Chapter 4 – Weight of the Past – Journey through Daybreak

“Give me blood, and I shall give you freedom!”

– Battlecry of Charles the Bold, Oriflamme Paladin and later, founding Emperor of the Empire of Rhin-Lotharingie, during the 5th Lotharin Uprising.

 

“Thank you so much for helping me negotiate with the supplier, Gerard.” Kaede smiled towards him from across the dining table. “You’ve been such a help in the founding of my new village. I honestly don’t know what I would have done without you.”

“You’re going to make me blush,” the tall and brawny engineer replied. He scratched his cheek, which did in fact redden. “I’ve had some experience negotiating with suppliers before, growing up as the eldest son of a large bakery. So it was no big deal.”

He then raised his tankard of ale. “To the success of Lithia village.”

“To Lithia!” Both Kaede and Laetitia joined in.

The three sat around an isolated table by the tavern’s windows. The sun had slipped beneath the western horizon, yet the clouds still burned with a brilliant wash of orange and crimson. In the north, a vast indigo sphere — the gas giant around which their world revolved — dominated a third of their view of the sky. And from beyond its shadowed edge, a smaller companion moon in pale silver drifted into view for the first time in weeks.

After meeting with Princess Sylviane and King Alistair, Kaede left the castle with Gerard to meet with a supplier that Pascal had helped to arrange. The Aria trading company had come recommended by Cecylia as being fair in its dealings. It also operated in both Alis Avern and Nordkreuz, the northern trading hub that was part of Pascal’s fiefdom in Weichsel. This meant the company not only had an interest to stay on good terms with Kaede, she also had plenty of political leverage to apply if they treated her badly.

I really am privileged, the familiar thought as she downed the last of her tankard with a grimace. She had never liked the taste of alcohol and was only drinking to keep Gerard company.

The thought made Kaede reflect on her status as a familiar to a high-ranking noble. The girl had never asked nor given her approval to Pascal before the ritual. Yet, the sacred familiar bond that linked them was unbreakable. Common wisdom also claimed that familiars rarely survived the death of their master — this essentially meant that Kaede was tethered to Pascal for life whether she liked it or not.

There were a few people who had compared this to slavery. However, Kaede’s situation fell into a void where the law had no coverage. Regardless, the Samaran girl was at peace with her circumstances.

The petite Baroness thought back to her new settlement where the Princess had graciously provided not only volunteers to help, but also tools, construction materials, seed stock, and even two dozen farm animals. Nevertheless, Lithia still needed other supplies for everyday use such as food, salt, oil, soap, and even the all-important booze to maintain morale. And Kaede had just spent half her savings on a deal to supply every amenity that her village needed during its first year.

“Are you going to finish that, Milady?” Laetitia asked from beside her.

“No, I’m full.” Kaede looked down at her small bowl of beef bourguignon. The house special had been excellent, but she could still only finish two-thirds.

“Do you want it?”

“Yes, please!” Laetitia grabbed the bowl from Kaede’s hands the moment she lifted it.

The petite girl looked down and noticed that their complimentary side of bread and cheeses had also been devoured by her bodyguard. The other three sides had been finished earlier, but there wasn’t even a scrap remaining on each plate.

“Should we order some more?” Kaede asked sheepishly as she felt like a bad host. This was supposed to be a dinner to thank Gerard.

“No need for me. I’ve had enough,” Gerard answered as he looked down at his extra large bowl of beef stew, which now laid empty.

“I’m good also,” Laetitia added. “I’ll just raid the castle kitchens later if I get hungry.”

“That reminds me of Reynaud and I back at the Academy,” Gerard chuckled.

“Laetitia, you sure eat a lot,” Kaede said with a hint of envy.

The Samaran girl rather missed being able to chow down without worrying about her weight in her former life. Though her current limitation was the constriction of her tight corset.

“My mother tells me that a lot,” Laetitia responded in between mouthfuls. “I’ve learned to always clean up the leftovers so I could be a bit less of a burden.”

“Why would you ever be a burden to your own family?” Gerard was puzzled.

“Because I’m adopted,” the girl answered with a bittersweet smile. “Grandpa plucked me from some half-burnt village when he served in the rangers. But he passed away from a stroke when I was only fifteen since he was a commoner.”

“I thought you were from a yeoman’s family?” Gerard asked.

“I am. Grandpa married up,” Laetitia replied. “Of his three children, only one inherited grandma’s magic, so she became my adoptive mother,” the girl commented with a faint scowl.

“Grandpa did always feel bad that he’d be leaving my grandmother behind,” she then added.

