The next morning Azrael woke up with a spear point near his face.

“WOAH!! Watch where you’re pointing that thing!”

He pushed it away and Alena at least had the decency to look embarrassed. He sat up in his bed, raking his hand through his messy bed hair in an attempt to neaten it. He pushed the girl off of his bed, she landed on the ground with a plonk. Seemingly unfazed she raised the spear towards him and looked at him expectantly.

“NO! Now get out, so I can get dressed!”

She left his room and he quickly closed the door behind her. He would need Hugh to install a lock or bolt.

Of course, Sera decided to use that moment to tease him.

“Such a grump Onii-chan”

“I’m not a grump!”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“And I’m not your onii-chan!”

With a certain AI secretary giggling into his ear he got dressed. When he emerged, Alena once again presented him with a spear. Should he just command her to stay in the village? It was such a hassle. He could just command the villagers not to throw her out. She’d sworn an oath to obey his commands, all he…

Sera stopped him “You promised her. You promised to help her take revenge.”

He sighed and turned to Alena. Taking the spear from her hand he leant it against the wall. Seeing that he intended to leave it there she went to grab it again. He caught her wrist, stopping her.

“Breakfast first.”

She hesitated briefly before moving to fetch water with the kettle. In the meantime, he went and sat down at the table. One of the conditions that he’d set yesterday had been that for the duration of her stay Alena had to do all the chores that he gave her. That meant sweeping, cleaning, cooking, fetching water and whatever else he could think of.

After discovering that she couldn’t cook well he’d taken over dinner and made a simple meal with Boar meat and wild greens, while showing her where everything was in the kitchen. Gods, he wished he had salt. He’d probably have to write a cookbook for the girl, to avoid food poisoning.

“Actually, how does that work. You know, language and all that?” he asked Sera.

“Due to players of different nationalities all playing on one world server, the system has implemented something called the ‘common tongue’. Basically, all player languages and writing get translated into a single language used by the rest of the players and NPCs. This means that there are still languages that can be learnt in-game, but it allows for a lot more player diversity and interaction”.

“Huh, handy”

Absentmindedly he accepted a plate of porridge from Alena, before noticing that she hadn’t given herself any berries. He scooped up half of his and dumped them on her plate. Instead of a grateful response she started picking them out and pushing them to the edge of her plate.

“Don’t like them?” he asked. She shook her head.

He sighed. It was really hard to communicate with this girl. Sure, she got her point across, but it was tiring. The last time he’d had to deal with a mute or deaf player he’d… He turned to her.

“How would you like to speak?”

She looked at him uncomprehendingly.

“Well, not speak, but communicate. If you want I can… scratch that. I’m teaching you finger talk. It’s a pain talking to you like this. From now on I’m going to teach you how to speak.”

She shook her head and pointed at the spear in the corner. This girl!

“New deal. I’ll only teach you how to get stronger, if you learn how to speak.”

She opened her mouth as if to say something, but of course she couldn’t. Azrael 1, Alena 0. Did getting him to teach her count? Fine, 1-1.

After breakfast, he made good on his promise.

“Copy after me. My… name… is…” What he was teaching her was a variation of hand code, or finger talk. Although it was most commonly referred to by gamers as ‘Thief’s code’.

Originally designed by a mute VR gamer nearly a decade ago, it was an adaption on international sign language, which over time had changed and incorporated a lot more gaming terms, becoming what it was today.

Its name came from the player base it was mostly used by – Thieves. The hand code was commonly used by thieves and other players during stealth missions, where silent communication was a must.

Sure, he was a bit rusty, not having used it in a few years, but he still remembered enough to teach this girl, and even as he was teaching little bits of it came back, piece by piece.

“Your turn now”

She frowned as she signed “my-name-A-L-E-N-A. How-are-you?”

He nodded. “Good enough” It was a bit slow, but nothing practice couldn’t fix. “I want you practice that and whatever else that I teach you every morning.”

That should keep her from waking him so early in the mornings. He piled together their empty plates and placed them to his sink by the stove, he would get her to do those later.

“Let’s go” he said, walking out the door. She followed him eagerly, bringing the spear along.

“Go put that in your room” he said. She looked at him uncertainly. “You won’t need that today.”

She turned and left, carrying the spear to a little outhouse he’d constructed alongside his house using [Stone Shaping]. It wasn’t the prettiest, but it would do. He’d felt that it would be too strange to have a girl living under his roof, especially after living alone for so long.

As for her claiming the spear, he didn’t mind. It turned out that the villagers were still giving him stuff. Some mornings the offerings simply appeared outside of his stone ring, delivered in the early morning hours. The spear was one of those things. Food, such as oats, smoked meat, potatoes, a leather bucket and other random items were amongst the offerings. Though he didn’t like that people trespassed on his side of the lake, it made his life more convenient, so he let it slip.

Seeing Alena return (without the spear) he got her first training ready. Overall, there wasn’t too much he could do. She was a 12 year old. She was short, had no muscle to speak of and had probably never handled anything more dangerous that a hoe or kitchen knife.

The only thing she had going for her at the moment was her smaller size and surprisingly quiet footsteps. Maybe it was apt that she was learning thief’s code, because he was imagining a sort of rogue build for her. The spear was too big for her anyways.

Using [Stone Shaping] he made two stone daggers. Since he didn’t have any metal ones this would have to do for the moment. The weapons had weight and the stone could hold a passably sharp edge.

Testing their weight, he made a few small adjustments to the weight distribution, before handing one to Alena. Using the other to demonstrate he threw it at a nearby tree. It struck true with a solid thunk. A few autumn leaves fluttered to the ground.

“That’s what you’re going to be able to do soon.”

“I-good” she signed.

He laughed at her attempt “Not yet you’re not. But you will learn”

Retrieving the dagger from the tree he demonstrated how to throw it, holding the blade and letting it rotate while in flight. He got her to practice throwing it, aiming at the ground. His knife sunk into the soft ground, while hers landed and skittered across the ground.

He let her practice that, while he went and continued work on his dragon defence circle. Magic forcefield barrier? He sighed, while Alena went to work massacring the ground. He needed a catchier name.