Chapter 15: Girl, Becomes a Hero
THE sun poked out from the east. Squinting against the dazzling morning light, Nichika sat up in the shrubs she had made into her bed. Groaning, she stretched and popped each aching limb.
“Oww, everything hurts… Gosh darn it, my clothes are drenched.”
Morning dew weighed down her clothes with a sticky, icky wetness. Today was refreshingly sunny, the complete opposite from yesterday. A few white clouds drifted along the enchanting light purple dawn sky.
“Oswald? Wake up. It’s morning.”
A few feet away, a man sleeping on the same waterproof cloth slowly sat up. He always had a terrible case of bedhead whenever he woke up. After staring sleepily at his glasses, he put them on upside down.
Too tired to poke fun at him, Nichika gave him sound advice. “Why don’t you take them off? You’ll look different from yesterday.”
Nichika finished tying her hair in a high ponytail to match the loose tunic and plain shorts she wore instead of a skirt and blouse. At a glance, she looked like a boy.
Oswald stripped off his black coat—she quickly averted her eyes because he did it right in front of her—and changed into what all the village men were wearing.
They left their clothes out to dry in an inconspicuous spot and set out. Last night they were driven away from the village into the nearby forest. Oswald, fully awake now, shook his head and stretched. Yawning, he started the strategy meeting.
“Come up with any ideas overnight?”
“None. We just have to destroy Angelica’s crystal, but the village is on the lookout for us, so I doubt we can get close enough even with the Elusive Ball.”
It’d be perfect if she had a way to snipe the crystal, but Nichika was only skilled at wide and close range magic. Sniping would be extra difficult without the staff to offset her mistakes. It would be tragic if she roasted the girl to death, so that option needed to be taken off the board.
Sighing, Nichika put the same question to Oswald. “And did you come up with any plans? Trickery is your forte.”
“If sniping is out of the picture, how about persuasion? Or having that butler steal for us?”
Angelica’s haughty laughter and a fainthearted, cowering Will crossed both their minds. Why couldn’t either of them envision him succeeding? Unable to shake his unease with that plan, Oswald decided to approach it from a different perspective.
“The main point is that we just need to expose that priss as a fake and prove you’re the real deal, right? Dragging her credibility through the mud is a good option… I’ve done it plenty of times before.”
Nichika didn’t think he should be bragging about how he’s good at ruining people, but she had experienced how badly he turned such comments back on her too many times for comfort, and discerned that silence was the best policy.
Oswald rubbed his chin between his fingers. “We don’t have enough cards to stack the deck—what’s that?”
Slight vibrations shook the ground. They saw a herd of brown monsters passing the foot of the hill.
“Are those wild boars?” Nichika asked, surprised to see a familiar animal. “That’s a huge group…”
“Dodongagas,” Oswald corrected. “They’re an unintelligent monster that thoughtlessly charges after the one in front…and they have a certain habit.” He paused with a conniving smirk. Whenever he looked like a boy who came up with an ingenious prank it never bode well for her. Meeting her expectations, he announced his less-than-friendly strategy. “I’ve got it. Let’s redirect that herd into the village.”
“You’ve gotta be kidding!”
“Dodongagas have a habit of charging after red. We’ll use that to our advantage.”
Nichika had very mixed feelings about how she was gradually learning how to predict what her master was plotting. Setting aside her horror, she confirmed the finer details with him.
“Is that safe? How many people will get hurt?”
“A field or two might be ruined, but they’ll just have to forgive us for it. Better than them continuing to be scammed by that fake Holy Maiden.”
Oswald’s plan was to lure the dodongagas into the village’s fields with a red cloth. No match for a stampede, the villagers would rely on the “Spirit Priestess” to run off the unruly monsters. But the girl they adored was nothing more than a sheltered little princess. Once the villagers lost trust in Angelica who wouldn’t be able to do a thing, Nichika would appear and valiantly drive away the monsters. Then Angelica would be tossed in jail within the hour.
But Nichika couldn’t hide her apprehension with his plan. And she had this nagging feeling they were forgetting something important.
