Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 4 - Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

The Shadow of the Vlericks

THE FOLLOWING DAY, under a clear sky and in beautiful weather, I finally began working in the garden. Rebuilding and remodeling the manor itself was well beyond my abilities, thus Aaron’s quest to enlist a carpenter. But when it came to groundskeeping, I could put my experience as a servant of Hart Manor to good use. People probably thought it a little strange for the head of a holy knight family to do such work himself, but I enjoyed gardening.

I stood outside by myself, considering how to begin restoring the former beauty of the Barbatos Manor grounds. Parts of it were choked with massive tangles of weeds, and others had been mercilessly destroyed by Myne during our training sessions. This would be a tremendous job. Lost in thought, planning my strategy, I heard somebody calling out to me from the grounds adjacent to ours.

“My goodness! Fate, is that you?! It’s been so long!”

The voice belonged to none other than one of the elderly gardeners who had watched over me as an apprentice. An enormous grin spread over his face. He was genuinely happy to see me again. But as he registered where I stood and the fancy clothes I wore, his jaw dropped. I’d expected this, at some point. I didn’t wear my skull mask while at the manor, so one of our neighbors had been bound to notice eventually.

“Ah, long time no see,” I said. “I hope you’ve been well.”

“This is…this is unbelievable, Fate. You left so suddenly, and now you’re back as a holy knight? It’s unreal. Oh, speaking of—” He stopped to brush the dirt and dust from his clothes. “Where are my manners? This is no way to behave in front of someone of your rank.”

“No, no, it’s fine. I’m Fate Barbatos now, heir to the Barbatos family. But please, call me Fate, like always.”

“Well, if you insist, and that’s what you want. But I gotta tell you, everybody in Hart Manor was all abuzz when they learned old Lord Aaron was back! We heard he had an heir too—but nobody could have imagined that would be you! You must’ve been hiding one hell of a skill all this time!”

I wasn’t sure I’d hidden anything, exactly. Back when I’d been a servant of the Hart family, I still hadn’t had the Holy Sword Technique skill required of holy knights. I’d stolen the skill from Hado Vlerick by killing him. For better or for worse, that same skill had decided my destiny. The world really was unpredictable. You never knew what was waiting for you around the corner.

First, I’d been a penniless gatekeeper. Then, right when I thought I was doomed to be just another victim of the Vlericks’ cruelty, Lady Roxy herself had saved me by taking me in as her servant. Then I’d gone off after her to Galia as an adventurer, and now I was back in Seifort—not just as a holy knight, but as heir to the Blade of Light, Aaron Barbatos himself.

I chuckled at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. Meanwhile, the groundskeeper took a look at the Barbatos Manor grounds. “Fate, this place is a real mess,” he said. “Don’t tell me you intend to tackle it all by yourself?”

He’d probably gathered my intent from the gardening tools laid out around me. I nodded. “Yeah. I want to put all your teachings to good use and give it a go myself. And besides, I enjoy it. I find gardening calming. It’s, uh…going to take some time though, that’s for sure.”

“It’s a big job all right, but hey, how about it, Fate? You wanna let this old man help you out a little?”

“I…but…ah, is that okay? After all, you already have the Hart Manor gardens to maintain…”

The old man burst out laughing. “Don’t underestimate us veterans. And besides, I’m not the only one working on the gardens there. I’ll come help you out whenever I’ve got a little free time. How about that?”

I nodded. That sounded great.

“Well, no time like the present,” said the groundskeeper. “Let’s get started!”

“Wow, thank you!”

The old groundskeeper crossed over to the Barbatos Manor grounds. Once again, he surveyed the conditions. “I’ve seen this place who knows how many times from just across the way, but up close, it’s much worse than I thought. And what’s all this, then?”

“Uh…what’s all what, then?” I asked.

The old groundskeeper pointed to where great sections of the earth had been gouged, torn, and scarred—they were battle scars, essentially, from when Aaron and Myne had sparred just the day before.

Myne’s strength was unquestionable, but Aaron had also grown unbelievably powerful since we defeated the lich lord. I assumed the change had to do with his limit break in the aftermath of that battle. The phenomenon had allowed him to grow beyond his natural level cap. That limit break also meant that when Myne and Aaron sparred, the ground they fought on suffered more than either opponent. I couldn’t really get angry at them though, because sometimes I got in on the action as well. Then the ground suffered a third again as much…

“When you practice with the Blade of Light, even basic training ends up pretty destructive,” I said, rubbing the back of my head.

“But Fate! If you knights keep this up, at this rate, nothing will grow here for decades! The manor grounds will turn into a barren wasteland…”

As the groundskeeper and I puzzled over how to solve this problem, the two primary antagonists to our efforts sauntered out of the manor, weapons in hand. A common sight these days. It was all too easy to predict what was about to happen. They were going to spend the rest of the day locked in battle because neither of them could ever get enough of a good fight.

Said fight kicked off right before our eyes, accompanied by the sharp sounds of a golden holy sword clashing against a black axe. In a matter of moments, the already-damaged grounds were once more shredded. The old groundskeeper looked on, wide-eyed. Then, silently, he turned and started heading back for Hart Manor.

“Wait! Please, wait!” I called after him. “Didn’t you say you wanted to help me out?”

“Fate, my boy, let me be honest with you,” he said wearily. “You’re asking the impossible. We tidy any of that up, and those two will rip it all back to nothing in an afternoon. I bet they’ve made this place worse than it started!”

“Hold on, I have an idea. Please, just wait there a moment, would you?”

I unsheathed Greed and jumped into the fray, the black sword in hand. It felt a bit like stepping into the jaws of death: Myne and Aaron never held back against each other.

