章節 68: The New Instructor
Just like yesterday the carriage was mostly empty. After paying the few eura fee she sat down near a window and watched the buildings pass her by.
Autumn has fully hit at this point. The skies gained a permanent gray hue, the Sun still shined every now and then, but the days were already getting shorter.
Only now did Veronica realize that in another week or so she would be living in this world for an entire month.
Her life since then changed so much that she could hardly recognize herself and at this point looking out at this beautiful and strange city, a question formulated in Veronica...
'Do I want to leave?...'
She wasn't sure anymore. Her previous life was good, not particularly amazing, but not bad either. She still missed her family and friends very much, but now she had those here too...
If somehow she could suddenly decide to go back, she wouldn't know what to do...
This was a very important question, but before she could find an answer the carriage stopped near the shooting range and she had to get off.
While walking towards the door, she decided to put these thoughts and emptions away for another, less packed day.
When she stepped inside her eyes instantly went to the weapons on display. The worker behind the counter was the same short man from yesterday, when she was about to walk to the left where the shooting range was, the man spoke.
"Miss Navarro wasn't it?... The instructor is a bit late and only with him will you be allowed to venture down to the range... Uhm, sorry for the inconvenience..." The man seemed quite awkward, he was even afraid of look her in the eyes.
She just smiled and made a small nod, continuing to browse the store while waiting.
...
On the street a bit farther away from the gun shop a man was walking lazily. Every now and then he yawned and rubbed his eyes.
He wore a stylish black suit with a dark purple vest under it. It seemed to be specifically made not to impede quick movements. On his head he wore a black top hat covering most of his dark brown hair.
In his right hand he held a metal cane with a few embellishments, its color matching the dark suit.
While still walking leisurely he pulled out a pocket watch and with his sleepy, grayish-blue eyes, he looked at the time.
"Dammit, I'm late..." He whispered to himself, but didn't increase his speed at all.
Eventually after about fifteen minutes he walked inside the gun shop and nearly stumbled seeing the woman browsing the weapons.
'Wait!... Isn't she that woman who nearly died to Madam Stout?!... What is she doing here... Don't tell me that she is the one I need to instruct?!'
The woman who's name he had already forgot didn't seem to notice him, but he knew that wasn't the case.
Father Martin made a few reports of her since they seemed to be good friends and the two of them met every week to talk about their weird books.
He knew exactly that she was an ascended and what path she was from. The only very important, possibly the most important information he had forgotten, was her name.
A few meters away Veronica was struggling with a very similar problem.
'Isn't that the guy from the Unbroken who interrogated me? What was his name again... Something like Marvin?... No, that wasn't it... Maybe Morgen?... It started with an M... I think...'
Without any option the man named Michael Kane walked towards Veronica and tried to formulate a sentence without using names.
"Good morning Miss... Uh... I will be your instructor for today... Would Miss... Uh... Should we go down and shoot some guns?" Inside his mind, he was shaking his head and cursing his awkwardness. Luckily for him Veronica wasn't any better either.
"Good morning to the gentleman as well... Yes, that would be great... I have been waiting for you... I mean... for the instructor, to arrive for quite a while!"
They still hadn't dared to look at each other since they were both blushing from embarrassment.
"Yeah... Sorry to keep the Miss waiting... I... I had some things to take care of... Let's head downstairs!" With that he quickly walked towards the left and down into the shooting range. Veronica followed close behind.
The shopkeeper behind the counter just stood there in pure bewilderment. He had no idea what had just happened and why did those two individuals seemed to lose their ability to coherently speak. After a while he just sat down in his chair and shook his head a dejectedly.
"I think I should find a better place to work at... This place is just fully of nutjobs...
...
Down in the shooting range both Veronica and Michael looked at each other with accusing eyes.
"You don't remember my name do you?!" Said Veronica with faked outrage, trying not to reveal the fact that she had also forgotten his name. Sadly for her, Michael wasn't stupid.
