We remain silent for several long minutes, waiting for even a wisp of a spirit to appear, but we don't sense anything.
Yunia swallows an Eia pill and takes a step closer to the urn while Ciel also starts to pray to help Alissa.
After a few more minutes, Alissa's concentration falters as she begins to tire from praying so fervently.
I give Alissa five points in [Spirit Magic], then Yunia, Alissa, and I cast [Spirit Eyes] and [Spirit Link].
Link is a curious spell as it allows the caster to speak telepathically with spirits and sense their emotions, which is very useful for communicating with lost, or decaying spirits, or evil spirits, though that last one is a very unpleasant experience.
Necromancers and other Wicked people who want to trap spirits use someone's body as a path to find the spirit and pull it out of Paradise. While cremating someone and spreading their ashes prevents this, Gurrier's ashes are all gathered here in one place, so there's a slim chance that the path to his spirit is still intact.
"Wolfy… you have to be very careful with what you're thinking about doing right now," Ciel cautions me with a very serious tone.
"I just want to signal to him that we're here," I explain myself and walk up to the urn.
Alissa's heart is torn. She's fearful of what I want to do, but she can't bring herself to stop me.
Ciel sighs tiredly, then comes up behind me and hugs my back. "I find it extraordinarily difficult to stop you from trying out these crazy ideas, but I'll at least stick close to you so that you don't do something you shouldn't," she assures me with a rather motherly tone.
"Yeah, she's definitely our mother," Hana mutters offhandedly.
"I really love how you're always so supportive of us," I confess to Ciel and kiss her hand lovingly, making her smile brightly.
"There's still some Life in the urn," Yunia points out, giving us a sliver of hope.
"Gih," Gify agrees, and I get an idea.
I give Alissa five more points in [Spirit Magic] so that she can cast [Spirit Touch], then I sternly state, "I need everyone to work together for this plan." And I give them all a look.
"Gih!" Gify chirps boldly, and Yunia nods, then Alissa steels herself.
This will be a four-man job. Gify will gather all the wisps of Gurrier's spirit into a single spot, Yunia will guide us towards the Life, I'll assume control of Alissa to use [Spirit Touch] through her, and the VIP herself will continue praying to call for Gurrier's attention.
Once we're all ready, operation Ghost Call immediately begins.
Gify pops out of existence, and with [Spirit Link], I feel her presence moving around the urn and spreading herself wide, like a tentacle monster collecting girls to-… my imagination is a bit wild right now.
Anyway, the wisps of Gurrier's spirit are like water, and they're resisting Gify's touch, wanting to go back to their former positions and remain undisturbed.
Yunia stares intensely at the urn, providing me with the exact location where all the wisps are being gathered, a small dot that seems to be about the size of a needle's head.
I take control of Alissa's spirit hand and cautiously approach the wisps, trying not to disturb them too much, which would make it much harder for Gify to keep a hold of them.
Alissa closes her eyes and prays with all her heart, then Ciel pats her head and helps her calm down so that her voice can be more clearly heard by the Goddess of Piety.
The spirit hand comes closer to them, and the wisps start trembling in Gify's grasp.
Yunia's view of the Life blurs as it refuses to interact with Gify.
The spirit hand enters the urn, and even Gify feels like backing off from it since, for a spirit, the spell feels like chains approaching her neck.
The wisps tremble out of control, like magnets repelling each other, and they start to escape Gify's tentacles.
"Please…" Alissa whispers earnestly, and the wisps suddenly stop for a second.
I take the chance and close the spirit hand around the wisps, then I let Alissa hold it there by herself.
Ciel grabs Alissa's shoulder, her watchful presence preventing Alissa from pulling the spirit hand back out of the urn, no matter how much she wishes to see Gurrier.
The wisps are so small that they start to escape Alissa's grip like droplets of water slipping through her fingers.
Ciel grips Alissa's shoulder harder so that she doesn't grip the wisps too hard, and Alissa slowly exhales, forcing herself to calm down, then the last of the wisps escape her grasp.
"Please…" She whispers again, then we hear a tired sigh in our minds.
Alissa opens her empty spiritual hand, and I cast [Materialize], then an old male voice grumbles, echoing throughout the large, empty room, "I was having a wonderful nap in the sun, you know?"
Alissa whimpers weakly and sniffles, then she looks up and grins at the wrinkly old fox staring back at her with knitted eyebrows, his hands together behind his back in a dignified posture. He has a very stern face, but his shoulder-length white hair and short beard give him a very refined look, and I'm sure he must have sported a fine salt and pepper daddy style beard when he was younger.