Unfortunate, since commoners have only half the lifespan of mages, Kaede thought.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Kaede voiced her sympathy. “Your grandmother must have loved your grandpa a great deal.”

Laetitia made an odd-looking scowl for a moment before it vanished as she chewed.

“Intermarriages between commoners and yeomen are somewhat rare due to that exact reason,” Gerard shrugged. “It doesn’t help that there’s also often a culture gap.”

“What do you mean?” Kaede’s eyebrows shot up.

“Different lifestyle expectations,” Gerard explained. “Yeomen women sometimes follow the traditions of the nobility in pursuing a career first, as they can wait as late as eighty to have healthy children. Meanwhile, commoner women are expected to bear children in their teens and twenties since their reproductive years are so much shorter, which forces them to stay at home.

“For those of us raised in mixed communities, expectations… often fail to meet reality,” the tall captain looked down and sighed as though he had personal experiences with this.

The tyranny of biology, Kaede thought. Many women in her old world also struggled to come to terms with this.

It was probably why the nobility, of all social classes, had the most progressive views about women in Hyperion society. Though perhaps that wasn’t much different from back on Earth, as the elites always had more resources to pursue their dreams than the average person did.

“But do women have to have children?” Laetitia asked in a somber voice.

It hadn’t escaped Kaede’s notice that her bodyguard had been growing more disenchanted and morose as the conversation continued. She rather doubted it was merely because the girl’s bowl was almost empty.

However, Gerard never noticed this as his expression remained pensive.

“In Lotharin society? Yes,” Gerard answered without his gaze ever connecting. “Our independence was born from and sustained by the blood of our men and the tears of our mothers. Unless you join a nunnery, everyone would call a girl selfish for refusing this duty.”

His words made even Kaede feel uncomfortable, as the reincarnated Samaran had never seriously thought about whether she wanted to carry children.

“I’ll go pay since we’ve all finished.” She stood up from her corner seat, as she didn’t really want to think about it right now either.

The petite girl felt at least a dozen eyes follow her as she crossed the floor to the main counter. A few gazes felt indecent enough that it made Kaede shiver and wish she wore a cloak. The girl knew that coming to a tavern in noble garments would make her stick out like a sore thumb. Nevertheless, she had chosen this locale because it was more comfortable for Gerard to dine at a casual place.

The tavern and its wooden furnishings were simple but clean and held a rustic charm. There were even several animal trophies mounted on its bare stone walls which gave the atmosphere of a hunting lodge. A large board on the wall near the entrance held numerous requests and ads from the local community. One of these advertisements was for the tavern itself, as its aging proprietress was clearly looking for a buyer.

Kaede reached into her messenger bag and pulled out a gold livre. The proprietress’ eyes swelled as she swiftly left to find change. The sumptuous food had been reasonable in cost at only one silver écu and forty copper sous. Nevertheless, Kaede figured that the busy tavern could break down a large gold coin, which could pay a month of wages for even a skilled professional like Laetitia.

The woman in her fifties soon returned with ninety-eight small silver coins and sixty tiny coppers in neat stacks. Kaede pulled out a small bag and pushed the entire pile inside. The rest of her gold would stay out of sight in the extradimensional storage of her messenger bag, which came with anti-theft protection among its magical enhancements.

“Thanks for the excellent food,” Gerard beamed to the owner as he walked by to grab a toothpick. He then moved over to the door and held it open. “Ladies first.”

Kaede smiled awkwardly as she didn’t exactly like being treated as a lady. Nevertheless, it would be rude to say anything now so she simply accepted.

The petite girl emerged under a starry sky as the sun’s glow had completely vanished. A combination of oil lamps and ley-line fuelled crystal lanterns illuminated the streets outside. Many residents still walked about while the town watch patrolled the main roads which gave Kaede a sense of security.

“Gerard, is it true you’re leaving for the front tomorrow?”

Kaede had just turned around to ask him when a weight slammed into her back. The petite girl would have fallen face-first into the pebbled ground had Gerard not caught her in his buff arm.

“Thanks… wait, my purse!”

“HEY! STOP HIM!” Gerard shouted as Kaede spun around. She barely caught sight of a boy of around eight, who disappeared into a small crowd of drunks loitering about outside.

Laetitia pointed her casting glove towards the ground once more before Gerard stopped her with a hand on her shoulders.

“I’ll go after him. You keep an eye on Kaede,” he remarked before bolting off.

