Chapter 29 / Misplaced Maiden
Rishia Ivyred believed she had lived a very basic life.
She grew up in the care of her parents, but she never had many chances to speak with people outside of her household other than the casual salutations and small talk with neighbors and villagers. In her freetime, she would always settle down by reading a few books by herself. They were a bit expensive, but with how she was enjoying it, her parents didn't mind the hobby's price. After all, they were the governors of their territory, so books weren't difficult to come across either.
It soon came to a point where her parents wanted to send her to school. The destination was slightly far from home, even crossing borders to arrive there. Her academics hadn't faltered the moment she stepped in there, aside from any subjects that required physical movement, but while she had trouble figuring out what to specialize in, she was never able to complete her studies. Her family was starting to have money problems around that time, so she was forced to return back to her home.
She hadn't been too bothered by it, but that basic life eventually twisted into a dilemma when a neighboring governor. His demands and his actions struck down the peace that Rishia once had in her life, the basicness that she once held closely. When she was taken by the governor, she wasn't sure if she was ever going to return to that life again, but just as those hopes were fading away, a door opened up.
Quite literally.
She was completely terrified to see the door of her locked room to be busted down so suddenly, followed by a scary person coming up to her and holding her mouth shut. If it weren't for that hero of justice to come and resolve things between them, she would have had a heart attack before seeing the light of day.
It was that hero of justice that showed her what strength she lacked. His words held a conviction of justice, his soul held a heart that looked righteous, and while his methods were a bit questionable, she could tell that what that hero wanted was to protect the innocent and the weak.
Weak people, like her.
As she was being brought back to her parents after the hero of justice and his allies were finished with what they came there to do, she kept wondering what the longing pain in her heart was. Everytime she thought about how strong that hero had been, it reflected on how weak she was. Something about that didn't sit right with her and in fact, she disliked it, but what was she to do about it?
Throughout the night, she thought long and hard, thinking how she could be strong, just like that hero. If she had been strong, something like that wouldn't need to happen again. If she had been strong, she could help protect the innocent from injustice, just as that hero did for her.
Perhaps it must be taught. Back in school, there would always be a teacher available to guide their students along in order to have them excel in the structured materials of the class. One could be good in arithmetics if one learned from a teacher who taught that. Then who could teach her to be strong?
There was one answer that she could see here.
That's why she told her parents as soon as possible as to what she wanted to do.
That's why she ran after the hero and his party in order to make a certain request.
That's why she cried tears of joy when they accepted her into the group.
Rishia was prepared to go to hell and back to learn how to be strong. Even if all her duties are to be taxing, both physically and mentally, she assured herself that she wouldn't ever give up under any circumstances. She wasn't sure if she was able to hold her own promise to herself, but she was going to try her absolute best. Whatever pain and hardships would come her way, she would take it all on, if it was what it took to become a hero of justice.
Although—
"Hey, Itsuki! Stop hogging the meat!"
"You can barely call this hogging, Ren!"
"Sakura wants more!"
"Alright, I got it! Hey, Ren! Pass some over!"
"I need to grab my portion too, damn it! Besides, Sakura is just going to eat all of it at this rate!"
"Sakura hasn't even gotten her fourth plate yet!"
"Ren and I haven't gotten through my first! What the hell is your favoritism!?"
"Don't you dare give Sakura another portion, Motoyasu! We need some for ourselves!"
"How could you deny this sweet, adorable child!? Look at how cute she is!"
"With that appetite!?"
"Sakura is just hungry…! Stupid Ren doesn't understand…!"
"C'mon, you guys! There's enough for everyone here! There's no need to argue over it!"
"Perhaps I should have hunted a bit more with Miss Eclair…"
"I thought you two brought enough…"
"If you focus on the taste of the meal slowly, you can almost forget that the others are causing a ruckus, Lady Raphtalia. Leave them to their chaos. Oh, and could you pass a bit of the seasoning while I have your attention?"
"It's stuck over there between the aforementioned chaos."
"... I see. I'll have to pass on that then."
—Although, Rishia never thought she would find herself in this sort of situation ever in her life.
Among the makeshift table they set up underneath the moonlight, they were supposedly having dinner by a campsite, but all Rishia could do was nervously stare at her food where everyone else had been chaotically sorting themselves out. It's been about ten minutes since it started and while she didn't think a group of adventurers would avoid this scenario, it was a bit different knowing that all four Cardinal Heroes had been present here, with more than half of them actively participating in said chaos.
When she was told about their true identities, she couldn't believe it at first.
She had thought Raphtalia had been telling her some type of terrible joke, but it merely took one simple battle with a couple of monsters to demonstrate how wrong her guesses were. Their weapons transformed into different appearances for the situation that they need it for, as well as using skills effortlessly, something that only heroes could do. It certainly could have been a technique of some kind, but the more the heroes fought, the less likely Rishia saw it to be.
And the more she started to think, "maybe I made a terrible choice." Not because she regretted coming with them, but more as in that she felt like she was increasingly becoming more out-of-place as she came to be more aware of their roles as the Cardinal Heroes. There were some big shoes to fill in, considering who she had been traveling with, but perhaps this was part of the challenges that were lined up for her.
