As we walk, I notice how the number of halflings running about seems to be even higher here than it was in Escanso. I knew that they were hiring halflings to improve the yields of the farms, but the percentage of halflings here must be close to that of the humans.
The cute, thin little men and women are very similar to dwarves, indeed, but they seem more manic in their behavior, while dwarves are more boisterous. There's always exceptions, like Lina, but they are just that, exceptions.
We end up finding the main road and move east towards the temple. At the center of the town is the castle, a twin of Escanso's castle with a rather similar engraving of the Lord's family: A man with thin eyes and an oval face in the middle, Lord Confiel Rincipio; two similar-looking women with cute eyes and round faces on each side, his wives; below his portrait are two young boys with soft features, one seems to be my this-world-age and with a pompous look, and the other seems slightly softer due to his younger age.
I miss the flag that Rabanara keeps atop its castle. The lack of heraldry here makes me feel like something is missing. The elves don't seem to show heraldry that often; aside from bodyguards and knights, you rarely see someone displaying any sort of house symbol. Sneaking around in the dimly illuminated forest is rather easy, so going around wearing colorful clothes and waving banners doesn't seem very smart most of the time.
The inner ring around the castle is where the nobility lives. Our inn is in the outer ring, so we move east and enter the last ring, the residential area. The number of non-elves drops off drastically as only elves are allowed to buy residences here.
Since we are wearing traditional elven clothing, the residents mostly ignore us, except for those who are spying on us and a few of the more xenophobic elves who give us annoyed looks.
The buildings become small and adorable, like the plump tree-buildings we saw in Goldport. The holes in the middle of the road disappear, and even Lina starts to feel more comfortable and ignore how high above ground we are.
We finally reach the temple and see the familiar four clock towers pointing to the base cardinal directions. After the small gate and the low wall, we see a rather small half-sphere of white marble, the temple proper. The size of it is clearly smaller than Rabanara's, but the priest quarters and orphanage are of the same size.
Right outside the orphanage, we see Klein monkeying around with the children, a sight very similar to the one of my own orange fox. Anton and Krista are sitting on a bench and watching them while leaning on one another. I recognize a few of the human soldiers of the caravan also playing around.
Krista and Anton notice us and wave. Klein stops in the middle of the field and gets hit on her back with a heavy leather ball that they use to play something similar to american football.
Klein quickly recovers from the hit and comes to us, bouncing around. "Look, look! I feel even better than before!" She exclaims happily and stops in front of us. She pushes her short up so we can stare at her athletic-looking leg. The skin looks absolutely perfect, as if she'd never lost a chunk of muscle from the exploding arrow.
"It will be better than before if you give the new flesh time to adapt to your body," Ciel chastises and narrows her eyes at Klein.
"Hehehe, sorry, sorry, but I'm far too happy to stay resting." She scratches her cute monkey ear.
"She's always been like that," Hana says and taps Ciel's shoulder.
Klein comes to me and gives me a quick kiss as a greeting, then Hana; the rest of the girls each receive one, too, but it's a little more awkward. Aoi and Gify get a pat on the head.
Krista and Anton whisper to each other as we come to greet them.
"How are you, big man?" Hana asks with a grin.
"Couldn't be better, I think they even took out some of my fat that was building up! HAH!" Anton answers and laughs out loud once.
"He's trying to convince me that getting wounded was a good thing," Krista says in a tired tone, her tail seems to rubbing her temple in annoyance.
"If we benefited from this whole ordeal, then isn't it a good thing? For us, I mean, not for the people who died," he says and cringes a little.
"Considering how much grief we suffered while you were unconscious, you getting thinner wasn't very beneficial for my soul."
"Oh..." Anton puckers his lips and his permanent frown increases in strength.
"Da' is just being silly," Klein says and shakes her head.
Anton's huge hand sneaks behind Krista's back and grabs her shoulder, pulling her into a much tighter hug than normal. "Just trying to see the golden inlays for what they are," he smiles awkwardly and cringes again.
"So, I'm going to leave now," Klein announces.
Krista smiles wryly and Anton rolls his eyes.
"Don't let yourself get hurt," Krista says with a slightly teasing tone.
