The next day we headed off towards Edgeworth Village.
I had originally planned to go by myself, but Alicia and Fate made a fuss the mont they realized that I was going outside of the country. My plan was to only be away for the day and be back by night, though it would be squeezing things a little tight depending on what was going to happen.
Folding space all the way to Edgeworth was beyond the current . Flying would take a few hours each way so anything less than the whole day was unlikely to work for .
Though, a part of why I allowed them to co with was because it was reassuring as well.
It would be the first ti I was away from the two for so long, and that fact made nervous. Even if Claret was used to caring for them for a few hours at a ti, this would be several tis that.
So in the end, Claret and I flew through the twilight hours while I carried my babies.
It would be their first ti seeing a place outside of the Hourai Commonwealth. The first ti they see humans or beastkin. Depending on who it is that wanted to see , maybe even dwarves.
Though fortunately the light races that they haven't seen didn't look too different from us so they probably won't have much trouble there. But they would be eting strangers up close, so it did make worry a bit.
It was probably best I hold onto them the entire ti.
We made or way through the air towards the village. Fortunately it was to the west, so the rising sun was at our backs, easing the burden on our eyes.
It didn't take too long before we got close and made the rest of the way on foot to avoid looking too suspicious. Orphne could fly all the way without problems, but it would be weird for soone not a fairy to enter the village airborne. I'd have no way to explain it as they didn't know I was a vampire, and entering while invisible was pretty rude when I was invited.
I greeted the guard at the gate and passed through without incident.
Or at least, nothing that appeared to be trouble. The guy dashed off right after letting us through and closed the gates.
Since he left without a parting word, I just continued my way to Mint's store. Since Orphne only received his ssage just the day before, he should have still been in the village rather than already out on his trade route.
"Holy shit they're real."
"Umm...hi?"
When I entered the store, the bored looking man behind the counter gave the rudest greeting I've ever had. It was so rude in fact, that I wasn't even sure how to take offence to it.
*Whack!*
"Just what in the world are you saying to a custor!"
After a few brief monts of awkward silence, another figure ca out from the back room and slugged the man in the back of his head.
"I'm terribly sorry about that. I don't know what got into this moron's head."
"Uh, no. It's fine."
"Ow! Ow! It hurts!"
The figure proceeded to put the young man into a headlock that even a professional wrestler would be proud of.
"If you have any suggestions for punishnts for this idiot, please don't hesitate to tell Miss Scarlet."
"No, umm, I'll leave that to you."
Personally, I'd rather just forget about the incident entirely and pretend it didn't happen, so making any mories regarding the fallout of the event worked against .
"Thank you for your kindness. Hey! What do you have to say to Miss Scarlet?"
"Ow! Okay, okay! I'll say it! Thanks for your kindness Miss Scarlet!"
"Umm...no problem."
"Ow! Stop it! I can walk on my own!"
*Bang! Crash!*
Still in that headlock position, the older figure slowly dragged the younger back to the adjacent room before the younger was roughly tossed through the entry and the door was slamd shut. There was the sound of tumbling past the heavy wooden door, but I pretended not to notice.
"Really, I'm sorry about that idiot son of mine."
"I said it's fine. Let's put it behind us already Mint."
The owner of the store, and the contact I had developed here in Edgeworth Village, Mint. The other man was his son, and the few tis I had t him, he did try to hit on . It was quite annoying, but for the sake of my relationship with Mint, I tried to brush it off as gently as possible. Maybe that was the reason why he never got the ssage?
Or maybe he was just that stubborn.
"Thank you Miss Scarlet. You really more than live up to your nasake."
"Ahaha..."
It's been quite a while, but I had forgotten that a lot of people constantly connect to the Scarlet of the past who was known to the public as a saint, even though it brought enmity to the church, and likely ended up getting her killed.
While I didn't like it that people put undue expectations on because of the association, there wasn't much I could do when I end up living up to those exact expectations. The fact that it results in the public line between her and being blurred, as annoying as it was, wasn't really sothing I could do much about. Especially at this point.
I could only hope that as ti moved on, I'd eventually step out of her shadow.
Though I wasn't exactly looking to becoming a public figure in the first place, so being forgotten by the greater populace wasn't exactly a big deal. Or rather, if that's what it took for to escape the previous Scarlet's shadow, I welcod it wholeheartedly.
"Still, I have to say that your twins are quite adorable."
"Oh, thanks!"
Mint stepped around the counter and ca over, leaning in to get a good look at my cute little babies.
