Wreath of Lilies, Cauldron of Poison

Chapter 68

The Golden Earth

“Prince Abbas? Then you are a part of his entourage?” Connie asked. She vaguely remembered a handsome young man with very white teeth who she happened to meet in a Ball many years ago when she was very young.

The girl took a deep breath with difficulty as she clutched at her chest. Her face was still very pale and every breath made her wince.

“For now, we should get you rested. I have a room upstairs,” she turned her head to look at Martell. “Get me a glass of warm water and a spoon from the Innkeeper. He should be cowering somewhere in the kitchen.”

“Understood.”

With a strength uncommon to a girl, Connie carried Kim in her arms.

“W-wait, I can walk - !”

The blonde-haired girl ignored her excuses and carried her inside her room. There, she quickly put a blanket over her and plumped up a pillow so that she could rest with her head elevated to prevent herself from choking on her own phlegm. She then lit a candle to brighten the room.

Soon, Martell entered with a glass of warm water on a tray. She poured a big dollop of honey leftover from her concocting session and stirred it together with a spoon and had Kim drink it. He left after with the empty tray.

“I – er, thank you. This is just what I needed.”

Kim Sooyoung drank the honey water and felt it soothe her throat. She coughed a few times and expelled a few gobs of phlegm into a handkerchief.

The first time she had an attack, everyone in the palace fell over their own legs trying to heal her with spells and Potions. It did ease the pain a bit, but it did not help her much. She had to rely on her inhaler. So, to see someone versed in treating the symptoms in this place without proper science was a welcome surprise.

She said she was a dabbler? A very competent one, then.

On Connie’s part, when she realized what she had done Connie surprised herself. Her body reacted before her mind caught up.

“Wind illness,” Connie mouthed. She knew the illness quite well.

It was a sickness that flared up time to time for certain mortals in her old world. Cultivators did not get sick with diseases and sickness that mortals suffered. Thus, they never bothered making medicines for them. Even if they did, Cultivators would never give them freely.

When her little girl, Baoli, was a toddler and had not become a Cultivator, she used to have recurring wind illness that attacked her during cold nights. Connie as Wang Tian Gu and her wife would wake up during those nights to ease Baoli’s pain by having her drink warm water with honey and rubbing her back to make her cough up her phlegm.

To ease her little girl’s pain, she had to make special powdered medicine that was not too harsh on a toddler’s body. However, the medicine she made for Baoli worked only to ease the symptoms. The attack did still reoccur.

“T-thank you for…helping me.”

“Don’t mention it. I was just doing…” Connie felt a pang of nostalgia in her head and hid a bitter smile by turning her head away. “I was just doing what is best.”

“I…am not good with crowds, you see. They stressed me out. And w-when I am stressed, my asthma…flares out,” the young woman said with occasional pauses.

“A sickness…caused by stress?” Connie scrunched her eyebrow. “I’ve never heard about that.”

“Yes. I suppose…you wouldn’t,” the girl said, slightly disappointed. “The people here have not gotten to it yet.”

“Well, We are not all Al-Khemiya, we don’t specialize in Alchemy. By the way, may I ask what that tool you used to ease your breathing was?” Connie asked, her curiosity won over. “Inhaler…was it? Is it a type of magical item? I smelled the scent of medicine coming from it.”

“Well, er…I guess?” Kim said when she realized she had used a modern item in front of locals. She winched inside. Abbas would lecture her again.

“A magical item. Yes.”

Connie saw the reluctance to answer and then said. “You should rest a bit to gather your strength before returning. I can escort you if you wish. Despite my looks, I am a Noble, after all.”

“Thank you…err,”

“It’s Cornelia Asterium Steelheart, Miss Sooyoung. Have a good rest. I’ll be downstairs.”

With a click of the door’s handle, a thought popped up in Kim’s head.

“…Steelheart?”

After that, Connie returned to the dining hall on the first floor.

By the counter she saw the Innkeeper scratching himself awkwardly. Looked like he was ashamed for disappearing while the mess went down.

“Three glasses of ale, Innkeeper,” she said as she walked past him, not minding her action. Foolish action such as facing thugs bravely was not something she expected from a normal person. She flicked a bronze coin towards him, which spun on the counter where it landed.

