Chapter 24 - Next Time Use Sand, Please

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When I woke up after only a few hours of sleep, I found Holiés still asleep next to me. I got up on my knees and went bent towards his face, when our faces were only a few centimeters apart I put two fingers on his lips for a few seconds. He slowly opened his eyes and, when he finally looked at me, I said "good morning, darling."

"Did-did you just kiss me?"

"Of course, how should a wife wake up her husband otherwise?"

"Oh, ehm..." - he looked around the room for a few seconds, trying to start the gears in his brain - "wait... You're making fun of me again, aren't you?"

I grinned at him and nodded.

He sighed and said, "you really can behave like a child sometimes."

"I know. It's fun, why shouldn't I?"

"I don't know, maybe because you are technically the hero and a noble and you shouldn't go around screwing with people?"

"Think about that sentence again for a moment."

He gave me a questioning look before his expression turned darker and he said "I hope you haven't used that as an excuse to really hurt someone."

"Of course not! I'm a pure and gentle maiden loved by light who only wants the best for humanity after all."

"That's probably the biggest pile of bullshit I've ever heard in my life."

"Ehi! It's true!"

"At least it's nice to hear you don't go around using your influence like that."

"Well, now that we have agreed that I'm a wonderful person, we have a lot of things to do today, get off the bed."

"Yes, yes, Saint of the Screwing Around Order," he said, lifting the sheets.

After getting out of bed, we exited the room right at the moment Clementine was coming in from the back door. When she saw us she made a light bow towards me saying, "Good morning Lady Fortuna."

"Good morning Madam."

"Holiés, the cow is behaving weird this morning. Care to check what happened to her?"

"Yes, yes," he said, walking out of the room.

"Would you like to eat something?"

"I wouldn't want to bother you."

"Oh, no bother at all, our neighbor just gave us a wheel of cheese this morning when Clarisse went to bring him our milk and I wanted you to try it. It's something like the village speciality."

"Then I'd really like to taste this cheese." I said, sitting at the table.

Clementine nodded and took out the still whole wheel, wrapped in a simple dry cloth, from a small cabinet. She rested the wheel on the table and unwrapped it. She then took a knife from a drawer over the cabinet and cut slim slices out of it and did the same with a big loaf of bread which was a few days old. Having cut the slices of cheese she put them on the bread and let them heat over a stone next to some embers she had set on the side of the fireplace, away from the small fire. As the cheese melted she went to fill a mug with ale from the keg we had used the day before.

Soon I had in front of me a plate with piping hot toasted bread with melted cheese and a mug of ale. I thanked her and started eating. It was indeed an amazing dish in its simplicity.

"What are your plans for the day?" Clementine asked me as she cleaned the knife with a cloth.

"I'll deliver the viltusk we hunted yesterday to the chief then I'm taking Holiés with me to the guild. Depending on whether I can find a good quest or not we might not be back before tomorrow, if not even later."

"Do you want me to pack lunch for you?"

"No need, thank you but we will probably eat at the guild's tavern."

"Oh, ok, well, tell me if you change idea."

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I nodded before drowning the last piece of bread and cheese with ale and getting up.

"Well then, time to get changed. I'll be in Holiés' room if you need anything." I said and went towards the door to Holiés' room.

When I went back to the main room, Holiés was eating toasted bread with cheese too as he talked to Clementine. I walked up to him and told him I would have gone to the chief to deliver the viltusk and that I wanted to find him ready to leave when I got back. He just nodded as he tried to swallow a big piece of bread.

I exited the house and started walking towards the chief's house. The village was already half empty as most of the villagers had already left to tend the fields or to hunt. A few kids could be seen playing around, under the watchful eye of some old ladies who were weaving small willow branches into baskets. When I passed by they glared at me, stopping their work for a few seconds, before starting murmuring behind my back.

Having arrived at the chief's house, I knocked on the door and after only a few seconds Roland came out of it with a beaming smile on his face.

"Hero Fortuna! Good morning."

"Good morning Chief Roland. I've come here to deliver the viltusk."

