A tired, spiteful grumble escaped Miiha's throat as she made her way over to the tall guild doors, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes sourly. Her expression soured even further as she glanced outside the windows of the building, the streets dark with a light blue tint, the sun having not yet risen yet.
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"Stupid clients aren't even awake yet." She muttered hatefully. "Guildmaster's probably not even awake yet! Who would?"
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Expletives streamed out of her mouth as she opened the heavy padlock on the door, giving the thing a good kick as she tossed it to the side, next to a broken glass. Yawning as she proceeded to pull the doors open, she was not at all prepared when her eyes opened and were met with two small, red ones, staring directly into her own.
"WAh!" She yelped.
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As her sleep-riddled head began to process the sight in front of her, Aisha made her way past the stunned woman, taking a contract off the wall and walking to the desk.
And upon realizing that there was nobody at the desk, she proceeded to walk up to Miiha, holding the paper in front of her expectantly, as she wordlessly stared at the clerk.
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Miiha blinked, still sleepy, and processing the sight.
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"Can I take this one?" Aisha asked.
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The clerk's eyes lowered slowly, to the brown paper in the little fey's hands, before a scowl materialized onto her face, the clerk both in a bad mood and bewildered, and because of that, Aisha's actions made her immensely angry. She ripped the paper out of the short woman's hands, paying no mind to the scraps that were left in Aisha's mitts and stormed over to her desk, processing the contract in a sloppy fashion that would have gotten her a reprimand, had anyone else been in the guild.
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A few moments passed, and before long, she returned to Aisha, slapping the contract back into her hands with the same violence that had removed the paper from them. She didn't even bother watching as Aisha shuffled out of the hall, piece of paper in hand - Miiha didn't know if Aisha knew something about the contract that she didn't, or if she was literally going to be back in the next 20 minutes, but she didn't care, her mood fouled.
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Ten minutes later, Aisha returned sheepishly and sat down at a table, taking the opportunity to rest her own head, whilst ignoring the laser beams that Miiha were attempting to drill into the back of her head with her eyes.
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A while passed, and as the sun rose, Miiha's mood gave way to a boredom, the sunbeams rising doing little to hold her attention. It was part of why she absolutely hated waking up this early - there was nothing to do. Or well, there usually wasn't something to do.
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Walking over to Aisha's table and taking a seat across from her, Miiha took the time to inspect the little fey, trying to guess whether or not she was sleeping. Unfortunately for her, though, her skills weren't quite up to the task, although she did manage to get a good look at Aisha's cute, and yet, at the same time, handsome, features.
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She was suddenly struck with the intense urge to pet the fluffy.
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"Not the ears." Aisha murmured.
Miiha blushed and retracted her hand. What was she doing! She just looked so.. Huggable. She shook her head, walking over to her counter. If anybody had saw her…
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After about an hour, Fenix trudged into the guild hall. He had a living space upstairs, but he never used it, preferring instead to live with his wife.
He looked sourly at Aisha as he took his seat in that dusty corner, leaning his chessboard on one of the legs.
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It was another two hours before another person came in. It was a red-haired, young looking man with a chiseled face. He wore colorful blue and red clothing under a leather breastplate. The plate on his neck was gold, the roman numerals II engraved on the surface.
He took a glance at Aisha, but paid her no mind, locking onto the contract board, walking over to it and taking a long look at all the contracts. He finally took a silver contract and placed it on the counter. Miiha smiled and placed her hand on the paper, her hand glowing blue.
"So, who's the girl?" He asked, jabbing his thumb in Aisha's direction.
"She's a new adventurer." Miiha explained. "She arrived yesterday evening."
"Hm… I don't feel any magic from her. Must be a skilled mage. Weird robes. Looks pretty muscular, though."
Miiha thought about correcting him, but decided that the information was personal. The contract stopped glowing, and she handed it back to the man, who walked up to Aisha.
"Is she asleep?" He asked.
"Yes." Came Aisha's muffled voice. The man let out a laugh, an annoying sound that echoed through the empty guild hall.
"Hey! My name's Calen! It's nice to meet you… uh..."
He trailed off, motioning Aisha to give her name. She stayed silent. Calen laughed again.
"Strong and silent! I like it! Let's meet again! My partymates are going to be here soon. Maybe you'll like them better than me!"
He walked out of the hall, bumping into three other people. There was a massive, gruff looking man, dressed in heavy plated armor, a woman dressed in a short shirt and a large hat, and a timid looking girl in a white dress, entering the guild in a group.
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"What did you get, Calen?" Asked the small girl.
"I got another wolf contract!" replied Calen.
"Do you do that just to screw with Elza?" Asked the big man.
"Aw, you know It's not like that!"
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The woman with the hat put her hands on her hips, looking cross.
"It kind of feels like that when you run ahead of all of us and grab contracts for fast monsters before we can tell you not to."
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Calen did not respond and walked out of the hall, laughing. The hat woman sighed, the small girl gave a weak smile, and the large man just looked at him. They walked up to the contract board, taking glances at Aisha, who hurriedly gave her contract to Miiha, who finished the signing process, and walked out, avoiding any conversation with Calen's party.
