Oaths to Keep

Safely inside, I shoved the door closed behind us with my shoulder, carried her all the way to the dining room, and put her down on the table.

"Stay here for a moment, I will fetch something to stop the bleeding." I ordered her, and for once in her life, Amber just nodded her head and did as I told her.

Pausing to turn on a gas lantern to give us a bit of light, I soon came back with a box full of all kinds of medical equipment Jefferson had squirreled away for an occasion just like this.

"Do you even know how to stitch up a wound?" Amber asked, clearly worried about the wound.

In the last week, I had been wounded quite a lot worse on more than one occasion, so I guess I was getting used to it. Amber might never have had worse than a splinter for all I knew, and if she had been sheltering in place with the majority of the townies, she would not know how different things were.

Sure, we had to get rid of the bleeding debuff, or things might get serious, but with healing magic, most injuries would not even leave a scar.

"Nope. Don't have to. We just gotta get you fixed enough, that I can fix you more once I get my mana back." I explained, not that I expected her to understand much.

First I cut her leggings open enough that I could get a better look at her injury.

Two parallel gashes, one deep enough to have struck a vein. Not an artery, fortunately, those could be much more of a bother.

I poured a generous helping of hydrogen peroxide into the wound, then plugged it with a wad of gauze, before applying pressure, waiting for the bleeding to stop.

"Okay, keep an eye on your status effects, and let me know when the bleeding debuff goes away." I told her.

"I uh, what, how do I do that?" She mumbled, eyes glazed with the pain my meager first aid skills were no doubt inflicting on her.

Rolling my eyes, I talked her through it, not for the first time thinking that most of the townies were going to die, when they refused to adapt to the new world. Not even knowing how to check your status effects is just dumb.

When her status effect went away, I pulled the gauze out of her wound, and just put on the minimum bandage needed for now, and told her to not move.

Finally able to tend to my own needs for a moment, I took a couple of painkillers from the medical supplies, and dry swallowed them.

The potion sickness from taking two potions at once was starting to give me a pounding migraine, and I would be lucky if it did not also give me severe vertigo.

Needless to say, it did not put me in the best mood.

Still, trying to be a generous host, I stumbled around the kitchen, fetching the thermos I had filled with coffee before venturing out earlier, and handed amber a cup, before filling my own.

"Okay, we have a few more minutes to go, before my mana ticks up, so let's try this again. Why are you here Amber?" I asked her, my voice weary. Even if it was nice enough to see another human, there was always a catch with Amber.

"I just wanted to check in and see how you were, John." Amber explained, but I saw the lie on her face. I knew her too well. Never in the time we had known each other, had she ever come by to just check how I was. She might have claimed so on several occasions, but that was just a polite prelude to asking me to do something for her.

"No."

"What do you mean no?"

"No to whatever it is you want from me. No."

"But I haven't even asked you for anything!"

"Not yet. But you will."

"It's just... I need a place to stay. Just.. Just for a while." Tears appeared as if by magic, but it was a skill she had developed long before the System, so I doubt it even used any mana.

"No. Go back to the townies, Amber. You will get yourself killed out here."

Most of the townies had huddled together in and around the old highschool, as is apparently standard during any apocalypse. With ninety percent of the population gone, most had gone for safety in numbers.

Sadly those numbers lied.

True safety in this new world did not lie in numbers of individuals, but in levels. If you did not go out and get experience and level up, you would fall behind the power curve, as monsters grew stronger and more numerous, as the System had warned they would.

I had tried to persuade them that hiding would do no good, but the mayor, who had sadly remained in our world, demanded that everyone should stay put and wait for the government to come and fix things.

She did not even want to hear what I had to say, and the few that did seem to understand, felt it was their duty to stay and protect those who would not protect themselves.

So rather than spend my time arguing with them, I went out on my own, and to my delight I found Jefferson's place to be even more of a gold mine than I had thought it would be.

And now Amber wanted to move in, for some reason. I had no doubt that her 'for a while' would turn out to be a lot more.

