The Northern Noble is a Grinder (Volume 2: Chapter 9).

The Northern Noble is a Grinder (Volume 2: Chapter 9).

…

Lord Trelawney arrived moments after the high priest fell, while I was desperately trying to keep Anisette from bleeding out.

“Move over.” I did as he instructed. His words allowed no argument. The moment I moved from her, he was staunching wounds with clean fabrics, as well as pressing a hand against her chest. Power flowed from him to her, and soon enough her bleeding stopped, while her breathing steadied. In but mere moments, she was stable, then Lord Trelawney pried a potion from his belt and put it to her lips and fed it to her. Color returned to her cheeks. “Hm. She’s fine; you can relax now. She would’ve made it… if she decided to consume that monster’s core.”

He glanced towards the dead high priest, then to the ritual site, before shaking his head.

“Well, can’t blame her for not deciding to eat that.” He stated simply before standing and cleansing the blood from his gauntlets. There was a crash in the distance. I saw his cursed armor wreaking havoc and smashing through ships. It stood aloft them before slamming down and crushing what was beneath. There were yelps and roars of panic from the lizard-like soldiers. I sensed a great, hungry horde beneath the waves. “How are you three?”

“Unharmed, thanks to her efforts. We didn’t have a chance in facing the high priest. He was strong, but Anisette… didn’t allow him to leverage much of his strength.” I answered him. The rain bore down upon us, and the winds were harsh. The scent of blood and burnt bodies filled my senses, while I stood still with strength to spare. The ferocity unleashed by the demigod was only matched by her ability to ignore pain. In her berserker state, I had been unable to strike to support her. The last moments where they were killing each other whilst in each other’s grasp, blood flowing out from both of them whilst the storm raged, were still fresh in my memory. “I don’t know how she survived that.”

“Love and hate are two sides of the same coin. Nothing can drive a person more than either.” Lord Trelawney told me, as if it were the simplest fact in the world. Ship after ship crashed and broke around us. The water was beginning to run red from all those he consigned to death. While Anisette had screamed and raged, he destroyed with apathy. It was thorough and systemic. He was accomplishing an objective. In the North, when he went off to kill his house’s foes, he had a smile on his face that resembled the snarl on the demigod’s face. “You’re thinking about something unnecessary. Stop it.”

I had to step back and wonder if he somehow discerned my thoughts before Alice stepped in.

“What happens now, my lord?”

“Well, I’ll leave part of the fleet to get hunted down. Stragglers will be hunted and broken. The inquisitors will probably tear the survivors apart for information. I’ll claim my reward and go home.” He looked down at the sleeping Anisette. Her armor was rags, and her body was covered in blood. Already the fabric he used to stymie bleeding was being pushed out of her body as it healed. Having experienced some wounds myself, I knew she wouldn’t even be scarred after she fully healed. “I think his majesty will ask me to strengthen her and train you guys up, too. Seers all say that this is just the vanguard meant to establish a beachhead.”

A chill went down my spine.

“More will come?”

“Stronger, too. Half the seers were wrecks. They say at least ten of them plan on reaching godhood by sacrificing the entire nation.” Legends tell of cruel gods rising from the world to try and upend order with chaos through mass sacrifice. To stop the rise of another pantheon to oppose them, those who were already in the heavens sent forth their children or blessed champions. I never thought that those legends would return whilst I lived. “We live in interesting times.”

Anisette suddenly groaned and gained all our attention.

Lord Trelawney gave her side a light prod with his boot.

“Welcome back to the land of the living. You’re only here thanks to me. No thanks necessary. I liked the fight.” He offered her a hand, and when she took it, he cleansed her of the blood on her body. Her ragged top hid little, so he took off his coat and put it over her shoulders. She meekly gave a nod in thanks and stared at the destruction being wrought upon the enemy fleet. I almost expected her to ask about their lives, but instead she looked down at the ship we stood upon. “I’m clearing the place out right now.”

“We need to do more than that. Everyone else who’s missing must be down there.” Anisette tried to move past us, but Lord Trelawney held her back. “You can’t—

“Wrong. I can, because I’m stronger than you.” He pointed upward once, and she was lifted off the ground. Anisette tried to move only to find herself floating in place. She glared at him, and her face reddened with anger. “Now, you four have done enough. I’ll be sending you back to the castle. Stay on your toes just in case, but get some rest, eat, and get ready to meet the emperor, or at least a herald. I’ll head down and see who wants to be saved.”

Who wants to be saved?

My blood stilled at his words as he realized what his intentions were. These depraved creatures obviously saw people as tools. They abducted those with power and slaughtered the men in their profane ritual. With the women absent, I could only imagine what became of them, and the thoughts made me sick.

Anisette’s power suddenly came alive, and she landed on the deck of the ship with a grunt.

“N-no. That isn’t your place. It’s no one’s place to decide such things. They deserve rescue and aid. Nothing less… and nothing more.” Anisette locked her gaze with Lord Trelawney’s and spoke with grim determination. “They are my fellow students and friends. You are a child and lord to a faraway land. You do not have the right to say what becomes of my peers and fellows.”

Lord Trelawney raised an eyebrow at her words before suddenly looking at me.

“I would say that Argelia has greater say than you, then. She’s higher up on the social ladder, and she’s a student just like you.” His gaze was as heavy as a mountain, and Anisette’s pleading countenance made my heart shudder. Her eyes looked at me with fear, and I knew that some of those below the deck had shunned and ostracized me at that very moment. “What do you think?”

