.
—Pidos, Ljosalfr territory, Alfheim.
The sunset haired girl and her companion, the gentle voice, arrived at the city of Pidos full of energy and ready to take in the sights that the famous city had to offer.
Coming here had been the gentle voice’s idea, as she had heard there was a large coliseum in the city and it was considered one of the more famous sights this country had to offer. Although, the sunset haired girl was much less enthusiastic about the whole idea.
“That’s right, I heard the bathhouses are famous here. Want to take a look later?” the gentle voice asked while taking a wide sweep of the shopfronts and streets that appeared right after they entered the city.
“Where’d you heard that?”
“Maybe a couple hundred… thousand…? Eh, well, I heard it when I was little.”
“That’s a long time ago. Are you sure they still exist?”
“No clue, it just popped up in my mind just now. Hold on, let me just ask someone. Hello~!”
The gentle voice skipped away in a heartbeat and flawlessly began mingling with the locals.
“Heh? Is that so? Oh really? Sounds good. Ah, no, I’m not interested in you. You should probably get your life together instead and find a good paying job to support your ill mother.”
Perhaps a little bit too flawlessly, the girl considered as her companion skipped back to greet her.
“Did you see how I turned him down perfectly? I didn’t even hurt his feelings.”
“What? What about the bathhouse?”
“Oh, that. Yeah, it seems Pidos still have those.”
“You’ll probably need to pay a fee to enter.”
“I got you covered,” the gentle voice grinned, “after I spoke with the guy, he was even kind enough to offer me two waivers to the large state owned bathhouses—”
“—Not interested,” the sunset haired girl quickly shot down the idea.
“Well, whatever. I’m not a big fan of public bathing anyways. What should I do with these though?” The gentle voice shrugged and waved around the two tokens in her hand.
“Hand it over to me, I have an idea.”
…
…
“So is this a lot or a little?” the gentle voice rubbed her chin at the sight of the thirty odd silver argentei in her palm.
“A lot to a laborer; a little to a soldier,” the sunset haired girl answered once again with her wealth of trivial knowledge.
“Soldiers sure get paid a lot, eh. Or is it that everyone else gets paid too little.”
“Those two tokens were a sort of monthly pass to use the state bathhouses. Having one allows you to use the bathhouse however many times during the month you fancy. We’re already halfway through the month, but I still managed to get a good price for them. Thirty argentei is a good amount and should let us do everything we want to here.”
“Couldn’t we have used the bathhouse first in that case?” the gentle voice pointed out.
“Well, I mean, technically yes,” the girl shrugged.
“Oh. It’s water under the bridge now. The baths probably sucks anyways. Can’t imagine how clean the waters would be after a few thousand people bathes in it over the course of a day.”
“If you just want to go take a look, we can still go, and pay the entrance fee if you also want to take a look inside, but I won’t be going inside.”
“Maybe later. I want to take a look at what else the city has. I haven’t been here since I was young. It’s hard to believe it all changed so much. It would have been practically unrecognizable if it wasn’t for the coliseum over there… is what I would say if I hadn’t stayed behind locked doors the entire time. Say, actually, did you know that there used to be…”
The gentle voice quietly trailed off.
“Did I know there used to be what?”
“…Nevermind. I don’t want to talk about it.”
The sunset haired girl shrugged it off nonchalantly.
“In any case, what do you say we do now?”
“I want to eat some of the food here,” the gentle voice nodded.
…
…
A jug of wine.
A block of cheese.
A loaf of bread.
Half a pheasant.
A dozen eggs.
A full hare.
A boar’s flank.
And a small basket of olives, apples, pears, and grapes.
After walking a round through the marketplace, the gentle voice managed to procure this amount of foodstuff that was too much for her to carry alone even with both arms.
“It seems people are always so nice wherever we go. All I did was talk with those shopkeepers for a little while, but all of them ended up giving us something free on the house,” the gentle voice smiled cheerily as she looked at the meats, bread, and cheese hug from a twine in her hand.
“No no no, that’s all on you,” the girl corrected, “wherever you go, it seems people are always generous towards you.”
However, the gentle voice was skeptical towards the claim.
“Eh, I find that hard to believe. Why would anyone be generous only to me? What did I ever do to get on their good graces?”
“What’s what I want to know. Just think about it, if a store owner just passed out all their stuff for free to everybody that comes across their stall, they would go broke rather quickly.”
“Maybe they just saw I was new around here and decided to be nice.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it.”
“Eh… I still find it difficult to accept that.”
“Forget it. I can’t change your mind. I thought you wanted to eat,” the sunset haired girl changed the subject.
“I’ll take the meat, you take the fruit, and we can share the bread, cheese, and wine?”
“Sounds good. Let’s find a place to set all this down first. Though, I can’t say my appetite right now is all that large.”
