Chapter 8: One hell of a village errand
Here is chapter 8 after a long wait so enjoy a more comedic and relaxing chapter.
Birsingr finally finished his training after the kids kept pestering him with questions, but once they realised how late it was, they had to go home or else their parents will catch them breaking curfew.
Birsingr is fortunate that they left because if they didn't, he might be having kids following him all the way back to the mansion "By Nito those kids sure can annoy a person to death."
He places his sword on his back, once he made sure the sword is secure, he tracks back to the mansion.
The sun is starting to rise when he left the forest, so he had to pick up the pace otherwise the maids will realise he left the mansion.
The knight looks through the gate to see if anyone is up and about. Thankfully no one is around but to be safe Birsingr opens his box and takes out a small ring, which is the obscuring ring which hide the wearer from the naked eye if the person is far away enough .
He puts it on his right index finger and walks through the gate and makes his way back to the door.
He stops when he senses someone walking the same direction as him, he needs to keep his distance to keep the rings effect he looks around to find cover and luckily, he sees a bush a few feet back, so he quickly dives into it.
Realising that the sword on his back will make him stick out like sore thumb so he places the sword back into his bottomless box to hide better.
He peeks out of the bush to see if anyone is around, and he spots Ram with what looks like firewood in hand.
Birsingr leans forward a little to get a better look but doing so he snaps a twig under his boot.
This causes Ram to look at the direction where Birsingr is which made him curse "Fuck!" he swears mentally
Before Ram could investigate the noise, her sister calls her "Sister, I need assistance with making breakfast."
Ram looks at the spot for a second then she goes and assists Rem with the task she is doing.
The usurper breathes a sigh of relief as he manages to avoid being discovered, not wanting to test his luck a second time he quickly gets out of the bush and enters the mansion and opens the door slightly of the main entrance to see if anyone is around.
Once he thinks it is safe for him to move up, he opens the door quietly as possible and walks slowly, when he enters, he closes the doors quietly, he then walks quietly to his room.
He stops when he hears voices he hides behind a corner, when the voices are gone, he makes his to his room again quietly.
The Unkindled One manages to get back to his room without anyone noticing him, he has a sigh of relief for once.
He looks down and realises that with that little stunt he did it made his butler uniform covered in leaves, the Ashen starts dusting the debris off his clothes, so that he does not have to be question on how he messed up his uniform.
As he was doing that he looks to his bed and sees his armour no longer covered in blood and polish like a diamond
Birsingr takes his armour off the bed and puts it back into his bottomless box.
He hears a knock on his door he puts the box on his belt and goes to the door.
The Ashen One opens the door with only his head visible, to see Rem with what look like surprise on her face.
"Yes Rem, how can I help?" Birsingr asks.
Rem quickly shakes off the surprise "We are going down to Alam Village to do errands, so dress appropriately and meet us in front of the door."
"Of course, I will be down in a few minutes." Birsingr closes the door.
He looks at his uniform to see how dirty it is from his little stunt then he glances at the box hanging from his belt "I can't wear this in front of the maids they will be asking question on how I got it dirty, well time for option B." he smirks
Down stairs the maids are waiting for Birsingr, as they wait, they are discussing something important.
"Rem did you see the skill he has with that sword?" Ram asks her sister.
Rem nods "Yes sister, he was swinging the sword as if it nothing."
The twins suddenly hear what sounds like metal hitting wood they look up to see Birsingr in the armour he wore when he first came here, along with his shield and twin swords and a small talisman hanging on his side and his helmet under his arm.
"Why are you wearing that thing, and why do you have your weapons?" The pink hair maid asks not happy.
"I would prefer to wear something more protective as well as preparing for anything that might attack us."
The twins didn't appreciate Birsingr being armed to the teeth, but it would take to long for him to change into his uniform.
So, Ram takes a deep breath and just deals with it "Very Well, let us go before it gets late."
The twins start walking but Rem takes a quick glance to Birsingr which he keeps noticing and it is starting to make him curious, so he finishes going down the stairs and makes his way out.
As they are walking Birsingr decides to ask something "Rem why do you keep glancing at me? If I have something on my face you can tell me?"
Rem has a look of surprise on her face and looks to Ram, she is about to say something, but Ram interrupted her.
"It's your hair, Rem doesn't like how messy it is" Ram answers for Rem.
Birsingr touches his hair wondering what's wrong with it considering he was trapped in a tomb for over a thousand years it hasn't change since he woke up in the cemetery of ash.
"If you like Birsingr Rem could cut it for you?" Ram offers.
Ram looks at Rem with a glare "Won't you Rem." she says with a bit of anger.
Rem looks to the side out of fear "Yes sister."
Birsingr notices the tension and tries to break it, "It's okay I'm fine with my hair being as it is." He turns down the offer.
"By the way are we going by carriage or we are walking?" He asks.
"We will be walking as it is not far from the mansion." Ram answers his question.
