The sisters choice

The day after Emp and Erin scared Leo, he decided to tell them about him. He sat down in the main room and told Svae to go get the other two.

It didn't take long for them to come down. With a good night's rest, Leo was much better. Her eyes weren't red anymore and she showed up with a smile like usual. Maybe Erin spent a lot of efforts to cheer her up and apologize. In any case, both of them were in a good mood and Emp intended to make it even better by rewarding them.

They both wished good morning to everyone and he waited for them to be sat in front of him to speak. Svae stayed close by to witness the victory of her friends while Calla just sat at his side with a satisfied smile. She was really happy that Emp would finally tell them because she thought this whole thing had lasted more than long enough. She just wanted everyone to get along and have fun.

"Good morning you two, you seem to feel better now." He told them.

"Yes, I feel a bit better now but I'm still mad about you and Erin tricking me."

"You don't look mad."

In answer, she scrunched up her face to look mad. It almost made Emp laugh.

"I'm sorry Leo, I worried for nothing and Emp just wanted to help me, it's all my fault. I shouldn't have doubted you."

"Mhu, that was scary but now I guess I understand better why you said you wouldn't run away that time. I didn't want to loose you so I couldn't run away."

"You're the best sister anyone could have."

Erin hugged her sister again and Leo made a big smile accompanied by a contented noise. At this point, Emp felt she was pretty much just fishing for hugs and praises and wasn't at all angry anymore.

"I'm glad everything's back to normal because I have some things to tell you."

"Your forehead is still red." Leo pointed out to lure him into her scheme as well.

"I apologized already, let's not forget that you used a talisman worth a gold coin and twenty silver on me and could have gravelly injured your sister if I hadn't reacted fast enough. You also tried to stab me in the neck with a knife."

Leo opened her mouth wide in shock while Erin shouted for the both of them.

"Over a crown!"

He nodded in answer to her shock.

"Yes, I told you it was expensive and dangerous, I meant it. I told you not to play around with them."

The two girls now seemed to be really sorry and really worried.

"Is that the important thing you wanted to tell us?"

"Will you have us pay for the thing?"

"Will you kick us out?"

Emp shook his head to deny all that.

"No, of course not. None of those things are close to what I wanted to say."

Relief washed over the both of them and while Leo cheered in victory, Erin asked what he wanted to tell them.

"If its not that then what did you want to tell us?"

"I would have told you yesterday but I wanted to wait for Leo to feel better. You won."

"We won? What do you mean?" The sisters didn't understand what he was talking about.

"You won our game, yesterday, Leo hit me. Well, she didn't really hit me but the knife came really close, she managed to blind me with my own armor and even forced me to let go of Erin so congratulation, I will give this to you as a win."

As he was talking, their faces turned into bright smiles and soon enough, they jumped down their chairs and celebrated around the room with jumps and cheers.

"We won! Svae we did it!"

"That means Emp has to tell us what he's been hiding."

"It's a promise you have to!"

Emp found it very funny that they'd be this excited to just learn that. Calla laughed along with him while Svae joined up with the sister to share their celebration.

Once everyone had calmed down, he started explaining about himself.

"What do you want to learn about first?"

"Your name!" "Your Job!" The two asked at the same time.

Emp chose to answer Erin's question first because it pretty much answered both at once.

"My actual name is Emp Muracier, I should be the next great general."

"Whoa!" "What!"

Both of them felt really shocked. Erin had expected he was some sort of person related to knights, maybe a renowned one himself because of the armor he had but she had not guessed he'd have such an important name. Just thinking about how she accused him of being a kidnapping bad guy made her heart lurch.

"You're the biggest of big shots! How come you're living with Calla in a village instead of in a huge castle somewhere!"

"There are many reasons, Marcy is here, Calla's family too, the other Muraciers don't know about me yet. I know you don't understand why my own family wouldn't know about me yet but its a bit complicated and it involves a lot of things I'm not supposed to talk about so I'll keep it at that for now."

"Then, all those cool knights we saw the other day are working for you?" Leo said in an overexcited manner.

"Not yet, like I said, I'm not the great general yet, so I'm not the head. If I can become the great general then yes, all of them will work for me."

"What do you have to do to be the general?"

"I need to convince everyone that I'd be a good great general in comparison to my uncle Graube. I have to show everyone what I can do and prove that I'm worthy."

When she asked about what he had to do, Leo had pictured something more concrete like fetching an object or beating something. She couldn't wrap her head around his answer.

"But what does it mean exactly? Aren't you good enough yet?"

"That means I have to train hard because if I am to be accepted as the great general, I'll have to be really really strong. I also need to know a bunch of other things I'm currently studying and maybe I'll have to do some more things to convince some of the vassals and retainers."

