Chapter 89: Chapter 71: Tasianna’s true reasons.

“Stream of numbing cold, freeze the very breath of the Goddess of Wind, Icicle Gale!”

Jumping forward while shouting out “H-H-Huuuuuuummmmmaaaaaannnnnn”, Tasianna conjured up a cyan magic circle, fully intending to launch the level three ice spell [Icicle Gale] at the person laying on the ground. She was actually going for blood!

Thankfully, as Tasianna hadn’t max leveled her [Chant Revocation] yet, she still had to chant, giving Saori and me enough time to react to her sudden antagonism towards the human. Saori cast [Dark Tendrils] to fully restrict our unusually aggressive companion while I shot out a [Fire Ball], reforming its shape into a shield using [Pyrokinesis] to block the activated [Icicle Gale].

Tasianna’s spell sent a blast of wind and simultaneously froze it while it moved, creating something akin to a hail only with very, very sharp ice. It was engulfed by my flames, however, quickly evaporating out of sight.

“Tasianna, you must calm down, please!” Saori called out in panic.

Tasianna struggled in a frenzy, fervently trying all she could to free herself from Saori's spell, “NO! Let me go, Miss Saori! Stream of numbing co-!”

“Tasianna!” I shouted as I placed my hands on her cheeks and pulled her head to face my eyes. Looking at her with a bit of annoyance and worry, I grimaced a bit as I stared at her. “Please, calm down, Tasianna. Look at the woman. She’s lying face-first on the dirt. It doesn’t even look like she’s conscious.”

Turning her head to the side, I drew her attention back to the human, showing what sorta state she was in. Ragged clothes that looked like they hadn’t been washed in weeks, shoeless feet with plenty of scratches and grime, and dark green hair thickened with grease and flakes of skin. I couldn’t see her face nor in what condition her body was in but as the scent of blood was faint on her, it meant she wasn’t in immediate danger… I believed.

Tasianna gave her a short glance before asserting her position to me, “Please, unhand me, Lady Hestia! I must, I must do this for-”

“Do it for whom?” instead of me, Saori spoke out from behind Tasianna who then told me to step aside for her to speak. “Tasianna, we have spoken about this already. Hestia and I have a goal, and that goal includes assimilating into society, which includes human society. I am grateful for your help and I also understand I am asking you for something difficult, but I have given my warning already, have I not?”

Saori's aura felt as cold and ruthless as when I first met the garms, causing our fairy friend to shrink down from the sheer intimidation force. Cold beads of sweat began to form on her forehead as her eyes started appearing wet.

“M-Miss Saori, I-I-,” Tasianna struggled to speak, stumbling on every letter as she tried to respond.

However, Saori felt no pity and kept speaking, "No excuses, Tasianna. That was a near attempt of murder. Remember, the fact you wanted us to be diplomatic towards the lizardmen before we made contact with them. You did not know who they were, but you attempted peace. Do not be a hypocrite.”

Well, Tasianna did end up drilling a hole into Caszcur’s hand with an ice spike when he grabbed me, but that was beside the point. Tasianna always felt like our anchor to civilization. The only one who could think properly without having their animalistic instincts influence their decision.

Which made this scene so bizarre. Tasianna had her quirks but it never blemished her dutiful maid persona. The Tasianna from back then and the one standing before me now were completely different.

“We cannot afford antagonizing humans every step we go, especially when we are in a town or city," Saori lectured with a grim expression. “I have said this already, Tasianna, if you do not want to learn how to control your urges, then we will have a problem. I understand that your trauma is controlling you here but even my patience will grow thin if we must repeat this every day.”

It would be a problem if she were to behave the way she did when she saw me as a human. I wanted to humanize when I sleep as my sleeping posture had improved massively due to not having to deal with my horns and tail.

[Humanize Lv. 9] and [Humanize Lv. 10] were the only ones which removed a majority of my draconic features while also changing my race into human. I already had to deal with the fact my stats would be reduced even further in addition to losing my draconic abilities, I didn’t also want to experience Tasianna acting uncomfortable around me.

