Chapter 5: Book 1: Chapter 5: The Town of Esta
In the far east of Lurra, on the continent of Yorusora. It's currently late in the night in the town of Esta, it's a small town where Minka houses are built. The only people around are the guards that patrol the area from criminals and monsters alike. Blending in with the shadows, Yuna, the Kitsune is currently tailing a group of people. She had been carrying out her task for Tsukuyomi the past month that she had arrived in town. These people were hooded and were headed to the Temple Shrine that once belonged to Amaterasu.
She quietly moved close enough to hear when they got to the shrine, there she saw a huge audience of people. They had a lifeless look in their eyes. At the back of the Temple, one particular hooded man gave a speech.
"Ladies, Gentlemen. I'm glad you all managed to gather here on this wonderful night. Tonight I will show you the way to paradise on Lurra. The Chaos we will sow into the rest of the world, the darkness that will rise and dredge the lands. That will promise us everlasting life and immortality. In the name of our God Tsukuyomi. We will cleanse the filth from these lands and purge anyone who opposes our God."
Yuna couldn't believe what she was seeing and hearing. This is not what her God would have wanted at all. There were too many people to intervene though, somewhere too strong to fight against directly. She bit her lip in frustration and continued to watch. Hoping to catch anyone with their hood down, or a name to be mentioned.
After the cheering died down, The leader took a torch from a follower.
"Tonight, we will tear down this filth called a temple and rebuild a new temple in our God's Tsukuyomi's name. One worthy of all of his might." With the torch he took, he turned around and flung the Torch at the Holy sun shrine in the centre but to no avail. The torch bounced off a barrier that was in place.
Yuna sighed in relief that nothing happened. She wouldn't know how to explain it to both her God and Amaterasu if this shrine was burned down.
"It appears even with the moon full tonight. Our power will not let us touch this shrine. We will end the meeting here tonight and devise a way to tear down this shrine." The man sounded shocked and dejected that his plan didn't work. Nevertheless he didn't sound like he was giving up any time soon.
With that being said. Yuna slipped back into the shadows and made her escape. 'I hope someone comes to help soon, I'm going to need the back up to take down these lunatics.' To Yuna these were no followers of her God, most of them looked brainwashed and the leader was nothing but a fanatic. If he were a real follower of Tsukiyomi, he would advocate for Amaterasu's return to her throne. She will have to carry out her investigation another day.
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Rewinding time to the early morning of that day. I was getting ready and asking Amaterasu for advice before we left.
"So if we leave now, what time should we reach the Town of Esta by?" Amaterasu pondered for a moment, taking a quick look at me before answering.
"With your current strength and speed, we should be there by tomorrow morning. I'm quite amazed that you managed to cook enough food to last for a couple of days though. During my time observing you back on Earth you only ever seemed to make instant food or microwave meals. I figured you would need more time adjusting to this world."
I laughed to stave off the amount of pain she caused me. I thought I could feel a few metaphorical arrows pierce my chest.
"Well you brought me into this world with nothing but my underwear, so I had to adapt to my environment. If you had never told me about how I could eat the fruit, herbs and fish in this land. I surely would have had to figure it out by testing it all out and finding out what's edible and what isn't. It's not like you have electricity in this world, do you?"
Her face looked grim when I asked her that. That answered the question I wanted to know.
"There's probably a reason you and the Gods didn't want electricity in this world. Maybe there's magic or some other reason." I theorised.
"It's more like they don't even know that it exists, after all this is a separate plain entirely and they have made do with the technology they currently have using magic as a power source." My interest peaked at this statement but there was no time to ask more questions. I'll find out later how this world gets its power source and how they manage it. I want to know more about the applications of magic in this world as well.
"Well I'm sure I'll find out eventually, for now we need to move out. You will be coming with me right?" Her smile beamed at this question and she had a bright aura of happiness that smothered me. Fortunately I had grown strong enough to withstand this. It would have stifled me in the past. She lost her form and the light flowed into me. Knowing she was in my soul I finished up packing my things and moved out.
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Later on that day, it was coming close to evening time. A young red-headed girl screamed as she ran away.
"Someone, help me please!" She cried out in terror that not only her little sister was captured and dying from being stabbed in the gut. A group of monsters being led by hooded and masked people were after her.
