The Unworthy and The Damned

by Billy Wong

  Elly grinned. "No, thank you for the delightful conversation. I feel like I've learned a lot about church knights today." Er, well...

  "Thanks for putting another notch on my belt too," Edge added as they exited the inn. Clean shaven with neat hair for once, he at least looked presentable enough to go into a clothing store now.

  "You cheated!"

  "I did not. You reacted too slo-" He sniffed the air. "Hey, do you smell something?" Celia sure did. It must have hit them both at once, a sudden overpowering stench of rot. From where did it come?

  "Might this be the dark magic you were looking for?" Lynn asked, face scrunched up with disgust. It might have been, if she hadn't made that up...

  Screams sounded from ahead of them. Elly looked around, then her eyes fixed on something and she pointed. "Look, there!"

  From a side street shambled a massive bipedal form, tall as a four-story building and almost as wide. The already unbearable smell intensified with its appearance, so it most likely came from it. Slowly, Celia's eyes made out individual features on its bumpy skin—what looked like bones, shriveled limbs, and lifeless rotting faces. What in creation... It reached down, grabbed a pedestrian too petrified to flee in a titanic hand. The hapless man screamed, pushing futilely at the putrid flesh which surrounded him, then popped in an explosion of blood, squeezed in an instant into an unrecognizable lump. It turned towards perhaps where it sensed the greatest concentration of people—the inn.

  "Run!" Celia said, grabbing Lynn's hand in case she would be frozen on her own and fleeing with Edge into a nearby alley. "What on earth is that thing? It looks and smells dead, but it's still moving, and what are those human-like body parts on it?"

  "It must be a cemetery golem," Edge mumbled under his breath, "made from scores of corpses fused and animated by fell sorcery. A thing of tall tales even to assassins, the secrets of making it thought lost for ages."

  "It's certainly here now, though." She peeked out. The creature neared the inn. Wait, where was Elly? She did a double take as she realized the girl still stood before the door. "Jed, I thought you would hold on to the br... the little miss!"

  "You didn't say anything."

  Elly stared towards the alley they had fled into. "Holy knight, what the hell?" she shouted. "Do something!"

  Celia weighed whether or not she should risk drawing attention to them by yelling back, but in the end couldn't leave the stupid girl to die. "Stop standing there being loud and hide before you get killed!"

  To her disbelief, Elly didn't move. "Leia, what are you doing? This is your job."

  But it wasn't her job, and besides she would be in way over her head against a monster like that. Anyway she had tried her best to save Elly, and if she wouldn't follow common sense and run, there was nothing more Celia could reasonably do... she realized Elly had vanished. She must've come to her senses after all.

  Then the girl was in front of her, countenance dark with annoyance. Celia and Edge both gaped at her appearance. How had she gotten here so fast? In a tone infinitely more serious than any she'd used before, though that was understandable enough, she said, "People are dying out there. Lend me your cloak."

  "What?"

  Before she could say anything else, Elly had somehow snatched off her garment, and with inexplicable smoothness whipped the heavy thing onto her shoulders. "If you don't do anything, I will. Sword, come." One of the rings on her right hand glowed, and an exotic slightly curved hilt materialized between her fingers. A massive and even more curved blade extended from it, longer than she was tall. Celia felt like she stood in a dream, so surreal was what she saw. Who was this little rich girl, who now showed a side of herself nobody would ever suspect she had?

  Elly sprinted out of the alley, darting almost too swiftly to follow at the cemetery golem. A gigantic arm swept down. She jumped into an uppercut with the sword, and half the limb fell off to thump against the cobbles. Her blade had sheared right through it, yet it didn't seem to slow her ascent a bit... Rising above the golem with her leap—how was that possible?—she kicked down at its head so it bent forward a bit, then raised the unusual sword high. "Holy... Guillotine!" Elly chopped through its neck, the head tumbling away. She landed straddling one of its shoulders as it fell to its knees and stayed that way instead of collapsing further. Raising a diminutive fist, she said, "God has blessed us with victory!" in a deeper than usual voice. An approximation of her own voice perhaps, Celia thought.