“You told me that you are doing this for your late mistress, Princess Schuri? Tell me, how would she feel if you kept going on with this pseudo-vengeance of yours you are masking your trauma with? Are you not just afraid history would repeat itself? You told us that Plesia is the Goddess of Honor and Order, correct? What you were about to do — cold-blooded murder — would have gone against all of that,” Saori gave her frank analysis.

Was this what they talked about previously? I only knew Tasianna’s trauma was caused by her past experience of having lost the person she last served, the youngest princess of the royal fairy family.

I was curious about this vengeance Saori mentioned, but I had to leave that alone for now. Maybe ask them later. This sounded pretty serious and, honestly, should be something I knew about. We were a party after all, right?

“I personally have not experienced what responsibilities a maid has, however, I understand that you consider protecting somebody a duty, correct? You admitted that you are traveling with us now because of your desire to atone through serving Hestia,” Saori continued. "Do you still want to serve her? Do you still want to travel with us? Then this moment here will be the start of your change. I can and will help you Tasianna when it is within my abilities, but you personally have to start accepting it."

“I-I-I…yes,” Tasianna eked out with tears streaming down her face. “I do not want to be abandoned. Please, don’t leave me, Miss Saori, Princess Hestia. I want to be useful and I want to know that these 87 years haven’t been a complete waste.”

As Tasianna’s anger began to subside, Saori’s tendrils disappeared and released her, letting her body slump down in defeat. Still silently crying, she continued, “I will change, I will change. I swear this on my faith to Plesia, the Goddess of Order, Honor, and Traditions, and Zephira, the Patron Goddess of the Faefolk.”

With a quiet “thank you,” Saori turned her head around and gave a fierce snarl, as if she was letting out all her stress until now. With numerous whimpers resounding from the thickets and bushes, around six wolves scurried away from the area, terrified of Saori, a superior canine monster.

The signals are now reduced to one… only the woman’s.

Considering this scene, she must’ve collapsed in exhaustion after being pursued by them. Since I wasn’t the person to just somebody injured like this behind, I walked over to check on her condition. Saori understood this as there was no communication between us and she quietly kneeled down to console Tasianna.

She’s light… either it’s ‘cause of my high Strength or… yeah, that is what I thought.

Her body looked thin, unusually thin. Her arms and torso weren’t only skin and bones, but it was clear she had been malnourished or starving for a few days now. I was already able to smell it further away but coming closer. The intensity of her sweat and grime caused my nose to be overwhelmed by a serious rotten egg smell. I had to cast [Air Shield] around me to prevent having to smell that shit… actually, she literally did smell like feces and urine.

Breathing? Good. At least she’s not dead… Urgh, too bad I don’t have some tic tacs for her…

She had some muscles there and there, although they shrunk from her lack of nourishments. In addition, her skin felt… rough, as if she hadn’t once taken proper care of it. Or, maybe she just spent too much time in the sun, ruining it. It wasn’t to the point of no-return, though, and she didn't look too bad outside of that. Most likely, she belonged to the lowest class of the medieval feudal system.

Well, at least, according to what I had learned from Saori. A normal person would call her a commoner, but a historical nerd like her would rather have me use the proper terms. “Yeoman” and “Villein,” the two distinctions for somebody who didn’t belong to either nobility or the clergy.

In essence, a yeoman was a commoner who was able to own some sorta land, a house, for example. They could live in cities and had rights similar to a normal citizen, which was akin to how we treated people in modern times on Earth.

A villein was a serf, a person who owned nothing and was bound to work on the land of their lords. Usually, you could just think of them as the stereotypical peasant who worked the land and took care of farms, while being forced to hand over a certain amount of their harvest as a tribute. Taxes, in other words.

I was leaning a bit on the villein side for this woman, but appearances could lie. Still, that was my first impression once I had a good look over her body’s current state.

There are some wounds on her back, signs of being snared around her wrists. Wounds from branches, some claw marks there. Her feet are riddled with stone imprints and small gashes. Goodness, gracious.