“You think it will go that well?” she asked, frustrated she couldn’t remember what they were forgetting. “To start, how are you even going to get your hands on a red cloth?”
“We’ve already got the perfect ingredients.”
“Ah,” she uttered after he said it.
Brimming with confidence, her master enacted the plan. “We’re off to the village. It’s time to manipulate the rumor mill.”
✦ ✦ ✦
MORNING began at the crack of dawn for Brownie Village. Life in the village revolved around working in the fields, as could be said of most farming villages in the countryside. The main street bustled accordingly with the time of day.
The baker’s wife stepped outside to put out the open sign and began gossiping with the shoemaker’s wife who came out to do the same thing. These ladies gossiped whenever they saw each other in the morning and at night.
“Did you hear? They say some no-good travelers interrupted the Holy Maiden’s concert yesterday.”
“The ones rumored to have been tossed in jail?”
“Yes, the very same. Well, wait until you hear this. I heard they broke out of jail and ran away yesterday! And then get this…” the baker’s wife giggled and lowered her voice to a secretive whisper. “What do you think they found when they finally checked inside the cell? Yvonne’s husband sound asleep without his pants on!”
“No way! How did that happen?”
“That’s what we all want to know! What a joke.”
A boy wearing a hat had appeared in front of the women while they were enjoying their gossip. They didn’t recognize him from the village, but the face shadowed under the large cap was so adorable it immediately washed away their wariness.
“Good morning. Are you out on an errand, lad?” the shoemaker’s wife asked.
“Good morning, ma’am! I sure am. Boss sent me to handle the shopping. Can I buy two pairs of sturdy rain boots from you?”
“Rain boots, is it? I certainly have some in stock. What size? Are they for you, lad?”
The shoemaker’s wife fetched two pairs of rain boots, one for a man and one for a boy. She grew suspicious as she wrapped them and put them in a bag. “Why are you buying rain boots when the weather is so nice? I have plenty of other shoes available if you like.”
The boy paid for the shoes and confidently shook his head. “The boots are good, thank you. My boss is amazing at predicting the weather. As I understand it, there will be a great downpour just past noon no matter how good that day’s weather is if the morning songbird chirps slowly three times in a row, followed by two fast chirps. You ladies best prepare yourselves for a downpour. Bye!”
The boy bowed and ran off. The wives exchanged looks and changed what goods they were going to lay out for the day. They both returned inside their shops and spoke to their husbands.
“Darling, I heard it’s going to rain this afternoon. Hot stuffed rolls might sell well.”
“Honey, we have to break out our stock of rain boots from the back.”
✦ ✦ ✦
KLEHNA leaves could be severely damaged by heavy rainfall right before harvest, drastically reducing their commercial value. Therefore, it was common sense in Brownie Village to secure the leaves under row covers whenever it was about to rain.
In one terraced field, two people pinned down a thick white cloth while looking up at the fairly clear sky.
“Is it really gonna rain?”
“Ma said so. The baker’s wife had a famous traveling fortune teller predict the weather for her and he said it’s absolutely gonna pour just past noon today.”
Rumors tend to become exaggerated as they’re passed around, but that was especially true in this village with nothing to talk about. Everyone ended up thinking that the baker’s wife paid a large sum to a fortune teller that morning and had the weather predicted.
The boy from earlier was naturally Nichika disguised as a boy following the scenario Oswald gave her. Such a simple little fib moved an entire village into taking action. Rumors are not to be underestimated.
The villagers wiped their foreheads when they had almost finished laying the row covers over the fields.
“Man, it’s hot and humid.”
“What did ya expect? We’ve been gettin’ some strange weather since last night.”
The two villagers stretched out the rest of the thick cloth while avoiding the mud at their feet.
“Uh? What is that?” one of the villagers asked.
A horde of brown was scurrying over the top of the hill. These monsters were commonly seen around here, but the problem was that they were charging right into the terraced fields!
“Oh spirits! It’s the dodongagas!”