"Hey, Celtine. Celtine! Get up and dress up, we need to go wait for him in the living room."

In the darkness before morning, the girls put their green dresses back on and slipped out of their room and into the main room to await morning and the master. They had no idea what kind of preferences he had and didn't know any of his habits so they could only prepare early and await him dutifully. From what the other girl was explaining, they should prepare breakfast too and whatever he needed to start a good morning but they had nothing to work with because the master had left everything in his bottomless bag. They only had to show that they had the intent of doing it.

The only thing the girl prepared was that she went out of the 'house' to go get some water for everyone. By the time she found the well and came back, the sun had risen. Then, the waiting game started. They had no idea the master would sleep so long. No noise could be heard in his small domain, even many hours after the sun had risen. The two girls were getting very hungry but they couldn't eat before him and even if they could, there was nothing to eat. After so long that even the spirited girl could no longer stand at the ready in front of his bedroom door, she made a suggestion to Celtine.

"Do you think he is alright? Should we go in and take a look? Do you think he is even inside?"

She could only shrug to the questions, unable to voice an answer. Then, they waited some more until Celtine got annoyed of waiting and decided to go in herself. The other followed her in, both because she agreed to her decision and because she fueled by her screaming stomach, it was already past midday after all.

Inside, they found that the master was indeed still there, sleeping soundly in his huge bed.

"Master?" The girl called meekly from the door.

Since there was no reaction, Celtine walked up to his side and looked at his sleeping face from up close. He seemed so happy and peaceful at this moment.

"Wait, Celtine, what are you doing?" The girl called in a whisper from the doorway.

She ignored her and raised a hand slowly up to his face. Then, under the nervous gaze of the other girl, she poked his cheek. No reaction. She then tried to place her palm on his face and nudge it but nothing happened. Since it had no effects, she removed her hand and placed it on his shoulder instead. The other closed her eyes afraid that something would happen, even though the whole point was to wake him up.

She tried to shake him stronger but he still didn't react. Was he really just asleep? She shot a look behind her to ask for advice but the other had no clue on what to do either. With someone so soundly asleep, what was better between letting him sleep more or waking him up? Maybe he was really tired after all, they didn't know.

Celtine gripped the sheets and removed with a wide and sudden movement to wake him but it failed again. Instead of waking him up, she just revealed a half naked master. That was when both of the girls noticed something abnormal, on his leg, there was some sort of plant.

"What is that?" Asked the other a little louder.

Celtine looked closer and found that it was actually growing into his leg! Was he about to die eaten by a plant? Was it a curse or a sickness? She would have screamed of fright if not for the fact she was mute. Instead, she just fell backward in a panic and the other had to rush in to stop her from collapsing on the floor. As she did, she saw what was happening to his leg and screamed of surprise and repulsion. In the end, she fell with Celtine and they both hit the wooden floor with their b.u.t.t.

It was that scream that finally managed to wake up the master.

***

Emp woke up when he heard a scream. He opened his eyes in surprise to discover the two girls sat on the floor near him with their gaze locked onto his leg. He felt really happy that they woke him up but, what were they doing? What were they afraid of?

"What is happening? Is there something behind me?"

"Your leg! What is happening to your leg?"

Did they mean the flowers? Was that what had scared them? He looked at his leg to be sure but there were nothing more than that to look at there.

"That's just because of a healing spell. The healer said the flowers will fall on their own when my leg is cured. There is nothing to be scared of."

They both seemed really relieved.

"That was so scary! I though a curse was eating master's leg and that was why master wasn't waking up!"

"No, I just sleep very hard. I wanted to tell you to wake me up in the morning but I forgot. Did I sleep too much?"

"It's already past midday."

He had done it again. He had lost most of the day to that bed. This needed to not happen again.

"Next time, you should wake me up before that, I don't want to lose so much time to that bed."

Celtine got back up with an upset look while Harriett answered.

"When should we wake master then?"

