Edited by Solyom
Me and Diavora took a stroll down the street as we were heading to the cafeteria. Why the cafeteria? Maybe because from the tables, you could see if someone is not eavesdropping on you? Maybe because using a few back alleys, one could quickly get to the most important buildings in the town? Or maybe because they were serving very decent pies? Pies I missed?
- “M..Mister Zariel…” Dia (yes, I allowed myself to shorten her name. It’s cuter this way, isn’t it?) started, yet I stopped her in the middle of her sentence.
- “Drop the formalities. As long as you are not a noble that needs to learn a place, Zariel is enough. Or, as I hate my name, Zari is more than enough.”
- “In that case, you can call me…However you like.” Oh, was that a blush? “But that’s not the case! I think we are…”
- “Being tailed?”
- “So you noticed!” she frowned. Apparently she didn’t like the fact that I did not let her know right away.
- “I am a bloody adventurer! Of course I noticed, that’s what I do for living!... Or actually, as hobby as I am making actual money from illegal transactions on the black-market… Fear not. It’s just Gisele.”
- “Your girlfriend? Didn’t you ask her to stay?”
- “I did, but what made you think that she would listen?”
- “She doesn’t trust you?”
- “It’s not the case.”
- “Then… what is it?”
- “She is just a little… overprotective. And… Um… I am lacking a word.”
- “Overly attached?”
- “Yeah, I blame the dragon’s blood. There are times she sees me as… once again I don’t know how to call it.”
- “Her property?” there was some mocking sparkle in the eye of my conversation partner for a second.
- “Hey! Don’t deal in absolutes! That could be at least an exaggeration! …On the other hand, she called me her treasure once… and tried to lock me in a chest.”
- “Hahaha! You are such a joker!”
- “Actually, I am quite serious.”
Eventually, we reached a cafeteria in the university part of the city. The one I visited a few times already. The chestnut haired waitress smiled a little seeing me.
- “Isn’t it our favorite customer? And with another lady?!”
- “Hey! That’s what I get for bringing you a new customer? Slanders and insults?! What a time to be alive. Betrayed by the people I trusted most!”
- “Fine, fine! Not my business! Your regular table is free right now. Let me guess, the cake of the day and black coffee for you?” the waitress quickly followed us to the table at the corner of the little garden. From this place, we could easily look at the rest of the guests. Because of the hour, not many people were sitting here.
- “You know me too well. I should change the pattern.”
- “And what will your friend have?” the waitress asked.
- “Oh. No, I am fi…” Dia raised her hands in polite refusal.
- “If you won’t share the joy of the cake with me, you are free to go and consider our negotiation to be finished.”
- “I expected nothing less from our favorite client!” the waitress raised her thumb.
- “I… don’t really eat sweets…”
- “Another cake-hater? What did I do to offend you!?” I asked looking at the sky above me
- “It’s not like that, I just have to keep my body in shape… You know the reason, Mis… Zarie… Zari.”
- “We are not negotiating this matter, Dia, we won’t start talking about the job before you eat at least one slice. Mika…” I called the waitress’ name, that I learned during the countless visits here “.. Get her some cake with baked apples and cinnamon and tea.”
- “Coming right away!” the waitress vanished in the little building.
- “M… Zari, as much as I enjoy visiting such fancy places I am afraid that we have to talk about business.”
- “I told Madam Godamn, that as soon as the receipt would be done I would start sending potions to..”
- “I was not sent by the Madam. I mean, yes, she was the one who gave me the direct order but I was told to deliver a message from the Syndicate.”
- “Why you?” this just picked my curiosity.
- “Well, mostly because we know each other, he didn’t want to think that the message is some kind of provocation...”
The HE was probably Rogue. Smart of him, indeed, if some random guy would show up around, and started giving me some twisted data out of blue, the first thing I would do was looking for some agents around.
- “… also, they were thinking I would not draw too much attention…”
Now I needed to snort.
- “Girl, when was the last time you looked in mirror? Drawing attention is exactly what you are doing right now! This is why the most beautiful woman in the city is a poor deliveryman.”
I noticed someone sitting on the table near ours, right behind the little tree that covered most of her body. SHE was holding a huge book. A book with two hollows through which she was looking in our direction.
- “Here, fruit cake and tea for the lady…” Mika put the little plates in front of the prostitute. “… and a chocolate dream for you! And as always, your boring black coffee.”
