32 Vol 1. pt. 32 Patch 6.0: The Voyage South (1/2)
”You're—” Fenrir starts.
”You were—” Cassiel tries talking as well.
Both of their faces are red at this point, and their jaws hang open from surprise. Rock has no idea what is going on and decides to roll around on her back a little bit to scratch an itch that her stubby little legs can't reach.
”You were our waitress?”
”You were that guy who punched that bastard?”
They keep on talking over one another. Fenrir waits a few moments before opening his mouth to talk again, and when he finally does open it, she opens hers.
”You first!”
”You fir— tch,” Cassiel loses. ”Fine! I… don't know what to say.”
”Yeah, I don't really know what to say either.”
The only noises to break up the awkward silence are those of the wooden hull creaking as it sails through gentle waters.
”…Cassandra, right?” Fenrir asks.
Cassiel looks away. ”Y-yeah.”
”I'm Ryouta. Only fair to give you my name if I know yours, plus we've already met in real life, so.”
”First Serra, now you. I thought coincidences like this are saved for movies.”
”You met her too?”
”What do you mean too? You already met her?”
”Last night was my first time seeing her in person, same as you.”
”Next thing I know and your dog there is going to be popping up at work.”
”Rock is pretty full of surprises. Anyways, sorry about causing you trouble last night.”
Cassiel turns away. ”Shut up, it's fine. Bastard deserved it.”
Fenrir sighs. ”Sucks that I'm officially banned. Always did like the drinks there, and they have some pretty great wings.”
Cassiel looks at him again. Her eyes are wide as if she's just seen a ghost or has had her PTSD triggered. ”You… eat the wings there?”
Oh god. ”Please don't say anything more than that. I don't want to know.”
He's never seen her look so concerned before.
She turns away again. ”Hey.”
”What?” Fenrir asks, head tilted.
”Thanks for, you know.”
”Don't worry about it. Like you said, the bastard deserved it.”
There's no way that Cassiel is going to let him see how wide she's smiling right now. ”Change the subject already!”
Fenrir's own smile spreads across his lips. He's beginning to learn how to read her. ”Fine, fine. I'll have you be an encyclopedia instead of a waitress. Can you tell me more about the Augus Empire? You mentioned stuff like the inner circle, angels, and dragons, so I want to hear more about all that stuff.”
Cassiel slaps her cheeks to regain her composure before turning back around. ”Alright. I'll start from the beginning and give you a quick overview,” she says.
”Hang on.” Fenrir rushes below deck and comes back up with a couple of empty crates. He sets them down next to each other and sits down on the first one, patting the other to signal her. She sits down on it.
”Thanks. Now, where should I start… alright. The Augus Empire started off as the Holy Empire and was led by this guy who just wanted to roleplay like a bunch of Romans. Livia, the current empress, was his top general. She saw how incompetent he was and overthrew him, renamed the faction, organized the land and guilds, then went on to grow it into the powerhouse it is today. It's mostly made up of humans because she's a roleplayer at heart and thinks non-human races aren't trustworthy. They're allowed in, but they get treated like slaves unless they prove themselves,” Cassiel begins her lecture.
”How do they prove themselves?” Fenrir asks, playing the role of a curious student. Wait, now he's imagining her dressed up like a glasses-wearing teacher and smacking a ruler against his desk.
It's a nice thought. She could totally pull it off.
”Coliseum fights, usually. They either fight in the arena and prove that they're better than everybody else, or they join the military as a slave-soldier and prove themselves during war.”
”Sounds pretty intense. It's kind of funny how nobody would ever willingly want to basically be a slave in real life, but if it's a game, nobody cares. Just like how people will buy houses in games and keep them super clean and decorated and stuff, but not care at all about that in real life.” He realizes that he just described himself.
”People like to roleplay. Anyways, there's thousands of guilds underneath the Augus Empire's rule. The vast majority are only given the rank of barons. Barons belong to counts, counts to dukes, dukes to kings, and then there's finally the empress herself. With Livia at the top, there are four kings who control everybody underneath them. Tralin leads The Exiled Hammer. He's a dwarf that got kicked out of the Conquerors of the Deep and decided to start a crafting guild over here. He's a king of the territory near the mountains, and all guilds dedicated to crafting, gathering, and trading are under his command. He leads the economic backbone of the empire.”
”Sounds like a cliché dwarf to me. Does he have a beard?”
”Good luck meeting a dwarf who doesn't have a beard and some bad Scottish accent.”
”What about the other three kings?” Fenrir asks, stretching out and looking over at Rock to check on her. She's rolling around a loose cannonball on the deck. Fenrir knows he should probably do something about that, but it's not like he has a better toy to replace that with.
He should probably tell her that she won't be able to pick it up no matter how many times she tries biting it.