Rex opened his eyes, having sensed the two sisters stirring in their beds, a light and melodious cry resounding outside the mansion. A rather beautifull, german sheppard sized bird was singing, rousing the two women from their sleep. Rex had visited Elysion during the night, having to calm and satisfy his women- he had been away for a few days longer than expected, thus the ensuing work he had to do in the bedrooms. Still, even with all that exercise, he was well rested, his body no longer needing sleep to function. Still, he did soo regularily, even if only for short period of time. Who wouldnt enjoy a few hour nap in the embrace of breathtaking beauties after all. Rex was no exception either.
Still, the fact that Mora and Xersia were waking meant he should too, their plan for the day rather well prepeared. They would visit the jeweler as soon as the shop starts their day and finalize the deal that had been made, with him putting the rings on both of their fingers right then and there. It would not take long for that morsel of knowledge to spread throughout the city, with Rex earning a ton of hatred and envy. Getting either of the sisters was already a heavenly blessing, or so the majority of the locals would say, but bagging both? Now that was a heavenly injustice. When he heard Xersia speak of it, he heartily laughed, the irony not being lost on him. He was, after all, a champion of a true god, even if said god did nothing but hold other gods in check, and only watched his life unfold, getting a kick out of it.
Rex exited his own room just slightly after sisters did, earning a raised eyebrow from both. "I am a rather powerfull sensor. It only makes sense that I would be aware of your momevent, what with us being so close by. Come, my beauties, duty calls, no?"
"I supposse I should stop being suprised so often, you do make the impossible things seem somewhat mundane after all."
"Heh. I aim to please, my lady." Rex replied with a playfull smirk on his face, the hood of his getup lowered with no servants and staff in sight. He never hid from his women and with both sisters having already agreed to become his, he saw no reason to do any differently now.
"We still have some time before we have to depart, so I do believe a breakfast is in order." Xersia spoke, a small smile gracing her alluring and full lips. Due to his dragonic bloodline, both Xersia and Mora looked even more beautifull than they should have, a subjective subconscious elevation of their beauty taking place within his mind. As a dragon, it was only natural for him to see his draconic mates in a much better light than they actually were. Rex was entirely aware of it, the change in his perception having happened soon after the sisters agreed to become his. He was just a little bit worried about such a shift, should he ever get a true dragon woman in his harem. Still, that was a problem for another day and the future him.
"There is no way I would willingly miss an opportunity to dine with my beautifull brides."
"Is that so? But pray tell, are you not longing for therest of your women? Surely they are as exceptionally beautifull as we are?"
"Well now, that is a secret that you will just have to wait a bit to learn the answer to. Whats life without some misteries, after all?"
Rex stood between the two sisters, extending his hands slightly to the sides, slowly mooving his hood in place, obscuring his face from the sight. Clearly understanding his intentions, both sisters embraced one of his arms, leading him towards the dining room.
"Do you have to conceal your face?" mora asked as they walked forward.
"Hmm, not neccesarily, though I think it would be much more powerfull to remove it once we are dealing with the council, that too only after either of you two would ask for it, emphasizing your role and the weight of your words and requests when it concerns me. No doubt some will think to use you for their benefit, but those attempts will be quickly shot down, with rather dire consequences, lest other fools decide to try their luck."
The following thirty minutes they spent eating breakfast were filled with the clinking of the cutlery and occasional light conversation, with it all eventually coming to and end as they finished eating, their bellies full of exquisite and well prepeared food, courtesy of Heavenflame mansions experienced cooks. With the meal over, the trio boarded the carriage and immersed them in yet another conversation as the coachman stirred the furvum, that was pulling their carriage, once again starting they hour long yourney to the jewelers shop.
With the sisters asking more and more personal questions, with them also quickly going over their action plan in the shop, the hour passed unnoticably, a light knock from the front of the carriage, where their coachman was on the other side, signaled their arrival, and Rex, acting like the gentlemen, contrary to what everyone within the carriage knew to be the truth, exited first,rising his hand and helping both women to descend from the carriage after him. They had arrived barely a few minutes after the opening time, leaving the place quite empty, with barely any living souls present. The trio wasted no time, approaching the door of the establishement, and promptly opeing its door and entering inside.
The shopkeeper, seeing the V.I.P.'s, hurried over, bowing quite deeply towards them in greeting.
"Lady Heavenflame, young miss, sir, it is a pleasure to see you all once again. If I may ask, please follow me to the waiting lounge, master should soon emerge with your order ready. He had made some last minute adjustments after examining the material he had to work with. I believe you will recieve the greatest of his works to date, masters words."