"Honestly, you really watch how much Sakura eats, Motoya—Wait, where did my food go!?"
"Ah, Sakura took it while you weren't looking."
"And you let her, Itsuki!?"
"Stupid Ren was busy talking, so Sakura thought that she could take your portion."
"That's not how any of this works! Are you looking for a fight!?"
"You can't possibly fight Sakura! If you want to go up against her, you'll have to go through me fir—Gaaah! I didn't even finish and you already punched me!"
"D-Daddy!"
"You guys, calm down a bit!"
"I'd suggest letting them do what they want. The food will get cold, Sir Naofumi. It would be a waste to leave it while it's best enjoyed at the moment!"
"Ah haha…"
With the trailing laughter, wryly quieting down from Raphtalia, Rishia was still sitting right on the corner of the table, luckily avoiding any confrontation with the mess. Raphtalia glanced over, noticing the plate hadn't been touched yet, so she softly called out for the new member.
"Miss Rishia? Is something wrong? Are you not hungry?"
"N-No, it's not t-that…!" she stuttered, not expecting her to reach out. "I-It's just that, uhm…"
"It's just what?"
"I-I mean, it just… doesn't feel all too real what I'm experiencing right now…"
"Traveling with the Cardinal Heroes, I take it?" Raphtalia chuckled.
To a certain degree, Raphtalia was right on the nose, but that certainly wasn't the full story in Rishia's mind. She glanced over to where Itsuki, Naofumi, and Motoyasu were trying to hold back Ren and Sakura from scrapping. A bit of color disappeared from her eyes, followed by a nervous and lackluster laugh. She couldn't even hide the missing energy underneath the rug.
"I do think it's better if you don't think of them as such. They were all friends from the same world before they were summoned here, so they've very casual with one another. For myself, I was quite surprised as to the way they acted, but it makes sense. The Cardinal Heroes are people first and foremost, rather than a title. If it helps, don't think of them as what they are, but who they are."
"F-Fuee… I-I'll try…"
"I'd say it's natural to be feeling your nerves acting on you on first impression."
"That's about saying it, I suppose. Don't you think this is a bit weird, Raphtalia? Uhm, I mean, Miss Raphtalia…?"
"It's fine. You don't need honorifics."
"A-Ah, then I suppose you shouldn't use honorifics with me either, R-Raphtalia…"
Rishia continued fidgeting, glancing between her untouched meal and the Cardinal Heroes.
"It just feels a bit unreal. I heard a bit about what happened with the Cardinal Heroes through some rumors that were being spread with the people of my parent's territory and I'll be honest, I might have bought myself into that belief. It just sounded too scary not to take seriously…"
"I wouldn't know what it would sound like on the outside. I was with Master Naofumi before the rumors of the four heroes defecting from the capital even started, but I can imagine it must be quite troubling. Having the heroes that were meant to save us, actually being evil…"
"Y-Yeah, there's a lot of people in my parent's territory that believe in the rumors as well. My parents themselves don't think much of it, since they're still trying to get our land's budgeting all sorted out, but they certainly kept precautions for folks that could appear to be the Cardinal Heroes. They didn't want any further troubles for themselves than they already had."
"That's probably the notion many people have. It's unfortunate that Master Naofumi and his friends are stuck in this situation, but that's why I want to help them out as much as I can."
"T-That's… good to hear…"
All of them, despite what their titles are, did appear to be good people. Although, she couldn't exactly say that in good faith about Ren, especially given how their first meeting.
As much as dinner could try and wrap up, there was luckily little backlash from what happened during their meal. Most of them saw it as banter that got out of hand, let alone Ren and Sakura who still couldn't be on good terms with each other, but everyone started helping out in cleaning up.
Rishia wasn't sure what she should have been doing.
Naofumi told her that she was fine doing whatever, since he and Itsuki were both going to bring the dishes, utensils and pots to a nearby river to wash them. Raphtalia was going to clean up the site to make sure they weren't leaving anything behind, but it hadn't been a big job in the first place. Ren, on the other hand… seemingly disappeared, but it would appear to be that he headed out to grind some experience for himself once the roles were all assigned. There wasn't actually much to do left, not that there had been much to begin with.
She merely found herself sitting down next to the campfire, sighing.
At least the food had been heavenly. The Shield Hero was very talented in his cooking, especially with the Spear Hero as his sou-chef. With a combination like that, it blew everything she tasted before in her life right out of the water, even her own mother's cooking. If it weren't for the extent that it was taken, she could have understood why the Bow Hero and the Sword Hero were so indulgent on the meal.
Just remembering the taste in her mouth was making her drool a bit…
"Lady Rishia?"
"Y-Yes!?"
She flinched at the call of her name as she turned towards the former knight.
"My apologies if I scared you out of your thoughts. Were you in the middle of thinking about something important?"
"N-No, it's fine! D-Did you want something?"
"Well, I was wondering if I could observe what types of strengths you have."
"Strengths…?" Rishia tilted her head softly.