"Gurrier…" She whispers, but I sense the word "raisin" echoing in her mind, and she hurriedly locks down her inner thoughts.
"Alissa…" Gurrier quietly replies, then his eyes scan over each of us. "And your new family."
Gify pops back onto my shoulder and lets out a low chirp.
Then Alissa chuckles girlishly. "Yes, my family. I'm sorry for interrupting your rest, but I wanted you to meet them. I wanted you to see what you helped me achieve." Then she takes a step back and lays her hand over my chest.
His frown softens, and his thin lips curl slightly upwards in a very subtle smile. "Ah, the Ryders. We've heard a lot about all of you," he starts with a husky, amused tone. "Your parents will never admit this, but they commissioned portraits of all of you," -he gives each of us another glance, lingering a little longer on the silent golems behind us- "and they weren't that far from reality."
Alissa sighs tiredly and rests her head on my shoulder. "How far did they go to spy on us?!" She grumbles in frustration.
"Every single piece of information that could be bought, was bought," he amusedly continues, his smile slowly growing wider. "Every time some news about you arrived, your father would tell everyone about it, and of course, he didn't allow me to forget anything."
Alissa cringes, and her pointy ears go flat. "Yeah, that sounds like Dad…"
He turns his gaze to me, and it seems surprisingly kind, in contrast to Alissa's memories of him. "At first, they hated you, Wolf."
"I wonder why," I mumble with a wry smile.
He nods slowly. "An unknown, meek child that seemed to be either low-level or simply unskilled in anything…"
"Ouch," I whine.
He snorts. "Yes, even I was suspicious, but I had my faith in Ghulam. Blood Slave merchants have an eye for good people, and there were enough peculiarities that it warranted us staying our judgment for a while longer."
Alissa crosses her arms and nods energetically. "Hmph, but of course! Since the very first moment I met Wolfy, I knew he was special!" She grunts and agrees matter-of-factly.
Gurrier's smile becomes slightly mischievous. "You should've seen Jacques' overwhelming pride when the news of your successful hunt of the Oodogloo came in."
"Wow, you remember that," I remark with a chuckle.
Gurrier annoyedly replies, "Of course I do. Alissa's father didn't allow me to forget anything."
Alissa's smile becomes stiff, trying not to cringe at her dad's overenthusiasm.
"How doting, he didn't come off like that during our first meeting," Yunia remarks with a raised eyebrow.
"Léonne reigned that in, but you can't change his nature," Gurrier explains, and Alissa nods begrudgingly. "It was after the Symbol of Hate that their opinion of you changed. They instantly noticed how your…" -He flashes a cheeky smile- "'Good Luck' was extraordinary."
"Considering how nobody died, I knew there was something special about him," Alissa affirms and gives me a loving look.
"Same," Roxanne shyly chimes in. That's when she fell in love with me, so just remembering that event makes her become a bit meek.
Gurrier casually continues, "And once Miss Hanafuria joined in, we stopped worrying about your safety since she had already proven herself in the past to have enough skill to act as the anchor of your party."
"You got that right!" Hana exclaims proudly and smacks her bouncy chest. "I've kept everyone safe!"
He chuckles gently and adds, "Indeed. And with someone of Miss Roxanne's power to kill everything in sight, there was nothing that could easily overwhelm your fellowship."
"Hehehehe," Roxanne giggles like a silly little girl, unused to being praised so highly by strangers.
Then Gurrier looks at each of us with gentle eyes. "A mysterious master, a powerful mage, a reliable protector, a compassionate priestess, a hard-working dwarf, mysterious golems, an actual talking dragon, a noble elf, and even a nature spirit. You did well in gathering these comrades, Alissa."
Gify chirps smugly and puffs up her little chest.
"I wasn't the one who actually gathered them, though…" Alissa shyly admits.
"You're the one with the Blessing from the Goddess of Love. That should count for something, considering you're all… wives," he amusedly replies and gives me a brief, knowing look.
While Alissa's love for me helped me gather these women initially, it changed midway into pure depravity, so she has some trouble accepting that she's the reason that the harem grew so large.
"It's not like you're the only reason that we're together," I throw her a lifebuoy.
And she desperately latches onto it, "Y-yes! Everyone helped! We-we're all together because… we're all equals, a team!" Then she laughs nervously.
Gurrier stares at her blankly, unsure of what to say.
"It's because you've shown us how to love each other, in more ways than one," Ciel graciously saves the mood.
