A martyr is nothing to those who don't think that their death had a meaning. Their actions would scatter like leaves in the fall, their plans would dissolve in the wind, like bruises they wouldn't leave even a scar, a death that was caused by a whim. A martyr walks lonely but surely, thorough in his step not to trip, only when things get blood-dirty, they lay down their heads and they sleep.

What a terrible thought, she snickered.

Remembering such a lonely, astray passage from a poem she had not heard in so long felt like missing something, a reminiscence that her hands still clutched close to her chest.

The sound of the river had not calmed down the wandering memories that assaulted her head. The craving to find something else to devout her head to had taken priority. The image of nothing but aimless white clouds felt much closer to her than the grass underneath, what an odd feeling, she thought.

It wasn't hard to think long, but thinking and finding the meaning of your thoughts was difficult.

"I wish..."

Her head moved upward, a smile on her face. She started to utter some words, which slowly started to turn into a rhythm, and her thoughts flowed into her mouth to spout an improvised poem.

"I wish we could live in a house... Further away, away from the clouds. Rising above of the sea so you see with your eyes, oh, the beauty of laying on ice when the winter comes by and it says... Goodnight, to me, to the stars and in pure disbelief, it bestows on this fief the life it deserves. So he will come back to the doorstep and stay, oh forever and hug us and say it's okay— Don't want him to leave, like the winter at Bay..."

She stopped, swallowing her emotions. She closed her eyes, and let the breeze ruffle her hair. The gift of solitude did not bring much peace when it was unrequested, or so she had thought for a long time, longer than what she would wish for.

"Ha..."

A heavy sigh escaped her mouth.

"Oh, don't stop now."

"Hm?"

Her face was covered in red as soon as those words filtered in. She sat up and accommodated her dress, clearing her throat as she turned around.

A woman with black short hair was listening closely to her ramblings.

"Nice to meet ya. Name's Suu." The woman smiled brightly and raised her hand. "Are you Rii?

"Oh gods... You're one of the new lords." Rii tightly clenched her hands in front of her belly, like a nervous kid about to receive a nagging from her mother.

"I was looking for ya. I've got some things to talk about."

Suu was sitting a few meters higher on the hill. She held her knee with one hand as she waved at Rii with the other, an honest smile shining with the same radiance as the claymore on her back.

"Mother says I'm not allowed to... Talk to strangers." Rii said and took a single step back.

"Oh, come on Rii..." The lady made a very displeased and sad face. "I was already swindling rich bastards when I was your age! Come here, ya doofus."

Suu waved her hand towards herself, rousing the magic energy around the hill. A small gust of wind pushed Rii from the back, making her float upwards as she let out a small screech. She fell on her knees in front of Suu, who patted her head with a giggle.

"You gotta learn who to trust and who to run away from. Do I look like a bad person? Could a girl as cute as me really be a bad person, hmm?" Suu's smile kept arching up as she disorganized Rii's hair, making her perfectly-combed hair start to look like an absolute mess.

"If there's anything you need..." Rii muttered with a lowered head. "I could, I could try to help..."

"Actually, yes. There's something really important that I need you to help me with." She pulled Rii by the arm as if telling her to stand up, and the girl followed with a very nervous shake. She was about to sit besides Suu, but the lady's arm instructed the shy girl to sit in front of her with her back against her, instead.

"How is everything going, Rii?" Suu asked from the back.

"Everything's... fine. I guess. If you want to know about the village, I know we're having a hard time right now... But my father says it will get better, so you don't have to worry about that, my lady." Rii respectfully bowed down and raised her head again, even when she was not looking at the lady in question.

"No, no. I already know how the village is. I'm... Well, actually, your dad is right. He's a very smart person, you know? If I can tell you a little secret, we've been preparing some things ever since we came into the village. Things are gonna get waaaay better very soon." She lightly tapped the girl's shoulder.

"R-Really?" A sparkle surged from her deep-blue pupils, forming an illusion-filled gaze that Suu could see as soon as the girl turned her head around. "You know dad, don't you? So if things are gonna get better, does that mean my dad... Does that mean father is coming back home?"

"Oh?" Suu tilted her head. "I'm... Sure he will. But tell me, why do you say that?"

"Hm..." Rii pouted as she looked away, fidgeting nervously with her fingers at the rhythm of her shoulders. "I'm not supposed to talk about it..."

"Rii... If you tell me, I might be able to make your father come home sooner, don't you think? I'm the lady of the land in where he lives, after all."

Suu smiled comfortingly as she combed the girl's golden hairs, fixing the mess she had made herself. Her fingers ran through the locks of fine strands and reminded her of an expensive doll's silk hair, something she had only touched once after stealing it when she was a kid. A small sneer to herself escaped her mouth while those thoughts came back.

Although Rii didn't know it, and probably wouldn't get to know it either, Suu was only trying to obtain information about her father, anything that could serve as a lever to turn that knight to their side. That way, the assassination of the despicable baron would not be a hard task, having a man inside the castle itself.

