acaswell
patreon
Chapter 224: Damilius - Markets and Multiverses
🕑 Added 2024-03-28 03:48:07 +0000 UTC“Names?” asked the border guard. He, along with four other soldiers, gave us lazy scans as we walked forward. Despite his relaxed posture, I could see a trace of sympathy in his eyes when he eyed our group.
I resisted the urge to wince when I glanced at everyone else.
We had three children in our group. We looked dirty, bedraggled, and tired after our escape from the pocket dimension. We also hadn’t had much time for bathing during our journey. It was obvious at a glance that we were refugees.
Despite the fact that we looked and smelled awful, the soldier didn’t look disgusted. I took that as a good sign for the attitude of soldiers in Damilius.
Old Mo stepped forward to greet the man. Then he started speaking in Damilian, a language that I recognized but didn’t speak it very well.
“Good…. …. .. you, I’m …. Mo. This is … …. …… Miria, her mother …. …… Felix and Anise. . …. ……… families, and we’re here to seek ………. . Miria is …… …… healer. We come from. ….. ….Semurria.”
After Old Mo finished speaking, the soldier gave us a far more critical look than before. I noticed that the soldier’s eyes lingered on me for a few moments, before he continued examining the group.
“She’s …. healer? Why … …. … …. border like this?” asked the soldier, as his gaze returned to me. “In most countries … ….. …. treated like …. …. ….. . Why flee to Damilius?”
“There was …. …. …. Verne's navy … …. …. destroyed. We decided … ….. …. to a new country, where … …. …. …….. war.”
“And who are you to …. ….. girl?”
“Her caretaker. After … …….. …. father died, I promised …. ….. …… take care of her.”
The soldier gave me a far more sympathetic look than before, and then his gaze turned to my mother.
“What about her? And the others?”
“She’s …. mother. She’s ……… fizz.” said Old Mo, after a few moments. “As for …. else, they’re …. …. ….. picked up on the way. The two kids are… ….. friends.”
I winced when Old Mo mentioned Fizz.
Then, after some consideration, I sighed.
Even after my healing, my mother was a zombie most of the time. I wasn’t sure why that was the case, but I still wanted her to get better. Since my healing wasn’t working the way I hoped it would, I would need to find someone to help. Most likely, the first thing I would do once we settled down would be to find a doctor and have them look at my mother. Since it would look bad to lie here, it was best to explain my mother's fizz addiction from the beginning.
The soldier’s gaze turned frosty when he looked at my mother, before he sighed, and looked at me again. He crouched down, and held out a hand towards me. “Nice to meet you, little lady. …… …. name is Miria?” A moment later, the soldier stopped speaking in Damilian, and swapped to Semurrian. “Or is this easier for you to understand?”
I nodded. Old Mo’s language lessons for Semurria had gone well, and I understood the language reasonably well. The similarities between Vernese and Semurrian, as well as my Intelligence stat being at grade 8, allowed me to assimilate the language quickly. I couldn't speak Semurrian like a fully-grown adult - but I was six years old right now. Nobody would find it strange if I didn't know advanced pieces of vocabulary or spoke strangely.
Though the fact that a random soldier on the border also spoke perfect Semurrian was surprising. Perhaps I would get to use my ‘native’ language more than I had expected. He extended his vowels far longer than Old Mo had taught me to, but he was still understandable.
“Well, in that case there are a few things to keep in mind here,” said the soldier, still in Semurrian. “We don’t have nobles here in Damilius. We kicked ours out about a century ago, during the sunlight revolution. We also don't have kings, or rulers - we're a republic. Old Mo says that you used to be a noble. Can you live with that?”
“Yes, I can,” I said, also speaking in Semurrian. “I don’t have any attachment to being a noble - I just want my friends to be safe,” I said. I glanced at Anise and Felix, and tried not to think about Sallia.
The soldier looked at me a little bit more closely, and then smiled. “Friends, huh. That’s a good mentality to have. I think you’ll fit right in.” The soldier looked at our group one more time, before gesturing towards the bridge. He continued speaking in perfect Semurrian as he addressed us. “A few more things. You’ll have to give up your guns before entering. Semurria has a strict no weapons policy for anyone who isn’t in the military. I know you don’t own much, so we’ll provide you with some kind of compensation for the weapons. The military won’t pay much, but it's better than nothing. All right?”
Old Mo nodded. He reached towards the gun he had in his belt, then unloaded it and handed it to the soldier. The rest of the group followed suit, and we all surrendered our weapons.
The soldier's smile grew wider after we disarmed, and then he gestured for us to follow him.
