Arthorias Pendragon stared at them skeptically. "I do hope you know what you're doing,"
"We do," Lotte affirmed.
'We don't,' Damian mouthed.
Arthorias' eyes scanned the board and he pulled a paper off from it. From his angle, a few feet away from Arthorias, he could make out something about sightings of a dragon. He frowned since he hadn't heard anything about a dragon in the day he'd been here.
"I wish you a great deal" he smiled calmly trailing off as he walked away in the direction he came from.
"He wishes us luck right?" Damian felt the sudden need to check.
"Because if he wishes me bad luck and I can't go home we're going to have a few problems,"
Lotte shrugged, "it's a common thing people are taught to say. Implied to mean good luck or health or fortune... But you know, some people have gotten cynical over the years... With all the discord over the selections from the other Guardian mages like me, and the deaths that happened. It's kinda hard to wish anyone but yourself luck."
Damian frowned. "That's kinda vague," he commented.
He turned to his left and didn't see Nico. He did a double take, sure Nico was right behind him.
"Where's Nico?"
"Huh?" Lotte looked up from fidgeting with her wand. True to Damian's concern Nico was certainly not standing there next to them.
"Probably went to investigate the Arthorias Pendragon guy. He seemed weird.
No one else is up at this hour," Lotte remarked.
"Lotte. We're up at this hour," Damian enunciated.
He frowned and thought over his options, it was early. Going back to someone else's house after they said you could stay technically wasn't breaking in, was it?
He remembered his rather bleak meeting with Morgan and thought of something..
"Morgan outed Nico so he admitted he is half fae. If Morgan wasn't lying about the stuff before does that mean that like storybook Fae I say his full name and he appears?" He asked curiously. Lotte was going to answer but was thrown off guard by Damian seemingly asking the Sword of Destiny for this information.
He did mention it could talk, but was the sword telling the truth?
Lotte frowned "He admitted that yes but didn't say what the other half was. For your safety, I don't think you should do that -"
"Nico if I have to call you by your full government name to find you--!" Damian warned.
"What's wrong?" Nico asked. He looked tired compared to how alert he seemed to have been before he slipped off.
"You people need to stop disappearing on me! Or wear bells! Last time I stopped paying attention to one of you, I went looking for Lotte and got in this situation!" Damian complained.
"You were worried about me?" Nico asked surprised.
"Of course! Why wouldn't I worry about people close to me?" Damian responded.
"In the future if I'm present and you have to leave at least leave me a notice? I'd like to not lose my head looking for you and then discover it's nothing serious," Damian remarked.
"And I don't have to name names," he coughed. Lotte gave him an 'unladylike' glare. Stunned, Nico fell oddly quiet.
"Sure, as you wish Damian," Nico agreed after getting over his shock.
"No promises," Lotte commented instead.
"Well, may as well get ready for this evening," Damian lamented. Nico looked confused.
"Possibly Last meal and a shower, and if you don't mind, I won't be cooking any meals today either," Damian responded seeing his friend's bewildered expression.
"Dramatic much?" Lotte deadpanned.
"If you need me you know where to find me," he waved off walking back to Nico's place.
❃❃❃❃❃❃❃❃❃❃❃❃⍟❃❃❃❃❃❃❃❃❃❃❃
'Nice cold water.. how easy it was to just be here made it hard to remember I wasn't in my own home. I hope there's no concerning thing like limited water supply. Might be bad if I used too much in my shower. Probably should have asked about it before getting in,'
He sat on the floor absently and crossed his legs so he sat indian style. The sword remained in its place in the wooden chair partially covered yet again by his jacket.
"I shouldn't just let Lotte assign me to something that suits her. But on the other hand if I get money Nico won't have to keep paying for my food and maybe I could get enough of it to..." He hesitated, unsure what he wanted to do. Somehow paying someone to just let him go home after he got stranded there seemed unfair but he wasn't sure how else to convince people he wasn't going to abruptly make their lives awful.
"If they send me back home, I'll never be a threat to them. I can't do anything if I'm not here, right?" Damian asked out loud in a hopeful tone.
「"They'll never let you leave,"」 the Sword of Destiny added sinisterly. Damian looked in its direction; wet hair hitting him in the face.
"If you can talk why won't you admit why you picked me out of all the denizens of this place?" He asked tartly and straightened his posture.
「"I picked you because you are the closest one to my previous wielder." 」
"Oh now you tell me?" Damian deadpanned.
"Hey are you actually talking or does that fog you emit cause hallucinations?"
「"Would you like me to show you?"」 The sword asked.
"Nevermind I don't need to know. If I'm hallucinating that's not a bad way to... Actually I don't like the idea that I'm going to die after just getting here. I still have the makeup of my last year of high school to finish, and my future culinary arts classes in college. I'm not dying to fill some kingdom's quota for scapegoats." He decided.
