Finally back in Orario, Cypher and I went straight to the warehouse and unloaded my INVENTORY of all useful material. Thankfully I was not on my jet bike. The gate guards wouldn't have understood what I was doing on 'a floating animated corpse of a horse.' Sometimes I hate this medieval level of technology. I mean it took a year, an entire fucking year! For Hermes to come to Zorya and become the patron of the dark elves. The elves from Rati also wanted in on the benefits of such an agreement. Hermes and Asfi dealt with the clusterfuck which was diplomacy.
I wanted nothing to do with the elves anymore. The women were exceedingly gorgeous but there were strings attached. I'd been married in my past life. I'm not going to do that again. You want love get a dog or get chosen by a cat. Don't confuse sex with love they are not the same thing. By the time you realize that, you're too old and your wife is spreading her legs for any guy she likes the look of. I had three kids. And I got them tested. If the fuckers turned out to not be mine, that was grounds for divorce, without alimony. The joys of prenups.
Anyway, the elves were basically throwing themselves at me in order to get either some of my artifacts or knowledge. Fuck you. It's mine. Also if you couldn't repel a simple invasion, you're not exactly competent. You wouldn't need to whore out your top warriors to get my favour.
I left on my jet bike. It looked like a normal sport bike style motorcycle. Just the wheels were replaced with levitation pads and the forward thrust was generated by an enchanted jet. It uses air and mana to propel the bike forward. Like a SCRAMJET engine. The only speed the thing knows is fast. Thankfully it can hover at a high enough altitude above the surface. I had to make the front of the bike larger. To accommodate the instruments and weapons. Yes I gave it a .30 cal machine gun and a grenade/rocket launcher. The weapons are on either side of the bike. And I also gave it small winglets. It helps at higher altitudes.
So after Hermes arrived. I greeted him and the queen. Then immediately got the hell out of there. The journey back was awesome. It only took me two days to come back home. Now I clean this place up. Before beginning construction on my secret base.
I am going to rob Knossos blind.
But first I must feed my lord and saviour Cypher. He was initially reluctant to reluctant to become cat sized so we both could use the jet bike. But once we were underway he was very happy and excited. (A/N Haru from Junskitchen.) I have to reward my boy with the best fish. Later I'll take him to the dungeon so we can get more monster cores. I am running low at this point in time.
*****
The days have gone by. I've gotten myself caught up on the events that happened while I was away. The familia that remained helped with that. The Apollo familia was disbanded. After their residence was unexpectedly blown up. They hade only two members to send into the war game. Hestia familia won that pretty easily.
There was also a clusterfuck with the monsterferia. Some plant monsters attacked the town. Thankfully the damage was mostly around the Ganesha residence. The foundations of my warehouse still need to be rechecked. I have a suspicion that tapping into the dungeon will not be as simple as I previously thought.
I used my time to get caught up and unwind. The more things change the more they stay the same. New faces same situation. It's hard making new contacts. And tracking down your old ones, usually leads to a grave.
My time spent at Griffons Nest was filled with introspection. Growing up I had a desire and drive to become an adventurer and make a name for myself. Be something more than a humble soldier I was in my past life. But now, all my actions, my decisions, and my goals. All are based on the mould of a soldier. The more time I spend in this town, the more I realize I'm not one of them. In a crowd I am all alone.
Everyone else relies on sticks and stones, while I use my guns to handle business in a fraction of the time. My goals are now unclear. What do I really want to accomplish in this life? These questions, I currently don't have the answer to. Perhaps the answer is to simply live? I mean I was pretty well off compared to someone else my age. But what did that matter? Did I change anything by freeing the slaves? By killing the slavers? Hopefully I find the answer to that one day.
Being left alone is a double edged sword. You have the time to get so much done, but you also have a lot of time to reflect. As a young boy it wasn't so bad. Just being given a second chance was more than enough to motivate me and keep pushing forward. Mother dying was a huge blow, I brought up memories and feelings I had long ago suppressed. But I slowly kept moving forward. Now I's not sure what my next move should be.
I heard Cypher purring like a V12, I brought a smile to my face and broke me out of the depressing thoughts. If not for myself, I'll do I for Cypher.
With that I went to bed. Tomorrow is a new day, with the same problems. 'The more things change, the more they stay the same.'
*****A/N*****
Shorter chapter.
Thank you for your support.