A/N: Boy, am I glad to be back writing Ariete. Special thanks to my brain for providing words to put down.
To clear up something:
Ariete and Raphtalia have been slaves for two years in this universe, hence the reason they have been wearing the rags for so long. Ariete also is much more tired from being a slave for so long.
Also, just if you wanted to know I listen to Kizuna AI when writing. Check out her songs, they're pretty good, especially her newest release.
Important message at the end about the lateness and also the first omake (wooo!)
Aside from that, enjoy!
With our new clothes, we headed down the street. I noticed people avoiding us, or rather our new master. Each gave a disgusted look at him, then looked at us, then back at him with more disgust. I looked at our master. He had a spiteful look, his eyebrows permanently pointed to the bridge of his nose, his mouth stuck in a grimace full of despair. He looked at the same avoiding crowds and clenched his fist.
He seemed to feel wronged by this world, and this world seemed to feel wronged by him.
Raphtalia's belly let out a loud growl. She made an "Eep!" sound and covered her stomach. I was about to elbow her as a silent protest, but then my stomach betrayed me too.
"Are you two hungry?" he asked. Raphtalia and I shook our heads. Behind me, I could hear the slight swish of our tails.
"Come on, you can't fight on an empty stomach." He pulled us into a tavern. Raphtalia looked between him and the anti-demihuman signage. I elbowed her.
"C'mon. Let's just follow him." I whispered. A little shove pushed her into the building and I followed.
The sweet smell of food hit me. Ah, how I wish for a proper meal. My sister joined in with me at marvelling the food around us. One small boy was eating his meal of crisp, fresh veggies and juicy slices of meat. A small pile of rice accompanied the meal. Me and Raphtalia had our mouths watering.
"Two of what that kid's having over there," Our master pointed to the meal we were watering over. "And also one of your cheapest meal sets."
We sat down. Raphtalia looked nervously at the brooding man. I bumped her with my leg.
"Don't look him in the eye, he won't like it. Best we can do until I come up with something else is avoid his wrath." Submit when he wants to, protect the vitals and try to let out just the right amount of tears and whines. Too strong, they'll think you're tough and need more breaking. Too weak, and they punish you for being boring then sell you off starving.
It's a pattern I was familiar with.
A waitress slid two trays to me and Raphtalia with the same meal as the boy. The smells tempted me to dig straight in.
Our master had his plain set of veggies and rice put in front of him. We both stared at the table and waited. I'm not sure if he just put the meal there to test us or to tempt us or-
"Are you two going to eat?"
Raphtalia asked before I could. "Is it really fine?"
He nodded with a confused look. I took a tentative bite.
…
…
...
It's really good.
I looked at him again, and he gave a confused nod. Raphtalia got the signal and we started shoving our first proper meal in years into our mouths.
As I chewed I noticed the wary looks and hushed whispers directed at our table. Maybe he's a former criminal or something? Something to make him infamous among the people.
Eh, worries later, food first.
After our meal at the pub, he led us to the meadows outside the city. Raphtalia looked at the beginner adventurers fighting monsters and clung to me. I lent my arm.
At first, Raphtalia was hesitant as the man blocked balloons and ordered us to stab them. I mostly stayed back and burned any that got too close. With good food in my belly, I found myself with a bigger pool of mana than I've ever had in the past two years.
I also had a newfound passion for setting fires. We came upon what looked like an egg, with tiny little blobs for hands and feet. It jumped. Our master bashed the thing away. It jumped again and tried to sink it's buck teeth into his skin. It didn't even put pressure on it.
I wondered if his skin would get burnt. Eh, it's probably fine. I gestured for Raphtalia to stay back. Tsuvait magic still needs a chant, albeit a short one. "I am the one who commands the origin of power! Let a flame engulf my foes! Tsuvait Fire!" Three small points of pure heat balled up on my fingertips. I sent them towards the egg creature. It popped on the second hit. The third orb hit a branch and turned it to ash.
What was left behind was a green egg, cooked by my magic. The eggshell was mixed in haphazardly and what was supposed to be the yolk had a rotting smell. Raphtalia gagged to the side while I held my nose.