Kaede and Laetitia made haste to follow Gerard. The huge man had quite a heavy step, and the familiar could track him through her keen hearing even as he turned around sharp bends in the main road. Though this became harder as they fell behind.

Alis Avern was a city that followed the typical Lotharin ‘hillside settlement’ design. It was built on only the south-facing slope with homes arranged to maximize exposure to sunlight. Its main avenue zigzagged up and down the hill with most streets extending out horizontally. This made the city easy to defend as every house could turn into a strongpoint to shoot down from. But the downside was that it was far more time-consuming to travel up and down the settlement.

The petite girl had run out of breath by the time she reached the lowest part of the city inside the gates. She slowly came to stop and held onto a crystal lantern post as she panted.

This stupid corset! She blamed the garment even as a voice reminded her that she also hadn’t kept up with aerobics exercise.

“Kaede?”

The petite girl looked up and saw a young nobleman barely over twenty. He stood above average in height and had a lean musculature that emphasized his long legs. His face was mildly handsome with his short brown hair, pretty aquamarine eyes, a wide nose, and a strong jaw. The young man also wore a velvet doublet in seafoam-green and a rich fur cloak slung over one shoulder.

“Perceval?” She stared at the healer whom she had known since becoming a familiar. The man also had two armigers following behind him as an entourage. “What are you… doing here…?”

“I’m here to attend the war council tomorrow,” he answered. “I came in place of my grandfather, Duke Mathias of Baguette.”

The moment he spoke those words, Laetitia, who stood two steps behind Kaede, let out a muffled snort.

The young noble sighed with a faint scowl.

“What are you doing outside at this hour? And who’s this?” He fished for an introduction.

“I’m Laetitia Leclerc, Milord — Dame Kaede’s new bodyguard,” the armiger introduced herself with a courteous bow. “A kid stole Milady’s purse earlier and Sir Fournier gave chase. And I apologize for laughing,” she said before covering her lips to stifle another snort.

“It’s fine. I’m used to it,” Perceval sighed again.

“I lost track of Gerard somewhere over there,” Kaede finally caught her breath enough to say as she pointed to a neighborhood off the main road and near the slums.

Lotharin towns and cities were mostly built on hills with the main gate at the bottom and the lord’s keep or castle on top. This meant the lower in altitude a home was, the less affluent one could generally expect its owners to be.

Perceval nodded before he turned to the two armigers following him:

“Have you both met Sir Gerard Fournier before?”

“Yes, Milord.”

“Then let’s go.”

Kaede and Laetitia took a minute longer to follow. But between the quieter night-time and the clinking of armor from Perceval’s armigers, the familiar had little trouble keeping track. And by the time she arrived, the two old friends had already joined up.

“I saw him enter this building,” Kaede heard Gerard call out as he pointed to a ramshackled house. “I’ve placed an Alarm ward around the perimeter.”

“And my men are watching around the corners,” Perceval added before tapping his head to note that they were in communication via Telepathy.

“Then, let’s do this the right way,” Kaede said as she could hear two women berating someone inside.

“What the hell were you thinking, stealing from a noble?”

“But she looked like the meek daughter of some rich merchant from outside the city. I didn’t think nobles even ate at taverns!”

A young boy protested loudly as Kaede walked up to the front door and knocked. Everything fell quiet for a minute before it opened to reveal a nervous woman in her late forties.

“Y-yes?”

“Hello, goodwife. My name is Kaede,” the petite Baroness began with a meek smile as she tried to calm the other side. “I’m looking for a boy of around eight. He ran off with my purse earlier.”

“N-n-nobody has come here for h-hours,” the woman replied with an apparent lie.

“We saw him entering this home earlier,” Kaede added. “I promise no harm will befall the boy. I simply want my money back.”

The woman remained nervous as she looked up and down at Kaede.

“P-please, come in.”

“Gerard, Perceval, could you two please wait outside?” Kaede asked. “Laetitia should be enough.”

“Of course. We’ll wait right here,” Perceval replied.

The two girls then went inside and emerged into a common room with a large dining table lit by an oil lamp. Over a dozen chairs and stools were crammed around it. Meanwhile, unfinished bowls of lentil soup and pieces of broken off stale bread laid all around the table.

Kaede could see four other women, ages twenty to forty, standing guard by the stairs or the doorway to other rooms. The sickly coughing of an elderly woman could also be heard from another room, while the sounds and faint mutterings from no less than ten children could be heard from upstairs.

Just how many people live in this building? She thought in amazement.

“Jean?” The woman who opened the door called out. “Jean? Come out this instant.”

A boy around eight, whom Kaede immediately recognized, walked out from a back room.

