Alissa gives me a green signal, something is coming. I feel she is running here in her fox form in full speed, something is wrong. She comes around the corner and her fox mouth opens.
"IT'S HUGE, A HUGE DRAGON IS COMING!" She screams.
"TONNNNN~!". Something unimaginably heavy falls down on the ground and the ground shakes.
"RROOOOOOOOOOOAAA~~!" I feel my bones shake with this roar, it's a huge fucking dragon and it's angry.
Hilde fell on her knees and even her guards are shaking, the other hunters are already running. Aoi crawls up to me and cowers in my arms, shaking. I hear lots of heavy footsteps.
"A SWARM!" Alissa screams again, she's desperate.
I pull Hilde on her feet and push her forward.
"Get the fuck back on your feet and start running! I'll cover your back but I won't die for you!" I yell.
Hilde gets a shock and starts moving after the hunters.
"Roxanne! Map!" I yell.
Roxanne takes her map out and makes sure we don't take a wrong turn. With a swarm on our backs a dead end is a death sentence.
We start running. The ground immediately turns from the beaten path into jagged and uneven rocks, making it hard to move. The paths twist and turn and become smaller. The footsteps that were getting closer start to get lower and lower until we can't hear it anymore. The tunnel reduces in size so much we have to squeeze around it to pass, thank god Hana and Ciel can pass by with their mountains.
We are safe for now but we still have an angry huge fucking dragon after us so nobody stopped for a rest until we reached the exit and a small light could be seen. We all stop on a small room to take a breath, we have to squeeze a little.
"Holy fucking shit boy you were right, I regret everything, hahahah!" Simon says and laughs.
How can you laugh...
"Fuck me, that shit must have hundreds of years of age, why did it never leave its nest until now?" Logan says.
"A few dragons live their entire lives in their nests until they are so old they are near death, then they go die in battle," I answer.
"What, so it's old and weak?" Asks Simon.
"Hell no, that thing is gonna berserk on us until it dies, Rabanara is in danger, these ancient dragons can command wyverns."
"Fuck, so did we bring that monster to Rabanara?" Asks Logan.
"No, it was gonna rampage sooner or later, we just have the good luck to be in its path," says Hilde with a wry smile.
"Good Luck" indeed.
"Normal formation, we will be jogging all day until dusk. Here, [
Swift Foot
]," I cast the spell on Hilde and her assistant. That little girl is quite strong, her face is stern.
"Everybody ready? Let's go!"
Alissa rushes out first and everybody follows.
We are reaching the first trees when Alissa yells in desperation.
"TONNNNN~!" Again something unimaginably heavy falls down on the ground and the ground shakes. We are outside the cave at the entrance of the forest, behind us is a monstrosity. Shiny dark blue scales the size of my head, fangs the size of my body, a head the height of a truck, a body the size of blue whale, two huge horns protruding out of its head, innumerous scars on its body, one huge eye is cloudy white and the other one makes you wonder if there's a universe inside them.
It looks at me and fear fills my mind, it hates me, it knows I'm using the bodies of its kin as armor and weapons but its gaze turns somewhere else. Hilde, she's wearing the same scales as the dragons family, she's a known dragon hunter who's been killing dragons for 2 years, the dragon knows her and it feels immense hatred for her. It didn't even glance at Aoi.
Hilde falls down on the ground and pisses herself.
I feel mana gathering, an amount I never felt before, an amount that gave me the chills of what's about to happen.
Hahah, I fucking hate this world.
"FIRE BREATH, HIDE BEHIND A TREE!" I scream, other voices yell the same.
I have no time to rescue Hilde, I only hope she finds a tree. Unfortunately, she chose the one beside her while I chose the one away from the dragon. Alissa jumps beside me. I summon 2 titanium elementals and tell them to run in front of Hilde's tree.
"FOOOOMMM!", the fire ravages the fire-resistant Sea of Trees, our tree goes in flame and we nearly get burned by the heat intensity. My elementals slowly lose power and melt, Roxanne is panting trying to keep a [
Water Wall
] up.