Good thing I was a girl myself, otherwise her body checkup would’ve been pretty embarrassing. In any case, there didn’t seem to be any serious damage. Thank goodness. I laid her down softly on the pelt of a grizzly, before beginning first-aid and healing.

"How is she?" Saori asked, still beside Tasianna.

“... Not too bad, but you should prepare a meal. Not too big, though. I heard you shouldn’t eat too much after starving for a while,” I responded by scratching my head in exasperation.

**********************************

“Ok, now I understand the true reason why you left your village. Thanks for sharing that with me,” I told Tasianna who was kneeling down, helping me put on one of Saori’s clothing. “Still, you can’t go around trying to kill every single human you see, Tasianna. Not all of them are like those assholes. You can’t stereotype people.”

“Yes… your words are wise, but how am I supposed to know that? What if they went against their words like those poachers who attacked me? As your retainer, I will never allow them to ever harm you, Lady Hestia,” Tasianna said with a conflicted tone, stopping her hands for a moment.

After I healed the woman’s wounds, Saori washed her using Tasianna’s water and shampoo, who was adamantly against doing it as she considered it as “wasted” on a human. We covered her up in a mana blanket and laid her closer to our campfire.

With nothing else to do until dinner, Saori suggested we try some of her designs out as she believed four days of work should be enough to test out outfit combinations. And there were a lot. Trying them all on gave us enough time for Tasianna to explain to me what Saori meant with her “vengeance.”

Essentially, she withheld information from me. When she explained the reason why she left her village, it wasn't only 'cause of her self-exile but also 'cause she wanted to avenge the death of Princess Schuri, her late mistress. “I didn’t want you to have a bad first impression,” was her excuse, but, honestly, I couldn’t care less she kept this a secret. It wouldn’t have changed us accepting her as a companion.

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The poachers who captured them were executed under the laws of the elves so there shouldn’t be anybody she could direct her wrath to, right? Well, it would seem like those poachers had an employer, and that very person was the one Tasianna was aiming for.

What made this even crazier was how Tasianna had absolutely no idea where this person was, only that they were somewhere in human territory… Which was absolutely zero help as the continent was huge, according to the people I'd talked to.

“So, why were you in the vicinity of the Belzac forest anyway? How did you get captured by those trolls, in the first place?” I asked.

“My first objective was to become strong enough to pose a threat to the person and to be able to defend myself. I was a fool, I believed I could survive due to having 87 years of experience with magic, despite it only being rudimentary. I did not lie when I told you I was a simple maid, for that is what I have always been. My streak of victories consisted merely out of two [Loopabit], uhm, those rabbits with those antlers, before being overwhelmed by a D rank and having to be rescued, which is ironic as they immediately made me their prisoner.”

“That so? That must have been very conflicting for you,” Saori commented as she used my mana to create crimson mana strings. “Being first rescued by the trolls and then being put into a mana drainer? Disastrous.”

“Actually, no. They simply put me in a cage when I was lying on the ground, exhausted and battered. I actually believed at that point they were doing it to protect me as they treated me well,” Tasianna continued with a sigh. “Aside from the shaman, who was extremely deranged and mad, the four troll warriors were kind people. Truly, those grimgarians were civilized despite their appearances. It was naïve, now that I reflected on it, but I wouldn’t have minded if I could’ve stayed with them. Especially since it was clear they were planning to attack the humans.”

Huh? What am I missing here? I thought when I heard that.

Noticing my confused expression, Tasianna explained it to me, “Apologies, Lady Hestia. Well, do you still remember what the lizardmen told us about how they made it to Belzac Forest?”

I nodded, which prompted her to continue, “When the lizardmen talked about an army of grimgarians, I instantly thought of the trolls who were transporting that huge mana cannon and those massive stocks of equipment with them through the forest. What else could they have been planning with them?”

Urgh, how could I forget about the mana cannon? Jeez, it broke through [Draconic Barrier] and nearly pulverized my arms. I honestly thought I could have died there! As if I could forget them. Just made the memory of them storing all those weapons in that cave much clearer.