“Jean, is it?” Kaede walked closer before kneeling down with a smile to look up at the boy. “I can see that your family is struggling. But that does not give you the right to steal from others.”

“I’m sorry,” the boy said begrudgingly as he looked away.

A young woman who stood behind him had to nudge him twice before he offered the bag of coins he took from Kaede.

“Thank you,” Kaede patted the boy on the head as she stood back up. “Do you all live here?” She looked at the women in bewilderment.

“Yes,” an older woman by the stairs replied. “Dahlia had to sell her home so we could have enough money to stay fed until the next harvest.” She nodded towards another woman. “Zéphine owns a tailor across the street, but she’s had to rent out the living space to another family.”

“What happened to all your menfolk?” Kaede asked next.

“Dead,” a young woman answered bluntly. “They marched off to the Avorica front and never came back.”

The Samaran girl felt her chest constrict as it was a far too common tale. The war with the Caliphate had been the bloodiest on the Kingdom of Avorica’s front thus far. And although Sylviane’s intervention and Pascal’s stratagems had shattered an entire invading army, it was done only with the expenditure of many tens of thousands of lives.

And I had taken part in it, Kaede thought.

“A few women followed the army as well as seamstresses and fletchers. But they died during the Siege of Roazhon when their camp was struck,” said another. “We’re taking care of their orphans as well.”

“Our husbands were all members of the 3rd Alisia Rangers banner,” a third added.

3rd… Alisia…

Kaede heard those words as if she had just been punched in the gut.

The petite girl exhaled but forgot how to draw breath. Her chest constricted in pain as she heard faint explosions and the muffled screams of men from all around. And although her jaw was clenched and her lips were quivering, she could hear her own voice cry out:

“Rangers! Those with the courage to drive back hell! Follow me!”

The familiar could almost see the bloody banks of the Gwilen River as she gazed blankly at the women in the dim room. She thought back to the men that she ran past on that day. Kaede hadn’t met a single one of those soldiers before the battle, nor knew even one of them by their names. Yet, they had answered her call-to-arms during that bloodbath with little regard for their own lives.

Tears fell down from her eyes as Kaede realized she couldn’t remember even a single face from the men who followed her to death that day. The petite Baroness sank to her knees as she felt two streams roll down her cheeks as she wept and cried.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”

Meanwhile, the women could only look at each other in confusion as if they had no idea how to react.

 

—– * * * —–

 

“Kaede, I know you want to help those women, but please think this through!” Kaede heard Gerard plead as she sat in the back room of the tavern they had dined in earlier.

After departing from the widows’ home, Kaede marched back uptown and returned to the tavern to negotiate a sale. She found out that the proprietress was also selling because her husband and two sons had also died at the front. Now, with only three daughters remaining, the old widow wanted to leave behind the painful memories of a life spent building this place and return to her old hometown.

“I’ve heard that you Samarans don’t care much about material wealth,” Gerard commented as the door opened and Perceval walked through. “But it’s insane to spend the remainder of your savings like this!”

“Savings… What do I do with savings?” Kaede muttered in a hollow voice without looking up. “I sleep, dine, and travel at the crown’s expense. Everything I need, Pascal or Her Highness buys for me.”

“<Kaede, are you alright?>” She then heard Pascal’s worried voice over the telepathy of their familiar bond. “<Your emotions have been all over the place for the past hour.>”

“<Not really,>” she replied.

“Aren’t you founding a village?” Perceval asked.

“I’ve already paid for a deal to keep the village supplied with everything they need over the next year,” Kaede answered. “And after that…? I’ll figure something out with my earnings from this year.”

The two men looked at each other before Gerard huffed. “Please, you talk some sense into her.”

“<Are you still with Gerard?>” Pascal asked next. “<Can I use your senses?>”

“<Go ahead.>”

Kaede felt too emotionally exhausted to explain to him. It was much easier for him to just use her eyes and ears to follow directly.

“Kaede…” Perceval began in a sympathetic voice as he sat down on the chair facing the petite girl. “I understand your desire to help. But the Empire is in a state of war, and there are countless widows and orphans like them all over the country. If you spend your hard-earned money on them now, you may regret it later when you need those resources to save the lives of others — just like the expense I must pay to fill this back up.”

The young noble reached into an extradimensional storage pocket and pulled out a baton made of translucent-red stone before placing it on the table. Kaede stared for a moment, confused, before she recognized it as an empty bloodquartz stasis rod. The item was used by healers to carry Samaran blood — a bright-pink fluid known as the ‘fluid of life’.