The fire stops and I look outside, a hellish landscape of fire that only lasts a few seconds, the magic fire burns out quickly and the forest's resistance makes it burn out quicker. The ground is red hot and the trees are almost entirely burnt, only a small spot behind them is still intact.
"Roxanne, water!"
I point towards where Hilde could be and Roxanne sprays a [
Torrent
] in that direction. White smoke rises and mixes with the black, but the way is passable. Ciel uses [
Air Hammer
] and the smoke clears. Hilde is there, hugging Lina, and her guards are curling on the ground.
The dragon notices us and Hilde, I feel its anger coming back, it starts to move forward. I open [
Gate
] to the campsite.
"GET IN NOW! I WILL BRING HILDE BACK!" I scream.
"Wol-..."
"NOW!" I scream again and push Alissa into the black circle along with Aoi, they disappear. I store the coordinates for my current position.
"FOR THE MISTRESS!" Charges one guard.
"FOR HOUSE ROTH!" Charges the other.
WHAT IN THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING. I rush towards Hilde.
The dragon doesn't even slow down and swats the guards who fly away into the distance. The space mages make a distorted face of fear and disappear. The dragon looks at me and lunges towards Hilde. Lina and Hilde aren't hugging anymore but they are close, I can get them both with each hand, as long as I can grab them.
I jump, I cast [
Gate
], the dragon bites.
"Wolf!" Alissa yells.
I take my face out of the dirt, on my right hand I'm holding Lina, on my left hand I'm holding the upper body of Hilde.
Hilde looks at me, her mouth is half-open, her eyes stop moving. From below her armpits her body is missing.
"ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAA...!" The dragon roars again in the distance and I lose my footing, I look away from Hilde and puke.
I failed, I failed, I failed. If I was one second faster, one breath faster, one millisecond faster, one fucking moment faster, I could have saved her.
"AAAAAAA..." Lina screams but Hana covers her mouth.
"The dragon is still there! Quiet!"
The little girl lets out muffled screams and squirms on Hana's body but she doesn't try to break free from her.
Alissa casts [
Clean
] and hugs me.
"The guards!" It dawns on me, "They might still be alive."
I wobble a bit but I manage to stand.
"What!? You wanna go back!?" Alissa chastises, her voice nearly cracks.
"I have a [
Gate
] coordinate there, we can jump and search for them safely if the dragon is not there anymore."
"They must be dead, they are the only ones still there, the dragon would have killed them."
"The dragon didn't care about them he only cared about Hilde and me."
"That's even worse! You are not going back there!" Alissa hugs me with all her strength.
"Alissa..." Ciel touches her shoulder, "I didn't know about [
Gate
] but if I and you go there we could save them. How much mana do you have Wolf?"
"Nearly half, the [
Gate
] is so close we barely used mana, leave your armor and weapons here and for certain we can rescue them."
"P-please…*hic*, t-they are go-good, *hic*, p-people," Lina mutters between sobs, she broke free from Hana and is moving towards Alissa.
"Nnngh~… FINE! But we do it quick and you obey me, when I say we are leaving, WE ARE LEAVING!" Alissa yells at me while she grabs my shoulders. I think she's traumatized after the Symbol.
I nod and cast [
Gate
]. After we remove our heavy gear we walk into the circle. The hellish scene is more subdued, the fires have almost all stopped and the ground is a little less red hot, but the most important is that the huge dragon is not here.
"This way," Alissa leads us.
Away from the destruction about 100 meters from where we were in, is where the white fur woman landed. She's unconscious and one of her arms is bent in the wrong way. Ciel touches her and closes her eyes.
"She will be fine, she's got a concussion, a few broken ribs, and a broken arm."
She straightens the arm of the woman and chants something, a few seconds later she casts a spell.
"Done."
I open a [
Gate
] below the woman and she disappears. Alissa makes us cross the destruction and 200 meters is away is the Doberman woman, both her legs are broken, her head hit a stone. and she's bleeding profusely.
"The swarm is here!" Alissa warns me.
I immediately cast [
Gate
] below all of us and we return. Lina gasps.
"She's almost dead, Wolf, help me!"