"With the sun if possible, the more time we have in a day, the better."

"Alright then master, I will remember."

"Great, do not be afraid to throw me on the floor, slap me or whatever it takes to wake me or I will stay asleep."

Harriett wasn't sure on how to answer that so Emp just continued.

"Also, why does Celtine look so upset?"

"I don't know. Maybe she is angry at how master scared us?"

"I did not do it on purpose though, I was sleeping... Anyway, we should find a reliable way to talk to you, it is going to be hard to understand you otherwise." He said to Celtine.

"What does master have in mind for her?"

"Do you know how to write and read?"

Celtine shook her head.

"If you did, I could get you paper and quill to express your thoughts. Would you like to learn?"

Celtine thought about it for a moment before she nodded. Emp did not know this but she felt really frustrated that she had previously refused to learn at this moment. If she had learned it before like the slavers wanted, she would already be able to somewhat communicate her wish to him.

"There will probably be cla.s.ses about letters once the school start. Since I already know how to read and write the n.o.ble tongue, I will ask for them to teach you instead of me."

Celtine nodded again and Emp finally got up from his bed.

After that, he got Harriett to prepare some sort of breakfast for them while he was dressing up and training with the hammer. Celtine stayed in the room with him and stared the whole time he did that. He felt that was kind of strange but he had nothing else to make her do.

After they ate, Emp was sat at the table and wondered what they should all do when Harriett asked him exactly that.

"What was master planning to do today?"

"I am not sure yet. I feel like there is a lot I should be doing but at the same time, I cannot think of anything."

"Then, if I may master, I would like to suggest that we talk about supplies."

"Supplies?"

"Yes, the cupboards and the pantry are empty so there is nothing for me to cook properly. There is no broom either and the only place suitable to wash clothes seems to be master's bathtub. Not only that, I am sure we will come across many more inconveniences as the days go."

"I see, since it is already this late, let us go shopping in town tomorrow and just make a thorough list this afternoon."

"Why not go straight away?" Asked Harriett, confused.

"Last time I slept so late and went to explore a town anyway, my day became really strange."

That day he had pa.s.sed in Red-water was a bit too filled for his taste. He liked to takes things more slowly or rather, he liked to be done with things quickly and enjoyed the empty moments in between. He also knew that he needed some clothes for the school and he really did not want to go find some.

"If I really have to go in town, I would rather know exactly what I need."

His problem was that to make a list, he needed to write it on something. If there weren't too many things, he could just remember them but he was afraid of forgetting something and be forced to go back again. Since they said he could go to the front desk if he needed anything, maybe he could just ask the woman there for what he needed.

But then, he would leave those two girls here alone with nothing to do. That didn't seem right to him. He could bring them instead but he would have to carry Celtine again. Instead, could he just ask Harriett to go in his stead? The thought made him smile, he had found something that he could make his slave do. Then, it wasn't entirely useless to have them around, if you didn't think about the fact that he wouldn't have needed to do any of this if they had not been there. They could wake him up too, that was good.

"Harriett, could you go to the front desk of the school and ask for writing supplies?"

"Of course master, leave it to me." She said with a smile.

He had no idea how much it would cost so he fetched a gold crown from his bag.

"Then here, take that gold coin to buy them and bring me back what remains."

"Yes, of course."

Then, just before she left, he thought of something else.

"While you are there, could you ask her if I will need something else for any of the cla.s.ses?"

"Understood master, writing supplies and information on required equipment and items. I will be back shortly."

As she left his room in high spirit, he wondered if she would get lost in the corridors. He hoped not because he had no idea on how to find her again if it happened.

Wait, that was right, he wouldn't need to go find her because she would be able to use the seal to find her way back. How useful.

And so, he was left alone with Celtine. He had no idea what to tell her and she couldn't even really hold a conversation. What should he do then? He couldn't leave and had nothing to say so they ended up just staring at each other for a while.

