Chapter 504: Chapter 2.225

The outer city, unprotected by the walls wasn’t as shiny as the other districts. It had seen better days but the people living there also had fared worse.

The buildings were in need of some repairs, but wouldn’t crumble any time soon. The pedestrians were either drunkards or prostitutes who weren’t exactly welcome in the other districts. The fact that the lowest of the low also lived there hadn’t changed, but at least they had a better life now.

Hannah and I surely stuck out with our dresses, but we weren’t talked to at all, probably because this are wasn’t exactly safe during the night.

“When will you finally choose one?” Hannah asked suddenly drawing my gaze which had darted around previously to her.

“I have yet to find anyone acceptable. I don’t want anyone to puke at my coronation, so please … found him.” Without further ado, I approached a man sitting on a wooden box in front of a tavern.

“What a lovely night, isn’t it?” Happily, I looked the man into his blue eyes and smiled kindly.

“You … you do sound like some damn noble. Get lost, I don’t want anything to do with your kind.” He was a bit drunk and grumbled unhappily, but made no signs of pushing us away or so.

“How come?” I thus asked nicely.

“They have done nothing good for me, so why should I help two … lost noblewoman?” Lost? Oh no. My sense of direction was on point!

“It does seem you misunderstand, my dear.” I took the glasses off my face and presented him with the uncomfortable fact of my eye colour. “I am the saint and de facto ruler of this nation. I have no intention of making your life miserable as you know, but rather want to improve your standing along with your neighbours’. Is that acceptable?”

“The saint has been kind to us in the past … and I am willing to repay that debt for every poor person alive.” Well, luckily I didn’t want any money from him because … well, he had none. The drugs he hid in his coat were kind of tempting though …

“I need you for two things. First of all, we need to dig and probably chop a tree. And second of all, do you mind putting a crown on my head in front of a large audience?” Without any disgust at all, I gripped his shoulders and looked deeply into his eyes. He was hesitant at first for obvious reasons but didn’t seem to be completely against crowning me either.

“I’m not worthy enough for that.” Yeah, he surely wasn’t. But that was the point. I didn’t need to be crowned by a second rate pope who would be forgotten three days after his death, but rather wanted to make my coronation special. And if I were to convey ‘hey, I’m on your side’ with it, all the better.

“Everyone has the same worth in my opinion. From kings to beggars, we are all the same.” I grabbed his hands and pulled him off the wooden box without reservation. I didn’t need to look into his eyes to know I had lit a small fire within him, nor that he would agree to my request.

Smiling brightly, I nodded towards Hannah who then walked to the side of the tavern and picked up and axe used for chopping firewood.

“Have you heard about recreational tree felling?” I asked the beggar with a slight smile on my lips.

“No, never.” He answered right away. Well, maybe that sport was something for nobles … or maybe not.

“That’s a …” A light headache shot through my head and behind the beggar, I reappeared sitting on the box he was on mere seconds prior. “… that’s real a shame.” I would have loved to live longer without my alter ego or whatever that thing was that couldn’t communicate at all. All the drugs I took were apparently not enough to suppress the broken part of me forever. “But we can change that, can’t we?” I gave the motions less me a deathly glare and then turned to Hannah. “Hannah, please lead the way to the test he has to pass.”

I did not concern myself with my mental illness this time. It didn’t hurt as much and communicating with this thing seemed pretty contra productive, especially because it seemed to be in a daze of some sorts. As such, I quickly followed the beggar who in turn followed Hannah and only turned around as we were a few hundred metres away. The illusion was gone and nowhere else to be in sight.

As such, I was in a better mood as we arrived just outside the city in front of a large tree which had glowing trees. Insects buzzed around wildly, happily munching on the delicious luminous leaves.

“To test your courage and strength, you need to fell this tree.”

“But … that’s a fairy tree! One of … a few in the whole world. It’s older than I am!”

