Fort Geranium

Ninth Chapter: Sister, Friend, Master

[Mariana von Ulysses’s Point of View]

Clashing hooves and wooden wheels scraping against the rough, dirt terrain- for some reason I found it all so meditative. My consciousness waned as I dozed off in the middle of our commute back home. After a full day’s worth of shopping and ‘purchasing’ of Charlotte, I was more than a little tired at this point. That being said if I fell asleep now there is no doubt I’d regret it the moment I wake with a sore and stiff neck.

I need something to distract me.

It was something I had noticed the moment we got on the carriage but Carol had been fidgeting to herself endlessly. She stole quick glances at me, sometimes our eyes met and she’d immediately pull away. If I had to hazard a guess, it was probably because she was ‘curious’ about the contents of the conversation I had with the slaver, ‘Ardos Miller’. “Umm, Lady Mariana… a moment if you would?” unable to hold back her urge she called out to me.

I suppose this was as good a time as any to cement my true character with her. While I never explicitly planned to hide my personality, I never properly displayed myself either- some confusion was bound to be caused by this. “Mmm? What is it Carol?” I replied with an obvious smile. Old habits are so tenacious that they exceed the boundaries of dead bodies. It was something I often did in my old life as well but whenever I was placed up against a wall or had something to hide, I would always default to a ‘pleasant smile’ poker-face.

“I don’t mean to pry too much about it but… how did you know about the tax collection?”

“I didn’t?” I answered with such innocent obliviousness that she was taken aback for a moment.

“I’m… sorry? However, didn't you use that very fact as leverage against Miller to purchase Charlotte?”

“Sure I did,” I gave a nod, “but I never heard about any tax collection happening from Scarletheim. Even if such things were to happen, I don’t think father would include me in that conversation.”

“But…” she tried to interject.

I shook my head, “I never once uttered the word ‘tax collection’ in that entire conversation. The closest I came to addressing that topic was when I explained what the potential aftereffects of such an event would be.”

“I apologize… but I don’t follow. Then what did you do? Somehow you forced Miller into a corner and convinced him to freely hand over Charlotte.”

“That’s what I’m trying to explain to you; that I did nothing in particular. I mean, wasn’t it Miller himself that came to that conclusion in the first place? He was the one who made decisions based on non-evidence.”

Carol wasn’t too convinced, or rather she still didn’t seem to understand how that happened. I mean, that is how the conversation went, didn’t it? I dropped a few ‘hints’ and then Miller took the bait and came to all manner of conclusions. All I did was feed his fear and ego into that mess and voila~ instant free slave.

Well, I guess what she really wants to know is ‘how’ I made the conversation flow in that specific direction. I guess you could call it a ‘talent’, though I don’t think it’s really much of one. It was something I’ve cultivated throughout my previous life- a ‘silver tongue’. You wouldn’t believe how extraordinarily potent it is for a failing flower business; it was something I had to hone in order to keep afloat.

“That is… how it happened but won’t there be problems now if Miller finds that the tax rates haven’t changed?”

“I don’t see why he would do t hat. I only ever agreed to ‘convince’ father for a bit of leniency in the event of a tax raise. I never said I’d actually do anything more substantive.” I shrugged once more. “Besides, that wasn’t the main point of that conversation. That was more like a cherry on top.”

“Then what was the main point?”

“Creating a contact.”

“Contact?”

“A connection,” I nodded, “this is something that would only happen far in the future but one day I’ll be taking over as the Realm Lord of this province right? Planning ahead, I’ve created a pseudo promise of a partnership for that time.” When I put it like that Carol gave me an understanding nod.

“Would that be all right? I mean, with such a cunning man…”

“You don’t have to worry Carol,” I tried to reassure her. I loved Carol for who she was, a kind-hearted and motherly figure but by no means was she any kind of intellectual titan. Unlike people like Ardos Miller and myself, she needed have to worry her pretty little head over ‘what if’ scenarios of the future, “people like Miller… they only pretend to be dangerous.”