I had tried to put some steel in my voice, to let her know I wasn't buying the whole waterworks thing.

"I can't." She replied, her voice going quiet, and tears started to flow in earnest.

Shit.

"Okay, hold on, what do you mean you can't? Has the highschool been overrun or something?"

"No, they were fine when I left. It's my class. Stupid System class. Things are not going so great, supplies are starting to run low, there is not enough to go around. People started to suspect someone got more than their share. Then someone had some sort of skill to see what class people were, and when he told everyone, they got mad at me. Some wanted me punished, but I had not done anything, so I ran."

Suddenly it just came pouring out of her, sobbing as words rushed from her mouth, as if trying to get it all said in one breath.

"Why would they banish you for your class?"

"The System assigned my class as thief. But I am really not, and I didn't really steal anything, not more than anyone else did. Please let me stay, I will do anything you want, pinky promise!"

I guess it made sense. Both the parts of the ignorant townies thinking her class automatically meant she was the culprit of whatever crime they needed to blame on someone, and of course on her own selfish nature stealing from the community, because she felt everyone else probably were too.

She would probably be allowed back in, if someone explained classes to the townies, and how whatever was assigned to you was not necessarily a measure of who you were as a person. If you had not chosen to pick your class yourself, the System assigned you one that you were deemed to have the aptitude for. For most of the townies, they had been assigned useless things like commoner or clerk. Amber was lucky enough to get class with some real potential, even if she could probably have gotten something a lot better, if she had opted for a manually chosen one.

But here she was, in my kitchen, trying once again to wrap me around her finger, like she used to do all the time.

She would promise me the sun and the moon, then keep stalling whenever I wanted her to make good on her promise, until finally giving me the silent treatment for a while. Rinse, repeat.

But I was older. Wiser. More experienced. Level 5 now, thanks to the badger. Chuckling to myself at that thought, I shook my head, and met her gaze.

"Pinky promise won't cut it anymore."

"But.."

"Pinky promise is for kids. Say you swear it on the system, and I will believe it this once for old times sake." I interrupted her.

Her smile, as brilliant as ever, made her light up like the sun, as she prepared to once more shamelessly promise me something we both knew she would never keep.

"Okay." she said, wiping the tears from her cheeks, and looked me in the eye with her most seductive gaze, only slightly diminished by her swollen red eyes and the hint of snot on her lip.

"Let me stay, and I will do ANYTHING you want. System Promise!"

"No, not like that, that is still like a kid's promise. Say you swear on the system and so on." I argued, after a brief pause.

"You are really milking the moment, aren't you?" She quipped, knowing victory was hers, that I would not turn her away. Still, she went through the motions.

"Okay, I swear on the System to do aaaanything you say! There!"

As she finished her sentence, a blue window popped up, and I mentally clicked 'accept' as soon as it did. I had read about it in the System Manual that I had spent points on getting as part of my starting equipment.

She also got a blue window, though I could not see it.

But it was clear to see from the way she looked into the air in front of her, and her expression turned from one of victory to one of a frown of anger.

"What was that?" She demanded.

"Your oath. You swore a System Oath to obey me. Under the System, such oaths are quite binding, if they are taken voluntarily." I explained with as flat a voice as I could manage, trying not to gloat too much.

"Why would you trick me like that, make it go away immediately!" She demanded, suddenly afraid of what she had done.

"Me trick you? You must be confused. Tell me the truth, did you intend to keep your promise, or were you just going to use me like you always did?" I demanded.

I could see her strain against the force of her Oath, trying not to obey my command, trying not to speak the truth as I had commanded.

"Hnngh... I was not going to keep my promise, no. I was going to use you for safety and food, until the people at the highschool had calmed down."

"As I thought. Just like old times. And what were you going to do, once the good people of Springfield calmed down?"

"I was probably..." She began, before I cut her off.

"Always tell me the truth when I ask you a question, unless I specifically instruct you not to."

Paling slightly, she was unable to keep her mouth from spilling out more words.