With a shudder, we straighten her legs and I put nearly all my mana on my [
Heal
]. I immediately drink a mana potion and sit down to meditate. If we are found while I don't have mana for [
Gate
] we are dead.
When I open my eyes my mana is on half, Lina is crying with Ciel and Roxanne besides her, the white fur woman is awake but still laying down, the Doberman woman is sleeping, Alissa is beside me, Hana is on the lookout and the corpse of Hilde is covered with a bloody cloth.
I store Hilde's corpse in my "Items" and get a chill when I see the entry "Hildegard Roth upper body". The girls put her belongings inside a bag. When you die the contents of your [
Item Box
] slowly appear around you. She had her ID tablet, coins, cloth, underwear, some unknown magic stones, cutlery, cups, and emergency food.
"How are they?" I ask Ciel.
"The white woman will be fine, if we heal her a bit more she should be able to walk by herself, the other woman is unconscious and will take a lot more mana."
"Use the rest of your mana on the white woman, I need to save mana for an emergency [
Gate
]. Alissa let's go, we are not exactly at the campsite and there could be other people there at the site."
We walk for two minutes and we reach the campsite, the space mages and the scouts are there huddling behind bushes.
"You came back! Thank you!" Says the first space mage. He's a man with black skin and white wool coming out of his arms and neck, he has a pair of ram horns. He's a demon-race, ram-type.
"My life is in your hands, please help us go back!" Says the second space mage. He's a lanky man with greenish skin and a pair of green arms coming out of his back with scythes on the place of his hands. Another demon-race, praying mantis type.
"I don't think the other fellowships are coming back, they will survive the forest easily but they have no reason to come back now," says one of the scouts. They are both twins, they have blue skin, and a spiky bony webbed mohawk coming out of their heads. They are not merfolk, they are demon-race, seahorse type.
"Miss Hildegard is dead, I couldn't save her, we rescued the guards and the assistant girl so we might have to carry one of the guards," I say.
Everyone makes somber faces.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry I didn't have enough mana! We are carrying so many scales and meat that I could only barely get myself out!" Pleads the mantis man.
"It's okay, what's done is done, we just need to get out alive."
I have no energy to talk to them or encourage them more, they just need to follow orders and stay with us for them to live.
It is 3 PM. We are gonna carry the Doberman woman on a makeshift stretcher. The white dog woman is good enough to walk and jog for a little while but she's in pain, I heal her on specific spots to ease her pain and she looks at me with puppy eyes.
"I can't believe I'm still alive, I don't know how you did it but thank you for saving us, my name is Tadita, my comrade is Andrea," The woman bows to me and Ciel, "Thank you for your magic. I will definitely endure so I don't slow you down but please don't hesitate to leave us behind in case of danger, we already lost our master so we failed in the most important mission of our lives."
If you hadn't charged I could have saved you 2 without wounds, though. I'm not really blaming them, they were very brave and loyal to that woman.
"Ehrm… I won't sacrifice you two so easily, you should put more value on your life."
"My life is already worthless since I lost the master I swore to protect," she frowns.
"Then you should find something new that will give it value, the gods won't be happy with a life wasted as a sacrifice," I pat her shoulder.
She frowns a little harder but I feel a bit of motivation gathering on her eyes, honorable sacrifice isn't really popular among the gods here.
We move forward with Alissa far in front scouting, 2 dogs protecting our flanks and the scout duo behind. We rotate the carrying of Andrea but the space mages offer to carry her the longest. After an hour walking Ciel healed her enough that she could wake up, but because she still has broken bones we use a sleeping potion that Roxanne has to keep her knocked out.
We find no other monsters until nightfall, not even the Mossy Fangpines are dumb enough to be around after hearing such a dragon roar. All tents now are near ours, they are way too scared to be away from us since we are basically their lifelines.
We healed up most of the wounds from Andrea so she got strong enough to wobble around. The girls wake her up and help her take a towel bath. Tadita never left her side. The space mages have the tents for themselves and for the women so it's really a good thing to have them around. Alissa is organizing the dinner and cooking the provisions the space mages brought. Lina was sullen the entire time.