"Hm, yes, an enviable relationship you all have," Gurrier quietly comments.
"It's one of the secrets to our power," Roxanne confesses with a smirk and stifles a chuckle.
Gurrier's fox senses tingle, making him a bit suspicious of our wording, so he points out, "But that was definitely not part of the slave training I gave you."
Alissa smiles smugly, and her tail wags lazily as she replies with a deliberate tone, "Are you sure? You taught me how to reach greatness, but you never told me to do it alone or to aim for it to be only for myself. You had me train the twenty-fifth unit, to nurture their growth, to guide them closer to their dreams, and to their place in the clan."
Gurrier stays quiet for a moment, pondering upon her words. "Hm… I can't disagree with anything you've said," he gently accepts, then his tone grows slightly nostalgic as he recollects, "and it's true, the power of your unity has shown itself in the victories that your fellowship has achieved. The Oodogloo, the Symbol of Hate, the goblin camp extermination, the wyvern attack, the Dragonoid dungeon delve, the Grim Giant, the Corpse Stealer horde, the bandit attack… You've all shown how well you work together," -he suddenly turns serious- "so much so that you even gained the attention of both Crown Lords of the High Forest, whose snooping was detected by Vanea. Due to the stalemate between them, we feared the possibility of you becoming a pawn in their games, but fortunately, elves aren't anywhere near as ruthless as imperials."
"Of course we are. We even pay compensation to the commoners that get unknowingly involved in our matters," Yunia proudly states and points her nose up snobbishly.
His stoic eyes turn to her and calmly give her a brief lashing, "Your race just has the unfortunate habit of letting unfit Lords languish in their position for too long."
Yunia wants to retort, but she can't. The situation with her father had lasted for years, long enough that even the emperor got annoyed.
Alissa feels some pity for Yunia and decides to side with her. "And our race just has the unfortunate habit of being merciless and vengeful," she somberly states.
Gurrier nods in agreement. "All races have their own ways of doing things, which all work with more or less the same results," he sagely states.
"I have some disagreements with that, but I don't feel like having a philosophical discussion right now," I interject with a smirk.
Gurrier chuckles once, and his wrinkles soften again. "Yes, I don't think I have the time for that." His right eye suddenly twitches, and he shows a subtly warped smile. "Hearing Jacques drone on and on about both you and Allura really annoyed me, so I want to get in as many jabs as I can to embarrass him before I truly leave the realm."
"They seem to act differently whenever they're near us, so I really want to hear about that," Alissa shyly admits with a small smile.
And Gurrier nods energetically. "But of course. You two needed to grow fast and aim past the clouds if you were to succeed in your destinies, so they had to keep themselves from spoiling you rotten."
"I think they succeeded," I chime in and give her waist a squeeze.
"That they did," Gurrier agrees, but then his tone turns grim. "How you survived the Dawn of Fire attack impressed us as much as it enraged us, all of us. The brutality of it was astounding, so I allowed your mother to give you some advice."
"We're thankful for that. We were looking for someone with power to rely on, and it came at the right time," Alissa sincerely thanks him.
Gurrier flashes a smile but then continues with the same grim tone, "It also started to dawn on us that your Fate foreshadowed a lot more trouble to come, then Innocent Nymph happened before we could think of doing anything else to help you, and you all immediately went into hiding, so we had access to precious little information since then."
Alissa starts to explain to him what we went through after that. Our dealings with Arreira catch his curiosity, but the fact that we now have a fleet makes him very interested, and we haven't even touched on the topic of my and Aoi's new races yet.
"Warships. You now have warships…" He mutters, his stoic tone showing a hint of wonder.
I nod excitedly and add, "Currently irreplaceable, but we have the means to turn the High Forest into an important source of airships."
He rubs his short beard in thought as he comments, "Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprising, considering how extraordinary you all are, there has always been a lot of information about your fellowship being passed around, but now that you're entering the airship market, every single noble of the Mainland and the Principality will want to know as much as they can about you."
The girls and I share some shy smiles.
"I'm starting to get the feeling that some people are turning into our fans," I suddenly blurt out and chuckle awkwardly.
He lets out a low chuckle. "Oh, Jacques and Allura are definitely fans. Me? An involuntary one."
Alissa facepalms as she questions, "What about Mom?"
His smile starts widening again. "She's not the kind to be dreamy-eyed when listening to your adventures, no. She almost went to personally 'question' the slaver that sold you to Mr. Wolf. She wanted to strangle the poor merchant."