The girls obviously had ten thousand more questions to ask like how he brought Svae here so fast, if it made Calla some big noble and so on. There was one thing however that mattered more for them than any of that.

"Doesn't that mean that there was no work for us here in the first place?"

Leo tensed up hearing what her sister said. She hadn't even thought of that, she was too busy being impressed. Neither of the two felt desperate though because Calla and Svae didn't seem to worry about that at all.

"That's only partially true, you know what the Muraciers do right?"

"They protect the empire, they fight things, they lead the knights and the soldiers. Does that mean you really want to make us knights? That sounds amazing but isn't it unreasonable?"

Erin had felt it would be great to be a knight but she never expected to be an actual one, looking at herself and her sister, she didn't feel like they could fit in with the knights she saw just two days ago. They didn't have the shape or the height or the strength or even the talent.

"That entirely depends on you now. As you are now, I think that you'd be safe on your own. I'm sure you could escape most trouble without my help but I can still teach you more things. I can't show you anything about being an artisan or a merchant because I don't know how to be either but I can show you how to survive and how to fight. The way I see it, you have five options in front of you."

"What are they?" The eldest was eager to know his opinion.

"The first three I think are less good but they are still options so think carefully about them all."

Erin creased her brows to focus on what he was about to say and Leo imitated her. Emp was pretty sure that she would just listen to whatever her older sister said they should do though.

"First, you could leave on your own to find some work elsewhere, I'm willing to pay for the caravan fee if you do that. Like for every other option, you'd always be welcome here as my and Calla's friends but I can't give more help.

Second, I can show you how to survive in the wild, I'll show you how to hunt and forage so you'll be able to live as hunters. This way, you'll be fine anywhere you go and you can even stay in Dark-glint if you want. You won't be paid for your work, you'll mostly work for yourselves instead. You already know how to run and hide so it shouldn't be too long or hard.

Next, you could be death seekers or mercenaries. You have to know how to survive in the wild like if you wanted to be a hunter but you also need to know how to fight. I'll help you train but after that, it will be up to you if you find work or not and if you can survive it. There's a reason it's called death seekers and not adventurers after all."

Erin nodded to show she understood, up to now, the second one seemed like the best option, they couldn't be fired from a job if they were hiring themselves. She didn't say it out loud though and waited for the last two since he said he thought they were better.

As he was telling them all this Galana showed up on the second floor and leaned against the railing to listen to their talk downstairs. It didn't really matter to her what the girls chose to do because aside from being annoyed about getting scarred by them all the time, she had no particular feelings for them. She was just curious to see what Emp would propose for them to do.

"The next two I think are better but they require a lot more hard work from you two. If you trained all day everyday and gave it your all, you might be able to become knights. We already know you two have the right hearts to do it but if your body can't follow up, it will never work. If you want to do that, you'll have to gain a lot of muscles, learn how to survive, use weapons, learn new combat techniques, get yourselves some armor, learn manners, etiquette, know your letters and numbers perfectly too, and even study names and banners to recognize nobles and knights everywhere. I think it would be the hardest of all five options and being a knight isn't all fun and games, you'd have to fight all the time and put your life on the line for everyone.

The last one is the one I think would be best for you two. I'd do my best to teach you everything just like for the knight but you'd be my retainers instead of actual knights."

"Retainers? You'd make those two insufferable tricksters your retainers?" Galana bellowed from above.

"I don't care about the opinion of someone who stabbed someone else in the neck." Leo said with her arms crossed.

"You don't get to call me out on that, you almost did the same yesterday! Emp would be dead by now if he wasn't so fast!"

Leo made a grimace in answer, she had not realized that.

"It doesn't even concern you, why are you complaining?" Erin asked her instead.

"It does concern me, my life's on the line after all. If something happens to Emp I'm done for and I feel like taking you two as retainers would shorten his lifespan by a ridiculous amount."

"What does a retainer do?" Leo asked.

"Retainers are like official representatives of the lord they serve. They do all sorts of things depending on what the lord asked them to. It's a bit like me that's taking care of his money and books except they'd have some sort of badge showing everyone they are close friend to the lord."

"So all we have to do is do as Emp says, that sounds easy."

"Just yesterday you used one of the talismans I told you not to." Emp answered.

Leo made another grimace.

"But what would you have us do as retainers? Galana is sort of right, we don't have any special talent and we always mess things up. What would be the difference with being a knight? Aren't both the same?"