"After you brought me in here, and I saw how well stocked your kitchen is, I thought perhaps I could buy my way back into the community by telling them how much food you have hoarded here."

That was quite the gut punch. I knew she only ever saw me as a tool she could use, but this was a new low, selling me out to a hungry mob, after I had saved her from a dire badger.

"You do realize that unless they get out and organize hunting parties, like I suggested five days ago, they will still starve. Even if I gave them everything I have, it would last them another day or two, tops. But I guess that seals it. I was going to offer to release you from your oath, if you would rather just leave, but now I can't."

She looked crestfallen, but seemed afraid to speak up, knowing now that she could not lie to me, with the System enforcing the oath she swore.

After a moment she seemed to have gathered sufficient courage to give it a go anyway.

"What if I swore to not betray you?"

"I am sure you would find a way around any such oath, as it is rather clear you value your own comfort a lot more than my safety. So no. But don't worry, I won't treat you badly or put you in any danger that I don't also share."

I gave her a stern look.

"But no more time to waste being lazy, denying how the world is now. I will make sure you get some levels and some skills as soon as possible. Come tomorrow, we will go out and hunt goblins, and you will get your first level!" I proclaimed.

"But my leg, I can't walk on it like that..." Amber whined.

"Ah yes, I should be able to help it along a bit now."

Putting a hand on either side of the wound, which was not strictly necessary but I really wanted to touch her thigh, I cast my healing spell.

With a faint blue glow outlining my hands, the energy seeped into her wound, and with a sigh of relief escaping her lips, I knew that she felt the instant pain relief that healing magic always offered.

Checking my log, I was satisfied to see that I had rolled an 8, and as the wound seemed to have closed more than half way, I figured another spell, and more likely than not, she would be right as rain.

It was also a reminder to me how squishy she was, to have taken such a deep wound for such relatively low hitpoint damage.

I would have to have her take some more constitution points when she leveled, to get her a little bit more tanky.

In a game, it would be the wrong thing, spreading points out like that. Traditional wisdom was to put all your points into the stats that would help your class abilities the most. For a thief, that would be dexterity or agility. But this was no game. With our actual lives on the line, having a little more constitution was a good thing, even if it meant you would technically develop your class a little slower. Being able to take a hit, being able to keep running, meant living another day.

For my first few levels I had been building up my own con and strength to better be able to handle all the walking. In your RPG your character never complains about being bone weary after a long march, or the aching feet you get from traversing uneven terrain all day.

I learned real fast, that if I was to continue going out to hunt monsters, I needed to toughen up physically, more than I needed to cast one more spell during combat.

The extra strength lent itself well enough to wielding a sword, which I had some little skill in even before the apocalypse, so that was a nice side benefit.

As a huge RPG nerd, I had been attracted to all the things I could do in real life, that resembled what my characters would to in a game.

So I had been taking some HEMA classes, and done some oriental martial arts, but not nearly as much as I now wished that I had.

Taking a moment to just sit there with my hands on her thighs, I pretended to be watching the wound intently, until I felt I could not milk the moment any further.

I knew I could technically order her to just strip naked and let me have her right there and then, but it felt wrong. It would be too much like rape, even if she had promised me she would do anything, knowing full well where my mind went, when she offered herself that way.

No, I would rather keep a bit of honor, and not just order her into my bed. Until she came into my bed of her own free will, what left of it there was, I would not use her oath against her like that.

With that in mind, I pulled my hands away from her things.

I had expected a knowing smirk on her face, telling me she knew full well what effect she had on me still.

But no, her expression was one of amazement and wonder.

"You...healed my leg just like that?" She asked incredulously.

"Yeah, it is how the world works right now. And no, it is not quite healed. I can probably get it all the way done in an hour or two. But it should be good enough now for you to move around. So... There is a room upstairs, second door to the left. There is a spare bed in there, and a bunch of boxes. Go up there and get it sorted, free up the bed. It is where you will sleep."