"Maybe I forgot your name, but let me answer this. What's my name?"
Veronica looked away embarrassed. The silence was long and very awkward between them. Eventually she sighed and relented.
"Fine. Yes I forgot, but in my defense that day was very chaotic for me. What's you excuse?"
"You know how many civilians I meet in a day? Even as an ascended I don't have that much capacity to memorize each and every one!"
They both turned silent again, but it wasn't as awkward anymore and this time Michael was the one who spoke first.
"I think we should start again. My name is Michael Kane, I work with the ascended at the Unbroken, as you already know. I love to take walks after dark and the smell of rain."
He smirked for the last part and made a pretty bad bow. He bent down from the waist a bit and pulled of his top hat while spreading his arms wide. Veronica chuckled a bit and introduced herself as well.
"My name is Veronica Navarro, I work as a barmaid at the Miles Inn. I love the smell of sea, dancing and my favorite flower is rose."
She curtsied too, but unlike his, Veronica's was perfect. She bent down her neck at the exact angle, she lifted her skirt just high enough and she went down from the knee a little.
Michael laughed a bit, but not at her movements.
"Let me guess... Is your favorite color pink?" For a moment Veronica's eyes widened, then she forcefully made them bored, but Michael was an Investigator, he saw every little movement clear as day.
"Oh, don't be so surprised. You know that Father Martin works for the Unbroken don't you?"
What Michael meant was that he is obligated to report everything, but he didn't realize how bad it sounded. Only after he saw Veronica turn angry did he notice the mistake in communication.
"What exactly did he say about me?" She said in barely contained anger. Her hands were pulled into fists and were going white from the amount of force she was squeezing with.
Michael laughed a bit nervously, then tried to de-escalate the situation. Luckily this was the Mediator path's forte.
"Don't worry about him. And don't be angry either. He only said that you are an ascended of the Dancer path. Until you don't do anything illegal there won't be any problem."
He was using his power to calm Veronica's turbulent emotions, but he was surprised to realize that it wasn't working on her. It was like some barrier prevented any kind of manipulation to her mind.
What was even worse is that without the usage of his calming power his words sounded more like a threat than anything else.
Veronica's eyes started jumping around the room trying to find any weapons to use for her escape, but before she could do anything Michael spoke again self-deprecatingly.
"I think you severely misunderstood me and that's mostly my fault... What I was trying to say is that Father Martin has no choice in making these reports and you aren't in any kind of trouble... I was just suggesting that even if you do something illegal don't tell him, because of this obligation..."
After a few seconds Veronica calmed down a bit, but she still didn't feel very comfortable.
"I thought the orthodox churches actively hunted ascended of my path. Shouldn't that be enough for you to try and kill me?" Her voice tried to sound firm, but Michael heard the small tremble within. She was scared out of her mind.
With a warm and calm voice he tried to further break down her previously elected defenses. It would go a long way for both of them if he managed to build a bit of trust.
"Those are the other ones. The Church of Time works a lot differently than them. For example we accept all paths and even the higher leadership contains people from many different paths... We also won't going to reveal your identity to the Lawbringers or the Creator's Will, or any other organization..."
This new information surprised Veronica a lot.
"But I don't understand? What makes the Church of Time so special?" She asked with a bewildered expression which caused Michael to burst out laughing.
"You really never asked Father Martin about anything related to his beliefs? What are you two even talk about every week?" He continued to laugh when he saw her deep blush.
"We talk about other books okay?! It's called having a hobby, maybe you should try it!"
Saying this did nothing to lessen his laughter, in fact it only increased it.
After a few extremely long seconds he seemed to have enough and was able to speak again.
"You should definitely talk about the religions with him. He knows a lot about each, for example their history, and I mean real history... Anyway, let's start shooting since otherwise we will be here all day."
What he said made Veronica remember something else she had previously forgotten...
There was that book on history in her room which she never started reading.
She wrote a mental note about looking into it... when she got some time.
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