"No, not at all. A knight fights or train all the time, they have a duty to go to war and protect everyone from monsters and enemies. A retainer doesn't have to do all that, they don't take the knight's vows, they just do what their lord asked them to. A retainer can be a knight but they can also just a counsellor, a mage, treasurer, a hunter or whatever. They don't have to wear big armor and they don't have to go to war either. They aren't stuck behind the knights many rules so they have a lot more freedom to accomplish the tasks asked of them.

As a Muracier though, people will expect my people to be able to at least fight well. They'll expect me to take only the best of the best. I can't name you retainers unless you can prove to me that you are worthy of it and that you won't mess it up. In that way, it will be harder than to become a knight but it could be easier too. Like I said, a retainer doesn't necessarily fight, maybe you'll find something you're really good at while I'm showing you things and you'd be able to help me with that in the future."

"I still think they'd be more of a nuisance than anything else." Galana said from up there.

Emp looked up at her leaning figure above them and told her what he thought.

"It's not all about talent Galana, it's about their state of mind. I know what they have in their heart and I know the sort of will they have. They are the kind of person I respect and I believe the rest of the Muracier house would think the same. If they work hard, I think that something good will show up and I'd rather have them on my side than wasted on someone else. I think many would say that you aren't a better choice but you're here anyway."

Galana snorted with a pout.

"Will over talent? Fine then, if you say so. You better make sure they'll be loyal to you if you do that though, I'd like to stay alive."

With that, Galana chose to remove herself from the talk and went back to the study.

"She's infuriating!" Leo complained. "She doesn't trust us at all even though she's the untrustworthy one."

Svae laughed and ruffled the hair of her small friend, grabbing her two buns of hair and shaking them side to side.

"If you were that trustworthy, you'd have managed to keep one of those jobs back in Bêtéclair."

"Svae is right, we'd have to be especially careful if we tried to be retainers." Erin added.

"Why, is it that hard?"

Emp tried to explain it to her again.

"In a way yes, think about how your dad didn't want you to use your family name to not embarrass it. It would be the same sort of thing. You'd have something that shows everyone you're one of my closest friends and I chose you specifically to represent me. If you embarrass yourself then, you'd embarrass me too, your mistakes would be my mistakes too and your failures my failures too. If you keep making mistakes, people will think less of me because I chose my retainers poorly."

That idea seemed to worry Erin much more than it worried Leo.

"Anyway, none of it matters if you don't want to be a retainer." Svae pointed out.

"She's right, it's only one of the five options, I think you have. In the end, even if you choose to try aiming for that, the final decision will still be mine to take so if I think you can't do it, I won't allow it."

"But it's the option that will make you teach us the most right?"

"I think so."

"It's also the one that will take the longest time right?"

"Yes."

Erin shot an eye at her sister who seemed like she had no idea about what they should do and gave an answer for them both.

"I'd like to choose the last option, I'd like to try to be a retainer."

She didn't seem to think she would actually do it though. From what Emp saw, she was more taking the decision based on what would keep a roof over her sister's head the longest.

"You don't have to if you don't want to. I'd let you stay as long as you want anyway."

"But since we're here, I'd like to try learning more."

Emp could understand that feeling, it would be a waste to not learn anything while they were here.

"Alright then, but I won't go easy on you. From now on, I'll make sure you're working really hard everyday. In the morning, you'll train hard with me until you can't stand up and then in the afternoon, you'll go see Galana and she'll make sure you know your letters and how to calculate properly while I work with Marcy."

"Bleh, I don't want to study with Galana, do we really have to?" Leo asked.

Emp chuckled a bit hearing her.

"I know you don't get along with her well but she's really good at that. Plus, she's mostly displeased with you two simply because you keep harassing her."

"That's because we don't trust her, she's hiding something."

"You should trust me, she won't do anything bad. She's just ashamed about what happened and doesn't want to talk about it."

"Can you tell us about it then?"

Emp hesitated for a moment. He didn't know if it would bother Galana or if she'd be fine about it as long as the girls didn't keep bringing it up. They had already talked about how she stabbed one of the mercenaries anyway so it shouldn't be that bad. The main reason she didn't say anything at all was probably just because the ending was hard to explain if the girls didn't know his name. She had already told Svae after all.

"I guess I could."

He told them about how her parents were tricked and killed, how she got stuck with a huge debt, how he met her, how she stubbornly refused his help, how the books he sent were stolen, how she got enslaved and how he showed up at the last moment to get her out of there and punish the responsible noble. He told them about the slave seal hidden on her forehead too.

It didn't make the sisters like her more at all because they still thought she was annoying but they didn't think she was hiding something bad anymore. They felt silly for suspecting her of all the wrongs they could think of while she was just trying to hide her mistakes. At the very least, since she was like Svae, they understood that she couldn't go against Emp so he was right to say she wasn't dangerous to him at all.