  The golem's remaining arm reached up towards Elly. It could still move? She jumped over the hand, flipped downward in midair and dove sword-first towards the stump of its neck. "Penance Judgment!" she yelled, driving down through her enemy's body until she burst out its crotch. Its halves started to topple away from one another and then fell apart, showering the street with corpseflesh.

  "So 'Elly' is actually..." Edge breathed.

  Celia realized from the burning of her eyes that she had forgotten to blink, and finally did. "A church knight?"

  "No, I don't think so."

  "What, then? And what's with the silly attack naming?"

  Landing lightly on the ground, Elly glanced around at the crowd which began to approach her. She dashed between them into the alley, whipped Celia's cloak off and handed it back to her. "Put it on, hurry! Sword, return." The blade in her grasp disappeared, presumably sent back to where it was summoned from. Though baffled, Celia did as told while Elly ran deeper into the alley, tripped—on purpose?—and fell facedown.

  "Wasn't it kind of rash to take such swift action, Your Highness?" Lynn asked.

  Elly rolled over to her butt and frowned. "I couldn't just wait around while people continued to die. Great self control yourself, revealing my identity."

  Lynn covered her mouth with a hand. "Whoops, I'm sorry!"

  "I figured it out already," Edge said.

  They didn't have time to speak further before the first citizens arrived at the mouth of the alley in search of their savior. As they laid eyes on Celia, who had just gotten her cloak crookedly on, Elly pointed at her. "Behold the great church knight who defeated the monster, Lady Leia!" Er...

  "Wow, you're amazing," an acne-ridden youth said.

  "So strong!" A plump woman squeezed her arm, making her cringe. "Does God give you his divine power directly, or is it just training?"

  "She's a modern day hero!" someone else added. "We should have a statue erected in her honor."

  Overwhelmed, Celia stood there trying not to sway from lightheadedness while wishing for this to end. She felt grateful to Edge when he helped her out, saying, "The lady used up a lot of energy to smite the beast, and needs to rest. Please allow us to return to the inn."

  She leaned on him as he escorted her away, not really faking it. Elly and Lynn followed behind. When they were back in the privacy of their room, which the innkeeper lent them for free after "Celia's" deed, Edge said with a smile to Elly, "So you're Eleanor the Unworthy. I guess you threw that armwrestling match."

  "Unworthy?" Celia asked. "She seemed pretty worthy to me. Never mind explaining, I know about the princess." The heir to their country and supreme warrior, who had ended the civil war six years ago by slaying a Nephilim out of legend. She'd allegedly become complacent after, turning into a lazy, vain brat of a royal. They said even her sword skills had evaporated. "But your skills seem rather intact."

  "You don't completely forgot things you put that much time into. But I prefer not to exert myself these days. That's why I passed credit onto you in case you're about to ask. I don't want people to expect too much from me. Saving some defenseless folks right in front of my face is a rare exception, that's all."

  She really didn't like Elly's attitude, but had to admit, "I suppose you're at least decent enough to bother helping at all."

  Elly inspected her nails, not deigning to meet her gaze. Now that she really looked, Celia recognized she wasn't so much chubby as having unusually thick shoulders and arms, which stretched her dress to its limits. "B
y the way, I know you're not a real church knight."

  "Whoa!" Edge said. "Shocking revelation!"

  Celia rolled her eyes at his sarcasm. "How did you figure?"

  "From seeing your expression when I went into the alley. I could understand you being scared, but looking that bewildered and like you had absolutely no clue what to do? Didn't match your claim of investigating the dark magic around here, and having been trained to deal with it."

  "The vain and lazy one is smarter than she lets on," Edge mused.

  Lynn glared at him. "What did you call Her Highness?"

  To Celia's surprise, Elly giggled as she waved a dismissive hand. "It's okay. That's what everybody says about me, after all. Braver and better to do to my face than behind my back."

  "I think you're hiding a lot," Celia said. "I don't believe you're as immature as you pretend."

  "I may be capable of maturity. But this is how I want to live now. The kingdom is at peace and no longer needs a hero-princess, so I'll enjoy the rest of my youth as I please."