It was used as a focus for curative and calming spells, which had the rare ability to allow such magic to bypass the resistance created by Mana Repulsion. Without it, most healers would find themselves struggling to heal other mages.

The hospital ethical dilemma, Kaede pursed her lips as she thought.

The Samaran girl had done her share of reading about ethics in her former life. The dilemma was about whether a hospital should save a patient’s life by spending a hundred million yen — money which could no longer be used to keep the hospital running by purchasing equipment and supplies?

“It’s not the same,” Kaede whispered as she shook her head.

“Do you know… what I did at the Battle of Gwilen River?” The petite girl looked up with swollen, haunted eyes. “The deed that Her Highness cited most when she gave me my chevalier’s sword and baroness title?”

The two men looked at one another again. Yes, all three of them had participated in that bloodbath of a battle. But they fought in different roles on separate sectors of that twelve-kilopace long battlefield.

“Didn’t you stop the Caliphate’s main cavalry charge?” Perceval asked.

“Yes… when the Caliphate froze the river crossing and tried to break through our center…”

Kaede nodded as she felt the din of combat envelop her once more. She heard the low-bass sonic detonation of a trebuchet shot which resulted in a half-dozen soldiers’ screams. More cries of battle resounded from all around her as the swish of flying arrows filled the air. And before her, the familiar could hear the sharp cracks and pops of rapidly expanding ice as the main crossing was frozen by a spell barrage.

She could almost see the opposite bank where a tidal wave of heavy cavalry surged down the hill crest. Rows upon rows of beasts and men covered in mail and lamellar bore the green and yellow crescent moon of the Tauheed faith. Eight thousand hooves hammered the ground in sync as they rushed towards the river’s frozen crossing. Two thousand riders raised their lances into the air and shouted their bone-chilling battle cry in foreign speech.

“Pascal sent me into the breach so he could take advantage of my familiar ability to cast through me by proxy…” She added.

Kaede felt the desperation of that moment surge back into her. She heard Pascal’s voice echo in her mind once more — the same urgent orders that had once come to her through their familiar link, relayed from his post at army headquarters as he coordinated the outnumbered Lotharin defense…

 

…

 

“<Kaede! Run closer to the ice! We need to plug that gap!>”

“<Are you trying to get me killed?>” She lashed back.

“<Trust me! And take out those three arrows I gave you this morning! We are going to need them!>”

The Lotharins didn’t have enough artillery. Their heavy infantry was still out of position as they rushed up through the trenches. If this charge crashed through the half-ruined fortifications in the center and plowed into the archers, their losses would be disastrous.

Kaede closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Pascal’s words ‘trust me’ echoed across her mind.

This is insane…

The Samaran girl activated an Air Glide rune and leapt down from the damaged redoubt that she had stood on. She dashed across a collapsed earthen rampart which partially filled the trench in front of it. Her hand swiped across her right forearm to activate a full set of her defensive runes. Then she reached back and pulled out the three new arrows from Pascal — each tipped by a sleek gemstone instead of the usual bodkin penetrator.

“<Hold the stones between your fingers and raise them towards the frozen crossing!>” His voice came as though he ran right besides her.

Kaede balled her right hand into a fist with the three gem arrows pointed forward from between her fingers. Mana poured over the familiar conduit as magical power amassed into her fist. Energy pulsed from the three gemstones as their magic linked to her hand. The jewels lit up and radiated a turquoise shimmer across her pale skin.

“Rangers!” She called several nearby squads to attention as she ran. Her free hand pointed at the massive wave of charging cavalry downriver. “Those with the courage to drive back hell! Follow me!”

Boosted by a Shift Impulse movement spell, her legs quickly carried her to within thirty paces of the frozen crossing. She felt the ground shake and the water tremble as several thousand hooves thundered over earth and onto the thick ice at the far side of the river.

“<Beam Field,>” Pascal began to recite the mnemonic spellwords. The mana buildup in Kaede’s arm flowed forward into a turquoise halo, which began to spin in place just in front of her fist.

“<Sonic Penetrator Blast!>”

A column of harmonic shockwaves poured out from the turquoise ring of mana. They streamed through the air before crashing into the thick ice. Magic from both her body and the gemstones fed into the halo, which was guzzled up as fuel to feed the emitter’s glow.

The Field spellword was typically reserved for duration spells. It created a continuous area effect for as long as mana demands could be met. Combined with Beam and the Penetrator spellword which enhanced its ability to pierce wards through brute force, Pascal had transformed her hand into a sonic disruptor cannon.

