Chapter 97: He who holds the horn. (2)

A somewhat unfamiliar ceiling greeted Gabriel as he opened his eyes, the canopy of the bed visible in the darkness. His lips were sore, and the scratches a bit below his ears were still itching. The sensations helped keep his mind clear even though he just woke up.

There was a slight pressure on his chest, when he tilted his head slightly he could see Edith, the young orphan girl that Alice had been comforting when he arrived. The girl didn’t wake up no matter how long he and Alice kept kissing, but she ended up waking up once, during what should be the morning.

She woke up with tears in her eyes and Gabriel could tell that she was about to keep crying, her eyes blurry and hazy as she still seemed to be trapped in her nightmare. Alice had been sleeping at this time, and he didn’t want her to wake up since she seemed rather tired, so he pulled the girl close.

He had no idea what to tell someone in her position, he’d never received any comfort like that as a child. But he still wanted her to stop crying, so even though it was probably wrong, he told her something that occasionally gave him peace when he was younger.

“They’re dead. Your captors are dead, and those who escaped are going to die soon. They are dead, but you are alive. You were stronger than them, so you outlived them, now they no longer have any power over you.”

As expected, the girl trembled when Gabriel’s voice reached her, as his hand rested on her back. But he kept repeating the words and held her close, Edith eventually burying her face in his chest and sobbing quietly.

In the end, her consciousness was reclaimed by slumber some time at noon, the bright rays of the sun blocked out thanks to the thick curtains. Alice was also still sleeping so it seemed as if she had been a fair bit more tired than she looked.

As Edith slept this time, she looked far more at peace, her furrowed brows smoothing out. As strange as it may be, Gabriel could understand her current peace. The reason she could sleep so peacefully right now, it was probably because she was just a child, and children were generally more sensitive to the air around people.

When Gabriel was a child, he constantly hopped between missions in the civil war, there was never really a day where he could sleep peacefully in a safe bed. He had no control over his life, just getting tossed about as other people pleased.

But even so, there were times where he could feel at peace. Namely, when she slept. The reason was simple, he always had a gun when she slept. Tracing the cold metal with a finger always allowed his mind to calm down, the thudding of his heart to still. With this weapon in his hand, he had control. There were many things he couldn’t control, but with that cold thing in his hands he could at least control his own life and death. And that small fact allowed him a certain measure of peace.

Right now, Edith was probably experiencing the same thing. She was a child so she was sensitive to people’s air’s, she could feel how dangerous Gabriel was, like a sharp blade waiting to be drawn. So sleeping there, leaning her body on him, he was her gun, the thing that gave her a measure of control over her own life and death.

Well, that was where his understanding ended. Gabriel’s peace had come from an inanimate item, a weapon that would only act when he wanted it to, that was why it gave him peace. To feel a similar peace from a person, and one you didn’t even know… It was inconceivable to Gabriel.

He slowly and carefully removed the girl from his chest. Judging by what he could just barely see through the curtains, he had fallen asleep after Edith, night once again falling. The investiture had already started rather late, and with the subsequent investigation taking them through several cities it inevitably took quite some time, it couldn’t be helped that they were all rather tired once a measure of peace hit them.

But this bit of rest was already enough for now. There were still things to do so it was time for Gabriel to get up, quietly sneaking out of the bed so that Alice and Edith could keep sleeping. He slipped into the walk-in closet and picked out some simple clothes, quickly changing before he silently left the room.

“Hm?”

But he couldn’t help but stop the moment he left the room, the door closing behind him. Someone was sitting on the floor in the hallway, a mere two steps from the door, golden eyes firmly locked on the closed door.

A small and thin frame that was still covered by a fair bit of dirt, both dust and what was probably dried blood. Golden eyes that had sunken in somewhat, with large bags underneath them, and raven black hair that was clumped together because of the dirt. The person, a little girl who didn’t look older than seven, was still dressed in what could only be called rags.

She had a scar on her face, a malformed thing that started next to her right eye, curved beneath it and then stretched across her face, crossing her nose and passing beneath her other eye. Smaller arcs spread out from the main scar, scattering across her right cheek and only stopping when they reached her lips. Gabriel didn’t know her, but just looking at her current state made it clear that she was one of the slaves that Alice had just taken in, an exceedingly tired one at that.