"Really, I didn't see the village when I left here; I did go past another one but, that was further from the mansion."
The maid's eyes widen because they did hear about a village getting raided by bandits and that they were saved by a knight using some sort of fire magic burning them to ash.
Birsingr notices the shock look on the twins faces "What?"
The maids look forward not wanting to get attention from Birsingr, so they continue to walk to the village.
"What? Did I say something wrong?" he asks as he chases the twins.
When they arrived at Alam Village the first thing Birsingr notices is how lively it is as people go and tend to the fields and children running around having no care in the world.
The houses are built from a strong looking wood and the roof are tile base, so it has a solid foundation over all it is a standard village to live in "Hm, if only peace can last forever." He remarks sadly.
"Stop idling around Birsingr and follow us " Rem chastises.
Birsingr look one more time then catches up with the twins
As they are walking the villagers start to take notice the arrival of the staff of Roswaal, but what they focus on is Birsingr as they have never seen him before but what put them on edge is he is armed to the teeth.
Birsingr notices an elder man wearing a white long sleeve shirt, with blue overalls with a green neckless, brown trouser, and brown pair of shoes, walking up to the trio.
"Welcome Ladies it is always a pleasure to see you again" he then notices Birsingr behind the maids, "And who is this? Is he your bodyguard? Because he certainly looks like one." He asks curiously.
Birsingr shakes his head "No sir, I am a butler to Lady Emilia and also a trained warrior."
"You look more of a hedge knight then a warrior." The elder man comments.
"He is quite smart for a village elder but am I really a hedge knight I may wear the armour of a knight but, nevertheless I am no knight because at least a knight has decency to die for what they fight for."
The elder man raises his hands "Welcome to Alam village, as I am the chief in-service of Roswaal."
"Pleasure to meet you, I am Birsingr Warrior of Sunlight " Birsingr takes the chiefs hand.
The chief notices Birsingr's grip "My word you have a strong grip, you must be quite the swordsman."
"Let's just say that you need a strong grip where I come from." Birsingr lets go of the chief's hand
The chieftain laughs then points something out, "Oh, by the way, it seems like your friends have left you alone Sir Birsingr."
Birsingr looks around however he couldn't see the twins "Well then, if they want to play it that way I won't help them, perhaps exploring will pass the time."
"Ah, if you wish to explore then I would recommend you visit the centre it is a beautiful spot." The chieftain recommends.
Birsingr nods his head, he puts the helmet in his box to keep his hands free.
As he is walking around the village square to see if what the chief said about it being beautiful is true, but a child like sound ruins the moment.
"Hey Mr Knight, what brings you here?" a voice calls out.
Birsingr stiff up like a plank off wood "Oh no not them again!"
"What brings you here Mr. Knight are you patrolling the area?" Lucas asks.
Birsingr doesn't say anything as he is pretending not to hear them.
"Hey Mr. Knight, you still there?" Cain calls out but still no response.
Lucas had an idea he takes the stick he is holding and throws it to Birsingr to repeat what happens last night.
Birsingr could tell there is a stick coming towards him, but unlike last time he does not move allowing the stick to bounce harmlessly of his armour.
The kids disappointed that he didn't do anything, they move to the front to see what is wrong; they see that Birsingr is staring at nothing and not moving, they think he is sleeping standing up with his eyes open.
"Hey Mr. Knight, can you hear me?" Lucas shouts to the annoyed knight.
"God damn Gwyndolin, what did I do to deserve this? I should just ignore them and maybe they will leave me alone or not." He mentally says to himself.
Dine has an idea he walks up to the black knight and pulls on the dirty brown cloak.
Birsingr moves his eyes to the right to see the one called Dine pulling on his cloak, out of instinct he yanks it back to him making Dine fall on his stomach "Don't try that again kid and touching someone else's stuff can lead you into an early grave." He says with an annoyed look to Dine.
Birsingr then flaps his cloak to straighten it and turns around putting his back to the children and walks away.
Using the opportunity that presented itself, the kids starts to whisper to each before smirking with the idea they thought up.
"Surprise Attack!" multiple voices call out behind him.
Birsingr quickly turns around to see children raining down upon him "Oh no not again!" he remembers the fight with the Ghru from Farron's Swamp.
THUD
What is happening is pure chaos as the children are hanging on his neck, arms and legs holding him down while laughing.
"Get off me you little brats, I am not a god damn dragon for you to ride upon so for the love Nito get off me!"
As Birsingr is struggling to get them off him while not hurting them, he hears barking lifting his head he sees a small brown dog with a bald patch on its head running towards him with teeth showing, it leaps over the children and lands right on Birsingr's nose teeth imbedded.
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Birsingr screams to the heavens as the dog sinks its teeth into his nose.
Birsingr having enough stands up taking the kids with him, "This dog has one hell of a bite, children if you would be so kind, GET OFF ME THIS INSTANT!" The kids could feel a sickening feeling coming off Birsingr and they quickly get off him while the dog is hanging from his nose.
