A Vulpine Spanner in the Works
Chapter 10: Changes for Good or Worse
[E-Rantel: Magician's Guild]
If one were to climb the multiple staircases to the top floor of the illustrious Magician's Guild, a strange place of sorcery to those who were uninitiated into the organization, they'd be greeted to a wide hallway with three doors forking off to different rooms. In the room on the left, multiple ancient and powerful tomes of magic were locked away and zealously protected by multiple enchantments and curses. On the right, the room contained two powerful artifacts that supposedly dated back to the time of the Eight Greed Kings.
This room contained similar, if not even greater, protections from potential thieves that would be tempted by the value and power of these artifacts. Yet, the greatest protection for either of these rooms was believed to be not from the spells protecting them, but from the guildmaster's office being located between these two rooms.
From the staircase, a mage in a green robe quickly walked up the steps and onto the red carpeted floor. In the mage's left hand was a scroll sealed with wax and stamped with the guild symbol of a hand holding a spell. In her right hand, a few documents that were held without the same gentle grip as the scroll. The mage, a woman with blue hair that had been tied into a messy bun, had an expression on her face that was a mix of excitement and fear.
In a few moments, she had arrived at the door leading to the office of the guildmaster, a strong mage called Theo Rakheshir. Taking a moment to smooth out the wrinkles in her robe, the woman then knocked on the door and waited. An almost inaudible noise of something moving came from the room before falling silent. Then, it was followed by a voice saying, "You may enter."
The woman quickly turned the doorknob and entered in a circular room which was much different than the quite bland hallway the woman had come from. Inside, multiple lights of magical blue fire floated at the top of the room, bathing it in an eerie glow. Covering most of the walls of the room were shelves that held arcane tomes or magical items. In the center of the room was a beautiful wooden desk that was covered in multiple arcane symbols. Unfortunately, much of this desk was being covered up by different arcane objects.
Towering behind this desk was a macabre exhibit of the assembled bones of a young dragon. The mage had no idea on what type of dragon it was, and she had no wish to ask her guildmaster to answer this. She also had no wish of finding out how Theo had attained such a complete skeleton of said dragon.
Yet, even though the dragon's skeleton was very unsettling, it didn't cause as much fear as the guildmaster himself. Sitting at the desk was a man whose attention was closely focused on inspecting the items on the desk. He wore expensive blue robes that would cost a normal farmer an entire year of their pay, yet they seemed to have not been cleaned in quite a while. In fact, the man known as Theo Rakheshir looked like he hadn't slept for the past few days.
His green eyes had a madness within them that seemed to be barely contained. He had greasy brown hair that went down to his shoulders and the beginnings of a thin beard. If this was any other person, they'd be seen as a neurotic lunatic that needed to be avoided if not locked up. With Theo Rakheshir, due to being a guildmaster of mages, people wrote his appearance off as being eccentric.
The young woman, Mavian, knew that such opinions were being generous. Due to working as Theo's personal assistant for the past five months, she'd seen that the man's obsession with magic, and items that contained magic, was very unhealthy. At times, she'd even heard the man talk to magical items as if they were people when he thought he was alone.
Yet, these moments of madness that she'd bore witness to didn't deter her from doing her job. Instead, it motivated her to excel at the tasks given to her so that she may be promoted faster and leave Theo's service. For now, she tried to ignore her leader's strangeness and perform her job, and today, this job was quite important.
She quickly strode over to the desk and placed the sealed scroll before the unkempt man. "Sir, a message has arrived from one of the arcane explorers this morning." Mavian stated before setting the other documents in her hand to the side of the table for later. Their importance was negligible in the face of the message.
The arcane explorers were a subset of the Magician's Guild whose main duty was to explore the land and find places or items of magical importance. Depending on what it was, the explorer would collect the items if they could be moved, or they'd send a message back to their home guild to inform the guildmaster. Typically, the arcane explorers would only send such a message back if they found a place of great power or a powerful relic that was being guarded.
It was when Mavian mentioned the arcane explorers that Theo stopped studying whatever items were on his desk and showed interest. He quickly snatched the scroll and broke the seal on it before letting the parchment roll open. Following this, his eyes could be seen flitting back and forth with fervent excitement before smiling.
"Mavian, do you know what our explorers have just found?" Theo asked.
"No, sir. The message was sealed for your eyes only." Mavian replied, already expecting Theo to tell her. She'd found that the man tended to use other people as sounding boards with her being no different at the moment.
"Very recently, a massive structure was seen towering over the trees in the Forest of Tob. It wasn't natural and could've only come about through a great act of magic. This means that something of great magical power resides within that forest." Theo stated with a slowly growing manic grin.
"Sir, if you're thinking about sending people into the forest, haven't you considered that whatever caused it might be extremely dangerous? For all we know, this could be a person testing an immensely powerful artifact, and they might have great opposition to us collecting said artifact." Mavian explained. She highly doubted that Theo would actually take her advice into consideration because of his obsession with magic. An artifact or place that could conjure massive constructs would belong to the age of the gods.
"It's an even greater reason to send people to investigate. From the report, the structure appeared like a giant tree of stone. If we found what caused this, and if said cause could create other structures, then it could greatly aid our kingdom! We could even change the course of the constant wars with the Baharuth! If we discovered this cause, then our organization would become the most illustrious in all the kingdom." Theo reasoned as he began pulling out a sheet of parchment and a quill.
Mavian already knew that this would be the outcome of the discussion, but she still had to try reasoning with Theo. Whatever caused the structure to appear in the forest was immensely powerful, yet there was too little explanation for what caused it. In Mavian's personal opinion, it'd be better to inform the king about this and hopefully gather a large group of the kingdom's soldiers to aid them in discovering the cause of this phenomenon.
But Mavian kept these thoughts to herself. It was better to follow her guildmaster's ideas than to go against them. She'd learned during her time in the guild that she was more likely to be promoted if she didn't argue with her superiors. This was just another one of those situations.
"What do you want to do?" The mage asked.
