ROTLE- Chapter 37- Stupid (Patreon)

She’d messed up.

There were no mathematical calculations to it, not way to wiggle out of this one with some loop hole or debatable argument. Elaswit Brandis had messed up. Mom’s going to kill me.

Still, regardless of how certain of her mess up she was, she continued to believe she had done everything in her power. Her failure wasn’t as a result of some mistake or the other. At least she didn’t think so. Her failure was as a result of her skills. Skills her mother was more than aware of.

So it isn’t really my fault, she thought as her cleaver slammed into the head of a gargoyle. She was practically asking a fish to build a nest in a tree.

The gargoyle crashed to the ground in front of her. She stepped to the side easily, allowed it skid past her. But it wasn’t down. The fight wasn’t over. Twisting her hips at just the right angle, she switched her footing, channeled the force from her feet to her hips to her swing, just as she had been taught as a child long before she’d gained her class. When her side swing landed, it was loud and powerful.

Her cleaver slammed into the ass of the gargoyle, sending it skidding along farther, and she followed after it.

Elaswit really had to find a way to salvage her failure. And yet, she didn’t believe that there was one. Some failures were just inevitable, and you had to learn to accept them.

Since her strong exchange of words with Aiden—she refused to call it an argument—they had said very little to each other. They had also come across a few more gargoyles.

If she succeeded in this fight, this would be the eight gargoyle she would be defeating with nothing but brute strength. The sense of achievement and satisfaction that came with it was something she could not repress.

There was no better feeling to sticking to your way of doing things and succeeding even against all the odds. It was a reaffirmation that while your way wasn’t the right way, it was a right way.

She doubled her strength as she caught up to the gargoyle, refusing it any chance to get its bearings back. Standing over it, she brought her sword down with a powerful swing and an activated skill.

You have used Class skill [Aura Strike]

An arc of red mana blasted out of her weapon, slamming into the gargoyle’s neck before her cleaver doubled down on the attack. When it made impact, it boomed like the sound of a breaking boulder.

Congratulations! You have slain [Gargoyle Lvl 29]!

She wiped a forearm over her brow. It came away wet, and she frowned at it. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been on any kind of expedition that had strained her as much as this one was straining her.

It wasn’t as if she didn’t know why, though. On most of her expeditions her stamina and mana rarely ever fell below fifty percent. And on the few occasions that it did, there was always a potion ready to do the work.

She still had more than enough potions in her storage space in this moment, but she wasn’t using them. Why? Because she was being stubborn.

Aiden used his very sparingly, and she didn’t want to be the spoilt and fragile princess that used a potion at the slightest inconvenience.

Looking up from the notification of her victory, she turned to find Aiden standing and waiting for her.

Just as killing the gargoyles was now becoming a simple task for her, it had also become a simple task for the young Lord. The only difference between the both of them was that while she slayed them in her own way, he slayed them the right way.

So for the two gargoyles that lay dead by her cleaver around her, Aiden had four scattered around him.

And I don’t even think he broke a sweat.

Currently, Aiden stood casually, staring at the air in front of him. His face was pinched in contemplation. Whatever he was looking at seemed like it was important.

“Level up?” Elaswit asked, walking up to him.

Aiden shook his head.

“No,” he said still not looking up at her. “I believe I’ve come into the law of diminishing return.”

“Law of diminishing return?”

Aiden shook his head, as if dispelling a thought. Then he looked at her. “Not really the law of diminishing return. That means something different. I’m just not growing any more.”

Elaswit understood what he was saying. There were only so many levels you could get from killing a specific type of monster before there were no more benefits to be had. If killing a goblin of three levels higher gave you a level increase, the next goblin wouldn’t always do the same, even if it was three levels higher.

“It’s not really surprising,” she told him. “We’ve been killing gargoyles all day. I think the strongest one we’ve fought was a level 32.”

“Haven’t fought anything in the thirties,” Aiden pointed out.

Elaswit shrugged. “Well, I have. What I’m trying to say is that at this point I’d be surprised if we level up again before meeting the named gargoyle.”

Aiden grunted.

It seemed he still wasn’t willing to have conversations with her beyond conversations he deemed necessary. As annoying as it was, Elaswit wasn’t willing to give up.

“What I’m saying is that if you slay a level 13 enemy at level 10 and you gain one level, slaying a level 14 enemy at level 11 will not grant you a level increase. At least not all the time. It’s not guaranteed.”