“After everything that transpired since we met the lizardmen, the wyverns, and how we narrowly survived getting shot down by the grimgarian army; my theory is that the trolls were probably waiting there for the army. To reinforce them,” Tasianna concluded. “If they weren’t so willing to use me as fuel for the mana cannon, I probably wouldn’t have escaped on the day we met. In fact, I might have decided to join them as their objective sounded so… fulfilling. I deserve to be reprimanded; I know…”

“War is a difficult topic, indeed. The history on Earth has shown many times that hatred and anger, primal human emotions, are usually great motivators for the worst wars,” Saori said solemnly. “Never forget, Tasianna. A warpath that you walk because of your emotions will always create more people like yourself. It will not bring you happiness, in fact, it might actually cause more harm to the people you love. You avenged your loved ones… but you will cause the same pain to others.”

Tasianna looked down on the ground, her brows furrowed in a deep frown. “It does sound so… hypocritical. Narrow-minded, selfish… Is this what repeating the past would mean? If I were to imagine it, having somebody else feel my pain, but turning the perpetrator into myself… urgh.”

“… Do you still want it, Tasianna?” I asked cautiously. “Your revenge. On that person, that employer guy, I mean.”

“I-I know I withheld my true reasons. Lying isn’t considered a sin as it doesn’t break any of Goddess Plesia’s tenets, but that doesn’t change the fact I only told you a half-truth, my lady.” Tasianna gulped before looking into my eyes for a second. She let out a sigh, breathed in deeply, and gave me a resolute nod. “If I am to be honest, then yes, I do; however, you are my primary goal, right now. I have sworn my loyalty and I will not abandon my duty this time, as I have told you when we first met! My carelessness, my emotions, and my lack of competence made me neglect Princess Schuri. I will not make that mistake once more. Not for the Goddess of Vengeance, at least.”

There’s a Goddess of Vengeance? Sheesh. Which pantheon does she belong to? I wondered, but decided to ask her about this at another time.

Tasianna stopped fiddling with my clothes and then took my right hand, firmly grasping it with both of hers. “I cannot forgive them nor can I forget my wish for revenge, but I promise that it will not affect my duty. My wish to become your cold, indomitable shield is true. I want to become stronger for you.”

… I admit, that sounded extremely cool.

“Do not forget what you just said today, Tasianna. Do not treat every human like that person. A trauma is harsh, but you must make an effort to overcome it,” Saori remarked. “There will always be shades of grey. Never always white or black.”

“Yes… I will do my best…” Tasianna looked at the unconscious female human, grimacing for a moment before turning her head away. She still needed time to adjust.

“Now, enough with this talk!” Saori clapped. “Hestia, how does it look?”

Inspecting myself now that I had everything on, I could only say “wow!” My clothing consisted of two parts: the outfit, itself, and a glorious white mage cloak!

My outfit was mostly inspired from modern K-Pop outfits while keeping comfort and combat in mind. They had to look good but Saori knew I would be fighting in them, too. Which meant no excessive accessories nor frills, and also some long shorts as underwear. Upskirt moments would be less embarrassing, yay~

To the outfit itself, I was wearing a thin, white turtleneck to cover my whole upper body. With this as the base, Saori also added a stylish, grey form-fitting vest with a red short jacket. Finishing it was a red double-layered skirt with minimal frills to add a bit of cuteness.

My cloak was made with major inspiration from the white mages from the video game series “Final Fantasy,” which meant it was completely white with a few red triangles at the hem. With a black ribbon to hold it together, I felt pretty excited to walk around with it.

Hehe, people from Earth might know the reference but I don't think the people on Peolynca will, which will keep my specialty a secret… also, this hood is large enough to accommodate my horns…and it feels so warm!

"Amazing!" I cried out once I covered the cloak over my whole body, turning it into a robe, feeling warm and fuzzy. "Wait, why do I feel so warm when I cover myself with the cloak? Wasn’t it made with the mana from my holy spells?"