"I'm writing a message to the guildmaster of the Adventurer's Guild. I'll be asking him to assemble a group of silver-plate or higher adventurers that can protect our mages as they travel through the Great Forest of Tob in three days." Theo then finished the note by pulling out a seal and stamping it onto the bottom of the note.
"Who'll be going into the forest? It's quite dangerous, especially with the Three Monsters of the Forest patrolling it." Mavian questioned.
"I'll be one of the members going on this expedition. I also have Shamus, Zeltry, and Craven in mind for the group."
"But, none of you know the forest. Even more, how will you convince enough adventurers to come into the forest with how dangerous it is?"
"I've made the reward for escorting our group is five gold each. They'll also receive another five if all of our group makes it out of the forest alive." He then rolled the message up and tied a line of string around it to keep it closed. "And to answer your other question, we'll be guided by our resident mage, Mercia. She has great experience in traveling the forest and has even gotten to the Great Lake multiple times."
He then held the scroll out to Mavian, who took it with a questioning look. "Take that to the Adventurer's Guild. Make sure it makes it to the hands of Pluton Ainzach." Mavian was about to run off and follow her superior's orders when he added, "Also, ask Pluton if he can get me a meeting with the woman known as Kashia Blanc, and if possible, I'd like to specifically request for her to be one of the adventurers on the job. From what I've heard, she's shown the ability to cast 3rd Tier spells, and talent like that shouldn't be squandered in the Adventurer's Guild. I want to see if she'll join our guild."
Mavian became extremely interested at hearing of a 3rd Tier spellcaster. Finding one was an extremely rare event, especially if they were younger than thirty or forty. To date, there were only three known 3rd Tier casters in E-Rantel right now. One would be Theo, which was one of the reasons for why he was made the guildmaster of the city, another was Zorbeck, an old librarian of the guild who had no sense of ambition, and the final was Verona Margrost, the head priestess of Four Great Gods' church here in E-Rantel.
With the arrival of another 3rd Tier caster to the city, the factions within the city would be jumping head over heels to recruit this Kashia into their own group so as to attain higher political standing amongst the other factions. Unfortunately, the fact that this woman was an accomplished mage made forcibly recruiting her into the guild, as is the usual practice for all new magic users, an option that was unavailable to them. Instead, they'd need to have a way to tempt this woman into the guild.
The Magician's Guild would need to work fast on this task, because if they knew about a new 3rd Tier magic user in the city, then everyone else was soon to follow. That was if no other faction of the city knew already.
Either way they needed to, if not recruit her for themselves, at least make sure that the mayor of E-Rantel didn't latch his claws into her. It was already difficult enough for the Magician's Guild, let alone the other guilds and factions of the city, to gain any form of leverage over the Royal Faction without giving them another powerful magic user as an asset.
"Understood. I'll deliver your request to Ainzach now." Giving Theo a quick bow, she immediately left the room to accomplish the tasks assigned to her. She was also more than happy to get away from the man's neurotic presence.
[Kashia]
"Ninya, with everything that's happened, I think we should let the rest of the guys know about this." I spoke. Currently, the Veyron sisters, Meepo, and I were sitting at a table together on the first floor of the sanctuary in the cabin. Meepo had been kind enough to make tea for us to drink, which I had a sneaking suspicion was made using skills from his [Alchemist] class.
"What would we tell them? I'm still hesitant to reveal to the others that I'm a-" Ninya began nervously.
"Don't worry, we won't need to reveal your gender to them." When I said this, Ninya quickly relaxed, "But I do believe that we should tell them. Especially because with Tuare here, it's not appropriate to make her keep the lie up." Tuare looked at Ninya and I with a confused expression.
"What are you two talking about?" Tuare asked. I gave Ninya a questioning glance and she returned a defeated nod to me.
"Tuare, after you were taken, I decided to hide my true gender to protect myself. Because of this, the only people that know I'm a girl are you and Kashia. Not even my friends in the adventuring group that Kashia and I are part of know." Ninya explained, a flash of worry filled her eyes, most likely due to what the other guys in our group would think when they heard the truth. From what I've learned while interacting with the rest of the Swords of Darkness, Dyne would be quite understanding of the situation and probably just treat Ninya as normal.
Peter would very likely have reservations about Ninya keeping such a large piece of information secret from the rest of the group. It would be a toss-up on whether this would impact the group's dynamic or not. I'd be willing to bet that Peter would try to be mature and keep his opinions on Ninya separate whenever we went on a mission. The only one that I'd be hesitant about is Lukrut. The blond was very emotional and didn't have the type of maturity that Dyne and Peter did. In addition, he may view Ninya as weaker due to being a girl.
Though, that opinion may have been altered due to how powerful I am along with how I've taken Ninya under my wing as my apprentice. Regardless, I believe that Lukrut would be the hardest hit when this information was revealed.
On a different tangent, I still had no real idea on how I could teach Ninya magic unless I used my hid-… wait, I just got an idea. I've been noticing that while the casting of magic hasn't changed from my time in YGGDRASIL, the effects certainly have. Would the [Wish Upon a Star] spell be any different and actually cast a wish that I could word myself or just give me a selection of choices from a pre-generated list?
Because, if that was the case, I could use the Shooting Star ring to test out this hypothesis and wish for the knowledge of how to learn and teach my magic. If I did so, could that allow me to expand my spell list beyond the limits that YGGDRASIL imposed? I'll test this out later tonight at Haven-Lake since otherwise, the ring would just sit useless on my finger.
Since coming here, I'd been making sure to avoid casting spells with costs that I was unsure could be restored. For instance, I didn't know if experience worked here like in the game, especially because I never felt any type of gains when I killed the monsters in the world. Using the ring instead of the [Wish Upon a Star] spell would mitigate the experience costs while also answering my question.
"What is it that you wish to do? If you choose to reveal or not reveal your gender to your friends, I'll still support your decision. I'd rather not be the reason for your friends to not like you if I can help it." Tuare asked, pulling me from my thoughts.
"This isn't nor will it ever be your fault for my friends hating me. It's my fault for hiding the truth from them and it's something that I've been expecting to happen for some time now." Ninya stated with a determined tone. This sudden strength then became buried under doubt as she added, "I'm not fully against the idea, but I am scared of what'll happen after I tell the others."