“Please don’t waste food,” the gentle voice quickly said.
“Don’t you ‘please don’t waste food’ me. You’re the wasteful one here!”
“Hahaha, my bad, my bad!”
…
Approximately a half hour later, on the side of a small hill overlooking the inner walls of the city Pidos, the two sat eating.
“Maybe we should have made a stew out of this instead?”
The gentle voice was looking at the bones of the pheasant and hare that was slowly crackling away at the center of the small fire. Now that she had eaten her fill, it was starting to feel like a waste that she ended up roasting the meat over an open fire instead of incorporating it into a dish. That way it would have tasted much better for sure, as plain roasting was more of a survival food.
“If you wanted to make something else, then you should have mentioned it from the start. That way we could have picked up the appropriate ingredients back at the market,” the sunset haired girl berated.
“Sorry I didn’t mention it sooner. It’s been a while since I’ve tasted anything. Shouldn’t have been in such a rush,” the gentle voice clapped her hands together in an apologetic gesture. Then she took a glance at the wine, bread, and cheese that still had yet to be touched.
“Well, ready for the after meal snacks?”
“Where’s my cup?” the sunset haired girl began rummaging through her pack.
“No need for that,” the gentle voice simply uncapped the jug and took a long swig of the aged white.
“You act more and more like a vagrant old man by the day. Keep this up and you’ll find yourself sleeping on a tree branch drinking cheap wine out of a jug. Give me that,” the girl took the jug that had been passed over to her and also took a similarly large gulp.
“Like my touch?” the gentle voice asked.
“You made it fruity,” the girl asserted.
“You don’t have to sound so upset. It’s not like we can get drunk, and I don’t really like the taste of alcohol, so I just added a little something extra to mask the taste.”
“What a trivial use of power. You might as well be drinking water.”
“But all we have is wine,” the gentle voice took the jug back for another long swig before passing the wine back.
“And now it’s nutty,” the girl spoke after wiping her lips after another sip.
“Any specific requests?”
“Surprise me.”
“Sure.”
After one last swig, the gentle voice passed the last of the wine back to the sunset haired girl.
“…This is just water,” the girl peeked inside the jug with curiosity.
“Surprise.”
The gentle voice flashed a grin.
The girl laughed.
“What a trivial use of power indeed.”
…
“Look, over there by the coliseum.”
By the time they finished the last of the bread and cheese, the gentle voice noticed some activity near the center of the city.
“It looks like a lot of people gathering for something. Curious?”
“No, I don’t think—”
“—Want to see who gets there first?” the gentle voice suddenly interrupted with a provocative question.
“Is that… a challenge?” the girl answered back, her tone shifting a cold one-eighty quick as a snap.
“I’ll leave you in the dust.”
“What are the rules?”
“Just like old times. Rooftop style. If you break something or crack a tile, you lose.”
“Projectiles?”
“Btzzz! Overruled! Disallowed! Banned! What the hell do you mean projectiles? This is a race!” the gentle voice made a strange sound and crossed her arms vividly in the air.
“What, are you afraid?”
The sunset haired girl taunted.
“I heard those two little kids you picked up have been going around calling themselves Sword Saints nowadays. How are you going to talk to them ever again if you make the person they look up to so much lose face like this?”
“Wait, that person is me! And how does that even have anything to do with this? Fine, if projectiles are allowed, then so is my sword! I’ll cut down anything you throw at me!”
“That’s the spirit!” the girl cheered her on, but quickly remembered something she still needed to do before the race started.
“Oh, wait, I still have to—”
—FWOOSH———!!!
Her companion’s figure shot off the hill like an arrow shot into the sky.
“—pack up…”
And just like that, she had been left in the dust. But the girl simply shook her head helplessly and smiled a smile that only she could see.
“Just like old times, isn’t it.”
…
…
“Why did you stop?”
Once the sunset haired girl arrived by the base of Pidos’ coliseum, she was greeted by the annoyed pout of her companion.
“Two’s a contest. One’s just a hurry. So why’d you stop?”
“Sorry, I thought it might be fun to see you rush over here without having anyone actually on your tail.”
“Stop it, you’re acting like a vagrant old man who thinks he just outsmarted his grandson by telling the kind that there was a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.”
“Think I can pull off the look?” the girl pretended to drink with one hand from an imaginary jug of wine.
“Ha! Never in a million, billion, years!”
“I’m sure Cecil can. Anything is possible with her.”
“You always tell me that, but I want to be the judge of that. When are you going to introduce her to me?”
“That’s not something for me to decide.”
The sunset haired girl shook her head. Cecil was an elusive one. Whenever they met, it would always be Cecil who made contact first.
“In any case, there sure are a lot of people here,” the gentle voice scouted the perimeter with her eyes. And then after a few moments, elaborated further.
