Finally Back Home

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After five years, Duchess Ellen could see again. The very first thing she did was to cup her daughter's face and weep. Sue also began crying. Even the Duke's eyes grew misty as they all combined into one warm family hug.

I will skip all the effusive thanks afterwards. I explained it was not a permanent solution. But now we had a real goal and a real plan for reaching that goal. In exchange for every bit of information and resources regarding whatever we might use to be able to give Monika back her body, we had the objective of creating a new all-purpose easy-to-use specialized healing spell. It should be easy enough even for Sue to use.

The Duke offered that we should not return to the hotel and stay as guests in his home, as long as we wanted. While he respected that we didn't want to be tied down, he was ready to extend as much of his protection to us as we were willing to accept. That was the least he could do for the great kindness we had given his family. It was an open invitation, just drop in any time.

"It's okay. We like seeing Sue happy. You already paid us back enough."

"Ahaha… so. You like Sue?"

"Sir. Don't make me punch your face."

"Ahahahaha." The Duke good-naturedly clapped my shoulders again and then pulled me aside to whisper privately. "In that case, I can only offer you this little advice.

"You are not the first to fall for Miss Charlotte. And you certainly won't be the last. I don't mean to say anything against her character, she is no wanton woman at all. But you must know - despite how she acts, she is not very learned in the ways of love. Her first love will always be magic research. So I hope you don't try and expect too much… many men have been deluded into thinking she had more interest in them than what she intended. Many to their ultimate detriment, losing their own character in the process."

Then he paused and considered "Though on further thought, she hasn't met someone before who has such a mastery of magic equal to her own. And you both do seem to love learning new things about magic… you actually might have a chance?"

/"My lord, do not make me zap you,"/ Monika hummed straight into his ears.

"Ahahaha."

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We stayed until dinner to make sure that Duchess Ellen's [Blind Sight] was working properly, and while it was very strange her five years of blindness meant she didn't have much to unlearn. It was strange not to be able to see real colors, but it was enough that she could finally see how her daughter was growing up.

She could not see Monika, because Monika's avatar was a pattern of light projected onto mist that took advantage of the human eye's low scanning rate. She was the first to ask if we could actually commission a statue of Monika.

"That… is certainly an idea…" After all, in the world I came from, 3D printing and custom figurines were a bustling business. Could I go into the action figure trade?

A full-size statue of Monika... I'd be far too tempted to build a temple around it and troll future generations.

Charlotte confirmed that we could indeed read the Ancient Script by showing up a page of the Protected Language. We all refused to just be her in-house translator though. While clearly archeology was important, it would also be monstrously inefficient if she just shoved pages at us. And I meant that literally, she was doing that. We asked Charlotte to prepare what she knew of the lexicon and choose untranslated works by what seemed the most significant.

Since there was a lot of Ancient transcribed writings, it was possible she'd disappear into a library and not come out for weeks. Thank Monika.

Even though Charlotte was my type, even I could see how her obsession about research could also get annoying very quickly. Normal people could only suffer being pathetically ignored. For her research subject the difference between a library and bondage dungeon could be... academic.

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And so that left us heading back to the hotel for a good night's sleep. Warm and satiated we were just barely awake, ready to fall into a happy food coma.

Elze reached into her money pouch and took out the two new platinum coins there. Two hundred silver. A year and half of lodgings. She put it back and sighed.

"JUST QUIT ADVENTURINGG ALREADYYY!" Elze screamed suddenly and threw a rock at my face. Klongg. It bounced harmlessly off my helmet.

Wait, we're in a moving carriage where did you even get that rock?

"Sis?" Linze looked up, startled. "Wa-what do you mean by that?!"

Elze huffed, sat back down with her arms crossed, and pouted. See, in reward for giving the Duchess back her eyesight, as unconventional as it may be, I was given six new platinum coins. The girls were each given two more platinum coins because they were around, I guess.

"It's barely been a day. Could you just go a day without getting ridiculous good fortune thrown at you? If you want to learn about what could give Miss Monika back her body, then you could just do it as well as a merchant or a healer, can't you? Just hire adventurers to search for things in your place!"

In my defense, I did also just spend a lot yesterday. It's not like there's a great number of blind Duchesses out there, this was not a sustainable form of income. I nodded. "True. I could be rich…"

Then I smiled and leaned against the side of the carriage. "But then... would I be strong?"

Elze blinked. "Is… that actually important to you? Aren't you pretty strong already?"

"Wealth can be power. Information can be power. But only power is power. What is the point if you can't defend those you love?" I smiled wider a little bit and touched my headset again. "Right now Monika is very fragile. But a body will make Monika very, very vulnerable."

