The man walked between the overturned benches. He carried a spear he had to tilt to avoid scraping the ceiling, and ocher cloth hung over one shoulder beneath a shoulder guard of gray plates. His other arm was bandaged. From the table, I saw the pale grooves across his chest, then looked up at the single red eye I could make out in his face.
Branchlike shapes surrounded his head. They looked like oddly shaped horns, or dry branches, with a few gold rings hanging from them. I couldn’t tell whether the surface of his face was a mask. I preferred to wait until he spoke.
“Your Majesty.”
Azeneth stopped shifting the bottle behind her back.
“Axiltek!”
Ferny looked at the man, then at her. Her ears tilted forward.
“Majesty?!”
“One of my generals,” Azeneth explained. She let go of Ferny’s hand to point at him.
The girl looked down at the men on the floor. Then she looked back at Azeneth, lingering on her horns this time.
“You’re the Demon Queen?”
“Yes.”
The scarred man started to get up. Axiltek looked at him, and the man stayed seated against the counter, clutching his side. I recognized that choice and wished I could’ve had the same effect when I’d tried to get them to keep their hands off Azeneth.
Ferny straightened, adjusting her short hair between her ears.
“Then I defended a queen.”
They both smiled. Axiltek’s eye swept over the room before returning to the bottle. The pianist remained motionless in front of the keys.
“I’ve been looking for you.”
“Well, you found me.”
“Now you need to return to the castle.”
Azeneth tilted her head. For a moment, I thought she would agree. I even pictured reaching a room with an intact table, where nobody tried to jump over my blade.
“I don’t want to, damn it!”
The general rested the butt of his spear in a clear space between the broken boards.
“Do you have unfinished business here?”
She looked at her bottle.
“We’re celebrating.”
I closed my eye. I opened it immediately, because losing sight of the enormous man didn’t seem like a good idea either.
“The window wasn’t quite open when we came in,” I put in.
Axiltek turned toward me. His eye was high enough that he seemed to be examining the entire table.
“Did the sword speak?”
“I’m Zaelia.”
Ferny approached the table and leaned down for a better look. Her ears ended up above my grip.
“Have you always been a sword?”
“No…”
“She’s a cursed artifact,” Azeneth explained. “There’s a soul inside.”
That was her explanation. I still remembered choosing this form, but I didn’t feel like discussing it with the men in the tavern listening. I turned toward Axiltek before Ferny could ask more questions. The girl stepped aside to give him room.
Axiltek came close enough for me to make out the pale beads of his necklace. He didn’t reach for me. That helped me keep my grip raised instead of backing toward the edge.
“Axiltek,” he introduced himself. “Were you celebrating too?”
“I was waiting for it to end.”
Azeneth giggled. The general looked at her, and she lowered the bottle into view.
“Zaelia’s coming with me.”
Axiltek didn’t ask who’d made me or try to touch my eye. Azeneth came to pick me up, and I let her lift me with a relief I would’ve preferred to hide. From her hand, I saw Ferny push a chair out of the way with her foot. She was still watching the queen as though reviewing the fight for something she’d missed.
Axiltek turned toward the counter.
“Who’s in charge here?”
A man slowly raised a hand from behind the bottles. The general asked for a list of the damage. The man pointed at the window and started listing it. When he included furniture that was still intact, I had to interrupt.
“That one isn’t broken. Neither is the one in the corner.”
He pointed indignantly at me, but stopped when he met Axiltek’s eye.
“The bottles are broken,” I added.
Azeneth tilted me toward her face.
“You’re being very precise.”
“I want to get out of here.”
The general agreed that the damage would be checked before anything was paid. I didn’t have to hear a price or watch another chair being raised. Azeneth left the bottle on the counter, retrieved her staff from behind the piano, and we headed for the door. Ferny took her bottle, checked that there was wine left, and set it beside the other one. The source of this chapter is NovelPing.
“We’ll continue another day,” she told the pianist.
He waited until Axiltek crossed the threshold before playing again.
Outside, people had gathered by the broken window. Azeneth tried to squeeze between two onlookers, and the general walked beside her, making several people step aside to give him room. Ferny caught up on the walkway. Her tail brushed a post, and she tucked it against one leg before continuing.
