Chapter 396: 397: The calm before

It’s a shame, really.

Fresh pushes a brick over with her boot, turning around to watch a group of mounted soldiers rushing past the destroyed marketplace, on their way to fortify the walls of the city.

She sighs, turning back to look at the mess.

“I’ll handle the sweeping if you do the dusting,” says Basil.

Fresh laughs, but it’s kind of a pained, saddened laugh. She looks around at the rubble that they’re standing on-top of. This pile of bricks and heaped wood, this used to be their house.

- Or maybe it was the neighbor’s?

An explosion of blinding light rocks the world, stemming from the east.

Fresh frowns, looking around the mess that is the market-place as the shine of an out of place sun dies down. It’s hard to tell what’s what anymore, actually. Her eyes wander towards the shattered, dead, massive branch that lays over the street. The destroyed thing is taller than many of the houses here, not counting the flattened ones, of course.

“I think we’re gonna need to do more than that,” replies Fresh. “Are you okay, Basil?” she asks.

Basil nods. “I’m fine, thank you,” replies the priestess. “Everything is set up.”

“Mm.” Fresh nods back. “The whole hero thing is taken care of too.”

“The red-wizard?” asks Basil.

Fresh nods. “Yup. Just like you said.”

Basil sighs, shaking her head. “When you take care of children for a long time, there are so many things that you learn without even realizing,” says the priestess, bending down to pick up an old book from their library. She dusts it off, trying to see which one it is. It doesn’t seem to be anything exciting, so she just shrugs and sets it back down, leaning it against some rubble. “Like faking being ill. It happened a lot, back in the cathedral,” explains Basil. “It was an easy way to get out of chores and still get some food.”

Fresh looks at the priestess for a while. Of course, all of Basil’s wards from the north are likely dead, like everyone else in the outer cities. She very much doubts that the monsters of the wild-hunt have any moral qualms about such things. She knows that Basil knows this as well. But… well, why even bring it up? It would just make them both sad. Best to just leave it be.

The world erupts into a flash of light once more, as a powerful, magical energy is released. A shockwave presses through the city. Loose stones tumble down from the ruins around them.

“So, when we get to the other place,” starts Fresh. “What do you wanna do, Basil?” she asks, wanting to change the topic. They have to wait here a while anyway, until their parts in the scheme continue.

“Huh? Me?” asks Basil, sitting down on what Fresh assumes is a piece of what was once the tower on the upper floor.

“Yeah. We’ve always kind of just gone places and did the ‘dungeon item shop’ thing,” says Fresh. “But, like… what do you wanna do?” she asks. “If we can just start over somewhere else?”

Basil blinks, looking at her for a moment, before leaning back, resting her palms behind herself and staring up towards the cloudy sky that has still yet to part. “I’ve grown fond of running a store, honestly,” she says. “But maybe we could do something less exciting next time?” she asks. The priestess counts off her fingers. “We could make tea or toys, or maybe we could sell fruits?”

The ground beneath their feet quakes as the world fills up with a dazzling light.

“Fruits?” asks Fresh, thinking about it.

“Sure!” Basil gestures around herself. “We could get a nice patch of land, outside of the city and we’d plant a whole group of fruit trees,” explains the priestess. “And then we could sell them as is or dry them to make teas and snacks and all sorts of things like that.”

Fresh nods. This is an excellent idea. But there’s a problem. “I don’t think we can afford to buy property anymore, Basil,” explains Fresh. “With Obols being worthless now and all.”

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Basil sighs. “I had assumed as much,” she replies. “I guess we’ll just join an adventurer’s guild, indebt ourselves and start crawling through some muddy dungeon to repay our dues before we’re sold into debt-slavery?”

Fresh gasps. “Is that an option?!” she asks excitedly, clenching her fists and leaning in towards Basil. “Let’s do that, Basil!”

“I was afraid you’d say that,” says the priestess.

“It’ll be great!” says Fresh. “We can all work hard together to fight through the dungeon!” she explains, clasping her hands together. “Then we’ll be really poor for a long time, so we’re going to have to share a room and a bed and the little food that we have and we’ll have nothing but each other!”

“Uh…” Basil lifts a finger. “I feel like you’re romanticizing our future poverty and hardship a little,” she says.

Fresh nods. “Yes.”

“…Yes?” asks Basil.

“Yes,” repeats Fresh. “It’s going to be the best, Basil!” she assures.

Basil laughs. “I’ll take your word for it.” The priestess gets up. “It’s probably about time for us to keep going,” she says, playing with her bracelet.

“Do you think that Jubilee and Shamrock are okay?” asks Fresh, looking out over the ruins.

“I’m sure that they’re fine,” says Basil, crossing her arms. “Shamrock is Shamrock and Jubilee is too much of a jackass to die.” Fresh snorts, holding in a laugh at Basil’s snappiness. Basil frowns. “I’m sorry. Jubilee’s really been rubbing off on me in a bad way,” explains the priestess. “I guess I’ve lost my manners.”

“It’s okay, Basil,” says Fresh. “I won’t tell anyone.”

Basil nods. “Don’t worry,” she says. “Everything is going to be fine,” she assures.

“You promise?” asks Fresh.

A glowing eruption of magical energy comes from the east as the hero strikes again.

Basil climbs down the rubble. It’s time to get back to work. “When has it ever not been fine?” she asks, waving her off. “I promise.”

Fresh nods, looking around herself as Basil vanishes to move on to the next step of the plan.

Patala is taken care of, Jubilee and Shamrock will see to that. The hero is taken care of, she’s seen to that herself. The wild-hunt is taken care of, the hero will see to that. That just leaves the biggest problem in the room, Perchta. Well, that and one or two other things as well, but nothing that’s really worth worrying about.

Fresh rises to the tips of her toes, lifting her hands into the air to wiggle her fingers. Something pops in her lower back and she lets out a sharp gasp, lowering herself back down to the soles of her feet.

“I must be getting old,” she laughs to herself, grabbing her broom and sitting back onto it, as she rises into the air, her eyes wandering towards the sky.

Another flash of light erupts, sending a blastwave of magical energy over the horizon.

It’s just about time now for Perchta and the other big players to reveal themselves. Fresh sighs. It’s all so much stress and planning, the end of the world. She’d much rather be running their store.

- Something quiet and calm, huh?

Fresh floats up into the air, racking her brain for what they could sell in their next, new store that fits in these criteria. After all, if there’s one thing she’s learned from this experience, it’s how important it is to prepare for the future.

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