A Dull Blade's Shine Pt. I

"I am Saleos Kross, Count of the Saleos Manor and landowner of the proud town of Rezabel and her fields."

"Forgive me for the earlier injustice upon you, manservant."

"I had simply lost my usual good nature fearing that fair Lady Carmilla was in danger."

Saleos extended a polite, yet firm hand out to me. He had cleaned himself up after the fall and near-choking-death with the help of Ima supplying water magic and rags handed to him by his entourage.

"Water under the bridge, Milord." I bowed first before shaking his hand, his grip was confident as we shook on it.

After the excitement of Saleos' screwup died down, I had taken the new role of being a 'manservant' as something I can't fight against- Carmilla's report didn't mention her already well-established 'relationship' with Saleos. Whatever she says is whatever Saleos will believe, is what I understood after seeing their first interaction together.

"So, why are there these garments riddled about on the ground?" Saleos asked as he kept Carmilla to his side, they were interlinked by the elbow.

But as the question wasn't directly asked to me, I didn't respond- Carmilla instead did.

"Bandits, bandits attacked my carriage." Carmilla softly cried as she frailly swung her wrist.

"By Ahriman! How despicable!!"

"These rapscallions!! Horrid rogues attacking my fair Lady!!!" Saleos rose a tight fist and shook it angrily into the air.

"Who was it that dispatched them, however? I see no remnants of a skirmish other than their armor."

Carmilla didn't say anything for a moment as Ima and I stood silent.

"It-"

I gave a look at Ima, as I took a step forward.

"Pardon me." I spoke up, it caught Carmilla by surprise as I did; Saleos focused his attention onto me.

"Why, you best me in combat AND had saved Carmilla? Dear boy, you are-"

"No, forgive me Milord- it was Ima, the maid, who had bested them." I motioned to Ima who was caught in complete surprise as I shifted the victory to her.

"She bested their leader in a duel and gotten them to strip their arms after she had won." Is what I said, it wasn't a very sound-proof claim.

But surprisingly- Saleos took it with an easy stride.

"Is that so! Hah! Deplorable nincompoops, they turn tail the moment their leader had been defeated, Hohoho!" He gave a belly laugh, his group also laughed with him.

Carmilla looked like she wanted to burn her eyes through my head- but it was a good thing I acted fast the way that I did.

"Let me host a feast in your honor, once we return to my manor!" Is what he proclaimed.

"Alas, I believe we shall be walking back- as you've incapacitated my good steed Mercutio."

"I-I believe I can help with that, Milord." Ima walked past behind me to the sleeping horse, she quickly tried pinching my back as she did; but I shifted forward slightly to cause her to miss by a hair. I still had [Moon God's Might] activated- I didn't want her to lose her fingers if she pinched a little 'too' hard.

// [Moon God's Might] Toggled Off //

She stood over Mercutio and held her hand over it's head- she activated her magic as she did.

"Dark Magic: Kiss of Dawn."

The white magic circles appeared, causing the horse's snoring to stop- it began to wake up slowly.

"Marvelous! Bravo!" Saleos cheered excitedly as he saw what unfolded before his eyes.

"The horsey, it's fine, ah how good." Carmilla cooed, it felt jarring hearing her speak in such a cutesy way.

Mercutio wasn't any worse for wear as it walked back to Saleos.

"Ah Mercutio, my dear friend, I need your strength! Haha, you must bear your pedigree more than ever."

"Men, align Mercutio to the carriage- and ehrm, dispose of the poor felled beast before it." He commanded to the farmers as they followed through without question.

"Ah, I'm so tired~." Carmilla sighed as she snuggled up to Saleos, I could see his pointy ears blush red.

"My little love, may we 'converse' in the carriage? I have sooo much to talk about, but the sunlight, it is making me tired~."

"My dearest, so we shall!"

They disappeared into the carriage, leaving Ima and me outside.

It was pretty obvious we weren't welcome to follow them in either.

Ima had an angry frown as she strutted over to me- I was busy sifting through the garments on the field to see if there were any clues we might've missed.

"Kai, why did you tell Count Saleos that it was I that had defeated the 'bandits'." she angrily whispered to me as she stood above me, watching me look through a breastplate.

"Because-" I felt underneath the breastplate's lining, hoping to see if there was a stray missive carelessly left- but no dice.

Carmilla was right on the money about them being thorough.

"If I had told him it was me- do you really think I'd be given any freedom?" I said as I rose up from the ground.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Carmilla has already begun to restrict my freedom in this whole thing."

I rose two fingers.

"She's withheld information from me about the Count, which is one restriction." Nevermind the plausibility that the information she's given me is either false or greatly exaggerate; but I'll keep that to myself.

"That being the fact that they're on 'good' terms." I shifted my eyes to the carriage, hopefully they're just 'talking'.

"Did you know she would do this?" I asked.

Ima shook her head.

"Hmm, well as you can see- whatever she had written on the sheet for me, what she's doing now was not mentioned." I audibly groaned as I hated the fact that I'm already being played so early on like this.

I put down one finger.

"And two- she's claimed that I'm a servant to the Count."

"Ultimately- I can't talk to the Count privately in any way now; she's made sure of that as a manservant has no right to approach a Lord like that." I put down my second finger.

"But why claim you weren't the hero? Wouldn't that have given you back the privilege?"

We saw that the farmers had at last hitched Mercutio to the carriage, the large horse neighed happily as it did so.

"You know how to drive a carriage?" I asked.

Ima nodded; surprisingly.

...

After sneaking a small ward over the visor behind our backs to muffle our voices from Carmilla within, I explained to Ima freely about my reasoning. I don't think she knows that I can do it yet as It's identical to how her's looks like, with then in the battle it acting in cohesion with her warding. The small ward over the visor was tiny, as the curtain hid it with whatever the Count and Carmilla were doing inside.

"The reason why is simple-"

"I need to investigate."

As we finally left the tree line, we were greeted by fields and fields of growing crops.

It spanned for miles, with only other tree lines dotting the end of visible vision at the edges.

The 'wheat' that was growing on the fields, however, did not look like the wheat that I was used to seeing on Earth. It wasn't gold, but rather an earthy, reddish brown.

But as we slowly made down the path with farmers walking along the path with us, Ima and I on the coach driver seat as she drove, I began to notice something odd about the fields themselves.

They were massive, but they weren't sectioned off, like in quarters. They were just large rectangles that spanned on forever, with the wheat growing wildly over it.

There was no actual planning apparent for the structure of the fields, other than some lines set here and there- likely markers for distance.

"I see- I believe I understand what you mean now." Ima spoke as she lightly whipped the reins at Mercutio- he snorted as he trotted steadily down the path.

From a distance we could see the outline of a town, the wheat fields surrounding it in a circular shape. And just behind the town in a teardrop shape was a sloping hill with an impressive mansion sitting atop of it, the grains extended up the hill upwards to it- almost as if in reverence.

A farmer, a younger boy from the group, sped up and matched out pace as he began to speak to us on our right.

"Keep movin' till you make it to Lord Saleos' Manor, it's a straight shoot ahead." He pointed.

"Thank you." I replied, as the boy went back to his group.

"If you understand, then thank you- you'll be a good distraction as I try and make up my losses."

"Carmilla won't stop me from doing what I need to do."

///