"Kiddo, look at me," I commanded while the girl's head turned to me, "if they are your friends, and I know that they are, then they'll accept you regardless. No matter if you're Ninya the boy or Ninya the girl, you're still the young determined mage that is part of the Swords of Darkness and a silver-plate in the Adventurer's Guild." I ruffled Ninya's hair after I said this. "Really, the only difference now is that they'll know you have boobs."
I was pleased to see a smile grow on Ninya after I said this. "You seem to have a strange habit of cracking jokes when you're trying to be serious." Ninya replied as she tried to pat her messy hair back into its normal style.
"I find it hard to be serious when life is already serious enough. You need a bit of humor spice things up, otherwise the world would be a much duller place." I answered while taking a sip of my tea, "But I still need your answer on if you'd like to tell the others about your gender or to leave it hidden? They'll need to know about Tuare after all."
Ninya was quiet for a few moments as she thought about this. She looked between me and Tuare, as if trying to see what opinions our expressions might give her. Then, finally, she answered, "I think that it's time that they know. I've been hiding this from the others for too long and they deserve to know the truth behind everything now that Tuare's been rescued."
I nodded at the answer, and internally, I couldn't help but feel a bit of pride well up at the mature decision the girl had made. "Then, I'll go fetch them and bring the guys back here. This is something that should be discussed in private and there's no place better than the sanctuary." I stood up, and was about to leave, when I stopped and looked at Tuare.
Ninya had given Tuare her own tunic, leaving herself in only a simple cloth shirt. While the tunic provided the blonde some modesty, it would probably be embarrassing to meet others in just that. "Tuare, here's something that I think would make you feel better when meeting new people." After saying this, I cast [Create Greater Item] and caused a set of clothing, similar to what I'd seen the girls of this town wear, right onto the table.
"We'll get you some more clothes later. But for now, that'll do." I said before either girl could begin asking questions. "Meepo, make a bit more tea for a few of our guests that will be coming soon."
"Meepo understands!" The kobold answered while I left the cabin and began walking to the exit of this realm. When I arrived at the door, I mentally gave Tuare permissions to open and close the door of the realm, then I exited back into my room at the inn.
Instead of just teleporting myself directly to the Adventurer's Guild, I decided to walk there for once. I had two reasons for this; the first reason was that I'm normally highly noticeable, and me walking back to the inn without having exited it with three people in tow would be very odd and suspicious. The other reason was because I wanted to give Tuare a bit of time to get dressed and clean herself up without having to rush.
Giving my room a quick inspection, I was satisfied to note that it didn't look too messy. The only things that prevent my room for having a pristine appearance was the unmade bed, the plates from the breakfast that the Veyron sisters and I had earlier, and the maps with a few bags of coins holding down the edges on my table.
Following this, I gathered the used plates together and then left the room while closing the door behind me. Then, I made my way to the bar where I could hear a larger amount of people had now arrived. To tell the truth, back in my world, the bars I went to were usually all packed with drunks and had terrible appearances due to chronic barfights, vomiting, and chemicals that got into the bar by clinging onto the patrons coming from outside.
The only good bars that were actually clean and devoid of the extreme alcoholics were for the rich and well-to-do, and that was because those bars could afford to hire bouncers and decent cleaners while the others couldn't. It was a bit odd to get used to how much cleaner the bars and inns were. Odder still, that the air was breathable without a filtering device.
When it came down to it, the most valuable thing that anyone could've owned on Earth was a filtration device to breathe outside. I'd seen people get mugged on the street for a cheap, low-end respirator because they were necessary to survive if you didn't have a house with a filtering system.
Sure, one could go without a filtering device, but they'd only go a week before the toxins and pollutants in the air irreversibly damaged their lungs. After two weeks, you'd be lucky to not die from choking on your own blood and mucus as it filled your lungs. Three weeks, you'd be getting buried, cremated, or eaten depending on where you died and if you had anyone that could even afford to bury you.
Typically, only the rich could afford the money for a coffin and a burial spot. Everyone else would be taken to an incinerator that was owned by the Travin Corporation. They made their money off the US through a mandatory tax of our paychecks that went to them. Those two options were considered lucky.
If no one picked up your body in time, then it'd be taken away by the poor or homeless to be eaten. I really wish that I'd never have to go back there since a week of living in this livable new world felt like an eternity from my toxic old world.
After arriving at the bar, I set the used dishes onto the counter in front of Morgan. "Here's your dishes, the food was great." I wasn't lying about the compliment, it was leagues better than the nutrient paste that I usually had to eat.
"You're the only person that's ever said that about my cooking. What sort of foul shit must you have eaten to consider giving my food a compliment?" The man joked as he took the dishes off the counter and set them next to a metal tub with water and rags in it.
"I've traveled for a long time. Most of the time, the rations I had tasted awful. Add in that I'm a terrible cook, and you'll understand why I find your food to be so much better than what I usually have. I hope that doesn't ruin the compliment?" I answered with an amused laugh.
Morgan shook his head with a smile, "Nah, it doesn't ruin the compliment. I still remember when I had to eat rations as a soldier, so to hear that my cooking is better than the pig shit that they fed us makes me feel happy that I'm not so bad a cook." He then grabbed a clean mug and filled it with some frothy ale before handing it over to me.
"What's this for?" I asked as I took the mug in hand.
"Consider it a thanks from me. You're one of the only people to compliment my cooking here, so this is my appreciation for that. In addition, rumor has it that you're a strong mage, so it would be a good idea to get into your good graces now if I ever need your help in the future." I raised an eyebrow at this as I quickly began to chug the offered drink down. I think that I even managed to surprise Morgan with the speed at which I finished the beverage before slamming the wooden mug down onto counter.
"I'll have to keep that remark in mind for the future." I replied as I wiped the lingering foam of the ale from my mouth. "I'll be back in a bit and you should probably try to pick your jaw up from the floor." I added before turning around and walking out the door.
