'Good Grief, what did I sleep on?' were the first thoughts that came into Blanc's conscious mind the next morning.

With a groan, she lifted herself up off the cot, and started massaging her back, trying to get out the stiffness. She looked down.

Unlike other times when she woke up like this, she was not collapsed over her desk after passing out during a writing binge. But in a bed, a bed that was nowhere near as soft as her wonderful memory foam, king sized mattress back at the basilicom, nor her soft-as-sin plush armchair by the fire, but a rather simplistic and hard mattress, that Blanc would not be surprised if it was stuffed with straw.

She stepped onto the cold stone floor, and started stretching, as she sorted her memories from yesterday, a frown on her lips 'no wonder that Tabitha girl preferred sleeping on the dragon.' she thought.

As she was lifting the hem of her nightgown, she noticed that Tabitha was awake and watching her from the bundle of blankets positioned against the dragon's chest.

Blanc lowered the nightgown again. "Sorry, did I wake you up?"

Tabitha nodded. "Light sleeper."

"Sorry." Blanc said again. "Err can you maybe..?"

Tabitha turned her head.

"Thanks." Blanc said, quickly changing out of her Pyjamas and into her daywear, at least it had dried in her inventory.

"Done." Blanc said, pulling a hand mirror out of her inventory to check if she didn't have bed hair.

Tabitha turned to face her again, wondered where she got the mirror from, then dismissed it as where she was probably the same place she kept pulling everything from, which as far as Tabitha could tell, was thin air.

The Mirror disappeared into particles, confirming Tabitha's suspicions, to be replaced by Blancs hat, which she placed on her head, she then seemed to start thinking.

Blanc was considering the next course of action, specifically breakfast.

Now she didn't eat dinner last night, Neptune and her were abducted before lunch, and due to the chosen location of their "romantic" lunch date, a place that did rather large servings of desserts that they were both fond of, she had foolishly skipped breakfast as well.

But she probably shouldn't impose on her host too much, considering how humble her surroundings were, this poor girl probably didn't have much to spare, especially considering she was sharing her home with a dragon. How much must that thing eat? So she instead mentally searched her inventory for what foodstuffs she had stuffed in there. It was mostly light travel fare, some healing and status recovery items, and snacks, but it was better than nothing.

Tabitha watched as her hands once more were filled with particles, and when they receded, there was… a large round thing?

With no ceremony Blanc bit into her Manju, munching on it contentedly. It wasn't the best breakfast, she knew, especially from a nutritional perspective, but she had to do something to make up for the missing lunch date, so she was treating herself. She caught Tabitha staring, and misreading the blank expression, and got another one in her other hand. "Want one?" she asked between mouthfuls.

Tabitha stared at the proffered pastry. It had something printed on the front, in a circle of text she couldn't read, there was a small image of what appeared to be a stylised version of Blancs head, hat and all. "What is it?" she asked.

"It's Manju, a kinda sweet pastry filled with sweet bean sauce." Blanc said, polishing off her own, "You want it or not?"

Tabitha thought about it, and decided that this was far too much of an elaborate plan to poison her, even for her uncle, and took the proffered sweet. "Thank you."

"Mhm." Blanc said, already biting into her second.

Tabitha took a tiny nibble, and found it to be rather tasty, and started eating it in quicker, but no bigger bites.

'Heh, she's a nibbler. Neptune would love this.' Blanc thought, watching the girl eat. It was honestly pretty cute, like a little mouse with a bit of cheese.

There was a needy trilling noise, And Blanc looked up to see that the dragon was awake, salivating, and staring very intently at the half eaten treat in Blanc's hands.

'Now those are some truly impressive puppy dog eyes for a dragon.' Blanc thought, staring down the dragon. Now while she wasn't usually one for giving into puppy dog eyes, when you have two criminally cute sisters and a completely adorkable girlfriend like her, you build up a hefty resistance to such tactics...

Her train of thought stalled as she imagined if the four of them combined their powers, now that would be enough power to end wars.

… The dragon hadn't really done anything to deserve being deprived of sweet treats.

"Hey, is… it, allowed sweats?" Blanc asked while vainly searching for some indicator of gender on the beast. It's always important to ask a pet's owner first before feeding them anything.

"She." Tabitha supplied. "Go ahead."

Blanc summoned a new Manju and tossed it to the dragon, who caught it with a loud snap of her jaws, and gave a happy "Kyuu!"

After finishing her second Manju, Blanc pulled out a can of Nep bull, popping the seal, and took a swig.

As she drank Planeptunes special energy drink, her mind wandered to Neptune, more specifically where she might have ended up in...wherever this is.

'She probably will end up somewhere warm,' Blanc thought bitterly, 'probably had a nice tsundere to cushion her fall too.'

That was the luck of the Neppish alright, she will probably get somewhere nice to stay as well, with three square meals, maybe even another long lost CPU, as if Planeptune didn't already have enough CPUs.