"Now all we need is some ham and the set'll be complete." I gave our master a confused look. He waved it off. Little lights in his eyes told me he was using status magic. A hero? No, it can't be. Especially since he's wielding a shield. What Shield hero would buy slaves? They're supposed to be kind, right?
I decided to take my mind off of it. We started walking. I passed the time playing with fire. Literally. A few words summoned a ball just big enough to fill my hand. I tossed it up and down as we walked. The thing would hardly even ignite wood, but it'd do for a toy. I eyed our master carefully. He kept his head looking forwards. I tried a few tricks. First, up over the head, catch it on my heel, then toss it back. I made the move perfectly. Seems I still have it. A cough nearly made me drop the ball.
Our master looked to the side. I extinguished the ball and looked down. His eyes were on me, but they passed over.
"Lets camp here." I heard the faint noise of a river. He unhooked a bedroll from his belt and spread it out.
He lent us a towel. "Go bathe, you two. I'll be nearby fishing, so just yell if you need help." Huh, they usually don't mind if we're a bit smelly, after all they're the reason we're dirty.
Me and Raphtalia went to the river and started bathing. For once, I felt completely clean as two year's worth of dirt washed off. I noticed my skin was a fair bit paler than I thought it was. Raphtalia was washing herself to the side. I sneaked behind her and splashed her back.
"Ah!" She turned to look at me. She frowned and then splashed me. I laughed. We started splashing back and forth for a while.
This, this was nice. A taste of freedom. I wasn't in a cage, in chains or locked down. The only reminder of my slavery was my crest. I felt joy.
"Hurry up before it gets dark!" I heard our Master's voice through the trees. I frowned. Raphtalia looked at me. I nodded.
We dried off with the towe and put back on our clothes. We headed back to the camp.
"Go gather some sticks."
I went with Raphtalia and gathered some dry branches from the ground. I moved the sticks over to her then took a loose log from the forest floor. I'll assume he wants that too. We walked back to the clearing.
Our master already had a pile of logs and was tapping two rocks together. He looked up. "Oh, you got a log?" I nodded and set it down with the rest.
He walked up to me. His arm started reaching for me. I raised my arms and flinched. Here we are. Stupid me, should've done what he told me-
A warm feeling and a little weight settled on top of my head. My ears twitched at the contact. I opened my eyes. His hand was on top of my head, ruffling my hair. Huh. I lowered my arms.
It's been a while since I've been patted. Why… Why's he being so nice? It's very suspicious. He could be a plain adventurer or… something else.
I need more info. I'll see if I can get some by using my now restored good hearing and vision when we're in town.
Meanwhile as the sunset turned to twilight, our Master was still banging rocks. He looked to me, sitting next to Raphtalia.
"Can you use your magic to ignite fires?" I nodded. Is he dense? Of course I could. Not that I'd tell him that to his face.
I stood in front of the pile of wood and picked up a branch. "Faust Fire." A small flame appeared on my fingertip. I held it to the branch. It took a bit, but the branch caught fire. I cut off my mana to the flame on my finger and it disappeared into a wisp of smoke.
I set the branch down and fanned the flame. The air nurtured it until it grew into a cozy, crackling fire. Our master seemed impressed. He pulled some sticks from his bag and started to skewer fish. He planted them to cook near the fire. SHe turned them around after a few minutes, then took them off. He squeezed some juice from a fruit over it then handed one to me and one to Raphtalia. I bit into the fish.
It was better than the tavern's food by a long shot. The outside was crispy and had a lemon flavor to it. The inside was perfectly cooked tender, soft meat. I devoured the whole treat. Raphtalia also ate the fish quickly. I couldn't help but let out a satisfied sigh. A cough accompanied it.
He also gave us a cup made of leaves filled with a syrupy liquid. I took a tentative taste. "Ewwww! Bitter!" I said.