“I’ve been waiting for this day to come!” shouted Greed. “I’ve ached for it! It’s time to take on Mr. Destructive and Little Miss Fury once and for all!”

“You make it sound easy…”

“You know what to do, Fate! Use my First Level secret technique. One shot! That’s all we’ll need!”

“Don’t be an idiot! You know I can’t do that! It’d blow away the entire manor!”

“What does it matter? This place is basically a ruin anyway. What better time to start fresh? You can rebuild from the ground up!”

Greed went on chattering to himself as I dove in to stop Myne and Aaron. As soon as they spotted me, the balance of the fight shifted—and it was suddenly me against both of them. I was stuck fending for my life for what must have been a whole fifteen minutes until the two hotheads finally cooled off and calmed down.

“What’s up, Fate?” asked Myne. “If you wanted a sparring partner, you should have waited until Aaron and I were done.”

“I didn’t jump in because I wanted a partner…” I panted. “Sheesh, Myne. That last blow had way too much power. I thought I was going to die.”

“That wasn’t too much. Too much would have sent you into the sky. Want me to show you?”

I shook my head with a shudder.

Aaron laughed and slid his sword back into its sheath. “It’s poor manners to intrude on someone else’s duel, Fate. You do need to learn to wait your turn. Myne and I agreed to this time early this morning. Then again, this three-way bout was refreshing. Let’s do it again!”

“Yeah, no, that’s not really what I was going for, guys. I…”

They’d enjoyed pairing up against me so much that they immediately jumped to the wrong conclusion. They thought I hadn’t wanted to be left out. It took me forever to explain the real reason: that if they kept fighting wherever they pleased, I wouldn’t be able to fix a single sprig of the manor gardens.

“I see, I see,” said Aaron. “In that case, we just have to choose a dedicated place for training. Is that right?”

“Exactly. So how about over on the western side? There’s a walled-up corner that would be perfect.”

“Hm. Fighting in an enclosed space…limited movement…an intriguing proposal! What do you think, Myne?”

“I’ll fight anywhere. I don’t care.”

“Then it’s decided! Let’s go!”

“Round two!”

Neither one was in the habit of mincing their words. They sped over to the western corner of the grounds and started up again without a second to spare. Dust clouds rose into the air with the clanging of their weapons. It seemed the change in location had only inspired them to go even harder.

With a relieved sigh, I slid Greed back into his scabbard and returned to the groundskeeper’s side. “Sorry to keep you waiting. Looks like I managed to save what was left.”

“Well, I tell you…you’ve certainly gotten braver since I last saw you. But you’re right. At least now I can actually give you a hand. But that western part of the grounds? That’s going to be a little pocket of Galia, I can tell you that.”

The groundskeeper had never been to Galia, but he’d heard stories. And after seeing Myne and Aaron locked in fierce battle over a scarred patch of earth? Yeah, I could see what he meant.

With his help, I worked on the gardens until sundown. We talked about where I might source soil and other supplies, as well as seedlings and the like, and he was kind enough to promise to introduce me to his own suppliers until I found my own.

“I don’t know how to thank you for all of this,” I said.

“No, no, it’s I who should be thanking you. It’s been a long time since I got to work on a big project like this! It’s all just maintenance back at Hart Manor. I’ll be back to help again, and I’ll pass the word on to the other gardeners.”

“Thank you!”

With the other Hart gardeners helping out, we’d be well and truly set. I walked the gardener back over to Hart Manor, and then I returned to my own to look over all our hard work and imagine how stunning the grounds would be when we were done. There’d be a grand fountain in the center, surrounded by healthy trees, under which I’d plant a variety of beautiful, vibrant flowers. It’s going to be wonderful—just glorious when it becomes reality!

I was shaken from my thoughts by the ongoing clamor of clashing steel upon steel coming from the west. Myne and Aaron were still fighting. Did their stamina know no bounds? Either way, I knew that if I went to investigate, I’d get pulled into their next round, so instead, I opted to head inside.

Only then did I notice a woman standing at our gates—the nun from the church in the slums. After she’d promised to support any forsaken citizens who wanted to go to Hausen, I’d given her a travel pass to allow her to enter the Holy Knight District as necessary. She had her own preparations to see to, which I knew would keep her busy, so I hadn’t expected to see her so soon. Her appearance brought a smile to my face.

I walked over to the manor gates cheerfully, but as I approached, I realized the nun was deathly pale and trembling. “Please!” she cried. “You must help!”

“What is it? What’s happened?”

Why was she so shaken? I hurriedly opened the gates and invited her inside the manor. Upon entering, she collapsed as if the last of her energy had left her. I caught her limp body, and it dawned on me that she had come here in such a rush that she could barely even stand.

The nun looked up into my eyes and her voice was weak. “I’ve committed a terrible, terrible sin. But I thought…I thought I was doing the right thing. I really did, but…”

As she slowly recovered and told the rest of her story, I came to understand just how the little church in the slums had been able to afford to feed the forsaken. The soup had been paid for by the Vlerick family, on the condition that they could periodically come by at any time and conscript some fifty or so forsaken for labor.

“Until now, there haven’t been any problems with the arrangement. All the people who left for work returned eventually. But…this time, they wanted a hundred people. They were all supposed to be back already, but none of them returned…but for one. One person managed to escape, and when he told us what happened—he said he was the lone survivor. Everyone else was killed!”

The nun was at a loss. She didn’t know what to do, but she’d seen our meeting as fateful, and so she’d run here to ask for my help. I did my best to calm her down before asking my next question.

“Where were they taken?”

“To the Military District. To a facility managed and run by the Vlerick family.”

Well, then. I would just have to investigate this place myself.