"She can be really sour at times and doesn't trust people easily at all and she's easy to anger too. She's not a bad person though, you've just really been driving her insane since she came here. You'll have a hard time to gain her approval now."

"Why would we want her approval?" Leo asked.

"There are two reasons. First, because she's the one that's deciding if your studies are good enough to pass on to the next thing, second, because that will be your first assignment from me. Hopefully I will achieve my goals and if it happens, everyone will scrutinize every little thing I do, I can't just give you a retainers place because I like you. The rest need to think this is acceptable too. Galana will be hard to convince but if you manage to do it, I'm sure that we'll find the rest to be easier. Prove to her that you won't be burdens to me, show her what you can do and what strength you have inside you. If you manage to have her tell me she accepts you, I'll reward you with those."

Emp shoved his hand into his bag and removed two small bottles from it.

"What is that?" Leo asked, unsure if it was interesting or not.

"It's a black tulip of the crystal spring elixir. It's a very rare potion that will make you stronger, much nimbler and more agile and a bunch of other things. It's very powerful and I only have sixteen left including those two. Each one can be worth thousands of crowns and usually, only high nobles get to taste it."

The two girls backed off many steps from the table, afraid they might somehow break the bottles.

"You'd really give that to us?" Erin asked in a faint voice.

"If you can convince Galana, yes, I'll have you drink those, it will be well worth it for me. Your physical condition will improve by leagues, you might even become stronger than a grown man hauling lumber everyday."

"S-seriously?..."

"Now you know what you have to do so good luck and try your best. We'll go train after breakfast."

He stored away the two bottles again and the girls remained frozen for a while before they suddenly sprung back to life at the same time.

"Erin, we have to get this!" "Leo, we have to come up with a plan!"

The two of them ran at breakneck speed up the stairs and rushed towards the study which made Calla laugh. Svae on the other hand seemed worried.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to put this sort of expensive treasure on the line for them? Isn't it too much? I'm really pleased that you'd be willing to give them such treasures but I'd have thought that it should be used on great knights under your command first."

Emp nodded to acknowledge her question but he didn't feel like he was making a mistake.

"I thought for a long time about who I should give those sixteen elixirs to, my closest friends, the girls I like, strong warriors to help me. It's really hard to decide, I'd be tempted to have Calla drink one for example but it won't really help keep her safe. I've been keeping them because I'm afraid to waste them but the only real way to waste them is to not use them at all. I chose to give them to those I feel deserve them or those that need them.

It's fine to use two to motivate the sisters, not only will it help them a lot once they drink them but it will also make the assignment much harder and way closer to what would happen outside of the house."

"I don't get it at all." Svae answered with a puzzled face. "How is promising a reward making it harder for them to make up with Galana."

Calla too was curious and waited for his answer with just as much interest as Svae.

"It's because Galana doesn't trust anyone. It would already be really hard for them but its even worse because they started on the wrong foot. Now, they'll try too hard and Galana will think they're trying to trick her or use her to get something which is the case. She'll close herself and not give them any ground.

The only way to achieve the assignment I gave them will be to truly get along instead of tolerating each others which is much better in my opinion. This way everybody wins. The girls get a challenge, Galana might open up to new people and discover that the sisters aren't so bad and I get to learn more about her."

In the future, they'd have to convince all manners of skeptical nobles and judgmental folk, Galana was good practice. Just like running and hiding, Emp believed the way to learn was to do it and practice until they got it right.

While they were annoying Galana upstairs, Emp got up with Calla and helped her with the breakfast. He shared a lovely discussion with her and had an enjoyable time even though the volume upstairs got quite high over time. Svae even ended up swimming upstairs to try to calm the situation.

"Do you really think they can get along?" Calla asked him.

"I'm sure it will be fine. It might take a while though."

A few minutes later, Emp called everyone to eat and the following meal seemed more like a crazy street show than anything else. The sisters and Galana kept bothering each other the whole time. Whatever Galana said, the sisters wouldn't let her go and kept assaulting her with kindness in order to earn her favor which provoked the exact opposite.

Emp told her that he wanted her to help the two girls with their writing and calculation and she answered that she already knew with a sharp and annoyed tone. She got in a much better mood when he told her she'd be the one to decide whether they passed or not. She instantly felt that this was probably the reason they suddenly got so clingy and declared straight away that she was never going to let them pass.

She successfully annoyed them and got called unfair, she debated with them for a moment and then feigned to be unable to stand them anymore and gave them an instant pass instead to get rid of them. Her sudden turnaround confused the sisters who didn't know how to react. That didn't really help them at all because not only did they not learn a thing, it didn't count as her giving her approval either, she just said she was done teaching.