"How are you feeling?" Ciel asks me while I watch Alissa cook. She sits beside me on the table in our tent.
I suppress a sigh.
"Depressed, disappointed…"
"Do you blame yourself?"
Well I guess Ciel is now my therapist.
"Not really, I know telling people about [
Gate
] would be a problem, but I still feel sad about it. Because I couldn't show my power someone died. I hate feeling like this."
"Such is the life of an adventurer. Because you made a certain decision someone died in a split second, that doesn't mean you are responsible for their deaths, it just means you were unable to save them."
"Such is the life of an adventurer..." I smile bitterly, I chose this life, "Thanks for coming talk to me."
"It doesn't seem like it was really needed," she smiles wryly.
"No, really, thanks."
She smiles, a pure smile that squeezes my heart but I feel a hint of sadness on that smile.
"Did something like this happen to you?" I ask.
She keeps still and her eyes look away.
Bingo. Then I will be your therapist too.
"I'm sorry if it's personal, but I really wanna know more about you," I insist.
She makes a pained face. It's just like removing baby teeth, gotta do it all at once or it will hurt more.
"It's nothing special. I just… failed…"
"How do you feel about this?"
She looks at me and narrows her eyes, I just smile innocently. She sighs and gets serious.
"When I was a warrior priestess I once escorted a caravan up to Sommerland. During the trip our scouts failed and we got ambushed by a group of Dream Eaters, before we could draw our weapons there were already dead people. There was no way we could win. Our captain gave us the order to hold off the enemies long enough for the merchants to run for their lives then we would escape, if we could. In the end, I survived… So I know how you are feeling."
Something is missing. I stare at her and frown.
"Ciel, aren't there more details on this story?"
"W-what do you mean?" Her eyes dart about.
"You aren't telling me everything, there's something else that's hurting you."
She looks at me angrily.
"You are running away from something," I say.
She stiffens. This is cheating, I know Arantos told me she was running from her fears so I wanna press her on that.
"I left him…"
I pat her back.
"Let it out, you know that talking about it helps," I say.
She remains still.
"Come on, it's your turn."
She grimaces.
"I left him to die… I could have saved him, I had mana but I got scared and ran… I survived, he could have survived, but I left him…"
"It's okay."
"It' not."
"Yes it is," I rub her back, I feel like hugging her.
She goes quiet again.
"Do you blame yourself?"
She smiles bitterly.
"Yes, I abandoned him."
"Did you forgive yourself?"
At one point you have to forgive yourself for your mistakes otherwise you will never move on. It seems this is the case with her.
Quiet again. I have to keep pushing.
"How long do you deserve to be punished for it?"
"How should I know!? It's not like I'm doing it willingly..." She looks at me teary-eyed.
"Then do you at least recognize that you shouldn't be suffering for it anymore?"
"I… Yes, I don't wanna feel that pain anymore," she looks away.
"Tell me, why did you join this fellowship? Truthfully."
"The reasons I told you before weren't lies."
"But there should be something more, right?" I smile innocently.
She groans in frustration.
"I thought… that you wouldn't run, that I could trust that you would never make me feel like I abandoned someone again," she glances at me.
"Hm… well, I don't want you to throw all the responsibility at me, I want you to share it with me, so we can all agree on something and be capable to make our own decisions."
"I know… I was just… running," her voice trails off.
I grab her hand. She didn't even flinch.
"Then it's time to take a breath and look around, you have another path you can take."
I squeeze her hand and let it go. She bites her lips.
"How old are you, Mr. Therapist?" She asks in a playful tone.
"Sixteen."
"Bullshit."
True. I smile wryly.
The girls notice our conversation is done and awkwardly come have dinner.
At the bath even the cheerful Roxanne was depressed but my mood has been getting better so we have a productive cuddling session. We don't do anything more than that, nobody is in the mood. Before going to sleep me and Ciel use most of our Mana to heal the guard duo.
Today is the 14th.
I wake up to a pouting Alissa who's tracing her fingers over my chest. I smile and nod at her, she smiles back and goes under the covers, I just close my eyes and enjoy.
