Mari wondered how this suspicious man knew Sieg's status, her eyes sharpening as she quickly passed over the facts again. He'd not even gotten close to some kind of information broker or any of the woman who the dickhead had slept with, who would have told him bits and pieces till he could have put it all together like that, but unless he'd contacted a high amount of 'someones' on the only day she'd not been spying on him, there was no way for him to know.
This left the possibilities of this person being a skilled mind mage with extensive practice in word play and that of him being an escaped appraiser from somewhere. Neither ment good things, and she really didn't know what to think of comparing those to him having a network of information that was so detailed over the city's population that he got information on a pretty random B rank adventurer of the twenty in the city.
Looking back at the starting match, she saw her party menber rapidly getting into a stance and charging, the best option to deal with a mage most of the times.
Stone spikes protuded on his way, angled so they'd penetrate his waist if he continued. He was still a B rank however, quickly dashing to the side and thrusting his spear forward so as to launch a martial art. Aki didn't dodge, taking barely any damage because of the pressurized wind projectile and not stopping the barrage of spikes, keeping his opponent at bay. It seemed like it'd be a drawn out fight between their stamina and mana, but suddenly:
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHhhh!" Sieg fainted from pain and shock as his ball sack was cut open.
"Oh my gods what have you done?!" She imediatly ran to his side, no idea how the man had literally jumped so precisely onto the sharpened rock at such speed.
"Oh no, what a terrible accident." Aki said in a monotone as he approached the woman who did not know what to do with the two things fallen over on the ground. He didn't hesitate over what to do and just cut those away before healing the wound and making sure his nether regions worked for everything else.
"Done, he has no physical wounds and that should work. I strongly recommend you and that other girl press the charges of harassment, but otherwise, I have to ask you to step away from my prize." He pointed out, pity prevalent in his tone.
"Why did you do this?" She asked, fear keeping her away from the looting man.
"I don't trust people, so I'm always reading surface thoughts. I know my wife is a beauty and has an attractive posterior, but this guy is specially annoying. It's like he sees women only as toys, and I am honestly happy I am legally allowed to do things this way." He pointed out, knowing full well that mind magic was not against the law exactly because it was too useful.
At worst he'd have a truth seer dispatched from the capital just for him.
"Why would you care about something like that, just turn your magic off!" She complained, irritated at the circumstances more than anything.
"You'd do the same thing had it been your wife." He pointed out. "Besides, I have a mother, aunt, grandmother and sister I love, you think I don't take that kind of behavior to heart?" He capitalized that point by removing the last piece of armor enough so that it could be stored. He was going to take the clothes as well though.
"Isn't that a bit too much?"
"The first thing he thought upon seeing you was ripping your tail off." That made her quiet, staring between both men. She could easily see how that would be true, but she also understood why he would lie.
In this small amount of time, he'd already stripped her team mate and started burning his clothes however.
"We will be in front of a truth teller later anyway, just ask then. Want to come with me to the dungeon? Xera would not mind better company either. I'm not really reading your mind right now, by the way, I'm just ussed to doing this kind of thing." He chuckled, directing himself to the grazing donkey demon so they could go back to moving. The dungeon wasn't very far away from the city, anyway.
"This, shouldn't we take him as well." She pointed out, noticing how he had already started pretending Sieg didn't exist.
"I have no reason to. You just have to choose which is more important to your quest and do as you think best. I will be in those tunnels quite quickly, but it'd be funny if you were able to run back and forth, so do your best as a person. If you do find me and my wife in the second floor you are welcome to come inside." He said, not looking back as the woman disappeared while carrying the thing.
"Your short is rolled up." He pointed out to the sweaty cat kin when she got back. "Water?" He conjured in front of her face, prompting the blonde woman to drink two mouthfuls of the floating orb and then dank her head in it.
"You're an asshole." Said the wet cat while picking her bangs, Aki having thrown the water ball away already. He scanned her over again, blonde hair, cute ears, long tail, a lithe but defined figure, blue eyes with determination and some anger.
"No shit, was it the mind magic or my race that made you figure it out?" He rolled his eyes. Dealing with her was way funnier. Her thoughts very conflicting. If the other guy had even half as much worries he'd have thought him a real treath, but looking for those himself was exactly the way he'd found interesting people.
"A bit of both." She said, before clearing her head and trying to relax against the wagon. While her hands rested by her hips, next to her daggers and knifes.
The time like this passed quickly, the fields route to the being made quick work off.
When close to the dungeon entrance, however...
"If you make such a cute face while concentrating I might just kiss you, you know?" He murmured while close to her ears.
"Nyyaa?! I mean, what?" Asked the awoken cat-kin, her heart beating quite fast for some reason.
"Sorry, but I do find you quite cute, and we are about to enter the dungeon, so i couldn't really resist teasing you. That was just a shot of adrenaline by the way, want me to restore your stamina?" He offered, mild smile on his face. Mind games asside, it was actually quite fun.
"If it is for free..." She said with some uncertainty. He nodded, smiling a bit at her choice of words and slowly reaching for her shoulder, easily capping her, which actually surprised the woman. "Isn't this too fast for life magic?"
"Is it? I'm self taught, so i've no clue." He pointed out, actually surprised since no one else had said anything. He certainly didn't have some kind of class bonus for healing in specific after all.