Birsingr looks down to his nose where the dog is and grabs the ruff of the dog's neck and tries to pull it off his nose, however the dog has a strong grip on his nose and still growling "Are you kidding me?"
The Ashen One looks to the side and sees the kids giggling at his current predicament; he hears a whistle behind and immediately the dog lets go and runs towards the whistling.
Birsingr turns to see a little girl with long blue hair, with olive green eyes, wearing a simple blue dress, the girl is crouching down allowing the dog to come to her.
Birsingr rubs his nose "That mutt has one hell of a bite."
"Hey Mali, come here and meet the knight that we talked about last night." Lucas calls to Mali with the dog wrap around her arms.
Mali looks nervous and looks away from Birsingr "Sorry sir about my dog he normally doesn't behave like this, I promise it won't happen again."
"I hope not, I'd better not see that dog in my vicinity ever again." The Unkindled warns.
"Thank you so much Sir." She bows.
"Hey Mali, were going now so hurry up." Dine calls out while waving to her to come to them, "What about you sir? Want to join us!"
Birsingr has a look as if they have gone mad "Even if you guys were the last people in existence, I would never join you!"
They giggle and run off with Mali following them towards the forest.
Birsingr immediately grabs his box and pulls out his helmet to put it on to make sure that incident doesn't repeat itself.
The Ashen One looks to the sky and sees the sun setting to the west.
He makes his way back to where he last saw the twins, using the mental map he created to guide him back.
When he arrives back, he sees Rem and Ram with small bags of food and 4 large barrels behind them and rope on top of the barrels.
"Their you are Mr. Ash are you done being lazy?" Ram asks while insulting him.
"Yes, Birsingr are you done being lazy?" Rem asks while adding on the insult to him.
Birsingr sighs "I wasn't being lazy, I was just exploring while you two left me alone."
"Then basically you have done nothing at all." Ram bluntly responds.
"Alright, alright lets just cut the chat, just tell me what to do so we can get out of here." The Ashen One asks annoyed.
"You can take those barrels and carry them back to the mansion." Rem tells him.
Birsingr looks at the barrels then back to the girls then to the barrels once more, "Where is the cart?" he asks.
"There is no cart you have to carry them with the ropes." Ram tells him.
"You have to be kidding me." He makes sure they are joking.
"No" the twins say at the same time.
Birsingr is walking back to his room while grumbling "Damn those maids to the abyss making me carry the heavy stuff while they get the light weight bags, and they didn't bother telling me it was full of fish, now my armour smells like I bathed in Farron Swamp, and to rub more salt to the wound when we got back, they picked up the barrels like they were nothing!" When he is in front of his room, he opens the door enters it and slams the door shut hard enough to displace the frames on the wall.
He decides to switch out his armour to another one of his sets, his body starts to glow a bright light and changes to his new set.
The armour is a black-dyed leather vest worn over chainmail, with black-dyed leather tied around the arms, with only the left fitted with a gauntlet on his legs it has iron kneecaps, and a red cape with black webbing on it (Abyss Watcher Armour Set)
"Much better, it's lighter than my usual armour but it will have to do"
He checks outside to see if it is dark enough for him to sneak out of the mansion and it seems almost here.
He goes to his door and opens it and instead of an empty hallway it is Ram with a few stacks of books in hand. "Fuck" he curses mentally
"Ram what a surprise to see you this late, especially at my room of all things." He says annoyed.
Ram notices his new and question where got it, as he did not have any luggage when he first arrived at the mansion.
"Yes Mr. Ash, I'm here to start your lessons on reading tonight, or are you planning something else?" Ram questions.
"Y-yes, I am going to the village as they need help with their Mabeast problem." Birsingr tries to lie.
"That won't be necessary, as the barrier is still up." The pink haired maid explains.
"You mean there was a barrier… I mean yes the barrier of course, the one Roswaal mentioned when I last saw him." Birsingr chuckles nervously.
Ram stares at him before ignoring his weird response "Now if you don't mind, we have studies to do."
Birsingr sits down in front of his desk as Ram puts down several books in a language the ashen one couldn't understand and ink well and quill in front of him as well as a blank notebook.
"We will first start with simple words and letters, so try to write your name." Ram instructs.
Birsingr gets the quill and dunks it into the ink and starts writing his name down on the blank book.
Ram looks at the "scribbling" on his paper.
"What are you doing?" The pink haired maid asks.
"I'm writing my name." The Unkindled responds.
"What you are writing is scribbling." She scolds.
She takes the quill from Birsingr and writes his name down in her language, Now the opposite happens he sees just scribbling on the paper "Uh…is that supposed to be my name?"
"It is Mr. Ash, that's how it is spelt." She explains.
"This is going to be a long night." Birsingr complains.
"Yes, it is." Ram bluntly replies
"Well there goes my training." He sits back and listens to Ram explain.
Hope you enjoy the chapter and if you have some constructive criticism please leave them and may the flames guide your way.