Chapter 114
As the one with the money, I was the natural choice to negotiate with whomever this captain person was. So, leaving the last minute equipment checks to my party, Tetsu and I entered the rowdiest, loudest, most ale soaked tavern I'd ever had the displeasure to be near.
The name however, caught my eye as the two of us entered. "Walt's Bar?" I said, noting that the place where 'Walt' had been painted had many layers of paint under it. "That doesn't bode well for the last owner I think..."
Tetsu took notice of the name with me, the two of us pausing at the threshold of the salloon style doors... then we took a step away from each other, letting a huge dog demi-human sail past us, roll twice, then flop off the dock and into the harbour.
"The fish smells yummy... but the fruit smells rotten." She pouted.
"That would be wine. Or whatever it is they drink. Come on, let's find the one we're looking for." And we stepped through the (surprisingly) still intact doors.
There was ample light inside, both from whatever open windows the place had (lots of those, though only one or two still had glass in them) and a magic stone lamp high on every support pillar in the place. For all the noise and... one two... three small brawls going on right this second, the actual structure of the place seemed reasonable intact.
Okay, maybe this wouldn't end up in a brawl after all? The 'regulars' here seemed to care just enough to not break the walls. Oh, except for what looked like this world's equivalent of a dart board. That wall looked like someone had been throwing swords at the target.
"So... who are we looking for?" Tetsu asked, letting me pull her aside and away from the door, just in case someone else got ejected while we were in the way. "Everyone's fighting! But it doesn't seem very serious?"
"What do you do when you don't know something?" I asked her, instinctively wincing when a clay mug smashed to the floor someplace.
"Ask someone who looks like they know." Tetsu replied, "Yes I'm clever..." And soaking up headpats for getting it right.
"Exactly. So, who's not fighting, drinking, or sleeping?" I nudged her shoulder to turn her around so she could face the room, and scanned the room as well.
The guy at the bar was the obvious choice. He'd know the regulars, and take notice of people who were 'new', like me. Now, in an effort to fit in and not draw every eye in the place, I'd dressed in my 'pirate blacksmith' getup. I mean, I could have put on the full plate/scale and rolled in like a tank in a tea shop, but that would have been... too much.
Tetsu on the other hand, found someone else a little closer to ground level. And just as I made eye contact with the half-lion behind the bar, Tetsu said, "What about that one there?"
Her 'indoor voice' was already pretty loud, and with all the noise in the room it was just shy of yelling. So when she pointed at 'that one there', the people near me noticed too. And it was a little kobold (small dog-person, like from Falmart) who was just about to snip someone's coin purse off their belt.
Tetsu and I then watched a half dozen half drunk, angry, bare chested sailor types beat the stuffing out of the poor cut-purse (just fists, no knives or even kicks!) and heave him through the saloon style doors and into the harbour.
While those involved in ejecting the poor guy dusted off their hands, I put a hand on Tetsu's shoulder and made my way to the bar. "Got sharp eyes little one." He said to Tetsu as we got within 'reasonable voice' range. "What are you having?"
Unable to resist the hopeful eyes of a clever dragon, I said, "Whatever is fresh for my girl here." I said, "And I was told there's be an off season captain waiting for me here."
He gave a backward nod into the kitchen, then turned and squinted at me. His furry Leonid face scrunched up at me for a moment, but to save him the trouble, I reached behind me to take the nice Hagane Red Shield off my back. "Gonna need more than a fancy scrap of metal to prove yourself."
"Know about the Lucky Dragon?" I asked. Since I didn't have any real signature past the Shield... It wasn't like I had a gimmick like eating raw ricolu fruit or something. "Tetsu? Show the nice man where the best spot is?"
Waiting patiently for her food, she reached up and grabbed the man's wrist. Even at roughly three times the size of her child form, he couldn't resist her when she moved his hand and placed it just over her eye between her eyebrow and the bony crest covering her forehead. "Riiiiiight here. That spot!"