“I see… though I am still unsure about this, I will leave it at that then. Now, there was one other thing I wanted to ask,” Carol turned her sights on Charlotte this time. Not being experienced in the way of luxury, Charlotte peered out of the windows with an honest-to-god smile on her face. “What do you plan to do with her?”

“Good question,” I honed my attention on Charlotte as well.

“Ah, s- sorry… was I too distracting?” Charlotte asked with that meek but adorable voice of hers. Ugh, I just want to pinch and bully her right now… she really brings out the inner sadist of a person. Too dangerous!

“No, nothing of the like,” now what did I want to do with her? Free her from slavery, sure but what comes after that? It’d be irresponsible of me to just drop her off in the middle of nowhere and say ‘goodlife to you~’ but to bring her home as a slave goes against my conscience. “Hmm…”

“What do you want to do Charlotte?”

“Eh?” she stared right back at me with her bright gleaming green eyes. Smooth skin reflected against the setting sun, golden hair dyed a deep orange, the way she cowered like a lost puppy when I asked… cuteness overload. “I… I don’t know… b- but mistress, you have my slave contract so…”

“That I do,” I took out the parchment that was supposed to symbolize her status as a slave. In front of her eyes, I tore it up without a second thought- even Carol’s jaw dropped to the floor as I did.

“E- eh?! How… how could you? D- do you not want me a- anymore?” Charlotte’s eyes got teary. I honestly expected her to be a lot happier about that but a brief moment of contemplation made me realize my mistake. In a certain, roundabout way, tearing up that slaver contract was akin to rejecting her and throwing her away. “I- I’m sorry… I’m not sure what I did wrong… b- but please don’t abandon me…”

What? What kind of monster would abandon such an adorable little puppy?! “I will not do such a thing, instead I want you to make your own choice,” I lightly tapped across the walls of the carriage, signaling the coach to stop. When the carriage came to a complete halt, I opened the door and extended my hand to Charlotte. “This may be a big decision for someone as young as you but there is no wrong answer so take your time.”

“Decision?”

I nodded. “Your slaver contract is gone; I tore it up. That means you’re now a free person. So then, with that newly acquired freedom, what do you… what does ‘Charlotte’ want to do? Do you want to leave and forge your own future? Or do you wish to follow me?”

I honestly expected her to hesitate for more than a second but with no sort of delay she took a firm grasp of my hand. In tears she pleaded with me, I could feel fear shaking through her hand, “I… I want to go with you mistress! Please, take me with you! Wherever you go, I promise I won’t complain, so please take me with you!” She fell to her knees as if to pray to me.

I sighed. No family, orphaned, a slave… I guess it was a little too harsh to force her to make such a life altering decision on the spot like that. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have made you choose like that. All right, then come with me.” I helped her up and now we stood face to face, eye to eye.

“Y- yes!”

***

“I guess, she’ll have to be a maid,” my father, the Realm Lord of the Ulysses province, replied when I asked him about what I should do with Charlotte. ‘A fine idea,’ I thought to myself, I would have my own Elven maid!

Other than that, father was a little concerned when I told him about the conversation I had with Miller. Though he didn’t pry much into it, he asked me, ‘was that fine?’ I thought all fathers were supposed to be more doting and concerned about their daughters but Sigmund Von Ulysses understood. He understood my personality, my intelligence and most of all my ‘intentions’- so I answered him honestly, ‘it’s fine’.

With that we were excused, though before we left father called out one last time, “Mari…”

“Yes, father?”

“…” he remained silent for a brief few seconds before shaking his head, “sorry, it’s nothing. Are you… eating well?”

Such a clumsy question left me more than a little confused but I answered, “as you can see, I’m as fit as a fiddle.” I smiled back at him, but reflected in those war-dulled eyes of his was an uncertainty, not to me, but towards some kind of nebulous future… at least that’s what it seemed like. “Are you well, father? I understand the importance of your duties but perhaps it is wise take a moment of respite here and there as to not overexert yourself.”

