Elwen the Conquered

Elwen massaged her feet, soaking them in a shallow bowl of water once she worked out a knot. Today was their day off, their very first day off. They had spent the last several weeks nearly constantly working, so she was glad to finally have some time off. She, like most of the other girls, decided to spend their time in the room resting. It’s not like there was much else they could do, other than visit some of the other rooms. Some went out to find the cafeteria, hoping to get something other than the tasteless oatmeal they typically had.

Skye was pacing around the room, anxious that they were being left alone. It didn’t sit well with her, and she was constantly looking over her shoulder, waiting for one of the enforcers to burst through the doors.

“Come on, Skye! They're not coming, it’s a day off. You’ll wear the floor out at this rate!” Yusha called out to her, comfortably lying on her bed.

“You don’t know that! What if it’s a trick!” Skye shouted back, stopping and turning towards Skye.

‘Why would they be lying?” Yusha responded.

“I don’t know, but don’t you think it’s suspicious that they just let us have the day off? We’ve been doing things since we got here, why would they give us time off now?” Skye questioned, starting to pace again.

“Just relax,” Yusha said, “even if they are lying, we can still rest until they come.”

Skye sighed, slowing down again. “I don’t know. What do you think, Elwen?”

“Huh?!” Elwen was startled by suddenly being added to their conversation. She spilled some water from her bath, but most of it stayed in the bowl so she could continue soaking her feet. She was a little upset with spilling some, which caused her to pout a little, something that Yusha didn’t miss. “Um… I think they just decided that we needed a break? I mean, we’ve been doing a lot… And we’ve learned a lot of skills, so…”

“Hah! So they gave us time off because we were doing well? I doubt it!” Skye responded.

“Y—yes?” Elwen wasn’t sure of her answer, but it made sense to her. They had worked hard for a really long time, so they deserved a break. Plus, she wasn’t sure how much longer she would be able to keep it up; she would collapse eventually if they kept their pace up. Surely the supervisors knew this and planned accordingly.

“Why wouldn’t they?” Yusha rebuked Skye, “I mean, they’ve punished us for our mistakes, so it’s perfectly reasonable they would reward our successes.”

Elwen let out a sigh and leaned back onto her bed, quietly leaving the conversation. Right now, all she wanted to do was soak her feet and sleep. She had enough experience now that she knew that unless she spoke up, Skye and Yusha would leave her out of it, mostly. So, she was perfectly content to just relax now, closing her eyes and hoping to get her first hour of sleep outside of their regular hours. Even though they gave them the day off, they still woke everyone up and took attendance.

The week had been a long one, and she was eager to sleep her fatigue away. They had finished their training on [Cleaning] skills early in the week. She originally thought that they just needed to learn [Cleaning], so she was surprised when they made them keep going. Apparently, the trainers wanted them to pick up a bunch of sub-skills of [Cleaning] as well. Before that, Elwen had no idea that sub-skills were a thing, so she was shocked when the trainer pulled out a scroll that listed them. It had nearly 100 skills on it!

After they were done with [Cleaning] skills, they moved on to [Sewing] skills. The trainers explained that it was an important skill as it would help them mend clothes and equipment, which would be valuable to them. She accidentally stabbed herself a few times, but it didn’t take long for her to pick it up. She found it fun, but she still wasn’t that great at it. She would be embarrassed wearing something that she had mended in public, the patches weren’t very good. She even had one where she forgot to tie her thread at first, so when she showed it to the trainer, he just ripped it out and made her do it again. Luckily, she didn’t get punished, but it was still embarrassing. Skye had a lot more trouble, and she only got the [Sewing] skill yesterday. The trainer made her stay late until she at least got the skill, even if it was only at level one. Yusha already had the [Sewing] skill and moved on to getting an [Embroidery] skill. She was really good at it and made a beautiful tiger on a handkerchief. Elwen was kind of jealous, she had never been blessed with artistic skills, but the supervisors were really happy. They made a note of her talent and kept pushing her to level her skill up as much as possible.

They would apparently be moving on to [Cooking] skills tomorrow, which Elwen was dreading. There were too many times that she had accidentally set her kitchen on fire in her previous world, and she was worried that something similar would happen again. Thankfully, the supervisor said that they would be starting off with something easy. Still, she couldn’t help but be anxious. At first, she didn’t even want to try cooking, but Yusha said that cooking was the way to a man’s stomach, and she was excited by the thought of getting Varian to eat her cooking. If he liked it, that would be… Well, she had to make sure it was perfect! She would make the yummiest meal for him!

“So Elwen, how did you end up here?” Skye appeared in her vision, hovering over her.

“Huh?” Elwen wasn't paying attention, so she had no idea what Skye was talking about.

“Come on, sleepy-head! How did you end up as a slave? Yusha and I were just sharing stories.” She explained, sitting down on the foot of Elwen’s bed and forcing her to sit up. Yusha joined her, sitting on the other side.

