Chương 140: A Generous Gift

So there I was, hanging from a cliff by a single hand, grip slowly slipping. But since I was me, I wasn't scared. Since I couldn't get dirty thanks to Ola's spell, the blood hadn't stuck to my hands. I found an unbloodied part on the side and held on to it. I gracefully swung one of my legs over the ledge, and pulled myself back up without much effort. Even if I had fallen down I could have just activated the wings and flown back up. I wasn't worried for a second.

I was in complete control of the situation the entire time.

"Tadaa!" I said, spreading my arms, grinning. Kasia frowned.

"That did not look very cool."

"What are you even talking about? That was totally cool. And graceful. Didn't you see my swing and pull?"

"Yeah. I saw that. I don't think that went how you think it went." I looked over at Hubert and the gang, expecting a crowd of awestruck spectators marveling at my peerless upper-(and lower)-body strength. Instead, they were all staring at me with the same tight-lipped expression. Odeta was holding her chest. I turned back to Kasia.

"So. Uhh… Not graceful, huh?" She shook her head.

"Not even close."

"Heh," I said, returning my attention to my followers.

"As I have just demonstrated, this is what could happen if you get too close to the edge and aren't careful. I just wanted to give my warning a visible oomph, in case you didn't believe me. Seeing is believing, after all." I gave a confident nod.

"Your safety is, and always will be, my number one priority. You're welcome." Satisfied that I'd saved a dozen lives with my dignified demonstration, I turned back around to take in the vista. I inhaled deeply, and this time instead of blood and guts and shit, the smell of fresh mountain air and autumn leaves filled my nose. The salty ocean air of Asteria was pleasant, but it was completely different from this. This was so extremely crisp, it was exhilarating. The smell was sweet and resiny.

Autumn had turned the forest into a patchwork of reds and yellows and greens. This view, these smells, that simply didn't exist in Graecia, and it was breathtaking. It was the kind of view that made you want to put your hands on your hips and sigh with contentment. So I did. Without all the murderous demons, this place sure was great. Maybe I should establish myself here, instead of the cathedral? The swamp was ugly and smelly and awful. Viswa was pretty and smelled nice and great. It even had beavers!

And who doesn't love beavers? Don't even get me started on otters. It's not like anyone was using this place anymore. Everyone who lived here was dead, violently murdered and slurped down by strzygi. That wasn't my fault. If you thought about it, it was their own fault. They had been irresponsible. If they wanted to live, they shouldn't have died. I would be honoring the departed by taking care of their town and living in their homes. And if I was being honest, they owed me.

If it wasn't for me this entire place would still be infested with demons. This entire region probably would have soon been overtaken and it wouldn't be long before Silesia, too, would be nothing but half-man half-bird monstrosities. After that it would only be a matter of time before they took over the world. I had literally, single-handedly, saved the world. I earned this town. Yeah. They would want me to live here. That's why they died. Because they wanted me to have this.

They were trying to send me a message, and the message was: you should have this town. They probably set this whole thing up as a way to gift me this town so I wouldn't object to taking it. My modest and humble nature being one of my best known features. They knew that if they just handed the town to me, I would have been forced to decline their generous offer. By causing a strzyga infestation and dying, they left me no choice but to accept. Not taking over this town would be rude.

It would be like spitting on their graves. And I was raised better than that. I was a polite person. A thoughtful person. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. I made a small bow.

"I accept your generous gift, kind Viswians." Vasil looked at me.

"Huh?"

"They wanted me to have this town."

"They wanted you to… What?"

"They planned this, and I accept. Let not their sacrifice be in vain. Let us honor Viswa, by keeping it alive. By living in it." Vasil blinked a couple of times.

"You want to live here? What about the cathedral?" I shrugged.

"I hate the swamp."

"Living out in the open would be dangerous. And what about the magic and the doors and the vault?" Right. It had that vault that I still had to open. I wouldn't want to leave treasure behind. And Kuba and Moryana and Skelly were still there. Obviously I also didn't want to leave them behind. As for the danger, if anyone came up the mountain, we could see them coming from far away, plus we'd have the high ground. As far as settlements went, this would be one of the more defensible ones. If we had any warriors…

"I could split my time between the two?" Vasil narrowed his eyes.

"That may not be a bad idea, actually. Having multiple bases is advantageous for a variety of reasons. I just did not expect it to happen this soon."

"Well, you have to play the hand you're dealt," I said.

"You shouldn't look a gift town in the mouth. This place needs people. We are people. If we only had a way to create a portal connecting the two. That would be perfect. It would save us a lot of time traveling around Silesia as well."

"Hmm yes." Vasil nodded.

"We should start looking for teleportation stones. They generally are prohibitively expensive, but you do have considerable wealth. We can afford them."

"Teleportation stones?"

"Yes. Enchanted stones that allow you to teleport from one stone to the other." I tapped my chin. Teleportation stones. That was convenient. Another thing we didn't have in Graecia. You'd have to place the portals, and once they were there you couldn't move them. You could dispel them, of course, but then you'd have to make new ones. Using stones that you could move around was actually kind of genius. Why hadn't we thought of that? Someone tapped my shoulder. I turned around to see Hubert staring at me intensely.

"Lady Aurelia?"

"Yes, Hubert?" He stepped to the side and nodded to Ola and Odeta, who were both holding a flat, circular stone, slightly bigger than dinner plates.

"No way," I said.

"They were part of the hoard we uncovered."

"Is that what I think it is?"

"Teleportation stones." For someone with zero points in Luck, this sure seemed like an unreasonably big coincidence. It was starting to get a little suspicious. I started to feel like someone was setting me up, trying to get me to lower my guard, just to pull the rug and drive a knife into my back. No one was this lucky. Especially not me. If anything I was exceptionally unlucky, which meant something was probably about to go very bad. I looked around, looking for any signs that I was about to die.

I put my hand through my hair, then inspected a lock. Looked normal. I also didn't see anything alarming. Focusing through [Mēnē's Watchful Eye] didn't reveal anything out of the ordinary. Perhaps, for once, I just got lucky. Then again, was it really luck if the brave and selfless Viswians planned all of this? They probably planned the teleportation stones as well. They had probably anticipated this exact situation. They truly were as kind as they were generous.

I felt a small sense of pride swell for the dead villagers, it was truly heartwarming how much thought they put into all of this, how much they wanted to support me. With that mystery comfortably resolved, I turned my attention back to the present. I gave a thumb up.

"Excellent work, team. I'm glad to see everyone is in one piece. The next step will be settling this town. It's what the dead villagers wanted, so we must honor their sacrifice. We will also need to find a good spot for the teleportation stone. After everything is arranged, we will travel back to the cathedral and place the other stone there. So we will never be far apart. How does that sound?"

"Your wish is our command," Hubert said. Well, technically it was the Viswians wish, but I didn't feel like arguing semantics.

"Great!" I said.

"Let's get out of this creepy place." We made our way back to the inn without incident. I probably had taken out most of the strzygi, except for maybe a couple that could have escaped while I was rolling around outside. If they decided to show up I'd just shoot them in the face like I did with every problem. I felt confident things would work out. As I walked to the door an unfamiliar sound made me stop. Was that… music? What kind of instruments could that be? I'd never heard anything like it.