Chapter 374: 374 - Sha"s New Guest
"That girl had two Blessings. One was to create footholds on air and jump around using them. That one was fine, but the other was... She could coat her blades with any poison he had experienced and survived without dying." As she finished the sentence, everyone"s face grew pale, except for Sha, who did not have the imagination and perception of how wicked people were to understand how dark her life must have been.
"... I see... If I had that kind of blessing... I can"t even tell what my family would have made me go through... Let alone one of the Nine," Khish muttered, making the atmosphere around them grave.
"She was not even a member of the Hyu, just a poor soul who lost her liberty through loan-sharks and debt... That"s why Noah did that," she finished the sentence staring up at the screen, her words. .h.i.tting a string in the heart of those who knew what Noah had been through, especially Maggie. She held herself back from commenting as she still behind them, but she could feel and see how much his young sister"s face darkened.
Lilith hadn"t said this to harbor any pity, only to justify why he seemed to have killed her so covetly, taking care to isolate the two inside the fiery dome, despite her level not being anywhere near what would be required for him to be forced into that position.
"Yeah... Guess this was the best option. Once she was in the arena, her face was well known, she could never get away from them or at least the image of working for them. What he did was merciful," Khish said, at which point Sha finally chose to b.u.t.t in.
"How can taking one"s like be somethimg merciful..." she murmured, as she approached them and sat on the bed by them.
"When the person"s life is worse than h.e.l.l, death is a blessing," Lilith answered her question in her honest opinion, making Sha bite her lips, not able to come up with a counterpoint.
"Either way, look! The next fight is going to start!" Maggie called their attention, but she just wanted them to shut up.
And almost in tune, there was a knock on the door. "I"ll go," Sha said, leaving them to watch the arena fights. But as she made her way toward the door, the knocking repeated itself.
"Strange," she thought, thinking about how high profile the place was. "The workers should be a lot more patient..." she made the remark inside her head, opening the door to see the maid for earlier, bringing a deep bowl full of the pointy shredded chicken bites. "Thanks," she made the mention to pick the things up, but the maid instead took a step forward, making her inadvertently take a step away from the door, letting her through.
She watched with interest as the maid walked towards the table, placed the bowl there, and slowly turned to walk back her way towards the door. Sha didn"t fail to notice how long she spent eyeing the girls watching and the fights in the projection, though.
She took a better look at the maid as she turned towards her. Her face was good and clean, her eyes, despite a little dead, were of a beautiful onyx, ans her make up was spot on. More importantly, she seemed to be about as old as they were. "Aren"t you curious?" Sha asked, probing her.
"What of, Ma"am?" she responded in a soft and lyrical voice, that of a perfect maid.
"The fights they are watching. Wouldn"t you rather stay inside and watch, even if from a little further back?" she asked, focusing on the maid"s reactions.
"Can I?!" The maid asked back, a juvenile tone in her voice. And as she said so, the deadness of her eyes took a turn to an excited brightness, almost as if a torch had gotten lit inside her.
"She"s an honest girl, isn"t she?" Sha thought, smiling at the corner of her lips as she tried to stay focused.
"Oh, but I"m charged with taking care of the requests of Lady Maggie. I can"t just stay here..." the girl said, her eyes growing murky and dead once again.
"Do you see us needing anything just now?" Maggie"s voice sounded from their side, as she skipped towards them. "If we need something, we can just ask you while you are inside, right? I don"t think anyone"s gonna complain," she told the maid, who was already fiddling with her fingers, before nodding and running back to her seat, to watch the fight unfold.
"You heard her, didn"t you?" Sha said, as the girl"s eyes seemed to light up again, and she bowed deeply.
"Thank you so much, Miss. You have no idea how much this means to me!" the maid said, before taking timid steps halfway across the room, and sitting on her knees while watching the fight.
Sha walked to the table, grabbing the bowl of snacks she brought, and left it next to Maggie, before walking a few steps the way she came, and sat next to the maid. "Sorry for being a nuissance, but, how old are you?" she asked, the maid turning towards her quickly and responding.
"I"m 16." Before turning back towards the projection.
Sha was surprised, she didn"t expect her to be this young, especially knowing how hard it was to work at this household, let alone inside the main house.
"You must be quite outstanding, to be this trusted at such a young age," Sha said, thinking of how the other people they met inside the house were of at least middle age.
"Actually—" she turned to respond again, but was interrupted by Maggie"s cry.
"Yeah! Kill them! Dice"em and feed"em to the dogs!" she yelled at the screen, like a sports fan.
The two girls, who had turned to see what was happening, cackled at the sight, before talking to each other once more.
"Both of my parents work here since they were fairly younger. So I"ve lived my entire life here," she said, turning back to watch the fight, her fists tightening as the batte approached its climax.
Sha was going to ask more, but seeing how much she liked the battle, she decided to stay silent, but in a second...
"Wait! Hold on a second! Is that healer with pink hair—" she said, turning her face to the side.
"Yup, that"s me," Sha said with a smile.
"That"s so amazing! I wish I had a blessing. That way I maybe could have a good and comfortable life outside of work," she said, making Sha take a glance at her sister, who was much the same.
"Oh, sorry... What I mean is, my parents live here, in the worker"s quarters. So I don"t really have a house outside of this place. Sometimes I wish that I could, you know, enjoy my vacations somewhere else," she told Sha. "But man, being a healer must be great. Having people entrust their lives to you, and have them owe you their life when things go wrong..."
"I mean, you know it"s not all that great, right?" Sha asked, thinking of her own hardships.
"Eh? How come?" she asked, her face painted in disbelief.
"You know... People, especially Blessed, are not that thankful," Sha started speaking, a wry smile on her lips. She leaned over and grabbed herself a handful of the snacks from the bowl, offering it to the girl, who took one. "More often than not, they just take being healed for granted, and instead of thanking you," she ate one of the chicken things, the maid mirroring her and widening her eyes. "They are delicious, aren"t they?" she asked the maid, who nodded vigorously, and offered her another. "Like I was saying, instead of thanking you, they blame you for their injuries if you can"t heal them then, say things about how you should have spared mana for them, but are also the first to want you to heal every scratch..." She took a glance at the maid, realizing she was facing the ground now, and realized the look of sympathy on her face. One of a person who had felt the same way for a while already. "And the worse, they blame you for their and your companions deaths." She watched, as the the sympathy in the girl"s eyes turned into shock, and then grief, and remained silent.
"For us, mere normal people... People like you, like them," She pointed at the projection. "Those people are like G.o.ds, above us, perfect and untouchable." she bit her lip, thinking about her next words. "I... never could have expected, in my wildest dreams, to be able to see and talk to that kind of people in my life. I was already happy serving this family, which had no Blessed, but had risen so far up you could barely imagine from below." she said, a smile on her face. "But then, I met Mr. Noah. He was a young boy, around 14, I think, I can"t be sure, and I was just a kid. And I saw in his eyes... that he had a life far worse than I could have ever imagined."
Sha"s eyes widened as she heard this, this girl was about to talk about what she wanted to hear the most. And the curiosity she had shoved deep into herself and never had courage to ask him in depth started to surge once again. Her mouth started to feel dry, and she stared at the girl"s face from the side anxiously, as she saw her take a deep breath, before speaking.