The female Centaur had sat herself across a bench which creaked under her weight. Sitting awkwardly across her was Martell, who was enduring the look from the Centaur. Looking at her, Connie guessed she would weigh about 300 to 500 kilos.

When she heard the sound of Connie’s footsteps, the female Centaur eyed her worriedly. “How is my benefactor’s doing?”

“She is resting. The wind illness has subsided, but she is very tired. Her pulse is weak and erratic. Lack of sleep, I’d say,” she said as she took a seat.

Connie glanced around and saw no trace of the pile of useless shits that disturbed her meal. “Where are the thugs?”

“Zalkhin Altanghazar threw them out to the streets,” Martell answered.

“They tried to hurt my benefactor and force themselves on her. So, they were trash,” the Centaur said with a resolute nod. “Of course, they should be taken out like trash.”

“Hahaha!! A woman after my own heart!” Connie said with a grin, feeling of good humor from meeting such a straightforward person. She patted her chest and introduced herself. “I am Cornelia Asterium Steelheart. A hunter. And this is Martell Lobelia, my disciple.”

“Ah, yes. He spoke a good deal of his admiration towards you, Miss Steelheart…Hmm. Steelheart?” the Centaur reacted when she heard her family name. “As in…Geno Steelheart the Altan Arslan? Are your related to him?”

“…if you mean Geno Steelheart. Then, yes. He is my father. But I don’t know about Altan Arslan.”

“That was our title for him. In the tongue of your people, it means Golden Lion.”

“Do you know him?” Connie was interested. She had never heard of her father knowing people from other races. In Cornelia’s memories he had always been a staunch believer of human superiority.

“Yes! He was a great and respected enemy of my father. He had clashed with Geno Steelheart many times in his younger age,” she said with a bit of pride. “Your father was a great warrior. My father wished to one day personally behead him and offer his head on our ancestors’ altar for their honor.”

Connie was surprised by how casually the Centaur before her mentioned about killing her father. Even then, she showed no hostility. Like she was talking about a normal everyday matter.

“You’ve come too late, then,” Connie took a sip of her ale and wiped her mouth with her sleeves. “Another sword has already claimed his life.”

“It’s a shame indeed,” she said in agreement. “But let us not talk of some old men’s matter!”

The female Centaur leaned forward and offered her right hand across the table. The position was much lower than that of a handshake, so Connie was in a bit of a loss. “It is my honor to meet you. My name is Akula Altanghazar. You may call me Akula.”

“This is a Baydarian gesture of friendship, Mistress. You should grasp her elbow with your left arm.”

“I see,” Connie did as she was told, standing up and grasping her elbow. The wheat haired centaur grasped firmly to hers in return.

“Then you can call me Connie.”

Her muscled arm was not for show. Her grip was very strong, enough to make Connie feel like she was being gripped by a bear. Any lesser woman would have cried out in pain.

“O-oh. I’m sorry. Did I grip you too strong?” the Centaur said with a flustered face. “I forgot to control my strength!”

“Haha! Is that what you are worried about?” Connie laughed as she strengthened her grip to assure her of her strength. “It would take much more than that to actually hurt me.”

Looking at her unconcerned expression, the Centaur let out a relieved sigh and her tenseness seemed to lessen a great deal. “That’s good then. The humans I’ve met so far are all so weak that I had to concentrate if I don’t want to hurt them.”

The Innkeeper came by and delivered the ales as they sat down, along with some sausages and bread.

“Cheers!” Connie lead them to a toast.

“Cheers!” The three bumped their glasses. Connie and Martell took a big gulp while Akula lifted her veil halfway and took a small sip.

“You have come far, Akula. That girl resting upstairs, is she your traveling companion?” Connie asked.

“No. I just met her this morning. She helped me during my time of need, therefore she is my benefactor.”

“Time of need? May I ask what it is?”

“You see. I arrived in Courandhel just this morning and was overwhelmed by the number of people here. While I was gathering my bearing, some children stole a pouch hanging on one of my bags. Haha,” she said with a pitiful laugh. “Usually people don’t dare to steal from a Centaur. But I guess children don’t understand that. It surprised me quite a bit.”