- “Thank you, one more question, do you have anything NOT sweet here?” I asked, taking my share.
- “HE?! Why would you ask that? Well, we do. We recently started making meat-pies, mostly as male academy students wanted something more… substantial to eat.”
- “Great. Serve it to the lady on the table over there… Also, ask her to turn the book for she is holding it upside-down. And it looks ridiculous.” As soon as the cafeteria worker disappeared I once again resumed our conversation “So, what our Friend wants from me this time?”
- “… Can I repeat the message word-to-word or do you prefer a version more suitable to this lovely place?”
- “Don’t water it down.”
- “Very well, in that case, he said: Zariel, do I have to fucking remind you that you are supposed to be responsible for the whole bloody institution?! And it is something you demanded? We would be very, very grateful if you would consider DOING WHAT YOU PROMISED! Right now we are in deep shit. The Guild not only started to sniff around but actually attacked YOUR facility as you were away. We managed to stop them, at least for now, but in a couple of days, they will try again bringing us down and this time, they won’t repeat the same mistakes. For now, we did as you asked, but we hope that somehow you can embrace this burning brothel you call a drug factory. We would really appreciate if you could take a closer look at this case soon, and by soon I mean immediately. Prove that I didn’t waste resources on pulling you off the Inquisitor’s castle. Not Sincerely. R.”
- “That asshole forgot to mention that he could WASTE those resources because he had them. And he had them because of me!” I really was offended. “Leaving those girls alone for a few weeks and what I got? Quality drops, production drops and we have the local authorities looking for us. Oh, I will give those chicks a good spanking.”
- “So, what will you do?” she asked me, resting her chin on her palms.
- “For now? I will finish my
The timing was perfect – we finished out treats right when Mika brought Gisele the food I ordered for her.
We raised to leave as the dragoness started to devour the pie from her plate, still hiding behind the book.
- “That should give us a minute of a head start.”
- “Not more? That pie was quite large.”
- “You are underestimating Gisele’s appetite and her lack of manners while dining. I hope we would lose her in the back alleys.”
I smiled widely. When was the last time I had this much fun? Running away from someone, but not to save my life. Running just for fun! And imagining the dragoness’ face! Ah, pure bliss!
- “Come on, Dia, faster!” I chuckled. The woman, despite being fit, was most certainly not a fan of excessive training. Her cloths were also not made for any particular activities.
From the university town to the merchant section, from the merchant section to the “crossroad” and then to slums. Just like I predicted – Gisele eventually caught up to us, keeping a safe distance from us, as if she was still pretending that she works “undercover”. Unfortunately for you, Gisele, the slums are my territory!
As we were passing a certain group of people, I gave them a “nod.” They nodded back and prepared to stop the chase. One man picked a cart with some cargo and slowly started walking, shutting the road. We heard a loud slamming noise behind us and an angry scream.
- “MY CABBAGES! MY CABBAGES! YOU RUINED THE LABOR OF MY LIFE!” the old thug raised his voice. “YOU WILL PAY ME FOR IT! THOSE PRECIOUS GREEN BEAUTIES! WASTED!... How much!? HOW MUCH YOU OWE ME, YOU ASK?! YOUR LIFE! NO, NOT EVEN YOUR LIFE WILL BE ENOUGH TO PAY FOR THIS CRIME! Ah, my little children! I watched them grow! I was taking care of them for so long, ah, I remember when they were but a little seeds I put in ground…”
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
- “It’s the first time… I hear someone… being so passionate… about vegetables…” Dia said, catching her breath.
- “I think he earned us another 10 minutes. Then Gis should have noticed that she is being stopped on purpose.”
- “… Now, I think you are too optimistic in your calculations!”
- “I am most certainly not! Maybe I shouldn’t be saying that, but Gisele is very, very dumb.” I smiled once again. “I am more than sure that those little gears in her mind will take their sweet time before they would start working.”
Eventually, we could slow down a little, as we reached the gates of the factory.
- “Salute! Boss incoming!”
Some cheerful man that apparently worked for me (I can’t bother to remember all of them) yelled, taking a soldier’s pose.
- “Shut the fuck up, Jesse, you will get us killed!” another one whispered.
- “You, Jesse!” I pointed at the saluting man.
- “Finally, someone will shut his big mouth…” another thug whispered happily.
- “I got job for you, it is possible that someone will come after us here…”
- “Fear not boss, we will stop them…”
- “No. You will let her through. Even more, you will be acting as if you are clueless idiots that can’t do the guard duty properly. She may try to sneak in, but damn, she is clumsy. I don’t want any conflict in here. Just avert your eyes.”
