Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 4 - Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

A Fresh Start

NOW THAT WE HAD the king’s permission to invite the forsaken of Seifort to move to Hausen under the Barbatos family’s protection, we started work at sunup the following day.

Aaron tasked himself with finding and hiring a carpenter to repair the manor roof. We’d cleaned and tidied the interior the previous day, and as a result, it was a little more respectable. However, the roof leaked, damaged from many long years without care. Aaron and I couldn’t do anything about that ourselves. We needed a professional.

My own priority was to get the ball rolling with the forsaken. I would’ve been fine handling the job on my own, but Myne insisted on coming with me. Fortunately, she left her black axe Sloth at the manor again, so at least things couldn’t get too out of hand. As we left the manor, I felt my thoughts drifting to Myne’s Wrath, at which point I felt her glaring at me.

“You’re thinking about what might happen if I let my Wrath get out of hand, aren’t you?”

“Uh…”

Had she read my mind?! I supposed I shouldn’t have been caught off guard. We’d traveled together a long way, and we’d learned to read each other over that time. She’d seen straight through my expression and body language. No point lying to her about it now.

“Yeah,” I confessed. “That’s exactly what I was thinking about.”

Myne’s jaw clenched.

“Look,” I went on, “we’ve traveled a lot together, so I’ve seen a few things. How am I supposed to forget the time you launched that holy knight into the sky for being rude? Or how about that other time you literally broke a bunch of adventurers’ backs because they tried to pick a fight?”

Myne let out a great sigh. “But I went easy on those guys…”

“That’s what you call going easy?”

I really thought she’d crossed a line, and here Myne thought she’d handled them with kid gloves. I wanted to ask exactly what about her rampages qualified as “going easy,” but then again, she bore Wrath. If she fully unleashed that rage, it would probably end in a rainstorm of blood. So, if she said she went easy, then as a fellow bearer of a skill of Mortal Sin, I understood. After all, I had my own troubles keeping my Gluttonous urges under control.

My Gluttony was much calmer and quieter now, but that wasn’t all on me. I had Luna’s support from within. Since the battle at Galia, she’d appeared in my dreams more frequently. She talked about Myne a lot, and because of our chats, I’d discovered that Myne was Luna’s—

“Fate? Are you listening?”

“Yeah, I’m listening. What are we talking about?”

Myne leaped into the air and grabbed my ear, which she yanked close to her mouth. “Listen when I’m speaking to you!”

The pain was excruciating. Despite being in the Domain of E, I felt like my ear was going to be torn off.

“Fate. This is Myne,” she said. “Where. Are. We. Going?”

“I’ll answer! I’ll answer! Just spare me my ear! Please!”

Myne let go of my ear, and I touched it to make sure it was still there. To my relief, I found it in one piece. If I wanted to keep my appendages, I had to be more careful about getting lost in my own thoughts. Still, I didn’t recall her being quite this vicious when we’d last traveled together… “We’re heading to a church a short way from here. It’s in the slums.”

“Are we going to pray? That doesn’t seem very like you, Fate.”

“How rude! Even I…”

But I realized in that moment that since leaving my village for Seifort years ago, I hadn’t done anything even remotely resembling prayer. Back when my father was alive, it had been part of our daily routine, but…when I thought about it, losing someone so pious to illness had made a huge impact on me. When I lost my father, I’d also lost my faith.

“In any case,” I said, “lots of people in the slums gather at the church. I think if we want to start moving people to the Barbatos estate, we’ll want the church’s help. My word alone won’t be especially convincing, let alone trustworthy. I’m no better than a stranger to these people. But they trust the church.”

“You’re smarter than you look, Fate.” Myne clicked her tongue, and a hint of disappointment flashed across her face. I had a hunch she’d been hoping I’d rely on her more, and I decided to see if my hunch was right.

“But you know,” I said, “I’m really glad to have you here with me, Myne. I’ve never done anything like this before, so it’s nice to have the help.”

The words floated through the air, and the tiniest grin grew upon Myne’s ordinarily stoic face. “Guess I’ve got no choice but to help you out, then,” she giggled.

It worked! She really did want me to lean on her. But there was something…nefarious in that giggle, and a moment later I understood why.

“Okay, Fate,” Myne said. “If the church doesn’t listen to you, I’ll destroy it.”

“If they don’t listen, we break them.” Yep…that sure sounded just like the Myne I knew. With that battle-hungry attitude, I’d never be able to really rely on her.

“Uh, you know what? I think it might be for the best if I handle things first. It wouldn’t be right for me to lean on you for something so small, you know?”

“If you say so.” Myne was clearly sad to be sidelined.

I’d gotten her spirits up only to knock them down a moment later. I tried to think of some compromise that would save this situation. “But when it comes time to negotiate, you can stand behind me with a firm, strong glare. The kind of silent pressure that lets everyone know we mean business. Could you do that for me?”

“I see. Yes, I think I can handle that.”

That’s a relief. At least now I can rest assured that nobody’s going home with any bruises or broken bones.

We continued walking toward the church when I noticed something that stopped me in my tracks. The sight of an old place I’d known all too well. It felt…nostalgic, even. As I stood there, contemplating it, Myne walked straight into me, knocking me down.

“Huh? What’s wrong?” she asked, her head tilted to the side with curiosity. “Did you see something in that crumbling shamble of a house?”

She was right. This house was a crumbling shamble. A one-room ruin I’d lived in for five years. Even now, it was deserted. Empty. I’d abandoned it when I fled from the Vlerick family to work and live at Hart Manor, but despite months of my absence, it looked no different.

“Just…give me a minute, please.” I didn’t wait for Myne’s reply. I pushed myself off the ground and walked over. I had to see the place for myself.

I placed a hand on the door as if I had been drawn to it. As expected, it was unlocked. Nothing was out of place inside, which didn’t surprise me—nothing in this shack was worth stealing. A bed made of straw lay in the corner beside a beaten-up old desk and the half-melted remains of a candle on top of it. Time had stopped the moment I left this little room, and even though I’d returned, it remained frozen. This place would always be a symbol of my earlier life. As I took it in, I realized…I no longer felt anything for it.

“Fate, let’s go,” Myne called from outside.

“Yeah, I’ll be there in a second.”

I began to head back out the door when Greed decided to break his long silence, speaking through my Telepathy skill. “You want to go back, Fate? Back to the time before we met?”

“Ha. I’d rather be dead. We’ve only just started a new chapter.”

“Indeed. Well, hop to it. If you make Myne angry, she’ll start the next scene by tearing this place down around you!”

“Let’s go, then.”

I left my memories of that ruined house behind as I stepped through its old doors. Myne and I once again set off toward the slums and the church that had been built there.