/"Which is why I'm not in a hurry, you know? I'll probably lose the ability to cast all these [Null] spells for free."/ Monika added in a warning tone, /"Remember, you just said it. What's the worth of power if you can't use it to defend those you love?"/

"Hugs. The worth of power is measured in being able to give hugs to those you love. Watt-hugs. A world in the hug economy is a better place. A world where I can't hug mah waifu isn't worth defending."

/"Ahahaha…. wow. That's… that's just too sappy, Player. But I appreciate the sentiment anyway."/ She smiled and moved inside my field of view as if to kiss my forehead. I felt the touch through force feedback. /"I understand. Sentimentality is what keeps us human instead of machines of logic searching only for every tactical advantage. But you may have to live with the idea that there are… some things… I may never be able to give you. Don't lose sight of what's in front of you, Player."/

"Don't worry. I'm not going to take any unethical shortcuts."

Monika laughed and shook her head. She vanished from my view, returning my field of view back into the normal outside camera. Elze and Linze looked at me quizzically. Linze looked ecstatic for some reason, while Elze was tapping her chin with her knuckles while staring at me contemplatively.

She made as if to speak, and then shuffled back deeper into her seat, crossing her arms again. "Nah, next time we spar. We'll talk about that then…"

Eh? Well, whatever.

Yae, as usual, sat dutifully straight. She was the complete opposite to Elze's lounging about like some sort of school-skipping hooligan. She turned to look at me, as if feeling my gaze on her. After an expectant pause, she said "I understand that strength is best wielded in service to one's liege. Only when one can live outside of oneself can someone be strong. But to fight to protect your family is honorable too.

"A retainer that sacrifices one's family in service to their liege is admirable in their loyalty, but a man who would so easily abandon his family for power is also not one worth serving. Nor should he be trusted as a servant, they should not."

I nodded in acknowledgment. "A very good point."

"Monika-sama is the source of your power. And by this I do not mean magic power. Once we reach your home town, Playa-dono, I request that you show me your real strength."

Ahahahah…. Yeah. She was really serious about that match, huh? I had a strong feeling that if I refused or even tried to leave her behind she'd track me down and challenge me anyway.

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And so, early the next morning, we were off.

Back on the wagon with our two mottled horses. Yae mumbled fondly at them and brushed their fur. The horses seem to have missed her too and neighed plaintively. They carried our weight and baggage well.

Linze looked conflicted, and then relieved, as we passed through the city gates. When I asked, she replied that it would have been nice to have more time to go shopping for some new clothes, but then she remembered Zanac was a clothier over his own fashion designs and so it would likely be superior to have unique tailored dresses.

She looked in even more a hurry to get back and ask him things.

We had a new plan for getting back home in record time. Instead of traveling during the day like sane people, we would rest through the morning and mid-afternoon and actually travel mostly at night. When it's dark out, I could lighten the load with Wind magic, Monika could apply [Night Vision] to the horses and [Amplify] their Speed and Endurance. Probably no one would see a simple horse-drawn wagon running at almost autobahn speeds.

Elze asked if I felt like going back to that town with the rude guards and show them up. Whatever backing they have can't compare to a Duke. The king's brother, even!

I thought about it, but then that sounded needlessly petty and a waste of our time. We bypassed Amanesque entirely and stopped at the much humbler inn in the next village, Nolan. What took us three days getting to the capital we traveled in a little under one day.

And then the next day after that, we finally saw the stone walls of that little adventurer town.

I stood up on the wagon and declared "Reflet! I have returned!"

We were home.

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And then once we entered the Silver Moon Inn we found this bearded old guy behind the counter instead of Micah's untroubled welcoming smile as I was looking forward to seeing.

"Who the hell are you?!" I roared.

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"Who the hell am I? Who the hell are you?!" the man roared back.

"Who the hell am I? I asked first! Who the hell are you?!"

"Who the hell am I? I own this place! Who the hell are you?!"

"What is tarnation is all this noise now?!" Micah emerged from the kitchen door. She saw two men pointing their fingers at each other like fencing swords over the bar counter. She sighed. "I see you're back. Mister Playa, Elze, Linze. You're back early!"

"You know this annoying guy, Micah?"

"You know this annoying old guy, Micah?"

"Who's annoying?!" he screamed at me again.

Micah sighed, went over and chopped at the air between us. "This is my dad, Dolan. I guess it's understandable that you don't know. He was out traveling to restock our inventory of spices and preserved meats."