Arriving to the guild took only fifteen minutes, yet I was slowed down when I noticed a sizable group of people entering the building. My curiosity was peaked at what manner of event was occurring inside to gather this type of crowd. Still, I needed to get inside to meet with the others, so I could probably find out about what was happening when I got inside. Killing two birds with one stone as it were.
It wasn't that difficult to make my way inside since by the time I had made it to the entrance of the guild, most of the initial crowd had finally made it inside, so that didn't slow me. The only annoyance that I truly faced was the stench coming from all these people being shoved together into one building.
It was extremely obvious to tell who hadn't bathed themselves or cleaned their gear. Easier still to tell who had just arrived from a job. Yet, I tried to break past this as I sniffed the air for the scent of my friends among the crowd. Luckily, I didn't need to when I hear a voice from the second floor call down to me.
"Hey, Kashia, we're up here!" The voice of Lukrut rang out. My ears quickly pinpointed the exact direction from where the voice came, and my eyes quickly met with Lukrut's brown orbs. I gave him a nod and pushed through the throngs of people and up the stairs to a space that the Swords of Darkness had claimed for themselves.
When I arrived, I joined up next to Lukrut leaning against the railing of the second floor. Across from us, Peter and Dyne gave me a welcoming grin. That was when I asked, "Can anyone explain why there are so many people here today?"
"I'm surprised that you didn't hear. Our guildmaster, Pluton Ainzach, announced to the guild that the Magician's Guild has made a request for silver-plate or higher adventurers to escort them through the Great Forest of Tob!" Lukrut answered excitedly.
"What's so special about that?" I asked. This fuss couldn't just be due to the Magician's Guild making a request, there had to be something more.
This was the point when Peter answered, "It's because they are offering five gold coins to each adventurer that takes on this job, and five more if all the mages come back alive. The amount of money that they are offering could feed a man for an entire year or pay for high quality equipment."
"That makes me even more curious as to why they are offering such a high payment to silver-plate adventurers, no offense. It's just that something about this job seems a bit suspicious."
"While your hesitation is understandable, there is a reason for their choice of price and adventurer rank." Dyne said sagely, "Normally, paying gold-plates for a simple escort mission is worth ten to fifteen gold since there are other jobs available that pay more and require less effort. For traversing a place like the Forest of Tob, that price would likely rise up to fifteen to twenty gold."
The large man then walked over to Lukrut and I and pointed down to the growing crowd of silver-plate adventurers, "A job like what is being offered now is called a pyrite mission. They offer a job that's high pay to silver-plates and low pay to gold-plates. This type of scheme attracts more interest and workers for a fraction of the price it would cost for a group of gold-plates."
I couldn't help but feel a bit of pity for the unready adventurers that would attempt this mission. There was likely a sizable number of adventurers here that absolutely needed this money but would likely die or become horribly injured for trying. "How often does this happen? And why hire a bunch of weaker people instead of a group that's stronger?"
"Quite a bit, especially if it's from lesser nobles. In comparison, hiring out a group of ten silver-plate adventurers for five gold on this job costs much less than hiring a group of five gold-plate adventurers for 20. In a cynical way, it's even better because the group of silver-plates are more likely to lose a few members which means that they'll save on gold." Dyne seemed to give a tired sigh after this.
"The guild allows such practices to happen since they still receive a commission from whoever offers the job and it tends to weed out the weaker or greedier adventurers." Dyne let out humorless chuckle as he said this, "It's brilliant, really. When too many adventurers start filling the guild, more pyrite missions are given out to thin the herd, freeing up more missions for copper and silver-plates to take. This also has the added benefit of keeping the number of higher-ranking adventurers low."
Upon hearing this, my gaze looked between Lukrut and Peter, "Have any of you ever taken a pyrite mission?" Peter and Lukrut quickly looked away with guilt and embarrassment. "Wait, both of you have done obvious suicide missions before?" I asked in shock.
"It's really not as bad as you think, Kashia." Lukrut began with an apologetic tone, "I've done one pyrite mission before when I was much more inexperienced. Missions like these are a coinflip on if they are risky or not. The one I took was to guard a noble's hunting party. Nothing happened and I actually got to make some extra gold when I hunted a boar for a lazy knight."
"I wasn't as lucky." Peter stated, "I've only took two pyrites during my career. One was uneventful like Lukrut's, and I got to make a few connections with knights and a countess, while the other almost killed me. I've still got a scar near my heart when an assassin got in a lucky blow."
I wish that I could look serious by crossing my arms and giving the pair of idiots a disappointed look. Unfortunately, my boobs were too large to allow my arms to do that unless I crossed my arms under or over them, which would severely hinder said serious appearance. Instead, I had to put them on my hips and give the two a stern gaze.
"While I'm here, I severely hope that the pair of you don't do anything stupidly dangerous like that unless I'm there to make sure that you can't get yourselves killed, understand?" I didn't know what was stranger, the nervous submission that filled the air around us or that I was acting like a concerned mother.
"Your concern is appreciated, but I have no wish to die until I'm old and fat, not from dying young on a job. I'm very careful about which jobs I pick out for us to do since enough adventuring groups die because they chose jobs above their skill level." Peter answered. I'm happy to note that his answer was something that I expected as he was mature enough to know his limits. I wouldn't be worried about the jobs that all the others took because I knew that they'd be safe as long as I was there to bail them out of any potential trouble.
It was what occurred next that I didn't expect. In a moment, Lukrut grabbed both of my hands and held them together in his while his face moved until it was only a few centimeters away from mine. I could feel a blush begin to grow on my face, partially from embarrassment and partially for some reason that I couldn't explain.
"My beautiful sorceress, I have complete faith that you'll be there to protect me. I only ask that you honor me with your trust to keep you safe as well." If this was a romance movie, I'm pretty sure that Lukrut would've kissed me at this point. Though, he did seem tempted to do so. In addition, from this close, I found myself surprised that I'd never noticed how hawk-like his eyes were which gave him a bit of an exotic and predatory vibe. It's kind of a bit attractive.
Hearing this thought immediately gave me pause. Why did I just think that? For a while now, I've been worried about my new body was changing my mind. While being able to vent to my clone last night helped push these worries down, hearing this echo from my own mind frightened me. What was happening to me and should I even fight against these new thoughts or accept them? My expression must've given something away as Lukrut's eyes became filled with concern.
