Sitting on the floor in front of wooden pieces of different sizes placed in the form of a city Alice was playing with plush toys in her hands, tapping them on the floor as if they were jumping around.
“Oh nooo! Mr.SmartySmarty you were late and FumiFumi went away to Munchkin Kingdom without you.” She said, giggling as she talked to a toy resembling a rabbit, but her rry laughter stopped abruptly the next second. She paused her ga, a smile ceasing from her face entirely, her expression turning serious. In a mont her deanor changed from silly girl-like into a mature woman.
“Not now.” She said seemingly to no one as she sat alone in the room.
Silence spread in the room as no one answered her.
“Alice? Did you say sothing?” Ca a voice from the other room a few seconds later.
“I said, I saw Bobby through the window.” Answered Alice, her girly deanor returning to her face.
“Bobby is back?” Ca the happy voice from the other room again.
The next mont the door to the outside opened with racket. Alice turned her head toward it with a brilliant smile on her face as her brother entered the house.
“Bobby!” She squealed happily as a little girl, running to hug her brother. “You punched a lot of monsters today?” She asked, looking at him with a delighted grin.
“Heey.” Said Bobby, hugging her in return. “Yeah, I did. The forest will be a lot quieter for so ti, so I will stay ho for a few days. What have you been about while I was away?”
“Oh let show you.” Said Alice pulling him toward a place on the floor where she sat playing when he ca in.
“Hello, Bobby Hungry?” Asked a woman walking into the room from the kitchen. “Dinner is almost ready.”
“Yes, Aunty. Thank you. And thank you for looking after Alice.” Answered Bobbyy as he was tugged along by the giggling girl.
“Look! This is Mr.SmartySmarty and this is FumiFumi.” Said Alice presenting him with two silly-looking toys.
“Oh. Wow. Are these your new friends? Did Aunty make them for you?” Said Bobby.
“No! I did it myself. Aunty taught .” Answered Alice with a proud face.
“Yourself? Wow. I am so proud of you. So what are they, so small monsters?” Asked Bobby.
“No! Don’t you see? This is a rabbit and this is a squirrel. Mr.SmartySmarty is a dream rabbit. I told you about him before. He jumps from dream to dream.” Said Alice, shocked that her brother did not recognize a rabbit in her masterpiece creation.
“Riiight.” Said Bobby looking at the ugly-looking dolls. “How could I not recognize a…rabbit.”
“And this is FumiFumi she is a hyperactive otaku squirrel that was summoned to this world to run in the squirrel wheel like all her predecessors.”
“Hype…what?” Asked Bobby, scratching his cheek with a smile. He was used to his sister making up new words that no one knew and did not expect them to an anything. “And what did you play with your new friend?”
“Oh, it was fun. FumiFumi was sent adventuring just like you. She may have even been adventuring near you. Did you not see her in the forest?”
“No sorry. We did not et.” Said Bobby shaking his head with a gentle smile.
“Oh well. Too bad. But you see, FumiFumi had a pre-scheduled eting with Mr.SmartySmarty right here at the gates of the town. But silly FumiFumi mixed up the ti and ca to the place a whole day earlier. So she and Mr.Smartyarty missed a chance to et. Now she is going to the Munchkin Kingdom to search for him. But Mr.SmartySmart was right there where he should have been right in ti on the next day after FumiFumi left.”
“Wow. What a bad luck.” Said Bobby shaking head at Alice’s silly stories.
“Or another silly trick of Goddesses of fate.” Said Alice, her smile disappearing from her face, surprising Bobby at the sudden change of her deanor.
“But. Having an adventure just because they missed a chance to see each other, seems like a fun story.” Said Bobby trying to cheer up his sister, not quite understanding what made her sulk.
“You think so?” Asked Alice smile returning to her face.
“Yes. Definitely. A eting after an adventure would be a lot more fun.” Said Bobby, nodding.
“Bobby. Go wash. Dinner is ready.” Ca Aunt's voice from the kitchen.
“Let’s go eat, Alice.” Said Bobby standing up from the hunches and turning to walk but was surprised by Alice’s sudden hug from behind.
“Bobby. Will you miss if I live sowhere far away?” Asked Alice.
Bobby turned around and looked at a young woman with the mind of a silly young girl, his eyes trembling as he hugged her tightly.
“Oh, Alice. I always miss you. I am sorry I have to leave for many days every ti. But I think about you every day and miss you very much.” Said Bobby.
“I know, Bobby. That’s not what I an. If I…If I go live with a new friend, far away. Would you be sad?”