He was a little surprised, but while he caught on that he wouldn't escape his duty to apply a proper headpat now that he'd doubted me, I said, "I'd get her to change, but she's not meant for small spaces like this one."
Leaning into a hand that could have covered most of the top of her head, Tetsu chimed in with, "I'm not supposed to change indoors... eeee headpats..."
"Yeah... Don't do that. Wouldn't want to alarm anyone." He said a tiny bit nervously, though he was doing his best to please the headpat magnet that was Tetsu. "Anyhow, the one you're after is over there. Her crew is a bit rough, but being good at your job brings both kinds of attention."
He motioned with his head towards a slightly darker part of the tavern. Where there were more booths, less open space, and that much abused 'dart' board.
So, I placed a silver on the bar top, worth about four times what Tetsu's meal was worth, and said, "Feed her until that runs out. I'll try not to cause a scene." And I put the Shield back under my little half cape, and started weaving my way through the crowd.
Thinking on it, I'd never actually been to a 'shady back room' in a tavern. There was that one place Welf liked to go to for his favourite paint thinner/vodka. But that was 'all shady'. All the same, I found myself stopped by a pair of demi-human... bears (?) just outside a large dimly lit room. Looming over me, one of them said, "Tha capt'in is watting for an 'portint guess." Around a mouth of broken and missing teeth.
Looking past him, I saw a bunch of other demi-humans, both male and female, and dressed in easy to move in but not brightly coloured vests and pants. Slouched in the middle of them all, not quite laying down, not quite sitting, was a panther demi-human. Her black fur matched well with a black and gold admiral's coat, and she was looking at me lazily over a wooden mug.
But she, and those around her, made no move to stop the two men from bothering me.
"And if I were the important guest?" I asked the wall of scruffy furred muscle.
Now the captain spoke, "Prove it." Her voice rough, salt and yelling orders, and the smell of whatever she was drinking unkind to what might have been a nice tenor.
Now that the crowd was smaller, I took the Shield off my back and changed it to the Shield of Marius. With a heavy thud it slammed into the floor just in front of the bouncer's foot. Then just because I could, I activated the crystal armour enchantment on the front, and trapped him up to the neck in magically grown quartz.
"Eh?" Was all he had to say for himself as the other one realized what I'd done and put a hand on my shoulder.
I touched the edge of my hand to his wrist, wrapped my hand around it, and kicked his ankle while twisting his arm around. 100 KG of muscle slammed face first into the floor, my foot just under his shoulder blade while I had his arm pointed backwards straight up into the air.
"You want my coin or not?" I asked pleasantly.
Like the hunting cat apparent in her heritage, she sat up smoothly, smiled, and nodded, "How many on your crew?"
"Four heroes, and about a dozen total for party. All capable fighters, though two of them don't have their sea legs."
"Anyone actually important?" She grinned at me, but blinked when I didn't react to the insult.
So I hit her with the the truth, "An exiled Empress who's father didn't want the job, her water dragon priestess, and everyone who wants to make sure her resignation letter actually gets read."
She went wide eyed at the truth, but smiled, "Huh, might be our last trading trip I suppose." A transparent attempt to barter her price up. Not wanting to waste too much time bartering, and knowing I was on a 'how fast can Tetsu eat' timer, I skipped to the end.
The table she had her feet on cracked audibly under the weight of gold coins as I tossed her payment over. "Once it's dealt with, the Hickwaal trading conglomerate will do its best to restore trade with all due haste.
She made to lean forward to pick up the bag of coin, but the shift of weight finished the job and snapped the table in two. A couple of her quicker witted crew rescued their mugs, but it was still a bit of a mess. Still, she got her hand-shaped paw around the top of the bag and heaved it upwards out of the table's wreckage.
"Like you, I'm also good at my job. Despite what you might have heard. How soon can we depart?" I cut the enchantment on the crystals holding Toothless against the wall, and put the Shield on my back again.
