For the next several weeks I helped my mom redesign the bot. Rosie was extremely bored and tried chewing on some metal scrap. She soon learned that was a bad idea. I ended up having to pull a metal sliver from between her teeth. She was grumpy for the rest of the day. After that I let Rosie know she could wander around the villa if she wanted. From that day on, Rosie could be found near the kitchen, if she wasn't by my side. Maybe I should've tried calling her Little Glutton. I worried that I soon have a plump fox companion. Fortunately, she seemed to keep her streamlined shape regardless of how much she ate. I was kind of jealous of her ability to eat endlessly and not gain weight.
Near the end of winter, in the last month of the year, my mother and I set out for the capital. For aiding her with her bot, I was rewarded to go to the tournament with her. The capital was a roughly 200-mile journey from Market Town. It was situated on the plains about 50 miles from the foot of the mountains. Snowbreak, the town my sister set up shop in, was halfway between Market Town and the foot of the mountains. It marked the point where the mountains weren't snowcapped for the entire year.
The journey seemed to take forever. Even as comfortable as the Seeker family carriages were, the seats were still essentially wooden boards with a decorative cloth cover. My butt was sore and numb within an hour of the time I sat down. I eventually elected to lay out across the length of the bench instead and used Rosie as a fluffy pillow. Rosie grunted in dissatisfaction but settled down to be my pillow with the persuasion of a treat. I made a mental note to fill my ring with pillows, not for my head, I had Rosie for that, but for my rear end instead. I half-expected Nikol to chastise me and say it wasn't ladylike to lay on the bench like that, but I had forgotten who my mother was. She soon mimicked me and laid out on her bench too. She seemed disappointed she didn't have a pillow though. We ended up trading Rosie every few hours. Rosie wondered which deity she had pissed off to deserve this fate.
We stopped in Snowbreak to resupply. Since we were here, we of course visited the Seeker Mercantile to see Vivian's handiwork. It was a shiny brand new building. I could still smell the fresh wood. This building was much smaller than the Market Town warehouse. The building had a road that ran right through the middle. One side of the building was much smaller and held offices, while the other side was the storehouse. The tunnel through the building helped keep carriages out of the elements while loading and unloading and the rafters allowed heavy items to easily be lowered into the carriages. We met Tobias' counterpart, Trevor. Vivian must've been more impressed with Tobias than she let on because I couldn't tell the difference between Trevor and Tobias whether it was their appearance or their manner. I gave Trevor the same warning about forcing Vivian to take breaks when she was at this mercantile. He accepted amicably. Nikol and I bought lots of pillows while we were here. Technically these were already our pillows, but It was easier to just buy them than go through the hassle of marking them off inventory sheets. I stored the pillows in my ring. Then once we were securely inside the carriage, I released all of them. Just as planned, we now had a sea of pillows. The pillows came to just over the height of the benches. We were now much more comfortable and Rosie would hide under all the pillows if we tried to use her as one. We had fun playing hide and seek with her.
The journey to the capital took 20 days. We arrived with only a day to spare until the Spring equinox when the tournament was held. I had originally thought Market Town was massive, but I had to reevaluate that upon seeing the capital Wildsong City.
The wall around the city was two hundred feet tall. It wasn't all wall, either, there were several sections of wall carved out and mounted with an impressive array of cannons and ballistae. I couldn't quite tell what the wall was made of. It sort of looked like the black stone that Market Town was made of, but it had an iridescent sheen to it like it had a coat of oil. I later learned this was the effect of an array. The capital was home to an impressive seven million people, and those were just the natives. Every day an equal amount of people would enter and leave the city.
We joined one of the many long lines entering the dozens of city gates. The lines were neither moving fast nor slow. As we approached Nikol gave me my identity documents. "Never lose these," she said. Great mom, you just jinxed it. I took a look at the document. The top portion was as you would expect: name, date of birth, ID number, and so on. But there was also a folded parchment attached that contained my entire pedigree, all the way back to a man named Georgeoff Sojourner in the 1200s. The name didn't change to Seeker until my grandfather's bloodline was examined after he established a merchant empire out of nothing.