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Aisha looked down at the contract she had taken. It read [Need help Gathering Herbs] in big red letters, with a map of the town, and a red dot with the name Mihal scribbled on it. It was much, much better than the system that Nashen used...
She glanced backwards, in the direction where it would have been… The buildings here were much less solid and black, instead being various shades of tan and blue, with rough building edges. After she had left, she had just kept walking along a main road… until she had found the small little town. What was it called again? Drayen?
She banished thoughts of her old town as she arrived at the destination. It was a building, with a gray nameplate with [Apothecary] written on it.
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Aisha stepped into the large, flat, grassy field outside of town. She looked at the drawing that the old lady had given her. She was looking for a purple flower.
She had told her to just gather as much as she could find…
She squinted at the vast expanse of plain in front of her. She could not even see anything on the horizon. It was going to be a long day.
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Aisha bent down to pick the flower when her gloved hand felt something sticky. She glanced down, as a red, gooey mass began to form out of the ground. Slime bubbled out, until eventually a blob the size of a dog formed. She looked at the slime. It had two black dots for eyes, and a hole in the center, about the size of a coin.. It was kind of cute.
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The slime opened its mouth, spewing out flames about a meter in front of it. Aisha, taken by surprise, jumped out of the way, but the right side of her body was caught in the cone of fire. She beat her flaming clothes out, and kicked the slime with her boot, sending slime everywhere. The remains of the slime began to melt and return to the ground, but slime covered Aisha's pants and abdomen.
She balled her hands in frustration. She was injured pretty bad, and just from some… low level monster. Even the children at her village had been able to easily take them out with a single blast of magic.
Her neck, cheek and shoulder stung throughout the rest of the day, reminding her of her pathetic-ness. More slimes showed up, but Aisha angrily stomped on them, killing them, before they could cast any of their spells.
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Miiha moved her pawn forward, her head resting on her cheek. It was really boring in the guild halls during the afternoon. Everybody had gotten their jobs, but had not completed them, so there was not even paperwork to do. All there was left to do was play chess with Fenix, who also had nothing to do.
She heard light footfalls and turned to see Aisha, the right side of her body red and raw. Fenix also turned to see the burned girl.
"Ha! Look at you! Probably ran into a garden variety slime, am I right?" Fenix shouted at Aisha.
Miiha slapped Fenix's arm, getting up, the chess game forgotten. She was losing, anyways. Fenix was too good at chess. She looked at her, concerned.
"Hey! You're burned! Are you ok?"
"That's a really stupid question to ask."
"W-well, I guess. Let me heal you!'
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Aisha opened her mouth to tell her to fuck herself, but the motion stung her mouth and face. She got flashbacks to the last 2 girls that had asked to heal her… God, she was getting Deja Vu. What was with these stubborn girls that really wanted to heal her?
Miiha rubbed her hands together and put them on Aisha's burnt shoulder, glowing white.
"Sorry, my magic isn't very powerful, so I'm going to have to touch you for a while…" She blushed.
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Aisha noticed, and also noticed that her touch lingered for a bit too long, and she kept squeezing and caressing her muscles. It wasn't really behavior she was unfamiliar with, but combined with her weird, insistent behavior…
Miiha rubbed her hands over Aisha's squishy and slightly burnt cheeks, smooshing them adorably. She giggled.
"Why are you doing this?" Aisha demanded.
"Doing what? Healing you?"
"Why do you types enjoy touching and healing me so much?"
"Because you're so cute!"
"..."
Cute? She thought that term was supposed to only apply to animals… Like the slime that had burned her. Her eyes narrowed.
"Do you think I'm an animal?"
"W-what? No! I swear, I'm not one of those... demi-hume haters."
"Then why do you call me cute?"
"Well, it's… um, its a term for… It's hard to explain. It's just a word to describe something you want to... hold and protect."
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That sounded a lot like pity… she had been so angry before at the thought, but she had learned in that year training with Xelos, that pride was only something that could be afforded to the strong. And she had been burned by a fucking slime.
She had to take what she could get, and she would take whatever this "cuteness" would extract from these foolish women, the same way her weakness had let her take advantage of that old fool.
Meanwhile, Miiha was having a great time touching and feeling Aisha's body. Such a strong body, compacted into such a small and cute frame… She was done healing her, so she wrapped her arms around her, leaning her head on top of Aisha's. She could vaguely hear the sounds of someone coming in, but they could wait...
Aisha grumbled, but hugs felt good. That was one thing that she wouldn't give up. Mila also had a nice and squishy body, so...
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She sighed and got up. Later. She walked over to the contract board and picked out another brown dot. The last brown on the board.
"How do I rank up?"
"Um, you rank up by doing contracts of your division. For bronze and silver, it's one contract per rank. The tag should update it instantly."
Aisha took out her dingy little plate. The engraving was II now.
"What about for the other ranks? Aisha asked.
"Gold and platinum need two contracts per rank. Sapphire and above are three per rank."
"...Seems kind of low."
"Well, the contracts get longer."
Aisha returned to the table where Miiha was sitting. She held out the little paper.
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"Wait! Can I have that?"