Aiden shrugged. “Then you just have to slay two level fourteen enemies.”

He swung his sword in an arc, ridding it of blood that wasn’t there, before sheathing it in its scabbard at his hip. Unlike hers that never got to be stained with blood because of how she fought, his was always stained in the tar-like blood of the gargoyles as a result of all the stabbing he had to do.

He was new to this world, enigmatic as compared to his companions, and willing to go through all this stress without any complaint. Elaswit didn’t think she’d ever known any nineteen-year-old who was like that.

She didn’t belittle those of the age, but even the most hardcore nineteen-year-old she had ever met in her life would’ve complained at least once. Frowned and muttered something of the stress under their breath. Groaned in the annoyance of having to do what they were doing at least once.

Aiden had done no such thing. And he was practically one month old in Nastild. It continued to reinforce her belief that his world wasn’t as peaceful as she and her family had been led to believe. If it was, then he hadn’t been in the peaceful part of the world.

“We should find the swarm,” Aiden said suddenly, pulling Elaswit from her thoughts.

She looked at him like he was crazy. “Why? You should’ve completed your scenario by now.”

Aiden shook his head. “Not yet. Still have the named gargoyle to deal with.”

He didn’t even ask how she knew that he’d completed his objective of killing a specific number of gargoyles. It pained Elaswit to admit that she’d actually pointed it out just to show off the fact that she had been paying attention.

So far, she’d felt slightly useless since they’d entered the cave. Aiden had been the one to lead them around its maze like interior until they’d found Nella. He’d been the one to somehow conceal them when her hyperventilation would’ve gotten them caught. He’d been the one to discover the natural array and unlock this part of the cave. Navigating the new part of the cave had been his accomplishment as well.

What had she done so far? Nothing. Yes, she fought off the occasional gargoyle. The sword he was currently using had come from her. And she was also often bait in a fight. By often she meant very little.

You’ve been useful, she found herself thinking.

But how true was that. A [Butcher]’s usefulness was in playing a more active role. They were at the front of the fight, not killing two gargoyles while a [Weaver] killed three or four.

“Princess.”

Elaswit pulled herself from her self pity for a moment.

“Yes, Lord Lacheart?”

She didn’t even have the heart to call him by his given name anymore or tease him about calling her by her name which he had started calling her at some point. So much progress lost in one argument.

She had never felt so small. The fact that it was in the face of what was supposed to be a person with a weaker class and a weaker level did nothing to help matters.

Aiden looked at her quietly. His eyes studied her face, picking at her expression. Then he shrugged as if he couldn’t come to a conclusion. “We should find the swarm so that we can help you meet your quota.”

And now he’s worrying about me, Elaswit groaned internally. Could this day get any worse?

She’d always complained about how the knights always pampered her whenever she went on expeditions and had been looking forward to this outing when she’d found out about it. So she had paid Vanisi and a night maid to keep their eyes on Aiden and alert her of when he was acting out of the ordinary.

It would’ve given her the excuse to spend more time alone with him—fulfilling her mother’s request in the process—and the experience of an expedition alone with someone weaker than her.

She had always wanted to feel the true weight of an adventure. Unlike Nella, she was a princess. It was unbecoming of her to join an actual adventuring party.

“This won’t do.”

Again, Elaswit was drawn from her thoughts. She raised her head, mouth opening to ask what wouldn’t do when she came face to face with Aiden.

She started back with a barely concealed yelp. Putting a distance of two steps between them, she caught her breath. He had been close. Too close. Their noses had almost touched when she’d raised her head.

“You are too caught up in yourself, Princess.” Aiden’s voice didn’t waver. There was no lush on his skin.

He spoke as if he was telling her that the cave walls were wet again. It reminded her that all her attempts to throw him off balance or get him to trust her had technically been thrown out the window.

She’d played the princess that needed the attention of her subject when they’d met in the carriage and had gotten nothing for her troubles. Then she’d gone the extra mile of playing the friendly tease, united in a mutual fun of causing Valdan discomfort. That, too, hadn’t gotten her very far.

Then he’d called her ‘love’ and she’d thought she’d gotten her in. It hadn’t taken her long to realize that she’d been wrong.

Now he was the one startling her. The one with the power.