During breakfast a disheveled Ciel gives me a pure smile and I return it. My relationship with her feels odd, unlike the others I developed affection for her before having sex with her so I'm unusually aroused and anxious right now. Hana sees my tent and smiles mischievously, when we get home I will let it all out on her.
Ciel finishes the healing of Andrea so now she can walk and even fight, although it's unadvised since her body is still adapting to the healed bones. If I were to cast [
Regenetation
] for half a day on both I could get them back into normal shape but we don't want to spend any longer here, the swarm could be nearby hunting for us.
I manage to cast [
Swift Foot
] in an area after 10 minutes of chanting, I still need practice but it's getting better.
Most monsters are still far from this area so we only meet 2 naked goblins who likely just birthed on this part of the forest yesterday and then 3 Fangpines who are idiotic enough to think the area is safe.
Because we jogged we reach Rabanara by noon, we ignore our hungry stomachs and rush towards the town.
"Ah! Grand Ryder, p-please a moment," I hear Lina call for me.
"Oh? What is it?"
"P-p-p-please, bu-buy me!" She bows to me at a right angle.
I'm dumbfounded, the women gather around me and the guard duo put their hands on Lina's shoulders in solidarity.
"Uh, why ask me?"
"Hm, Mr. Ryder, I'm sorry to say this about the family of my late master but… the Roth family is in a tight spot..." Says Andrea while cringing.
"Yeah..." Tadita cringes along, "Miss Hildegard was a good merchant and a hard worker but the rest of her family isn't anywhere as good as her. If I were to guess they are going to be driven out of the market in a few years without her".
"Wow, that bad? Why is that?" I ask.
"They are… lazy, dumb, and wasteful. I'm sorry Miss Hildegard but it's the truth!" Andrea claps her hands in prayer and bows.
"So you think I will be a better master?" I ask.
"Y-yes!" Lina looks at me with teary eyes," Considering your personality, the way you treat other women, and your feats it's my dream to serve under you!
"Hm… What can you do?" I ask. I'm a little concerned over the "dream" part.
"I can manage a business, help with administrative tasks, enchant equipment, perform maintenance on equipment, craft basic items, and I can fight, a bit… I-I a-also c-ca-can g-give you m-my b-body!" She stutters as her pale face gets red as a lobster.
Adorable. She looks young, younger than me, is she even of legal age in this world? Is there a legal age?
The space mages and the scout duo who were desperate to enter the town stopped and came back to us, even though we are in front of the town they still respect me.
"Let me consult with my fellowship," I say.
I gather everyone in a circle far away from everybody.
"Alright, opinions."
"I think this is fine, she will be useful," Alissa says, then she comes closer and whispers in my ear, "I wanna see you break that tight pussy."
I will just consider her opinion as "biased".
"She will be perfect to maintain my armor, the metal plates of the brigandine are a bitch the fix once I get hit, besides our shields are taking damage, she's experienced in manipulating dragon scales, perhaps she could help. She could even be trained in combat, dwarves have good strength because of their [
Stonebody
]," says Hana.
"Another helper would be nice, she seems to know something about the market so she could help me sell potions," says Roxanne.
"I… feel a little guilty leaving her alone, if she gets back to the Roth family she will likely be sold to a pervert somewhere. She seems smart and dedicated, surely there's plenty of jobs we can give her," says Ciel.
Well… I'm the biggest fucking pervert around, so I don't know what you are thinking. Though I have no plans on touching her.
"So, there's no good reason to deny her..." I mutter.
"What, why are you hesitating? Wouldn't having another woman be good for you?" Ciel says in a joking tone.
That hurts a bit.
"I'm not like that, Alissa and Hana are exceptions because I was incredibly lonely. I won't take her just because she's offering her body to me," I say a bit sad.
"Oh, uh… sorry," Ciel apologizes awkwardly.
"Anyway, I agree that there's no reason to deny her, if she was the private helper of Miss Hildegard then she must be competent enough," Alissa intervenes.
"But can I really buy her? Isn't she property of the Roth family now?" I ask.
