Chapter 11

On the way to the castle, Katherine and I stop into a small café for lunch. It’s a pleasant little place with tables both on the inside and outside. On sunny days like this, it’s generally better to have one of the outside tables. So Katherine and I find a spot where we can bask in the warmth of the sun and relax in the soothing breeze of the wind. I needed the break. The intense battle with Princess Mathilde’s bodyguards has left me physically tired yet emotionally renewed. It had been a difficult ordeal reliving such a traumatic experience from my past. I was distracted enough not to feel the full pain of the memories while the guards were swinging their swords at me. But once the whole affair ended, I was dumped on by all kinds of emotions – fear, helplessness, anger, and resentment followed by compassion, mercy, and ultimately liberation.

At the center of our table, on top of the white tablecloth, is a white tulip in a clear vase. The tulip has its green leaves around it and its bulb is fully opened. The bud in the center of the flower is a vibrant yellow and the white of its petals is purer than snow and more pristine than the peak of a snowcapped mountain. It’s the most beautiful flower that I have ever seen.

I look around at the café’s other patrons and I realize that it’s not only the flower that seems unusually beautiful. Everything around me is pure and beautiful. The women glow radiantly with immaculate skin and flawless hair wafting in the wind while the men look more honorable and gallant than their character would justly give them credit for. The tan cobblestone pavement shines more golden in the sun than does actual gold itself. The clouds are all fluffy and perfectly formed, and the birds chirp as harmonically as even the most illustrious songstress of the Milieu Opera House.

It’s not only my vision. All of my senses are more acute and purified. It’s as if my very soul has been illuminated and rendered incapable of perceiving bitterness and ugliness. I wonder if this mysterious effect holds true for myself as well.

I check my reflection in the café’s sliding glass door. Indeed, despite the beast that I am, I appear as lovely as a belle. So if this uncanny anomaly in my soul can render even one as ugly as myself beautiful, what then is the appearance of one who was beautiful from the start?

I turn my eyes straight ahead to see my servant, but instead I find an angel sitting in her place. An angel with lavender-scented chocolate brown hair, luscious caramel skin, a slim pointy nose, plump cherry lips, and all-consuming eyes in which a man could forfeit himself forever. Her entire head is encompassed in a serene halo, and I feel unworthy to even sit in her presence. I focus my attention on Katherine so devoutly that I gradually lose my self-awareness. It’s not until I hear the sound of her voice that I snap out of my adoration.

“Master are you okay? You haven’t said anything in a while.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to stare. I was just lost in thought.”

“What were you thinking about?”

“Umm…,” I stall nervously, “various things.”

A waiter dressed in black slacks and a frilled white shirt comes to our table. “What can I get you to drink my lord and lady?”

“I’d like a mint tea,” Katherine replies.

“The same,” I answer.

The waiter leaves two menus on our table and departs from us. I open the menu and take a look. I’m in the mood for seafood, so when I see shrimp pasta primavera listed, I immediately settle on it. While Katherine scans the menu, I keep my eyes on her. Before long she looks up and my eyes shoot down. “Hey Master. I was wondering, what exactly happened? I mean, with the inquisitors and the princess.”

I lean back in my chair. “It’s a simple story. It happened back when I had just left home. I used my father’s portal stone to come to Magali from my hometown. I barely had any supplies or money. In less than a week, I found myself having to decide between a bed or food. I chose food. So after that point, I decided to sleep in the park. I was playing on the swing set late in the evening when a young girl appeared. She looked at me enviously like she wanted to play with me, but didn’t know how to ask, so I invited her over. When we spoke, she told me about her strict parents, about how she didn’t have any friends, and about how she wished that she could just fly away like a bird. So to make her feel better, I used a spell script that I had to cast the Levitate spell on her. Well, it turned out that the girl was Princess Mathilde who had run away from the castle. By the time that her bodyguards found her, they were furious. They took their anger out on me beating me senseless even though I was a defenseless young boy. All the while Mathilde kept screaming for them to stop. I really thought that they were going to beat me to death. But eventually they stopped just short of that. They carried me some ways out of the city, tossed me on the ground, and left me to die.”

The waiter returns to take our order. Pointing at the menu, I tell him, “I’ll have the shrimp pasta primavera.”

He jots the order down on a notepad. “And you my lady?” he asks Katherine.

“The same,” she answers.

“Very good,” the waiter says as he leaves us once more.

Katherine leans in towards me. “You said that Wilmette saved you. What did you mean?”