A few moments later they were brought to a rather cozy room, decorated with quite a few different, beautifull and exotic figurines, each depicting some majestic creature. The trio sat in one of teh sofas, rather close to each other. Rex conjured mana chain constructs to operate the tea set that was on a nearby table, filled with steaming hot water, the staff already having prepeared the room to serve guests.
"Dont mind us. We have everything we need right here. Feel free to return to your duties. I can sense a few people nearing this establishement." Rex informed the shopkeeper, all the while expertly controlling his conjured mana constructs, pouring three cups and prepearing a drink for himself and the two mesmerizingly beautifull ladies besides him, inquiring both regarding the way they would like their drink prepeared, and doing exactly as guided by the sisters. The shopkeeper quickly bowed once again and excused himself, returning to the main hall of the shop, greeting the customers that were indeed arriving just moments later.
As expected, the guests who arrived were other noble ladies, having recieved news of the Heavenflame carriage, with their guest as well, leaving their mansion, and with the eyes on said carriage, all the ladies were either intrigued themselves, or sent to gather information about this supposed mercenary that could solve the issue of the early tigermen horde. Such power, no matter the size of his group, was an invaluable recourse that could reshape the upper levels of the ruling class. Hell, depending on the actual power and the adaptability of the group, the ones they eventually back, should an offer enticing enough appear, could possibly become a true monarchy, solidifying a single family at the top of at the very least one city, if not them all, finally unifying them all under one ruler.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
Soon, the arriving ladies, wives of the heads of other noble families, sometimes with a daughter or son alongside, entered the waiting lounge, the place made to allow for quite a few people to relax, should such a need arise, and arise it did. As the matured, sometimes elderly, ladies entered, they greeted Xersia, the ettiquette so demanding, what with her being a head of a noble house, as well as the fact that Rex had accepted their invitation to stay at their place, instead of the small, but cozy house he was placed at. Such a decisive action, made by Xersia, on its own proved that Rex was no hooded man. The head of the local branch of Heavenflame was notorious for her combat prowess, as well as her aversion to the company of non combatants. Sure, she could play the politics at barely an acceptable level, but her eye for combat tallent and power was second to none. The fact she had made a move so quickly and decisively, was both a blessing and a curse at the same time.
On one hand, her move proved inherent value and some truth to the mans claims, the presence of all the other ladies of the remaining houses reflecting that. At the same time, Xersia was in an unussually advantageous position in aquiring the support of this misterious group, or at the very least- the individual present. She was, after all, still unwed and single, thus providing her with some extremely powerfull cards at her disposal, if the beauty standarts of this new arrival was anywhere their own. Though that too was a rather big gamble. If the man present was a scout of the group, no doubt much more powerfull heavy hitters remained behind, marking the man here with much lower inherent value than said heavy hitters. If, he was one of those, it would be a much better gamble, though that would put a question on the wisdom of the groups leadership. You do not send one of your trump cards into possibly hostile territory without the neccesarry backup. Still, even with the recounts from the hunter group, there were no actual hard evidence that the one who performed that powerfull magic, if the hunters can be believed, was the man present here.
Nevertheless, it was better to be cautious, and so the noble ladies moved with caution, using their years in the high society to subtly guide the small conversation about the mundane things into a dirrection that they all were interested in. Even with them working with their own benefit in mind, there was a bare minimum of information that they needed in order to make the next move. Thus, they would allow someone else to guide the conversation as long as it moved in a dirrection they needed. Should it not, they would try to subtly shift dirrection of said conversation. Sadly for them, the member of the mercenary group barely participated. The concealed face of the man made it even more difficult, only the minimal body language giving the experienced women any indication, and even that happened rarely, to indicate his stance on any of the ungoing topics.
Still, their attempts came to and end aproximately an hour later, with them attaining barely any information whatsoever. This 'Rex' was just too stiff during this time. The conversation was interrupted by the shopkeeper entering the room alongside the master crafter of the shop, a small and ornate box in masters hands. And this was not the middle aged man that had come up during Rex's previous visit. No, the man was a generation or two older, small and silvery beard, but well maintained and groomed, adorned his face, old and wise eyes half lidded, but still beaming with the energy of life. This elderly man was far from the grave.
The dragonkin ladies present all had their jaws dropped. When was the last time the grandmaster had left his workshop, they all wandered. What was it that the Heavenflame matriarch and her guest had come to aquire, and what was it that was used as the payment for said purchase. They did not have to remain wondering, as the mercenary spoke.