"I won-... right, yeah, I'll..." Klein seems to fail at finding a comeback for that. She cringes and decides to let that one go. "Anyway, let's explore the town, hm? We have three days to enjoy it!" She raises her arms to the sky and grins.
"We have to restock and repair some of our equipment, and fit metal armor for Hana, but that can wait until tomorrow," I say.
"Let's go for a boat ride!" Klein suggests.
I look at the girls and they all shrug.
"Sure."
We enter a [Gate] booth and Klein asks for the mage to take us to the Marina do Rei. We exit at the ground floor and the first thing we hear is the soft swish of water.
We are right at the twilight zone, the border where the environment starts to turn dark due to the town's shield bark wall above us. On the dark side, you have a romantic atmosphere with hundreds of little lights tickling your eyes and flower petals floating about; on the other side, you have a much more vibrant and calming view with the colorful plants sticking to the white "knitted" tree-pillars, and visible colorful fish swimming in the surprisingly shallow water.
Ciel seems particularly dazed by the view of the light side.
Klein turns to us with a proud smile as she sees us all admiring the amazing view. "So, which side?" She asks.
"That one," Ciel is the first to respond.
"Are we going to just float around or is something else going to happen?" Hana asks.
"You can take your pick and mix them. There's also dance; music, either calm or upbeat; food; alcohol; elven dancers you can hire; elven, uh, prostitutes; or just get a large one with a comfy bed so you can read or do something... else." She finishes off with a wry smile.
"We could have brought Osaria here," Hana comments with a grin.
"The whole marina would have heard her screams," I say.
"That would make things even better."
"Calm music and food," Ciel interrupts.
"Bed and dark side," Lina suggests. Ciel turns to the gloomy dwarf and pouts. "I want to read the books that Oura lent me," she adds.
"Oh, good idea. I'll join you," Alissa says.
"Eh, might be good for some mana training," Roxanne says.
"Mana training?" Klein looks up with expectancy, smelling another secret of ours.
"Super duper secret stuff. You better not tell anyone about this," Hana answers with a smirk.
"I'll go with Ciel," I say.
"I'll go with Roxanne; I didn't get my fill of cuddling with her yet," Hana says, making Roxanne smile.
"Hana," Aoi chooses.
"Gih," Gify chooses Alissa.
"You'll be telling me all about that training, then," Klein says to Roxanne and smiles mischievously, then she turns to me. "Oh yes, ask for them to take you near the flowers, they smell really good."
We board the gondola and the elven bard at the stern motions for us to sit. "What kind of song would you like to listen to?" She asks.
"Love songs," I immediately answer.
Ciel rolls her eyes. "Corny as always, old man."
"I know you enjoy it." I smirk at her.
She scoffs lightly and turns her head to the side. "You overestimate yourself again."
I poke her ribs and she jumps, making the gravity well around her chest turn chaotic for a moment. She turns to me and glares.
I point my finger to her face and tap her nose twice, then I say, "I saw that smile. You have no [Acting], you can't hide it from my 'Perception.'"
She forces her expression to remain serious. "Your jokes cause me pain and happiness at the same time, but I'm not Hana or Alissa, so I don't enjoy the pain."
"You enjoy being teased."
"I enjoy attention."
"Same thing."
"Only because you are insufferable!" She chuckles as she protests.
I grab her hand and kiss it. "And I love you too."
She melts a little and shakes her head with her eyes closed. "Calm songs only, please," she says with finality in her voice.
The giggling bard nods and turns around to give us some privacy.
"Ready?" The driver at the bow asks us.
"Ready. Take us close enough to the flowers for us to smell them, please," I say.
"As you wish."
The old man opens his arms and I feel mana escape his body. The swishing of the waves around us increases, but then it stops and I feel the gondola start moving. The fingers of the old man wave one after another like waves and I feel the mana coming out of him synchronizing with the movement of each finger. Must be some form of [Weaverism].
The gondola itself also starts to leak some mana and I can see that the net that's tied on the underside is glowing softly. Somehow, the boat moves without making waves or swaying, as if it is perfectly gliding on the surface.
I get myself comfortable on the fake fur seat and give Ciel a hug.
"Normally I'm the one hugging you," she says.
