Chapter 46
The elder wasn't the only one happy with his gift. Botan's father, who was the lead hunter of the tribe, was quite happy with his own gift when she presented him with the dragon scale mail. Leaving him to show off and brag to the others about his daughter, she went back to the fire pit where the rest of the party sat as Aki had gone to chat with the shaman of the tribe.
"So, I suggest we stay for a few days before going off," proposed Nene, "Maybe Botan can show us around."
"Ah, I don't think there is much to see that's interesting, to be honest," admitted the lion girl, "We move around quite a lot. We go where the food roams, after all."
The next few days were a blur. Aki struck out on her own, saying her goodbyes the next day of their arrival. Polka became popular with the children with her acrobatics and juggling, their laughter and squeals of delight following her wherever she went most of the time. Lamy kept to herself at first, but after finding out the existence of tribal moonshine, hung out with the brewer along with the fennec fox girl. The rest stuck around the shaman; Aloe just wanted to stick with Nene, who was interested in listening in on the tribe's history, while Botan tried wrapping her mind around the shaman's magic.
By the end of the few days, Polka and Lamy got a new recipe for booze, Aloe and Nene learning about the more recent history of the tribe, and Botan learned how to enhance her arrows with a banishing effect. The shaman was quite surprised to see how she quickly understood what to do and attributed it to being touched by the Feywild.
"Guh… boring..." groaned the succubus out of earshot, the others waving goodbye as they left the village.
"Ah… at least wave to be polite," reminded the lore bard. Her friend shrugged and waved as well, the party slowly leaving the village.
They then headed westward where Izuni, the nearest town, was. They were told that it would be a few more months before the tribe had to move again, so they were welcome anytime until then. It took half a day but they reached there with little trouble, with the only wildlife they saw was a herd of wild elephants. The recognizable town walls were sighted as the grasslands slowly gave way from browns and yellows to green. It looked peaceful as they walked past the gates, with the beastfolk going on with their lives.
However, as they went to the inn to get directions to the next town, they overheard a few people talking about a crazy inventor shacking up in the nearby forest.
"Should we go and check it?" asked Polka, her eyes brimming with curiosity.
"Well, I admit I am feeling a little curious," added Lamy, "I wonder what are they doing..."
"Ha, I guess we can go and check it on the way to the next town," mused Nene.
After getting directions to both the next town and the inventor's house, they left and made their way out to the house. The well-used road weaved its way through a forest and after a few hours, branched off with one going deeper into the forest and the other keeping to the road.
"Alright, we turn in here," declared the bard as she led the party down the less-worn path.
"I hope we're doing the right thing," muttered the succubus.
"Don't worry so much," chided the fennec fox monk as she clapped her hand on Aloe's back, "What could go wrong?"
Then, they heard a loud explosion.
"You were saying?" asked the cleric as the party burst into a run towards the sound.
Running down the path, they came upon a normal-looking house. A column of smoke rose up from behind the house. As they ran around it, they heard loud, hacking coughs as well as loud shouting and laughing. They came upon the source of the smoke column, a small crater in the middle of the backyard. Next to it, a soot-covered rabbit girl was going over a notebook while a… metal man was brushing the ash off her head.
"HA↓ HA↑ HA↑ HA↑ HA↑ Alright, that didn't work," she declared as she marched over to a table on the side, "Well, I can try this one now."
"Erm, hello?" called out Nene as the rabbit inventor picked up a leather chest piece.
"Eh? Oh, konpeko! My name is Pekora!" she gushed as she suddenly ran over and shook our hands, "What brings you here?"
"Er, we heard that there was an inventor here and was curious," the lore bard said as the rabbit girl ran back to the armor and placed them in the crater, which had stopped smoking.
"Mmm, mmm, peko," she muttered as she picked up her bag and pulled out a small brush and a small pot of something dubious. She then proceeded to paint some arcane-looking sigils on the front. Tossing the brush aside and putting the pot in her bag, she took a few steps back, stretched out her hand, and chanted a short stanza of strange-sounding words. At the end of the chant, the armor burst into flames.
"Eh?" she muttered as she stared at the burning piece of leather.
Things were looking a little less… desirable for the party right now. As they tried inching away from the backyard, the rabbit girl turned to them and exclaimed, "Alright, all experiments done. Maybe I can try again peko down the line. Anyway, if you need me to do anything, I need my workshop."
"Ah… is it in here?" asked the lore bard hesitantly as she pointed to the house.
"Oh, no. This is just a house peko from home," she explained animatedly, "I come here for experiments that I can't do at my workshop. Noisy for neighbours, peko."
"So… where is your workshop?" pressed on the lore bard.
"In the capital city, Silicasa."