Thankfully, despite all that had been forced upon me, I did not fall to the depths of hate that would permit Lord Trelawney to do as he wished.

“I will go down there and retrieve them. Despite all that they have done to me, I will help them still. I may dislike them, but I do not consider them enemies. Nor people who deserve what has happened to them.” Something resembling a weight fell from my shoulders at my own words, and from the corner of my vision I saw a smile grace Alice’s face. I would never do business with their families, nor would I go out of my way to provide them with aid, but I would not see them dead or suffer a horrible fate. “Please, Lord Trelawney, I ask of you to turn your focus upon the enemy fleet and leave this matter to us.”

Lord Trelawney was silent for a while before shrugging.

“Alright, then. Do what you want.” He flippantly waved us away before turning to the remaining fleet and rising to the sky. “Good luck.”

Those two words weighed heavily in my mind as we descended into the depths of the ship to aid those who had been taken.

…

Interlude: Anisette, Demigod of Love

…

Lord Trelawney’s words, of love and hate being two sides to the same coin, resounded in my mind as I looked upon the main hall of the castle.

Fifty young women from across four grades of the Academy had been with us. Twenty had been missing after the initial attack.

They were all with us now, and one and all they suffered the predations of the invaders.

Those who were compliant and did not resist were forced to carry a child before being sequestered away in isolation whilst fed and watered. The fact that I spent days worrying about my future while they were trapped for weeks in near-darkness whilst provided only water and food weighed on my heart. Their cells had straw beds and a hole that led to the ocean for their relief. The women I saw as princesses were half-mad, disheveled, and almost disbelieving of their rescue, and now they were being tended to by Mother’s most caring followers.

Some part of me wondered if they all would become part of the clergy, but in the back of my mind I wondered if they had any other choice.

They were taken, and thus they were sullied.

I would rather they be with the clergy than return to their previous lives to be shamed and harmed by their so-called peers.

Their peers would praise those who did not surrender.

Those who had scars beneath their eyes and their minds destroyed.

They were three in number, and each was being made into a martyr. Already Mother’s clergy was done with them, and they were beset by the emperor’s servants. They heeded commands and followed those who held their leash. Nothing beyond blind obedience existed anymore. The daughters who once existed, the heiresses to noble houses, were dead, and in their place were puppets to be used as living martyrs for the war to come.

All I could do was promise myself that I will see them sequestered away and cared for once the empire is done with them.

Suddenly, as I was absorbed by my thoughts, I felt a sudden warmth blossom against my cheek, and the scent of fresh bread filled my nose.

“Eat up.” It was Lord Trelawney. Gone were the aristocratic clothes layered in enchantments, and so was his cursed armor, similarly no longer present. Instead, he was back in his disguise as an assistant baker, and he had baskets full of baked bread on a trolley almost taller than him. He took an entire basket and placed it on my lap. It was laden with rolls, but also jam and butter. Two things I haven’t seen since the first days at the castle. Perishable foods and high-calorie foods were eaten first. “They’re hot and fresh.”

“Thank you, Lord Trelawney.” I took a single bite, and a hunger blossomed in my stomach. It was as though I suddenly had a ravenous, bubbling cauldron in my belly desperate for sustenance. Before I knew it, two rolls disappeared into my gullet without any thought or appreciation given for the time spent making them. Thankfully, his gaze was understanding. “Can I help you share the rest of the bread?”

“No, you should eat. I don’t need help handing out food.” He shook his head before moving onward. “Oh, and good job. Most of these girls chose to live thanks to you.”

His congratulations made a flush form on my cheeks, even as I frowned.

“You shouldn’t have considered giving them what you planned in the first place.” I shuddered at the thought still. My arrival with Lady Argelia had frightened them enough, but we were able to calm them thanks to being fellow students. They knew us. If Lord Trelawney had appeared with all his strength and fury, like an avenging warrior, and offered them the chance to rid themselves of any shame and pain? I was sure that they would have taken his offer. “I understand you intended to spare them much pain and misery, but it remains wrong.”

“Let’s see if you keep thinking that way once these girls dedicate their lives to death and destruction.” I stopped at his words and felt my heart drop into my stomach. The hunger I felt remained, but it warred against the new truth that arose thanks to his words. “Didn’t cross your mind, did it? You thought that they might just try to return to their old lives or join your mother’s church. It didn’t occur to you they might come to me instead, and the emperor would be happy to pay for a couple of vengeful super weapons.”

Weapons.

He called them weapons, and my blood ran cold. The society that they once loved now shunned them. Their families may very well abandon them. If they did not choose the clergy, then they may very well choose to go to Lord Trelawney and become weapons. The emperor makes living martyrs of those who have lost their minds; why would he not see those thrown aside empowered to become vengeful warriors who will not falter against those who robbed them of everything?

“Saving people is more complicated than doing the right thing. You need to keep doing it until one day they’re alive and can do without you. In the end, they might resent you for it, too. One day, each one of these girls will look back on being saved and wish they weren’t.” Lord Trelawney’s words were blunt, but he said them softly. There was no blame. Just him stating what he believed to be true. He raised a hand my way and placed it on my shoulder. “But I’ll go ahead and give you a chance. I’ll tell him that I’ll be busy for a few months. Do your best to get these girls somewhere safe and secure. Someplace where they can try to be happy. Sound good?”

I despised the fact that all I could do was meekly nod and accept his words and look at his back while he moved forward to feed the main hall bustling with victims and those tending to them.

I must be able to do more.