“…”

The two looked at each other in silence for a moment. Looking at the child’s eyes, Gabriel could somewhat tell why she had a scar like that. Her gaze was strong, unyielding, stubborn. Her captors probably had a hard time trying to tame her, ramping up their intensity in hopes that they could break her spirit. But evidently, they failed. The girl remained strong.

“She is still sleeping so don’t disturb her.”

The child didn’t speak up, so it fell to Gabriel to speak first, turning his body slightly as he started to walk. Seeing as the girl had just been sitting there she was clearly waiting for Alice, her savior. But unlike Edith, who simply looked frightened, this girl looked like she had something to say. But it would have to wait until Alice woke up.

Tap tap tap

“…”

Tap tap tap

“…”

Tap tap tap

“…”

But contrary to what Gabriel expected, the girl got up as soon as he left and stuck close to him. She was a fair bit smaller than him so she had to walk rather quickly to keep up with him, her unyielding expression remaining unchanged as she hurried after him.

She followed him through the mansion, which was basically deserted because Alice and Gabriel hadn’t hired any staff or guards. She had to jump after him whenever he went down a flight of stairs just to keep up with him, almost falling over several times. In the end, his feet stopped and he turned around, once again locking eyes with her.

“What do you want? If you remain silent then no one will ever know.”

The girl had to raise her head so sharply to meet his gaze that one might think that her neck would snap if she leaned her head further. But even so, she maintained her eye contact, almost scowling at Gabriel.

“You didn’t leave the room all last night. You also didn’t leave it all of today, So I had to wait.”

For a moment, it sounded like she was trying to complain, but her gaze made it clear that she was just stating facts, explaining why he found her where she did.

“That’s not what I asked.”

Gabriel gave a short gesture with his hand as he responded, gesturing that she should get on with it. Internally, he felt like scratching his head because he had no idea why she would bother sticking to him.

“I saw you in the dungeon. The bad men sometimes brought in things they called wolves and tigers to scare the older prisoners, strong beasts that could tear us apart in seconds they called them.”

The first dungeon, from where Teresa had brought Edith, basically all the slaves they freed had come from there. Gabriel had entered along with the other inquisitors so it was inevitable that all the would-be slaves there ended up seeing him. As for why this girl was bringing up a story like that…

“You smell like those beasts, but stronger. Train me.”

A small arm stretched out, a thin finger pointing directly at Gabriel. The girl’s golden pupils quivered slightly as she stood there, but she held her ground and kept pointing. Yeah, Gabriel could see why the captors saw the need to use means heavy enough to cause a scar like that.

“Kid, what’s your name?”

There seemed to be something quite wrong with the little girl’s head, but perhaps that was only to be expected after she was forced to endure something like that. Gabriel turned around again as he spoke and started to move away again, the little girl quickly hurrying after him as she responded.

“Don’t got one. Gimme one.”

She spoke so simply and quickly that it almost seemed like she was asking for a piece of candy. Still, Gabriel didn’t look back at her as he kept moving, simply tossing his response over his shoulders.

“Don’t have one, don’t remember it, or don’t want to give it?”

It wasn’t uncommon for slaves and the like to want to discard their own names after being freed, it served as a way to sever ties with their past. Gabriel had seen it plenty of times amongst the soldiers that got to retire due to their injuries. At the same time, it also wasn’t uncommon for them to just forget their names since they generally worked on a codename basis. But in this girl’s case…

“Don’t got one, they said that I was sold before I was even born so there was no need to give me one. So gimme.”

Another story that wasn’t terribly uncommon, Gabriel saw it occasionally when he took on missions in the worse parts of southern America. Some families simply couldn’t afford children, it was better to just sell them ahead of time to get something out of it.

His feet stopped again for a moment, his eyes drifting over his shoulder for a moment. Scouring his memories, he had to admit that this little girl was probably the first kid sold straight into slavery that managed to retain a gaze like that.