“Something about a reenactment inside the arena. It must surely be quite something, if all these people are gathering to watch a single play. Hey, why the disgust expression? Did I miss out on something?”
The sunset haired girl had a sinking suspicion about what was about to happen, and in a split second, she made the decision of a lifetime—
“—Wait! Hold on! Why are you leaving?”
The gentle voice latched onto the sunset haired girl’s arm on instinct.
“Let go of my arm,” the girl grunted through clenched teeth as she resisted the pull.
“No no no no no, why are you trying to leave all of a sudden?”
“It doesn’t matter, just let go first!”
“Now you’re just making me want to go inside more!”
“Then just let go and go in yourself!”
“Hell no! You’re acting suspicious!”
“Come on, damn it, don’t act so stubborn all of a sudden!”
“Shut up, now, let’s… go!”
And with a great big tug, the gentle voiced one yanked the sunset haired girl off her feet towards the entrance. However, in a motion just as strong, the sunset haired girl quickly anchored her feet to the ground and resisted the pull.
“You goddamn brute!”
“Ahahaha! You ditched me during the race, so now I’m going to drag you in, arms flailing if I have to!”
“No, fuck off!”
“I said shut up! It’ll be fun, I promise! Now, let’s. Get. Moving!”
CR—ACK!
“—Shit!”
In this moment of struggle, the pavement beneath the girl’s feet gave way first– cracking, splitting into two– destroying the girl’s footing and balance.
“Ahahahaha!”
The gentle one’s merry voice laughed triumphantly as she dragged her companion the rest of the way into the coliseum, and ended up even having to leap over the heads of all the people passing through the line in order to get through quicker.
…
…
“Well now.”
After passing into the coliseum, there was a life-sized statue in the center of the west hall leading up to the seats. The gentle voice was inspecting that statue now, and it was impressive, extremely impressive. The body was crafted with the most delicate handiwork, where its individual details were pronounced to the point where even the individual wrinkles and folds of the clothes were present. And to top it all off, the painted colors really brought the statue to life— this statue of a cold and vicious looking little girl.
“That’s totally you, isn’t it?” the gentle voice pointed out in the most blunt way possible.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the sunset haired girl looked the other way, “and let go of my arm already.”
“No, really,” the gentle voice insisted, ignoring her friend’s request, “see there’s even that iron fan you used to always carry around everywhere, and the three golden hair pins at the back of your head. No doubt, that’s you alright.”
“. . .”
The sunset haired girl turned towards the statue finally, and felt nostalgic at the sight of it for a short moment.
“The fan was one of the few things I took from my home before I left. It might have been well crafted, but it still broke down over time.”
“Yeah, that’s because you used to swing it around like a cudgel to smash in the heads of anyone who dared to disagree with you.”
“You’re the last person I want to hear that from. What was it again, a ‘wild dog?'”
“W-What are you talking about?”
“Do you want me to spell it out for you?” the girl threatened.
“I-I don’t have any idea what you’re referring to. A-Anyways, let’s take a look at what the plaque says.”
The gentle voice walked over to the foot of the statue and brushed a thin film of dust off the inscriptions before reading.
[ρόπαλο σιδήρου]
[The Iron Cudgel]
“Pft— cough! Ahahaha—!” the gentle voice gagged and coughed immediately upon reading the name associated with the statue, “cough! A-Aren’t you embarrassed by that? Hahahaha—! Seriously, aren’t you embarrassed to be called that? What the hell did you do when you were here? Oh jeez, I can’t take it anymore!”
“Ha ha.” the girl spoke, entirely stoic.
“Let’s see here: The sole instigator responsible for the great tragedy of Pidos. The— pft— cough! I can’t. I can’t do this! This is too much for me! Ahahahaha! What the hell is this, I can’t stop laughing, it hurts! My stomach hurts, this is too much! It’s way too cringy for me to read this!”
“Then don’t. Nobody is forcing you to.”
“No no no no no, I have to do this. I must! It is my duty to finish reading this, even if it kills me! I swear upon my name that I will complete this task no matter what!”
The girl glared at her companion with an expression that could only be summed up by the phrase ‘Are you serious?’
“Okay, alright, that’s enough, I got this!” wiping off the spit that was now on her face, the gentle voice pushed herself onto one knee and managed to finally calm herself down enough to continue reading from the golden plaque.
“Let me go again. Straight face this time. The Ir— cough! Holy shit! I can’t… I can’t breathe! What the fuck is this? Why is this so good? Who wrote this? They should be given an award!”
“—No, you are not doing this anymore. I’m leaving, now, and I’ll drag you with me.”
Unamused, the sunset haired girl got straight to the point.
“Wait! One more time! I promise I’ll get it this time!”
“One more time is already two times too many.”
“I promise this will be the last time.”