"Kashia, are you okay? Was it something I said?" The blond archer asked. Quickly hiding the worry on my face, I gave Lukrut a smile.
"No, it's nothing to do with what you said. Your words were actually quite sweet even if unneeded since I've already placed my trust in you to be there in my time of need." Upon saying this, Lukrut looked like he was about to hit cloud nine. "I was simply thinking about something else at the moment, which also reminded me that I came to the guild today for quite a different reason than a job, it actually involves Ninya." When I gave mention of Ninya's name, all three of my teammates became very interested.
"What about Ninya? Did something bad happen?" Peter asked quickly.
"No, it wasn't anything bad, in fact, something amazing happened yesterday. I'll let Ninya explain if you're all willing to follow me." I answered, giving relief to the trio of worried adventurers before me. "In addition, you'll also get to see some interesting things today, so keep those feelings of awe in the back of your minds."
"Of course, we'll follow you. Just lead the way to Ninya." Peter answered for the group. With this, I was about to walk away when I was stopped because Lukrut's hands were still entwined into mine. I gave him a questioning glace, and he replied with a shy grin and a guilty look. Seems like the man still wanted to hold my hands, though I'll give him credit for the attempt as he only failed because I was able to notice.
With a roll of my eyes, I gave the man a mischievous grin before freeing up one of my hands and gently squeezing his hand with my other. The look of surprise on the archer's face was hilariously adorable as I lead him after me through the crowd of adventurers and out of the guild. Even without my enhanced hearing, I would've been able to hear the snickering coming from Peter and Dyne as they followed after us.
Eventually, the four of us exited the building and arrived onto the street and started to head off to the Heroes' Respite. The entire way, Lukrut and I walked hand in hand, and the blond archer looked so giddy as we did. It was from behind us that I managed to pick up on a conversation between Peter and Dyne.
"Two silver says that Lukrut won't say any a coherent sentence when we get to Ninya." Peter bet in amusement with a jingle of coins.
"I'll take those odds. Double says that he'll end up embarrassing himself while we're talking with Ninya." Dyne retorted.
"Agreed." Then Peter added, "Ever wonder if all the women in Kashia's land wear clothing similar to hers? I mean, the exposure of her hips is very flattering, just makes me wish that more women dressed like that."
"You realize that Lukrut has interest in her along with her being a friend and teammate of ours?" Dyne remarked in amusement.
"I know, I'm just wondering about her clothing and culture. Besides, there's the girl that works at the guild who I've got my eye on." Wait, Peter has interest in a girl? That's very interesting…
"Is it the red-haired secretary that works at the front desk? Her name's Helena, right?"
"Yeah. We've talked quite often and I think that she's into me since she's personally given me some good job requests that were easy and paid well. She's the reason that we were able to get that estate job two weeks ago."
Dyne hummed with interest, "I thought that it was strange that we snagged that job before anyone else could. The reward would've assured that it'd have been gone before we arrived at the guild that morning. If she's showing such an obvious interest in you, why haven't you done anything about it?"
"I just don't know how to ask her. It doesn't seem appropriate to ask her while she's working, yet she also is gone by the time that we typically arrive back to the guild after a job. In addition, I'm skilled with fighting and leading, not romancing women. That's Lukrut's specialty, though his history with women doesn't give credence to said skill."
"He's managed to earn Kashia's interest, but I attribute that more to Kashia's playful nature than to Lukrut's romance skills." Dyne was correct on that account. Teasing Lukrut was becoming a favored pastime of mine, but there were qualities of the man that were attractive. "Now, there's an easy way to get a moment to talk with Helena if you're open to try it…"
"Well?" Peter asked quickly with desperation, "Don't keep it a secret, I'm willing to try almost anything at this point! There's only so long that Helena is going to wait before losing interest."
"Fine, fine," The bearded man relented with a chuckle, "What you need to do is either ask Helena to wait for you after work or decline a job for a day so that you can wait for Helena to finish work. It's pretty simple and I'm surprised that you haven't figured it out."
"Really, it's that simple?"
"Of course. An even easier way to ask her out is to just ask her while she's working. Keep in mind that when a woman likes a man, a good way to ensure that their interest remains is when the man actually gathers up the courage to ask them out instead of remaining passive." I could hear Dyne patting Peter on the shoulder after saying this.
"I'll try. Though I can't help but wonder where in the hell you managed to learn how to romance women?"
"Just remember, before we met, I used to travel to many villages and while I was a teenager I mastered the ability to talk to women for… private encounters. I grew out of it a few years later, but I'm not too out of practice to still remember how to be romantic." Well, well, well… It appears that there's more behind the large, sagely, druid than meets the eye. I'll have to ask more about Dyne's past on a later date.
"I'll see what I can do tomorrow. I'll definitely try to ask her tomorrow." The swordsman said with determination. I'd have to keep my eyes out for Peter's attempt, as well as the potential embarrassment that may follow.
When we arrived at the inn, I stopped holding Lukrut's hand, much to his audible disappointment. Yet, it still didn't prevent the archer from dogging after me like a puppy. In addition, Peter spoke up after this occurred, "Hey, Lukrut, how are you doing right now?"
"Uh, whu-I'm uh fine." Peter and Dyne shared a conspiratorial look with one another as they tried to contain their smirks at the archer's dazed speech pattern. As much as I wanted to continue watching Peter and Dyne mess with Lukrut, Ninya and Tuare had been waiting long enough for us.
With a sad heart, I broke up the interaction between the three, "Okay, we can continue teasing Lukrut later. We can't stall showing Ninya our amazing presence any longer. Now, come on." Saying this, I pulled open the door to the inn and stepped inside as the others followed me. The first thing I noticed was Morgan giving me an acknowledging nod before returning to his usual activity of cleaning tankards and mugs.
How spotless did those things need to be before the man would consider them free of all contamination? At this rate, it seemed like he cleaned those things, not out of an obligation to keep a healthy establishment but instead as an ingrained muscle response. If that cup was missing from his hands, would he continue to mime out the action?