Aisha turned to see a brown haired boy, who looked about 15 cycles old. He put his hands together and kneeled down.
"Please... I need these contracts to feed my family. My mother is very sick…"
Aisha rolled her eyes, tuning him out.
"Go do a silver contract." She said, glancing at the glint of silver in the boy's hand.
"I can't do the silver contracts!"
"Sure you can."
"I don't have any training with a sword, or any spells… These are all I can do! Please… can't you have a little compassion..."
"For what."
"For someone who was born weak and poor…" He said, weakly.
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What a joke. She handed the paper to Miiha, who looked at the boy with a apologetic look, but nonetheless she marked the contract for Aisha. Fenix, staring at them from his corner, shook his head and went back to his mug of cheap beer.
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Miiha waited until Aisha had left the hall to turn to the boy, who looked depressed, hunched over on his knees. He lifted his face to address Miiha.
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"Why… what am I going to tell mom… Why is she like that??"
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Miiha smiled at the boy.
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"You were just talking to the wrong woman. She can't use magic."
"What? Like she can't use any spells?"
"She can't even sign the contracts. She doesn't have a drop of mana."
"Then why didn't she understand? Why would she tell me to do the silver contracts? Is she telling me that I should go die?"
"I think… she intends to do the contracts herself. It's just a guess."
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The boy was silent. He left without a word.
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Aisha squinted at the little piece of paper that she had taken. She could tell why it was the last one that anybody had took. It was literally unreadable. There was a location, but she could not make out a name, or even what the text at the top of the contract said. If she didn't know better, she would have thought that it was in a different language.
She heard the sound of dirt crunching behind her, and turned to see the boy from the guild, who was breathing heavily. She stopped
"What do you want."
"I came… *wheeze* to tell you I'm sorry."
"..."
"Miiha… *gasp" told me. About y-"
"Save it. I don't care about that."
"What do you mean? You were… born without magic!"
"That doesn't matter now."
"What? Of course it does! You're never going to be able to become a mage, or a master artisan, or a sapphire-"
"I used to think that too. But I can choose to either do nothing, or just try."
"But you'll die."
"So be it."
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Ugh. She was starting to sound like… him. Aisha continued walking to her next contract. After this, it was only 3 more until silver rank.
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Aisha returned to see the dark streets illuminated with floating light magicite, and a closed guild hall. She knocked on the door anyways. Surprisingly, it opened a crack, Miiha's face peering out.
"Oh! I knew you would be coming back soon! Here, give me the contract. You're the last one for the day."
She took the paper from Aisha and closed the door again. She sat at a random table and began to record the contract, her hand glowing blue, when…
"THUNK."
(What was that? It sounded like it came from above me.)
She left the contract on the table, and went back outside, looking for the source of the noise.. She looked left and right down the street, but Aisha wasn't there. She could vaguely hear the sound of tiles...
"Aisha?" She called out to the empty street.
"What." Came a voice from the ceiling.
Miiha ran away from the building to the other side of the street, and looked at the top of the guild hall. It was Aisha, sitting on the peak of the roof, her book and sword balancing precariously on the tiled surface.
"What are you doing there!"
"..."
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…Wait.
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"Is that how you get here so quickly in the morning?? Do you sleep on the roof???"
"...Yes."
"Get down from there!"
"Why?"
"I'm… pretty sure that's against the law!"
"The roofs hide me from the curfew sweepers."
"Go rent a room in an inn or something!"
"The roof is free."
"Didn't you win a ton of gold from Fenix?"
"Yes."
Aisha turned her back to Miiha, laying down in a very uncomfortable looking position. Miiha sighed, exasperated. She thought about going up there from the ladder upstairs and removing her, but… she didn't want to just kick the girl onto the streets.
"Just go get a room!"
"Meh."
"Isn't it uncomfortable up there?"
"I've done worse."
Miiha knew she should just let the girl be… but... it was so cold outside… and…
"Come sleep with me in the guild!" She shouted.
The girl was really stubborn, and she expected a lot of resistan-
"Ok!"
Aisha picked up her book and sword, sliding down the tile of the roof and jumping onto the ground, kicking up dust.
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Miiha shifted uncomfortably, staring at the undressing girl in front of her. She hadn't really thought this through. For one, her room only had a bed, a trunk, and a desk. And the bed wasn't very large. Also, she had given an adventurer favorable treatment... She glanced at the cute fey girl, who had gotten under the covers, pulling them up to her nose. The only thing visible were her fluffy ears, her cute little nose, and dark red eyes.
(She's so cute...)
Embarrassed, she began to undress herself.
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Aisha took a look at the blonde guild girl. She was quite shapely and fit, and quite curvy, but Aisha couldn't help but compare her to her buxom and tall and cuddly mistress…
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She shook her head. She… she was gone now. And she wouldn't be back for a while. She had to take her mind off of her, to focus on becoming someone who was worth her affection.
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Miiha tentatively lifted up the covers, and Aisha wrapped her hands around her waist, pulling her into the bed and laying her head on her tummy. She nuzzled her cheek into the soft and squishy body, and wrapped her legs around Miiha's, attempting to extract as much warmth as possible.
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(It's not so bad, I guess...)