"Would that be my order?" he asked as he pointed towards the small ornate box.
"Indeed it is." the grandmaster answered, a smile on his face "I have to admit, it was the first time I had the pleasure to work with such exquisite material. Should you ever need anything else crafted, please consider us. We will give you the best of offers."
"Sure, sure." Rex waved his hand, a chunk of metal ore appearing in his hand as he stretched them both forward, the ore floating towards the grandmaster and at the same time, the ornate box doing the same movement towards him. The eyes of the grandmaster were glued to the ore though, a smile and a greedy twicth pulling on the corner of one of his eyes. It was as if the old man saw nothing but the ore in front of him and as soon as it was within his arms, the old man hugged it as if it was his firstborn just after their birth. A quick nod in the mercenaries dirrection later, the grandmaster was already out of the room, no doubt returning to the workshop with speed that was not indicative of the elderly mans age.
"Our grand elder thanks for your business, and hopes that the items are to your liking and standarts." the shopkeeper, who was still present, bowed deeply and spoke politely, a bit flustered by the actions of the grandmaster.'Act with dignity my ass. Like father, like son.' Though the shopkeeper, hoping to smooth over the clear lack of decorum their maniacal master crafters could and did leave behind.
"Dont sweat it. All men of focus are like that when it comes to their chosen discipline." The mercenary spoke, momentarily inspecting the ornate box itself. Everyone present had to admit, eben the box itself was made with utmost care and precision, as if a box of a lower quality could taint the object within itself. After a brief examination, and and apreciative nod, he opened the box, a pair of incredibly intricate and priceless rings came into view. They had this light absorbing sheen to them, magically contradictory in its own manner. It was clearly master crafted magical item, though the lack of any sense of power radiating from it made it even more precious. Just what was it made of? Not even adamantium was like this. There was also the chunk of ore that the mercenary had given over, clearly the payment for the job. What was the ore that it could cover the bill for such exquisite crafting?
If these questions plagued the noble ladies minds, the thing they saw next straight out took them offline, blanking them for a while. The mercenary lifted a ring in each of his hand, each held by an index finger and a thumb, then he examined it for a short while. Humming and nodding with satisfaction, he proceeded with the plans, though neither he, nor the sisters had expected them to have such a large audience. Still, it served their purpose even better than what they anticipated. After he finished his inspection and deemed the rings worthy, he stood up, both sisters quickly followed him, then Rex turned around, his eyes were greeted by two left hands slowly beeing presented. With slow, but steady movement, his hands moved forward, each ring sliding on the ringfingers of the tow sisters left hands, the rings adjusting to the size of the fingers they were placed on.
"Hmm" Rex hummed with aproval."They look even better than I exected. I do hope you girls like them."
"Beautifull!" Both sisters spoke in unison, the same though in their, and every other womans present, mind, as they gazed upon the beautifull pieces of jewelery.
"Lets head back to our mansion, no doubt the unexpected company has drained you as much as us?" Xersia spoke, their objective achieved. She had no desire to stick around and wait for the dazed women, and a few seething men, to come out of their stuppor. Luckaly for her, Rex was of the same mind, taking the hands of both ladies and leaving the room, and the shop in its entirety, behind. They soon boarded their carriage and their coachman urged the beast strapped to it to return back to the mansion.
A short moment of silence fell upon the inside of the carriage, the trio looking at one another, untill finally, Xersia bursted out in laughter, soon followed by Mora. Rex then joined them as well, his laugh much lighter, but nevertheless displayed his enjoyment, though whether it was becasue of the reaction of the noble ladies, or the infectious and happy laughter of the sisters, nobody would know.
"Ha ha ha ha. D-di you see their faces?" Xersia stammered through her powerfull, but nonetheless vibrant and infectious laughter. "Ha ha ha ha. Lords, I have never seen them so gobsmacked before. Ha ha ha ha ha."
"Y-yes sister, ha ha ha ha, I bet we could have stuck and egg or two in those hanging, wide open mouths of theirs, and they would not have even noticed, ha ha ha ha. "
"He he he. They did drone on and on before that. Sheesh, I thought that nothing could shut them up. Who could have guessed that something could after all."
They continiued in a similar matter, laughing over the situation they left behind, and once their laughter died down, they quickly went over their plans regarding the quickly aproaching meeting with the cities draginkin council. They continiued the same conversation even after they returned to Heavenflame mansion, and around midday, a messanger arrived, acompanied by a group of men, all clad in shiny and new armor, clearly a group of honour guards of sorts. The message delivered was clear "The council is ready and eager to meet with the guest."