She rubbed her temple with thumb and forefinger, massaging the wrinkle she could feel growing there. Mom should’ve sent Derenet.

He was the one who knew how to be a deceptive snake.

Aiden’s sigh drew her attention as he moved to sit on the ground, back resting against the wall. He unstrapped the scabbard from his soldier’s belt and placed it gently on his laps, a finger trailing gently over the surface of the scabbard.

“I believe we should take a rest,” he said. “We’ve been running around since we got into the cave and I’m sure evening should be close enough.”

Elaswit did not disagree but she did not move to sit with him. She disagreed with the rest but agreed with the time of the day outside. With the illuminated cave walls, it was impossible to tell what exactly the time of day was. So they were going by a vague estimate.

And if it was evening, it meant one simple thing.

She let out a sigh. “Do you think they’re looking for us?”

Aiden did the most surprising thing she’d seen him do since entering the cave.

He laughed.

“Think?” He shook his head, now chuckling. “I assure you Valdan is sharpening a wooden sword right now to stab me with.”

“He wouldn’t do that,” Elaswit said. Would he?

“I’m surprised he hasn’t found the natural enchantment and torn it down.” Aiden looked up, a small fond smile on his lips. “He’s probably on the other side wondering how he’ll explain this to your father.”

Elaswit found herself fidgeting. Maybe she hadn’t though this thing through. Aiden was bringing it to her understanding that she had caused more trouble than she’d thought.

Now she was beginning to feel like a spoilt princess, the very kind of prince she thought Derenet was. Spoilt and uncaring of others.

Elaswit ran a hand through her hair. How had I not thought of this?

“But he’ll be fine as long as we get back,” Aiden said. The smile never left his face. “For now, let’s give him a sufficient enough heart attack.”

Elaswit wasn’t sure how to feel about that. On one hand, it was nice to see Aiden smile, it was also nice to know that he saw Valdan as more than just a stuck up knight. On the other hand, his complete lack of awareness to the gravity of their situation was worrying.

Then Aiden frowned to himself, as if he’d just caught himself doing something that he wasn’t supposed to. It was like watching a young child realize that they were beginning to like someone that they hated or someone discovering that they’d strayed away from an initial plan.

Whatever it was, Elaswit refused to delay any longer. Unless Aiden needed to rest there was no reason to wait. The longer they waited, the more time they wasted. The more time they wasted, the more worried they made everyone.

She was not going to be that kind of princess.

“We should keep moving,” she said, drawing Aiden’s attention to her.

He gave her a skeptical look, assessed her like a man pays attention to a child. She stood there as hazel eyes, now green under the light of the cave, watched her.

“Are you sure?” he asked, finally, voice steady.

Elaswit nodded. “The more we wait the more worried they become.”

Aiden cocked his head to the side. He looked… confused?

No. Elaswit discarded the thought. Confused wasn’t the word she was looking for. Surprised was a better description. He looked surprised.

Why?

A moment after Aiden pulled his bottom lip with the thumb and forefinger of his left hand. He made a sound, dragged the sound a little, then stopped. He released his lip and took a moment to frown at his hand before getting up.

“Alright, then,” he said, holding his sword, currently sheathed in his hand. “We can hurry it up, but on one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“You take a stamina potion, a mana potion, and a health potion.”

Elaswit knew that she needed two of the three potions but it was unreasonable of him to be the one suggesting it to her.

His coat that he’d worn out, was torn in different places. It wasn’t so terrible, but it told a tale of fighting creatures he had no place fighting. His skin was bare beneath it while some of his injuries remained visible.

His face is untouched, though, Elaswit thought. She didn’t know if she was supposed to be impressed or not. He had fought and taken injuries and had somehow made sure to keep his face protected.

Aiden Lacheart looked like a right mess.

Elaswit cocked a brow at him. “Really?”

Aiden met her gaze then looked down at himself. His face crinkled at the sight he was met with before he let out a sigh.

“I look worse than I am.” He raised one side of the coat with an annoyed look. He seemed more annoyed at the state of the coat than the state of himself.

“Regardless,” he continued. “I’m not the one sweating and taking a while to catch her breath. Take the potions and we can continue on our way.”

He’d definitely meaner than he was, Elaswit noted. I shouldn’t have pushed with the interface thing.

Especially since she’d been lying about it. The interface would’ve shown everything she was capable of but all she’d had to do was unequip her artifacts and her interface wouldn’t have shown them.