"Give us an hour, two if you want us all sober."
I nodded, and handed a pouch of quietly clinking vials to Toothless, "Cure all. Will clear your head. We'll be at the dock in an hour, which ship?"
"The only one worth calling a ship." She grinned. "Let's go you lot! We got a job!"
"Aye Captain!"
We spent part of that hour doing a brief 'souvenir tour'. Tetsu, of course, was making sparkly eyes at every food vendor stand, with the compounding cuteness of Kotetsu peeking out of her hair. The heroes, as well as Erhard, were making squint eyes at what ever weapon shops we came across. While the rest kind of hung around me, breaking off to go look at something, then returning, and possibly going back with someone else to verify that what ever had caught their eye was interesting or not.
"Why the sigh Boss?" SITA asked, holding my hand like a child, though with her disposition to look at everything, she might actually have lost me had she let go.
"Eh, I could have bought her ship, its crew, and everything we might need with the money I just spent."
"It's just money." SITA looked up at me, "And you made that in less than a month."
"I know I know." I sighed.
"You just wanted to barter." Raphtalia said, hitting the nail on the head as it were.
"I think I see the ship." Usa said before I could confirm that I did, in fact, want to barter. I liked being a merchant!
Clive clicked appreciation at the sight, as we all meandered into view of the harbour proper. "Oh wow." Fohl gasped, "That thing is massive!"
He was not wrong. Not even a little. Now I'll be first to admit I'm not much of a boat person. Just about every time I'd been near the ocean, some likeable jerk (Ottar) would throw me in. I mean, sure, the first time he asked, the second time I asked... Anyhow... Of all the wooden ships I'd ever seen, this was the second largest. The first, was the fishing flag ship of the Njord Familia. But that had been built with literal godly skill and meant for waters where 'giant fish' was what you were there for. But that one was also built like an oil tanker, not a Merchantman.
"SITA?" I called out as we all stopped to appreciate the ship.
"Lemme..." She gave the ship a five degree head tilt, stood on Erhard's shoulders (and he didn't even flinch, meaning she'd probably done that more than a few times already), then hopped off and stood at the other end of our little line of ship admirers.
"Well..." She said after her quick and dirty triangulation, "It's not quite a record for Earth. The Wyoming was just shy of 140 metres and six masts. This one is just shy of 126 metres, but I think the displacement is larger? I'd have to get a better view of the water."
Being closest, Motoyasu gave her a headpat, but only one since Kuro was giving him the 'totally not jealous' glare. "Why would you know that?" Ren asked, already looking a little uncomfortable this close to the water.
"Cause I'm an encyclopedia of just about everything anyone has ever built?" SITA replied with a smile. "And adorable." She nodded to herself, but stopped short of laughing like some kind of evil villain or something.
"Oh, reminds me." I fished through the Shield, "For you, and you, and you..." I started handing out spare water breathing amulets.
Solitaire accepted the trinket, but squinted at it, "What's it do? I won't wear something my master didn't give me!"
I gave Erhard his (he also gave it a squint, but then put it on without question), backed up a step, plucked the little seashell pendant from Solitaire's hand, and handed it to Ren. No longer as much of an idiot, he then gave it back to Solitaire, who's tail swished happily at the gift.
There were a few quiet giggles as we continued on, moving through the bustle of the dock and got around to the actual busy side of the 'only ship worth calling a ship'. This revealed that yes, the feline captain was putting her crew to work. It had two wide gangplanks connecting it to shore, with one row of people running up with crates of stuff, and one row running down, shoulders unburdened.
"Oh! She has the fancy hat!" Tetsu said with a laugh. Because yes, the Captain spotted our little parade and tugged the brim of her nice tricorn at us. She then scratched at her chin, nodded to herself, and waved us aboard.