- “Sir, yes, sir!”
Ok, one problem down. 665 more to go.
- “Ah, my second home…” I said after a moment as we were getting on the floor of the factory. “… Every time I come here my mind is put at ease. Everything is so much simpler here. Ingredients, process, potion. Repeat. I think that I can officially welcome you in my little castle.”
- “It is… very… very… impressive.” Dia really wanted to be polite.
- “With all due respect to you, lady, bullshit. It’s an old, wet storage. Unfortunately, for now we can’t change our location. One: because we need a spacious building, two: because we need to stay hidden. Ah, I think the second point is no longer valid, is it? To be honest they acted much faster than I thought. That makes things far more complicated… but now, my assistants!”
I said and put my finger on my lips, showing my companion to be quiet. Then I opened the door to the cabinet.
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Morgana and the girls were inside. They were sitting at the table, near the center of the room. The potions that they were creating right now were slowly boiling in the pots, so they didn’t have much to do. Only Morgana could see as I was entering, the rest of the girls had their back turned to me. Once again I made a silencing gesture as I kept approaching the group.
- “… and everything is going quite smoothly. Still, I am happy that Zariel is away, he would be mad that we wasted so many ingredients.” One of my students said.
Hoooo?! Wasting my precious herbs?! And calling me just by name? No “Master Zariel” no “Teacher Zariel?”. Am I your colleague, or what?!
Morgana made an ugly expression, probably to warn the rest of the students.
- “Yeah! He is getting mad at such trivial things! I am happy he is away! As for me, he can never get back!” Another supported the first one.
I smiled wider. The demoness eyes almost popped out.
- “Don’t be ungrateful! He was the one who showed us everything we can do!” This time Clarice spoke up. Ah, I am proud of you, lass. “…Yes, he is quite… too rough with us, he definitely could appreciate our work more… maybe reward us… or he could be less of a jerk…” she noticed Morgana expression. “… he isn’t standing behind me, is he?”
I put my hands on her shoulders.
- “Soooo, my little birdies need some more attention?” none turned back to me. They just stiffened completely and started turning pale. “…You want some more love from me?”
I kept talking in a sweet-toned voice.
- “But… how am I supposed to do that… If I am not supposed to return? To my own facility, that is? And how could I be happy knowing, that you are wasting my resources left and right? As you are calling me such a nasty names…”
The girls shivered. The last one was a bluff, but guessing by their reactions, I hit the spot.
- “You are breaking my heart. My soul is bleeding painfully because of you, not only you are disrespectful to me, but you are failing in your duties! Did I leave you alone for three weeks? Four? And what I come to? To a messenger waiting at my home telling me, that Rogue is very, very displeased with the actions of my humble factory! Do you know what it means? That I need to once again teach you a few lessons.”
Oh, they were shivering so delightfully!
- “Clarice!” I called her mostly because I kept forgetting the names of the rest of them. And using appraisal over and over again is exhausting my eyes so, so much.
- “Y…YES!?”
- “How many potions do we have in stock?”
- “Four crates of high-quality health regeneration, eighteen of medium quality and…”
- “That’s enough.”
- “… we also have quite a lot of low qua…”
- “Move low quality to the back room.” The back room is where we usually get rid of wastes.
- “Sir! With all due respect, but we can still sell those! We could at least cover the expenses we wasted on creating those.”
- “Clarice, do I have to repeat myself? This is why I prefer spending time with adventurers and soldiers over spending it with scholars and nobles. The first one does not disobey commands. Do you know how terrible it would be if every soldier would question the decisions of the commanders?! Can you imagine the catastrophe?! You see the enemy cavalry charging at your forces, so you yell
- “Weren’t you the one who told us to think differently?! To always ask questions?!” One of the girls, damn, I really need to learn their names, shouted out.
- “Can you give me a receipt for the improved Stamina regeneration potion I gave you before I left? Without looking at the notes, of course.”
- “… That’s… River grass…” she looked at me uncertainly. I nodded. “… Aurora root… and leaves of mandragora?”
- “You missed by
Once again I looked at Clarice.
- “Starting from, tomorrow we open a little hospital for the poor. Rogue was supposed to organize the rest stuff before I returned. We will give the
They looked upon each other awkwardly, Morgana raised her brow.
