[Salvos] Side Story 6: Rachel I (Patreon)

Side Story 6: Rachel I

“Rachel, come back here!”

Sophia’s voice crawled down the hallway after the little girl. Rachel glanced back once, seeing the shadow chasing after her. She skittered down the steps, much to the exasperation of the brown-haired woman.

Rachel made the sharp turns down the stairway with ease and reached the first floor with barely a sound. Her footfalls were silent on the wood floor, an advantage from having a high [Agility] Stat. She arrived at a crowded hall, filled with tables and chairs. Glancing around, she searched for an exit. Adventurers— those whose levels she could not see— were milling about, exchanging inane chatter over some drinks and food.

The front door swung open as a man strolled in. That was an exit for her. But a too-obvious one. And once Rachel left the building, she’d be out in the open, and there were not a lot of places to hide in a courtyard.

She had to find another place to hide. She squinted at a table, not too far to her left. A man lay passed out on it, having had one too many drinks this early in the morning. Or maybe he was like father, and he drank late into the night. Who knew? But Rachel decided it was the best place to hide.

Activating the only Skill she knew, Rachel made a dash for the table as Sophia descended from the stairs. The brown-haired woman narrowed her eyes, casting her gaze over the common room.

“Has anyone seen Rachel?”

There were a few shrugs. Someone replied with ‘who’s Rachel?’, only for Sophia to roll her eyes. She started for the front door as Rachel hid behind the table’s legs.

[Hide in Plain Sight]. It was a simple Skill. She could use it once every three hours. Rachel was disappointed that that was all she got when she first got her Class. But Sophia gave her a loooooooooong explanation which the little girl didn’t listen to.

Speaking of— Rachel couldn’t help but giggle as she spotted Sophia walking out of the doorway. Rachel already had it all planned. She made a dash for it the moment the door slammed shut. She quickly ran up the stairs, running back to her room.

Sophia would never expect it. Rachel would hide in her bed, playing with Princess, while the brown-haired woman scoured the outside for someone who wasn’t there. Rachel felt like a genius. Was this what Salvos felt like most of the time?

Rachel threw the door open—

“Found you!”

And a hand grabbed her. She looked up in horror as Sophia stood right before her, an irritated smile on her face. The window was wide open, with the curtains fluttering in the wind.

“How— how did you…?”

Rachel dropped to her knees, defeated. Sophia scoffed.

“I’m a [Hunter], Rachel. You should know better than to try and hide from me. Now come on, we are behind on your readings.”

The little girl pouted.

“I’m not going to study! I don’t wanna!”

“You have to, Rachel. Didn’t you say you wanted to become an adventurer?”

“I do…”

She admitted as Sophia dragged her to the desk.

“Then to be an adventurer, you’ve got to learn how being an adventurer works, right?”

“That’s not true!”

Rachel wasn’t just arguing for the sake of arguing. She knew that wasn’t true at all.

“So many adventurers have never picked up a book in their life! Like Salvos!”

“I’m sure Ms Salvos has picked up at least one book before. But yes, a lot of adventurers have never done any research before becoming an adventurer. Do you know what happens to a lot of adventurers too?”

The little girl shook her head. Sophia nodded.

“They die, Rachel. That’s what happens when they’re unprepared. We don’t want that to happen to you, do we?”

“...we don’t.”

“Good. So, come on, it’s time for you to study.”

Sophia dragged her own chair next to Rachel. The girl grumbled as she began reading through the pages in the book.

“I just don’t get why I can’t actually train to be an adventurer.”

“I’ve told you this before, Rachel. You’ve done plenty of training. More than you should have. You just turned nine, and you’re already Level 10. That is faster than how long it takes for even noble children to get a Class.”

A smile slipped onto the little girl’s face at the compliment. She quickly recalled her Status, proudly taking in those words in her head.

Rachel

Species: [Human]

Class: [Rogue] - Lvl. 10

General Skills:

[Identification] - Lvl. 1

[Racial Skill: Inferior Enhanced Wisdom] - Lvl. 1

[Rest] - Lvl. 1

Stats:

[Available Stat Points: 10]

[Vitality]: 3

[Strength]: 2

[Endurance]: 3

[Wisdom]: 3 (+1)

[Agility]: 6

Skills:

[Available Skill Points: 6]

[Hide in Plain Sight] - Lvl. 1

[Unused Skills Slots] x4

Theoretically, Rachel was likely as fast as someone twice her age if they didn’t have a Class. That made her happy. But Sophia thought it was a bad thing.

“However, unlike noble children, you didn’t spend most of your childhood learning or doing things which would give you a better Class or better Skills once you reached Level 10. Because of that, you only received one Skill for becoming a [Rogue].”