"Shut up and just come with us quietly, You don't want to be in the same condition as her do you?" The masked man that seemed to be the squad's leader picked up her sister by her hair. Her younger sister was unconscious. He was kicked in the back by the actual leader who stepped forward this time. The young girl fell from his grasp as he stumbled forward.
"Don't damage the sacrifice, we need them in good condition so that we don't look suspicious when we bring them back to Esta." The follower had his head down and silently backed away. "Now, if you don't want, what I assume from how you both look, your sister dying on you. You will come quietly, without a fuss. Are we clear?"
She had some thoughts about it, she wanted to say no, but she couldn't leave her sister like that, she really wished someone could help. She was about to agree to it when suddenly a fire came out of nowhere. Three of them, they hit all the wolf-like monsters leaving the people alive.
The hooded men were confused and tried to run away at this moment but they were surrounded by the fires and didn't know where to go. The leader went to grab the girl in front of him cowering for her life when he was knocked out.
"Do we leave them all alive or should I burn the other two Amat?"
"Leave them alive please, as much as you can kill monsters. I don't want any unnecessary blood on yours or my hands." She requested telepathically, after hearing her request, fortunately enough, the two men tried attacking me. I grabbed one of them by the wrist, kicked the other and then broke the first guy's arm. After that, I kicked him in the face, knocking him out.
As soon as that scuffle was over, I recalled the flames and dissipated them instantly. Leaving no light or smoke.
"Please don't leave me and my sister." The young girl cried, "You have to save her, she's dying."
This girl tugged at my T-shirt and clung onto me, begging me for help. There was only one response I could think of.
"Sure, where is she?" I smiled gently towards her, she saw this and stopped crying and hugged me tighter.
"Thank you, thank you so much. She's just over there on the floor, with the red hair." Sure enough she was under one of the bodies of the guys I knocked out cold, I moved the body and knelt down to find the wound. That was when I saw all the blood coming from her abdomen. I focused my aura into my left hand and placed it over her stomach. That was when I felt her wound on the inside stitching itself back together. It appears this power won't replace lost blood but it can repair muscle tissue. Meaning if someone has lost too much blood no amount of healing will bring them back. I just hoped I wasn't too late.
Five minutes later, the healing was done, it wasn't perfect, the poor girl had a scar on her stomach from accelerated healing but she wont die any more. I felt relieved and exhausted at the same time but I couldn't allow myself to fall down here. I got back up and turned around to her older sister.
"What are your names?"
"Her name is Sophie and I'm Ruby, how is she? Is she going to live?." She quickened the pace as she spoke.
"Calm down, calm down. She's going to be okay after some rest. The healing wasn't perfect so she has a nasty scar on her stomach. I assume these guys didn't want you dead otherwise they would have poisoned whatever blade they had to kill you two.
"That's right, they said that we were supposed to be some sacrifice. The big guy you knocked out first didn't want us damaged to lower suspicion around them." She spoke calmly this time knowing her sister was going to be okay.
"Do you know where the Town of Esta is? We can take them to the guards there and explain everything to them?" I knelt down to start tying the guys up.
"Of Course I do. Sophie and I were running away from there because of these guys. Don't tell me you're going to make us go back?!" She didn't like the fact that I was going to try and take them home."
"Well it was my intention to make sure you two got back safely, but I'm not going to make you go home if that's what you don't want. Just so you know that the monsters out here won't think twice about coming after you and are probably a lot more dangerous than inside the town walls." After I said this, Ruby was deep in thought while looking at her sister.
"Alright then we will come with you if you promise to keep my sister and me safe. How does that sound for a deal?" I smiled gently which eased some comfort into her. "Alright then, so how are you going to get us back to town?"
"Why don't we just use their carriage?" I pointed towards the kidnappers that are now tied up by the wrists and ankles. "I saw it outside the woods. I assumed they used it to chase after you two." She agreed with my statement and picked up her sister. I picked up two of the men and grabbed another by the collar of their hood and dragged them all to the carriage. Throwing them all in the back. The ladies were sitting in the front. Sophie, still unconscious, leaned on her sister and slept away peacefully. With this event behind us we should finally make it to Esta tonight.