But when Suu caressed the girl's head like a doll, she started to quickly forget her objective.

"Will you really..."

"Hm?" She snapped out of her daydream and perked her ear to listen closely. "What is it, Rii?"

"Will you really get my father back if I talk to you about it?"

Suu needed to know why the girl's father, a celebrated knight, would make her daughter feel like he wouldn't return home. It could be the best lead she had to strike a deal with the man, after all. Even if that could also mean that contacting him had become extremely hard. So, she let out a small lie.

"Of course. I will do my best to bring your father back."

"Okay..." The girl clasped her hands together very timidly. "Well... I live with my mother and my brother back at the village. We have a small but very comfortable house, and we eat every day. Kei likes hunting monsters and my mother likes weaving on the porch. I think I'm good with poetry myself."

"I heard you recite something before. Was it yours?"

"Ah... Please don't remember that, I made it up on the spot so it wasn't the best I can do, I promise." She sighed as her cheeks blushed slightly red.

"What about your father?"

"Well... Dad is a very strong man. He started to be known for hunting down powerful monsters, so the baron hired him as a knight. They gave him expensive things, so now he's even stronger. They say he could even slay an ogre all by himself! He's actually probably done it already. I've never gotten to see him doing something similar, though..."

"Why is that?"

"The baron keeps his knights in his castle." The girl put her strands of hair behind her ear. "We only see him in the middle of the week, it's the day we go to church together, confess, and pray to mother Feriphia. But he never tells us of his battles, and we never get to train with him. He looks so distant when he's with us that it is almost like we're not even there. It's like his mind is never truly away from... from the baron's castle."

A deep regret could be heard in the girl's lonely voice. Hearing the girl's desire to be beside her father, Suu started to be glad that she had been the one to talk to her instead of Thom. If it was him, he surely wouldn't have been able to keep his cool regarding someone else's father.

"I hate how he's never there when mom is crying, or when Kei comes home bragging about how big was the insect he killed. I really want to tell him some of my poetry, and I would like it if he tasted my food, too... He probably wouldn't like it, but hearing him say it would make me happier than not." She raised her knees to her chin and wrapped her arms around her legs.

"So you want him to hear your poetry... Could you tell me one of your poems, Rii?"

"O-One of my poems?" Her blinking got faster as she tilted her head forward.

"Yeah." Suu snickered. "I know I'm not that daddy of yours, but linguistics is the only thing I was given an education on. And ten years of only linguistics education is a loooot of education."

"Hehe." Rii let go of a small giggle. "So you're like a scholar then."

"Well... A good woman I know was a scholar. And her son is one of my closest friends. She taught me how to read... and write... and all the cool stuff. You like it too, don't ya?"

"Yes." She nodded. "It's very fun. I would really like to be a writer someday, I'd like people from all the human nations to read my poems. And... Maybe, even the ones that are not human, too. If they like poetry, they can't be bad people, after all."

"That's a very naive way of thinking, you know?" Suu slightly pulled from her ear. "But well, I'm not from this country, so if I hear your poems, you would at least make a part of your dream to become reality, right?"

"Is that true? So that is why you have that pretty black hair and eyes. Everyone here is blond, so I started to get tired of it." She smiled. "Then, I can tell you... the first stanza to one of my poems, yes."

"Alright! Tell it, tell it."

Rii accommodated her body and cleared her throat. She inhaled a big mouthful of air just to let it go, as if preparing her speech before anything else. Her neck tilted left and then right, like a stretch, or maybe an attempt to make a cracking noise that didn't come out. Suu couldn't help but to think that the girl was way cuter than her older brother.

The girl closed her eyes, and opened her mouth.

"Mirrors of steel that abound on the hills

marching back home, and their horses below

Holding their arms as they chant, voices low,

The enemy's name, who they're send out to kill.

Brave soldiers plated in iron and gold

You have come back and I await for thee

Hoping the clouds don't go black and retreat

Hoping you come back before they get old.

If marching you come just as marching you go

With same pride and love that I see

Come back and march to the doorstep with me

Help me before of your..."

She doubted for a second, swallowing dry as she tried to calm her beating heart.

"Help me before of your death I am told."

The girl blurred out the end of the verse, and lowered her hands on the ground. Suu could not understand if she had regretted telling the poem, or if she had found a mistake in her chant. What she understood was the contents of it, and she was now more aware of what the blond girl thought.

"The poem is way longer but... I'm, I'm working on more stanzas as of now. Was that any good?"

"Yeah..." Suu smiled very warmly as she touched Rii's hair. "I think it's beautiful. I'm very sure your dad would cry if he heard it, too."

"Hmm. Thank you."

The girl nodded with something that sounded like a sad muttering. The sulking image of the girl's lowered shoulders gave Suu an idea of how badly the stanza had affected her now that she said it out loud. Perhaps because she had begun to imagine the death of that knight in her head, before the middle of the week could come by, that the inspired and sweet face from the time she was telling the poem had turned into nothing but empty eye sockets and trembling hands.

Suu sighed.

