ดาวน์โหลดแอป
66.15% My 13th Reincarnation: The Gods Won't Let Me Die / Chapter 43: Cool, Cold, and Colette

บท 43: Cool, Cold, and Colette

Well, I know I said I didn't care about the town, but this is admittedly worse than I expected. I'm pretty sure the buildings that collapsed were empty, but somebody's going to be very angry about this.

The torn-up boat lay beside us, badly tilted. I can see several people on the boat, all passed out, their clothes drenched.

It seems they had a full crew already set up. It must have required a lot of money to get this many people, not to mention the boat.

Climbing over splintered wood, I crawl into the large hole in the bow, entering the hull. Leftover water splashes around my feet as I land. Two more splashes echo around the room as Vol and Elizabeth follow behind.

"Wow, you really wrecked this place, Seb..."

"I didn't know it'd be this bad," I reply, a bit awkwardly, "This is why we need to test things first."

"You have to admit, though... That was pretty impressive," Elizabeth said.

Pft, ha-ha. Okay, that one got me.

You know, while we do disagree on things and argue sometimes, I am glad to have Vol and Elizabeth as my friends.

Crawling up through the broken-down ship, we come across more unconscious crewmembers. A couple of them look to be a little bit worse off than just "unconscious." Several are bleeding from the head. We ignore them and continue onward. The sword takes priority right now.

Coming to a locked door near the stern of the ship, Elizabeth steps forward in a sideways stance, raising up her leg.

*Slam*

With one hard kick to the lock, the door flies open, cracking against the wall. It seems like she's been getting stronger recently.

"Now *that* was impressive," Vol says as he looks at the door, close to falling off its hinges.

We enter what appears to be a luxury cabin of some sort. Out of nowhere, a fireball comes flying toward us. It's fairly weak, though, and fades quickly after Elizabeth takes a step to the side, easily avoiding it.

As one, we look in the direction it came from.

One of the larger nuns lies unconscious over a bar table. The other is sitting in a corner, her head lolling against the wall. There, on the ground between them, clutching the sword tightly, is the smallest nun. She looks a mess. Her hair and robes are wet and clammy, sticking to her skin.

Her shawl must have come off during the crash. At our gazes, she startles and skitters backwards. Something about her looks familiar, though.

"Hold on. You're that girl that brought me to the church, aren't you?"

She doesn't respond to my query, but I'm sure it's her. This is the teenage girl that randomly showed up at my doorstep and led me to the church where I first met Risus. But if she's working for Risus, what in the world is she doing, stealing Elizabeth's sword?

"Why did you take the sword?"

She clutches it tighter, shivering slightly. It's hard to tell if it's out of fear or cold. Those wet robes can't be too comfortable in the cold night air. Come to think of it, I didn't hear her cast the spell for the fireball she shot at us. Was she already using it to warm herself before we got here?

Wait, back up. Wasn't she expelled from the church after having her healing blessing taken away? What is she doing back with the nuns?

Well, the girl is trapped here. I could just rip the sword from her, but she already looks scared out of her mind. We might not get any answers if I do that. Maybe a friendly approach is more appropriate. Let's see..

Make her more comfortable. Engage trustworthiness. Apply guilt to pressure her. Get her to return the sword. Question her about her motives.

Let's give this a shot.

"Vol," I say quietly, turning to him, "can you make a small fireball to warm her up?"

"Huh? Oh, uh, sure."

He draws a few quick symbols with his finger, finishing in less than a second.

"Rogsful," he says, casting a fireball spell of the lowest level. It was probably an intentional choice to avoid accidentally setting the boat on fire. Smart guy, that Vol.

I turn back to the girl, lowering myself to her level, showing that I'm not a threat.

"Is that better?" I ask, giving her a small smile.

She still looks a bit scared, but she nods. First response. Positive result.

"You know, I think you led me to the church once. Do you remember? I fell asleep during my prayer," I chuckle awkwardly.

The corners of her mouth turn up for a second before falling back down. Positive result.

"You know, that sword you're holding belongs to my friend here," I say, gesturing at Elizabeth. 

She glances away from me, pulling the melted sword closer to her chin. Negative response.

"My name is Sebastian. This is Elizabeth and Vol. They're good friends of mine. Would it be okay if you told me your name? I'd really like to know it."

"...Colette."

"Well, Colette, this sword might not look like much, but it really means a lot to Elizabeth," I continue in a soft voice and changing my expression to something resembling sorrow.

"Do you think she could have it back?" I ask, moving my head down to peer into her eyes.

Trembling, she holds the sword out. I reach out slowly and pick it up from her outstretched hands, then hand it to Elizabeth.

Course corrected. Positive response.

"Thank you," Elizabeth says.

"I'm s-sorry," the girl sniffs, "I didn't know it-it'd be like this..."

"It's okay," I say kindly.

I reach out a hand and push a few loose strands of hair out of her face, letting them fold behind her ear. She looks up at me. Positive response.

"It's alright if you can't say, Colette, but I was hoping you could tell me the reason for all this," I say, looking into her face with an expression of kindness as I place my hand on her shoulder.

"...okay. I'll tell you..."


next chapter

บท 44: Colette's Recount

"...okay. I'll tell you..."

With those words, Colette began recounting her tale.