“Come on, tell us!” Yusha urged.

“Um… well… My friend and I came here together, and… well, he wanted me to be his slave, so… um… we, ah…” Elwen's face kept erupting into a blush and she couldn’t properly explain.

“Oh, wait! Your boyfriend convinced you to become his slave!” Skye shouted with understanding.

“How did he do that? He must be quite the handsome man.” Yusha commented, her mouth blossoming into a small grin.

“Oh… um… yes?” Elwen responded.

“So you’ve got someone waiting for you on the outside. What’s he like?” Skye asked.

‘Um… He’s tall and strong… His eyes are red, but they’re really kind… And he’s always caring…” Elwen started listing off Varian’s qualities.

“Are you looking forward to seeing him again?” Skye asked

“Umm... yes.” Elwen hid her face, embarrassed by how red her face was growing.

“How sweet,” Yusha commented.

“Well I used to be an adventurer,” Skye started telling her own story, “but then a couple of bigger parties moved into the area. Apparently, the kingdom had started using the knights to exterminate the monsters, and the adventurers from the capital had to move to the border regions to keep earning money. But that meant that local adventurers like me couldn’t earn enough. I didn’t have enough money to move elsewhere, not that I would be able to survive if I moved any deeper into monster territory, so all I could do was watch my savings burn away. Some of the capital adventurers were unsavory individuals, and they tried to take advantage... I killed him, but then I had the town guards after me. There was a passing caravan of merchants, and I sold myself to them. Told them to give the money to the local orphanage or something. The guards were angry, when they finally caught up to me, but I was safe.”

“My story isn’t as… exciting.” Yusha started as soon as Skye was finished. “I used to be a part of a merchant family. My father went into debt to start a new enterprise, which promptly failed, and he sold me to settle the debt. And here I am.”

“Your father just…” Elwen couldn’t believe that Yusha’s father would abandon her like that. She didn’t know her own father for long, as her parents died far too soon, but she remembered how caring he was. She couldn’t imagine him doing something like that.

“Yeah, he was a real asshole.” Yusha was angry recalling her father. Not only was he a horrible man, he was also a terrible businessman. She was glad to finally have him out of her life.

They continued talking for a few hours, entertaining themselves as best as they could. It reminded Elwen of how it was when they were back on the ship, although they were a lot more comfortable now. It made her miss Evelyn and Lydia. She hadn’t seen them since they arrived and wondered where they were now. Did they also get the day off?

“Hey, have either of you seen Evelyn or Lydia?” Elwen couldn’t help but ask.

“Yeah, I think I saw Evelyn a couple of days ago. Not sure where she is though.” Skye responded.

“I talked to Lydia yesterday,” Yusha answered, “She was with me in the [Embroidery] class. She said she and Evelyn are in the same room. I think it was Room 112?”

“Let’s go visit them!” Skye enthusiastically declared, excited to meet her friends again. She pulled Yusha and Elwen along with her, making it impossible for them to refuse. Not that they wanted to, they were just as happy to meet their friends again as Skye was.

Varian made it back into town, not the tiny border town along the Deadwoods, which he was sure would recover now that the [Fragment of Dark Power] was gone. The spirit had many expletives to say about the ‘stupid cat’ that knocked it off the pedestal. Apparently, while it did wake the spirit up, it also drained a significant amount of power from the gem, resulting in the deadening effect. The gem was far from its original power by the time this happened, but it would have been in better condition if it remained on the pedestal. Varian regretted the loss of power, but he was also aware that he wouldn’t have gone there without news of the strange phenomena, which meant that he never would have gotten the stone, so he couldn’t regret it too much.

He did sell his goat back to the farmer on his way back. While he had to admit that he kind of liked the little bastard, it wasn’t advantageous for him to keep it. It would slow him down far too much, especially now that he has a horse again. Unfortunately, he never found the one that he rode down here, so he had to buy a new one. Normally, he would have been upset by the expense, but he knew that what he was really buying was time. It would take him months to get back to Marsburg on foot, but most likely only two or three weeks on horseback. He had considered hiring a carriage, but it turned out that it would actually be more expensive than buying a horse, and it would probably be slower, too. He did get an older horse, which was cheaper, but it was still strong enough and fast enough to take him where he needed to go in a timely manner.

He planned to save most of the artifacts that he found in the ruins until he got to Marsburg. He figured he could probably get a better deal there, considering that the north was wealthier and Marsburg was a major trading city. He only sold some of the crappier items to a passing merchant that he probably wouldn’t be able to sell himself. He could not be bothered to try to get the best price for them, it would simply be too much work for too little gain. It turned out to be a nice little sum, a little less than he paid for the horse, but quite a bit more than an adventurer would normally get for a day’s work.

Once he had a good night’s rest and restocked his supplies, he began his journey back to Marsburg. He was looking forward to selling the artifacts there. Depending on how much he could get for them, he might be much closer to seeing Elwen again.