snorted. "Appearances must be maintained. In the realms of nobility, one's presentation is one's armor, and words are one's weapons. This is a massive concession from him already, it puts us in his debt to erode what he already owes us for saving his daughter.
"I've always found that debts and leverage are poor starters for good conversation. It's easier when both sides can work towards an equilibrium. If he was so prickly as to be offended by that, then we should just leave. We would owe him nothing, and only Sue would ever be able to call us back. We never helped Sue in hopes of getting a reward after all, we'll do fine earning our own money in our own ways."
"I still think it's rude!" Elze huffed. "You all but said we were stinky!"
"I feel humiliated by that, Mister Zah," Linze added softly.
"… ahaha…. yeah, my bad." I cringed and embarrassedly scratched at my cheeks. "But I am sticky and sweaty and I need a bath and Monika has accumulated enough Player Points."
/"S-s-shut up!"/
- o
- o
/"Are you sure that's all you meant about that, Player? This is your last chance for a sanity check."/
"No. Not really. I'm not that blind, Monika. I can see where you're angling me with this. It can be very beneficial to be seen as a badass. Nobility always deals best with other nobility…"
I sighed and slid deeper into the tub and blew bubbles, before re-emerging. "Warriors to warriors. Power to power. If I have a role to play, then so do you."
Monika frantically covered her eyes with her hands even as she recorded everything. /"Actually I blame Elze for this. She was the one to inspire the idea. A spirit can only be exorcised, not stolen."/
I hummed contentedly.
Walk like them until they walk like you.
- o
- o
Some time later, now freshly washed and cooled down, we rejoined the duke inside one of the private tea rooms of his lavish mansion. Reim poured tea for each of us onto delicate gold-rimmed bone china cups.
"I have spoken to Sue and Reim, and what happened was… more nerve-wracking than I could have imagined, and your help much more astounding! Never could I have expected a group so skilled in both battle and healing. You have saved my daughter, and my dear friend who has helped raise me as much as he now watches over my daughter.
"So, while you may know already, but allow me to formally introduce myself. My name is Alfred Ernes Ortlinde, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart."
And then we made all our introductions again. "And of course, there is Monika," I noted. "But she doesn't want to come out until this place is a bit darker and more secure."
"Oh! That's right! Miss Yae, you haven't really met Miss Monika yet. You only heard her, you don't know what she looks like!" Linze said to the girl from Eashen.
"I would indeed be honored to finally glimpse Monika-sama."
"So, could we darken this place a bit?" I asked.
Reim moved to pull the drapes over the windows, and then returned to stand behind the Duke. There were no maids nor guards in that room. A lot of privacy, but also somewhat insecure for sake of the Duke.
I took out my small cube-shaped projector and arranged it to point towards a mostly blank far white wall. A series of concentric circles blurred in and out as Monika automatically adjusted the lens focus.
Then the view flashed and shifted into a strange room with metal walls, and a far window showing the night sky. A strange tobular metal structure could be seen outside, filling a quarter of the view outside that window, slowly spinning – the characteristic long cylinder of Island Three O'Neill Space Colony.
As the gargantuan sheets of mirrors spun, it flashed a reflected trail of the distant sun into the room.
Panels with blinking lights were set into either side of the wall. A single empty chair occupied the very center of the otherwise barren room. The walls and floor were made of metal panels painted a faint olive green.
"This… Monika, this is the command bridge of a Musai, isn't it?"
Monika slid into view from the corner on the screen, smiling impishly. /"I thought you would appreciate a familiar sight, My Captain."/
She set her projected image to 1:1, as if she really was there through a hole in the wall.
The Duke's eyes widened. "So… is that you, Lady Monika? It is certainly an honor."
/"INDEED I AM MONIKA,"/ boomed out Monika. I grinned. I was such a bad influence, but seeing her ham it up was also lovely. Let's roll with it! She saw my gaze, grinned smugly, and thumped triumphantly over her chest in a Roman salute.
She reached for the 'edges' of the projected screen and began to 'drag' it walking backwards and zooming the view until everything was in 2x scale.
Her gentle smile and her piercing green eyes dominated the view.
Huh. On that note, as I glanced around, I realized that I knew a lot of people with green eyes. Monika had green eyes, of course. Elze and Linze also. Then Sue had green eyes, which she inherited from her father too.
/"SPIRIT OF LOST LIGHTNING, THE TERROR OF SOLOMON (THE WISE), AND THIS IS MY HOST – THE LAST SON OF ZEON, IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED. IT IS ALSO A PLEASURE TO MAKE YOUR ACQUIAINTANCE. SUE HAS SPOKEN VERY WELL OF YOU."/
Yae let out a little "Oh!" of realization. The shift between Monika's casual demeanor earlier and now this oppressive aura she was emitting... wait, was Monika doing something with infrasound?
Monika pushed away from the frame and stalked with bare feet over cold deck plates to sit on the captain's chair. She crossed her feet and leaned back, resting her palms over the armrests and taking a queenly pose.
