Chapter 17 - The Party Grows

They reach the city quickly and make it to the guild hall. Entering it together everyone is in awe at seeing auch powerful adventurers like Centorea and Kijo.

Kijo with her barbarian like armor. Her large Kanabo bat. Her huge physique and powerful build. Not to mention her 1ft long pair of horns on hwe forehesd with her crimson skin and silver hair all painted quite the intimidating oicture for most people.

And Centorea with her full plate armor on. Her tower shield in her left hand. And her large jousting lance attached to her horse half, gleaming in the daylight. Her prescence commandes respect and awe. Not to mention with her helmet off and currently under her right arm her dark caramel skin went beautifully with her dark purple hair painting a picture of beauty for all to admire. 

Everyone was wondering why they were here before Seth and Rin walkes in behind the duo of A ranks.

Everyone in the guild was praying that Seth wouldn't offend the pair of powerful adventurers with his weak looking form. Only to have them all spit take or have their jaws drop when the Oni and Centuaress stepped aside for Seth and Rin to walk past them by walking from between them.

No one wanted to believe the newly apponted C rank goblin and thw dungeon lord who was stuck as a C ranker actually knew the duo of A rankers. But it wa confirmed when they approached the registration counter togehter and Seth said.

"The beautiful pair of ladies with us would like to register for our oarty please."

Felicias mind was almost broken at this news from a pair of A rankers joining a party with a pair of C rankers. The next piece of news did break her mind.

Kijo and Centorea each hugged one of Seths arms to their chest as they bent down a bit to be at his height and said together, "And we would like to join miss Rin the goblina as registered fiances to this handsome man here please!"

THUD

Felicia was seen behind the counter now foaming at the mouth from disbelief and from shock. Many adventurers who were admiring the twin beauties fell to the ground in the same state of shock and foaming mouths as Felicia.

The group of 4 lovers look over the counter at the foam mouthed and unconscious Felicia before they look at each other, "Maaaaybe should have broken that... less abruptly to her."

The three women all nod before looking back at Felicia again to check on her. While she is brought to a back room for recovery, another receptionist, this time a male werewolf, came up and went, "Okay... with that taken care of. What are you REALLY here for?"

Kijo and Centorea bristle a bit before they reiterate what they are here for, "WE! Are here to join Rin and Seth! As both Party members! And Fiances! Now get the paperwork if you don't mind!"

The werewolf gulps and grabs the documents needed while avoiding emptying his bowels at the oppressive aura of the two A rankers. He may be a former B ranker but against this pair of beautiful women... he would be crushed, maimed, mauled, then drawn and quartered. Probably with a look of satisfaction on their faces after wards.

He gathers the documents and then hands their their receipts, before asking for a party name. Seth looks to the girls as they all smile cheerfully and look back at him with equal parts happiness and teasing. Seth sweat drops as he thinks back to possible reasons why they are so eager to name their team before he thinks back to their childhood. His eyes go wide as he remembers when they all played with all of their friends in a group as children. He hides his face in embarrassment as Rin, Centorea, and Kijo all say at the same time, "Our team name will be the Dungeon Rangers!"

Seth falls to his knees from the cringe of his childhood naming sense and cries to the heavens, "WHY!?"

So their team name is made, with quite a bit of snickering from the receptionists side, and they head off to Seth's home to check their stats and to see how Seth is shaping up despite his curse. When Seth shows them the growing mansion Kijo and Centorea are in awe as this mansion type would be at least 8 to 10 gold pieces.  Seth blushes as Rin begins to guide them around the place explaining what they had for facilities and where the rooms were.

Centorea was more than happy to grab a room on the bottom floor with the door near her to protect the home and everyone inside. Seth promised to visit her often to see how she was doing and to make sure she wasn't feeling lonely or abandoned. Centorea blushed as she promised she would be ready and waiting for him whenever he came by. Seth chuckles then gives her a kiss on the cheek then on her ear. She flutters her equine like ears and blushes as she asks, "Where did you learn how to tease centaur females? The ear kiss is usually only known by our race and is reserved for betrothed couples!" 

