Proofread: by Anuel (cuz some lazy bastards ain’t responding! What a hopeless slaves. So what that I gave them only 12 hours before posting it and they didn’t even get information about the new chapter being ready for proofreading?!?! )
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I was walking through the corridor as I was heading up to the room we rented with Gisele, all this time I have been thinking about one little thing that has been bugging me for past few minutes.
I have been talking with these two elves for mere five minutes, yet they managed to insult me, insult Gis, annoy me, insult me again, annoy me again and finished with insulting Gis for the very last time. Fucking tree-huggers, because of them I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I want to meet them during those training sessions, just to humiliate them, break them down and make them beg for forgiveness… On the other, that’s exactly what they want. Why did they start sniffing around anyway?! Why do they care?
High elves, as far as I know, have three phases of growing up, these phases aren’t really named, so I will allow myself to do it personally for purpose of educating you, folks:
kids – when they are running through the forests; then as they reach more or less 100 years they start being treated as our “teens”, when they leave forests and travel across the continent, joining adventurers mercenaries and such; and old farts – when they get back to forests and focus on tradition, nature, raising kids and bullshit like that.
So, I am dealing with teens. They may be just curious about everyone and everything. That and their conviction about superiority will make them pry into every little secret they would find.
Great.
Still, elf, no matter if young or old, is an elf. Dangerous, intelligent elf. It would be best just to avoid them, in the end, I am new in this city, Syndicate headquarter is far away, Jericho is far away and king that owes me a favor or two is also far away. I should better watch out not to step on the toes of some important or troublesome people…
… Who the hell am I trying to ‘convince about this nonsense? Of course that I will step not only on toes, not even on feet, but I will trample them whole, in the end, this way it will be more entertaining!
For now, it didn’t really matter, I got to my room, opened the door and fell on the bed. After few hours Gisele joined me, heavily drunk.
- “Oh fuck, he is sleeping…” she said to herself “… gotta be sneaky… better not to wake him up…” oh, she struggled to even say these words.
And then she proceeds to “sneak in”. She made two steps, kicked the chair, turned right and tripped over adventurer’s backpack that was lying on the floor.
- “Oh for fuck sake! Which moron put it there?!” she cursed
You, Gisele, you did. It’s your bag. I told you to take care of your things and put them back in their places because later these things would cause a trouble, but you said that you will have time to deal with them.
Then she fell on cabinet making two mugs dropped on the ground. Of course, they shattered.
Still pretending to be asleep I just rolled my eyes. Come on, stupid lizard, you are “this” close. You can do it!
Eventually, she managed to lie next to me (or in other words she literally collapsed on the bed making me jump a little). But there she was.
I was lying with my backs toward her, in next moment I felt the warmness of hers pushing against me. That was the thing I was waiting for. Her presence next to me. In next moment exhaustion hit me like a train. My body became heavy, I started sinking as bed started pulling me deeper.
There was everything I needed after these few, quite exhausting days in the dungeon. Comfy bed, warmness, full belly, and most wonderful music I could never grow tired of listening. Gisele’s peaceful breath. The last thing I registered before falling asleep was her tail wrapping around my leg. Our little equivalent of a hug.
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I raised up after quite a few hours, just before sunrise. And as usually I woke pushed to the verge of bed because some fat-ass dragon lying in the middle of the bed with her arms and legs spread in all directions occupying all the space.
I groaned with pain massaging muscles on my back before raising to the sitting position. Then I looked at my “worse”-half. She was still sleeping, her shirt was pulled up revealing her belly, her mouth was partly open and small trial of saliva ran across her cheek. Oh, and she snorted a little.
Still, this not very lady-like appearance somehow warmed up my heart.
… She is an angel, isn’t she?
I stretched my body some more. This was the moment I realized that my body feels… light. So very light. I have never such a freedom of movements before! It was so great that almost… awkward?
I looked at bed once again. A pieces of equipment was lying in the place I woke up. The ballast. Of course! It let me go overnight! HALLELUJAH! Fuck you Jericho and your stupid ballast! Screw your sadistic training methods! I am finally free! Unbound! Unleashed! UNCHAINED!