Immediately her body started getting up, her oath not allowing any hesitation. I would have to consider my phrasing when I told her to do something, if I did not want her to just drop whatever she was in the middle of. Maybe once I saw her put in some real effort at pulling her own weight, I would try and come up with some way to soften the oath a bit, without letting her off the leash entirely.

"I thought you would want me to share your bed, not sleep in a separate room."

"Well, a lot of things you thought you knew are a lot different now. That is just one of them."

Truth be told, I really wanted her in my bed, but I knew I would not be able to keep my hands off of her, if she was right there next to me.

"Once you are done, go to the bathroom and get cleaned up a bit. When you are done with all that, I will have some supper ready."

"Alright. Wow it doesn't even hurt!" she remarked, as she put her weight on her leg for the first time since I healed it.

While she was gone, I tried my best to come up with something tasty that she would enjoy. I knew a lot of her favorite foods, but most of them were right out with what I had available. It is not like I was going to be able to call out for sushi.

But at least I was able to cook up what looked like a pretty decent Italian dinner, and I even cracked open a bottle or red, even though neither of us were much of a drinker. I figured it might smooth over any rough edges in my cooking, and soothe her nerves a bit. No doubt she was having a hard time adapting to the situation, with things going rather differently than she was used to.

She had always been able to smooth over any obstacles in her path by smiling and batting her eyes, but now she had apparently all but been tossed out on her ear by the townies, and found that her old ways did not even work on me anymore.

If it were me, I would say a glass of wine was the least thing I needed to help me adapt.

When she came back down, she did look a bit better. Her face and leg had been cleaned up, and I noticed that she was wearing the same leggings, but they looked like they had been rinsed out and put back on wet.

I also noticed that she had taken a moment to reapply a touch of makeup. Fresh eyeliner and mascara, and some lip gloss. Maybe more things I was not savvy enough to tell at a glance. Clearly she had not quite abandoned all hope that her female wiles would yet turn the situation around.

"Smells good." She remarked.

"Thank you, but how about the food?" I quipped.

She rolled her eyes at me, letting me know what she thought about the joke.

"The food smells delicious. Is it ready yet?" She clarified, bursting my hopes she found my manly mush pleasant, but to be fair, I had not showered since I had been out battling goblins earlier, a fact I very much wanted to remedy.

"Not quite. If you will watch it, make sure it doesn't burn, I will get cleaned up real fast."

She looked almost panicked for a moment, at the prospect at being put in charge of not burning the dinner.

With a sigh I just switched the stove off. Good old gas stove, and enough gas to at least last the winter. A luxury that I was going to miss once it was gone.

"Alright, don't worry about it. Just sit down and help yourself to a glass of wine, and I will be right back."

My shower was quick and ice cold. I was not going to waste gas on a comfort like that, and besides, cold water is supposed to be good for you. Maybe the System would reward me with a cold resistance buff or something, if I kept doing it. Yeah, I was going to try and believe that, to make enduring the cold more tolerable.

Cleaned up and dressed in fresh clothes in less than five minutes, dinner was still fine when I got back. I had taken a minute to make sure my unruly mop of hair was in some semblance of order, and to put on fresh clothes.

Amber gave me a once over when I entered, and saluted me with the half full glass of wine she was brandishing.

"Look at you all cleaned up! Now can we eat?" she asked, clearly eager to dig in.

I could tell with a glance at the pot, that she had already been sampling some. A noticeable amount was gone, leading me to think that perhaps the conditions for the townies were even worse than I had thought they would be, inside just a week.

Without comment, I took her plate and started piling up a good sized portion, and put it in front of her.

"Dig in!" I urged her, though I was almost too late, as she was almost forking it down, before I got to say the words.

Shaking my head slightly, I got myself some, and for a while we ate in silence.

"Can I have some more, please?" She pleaded, looking at me with those sparkling sapphires that I had always had a hard time saying no to.

I saw no reason to deny her, so I just gestured at the pot.

"Help yourself." I managed, speaking with food in my mouth like a barbarian.

She did. She helped herself to another sizable portion, and with her small frame I was wondering how she was going to put all of that away.