Not that long ago, some of the nuns from the church had shown up where she lived. They claimed that somebody wanted to speak to her and invited her to the church. She hoped they might have changed their mind and decided to reinstate her as an apprentice.

When she got to the church, however, she wasn't sent to speak with the high nun, but to a private room.

Opening her eyes, she found herself in a void of darkness, with a single, shining figure before her. A woman in the nude, her body barely covered up by vines. A woman whom she calls Gaia.

"My child," she had said, "You have led a traitor upon the holy ground. Now, he has committed a most heinous theft, for which you are responsible."

When she spoke of "Gaia," her voice was filled with both awe and fear.

"The boy has stolen one of our most holy artifacts," she told the girl, "It must be returned onto us."

The girl was promised, as reward for her aide and penitence, the return of her healing blessing. This would allow her to join the nuns in apprenticeship once more.

"Do you know where the ship was going?" I ask the girl.

"G-Gaia wanted us to return the sword," she replied.

"Bring it back to where?"

"We... we were supposed to go to a priest. We don't have one here."

"I don't really know how it works," she continued, "b-but the other nuns seemed to think that they needed a priest to return it to Gaia."

"I'm s-sorry," the girl bemoaned to me, "I led them to your rooms. I-I didn't know they would try to hurt you," she trembled.

As she recounts her story, I begin to get the sense that she doesn't actually hold much reverence for the gods. Even thinking back to when she first contacted me, she appeared almost distressed. Not to mention, she told me herself that she falls asleep during prayer. Her actions aren't really those of a nun.

"Why do you want to rejoin the church?" I ask.

"It-it's my home."

"I don't understand. Don't you live with your parents?"

She shakes her head.

"Orphan," Vol whispered to me, "Common in the church."

Hm. I don't have time to take care of a kid with no social skills, but I'm reluctant to let her go back to the church. While thinking of the best course of action, it feels like I can hear Vol's brain churning behind me.

I look back to see him scribbling on a piece of paper, doing his best not to get it wet.

He walks forwards, bending down the girl's level, "Here, take this."

In the warm glow of his fire, he comes off almost fatherly. I find myself wondering if he ever had any children. I see the girl's face light up as she reads the note.

I could definitely see Vol as a parent.

The following morning, the town is filled with talk of the shipwreck halfway up the street and the collapsed buildings near the docks. It didn't take long before the elven council was at our door. I guess we can't sneak anything by those guys.

Vol managed to ward them off by spinning the incident as an example of the changes we've been making to the manacaster. Of course, the manacaster has exactly the same power; We just never tested the tidal spell before, so they have nothing to compare it with.

Vol said they sounded pretty impressed, though.

If nothing else, I can at least say that they're still supportive of the project, which isn't something I would particularly care about if it wasn't because they also funded all this stuff. So we have more money now.

Once things had begun to settle down, I asked Vol about the paper he gave to the young girl. He was in the middle of cleaning my splintered bedroom.

"Oh, that," he said, "It's a letter of recommendation. She should be able to enter Rosewood with it."

"Isn't Rosewood still being rebuilt?"

"Exactly, Seb. They need all the help they can get."

Churches aren't prominent in Rosewood and you can't enter without permission, so it should be safer for her there. I know the elves pay those who help rebuild. Maybe she'll be able to stand on her own two feet one day.

Vol stood up, heaving a turned-over table onto its legs.

"Shawl, can I talk to you?" Elizabeth said, entering the room and startling me. She doesn't usually use my real name.

"Uh, sure, what is it?"

"I've been having some strange dreams lately.

I get the feeling you need to know about them."


Load failed, please RETRY

ของขวัญ

ของขวัญ -- ได้รับของขวัญแล้ว

    สถานะพลังงานรายสัปดาห์

    ป้ายปลดล็อกตอน

    สารบัญ

    ตัวเลือกแสดง

    พื้นหลัง

    แบบอักษร

    ขนาด

    ความคิดเห็นต่อตอน

    เขียนรีวิว สถานะการอ่าน: C43
    ไม่สามารถโพสต์ได้ กรุณาลองใหม่อีกครั้ง
    • คุณภาพงานเขียน
    • ความเสถียรของการอัปเดต
    • การดำเนินเรื่อง
    • กาสร้างตัวละคร
    • พื้นหลังโลก

    คะแนนรวม 0.0

    รีวิวโพสต์สําเร็จ! อ่านรีวิวเพิ่มเติม
    โหวตด้วย Power Stone
    Rank 200+ การจัดอันดับพลัง
    Stone 0 หินพลัง
    รายงานเนื้อหาที่ไม่เหมาะสม
    เคล็ดลับข้อผิดพลาด

    รายงานการล่วงละเมิด

    ความคิดเห็นย่อหน้า

    เข้า สู่ ระบบ

    tip ความคิดเห็นย่อย

    คุณลักษณะความคิดเห็นย่อหน้าอยู่ในขณะนี้บนเว็บ! เลื่อนเมาส์ไปที่ย่อหน้าใดก็ได้แล้วคลิกไอคอนเพื่อเพิ่มความคิดเห็นของคุณ

    นอกจากนี้คุณสามารถปิด / เปิดได้ตลอดเวลาในการตั้งค่า

    เข้าใจแล้ว