Now as I think about it, my life is crazy. One strange occurrence after another. Can I Get one peaceful week? I left the capital to train, and damn me - because I hoped for few “lazy weeks”. I thought I would train for a couple hours per day and then have the rest of the day for myself… and for Giselle, of course. Lately, we neglected each other – no, no in terms of love or anything… it’s just… We spend time together mostly in stinky dungeons while floundering up to the belt in blood and shit, or at camps when we were keeping the guard in turns or drinking with no remorse at inns.
I could use a stroll in a park too, you know? I just wanted a single day to spend with her. Alone. Not with half of the guild, not with four to five party members. Not with Lanele that just joined us, nor with anyone else.
But no! Shit just have to keep falling down from the sky. Ritual, weird dungeon, a witch which knows the polymorhpy spell, devil-possessed werewolf, another ancient dungeon, and now my “little brother”.
I exhaled air loudly, dragging the attention of Sebastian that was sitting in his raven form on the edge of the table. Right now, I was alone in the room.
Three days have passed since the day I showed Kim to Gis and the girls. At first, they all were skeptical, but very quickly they accepted him. Mostly because he was naïve, and therefore considered to be cute. Lanele, as an elf, loved children. She was spoiling him all the time. Blanka tried acting cool and proud, but every now and then she would lower her guard and smile brightly while teaching Kim new stuff about the world.
As for Kim, I expected him to cause problems, yet I was proved wrong. Very quickly he adapted to the behaviors of a new society. For him, it was only part of survival – if he wanted to live he had to mimic those that are at the top of a food chain.
* “What is it? You seem puzzled?”
Sebastian would hop in my direction over the table. I quickly signed document and put it back in an envelope. Boring stuff. Every now and then I had to elongate the contract with providers of supplies for the apothecary.
* “The world is becoming crazy. There is no day without phenomenoms happening.”
* “That’s why I told you to become stronger. The wheel of fate is spinning faster and faster, forcing events. Preparing for the right time.”
* “Time for what?”
* “I can’t tell you. I already am walking on a thin line by advising you so much. You have to become stronger. To seize as much as possible. People all around the world formed groups, guilds, parties, religions, centuries. They are fighting for land, influences, wealth, people. It’s a good thing. It helps them improve. Adapt. Evolve. But, the world will change accordingly.”
* “To me it looks more as if celestials were getting impatient. Aira forced me into new job, devils are becoming more active…”
* “Don’t bother with the spirit realm. We have rules that we cannot break nor bend. If we are doing something, it is only because this world allowed us to do it.”
I pushed myself away from the table and got up from my chair. Stretching my body I approached the window. From here I could see (and hear) the merchant district, loud as ever.
* “I know that you are trying your best, but you are not very precise. What kind of strength am I supposed to look for? Power of body? Mind? Or maybe something completely different? To team up with strong individuals? To make my company bigger? Fuck, maybe even look for political protection?”
The last sentence I almost spat out.
* “It’s up to you. Also, what stops you from getting all at the same time? Right now, you are training your body and mind, meeting up new people that are joining you and finding new partners for your little enterprise.”
* “It bothers me the most. Why are they joining me? Lanele? She was moving with the squad of elite knights all the time, then she just met me up and decided to disband her group? Just like that? And join the stranger? The next high priestess of the elves? And Blanka? A few days ago she hated me, then she feared me. Now she is quite friendly and plays with Kim a lot. Ah, and Kim. I was told that there can be only one Divine Chimera at the time. And now you are telling me that somehow a clone appeared, just like that? And I met all of them about a week apart from one another?”
* “The rules of the world are like a string made of rubber. You can bend them and abuse them, but eventually, once the pressure would be gone, it would all move to its previous state. But, if the pressure stays for too long… When one body exerts a force on a second body…”
* “… then the second body simultaneously exerts a force equal in magnitude but in oppose direction. What you are telling me is…”
Sebastian vanished in the mist of black smoke.
I think it means that I hit the spot.
Apparently, someone is fucking up with the world itself and because of that the world is trying to remove the pressure of the weaves of fate. Using me. Or so I think.
As I was wondering about the matters over which I had no control, Giselle stormed the room.
* “Are you done with the boring stuff?...” she yelled from the doorstep, and as soon as she noticed that all the papers were lying nicely on the edge of the table she smiled widely “… I see you are! Good! Come on, the breakfast is already cooling down, soon it will be inedible!”
She jumped to me and dragged me off the room.
Oh, the way she was cheerful, humming under her nose. I have mixed feeling about it, on the one hand, it warmed my heart seeing her like this, on the other I just couldn’t stop thinking that she must have done, or is planning, something nasty. Or maybe I am just imagining things?
It doesn’t matter. Ah, linger on, thou art so fair. May these moments never end.
* “…ari?! ZARI?! For goddess sake! Are you even listening to me?!” I didn’t notice I just dozed away.