Emp couldn't help but chuckle while Galana climbed back up the stairs with a satisfied smile, leaving the sisters to think about how to salvage the whole thing.

"So, did you learn anything new about Galana?" Emp asked them.

"Learn something about her?" Leo asked, still confused about what just happened.

Her friend Svae came floating to her side to pick up the empty wooden plate in front of her and explained what she thought her master meant.

"Well yeah, you have to know about her if you want to convince her of anything. Clearly, what you're doing right now won't ever work."

"Was there really something to learn from all that?" Erin asked with her brows furrowed.

"Of course there was, just like when we were playing before, when you got caught, I always told you why so that you would improve. Now I won't tell you anymore, you need to figure out why you failed and correct your approach. You need to understand her so that you won't make the same mistakes again."

"Hohhh..."

"We'll think about it later then. Right now, I'd like to ask a few more questions about the things I don't understand." Erin told him while her sister contemplated upon what happened.

"Alright then, what do you want to know?"

She asked him about how he got Svae or Galana here so fast followed by a large amount of other question that had for only use to satisfy their endless curiosities. They asked about what he was doing in Bêtéclair, if he knew many important nobles, details about his blessing and the god's trial and so on.

Emp tried to answer everything as efficiently as possible because he still wanted to train this morning but the string of questions still lasted for much longer than he'd have liked. Since he had told then that he would answer as many questions as possible, he didn't complain too much and told them what they wanted to know except for the few very important things he wanted to keep secret.

Once they were finally done, he told them to go see if Gilbert wanted to train as well and meet him behind the house afterwards. They left the room swiftly and Emp, after kissing Calla, went upstairs to speak with Galana.

He first convinced her to seriously teach the sisters for now and then talked about magic with her for a moment. He promised to look at her progress later this afternoon and told her he was eager to see the results of her studies.

He then put on his gear and joined the others outside for training. Thinking about how to train as efficiently as possible, he decided to sent the girls to run a lap around the outside of the village first. It would give him some time to see about the progress of Gilbert who had decided to join them.

"But there's a river going through." Leo said.

"What about it?"

The thing was so tiny Emp could just step over it.

"How do we cross?" Erin asked.

"Just go over it."

The two made a dispirited face but still did as they were told and ran off.

Gilbert seemed to think he was being harsh but Emp felt that was the easy part. Anyway, Gilbert wouldn't get any time to feel bad for the girls because Emp really needed to train and Gilbert was the only guy he could spar with right now. Emp was sure his brother would improve a lot with just a bit of practice.

When the sisters came back with dripping clothes and saw Gilbert sprawled on the ground out of breath and all beat up, they felt that maybe training with Emp wasn't such a great idea.

*-*-*-*

(some other time)

"Taxes?"

"Yes taxes, isn't that obvious that you've got to pay them?"

Emp was standing in the doorway to his house with an exasperated looking Bor. The local lord was telling him about the money he owed him for the land and Emp was obviously confused.

Emp could hear the two sisters listening in from just on the other side of the door leading to the main room. They were whispering to each other.

"He's trying to extort money from Emp!" "Big mistake, he's going to get beaten!"

Emp ignored them.

"But I never paid any before?"

"Because you didn't own a house before! Marcy always pays her taxes, why wouldn't you?"

"But you're asking for way more than what you were asking of her."

"Because you're six living in that house and you're taking a lot of space, I told you this already. Marcy only paid for herself and you, now you have to pay for six. I shouldn't have to come here to ask you the money, normally you should have paid already."

Emp really didn't know if this was right so he decided to send Svae to fetch Galana. She lived in a city alone before and owned a store, she should be able to tell him what to do. Anyway, if he paid just like that without telling her, she'd complain later when calculating the expenses for the month.

Bor let out a long annoyed sigh.

"I can't believe someone with as much money as you can complain so much about a yearly tax."

Galana showed up a bit confused about why she was called to the door and once she heard the story, Galana thought he was an idiot and urged him to pay the coins he was asked for.

"He's not even asking ten silvers for all six of us! Why would you hesitate idiot! Just give him the tax money already!"

Galana exposed him everything that was normally calculated in the taxes of the empire and explained in detail what built up to the amount Bor asked for. She knew a lot about this apparently and Emp just felt confused about why all of this was made so complicated.

Receiving complaints from both sides, Emp ended up paying without any more fuss. After that, he elected to let Galana take care of the tax from now on. Hopefully, he wouldn't have to think about this from now on and she'd remember to pay everything with his money.