Rachel crossed her arms and scowled. She had heard this lecture a dozen times over. She knew what Sophia was saying was true, especially after her celebration for reaching Level 10 was cut short when the only Skill she got was for hiding from bad guys, and not actually stabbing and beating them.

“But if I train, won’t I get better Skills?”

“You’ll also get better Skills if you study more.”

Sophia leaned over, giving the little girl a kind smile.

“You want to impress Salvos when she returns, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“I’m sure she’ll be impressed by how smart and proper you are when she comes back. You’ll be just like a— no, you’ll be even better than a noble lady. Salvos will praise you for that.”

“Ok…”

Rachel reluctantly flipped through the book, no longer arguing with Sophia. For her part, the brown-haired woman slumped back on her chair and sighed.

—--

Honestly, Rachel would be more than happy to read all the books in the world if they were actually interesting. But they weren’t. They were boring! Very boring!

She had to read through an entire book about how adventurers got paid. It was obvious how they got paid— they fought things! Sure, there were different things they could fight. With different ways that they could make money from fighting things. And maybe even some ways where they’d get paid without fighting things at all.

But those were boring things. Rachel liked to fight things!

She made Princess throw a punch at the pillow. The pillow fell over, the frowny face she drew on it facing the ceiling.

“And Princess defeated the scary Diamond Rank monster! Yay! Everyone cheer for Princess!”

Since Rachel wasn’t allowed to train without Sophia’s supervision, she decided to play with her toys. She already did her study, and there was nothing else that could possibly be more productive than spending time with Princess.

The little girl hugged her doll.

“You did it! You reached Level 100 by beating the big bad slime, terrorizing Morningvale! What’s this? The Vaun Qieur’s Emperor wants to give you a medal? No— he wants to make you his Empress?!”

Rachel gasped over and over again, pretending to be both the crowd, the Emperor, and Princess. Then she snorted, waving one of Princess’ hands dismissively.

“No thanks, but I am Princess. I wouldn’t be Princess if I was an Empress. Don’t be sad Mr Emperor, I will still accept your medal, thank you.”

With that, Rachel flopped over on her bed, lying next to Princess.

“One day, you’ll become the greatest adventurer to ever live.”

She spoke softly. Then she held up Princess, and poked herself on the chest with the doll.

“I will become the greatest adventurer. Just like Salvos! Then we’ll both be the greatest adventurers… together!”

Rachel was very confident in her words despite the fact that it was literally impossible. There couldn’t be two ‘greatest’ at something, because being the ‘greatest’ implied being better than everybody else. But the nuance was lost to the little girl, and she didn’t fret over these useless details.

“I’m bored.”

She glanced out the window. It was night— about midnight. Rachel should be sleeping, but she didn’t want to. She dozed off some time this afternoon, tired because she kept running around from Sophia. She couldn’t fall asleep, so she was cursed to do nothing until she could.

Or maybe she could sneak out.

Rachel climbed off her bed, already resolved to this impulsive decision. Sophia would scold her if she was found, but she wasn’t planning on getting caught this time. Slowly tip-toeing to the door, the little girl pushed it open and peaked out into the hallway.

She saw no one closeby. So, she pressed on. She didn’t have a plan when she decided to do this, but as a result of another impulse, she now wanted to sneak some food out of the kitchen. There was a frozen box— one created by an [Enchanter]— used to store raw meat and vegetables. But Sophia also used it to store candy inside. And the more Rachel thought about it, the more she was craving a midnight snack.

With a destination in mind, she quietly made her way through the maze-like hallways, headed for the stairs. She paused only when she heard a voice coming from a room. It sounded like Sophia’s voice.

The little girl froze right before the crack of the door.

“...and she’s really a prodigy. But if only she can sit still for more than a minute.”

There was a laugh. Rachel activated her Skill, [Hide in Plain Sight]. It didn’t make her invisible or anything like that. It just made her harder to spot if you weren’t really paying attention. She was like a painting on a wall, if you were someone who didn’t care about paintings. Also, it required her to actually be hidden to use.

With a gulp, she decided to peek through the crack of the door. Sophia sat by a bed, her back facing Rachel, with a man lying before her. Rachel recognized the voice that spoke next. Cless. Sophia’s friend. The red-haired man who had hurt himself trying to save the little girl.

“Most children are like that, Sophia.”

He chuckled.

“Must I remind you of what you were like only ten years ago?”

“I was mature for my age!”

Sophia sputtered. Rachel couldn’t see Cless’ face, but she was certain he rolled his eyes.

“And so is Rachel. But both of you still are very immature.”

“Don’t you mean I was immature?”

“I know what I said.”