* “No really. Sorry.”
* “God damn it! What did occupied you so much that you didn’t pay attention to gorgeous me?! It better be one hell of a reason!”
* “The thing that occupied me was indeed your gorgeousness…” I hesitated for a moment “… I love you, Gis.” I smiled lightly
I am not really saying these words often. They have their weight. The impact. Words spoken over and over again are losing their strength. And I want to be sure, that each and every time I am finally saying my thoughts aloud, she would have no doubt that I am saying the truth.
* “W-w-what now!? What got into you?”
* “Don’t know. Just feeling like saying it.”
* “Flattery will get you nowhere!!!” she yelled, yet her tail twitched happily to the sides proving that indeed flattery will get me anywhere I want. “… Blanka, Lana and lil’ devil already finished eating so…”
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She stopped. I knew what she wanted to say. “So we can have morning just for each other”. But, as it was too embarrassing for her to say, she just decided to bite on her tongue. Yeah, just as mentioned, lately we didn’t have as much time for one another as we wanted to.
* “So, I bet that girls took care of Kim for the next few hours?”
* “Better, for the rest of the day! He was wearing clothes in really bad condition, so they decided to take him shopping.”
* “Wanted to do it myself. Knowing Lanele she would just buy tons of pointless sparkly-shiny clothes.”
I rolled my eyes reminding myself one of the bags filled with clothes that priestess was taking almost everywhere. I can understand few sets of sturdy clothes and bag of sewing supplies if your leather armor would get damaged, but she was also carrying tons of party dresses and diplomatic togas. I know, I know, girls have to have “thing or two” to wear… BUT IN OVER A MONTH SHE NEVER PUT ANY OF THESE ON! NEVER!
I was wearing my robes almost all the time, taking it off only for washing, and even then I was washing them only when I was washing myself! With the help of magic, they would dry off at the same time as I did – and voila! Ready to be worn again!
Perfectly efficient system! Lanele was only one hissing that I “always dress the same way”. OF COURSE, I DID! Why would I take off perfectly balanced clothes that boost my magical abilities!? Not to mention that magician robes are perfect for both battle and formal visit! Why would I want anything else?!
Women.
I couldn’t thank the divines enough for Giselle being almost as practical as myself in this particular matter. She almost never got “crazy” over clothes. There were literally only two exceptions from this rule – if the clothing was add-on on armors, or had pieces of jewelry and/or gold in it. Damned dragon’s blood.
I got lost in thoughts again, and all this time Giselle was talking. Fortunately for me, she was just moving onward while dragging me right after herself, so she didn’t really noticed.
We sat in front of each other and enjoyed our food while talking about nonsense, or, giving justice to what actually happened – she was talking most of the time with me only nodding and asking additional questions regarding her stories. I was more than fine with it. She was talking about the city itself, new shops she noticed and so-on. Quite informative and useful. And I just enjoyed listening to her voice.
* “Zaaariii! You are dozing off again!”
* “I am not!”
* “Yeah? In that case, mind giving me the answer to the question I just asked?”
* “I can. The answer is no.”
* “Whyyy?!”
* “Giselle. You don’t need to buy a dagger.”
* “But it’s really great!”
* “It’s not.”
* “Why do you think so?”
* “One – you are not using daggers. Two. If you are asking me to buy it, it must be REALLY expensive. Three, if it’s expensive it must have some rich ornaments like jewels or golden handle, which are actually weakening the dagger. You want it only because it’s shiny and pricy.”
* “Tsk.” Giselle tsked at me “… Niggard!”
Still she wasn’t angry or anything. Which meant that it wasn’t what she was after. She just wanted me to feel bad for denying her first question so I would be “easier to tame” for what was coming next. How did I know it? Yesterday girls got quite drunk and had a loud conversation at the corner of the inn. Gis would nag a little what kind of problems she has with me. Lanele would say “males are the simplest creatures in the world! All you have to know are few basic tricks...”
And then she would give her dozens of advices. I was sitting with Kim by the table next to them so it wasn’t really hard to hear EVERYTHING. Sorry, love I came prepared… on the other hand… should I spoil her?
* “Zari… listen. I was wondering if…”
* “Gis. Sorry to interrupt you...” I decided t take over the course of conversation “…isn’t your armor damaged?”
* “It indeed is…” her eyes got wider “… I try patching it up, but you know, it’s fairly old so I already had it patched multiple times and things just don’t work as they used to.”
She saddened a little. I heard that she got that armor after her first S rank mission from Jericho. She didn’t want to let it go that easily.
* “Come on, girl. We are going shopping. I can’t have my ferocious dragon walking in rags, can I?”
* “But you just said that…” she was confused
* “I just said that I won’t buy you things you don’t need… Plus I believe you are a strong and independent woman that can buy her own gear with money that she earned equally hard to everyone else…” she made a puppy eyes “… but then again. You will be nagging and groaning till you won’t get it, won’t you?”