“Of course, I would be. Why would you want to leave Alice?” Asked Bobby, raising an eyebrow questioningly.
“Maybe it is better for to go?” Whispered Alice. “You would not need to take care of all the ti. You can have a girlfriend if I am away. You can’t find any because of .” Said Alice bowing her head.
“Alice, that’s not true. I just did not find any good girl. But listen, Alice. You are the most important thing to . You are my only family. If a girl I find thinks you are a bother or doesn't like you, then she doesn’t deserve . She is not a good one. Alright? You would never be a hindrance to . I love you.” Said Bobby raising his sister's head gently by the chin.
“I love you too.” Whispered Alice.
“But who is this friend you want to live with?” Asked Bobby squinted, his eyes gazing into Alice’s eyes.
“My new friend, Lyra. We had a sea battle together. She is a very good lightsaber fencer. Master Yoda might not be her match. How else could she defeat so easily? But she is still no match for my kung fu. I scadooshed her silly. But it was very fun. I like her. I think she is nice, but she and Mr.SmartySmarty are at odds right now. But I hope that FumiFumi will make them friends again when she and Mr.SmartySmarty et after the adventure.”
“Ummm. Ouukey.” Said Bobby scratching his cheek, not understanding a word. It seed to him that she was lost in her imaginary world again.
“Listen, Alice, promise you would not go anywhere with soone before I approve of them. Ok?” Said Bobby just in case she decides to do sothing silly while playing her gas.
“Alright. I promise.” Said Alice, nodding her head.
“OK now run to the kitchen. I will wash up and co too. If we don’t hurry now Aunty will scold us.
“Um” nodded Alice standing on the spot as Bobby went to his room to change out of his adventurer's gear.
“Be quick with it. My dinner is getting cold.” Said Alice in a chill voice, a silly girl's expression exchanged with the thoughtful expression of a mature woman once again.
“What price would you wish for this service?” Asked the voice from so invisible speaker.
“I have not yet decided, Lady Today. I will hold on to this debt for now until the ti when I need it.” Answered Alice to the voice
“You don’t want to know why we asked to disrupt their eting?” Asked another voice.
“No, Lady Yesterday. You already answered it last ti. You allowed for his fate to be changed. Now you have to witness his fate to change. This is your way of taking responsibility.” Said Alice.
“You disapprove of these actions, Child?” Asked a third voice.
“No, Lady Tomorrow. Why would I? After all, you three would turn to for this kind of service a lot from now on.” Answered Alice and walked to the kitchen. “I will make sure you pay a good price for my services.”
“Very well, child. We shall wait for the ti to pay this debt.” Said Three voices.
*****
Noah understood that it was Dahlia’s first ti in the city and everything seed new and interesting, so they walked through the streets of Greenville town leisurely, stopping from ti to ti gawking around like tourists as Noah explained many things about the human dwellings.
“Amazing.” Whispered Dahlia looking at the different houses with a happy smile. “But you are saying people share baths in those Bathhouses?” She asked surprised.
“Yeah. Having a personal bath with water taps in every house is very costly in danger areas. Well, in safe areas too but especially so here. Here even having a private toilet is very costly. It’s hard to handle wastes. The waste system may beco a weak point in town defense if it is too big to let monsters from outside slip in. So towns build these public bath houses where everyone goes to wash themselves and public toilets too to make the town’s waste system easier.”
“After all, stenches and slls attract monsters and have to be cleaned and maintained using adventurers, either as protection for the cleaning team or occasional monster swiping.” Explained Noah.
“Besides, building too many underground tunnels takes ti. And ti is essential when towns are being built in danger areas infested with monsters.”
“Once the area becos safe and free of monsters it is possible to rebuild the system, but having water inside the house is a luxury only rchants may allow themselves. In danger areas, even rchants go to public baths and toilets, although they have separate ones from common people.”
“Separate? Why?”
“The wealthier you are the more you eat, so you can’t stand a long line to take a dump. They would shit their pants apparently.” Laughed Noah. “So they have special places for wealthy people with less waiting lines.” Said Noah the usual common people joke about the wealthy people's toilets.
“I see.” Said Dahlia smirking. Ever since they had a forthright talk, Noah noticed that she was expressing a lot more feelings in his presence than before, which made him smile with delight.
“Alright. I think this is the place.” Said Noah bringing Dahlia’s attention to the building barely looking like a rchant shop in the corner of an alley.
It was getting dark by the ti they reached their destination and the streets seed deserted. Yet there were still groups of people with intent gazes all over the neighborhood.