“Two hundred years old plus minus a few years in fact. But it needs to be gone … so chop chop.” Very unsure, the beggar took the axe from Hannah’s hands and slurped towards the fabulous tree. A few guards were watching him on the big plaza, but a queenly smile stopped  them from approaching. Instead, they watched together with us how the beggar started to chop earnestly.

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Wooden splinters began to fly in every direction as the axe hit the tree for the first time. Sitting down on the stone pavement, I hugged my knees and kept my gaze glued on the beggar.

“… you know I could do that in a few seconds?” I was aware of the fact that Hannah could calve the tree in half with a few swings.

“Where would be the fun in that?” I absolutely adored the man, sweating for absolutely nothing. It was such a mesmerising sight that I – and a few curious onlookers - couldn’t stop watching the man as he chopped and chopped even more. Sadly, it was just wood flying everywhere and not heads … but whatever.

“I see.” It took the man half an hour to chip away enough of the tree so that it was tilting to the side, but it had yet to topple over. “I’m going to search for a shovel.” She stood up and cleaned her butt a little before strolling off into the distance. Thankfully, there were apparently a few helpful citizens in the crowd who helped her right away and so, she came back with a shovel mere minutes afterwards. Still, no one else approached us out of reverence for me. Strangely enough, the poorer the people the more did they view me as their hope. The nobles hated me for obvious reasons, most commoners just worried that I wouldn’t become a despot but the people in the outskirts of the city … they loved me.

And I did love them back for their blind faith in me. It went even so far that the beggar not only felled the tree, but also dug out its roots until everything was unearthed.

“Maybe we should help as well.” It did look kind of bad that we just sat around doing nothing after all.

“Maybe we should do that.” And yet, neither Hannah nor I moved a single inch.

“I am a dwarf and I’m digging a hole. Diggy diggy hole, diggy diggy hole.” I thus started singing loudly. At least we could claim to have motivated him that way.

“The sunlight will not reach this low
Deep, deep in the mine
Never seen the blue moon glow
Dwarves won't fly so high
Fill a glass and down some mead!
Stuff your bellies at the feast!
Stumble home and fall asleep
Dreaming in our mountain keep” Hannah continued until the shovel made a metallic noise. 

“Oh, that’s my part.” I stood up swiftly and rushed towards the beggar underneath the light of the rising sun. And just like I heard it, there was indeed a metallic chest in the dirt far beneath the surface. “Go on.”

I honestly felt like a pirate for a bit. Wasn’t that their thing? Searching for the big X on a treasure map? I surely would have been the best private alive … or maybe not. Finding something wasn’t really my forte after all.

But even then, I still smiled as the beggar handed me the chest and handed it over to Hannah right away. Then, I helped the beggar out of the hole he dug and patted his shoulders.

“You passed the test.” I told him a little bit proudly as I had never expected my beggar to be able to work through the whole night.

“What’s in there?” His curiosity was to be expected but still unwanted.

“You failed.” His expression was priceless but short lived as I had to chuckle a little. “Just kidding. You Just unearthed my collection of bricks.”

“It didn’t feel that heavy.” Well, the chest was probably the heaviest thing of all.

“They are small.” I commented dryly and applauded a little before lifting up the hand of the beggar into the air. At first none chimed in but that changed slowly. “Go on, talk with them. Tell them why you had to dig.”

He nodded right away and walked over to the previously silent crowd to be bombarded with questions. And in the meantime, Hannah opened the chest easily. She didn’t open the lid completely, just enough for both of us to look inside and see what was inside.

The staff of Creation.

The only weapon I knew capable of wreaking havoc in this world. It was one I wasn’t keen on using, but still very useful when things didn’t go as planned. The lid closed again with a smile on our faces. Retrieving that wasn’t the solution to everything, but it may have been the first step in the right direction.

“Now then, let’s get this bad boy into the palace, shall we?” But first I needed to talk to the citizens as well. They were thirsting to meet me after all, despite me being at the forefront of the attack on the city that never took place. Maybe because of that reason, they held no ill will towards me which was perfect. I was betting on normal folks to keep me in power after all … and if they didn’t manage to do that, the undead had to jump in even though I wanted to avoid that.

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