After a good moment of that, and a long time more of his mind drifting to other irrelevant thoughts, he was still the first to break the stare when he found something he could do.

He got Galana's books out and started studying that other language. It took no time at all for the curious Celtine to find herself at his side and looking at the writings. Emp told her what he was doing and continued his work as he explained and read out loud in case she could get something out of it as well, pointing out the words he was looking at and telling her their meaning, or at least what he believed was their meaning. She looked so hard into the book that Emp feared she would make holes in it just with her gaze.

At some point latter, Harriett came back with a pile of parchment paper, an inkwell and a quill, all stuffed between her arms.

"I'm sorry it took so long master, I couldn't find the main entrance." She said.

"Do not worry, we used the time you were gone to study language a bit."

"I am glad master isn't disappointed in me. What should I do with those, master?"

"Just bring them here." Emp said as he moved the books out of the way.

Celtine's gaze continued to follow the books while Harriett placed the things she had brought back neatly in front of him. She had brought a lot of paper, the stack was almost the width of two fingers. The remaining silver coins were dropped on the table nearby and he ignored them to focus on the future list. After dipping the quill the ink and scribbling a bit at the top of the page to test it out, he was ready to write down the list.

"Alright, first of all, what did she say about the cla.s.ses?"

"She explained that the school would provide a spare of anything master does not have that would be required for a cla.s.s but also said that master could bring is own. Many other students usually do the later because they don't like to borrow the old things of the school. Would master prefer to buy his own too or would he prefer to not spend money on those?"

"I will buy them anyway, I have a lot of money to spare. Also, could you stop addressing me at the third person. It feels strange."

The first time she called him master he didn't really mind it but now that he had noticed, he was finding it increasingly harder to ignore.

"I will try to remember master but it might be difficult for me as I spoke like that my whole life. Please, be lenient on me."

Emp thought the way she addressed him was strange but he didn't want to make things difficult for her either so he gave up for now.

"Fine then, just try your best. What did she say I would need?"

"She said you would need a sword and s.h.i.+eld for fencing, a bow for archery, riding boots and breeches, boots suitable for training and combat, formal footwear of any kind, enough paper and ink to take notes, a ball suit, training clothes and finally, each specific cla.s.s may require you to buy more things at a later date whenever it will be needed."

"What do I need a ball suit for?"

"The dancing lessons of course."

Was this really a thing he needed to learn? He wrote that down anyway with the rest of the things he was missing. He then wrote down the cooking supplies, spices, broom, another tub, and clothes for the two girls.

"Why clothes for us?" Wondered Harriett aloud.

"You only have one dress each, you need some spares."

"If master is to buy us clothes, would he consider getting some pants for Celtine."

"Does she prefer trousers from dresses?"

"I don't know, I just figured it would be more decent if master was to ever carry her like that again."

That made a lot of sense. He hadn't thought about it when he did it first, he should do that. He wrote trousers on the list.

"Then, what else?"

They continued to fill up his paper with a whole bunch of small things and daily necessities. He never realized one needed so many things to keep a house working. Lamps, soap, more sheets, enough food for three and the things necessary to cook it, carpets and a bunch of things he would never had thought of were added to the list by Harriett.

After that whole long list was made, Emp made a second, shorter one of the things that didn't require his input to be bought. For example, he really needed to be there to buy his clothes but his presence wasn't required for candles or pots. Once the second list was done, he gave it to Harriett and had her make a second trip to the front desk to deliver it to the receptionist. Meanwhile, he took some more time to study words and when Harriett came back, he was ready to talk about the next thing.

"I am curious, would you both be willing to show me your hunting cards?"

"Of course master." Answered Harriett without hesitation.

She showed it to him but there wasn't really a lot to see there. Her name, the t.i.tle of second slave of Emperor Muracier and no kills of any sort. Celtine's card was much more interesting. On hers, her name, the t.i.tle of first slave of Emperor Muracier but also the t.i.tle of Wind caller and a human kill.