Unless they were helping (Tetsu and Fohl), everyone else was staying out of the way. The Captain got the rest of us over to the side while her crew went about loading stuff, tying things down, and going about the business of a ship wide equipment check.
"Huh... So you're the one... and you've got to be the former priestess." She gave Raphtalia and Sadeena a look. This got me a glare from the two of them, but I ignored it as the Captain turned to me, "Now, I've got to tell you, if you're not invited, we're not getting in."
"What do you mean?" I asked, suddenly feeling like my luck was about to do that thing it did. Even in this godless world... some things just didn't change it seemed.
"We have a pass. But it's seasonal. They expect us, let us through, load and unload my ship, and we leave. Even after most of a decade, none of us have stepped more than a few paces on solid ground over there." She explained, "So, unless you have some kind of trick, well, we can get you within sight of the place..."
Yup, there it was. My backhanded luck doing its thing. "We might have an in." Sadeena said, "But we'll know when we get there."
"Then there's this thing about her." She paused in front of Raphtalia, "We're going to have problems, aren't we?"
"Time and lives, Raphtalia." I said, getting me another glare, but then an honest nod to the Captain.
"If you give me a little time..." S'yne started.
"You're much shorter in person." The Captain grinned, "Won some coin betting on you before."
'Murder Pierrot' pouted, but she was only a tiny bit taller than Tetsu and Kuro's child forms.
Clive clicked a couple of times, motioning to one of the crow's nests. He then gave Itsuki a pat on the shoulder. The Bow flinched a little, but nodded, "If I could get some of that stomach medication?"
"You better not shower my crew. They smell bad enough as it is." The Captain grumbled, "But we'll trust you to help when the fighting starts."
"Is there usually fighting? Pirates?" Atla asked.
"Eh, maybe no pirates this time, since we're a season early for the trip." She shrugged, "Anyhow, find a place to sit, we'll be under way in a few minutes."
Overall, the other heroes were doing much better this time. Itsuki, after a bit of stomach medication, and Rishia joining him up in the rearward crow's nest for... I dunno, moral support? A reminder to try just a tiny bit harder? Headpat supply? Well, he wasn't getting sick.
Ren was following the advice I'd given him the first time, keeping himself loose, eyes on the horizon, that kind of thing. But he had also asked for a bit of stomach medication. Now, the ship this time also had a wider bottom and longer keel, so there was less swaying. Not like the smaller, faster ship we had gotten to Cal Mira on. He even found a sailor or two to spar with to help him get his sea legs! I'd have to send Eclair a gift or something.
And Motoyasu? He was walking around like we were still on flat ground. He also might have inspired Ren to spar with someone, since he and Sadeena were currently sparring between the first and second masts.
As for me? I was leaning on the rail of the forecastle next to the bowsprit (the pointy bit sticking out the front). Accompanying me, was Kotetsu, since I was nice and warm and she was a hopeless attention suck. She was also holding up the Mirror for me, letting me talk with SITA-prime and HIDA-lite. I felt almost bad for this place now, knowing what I did... And if all the evidence was pointing me in the right direction, then soon...
"Boss?" S'yne, another victim of what felt like some kind of shadowy organization, interrupted my watch of the sea, "I've got the ship covered. I'll have to thank Kizuna for the fishing line."
"We should visit after this." I nodded, looking over my shoulder and spotting the fading light of the Siltvelt harbour lighthouse, "As much as I don't want to be worshipped, she was kind of... I dunno..."
She stood next to me, gave Kotetsu's head a pat, then 'eep'ed as the little dragon-noodle zipped up her arm and found a pocket to hide in (since she actually had an abundance of them in her home made clothing). "What's it like? You say the world has no gods, yet they use all the words. Even my world had shrines, and holy places, and treated the Weapons like godly gifts."
"Remember my talk about 'rules'." I started.
"Rules are silly!" Kotetsu said from a pocket as she poked her head out.