Seth grins at her before explaining, "I read a few books in the city about marriage, courtship, and relationship rituals and patterns used by various races. I could only find them on Centaur, Tiger, Wolf, Oni, and Orc tribes though. Not many other races besides human, elf, and dwarf are well known. But, I now know how to tease you, show affection to you, and how we should go about a marriage ceremony now. But only when we are both ready. After all we need to catch up now."

Centorea has a tear filled face full of happiness at how far Seth went to prepare for her and the others.  She gives him a happy nod and return kiss to his cheek and ear before giving him a quick peck on the lips. She heads to her room preparing it for herself and for whenever Seth came by to visit her. Seth, unknowing to her inner plans, gets a notification from his curse. He shrugs and goes to check on Rin and Kijo next, promising to himself that he will check on the notification later.

Kijo became the next door neighbor to Seth's master bedroom.  Seth comes to check on her room and sees she is furnishing it with some basics from a storage ring she has. Her reinforced hammock for sleeping, her weapon rack, armor rack, wardrobe closet, some cabinets for storing other items, and an in room water pool that is always steaming.

Seth whistles at the set up making Kijo snap out of her focus on putting away form items in the cabinets. She blushes and slams the doors shut and with a flustered face she turns to see Seth there and goes, "Oh! hey Seth! Didn't hear you there! I was busy... decorating and organizing! As you can see! Hehe~ I'm rambling aren't I?"

Seth chuckles lightly at that at her being a talker when she is nervous but he finds it endearing. He quickly joins her in placing another armor rack up for her metal armor version of her barbarian armor she wore in the dungeon. He looks at her as he helps her, "That is still a cute side to you though Kijo. And something that I like about you very much. I hope you never break that habit as it is adorable."

Kijo turns even deeper red than her crimson skin is already. She stutters out, "W-well, th-thank you, b-but I am a fe-ferocious oni! I shouldn't be s-so flustered so ea-easily!" She goes brighter red as she realized she is still flustered. Seth smiles at her gently and grabs hr hands. She gasps then looks up to his eyes full of sincerity and kindness.

He explains how he feels, "Kijo, I agreed to your and Centoreas proposals as a young man. Because of who you are. Not because of your strength, or your race. You are you. And I care deeply for who you are. Never change who you are as I like you very much as you are right now."

Kijo tears up happily as she fearfully asks, "Even though I am so strong now and so tall and muscly? So unfeminine?" Seth looks across her body slowly and methodically, making Kijo self aware and even more shy than before as he takes his time to even feel down her hands to her arms and shoulders. Before she gasps as he uses that chance to draw her into an embrace. He whispers into her ear making her shiver as he says, "You are beautiful. Your muscles simply enhance your tallness, your crimson skin, and your shining eyes still so full of kindness and care for us that you showed as a child. To me, you are a dazzling ruby with the strength and endurance to match any gem."

Kijo happily nuzzles into Seth's shoulder at that admittance, and she hugs him for a good few minutes letting out happy tears. Seth simply holds her while also petting and running his hands through her long silver hair and down her powerful back. Even sneaking in a few small massage movements down those powerful muscles here and there as he comforts her.

Then he remembers one thing you can do for an oni fiance that makes them super happy. He pulls back a bit as Kijo's tears are drying up and makes her confused as he looks into her eyes. He then leans in and kisses both her cheeks. She smiles at the sweetness, before blushing hard as he does the rest of the practice for Oni lovers to comfort one another and show care and affection. He places 2 kisses on each of her horns, one on the base and one on the tip. And given how sensitive they are she shivers from that as she remembers how her parents would do such things as a quick way of saying I love you or I care for you. She blushes hard as Seth helps her up and places her on her hammock before giving her one more goodbye kiss on the lips as he says, "I'm going to check on Rin now. I'll see you in a bit Kijo!"

Kijo sits there in a daze as Seth leaves before she falls back into her hammock and flails her legs while gripping her pillow so strongly that it almost bursts. She squeals into the poor pillow and gasps out in how much she cares for him. She even makes a mental promise to herself, 'That does it. If he loves me like that so much! I will show him how much he means to me as well! be ready Seth! I will be the one to raise the most children with you once we are married!'

