Born From A Divine Gamble

The room he slept in was now lit by the sunlight, letting him take a look at it. There wasn"t much to see. Aside from the bed and the tub full of brown red water that took almost all the s.p.a.ce in the small room, there was a bedside table with a drawer but nothing else. He did not mind the small s.p.a.ce, more so since he would probably not come back. The only thing he would miss was the bed.

Now that he had slept in one for the first time, he understood why everyone did the same. He wished to buy one and bring it everywhere with him. It was so comfortable, he had thought he could sleep all day before but now, he definitely could. This thing was both the best thing he ever found but also, a terrible death trap! If he brought one with him in his travels, he would never wake up, putting him in even more danger. It was with a broken heart that Emp decided to not buy a bed of his own.

After a quick training, he locked the door behind him and walked downstairs. As he set foot on the last step, Galana suddenly appeared right in front of him making both of them jump in surprise. Like the day before, she wore a dress devoid of color, this one with short sleeves. She also wore her hair like the day before, including the red ribbon. Her face immediately turned from surprise to anger, or maybe annoyance?

"What took you so long! Don"t tell me to meet you in the morning if you"re going to sleep all the way up till noon!"

It seems he didn"t wake up in time like he had first thought.

"Is it really already noon? I am sorry, it was the first time I ever slept in a real bed. I slept so well it seems I did not wake up."

She just looked at him in astonishment, unable to find anything to say and Emp had to answer her silent question.

"I usually just sleep on the floor, or in a tree while traveling."

"Who, by all the trees, sleeps on the floor!"

"Chinui"s house was a little small and there was only one bed."

"It"s absurd!"

Emp did not mind talking about this topic, or any other things for that matter, but, he was really hungry.

"If you do not mind, could we talk while eating? I am famished."

He gave the key back to the clerk at the entrance and went to the other room. Galana released an exasperated sigh and followed Emp in the dining room.

There was many more people then when he came the previous night but still not enough to fill half the room, most of them probably left the inn a long time before he woke up. They both sat at opposite sides of a table and resumed their conversation while waiting for the meal.

"You are really strange." She said with furrowed brows. "I never saw someone as weird as you before."

"Is it a good or a bad thing?" Emp had no clue.

"I"m not sure... At least you don"t look like the lord of filth anymore."

"I prefer to look like the lord of filth than be devoured because I bathed somewhere I should not."

Galana made a half smile somewhere in between laughter and amazement.

"Are all the Muraciers like that?"

"Like what?" Asked Emp both confused and curious of where this was going.

"Last night, when I got home, I searched for the Muraciers in books. They say they are serious and loyal people that are always ready for action. This is also from there that the rumor saying they don"t drink any alcohol comes from, it would slow down their reactions. They say they almost never laugh and they find value in very few things that are unrelated to war."

That seemed really close to the grumpy Chinui he knew. Maybe they really did never drink any alcohol.

"Still." Followed Galana. "All I see when I speak to you is a weird and a little bit idiotic boy."

She had already failed her grandmother"s test again. She really was bad with n.o.bles.

"At least I rose from a complete idiot to a little bit idiotic in your esteem."

"Idiot." She said, deepening her frown and sending Emp back down the ladder. "I don"t understand what"s wrong with you."

"What do you mean what"s wrong with me?"

As Emp wondered What she meant by that, A small boy wearing suspenders came to their table and placed a well filled plate in front of Emp.

The plate was full of fresh fruits, still warm bread and bacon. It was an impressive breakfast but there was still something wrong.

"Oh? Only one? Where is yours?" Said Emp

"What do mean where"s mine?"

"I won"t eat all alone, that would be weird."

"n.o.bles aren"t supposed to eat with the common folk."

"Nonsense, I am the one paying anyway, ask him another plate."

Galana looked at him, thinking for a moment, unsure of what she should do before she asked something to the boy who answered with three fingers.

"Three bronze leaves for another plate."

Without thinking, Emp grabbed four coins from his bag and presented them to the boy.

"Three for the plate and one to thank him."

Galana, still perplexed, translated to the small waiter who smiled and said what Emp supposed was "thank you" before he s.n.a.t.c.hed the coins and ran happily to the kitchen. The sight made Emp smile as well.

"You see! That is exactly what is wrong with you! I do not understand where you"re going with your little games. Are you trying to make me lower my guard by seeming likable? I feel like the moment I will be gone, you will come back here and accuse him of having stolen the last coin, making them pay an incredible amount to make you forget the story."

Emp almost choked on his first bite hearing her story. She just stared at him, trying to find a proof, or a crack in his acting.

"Who would ever do such a thing, it does not even make sense! Why did it even cross your mind?"

"It wouldn"t be surprising coming from a n.o.ble."

"From what I am hearing, I am not the only one who is strange here. You need a very distorted mind to think of something like that. Also, I do not see the point in lowering your guard, from what your grandmother told me yesterday, if you were sitting in front of any other n.o.ble right now, you would already be dead twenty times over."

Galana grumbled of displeasure as the boy came back with her plate. Since she was too focused staring at him to thank him, Emp did it in her stead. He repeated the word the kid had used earlier and the boy smiled at him before he left.