"Yes. If I recall correctly from what Sir Itsuki told us, your reason for joining was to grow stronger and…" A pause emerged alongside a bitter smile. "And follow a sense of justice. I could always assist in the former, if you so wish. I will simply need to see where you're at right now."
Rishia fidgeted, but this was the perfect scenario that she had been preparing for. Although her combat skills weren't great, she might as well show off what little she could do. Besides, Eclair didn't appear to be someone who judged people very easily off of trivial things like that, so Rishia nodded.
She went off with Eclair to a small field nearby and as she was preparing to do the only thing that she knew how to do, Eclair stuck a wooden sword in her hand. It took a few moments for Rishia to have her brain catch up with her surroundings, especially since she was assuming Eclair meant that she would be showing what type of magic she was capable of using.
When she was at school, she had a few classes on the subject and managed to pick up a few helpful spells that she thought could come in use later down the line, as well as some of the basic requirements. Although she had barely come to use any of that knowledge between when she dropped out to join the heroes, she could reasonably piece together how it was intended to be.
Unfortunately, she couldn't say the same about swordplay.
"U-Uhm…"
"What's wrong? Is it too light for you?"
"T-That's not… the problem…"
If anything, it was the opposite.
Whatever Eclair handed her did not feel like a wooden sword.
"Then come at me with what you've got."
Rishia's words refused to escape her throat, being pulled into Eclair's entrance exam. She knew she probably needed to say something like, "I'm not good at using a sword," but her body was the only thing that could move. With a nervous gulp, she ran forwards, blindly flailing her sword. As much as she could, anyways. That much was enough for Eclair to understand that she had gotten the wrong idea, knocking the wooden sword, safely and cleanly out, from Rishia's grip. The attack was enough to knock Rishia off her feet, purely out of fear.
"Did I perceive a wrong impression?"
"F-Fuee… I can… only use… magic…"
"You should have said that beforehand," Eclair chuckled. "My apologies, Lady Rishia. If that's the case, there's no real point in teaching you how to use a sword if you're a mage. Although, it wouldn't be too far from a bane for you to learn. Far from it, actually."
"U-Uhm… I'm alright actually…"
Despite the act being well-meaning, Rishia found herself more tired. Eclair helped her up and while she wasn't an expert on it, she did simply ask what type of spells she was capable of using. Rishia decided to only show the ones that she was far used to, that being some basic fire and healing spells.
"Oh, what a coincidence. Sir Motoyasu uses the same attributes as well."
"Fuee!?"
Did she mess up? Overlapping herself with attributes that someone else in the party uses must diminish her usefulness in the party, but before she could follow up on, Eclair continued.
"Although, he merely uses magic in emergencies. I've only seen him use a single spell so far, that being healing spells on Sakura. Exclusively, might I add. A few small scratches here and there, but it was clearly enough for him to use magic, considering how much he dotes on Sakura. It'll be useful to have someone focused on backline support alongside Sir Itsuki."
A rush of relief came over Rishia.
"Are you sure that you don't want some sword training?"
"I-I'm fine, thank you!"
For some reason, she felt like that was the safest for her. She didn't want to be judgemental on first impressions, but Eclair did not appear to be the type of person that would go lightly on training her students. Rishia said she wanted to be strong, but maybe easing herself into the role might be more helpful than immediately jumping straight into it.
It might have been a dance with death itself otherwise…
Raphtalia came over to save her, indirectly mind she added, since she was looking to add some more training into her sessions. Rishia watched them for a little while, so that her suspicions could be confirmed. They were indeed much confirmed. From the way that Eclair had been pushing Raphtalia's movements, there was no way that she could ever expect to get into a monstrous regime like that straight out from the floodgates.
She quietly slinked away back towards the camp. It would appear that clean-up was all finished in the camp, but Naofumi and Itsuki were still out, washing the dishes. The river must have been a little further out than they expected it to be.
Motoyasu was in the middle of brushing Sakura's hair and once she came by, she caught their attention. He beckoned his hand, waving over to her. "Oh, Rishia! Come here for a second!"
"H-Huh…? Alright…" She sat right down next to them, but she was careful to leave some distance in between. "Is there something you need?"
"What? No, nothing like that. I just wanted to talk with you, Rishia. Is there anything wrong with getting to know a new party member?"
Motoyasu gently smiled as he returned to brushing Sakura's hair. The mannerism he went about made it seem like an artform, nailing the elegance of his movement to near perfection, all while being casual with Rishia. It certainly would make any girl's heart skip a beat.
"Daddy, you're tugging with the brush a bit too…"
"Oh, sorry about that, Sakura. Your hair's a bit tangled up after you tried to fight with Ren. Please resist the discomfort for a bit for me, alright?"
"Hmm…"
"You should probably learn to get along with him. I know he's a bit moody with you, but maybe if you show that you're willing to be on good terms with him, he'll—"
"I don't want tooooo…" Sakura pouted. "Ren's stupid."
"Ah hahaha…" Motoyasu dryly chuckled.
"What is Sakura anyways?"
The question of curiosity emerged so suddenly from Rishia. She covered her mouth, thinking it was a bit rude to trespass on information like that, but Motoyasu retained his smile as Sakura gave it no real thought, raising her hand up.