Let it be known that in Oni culture the more kids you have with your mate, and can raise to adulthood successfully while still providing for the family well, the higher your standing among other Oni's. Kijo was aiming for at least 6. Seth was feeling a chill up his back as he receives two more notifications. He shrugs once again but he is planning to check these quickly piling up notices once he is in his room again. he heads to Rin's room just a bit further down the hall.

Rin had grabbed her gear she left in Seth's room and move to the other room beside Seth's room. She made sure to make plans to place more beds inside to have her sisters join her in that room.

After all goblin women were a community and the sisters always enjoyed having each other close. In their tribe similar aged girls would sleep in large communal tents to be ready to help each other or to protect each other if monsters made it into the tent. She had the same mentality here. But she was blushing at how her sisters had probably leveled up better than her or even evolved. She had some work to do to catch up to them.

She hears movement behind her and turns to see who entered. There was Seth coming in to ask if she needed any help with the room set up. She nodded gratefully then directed him where to place some cabinets and the wardrobes. She had a simple weapon rack and armor rack in there as well. When Seth asked her about the empty spaces she asked about grabbing two more beds for her sisters. Seth nodded and headed to storage where he put spare beds of various sizes. He carried two more up and placed them in the designated spots by Rin.

She smiled at him and thanked him but with a slight shameful tone to her voice.

Seth noticed and sat down next to her on her bed and asked, "What's wrong Rin?"

Rin looks up at Seth then at her status tab where her tier one race and class were practically glaring at her. She tears up before hugging Seth close and making him hug her back as she cried into his chest.

She blubbers out how she felt so weak in that test against the B ranker, how she couldn't protect him in the B ranked dungeon, how she wasn't able to to grow as much as the others during their 6 years and how weak she is actually is compared to their friends. Seth listens to it all and calmly lets her get it off her chest.

Once she was done Seth removed her from his chest slowly and gently, but continued to hold her close. He saw her tear stained face and kissed each of her eyes and along her cheeks to clear the tear stains. She blushes a bit as Seth then let's her know his thoughts, "I figured you had been busy with other things. So I didn't blame you for your low level or tiers of class or race. I knew you had something else you were busy with. So tell me. What made it so you couldn't evolved or class upgrade at all during these last 6 years?"

Rin blushes at that question before she goes to answer with honesty in her eyes, "I was helping out in an orphanage for 4 years. I was there to protect them, to help guide them, give them training and education. And I was also getting childcare experience, nanny experience, and house keeping experience with large families. I wanted to be prepared for the future family we would build with the others. And while I did become a master at taking care of kids, houses, and protecting the land. I accidentally got too caught up with it and neglected my actual adventurer training. So I stayed at level 42 for those 4 years before bursting my way up to 70 when I met you again. I'm sorry."

Seth smiles at her as he remembers her obsession with large families and how much she wants at least 3 kids like with her sisters all being siblings. She wanted such a large family with everyone sharing the responsibility to aid in the care of their children. Seth didn't blame her, in fact he couldn't. She did this from a place of love and preparation for the future.

He simply smiled at his little future mother of their children and picked her up into his lap in a bridal carry. She blushed as she looks into Seth's eyes. She sees nothing but care and understanding in them, "Then don't worry. With you around we now have some good skills and experience to call upon when it comes to managing our kids together with everyone. And we will be able to build a strong family as well with you knowing how to handle different kids, genders, ages, races and caring for them. I can't and won't blame you for your lack of training. Instead focus on grabbing the training you need now! We are all here to help you grow and become a powerful member of this family. Okay? So don't feel like you let us down when there is nothing to let down in the first place."

Rin smiles with some small tears coming out and hugs Seth close once again.

Once again he hears another notification before brushes it off as Rin is more important right now.

Seth also remembers one more thing, "Also, Rin?"

Rin simply answers with a, "Mhm?"

Seth whispers in her ear, "Please don't be ready to sacrifice yourself. We would have retreated against those crabs together. I would rather we all survive as a family okay? Promise me we will work to always live together instead of die together?"

Rin stiffens up for being called out but then nods with a small loving smile on her face. Seth smiles back and is satisfied that while brief, he knew Rin would uphold that promise to him.

He stays in her room holding her close until she falls asleep in his arms and he leaves her napping on her bed in happiness.

He leaves with a smile before grabbing his practice gear and heading to the practice room to see what his new limits are.