Chapter 42 - Chapter 42: The Reprieve - Part 7

Chapter 42: The Reprieve – Part Yoban took them out of his office and headed into another room in the manor. Inside stood a few tables covered in various bits of gear and items.

“After everyone sorted through it, I had them bring it here. Now, all of this belongs to you.”

While he had already told her this, it was still a shock to know she owned all this stull. Looking through it all, she found the weapons and armour she remembered the bandits having, including the massive sword the leader had. The rest of the pile had several other bits of gear, which was likely a small portion of the armoury tent the bandits had, possibly from guards they had killed protecting carriages. Other than that, there were other odds and ends that the bandits must have taken from traders or brought with them.

As she started to look for anything useful for her and Lyrika’s travels, she saw all the tents they had, along with pots and pans and other cooking utensils. A lot of it was very bad quality, worse than what she already had. She did however take one of the tents that were in good condition, her current one being just shreds of cloth now.

She also found a few bits of jewellery, some odd gems and silverware which the bandits probably planned on selling. It did surprise her though that none of the people in the village had just claimed it was there’s given its value. Maybe them still dealing with the upsetting situation kept them honest when they sorted through it all.

Pocketing these valuables so she could sell them off herself when she had the chance, she moved on to the weapons and armour. Like with the cooking gear, most of it was badly damaged and rusted beyond use. The only items of any use were the weapons and armour the bandits had been wearing. But, even then the spear she had at the moment was a lot better than what they had been using, it having come from Ameril noble’s estate.

Shifting through the serviceable armour, she did try a few pieces on, but none of it really fit her body type. She felt very uncomfortable wearing it as if it restricted how she moved, and it even dug into her skin. In the end, she left it and stuck to her guns, remaining in her clothes and letting her tough skin do the work of protecting her.

Lyrika did however take some of the available armour, it fitting her nicely, ending up with leather armour that covered her legs and arms. She did try on the chest piece, but it did not work with her assets, squeezing them in all the wrong ways, so she would have to wait until she found some leather armour fitted for a woman. In addition to this, she found herself a nice-looking bow and a vambrace, hidden underneath a few swords. There were however no arrows, annoyingly, but Lyrika said that with a knife, some wood and a few feathers, she could make her own.

She was by no means a savant with a bow, but when she learnt how to hunt and track, she did use one on occasion. Given her plan to deal with the new chief, having just a knife with her felt a little lacking, so she figured taking up the bow would be good for her situation. Plus, it would probably help her get more meat to eat, but neither mentioned this as possibly being her main reason for taking it.

Olivia continued to browse through the weapons and armour not seeing anything that really captured her interest, that is until she saw light glinting off something at the back of the table. Making her way around, she then pulled the few swords, axes and pieces of armour out of the way and found something surprising in the junk.

It was an odd-looking weapon, different from all the others on the table. It was similar to the spear she currently had, in that it had the same reach as it, but the shaft was entirely made of some sort of metal. Another difference was that in place of having just a single point like a spear, this one had several, all on a massive solid ball. All were made of the same metal as the shaft as if it had been forged all together in one go. The spikes at the top were asymmetrical and covered the entirety of the ball having only a short amount of space between each one to the next. Olivia’s first thought was that it was a mace of some kind, but with the length of the shaft, that didn’t seem completely right.

Taking it off the table, she found that it was quite heavy, but with her strength, it felt just right. It wasn’t unwieldy and impossible to lift, nor was it so light it felt like lifting a grape. Examining it further she saw that it was quite ornately designed, but thankfully not in an ostentatious way. A nice pattern was lightly engraved all along the shaft, made up of swirls and flourishes, and a few places just had a wide circle engraved into it, all of it giving it an expensive look but still making it practical, not like it was some sort of display piece.

“What’s that?” Lyrika asked as she made her way over.

“Not sure, some sort of mace.”

“Huh, I’m not a weapon expert myself, but I think what you have there is a Morning Star,” Yoban said as he too walked over and examined it. “With the detail on it, I think it must have been commissioned by a noble or someone of a high rank. It would have been made by a master blacksmith, known for their skill in creating the weapon. This would then have been sent to the noble, and the swirls and patterns engraved into it would be filled by the noble’s own blacksmith with various metals that show off who the noble is and their rank. Those engraved circles that you can see would have the crest or symbol of their region placed inside.”

“It’s beautiful.” Olivia couldn’t help but say as she now understood more about the weapon. “Is it really fine for me to take this?”

