Chapter 73: Chapter 72: Of Great Chances

“Luci my dear, why are you angry now…?”

 

It was another day in the state, the sun was shining brightly outside and people were working hard. Everyone was doing their best… except for the little Lucrece. The little girl pouted and kept herself inside of the house, shaking her head and trying her best not to cry out of frustration.

 

“Why do I have to study, daddy…?” She would glare at his father through watery, narrowed eyes. “In the end I will end up just toiling away in the fields like everyone else! Why do I have to waste time reading?”

 

“Oh sweetheart…”

 

Monsieur Laurent was a very tall and strong man, built by the long and merciless hours of work under the direction of his lord, so to speak on Luci’s level he had to kneel on the ground and even slouch a little more. He looked into his girl’s eyes, rubbing her head as he did and trying to smile at her.

 

“You are way too smart to just waste away in the fields… you were born with a gift, just like your mother did.” He sighed. “I don’t want this future for you, working here? That’s only temporary for someone like you! You are bound to greater things, I just know it!”

 

“But daddy…!”

 

“Fortune smiles on the people who work hard to get things, you know?” Monsieur Laurent always said that. “It is a long life, full of sacrifices, but when you grow up and direct a state of your own, never having to spend another day under the Sun? I know you will see the truth in my words.”

 

Lucrece pouted a bit more. She didn’t want to have to both study and work in the fields, the girl would rather do either one or the other! Preferably just help in the fields or the kitchen, away from the boys who tormented her in the church. 

 

What was that her father saw? She could never really understand what “gift” he talked about all the time.

 

“But if I leave Pietro alone people will pick on him, can’t I work with him instead?”

 

“Pietro has to learn to fend for himself, Luci. You can’t just be always watching over his shoulder. The day will come when neither you nor me will be there for him, and what will he do then, huh? If he never learns?”

 

“This isn’t fair…”

 

“Oh sweetheart, I know you are mad at me for making you do this, but please. Trust your old papa a little, okay?”

 

Luci sighed, giving up on the matter and looking down on the floor, while her father took her mother’s hat and pushed it on her head. It was still a little too big for the girl to properly wear, but just feeling it was enough to lift her spirits a little bit. Soon. She just needed to grow a little more.

 

“You are destined for great things, sweetie.” Lucrece could still remember her father’s proud smile, curling under his mustache. “Soon, you will see…”

 

But she would never see it. No matter how much time had passed, life would only become crueler and more complicated in the eye of the lancer. Hard work was always exploited by someone else, people hiding while everyone else bled on the ground only to return when it was time to take the spoils. Where was this bright future her father had promised? 

 

As Lucrece’s mind slowly returned from unconsciousness, she could still not find any truth to the old man’s words… and this disappointment would squeeze her heart like no other grief could.

 

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Her eye opened again soon. She felt comfortable, despite the pain on her shoulders stinging every time she tried to move. Looking around herself, Lucrece would find herself in a cushy bed with her shoulders and chest firmly bandaged, her brigandine hanged laying on a tiny table on her left.

 

A window covered with elegant looking curtains rested on her right, the door to her left beside the tiny wooden table and some equally tiny wooden chairs. It had to be the promised room in the Tavern, but how? Had they somehow made it last night?

 

But how?

 

The answer was sleeping close to the bed, sitting on one of those damn small chairs. Gabrielle kept her arms crossed while sleeping, her neck and shoulders bandaged and her armour nowhere to be seen. That girl… she had clearly done something last night to get them out of the situation the bartender had thrown them in.

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This damn rat-infested city…

 

Luci only then realized that the girl’s hair was all uncovered, ready to be seen. Had they been discovered somehow!? And the bartender still allowed them to stay? Too many lucky coincidences…

 

The lancer could already feel that they had somehow gotten trapped into an even tighter situation now, ugh. But at least she could consider herself lucky to have survived. She owed it to the redhead, again! But fortunately, it was the redhead’s idea to get into that whole mess so it all canceled out, right?

 

Right?

 

Gabrielle looked so peaceful while sleeping, deep and comfortable in some far corner of dreamland. Luci smiled, not daring to wake her up, and slowly got up from her bed to explore. Things were a bit too quiet for a tavern, even if the sun was just starting its sleepy rise over the horizon. 

 

With quiet steps and little painful winces from time to time, she abandoned the room and walked down the hallway on the second floor, keeping her ears really open. It wasn’t long until she heard two voices whispering a bit too loudly on the first floor: The tavern owner and the lady cook were discussing while putting all tables in their place.

 

“If you do not want to do this, I will do it myself.” The lady spoke in a hushed but very angry tone. “I am done with your bad choices, Oleg.”

 

“You brought a witch into our house and you say I take bad decisions!?” Oleg, the bartender, looked far more indignant than angry. “I don’t want any trouble, Hanna. I just want to keep us safe.”

 

“Safe and poor! Just hugging and hoarding our money without investing like a damn dragon!” Hanna grumbled. “Just trust me on this one and let me talk. I know how we can get them to work along.”

 

“And if they refuse!?”

 

“Well, we can just tell them we’ll sic the Church on them. They can’t really refuse us, can they?”

 

Lucrece could feel her teeth clenching and her fists balling, itching to hit some faces. The woman was right, they wasn’t in a position to say no to whatever they wanted to ask, but… what did they want from two random travelers? She decided it wouldn’t make sense to just wait in place and pretend she didn’t hear a thing.

 

Swallowing her fears, the lancer would step down the stairs without hesitation, trying to calm herself down.

 

“Lovely chat to have at this time of the morning, huh?” She said, crossing her arms over her chest. “What is it exactly that we couldn’t refuse, ma’am?”

 

Oleg tried to speak up, his face going pale and cold, but Hanna hushed him quickly, standing and smiling at their “guest”. She was confident, cunning, a true business lady.

 

“Well, missy. We actually wanted to make a little deal. There is a task to be done, perfect for both you and your friend.”

 

“Let me guess: another simple ‘rat problem’?”

 

“Please forgive my husband, he may have misjudged the difficulty of the situation a little bit.” 

 

“A bit!?” Lucrece was ready to punch her, but some semblance of self-control was still present in the lancer’s mind. That and her body still hurt too much to do anything drastic.

 

“Now now, no need to hold grudges. If you are willing to see this issue to its end, we could all find ourselves richer… How do two hundred golden empires sound?”

 

She was ready to reject anything, but wasn’t ready to hear that amount. Two hundred… could she really sell her own safety and Gabrielle’s for two hundred golden empires…?

 

Yes. Yes, she could.

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