I stop leaning in my chair and sit up straight just to be that much closer to Katherine. “Wilmette had been out of town. She just so happened to be returning to Magali at that time and saw my body next to the road. She halted her coach and got out to check on me. When I told her what happened, she came up with a plan to get me back into the city. Wilmette has the skill of a Mesmer, that’s to say, a grandmaster level illusionist mage. She cast the Invisibility spell on me and sat me right beside her inside her coach. When the gate guards tried to search the coach, she masterfully played the part of a tired damsel eager to get home and to avoid the security protocols. Not perceiving her as a potential threat, the guards let her ride into the city with me sitting next to her. I then lived at Wilmette’s manor for an entire month while she took care of me.”

The waiter returns to our table and sets our hot plates in front of us. The dishes smell as incredible as they look. I wrap some of the shrimp and pasta around a fork and bite into it. It tastes exquisite. Of course it had better taste exquisite given the price listed on the menu - not that it makes much of a difference to me if I’m honest.

“Katherine, I have to confess something bad.”

“What?” she asks.

“When I left Wilmette, I stole a lot of money from her.”

Katherine drops her fork in surprise. “Why did you do that?”

“Because I wanted to get away from her, so that I could continue my search for a cure for the petrification curse. I needed money, so I stole from her.”

Katherine weakly picks up her fork and pokes at her pasta silently. I can tell that she’s disappointed to hear the truth about my wretchedness. So I tell her the rest of the story. “The next time that I met Wilmette two years later, I repaid her ten times what I stole. I also bought some premium clothes and took her out to dinner. That’s why she knows about how much money I have now. Also, I just want to make it clear that I greatly respect Wilmette. She’s the reason that I learned Illusion Magic. I never meant to hurt her. I was just that desperate for money.”

Katherine raises an eyebrow at me. “Wait, that doesn’t add up. If you were poor enough to steal before, how is it that you’re rich now?”

I wave my hand through the air nonchalantly. “That’s easy. You know where money comes from right? I mean not banks, or markets, but originally.”

“From monsters?”

“Exactly. Âme crystals are nothing more than the crystallized mana of slain monsters. To get them all you have to do is kill a monster, and use a mana extraction tool to get the money. It’s easy and anyone can do it. Well assuming that anyone can kill monsters without beings killed first. Normally monster hunters hunt in a group and split the profits equally. I, however, fight alone and thereby receive 100% of the profit. Due to the fact that I’ve done little more than battle monsters, and I mean powerful monsters, for the past six years, I’ve become outrageously rich. It’s as simple as that.”

“You make it sound so easy. Maybe I should give it a try.”

“Don’t! I’m exaggerating its ease. People die all of the time trying to get rich from monsters. Besides, I wasn’t trying to become rich. I was seeking monster parts to bring to alchemists so that they could fashion them into a cure for petrification. Regrettably, none of the monsters were the least bit related to the petrification curse, so it never worked out.”

I wrap my fork around more pasta and shovel it into my mouth. I don’t say anything further because I know that Katherine is dying to ask me the next obvious question. She holds it back as long as she can, but ultimately surrenders to her curiosity. “Master you still haven’t told me how your staff became petrified. Also, you said that wands and staves are given names. My wand is named Traveler, but what is your staff’s name?”

I put down my fork and sigh. I can’t tell her the whole story about how it became petrified or she’ll leave me. But I’ll tell her just enough to satisfy her curiosity. “My staff’s name is Guilt. It was cursed by a powerful monster – a gargoyle to be exact. But that’s all that I will say.”

The waiter returns a third time to leave the check. I prepare myself for the worst and take a look. The result: 3,200 âmes – 2,400 for the two pastas and 800 for the two teas. Seriously Magali? Seriously? This is why I hate this stupid city! The food was great though. I love the food. I just hate paying for it. Sure, I have millions, but that doesn’t make it any less overpriced. I put the money on the table and we depart.

The castle is only a short distance from here. We should be there in less than ten minutes. Katherine and I begin walking together side by side. I look over to her and she looks back at me carefree and oblivious. I chuckle at her and then summon one of my inventory bags. From the bag I withdraw a spare handkerchief. I then use it to wipe the pasta sauce off of Katherine’s nose.

“Thanks Master. I would have looked pretty silly walking around with sauce on my nose.”

“Nah, even with sauce on your nose, you’re still the most beautiful girl that I’ve ever seen.”

Katherine stops in her tracks with her mouth gaping. “Awww, Master!”

I continue walking not looking back. “Hurry up servant!” I shout.

Katherine trots back to my side. She wraps her two arms around my right arm and gazes up at me with beaming puppy dog eyes. I don’t look at her. I just continue straight ahead.

Sheesh, Soul. What are you doing? Why don’t you tell her how you really feel about her while you’re at it?