Swiss Arms 86 (Patreon)

Swiss Arms

Chapter 86

-VB-

Isabella von Fluelaberg nee Gorizia

Isabella looked up from the last of her embroidery of the three-peaked mountain that symbolized the barony and sighed as she looked out of her room’s window and at the rest of the city below.

While she didn’t mind spending her time designing new embroidery as a hobby, she also felt a little empty doing something so … pointless. Even though she didn’t like listening to yammering whines of the peasants, merchants, and nobles, there was a point to it that actually did something to solve problems.

However, her duties were such that she couldn’t act as the judge and ruler while her husband was actively taking those roles.

The duties of a noblewoman, especially the wife of a lord, were such that they had to be ready to assume any duties that fell onto them immediately. If the noblemen were such that they were steadfast pillars that held their positions for those above and below their station, then a noblewoman was someone ready to take the duty should something happen to see the nobleman leave the position. While instances of the reverse did happen, it was not the norm anywhere on God’s Earth.

Men were physically stronger and hardier and more aggressive and confrontational if those traits were what men needed. Women … simply weren’t. They were softer and kinder, which were traits more suited to supporting roles. Put a man in a supporting role and everyone will see how much harder such roles were for them. They struggled with understanding the delicate nature of the mind. Not always and not all men but most. What women took to like fish to the ocean, men needed to learn and train.

This was why noble boys were made to train with books and swords and noble girls learned with sewing needles and coins for it was more often that noblewomen who managed the finances of their husband’s lands rather than vice versa.

And once adulthood set in, their lot in life was set.

So what was she to do, as Isabella the wife of Hans, when he went out to do … odd things.

Normally, both men and women did odd things when they went past their prime. She remembered how her father suddenly developed an interest in sculpting some six years ago and spent exorbitant sums to learn how to sculpt and to import quality materials.

Her husband probably thought he was being subtle about it, but there was nothing about a six foot man bound in muscles in these lands, no matter what he did. Oh, his attempt at “dyeing” was rather ingenious but making his hair a few shades lighter did nothing for how easily he was recognized by his people.

He was, after all, their hero and leader.

To the merchants, he was the man of the accounting books. To the few scholars in the barony (an amazing feat in and of itself), he was the father of natural sciences. To the artisans, he was their goal. To the commoners, he was the guarantor of safety and prosperity. To the soldiers, he was their general. To the outcasts, he was a warm embrace who accepted and provided shelter.

So did he really think that no one recognized him when he went out to babysit children of all things?

Isabella initially thought that her husband was sneaking out to meet … other women. As much as she loved him, she also knew that she didn’t know everything about her husband. There simply was too much to learn and a lot of his life that stood out like silk dress among wool shirts.

What mercenary-peasant turned lord studied natural sciences and made pottery and porcelain who also turned over a profitable jewelry mine to the commoners?!

So … he … might have had lovers before she came along. Though she was sure that he felt affection for her, it didn’t mean that he couldn’t for other women, too.

So imagine her surprise when he was babysitting of all things… for the outcasts.

Getting rocks and sticks thrown at him while playing with children who didn’t know him was very far from visiting lovers.

… So why? Why was Hans suddenly interested in disguising himself, taking care of children, digging up and moving shit from the latrines, building and repairing hom-.

Actually, when she thought about his recent excursion along with what he normally did, they weren’t too far off from what he did.

It was Hans being Hans.

But why sneak out?

Worse, his sneaking and disguises grew alarmingly better with each day he spent outside. No one in the castle managed to see him leave on his last day working among the commoners, and she almost didn’t recognize him when she saw him after he returned.

It … also highlighted how he seemed to be doing something, improving new abilities, and finding new things to do while she remained in place after telling him that she would be by his side.

Hans was a master artisan, veteran warrior, benevolent if firm baron, accomplished battlefield tactician, ruthless strategist, devilish persuader, able orator, terrifying alchemist, multi-field scholar, the strongest swordsman in all of the empire, one of the richest men, the Compact’s protector of the east, and now … some kind of … stealthy babysitter.

Thieves and assassins would weep. Or ask to study under him.

She, on the other hand, was a noblewoman. That was all she was.

… Isabella couldn’t allow herself to fall behind, could she? If she wanted to stay by his side and keep up with her promise, she needed to get better. Be better. But how was she going to be better than who and how she was?

-VB-

Hans von Fluelaberg

“You want to do something more?” I asked her in surprise, to which she nodded.

Isabella, who sat across from me on the dinner table, nodded before closing her lips around another piece of the steak we were eating tonight.

When I made dinner tonight, I didn’t expect to get this kind of conversation.

“Well, I’m not going to say no to that,” I replied. “But why are you asking me? You know that I’m not going to tell you what you can do and what you can’t.”

“I know,” she replied. “But I do want your help. I want to know what I can do where I will be able to excel.”

‘Stats,’ I thought to myself and focused my Gamer’s observation onto Isabella.

[Character Status]

Name: Isabella von Fluelaberg nee Gorizia

Age: 19

Title: Baroness

LvL: 10

HP: 480

MP: --

ST: 8

STR: 9

END: 11

AGI: 10

DEX: 9

INT: 13

CHA: 13

Her stats weren’t anything interesting. Her average of 12 per stat was higher than the average person's, but it wasn’t unique at all, so any advice and suggestion I give her based on her stat would be … not meaningless but negligible. This left her personality, desires, and needs. Essentially, the who, what, where, why, and how’s of her request except applied to each of her personality, desires, and needs.

… But would she appreciate that? Appreciate me telling her what was best for her?

“Okay,” I said with a nod. “Do you have something in mind?” If she didn’t have anything in mind, then I can help her look for something she wanted to do. It’s … I guessed that that’s how married couples carried on with life, right? Or were supposed to. Be there and support them. Ask her what’s wrong.

Isabella looked at me with a firm gaze but with searching eyes that looked more into herself than at me. After a while, she straightened her back and her eyes grew determined.

“I want to do two things.”

“Alright.”

“First thing I want to do… is to set up a business outside of my role as the baroness.”

“I can certainly help with that.”

She shook her head. “I want it to be my endeavor. That’s not what I need your help with. What I need your help with is the next one.”

“... And that would be?”

She took a deep breath in and let it out.

And then she hesitated.

“... Teach me how to fight.”