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Sorry for the delay!
Was very busy today so I didn't have time to post the Chapter yet!
Another bad thing is that this weekend is also busy for me because a relative of mine has a birthday and I have a few things to take care off so the double Chapter will probably be after the weekend! D:
I still hope you enjoy this Chapter!
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Chapter 43: The Beginning
With a somewhat slow reaction, Makoto opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling above.
His mind was a hazy mess.
Everything that happened the day before was a bit unclear and only slowly things started to fall back into place.
Hearing a yawn to his right, Makoto was able to see the image of a nude Sharon with her nice pair of breasts clearly visible.
She rubbed the last bits of sleep out of her eyes and looked at him with a dreamy smile.
Unable to help it, he smiled back at her in the same way before standing up.
It was currently in the early hours of a new day and he couldn't help his hands naturally grasping for her private area after watching her get dressed for a while.
It was just too much of a temptation not to.
Showing him a dirty smile, Sharon still pushed his hands away.
"I can't, I told you about my work and I have to go back to my capsule and log on or I will be in trouble..."
Putting his hands down there again she stopped for a second and closed her eyes while biting her lip.
"I told you...I can't..."
Interestingly enough she didn't try to take his hand away anymore but he decided not to torture her anymore and removed his fingers.
"I know, I was only trying to mess with you. You have to promise me one thing though, come back and visit again soon alright?"
Nodding still with closed eyes, Sharon leaned against him and kissed his neck, only half dressed.
The desire to just undress her again and continue with what he had hinted at was still there but he decided to suppress it for now, Sharon had her work and he could not miss an entire day of College again so both their hands were tied.
With yet another intense and long kiss they finished getting ready and exchanged numbers before saying bye at the front door, both heading in a different direction, their hearts longing for another...
.....
In the evening after College, Makoto returned home, seeing the messed up bed covers reminded him again of their previous activities and he couldn't wait to see her again.
A quick bite and visit to the toilet later, he entered the Capsule and was back inside Azalon.
.....
Sharon was not inside the game at the moment, she probably took a break after staying in it for most of the day already.
A smiling Narkas welcomed him downstairs in the dining room, it was currently morning and the man only seemed to attend work in the afternoon.
"Good to see you back, it has been a few days already and your girlfriend returned quite some time ago to go hunting in the Labyrinth."
"Yeah I know, I had to take care of a few things, sorry for not coming back for a while."
"Don't mention it, as I said, I know you foreigners have a place you always return to.
Anyways, now that you are back we can discuss this very interesting situation we are in right now."
Seeing his Uncle's eyes sparkle together with the mischievous smile instantly intrigued Makoto and he attentively listened to the man.
"After creating our house, quite a lot of options have started to open up, most of them involve the opportunity to increase our overall standing and influence.
To put it simple, we are going to try to get some more Power in, and outside of the Capital.
We do have one problem but I will see to it as soon as I can.
You are aware that I currently only have jurisdiction over the Magic Institute right?
The problem with that is that I spend most of the money it earns on keeping things running.
Only a small portion actually goes into my own pocket, I am saying small but it is miniscule really, after all I could only recently afford this mansion after working for over 10 years inside the Capital and taking care of the Magic Institute.
It is also one of the reasons why I myself only have a few Servants employed unlike other houses that pay many dozens.
As I said, it doesn't matter right now but I think it was necessary to at least inform you of our tight budget.
The first thing we have to do now that you are here is to decide on a crest.
Every house has an animal or creature that represents it, something that we can show on our chest or outside the gate with pride.
What do you think our House should have as a Crest?"
A bit surprised about this sudden request, Makoto needed a good moment and named the first 3 things that came to mind but Narkas shook his head with a frown.
"No, Dragons are incredibly overused, same with the Wolf and Tiger that you mentioned.
I also don't think that it would fit our house, we are neither ancient like the dragons nor are there many of us like with the wolfs and you might be fierce like a tiger but I sure as hell am not..."
Realizing that once they picked the Crest it would be incredibly difficult to change it as other people would identify their house just by hearing the Animal, it turned out to be quite the difficult nut to crack.
No matter what animal or mythological beast they both mentioned, not one of them seemed to fit house Forrowfell.
It was not even to the point where one of them felt like a specific animal could fit.
