No matter how much time passed, my mother always told me to never go to the outer edges of Flotol. Guards are nonexistent here and that everyone is a problematic person in one way or another. I believed her of course, I mean, most criminals that get executed come from here.

  Back then, I often came with my family to watch the execution, it was a spectacle that I never got to experience in my past life and everyone seems to enjoy it so why shouldn't I join in on the fun?

  Seeing a man beheaded by an axe was... New. Thankfully, I've already gotten accustomed to dead bodies by that point and thanks to my training as an acolyte, I have personally worked on making the coffins of those exact same criminals.

  I still haven't mentioned all the dead kids, teenagers, and adults I commonly saw back then, working for the church really opened my eyes to the harshness of this world. I guess you can say that I'm partially thankful?

  For some reason though, everyone here seemed to avoid me. I expected them to look at me harshly, maybe even scold me or something stupid like that, an attempt at my life even? No, none of that happened and I even saw a few people nodding at me as I passed.

  Everything here was run down, from the floor to the houses, it's like the place was made using hope and bubblegum, the rotting kind. Buildings sway like they're part of the swamp, a lot of them are tied to the support beams that keep the raft from breaking up, and signs of hasty repairs can be seen on the walls.

  Walls that aren't just made with one material, but multiple. I feel kind of bad honestly, seeing it like this.

  Guess I lucked out on where I was born? No, Rontress lucked out, this was her life before I came along and she would have been smart enough to enter the Royal Academy, and yet despite all of that she still ended up as a monster who would remove this village from the map.

  It's frustrating to think that I still haven't gotten close to truly solving that mystery, all I know is that it's related to the dungeon but how is this the case? Who the hell knows.

  Considering it pointless to put more thought into this— I am now aware that I have only been going in circles for some time now. — I put all my focus into looking for Laself's house, which unlike bees living in a rain forest or the mender's cottage, isn't that hard to find.

  Standing in front of this box that calls itself a building made me feel big, the creaking sound it produced gave me an eerie vibe and the way it swayed from the smallest movement that came from the raft somehow got the house to look alive. As a bonus, all the ropes tied to it didn't give me the impression that it's being used to hold the house together— at first. — but instead that it's some kind of bound beast.

  There are no windows, the walls are flat and bare with the only thing that can be considered a "decoration" being the patchwork repairs that has been made to the building over the years, the door looks poorly made and it didn't have hinges, just ropes going through holes in the wall.

  Walking over to this rotting carcass of a thing is somehow scarier than facing an aberrant, maybe it's my human nature yelling at me that the lair in front of me is dangerous, and since I recognize it as a place that I can technically live in, my instincts are screaming at me to not do it.

  That's my theory at least, personally I would never consider ever living here. Isn't the wild much better than this? Or am I wrong?

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  Knocking on the door now, I schooled my expression and prepared a happy mask to greet Laself's parents. A mosquito or two— make that several. — came to nip at the exposed skin on my legs and arms but I swatted them away. Do Laself's parents have to deal with this type of thing every day? Don't they have curtains and clothes made of insect repelling plants?

  My guess is that they don't, and when the door opened, it went from a guess into an absolute certainty.

  Assuming that they'd have access to clothes that threw off insects just because Laself said that her mother stitched clothing was wrong of me, but since I didn't say it to their face I decided not to apologize.

  "Hello, you may recognize me as Howaph's sister." I started but was immediately cut off by a laugh before I could continue.

  "No, I think I see you more as the altar girl who used to visit this place, you used to give us food remember?" Said the woman, who I still don't know the name of. The man too, why didn't I ask Laself about her parents' names?

  They'll definitely take offense if I ask them right? And all that anger will go to Laself instead of me, so instead of reaching that point I became proactive and nodded.

  "Yes, I remember." They say that but no, I've never been this deep when going to the outskirts of the raft. Can I blame their faulty memory for misremembering that I was actually giving them food while under the supervision of the village's guards back then?

  No, that's not a good idea. Playing along is the only right option here.

  "But since you both already know me, how about you introduce yourselves?" I smiled disarmingly. "Laself already gave me your name but I'd love to hear it from your mouths directly, a proper introduction is a good way to start a relationship."

  "You talk like a noble too huh?" The woman laughed, she then pointed at her husband. "That right there is Orti, and my name is Milso, nice to finally meet you."

  "I guess I do."" No, I don't. Not normally. Glad that they bought the lie and also gave me a decent segway into the next bit, I smiled and said, "Speaking of nobles, I have come here with one specific purpose, please hold out your hand."

  Reluctantly, they both did so and I took the two pouches I have been hiding until now and placed it on top of their palms. "There, you probably have an inkling on what's inside just from the feel alone so please only open it when you're inside the house, consider it as my thanks for being so easily swayed in the past."

  And with that, I left. Was there a point of making small talk? Eh, not really. My intention was never to be on good terms with them to begin with, the only thing that I wanted out of this is to give them some kind of support, however they choose to spend those coins will be entirely up to them and I don't care if they use it to buy food or maybe even drugs or something.

  Laself's dad can become an alcoholic for all I care.

  My last stop was our house, I wanted to make sure that mom and dad are doing fine and from the looks of it, they kind of were? I mean, they're busy preparing the ingredients a day before they would normally be made but I guess this just means that we'll be able to sell more food tomorrow.

  Unsure if they noticed me staring or not, I decided not to disturb them since they didn't look my way.

  The door closed behind me with a soft click, it wasn't loud enough to attract their attention.

  Once I got to the pier, I saw everyone waiting for me. Wardcruncha is talking to a bunch of adult men, he laughed from time to time, I got close and asked them what they were talking about.

  "Every year, I make sure to keep the pier warm." Wardcruncha casually answered, making me wonder if everyone in this area knew that he's a wizard. "We're talking about what to do once winter strikes, one of them suggested that we rebuild the pier since it seemed the perfect time to do so, naturally that got a laugh."

  "You can do it, you know." I said seriously, I wouldn't mind a fixed pier. "I'll help build you guys suitable houses once winter strikes." I'm now confident that Igloos will work fine for that purpose, and thanks to my magic, I can make those easily. "As for the materials? I'll buy them, fixing the pier isn't a bad idea, we can even maintain it, the local lord will be here then and I think asking him to pay you guys to keep the area safe is a good idea."

  "Rontress, this again?" Wardcruncha shook his head. "Can I even stop you if I try? You're just gonna do it regardless right?"

  "Yes." I nodded. "Good that you know. I'll be here for the first week of winter to help you out, then after that I'll talk to you guys once it ends."

  "I see, hopefully things go well."

  "Hopefully." I breathed out a misty breath. Snow is coming, the swamp water is freezing, soon the Day of Piling will start in earnest and after that? The cull.