Because of your recent training session your body's parameters improved. END +1 DEX +1 STR +1
You no longer suffer from body exhaustion
Because of your recent activity [training] your experience has improved Exp +25
…
Apparently this whole training thing is actually making some difference, now I can easily tell why Gisele is such a beast despite relatively low level… if we can call 30-tish low.
I quickly washed my face, got myself dressed and left the room quietly in order not to wake redhead dragon. I doubted that even an earthquake would wake her up at that moment, but I didn’t dare to try. I strolled through the corridors walking toward inn section. The kitchen itself was still closed and only a few people from morning shift were preparing it, yet I still managed to get myself something light to eat. Funny how many things you can get with money, right? A little “tip” to the waitress and I got myself some freshly baked bread with meat.
As I was enjoying my meal I was also thinking about things I was supposed to do. I mentioned it before, yet I will do it now too, this city lies between different climate zones, which meant that you could buy here herbs with many different effects. I needed to visit merchants in order to get myself some better supplies for my little company, in the end, herbs that grew with help of my magic in the basement wouldn’t be nearly enough to cover market demand that will appear as soon as information about my factory would spread. Also, with the current stock we could only cook some basic stamina and health recovery potions, which is bad too. Alchemist guild served not only recoveries potions and cures but also utility potions, poisons and much, much more. Sadly, our only advantage right now is the only price on medium quality potions, which means we were targeting masses with our products. Soon, we will have to think about improving our products list while enlarging the group of customers.
What a pain in the ass.
Yet of course, as I was about to leave the guild, I met two elves right at the door, not the one I was talking with yesterday, but not less perseverant and annoying.
- “Miss Lanele wishes to know if you will honor us during our training, prince.” Girl said with dull courtesy
- “One, I don’t give a shit about your training, maybe a fart, but not a shit; two, I have no idea who
- “How vulgar!” woman looked at me with expression that suggested that in her eyes I am even to some decaying, smelly corpse
- “You should watch your tongue, human, many may find your words offensive and demand satisfaction…” Male-elf answered with completely neutral tone.
- “Stop calling me the prince and I will stop calling you in the way I like…” I found out by myself that they are not going to stop without little blackmail from my side
- “… and Miss Lanele is a daughter of High Priestess of a silver shrine in Bagoraz Forest. She will also hold same time as the time would come. Somehow you picked her interest. If you would play it well you could benefit greatly on getting to know her. But apparently, weak-minded humans can’t notice when fortune smiles at them.”
The high priestess of Bagoraz Forest. What was that supposed to tell us? ATTENTION CLASS!
In my mind, I appeared in a white coat with glasses on my nose, together with long, wooden ruler I used to point at a blackboard.
Bagoraz Forest is one of biggest natural wild forest (second after Forest of the dread) and second greatest the High Elves Kingdom on the continent (after one situated in Forest of the Mists (which is separated part of Forest of the Dread). And High Priestess (called by different names in different Kingdoms, like a priestess, speaker, prophet and so on) in elf culture is a cult leader of their nation, on par with the queen. Technically these two (Queen and Priestess) rule the whole country together. And in most cases, these positions are inherited from mother to daughter.
Which means that some spoiled princess decided to have some fun before sitting on a throne and joined adventurers. That makes it troublesome. No, not because of political reason. The next head of the nation would never be let to get into any form of danger, which means that these guyz that travel with her are elite royal guards. Let’s just make sure of it…
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
You have activated [Appraisal]
Error
Effect of your skill [Appraisal] has been stopped by target’s equipment
Next things happened in a split of seconds, man draws a long dagger from his belt and put it by my throat. I barely registered the whole thing. Still, judging by their reaction… levels 50 and higher, hee?
- “Mavik?” female companion looked surprised
- “What did you try doing right now?” his voice was calm. All this time he didn’t even show that he was affected emotionally by anything I did or say
- “I beg thy forgiveness, lack of your silver-emblems could make me act with a rush.” Aaaand once again. Silver emblems, or silver marks, are little pieces of jewelry that show status of the royal guard.
It was my time for acting with a dead-cold temper.
- “I think you are mistaken, unfortunately, we do not belong to this cast.”