Obviously she would’ve kept the artifact she’d already told him about equipped. That she had lied and had a feeling he’d caught her, made his current behavior all the more justified.

There was no point being stubborn about taking a potion. After all, she had more than enough. So she held her hand out in front of her, palm up. The familiar refraction of light like staring at shards of mirrors reflecting light glistened in front of her.

Before long she had four vials in her hand. Like the first time she’d used her special storage in front of him, Aiden didn’t look impressed.

She held out her hand to him. “I’ll have some if you’ll have some.”

Though she doubted it, there was a part of her that felt he would simply refuse her offer, shake his head or make some excuse or the other. Most men she knew rarely ever wanted to look weak around women. And the ones who didn’t care for it would rather drink from their own vial.

Aiden walked up to her and picked up one of the vials. Its content was blue. His eyes went from the vial in his hand to another on her hand, this one was red.

If Valdan and the tutors in the palace had taught him well, then he would be aware of customized potions. The red vial was a mana potion customized to her mana. It meant her recovery would be twice as fast as taking any generic potion.

Saying nothing, Aiden uncorked the vial in his hand.

“Full recovery?” he asked.

Elaswit nodded.

Most people used partial recovery potions only because they were cheaper. The average adventurer used a partial recovery and a full recovery, keeping the full recovery for important breaks or when their health was too low. As a princess, she’d never needed a partial recovery potion.

Elaswit and her brother kept full recovery and customized full recovery portions. The former was used the way the average adventurer used a partial recovery, and the latter was used the way they used a full recovery.

Aiden chuckled lightheartedly. “Of course it is.”

He drank the potion without any other delay, emptied the vial simply. Then he moved to throw the empty vial over his shoulder, stopping only a moment before it left his hand.

Sparing her a questioning look, he asked, “Do you need this?”

“Yes, please.”

In truth, she didn’t need it at all. But considering the fact that the few times she’d seen him use a potion he’d thrown the vials away, she wanted to know how he would react to her needing it.

“Fair.” Aiden placed the empty vial back in her hand and took another one. The vial he picked was one of two with yellow liquid. A stamina potion.

He downed it without question and replaced it in her hands.

“Your turn,” he told her.

Elaswit moved the vials to her free hand and downed each potion. When she was done, she returned the empty vials to her storage space in a fracturing of lights.

She never threw her empty vials away. Not because they had some important use or another. Her reason was something simpler. Elaswit simply hated littering of any kind. It was just who she was. She would throw it out at a designated bin or return it to the palace apothecary.

“Alright, then.” Aiden stretched easily, side to side. “Are we completing your quest or ending my scenario?”

The answer was easy.

“Scenarios are generally more important than quests of any kind,” she told him. “Besides, once we conclude the scenario, we can always come back with more people and complete my quest. Last time I checked, once you get a unique quest, it stays until it no longer exists.”

Aiden turned and started walking down the path. “I guess you could always come back if that’s the case.”

Elaswit turned to follow him but paused. “You’re not coming?”

“What’s that?” Aiden stopped, looked back at her.

“You aren’t going to come back with me?” Elaswit was confused. Hunting here was supposed to be doing Aiden good. He had to know that. “If we rest up, he can come back and clear the remaining gargoyle’s out. It will help with your levels.”

Aiden gave it some thought before shaking his head. “My level’s high enough, and I don’t want my way of fighting to get biased. If I fight only gargoyles for too long, I might end up developing some biased fighting styles from fighting with too many gargoyles.”

Elaswit knew a lie when she heard one. What he’d said wasn’t wrong. Even when training her tutors had always told never to be caught in a bias. The trick was to fight different opponents. So what Aiden was saying wasn’t wrong.

But she knew when she was being told a lie. Aiden didn’t want to come back with her. It didn’t matter if coming back helped his level or gave him some extra time with a princess. Elaswit didn’t think of herself as the most beautiful girl she knew, sometimes Nella felt prettier than she was. But she definitely knew that she was pretty.

Did even the idea of spending some extra time with a beautiful lady not even appeal to him? What was with his single-minded focus?

It made too little sense to her. She wasn’t saying her beauty was so grand that it should inspire him to throw himself into danger. But something had to work towards motivating him.

Or did he really not want to spend any more time with her.

“You’re thinking too much again,” Aiden said to her. “It’s really not that deep.”