It only made sense really, those sold straight into slavery knew only the whip of their captors, they generally broke before they even understood what was going on. Gabriel had been similar to that, having been raised to fight in the civil war by his father. It was simply all he knew so he never really questioned it.

But the girl maintained her headstrong gaze despite it all so she clearly had extraordinary mental fortitude. That, or well, perhaps she really was just messed up in the head.

Gabriel reached the entrance of the mansion shortly after the girl made her statement, pushing open the double doors and allowing the cold air of the night to wash over them. The dark sky was clear, glittering with stars as far as the eye could see. The number that constantly hung in the air covered some of the stars he could see, but it felt infinitely small against the endless expanse of shimmering lights.

“Alright. But why should I train you? You’ve been given your freedom, you’ll be given a place to stay and probably a teacher or two, so go enjoy your freedom and run around like a little kid.”

Gabriel gave his response as he left the mansion, breathing deeply of the cool air. The doors shut behind them, the girl shivering slightly due to her thin rags yet still following Gabriel. Her gaze was strong, unyielding.

“I was given to those bad men.”

Her response was exceedingly simple, her voice dripping with an all-too familiar hostility, a type of hatred that Gabriel could understand.

“…”

He took a few steps away from the door, the girl quickly scurrying after him. She was trembling from the cold air, but she didn’t even clutch her shoulders, her fists clenched tightly.

“And now I was given to you to be free.”

It sounded a bit weird, but what she said wasn’t technically wrong. She was only free because she was given to Alice.

“I don’t want to be given anything, I want to earn it.”

The girl finally got to the root of it all, the very reason she had snuck away from the other people that had been taken in. The reason she had sat down in the dark hallway and quietly waited in front of the door, watching the door without sleeping.

“Anything given can be taken, and I don’t want my things to be taken away anymore.”

Her freedom had been taken before she was even born, her food had been taken away while she was a slave, her peace had been taken away, her will to live had slowly been taken, her occasional friend was taken. Everything she acquired or was given was eventually taken away, that was the nature of her life.

“So train me to be strong like you.”

But she could tell from looking at Gabriel. He didn’t do anything in the dungeon, but she could smell it. He was dangerous, he was strong. She’d always had a keen sense for things like that, keener than most in fact. Ah, if it was someone like him then he wouldn’t have to suffer with having his things taken away. No, he wasn’t someone who had things taken from him, he was the one who did the taking.

“Train me, I want to earn my freedom on my own.”

The girl stretched out her arm again, presenting a calloused and rough palm to Gabriel. A beast, that was what she called him. But the gaze that was looking at him was unyielding, with only the slightest quiver in her golden pupils.

Gabriel’s gaze lingered on the stubborn girl for a few moments before it drifted away. When he raised his head slightly, he could see the window of his room, the curtains still closed. Alice would still be in there, sleeping peacefully. A long breath escaped him as he thought of her.

“Ah… What have you done to me…?”

He muttered to himself for a moment. He was… different now. He could feel it within himself, within his chest and head, she had changed him.

His hand moved over to his shoulder and unfastened the cloak that hung around his neck, pulling it off before he dropped it on top of the girl’s head.

“Bellona, go to the room I just left and hop into the bed. But do it carefully so that the two people sleeping there don’t wake up.”

He spoke with a sigh, a long and heavy breath slipping out. The little girl struggled with the large and fluffy coat, he could see her small hands fiddle around as she tried to remove it from her face.

“Hm, He, Gah… Who is Bellona, and what about my training?”

Well, of course she would be surprised if he just spoke like that. But Gabriel could hear a slight twinkle in her voice so she’d probably already guessed a few things.

Gabriel looked up at the distant window again, the small scratches beneath his ears tickling again for a moment. Hmmm… It wasn’t that terrible, to feel like a person. His hand reached out and landed on the cloak, his palm landing on what felt like a head. He didn’t fix the cloak, he didn’t even ruffle the head beneath it, he just held his hand there for a few moments before he removed it, leaving the girl, Bellona now, with a few words.

“She’s a goddess of war. We’ll talk about training later, get some sleep first or you’ll never be able to live up to that name.”