NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1: Sisters, Brothers, and Roses, part one (42)
Chapter 1: Sisters, Brothers, and Roses
As Sebas walked into the Mage’s Guild, he couldn’t help but draw the gazes of everyone there. The man looked like he had seen at least sixty winters but walked like he had been training his body and mind his whole life.
The women looked on with fascination as the strapping old man walked up to the front desk to purchase some scrolls. The men looked on with unspoken respect for him, the way he walked and spoke made this reason obvious. But like the Chad… I mean well-disciplined man he was he ignored their gazes.
He walked up to the front desk as said and began to speak with the man there. Their conversation was but a few short sentences, but anyone new here could now understand their peers’ looks and mutters of respect and admiration.
“Could I please see the spell and cantrip catalog?” he asked the front desk man.
“Right away,” the man responded with a bow of the head and smile on his face.
Let it be known the Sebas is the author’s favorite character. He’s just so cool. But anyway, as the man pulled the catalog out from under the desk, Sebas took out a monocle. Now, the other people within the guild didn’t know this, but Sebas’s eyesight was impaired in any way.
This monocle was enchanted to translate any written language into something that the user could read, mainly, Japanese. As Sebas read the many spells, he recognized the majority of them, but not all of them.
One he didn’t recognize was the floating board spell. He put away the eyeglass, and looked up to see the clerk still standing prim and proper. He decided to ask the man what more about the said floating board spell.
“I still don’t quite understand this floating board spell. Could you explain more of its functions?” he asked the clerk.
The man nodded. “Certainly, the floating board spell is a spell the conjures and floating board. It floats and is easy to move, very handy for carrying cargo. It is often used for public work projects,” the man explained.
Sebas then nodded in turn and asked for a scroll containing the spell. The clerk went to grab one and Sebas took this time to glance at the rest of the patrons. They all seemed rather focused on him. But the majority were trying to hide it.
After the clerk had come back and he had paid for the scroll, he went back outside of the building. Looking at the setting sun over the horizon, he sighed in slight happiness. This world was rather beautiful if you knew where to look.
Then he glanced at his shadow and whispered an order. No one would be able to hear this order gracing the lips of this man even if they strained their ears to the upmost. This was so only the shadow demon linked to his own shadow could hear him.
“Go shadow demon, tell Solution and Ninya that I’ll come later than normal,” he told the shadow demon, and it relayed the information in a second. He then began to walk down the left way to the manor that they were currently staying at.
He then began his rather pleasant walk down the road to the manor. The whole reason he did so was mainly to check out the layout of the city so he could better navigate it. But the other reason was to go sightseeing.
As Sebas continued to walk what one could call an alleyway, he saw a large steal door open up on one of the businesses down the street. The light from the door as well as the light from the setting sun showed a man coming out of the doorway and toss what one could describe as a person shaped body bag out in the street.
The door then closed, letting only the light of the setting sun illuminate the bag. Sebas found this might suspicious and decided to tell his shadow demon to cut open the tied knot at the top of the bag.
It did so with pleasure and swiftness and Sebas began walking down the street with not a care more. He had expected to see maybe something spill out of the discarded bag, but no. Then, when he got to the bag, a hand reached out and grabbed his pants leg.
He looked down on the woman who haphazardly crawled out of the bag and in his direction.
“It is alright, you have my attention,” he spoke to the obviously sick girl.
Something about her screamed familiar to him, but he couldn’t where that feeling came from. It was almost like he knew this girl, or maybe someone close to her. That might be it. He could have met someone while he was posing as the butler of Solution’s.
Then, the door opened, and the large man came and stood beside Sebas. He looked the old man up and down, then barked something. At Sebas, something along the lines of “leave old man!”
Then, as natural as breathing, Sebas picked up the man and looked deep into his eyes. It was as if he could peer into the man’s very soul. It chilled him to the core. It was as if the very gods were looking down on him with utter contempt.
“Is this your employee?” Sebas asked and the man nodded his head to the best of his ability, “yet you let or allowed extreme harm to come to her…” Sebas grumbled out.
“I was going to take her to the temple,” the man mumbled out an excuse that even a child could tell was a lie.
Sebas threw the man to the ground. He fell like a sack of potatoes. If one listened, they might even have heard a few bones crack. The man got up into a sitting position and looked up to the old man.
“No need, I will take her myself,” Sebas announced like the true man he was.
You can really tell that the Author’s favorite overlord character is Sebas, can’t you? The man ignored the words of the writer and smirked a little. He then stated something that Sebas couldn’t argue against.
“Look, that woman is under my care, and if you took her without permission it would count as kidnapping,” he stated as if he was the smartest man ever.
“Would that not imply she is your property?” Sebas asked the question we all had in this scene.
Then he turned to the girl by his feet, “do you need help?”
The girl’s mouth began to move ever-so-slightly. She started to make some sort of noise, maybe a word was starting to form on her tongue. She was fighting to stay alive.
“He-help m-ma-me,” she managed to stammer out.
Sebas smiled at this and ran his hand over the girl’s sleepy eyes. She soon fell asleep after that. It was as if he had given her the peace she needed to fall under the calm of sleep.
“I dislike those who would pray for aid, when they could simply do and act to stay alive. Those who would lay down and let life roll over them and beat them down I have no respect for. But you, my dear, are fighting to stay alive. So go to sleep as you are now under my steadfast protection,”
The man went rigid, as if he didn’t think about that. It was as if this man wasn’t all that smart, but he ran a business so he must at least be little intelligent. He then decided to be truthful, finally realizing that Sebas was a good man.
“Look man, I’m in deep with Eight Fingers. I’m can’t lose this girl or else it’ll be my head on the chopping block,” the large man said.
Sebas grimaced but pulled something from his chest pocket and tossed it on the ground. It was a bag full of platinum coins. Yet just as the man was about to call out in confusion, Sebas spoke.
“That should get you out of the city, pay for an adventurer or something along those lines. Make it out of the city and you might spend it all,” he spoke.
…