"Well then, How about we hit those beds, hard as well. It's been a long two days. And despite it being day outside, I get the feeling it's late, way too late." I clapped my hands as I spoke.
"Mara, if you would please sleep with Frey, she is the largest and needs the double bed, and you are the smallest so there is a chance you could fit together. Please?" I rubbed my palms together and made googly eyes at her. The three girls looked at me shocked, Frey specifically cawed out a cute little sound. Her audible surprise almost made me wince, probably having never heard such a string of words tied together by Felric.
Ingrid smiled and walked to the ranch. She plopped her butt down and swung her legs like a child on a playground. "Are you sure you don't want the bed? Or someone to hold while you sleep?" She added with a sultry tone, and a little bite of her lips, absolutely destroying that childish image.
"Well... I do want both, but honestly, not right now. Also, I barely know all three of you... Gorgeous as you may be, I can't go so fast. It's too intimate, not to mention that I'm a tough nut to handle when it comes to sleep. I'm not very good with people in the same bed as me." I looked back to Mara, the question still in my face. She nodded without any real hesitation, and I let out a breath. Just as easy she could have taken my ask as an order, and then I'd be in trouble. I plopped my ass down on the couch and was dead asleep the next second.
The Three Guai beauties, not that any Guai was ugly, looked to each other with quizzical expressions.
"He's a weird guy isn't he?"
"I guess."
"Guess all you want. I expect we still haven't seen half of it, and I am looking forward to it."
"Frey, Frey~" Whatever that meant.
"I'm gonna find the first chance I have and become free."
"That may not come easy, Mara. I don't plan on letting him die. Neither do you, am I Right Frey?"
"Frey!" {Thump}
With one eye open, I heard to the girls speak, well, for the most part speak. I didn't plan on holding any of the things said against them in any way. I was just busy savoring the fact that three fatally beautiful women were sleeping in the same room as me, almost like a sleepover. I had never been to a sleep over before.
*****
The next thing I knew, I was awake, staring up at the wooden ceiling, the sun came softly as ever through a window above the king sized bed. Mara and Frey were sleeping atop it, tangled a bit with their wings and their hair, hair that no matter how much was dragged along the floor did not get dirty and kept its gloss.
Ingrid was awake and playing with a tuft of hair. Turning it about, twisting it, she had a slight pout on her face. "Bored?" I said and she let that string of hair go. It immediately returned to the spiky wave form the rest of her mane took.
"Good morning. Sleepyhead." She smiled. I came closer and she stood up, knowing from our bond that I wanted to sit. I took a couple hundred strands of hair and begun braiding them into a tiny braid compared to the sheer mass of fluff, but it was an accent none the less.
"I always wanted to do this. Never got the chance to."
Ingrid could not quite manage an answer. "I…ve. I've never had this done before. To have another braid my hair."
"You should try to braid it whole. It would look good on you in tight to the scalp locks. Though it would take hours, and an expert hand. Not my clumsy stumps."
We spent the next few minutes in the morning quiet. The tenants on the other two rooms similarly seemed to be out and about, and out the back I could hear the shouts of men and women hard at work, training, the clash of wooden swords, the terrifying shouts of some veteran trainer or some Guild Expert beating the basics of training into the newbies.
I eventually saw Frey wake up, she made sure to let Mara sleep a bit more and she came to me, sat down on her knees and bent her waist to match eye level with me as best as she could.
"Don't do that, there is no need. Stand as you like, I won't get mad or feel that I have less power over you. You can kill me with a snap, I wouldn't dare be so presumptuous."
She did as I said, though she made sure to send me over her unwillingness to kill me, and her gratefulness for saving her, despite knowing she was a failure.
"Yeah, about that. I don't get it. I can see some of your Status now, You have dual Types, and Aspects that seem terrifying, Steel, and Blood, they ought to work very well together. There are bound to be countless ways to use them in battle and out of battle. Infinite paths stand now before you. Not to mention, he went through the effort of getting you to Tier 20, how can he just throw you away."
I got the sense of a gust blowing through our link, a world of whirlwinds, and clouds, and flying Guai.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
"He wanted you to unlock the Wind Aspect. Was it such a must? Even if It was, and he couldn't have a discrepancy in his squad, couldn't he just sell you? I assume you would have been fine with that?"
At that it seemed as if a shadow fell upon Frey, she refused to send anything over the link, and the conversation flat on its face. It seems that it was a problem that she did not belong to Felric, I could make assumptions, but I needed to hear it from her.
"It's fine if you don't feel like saying yet. We have plenty of time. Well, anyway. What do you say we head out to our first Quest?"
******
After waking Mara, we descended the stairs and came to the Main hall. Elise, was there once again. This time I had the presence of mind to notice how she looked. With a ceptum in her nose, a piercing in her bottom lip and on in her right brow, with green eye shadow and thick eye liner, hair cropped short for almost a bowl cut, she was thin with fishnets on her thighs, and a tight black T without sleeves that revealed a bit of side boob as she twirled in her spinning chair with nothing to do.
"Good morning Elise. How are you?"
"I was fine yesterday and I'm fine today, you seem a heck of a lot better." She said as she brought her chair to a stand still. She pulled herself up to the desk as I sat down.
"I am, and I think I'm ready for my first Quest."