"I don't normally pry like this, but what the fuck is your anatomy skill?" She asked, a bit worried.
"I've just changed jobs into a healer tipe, so it's now seven, but i've studied plenty of medical knowledge, so it's not like you're thinking, i went to a proper university and all! Though i dropped out quite quickly." He quickly said, imediatly relating high anatomy skills to mad scientists.
"Is, is that so?" She asked, getting various nods.
*****
"You bought a stray cat now? Should i be worried?" Xera asked, as expressionless as ever. Aki still noticed she was holding back what normally came to her as a smile, however.
"Nothing of the like dear, she's just our new guild chaperony. The last one looked too much at your behind, so i got him changed for one that would look at our collective behind." He pointed out, kissing his wife on the side of the lips, making her break a stupid grin for a moment and getting a jab to the side, which he dodged. "Xera, this is Mari, Mari this is Xera. Shaw we descend after i get the ogres on the carriage?" He smiled, not minding the fact he'd be leaving the two women alone to talk behind his back.
They'd have plenty of time in the next days for doing so anyway, and his wife would easily garner more friendly thoughts from the other woman.
And so they did. Killings mobs, training, dancing, singing, eating together, it all made out to be quite fun since Aki had more than a thousand musics easily accessible in his brain.
Talking about nonsensial things, arguing about who had the best moves, butchering songs while half drunk, hearing gossip about the people of the city, it turned out that Mari was a much better company in all aspects. She was also quite fine with Aki's touchy feely personality and thought the green haired woman's scales gorgeous.
"Truly, i just don't get why you are single. You're clearly charismatic enough, pretty enough and you have good taste, i can't really see why you'd go with being a loner if you have a base town already, plenty of adventurers on more uncertain circunstances have fallen in love and lived happy lives already." He pointed out to the woman nursing her cup of strenghtened wine.
"I mean, if it is you guys i guess you'd get it. Truth is, i'm actually in the middle of a celibate." And she kept going, explaining her clan's circunstance and how their goddess prohibited relations of the same sex because of some relatively recent catastrophe that happened in their homeland and turned them into wanderers, and them she'd further gotten thrown out because she'd gotten in a relationship with the baker's daughter so she was sent on a pilgrimage so she could cleanse herself or the like. "Worst is, hic, i actually like man! I have no idea how that girl got me between her legs, hic." She said, now completly drunk as Aki had changed her cup for his wife's flask of holding, which had the appearence of a regular tankard with a fancy handle. "Then i got exiled when it happened again. It's so unfair! I don't even remenber what happened that night, i'd just been drinking with some friends to celebrate my return to the tribe and poof, i wake up in a bed, smelling of sex with her sprawled over my legs..." Aki stopped listening around there, exchanging a look with his wife. He could clearly tell that parts of that story were lies even without magic, and she'd clearly had experience drinking if she'd not passed out after so much alcohol was thrown at her liver.
The occurences of that night made the boss of the fifth floor feel very unconfortable, even though his door was sound proof, the walls weren't. A problem the dungeon would later correct, but not in time for it to avoid it's boss from dying again, the giant very concious over how it'd been when dying.
When Mari finally woke up to her hangover and an empty bed, she noticed that yes, she'd crawled into someone's bed while drunk again, though the amount of destruction around her and the hurt of her crotch and breasts were new. Her clothes and equipment were missing too, which made her panic a bit and power through the headache before noticing that she knew exactly where her things were.
Cautiously walking out of the bedroom of the stone cotage, she smelled some food being prepared and some ink, noticing that Aki was writing something and Xera was preparing breakfast.
"Hey, can i have my clothes back?" She asked, hidding behind the well carved door.
Both looked at her head poking out for a moment, the wife noded, while the husband put the neatly staked fold of clothes by the table and smiled, her brown shorts and yellow shirt perfectly cleaned. She'd been in this kind of situation times enough to know that it ment 'come and get them.' At least they were alone in this part of the dungeon. She didn't miss their eyes eating her up, and she had to admit that she liked it, though that might have been from the excitment of doing something like this while inside of a dungeon.
"I thought we were better friends than this Mari, if you wanted to sleep with us than you just had to ask." Aki pointed out, looking her in the eyes and pouting. Not feeling anymore reservations over skin contact with the woman, Aki just took one of her hands and examined her body. "Are you okay? I can see we were pretty rough." He asked, more serios this time as he soothed her pain. She didn't miss that Xera turned back from what she was doing too.
"I guess it's a bit too late to mention, but i like it rough." She tried to shrugh it off, smilling at the still friendly clouple. Those were rare.
"But should i heal you? I know there's diferent kinds of pain dear. I'm not exactly experienced with women who aren't Xera, you see, so i knew i was definetly being rough, but you have internal bruises and your bust is kind of damaged." He pointed out. Some people liked that kind of thing, and he'd clearly seen that she wasn't lying about her preferences.
"Sorry." Xera said, hugging Mari from behind. She'd not expected other women to be so frail in comparison. Or that she'd be so into it considering the only person she'd previously knew that had this kind of shape had been her mother. The blame was quickly cast on her peverted husband, who'd taught her plenty of strange things by the standards of bassicaly anyone on the planet.
The woman in question, just felt another fire start burning on her. She decided to put it asside for now and just get out of the dungeon.