Oh, I am more than sure that you do.
- “So what you are trying to say is that lil’ princess actually thinks that she picked her squad members by herself?”
- “I still have no idea why are you presuming such nonsenses…”
- “Oh, I will tell you right away. Miss Lanele
- “What you are saying is just a speculation without any evidence.”
- “I don’t need evidence. As every elf you are holding your emotions down wonderfully, your voice will never shake, your brow will never rise… But, there is one thing you cannot control. Your heart.”
Now he just rolled his eyes and showed me a mocking smile.
- “Now you will give me some lecture about my real desires?” he asked peacefully.
- “Oh, no! That’s not what I meant by
- “What would 'lil priestess say if she knew that her whole childhood, her whole recent life she thought she was in charge, was just a charade put by her mother? How often do you report her progress? Once per month? Or do you have more communication orbs letting you do it every week? Hmmm?”
- “She would never believe you.” He said after a moment
- “I don’t need her to believe me! I just need to plant a seed of distrust. She would start watching you more carefully, and you will be aware of her observing you, and eventually… you would make a mistake. So, my little pointy-eared friend… Fuck off. Seriously, I have better things to attend than to provide some amusement to a spoiled brat.”
I turned and twisted my body walking past them. I didn’t have to look behind to know that they threw at me hateful gazes. I allowed myself to play it rough, I doubted that they will leave me alone, but at least I got myself some time. Who knows, maybe if I will be lucky I will manage to leave this place soon and won’t be forced to watch their narcissistic faces ever again. Sorry, but this guild can hold only this many overly-proud people within.
And I headed toward local merchant guild. The Rosewood family. Bastards had their facility in every bigger town. Even if this company wasn’t ruled by someone from the very family, I should have made myself a deal… Even more, as I noticed a Syndicate mark over the main door, for most people it looked like a normal ornament. I walked toward the reception.
- “Good morning to you, may I know if the head of the branch would be able to see me?” I asked with courtesy.
And the lady behind reception quickly gazed at me. She was evaluating if I was someone worth wasting the time of their wanna-be CEO. She will tell me that Mr. X is either busy or not here in three… two… o…
- “Unfortunately, Mr. Abram isn’t here today. May I ask for your name? I will ask him later if he would find some time to book you a visit.”
… That was the nicest fuck-off that I have heard in my life. I pulled syndicate’s coin from my pocket and showed it to the lady.
- “Maybe this will change your mind?”
- “You… are trying to bribe me with copper coin, sir?”
- “You are not informed about… I see.” That complicated things a little “… could you please show this coin to Mr. Abram?”
- “Sir, I already told you that he is not here today…”
Yeah, sure.
- “Then leave it on his desk, please, it is very important. He will know what it is supposed to mean.”
She hesitated
- “I can’t leave my workplace, what if…”
- “Somebody important would come? For goodness sake! Woman! His room is behind you, it's thirty seconds job.”
She gazed over the hall to see if someone wasn’t approaching, unfortunately for her, because it was still early morning no one was here, so if she wanted to look cool, she needed to do what I asked her for. Then she nodded, turned around and walked into the room.
She came back after few dozen of seconds.
- “Mr… Mr. Abram is asking where you have this coin from.” She asked a question that was supposed to check if we are indeed members of syndicate or just someone that luckily picked it from the ground
- “Oh?! Is he here? What a surprise! He must have entered the building by the window as we weren’t looking.” I had to mock. Just a little.
- “Sir, please….” Oh, her expression! Priceless! But I shouldn’t bully her too much, in the end, she was just doing her job.
- “It was in my family for generations.”
- “… Mr. Abram will see you now.”
She showed me the way to the door (mostly because of courtesy, cuz, as I said, it was directly behind her) and opened me the door letting me in.
- “My-my, isn’t that mister Whiteraven?” bit old, quite fat man said with a friendly tone.
Still, my attention was stolen mostly by his fingers, or actually rings. On every single one of his fat fingers, he had a ring with precious stone. Big one. I was wondering how he managed to hold a quill in his hands.
- “You know me, sir?” I allowed myself to acting nice. Everyone likes being treated important, especially some lesser branch owner.