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On the dirt road the horses were clacking away along the road. I looked at Ruby and saw what she looked like properly. She looked to be around my age. Her clothes seemed to signify that she was from a poor background, they were unremarkable in every sense of the word, her skirt was torn, her top was hanging off of her and she had a shawl around her shoulders, her red hair flowed half way down her back and her face was dirty as was the rest of her body. The damage and dirt is probably the result from all the running away she and her sister had done. My curiosity got the better of me this time round.
"So do you have any family in the town?" This question startled her. Her face fell down in sadness. Her silence was all the answer I needed. "Alright then, you and your sister can stay with me then. The only thing I'll ask in return is information about the town, good place to buy food, the adventurers guild. The temple of Amaterasu as well. I'll get you and your sister a room at an inn along with a bath to clean you both up. When I get some cash behind me I'll get you some more clothes as well. I can't have you walking around town the way you are now."
Ruby couldn't believe what she was hearing. Why would he do this? She didn't even know his name. She mustered up the courage to ask.
"Why would you do this for us? I only asked that you would protect us." I couldn't blame her for asking me that. To alot of people this kind of kindness would arouse all kinds of suspicion. I gave it some thought and then finally answered.
"You asked me to protect you and your sister. To me that goes beyond just keeping you safe from harm, from where I come from. Protection means so much more than just stopping a knife from stabbing you in the stomach. Or stopping you from dying in general. It means to look after you in every sense of the word, It means making sure the person you are protecting is being fed, making sure they are clean. Making sure they sleep well and making sure they are well loved and well cared for. Not too different from looking after a child when you think about it."
Ruby's look was the look of disbelief, where did he come from to have such a noble background, was he a noble? He doesn't look like one, the clothes he wears were strange as well. Could her saviour be one of those rumoured other-worlders? Ruby was not stupid by any means. Her deduction led her to this question.
"Are you not from this world? Everything you asked of me and your beliefs don't match with the people of this world." Another metaphorical arrow pierced my heart again. Amaterasu was laughing in my head only to say one word, 'busted'.
"Yeah I'm not from this world, I've been sent here for a mission by a very special Goddess." Ruby was speechless. She had been saved by someone who was not even from this world in the first place, to her that meant that her saviour was free from the corruption of the land she and her sister Sophie had grown up in.
"Then I will trust in your words and I will help you as you are helping us. In order to do so could you tell me what your mission is and who the Goddess was that brought you to this world?"
'Am I okay to tell her?' I asked Amaterasu but all she said was.
'It's too late to hide anything from her now that she knows your deepest secret, besides I think this will end up in our favour if you trust in her.'
"First off, my name is Gaël Brand, I was summoned here by the Goddess Amaterasu and my mission she gave me was to restore her believers in the land. So that she can obtain the power over the continent that she once had. She also stayed my hand from killing those men who were after you as she didn't want any blood on my hands or hers." Sophie listened to me intently, quietly as I explained everything else that happened to me coming to this world not even 2 months ago. By the end of it she was a believer when I showed her a fire ball I could create without a chant or any runes.
"Wow, so you're essentially a Priest for the Goddess Amaterasu then?"
"I'm an adventurer first and foremost, I can't exactly be a Priest without any Shrines or Temples to be a priest of, besides I still have my own freedom and I plan to get married and have children of my own eventually. You can think of me being Amaterasu's protector by boosting her influence throughout the land. I think Amaterasu wants me to become a lord of her domain." Ruby sat back, she pondered for a while.
A few minutes went by and she offered a new deal to me.
"How about this then Gaël, If you can become a lord of this land, if you manage to stamp out everything wrong with this town. I'll come work for you as a servant. Provided, you don't make Sophie work, we can help each other out that way."
"If I'm to take up your offer, I don't like the word servant, how about a Maid instead and you will receive a monthly payment. You and your sister can live in the house with me as well, with your own rooms. How does that sound for you? Ruby had a genuinely soft smile and just said:
"Deal." With that being said, we travelled quietly the rest of the way to Esta.
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An hour goes by and we finally make it to the gates of Esta. A guard in heavy armour and a face covered up by his helmet moved towards us very calmly. We stop the carriage so we can talk.
"Can I have your names and Identification please?" At that moment I asked Amaterasu if I could reveal that I was an other-worlder. With her permission given to me I was going to answer when Ruby piped up.
