Chapter 63: Chapter 62: Of Sharing

“...And so, for depositing in their bank, I get around a three percent interest rate so, well, I win money for going along!” Lucrece continued with her passionate explanation, as the night continued.

 

“What is a percent?” Gabrielle’s eyes were shining with curiosity, tilting her head from side to side as she struggled to understand the concept of economy.

 

“It means a part of a hundred, ’Per cent’. Imagine that my whole money is the hundred, then I get two parts of that every month!”

 

“Oh! And you can do that with anything? Or just money?”

 

“What, the percentage thing? Anything can be measured like that!”

 

“Then my whole crab claw is a hundred percent.”

 

“Exactly!”

 

“Then how much percentage is this?” Gabrielle asked, pulling a handful of juicy white meat.

 

“Gabi, sweetheart, I can’t just see percentages. You have to calculate them using mathematics.”

 

“Oh…”

 

“So, yeah! It’s actually not very good though, because the bank charges me three percent for using their services.” Luci sighed, shaking her head. “Rat bastards.”

 

“Language. So they take what you earn and you end up in the same place?” The redhead blinked and shook her head. “That doesn’t sound very good.”

 

“Well, I actually get a positive margin of zero point five percent a month.”

 

“What do the words that you just said mean.”

 

“Look, the point is that it’s not very good, Gabi. But we don’t really have many other options. If I just go around with all my money, I will get mugged.”

 

Gabrielle laid back on the ground, folding her cape into a makeshift cushion for her head and then looking up into the beautiful, starry sky. There were many things she simply couldn’t understand in life, complicated matters that no one explained to her before… but it felt nice to have someone actually take the time to at least try to teach her. It didn’t make things any easier at all but, for some reason the mere attempt was enough to make Gabi feel smarter.

 

“Sounds like a scam to me.” The redhead confessed, rubbing her belly slowly.

 

“Ugh, it kind of is to be honest. No matter how good they try to make it sound, they still get rich out of it.” Lucrece followed suit and laid back beside the witch, looking up to the sky. “It doesn’t matter though… one day I will be richer than all of them combined.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Why do you want to be so rich, Luci?”

 

Now that was a question people didn’t usually ask. Money was the name of the game in life, so of course everyone would want to have more money! Others simply assumed things worked this way…. But again the Witch hit the nail right on the head. 

 

“Okay, don’t laugh at me.” Luci closed her eye and felt the blood rush to her cheeks. “But one day… I want to have my very own state.”

 

“A state? You mean a country?”

 

“Nah, that would be way too much. I just want a little patch of land to work with. If I can handle it on my own, that would be great! But if not, I would want some little people to work it with me…. Imagine a nice farm, some silly animals here and there, a good business selling food and leather.” The lancer smiled. “Never having to lift my halberd again, just making money steadily and living life like it’s supposed to be lived!”

 

“And how is that?” Gabrielle asked with legitimate curiosity.

 

“We are not supposed to just survive, Gabi. To take in abuse, to be laughed at or to go around afraid of being backstabbed for some inane reason…” Luci took a little breath. “We were born to live happily, to enjoy stuff! To eat good food, to have good experiences. It’s our birthright, damn it, I don’t care what the Church or other people say.”

 

Born to enjoy life… Gabi fell silent and ruminated on the idea for a moment, rubbing under her chin. Her whole existence had been plagued with strife and problems, with people that looked down on her or wanted to take what little she had. She certainly didn’t feel the same way as the lancer.

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“What about me?” She finally asked. “Was I born to enjoy life too?”

 

“Of fucki– Of course!” Luci corrected herself as quickly as she could. “I bet you’ve been treated terribly because of that sorta stuff, right?”

 

“...Yes.”

 

“Well, I say I don’t care about it, and neither should you. I know it’s easy for me to say it but, to Hell with it.” These last words sounded quite final, echoing into the woods. “Gabi, you deserve to be happy too. Everyone does. Fuck the church! Ah, shite, sorry! Ah, fuck!”

 

A smile slowly curled on Gabrielle’s lips, soon turning into a soft giggle. Lucrece blinked in surprise and turned away, feeling her face growing red again. Damn Witch and her strange mannerisms had gotten the best of the poor lancer.

 

“Thank you, Luci.”

 

“Bah, shut up!” With a grumble, Luci quickly tried to change the subject. “What about you? What do you want to do after finishing with the whole Demiurge deal?”

 

The swordmaiden closed her eyes again. She had never come to think of it, her mind usually worked on immediate terms and nothing more, having learned to not expect anything from life but troubles to be endured and/or solved. And yet here she was now, trying to figure out a dream to chase!

 

“Well… your idea sounded pretty good. I may do that too.”

 

“Having a state for yourself? Do you think you could administer that sort of thing?”

 

“Maybe working in one. I don’t know.” Gabrielle shrugged. “But not having to fight anymore sounds good. Maybe living with animals, they are very cute…”

 

“You really like your animals, huh Gabi?” 

 

“They are not mean like people can be. Animals only do what they have to and can be very kind if you feed them…Except for bears and wolves. They are just afraid.”

 

“Afraid? Of what, people? But they eat people!”

 

“That doesn’t mean they are not afraid of them. We eat these bog bodies and that doesn’t mean we are not scared of them, right?”

 

“Touché.”

 

“Animals do what they have to do, so it’s easy to guess with them. You can just leave them alone… but you never know what people may be thinking. They are way scarier than animals.”

 

“Well I guess you do have a point there…”

 

“You are very afraid of people too, right Luci?”

 

The lancer could had simply told her to fuck off and not answer, keep her feelings to herself. But at this point, after so much, she simply let out a defeated sigh.

 

“Like you have no idea, Gabi…”

 

There was a moment of silence, of deep hesitation. She could just quiet down there and not add anything but… she wanted to share it. To let someone else in. Maybe it was a little rushed? But at the same time, a part of Lucrece’s mind was just eager to feel the closeness of confidence.

 

“Can you keep a secret, Gabi?”

 

“I can.”

 

“...Let me tell you the tale then. Of my eye.”

 

“Of your eye?”

 

“Yes… and the person who took it from me.”

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