I had given the adventurer’s guild receptionist a bit of a sob story of needing work urgently to live due to the festival draining my funds away. She had in return handed me a set of work requests that fit my requirements of being well paying and getting me out of the city for a few days.

I had already discarded a number of the jobs for not being suitable. I was tempted to choose one that involved hunting a dangerous monster that had appeared near a close by village, but the extra information about the beast mentioned that it had been spotted by other villages and towns. Some of these were quite far apart. I didn’t feel like wasting time looking for the blasted thing.

Putting that one aside left me with only one other option, a monster nest investigation. Some strong monsters had made a nest in a seaside cave and it was necessary to identify them. That was the simple part. The complicated part was that if the monster was a particular type of bird monster, that according to the description provided sounded like a pelican, then I wasn’t supposed to kill it. Somehow, there were special crystal gems that could be harvested at their nests and which I would need to gather to show proof that the monsters there were indeed those. The location of the cave was also described well, so I wouldn’t be wasting time looking around for it.

Ultimately though, beggars can’t be choosers and this one did work for me. I’d grab some of the gems for my own personal use too, though Lynn hadn’t seen any success examining any of the other goods I had provided her yet.

I registered for the job and left the guild. I needed to visit the clothing shop and tell them I would be out of the capital for a few days and would pick up my order when I got back. The same with the inn. I’d need to tell the innkeeper not to give away my room, though I don’t think she would since she seems to be aware of and being used by those people keeping an eye on me.

“Mistress, why did you take that job? I know I asked you to rendezvous outside the city, but there was no reason to take one so far away.” Lynn asked.

[It’s because I plan on returning to Lullaby.] I responded.

“What!? For what reason would you need to do that, Mistress? Wouldn’t that ruin your efforts?” Lynn enquired.

[Because we need to take care of that scout group that Lorelei mentioned. They are slowly scoping out the forest so they’ll probably come across either one of the wolves or the ship in the next few days. It’s important that that doesn’t happen.] I typed.

“Mistress, I can take care of some hired simpletons.” Lynn objected.

[Simpletons?] I asked, somewhat surprised by her choice of word.

“Yes! Complete and utter morons. According to our research, their civilization hasn’t advanced in centuries. They are absolutely stagnant as a society!” Lynn explained.

[That’s not the issue right now. I’m actually positive you can do it, but you can’t without Lorelei witnessing at least the result of the weapons. I doubt that I’m lucky enough that my hidden status applies to all of them and the ship too.] I pointed out.

“That’s another reason you can’t leave! You have to put a collar on that woman to keep her in line!” Lynn said.

[If she wants to betray me, which wouldn’t even be a betrayal to begin with since she never once said she was on my side, then she had all the time today to do it. There’s not really many good options for placing something on her either. At best it would be a small item of some kind, but then she could just intentionally not carry it around. We can’t exactly put an implant in her after all without bringing her to the ship. The only other thing would be to stick around her, but that brings with it some very obvious disadvantages.] I responded.

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“Mistress should have just killed her and dealt with the fall out. Whoever came for revenge then could have led you to the someone important, or if not, killing them too might have done it.” Lynn grumbled. “I hate this world. Extremely so. The society feels so haphazardly put together because they’ve always just done whatever a ‘Spirit’ tells them to. I already know that ‘Spirit’ that that woman mentioned is going to cause problems.”

[I sadly agree with you entirely on that front, but meeting him at least once is still absolutely necessary to gather information. If he’s like me or not or possibly some other type of anomaly. Anyway! No matter what you say, I’m coming back to the ship so I can help take care of that group. Also, so I can relax and take a shower and sleep in a good bed and a number of other things to be honest. This society is better than some medieval hell hole, but not much better.]

“If Mistress insists.” Lynn answered moodily before brightening up. “I’ll just take this chance to show you all the wonderful presents I have for you. I’m sure you’ll enjoy them!”

[What did you do, Lynn?] I asked.

No response.

[I order you to answer!] I typed quickly.

“I can’t recall doing anything! Oh no! The connection from your side is broken Mistress. We’ll have to wait until you’re back at the ship to continue this conversation.” Lynn said happily.

The visual keyboard I had been using was gone and I’m sure she turned off the rest in just such a way that I won’t be able to send her another order. Why does my AI have to be so weird?

I hummed to myself. I guess I was completely and absolutely to blame for it, huh? Well, given her hobby, I should probably expect a lot of new outfits when I get to Lullaby. Probably. I don’t think she can do anything worse than that.

Please let it not be something worse than that.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

It took me some time to leave the city, more so the traveling through the crowded streets than to finish my two errands. Due to that, there was someone watching me when I left the city. I wonder if they’ll send someone to follow me? It might be interesting if they do.

Well, that’s a problem for later. I had a more pressing matter at the moment.

“Come on, Coa. Just eat this jerky.” She growled at me and turned her head.

Damn this spoiled snake. She thought we were going to eat at the inn, so when we instead left without getting anything to eat and then didn’t stop on the way out of the city, now she refuses to eat perfectly good jerky. It’s out of my supplies from Lullaby! It’s not bad jerky!

“Look, Coa.” She glanced at me with her left eye. I took a bite from the jerky. “It’s tasty.”I told her before breaking another piece off and holding it to her mouth.

Finally, she opened her and mouth and consumed it.

…

…

God damn it Coa! She just spit the damn jerky at my face! “Coa, I’ve come to the realization that maybe I’ve been pampering you too much. Perhaps I’m going to have to start being a lot more strict on you.” I glared at her. “Regrettably, I’m pressed for time, so I can’t start immediately. Just know this, you aren’t getting anything other than this jerky right now. So enjoy being hungry for the first time in weeks.”

Coa squawked in protest, but I ignored her and merely continued on.

Looking up at the sky, I realized that I may have been in too much of a rush to leave the city. It was only late afternoon which meant I had hours to go until Lynn could pick me up. Other than admiring the ocean, there was nothing I could really do, though it did bring to mind how perfect that dungeon sea had been in comparison. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that that place had been intentionally designed to be beautiful.

Another hour passed and still no sign of any followers. I was so bored. I threw a rock at a small bird that was on a branch ahead of me. It exploded into body parts which caused Coa to perk up. She had been holding out against me despite her obvious hunger, but now she propelled herself toward this new source of food. Before she reached them though, I used my psi to launch them off into the ocean. Coa froze as she saw the meat vanish from her eyes. She craned her head desperately back and forth before letting out a shrill cry. She wailed out her frustration loudly.

Which probably wasn’t the smartest idea for a tiny, weak little thing like her.

A small shape shot out of a hole in the ground on a direct course for her. I was about to block the creature with my psi but to my surprise, Coa sprung into the air with a strong flap of her wings. I had not expected her to even notice the threat.

Regrettably, she didn’t yet have the strength to stay airborne and she was starting to come back down despite her frantic efforts. She was slowly gliding back to me while crying out for me to protect her. This turn of events might be just what she needs though. “Coa, if you want to eat something fresh, then here is your chance. Look, it delivered itself right to you. All you have to do is catch it, on your own, I am not going to help you at all.” To emphasize my comment, I increased the distance between us by about six meters. My scanner had told me that the beast was a mutated weasel and only a few levels higher than Coa. She should be able to handle this.

Coa didn’t appear like she understood me. She was now warbling and wobbling back and forth in the air. What a difficult pet she was. “Coa. If you kill that.” I pointed at the weasel. “You can eat it. Food. Understand now?”