All About Gold

You might think that I’m the kind of person who would completely change their personality after receiving a massive cash payout, but that would be completely wrong. Even after receiving a pile of gold from the lord of Ah’Ruh, I didn’t feel any different. Sure, there were some minor changes. The kind of things that would happen to anyone. You know, like realizing that gold was a far better thing to worship than some god of dubious intents.

‘I think you’re right about not changing much, but that’s only because you were a greedy person from the start.’

He was in his spirit form, so I heard the bird’s voice in my head directly. And I couldn’t disagree more. It was only natural to assume that everyone I passed on the street was a thief after my precious fortune. That might seem extreme to some people, but it really wasn’t. Ever since I became moderately wealthy there have been multiple successful assassinations against me. I mean, getting killed isn’t really a problem for me; still, that doesn’t change the facts.

Anyway, even with all of the fresh violence pointed in my direction, I was happy to have enough to not need to worry about keeping my new little sister alive. Beyond simple thoughts like that though, the money didn’t mean much to me. At the end of the day, I was just a simple person. It’s only natural that I started to pray to a gold coin that I kept in my pocket.

That’s why I only put aside half of the reward to use for new clothes. I gave the other half to my sister for her to manage my estate. Honestly, it was a little annoying how easily everyone accepted that it was safer for a young child to handle my finances.

And before anyone tries to make me seem like a villain, I wasn’t forcing her to carry around a big pile of gold or anything like that. I never even saw the pile of gold that was apparently given to me. The Gilden Lions accepted the payment on my behalf. They took their share and left the rest with the Temple Knights. I didn’t know who they were, but apparently if you left your money with them, you could withdraw whatever you needed at any city that had a Temple Knights branch. And if a tiny little speck on the map like Ah’Ruh had Temple Knights, it was safe to say I'd be able to get money from pretty much everywhere.

Although from what I understand, my reward was quite sizable. Apparently my information was incredibly valuable.

And would you believe it? The person who paid me was the lord of Ah’Ruh himself. I was even brought to his castle to be interviewed directly. The more I said the more he paid me. By the end he paid me even more to not talk about Silvias anymore, and for any information on anyone who knows about Silvias. He even offered me some of his extra special wine, but since I don’t need to drink I turned him down. As an aside, I noticed that I don’t get nearly as hungry as I used to either. Anyway, after I refused the wine he ended up dumping it all out. Seemed like a waste to me, but I guess he wasn’t much of a drinker either.

And you might be thinking that since my sister and the bird were the ones who actually knew all of the things that the lord wanted, the reward should have gone to them, but that’s an irresponsible way to think.

Those two work for me. I had to make the initial investment to bring them here, so it’s only natural that I claim ownership to any reward that they earn. I mean, any reward that I earn with their assistance.

‘As a vestige I couldn’t spend the money even if I wanted to, but Miss, isn’t that a little harsh on the girl?’

“Shut up, I’ll make sure she’s well taken care of. She is too young to handle that much money. We can adjust things once she gets a bit older.”

I could have responded in my head as well, but I preferred speaking out loud.

‘That excuse falls flat when you remember that you already have her handling your finances.’

“For a bird you sure like to harp on the details, don’t you?”

‘I feel like I was just exposed to a new stereotype.’

“Either way, it’s not an issue. If she had a problem with me taking the entire reward she could just secretly take all of my money and run away. I wouldn’t be particularly upset if she did.”

At the end of the day, I enjoyed the things humans did. I typically didn’t care for individuals, but as a whole, they were interesting. I enjoyed watching their good sides, and their bad. If my sister chose to steal everything from me and sneak away into the night, I’d just think, ‘huh, interesting.’

I wouldn’t be angry or anything like that. Sure, I’d be surprised, but that would just be part of the fun.

Actually, if I’m being honest, now that I’m thinking about it, I would actually be really angry if something like that happened. I’d hunt her to the ends of the earth and take back every single coin she stole from me. Then I’d force her to work off the amount that I’d claim was interest.