They walked up to the door, looking around, noticing several pairs of eyes stalking them with intent gazes from different sides of the street. In bad areas of town, you were always asured as a potential target for mugging, so you had to be on constant watch for danger.
Noah rapped on the door a few tis and a few seconds later the door opened to a small crack, just enough to look through with one eye. A strong chain visible through the crack did not let the door open any wider. Once the person inside was sure that it was safe to open, the door closed again and the sound of jingling chains ca from inside the house, before the door swung fully open.
The old man with vicious-looking eyes and unnaturally for this kind of area, wealthy-looking clothes, gazed at Noah and Dahlia for a second before nodding and stepping aside to let them through.
As the pair entered the dark room, the old man looked outside gazing at the people in the street before slamming the door shut and locking it, putting chains back on the door.
“Master Noah?” Said the old man gazing at the newcors with his vicious eyes. “You are a lot earlier. I did not expect you for a few weeks more.”
“Sorry. Sothing ca up, so I need your help, Nu. But before that, can you take another appearance? This old man’s face does not suit you.” Said Noah.
The face of the old man shuddered as if waves spread through his wrinkly skin and slowly the face and the body of the old man changed into a slimy feminine-looking half-transparent creature. The true form of a doppelganger.
“Sure. How can I help you?” Asked a female voice as the creature changed into a beautiful young lady dressed in similar wealthy-looking rchant clothes. This woman seed to be very similar to the man before. As if she was a close relative.
“Woah.” Voiced Noah his eyes going wide. “I told you to find the body of a person closely connected to the underworld. Why do you have his daughter's body too?”
“Oh. They both were neck deep in underworld dealings, Master. Don’t worry. The world is a better place without both of them.” Said the woman with a smirk.
“I see. Both of them, father and daughter, were trash. But do they retain enough mories for our plans?”
“Yes. The mories I assimilated from their brains are almost perfect.” Answered Nu. "All the contacts they had with the underworld are clear in my mory."
Noah squinted his eyes looking at her intently.
“Both of their mories are perfect? How is it possible? Nu! You did not eat them alive, didn’t you? I told you to find corpses.” Said Noah staring at her with a raised eyebrow, anger seeping into his voice.
*Caw. Sounded the voice of a raven from above Noah’s head. “She would be dead if she dared.” *Caw.
“Yeah. The bastard bird is still shadowing my every step. So of course I would not do that. What am I an idiot? If I do that without specific approval from the governnt, this fucker over there would sell out instantly and I would be sentenced to death imdiately as a dangerous monster.” Said doppelganger pointing at the black bird hunched on the lamp above their heads.
“Alright. Sorry for assuming things.” Said Noah.
*Caw.
“But you stretched the rule as much as you could with their assassination. You may not have eaten them alive, but you were the cause of their death!”
“Huuh? What are you spouting here you fucking bird brain? How am I involved with their deaths? They were murdered by so vicious people, I just happened to be nearby and lucked out on their fresh corpses. Where is your proof that I had sothing to do with it? Huh? You better fucking have it if you accuse of such a thing. I am a law-abiding monster of a well-respected noble family, you fucker. Don’t think you can accuse without proof!” Said Nu crossing her hands as she stared daggers at the bird.
*Tsk. Voiced his disapproval, the observer. “One day I will make your ass pay for cris. Caw.”
Noah and Dahlia gazed at Nu with squinted eyes in silence.
“What? There is no proof I am involved with their deaths sohow. They died of natural causes according to Monster Laws governing us monsters siding with humans. So I had all the rights to eat their bodies. I just happened to be nearby when they died, that's it.”
Noah shook his head with exasperation. She was right. Lately, Noah learned a lot regarding the monsters hiding amongst humans and the rules that they had to follow. They could not hunt humans to feed. But if they found the corpse it was another story.
Doppelgangers were a special case of monsters. Even though monsters were forbidden to feed on humans, Doppelgangers could get approval if that was needed for missions ordered by the governnt.
This, however, was not such an occasion. Nu was by herself and did not serve any big Doppelganger family and this was surely not any governnt-approved mission. She worked for Noah as a rcenary and could be held accountable for cris if there was any proof of her breaking the laws as any other human would be. Which in her case would automatically an a death sentence as there was no prison for monsters. Before her cover as a monster would be blown, she would be disposed of. That’s why there was an observer following her at all tis. It was her Damocles sword hanging above her head at all tis, reminding her of the consequences of her actions.
“There was no need to risk this way.” Said Noah.
“Don’t worry. I know my stuff. I am in this world for a lot longer than you, Master.” Said Nu. “So what brought you here today?”
User Comments
0 comments from readers