Both of them sat in my arms, but Alicia turned to look straight at Mint. Fate on the other hand hugged tighter and buried her face in my chest. The difference in reaction, it might have had to do with the fact that Alicia had reincarnated like I had.
Since she was blind in her previous life, she was less capable of recognizing people than normal even if she could rember. But even then, it was possible that she recognized Mint's voice, as this was the village she was originally born and raised in.
Fate on the other hand, she reacted exactly as I had figured. Expecting her to react well to new people was asking for too much. I just hoped that she wouldn't get startled to the point that she'd start crying.
"Yes, they take after you so much, I have no doubt that they'll beco incredible beauties in the future."
"Ehehe, yea. I bet they'll be as beautiful in the future as they are cute right now!"
The corners of my lips rose to the point that my cheeks hurt, and still they continued to rise further. Having my babies complinted like that went right to my head.
"Oh, I see. You ended up becoming THAT kind of mother huh?"
"What kind?"
Hearing the odd mumbled statent, tilted my head as I asked Mint about it.
"No, it's nothing. Don't worry about it."
"Oh, alright."
Maybe he didn't an for to actually hear it. It was quite quiet after all. Maybe if I was still human, I wouldn't have even noticed it.
"Oh yea, how's things been going with Orphne? Has there been any problems?"
"No, things have been going quite smoothly. The transfer of goods with Lady Orphne has been quite uneventful, thankfully."
"LADY Orphne?"
"Is, is sothing the matter?"
(A ton of things! Or rather, why lady?!)
"Umm, why do you call her Lady Orphne?"
"Isn't that how everyone calls her? When she introduced herself, she said that it was how everyone called her back ho. She said that she was part of the noble class."
(That lying bitch!)
On one hand I was glad that she wasn't causing trouble over here where I couldn't see her, but at the sa ti, that was so lie she had made for herself!
"She's not nobility or anything. Just my subordinate."
"Oh, is that the case..."
"It is. Make sure everyone knows. While she does represent , that's all there is to it. You can think of her as an errand girl. If she causes trouble, feel free to do what you think is right."
It looked like I needed to co here once in a while to make sure that Orphne wasn't hiding anything from .
I sighed at the extra work that little fairy had suddenly made .
(At least what she's done so far isn't really a big deal.)
The potential consequences was big, but as long as it didn't get out of this village, it wasn't really anything serious.
I'd have to give Orphne a bit of a talking to, but hopefully that'll be enough.
"Anyways, you said in your letter that soone wanted to talk to ?"
We were getting quite derailed. Though it might be a good place for Alicia to get her mories back, Fate was clearly uncomfortable being in such a foreign place so I didn't want to stay here longer than I had to.
"Oh right. Actually, the ones who wanted to talk to you aren't here, but they're actually waiting for you in Linsington City."
"All the way out there?"
Frankly, the thought of going back there was making nervous. Last ti I went there, I ended up killing the lord of the city. And while it didn't seem like anyone suspected specifically, I didn't want to take any risks I didn't have to.
"I would've figured that it was soone who had business with , they'd take the extra step to co over to Edgeworth."
"Normally, I would agree with you, but their numbers would make taking them in for any extended period of ti quite difficult for us. Things have beco incredibly good here thanks to you, but even then suddenly having to feed so many at once is beyond our ability."
"There's that many people wanting to see ?"
One or two people I could understand. I had t quite a few people since I started travelling, so it made sense that soone I t would want to see . But if the numbers were that great, I couldn't think of who it could be.
"There are. And due to the fact that the difficult journey just to get this far had taken its toll on them, so I thought it would be better that they rest sowhere more comfortable."
"I see. That makes sense."
It made sense, but made things more annoying for .
"If you'd like, I can get my wagon ready and we can head out at any mont, though I imagine that you would be faster on your own."
"Yea, I'd rather head off on my own, but..."
Going there on my own was fine. I could make the trip in under an hour. The problem was the fact that I had no way to find the people who wanted to talk to without Mint being there.
"Yes. It's good then that Miss Philia knows how to contact them then."
"Philia?"
(What a nostalgic na.)
It had been years since I last t the director of one of the orphanages in Linsington. That old dwarf lady had taken quite a liking of , and I liked her as well. The orphans that she took care of as well. They were all pretty fun little kids to play with. So of them would have left the orphanage by this point, and there would have been so new ones as well, but I should recognize most of them.
"Yes. I introduced them to Philia. I figured that should could help them if sothing ca up. Especially since I had to co back here to send the ssage to you."
"I see."
