"How are you, master?" Marry looked like a happy cat should.
"Great!" Jin answered lazily.
It was already evening when they got up. Not that Jin was a monster in bed, but because he fell asleep after half an hour of intercourse. The nervousness took a toll on him after all and the moment he relaxed – his mind just slipped off.
"I am much better now, at least nothing burdens my heart." He smiled dreamingly.
"It's about time I join my friends now. They are going for an adventure soon, after all."
"He stood up, his naked body lit up by the evening sun and the light in the adjoining room. To be honest – there was not much to look at, in any case, he was tall for this world, being 180 cm tall, in appearance he weighed about 50 kilograms. His skinny body, which didn't have an ounce of visible fat, didn't look healthy at all. Despite his emaciated appearance, he had a certain charm. Jin had long, strong fingers, and his back was straight, even though he was an otaku-he trained like a kid of a swordsman's family. He looked a little childish, but there was still a sharp edge to his movements.
"In half an hour the water will be ready, master." Marry was a bit ashamed, she forgot to warm the water.
"Oh, I thought that the water is warmed with magic. It's a bit astonishing how lighting and temperature are so intricate, but water is still warmed by normal means." He half-muttered the later sentence.
"The king believes that there should not be excess loss of magic energy, you see" Marry blushed a bit.
"It's not cost-effective to keep the water hot all the time." She said with confidence.
"I think, it's more about troubles with infrastructure – nearly half of the castle should be rebuild or redesigned for new technologies to have a place in it. The water itself could be warmed by the same system that warms the castle, the water pipes system is the problem so." He was about to surf the web for a solution when he remembered where he was.
"Wait, does my phone work" He muttered, going for the chest with his items.
"Thank god it works!" He turned on the screen but then paused.
"The battery charge is close to zero, there is no network obviously, and I regret not having any relevant data on the disk. God how hard I wish there would be basics on electronic design, blacksmithing, and so on. Guess I don't have that kind of goldfinger." While he was muttering something incomprehensible, Marry was stunned, thinking foreigners did some of his magic.
"Is that a magic tool from your world?" She asked longingly.
"Kind of." He answered halfheartedly.
"Hey come here, have a look at my precious collection!" He laughed while showing her a screen.
"B-but are they, not cats?"
"Yes! Cats rule the world! What can be more precious than cats?" He lampooned.
"Are cats sentient and rule your world?" Marry had a thousand thoughts in her head.
"Are they akin dragons in our world?" She continued.
"So there are dragons in this world, how fascinating! Nope, silly, cats are the most beautiful and cute creatures in our world and cute is God!" He nearly had tears from laugher. Finally, Marry got what he was talking about.
"So it's your precious collection of something you are fond of, master?"
"Exactly!"
"Then you are going to love it here too, if you are not against demi-humans, that is." She said mysteriously smiling.
"You really mean it?" Jin froze for a second.
"Sorry, master?"
"There are cat-women in this world?" He didn't dare to believe, his voice trembling from pent up excitement.
"You guessed right, master!" Marry laughed happily.
"So heavens are just after all!" He laughed happily too. Then the screen went off with a low battery melody.
"Sorry, had no time to show you everything, no more charge in my magic tool," He said with a tingle of sadness.
"Let's head for a bath, Marry" He tried to change a topic.
"It will be ready in five minutes, so we can go now, master!"
"How come, I thought you said it will be twenty?"
"See those hanging ropes? Each one has a meaning. The first one – means you need a servant, second – you want to eat, third – you want to have a bath" Marry explained.
"I was going to tell it when I showed you the room yesterday, but there was no need cause I.." she paused blushing.
"Nice! Let's go then!" Jin got up and started to dress.
He placed his phone back into the chest and then remembered having some kind of notification yesterday.
"Status," He said inside his head.
Name: Jin Kurogane
Race: Dark Human/D
Class: Black Swordfiend (Locked)/ Footman
Title: The dark gods' joke. The exile. The stubborn. The oddball. The maniac.
Level:
Str: 5
Con: 5
Agi: 5
Int: 5
Wis: 5
Skills:
Self-harm lvl 0
Art of love lvl 0
"Marry does every action has a corresponding skill name?"
"Yes, master" She answered while getting dressed up.
"Guess I'm not that good at sex then." He mumbled, silently, but Marry still blushed a bit while facing him with her back.
"Would it not be inconvenient having too many skills? How can you look at them once you need them?" He asked then.
"You can group the skills up. For example, you have ten skills, you can group them manually, or let the system group them by skill type, then you can fold the groups for convenience's sake. If any skill levels up – it will temporarily be shown outside the grouping." Marry explained, feeling lucky the topic of a certain art was not discussed in depth.