None of that matters though. There’s no point thinking about the future. Instead, I want to go back to something important I mentioned before that squawking bird interrupted me.

The money I put aside.

Another thing I’d forgive you for thinking is that I would have quickly burned through my entire clothing budget. I’d forgive you because if it was up to me, that’s exactly what I would have done. I loved gold, but that’s only because you could spend it. Money that you didn’t spend wasn’t worth anything. Unfortunately, Ah’Ruh wasn’t a large enough, or fashionable enough, city to have any tailors that specialize in the kind of clothing that I wanted to buy. If you’re curious, I wanted to buy the most extravagant, expensive, classy, yet still tasteful clothing I could.

You’d never find anything like that in Ah’Ruh. I knew this small town couldn’t contain me from the moment I stepped foot through the city walls.

Fortunately, I wouldn’t have to wait long to get my new clothes, but that’s a story for another time. This was a story that dealt with getting lost, so I’d rather not have this theme continue on to my future ventures. Let’s draw a clear cut off point for this string of misadventures.

Although, was I ever really lost? Without a set destination in life, can you ever truly make a wrong turn?

‘No, don’t try to wax philosophical at this point. Miss, I’d rather you not forget that you started this whole thing with a clearly established goal. And while I won’t deny that things somehow worked out, it's undeniable that you completely failed in accomplishing what you set out to do.’

So he said, but the bird and I had different ways of looking at things. He was too concerned with the outside world. Sure, I might have forgotten about and failed the initial job I took, but was that really my objective?

To an outside observer it may seem like that, but not to me. That quest was merely a way to make money. My only goal was to make some quick cash. In that sense, things couldn’t have gone better. I mean, were there even any problems that money couldn’t solve?

‘Miss, I’d rather you not have such shallow thoughts. Because of our connection it almost feels like they’re my own.’

“Maybe. I definitely learned something from all of this.”

‘About companionship? Honestly to me it seems like you're a person that needs someone else to keep you on the right track. When you traveled alone nothing good came of it.’

“Companionship? What are you talking about? We’re talking about gold here. At the desert village I thought I was starved of companionship, but I was really putting up with their nonsense because I wanted them to pay me. It’s all about gold.”

‘You can’t be serious.’

“No, really. I’ve been toiling away as an undead for a little over half a year, and while most of that was spent mindlessly wandering around, I feel like so far everything has been about money. The reason Sanson and Eris came looking for me, the reason I went out on a quest, the reason the spider ate you. All of it was because of money.”

“I can’t speak for the first two things, but that last one didn’t have anything to do with money!”

Having reached a critical point of annoyance, the bird appeared in front of me.

“You don’t know that. Did you ever figure out why Silvias showed up and ate you?”

“Well, no, but I at least know it wasn’t for money.”

“Maybe not for the spider, but you’re not seeing the whole picture. No matter how curious he was, would the lord of Ah’Ruh really pay that much gold just for some information that had nothing to do with him? I don’t think so. At least, I know I wouldn’t part with my gold for something so trivial. The more gold you have the tighter you hold it. He must have had a vested interest in what was happening, even though this whole thing started before he was even born. Isn’t it then possible that rather than randomly showing up for no reason, someone sent that spider to replace you, or at least compelled it to do so? Actually, we already know that Rakki sent it there in the first place, and considering that miser wouldn’t part with a single piece of gold, it’s safe to assume he was paid off as well. It’s only a matter of why. You said it yourself, Ah’Ruh is a small fort city. It wouldn’t be surprising to learn that they’d enact a plan that would weaken a nearby kingdom. If I had to guess, I’d say the only thing that went wrong was that things went too well. I’m sure the people here weren’t expecting the spider to maintain its position as a god so successfully. That’s why even after so much time had passed they were desperately trying to get someone to go gather information.”

The bird was looking at me with a dumb look on his face.