"Huh? Sakura is Sakuraaaa…"
"Well, you see, Sakura was originally a filolial."
"I've never seen filolials like her before. Not only is bigger with more feathers, but she can even turn into a human. The types of filolials I've seen on my parent's territory are much different."
"Honestly, I'm not too sure I understand it myself, but one day, she simply suddenly transformed into this human form of hers. It's not like it was much of a problem though, because as she said, Sakura is still Sakura. As her father, or the one that raised her from the egg, I'll adore her just the same."
"Does she ever fight?"
"Sakura can fight, but Daddy doesn't usually let her…"
"W-What if you get hurt!? I can't let that happen to you!"
Eclair's previous words immediately echoed once again in Rishia's mind.
"But Sakura can really fight and even use magic, Sakura can kill things easily for Daddy…"
"I-I mean, you don't really need to do any of that!" Sweat dripped from Motoyasu's forehead. "I'll do as much fighting for the both of us, so you don't even need to lift a feather! Isn't that more relaxing for you? You can even focus more on pulling the cart or staying close to the cart, rather than leaving it behind to fight!"
"Hmm…" Sakura aloofly tilted her head. "That's trueee…"
Motoyasu sighed a breath of relief, disengaging her adoptive daughter from thinking something so outlandish in his eyes. All Rishia could do is hold her own breath among the absurd protectiveness that Motoyasu was exhibiting.
"Also, don't move your head too much. I'm still brushing your hair."
"Okayyy…"
He returned his attention to brushing Sakura's hair, but he shared a glance over to rishia here and there. "So tell me a bit about yourself, Rishia. Surely, the daughter of a governing couple must have some stories to share."
"A-Ah, no…" Rishia profusely waved her hands. "Nothing too interesting…"
"Did you head off to school anywhere?"
"An educational institute in Faulbrey, but I never completed my years because of the money shortage my parents were going through…"
"Faulbrey?" Motoyasu raised his eyebrows. "Oh, so you've been there before! That'll make things easier when we get past the border!"
"I-I mean, I did go to Faulbrey, but… I don't think I'd be much help. I don't actually know much of the landmarks there, since all I was focusing on were my studies, that's all…"
"Certainly better than any of the heroes combined," Motoyasu chuckled.
"I guess… that's true…"
"Is school fun?" Sakura asked.
"I suppose that depends," Motoyasu answered. "When I was in school, you would constantly have to balance things out to make sure you're not swamped with too much work. Slacking off isn't much of an option either, so sometimes, it was stressful. However, it's probably the catalyst that led me to having some of the most fun experiences in my life since the people you meet at school can vary a lot."
Motoyasu looked over to Rishia in the corner of his eyes. "What about you? Did you enjoy school, for whatever time you were there? You must have at least one interesting story, right?"
"S-Sorry, I was… very focused on my schoolwork, so I never really had a chance to meet with others. I was mostly alone during my time."
"Aw, that's not good. I mean, it's great that you're dedicating your time to not waste your parent's money as much as possible, but I think school is also about the relationships you form, just as much as the lessons you learn. Not that you can do anything about it right now."
"Y-Yeah, I suppose so…"
"At the very least, you can make up for it here!"
"H-Huh?"
"Yeah, well, because you've got people here that you can get to know now, rather than keeping to yourself. Everyone in the group is more than welcome to having you, so don't feel like you need to be reserved or anything like that. Speak your mind! Don't feel the need to hold anything back!"
"I-I see…"
There was a certain type of ambience that Motoyasu was emitting that made it difficult for Rishia to look onto him directly. The most she could do was steal glances every so often and even then, she could feel the exuberant energy that he was sending off. He reminded her of one of those popular guys at her school that would always be around girls.
Rishia tried to keep up the conservation with Motoyasu, though she was lacking any of the energy to keep up with him and Sakura. If there was anything she learned, Mtooyasu was truly a good person who was trying to look out for his new party member and perhaps that might have been why Rishia felt rude to think that she should try to depart from the interaction.
"Hey, don't bother Rishia too much."
"Huh? I'm not bothering anyone!"
From behind, Itsuki returned to the campsite with Naofumi following closely behind.
"If Motoyasu is bothering you, you're free to tell us, Rishia," Itsuki continued.
"A-Ah, no, he's not bothering me at all…"
"Why do you and Ren keep assuming such things!?"
"Speaking of which," Naofumi said, "has Ren returned yet?"
"Not yet," Motoyasu responded. "Something tells me he won't be back for a while. His grinding sessions are occasionally intensive and sustancial from what I hear, especially because he loots from monster corpses much quicker than anybody in the group."
"I bet if you look at his weapons compared to ours, he's been putting in more materials into them for stronger effects," Itsuki groaned. "I definitely know he's holding back on sharing everything with us, that's just how he is…"
"Was there something you needed from him, Naofumi?"
"Not exactly needed, but…"
Naofumi sighed.
"Well, it's about the fight Eclair and I had against him back in Errnthon. I wanted to ask him if he could help teach me a few things, even if he was against such a direct way of learning. I realized that I've been slacking on my actual combat skills when compared to Ren, so I feel a bit incompentent in comparison? He just controls a battle so effectively. Despite what happened before and afterwards, I can't help myself to try and ask for pointers."