Alissa frowns in thought as she recollects, "Mom said that she had to stop Dad from strangling him."
Gurrier chuckles softly again. "Oh, that she did, so you can imagine how much angrier your father was than her. On the other hand, I had to stop her from threatening the slaver."
I awkwardly scratch my horn as I reflect on everything they already know about us, "It's a bit weird to think about how much was going on without us knowing."
"Assume that everything we know is also known by everyone else," he assures me, becoming serious again.
"Bastico wants to write a book about our lives, so we're a bit past the point of being shy about our adventures," Yunia points out.
Gurrier slowly nods in agreement. "Well said. Now that you've mentioned it, what happened to you, Wolf? You're… less human than I knew you to be."
I smile wryly and show him my claws as I explain, "So, something happened with my body, and the Gods made me into a new race, a weredragon."
He blinks blankly, stunned.
I grin and follow up to complete the combo, "Oh yeah, Aoi now has a status, and also, the Gods did an Intervention to help our credibility when we took our position as Crown Lords."
"Alissa, he's not lying?" He stoically asks her.
Her tail starts wagging happily, and I wrap mine around her waist. "No… these things happened after your death, about two or three months ago." Then her tail goes limp again.
His eyes become softer, and he shows us a pained smile and earnestly apologizes, "Ah… I'm sorry that I couldn't stay alive for longer. I was also pretty surprised when I died."
I have to suppress the impulse to laugh, because what the fuck?! He's legitimately asking us for forgiveness for him dying too soon of natural causes.
"Don't blame yourself for reaching the end of your Thread. You deserve Paradise," Ciel soothes him.
Alissa grumbles annoyedly, then exclaims, "And besides, we're talking right now!"
His smile widens, but it's still a bit pained. "But I won't be able to see your marriage ceremony."
Alissa grumbles again as she opens her [Item Box], then she takes out her ID crystal tablet. "Then at least look at this."
He opens his eyes wide and moans weakly, "Ah… you did it… you really did it." Then he tries to grab the tablet, but it simply slips through his ethereal hands. "Oh…"
Alissa's tone becomes bold, energetic, and even a bit smug as she announces, "I've come back, not as a slave, but as the wife of my husband, and we're all destined to shape the realm with our influence, all because someone like you trained me to be who I am today!"
Gurrier's sad smile fades away, returning him to his usual stoic and professional self. "I understand now, Alissa. I welcome you back home now that your duty as a Blood Slave has been fulfilled, and I wish you luck in the future that the Gods have planned for you."
She takes a step forward and salutes him in the werefox way. "Thank you, Elder Gurrier, for everything."
Gurrier's wrinkled face softens completely, clearing it of the stiff and stoic expression that he usually shows. "Thank you for bringing me back for this," he whispers, his tone growing weak and wavering slightly. "I have nothing left to teach you, but you still have a long way to walk, and a tall mountain to climb, so never stop growing, never stop fighting, because that is something that I know I taught you well."
"I'll never stop!" Alissa exclaims, tears gathering in the corner of her eyes.
Then he sighs, and his posture hunches forward slightly. "I'm tired now. There are many other things that I'd like to talk about, but I've already said everything I needed to. Goodbye, Alissa. May you and your family shine like stars."
"Goodbye, Gurrier. May your time in Paradise be long," she whispers back.
He smiles gently, and the old man's figure slowly blurs and fades away until there's nothing left.
Alissa sheds a few silent tears, and I hug her tight, which becomes the perfect excuse for another group hug.
--
--
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:
Prince PreownedFIN.
Prince Creamy Spinach.
Lord Andrew Meyers.
Lord Samuel Lim.
Lord Bill.
Lord Novgarod.
Lord Michale Erwin.
Lord Bakerdea.
Lord Maurice.
Lord Empyrean.
Lord Mattirro Draca.
Lord Colorblind.
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Lord Sean Drake.
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Lord Mike Bartter.
Lord Cardinal Steiner.
Lord Krawn.
Lord Warwulfv.
Lord Jorge Franco.
Lord Christopher Welsh.
Lord DJ.
Lord Philip.
Lord Tenebris Lupus.
Lord ImportantNPC.
Lord The Tallest Joshua.
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Lord Dracopuppy23.
Lord Freddie.
Lord Cidant.
Lord Stellerbattle.
Lord GoodKat.
Noble Salty Panda.
Noble Mild Fracas.
Noble Aclys.
Noble Shawn Plumley.
Noble CarlBaxter.
Noble Yeuromain.
Noble Brandon Lai.
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