* “All the time!” she assured me showing all her teeth in a bright, wide smile.
We finished our meal, got up from the table and then Gis quickly grabbed my arm before leavening the guild. We took a stroll over the city, taking snacks from local vendors and checking every more interesting shop. A normal date.
Eventually, we got into one of the shops that were selling high-quality armors and suits. They didn’t let just anybody in. You had to be either a famous duelist or adventurer of at least B+ rank to be allowed inside. And as always, few nobles were just yelling and cursing in front of such shop after being denied entrance.
* “Do you know who I am, girl?” fat man was yelling at shop assistant that politely kept showing him another way – the way out
* “That’s the point, sir, I have no idea. We are not letting people without a good reputation in.”
Oh damn. She killed him.
* “Rough policy. I wonder if we would be allowed inside…” I called from afar dragging the attention of both noble and seller. Noble just snorted after seeing how
* “I hope the two of you would find something to your liking” she said bowing her head and smiling with corners of her lips. She knew that the thing I just did was completely on purpose.
* “What a polite staff they have here.” I only bowed-back with gratitude in response
* “You must be kidding! You are letting these two stray dogs in, but denying me!?”
* “These
Unfortunately, I couldn’t participate in that conversation anymore, because the door were shut tightly behind me.
The shop was huge and spacious, it had no walls separating the sections, instead, racks with armors, clothes, and gears were used in such manner to divide the shop into specific zones.
* “Greeting, what can I do for you?” a very short and very fat man appeared very quickly. He measured us from tip to toes, evaluating what kind of equipment we could need… and how many coins can he make out of us.
* “Nice armor for this nice lady.” I said pushing Giselle a little forward
* “Indeed. Indeed. I will need to take measurements and question you a little… is that fine?” much to my surprise he looked in my direction. Maybe because Giselle was confused (drooling) seeing all the high-end equipment (it’s price) thrown all over the place.
* “She is all yours.”
* “Perfect. Now, I see what you are wearing Madame… Wonderful craftsmanship, not ours, and I mean it – that’s not something you will hear me often speaking. Mixed type of heavy and light armor… yes, mixed, not merely reinforced. You have to be very strong to move in it as if it was some kind of shirt… Of course, you are half dragon… now, let me see… joints manually shifted and reinforced, so you must be using heave weapon which requires lots of movement freedom, that will be tricky, we may not have anything like that right now, will have to adjust it… Additional leather stripes around shoulders? Why?... A-HA! In the case of damaging corpus, the plates won’t just fly in a different direction… brilliant idea, but the execution looks bit clumsy, self-made adjustment, I presume? Tsk-tsk, you should have left it to professional, my lady…”
He knew his job. He kept on asking a question and advising possible improvements. Very quickly Giselle snapped back from her half-drugged state and started participating in the armor selection, she was even too eager, I would say.
We spent quite a lot time inside, normally, I would get tired quickly and start nagging myself, but somehow, seeing the sparks inside of Gis’s eyes was enough to erase my grumpy mood almost instantly.
In an hour or two, she was standing in front of me in a really decent piece of armor. Similar to her previous one, but not as… cheap looking… as before. Now, she really could try imitating a hero she almost wanted to be with people actually believing it! Go-go Giselle! I will keep on supporting you.
* “How do you like her, sir?” shop man asked me.
At this point, I didn’t know if he was asking about Giselle or armor.
* “Not half bad indeed. Damn, she is worth everything, isn’t she?”
* “No everything, sir, just one gold eighty silvers.” Man moved right to business.
* “She is worth all of that… MINUS TWENTY PERCENT.” I didn’t lower my guard down. I was ready to spend a lot here but damn.
* “HEY!”
Giselle didn’t like what she heard.
Shop assistant burst into happy, not forced laughter.
* “Not many would dare to say that in front of his lady. I admire your bravery. This bravery is worth five percent”
* “In my life, I have been fighting with countless beasts. Werewolves. Hydra. Even undead dragon. If you think Giselle is that little intimidating to lower the price for a mere five percent, then your armor isn’t doing a good job with its visual features. Fifteen.”
* “HEY!!!” she would punch me if we were alone.
* “Dear sir. We are making one of the best armors in the kingdom. The supplies we are getting are also the highest quality. We need to eat too, you know… ten.”
Looking at him I could clearly say that food is the last thing he is lacking. Of course, I couldn’t say it aloud.
* “Ten percent? Does it make you happy?” I asked looking in man’s eyes.
* “No. And you?” he countered my question.
* “No.”
* “It’s a deal then.”
* “Yeah.”
We shook hands.
* “HEEEEY!!!”
Giselle almost lost it.
In the end, I could be the one enjoying that shopping the most.