"This time, let me be the bigger spoon."
"What...?"
"We are cuddling, like two spoons on top of each other. The bigger spoon covers the smaller spoon. So, cuddling is also called spooning."
She lays her head on my lap and chuckles. "What a silly symbolism and word to represent it."
"Hey, it sounds cute, at least in my native language." I shrug and start playing with her silky black hair.
We go quiet and enjoy the view as I apply some [Massage] on her scalp.
"There's just so much road ahead," Ciel says wistfully.
"Hm?"
"Until we can retire and grow a family."
"You'll get two children of mine, don't worry."
"What?" She asks amid chuckles.
"I've got it all planned out. With two children each, we will have ten children, not counting how many Aoi wants. We will make enough money to buy a huge estate with enough servants to help us take care of all the children."
"Do you want children or a fellowship?" She asks with an amused tone.
"Well, they might have to follow in our footsteps, so having them team up wouldn't be much of a stretch."
"That sounds oddly adorable." She smiles wryly.
"Why oddly?" I frown at her.
She looks up at me with a cute smile. "Killing monsters is a pretty gruesome job. Doing it with your children sounds like something out of a hero's tale."
I would say fantasy story, but since I'm living in one, I guess that a 'hero's tale' sounds more appropriate.
"But don't people like Anton and Klein live like that?"
"Out of necessity, not because Anton dreamed about it." She cups my cheek tenderly.
I pucker my lips and look at her a little annoyed. She cringes and gives me a phony smile. "Sorry, sorry. I just couldn't let you get too wild with your dreams.
"Okay, mom, I'll keep my dreams very down to Earth."
"That sounded odd." She raises an eyebrow.
"Yeah, it didn't translate that well into Andraste. But anyway, our children will be able to choose their own path, we'll make sure of it."
She lets the pouty face drop and closes her eyes. "That's all I want."
With the white trees, clear water, reflections of the light, and beautiful flowers, it's like we are in a holy garden or something. The care the plants receive is so meticulous that they could be paintings by themselves. There's a skill called [Artistic Arrangement] that I think is responsible for this. It's like the Japanese art of flower arrangement.
The fragrances actually remind me of the sweets and cakes that I've eaten before. They are strong enough to stimulate your senses, but not enough to overwhelm them or make you get sick of it too soon.
Ciel eventually sits up so she can see better. After some light rib poking, she sits on my lap so I can hug her from behind. She might be squishy, but she's a little heavy.
Gih.
If you ever tell her that I thought that, I swear that I will use [Spirit Magic] to hurt you.
Gihihih.
With the bard and the driver not looking at us, I'm allowed a little bit of fondling over the thin fabric of her not-bikini. I wish I had six hands because there's thighs, ass, and boobs to fondle, yet I only have two hands. What a shame.
We eventually ask for the bard to stop a few hours in and silently enjoy the view, entering into a trance-like state. Surprisingly, this is good training for my [Soul Manipulation], allowing me to focus on practicing it with Ciel's chocolate body and the view as good distractions to help test my control.
As lunchtime nears, we eventually end our boat ride and rejoin the other girls. Hana ended up falling asleep, but she practiced her MP training quite a lot; Roxanne taught Klein the technique, who swore to never teach anyone what she learned, even her parents; Lina looks a lot less gloomy while Alissa looks even more refreshed and latches onto my arm, still feeling the glowing happiness from yesterday's adventure; Aoi is adjusting the finishing touches of her [Fly] and mixing it with her own dragon-way of manipulating air for flight; and finally, Gify is Gify.
Gih!
We buy our lunch from the street stalls and eat the skewers as we walk along the busy streets of the Bazaar. We eat a variety of things: from meat skewers, to sweets, like honeyed not-apples, to even skewers of spicy preserved foods paired with cheeses to break up their strong flavors.
We stop in front of a shop that displays Snow Weave nightwear along with live spiders and mantises in cages.
"Uh... this is creepy," I say and the girls nod, except for Lina.
"The bugs are how they make Snow Weave," she says.
"Ooh... Oh! Ew..." I go through a variety of emotions as I learn this new fact.
"So, this is an original store for Snow Weave?" Alissa asks with a wide smile.