"It's a bit unfair, trying to compare yourself to Ren in the first place," Itsuki deadpanned. "He's a natural fighter, even inside of Brave Star Online, on top of his extensive push on the strengthening methods, so it's fine if you get clapped by him. Pretty sure everyone else would have similar difficulties. Though, everyone's pretty strong already compared to the average person. I took a fire spell in the face without leaving too much of a scratch on me."
"Perhaps, but I just don't want to be underprepared…"
Rishia overheard what happened in the foyer of the governor's manor as she was with Itsuki in the office. They literally fought each other, but they were still able to travel together like nothing ever happened. She wasn't sure how to think of it. Were they carefree of those matters? Were they already putting it past them? Probably not, because they were speaking quite seriously about its subject.
"Also, I don't think you should be comfortable taking fire spells in the face like that."
"Hey, it's not like I expected it to happen," Itsuki grumbled. "I was just as surprised as anyone else to see when I realized I managed to get through it unscathed, but I suppose it took a while for that to sink in…"
"You think I can tank a fire spell to the face?"
"Well, if Itsuki could, then you could certainly do that, Moto—actually, what am I saying? I'm not trying to endorse anyone getting hit with a fire spell here!"
If she thought about it a bit, the Cardinal Heroes could be said to be strong, simply because they have access to irregular powers that the average person couldn't achieve. No matter how much Rishia tried, it wouldn't be possible to catch up to them, not as she was right now. Not that it was her intention to do so in the first place. She only wanted enough strength to stand on her own two feet, so that incidents like before wouldn't happen again, whether she was directly involved or not.
Maybe she should look into getting lessons from Eclair after all, but she was worried about snapping like a twig before she even got a chance to grow. Maybe it was actually best if she went to Raphtalia instead. Out of everyone in the group, she felt like the easiest person to talk to right now and could probably go easy on her. If only her own training wrapped up already, but even then, Rishia wasn't too sure how much more comfortable she would have been.
"By the way, did you guys know that Rishia went to school in Faulbrey?"
"Seriously?" Itsuki asked. "That's pretty convenient—"
"She doesn't know much of the territory there or have anything in terms of connections, but I thought it was a cool coincidence. Though, now that I think about it, the place has to have some type of prestige if you traveled from Melromarc to Faulbrey in order to study there. It's not as if Melromarc doesn't have any educational institutions, right?"
In being distracted by her own thoughts, the conversation went ahead without her. Without any warning, Motoyasu tried to pull her back into the fray, despite her being pleased about not participating.
"U-Uhm, yes. It was a famous school, known for its quality. One of the best in the country that even people from the royal family come there and study. It was expensive, so my parents had to save up a lot for me to get the few years I was able to stay there for."
"If that's the case, maybe you'll be better…"
"Hmm?"
Naofumi rubbed his chin as he slowly glanced over to Itsuki. Rishia didn't understand the context, but Itsuki's cheek went pale after a few seconds of realization.
"H-Hey, Naofumi. I said that I didn't need to—"
"Rishia, how good is your linguistics?"
"My linguistics? I… don't mean to brag," Rishia trailed on, fidgeting as she was trying to figure out how to word it, "but I, uhm, excelled in my classes concerning language arts. I'm knowledgeable on some of the major languages used in the continent."
"Good. Can you help teach Itsuki how to read?"
"I don't need to learn!"
"We've been trying to get him to study the language of Melromarc, but he's been persistent about otherwise," Naofumi continued, straight-up ignoring Itsuki's pleas. "Everyone else has tried their best, but to no success. Maybe you might have some learning tricks that could help out Itsuki?"
The perfect situation came by like a prayer being answered. If it came to books, Rishia was much more confident in her abilities than anything else. If all she had to do to feel like she was contributing to the group, she could take on this seemingly simple task.
"Y-Yes, I can certainly try!"
"Want to give it another shot, Itsuki?"
"Are you kidding me!? Why would I—!?"
Upon seeing Rishia's excitement and assured confidence, Itsuki started to falter a bit. It seemed like everyone around was noticing how ready she was to teach. She hadn't been paying much attention to the disgruntled state Itsuki was suffering through, but even his own hatred for study couldn't be damned to interrupt the moment. He ended up relaxing his shoulders loosely.
"..."
He didn't continue what he was saying, nor did he try to replace his phrase with another. Naofumi took it as an act of compliance, given that Itsuki didn't want to end up hurting the new recruit's feelings in such a childish manner. All he could really do was cross his arms with a little pout.
"We already have the learning material ready for you. Just figure out a way to get our friend to be literate," Motoyasu jabbed softly. "Let's say he's a bit slow on the learning uptake."
Itsuki turned his face away from the group, pouting even harder.
"That's fine, as long as you have something for me to teach off from."
"Give it a try, Itsuki," Naofumi wryly chuckled. "Maybe the way Rishia teaches might turn out to be the way that you'll learn easily."
"T-That wasn't the problem before!"
"Yeah, alright. Whatever you say."
"I-I'm serious!"