"Some are." I agreed, "Back home, there are three 'types' of people. The Gods, Monsters, and the Children. The mortal, and the divine. If you are a mortal, you may be gifted with a speck of divinity, and have it grow inside you, much like the levelling system here. But, you are still mortal, you can still have children, grow old, get hurt, die."
"And the gods?"
"They do not age, cannot have children, and are immune to all forms of mortal harm. Only another god, or a Monster, can harm them. They are bound to mortal limits, but gift drops of their divinity so the Children can protect them, and themselves, from the Monsters." I turned my back to the ocean, looking up at the sky as stars started to poke through the fading sunlight.
"Oh... I see the problem." S'yne nodded.
"Yeah." I sighed, "Then there's this." I motioned to my horns, then rubbed at my forehead just to check if they'd grown more. "Even the Gods have a capacity for evil. But they are a little more set in their ways. If a god of war is given a choice between a sword or a plow, they will choose the sword every time. But me? Oh, I'm fairly sure what my 'domains' would be, but this..." I motioned again to my forehead, "Would colour that... It might change 'give thanks' to 'give sacrifice'."
"Are you sure?" S'yne asked, "I haven't known you long, but with what I've seen you do, and what I've helped you create back on the Hearth... You could be done with all this by now."
"I've met a few of the... not quite pure divinities. They mean well, but they have stories I won't tell my children." I sighed, "I never did tell you about the one time I took a nap in my shrine while in heat... oh boy Hades was mad..."
She took a moment to puzzle out that sentence, blushed furiously, but managed to ask (without stammering), "What happened?"
"Lots of 'new arrival' paperwork." I sighed, "Like... the entire population of Melromarc's castle town in nine months. The God of Death was beside himself with how much paperwork it would be to kick that many souls up the chain for their rebirth."
She giggled quietly at my 'grumpy Hades face', but stopped short suddenly. "BOARDERS!" She yelled out, the little sewing kit on vest pocket changing to the giant scissors, while her other hand yanked backwards hard a few times.
Across the deck, next to the captain's wheel (where the panther feline captain was steering) little bronze bell started clanging. This alerted that half bear with all the missing teeth (I found out he had lost a bet trying to bite a cannonball) to grab hold of the bell's rope (where S'yne had tied a thread so she could ring it from anywhere on the ship) and start REALLY smashing it around.
The captain's rough voice shouted over the deck as the first of the (of course... sigh...) ninja poked their head over the rail, "Suffer not the pirate to live!"
They weren't really pirates, but with our telling the Captain about them and our 'early warning' system from S'yne... Well, they weren't doing so well about 'living' either.
The first one to poke their head over the rail ate an arrow. The second one had their entire face grabbed by one of the Bear-guards before losing it to a cutlass. And the third was pulled the rest of the way on board by Usa's whip, then stuck to the deck by Sadeena's twin pronged harpoon and Motoyasu's totally normal spear (the 'legendary spear' currently stuck to his back in the shape of a small javelin).
But then there were too many to 'surprise' and the fighting was on.
Amid the fanatical declaration for the Emperor and the denouncement of the 'False Empress', I noticed two things. First, that the attackers were either shark or killer whale demi-humans. Second, if they weren't instantly engaged, they were targeting Sadeena first.
Not content to just stand and be support (I was still casting all the support spells, but not standing still), I fought my way towards the Captain. She had the Gummy Bear next to her, and the two of them were doing well.
I got distracted for a moment when some jerk with a trident tried to give me extra breathing holes in my chest, but then Kotetsu appeared from under my Black Dog cape and turned them into an ice sculpture.
Then I heard a 'click-BOOM', and the iced Assassin detonated into bloody chunks. Looking towards the noise, I spotted the Captain standing there with a pistol (I use this word loosely, since the barrel was more in the '40mm grenade' ballpark) pointed in my direction. I was wearing my mask, so I could only give her a thumb's up, but she winked at me, waved me over, and went back to covering her second's back.