「"Then don't."」 The sword responded and Damian's eyes widened at the simple response.
"..Don't what?" Damian asked feeling a little stupid.
「"Don't settle for death,"」 the sword commented.
"Don't settle for death? That's your big advice?" He asked. Then sighed "I did sort of ask I guess. Anything else that's complicated you plan on sharing with me?"
The sword was glowing vibrant red.
「"If you're going to join a demon hunting company, you'd best pay attention to your friends. They could be in danger. Most demon hunters aren't known for their ability to differentiate,"」 the sword commented cynically.
'Surely Lotte would know this right?' he blinked, a twinge of doubt forming from Lotte making a reckless decision.
"You've been really noisy since I accidentally triggered that Wrath's Poison attack of yours." Damian observed.
"Well, You were noisy before but then it was tolerable. Ignorable." He muttered cynically.
'Now it seems I have to talk back, like some kind of cause and effect' he continued, the rest of his opinion staying internal thoughts.
「"Listen to me, boy! I can make your problems disappear!"」 The Sword's glow intensified and the flame of the nearby oil lamp turned blue. It shattered the glass and he grimaced.
"Bicker all you want but at the end of the day I'm only going to use that in emergencies," he jabbed a finger at the sword. "If I can master using it at all," he muttered. 'Ugh what a headache....so early in the day. What fun'.
"Damian if you're talking to yourself hoping to plead insanity it's not going to work!" Lotte interrupted, opening the door a little and coming face to face with stark naked Nico. Nico to his credit only shrieked half as loudly as Lotte anticipated, due to growing up with her and being used to her lack of a concept of privacy.
"Gah!?" He cried grabbing the towel closest to him. Nico appeared in the ajar door as well and had the decency to be embarrassed and looked away. "Sorry! I heard shouting" he apologized.
"Guys when I said you know where to find me I meant that figuratively!" Damian flustered.
"Put on your clothes already!" Lotte barked.
❃❃❃❃❃❃❃❃❃❃❃❃⍟❃❃❃❃❃❃❃❃❃❃❃
Damian's breakfast at Winika Tavern wasn't like he expected. Aside from the much louder than acceptable laughter it was more peaceful. On his plate, per his order was a soft loaf cooked with cinnamon and brown sugar, decorated with various sized strawberries and raspberries. Aptly not called French toast and instead "Bær sødet brød" and he only understood the translation with help from Lotte and Nico. The loaf had been cut so when picked up with a fork it was in manageable bite sized cubes. Lotte enjoyed a dish that looked similar to waffles but something told him that's not quite what the name translated to in what he understood to be English. Nico however had a grilled cheese sandwich with the initials of the tavern in cheese on top.
Damian's meal vaguely reminded him of the food he'd made for breakfast the day before and wondered how stale it was. Truly he should have just sat down and ate it. Nothing worse than lost food.
"Do you think they're encircling the dancer again?" Nico asked referring to the gathering crowd around someone who may have been a server.
Damian looked up as he adjusted his sleeves, courtesy of his shower he was wearing different clothes. Unlike his black school uniform before, he now donned some borrowed old armor from Nico's '..father'; and Nico used the title loosely. He'd been given a white shirt and a dark silver breastplate, the left shoulder guard had been damaged so it was still in Nico's room.
The sleeves were also a little too wide in his opinion. But he figured it was normal wear considering the amount of male customers wearing such shirts in the Tavern.
"What is she doing that's so interesting?" Lotte grumbled. Damian glowered in the direction of the crowd taunting and whooping.
"You're not old enough," Nico said stealing
After noticing her sulking expression he amended his statement and added "mentally".
"I don't know but the attention it's getting is irritating, we can't hear ourselves think, and I'll bet she's overwhelmed by the people" he snapped.
"We?" Nico asked surprised. Damian didn't hear him.
"Alright guys settle down and eat what you paid for, give her some breathing room" Damian broke up the crowd with surprisingly few protests. Now he could see what she looked like. She wore a typical dark reddish brown maid dress with a white frill decorated apron, which he figured was her time appropriate attire given how early it was. Her blue-violet eyes, alabaster skin and mane raven curls made the dress stand out like a vivid rose, though the actual faint rose design likely helped her stand out given the others he saw had no designs on them. Come to think of it her had tiny black roses among the curls.
"Hey, I get that entertaining them is literally your job and everything, but it shouldn't be like this," Damian commented. He offered a hand and she accepted it, letting him help her up.
"Um what's your name?" He blanked, sure he could ask a better question than that.
"Margothe," she smiled politely. Huh. He supposed everyone's fascination with her made sense, she was beautiful when she smiled.