"Hey, Naofumi? Have you ever noticed that Ren and Itsuki deny things in similar manners?"
"Now that you mentioned it, I see what you're getting at here."
"What are you two even going on about!? Don't change the subject here!"
-/IV/-
Rishia looked through the books and papers that Naofumi lent to her to teach Itsuki. She didn't understand how Itsuki was unable to understand the language with such good content, but she wasn't going to be the person to judge. She was given a proper job here, so she was going to make sure she was going to complete it to the best of her abilities.
However, all she could do was watch as Itsuki's spirit started to leave him, having the remains slumped over the ground as if he was just defeated in a terrible battle. From what Naofumi had been saying, she expected it to be an uphill challenge, but she didn't anticipate things to get worse than that. Spirals emerged from Itsuki's eyes with a white flag being waved back and forth.
To give him the focus he probably needed, Naofumi and the others went out to find Raphtalia and Eclair, leaving Rishia and Itsuki to study within peace and quiet. Though, quiet hadn't been obtained much through those means and certainly, the student hadn't been at all at peace.
"This is so stupid…"
"J-Just take it slowly. There's no need to rush into things…"
Although, she was told that it was one of the things that was previously suggested for Itsuki to do by Eclair and Raphtalia. All she was doing was repeating words onto deaf ears.
She needed to figure out the specific issue.
Itsuki had been complaining about how difficult it was to learn the written language, saying that none of the apparent scribbles makes any sense from one to another. From how she saw things, it would appear that Itsuki was very off-and-on about the language, refusing to have any concrete schedule to his learning. That would certainly affect how smoothly these lessons would go, but if he was unwilling, that in itself was a major problem.
"Is there a reason why you dislike studying, Lord Itsuki?"
"..."
As much as Naofumi warned Rishia about the roadblock, she was never told about the reason why the roadblock existed. Well, she was told something, but she felt like there had to be something more than that. It doesn't feel natural, especially for someone fitting the ideal image of justice for her.
Itsuki, though, frowned.
"O-Oh, sorry! Did I ask something insensitive!? I-I'm sorry! F-Fueee!"
"No, it's… It's fine. I was never good at studying in the first place, but I guess it's also because I'm not very comfortable at it. It… kinda brings back bad memories of my past when I was… well, being bullied by other people in school."
Now that he mentioned it, he said something about once being weak like her as she was requesting for them to take her along. Being told once made it feel like he was being humble to make her feel better, but with how bitter his tone had sounded, it was apparent it had been something much deeper than that. "You mean that… studying gives you bad memories?"
"Well, really, I wasn't good at studying before it happened either way. Nothing really made real sense to me, requiring the teachers to explain multiple times for me to even grasp a part of it. Eventually, it just became a real headache, so I only studied the bare minimum to get through my classes. I still somehow pass by the end of the year…"
If learning any sort of knowledge had been troubling for Itsuki, there weren't any other methods Rishia could think of. Though, she must have been delusional if she didn't think that the others haven't tried all of the straight-forward manners of learning before her. Flashcards might not work, nor visual products could assist either.
"Whenever I get stressed, I always end up falling back to my violin. Maybe if I had one with me, this entire process wouldn't be as painful, but I doubt I'd still make any progress…"
"Violin? You know how to play music, Lord Itsuki?"
"Yeah. I'm pretty good, in comparison to schoolwork. All I need to do is hear a song once and I could perfectly replicate it on any instrument. Even if you just give me the sheet music, I could easily play it without any real practice." Itsuki pulled himself off the ground, puffing up his chest. He looked very confident in his musical talent, but he was holding back enough to not let his ego grow any longer than it was. "My comfort is a violin, but I know how to play stuff from the trumpet to the piano, even the drums. Hell, I even taught Ren how to play a bit of electric guitar."
Rishia shivered slightly at the mention of the Sword Hero's name.
"So you're natural at it, like how Naofumi is… good at cooking?"
"I never really made the comparison before, but I guess you would be right."
"Hmm…"
When she went to school in Faulbrey, she would see some people at special events playing instruments with sheet music before them as instructions to play the intended song properly. Although it might need some time to have the group play in unison, it still took time for the individual to polish their playing. Usually, it was the smart students who were in the bands as well.
For him to be excellent at that, but to not be able to study was a new perspective for her.
"Maybe…" Rishia glanced at the prepared notes again. "Could we try to incorporate sheet music and language together? It could make things a little easier for you if you're comfortable with music."
"... Is that even possible?"
"Well, if you try and consider some of the letters as music notes, could you try and memorize through that manner? For example, try thinking of this one as a note, then when it's in a word, try thinking of replacing the other letters with notes that fit it to make a small melody."
Itsuki raised his eyebrow, obviously skeptical. Even Rishia herself thought it was a blind shot in the dark, but it was far better than doing the same thing over and over again in the hopes that it would eventually work out. "Could… Could you give it a try…?"
"I mean… Ugh…"
With his reluctance, Itsuki's trial to overcome Melromarc's written language started once again. Assigning each letter to a music note was a different task than Rishia was expecting. After all, she could only count the twelve notes, but apparently, Itsuki had been using the octave scales to fill in the rest, giving a possible room of eighty-eight keys. Not that the Melromarc language has that many letters, but Itsuki certainly took advantage of it by appropriately providing each letter to a certain sound.