"I thought you said you didn"t speak the common tongue."

"I did because it is true, I just a.s.sumed the word he used earlier meant tank you."

Galana didn"t seem convinced at all. She stared hard at him and spoke in the other language. The other customers all stopped eating to stare and some seemed shocked. Many cringed, a woman hid her face behind her hands and many men in a group around a table started laughing.

What she had just said must have been really impressive but he didn"t understand a word of it. The group of men, all bearded and almost as dirty as Emp had been last night, even clapped and threw a bunch of comments Galana ignored. She was too busy looking for a reaction. Of course, it was obvious he had not understood. Emp wondered what she could possibly have said to gather so much attention from the rest of the customers. He did not have the time to ask before she admitted he had said the truth.

"Alright, you really don"t understand, no one could have possibly kept his calm through that."

"So, now are you going to tell me why you hate n.o.bles so much?"

"And you, are you going to stop pretending you care about what I have to say or about my safety?"

Emp wasn"t angry but he was starting to get a little annoyed at all those accusations.

"Enough already. I do not understand any of your accusations at all. All I asked was information because I have a huge lack of knowledge about n.o.bles."

"Of course, it"s got nothing to do with me being a pretty girl."

"To be honest, I only spoke to a total of three women in my whole life, my mother, your grandmother and you."

He was not sure if she really was pretty or not. Were pretty people factually beautiful or was it just some kind of feel?

"It"s not because I"m the only girl you know that you have to try to sleep with me! What are you thinking? Do you really need the first girl you ever met as a trophy?"

"Now, I do not even understand what we are talking about anymore. What does sleeping have to do with turning you into a trophy?"

People weren"t cutting the heads of their sleeping partners to mount on their walls now were they?

"Idiot! When I say sleep I don"t mean actual sleep, I mean the act between a man and a woman."

Emp understood what she meant with that, or at least, he believed she was referring to copulation. But, also understanding people didn"t like to talk about it, he felt like it was a perfect opportunity to get revenge for all those crazy accusations. It was time to push the questioning further!

"What kind of act?"

"What kind of act do you want it to be idiot!"

"Like in a theater play?"

"For the love of all G.o.ds! I"m talking about... When a man and woman... Wait, you need a man to... the sheets... And then... In the dark... And a kiss..."

At first she was screaming at him, frustrated by his ignorance but when she got halfway through her first sentence, she seemed to realise what she was about to scream in public. She had almost said some very embarra.s.sing things. She had been pushed along by her anger and her desire to see trough his supposed game. Her explanation quickly devolved into a mess of incoherent words and gestures. Her face was now beet red, she didn"t know how to get out of this mess. Then she saw it, on Emp"s face, a smile was slowly creeping up on it. He was mocking her!

"??? ??????? ????? ?? ????!"

She yelled something in the common tongue and threw a slice of bacon at him while Emp burst out laughing. He caught it flying before it hit is face and ate it as he laughed.

"To go back to what you were saying before, Chinui told me that many men had multiple wives and everyone should be wed as soon as possible. Do you think I should be looking for a wife now that I made it through a fight and survived?"

Galana just looked at her plate with an angry pout and refused to answer. Emp took another couple of bites from his breakfast before she finally decided to say something.

"Are you still trying to mock me or is it a true question?"

"It is a true question. I have no idea of what I am supposed to do. What are people doing usually?"

"I don"t think I have to be the one answering that."

"Who then?"

"I don"t know, a friend? At least a man."

"But, aside from Chinui, I only know four other men and all of them are G.o.ds. I am not even sure on how to contact them and anyway, I don"t think the advice Luck would give would be all that useful. You said the way I dressed was strange but him wears rainbow clothes with strange patterns combined with all sorts of crazy accessories. It was him that gave me the bottomless bag, the one you find horribly ugly."

"Wait, you know four G.o.ds!"

"No five."

"What! How many blessings do you have?"

"One."

"You were lucky enough to find the hiding spot of five different G.o.ds but failed four of their tests! How can anyone waste such an opportunity!"

"No, I received only one test, the other four were my creators."

Emp had just said it without thinking but after the words left is mouth, he felt like maybe he should have kept this information for himself. Now for sure, she would not believe anything he told her anymore.

He chose to not worry about it and took another bite of bacon. Anyway, he didn"t need her to believe everything he said, he just needed her to translate for him while he bought some equipment. Might as well answer all her questions with truths since it would be less tiring for him than trying to come up with a story every time.

"What you just said doesn"t even make sense. It"s just crazy. First of all, how can you be the son of four different people at once! Also, isn"t your father supposed to be Chinui Muracier?"

"I can swear I"m not lying but I can"t prove it. If you want to know the whole story, you will have to tell me yours."

Galana just laughed at him.

"Was this your plan? Dream on!"

Emp shrugged and they both ended their breakfast in silence. They both greedily devoured their food and it was all gone in an instant. Since they had already paid, they just left the inn once they were done. While leaving, the men from the other table shouted something at Galana who answered with a raised brow before leaving without paying them any more attention. Emp did not worry about it and just admired the view outside while he waited for her.