“How did someone like you manage to think up something so plausible?”

I flicked my nose with my thumb.

“Now that I’ve got some, I feel like I’ve got a real sense for gold. I can practically smell it. I can smell the paths and the hands it’s traveled through.”

“So your empty head has finally been filled, albeit with gold.”

“Haha, I won’t be offended at this point. Say what you will about my head, but my pockets are absolutely bursting. You’re clearly just embarrassed to admit you're impressed.”

“No, I’ll admit it. I’m not entirely convinced you’re right, but I’ll admit that things might have played out the way you described.”

“Well, don’t worry. We’ll find out the truth sooner rather than later. I’ve had my third good idea. You said that I sent Slivias to the Valieris Kingdom, correct?”

“Yeah.”

“So that’s where we need to go. That desert partially borders both Thera and Valieris. That means people from Valieris will be just as interested in learning about what happened. Maybe even more interested. Listen, we’ll find some rich noble from Valieris and tell them what I just told you. Then they’ll sponsor us to get more information. If we can prove that Ah’Ruh, or the Theran Empire, caused the desertification they’ll load us up with even more gold.”

“Do you really think things will work out that smoothly?”

“Of course. I already told you, I’ve got a nose for this. And even from here I can smell the hill of gold waiting for me in Valieris. This isn’t a bad deal for you or my little sister either. She gets to see more of the world and you will finally be able to get some revenge against the people that got you killed.”

“I’m not interested in revenge.”

“Then call it closure. The important thing is that everyone gets what they want.”

“And you’ll get a hill of gold?”

“That’s just a bonus. Don’t worry, I’m often told that I’m a kindhearted soul. An empty head and an open heart. Actually, that doesn’t sound quite right, but you get the idea. This isn’t just about me. We’re partners.”

It was, in fact, all about me. Well, at least mostly. I’d say I was 1% interested in helping the bird. After all, he was nothing more than a parasite. Why would I ever go out of my way to help him? Then I was maybe 2% interested in showing my sister the world. That might seem low, but no matter what I did she would be seeing new things, so it’s not like I really needed to take her into account. The small amount I did care was mostly because the journey might make her smarter, which in a way makes me smarter. After that, let’s see, maybe 22% interest for the gold I could make. I wasn’t lying when I said I could smell the gold from here, but I wasn’t actually that committed to going to get it. It’s not like it was going anywhere. Sure, the sooner I amassed my fortune the sooner I’d be able to outfit all of the mice I could find with spiky plants, but there was no rush. Besides, I still hadn’t figured out how to train them to march in formation yet. What was really making up 56% of my motivation was the fact that the tailors in Ah’Ruh all mentioned that I’d need to go to Valieris to get clothes like the ones I was describing.

“Miss, I don’t even need to check your thoughts to realize how much of a lie that is.”

Ah, that’s right. I forgot that this guy could read my surface level thoughts. I’d need to keep my real feelings hidden deeper.

“Unfortunately for both of us, all of your thoughts are surface level. Still, it doesn't really matter. It’s not like you needed my permission in the first place.”

“True, but I will need your help.” I didn’t like the idea of asking others for help when I was perfectly capable of handling things on my own, but since the bird and my sister were really just a part of me, they didn’t count. “You’ll need to give me directions. I’d rather not get lost again. And don’t forget, if I get lost, it means you’re lost as well!”

My attempts to appeal to him hadn’t worked, so I decided to try threatening him. I wasn’t sure what kind of life he’d lived, but I was confident I could wander aimlessly for longer than he could.

“Directions? Just take a carriage. You’ve got plenty of gold.”

“Oh, I hadn’t thought of that. Feel free to forget everything I just said, I don’t need you anymore. I can just pay someone to take me there. I was right, gold really does solve everything.”

After realizing that, I found where I left my sister and we took the first carriage heading to Valieris. I left Ah’Ruh with a smile on my face, having completely forgotten that there was a message left for me at the clubhouse.