"I'm ready to show you the way, master!" She didn't let Jin wait for long.
Nearly an hour later they joined the feast. Jin was the only otherworlder who was relaxed and didn't look tired.
"Andrew, Shana, Asuka! I'm so glad you are having fun!" He tried to joke.
"Ha. Ha. Ha! I know we look awful, you can stop pulling my leg!" Andrew laughed readily.
"I wonder if it was the right choice not to follow you back then! Honestly, I can't eat anymore!" He was tired but very excited.
"Look here! It's some kind of magic lamb, that is some magic chicken, everything around us I magical and highly nourishing! And when I say nourishing, it means you get stuffed just by some tiny bits of this food, but they keep putting more on my plate and pour more wine in my cup, I really can't keep up!" Andrew was looking happy and drunk.
"I wonder, hic, if the fight with demon lord is as hard, hic, as this banquet? We are going to be, hic, stuffed too, hic!" Asuka was tipsy and couldn't get rid of hiccups.
"Tell us what were you doing for so long? Oh, let me guess! You were abusing your servant's hospitality?" Shana was blushing and it was not known was it wine or her guessing game.
"S-something like that" Jin tried to act manly.
"I went for a barracks, there was a lot to learn!" He tried to change the topic.
"Sure, barracks, first-timers need a lot to learn, you are right!" Andrew laughed loudly making everyone else blush.
"But do tell us, if you really learned something nice." He continued more seriously. Then Jin told them everything he learned about statuses and how to use the menu.
Few minutes have passed, the sound of music started drifting across the castle. Andrew palled, followed by Shana and Asuka.
"Not again, please!" They sighed in unison.
"I can't drink or eat anymore, this king wants us dead for sure! It's the twentieth time he raises a toast." They looked even more tired now.
"Let's raise the toast to our new company of heroes! Our hope in the coming war and our light of prosperity! Everyone drink to the bottom!" The King emptied his big charka, which was at least twice as big as the party had.
"Now turn the charkas bottom up! I want to see your sincerity!" Leonard laughed loudly.
"It was hard on you, guys" Jin had pains looking at poor fellows now.
"Tomorrow morning our heroes are going separate ways for a long time! That means they should remember this night with smiles on their faces!" the King continued.
"Drink! Drink! Drink!" Everyone in the ballroom shouted happily.
"God, is there any dwarfish blood in his Majesty's bloodline?" Jin laughed jokingly.
"Ekhm, one of the ancestors of Blackwood clan was a High Dwarf, master" Marry answered a bit surprised.
"Can you knock it off please, Jin! Stop acting like you know everything at least here, I know you just did a blind guess!" Shana laughed.
"You bet I did, milady!" Jin felt more confident and it showed.
"Care for a dance, milord?" Asuka was fast on upkeep.
"How can I decline?" Jin set his elbow down so Asuka could take it.
"But I don't know what dance they dance here" Asuka was shocked he agreed.
"Isn't it easy? Let's dance what we can dance? How about a waltz? Rhythm is about right anyway" A cup of vine added to his confidence.
"Sure!" She laughed merrily.
At first, no one focused on the strange pair in the middle of the dance floor, but soon everyone was shocked by the strange but graceful dance the otherworlders did. After the music paused the pair finally noticed the attention and stopped laughing, looking around. Then they stopped the dance too.
"That was gorgeous! That's what I'm talking about! Please have as much fun as you can! Believe me, you will need these good memories in the future." Leonard was happy and a bit sad.
The feast lasted the whole night. When the first rays of sun touched the windows the King stood up again.
"We know it sounds abrupt and a little bit rushed, but believe me, We try to do everything as slow as We can. The feast is over, but don't be sad. We don't want you to bid farewell to everyone, so the road to power you are going to take will start now!" With his last words, several servants came in with boxes of different sizes.
"Andrew you are the shield of our kingdom, so we grant you with magic sword and shield! Asuka, you the healing grace, so we were going to grant you a healing staff, but hearing you want something heavier we also present you the holy hammer of my ancestor Dranduil Blackwoods! Shana, you are the sword of our country, here's the fire magician set for an archmage! Jin," The king paused uncomfortably
"You are wise so here is the training book previous heroes left for the heroes to come!" It was just a copy of manuals packed up in the book cover, but Jin didn't know it and thought It was much more precious than all the other gifts.
"The presents are on a heavy side, so they will be kept with your special servants until you can use them," Leonard answered the unspoken question.
"Have a nice trip, heroes! Your items are already in the carriages. Don't say goodbye!" After the King finished everyone trio hugged each other and followed the servants that were assigned to them.
Everyone was led to the carriage for a corresponding academy. All but Jin, he just went for his room and nearly fell on the bed without taking his closes off.