"This man here is our Guardian, My name is Ruby and this here who is unconscious is my sister Sophie. We were running from some criminals trying to kidnap us using this carriage." The guard looked suspiciously at me when he heard this but seeing that Ruby from his perspective was so confident when speaking to him. He turned to me and asked:
"Do you have any proof of these claims? If proof is given we would have to confiscate this carriage as evidence. Are you okay with this?" I was surprised at how reasonable he sounded, so I told him they're in the back of the carriage tied up. Thanking Amaterasu for making me spare their lives internally. "Very well. I will get visual confirmation of these claims, I'll call over my men for back up." He signalled the other guards to come over and went to search the back of the carriage and sure enough, they were still there. Unconscious. The guard we were speaking to came back to the front.
"What is the name of this guardian of yours? He doesn't look like he's from around these parts."
"My name is Gaël Brand." I responded as respectfully as I could, bowing my head to the guard.
"Alright then, for capturing these 'now' criminals and returning property to the merchants guild come to the guard house for a reward and we will set you up with identification." The guard sounded much more grateful this time round. 'Now' criminals'? I thought curiously but didn't say anything about it. I lifted Sophie using the princess carry and we got out of the carriage and followed the guard to the guard house. I asked the guard if I could keep the girls close by as their protector and he humbly accepted.
Entering the guard house the no-faced guard brought us into an empty office and asked us to wait there. I laid Sophie onto the two seater off to the left of the room and me and Ruby sat at the desk waiting for someone to come.
A few minutes later somebody entered the room. A man fully armoured in white armour with a Golden Trim around the edges, carrying his helmet. He was a black man with greying black hair. Looking to be in his 40's started speaking with a deep voice as he sat down.
"So, we have a guardian and two women who were being chased, trying to escape from being kidnapped. None of you have identification papers, this situation seems far-fetched and we can't hand out a reward to just anyone that comes waltzing in with criminals under their belt." Ruby spoke up again:
"My sister and I do have identification. We had a family here in this town. Our parents were killed by the very same people trying to kidnap us for what they described to be a sacrifice. We were helped out of the city by one of the guards patrolling the town late last night. I would give his name but he nave gave it to us. I will never forget his kindness though." She seemed really down recalling the events. That was when I popped up.
"I was travelling here on foot from the Forest of Saisei in the domain of Taiyō." The armoured man narrowed his eyes from that statement, without saying anything else I carried on. "I was travelling to this town when I heard Ruby here scream for help and ran to her aid when I saw 3 wolf-like monsters and 3 men surrounding her. I killed the monsters and knocked out the men, tied them up and threw them back into the carriage. On the trip here, Ruby and I struck a deal, that I would be her Guardian while in this town conducting my business here of becoming an adventurer."
"And the three of you rode the carriage back with the criminals in tow and handed them over to us. Okay that lines up with what I heard from the guards who apprehended the evidence. Seeing as you're the Guardian Gaël Brand. The reward will be handed to you, we will be issuing forms of Guardianship. This means if anything happens to these girls with you around or not, you will be held responsible for their lives. I will also issue you identification papers that you can use around Amaterasu's domain of Taiyō."
"Thank you, I will gratefully accept this." The man looked confused at seeing me bow my head in gratitude, this wasn't even the reward.
"Very well, allow me to formally introduce myself. I'm the Captain of the Guard in the Town of Esta and my name is William Esta.
"Wait, so are you the Lord of this Town?" William laughed at that question but denied it.
"No, no. That goes to my Bastard, good for nothing Half Brother, Winston Jr. He inherited the Lordship title from our Father. My mother was a concubine of his. My father and Mother were good people, he should have been brought up right but that lazy fat ass does nothing but sit in his house all day sucking up the town's citizens' hard earned taxes and does nothing else for them. So when you go into the town. Please do not be distracted too much by the poor people living on the streets. He's completely ruined the town for everyone here." I could feel his intimidating aura as he was bashing his brother. I felt bad for the poor guy. He seemed to be running a tight ship around here while his brother was off squandering off the town's money with his own selfish desires.