- “WHAT?!”
- “Sir, you never appeared to us as someone who would… voluntary help people in need.” One of them spoke up.
I shivered.
- “M..me?! Helping out?! No! Nonononono and no! Wasting my precious resources is the last thing I want! I will use them! Use the people! That’s right! I am almost sure that those craps you made have no real value and no one would ever pay a copper for it, and this way I will be able to get a few friends in the Senate! You know, they like good deeds. This will help me to keep this little institution running!”
That really was my intention. Yet I said my little monologue in bit shaky tone as if I was making it all up. The girls don’t like me, I can’t blame them as I was more than just harsh on them. Oh, I regret nothing! It was needed for this little operation to start working in the first place. Maybe I will try changing my attitude a bit and this little show could possibly help me in that. You know, the image of someone that is harsher in reality so he could force you into getting better.
- “A..Anyway!” I coughed up few times as if I wanted to awkwardly change the subject. “Listen up, you lil’ ungrateful wenches! I will use my precious time I should be spending with my friends to show you how you actually are supposed to make those potions! And you better pay attention or I will spank the hell out of you!” I growled pretending to be angry at them.
I can’t tell if it worked, a few girls indeed looked upon each other again, with a confused gaze. Even the demoness titled her head to the side. Still, she remained silent and just joined the girls in my little lesson. Oh, I bet her skills in alchemy were far more superior and she did not need any more tips. She probably was more interested in my ways of teaching, in the end she also was a teacher of the first magicians.
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Same time, the lower level of the factory.
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Gisele glued her back to the wall letting, a few thugs walk past her. Getting in here was extremely easy! She was so, so proud of herself! She never thought about herself as a sneaky person, yet apparently, all those years in the dungeons made her pick up a few tricks!
- “Ya heard what Jesse said? The boss’ new orders?”
- “Ay, some half-dragoness entered the facility. But, why for fuck’s sake are we supposed to ignore her!?”
… What?!
- “Apparently she is the boss’s woman. A bit overprotective or something. Right now she wants to spy on him or something like that.”
- “THAT BASTARD IS FUCKING A DRAGON!? That’s a man! Just look at him, smart, rich and covered in chicks!”
- “Ay, I wouldn’t mind quick one on one with that Clarice! Damn.”
- “Next thing you know after touching her is waking up with sliced throat!”
- “Ha! I would love to! I doubt Rouge would be that merciful.”
- “Well, I prefer that girl he brought today with himself! Man! Who is that girl!”
- “Tell me you are joking! Wait, you really don’t know?! That’s miss Diavora! From the Pink Ether!”
- “That brothel!? So she is just a whore!”
- “You can call your mother a whore! She is a high-level prostitute!”
- “Actually, my mother was a whore! What’s the difference?”
- “The difference is that she takes 20 times more coins than your average port wench! Man, if you think that Clarice is out of our league than that girl is yet another ten steps above!”
- “How much money would I have to make to spend a night with her?”
- “Money ain’t everything dummy! To step into the Ether, you need to have the right position first! That’s the place where aristocrats go!”
- “… or the boss.”
- “… You think he… and her… you know?”
- “Well, she was quite polite with him… and it needs to be said, if someone in this bloody building could get in there and afford her, that would be the boss.”
- “…lucky bastard.”
- “Yeah, I hate him.”
- “But he pays us a decent wage for an easy job.”
- “… that makes me like him.”
- “But still, he shouldn’t live every male’s dream life in front of us!”
- “… in that case I hate him just a little.”
A whore. SHE IS A BLOODY WHORE! And they even said that right to her face! They share nothing but BUSINESS! Their interaction may be ILLEGAL!
The gears in the dragoness' mind started turning.
Business = prostitution
Illegal = illegal brothel
Gis blew steam through her nose. And then by accident, she hit a bucket with her tail causing quite a noise.
The thugs looked right at Gisele, then upon each other, drew their swords and started walking all around the place.
- “WHO IS THERE?!”
- “Get out, you coward!”
They were walking literally around the dragoness.
- “You can’t keep hiding forever!”
- “Hm… they are gone.” One said, pushing his sword back in his sheath.
- “Must have been the wind.” Another followed his comrade’s action.
- “It was nothing.”
They resumed their awkward patrol.
But Gisele didn’t care. Her blood was simply boiling. She quickly inhaled and exhaled air few times and returned to the guild. Oh, may Zari just return to the guild, she will show him the definition of hell.