Kaede used her arm to aim as she recognized her cue. She pivoted the shockwave stream as she drew lines across the frozen water. Layered ice cracked and fissured under the sonic assault. Their breaking was hastened by the crowded, stomping hooves. The Cataliyan mages tried to refreeze the water or conjure ramps over cracks. However, few would manage to achieve results as more spellfire from the Lotharins poured in.

The cavalry charge was stopped cold as Kaede cut multiple lines across both shores. The fractures trapped over two thousand assault troops on drifting plates of ice. The familiar then slashed across the ice with more dissecting cuts, and the frigid surface began to crumble.

Frozen plates overturned and added to the chaos. Entire squads and platoons of horses and riders toppled over and fell through the ice. Burdened by their heavy armor, the men and beasts alike began to sink and drown.

Meanwhile, arrows flew all around Kaede as Lotharin bowmen fell left and right to the Caliphate’s covering fire. The Samaran girl hardly noticed that a unit of cavalry archers began focusing their shots on her. Their first arrows bounced off her wards. However, the infused Dispels that followed cut through her Repulsion Field and shattered her rotating spellshields.

Kaede was still breaking the ice into smaller pieces when her body shook. The taste of blood filled her mouth as she looked down, finding two arrows buried into her chest. One of them was lodged in the gap for her right arm, while the other was a bodkin penetrator that pierced a weak spot between two plates in her brigandine.

“<Spellshield Fortress!>”

Pascal tried to rebuild her defenses, but a third impact struck her waist and disrupted the forming mana. The sonic emitter from her clenched fist vanished as Kaede dropped her arrows and fell to her knees.

“<Kaede–!>” Her numbed brain heard Pascal’s seemingly-distant cry.

“<Good luck, Pas–>”

Neither had finished before the air burst, as a Cataliyan mortar round fell just twenty paces away and exploded into shrapnel.

 

…

 

“The late Sir Robert was able to save my life,” Kaede said after summarizing the events as her senses slowly returned to the present. “And since I’m a Samaran, even the arm I lost during that battle was fully healed by Regenerate spells within days. But the same can’t be said for everyone else…

“It wasn’t until after we relieved the Siege of Roazhon, when I finally learned that it was the 3rd Alisia Rangers that I had called upon to fight with me that day,” she continued in her hollow voice. “But by that time, only three out of ninety-eight men remained alive. The banner had suffered eighty percent casualties during the Battle of Gwilen River alone.”

It was a sign of how disciplined and professional the unit had been, as most formations fell apart once they exceeded fifty percent casualties.

“Kaede…” Perceval’s soft gaze was filled with sympathy. “People die in war. It’s not your fault.”

It’s Survivor’s Guilt, I know, Kaede thought to herself. But knowing something logically and being able to absolve oneself of the pain that she felt simply wasn’t the same.

“It’s not fair,” she mumbled as another tear slipped from her eyes. “I led them all to their death, so why am I the only one recognized as a ‘hero’ and rewarded!? While those men’s families have to live in squalor?”

“Pascal is trying to change it,” Gerard replied as he stood against the door. “The new ‘Military Adoption Act’ will apply retroactively to the beginning of the Caliphate’s invasion last year. It’s still not much, but it should at least help them put food on the table.”

“I know…” Kaede whispered as she wiped her eyes. “I helped him draft it after all. The Empire’s administrative records are incomplete, so Pascal also has to maintain a delicate balance. The Act needs to offer enough to make a difference to poor families, but not so much that it invites widespread ‘ghost applicant’ fraud, which will happen if the financial gains are too appealing compared to the punishment of being discovered.”

The petite girl then looked at Perceval before she raised her voice:

“Look, I know I’m being selfish. I know I’m being illogical and there are better ways to help more people. But I can’t stand knowing and not doing something for them! I have to do this or my conscience won’t let me rest!”

“In that case, I won’t stop you then,” Perceval said with a wry smile as he stood up. “Were you able to negotiate a good deal at least?” He then looked at Gerard.

“It’s not a bad one,” Gerard shrugged. “The proprietress knew that Kaede was offering everything she had.”

“It might not be bad to use this place as an orphanage in the city either,” Perceval considered.

“That’s my thought exactly,” Kaede responded. “With all the children, they’ll have plenty of hands to help run the place. The business would be able to cover the cost of feeding and providing for the kids.”

“Teach a man to fish and all,” Gerard smiled a little at last.

“And Perceval,” Kaede looked at the healer. “How was the grandma?”