She shook her head, well nothing to do but wander around aimlessly until she ran into Neptune, maybe see if they have a guild, she'd probably need some local currency after all. Might be worth sightseeing a bit too, after all, it's not every day you get Isekai'd… unless your name is Neptune.

"What are Shares?"

The question shook Blanc out of her vague plans, as she looked at the girl, who had gotten up and gotten dressed while she had been lost in thought.

"Eh?" Blanc was confused. "Why ya asking that question?"

"You mentioned it yesterday. Curious." Tabitha said.

In truth, Tabitha wanted to probe Blanc more, see if she could find any holes in her story, Sylphid's odd comment still buzzing in her head.

Blanc looked at her and shrugged, there was no harm in explaining "Well… Shares are what gives a CPU its power, they are people's love and respect, their hopes and dreams, given freely and crystalised into divine power." Blanc explained, missing Tabitha's surprised blink at the mention of hopes and dreams. "We use this energy to run our cities, provide power, and to access our divine strength, in the form of HDD."

"HDD?"

"Hard Drive Divinity, you saw it yesterday, in that form we can pull upon even greater strength, and fly through the air. And that's not even the end of it. With enough Shares, we can perform miracles, although not often. It's honestly pretty exhausting."

"Can you show me?" Tabitha said, trying not to sound too desperate.

"Fraid not, I have no believers in this dimension, no faith means no shares, and I burned through my reserve yesterday." Blanc said.

Tabitha hid her disappointment. So even if her claims were true, she can't help her mother. It was a childish hope anyway, that some foreign self-proclaimed god that fell from the sky, would solve all her problems.

Blanc started doing some warmup stretches. "Well, I'd hate to impose on your hospitality any longer. So I guess I'll be heading out. Can you point me in the direction of the nearest town, and maybe is there a guild I can pick up work from?"

Tabitha cocked an eyebrow. "Work?"

"Well my money is undoubtedly no good around here, so if I want to find my friend without burning through my stock of supplies, I'm going to have to get some local income." said Blanc, still doing stretches.

Tabitha blinked. That was a surprisingly grounded perspective for a self proclaimed goddess to take.

"What sort of work?" Tabitha asked.

"Oh guild work mostly." Blanc said, before catching Tabitha's blanker than usual expression. "Right, guess you don't have a guild organisation around here... I guess you could call it mercenary work. Stuff like hunting monsters, or gathering supplies. It's a good way to make money and stay mobile, at least back home."

Tabitha blinked. She was probably the last person who should judge another's combat ability based on stature, especially considering Blanc was taller than her by two centimetres, but…

"No shares?" Tabitha said, uncertainly.

"Eh? Whatcha mean?" Blanc asked, finally finishing her warmups.

"No shares, no divine power?" Tabitha tried. She wasn't much of a talker, so she tended to say as little as possible, but that occasionally made it difficult to vocalise complicated concepts.

Thankfully, Blanc got the message this time. "Oh yeah that, don't worry about me." With a flurry of particles, Blancs hammer was in her hand, and she hefted it onto her shoulder. Tabitha noticed that the head was bigger than both of theirs combined. "While I can't go HDD, I can manage just fine on my own strength, and I'm no slacker, so my level is sitting at a comfortable forty."

As Blanc looked out the window to check the weather, Tabitha thought quickly. It might be all talk, and she had no idea what she meant by levels. But if she is truly as strong as she says she is… maybe it would be worth finding out.

Blanc turned back. "So about those directions-"

"I'll fly you."

Blanc was taken aback. "You what?"

But Tabitha had already turned around and nodded to Sylphid. Who with a reluctant "Kyuu." she uncurled from her pile of rugs. Tabitha went to unbolt the dragon doors.

Blanc followed behind her. "You don't have to ya know-"

"No trouble." Tabitha said, pushing the doors open, and her and Sylphid stepped out into the snowy ground.

Blanc watched the pair stare at her expectantly, shrugged, and stepped out after them. "Well thanks I guess."

With a wave of her staff, the dragon doors shut, and magically seal, along with the normal doors, locking down the cabin.

Blanc watched with mild interest. "Huh, you're a mage huh?"

Tabitha nodded, "Are you?"

"Nah, I only dabble, my sisters are though. I just know enough to be useful." Blanc said. In truth, she was actually a fairly decent caster, even managing to teach her sisters a spell or two, but her lower than average INT (which she is quick to remind people does not correlate to actual intelligence) means that her spells were only useful in a pinch for bypassing high VIT. She had a hammer or two designed to augment her low INT, but she rarely used it when the brute force option tended to work well enough for the low level mobs she dealt with outside of crises. Plus with her sisters at her side, high VIT was rarely a problem.

Tabitha stewed in her thoughts as she climbed attop Sylphid. How confident would one have to be in one's strength to only 'dabble' in magic, is it over confidence? Is magic different where she is from?

Blanc looked critically at the dragon trying to figure out how to mount, before shrugging and trying to follow Tabitha's lead, which only led to one indignant squark by Sylphid which probably meant she did a decent job.

"So where are we going?" Blanc asked.