I narrowed my eyes. By tapping on the side of my headset, I could request for Monika to switch between a plain outside camera view and her real-time desktop view. Her projection was necessarily somewhat blurry. Her high-resolution image closer to my eyes... that sheer smugness in her expression...
Monika, are you actually wearing anything under that yellow Lalah robe?
As if sensing my thoughts, Monika's smile only grew much more haughty and self-satisfied.
She pointed out with a slim finger and intoned, /"My Beloved has been testing you with little provocations all this while, Duke Ortlinde, and so far you have responded most favorably.
/"You have allowed us entry into your home and shared your safe resting spaces with us, even if that incurs the risk of these adventurers aiming to map your home for later purposes.
/"You have listened to your daughter and your servant and took their words as fact without quibble, not caring about their age or their subordinate role to yourself.
/"You have allowed us mere adventurers to meet you as equals, and humbled yourself before us in gratitude. You have allowed yourself to sit with us, not fearing this could simply be the excuse for an assassination attempt.
/"And with this, We will also say, that as we have saved cute little Sue once - so we would be most displeased if something were to happen to her later.
/"So let us speak, Alfred Earneas Ortlinde. What troubles thee? What manner of deviltry seeks your daughter as a weapon against thine royal mandate?"/
"In truth, I am not so sure," Duke Ortlinde answered. "Not because there is no reason for it, but because of my position I am certain there is no end of sordid individuals who see me as a bother."
He made a bitter face as he sipped from his teacup. "I cannot even begin to pick who would seek to use her as leverage to make me dance to their basest whims."
"I understand. I am not interested in any names," I responded. "But I have a feeling for things like this. This is an escalation. Things like this is what leads to things like civil wars and purges. I am an adventurer, not a mercenary, war is not good for my business. What do you think this is about?"
Duke Ortlinde gave a heavy-hearted sigh and set down his cup. "I presume the same thing as usual… removing my brother from the throne, and rolling back the beastkin protection laws that our father set down."
"Excuse me, what? Beastkin what?"
"The laws that give Demi-humans all the full rights as Belfast citizens - the right to move without requiring a writ from their lord, the ability to establish business, to be paid at the same rate as other freemen, the right to refuse sexual advances and to punish those who take advantage of them no matter who, the right to use the same spaces and shops as other Belfast citizens, the right to be able to quit and move away to Mismede without being hampered, if life in Belfast no longer appealed to them."
Duke Ortlinde thinned his lips angrily. "Although slavery of the beastkin had mostly been outlawed since two hundred years ago, alongside the split of the Great Regulus Empire into Regulus Empire and Roadmere Union, and the foundation of the Beastking Kingdom of Mismede, it was not until my father pushed through these laws that the beastkin living in Belfast could enjoy a life little more than just field workers or entertainers.
"Unfortunately the right to travel saw most of them leave the country for Mismede, where they could finally be safe from prejudice and exploitation… leaving the nobles with many of their farms and businesses undermanned."
/"This is the faunus rights thing all over again, isn't it?"/
"This is the civil rights movement thing all over again, isn't it?!" I snarled out, and the cup in my hands began to crack. "Of course this place could also have assholes like that, why did I even expect otherwise?"
The Duke looked taken aback by my vehemence. Even Monika stared at me, puzzled at why I felt so strongly about this.
I looked down at the broken porcelain in my hands. "Sorry about this. Come Wind, soaking release, [Evaporation]," I dried up the tea dribbling down the table.
I looked up and put aside the cup indifferently. "Much apologies for destroying your property, but I have… seen… how stubbornly persistent is this stupid racism and bigotry. In a generation or two more, it could be more difficult to reverse… but now it is still in a vulnerable state. I've seen all of this before."
Even if instead of cotton, silk. And it was the South that was prospering instead of the North. But the grain-producing temperate areas of Belfast still controlled most of the nation's military force. The capital city was roughly right in the middle of the country.
With grit teeth I continued, "I suppose the fact that they now needed to hire human workers for real wages, and abusing the tenants of one's own fief too badly could be seen as… uncultured... all of this drastically reduced certain nobles of their power and wealth? Even resorting to treason… I can see why they feel they should pull their shite while they still have a chance to roll things back."
"We have not met any beastkin so far in Belfast, not even as adventurers…" Linze mumbled in realization.
"If you don't stamp out this nonsense, they will be able to disguise their discrimination under other more palatable excuses," I added.
"Yes." The Duke nodded towards Linze, "This is why you will find most beastkin living in and around the capital, where the protections are most… visible."
I sat there and seethed. But this was politics, and properly it was none of my business. "This is a very complicated issue, one should not tread into it lightly. Outsiders have no right to butt in."
"And I would not expect you to do otherwise, Sir von Chara," Duke Ortlinde answered. "This is our problem, we should resolve it ourselves."
- o
- o