"Yes."
Alissa immediately hands me Aoi and Gify, then she pushes all the girls inside the shop.
I could go in too, but I prefer to be surprised later.
"Shouldn't I go, inside, too?" Aoi asks.
The image of Aoi wearing stockings is definitely not sexy.
"Maybe not yet, one day we will figure out clothing for you," I say with an apologetic smile.
"Promise?" She asks in a soft voice. Her eyes suddenly turn round and cute.
"Promise."
Did Alissa teach her that?
The girls come back giggling and we continue our shopping spree.
We eventually pass by a few armorsmiths, so we end up commissioning a full set of armor for Hana with the metal that we acquired.
"'Boobplate' or 'plainplate'?" The burly human smith asks.
"Boob," Hana immediately answers.
He pulls out a few measuring tools that he gives to his young female assistant so she can measure Hana's bust. Then he shows Hana drawings of the designs he can make.
The young girl looks a little miffed at the perfect balloons that Hana has.
The man stares a little while at the bent pieces of metal we gave him to reforge, but accepts them nonetheless. Taking the equipment of the dead is a common occurrence, but knowing what you are holding actually came from a dead person can still be a little chilling.
We find a leather worker who can patch up mine and Alissa's armored trousers. Melted leather is annoying to deal with since the worker will have to cut out a patch and replace the mangled leather and burnt padding.
"Nasty stuff. Lucky you that this padding only burnt and didn't fuse with your leg," the leather worker says.
"Dragon scales and [Blessing Magic] made it much less severe than it could have been."
"Aye."
The word he said was different, but the system still translated it into "aye."
Then we buy more burning oil and Klein visibly shudders when she sees the flasks.
"I would rather never use [Fire Magic] again, but I know that I'll have to get over it," she says.
Roxanne touches her neck and swallows heavily.
Finally, we find some thread and needles that Lina can use to stitch Ted and Suzy back into shape. But I still have to find a way to strengthen their bodies.
Dusk comes, so we go back to the inn and have our bath. Klein is getting frisky, but I'm still a little sore, so she accepts waiting a little while until I'm ready to break her.
After that, we make our way to the Blurred Wheel. A very large inn with very loud music. The architecture is plain, but there are a lot of actual plants used as decoration. I recognize one as being the same golden wheat-like plants found in the Shore of Leaves.
"They are all plants that can be turned into alcohol," Lina says and Hana nods.
Right, it's a theme.
In a corner, thankfully far from most of the loud music, I recognize Julien, Laertes, and the other soldiers and mages from the caravan.
"Yo!" A brown haired man beside Julien waves for us.
"Let's split up a bit," Hana says with a fearsome smile.
They start to make room for all of us to sit together, but Hana seats us in a spread out pattern. Ciel is put beside Julien; Lina is put between the two female elven mages, which are strikingly similar looking; Roxanne is put beside the joker man next to Julien; Hana sits between two of the burliest soldiers; Klein sits beside a soldier who's near Laertes; Alissa is thankfully allowed to sit beside me, a little far away from Laertes.
Is she trying to kill me with jealousy? I'm going to make her asshole bleed if that's her plan...
Might do it anyway just for fun...
"Klein, are your parents coming?" Julien asks in his usual soft voice.
"Nope. Rande is also too tired to drink today and Osaria is..." Her eyes drift over to me.
"Well taken care of, but also too tired to party," I say with a grin.
The men chuckle and holler while the women massage their temples with strained expressions. My girls look half amused, half embarrassed.
Julien clangs his empty ceramic mug at the table and stands up. "Before we start with the debauchery, it's time for us to remind ourselves of our comrades we lost," he says in a gentle tone.
We all stand up and hold a fist over our heart.
"Marcus!" Yells one of the soldiers.
"Hera!" Yells another of the soldiers.
"Thassos!" Yells a third.
"Felicia!" Goes a fourth.
"Vadik!" Exclaims a fifth.
"Orquideo!" And sixth.
"Abava!" Then a seventh.
"Avallach!" A female elven mage nearly chokes on her words.
"Jafari!" The ninth finishes while a tear runs down his cheek.