In the end, they were roped into bringing the rabbit girl artificer back to Silicasa. After packing up her stuff and draping a cloak around her metal butler, who she called Jack, they headed back to the main road and off to the next town. The sun had begun to set by the time they arrived at the second town, Locolata. They noticed something strange though; everyone seemed to be very nice to the artificer for some reason. Even when they reached the inn, the mouse-eared innkeeper ran around the counter, shook the rabbit girl's hand, and said something about being an honor for housing her.
"She's certainly popular," whispered Aloe to Nene.
"I didn't know an artificer like her was this treasured," the bard whispered back.
"Well, she does have some regal bearing, as scruffy as she looks," added Lamy, who then reasoned, "Maybe she is a noble of some standing."
The rest shrugged and followed the artificer to a table for dinner, apparently having already paid for their rooms.
"You are very famous, it seems, Miss Pekora," stated the half-snow elf politely.
"HA↓ HA↑ HA↑ HA↑ HA↑ Well, I suppose you five are new here," laughed the artificer, "Refreshing. Anyway, peko your ears. I am actually a princess."
Silence.
"WHAT!?"
"HA↓ HA↑ HA↑ HA↑ HA↑ Yes, I am," she insisted, much to the incredulous looks on their faces.
"But… if you're a princess, what are you doing all the way out here?" asked Aloe.
"My research, of course!" she declared proudly, "Peko new ways of putting magic into stuff. For example, this!"
She suddenly got to her feet and picked up her light crossbow. Without loading anything, she shot the wall of the inn. A glowing bolt of light slammed into the wall and after a second, disappeared, leaving a small hole in the wood.
"Er, please don't damage anything, your Highness," pleaded the innkeeper with a strained smile, her tone a mixture of scared and annoyed.
"Ah, sorry, peko, sorry," she apologized as she rubbed her head sheepishly, "It won't happen again."
"Um… that's impressive," stated Botan rather hesitantly.
"Is fine! Is fine!" the rabbit princess assured them as she took her seat again, "I peko overexcited. No worries." Noticing that Nene was looking a little unsure, she spoke up kindly, "Don't worry. All infusions have been tested pekoly and certified safe… as long as I do it in my workshop."
"Sure..." sounded an unconvinced lore bard.
"Anyway, let's eat!" declared the princess as the innkeeper and a helper brought over their food.
The next day was a beautiful day to wake up to. Having said their thanks and goodbyes to the innkeeper, they left the town and headed for the capital. It was unfortunate that the smaller towns and villages here didn't have the luxury of a cart and carriage network, so they had to travel by foot. It was a little cloudy but the sun shone strongly. Keeping to the main road, Pekora guessed that they should have another day's worth of travel before reaching Silicasa.
After a few hours of travel, they came across two beastfolk, an older man and a child. They were pulling a donkey and cart laden with wares, mostly farm produce.
"Hey, papa, there's some people coming up the road," they heard the young raccoon girl announce as they came near.
Lamy noticed her shield suddenly glowing blue. "Strange," she muttered aloud.
"Now, Lena, no talking to strangers," warned the father as the young girl ran up to them.
"Hi, I'm Lenalia," she introduced herself as she held up a wooden ring in her hand, "You seem like magic-knowing folk. Can you help me figure this out? I found this on the side of the road earlier."
"Well, it is magical," stated the half-snow elf, the intensity of the shield's glow increasing slightly.
"Oh, that's easy to figure out," said Aloe cheerily as she pulled out a pearl from her money pouch, "I'll just use an identifying spell for this."
"Umm, don't you need an owl feather too?" questioned Nene.
"Ah… right," muttered the succubus as her shoulders slumped.
"Sorry," apologized the lore bard as she put away the pearl.
"Lena, I already told you no talking to strangers," scolded the older raccoon man as he stomped over and pulled his daughter away.
"Aww, papa," groaned the girl with a pout, "I thought we could find out about the ring."
He grunted and said, "As long as you don't use it, we'll be alright. Maybe we can get it figured out when we earn enough money."
The party looked at each other, each one wondering if they could help in some way. As the girl was coaxed away from them, Lamy went up to them and pulled some pieces out of her money pouch.
"Here, it isn't much, but here is something to help you with that," she told them as she gave them several silver pieces and gold pieces, much to their shock and astonishment.
"Please, there is no need for this," stated the father as he refused, trying to return the money.
"No, please, I insist," she persisted, pushing the money into his hands.
"Look, we do not need your help," he protested with a frown, "We-"
"Papa, please. No fighting," pleaded the girl with a sad face as she tugged his shirt.
He grunted again and muttered as he took the money, "Fine. We accept."
Looking back at the party, she then offered, "Can we help with moving the cart as well?"
"No, we are fine. You seem to be a busy lot going the other way. We'd be fine," he refused as he walked back to the donkey and cart with his daughter.
As they went back to pulling their donkey, the party walked on, happy with the results.
"That was very nice of you, Miss Lamy," stated Pekora as they left the two raccoon-folk behind.