  "Thank you for dealing with the monster, anyway." If Elly had been a normal person and Celia failed at doing her supposed job like she would have, she'd feel guilty about disappointing the former's expectations.

  Edge asked, "What's the story with your weapon, anyway? I heard you wielded a greatsword like Leia's often in one hand, when did that change?"

  "It's a gift from a diplomat from the eastern isles. I use it because it's novel, and I think the curve makes it seem more feminine." Such great reasons. She extended an arm as if preparing to summon her blade. "Want to see it?" she asked excitedly. "I could bring it back if you like."

  Lynn tugged on Elly's sleeve. "Sorry about interrupting your fun, but we should go back soon. Cyril must have known we're missing for a long time by now, and I don't look forward to the confrontation if he gets too angry."

  "Oh, fine. Time to say goodbye I suppose. But since I saved your lives or at least the embarrassed of being a failure of a holy knight, can I get your real names? You already know mine."

  After a moment, Celia said, "All right, Eleanor the Unworthy. I'm Celia, and this is Edge."

  "...Edge. A fine name!"

  He flushed. "Real real name's Edward Gene, but all my friends, enemies, and strangers who've heard of me call me Edge."

  "Don't be embarrassed, I was serious that it's a fine name. I sure wouldn't mind having a catchy abbreviation of my name like that. Better not lose your edge though, unless you want to be the butt of jokes." She smiled. "Anyway, I really should leave now. Farewell, and I wish you luck against whoever you're hiding in disguise from." The princess and her handmaiden walked out the door and were gone, but the impression they had made certainly wasn't.

  "So that brat is the kingdom's strongest warrior," Celia said.

  Edge replied, "I've heard her bodyguard Cyril or whatever his name is was stronger, and only didn't fight Moloch at the end of the war because he'd been sidelined by poison. Don't know if that's up to date though. In any case yeah, she's pretty strong."

  "And chooses to let everyone think she's weak. I don't get people like that at all."

  "It's the kind of thing some say you'll understand better when you're older. I'm not old though, so I can't imagine not showing the kind of man I am."

  She shook her head. "I can kind of understand it, actually. It's like how my father taught me sometimes it's okay to feign weakness if it'll get you closer to your goal. Elly's goal of getting to be a lazybody in peace just isn't the most sympathetic in my view."

  "She probably thinks she's earned it. If I was as accomplished as her by my early twenties, maybe even manly me would feel the same way." He laughed. "So now that that interesting meeting is over, what next for us?"

  "We continue on to the plague town as planned. We should hurry up and sneak away too, before the local authorities get here and start asking my name, what knight order I'm from and such."

  #

  "Hime-Sama, you're just going to let those two go?" Lynn asked as she followed Elly who skipped down the street. Her friend had a lot more bounce in her step the excitement loosened her up, no longer griping about her heels. "Impersonating a church knight and her partner, they could be up to no good."

  Elly stopped and held up a hand. "First of all, why are you calling me that? I hope you're not just trying to remind me of that awful Ogre-Hime nickname the diplomat gave me. As for Celia and the edgy one, I could sense they're good people—even if the boy is probably an assassin or similar given the way he carries himself. So without any evidence their intentions are bad, I'll leave them be for now. Now a thing like that cemetery golem appearing, that is cause for concern. We definitely need to get qualified people to investigate this; I don't think it's the type of thing the city guard are equipped to handle."

  "Not investigate it yourself?"

  She let Lynn wait patiently for a bit, then grinned. "I don't know I'd have time to fit that in between fun stuff, and somebody more specialized would probably do a better job. But if I get a chance, maybe I'll help in whatever small way I can."

  "You know, those names you came up with for your attacks were quite weak."

  "I had mere seconds to decide, so I just went with churchy words thrown together. Besides, the first things I thought of like 'Princess Plunge' and 'Queen Meteor' would have given me away."

  Chapter 4

  When Elly returned to the Duke of Lideje's manor where she and Lynn stayed, her upbeat mood quickly drained away. The King's Champion Cyril waited for her in the lobby brightly lit with afternoon sun, the long shadow he cast alone making it darker. With his golden armor, close-cropped blond hair and bronzed skin, the warrior in his early forties resembled an archaic statue looming over her. "I suppose it somewhat considerate of you to not spend the whole day as you are prone to," he said in his low rumble of a voice.