While relying so heavily on Philia made a bit nervous since she had so much on her plate already, there wasn't exactly anyone else we could rely on. The only other people I knew was a few at the local Adventurers' Guild, but that was about it. My relations with them was purely professional as well, so asking them to help out here would be pretty difficult.
"I think I'll go head over right now."
The sooner I get this done, the better after all.
"Oh, I think that might be a little difficult..."
Mint looked away while sweating for so reason.
(Now that I think about it, it's getting a bit noisy outside.)
"Is there sothing else?"
"Oh no. At least not on my end."
"Oookay..."
Well, with my business done here, I turned headed out...
Only to be greeted by a giant crowd.
"It's really her!"
"It's Saint Scarlet!"
"She ca herself!"
All around were the villagers of this little settlent. While due to our height difference, I couldn't see how far the crowd went, but [sense presence] suggested that almost the entire village was here.
The people all were making noisy exclamations about this and that, mostly related to sohow. As for why, it couldn't just be because I was here, was it?
(It would be annoying if they did this every ti I ca to this village. Maybe I should start avoiding this place?)
But after a few monts, everyone quieted down, then along with the volu, their heads were lowered.
Alicia and Fate on the other hand, got bored and just snuggled against my chest. Maybe crowds like this wasn't really much to concern themselves with, since it was quite common in the commonwealth. Though this level of reverence was unusual, it was possible that they just didn't recognize the difference at their age.
Finally, Claret...she was simply behind with her arms wrapped around my shoulders, invisible to everyone but myself and perfectly content ignoring them while being unnoticed.
"Hey, there's no need to lower your heads like this."
Slowly, one by one, they raised their heads. But the reverence in their eyes didn't fade in the slightest.
(Geez, I didn't create a settlents of fanatics or sothing, did I?)
I was really hoping that so sort of weird cult wouldn't pop up due to my actions. Fortunately everyone at the Hourai Commonwealth had accepted as one of the elders, so that title and status managed to quell any potential of blowing their image of out of perspective.
But such a thing didn't exist here. Not only that, but I had actually saved the village and the lives of many here due to the new industry and trade I had created virtually singlehandedly. The scale combined with the lack of a natural limiter was just begging for everything to explode in the one direction I wanted to avoid.
"Look, I think I get what's going on, but you're all making too much of a deal of it. In the end, all I did was get you guys to work for , to make sothing I needed."
"Miss Scarlet, I don't think those words of yours are very persuasive."
"Why not?!"
It wasn't like I disagreed with Mint who ca from behind, but if I didn't know how I was doing it wrong, there was no way for to fix it. If he could tell that, then I'd be pretty grateful.
"Well, everyone knows that not only did you create the paper mill here when you could have made it anywhere else, but also set things up so you'll buy all the paper produced here. I don't know how much it could be worth elsewhere, but you are buying it at quite a decent price."
It was a bit hard to argue. The whole point at first was to buy the paper at a price point what wouldn't hurt my bank too much while making sure that the village could survive on it for the anti until the people here got back onto their feet.
"I an, that's just good business though."
"That maybe true, but when you add in the fact that not only are you buying the paper for goods which we here desperately need rather than purely with coins which would make it difficult to transport the food we need from elsewhere. On top of that, you've donated quite a lot to this village. From food to buying our local goods, you're practically the patron saint of Edgeworth Village."
"Seriously? A patron saint?"
Mint nodded.
"I don't think that it's much of an exaggeration at all."
"It's true!"
"Saint Scarlet, you've saved us all!"
"We're forever thankful for everything you've done!"
"Ah...ha...ha...ha..."
All I could do was laugh at myself. There was no digging myself out of this. When you added everything up, including the things I did on a whim as well as the things I did secretly, once all of it was exposed, it was hard to say that my actions weren't massive acts of charity that had seriously benefited this village.
In the end, I had to go around and greet the people here like so sort of celebrity. Or rather, I really was a celebrity here once you forcibly described my situation.
It wasn't what I wanted, and frankly made want to run away, but at the very least for now, I'll shake their hands or kiss their babies or whatever. Leaving in a way that soured our relations wasn't sothing I was willing to do, not when all everyone had was good intentions for .
But by the ti things were over, the sun had already started to set.
Not like such a thing was a big deal for , but it was a bit tough convincing everyone that I was in a hurry and that it was better for to just camp out rather than delay my trip.
Of course, it was pure BS. I didn't have to sleep, so there was no need for to camp. Leaving in the evening ant that I could easily get to Linsington City by the next morning when the gates opened.
And so, to a crowd of people waving their hands at , I left the village in the hopes that I wouldn't have to return for a long ti.
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