“Which way is the castle?” she asked.
“That way,” Axiltek replied.
“We’re not going yet,” Azeneth said.
I would’ve liked to speak up for the general. We’d started heading for the castle before meeting Thayron, and since then I’d discovered a city, lost part of my body, and watched a fight with piano accompaniment. I wanted a little time to close my eye without expecting a blow.
But imagining that this was the end of what I could do on my own bothered me too. Azeneth had a castle to return to. I still depended on someone finding a place to put me.
She ran her tongue over her injured lip and frowned. I remembered the blood I’d seen during the fight.
“Bring me a little closer,” I asked.
She did, and I used a point of mana. Warmth spread from my grip to her fingers. The little cut finished closing. She looked at me before touching her mouth with her thumb.
“Thank you.”
She didn’t make a joke. I watched her face a little longer than necessary, until Axiltek’s voice reminded me we were still walking.
“There are matters awaiting your attention. I can escort you back once I’ve finished my inspection.”
Azeneth lifted her head.
“What inspection?”
The general took a moment to answer. She was already watching him with much more interest than when he’d mentioned the castle.
“A slime infestation beside a canal gate. The workers have had to stop traffic through it.”
Ferny moved ahead to walk on Azeneth’s other side.
“An infestation?”
“They gather on the dock and come back whenever anyone tries to remove them. I need to assess the situation and clear the area.”
“So they’ve already tried getting rid of them,” I said.
“With poles. They manage to push a few away, but others return beneath the boards. They stopped working there yesterday.”
The general stopped to let us step over a rope stretched across the path. Azeneth lifted her feet carefully, and Ferny jumped over it. I kept watching the boat pulling on it. The gate wasn’t just another place full of monsters. People were waiting to use it.
I watched sacks being unloaded from a nearby boat. The man receiving them had to lean over a narrow board to reach them. I remembered the three slimes jumping around Azeneth’s boots and imagined her trying to keep her balance there with one clinging to her leg.
“Are they green?” I asked.
Axiltek lowered his eye toward me.
“The reports mostly mention blue ones.”
For a moment, I forgot about the quiet room. Blue. In the shop, I’d looked at that jar and thought about making something Azeneth could use when she needed me. We hadn’t even taken the ingredients after destroying the roof.
“We can help,” she said.
The general watched her without answering immediately.
“You’ve just crashed into a tavern.”
“I’m walking now.”
Ferny raised a hand.
“I’ll go too.”
Axiltek looked at her. The girl planted her feet on the walkway and lifted her chin. A man carrying a basket had to go around her.
“Ferny of Anymalia. Legendary warrior.”
“I heard you earlier.”
Her ears shifted sideways.
“Good. Then you know I can handle a few slimes.”
Azeneth laughed and switched me to her other hand to let the basket pass. I was about to ask her to support Ferny’s offer when I remembered that, only minutes ago, I’d wanted to leave any place where the two of them were together.
My judgment hadn’t improved. I’d just found a reason to follow them.
“I need materials for some potions,” I explained. “We can collect some of what’s left after clearing the way.”
Axiltek listened as I spoke. I hurried to add that we didn’t need to destroy the dock to get them. Azeneth turned me toward her.
“I wasn’t going to destroy it.”
“I’d rather mention it beforehand.”
The general rested a hand on his spear’s shaft.
“We’ll let you check,” Azeneth agreed.
She hadn’t agreed to return to the castle. Axiltek seemed to notice too, because he kept his eye on her for a few seconds before pointing toward the next walkway. Azeneth was already following the direction with her gaze.
Ferny tried to move ahead. The general called her back and waited until she was beside us again.
“When we arrive, keep the way clear. If the workers need to retreat, they’ll need that space.”
She looked where he was pointing and nodded, without striking a pose this time. I was relieved she listened. She’d been useful during the fight, but I still remembered her inviting the whole room to hit her.
We walked beside the canal. The smell of wine faded behind us, mingling with the water and the goods on the stalls. I focused on the path to keep from getting distracted by the hands holding me again. I wanted ingredients. I wanted experience too, though I couldn’t explain that aloud without having to explain a great deal more.
How many enemies have I defeated so far?