All the way to Mismede, even! We didn't even know he existed for the two weeks we've been staying in the Silver Moon Inn. We all actually just thought that, like Aer, her parents were dead in the war and didn't dare to bring up a sensitive topic.

"And dad, stop picking fights with paying customers. This is Playa, and Elze, and Linze, they're staying here. They already paid up to the rest of the month in advance."

Dolan scowled and crossed his beefy arms. "We don't need this kinda guy here. Give them back their mo-"

"NO. No refunds. You know the policy. This is why mom left the Inn to me, dad. Just because trading spices is how we keep afloat doesn't mean making a profit in the inn isn't something a worth doing in itself!"

Dolan grumbled and crossed his arms, and was just a bit short of pouting after being scolded.

I looked up sharply as a thought occurred to me. "Wait… so if he wasn't here all that time. Then that means… all that time I thought you had a cook, instead YOU were taking care of ALL the cooking. I thought it was just breakfast you were doing because the cook would come in later in the day. But you were always serving like, three recipes in every meal. And all the cleaning, and even the washing… for all of us, all on your own?!"

Micah looked relaxed and not really very enthused to excel, but when it comes down to it she had a very strong work ethic.

She squinted at me. "What's with that look on your face?"

Although no one could see my wide awestruck eyes, my neck was starting to bend in an odd angle like a confused ostrich. The rest of my body followed suit.

"Yes, what is with that look?!" Dolan growled, his already scowl-lined forehead pinching down again.

Monika put a hand to her chin and murmured admiringly /"… in all honesty, I don't find anything objectionable about the Micah Route."/

I turned towards Dolan and said in a much more respectful tone, "Ah. I see. In that case, Mister Dolan, I have a proposition for you."

He scowled at me, looked at his daughter, and then back to me. He barked out "NO."

"I mean a business proposition. How do you feel about… chickens?"

Dolan blinked. "What."

Elze grabbed at my shoulder and pulled me back. "Playa, come on. We're been traveling for so long and we're tired. Play around with your money-making schemes later. We've got one last thing to do before we can rest."

Fiiine.

And then there was a loud bestial growling sound.

As one we turned around. Yae lifted a hand to her mouth and looked away, hiding her body with the wide trailing sleeve of her pink kimono.

Grrrrooooowwwl. Again went her stomach.

She blushed.

"All righty then," I turned sharply around towards Micah again. "Micah, I bring you a new resident to this inn! What have we got in terms of… provisions?"

"We have hams! All sorts of hams!" she proudly declared in response, while opening out her arms.

I nodded slowly. "Stupendous."

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After Yae wrote her name into the inn's registry, and we all paid in advance for the next month (which delighted Micah and only grudgingly acknowledged by her father), we sat down to eat. Micah quickly cut us up some hams, breads, and cheese. Served with a large loaf of brown bread, olive oil, and some clear broth to whet our tongues from the salty dryness. This world had already invented sandwiches.

Though not hamburgers. And even then, I supposed, it wouldn't matter. A franchise was a matter of branding and atmosphere.

Nom. Nom.

Yae was not shy about asking for seconds. And thirds. And fifths. Micah and Dolan didn't know what to say. Even Monika had to stare. Where was all that food going? Could there possibly be some sort of internal magic with direct food matter to extradimensional energy conversion?!

No. No there was not.

In the end only Yae needed to have food expenses added to her bill, instead of the usual meals included for two copper. None of us could say anything about that either.

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I slammed open the double doors. "ZANAC ZENFIELD!" I shouted as I strode into his shop. "I HAVE RETURNED!"

Zanac was attending to a well-dressed lady, and yelped at the bang and the sudden shout. He dived and rolled, protecting the falling gown with his body. Not even a bit of it touched the ground.

The lady, with her curled and coiffured light brown hair turned towards us and then her face twisted into a disdainful sneer. "Plebians. How rude."

I stepped inside and announced "We have completed our mission!"

"Adventurers? Miscreants! What are they doing here?" She turned towards Zanac, who was slowly getting back up to his feet. "Send them away, Zanac."

"Um… I actually did send for…"

"What does that matter? Hirelings should know their place! If you do not stand up to this impudence, commoners will think they can take advantage of you. You have to be firm with these sort of people! Do not disappoint me, Zanac…!"

Then she turned towards the door and glanced at each of us. I was up front, of course, with my white-gloved right hand still outstretched in a dramatic pose. Elze and Linze followed, with Elze carrying what looked like two thick poles of purple cloth over her shoulders. Yae was only barely visible behind them.

Her lips curled up even higher in contempt. "Louts! Have you decency? Have you any idea who you offend with your disgraceful behavior?"

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