“Absolutely not.”
“No, wait! Put me back down!”
“Away you go.”
And with that, the sunset haired girl hoisted her companion up onto her shoulders in one swift motion and, in a moment of absentmindedness, walked the path leading to the seats where the spectators gathered to watch the reenactment play.
And what they arrived to see, the girl instantly regretted every single decision for the past week leading up to this very moment.
…
…
In short, it was a play— a theatrical recreation of a past event, one that was well along it’s way by the time the sunset haired girl hoisted her companion to the bleachers.
“Is there no one who can provide this Fotia with a challenge? Is there anyone who can take this name of Arena Master from me? Or can it be that everyone here still has the urge to suckle their mother’s teats?”
Down in the arena pit, a grizzled looking man shouted– his hair caked with dirt, his face glistening with sweat, and his prided armor scratched and dented from all the battles he had been through. Laying by his feet, are the fallen bodies of many gladiators who have fought valiantly but were still defeated by him, Arena Master Fotia.
“Oooh, what’s going to happen next? Is someone going to jump out and accept his challenge?” the gentle voice tugged on her companion’s sleeves.
“Urgh…” the girl left her strength leaving her shoulders.
All of a sudden, a massive towering figure dressed in red robes leapt onto the rim of the arena pit.
“Whooooooooooaah!!!”
“The Iron Cudgel arrives!”
“The nine bloody nights of terror!”
The entire coliseum suddenly erupted in loud cheering violence to welcome the newcomer.
“Oi, is that supposed to be you?” the gentle one’s barely restrained voice of laughter seeped through the noise. The one who had just appeared then was a giant of a man more burly than a Sylvestris, had thicker skin than a Tellurian, and who had dark olive skin and was dressed in a red robe with a long wig fashioned from the red mane of a lion’s. However, what was most notable of all, was the massive iron cudgel in his right hand that was all but dripping with blood.
“This is a nightmare…”
“But everyone sure is enjoying the hell out of it though. Just look at all their happy faces and think how sad they would be if this play ended!”
“You are the problem,” the sunset haired girl growled back.
Truthfully, by itself, the girl did not really care about what happened in the past, nor was she particularly embarrassed about the kind of things that she did back then. If she had a second chance to live those events again, she probably would have done the exact same things. However, it was a different story when she knew that her companion would never let her live it down and would grind it in her face until it was no longer amusing and would continue long past the point of annoyance.
Back down at the center of the coliseum, The Iron Cudgel, pointed his bloody cudgel at the Arena Master, Fotia, down below, and opened his mouth.
“What was that, you bug-eyed fuck? Suck on whose teats? How about I smash your head in and beat you back inside your mother’s womb so you will have an excuse to go suck on your mother’s teats?”
“—Ah. They wrote it all down.”
The girl clapped her hand firmly against her face, not out of embarrassment, but because she knew what would happen next, and what was next— her companion dropped to the floor in an instant.
“Ahahaha!!! I forgot you used to be like this! Oh god, my stomach, I can’t handle this. The cramp, it’s back! It hurts! Oh, it hurts! This sounds exactly like something you would use to say! This is amazing! Oh god, too much! Too much! I can’t… can’t breath!”
BOOM—!
The Iron Cudgel leapt from the edge and shook the ground with his gigantic frame as he landed. Without a second to rest, he charged forward like a mad bull, cudgel in hand, and swung a massive overhead bash.
CR—ASH— SLAM—!
The swing struck the ground just shy of actually reaching Fotia, but it threw up plenty of sand that blocked the eyes of even the most keen-eyed individuals. When the sand finally settled, Fotia was down for the count and the coliseum erupted into a second round of cheers.
“The Iron Cudgel won with a single blow!”
“The legendary iron cudgel!”
“The invincible iron cudgel!”
“I should have worn a mask.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“No, I’m not. Not at all.”
The girl chose wisely to close her eyes, block her ears, and reluctantly slump into her seat, all the while, the series of profanities and violence continuing down at the pit of the coliseum.
…
…
.
[ρόπαλο σιδήρου]
[The Iron Cudgel]
The sole instigator responsible for the great tragedy that befell Pidos. The Iron Cudgel was the only one to accept the arrogant Fotia’s open challenge for the tile of Arena Master. Fotia was quickly defeated, yet The Iron Cudgel was not satisfied, and thus began the darkest nine nights in the history of the city of Pidos. For each fighter The Iron Cudgel dispatched with a single swing of her iron cudgel, another was demanded to take his place. In fear of her wrath, Emperor Caius IV dispatched every soldier in his legions, one by one, to meet their end until her bloodlust was finally satiated.
Forever remembered as the hero who undermined the terrible Emperor Caius IV’s rule and allowed the country to be taken over by the rulers of a better, and more fair, land.
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Fairy Song 