Staring at the table in silence, both men had reached the end of their wits.
Trying to get some inspiration, Makoto opened his inventory and went through it from top to bottom only to stop at the first item that he had completely forgotten about.
An item from a long time ago.
"What about a Spider?"
Quickly turning his head, Narkas showed a surprised expression and then started to think out loud.
"Something that traps its prey, a deadly animal that is a master at what it does while getting everything caught in its web... I like it."
Grinning from one ear to the other his Uncle looked at him, visible excitement in his eyes.
"How about a crimson spider on black for a Crest?"
Makoto finally asked, choosing his favorite color together with the only thing that could possibly go well with it, black.
"That is a great idea, where did you pull that one from boy?"
Clearly impressed, Narkas asked Makoto and without hesitation he pulled out the spider egg.
"It was this that gave me the idea."
With an open mouth the man stared at the small object in his hand before responding with a slightly higher voice.
"Where did you get this from Makoto?"
"I found it in a Dungeon quite some time ago and my guess is that it grows into a pet but considering I have been carrying it for ages now I am probably doing something wrong."
"Not probably but you are doing something wrong, getting a pet egg is an incredibly rare chance.
If I remember correctly there are only 20 or so found every single year in all of Azalon, well this might change now that you foreigners started to show up, killing everything that even remotely resembles a monster but generally Pets are something only owned by very powerful and old houses, it is a priceless possession that shows wealth and power."
Makoto couldn't believe that this small rock colored egg in his hand was an incredibly valuable item but he decided to put it in his Inventory for now for safety reasons.
"So how can I get it to hatch then?"
"Well it needs a certain incubation chamber and the creation of a specific magic contract. The easiest thing to do would be to go to Pet-Center and let them take care of it until it hatches.
They not only take care of hatching but also take care of other creatures that nobles or even commoners keep as normal pets like stray dogs or cats for example.
You don't have to worry about it, they know what they are doing and would also never steal it from you so don't show such a terrified face."
Thankful for the explanation, Makoto watched Narkas call for Baltas and rattle down a list of orders.
"First, contact the best blacksmith in town, tell him that his favor is payed if he goes to work right now and creates a Crest for my house, Crimson Spider on black.
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
Tell him to forge 100 metal crests to apply to armor, 2 big Crests about a foot high and wide that we can attach to the front gate.
After that contact the Master Tailor Brendon, I want him to make a banner with the same Crest design, clothes matching those colors and finally to get in touch with someone selling cheap red and black jewels to create brooches that we can pin on our every day clothes to represent our house.
This Is going to be pride of house so go to the bank and withdraw everything, I am pulling all stops and savings, we either do this right or not at all!
Fuck getting a pension when I'm old, we have a goddamn Crest for my house!"
Seeing the happy smile on his Uncle's face while he was putting order after order on the poor Baltas, Makoto couldn't help but smile.
It was clearly visible just how much this house meant to Narkas and also feeling a bit of the same excitement, Makoto decided to head out and get their prized spider pet hatched so they also had something to brag about to other houses.
It was not too hard to find the Pet-Center in Elisante.
Until now Makoto had been unaware of its actual existence but that was not surprising, there was only one and if you didn't know what you were looking for, in a city as grand and complex as this one it was not surprising that he had not seen it before.
There was a few players inside at different counters, inquiring about an especially cute looking cuddly creature but Makoto paid all of this no mind.
As far as he understood it, pets seemed to only be cosmetic items which made sense, this wasn't like the very popular game where you battled with the creatures that you trained after all.
"Weclome to the Pet-Center, what can I do for you Sir?"
Feeling a certain déjà vu hearing this line, Makoto decided to concentrate on the here and now.
"I would like to grow a pet if that is possible."
Clearly surprised, the man nodded his head and motioned to follow him.
"First of all, what type of creature do you wish to hatch? I am also guessing this is for a noble house?"
"It is a Spider and yes for my own, house Forrowfell."
Stopping immediately and going pale the attendant showed a scared expression and bowed deeply.
"My apologies, lord! I did not realize that you were of noble birth as a foreigner, please excuse my previously rude behavior!"
Unsure what to really say after this extreme behavior, Makoto tried to defuse the situation.
"No, it's alright really, you can just talk to me casually, I don't mind."