'Strange, you'd think she would have asked before mounting up.' thought Tabitha, who was often more vocal in her head, she wonders if this was because she didn't view her as a threat, or because she simply trusted Tabitha?

Maybe it was a bit of both.

"La Rochelle. Nearby port town." Tabitha said. What she didn't say is that the town had recently gotten a bandit problem, and there was an ongoing bounty for the leader's head. Tabitha had been considering targeting it for emergency funds. But perhaps Blanc will take the job.

Tabitha might have felt a little bad at deliberately trying to set the seemingly lost girl against bandits, but she seemed confident, and Tabitha will stalk her to make sure she is alright (as well as passively observe). That is if she even decides to take the job, which she might not.

Blanc nodded in approval, Port towns in these kinda settings tended to be wretched hives of scum and villainy, filled to the brim with cutthroats, muggers, burglars, kidnappers or even… video game pirates, probably plenty of jobs for an adventurer short on cash.

"Sounds good, lets go."

"Mn." Tabitha nodded, and Blanc felt a pocket of still air form around them, before Sylphid took to the air.


Riding on Sylphid was… strange. The wind still blew in their face, but it was both calmer and warmer than what you would expect from this altitude. Tabitha had pulled out a book to read at some point during the trip, and was not the most stirring conversationalist even at the best of times, so Blanc just settled to watching the mountains passing by underneath.

When their destination came into view, she was surprised to find that the so-called port town was still in the mountains, and it was only until she saw the airships in moors that it clicked.

"Airships huh, so it's that kinda setting…" Blanc said to herself.

"Hm?" Tabitha said, looking up from her book.

"Oh nothing, just thinking aloud." Blanc said. She probably should do some sightseeing, this place might give her some good material for her next book, and pulling from an actual fantasy world might give her books a more 'grounded' feel that her critics are always complaining she lacks.

Untalented hacks that they are, can't write for shit themselves so they just bring down everyone else who even dares to try and express themselves creatively…

Blancs quiet smouldering was cut short when Sylphid banked left and started gently descending in lazy circles.

In a few minutes they had touched down in a large square. What few people were awake in the early morning had seen the dragon coming down and had gotten out of the way.

Blanc hopped down, and stretched her legs a bit. "Thanks for the lift Tabitha. You wouldn't happen to know where a girl might get some mercenary work around here?"

Tabitha pointed to the large building in front of them, which looks to be a garrison of some kind. "Bounty board out front, turn in inside."

"Alright, thanks again." Blanc said. "If we run into each other before I head home, I'll try and return the favour somehow."

Tabitha nodded. "Mn."

Blanc walked away, calling her hammer into her shoulder. Shocking the scattered commoners who had not left quickly when the dragon landed. She gave a wave over her shoulder.

Tabitha watched her walk away, before urging Sylphid to take flight again.

She didn't fly far though. La Rochelle only had one gate after all.


Blanc looked at the bounty board critically.

While she couldn't read the language on the board, she could tell from illustrations that there was the usual fantasy game fair here, hunt some wolves, giant rats in the basement and other various adventurer fodder. But they seemed to pay fairly low, and she was no newbie when it came to this kinda work, so it would be a waste of her time to do this kinda grunt work, especially if it might deprive would-be heroes of their early game exp and gold…

Blanc has a niggling feeling that she's been spending too much time with Neptune.

Nevertheless, there were also missing or stolen items, general warnings about certain areas, road warnings…

… Her eyes rested on an illustrated portrait, with a nice amount of zeroes under the name…

At least she thinks that's the name, she can't read it, it looks to be… French or something.

She sighed, and looked around, until someone passed by.

"Excuse me!" she calls out to the woman, who jumps and turns.

"Eh-oui mademoiselle?" the flustered woman said in an accent thicker than Tabithas, bowing hurriedly.

Blanc crooked her eyebrow, but internally shrugged it off and pointed to the bounty. "Can you tell me what this says?"

"Err, its: The head of the Bulls bandits, Oswell the Bull, wanted dead or alive for the crimes of armed robbery, last seen operating off the eatern road-" The woman said.

"That's enough, thank you for your time." Blanc said.

The woman seems to sag with relief. "Thank you, my lady." before hurriedly departing.

Blanc crooks her eyebrow, before once more shrugging it off, and ripping off the bounty off the wall. Whoever this Oswall guy is, he's about to have a real bad day.


Chapter notes:

I should start off by clarifying the whole language thing I keep alluding too. Since Halkeginia is basically fantasy Europe I basically decided that they are speaking the languages of their closed European counterparts, Gallia speaking French, Germania speaking German, and Albion speaking English. I play the English version of HDN, so Blanc is speaking English which she will refer to as Gamindustrian, which to the natives is Albionese. As for How Blanc knows what French is, All I know is that the German language exists in HDN for some reason, because a few of Blancs attacks are in german, so I did a bit of a reach and Decided that French also exists in the same nebulous way, and that Blanc is fluent in German.

Not much else to say now other than the reminder not to take this too seriously, I'm certainly not. Expect the normal amount of silliness you would get from a Neptunia game.