Julien continues, "The nobles lost most of their men, but I don't really know their names. So we shall thump our chest five times, one for each of the dead."
"Hah!"
"Hah!"
"Hah!"
"Hah!"
"Hah!"
Everyone slams their empty mug on the table and sits down again.
An odd mourning tradition.
"Angel of the alcohol! We need you!" The joker yells to the barmaid.
The elven woman gives him only a small smile, but that's enough to melt his heart.
She starts taking our orders and I request a weak drink.
"You don't drink, Wolf?" Julien asks
"If I get too drunk, things might get dangerous," I answer and smile a little nervously.
"I can believe that. Seeing how fast you summoned that beast of an elemental, you could have just plopped it on top of the fucker's head and killed him instantly!" The joker chimes in.
"Didn't his dragon do something like that and squash a mage?" a soldier asks.
"I saw something, but it was too fast," says another soldier.
"It's a spell we taught her, like [Double Strike], but instead it makes her body bigger," I come up with an excuse.
"Fucking awesome! If that chubby pisser knew that, he would tear his pointy ears off!" The joker exclaims.
"It's so good to see impotent rage like that. If he knew we had an actual Agent of the Tribunal traveling with us, he would become a literal pisser, of himself, that is," a soldier says and the others chuckle.
"Let's thank Lord Ricardo for being an actually good Lord. From what I heard from Rande, he's not pushing back against Rande's demands for compensation," Julien says.
"If he wasn't that good, then the Tribunal would have bankrupted him a long time ago," Lina surprisingly joins in and then slightly reddens as the focus of everyone's gazes lands on her.
Yes, shine! Shine, my beautiful little flower! But shine on my lap...! I want to hug you so much...
"Most of the Lords are fine, it's the pissers of the nobles trying to grab to some power that are the problem," the female elven mage beside Lina says.
"Except for Crown Lord Mavel," the mage on the other side of Lina says.
"Well... thanks to him having bad aim on his pissing, we get this job!" The joker raises his empty mug but quickly clangs it back on the table. "But also thanks to him, bloody pissers made our lives hell for a short while."
Lina's Trivia: bloody pissers means someone who pisses blood, which is likely to be an undead person and the Wicked by extension. Undead pissing blood is a myth, though.
"I hope that attack was enough to make Lord Confiel hunt down the Dawn of Fart," says one of the burly soldiers.
"If he doesn't, then we will, once we become nobles," Hana says with a fearsome smile.
"Oh shit! Are you serious?" The joker asks.
"We are. We'll stay in the High Forest for a while, but after we become nobility, we will hunt down all those who hurt us," I say.
"Rah! Fuck yes! Go get 'em Helios!" A burly soldier yells and slams his mug on the table.
"Go get 'em!" The others repeat.
The drinks come and we finally start killing our livers. Then conversations split and I try to overhear things.
Hana is the usual barbarian: bragging about strength, telling tales of fights, comparing wounds, and just trash-talking each other. Considering how much stronger she is than the other two burly soldiers, she gets ahead in the game quite easily.
Ciel is giving me shivers. Julien is a sweet talker and very subtle with the way he talks, making me unsure if he's actually flirting or just being respectful. I can't even complain about Ciel, she's being perfectly faithful and innocent in her conversation.
Roxanne found a match in banter and instantly hit it off with the joker. The ginger cheery man seems completely harmless, which makes my spidey senses tingle even harder.
Klein talks casually with the men and women. Already familiar with them, she drinks freely and laughs heartily at their jokes. Laertes shyly participates and they seem to somewhat reconcile a bit.
Lina is a little awkward between the two elven beauties. They have little in common, but have taken an interest in her background and how her life as a slave is. The gem in her leather necklace is very visible, and her story might sound tragic at the beginning but it melts the hearts of the beauties.
Suddenly, Alissa picks up my wrist and pulls down the strip of cloth tied to it. "See this one? A dragonkin cut his shield hand off because he tried to create a shield with [Vine Weapon], but the bandit had an emellanat sword!" She tells the story excitedly.
The two elven beauties slowly shift their interest to hearing my story, much to the relief of Lina and the delight of Alissa.
She runs her hand along my cheek. "This scar might look charming, but you should see the ones on his chest!"