Clearly unsure if he was kidding or not, the man looked up only to see Makoto's hand that motioned for him to rise.
"A-Anyways, it is a spider, yes."
Trying to get back on track, Makoto followed the now pale man deeper into the building, passing many doors with strange pulsating magic circles around the floor.
All in all it was rather simple.
He only had to drop off his egg in a specific magic circle, after that put some of his blood on it and Makoto was then told to come back in two days time to pick up his hatched pet.
Next up, Makoto decided to take care of something that had been weighing on his mind and Inventory for a while now.
He still had the gigantic pile of silver and gold that he had robbed from house Stimridge.
It would surely attract attention to just sell an incredibly amount like that to a random Merchant so the only option for him was to find a few shadier characters to take the whole amount off him.
After descending to the ground layer where it was incredibly dark even during the day, Makoto asked around for a Merchant that wouldn't ask many questions and soon enough found himself before a strange little shop.
The interior was completely bare and there was a counter but nothing to sell displayed anywhere.
A hooded man stood behind it and welcomed Makoto with a deep voice.
"What business do you bring to me foreigner?"
Showing a crooked smile, Makoto pulled one of the smaller gold figurines and dropped it before the man.
"The lucrative kind."
Hearing the man gasp made him smile even more but what followed next immediately wiped it from his face.
"House Stimridge! I would recognize that horned Drake from a mile away!
So you are the one that the entire city its talking about, the one that robbed and murdered the head of the house in his own mansion!"
Not happy at all about being seen through this easily and noticing the danger if word got around that he was still in town, Makoto remembered the recent title he had received and put everythithin on this one card.
Faking a confident smile, he stepped closer.
"Indeed it was, there are going to be a lot of changes from here on out, house Stimridge has already paid the price.
I am warning you to think about this carefully, do you want to be on the winning side or end up just like them?"
With a quick movement, Makoto pulled back the man's hood, revealing a face that was mostly hidden by a pair of thick and clouded glasses, giving him the look of an oversized mole.
Clearly intimidated by Makoto's words and behavior, the trembling Merchant tried to step back but an iron grip on his cloak was keeping him from running away.
A glimmer from his crimson red eyes was enough to break any and all resistance from the man and Makoto held him at his cloak like on a leash while following him into a back room.
The man's name was Finn and with a bit of convincing from Makoto the Merchant pulled out a Servant contract and modified it to have 'absolute loyalty' and 'never betray in any way or form' togetehr with ' lasts forever' in it.
With a demonic smile he pressed Finn's bleeding thumb on the contract, signing it by blood and effectively making it so if he should every break it, the man would die right away.
With a stream of tears flowing from behind his glasses, Finn looked at Makoto as if he was the devil reincarnated.
Well aware that he had practically slaved the man to serve him forever, he started speaking again.
"Now that I can trust you, I would like to propose a business option."
With a quick motion, Makoto dropped all the Gold and Silver from his Inventory and two gigantic piles appeared out of nowhere beside the whining Finn which effectively shut him up.
"Do you think you can distribute this much Gold and Silver without it attracting any suspicion?"
Wiping away the tears on his face and taking on a serious attitude, Finn looked at both piles for a second and nodded.
"If I contact a blacksmith I know and give him 10% of the sales he can turn all of this into bars of Gold and Silver which we could then sell, that would not attract too much attention if we do it over a span of one week."
Remembering the words of his Uncle, Makoto decided to abandon the idea of selling everything right away and instead had a different idea.
"Only sell 1 fifth of the Gold and Silver bars.
Tell your blacksmith to but the crest of a spider on the rest and deliver the bars to house Forrowfell after finishing it all up.
If I am not there at the moment while you deliver them, wait for as long as necassery.
I might have further need for your assistance and you are going to be my eyes and ears for the Underworld of Elisante from now on, understood?"
Nodding with visible fear, the Merchant got started and put the gold and silver into smaller sacks while Makoto left him to his own devices.
After quickly ascending upwards from the lowest layer a devilish smile appeared on his face.
If Narkas really wanted to grasp for more power they would need resources, so why not use the ones that had been kindly 'gifted' from house Stimridge?
Feeling an evil laugh escape his throat, a crimson eyed devil went up layer after layer...
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See you all tomorrow!