"So how come nobody has knocked this fucker out of power then? What's to stop you and the guard here from storming his mansion and arresting him for his clearly criminal behaviour?" William looked up at me. Breathed for a few moments to calm down, and answered:
"Winston Jr, is backed by the God Tsukuyomi. Protected by the god and given the job of running this town. My job is to protect it from the monsters in the wilderness and to apprehend criminals I can actually put away in prison. Managing that, I also carry out constant inspections to make sure my guards aren't falling to corruption. The only way to throw him off his Golden throne would be if Amaterasu came back."
At the mention of my Goddess's name, Ruby and I looked at each other, Amaterasu smiled as well. William caught onto this.
"What is that knowing look you both share? Is there something you are not telling me?"
"What would it take to make you believe that I'm a direct relative of Amaterasu carrying out her mission to take her domain back from the other god's control?" William sat there for a moment. He thought it through, at that moment. I decided to take it open myself and conjured up two fireballs and made my aura glow, my eyes turned golden as well.
He looked at me, speechless. Ruby looked at me with a smile on her face, knowing she would be in safe hands.
"No wonder you thanked me for giving you the Guardianship over the two ladies. There would be no candidate better than yourself to protect them." I retracted my hand and suppressed my powers, putting out the fire and my eyes turned back to normal. Amaterasu sat on her throne in my soul with a smug look on her face. "Very well. If you can investigate all the corruption in this town. We the guard will hire you and back you. You may even take lordship of this town as it's rightfully yours anyway."
"I need to travel around the lands so I'll need to put myself down as an adventurer with the guild. The money I earn from that can be used for the town's funds to help run it. I'll also need assistance to help me run the town as I've never been a lord before." William nodded in agreement with my declaration.
"I can definitely help arrange that. To help you with this task I'd like to introduce someone we have working on the inside currently. She's a follower of Tsukuyomi but like yourself. She's a direct descendant and she's not one of these people who are abusing Tsukuyomi's name to gain favour or to do horrendous deeds. She tells me she's been waiting for Amaterasu to return. Little did I know she meant yourself." This caught my attention, Ruby next to me had a concerned look on her face.
"Very well then. It's currently late at night though. We will have to do this in the morning as I'm getting tired and I'm sure Ruby is as well." William got out of his seat and handed me the documents prepared personally.
"I'll have an inn prepared for the three of you free of charge for tonight as a thank you, and you will receive your reward for bringing in the Tsukuyomi followers as you leave the guard house." William walked out of the office and beckoned the guard to bring the reward.
We ended up leaving the guard house with an extra 10 gold coins, 3 for each criminal and 1 for the carriage itself as it was stolen.
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That night at the Inn, Ruby and I ate our meal, which wasn't much. It was some monster meat, hard bread and an Ale. Afterwards we went up to our room, it was a single room with two beds. The inn didn't have enough space for us to put us up in our own rooms. So I waited outside the room while the girls got ready. When we were finally in bed Ruby spoke up.
"I want to thank you for everything you're doing. For taking me and my Little sister in. I never would have imagined anything like this happening." She had a down trodden face just imagining that her life could have been over in a flash. Ruby never thought for a moment she would be in a warm bed sharing it with her sister, she also never thought that Amaterasu would return.
"Don't worry about it now. We have our deal, speaking of which do you know what the average going wage is for a maid? I want to pay you properly for your services." Ruby thought long and hard at this question. She didn't think she would be paid for offering her services. Thinking about how much it would cost to live, to support her sister. In the end she couldn't think of anything and decided to leave it to Gaël.
"I can't think of anything, so I'll leave it to you to decide on what my wage will be. I just hope it will be enough to support me and Sophie." I took what she said into consideration.
"Very well then, How does 10 silvers sound to you? I can even get a chance to split 1 of the silvers to allow you to make smaller purchases?" Ruby bolted up at hearing that. That kind of money could last her a month while still having enough left over to get good clothes.
"Just to make sure, that's for a week's worth of pay right? You said you wanted to pay us monthly earlier right? So you were going to pay me 40 silvers a month for being your maid?"
"Is there an issue with that?" I was confused with her question, clearly I've not gotten a handle on the money sense in this world. Ruby taught me the value of money in this world that night and without budging from my wage I mentioned earlier. The night ended in an argument between us. I'm surprised Sophie didn't wake up throughout all the arguing.
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