“Not that deep?”

Aiden looked at her as if he didn’t understand the question. “It means you don’t have to think too much about it. It means what I said means what I said.”

Elaswit definitely didn’t believe him.

“Now,” Aiden returned his attention to the path in front of him, “named gargoyle or the other gargoyles? Which one?”

Elaswit had to learn to give up. Her mother always had a way of teaching her and her brothers lessons in a round about way. Maybe this entire thing hadn’t been about succeeding?

Maybe mother wants me to experience failure.

The gods knew it had been forever since she’d experienced any real failure, if she was being honest. And her father had always said that constant successes tended to lead people into arrogance. Only the truly experienced got enough success and didn’t end up falling to their own hubris.

It was like the time girls had fawned over Derenet and he had started to think he was on top of the world. Their mother had said nothing on the matter, played the unknowing parent. Then she’d given him a task, told him of a simple peasant girl she needed to get something done but didn’t know how to go about doing it.

Derenet had pointed out that she was the queen, a command would suffice. Their mother had said that it wasn’t that easy. So she’d sent Derenet eventually. In his confidence, Elaswit’s brother had spent an entire month failing in spectacular ways. Meeting a girl who did not want to cater to his needs, please him, or be impressed by Derenet the boy or Derenet the prince, had done much to beat down his ego.

Even now, Derenet often found himself speculating on the possibility that their mother had intended on using the peasant girl to teach him humility. Other times he speculated on the possibility that their mother had paid the girl to refuse him.

For Elaswit, it had been a hilarious event to witness. And strong-arming the poor girl wouldn’t have helped. If their parents had even heard a whisper of any of them oppressing a subject, a lot of things would have gone wrong for them.

So perhaps this was her failure to experience. Elaswit really hoped it was.

“I’m not sure what’s going on,” Aiden said, looking at her as if there was a problem. “But you’ve been out of it for a while now. You keep spacing out as if you’re elsewhere. Is it going to be a problem?”

Elaswit shook her head. “No, I’m fine.”

“Are you certain?” Aiden’s brows furrowed in worry. “If you need to rest, we can rest. We might not have all the time, but I’m sure we have some time.”

“I’m good,” she said. “I promise.”

Aiden waited a moment.

“Alright,” he said finally. “Then back to my question. The swarm or the named gargoyle?”

“How exactly are we going to decide? It’s not like we have some map leading us to either of them.”

For the first time in a very long time someone gave her a specific look she hadn’t gotten since she was fourteen.

Aiden looked at her as if she was stupid. It lasted for only a heartbeat, short enough to show that it had been a moment of surprise at the answer and a short lack of control over his facial expression. But she had seen it.

For a moment, Lord Aiden Lacheart had thought she was stupid.

“We make our way back to where we ran into them,” Aiden said with the straightest face. “We get whatever signs we can find, and track them from there. Maybe ten of them died from my attack, but there were definitely more than ten.”

Elaswit continued to stare, unsure of how to feel about what had just happened.

“I’m sure killing off the swarm will take care of your quota,” Aiden continued. “If we find their tracks, we stand a chance of finding them and getting you your unique skill. Or we could go about our normal way until we find the named gargoyle.”

There, Elaswit noted. Aiden’s voice was holding a very neutral tone but it had stumbled slightly between two sentences.

He knows what he did. He knows that I know what he did.

Elaswit fought the petty frown that wanted to touch her lips. She refused to have lesser control of her facial expressions than Aiden.

So she stood straight, adjusted her posture and walked up to him as regally as she could. When she was standing beside him, she stopped.

“Let us get the named gargoyle,” she said, effecting what Nella often called her royal tone. “Once this scenario has been settled and our return to the manor has been concluded, I will return. Taking care of my unique quest is an issue for me to handle. Now shall we be on our way?”

Aiden opened his mouth to say something, but she did not give him the time. Elaswit walked on, leading, knowing that he would follow.

On her face was the most embarrassed yet annoyed frown she’d ever carried in a long time.

If there was one thing, adventuring with Aiden had taught her, it was that a princess not yet of the age of twenty-five was not mature.

She, too, would find a moment to make Aiden look stupid. When that time came, she would give him the same look with all the grace and aplomb of the daughter of Brandis.

Elaswit had never felt pettier.

For now, they had a named gargoyle to find.