The entry through the gate went smoothly and soon we were unpacking in a fancy hotel. I jumped up onto the banister of the bed and did a belly flop onto the mattress, letting myself sink into it. I think these beds might be even more comfy than the ones we had at home. I asked Nikol, who was also lying first down on her mattress if we could get more information to order some of these mattresses for the villa. She nodded her head and groaned. The journey was just as rough on her as me.
I suspected it before, but after spending several weeks with Nikol, I was now confident that she wasn't nobility before marrying my dad. She had almost none of the manners a lady should, and the few she did have collapsed under strain. It didn't matter to me, but I knew that Eternia was very classist. I was surprised that my dad had been allowed to marry her.
Nikol was too tired, but I still wanted to explore the town, so I left the hotel with Fred as my escort. He grumbled a bit but brightened up when I said it would count as one of the favors he owed me. Rosie was especially happy to roam about after being trapped in a carriage for weeks. She zoomed through the crowds taking in the sights and the smells and getting lots of pets. I had placed a gaudy harness on Rosie so everyone would know she was tame. Rosie was so good-natured though, it was hardly necessary. One man even offered to purchase her, but I politely declined, and when the man started showing ill intention, Fred flared his cultivation base.
This man was hardly a threat, I could've beaten him with my pinky, but it reminded me of the threats that existed in this world. I had Rosie enter the pendent to stop drawing attention. I felt bad, so I bought lots of treats to make up for it. I got lots for myself too. The treats here were a little different than back home and I wanted to sample everything.
Fred and I retreated to the hotel. The man who tried to buy Rosie kept following us so we didn't stay out much longer. Rosie and I spent the evening munching our way through treats as a mountain of wrappers piled up around us, while Nikol continued to sleep.
The next day we went to the tournament venue. I thought it would be in a grand arena, but I forgot one important thing: Battle bots were unpopular. The venue was in some maintenance tunnels to get to the sewers. It didn't smell super bad, but the smell wasn't absent either. I began to wonder if the bad reputation of bad body odor was simply due to the battle bots being forced into the sewers.
Nikol and I watched several matches. They were all amateurs. As soon as Nikol joined, they got wrecked. They seemed to expect this. Vivian only had one opponent here, Andy Igorevich. As both sides approached the ring, I saw our opponent for the first time. It was the same man from yesterday. The man who wanted to buy Rosie. I knew something about him didn't smell right. His bot was a bipedal model with many features. To be honest, it was far above the weight limit set for the tournament, but he had already bribed or threatened all of the judges. I stepped up to the edge of the ring as planned. For this battle, I would be the controller. I didn't waste my previous life on video games for nothing.
The match began. Andy's bot charged across the ring with its mass low. I evasively dodged. It wasn't really necessary. Andy's bot, for all its pizzazz, was really lacking in features to attack enemies that were flat against the ground. The best his bot could do would be to walk on top of ours, which would be entirely ineffective. But it did prepare the scene for my attack. I had just dodged past Andy's bot, so I spun around. The arm that was hidden sprung out like a snake and drove a spike deep into Andy's bot's shoulder. Worse for Andy, this spike was barbed. I controlled the arm to retract, which pulled on the shoulder until the bot's arm was entirely ripped from its socket. Sparks flew. Andy looked at me with a dumbfounded expression.
This match may be a bit unfair. Even if I was given one of the amateur bots, I had an agility of 52 right now. All of these normal people might as well have been moving in slow motion to me. I was limited a tiny bit by the bot's speed, but still, my reactions were far better than Andy could handle. Soon Andy's bot was fully dismantled. From beginning to end he couldn't find a chance to fight back. Andy had a very sour look on his face. He glared at me angrily. I didn't like that look at all.
We accepted our trophy. Contrary to how Andy felt, everyone else cheered. It was a new dawn. The vile reigning champ had been defeated.