Chapter 6: Chapter Four – Pretty Nice Time

Chapter Four - Pretty Nice Time

Despite everything, Crystal was having a pretty nice time.

Veronica wasn’t proving to be very good company. The young woman was quiet and reserved, and didn’t seem very chatty at all. She reminded Crystal of some of her friends, though with how many friends she had (eleven, it was easy to keep count) it wasn’t surprising that anyone she met would have one or two traits in common.

In Veronica’s case, the traits she had in common was a constant sense of irritability, and a grumpy disposition.

Other than that, Crystal was enjoying the trip. They had started in a direction that Veronica called north and had continued that way for a while until they ran across a road. Apparently, that would eventually lead to Kircken, which was supposed to be a big, and rather important city.

Crystal didn’t need to follow Veronica. In fact, it might have been better if she didn’t. For all that Veronica was mostly nice, she didn’t seem entirely... put together at the moment, and what Crystal needed most of all were answers.

Unfortunately, Crystal had the sort of personality that meant that she kind of tended to cling onto the first person she met. That could be both good and bad. Or so the therapist which Happy Sparkles had insisted all of the Magical Girls meet with had said.

Veronica was someone, Crystal needed someone, and so bing-bang-bong, the magic of social awkwardness stuck the two together like glue on toast.

Meanwhile, Veronica was counting down the seconds until she could get rid of Crystal once and for all.

Not that Veronica planned on killing Crystal. She thought herself capable of killing, but she also had morals, and killing a child, or a teenager as the case may be, just because they annoyed her wasn’t something she’d ever allow herself to do. She merely wanted Crystal to be... elsewhere.

The girl kept skipping along, with no sign that she was growing tired after such a long walk. Veronica had thought she was in decent shape at the barony. She went on frequent runs and trained a bit with the guards, even before becoming daemon-fed and gaining her particularly cold kind of magic. She had discovered otherwise when she joined Frederick’s crew. The day-long walks had tired her out like nothing before had ever done.

It was sobering to learn that the level of physical conditioning she had was only enough to barely keep up with the average mercenary. If it wasn’t for her magic, she wouldn’t be worth carrying around.

And this girl, a head and a bit shorter than her, with her yellow hair and bright guileless smile had been skipping for the past three hours without so much as a bead of sweat on her forehead to show for it.

Veronica had a lot of things to be angry about. At the moment, Crystal happened to gain a more-than-fair share of that ire on account of being in close proximity.

The afternoon continued, Crystal eventually shed her ruined tent, muttering something about a friend of hers disapproving of the way it didn’t fit her costume. Veronica was too tired and frustrated to even want to ask.

To be fair, she’d ignored a lot of Crystal’s questions. They were foolish ones, like how did magic work, and what had happened to the villagers they’d left behind to turn them that way. The kind of thing that any child should have known already. Veronica was under the impression that Crystal was a little bit moon-touched.

At last, just as the sun started to drop from its zenith, Veronica squinted and caught sight of a building ahead. The road to Kircken was filled with deep valleys and slight hills, which made the terrain annoying to walk on and cut into their visible range, so the distant inn only came into sight as they crested a particularly tall hill. “That’s our destination,” Veronica said.

The Putit Inn was a smaller establishment whose location didn’t help it overly much. It wasn’t a day’s walk from the nearby Obershield, and it wasn’t a day’s walk from it to Kircken. It wasn’t even at an intersection.

Further out, just a few hills over and perhaps an hour’s walk away, was the Jamit Inn, which did happen to be nearly halfway between the town and the city, and so had a lot more clientele on the average day.

“What is it?” Crystal asked.

“It’s an inn,” Veronica said. “You... do have money, right?” Crystal’s answering blush was enough to answer that particular question. Veronica sighed. “I’ll pay for a room for the both of us.”

“Oh, thank you! I’ll pay you back, promise! Pinkie promise, even!”

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Veronica ignored the extended pinkie. She had plans. First, she’d grab food and something to drink and wait for her feet to stop aching. Then she’d send Crystal off to her room or something and grab a ride with the first carriage out of the inn heading northbound.

As they approached, she saw that her plan might be easier than expected. The inn was packed with people. Many of the people waiting around outside were adventurers. Their gear ranged from simple clothes hardly better than peasants to full plate-mail. Some were clearly daemon-fed, with the strange magical effects to show for it, but they were a minority. Others she could only tell were part of the guild because they had the daggers that identified them as members.

She reached to her hilt and adjusted her own belt almost self-consciously. By her side, in pride of place, was a foot-long dagger. It was single-edged and made of what was probably some very ordinary steel. It wasn’t anything special, except for the hilt.

Hers had two bronze rings on the pommel and the symbol of the guild was tilted to the side, indicating that she was daemon-fed. Two bronze rings wasn’t going to impress anyone but a peasant, but it was still good to have. It meant a slight discount, and a bit of respect. She wasn’t some lost noblewoman, but a fellow of the guild.

One day she’d have the pommel transferred to her rapier, but not while she only had two bronze rings. That would be a little too... presumptuous.

“Lively place!” Crystal said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many horses before.”

The inn’s stable was obviously at, or past, capacity.

Crystal didn’t care. She had never actually been close to a horse before. Obviously, she wasn’t a horse girl. But she was still a girl, and had seen at least thirty b-rated movies where one of the main characters was a horse of some sort, and so she had a genetic predisposition to wanting to pet one. Or she assumed it was a genetics thing. She wasn’t Screaming Bioplague who actually knew all that medical-ish stuff. She was just a well-raised teenager with a strong urge to pet the horses.

“Come on,” Veronica said, snapping Crystal back to attention. She followed her taciturn friend into the inn and found it just as crowded within as without.

There were lots of men here, two or three for every woman, discounting the waitresses moving around with trays of yummy-smelling food. It was good that the food was around to perfume the place, because otherwise it smelled like sweat and horse-poop.

Crystal kept her hands by her sides, pressing down on the ruffles of her skirt to prevent them from rubbing against any of the tables or patrons.

She stayed by Veronica as the young woman spoke to an older lady behind the bar-counter at the head of the inn. The negotiations were quite stern for a bit, but eventually Veronica slapped a few silvery coins down and turned to Crystal. “Our room is on the second floor, by the back. Room nine. Can you go see if they’re clean, please?”

“Oh, sure!” Crystal said.

Veronica watched the girl bounce off, entirely heedless of all the attention that had fallen on her. She was a single teenager wearing a dress that was far too pretty for a place like this, bedecked with little--likely cheap--jewels, and with the perceptive abilities of a fish on dry land.

Veronica felt a tiny bit guilty as she told the innkeep to watch out for Crystal before leaving the place and finding a carriage heading north. She flicked the driver a silver, flashed her guild dagger’s hilt, then jumped aboard without much fuss.

Finally, at long last, she was free of the pest.

“Veronica!”

Veronica closed her eyes and held back a sob.

“Veronica! You forgot me behind!” Crystal screamed as she ran full-tilt along the road, easily outpacing the cart. “But it’s okay! I saw you leaving! I’m coming, Veronica!”

***

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