The system appeared on a post, its feet together and violet flowers hanging beside the water. Only I looked at it.
[Three green slimes. Three goblins. Six lupine knights. One giant lizard.]
I kept looking at the list. I remembered the knight in the stream all too well. And Azeneth’s hands trying to lift me as the goblin approached with his knife.
[Total enemies defeated: thirteen.]
Thirteen. The lizard had made me gain three levels, but she’d done almost all the fighting. I wanted to do more than wait to slide between broken scales. I looked at my blade, then the path Axiltek was taking.
The deer reappeared on the next post. A cart passed between us, and I turned my attention back to the street.
I’d agreed to help clear a passage. I could watch the boards, warn Azeneth, and start gathering the materials I’d asked for. I focused on that, even if the possibility of growing stronger made me imagine other things.
I looked at Azeneth again. Her staff rested on her shoulder, and she was listening to Ferny describe the moment she’d jumped on the big guy. She interrupted to correct her, and they started arguing about who’d ended up under whom.
I imagined walking beside her and reaching out to get her attention. The system had said I could get a body if I kept leveling up. I didn’t know how far off that was. I looked at the fingers holding me and waited for her to stop laughing so I could speak.
Azeneth’s hand steadied me as we crossed a joint between the boards.
“Doing all right?” she asked.
“Yes.”
She brought me closer to her chest so my tip wouldn’t brush a child running past. I wanted to tell her why I’d agreed to go so quickly. I ended up asking whether she minded helping me collect the slimes.
“Of course not. That’s why we went to the shop.”
She remembered. The fight, the wine, and the broken roof hadn’t erased it. I felt embarrassed for thinking I’d have to convince her again.
Ferny turned, walking sideways to look at me.
“You make potions?”
“I’m going to try once I have materials.”
“Then collect plenty. A warrior always needs supplies.”
Ferny moved closer and looked at my blade, watching Azeneth’s hand change position.
“I saw you move in the tavern. Can you go on your own?”
“Along the ground, a little. Not through the air.”
She pointed at the wooden walkway beside her boots. For a moment, I wanted to ask Azeneth to let me try, just to show Ferny I could. I looked at the gaps between the boards and preferred to stay where I was.
“I’ll show you when we stop,” I added.
Ferny lowered her hand. She didn’t insist on picking me up or ask about the curse again. It was easier to keep looking at her after that.
I was going to ask what supplies she carried, but Axiltek stopped us. A cart was crossing the bridge, and there was hardly any space between its wheels and the railing. We waited while he held his spear upright to keep it out of the way.
I looked at his hand. His fingers were long, and the ridges continued from his knuckles along his arm. Beyond the cart, two workers greeted him and pointed toward a street sloping down to the water.
“Still there?” he asked.
One nodded.
“We’ve removed the loose boards. We can’t bring the boats in.”
Axiltek told them to keep the way clear. Azeneth stopped talking to Ferny and approached the railing. I tried to look over her arm, but all I saw was a corner of the dock and a pile of ropes.
She noticed my movement and raised me.
Below, a blue mass stretched across a board. Another lay underneath. And behind them, beside the posts, there were so many that I’d initially mistaken them for reflections on the water. They pressed against each other, leaving shiny slime on the wood. Some surrounded the base of the gate. Others climbed up from the bank.
I looked for a way through. There were gaps between the bodies, but they changed with every movement. A strip of wood cleared, then vanished beneath another slime before I could finish following it with my eye. Pushing them away with a pole must’ve been exhausting, especially with a foot on those boards.
Axiltek pointed out the way onto the dock. We followed him down to a patch of solid ground, a short flight of steps separating it from the occupied boards.
One compressed at the sound of our footsteps.
I thought they were about to leap at us. Azeneth raised my tip, and Axiltek brought his spear forward, but the slimes started shoving each other. Several fell off the dock trying to get away from the gate.
I followed their movements down to the water. Those closest to the gate compressed so hard that they passed over the others.
“They’re fleeing,” I said.
A blow shook the gate from the other side. The boards trembled beneath the slimes, and a rope snapped taut beside the steps. Azeneth tightened her grip on me.
I stared at the closed gate, waiting to see what was behind it.
The second blow was much harder.
The center of the gate began to bend toward us.