"Men and their scars," says one of the elven beauties with an amused sigh.
"Charming, yes, I know," the other says with a wistful sigh.
Alissa starts unbuttoning my shirt to show off the scars.
"Are you interested in them?" I ask Alissa through [Bind].
"Oh, yes. Elven women are incredible and these two are sisters. If we get them both it will be incredible!"
Oh boy.
Alissa's pimping slows down a little as she notices an orange werefox man looking at us. His colors perfectly match Alissa's, which means he might be from her tribe.
I take a good look at his eyes and see only interest, not lewdness, though I know I'm not infallible.
"Oh, the light side is my favorite," I overhear Julien say.
"It is, it gives such a perfect and holy feeling. I'm still feeling fluttered from the experience," Ciel says with a giggle.
"I would love to go there again one day, but I don't really have anyone to go with," Julien continues with a slight cringe.
"I'm sure a man like you could find an interested partner for a romantic boat ride," Ciel says with a disbelieving pout.
His rogue-ish looks with a small stubble and his soft voice are certainly enviable... for other men, because I feel no envy, nope, not a single bit of envy.
"Yeah, but..." He awkwardly agrees with her. "Not one of those people would be special. I miss that connection."
"Oh... I see what you mean." Ciel props up her breasts and then suddenly stops, realizing what she's doing. "I-it's hard to find someone worthy of a connection when so many are only attracted to your l-looks." She blushes a little and Julien awkwardly smiles.
NGHHH! Stop being so cute and awkward around him! That awkward face is mine! All mine!
My stupid inner rant is interrupted as Alissa's and the werefox's stare at each other intensifies.
"I'll go talk to him," Alissa says.
"Sure, I'll watch you," I say. "From the inside too."
She responds by sending a warm feeling of happiness through the bond.
Without Alissa to pimp me up, Lina turns the attention back to herself to save me from my not very effective flirting. I'm too distracted by watching the girls to properly flirt with the elven beauties.
The werefox man is also handsome, which just makes me even more annoyed. I'm not used to having so many sausages around my women, it's too unnerving. Even though I know I need to get better, it won't happen so easily.
Alissa takes a seat beside him and he flashes her a dashing smile.
Seriously! I'm not usually that jealous of Alissa since I trust her so much, but the fact that he's also an orange werefox is making me so uncomfortable!
"Have we met? You seem familiar," Alissa starts the conversation.
You are even starting with a reverse-cheap-flirt.
"I think we have. You are the Chief's daughter that was selected to become a Blood Slave, right?" The man asks, his voice is a little hoarse, instantly reducing his charm by a lot and decreasing the stress in my heart.
"Wow, yes, precisely." Alissa nods repeatedly and her cute ears flop around.
"If I remember well, we hunted some caravan raiders together," the man says and wistfully looks into the distance.
"Oh... wait, were you a mount for a Sharpshooter?"
"Yes."
Alissa smiles wide and her tail sways a little. "I remembered your presence. What a coincidence that we meet again."
"Yeah, what a coincidence." He smiles wryly.
Alissa glances at his mug and sees that he tilted it, exposing a piece of paper below.
"I only came here for a quick drink. It was nice seeing you well, young Tracker, but I must take my leave," the man says and gets up, leaving his nearly empty mug behind.
"Oh, okay, bye..." Alissa says absentmindedly, surprised by the suddenness.
She watches him leave and then immediately turns around. In barely a second, she swipes the piece of paper and discreetly takes a look at it.
"Léonne and Vanea are watching. Both of the Crown Lords have noticed Helios. If you decide to participate, go for the eastern Lord."
"Stay safe, my little Nocturna."
Holy, shit.
Hall of Fame of Patrons
The patrons who support Rupegia shall have their names sung by the bards for they deserve the glory and honor. Their names are:
Oracle Maximillian Hübner.
Prince Bradly.
Lord Andrew Meyers.
Lord Hope.
Lord Samuel Lim.
Lord Cody Weigel.
Lord Bill.
Lord Novgarod.
Lord DJ.
Lord Ashadun.
Lord D4rk Sheep.
Lord Michale Erwin.
Noble Salty Panda.
Noble Cidant.