"They seem to be in hard times," the cleric stated, "It was the right thing to do. Plus, if they are true to their word to not mess around with it, then they should be safe."
"That's Mummy Lamy for you," quipped Nene.
"Excuse you, I am not your mother," the half-snow elf retorted with a blush. The others just giggled.
Soon, night fell and the group stopped by a creek to set up camp. After making a small campfire, they settled down to wait for Botan to finish hunting. When she came back to the camp with two rabbits, they cheered for the archer. Soon, they were roasting over the fire.
"Hey, this wouldn't be cannibalism, would it?" teased Aloe with a smirk.
Pekora laughed and replied confidently, "No, don't be silly. A rabbit-folk is peko different from a normal rabbit."
"This is not something to be joking about," Lamy chided the succubus.
"Alright, it's ready," declared the archer as she handed out the rabbit meat kebabs to everyone save the steel defender.
After dinner was over, Nene put up the magical hut to sleep for the night.
"Wow, amazing," gushed the artificer as she poked the transparent dome, "I wonder if I can make something like this..."
"It would be a sight to see if you could," stated the bard in wonder.
"...Let's get to sleep," muttered Polka after a yawn.
"Hng… I wish I brought the wine with me," murmured Lamy.
It took a while, but they fell asleep peacefully until the morning. They took time to wash up and clean up the campsite before they crossed the creek. An hour after leaving the creek area, the surrounding forest began thinning out and the land became dotted with random houses with small farming fields. Sometimes they would pass by a farmer or two on their horse and carts heading towards the city with their produce.
"Hmm, I wonder..." muttered Pekora as she got another idea. She got tired of walking and was now perched on her defender's shoulders, using its head as a makeshift table.
Suddenly, two dogs suddenly ran out from a hops farm and started barking at them. They were rather large and looked a little frightening. Botan and Polka put themselves in front of Lamy and Nene. Aloe took to the air and drew out her daggers while the artificer dropped her notebook in surprise.
"Pogo! Migo! Down boys!" shouted a dwarf as he ran after them, "Don't go barking up strangers, yer stupid mutts!"
Startled by the loud yelling, the dogs whined and went to heel.
"Get back to the farm," he ordered as he pointed at the farm. As they followed his orders, he turned to the surprised party and muttered an apology.
"It's alright. Don't worry about it," said the princess before looking at her steel defender and ordering it, "Jack, pick up my notebook."
The dwarf farmer walked back to the farm as the defender squatted down and retrieved the notebook for its master. Meanwhile, the succubus landed while sheathing the daggers.
"Let's get a move on," stated the lore bard, getting mutters of agreement from the rest.
A few more hours later, Silicasa came into view. According to the rabbit inventor, its layout was similar to Rivirapolis except the castle was all the way north of the city with the noble district around it like a deformed semicircle. Her words. And the closer they got, the jumpier she got as well.
"Nervous?" asked the archer.
"Umm, just excited. It's been peko since I saw my Mama," she replied with a grin. She then waved at a few people who stopped to bow to her.
"Ooh, we get to meet your mum?" asked Aloe in surprise.
"You aren't. Peko I am!" she retorted and declared, "We are heading straight for my workshop."
Her workshop, it turns out, was at the center of the city and overlooked the market square. It was a double-story building. The upper floor served as her sleeping area while the bottom floor was where she did most of her work.
"Ta-dah! My workshop!" the rabbit princess declared as she flung the door open and then she stopped with a start.
Standing next to the worktable was a taller, more mature-looking Pekora. She wore a beautiful flowing green and white dress as well as a simple silver crown on her head.
"Eh? Mama?"
AN: Hello again, readers. Welcome back.
So, a little update for Botan where she gets a banishing shot for her Arcane Archer class. Polka being very entertaining. Lamy gets a taste. Nene learns. Aloe gets bored. The few days go by quickly and they begin their travels to Silicasa, the capital of Gekko. On the way, they encounter many different things and people. Especially a certain rabbit girl. With explosions. She picked up a few things from Miko it seems. At least she keeps her experiments away from the general public. Wouldn't want to damage her reputation, now would she? Now, the explosions themselves signify infusions that she hadn't learned or discovered yet (a.k.a. level restrictions). As of now, she knows eight infusions; five Replicate Magic Item infusions(Bag of Holding, Goggles of Night, Sending stones, Necklace of Adaptation, Gauntlets of Ogre Power), Returning Weapon, Repeating shot, and Enhanced Weapon. Along the way, she gets more ideas. That might be dangerous. But... she does have proficiency with tinker's tools so she might be able to invent something. Anyway, the group reaches Silicasa and head straight for Pekora's workshop. And we have a certain person waiting for her there.
Next chapter, did you know that there is a local branch of the adventurer's guild? Thank you for reading and have a good day, dear readers.