“Don’t make me punch you.”

The two laughed. Then there was a moment of silence. Sophia broke it shortly after, speaking in a softer voice.

“How are your injuries?”

“Doing much better. I think I can actually swing my right hand around without hurting, which is a stark improvement from two months ago.”

Sophia was silent for a moment. Rachel could hear the brown-haired woman’s hand tightening over her clothes.

“You should’ve taken the potion.”

“It’d be a waste if I did.”

“You’d have recovered in a day.”

“And someone else who’s more needed than me in this company war wouldn’t have gotten it. We were low on resources, Sophia. We still are. And I’m not exactly suited for combat, am I?”

“So, you’re just going to keep suffering?”

Sophia spoke through gritted teeth. Cless shrugged, then winced.

“I’m recovering. A [Healing Mage] has already taken a look at me. He did what he could to keep me from dying. And he helped speed up my recovery. Everything else just takes time. Time which I have plenty of.”

“I don’t like it, Cless. I—”

“Who’s there?”

The red-haired man sat up, facing the door. Rachel immediately backed away as Sophia turned around.

“What’s wrong?”

“I thought I saw someone out there.”

Sophia narrowed her eyes and started for the door.

“I don’t think there’s anyone out there. There’s no way a spy managed to sneak in through the runes Baris had that [Enchanter] set up—”

She pulled it open, and gestured around.

“See?”

Rachel wasn’t there. She was already halfway down the stairs by the time Sophia even reached the door. The little girl could hear their muffled conversation continue before it completely faded away when she reached the kitchen.

She reached the frozen box with a sigh.

“I escaped…”

Now to get what she came here for. She yanked open the frozen box’s lid and greedily eyed the candy stashed in a bag at the corner. Then she paused. She glanced back in the direction of Cless and Sophia, before looking back at the kitchen table. She saw wheat, sugar, honey, and other ingredients laid out. And she had an idea.

***

Sophia frowned as she looked into Rachel’s room. The girl was gone. Of course she was. She should have known it was Rachel who was spying on them last night. But Sophia was too tired to investigate, and chalked it up to Cless’ imagination.

Shaking her head, she marched to Cless’ room.

“You won’t believe this—”

She paused as she opened the door. She saw Rachel sitting inside, her legs swinging freely as Cless sliced into a piece of round, honeyed bread.

“And you made this?”

“I did! Father made me apprentice with a [Baker] for a few years. This is one of the recipes she taught me.”

The two of them glanced back at Sophia as she stood, wide-eyed at the hallway. Rachel leapt to her feet and grabbed Sophia’s hand.

“Sophia, you have to try this! It’s a sweet dessert I baked last night. Master Olivia called it ‘cake’. It looks like bread but you have to mix it with honey—”

“I know what cake is.”

Rachel stopped as Sophia gave the brusque answer. The girl paused. She stared up at Sophia as the young woman squinted back at her.

“Were you the one sneaking outside of this room last night?”

“I… was…”

She shifted guiltily. Her shoulders sagged as she drew back, almost cowering.

“I’m sorry. I know I wasn’t supposed to. But—”

Sophia raised her hand, and she flinched.

“It’s fine, Rachel. I was just wondering.”

The young woman ran a hand through Rachel’s dirty brown hair. The girl stopped trembling as Sophia smiled.

“That’s very nice of you.”

“I-I… of course! Come, you should try it! Cless loves it, right?”

The young man blinked as he looked up. Then he protectively covered the plate of cake.

“It’s amazing! But I don’t think Sophia should get some. I’ve only been nice to you, Rachel. She makes you read and do other boring stuff.”

Rachel cocked her head.

“You’re right!”

“Aren't you supposed to be on my side?”

Sophia scoffed as she sat on the bed, while Rachel climbed onto the chair right next to them. She stared expectantly at Sophia as she took a bite from the cake.

“This is… delicious, Rachel!”

Facing the girl, Sophia smiled and took another bite.

“I really love it.”

“You do?”

Rachel beamed, and Sophia nodded.

“I truly do. Next time, make some for me too, ok?”

“I will!”

“Feeling jealous, are you?”

Cless grinned at her. Sophia rolled her eyes but said nothing. The two of them knew the reason for this— why Rachel did this for Cless. The girl must have overheard their conversation and made the cake because she felt bad.

Baking was not a simple process, so she definitely worked hard on it. Cless feasted on his morning dessert as Sophia patted Rachel on the head.

“You’re a good girl, Rachel. Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.”

She gave Sophia a nod, smiling from ear-to-ear.

“Of course!”

Author's Notes:

The other side stories: PLOT DARK PLOT ANGST

This side story: fluff.

And it's the best god damn side story I made.