I could already tell that this would bother me until I finally tried to test this theory out. Maybe I'll do it tomorrow?
"You know, I've been to this place a few times," Peter remarked, "yet I've never seen this many people in here before. Did it get very popular recently?" I couldn't exactly answer that question since I've only been living in the inn for a few days. Though, I did spot that people had been coming more often nevertheless, I just assumed that it was due to business picking up throughout the week.
It was when people started giving me attention that I wished for us to hurry the party to my room. While the attention was fun, it came to a head when I felt someone grope my ass. Almost instinctually, one of my hidden tails wrapped itself around the wrist of the offending hand. "Did your mother never teach you manners in how to properly treat a lady?" I asked as the pervert tried to pull his hand away, yet my tail was too strong for him to pull against.
"What the hell?" He whispered in surprise. Following this, I had my tail squeeze around the wrist like a python, not hard enough to break the bones in the wrist, but hard enough to cause a bit of pain. I then turned to look at the nervous looking young man who, even now, I could smell his inebriated condition from his breath. Adding to this effect, I mustered an illusion to cause my eyes to lightly glow.
This additional affect did an adequate job in scaring the piss out of the pervert, "I've not given you permission to grope me. This is your only warning, do so again and I'll be keeping this hand that you seem to want to gift to me. Are we clear?" For emphasis, I applied a little more pressure on the wrist which earned a wince of pain on the pervert's features.
"Y-Yes, ma'am. U-Understood." I finally freed my grip on the pervert's wrist. That said, my teammates gave me impressed looks while other patrons who may have had similar ideas as the pervert quickly looked away from me as if I wouldn't notice them.
"Good thing that Lukrut isn't that stupid." Peter commented.
"Huh? What?" Said archer asked while still retaining the dazed tone of before.
"Nothing, Lukrut, nothing at all." Following this display of "camaraderie", we hastily traveled through the crowd and out of the tavern and into the hallway of the inn. Upon arriving at the door to my room, I pulled it open and ushered the trio inside. When the three made it inside, I followed after them and shut the door behind me.
The trio looked around the room in confusion due to the area being empty of anyone besides us. Surprisingly, it was Lukrut that spoke first after finally coming down from his trip in cloud 9, "Umm, where is Ninya? This place seems completely empty, unless she's hiding in that closet next to us." I found it amusing that calling my sanctuary a closet was an extremely apt description of how I treated it. Even more amusing was the groan of disappointment that came from Peter as he handed off a pair of coins to Dyne.
"You're more correct than you think, Lucky." I answered with the archer's nickname as I gave the trio permissions to open the door, "Why don't you take a look inside?" Confused but also curious, Lukrut followed my advice and pulled open the door. It was a moment later when I wished that I had some form of camera to take a picture of the looks of shock and awe that my friends had upon seeing the massive interior garden of the sanctuary.
"I-Is that real?" Lukrut asked as he tentatively reached a hand through the doorway, as if expecting that he'd feel the canvas of a painting.
Walking past the three slack-jawed men, I said while stepping foot into the sanctuary, "This is completely real. It's from a spell that I'm able to cast that creates a pocket realm. I'll explain more behind the context of it later, but for now, Ninya's been waiting inside long enough."
I continued walking towards the cabin in the center of the garden, yet I could still feel the doubt radiating off the trio. It wasn't until Dyne spoke that the group became a bit calmer, "I may not know that much about the magic that conjured this, but I can feel that all the plants inside are real and alive." With confidence in his steps, the large druid entered my realm and followed.
After Dyne, Peter and Lukrut accompanied the large man and entered the realm while inspecting the realm with awe. "Hurry up, slowpokes!" I called after them, pulling their attentions back to me as they hurried their pace. In no time at all, we arrived before the cabin and I opened the door and went inside.
The sight that the four of us were greeted to was Ninya sitting that the table with a now dressed Tuare as the pair drank tea. Aside from them, Meepo stood upon a stool next to the oven as he worked on his batch of tea in the kettle.
"Hey everyone, it's good to see you all!" Ninya greeted happily as the four of us went inside. While I went to take a seat at the table, the other three just continued to stand near the cabin's entrance as they didn't fully know what to do seeing as this entire place was a bit out of their depth to comprehend.
"When did you learn about this place, Ninya? It seems so unreal…" Peter asked sheepishly.
"Yesterday. Kashia showed it to me because of why I needed to meet with you guys today." The mage answered as she took a sip of tea. Although, as Dyne and Peter's eyes were focused on Ninya, Lukrut's had taken the time to investigate the room along with Meepo and Tuare.
"Before you explain that, could you also tell us who the other girl and the kobold are?" The archer asked with great curiosity.
"Actually, she is why you're here," Ninya answered as she motioned to Tuare. The blonde girl started to become a bit nervous at all the attention she was receiving, yet she did an admirable job in hiding her feelings from the others, "I'd like to introduce all of you to my older sister, Tuareninya Veyron."
"What?!" The trio of males shouted together.
"But your sister was taken. How did you find her? Did she escape? How did she find you if she did? What-" As much as the questions were understandable, we wouldn't get anywhere with the motor mouth of Lukrut's.
"I can explain that part." I interrupted, "Until yesterday, Tuare had indeed been enslaved to a former group of horrid people. Using a tracking spell, I located Tuare and teleported with Ninya to her location. After healing Tuare and sending her and Ninya back to my room at the inn, I made sure to destroy the establishment and all the monsters inside." Even now, I found it hard to even call the things who visited and knowingly worked at that brothel as anything close to human. Regardless, I tried to keep the explanation in an abridged form, especially because no one needed to know what happened to the poor girl.
"Wait, Kashia," Peter said as his mind tried to compartmentalize all this information, "you're telling us that you managed to find Ninya's sister in just a day?"
"She did, I could hardly believe it even while witnessing everything with my own eyes." Ninya chimed in. Peter just sighed while rubbing his temple, as if in the vain hope that this would be the most shocking thing he learned today. "Would you guys like to sit down? This'll probably be a long explanation and it'd be easier if you were sitting."