"Not really, slaves aren't something you can inherit so easily. By law, they have a chance for freedom or to be bought by others when their master dies, but you will still have to negotiate with the Roth family. It's only a chance, not a guarantee," Alissa says.
"But since you brought her corpse and her belongings you actually have some leverage over the Roths. You risked your life to save her, even if it wasn't successful..." Hana says.
"You are also someone with a blessing, that's even more pressure on them to give you a fair deal," Roxanne adds.
I sigh. Is this part of the god-sanctioned harem? I'm not lonely or scared anymore so I don't need another slave, it just gives me a bad taste in my mouth to think about using her like this. I know she will be useful but I don't really like the prospect of slavery. It's somewhat different from a Blood Slave, where there's personal responsibility and a close watch from the gods. I feel like a hypocrite but I don't have the energy to put my thoughts in order.
"You don't have to accept her if you don't really want to," Alissa says.
"No I… actually want to protect her, let's accept her," I answer. I feel like she's a puppy that needs an owner, I can't leave her alone.
We go back to the group waiting for us.
"Lina, do you want me to buy you and release you?"
She straightens up and slowly her eyes open wide in fear.
"P-please d-don't."
"What? You don't want to be freed?" I raise an eyebrow.
"I..." She can't really find a way to explain herself.
"Perhaps she's afraid you will abandon her," Whispers Alissa.
"Why would she think that?" I whisper back.
"If she's your slave you have to treat her responsibly. If she's not a slave then her position might actually worsen."
I kinda understand but it's still a bit ridiculous.
"Slaves who find a good master don't really adapt well to being freed," Ciel whispers.
Fine then. I sigh.
"I won't release you. I'll buy you," I tell her.
"T-thank you!" She clasps her hands and jumps in joy, she was expressionless most of the time but now her cute smile melts my heart.
We enter the town and walk to the guild. Once inside our weird group causes a bit of a commotion, I'm not sure why. I go to the nearest attendant and request a meeting with the guildmaster. After a minute he comes downstairs.
"Oh, a pleasure to see you again, Mr. Ryder. Actually, no, every time I meet you a lot of work falls on my shoulders, you are shaving off years of my life this way," Silas smiles wryly.
"I have come to accept my nickname is the truth, but I'm sorry for giving you too much work. And it's a pleasure to see you too, guildmaster."
"Well then, let us go to a private room. Swift Wind and Escutcheon already gave us an idea of what happened but your report is the most important one."
Silas led us to the biggest meeting room. After a while, 7 scribes appeared and started collecting the reports. Only Lina knows about [
Gate
] so we coordinated with her a plausible lie to how we escaped.
"Poison cocktail? Never heard of such a thing before."
I shrug.
"Desperation births creativity, I think we caused an allergic reaction to that dragon."
Silas laughs heartily, it's the first time I see his calm demeanor crumble.
"What in the… hell… a dragon with... allergic reaction...! The bards will love this!" Silas says while catching his breath.
Silas coughs and recovers his composure.
"So the only casualty is Miss Hildegard, this is quite a miracle seeing how intelligent that dragon was. Also, his vengeful attack towards Miss Hildegard means he will likely command the wyverns to attack us, send word to the lord immediately," Silas motions to an attendant nearby, he hurriedly leaves the room.
"There's no contradiction in any of the reports, I see no unclear matter over it too, I consider the reporting as finished. Now I must tell you a representative of the Armorer's Guild is here, he wants to speak with you."
He likely wants to abuse my mental state to drive down the rewards since my protection target died but they don't really have an advantage here.
"Ah, can you contact the Roth family? I wish to buy Miss Hildegard's slave, Lina."
"Hm, yes I can, you have her possessions and her corpse right? No need to give it to us, you can return it in person then. This concludes our business, do you wish to talk to the Armorer's Guild representative?"
"Yes, please."
Silas and the guild personnel leave the room.
"Thank you for not abandoning us, if you ever need the services of space mages we will give you a discount. This is the least we can do to you," says the ram space mage.
"Thank you," says the mantis space mage.
We say our goodbyes and they leave. They leave a leather trunk with Lina's belongings.