"It's medicine, drink it." I inwardly groaned. Suck it up, Ariete. I downed the bitter concoction. Raphtalia required a bit more coaxing but she also drank the medicine
"You two sleep first, I'll take watch and wake you up if anything happens."
We nodded and laid down on the dirt.
"What are you two doing? Use the bedroll."
Huh? Isn't that for him only? I pointed to the bedroll with a confused look. He nodded. Even poor masters usually don't feel a need to share and make us sleep on the dirt. I pointed and silently asked the same question. He nodded again. I searched for malice, but his gaze didn't show a drop.
It's strange, but I'll accept it. I gestured for Raphtalia to lay down first then I did. It was more comfy than the dirt. And slowly but surely, I fell asleep on the first day of my last master.
A/N: Before the extra long endnote, I have a question. Would you like me to write out the chants (like I did this chapter) or would you rather I just imply they're there? I'm going to use the former and slowly progress to the latter, but if you'd like me to just keep with the chants or remove them altogether, feel free to review or PM.
This endnote I'm writing before finishing the chapter is going to be a bit mopey and not exactly the perfect picture of sanity. But it's something I need to get out, and being the coward I am, I'm doing it to you, where hopefully the consequences can truly be damned.
I'm not exactly the best morally good person. I do know right and wrong, the thing is I do just skirt into the territory of wrong a lot. Lately, those little (and two big) transgressions just snowballed into one big ol' lump of self hatred and regret. Out comes the original Twinning. More or less me venting. That becomes more and more apparent as things get less and less coherent, especially as SGDS and the one shots came out. Realizing this, I start degrading my own work. SGDS is a clusterfuck and the end of Twinning is a mess. This is the reason Chapter 5 for that series is delayed and why this chapter was too. So, I've decided on a solution.
I'm going to put SGDS for the time being on an indefinite hiatus, and also when I start again I'll edit the existing chapters before I begin to post new ones. With this new rewrite you're also going to see more serious me and less wacky funny silly me. More dark depressing mental struggles and more real plot. I see that Twinning became a reflection of my mental state, so I'm going to keep it that way. I also want it to be coherent and readable so I'm gonna try my damnedest to find a beta. Does that mean I'm going to continue the schedule? As a loose goal, yes. But I'm going to keep my breaks as breaks and my work as work. Because I'd rather have a mental breakdown later rather than sooner.
Sorry bout that 300 word abyss, but i just needed to get things off my chest. Sigh.
Well, this is the part where I do an omake. This one is a bit later in the story, but they're still children.
Omake 1: Pillow Fight!
Naofumi noticed giggles from the other bed. He opened one eye and looked over. Nothing. He closed it again.
More giggles. This time he looked carefully at the other bed. No movement. The giggles came again and he heard a soft "poof"
Another "poof"
One of his slaves rolled onto the bed wielding a pillow. Ariete, he remembered. She laughed as his other one whacked her in the side with a pillow. He looked outside the inn. It wasn't too dark. He decided to watch the two girls. Ariete rolled out of the way of another blow and pushed herself off the bed. Raphtalia was hit in her arm, and she retaliated with a laugh and a swing. Ariete took it to the side, falling back on the bed.
Raphtalia leapt on top of her sister, and they both kept laughing.
Naofumi watched. He remembered a time his brother and him also had a pillow fight. He watched and grinned in nostalgia.
Ariete ducked under a swing and tackled her sister to the bed. She then started trying to whack her sister with the pillow. Raphtalia rolled and switched positions with Ariete. She got pushed off and they both sat up, kneeling on the sheets. Raphtalia tossed a pillow.
Naofumi's memories were interrupted as a pillow hit him in the face. He pushed it off and looked at the girls. Both were now sitting on the bed, with terrified expressions. He watched them turn to surprise as he tossed back the pillow with a smile and picked up his own.
"Whoever loses has to gather firewood next time we camp." He said.
The two girls looked at each other, then at him. They smiled.
As the night went on, guests complained about loud laughing from the room. All they could see was a man being beaten with pillows in his bed by two little girls.
Thanks to bryanicus in the Raphumi discord for giving me the idea for a pillow fight.