- “How could I not? You made quite a fuss in the capital! Taking monopoly from alchemists! People such like myself cannot allow themselves to be NOT informed.”
- “The knowledge what and when to buy, and later where and when it is needed to be sold is what makes a merchant successful.”
He smiled widely at me.
- “Inscription from
I didn’t. At least not here. I just memorized few quotes from Merchant Guild’s textbooks in order to impress people like yourself.
- “Ah, I am afraid that I can’t focus on studies as much as I would love to. In the end, my real and only lover is alchemy, therefore I study other arts briefly…” I said with a sad expression “… I bet your knowledge about this matter would completely overwhelm me, in the end, you have not only Merchant education, but also years of experience.”
I didn’t bluff, I noticed certificate saying that he finished inner Guild study course on the wall, behind a glass.
- “Now, now, no need to be humble. To be honest, my pleasure of meeting you is doubled, Mr. Whiteraven…”
- “Please… Zariel is more than ok, actually, I won’t mind being called Zari, friends call me this way.”
- “In that case, my name is Bayley.”
- “I would never allow myself for such impoliteness to call such an experienced man like yourself…”
- “Fair is fair, Zariel...” He turned around and picked a bottle of whiskey from a cabinet, together with two glasses. “…we can either do it formally or not, you decide.” He poured me a nice dose of amber-liquid
- “So be it. Bayley.” I raised my glass
- “Zariel.” He answered in the same way.
Then, in the old traditional way, we locked our arms and drank our glasses. Whiskey was good. And by good, I mean an expensive one.
- “As I was just saying, my pleasure is doubled not only because you did quite the fuss in capital pulling the trick on the alchemists, but also because you are a member of the Friends, it has been a long time since we had a pleasure of working up with you… “
- “Indeed, we had some troubles…”
- “You pretty much stopped existing….” I was disturbed, but there was no mockery in his tone “… but it is fine, you made a spectacular comeback. We have been waiting for these long decades, never removing syndicate’s mark from our shops and warehouses, we hoped you would come. And here you are. Such a joyful day. Joyful indeed.” A man poured another dose of alcohol.
- “I hope my appearance is not a problem…”
- “Absolutely not! We always earned something extra because of your information and actions…. So… how can I help you.”
The man rested his chin on his crossed palms smiling at me. We started actually negotiations.
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Same time, inn section, local Adventurers Guild.
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Elves joined their companion in the inn with sour (as for elves) faces.
- “And?” one of them lazily asked
- “Where is young mistress?”
- “Still at her room, preparing herself. Aika is there too, keeping her company.”
- “That human knows we are royal guards.”
Few raised brows and heads tilted to the side were equivalent of havoc breakingloosee in their culture.
- “Of course you did not admit it, right?”
- “Of course not. We said these are just speculation without evidence. He responded that he does not care, for just pointing it out could damage our relations with young miss.”
- “That’s… unfortunately the truth.”
- “What are we doing?”
- “What we want does not matter. Miss wishes to talk with him, so she will. And that human will be grateful for such opportunity.”
- “I am afraid that it may prove to be…”
- “He will. Today, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year or decade.”
- “So… are we letting go?”
- “Of course that not. Young miss is slowly driving me crazy. Unfortunately, she has a temper of her mother. She needs everything to be done for yesterday.”
- “I don’t get her sick fascination. Why him?”
- “Really? It’s obvious to me.” woman sitting in the corner that was silent up to this moment spoke up “… princess is just bored. She wants to try and learn different things just like every young girl or boy of our kin. What is strange and different attracts her attention. First different races, then different individuals... And now this harlequin enters the guild. White hair, strange eyes, his partner is some half-brained violent hybrid half-breed… won’t you find it interesting?”
- “You sure that’s the case?”
- “I am.”
- “How come?”
- “She told me that yesterday by herself.”
- “Tsk. We are trying this much so she could look at an exotic animal.”
- “Does it bother you?”
- “… actually? Not. At least something is happening. I don’t miss home. Not just yet.”
- “So after your priestess, soldier.”
- “Aye-aye captain!”
They smiled with corners of their lips, for them, it was equivalent of bursting into a loud laugh.