"What is a wind caller?" He asked curious.

Harriett shrugged and Celtine could not say.

"Is it worth it for me to ask the book about it?"

The red haired girl shook her head in some sort of pitiful denial.

"Alright then, I won't ask further."

He didn't want to upset her and believed her when she said it wasn't worth it. She had no reason to lie.

Then, what should they do now? They still had some hours of daylight to kill but he was out of ideas already. If he had woken up earlier, he could still have went to explore the town or the school but now it was a bit late. Not enough time to do something worthwhile but too much to just end the day there. He decided to ask them for ideas.

"What should we do for the rest of the day then?"

"What does master usually do?"

"Usually, I used all my time by either doing whatever Chinui told me or walking toward this school, it is the first time I have free time since I was born. You, what is it you do with your time?"

"I mostly just did as many sh.o.r.es as I could and anything that my previous master asked me to, but here, there is no cleaning or was.h.i.+ng of any sorts to do yet."

"Mhn.... What did you do Celtine to pa.s.s time?"

She opened her mouth wide and raised her head but Emp didn't understand at all what she meant.

"Sorry, I don't get it."

She made a silent sigh and they all went back to staring at nothing. There really wasn't much to do...

"Maybe we should add playing cards or a chessboard on the list." Proposed Harriett.

Emp agreed, this sounded like a great idea but for now, there was nothing worth doing. (2)

***

Meanwhile, the other Emp was busy behind the forge with Marcellia. She was trying to teach him how to make charcoal for the forge but had two big problems. First, she couldn't find the words she was looking for and second, there was a large crowd of young people gathered there to see the new face, Emp. There were around fifteen of them of various height and age.

They were all there to talk to him or more precisely, to help him out a bit in learning the local language and laugh at his obvious mistakes. In that group was Calla Champom, the girl who had tripped, and one of her many brothers Gilbert who, from what Emp understood, was complaining about wanting to be Marcy's apprentice too. He did not understand what Marcellia answered to him but he guessed it wasn't an answer to his licking by the face he made and the loud laughter of the rest. He did not give up though and stayed all afternoon with the rest of the kids.

The three knife boys were here as well, they were called Wilbert, Cuthberht and Jurgen, two brothers and their friend. All three were into the smallest and youngest of the boys present but they were also the only men in the group considered adults to the great annoyance of the other boys.

The rest of the names he couldn't remember. There were just too many for him to remember them all. He was pretty sure one of them was called Winter but he didn't know which one. And those fifteens weren't even the only kids in the village, there were many more of them. Calla and Gilbert alone had three more brothers and five more sisters.

Marcellia, in poor coordination with her helpers was trying to teach Emp some new words while the wood they had prepared was burning into charcoal. Emp was doing his very best but a language wasn't something you could learn in a week. (3) He was about to ask some more questions on what they were explaining to him when he heard a loud ruckus coming from the main street.

"What is that noise?"

"Horses, a lot of 'em too." Answered Marcellia.

Curious, the whole group moved closer to the side of the house to look at street where they saw a large group of knights on horseback moving at a descent speed through the village. Emp did not have enough time to count them but there seemed to be around a hundred of them escorting a single carriage. No one could see what was inside because of the closed doors and blinds but a duo of mages with large hats were sat cross-legged on top of it dressed in their signature clothes full of pockets.

"Must be someone important in there." Commented the smith as they were pa.s.sing in front of them.

On each and every s.h.i.+eld, the colors of the Steelwood empire were shown and their s.h.i.+ning armors were of obvious high quality steel. They probably all came from the imperial capital in Grandbois. Whoever it was, the person inside needed an escort of a hundred elite knights and two mages, Marcellia could only be right.

"Where do you think they are going?" Asked Emp to her When the rest looked at the show wide eyed.

"I would guess they're either going out of the empire or they're going to Bêtéclair."

That made sense, Emp didn't know of any other big cities in Artefine aside from its capital, if they were going through Dark-glint, they were probably going there.