"Oh, of course, of course. Come in, there are a few of our hunters and our butcher already waiting inside." He said, moving away from the door and gesturing me to enter.

Once inside, he guided me to a room on the other side of the house where almost everything had been moved to leave room for a huge straw mat laid on the floor. Four men were sitting on a few chairs in the little space between the mat and the wall.

"Please, if you could deposit the viltusk on the mat."

"Of course, wait a moment." I said and opened my storage.

I walked to the other side of the room and moved the opening of my storage away from me, over the mat. Slowly, while walking back towards the entrance, I let the vilktusk's body come out of the breach in space-time as it followed my movements. In a matter of seconds I was back at the entrance, my storage was closed and the carcass was on the mat, covering most of it.

"Well then," - I said turning towards the chief - "if you don't need anything else I'll take my leave. I have quite a few things to do today."

"No, no. You've already been a great help," - he unlaced a pouch that was hanging from his belt and offered it to me - "forty silvers, as we agreed."

"Thank you." I said, accepting the pouch.

"Have a nice day, Hero Fortuna."

"You too, Chief Roland. And good work to all of you guys." I said, with a louder tone than usual to the four men who were already cutting at the viltusk who responded with a wave of the hand and a few mumbled thanking words.

Having finished my business with the chief, I walked back to Holiés' house. When I arrived, Holiés was already waiting for me in front of the house holding the reins of my horse.

"Can we go?" He asked me.

"Oh course. Your mother and your sister?"

"They went to help with the fields, they told me to tell you to excuse their absence."

"Well, they are excused. Now, take that horse back where you took it, we are not going to need it."

"Won't we ride?"

"It's a horse, not a dragon, there is a limit to how much it can walk with two people on its back."

"Fair enough." He said and walked to the back of the house.

After a few minutes, he was back and we started our march towards the town Vilflori, where I had accepted the quest to hunt the viltusk. Along the way, I made him repeat a couple of exercises to feel mana, hoping he would be soon able to use mana manipulation.

"I wanted to ask... where did you go last night when you went out of the room after we had already gone to sleep?" He asked me while we were walking.

"Oh, you were awake?"

"Yes... So?"

"I went to the bathroom."

"For half an hour?"

"If you have time to ask dumb questions use it to feel the mana around you."

"Yes, yes." He said and went back to concentrating.

When we arrived to Vilfori there was a huge commotion on the walls and the guards let us through without controlling us. Inside the city everyone was running around in a great hurry as we walked towards the guild. Inside the guild adventurers everywhere were checking their gear and eating and drinking as if it was their last time.

I walked to the counter and said, "I'm here to receive the reward for a completed quest."

"I'm sorry but all quests and rewards are on hold for the time being," said the girl on the other side of the counter.

"Oh, yeah, I also wanted to ask about the big commotion that is going on."

"Well... someone managed to anger the spirit the town had a pact with and some guards have spotted treants marching towards here. An urgent quest has been issued for all adventurers inside the town."

"How did they manage to anger a spirit?"

An adventurer passing behind me with a crate full of swords said, "they apparently burned its tree then peed on it to try stopping the fire."

I laughed and said, "you're kidding right?"

He shook his head with a deadly serious look on his face. I turned back towards the receptionist and said, "he's kidding, right?"

"No, that's what they confessed to the city guard."

"Can't we just throw them to the treants?"

She shook her head and said, "That spirit had a contract with our city, it probably sees it as a breach of the contract. We have sent a message to all neighbouring cities requesting for a spirit magic user to be sent here and act as intermediary."

"So, we have to keep killing treants until a spirit magic user arrives?"

"No! Treants are magic beasts, not monsters!" -she said, looking at me with a horrified look - "It will be inevitable that a few die but the quest requires to only requires to defend the city."

(What the fuck was the difference again?)

"Very well, when is the estimated time of arrival of these treants?"

"Well, they should be here in a few-" Her words were interrupted by the sound of a horn.

"Sorry, exactly one hour." She said when the sound of the horn quieted down.