"Can't keep standing forever." Dyne chimed in, "Besides, I'd enjoy a cup of tea since it smells delicious from over here." Soon after, the large druid joined the sisters and I at the table.
"Meepo, mind preparing a few cups for us?" I politely asked.
"Certainly, Mistress! Meepo's kept the tea at a perfect temperature in preparation for your return!" With greater strength than his small body portrayed, the kobold lifted the metal kettle of tea from the stove along with some cups that were hung from the horns on his head and hopped down from the stool he was standing on. Then, he dragged the stool with him across the floor and to the table before hopping up onto it and then onto the table. As he waddled over to Dyne, Meepo removed a cup that was hanging off one of his horns and poured tea into it before handing it to Dyne.
"I'm quite surprised at seeing a well-mannered kobold. Typically, they are quite violent and limited in their intelligence aside from making traps." Dyne remarked as he began to sip from the cup.
"Meepo Breepo be Meepo's name. Meepo is a great craftsman who's been honored to employ his abilities in service to the Mistress. Meepo would never tarnish the great one's presence by acting like a savage kobold." The little kobold said with immense pride. If Meepo was much taller, and his voice didn't sound so squeaky, it'd actually be quite an impressive display. Unfortunately, that display of devotion was just adorable.
"I see. No doubt, the story behind how you and Kashia met will prove to be quite fascinating. You'll have to tell us later." Dyne replied politely, "The tea you made is also quite delicious." All the while that Dyne had been conversing with Meepo, Peter and Lukrut had managed to quietly pull up a pair of chairs to the table which they sat in. Meepo, ever attentive, poured tea into a pair of cups that he handed off to the pair of fighters.
It was at this point that Peter stopped holding his expression of chronic confusion since arriving in my realm, and instead he looked at Tuare with a smile. "Sorry if we're being impolite. All of us are still just trying to process everything that we're seeing right now." The swordsman apologized sheepishly, "My name's Peter Mauk and I'm the unofficial leader of our group. It's a pleasure to meet you, Tuare."
"Greetings, I'm Dyne Woodwonder. Just an average druid." I wanted to call bullshit about that remark, but I held my opinion to myself.
"And lastly is me, Lukrut Volve, archer and world-renowned master of romance."
"Yeah right," Peter interrupted, "I have yet to see the famous skillset that you supposedly have."
Lukrut glared at Peter, "For your information, that's because my large heart, and all the love that it contains, has been captured by another. My days of seducing the hearts of lovely maidens everywhere has ended now that I've found the love of my life!" The cringeworthy sappiness of Lukrut's declaration made me want to melt in my chair in embarrassment.
"That doesn't explain your previous month of getting rejected by all the girls you asked out." Peter retorted.
"Fate simply wished for me to hold my love for when Kashia arrived in E-Rantel." Two things occurred when Lukrut said this, the first was that Tuare looked at me with the scary look of a matchmaker. I didn't think that anything could cause me to shiver in fear until I saw the look in her eyes. The second was that Meepo pulled out a metal rod with a jewel at the tip which he pointed at Lukrut's face.
"Are you saying that you are courting the Mistress!? Tell Meepo if you've ever sullied the Mistress' honor!" The kobold demanded like he was an overprotective father. Lukrut cried out in surprise before raising his hands above his head in surrender.
"Yes, I'm courting Kashia! I promise that I've not done anything to sully her honor, far from it, I'd never do something like that! Just don't kill me!" The archer quickly replied to the slowly glowing jewel in his face. Meepo looked over to me for confirmation.
As amusing as this turn of events was, I needed to break it up before Meepo maimed or killed Lukrut, "He's telling the truth. Lukrut's been quite the gentleman and would never attempt to sully my honor. He also has my permission to attempt to court me. You can let him go." My words swayed Meepo as he slowly lowered the wand from Lukrut's face and shoved it back into a hiding place in his robe.
"Meepo will accept the Mistress' words, but he's not finished with his discussion with the lusty human stick-shooter." I almost spat out the tea that I was drinking when I heard Lukrut's new title. Peter had no such qualms as he started laughing his ass off at Lukrut's expense. "Meepo's got his eyes on you." The kobold then gave Lukrut the 'I'm watching you' gesture with his hand as he hopped off the table and back onto his stool. From then on, the kobold's attention never broke from watching every single movement of the archer.
Following this, I spotted Peter reach into his pocket and pull out four silver coins from his pocket before sliding them over to the triumphant Dyne. Attempting to get a handle on the meeting before something else ended up distracting us, I said, "Spontaneous outburst aside, the next part of the discussion is the plan for the group going forwards."
"What do you mean by that?" Lukrut's voice dipped a bit when his eyes spotted Meepo threatening him by poking the glowing head of his wand out from the dark recesses of his robe.
"While Tuare has been rescued, she doesn't have a job and Ninya's room at the inn she's staying at can't fit them both. Ninya and I discussed this earlier, as neither she nor Tuare want to live separately, and the solution I came up with is that they'll live in my sanctuary realm. It's got a lot of space and it'll free up money for Ninya to use elsewhere." I explained.
"So, it's actually possible to live in this place." Dyne said to himself, "I'm not the most knowledgeable about magic of this area, but wouldn't keeping a realm like this use up a lot of mana from the caster?"
"No, the only cost is what I used to initially create this pocket realm. It will sustain itself permanently while also holding a lot of space within it. That's the reason that it's a perfect place for Ninya and Tuare to stay for as long as they'd like."
"How else could we help out? We're all willing take a cut of job pay if it'll help out Tuare." Peter stated while the others nodded in agreement.
"Actually, if Tuare is interested in a job, I could ask my cousin if she has an opening in her restaurant. She's always interested in getting more servers to work at her place since the place can get pretty packed without enough staff." Lukrut remarked, which wasn't that bad of an idea, now that I think about it. Tuare probably needed to train up her social skills and being a waitress was a good way of doing so.
"Tuare, would that interest you?" I asked the blonde girl, "It's your decision, so you don't have to say yes if you don't want to." Tuare gave the idea some thought before nodding her head.
"I'd like to try it. I can't stay away from the world forever and I'd like to aid you and Ninya. I'll feel like a burden if I'm not able to help out." A respectable answer on Tuare's end.