The others all talked excitedly about what they were seeing but Emp was left out of it because of the usual language barrier.

"Let's go back my boy, there's nothing for us here." Said Marcy as she turned back towards her equipment.

Emp thought she was exaggerating when she said there was nothing for them. It was really interesting to look at, especially their armors had a design completely different than those Marcellia made. One was smooth and coldly intimidating while the other was practical but oddly frightening. With their polished steel engraved with runes and peppered with various talismans, those were probably the armors the n.o.bles thought about when they bought equipment. They were nothing like those Marcellia made from scavenged parts and sudden inspiration.

Emp thought that both had their advantages. He had no doubt that the armors made by his teacher were better but in the end, with many magic infused in them, those simple and stylish plates made a better choice for the n.o.ble knights. Even more since they were all similarly awe inspiring. If they had wore things looking like the armor Emp had bought before, they would have looked like a savage war band or bandits instead of n.o.ble knights.

Marcellia did know how to engrave some runes but it had many problems. Since he had just started his apprentices.h.i.+p, he wasn't ready to learn what it was all about but he had learned a bit from asking about the armor she wore during the blood-spitter attack.

Engraving runes was hard and precise, the material you engraved things upon mattered a lot too as some things were easier to carve then others. For example, the scales she used as the main component of his armor weren't suitable to house runes, they would all split and crack instead of being carved properly.

He was really interested in the new design and it's crafting method but still followed his master back behind the house. Anyway, he didn't need to see to ask about them.

"What were all those talismans hanging from their armors?" He asked.

"Talismans?" She didn't know that word it seemed.

"The things in wood wrapped around them." He explained with gestures.

"Ho, ya didn't know about those? Almost every warrior have some, at least those that are wedded. They say that if a wife or husband write a plea for protection to the ancestors on some piece of wood or specially prepared paper and hang them from their lovers armor, the ancestors will protect them. Some guys have so many wives there are pieces of wood hanging from all over their chest plates, shoulders and helmets."

"Does it really work?"

"Who knows? I have never seen an ancestor throw himself in front of an arrow but many soldiers come back alive claiming they were saved by the trinkets their wives made them."

"I see."

The more he learned about the ancestors, the more impressive they felt.

"Now ya better focus on your study or tomorrow I'll wake ya up by setting fire to your bed."

Maybe setting fire to his bed was a bit extreme but he was quite glad she was waking him up in the morning or he would probably lose half a day like in Red-water.

It didn't take her more than a day to pick up on his habit of sleeping too much and started waking him up by throwing him off the bed every morning. The fall usually woke him up and when it didn't, she would just drag him by the foot towards their workplace until he woke up. She told him that she knew someone who had the same problem before so she was used to it.

He focused back on his task like she asked and the rest of the group came back shortly after the knights had left. The rest of that day continued in the same way until he went to sleep and got recalled. Then, he discovered how his other self had lost his whole day to sleep and a mix of small talk and study. What a terrible news. In the end, the only thing they did was to study some more and lift the hammer over and over. What a strange day.

(1) I said it was the last chapter about Celtine, not that I would never again dwell in her head.

(2) I wasn't able to work out a place to describe either of the two slaves physical appearance in a fluid way so I didn't. Maybe I will in the future. In the meantime, know that Celtine has her red hair braided at the top and loose at the bottom, she has some freckles, eyes of a weird mix of red and purple, milky white skin and the rest you pretty much know. Harriett has more meat on her bones, has blue eyes, copper blonde hair cut at shoulder length and held on the right side of her face, her skin is of a caramel beige and she is tall compared to Emp, mostly because of her long legs.

(3) Emp will know soon and we will get some true scenes and stories from the village but meanwhile, It is very hard to use two languages at the same time and have them both represented as English so I am not even going to try. I'm sure you can all easily picture it in your head, how the kids just point out stuff saying "That's a tree. Tree. T-r-e-e" as if Emp was two years old.