“The item they stole was very important to me. But as you can see, I am too large to go through the narrow alleys that made up your city of stone. I asked around and finally found myself in the slums.”

“I found them in one corner of the slums. But just as I asked them to return it to me, one of the older children tried to sneak up on me and I…kicked him with my hind legs out of surprise.” she said with a regretful tone, her hands covering her face in shame.

Connie could not imagine what the result would be if a boy got kicked by someone with Akula’s amazing strength.

“Did he…die?” Martell asked with an interested expression.

“N-no! No. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if that was to happen!” Akula answered with a frantic wave of her hands. “He…did get launched quite far. Thankfully, there was a pile of unwashed clothes that cushioned his fall. A – and my kick did not hit him anywhere vital. I…just broke his shoulder a little.”

“A…little?” Connie repeated the word questioningly.

“W-well. I crushed the bone, including the shoulder, juuust a bit,” she continued with a harried expression. “Although I have some High Potion, it couldn’t heal something that severe. Thankfully, my benefactor was passing by. She immediately took out an Elixir and healed the boy.”

“An Elixir?!” Martell clamped his own mouth shut with his hands. “An Elixir? Are you sure?”

“Yes. There is no mistaking that item. My family owns a bottle and it has been passed down through generations only to be used in our greatest moment of need.” Akula said.

“That’s amazing. To use an item that could have fed everyone the slum for years to come to heal one single boy in the slums,” the boy said as he shook his head. One could not discern whether his words were snide remarks or genuine praise. Certainly not Akula because she nodded in agreement. “Indeed. A righteous deed worthy of a Hero. After healing the boy, she asked me if I could help her find her way out as she seemed to have gotten lost.”

“I agreed and led her to the main road. Along the way, I saw that she was weak from hunger, so I took her to the nearest place for a good meal,” she said with a sigh. “I had to very carefully navigate myself on the road, so I told her to go inside first. And the rest, you saw yourself.”

“Not the best first impression of the city, eh?” Connie jammed a fork into another sausage. Boiled, this time.

“Not everything is bad. At the very least I have the chance to meet a Noble who treats her slave as an equal, even sharing food on the same table. That is one for the stories. Khikhikhi.”

“Anyway. For what occasion do you come here, Zalkhin Altanghazar?” Martell began. “I know that most Centaurs hate the Stone Cities, as you say yourself before.”

The Centaur put down her glass and spoke. “I am seeking for an Ezenu. An employer that will accept my service as a Tonsulde.”

“Tonsulde?” Connie raised an eyebrow.

“It roughly means ‘Horse and Man’ in Azut-Baydar language. In this case, it means a Warrior,” Martell explained. “But I must say, you speak very good common tongue for a Tonsulde.”

“Khikhikhi. I learned the common tongue from my nanny. She is a Beastfolk who once worked as a slave for a Noble. As for my purpose here, I am seeking an Ezenu who will employ me. In my tribe, it is common for a Tonsulde to serve an Ezenu for a few years to gain experience,” she said while ripping a small piece of the bread and ate it slowly. “And for a Tonsulde, the choice of an Ezenu is one of great importance and mustn’t be taken lightly.”

“Oh? What kind of an Ezenu are you looking for, then?”

“…to be honest,” Akula looked down, then slowly spoke. “I…am hoping to be employed by a Hero.”

Whoa, why is this muscular Zalkhin acting so bashful? She is not a young girl anymore! Martell voiced his bewilderment in his heart, yet none of it appeared on his expression. A perfect mask as usual.

“A…Hero, huh?” Connie pierced a sausage with her fork and took a large bite of it, chewing it thoughtfully. “As I recall, Azut-Baydar should also have its own Hero. Shouldn’t that be easier than crossing to our country?

“…well. Due to some circumstance I’m unable to do that,” she said. “Then I heard that the Heroes of 2 other countries would be here for the Maiden of Water’s Coming of Age Ceremony. I hoped to size them up and see which one I could offer my service to.”

“Oh, so that way you’ll get a pick of the three?” Martell said.

“Khikhikhi. That makes It sound like I’m picking out choice meats in a market.”

“Hey, your words, not mine,” he retorted.