"Then it's settled. After we finish up, I'll go talk to my cousin and see what she can do." Lukrut stated with a confident tone. It looks like everything was working out. If Lukrut's unable to get a job from Celly, then I can always have Tuare help out Meepo in selling excess potions and items that are stored here.
"Great. Will Ninya need any help moving her things out of the other inn?" Peter inquired while sipping his cup.
"Kashia will be helping me, so it's covered. But that isn't the only thing I wanted to tell you guys…" Ninya trailed off nervously as she considered her next words.
"What is it Ninya? You kind of stopped telling us." Lukrut asked. The conflict of what Ninya wanted to say caused creases to form on her brow.
"Guys, I consider all of you my best friends and because you're my friends, it's been extremely hard to keep a secret of mine from all of you. Please, promise you won't be angry with me for what I tell you next, because I couldn't bear to lose any of you over something like this…" The begging in Ninya's voice was full of desperation and fear of rejection. I just hoped that Ninya understood that even if the others rejected her, which I could bet my life wouldn't happen, I would still be there to help her out.
"Ninya, I promise, we won't be angry with you." Dyne reassured the girl with that sagely tone of his, "Just tell us what it is that's troubling you so much. We're always here to help you if you want it."
The young mage let out a deep breath and gave a wavering smile, "Tuare is my sister… and I'm her sister as well." Dyne was the first to pick up on what Ninya admitted, and strangely enough, he looked like this reveal wasn't all that new. Instead, he gave her a proud, knowing smile. It was a second later when Peter's eyes finally widened in surprise until he finally settled to chuckling.
"Wait! You're actually a girl!?" Lukrut shouted in realization and amazement as he started inspecting the girl, then comparing her between Tuare and myself. "But…how…what…I'm just…"
"Looks like we broke Lukrut again. Also, here's a silver I owe you." Following this, Peter flipped a coin into the archer's lap. Yet, Lukrut was so deep in thought that he didn't even register the money. His eyes looked like they were focusing on a ball in a tennis match with how often they'd go back and forth.
"Uh, mind explaining that?" I asked.
"It's just a running bet that Lukrut and I have. If we recruit a guy into the group, I get a silver, and if we get a girl, then Lukrut gets a silver." Peter then looked at Ninya in mock anger, "Damnit Ninya, I'm losing so much money today because of you." He then burst out into laughter which helped lighten the mood at the table.
"Y-You're okay with me being a girl?" Ninya asked hesitantly.
"Of course we are, Ninya, though I believe that Lukrut's reevaluating his life at the moment, so we can just ignore him at the moment. You're our friend which is something that hasn't changed. It does explain a few things, like how you never roomed with us when the offer was available."
"You always wore baggy clothes that obscured your body shape." Dyne remarked.
Surprisingly, and of course it would be now when Lukrut would come out of his existential mini-coma, the archer added, "You also never swam in the rivers or ponds we stopped by when we would."
"Welcome back to the land of the living, Lucky. How was the nap?" I teased.
"Ha ha, very funny." Lukrut answered sarcastically, "This is a large fireball that you've dropped on us, but I can understand why you did it since dressing like a man is less likely to get you attacked on the road then a woman." That was… surprisingly mature for Lukrut. Did he get replaced by a shapeshifter while we weren't looking? "I just can't help but ask why you didn't tell us sooner? You didn't have to hide that from us."
Ninya looked away sheepishly when given the question, "I'm not really sure… I have been hiding my gender for so long that it just seemed normal. And after I became friends with all of you, I was afraid that you would all hate me and kick me out of the group." Lukrut got up from his chair and walked around the table, as he did, Meepo had his hand inside his robe like he had a gun hidden inside.
Finally, Lukrut grabbed Ninya in a headlock and started to playfully give the girl a noogie, much to her protests. "Come on! Stop it, Lukrut!"
"Nah, squirt. I've gotta pay you back for keeping things from us." Lukrut responded while laughing. I gave an unladylike snort at the display and leaned back into my chair. "Girl or not, I'll still treat you like before because you're still the Ninya I've gotten to know." He then temporarily stopped giving the girl a noogie and added, "Besides, if you left, then I would lose the little sibling that I love to mess with!"
Ninya's eyes widened at hearing the archer's declaration, "Wait, you think of me as a sibling?"
"Of course I do, squirt." Following this, he resumed the noogie while Ninya complained and tried to hold his hand still. Lukrut broke the headlock and instead wrapped his arm across Ninya's chest to keep her arms pinned down, all the while laughing like a loon. Dyne and Peter both laughed at the display before they got out of their seats and came over to Lukrut and Ninya before tackling them both.
For the next few minutes, an impromptu wrestling match broke out among the four while Tuare and I sat back and watched the event. Then, the sound of, "YIIIIII!" And Meepo jumped into the pile of wrestling adventurers, and more specifically, at Lukrut.
"You know, I'm glad that Ninya has such good friends that took care of her when I couldn't. It's good to see that she wasn't alone all this time." Tuare remarked with a hint of disappointment in her voice. It was easy to tell that Tuare was upset that she wasn't there for Ninya, and possibly a bit jealous of the bond that the young mage had made with her friends. I gave the girl a reassuring pat on the shoulder as we watched on.
"Just because you weren't there for a few years in Ninya's life doesn't mean that you can't be there for the rest. Life has its ups and downs, and while you lived the last few years at rock bottom, the only place you can go now is up." Tuare looked at me with a gaze akin to recognition.
"It's easy to see why Ninya feels so comfortable around you. You remind me of our mom. She had blonde hair like yours and she always could say something that cheered us up." I felt a blush growing on my face at the compliment. But it was also followed by a mixture of happiness and dread. I liked the idea of being a mom, yet I was scared at how easily I enjoyed being called a mom instead of a dad.
"I'm honored that you'd think of me like that, Tuare. I'll do my best to respect the memory of your mother." I promised which I had no intention of breaking.
"You don't need to go that far. Just keep being you, that's all I could ask, and it's all that Ninya needs."
"Then, I promise to do my best."
"Thank you."