“Of course. It was likely a human noble that ordered it. If they heard of the carriage being attacked or the delivery just not being made, they likely would have commissioned another one from somewhere else. No one’s going to be looking for it. Even if for some reason they are, it’s not like the noble would know all the detail that would have gone into the weapon as they would have given some simple description of what they wanted. Only the blacksmith would have this information and they are not going to be out searching for it knowing bandits stole it.”

‘Makes some sense. I guess it should be fine to keep hold of it then.’

Lyrika asked if she could see it, but upon handing it over to her, she found out she could not handle the weight of it.

“Woah!”

The Morningstar fell while in her hands, falling to the floor with a thud and pulling her down with it.

“You could have said it was heavy.”

“Sorry,” Olivia quickly said apologetically as she reached down to help her up.

After a bit of dusting herself off, faux annoyance appeared on Lyrika’s face as she headed back to the table, letting Olivia take the Morningstar again. Back in her hands, Olivia knew that she had found her weapon. She still had the spear and her dagger, she hoped to replace the spear with the morning star completely.

She did however have no idea how to use it, not that she knew how to use the spear either. But she knew she wanted to learn. The spear was probably the only weapon she had some confidence in using, so until she better understood how to use her morning star, she would stick to the spear.

Whom she could get to actually train her when she was a monster in this world she didn’t know.

But really did she need to? How hard could it be? Swing to hit things, and block to not be hit.

…

With the selection of gear out of the way, both of them walked away with their new toys, and some camping supplies. They decided to leave the rest of the gear to the village to do what they liked. There was no way to take it with them, and a lot of it would probably have to be scrapped or melted down to be of any use. With how the village currently was, leaving the rest to help make them some extra coin seemed like the best idea.

Next on the agenda was to grab some grub and visit the village stores to stock up for the journey.

It didn’t take too long. They helped themselves to some fresh fruit and vegetables as well as preserved goods such as the staple of hardtack and jerky. They didn’t have much in the way of space, so not much else could be brought with them, but from what they did manage to get was a good several days worth of food which should be enough to reach the next village and then some. With the last bit of space they had, they decided to take a good small bag full of salt. With Lyrika’s voracious appetite for meat, salt as a way to cure it would be necessary to keep the meat from rotting for longer. Something Lyrika wholeheartedly agreed that they needed to take.

…

For the last item on the agenda before they left, something that only cropped up recently, they both figured a little practice with their new weapons was in order. While there wasn’t anything like a training ring, target dummies or a teacher for that matter, all they really wanted to do was feel out the weapon and get used to it.

First came the arrows for Lyrika, who after some searching, was able to get a few arrows from one of the villagers, them being part of what was left to them after their husband had died during the initial raid of the village.

After giving their condolences, they headed to the outskirts of the village and set up a few places to practice. The only stuff they had to hand though was a wooden cart and a young tree.

Lyrika took the cart, standing a good distance away and got started with her practice shots. Olivia took some time to just watch her shoot before heading over to the tree. It took Lyrika a while to get into the grove, but before long she was able to get…most of the arrows in the cart. Just not with much accuracy. But given that Olivia probably wouldn’t be able to even pull the arrow back in the bow without it falling then and there, meant that Lyrika was doing very well with it.

As Lyrika continued with that, Olivia decided to give her weapon a try. By the tree, she hefted it up, holding it in both hands, one by its base and the other just past the midpoint. Then she swung.

With the size of the thing, it would have been pretty terrible if she actually missed the tree in front of her.

Which thankfully, she didn’t.

However, she didn’t hit it with the head of the Morningstar but with the shaft instead. Adjusting herself, she was able to get the distance right and slam the spikes into the wood of the tree with a reassuring thud.

There wasn’t much else Olivia could think to do without having someone to actually train her in its use, so she just continued to swing the thing in different directions and angles, trying to get her accuracy, speed and strength to work together to give a good hit each time.

After a while with this, she figured some practice with the spear was in order as well, just to cover all her bases.

…

With all their business in the village now concluded, they decided now was the time to head off to the next village. Saying their goodbyes to Yoban and a good deal of the villagers, they headed out and took off towards the next one.

As they did, both missed the scathing insults the prisoners were spouting in their cells at the guards, all annoyed at how things had turned out. They also missed Jonah sitting quietly, plotting and planning how he would get out of this mess and make the monster Olivia pay.

But more importantly, they also missed Philly heading out to find her new research subject, having spent the afternoon writing in her book, only to have found her gone.

Not that that would deter her though.