After signing the papers, not before fully reading them, and giving half of them back to Murrs, Velvet grabbed the hut keys.

“Why is one made of glass?” Of the three keys she got, one was transparent, with several symbols across it. She turned to ask Ceres, but saw that he had gone to talk to some other mage.

“That one is for you to give to someone, and be able to call it back if you fight with them.” Murrs said, as if the answer was obvious.

“Why give someone else a key? I can just bring them with me if I want to let them in.”

“You can just keep the key for yourself…” Murrs’ customer smile twitched. “It’s your choice in the end.” She looked at Nereus. “Do you want to see the options, mister?”

“No.”

Velvet felt Gertine lighty poking her, so she turned to look at her, receiving a slight ‘look back’ gesture with the eyes.

So she turned her whole head, hearing a tsk from her.

I meant peek! Not ‘Turn your whole head like an Udulluay’! Gertine thought.

Oh, Igern and company are done. She saw two more people. One was the girl with blue hair that she remembered seeing on the airship with the pet snake. And the other was…

“Creftalia! Oh, hello!” Velvet waved her hand happily, to the poor girl's dismay.

Creftalia looked at Velvet for a few seconds, trying to remember who she was…

And once she did, she wanted to go back to the sweet ignorance. It was Velvet, the mage that blew her up after sweetalking her! She almost turned around and fled, but ended up just getting behind Igern.

She thought a bit, and changed her position to be behind Dianthus.

Thinking a bit more, she went behind the blue haired girl. All of that happened in a second.

“What did you do to her?” Gertine asked, also having seen that.

“I don’t remember, I really don’t know what’s gotten into her.” Velvet joked, to which Gertine answered by scoffing. She knew Velvet was a knowledge mage, so the idea of her ‘forgetting’ something was stupid.

Nereus looked at Creftalia, and then at Velvet. “Go and ask her then.”

“Ne-re-us. Don’t you have to go back with our dear Igern? Well, no need, he is coming here.” Velvet saw Igern walking towards them, well, towards the counter, actually.

Murrs cleared her throat. “Good morning mister! Do you want to see the housing options?”

“No, we already have ours arranged. I just came to pick the keys and papers.” He pushed some signed paper on the counter towards Murrs, who first looked dejected, since no one wanted to see the damn book, but once she saw the paper, her face did a full turn back to cheerfulness.

“Five sets of keys for the Marine Spring Palace.”

“Eh? Palace?” Velvet asked. “I didn’t see any palace from outside…”

“It’s inside a pocket dimension.” Dianthus explained. He had gotten closer while Igern waited, probably wanting to be nosy.

“Indeed!” Murrs added. “We also have castles, manors, islands, and houses.”

Velvet wanted to ask for the price of those, but Igern cleared his throat, annoyed that Dianthus didn’t stay put, so Murrs started hurrying up, putting the keys and papers on top of the counter in record time.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Igern took four sets, leaving one. He gave one set to Nereus.

“You need to sign here, here and here.” When Nereus just stared blankly at him, he corrected himself. “Put ink on your finger and press it here, here and here. You’ve done this before.” He waited until he was sure Nereus understood, and went back to the girls.

“Don’t I get an explanation? Man, he left me like this.” Dianthus said. He wanted Velvet to hear him and make conversation, since he was still interested in poking Lothrigern, but the girl had gone to Nereus, snooping over the pages.

“It has a dance hall…” She was looking at the palace blueprints, amazed.

“What does this say?” Nereus asked.

“Dining hall.”

“Where is the kitchen?”

“This one here, next to the dining hall.”

“Where is my room?”

“Um, lemme see…” She flipped the pages. “Here. Second floor, third one to the right.”

“Why do I have a glass key?”

“Hey c'mon, that one was already asked by me! To give someone else access!”

She waited for Nereus to ask ‘For what?’, but he just said “Ah.”

Why is that one of the things you understand clearly…?! Even Igern just turned!

“I’m going to unpack my things.” Gertine said, waving goodbye to them.

This time there was no concealment spell to mess with things, so they could see each other whenever.

“Oh, I should go do that too…” Velvet said.

To tell the truth, she wanted to fall asleep and trigger some corruption, but that could wait until night.

“Do you want to know anything else?” She asked Nereus, who had finished pressing his finger on the pages.

“I don’t think so.” He said. “Well… Do I give these pages to Igern or to the cat?”

“Her name is Murrs.”

“My name is Murrs!” They spoke at the same time, but Murrs’ voice was higher. “And you can give me the signed papers!”

Since Nereus was with his team now, Velvet looked to where Ceres was.

He was still talking.

Well, I can talk to him tomorrow.

“Creftalia!” She suddenly said, making the poor girl in question jump.

“Velvet! W-what do you want?”

“Nothing, just saying goodbye. And see you soon!” Velvet laughed, and Creftalia almost whimpered at those last words.

But Velvet was leaving, and that’s all she wante-

Velvet suddenly turned around. “Oh, another thing!”

Why?! You were just at the door!

Both of them looked at each other in silence for a few seconds, and Creftalia was starting to feel anxious.

“W-what is it?” She surrendered, asking.

“I forgot. Well, bye!” Velvet left, leaving her with the mouth gaping.

You did that on purpose! Creftalia screamed in her mind.

…

Seven hundred meters deep into the forest, three hundred away from the closest point to the barrier.

“And I was thinking I didn’t need to walk any more today.” Velvet complained once she arrived at the hut.

It was cylindrical, more wide than tall, with three floors. The lower one had the kitchen, and some free space. Maybe in the past it was a lounge, but now it was empty, except for a table and some broken chairs.

The second floor had the bathroom. Some metal pipes came from there, going to the well, and they worked fine. The cauldron was broken, so she only had cold water to bathe. Unless she used magic, of course.

And magic was cheaper than buying coal.

Apart from the bathroom, the hut once again had more free, empty space. Maybe for an alchemy room or something.

The third floor was not a floor, it was an attic. Smaller than the rest of the floors, and of lower ceiling, she had to climb some extendible metal stairs to arrive. A bedroom was there. The bed looked dusty, and probably filled with bugs.

A broken lamp was next to the bed, and a wardrobe that had miraculously survived was next to the wall.

Being positive, the bedroom had a window with an amazing view. Getting ready to spend the day on cleaning and repairs, Velvet cracked her knuckles.

“Hyde, if you want some bugs to snack on, better get them before I do.”