I Built This City Chapter 40: Chapter 40

Read chapter 40 of I Built This City by ThePudding on NovelPedia.

Anroll Greylan Anroll accepted the warm bowl numbly, staring at his… niece? The difference was visible, which was more awkward. The corpse on the table had just been covered up, but before that he could make out the fading tan from days outdoors, and the impression of a toned and athletic body. Nothing extreme enough to have significant Attribute drift, but a visible fitness. In front of him, the girl was still Ellen… but different. Softer, somehow. More pale, definitely. She was different from the girl he’d left before his trip, too. She walked more daintily, yet with more assurance at the same time. It wasn’t the motion of an experienced adventurer, but it was the look of someone satisfied with their place in life. The large man scratched his head, shifting the hat atop his head. “I uh… never saw this before. What do you do with the uh… bodies?” Ellen—the living one—had just settled into a chair next to Anroll. “Oh… I’m sorry, Pauley. It’s um… I’m not really sure what the others do with them. It’s… I don’t think I want to touch it, but Healer and Apprentice don’t have any problem doing it. But they aren’t here, so… I’ll think of something.” “So this is your uncle, Ellen?” The innkeeper was steadfastly trying to ignore the body on one of his tables, focusing on Anroll. He’d seen that kind of reaction before, and it let him breathe easier knowing that this was not a normal event for the people here. He’d fought monsters, but seeing family dead was not something he’d been ready for. “Anroll Greylan,” he muttered, tugging the hood back and offering his hand to the man. The innkeeper hesitated, the name registering with him, but he pushed through and took the hand in a firm shake. “Name’s Tobias. That’s my wife Lauren over there. Pauley, who sort of runs the village. And I guess you know your niece. She didn’t tell us you were famous.” Anroll could hear the barely-restrained admiration in the man’s voice. Tobias was handling it better than most, but if he’d already been dealing with whatever was happening here, maybe the appearance of an adventurer of his pedigree wasn’t big news. “I don’t… really know what’s going on.” He looked over at Ellen, who gave him a reassuring smile. “We don’t either, but she’ll be back. I… think.” Ellen touched her lips in a sudden expression of worry. “We’ll have to check the house.” Anroll turned to face the girl who was apparently his niece, trying to think of what sort of monster or magic could mimic a human so well. It wasn’t impossible, but everyone in the group looked so unsurprised that it was obvious Ellen had been living here for a while. And that’s when he saw another one. “Uncle Anroll?” Another Ellen stood at the top of the stairs nearby, dressed more lightly than winter really demanded, with her hair in disarray as if she’d just awakened. “When did you get here? Did you see us die?” “Ellen!” The Ellen beside Anroll exclaimed uninformatively. She hopped upward in surprise, hurrying toward the sleepy-looking redhead. “What are you doing here? I thought you’d wake up in the town. Is your sister here? Have you chosen a name yet? He just arrived…” “I don’t know why we woke up here,” the new one replied. “I thought we’d wake up there, too. I haven’t chosen a name yet, the new Hunter Ellen is still getting dressed. For once I think we remember how we died, too. Was it a boar?” Anroll coughed. “Can someone please explain to me what’s happening here?” “We’re still trying to figure that out ourselves,” Pauley grumbled, tipping his hat. He grabbed his coat off the rack and shrugged it on. “It’s an honor to meet you, sir, but I’d better step out and calm down the others. They know something happened, but I think only a couple got a glimpse of her face. Maybe I can salvage this.” “It was a boar,” Ellen—the one that had comforted Anroll—said. “What’s the last thing you remember? I don’t think any of us have ever remembered that close to when it happened.” “I remember the boar charging at me, after I’d