"You look young but you clearly know what you are doing. It was a good opportunity to work with you," says one of the scouts.
"You have a good heart, it's no wonder people say you are the town hero. To face the dragon with just poison bottles requires some massive pair of balls, I'm glad I met you and your fellowship," says the other.
This makes me a little embarrassed. We say our goodbyes.
"Well then, I guess this is goodbye," says Tadita.
"Indeed, I don't think we will meet again so soon. But once again, thank you. I don't have much to repay you but let me serve you in exchange for saving my life," says Andrea while bowing.
"A-ah, there's no need for that, it was part of our job to keep you two safe," I answer hurriedly, Ciel nods along.
"You are troubling him, Andrea, if you really want to be with him then just ask for marriage," says Tadita.
"N-n-no, t-that's no-not what I-I meant!" Stutters Andrea while blushing. Tadita taps her back and grins.
"Anyway, we will be in your debt. We will go back to the capital and join the guard or a mercenary group, we aren't hunters so staying here is not the best choice. If you visit the capital, come look for us," says Tadita.
Everyone gives them a goodbye and they leave, only Lina stays with us.
"I thought she really was going to ask for marriage," Alissa says, disappointed.
What's with you, how many women do you want to add to this harem?
"She likely thought she wasn't strong enough, we are not really lacking in firepower," Hana says.
"A-anyway, Lina, are you going to leave now or do you prefer to stay with us?" Asks Ciel.
"C-can I stay? I would rather not meet any other Roth for now," she answers shyly.
"Sure, no problem," I say.
I put 10 points into [Acting] and [Mental Resistance], we are going to need this for this part. After about 10 minutes we hear footsteps. An old man with graying black hair and two large guards enter the room. The man has a long nose and a wrinkly face that gets even wrinklier due to his frowning. He's carrying a few papers, likely the report.
"Greetings, I am Tanquara, senior representative for the Armorer's Guild," The man says and sits down.
"I am Wolf Ryder, leader of Helios."
"Well then, Mr. Ryder, let's talk business. You have failed your job, Miss Hildegard is dead, al-..."
"Hold it, my job was not simply protecting her, I was to protect her and her subordinates and secure the return of the collected materials."
Tanquara grinds his teeth. Interrupting him was impolite but I can't let him declare the job as a failure like that.
"Yet the most important person there was not returned," he says while narrowing his eyes.
"She went against my advice, I even tried to use the other hunters to persuade her but greed clouded her judgment. It's unfortunate we met such a rare dragon but it still ends up being her fault."
"But you could still have saved her. If you were faster and didn't hesitate you could have pulled her away from the dragon in time!"
"What do you think I am!? A miracle worker!? Did you even read about the size of that monstrosity? Every other fellowship ran away the moment they could, the guards were swatted as if they were flies! It's not my onus that she died, it's my luck that I even survived! The poison cocktail was a stroke of luck, even if I had pulled her away the dragon would chase us to the end of the world if we didn't get such a reaction from him. Do you understand, it was not skill that we survived, it was just sheer dumb luck!" I shouldn't yell but this made me angry. I can't let him get to me, making me say dumb things is his goal.
"If it was just luck perhaps choosing you as the vanguard was a mistake as you lack the skill to survive such encounter," he turns his head away in contempt.
"You do
not
have the authority to judge my skill or of my fellowship, you know very well that such a dragon requires an army to deal with. It all goes back to Miss Hildegard ignoring my advice for greed. In the end, I recovered part of her body, her belongings, saved her slave, her guards and the subordinates, the only thing missing on this expedition was her returning alive."
He stares at me and grinds his teeth. There, I closed all the ways of attack.
"As she ignored my advice her death is her own fault, I did everything I was asked to perfection and even went beyond, I demand full rewards, deduce the price of this young dragon from it," I point to Aoi, sleeping while curled to Hana's neck.
"I can't give you full rewards, your target of protection is dead."
"I can't protect those who have a death-wish, she broke the contract on her own. I demand full rewards," I had put 1 point into [Intimidate] and let out a bit of my power. I see his mouth twitch, he's a tough one.