"Right. I'd usually advise against that for a Tier 1, but you have three Guai, one of which seems pretty strong. Oh, would you like to register your Guai with the Guild?"
"Do I have to?" I flinched.
"No, it's not illegal or anything to not, but we always like updating our database. It could possibly allow us to assess you better, and also present you with more tailored Quest opportunities in the future, or a better suited training curriculum."
"Well Sure." I gave the information, finding the potential benefits good enough.
"I thought so. It's very rare to have Three Slots in Tier 1, In fact, this this specific Guild branch, there has only ever been 5 of you, in the past 200 years. With Frey here, you can take a Quest, more than just a simple gathering Quest."
"Great. So what do you have for me?"
"There's a farm a at the edge of the County, a days trip away. The threat is thought to be of the Fox kind, and the victims are his Chickens, which account for all category of Chicken. From Beast, to Tamed Monster, to Guai. The mission has already been taken by." She flipped a massive book, thousands of pages worth, in mere seconds. The sound was at least pleasing to the ear. "Two out of the three possible trainers. They just set off before you, so if you leave now there may be something left for you. The Fox has killed a Guai that was tear 5 with relative ease, but she is no speculated to be over Tier 10.
"That sounds great, we shall go save that poor farmer's chicken, from the hungry fox. Sounds good everyone?" They nodded or where otherwise not paying attention *ghm, Ingrid, Ghm* I went with it. I pressed my little bronze Seal on the bottom of the page and as if magically scorched my name appeared on the Quest and the page ripped itself from the book.
Elise handled it and as she did I asked her a follow up question. "Two things, which I should have already asked, but… I'm new to this. What is the reward?""Oh… Holy Cigarette, Sorry about this. Without my Moomery Energy Supplement in the morning, I can't function." She facepalmed, twice now we've talked, twice she'd done that. Maybe I just have that effect on her.
"The Reward, As this is your first Quest, is 3 more nights of free of charge stay and food. One Special allowance of training with a Single Master. 20 Feds, meaning Confederacy but shortened. Last but not least, you may get a reward from the Farmer himself, but that is up to him, He did not specify a range. Now, let me get my Supplements before we go on." As Elise left I turned to my Guai.
"How much is 20 Feds? You two Cost me 1500, can I get bread with this?"
"From what I remember in haul runs I had to do before, though prices may have changed. A Single Confederacy Coin is the highest form of currency and you can buy yourself stay at an Inn for Trainer with just 1." Ingrid answered, making me unable to scold her for not being serious. "Thanks." I smiled and turned back to Elise who was sipping from a wooden bottle with a big image of a Cow Guai on it, its massive jugs hanging down almost to the grass carved into the wood. She sucked on, I'm guessing milk, from a wooden straw.
"What are there Moomery Supplements?"
"Moomery is the company, The single Biggest Company in the Confederation. Every Guai farmer and breeder in the Country wants to work with them. For their supplements they distill milk from different Guai and extract part of the Aspect they usually carry. Currently I am drinking Lava Supplement. Known for giving explosive energy, next I'm gonna drink Shadow, and then Ice to calm and preserve for the whole day."
"Huh. How much does one bottle cost?"
"For you? 15 Feds."
"Holly smokes."
"Exactly." Elise shook her head. {Guhum~} I coughed and decided to change subject. Though I did not sense any discomfort from my Guai, over our Bond.
"Onto Question number 2."
"Wait wait. You know how much 20, or 15 Feds are worth?"
"I do. I have a frame of reference. The store Clerk at FairCo said that these two were worth 1500 Feds, she got at the fact that they were worth less for reasons unknown but were still being sold because that, is an Emerald Princ-!"
"STOP!" Mara jumped up and yelled.
"Holy Weed!" Elise jumped from her seat, her hands over her mouth, her jaw almost hit her shoes.
"HOLY WEED!"
'Weed>Tobacco. Got it.'
"Hey, calm down. You're making a scene."
She pushed her arms forward, palms pointing to each other, she grasped upon a ring the color of clouds and called out. “Wind Wall!” She cast a spell and a ball of air appeared, it grew to engulf as both, spinning around itself, encapsulating me and her, and sound.
"Don't speak of such an outrageous name ever again. I care not if she truly is the Emerald Princess. Let no one find that out until you are at least an A Rank Trainer,like… tier 50, with 8 Guai in a Bond, and 40 captures."
"Sorry for causing a scene. Here." She handed me an ornate silver ring with a boat instead of a jewel carved from a blue tinted quartz crystal at the top. "Take this."
I wore it on my little finger as it was too small for the rest.
"Leave quickly and keep you head down. Take this as well, that's a map of the County, the Village is Blue-Leaf at the Far West. You should take the canal down, and then use the ring the moment you step out of the last marble block. One last advice. I know you don't know how, but if you can Capture the Fox Guai, that will be for the better no matter what you decide to do. I recommend trying it at least. May The Lord of Shadow and of smoke be with you, Andras." She wished me goodbye and I found my feet moving on their own. I was out of the guild in moments. I could now feel at the back of my head the target I painted on there myself. Greed and Hunger overflowed from fellow man as if to devour me whole. Speculation would run wild. Emerald Princess? It couldn't be. They'd think, and they would be wrong. I hoped.
It seemed I was not safe, even with three Guai with me, I needed to grow stronger. I needed to learn, and to do that I need to Capture that Fox.