"She would make a good friend!" Kotetsu said from my shoulder, "Sad that home has small ocean..."
"That's an amazing idea." I agreed.
Knowing their penchant for blowing themselves up, the Captain had informed her crew not to 'loot the bodies'. Still, the ship's deck did suffer a few small craters, and the crew a few injuries. But all the same, we had the same success as before.
"These ones seemed more interested in you, Miko." The Captain said, not reacting even a little as I bandaged her arm. "And you. What do you know?" This she directed to Erhard, who had once again gathered up what weapons we could find (some self destructed with their owner, and there were more than a few hungry fish looking for more 'discarded pirates' swimming around us now).
"I'm sure of it now... My master made these." He said, hefting a trident and squinting at it, "Probably made this one half drunk... But it's his."
He offered it to Motoyasu, who shrugged and put a hand on it. But he recoiled as the weapon shocked his hand and clattered to the deck. "Ow... Copy protection?"
I chuckled, "Anti-hero weapons... Maybe something in how they're made?" I looked around, "SITA?"
She appeared from behind one of the crew patching up some of the deck, "Yes Boss?" Pause, "Oh! Lemme see!"
While she zipped over to Erhard for item related stuff, we (the heroes minus Itsuki, Raphtalia and Sadeena) got back into our huddle with the Captain. "Well... If I had to guess, they'd be after me since I have the best chance of talking to the water dragon and gaining entry." She shook her head, "Except, I abandoned my duties. Good chance we're not on speaking terms."
"Hmm." The captain scratched her chin, "Well, so long as we don't get yet another surprise visit, we'll be at the barrier limit around dawn."
The dismissal was clear, so we got off the quarter deck (where the Wheel was) and onto the main deck. "A dragon you say?" I asked, giving Kotetsu some well deserved nuzzles before she zipped up onto my head to laze over my horns.
"You want to fight it?" Ren asked, looking just a tiny bit nervous at the idea.
"Hey! It might be stopping us, but it's not like that!" Sadeena said, "It's protected Q'ten Lo for like... ever..."
"No no." I shook my head, "Unlike Gaelion before we calmed him down, and the Tyrant when we put it down, this one seems to be a nice one. So, we'll be diplomatic first."
"I want to make friends!" Kotetsu said happily, her feathery tail swishing like happy puppy's tail. No surprise, since like Tetsu I'd given her a little 'programming' in that direction.
As if summoned by happy dragon vibes, Tetsu appeared next to us, a smear of boat soup (tar) over her cheek, "Another dragon? Where?!"
Sadeena looked thankful, and Raphtalia too once she saw us trying to play nice. "So... What did you usually do when talking to the Water Dragon?" Raphtalia asked.
"Wouldn't happen to involve a mirror, would it?" I made an educated guess, since symbolism was a huge thing with 'talking to divinities' (even if there was no actual divinity...). "Just happen to have an extra special one, right here. Kotetsu? Would you be a good friend and help Sadeena?"
Kotetsu 'hmm'ed theatrically, tapping her chin with a hind paw since her two front paws were holding the Vassal Mirror, "I demand fish!" Pause, "Please? Kinda hungry now..."
Seeing my chance to be domestic, and satisfy a weird urge to watch someone else to a ritual of some kind, I said, "You catch, I'll cook. Then we'll... do whatever it is."
"As the tiny dragon-noodle wishes." Sadeena grinned, "Hey Kuro! S'yne! Going fishing!"
While I stirred a giant cauldron of my (apparently famous?) shark fin soup, I was mostly alone with my thoughts. The situation, home, all that stuff. My party had somehow managed to convince an entire crew of extra salty seafaring merchants to leave me the hell alone while I cooked.
Aside from S'yne and SITA keeping watch, one passive with her threads, the other active with super precise AI modelling of how an ocean shouldn't have extra shadows or whatever it was the ninja were using for stealth... this was exactly how I wanted to be spending my evening.