Some of the notes Itsuki were humming almost sounded the same, but to him, they were quite different. Even when it appeared to be a haphazard assignment to her, it resulted in the sample set of words being soothing songs to the ears. She almost forgot that she had to be helping Itsuki out in learning, but always snapped back to guiding Itsuki along before she got mesmerized with the hums of melody.
It might have been working out better than she expected.
They started off with easy words, following with words that Itsuki might need to understand in order to get any sort of passing grade in reading comprehension. It might have been better though to figure out what type of words that Itsuki himself might have to encounter and the simplest thing she could think of were shop signs.
Things like blacksmith, medicine, and restaurants were few of the varied locations that might show up along the streets of any village or city. Although Itsuki might be able to determine it through simply looking through the window, it would be a good way to reinforce his learning through application.
"Hmm? What's that nice sound?"
Eventually, the group returned back to the camp, hearing the short-noted songs coming from Itsuki's mouth. Sakura had darted ahead of them, more curious to Itsuki's melodies.
"I thought you guys were supposed to be studying," Motoyasu chuckled, following closely after his daughter. "Singing wasn't supposed to be on the menu."
"That was Itsuki?" Sakura looked over, being a bit surprised.
"I didn't know that Sir Itsuki had a beautiful voice," Eclair added on. "It certainly wasn't the scene I was expecting when Sir Naofumi and Sir Motoyasu told me that Lady Rishia was attempting to teach Sir Itsuki how to read."
"Yeah, I was imagining us returning to see Itsuki dead on the ground," Motoyasu smirked.
"I-It's certainly an improvement," Raphtalia said, sweating a bit, "but what was that song, Sir Itsuki? Something from your world?"
"I've never heard anything like that before," Naofumi commented, holding his chin.
"It's not anything at all," Itsuki answered. "Just a random assortment of music notes. Surprisingly, it's not as messy and incoherent as I originally imagined. Still pretty bad though. Maybe there's some sort of light music theory that has some loose relation to language arts."
"Bad? Sakura thought it sounded nice?"
"Itsuki's standards for music are probably different from ours," Motoyasu said, laughing it off as he rubbed her head. "His talent is in music after all, so of course he'll have higher expectations when it comes to that artform."
"Why were you even singing in the first place?"
Rishia explained the little experiment that she wanted to try. Everyone was surprised to see that Itsuki had actually made some level of progress from using that particular method.
"I see, so something like that…" Eclair nodded, quickly understanding it. "It may be a roundabout way to learn a language and certainly wouldn't work for any other case, but it's certainly effective for Sir Itsuki."
"I would have never thought to have suggested something like that," Raphtalia gasped.
"Hey, Motoyasu and I are his close friends, but we still wouldn't be able to figure a strategy like that one out. I was almost thinking of giving up on having Itsuki learn the language."
"Yeah, that would be a real shame," Itsuki sarcastically responded.
"I was thinking about wrapping it up here and continuing tomorrow," Rishia continued. "I, uh, don't want to have Lord Itsuki be burnt out after we found a good learning strategy for him."
"In any case, that is certainly a weight off our shoulders," Eclair sighed. "You have our thanks, Lady Rishia."
"N-No, I wasn't really doing much…"
"No, seriously! You're definitely a lifesaver for Itsuki!" Naofumi cheered.
"A-Ah, wait…"
From thinking that she wasn't doing much to contribute to the group, to suddenly being the center of their attention, she couldn't really handle the spotlight in such a rapid turn of events. Thankfully for Rishia, Ren had returned as they started making a ruckus about Itsuki's progress.
"Hmm? What's going on here?"
"You've got to hear this!" Motoyasu answered. "I thought Rishia would be helpful to teach Itsuki since she was good at language arts! And it turns out that Rishia made progress on Itsuki's reading comprehension! Isn't that great!?"
"... Congratulations." Ren glanced at Itsuki from the corner of his eyes. Motoyasu was thinking that his childhood friend would be jumping for joy, but then again, that would have been a difficult thing to imagine with Ren as that person. "You sure took your sweet time."
"Hey, shut up…"
"Anyways, does anyone else want to go out to grind for experience? I think we have enough time for someone to get a level. I managed to grab one while I was out there."
"Yeah, I'll head out." Itsuki raised himself up from his seat. "The monsters are going to be easy prey compared to these lessons…"
Rishia thought of offering to come along with him, but she found herself hesitating. It would appear that her confidence couldn't be spread over to other aspects of her abilities after realizing that Itsuki would probably need a frontliner like Eclair or Raphtalia to help out, if he needed any help to begin with. She merely kept to herself, collecting the books and learning material as Itsuki left the camp.
However, she felt like Ren had been staring at her whenever her attention was diverted elsewhere. As everyone brought out their sleeping equipment, with them having an extra one for Rishia, courtesy of Ren himself (since he apparently had extras of many things in his inventory for some reason), she still couldn't shake that piercing gaze on her back.