“Hmm… yes. You may be right, Mari.” He replied with a tender voice. “I’ll take a break once I’m finished with this batch,” he pointed at a mountain of paper work behind him.

“Please, do take care of yourself, father. Then I shall leave you to your work,” I bowed gracefully before leaving his study.

Closing the door behind me, I was left to my own thoughts, ‘I wonder what he wanted to say?’

***

With cold intensity I stared back at the leaves of the coca plant that father had so graciously given me upon his return. ‘Erythroxylum’… it was a plant most prominently known for its ability to produce cocaine back in my old world and I’m sure it’s no different here. I suppose if you really didn't understand what they are then you might think they’re just unique enough plants to be brought over as gifts.

However I knew what they were. Worse, I actually knew how to synthesize them. I won’t beat around the bush here and say that I’ve had more than one thought about extracting some elicit substances from them. In fact during my shopping trip with Carol a few days ago I had gone and purchased some equipment and ingredients necessary for doing just that.

“Heh~ you really managed to synthesize them using only the basic equipment from this backwater world~” A snake-like voice slithered to my left shoulder. Okay, I lied, I had not only thought about synthesizing the plant but had already done so. On the large wooden table gifted by father, the one I should’ve used to ‘study’, it’d been purposed for another nefarious use. Messily strewn about on the table were several dried up leaves with mint-white colored powder grinded up on the side, a small bottle of kerosene, a burner, a flask with clear liquid… and a small mound of pure white dust. “It’s actually amazing that you managed to make this. So, you plan on using this?”

“I don’t know, probably not,” as much as it is known for its recreational use in my old world, it also temporarily increases metabolism and enhances athletic ability. Who knows when such a thing could ever come in handy? Especially in a world filled with otherworldly beings, this was the one thing I could rely on as a former florist.

“How do you even plan on using this?” ignoring my ‘probably not’, Aegis has already decided I would use it at some point.

“Certainly not in the conventional manner; that’d take too much time for the drug to come into effect.” I had two ideas on how to convert this into a more ‘ready’ and ‘usable’ format. “Two ways, the first is to turn this into a ‘pill’ that I can take orally.”

“Wouldn’t that in fact take longer than the ‘conventional’ way?” True, ingesting the drug would not only make it less potent but also would require more time for my body to metabolize. However, there was a work around for this- method possibly only in this world.

“Yeah, but a few days ago I was introduced to a certain miracle all-cure,” I took out a small bottle of red potion, the same kind that Carol had given me to heal my wounds. “The effect of this potion is so instantaneous that it almost feels like a cheat, but I thought that I could somehow transfer the immediacy effect of this potion onto the pill by further synthesizing them together.”

“Ho~ that’s an interesting one. At least I’ve never thought about using it like that. So what’s the second method?”

To answer his question, I dug into my pockets and took out a small cigarette. “Smoking it, though doing it like this would most likely weaken the effects than if I used it in its purest form. However, if I only need a little boost, then something like this would be preferable than to use the pill.” As for the safety of either methods that hasn’t been tested and I’m sure I could easily overdose so I wasn’t curious enough to try.

“Heh~” Aegis gives me a malicious and sadistic smile. “You come up with the most interesting things, I certainly wasn’t wrong in bringing you here~”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t get your hopes up. Using this with my current body is basically a death sentence.” I shooed him away from my shoulder as I packed up the tools off my desk. ‘There are other methods of using them…’ I thought to myself, a little more devious and amoral but perhaps considering them once or twice might be useful in the future. However my thoughts were swiftly interrupted as Carol called out for me.

“Lady Mariana, it’s time for your studies.” At the announcement I felt a sudden cold sweat run down my back. No, it couldn’t be… was ‘he’ here?! “Mr. Grandia Alcott is here.”