But in a way I hated how it filled the void of homesickness. If I weren't here, I'd be there, making dinner from what they'd brought to me, and taking care to make it as much for 'food' as it was for 'reward'. But I couldn't hate them for who they were not. Not my family, not my home... But this was who I was. And I would always be me, no matter what world I was in.
The thought made my horns tingle. A reminder that if I kept taking shortcuts, by brute force or drawing on power to just... get things done...
Well, I'd still be me...
"Ma'am?" Usa of course caught my sigh, and for the smallest, tiniest, microscopic instant I wished he'd stop being so damn good at his job.
I hoped my tails lashing out to wrap around one of his arms distracted him from that little moment of irritation. "I'll have to tell you, Clive, and others soon." I said, my traitorous tails pulling him close enough to look intimate. "But my efforts to get home is probably going to upset someone. And I'm still worried about..."
He surprised me by putting an arm over my shoulder and leaning into my side for a hug. It was the first time he'd shown 'initiative' in this way, and he only held the hug for a moment. "We're here for you. After everything you've done for us, we'd be fine with you setting us on fire if it were for a good cause. Though... please don't set us on fire."
An attempt at intimacy and a joke? "Heh." I couldn't help it. But it seemed rabbits in five out of five worlds were fun to be around. So I captured his head with my free arm, hugged him close, let him go, and said, "I'm fireproof so you don't have to be. And the mark of honesty you have? That's so you can tell me I'm doing something stupid."
I let him go, and he did the same (five of five worlds) nervous head scratch thing. "Should I call the others for dinner then?"
"Ya."
It was during dinner, while poor Sadeena was observing a small fasting ritual (and crying extra salty tears for missing out of a 'local food' from her childhood), that I noticed something really... weird. In the end? It was hilarious, almost funny enough for me to forget all my table manners (though in this crowd I doubted anyone would care).
So while I fought to keep my soup from passing through my nose with weird world mechanic humour, someone (Clive) patted my back to keep me from drowning. "What's so funny?" Raphtalia asked.
"Not sure if I like this laugh over the evil one." Erhard mumbled, making S'yne giggle.
"It's..." I had to cough a couple of times to reset my breathing so I could talk. "It's Kotetsu. Or rather, the mirror." I finally said.
Kotetsu, who was being as dainty as she could be with her body and a bowl of soup she could fit in, perked her head up. This prompted Kuro to dab a cloth under her chin to keep her from dripping soup onto the Mirror or Kuro's lap. "Shiny Treasure is funny?"
"Well... When I made her, the power up methods she had at the time would make it nearly impossible to be on our level. She's a dragon still, so age would help, sure. But she'd need a generation or two."
"Most pet systems never let them over power their owners?" Ren said, "There are special cases, sure, but..." He looked to Kuro, Tetsu and then Solitaire (who had become my best friend again for food).
"Well, she's currently the user of the Vassal Mirror. Maybe because the last owner gave it to her, or maybe because she's innocent and 'worthy' of it on her own. But this gives her access to its power up method."
There was a pause as our little circle of hero's and their parties looked to the happily oblivious dragon-noodle as she nom-slurped at her bowl of soup. While she did, I spotted the thing that had made me laugh so hard change again.
'Exotic shark soup: 1 MAG 1 MDEF'. This was tacked on to a long LONG list of 'Kodori is bored so let's cook something new' foods I'd made with all the stuff from the Hearth's (un)natural environment. Several weeks of different meals every day, plus snack foods, teas, a bit of alcohol... Kotetsu was well on her way to being 'equal' to a hero now.
"It's food. The Vassal Mirror powers up with food." I chuckled, "Have a mentioned before-"
"This world is weird? Yes." Everyone said. Oh, except Kotetsu and Tetsu, since there was food in front of them.
NOTES!
Says so on the back of book 18. No, not joking. Yes, it's hilarious. For anyone who hangs around Kodori, the Vassal Mirror is perfect.
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