“Pneumonia. Not hard to heal, but…” Perceval replied as he looked to his empty bloodquartz stasis rod. “She’s a yeoman.”

The Samaran girl didn’t hesitate for an instant before she raised her right arm and began rolling up her sleeves.

“Take as much as your rod can hold.”

 

—– * * * —–

 

By the time Kaede signed a contract with the tavern’s proprietress and brought it back to the widows’ home, most of the kids had gone to sleep. The older women had tried to refuse her at first. But Kaede was insistent, and the residents eventually accepted.

However, they did so under the condition that Kaede remained the legal owner of the tavern, and they would merely sign another contract to run the place in her stead. Gerard also suggested an informal promise where they would take in any other war orphans or homeless widows in the city by offering them a place to stay and work. Since the women also owned a tailor, it wouldn’t be too hard for them to keep any additional children clothed and fed.

It was almost midnight by the time Kaede returned to the castle.

“Thank you both so much for helping me through all this,” the petite girl bowed to the two men as they stood inside the closed gates.

“Don’t be such an outsider. Helping out is what comrades are for,” Gerard smiled before his mouth stretched open in a yawn. “That being said, I do have to leave early tomorrow so, have a good night!”

“Good night!” The remaining three waved as the tall captain left for the castle’s barracks. The young nobleman’s armigers had gone even earlier to secure guest beds.

“And I actually owe you more,” Perceval then added. The healer shook the bloodquartz stasis rod in his hands. It was full of cotton-candy-colored blood once more, as Kaede had insisted that he filled it back up.

“This would have easily cost me three gold,” he added. “Samaran blood is expensive during a time of war. The Grand Republic’s Blood Bank offers only a limited quantity to each country as a ‘diplomatic trade good’. Rhin-Lotharingie does receive more as we historically have good relations. But our people are poorer than our neighbors, so we also struggle to curb black market reselling.”

Kaede did feel a little faint in the head as a result. Her gentle swaying did not escape Perceval’s notice as the young noble insisted:

“Let me take you back to your room. You look like you’re about to collapse.”

“It’s okay. Laetitia can…” Kaede hadn’t even finished before she lost her balance and her bodyguard had to catch her.

“I told you it was a little too much to draw at once,” Perceval said as he looked more annoyed at himself than her. “It’s all about body size and you’re quite small for an adult.”

“It’s fine. I’m just exhausted,” Kaede muttered in her quiet voice. “Been a long day.”

Meanwhile, Laetitia strapped her spear to her back, before she picked Kaede up in a cradle carry.

“Hey… I’m not an invalid!” The petite girl protested.

“No, but you are a patient now,” Perceval declared. “Laetitia, if I remember correctly?” He asked again before the armiger nodded. “Please take Dame Kaede all the way back to her room. Ignore her complaints — Healer’s orders.”

“Tyrant,” Kaede whined.

“The best custodian is a benevolent autocrat,” Perceval chuckled. “Have a good night to the both of you. I must inquire about a guest room to stay at.”

“Good night!”

 

…

 

As the healer ordered, Laetitia carried her petite mistress through the castle. Kaede was thankful that the servants had already gone to sleep and there were only a handful of guards on watch and patrol. The security of the Castle had been undermanned ever since Princess Sylviane retook it from her traitorous uncle at the end of the Civil War. Nevertheless, the familiar felt her face growing red every time they passed by a guard.

“Milady?” Kaede eventually heard Marina’s voice as they entered the royal residence hall.

Her maid wasn’t alone either, as Pascal emerged from the door opposite Kaede’s room — where Princess Sylviane had arranged for her to stay whenever she was in the capital.

“Thank you, Laetitia. I’ll take her from here.”

“Wait…” Kaede was about to object when Pascal received her body from Laetitia’s arms. He swayed a little but to her surprise, managed to hold steady.

“Have a good night, both of you,” Pascal then insisted as he carried Kaede into her room.

“Good night, Your Grace, Milady.”

Marina gently closed the door behind him while Pascal carried Kaede straight to a fancy-looking four-poster bed.

“I thought you were going to drop me,” Kaede muttered as he set her down atop the soft comforter.

“Give me some credit. I have been practicing daily to rebuild my muscle mass, and you are not exactly heavy,” Pascal answered as he unlaced her knee-high wedge boots before pulling them off. “Roll over so I can unlace your corset.”

“How long have you been waiting?” Kaede stretched out her arms and did as she was told.

“A few hours. It gave me time to work on that star-sapphire.”