Saori’s [Elemental Mana Weaving] allowed her to make colored mana strings according to the mana she extracted it from. The thing was, if she were to extract it from our bodies then it would stay blue like always, however, as we knew, magic circles had to be filled with mana. That was the trick behind getting colors.

During the spell casting step “Activation,” Tasianna and I would materialize magic circles and fuel it with mana for usage, however, if we didn’t go through with “Release,” which was the last step, we could leave the circle hanging around in the air. Saori would create mana strings out of them and use both [Mana Weaving] and [Sewing] to create some fabric and then the clothing themselves after she got enough.

It might be free, as it didn’t cost us any money, but it consumed a mana for everything. This outfit here was just one of many. Imagine what an insane amount she had to take from me to create this primarily red outfit and this white cloak.

“Easy, I mixed some cyan strings into your robe’s inside.” Saori proceeded to show where she added them, opening the robe up a bit, before continuing. “The red was made from your fire mana, while the white came from your holy spells. The easiest steps, after all. However, I made your cloak with three layers: two white, and the inside is cyan and red, only. This is to grant it some skills. As such, your robe is pretty thick, which can double as a robe when you want to look like a proper mage. I know you like cosplaying your video game characters, kid.”

“Ha, and because I don’t feel uncomfortable with just a bit more warmth, but find the cold annoying, the extra layers are actually better! Nice thinking, Saori!” I called out as I jumped into the air, not having to suffer under the annoying effects of winter again! Due to my curiosity, I also used [Identify] on my cloak.

<White Mage Cloak: A white cloak with red triangles created with [Mana Weave], consisting of mana from three elements. Protection is very limited without any enchantments, but it possesses a few natural skills due to its creation method

Skill: [Warmth Lv. 1] [Cooling Lv. 1] [Holy Resistance Lv. 1] [Fire Resistance Lv. 1] [Ice Resistance Lv. 1]>

… Well, I finally got [Ice Resistance]. Kinda.

Even after getting hit by Tasianna’s spell a couple of times, I still hadn’t gotten [Ice Resistance] so I was not sure what to feel about getting the skill through equipment. Well, I guess it was normal to do so. Getting equipment to cover for your weaknesses was not only a staple in RPGs but also in human history.

As my outfit was completely made from Saori’s [Elemental Mana Weaving], every piece had [Fire Resistance Lv. 1] or [Holy Resistance Lv. 1]. Seeing all these skills imbued in my clothes begged the question on how they actually worked.

Were they additive or were they multiplicative? How did gear skills affect my own skills? Did they override each other? Tasianna did eventually explain they more-or-less added onto each other multiplicatively.

“If you stack multiple [Fire Resistance Lv. 1] together, you won’t get anywhere, Lady Hestia, as resistances add onto your Vitality and Wisdom, under the circumstance you get hit by that specific element. It’s hidden, unfortunately, but you can feel the difference if you check the amount of Health you lose. However, if your Intelligence fast surpasses somebody’s Wisdom even with something like [Inferno Resistance Lv. 5], you can still damage them with something small like a level one fire spell.”

Pretty multiplicative as I understood it, and from the sound of it, they added onto our stats. Unfortunately, they were hidden stats, which made me not a fan of it. Whatever, really. I just had to know stacking advanced elemental resistances would benefit me one day. More reason to get some equipment once we meet a blacksmith. Mhmm, would be nice if we could get one for the party, though.

“Alright, I personally think this one is the best-looking. It fits you extremely well if I am allowed to praise my own work,” Saori smiled proudly. “Alright, if you have no more complaints, let us do Tasianna’s now. I bet one of these dresses will suit your likes~”

“Mhmm.”

Immediately hearing a foreign sound, the three of us dropped what we held and turned our gazes towards its direction, wary of all threats and ready for battle. However, instead of an enemy, what we instead saw was the awakening body of the injured woman, feebly pushing herself up with her emaciated arms.

“Wh-where am I, wh-tails… b-beastmen?!”