She hoped that it was a part of her imagination, but she thought that either way, it won't be removing the shivers down her spine anytime soon. Ren's frightening presence was far too much for her feeble mind.
-/IV/-
As the night settled down and everyone was fast asleep, Rishia was placed on active duty to watch everyone in order to ensure that monsters or bandits wouldn't creep up on them. She kept darting her eyes back and forth for the last hour, basically tiring herself out before anything could happen. Being given another job to be entrusted with, she didn't want to mess up the combo. Success certainly helps if someone is on a roll.
As she was looking around, a sudden voice reached out to her.
"Hey. Rishia."
"FUE—!?"
Rishia covered her mouth, being mindful that there were others who were sleeping, but she didn't even notice when Ren had woken up, much less have the opportunity to sneak up behind her like that. She was lucky that she reacted first because she noticed that Ren's hand was reactively cupped in order to silence her, but he was much slower this time around.
She wondered what made him hesitate this time, but that was another thought for another time.
"Good thing you shut yourself up, so I didn't have to do it myself."
Rishia nodded, still keen on muffling herself.
"Anyways, Motoyasu mentioned that you were good at languages?"
"Y-Yes…? I mean, I was the t-top… one of the top in my classes…"
"Maybe you can figure something out about this for me."
From his inventory, Ren pulled out a mysterious book. It was similar to a textbook, lined with a golden plating on the edges, while it carried some good weight to it. He opened the pages, skipping the first section before unraveling the question before her along with a specific page.
"Have you ever seen a language like this before? I know for certain that it isn't anything in the Melromarcian language."
"This is…?"
Rishia took the book off from Ren's hands to take a closer look. She had been given an assortment of text that she had never actually seen before, but what that hadn;t been what caught her eye. It was actually the drawing on the opposite page that drew her attention, that being an abstract artwork of something like a turtle monster.
"I-I'm sorry, I've never seen those words before…"
"That's fine. I wasn't expecting much to begin with."
"H-However, I think… that drawing…"
"Hmm? The drawing?" Ren raised his eyebrow.
"Y-Yes, I think I've seen something like that before while I was in Faulbrey. I believe… it's a painting made centuries ago, but the name of the artist has been lost to time. I saw it in a book, but I can't really… remember the details… I'm sorry! Fuee!"
"That's fine. At least I have another personal objective once we arrive in Faulbrey."
Ren returned the book back into his inventory and started heading back to his resting spot near one of the trees, but Rishia's curiosity crept out from her.
"U-Uhm… Could I… ask what the reason behind that book could be…?"
"... I'd rather not elaborate."
"R-Right… Fuee…"
"And make sure you don't mention this conversation to the others. I don't want to bother them with things like this. Actually, why don't you forget we had this conversation in the first place?"
Rishia wanted to claim that it was impossible, but the cold stare that she received forced her to nodded viciously. Without another word, Ren sat back down against the tree and dozed off, leaving Rishia to herself and her shivers. As she thought Ren was asleep though, he scared her once more with a murmur.
"And by the way, thanks for helping Itsuki."
"Huh?"
Ren didn't follow up on her confusion. She didn't quite catch what Ren said, but with her perception of him, she wasn't too sure if she wanted to know in the first place. Even when her job of night duty was tagged out, she wasn't sure if she was able to sleep soundly after whatever odd interaction that had been from the Sword Hero.
If she couldn't even have enough strength to even face him properly, it might be a while until she finds herself at a level where she's satisfied with herself…
[SKIT 113 : Cooking Request]
[Naofumi] : "Hmm. I wonder what I should make today."
[Naofumi] : "Anyone have any ideas?"
[Ren] : "Stew!"
[Itsuki] : "Spaghetti!"
[Motoyasu] : "Eggs Benedict!"
[Raphtalia] : "Grilled Skewers!"
[Eclair] : "Meat Bowl!"
[Sakura] : "Mochi!"
[Rishia] : "I-I'm fine with anything…"
[Naofumi] : "Yeah, I walked myself right into that one."
[SKIT 114 : Getting Used To It]
[Rishia] : "I'm unsure as to how everyone is able to keep their nerves like this, Eclair."
[Rishia] : "Fue... Everyone's acting so natural and I feel like I can't keep up..."
[Eclair] : "I believe that you'll get used to it. Give it time, Lady Rishia."
[Eclair] : "I don't think a normal or reasonable person would have a different reaction to your own."
[Eclair] : "It's... certainly an unique experience, personally speaking."
[Motoyasu] : "Hey, look. Itsuki's already asleep. Someone pass me a pen."
[Ren] : "Hmph. I already have one, but I'll give you the honours."
[Ren] : "If he asks, I wasn't a part of this, but I'll laugh anyways."
[Naofumi] : "Not this nonsense again. Could these problems not be brought over to this world as well!?"
[Naofumi] : "Enough with these pranks!"
[Motoyasu] :"Oh, come on! It'll be funny!"
[Naofumi] : "Not until I have to be the one to clean up the mess!"
[Eclair] : "... Honestly, I don't think that even I have gotten used to all of it yet."
[Rishia] : "... You sure have it rough, Eclair."