"... You said the reason why he never comes back is a secret." Suu felt her passive skill [Way With Words] pulsating in her head as her hand touched Rii's cheek. The girl jumped slightly at the touch of her fingers.

"Yes... He's not allowed to come back if it's not for church..."

"Could you tell me why?" Suu whispered into her hear. "If I know the reason why your dad isn't coming back home, maybe I could put in a word for the baron to think about..."

The girl's breathing accelerated as she heard the woman's gentle words on her ear. She opened her mouth as if tempted to let out the words she had been holding back, but bit her lip and restrained the verse from departing her throat.

"There is times where no matter the risk..." Suu muttered and took her hands back from the girl's trembling cheeks, placing them on her own chest. "You gotta take that opportunity. One day you're talking about how much you want him to get back, the other you're hating him for leaving, for knowing... For thinking he chose his duty over his daughter."

"It's not about me.."

Rii's shoulders quivered as her eyes turned red.

"Then?" Suu closed her own.

"It's all about..." The tears started wetting her cheeks as she held back a wail, covering her mouth with a hand, her chest convulsing in pain as she tried to let go.

Suu's lips had started to twist as she felt discomfort creeping up in her gut. A sigh wouldn't get to be nearly enough to express how her neck had begun to cramp at the noise of the girl breaking down. Although they were both strangers, the image of Thom replaced Rii's, and the feeling of strangeness dissolved. All that was left was regret for arousing the tears that fell down to her chin.

"What is it all about?" Suu whispered.

"My... Family and, and the village." She sniffed. "The baron needs dad in his castle so he's not allowed to come down... And if he renounces..."

Suu's brow deeply tightened.

"Is the baron threatening your family?"

It wouldn't come as a surprise. With the little information they had about Argrand, they already knew he was a slavery advocate and a man obsessed with gold. He didn't care for his citizens and much less for the poor. If the man was a fan of slavery, maybe his way of turning the knights into slaves was through petty tactics like threats.

"Hm." Rii nodded, answering Suu's question.

"That's quite the bastard, alright." She clicked her tongue. "Your mother and your brother also know, I'm guessing?"

Unexpectedly, to her question, Rii shook her head. Before Suu pressed with yet another inquiry, the girl spoke.

"Mom knows, Kei doesn't. And mother... She doesn't know that I know."

"How's that?"

"I don't... I don't really want to talk about it..." Rii held her templates like holding back the weight of a headache.

"Rii, you can trust me." Suu said. "I hate baron Argrand as much as you do, if you help me..."

"Commoners cannot do anything to stop the nobles." She sniffed. "We should just sit back and not fight, we can't, we shouldn't..."

"Rii."

Suu placed her hand on the girl's little shoulders. Her breathing turned stiff as her head turned around, finding the face of the lady of the land, stern and denoting annoyance at something she couldn't pinpoint.

"Rii, how do you know?"

"I..." Her voice broke as she held Suu's hand. "I heard mother talking... In the living room with the baron."

"What did they talk about?"

"About daddy not being allowed to come back." The tears broke once again and her face twisted badly. "About his effort at keeping us safe... And about... How it wasn't enough!"

"The baron said it wasn't enough?" Suu was taken aback as her eyes filled with worry.

"He said that... keeping the household was a family effort. That... if mother didn't cooperate, then it would be just daddy holding the family. She told him that she should work hard too to please him, because father was already doing his part."

Suu's face twisted up in disgust, her hand clenching tightly as if trying to bury her nails on her palm. She knew Argrand was disgusting, a man of no worth. But hearing his acts from the mouth of somebody else was a few notches higher than supposing the man's crimes.

"He told her she would have to work, or dad... He said he couldn't guarantee dad's safety. And if that happened, then, then..."

"It's okay, Rii." Suu grabbed the girl's small hand, a deep frown filled with disgust on her face. "You're very brave for telling me. I'm sure we all want baron Argrand to... to stop doing what he's doing. You don't need to talk any more. I will, I will speak with your father when he comes in the middle of the week. Do you think that's okay?"

The girl sobbed and cleaned up her tears, nodding with resolve at the words from Suu's mouth.

"That's good." Suu smiled. "You're a good girl. I'm sure both your mother and father are proud."

"Sniff..."

Suu stood up and extended her hand, which the girl took too stand up as well.

"You said you cook, right? Come, let's go to my manor. I'm pretty sure I can teach you how to cook some good meals from my country. Do you wanna learn?"

Rii nodded and tried to turn her sad face into a smile. Suu appreciated the effort, but didn't comment on it in fear that she'd damage her pride.

They walked up the small hill and away from the river, seeing Seashore on the distance. As she saw the manor at the top of the village, Suu started to feel like her head had been thrown into a mess.

Thom... I'm starting to have mixed feelings with this little plan of ours.

She couldn't stop thinking about how she felt each time more like one of the bad guys of the story. However, when she looked at the girl's face and remembered that poem, the doubt faded and resolution came back to her eyes.

Whatever it is that we do, that fucking bastard's gonna die this week!