  "I should go clean our room, in courtesy to our host." Lynn scurried away, their chaperon's sharp gaze following her.

  "Being so diligent, I would have thought she cleaned the room as she does every day in the morning."

  Though she knew it an excuse not to face Cyril's unnerving coldness when he disapproved of them, Elly couldn't betray her friend. She smiled awkwardly. "We left to shop in the early morning, so there wasn't time."

  "All these hours wasted indulging your vanity, when you should have been studying in preparation to meet the Prince of Orenx. How will you carry your end of a conversation tomorrow, if you know nothing about his country?"

  "You've told me about his land before. A review isn't that important."

  "You were not even paying attention, but busy fussing with your hair while looking in a mirror you thought you hid."

  She squirmed. "But I don't even want to marry a man like him! How well do I go with a soft, spoiled princeling?" She knew how ironic that sounded coming from her, but then, she would be the girl in a pairing. "I want a great warrior hero, who's strong and can protect me."

  "And how many royals your age are great warriors in this time of peace? You are heir to this kingdom, your marriage should strengthen the nation over catering to your own fantasy."

  "I may be a princess, but I'm a person too. Why can't I be happy?"

  "There is no demand for you not to be happy, if you can be content with the reality of your position. There was a time when you would have sacrificed everything for this land. It saddens me every day how much you've regressed."

  Elly hung her head. She knew he was disappointed in her, and did feel bad about it. She'd been a talented fighter since she started training, but didn't know the importance of the strong protecting the weak until he taught it to her. Yet there wasn't that much protecting which needed to be done in Eden these days, and others could take care of it for the most part. She had other goals now, which her once-mentor didn't understand.

  They stood there quietly facing each other for a while, then Cyril said, "On a side note, I hear a large monster appeared in the city only for an
inhumanly powerful female church knight to strike it down. You wouldn't happen to know anything about this, would you?"

  He had gotten word that fast? The guards hadn't even arrived yet when she and Lynn left the scene. But then, they had made a quick stop at a restaurant to eat in case Cyril asked the duke not to cook any decent food as a way to punish the wayward princess... Her hands were still sticky now with the grease. "Didn't even know it happened."

  "Rumor also has it this church knight used a giant curved sword. Such blades are rare here in the west."

  "Alright, sheesh! I lent it to her because her greatsword was cheaply made with a dull edge, so I thought it might not suffice."

  He furrowed his brow. "I am sure. I know you are still yourself under that shallow veneer. I hope the day will come soon when you choose to show it."

  She sulked away, pretending to be angry. Well, that made her uneasy for a couple of reasons. Of course he was smart, being the one who shaped her in the past, but to see through her that easily... she should have borrowed Celia's sword too. The image she'd garnered over the last half decade suited her just fine, and she had better tread more carefully lest it be ruined.

  #

  Celia walked in silence away from the city of artists, worry growing as she and Edge drew closer to the plague town. She had started getting comfortable with him, yet now wondered if he might not try to kill her after all once they achieved their mutual goal. She'd have to be prepared for that eventuality, but wasn't sure of her ability to stop him. He had defeated her before; even if she'd been exhausted, she was also lucky to have disarmed him of one of his axes before he could put major pressure on her. What should she do, should she strike first before he got a chance to?

  She wouldn't kill him without knowing his intentions for sure, but maybe she could injure him before they reached town, giving her a head start to get away from him. It'd be the practical thing to do probably, and her father would approve. If she damaged his legs now, it might buy her enough time to complete the deal and get out of town before he could catch up. Yet imagining it put a bad taste in her mouth. They had battled side by side before, and also hid like rats together while Elly fought in their place. What if he trusted her, and would feel deeply betrayed by her, well, betrayal? Such wouldn't be honorable of her. Dammit, she shouldn't be this soft. She didn't know if he meant to behave honorably either. But that uncertainty proved enough to keep her from acting for now.