“My name is Devon, by the way. Welcome to Demilius. Oh, and one more thing. Miria?”
“Yes?”
“If you have an ability, you’ll also need to get your ability registered. That way, people with dangerous abilities can’t hurt people and get away with it. If you’re a healer, you’ll also want to have your ability verified, if you intend to work as a healer. Is that all right?”
“That’s fine!” I said. I wanted the knowledge that I was a healer to be as public as possible. Felix needed money to enter school, and Anise might need money to buy research materials. I was fine spending a few years earning money to support my friends. Being known as a healer would make it easy to earn money and fund my friends. Since everyone had been willing to go along with my plans for the last two lives, I could spend some time earning money for them this life.
“That’s good. Let’s go to the base, and I’ll help you figure out how to register. Is that all right? And we can also talk about your new home! I’m sure you've had... a lot of bad experiences. Losing your home and moving must be hard. But now that you’ve arrived, things should get better!" said the Soldier. He sounded overly enthusiastic, but he had a relaxing smile on his face when he spoke. He also constantly looked at Anise, Felix and I. It was as if he was afraid that we wouldn't want to talk to him.
I stared at the man, and felt my tension loosen. We had spent most of this journey terrified that we would run into a threat that we couldn't handle. We had lost Sallia during the fight with the worldstriders. But now, a soldier was trying to take my mind off of things.
The soldier continued talking as we walked forward, and at some point, the topic changed. He might have noticed from our expressions that the journey here wasn't a good topic. Instead, he swapped to talking about Damilius's policies. Which probably wasn't a topic most six year olds would have found engaging, but I had a lot of interest in.
At some point, the soldier had gotten onto the topic of id's. Which wasn't something I had expected to encounter in this world. In Damilius, a lot of people were arguing that national id's would be a good way to stop spies from other countries. The idea hadn't been very popular at first, but after ability-potion drinkers had started registering, the idea had caught on.
After a minute or two, Anise and Felix also started asking questions about the national id system. We still missed some words every now and then, but the soldier seemed happy to adjust his words when he realized we didn’t understand something.
Finally, we arrived at the fort, where several other soldiers gave us friendly smiles.
The soldier who had been leading us forward gave us a gentle nudge forward, before addressing the soldiers. He swapped back to Damilian, so I missed some of the words he spoke.
“They’re ...from Semurria. I’m going to take Miria ….. ….. get her ability registered,” I realized we should say something now. I wasn’t the only one that needed to get my abilities registered.
<Are you guys all right with getting your abilities registered?> I asked.
<Sure,> said Felix. <No point in keeping it secret, as long as we only expose one ability each.>
“All three of us have abilities!” yelled Felix, holding up his hand as if he were afraid the soldiers would miss him.
“..... with abilities? Three of them?” One of the other soldiers winced. “I’d heard the war was getting …., and that …. of Semurria’s …… were especially hard hit. I’m surprised it drove …… with an ability to …. ….. ….” He gave us pitying looks, before he sighed. “And they’re just kids, too. The little girl at the front ….. ….. …. six years old. The other kids can't be..... ....... older .... .... .” He looked at Devon and sighed, before reaching into his pocket. A moment later, to my surprise, he presented me with a little square of something dark brown. He gave me a friendly wink, and then stuffed it into my hand.
“It’s called ……. Kids love it. Eat it while you go to the commander's office. He'll help you get ..... ....... registered. And don’t let Markus … you too much. He looks a bit …, but he’s a good man.” I gazed at the little dark brown square, and sniffed it, before I put it into my mouth and chewed. I grinned.
It was chocolate!
The soldier gave Felix and Anise a square of chocolate of their own, before shooing me towards a little door. “You two stay here. One registration at a time,” he said.
I relaxed a little bit. The soldiers here didn’t seem like bad people, and they had surprisingly welcoming attitudes towards us. The attitudes of the soldiers might reflect the country’s attitude towards refugees from the war - or at least, that was my hope.
With a lot more hope about our future treatment, I knocked on the door the soldiers had pointed me towards.
Author’s Note:
Join my Discord!
Comments
Rain
TFC
swordmaster savage
I love this story
Epsilon
The impression I get of Miriam's first-life memories, is that there's a lot of assorted misc knowledge floating around with a lot of the important connecting matter having fallen away
Syrahl
So, depending on whether they ever found chocolate while exploring the Market (I have forgotten), this is most likely Anise's first ever exposure to chocolate, and possibly Felix's as well. And it could have been Sallia’s too, but sadly she didn't live long enough to experience chocolate. It is also noteworthy that Miria remembers chocolate from her first life, considering how few of those memories she has.