"Fine, here's your rewards... A young dragon costs 3 gold on the imperial market, even though yours looks like it's tamable I will respect your agreement with Miss Hildegard."
He gives us a sack of coins, I use [Metal Appraisal] on them and nod to him, he quickly leaves and I sigh. Such negotiations leave me with a bitter taste in my mouth. I didn't like to bad-mouth Hilde but merchants in this world are ruthless, can't give them even a centimeter.
"That was a really good negotiation, master. I didn't believe the representative would buckle like that," Lina says. I shudder at hearing the words "master" again.
"I had some good teachers. Hana and Roxanne are experienced in this."
"Yep, a little bit of intimidation at the right moment and any merchant will buckle, they try to put up a strong front but they are all cowards," says Hana.
"I see, it's a negotiation tactic different from when merchants deal with each other, it's all about a war of information and connections," Lina says with a pensive expression.
"Remind me to never become a merchant. This seems like a nightmare to me, I'm way too straightforward," I say.
"Well you can always use representatives if you become a merchant," she continues.
I still don't wanna deal with that, even through someone else.
"I'll go sell the monsters we have killed, you girls can go to a restaurant and have lunch."
"Ah no, let's all eat together, it's not fair to you," Alissa says.
"Hmm… anyone with a different opinion?" I ask.
Silence.
We move downstairs and enter the dismantling room. Gordon and Sonny are chatting.
"Oh, Mr. Good Luck! I heard about your exploits, you are always doing something interesting," Gordon greets me.
"I wish I wasn't. Anyway, good to see you Mr. Gordon, Mr. Sonny."
"Uh, yes. Good to see you too Mr. Ryder," Sonny is a bit distracted.
"Oh, looks like you got a pet dragon eh? Now then what surprise you have for us?"
I pull out the Grey Berserker and the Young Ogre.
"Oh! Such pristine fur! What an achievement Mr. Ryder, I'm impressed. How did you do it?"
"I held it with my earth elemental, after that we hit his head until it got dizzy and Alissa finished it."
"That's amazing, only the best fellowships specialized in hunting Grey Berserkers can achieve this. Oi, Sonny, help me here."
Sonny got out of his stupor and went appraise the bear. He kept stealing glances at us, no, he kept stealing glances at Roxanne. He's a demon race, after all. I think he's a succubus too, maybe the name is incubus for men.
I grab Roxanne's tail at twirl it around my hand, Sonny shudders. Roxanne looks at me with curiosity but then she looks at Sonny and smiles mischievously, she hugs me from behind and leans her body on me. Her hand enters my jacket from the top and she caresses my chest. Sonny's white skin turn red and he turns around, he focuses on appraising the monsters and the proof of subjugation.
"Here are your rewards," Sonny says between gritted teeth.
"Keep bringing those bears to me, boy, I love Grey Berserker meat. Also, don't tease Sonny too much, eh?" Gordon says and winks.
Sonny chokes on his spit, I just smile and leave.
"Finally, let's eat something and go home."
Intermission 5
A man that doesn't tell his birthplace should not be trusted, a man that hides many secrets should not be trusted, a man who lacks the common sense of the populace should not be trusted, a man who hides mysterious skills should not be trusted. And yet I can't follow any of this advice, I feel hopelessly lost in the darkness where the only light comes from his back, making me follow him. When I was used to the darkness, to the sameness and safety, he comes like a curious and innocent being who opens a path for me. It's not the same old life I yearned for but something new with a hint of nostalgia.
He should be younger than me but I feel nothing that leads to believe it to be true, only his face and his love for women says the contrary, but that's not enough, I almost feel like stealing his ID card just to confirm his age. Logic tells me I should stay away, even though there are 2 blessings around him he's far too secretive or mysterious, but my instincts tell me otherwise, they tell me of an opportunity, of an adventure, of a new beginning. I thought I could help him but he might end up helping me more instead.
Besides, what kind of man can please 3 women and still wake up with vigor every morning? One of them being a dragonkin no less. I only hear occasional the muffled ruffling and moaning but still, my imagination is making me embarrassed. Those have been some hard nights... and days, and mornings. Do they ever stop?