Pascal gestured towards the room’s desk, where Kaede saw the brooch that Sylviane gave her to go with her formal dress. Her master had borrowed it earlier so he could enhance it with more magic.

“I finished adding Earthen Body — the spell that boosts your strength and constitution — so you can activate the magic without having to use one of my runes,” he said. “I have noticed that you use that spell far more than the others.”

Unlike most Lotharin mages who used only Aura Magic, Pascal also used Runic Magic as another method for spellcraft. Both forms used mnemonic spellwords to shape mana within a caster’s body. However, whereas Aura Magic projected that mana directly from the body to create phenomenons, Runic Magic infused objects with an incomplete spell in the form of a rune that dissipated its mana over time, but could be activated by anyone through a preset contact trigger.

Both Runic Magic and enchanting also imparted magic upon a physical object, though for different purposes. Regardless, once mana was removed from a caster’s body, it always began to revert back into ether. This Mana Dissipation could also be slowed by using certain materials. Gemstones with their non-conductive crystal lattice structures were ideal for this — which in turn made gems ideal for enhancing into magical items… or really expensive runestones.

“Yeahhh… I can’t exactly shoot without it,” Kaede considered her archery practice every morning. Though to her, it was more of a ‘meditation’ exercise. “That spring-steel bow transformed from the morphic blade you gave me feels like it has at least a 100-kilogram draw weight.”

“Gram?” Pascal asked as he slowly pulled apart the back of her corset before he started to unbutton the upper back of her dress.

“Sorry, make that… 15 stones?” Kaede thought as she converted to Hyperion’s mass units.

The familiar then rolled onto her back and sat up while giving her master a knowing look.

“Pascal, are you trying to get me naked?”

“No. I just want you to rest.” The young lord looked melancholic as he sat down beside her. “I saw and heard what happened earlier.”

“Oh… right.” Kaede had completely forgotten about how she gave Pascal permission to listen in.

“Kaede, I want you to remember that it is not your fault,” Pascal insisted as he wrapped his left arm around her half-exposed back. “I was the one who gave you the orders. I was the one who told you to run into hell to hold the line that day… and not for the first time.”

The familiar could see her master’s right hand trembling before he clenched it into a fist.

“The burden is on me to see that those men’s families are provided for, not you,” he declared with a heavy voice and steely resolve in his remaining good eye. “Just as I must make amends for those men that I killed with my botched spell at the Battle of Glywysing.”

“Pascal,” Kaede voiced gently as she reached over and took the right hand that had cast the spell into her palm. “Please don’t try to bear everything by yourself. You may have given me those orders. But it was my choice how and if I wanted to carry them out.

“Don’t ever think for a moment that I was ‘just following orders’,” Kaede then added with a bitter smile and a teary gaze. “I may be your familiar, but I’ve never surrendered my free will. I admire your sense of accountability and wished more leaders had it. But I will always answer for my own actions.”

An appreciative smile slowly formed on Pascal’s lips as he reached his left hand up to her head and stroked her hair.

“And that is exactly why I am proud to call you my familiar.”

 

 

‘Give me blood, and I shall give you freedom’ – Inspired by the slogan of Subhas Chandra Bose, Indian independence leader who led the Axis-supported Indian National Army (INA) during WW2. The INA’s military campaign failed, but its legacy led to the Red Fort Trials and the Bombay Mutiny — these events made British leaders fear a large-scale revolt by the 2.5 million Indian soldiers who served during WW2, and realized they have no choice but to withdraw from India (contrary to the myth that the British left ‘willingly’).

Livre, écu, sou – Named after currency used by West Francia and later France between the 8th to 18th centuries. The 100:1 exchange ratio is due to Hyperion using the decimal system for all of its units.

‘Ghost applicant’ fraud – A form of fraud most common in (but not limited to) underdeveloped countries, where perpetrators file for either aid or wages with people who don’t actually exist to receive payouts from the government. For instance, during the Afghanistan War (2001-2021), warlords allied to the US often claimed their armies were several times their actual size, so they could receive more monetary subsidies which they pocketed as their own.

‘Just following orders’ – Known as the infamous ‘Nuremberg Defense’, when German army officers (not merely Nazis) claimed that they were ‘just following orders’ to excuse themselves from the war crimes they committed. Although this excuse was rejected during the trials, it perpetuates to this day through the widely-believed ‘Clean Wehrmacht Myth’, which falsely claimed that only Nazis, not regular German troops, were responsible for the numerous atrocities committed.

For older readers – Yes, the flashback scene is from Daybreak on Hyperion, Volume 3 Chapter 13 – Ten Thousand A Day