Chapter 27 - Is This Gap Moe?

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I laughed at Lord Granger’s remark and said “it seems so. Shall we go greet them?”

“Yes, the sooner we manage to end this matter the better. Soldier, where are they at the moment?”

“They are waiting at the adventurer’s guild, My Lord.”

“Very well, return at the barracks and inform your companions that they will soon be able to rest.” Lord Granger said with a smile

The soldier beamed before saying, “Yes sir,” and running back down the stair under the trapdoor.

Lord Granger turned towards Genji who was still resting on a chair and told him“Genji, can you walk?”

“Yes, Master, I have already regained most of my strength.”

“Good, but don’t force yourself. Let’s go greet those elves.”

“Yes, Master.” Genji said and stood from the chair.

As soon as he did we started going down the tower. Once down I saw the city was completely devoid of civilians near the wall and we rushed through the almost empty cobblestone streets towards the adventurer guild. As we got near the guild building people started appearing here and there but, seeing the rush their lord was in, made way for us to pass. When we finally arrived in front of the guild, though, a crowd was already forming there and Genji had to step in front and make way for us up to the doors that were guarded by two of the city soldiers, probably to stop the people outside from crowding the guild inside. When they saw us they lowered their heads for a moment before opening the doors and letting us inside.

Inside the guild was almost empty, the only adventurers inside were lying, wounded, on linen cloths on the ground in a corner, under the eyes of two worried receptionists and a healer from the church. All the tables were empty, except for the one furthest away from the wounded adventurers, where the guard captain and the guild master were sitting in front of four women all wearing green gambesons and green scarves around their necks, three of them had blonde hair reaching at most their shoulders while the fourth one, sitting right in front of the guild master, had lime green hair falling down her back almost reaching her waist, pointed ears peeked through the strands of hair of all four of them. They looked to be not older than twenty five and more fit for a beauty contest than the battlefield and their emerald green eyes were fixed on the the two men in front of them, who seemed unexpectedly nervous for a discussion with a group of adventurers.

When we arrived at the table they all turned toward us and the green haired woman said, “Lord Granger and Lady Fortuna, I presume. I’m Alyana and these women here are Lyra, Missya, and Vilandra,” she said, gesturing at the three elven women, ”now sit, I’d like to be done with this matter today.”

At her words Genji next to me became visibly angry and was about to step forward but was stopped by the viscount who raised an arm in front of him and told him, “stand there and make sure we aren’t disturbed.”

Genji was baffled for a moment but replied with a “yes Master” and did as he was told.

The guildmaster and the captain made room for us on the bench they were on and we sat, the viscount in front of Alyana and I in front of the short haired woman called Vilandra. As soon as I sat on the bench I felt her foot tracing up my leg as she smiled at me, to which I smiled back. Probably satisfied just by that, she stopped and turned to listen what Alyana and the viscount had to say.

“These two already told me the whole thing, I suppose you want us to speak to that spirit, make him stop this treant wave that’s going on and confirm the contract that was already in place before the incident.” Alyana said.

“Yes,  that’s correct.”

“You know the spirit won’t be satisfied only with an apology.”

“We will bring with us the culprits so that the spirit will choose the punishment himself. If that isn’t enough I’m willing to compromise to a certain degree to keep the contract intact and stop this attack.”

“Well… that should be enough. Where are they being held?”

“Under the city guard barracks near the northern gate.”

“Perfect. Let’s go.” She said and all four of them stood from the bench they were sitting on.

I let a “wow, that was fast,” escape my mouth, to which Alyana said, “I think I already told you I want to deal with this matter fast.”

“Yes, of course.” I said and got up too, when I did, I noticed that both Alyana and Vilandra were higher than me, while the other two weren’t much higher than a normal human woman.

They stormed outside the guild and we followed them. Once outside people parted ways in front of them but still tried their best to stay as close as possible, like flies around a flame. We walked back towards the wall, followed by a small, curious crowd. When we arrived at the guard barracks the captain entered to retrieve the adventurers who pissed off the spirit, leaving us outside, waiting.

“Lord Granger, I didn’t ask this before but do you plan on walking through that battle that is raging outside?” I asked.

“No, we will mount on leveled horses here, go to the west gate and circle around the battlefield.”

“Too slow, we will ride through.” Said Alyana next to me.

“I’d advise against it.”

“Don’t worry Lord Granger, I’m pretty confident we can protect a few horses from some trees.”

“Of… of course.” He said and went to speak with a guard who ran towards the gate shortly after.

“Alyana, are you perhaps in that time of the year? You’ve been awfully cranky since we got here.” I heard Vilandra say to her in what I presumed to be the elven language.

“No, I’m not! You know it always happens during nott. It’s just… I hoped we could finally have a bit of fun together and we ended up in a mess again.”

Missya laughed and said “the liquor doesn’t run away, don’t worry, we’ll have plenty of fun tonight.”

“Exactly, and we might even get Hero Fortuna to join us, I think she wouldn’t be against some ‘girl time’.” Said Vilandra.

“I don’t know… she looks a bit too similar to the depictions of the destroyer to be comfortable.” Lyra said, sparing a glance at me.

“Come on, Ly-ly, have you never looked at one of those painting and thought ‘wow, she’s beautiful’.”

“Well, I can’t say I didn’t but…”

“Then it’s decided!”

“Vi-vi! Don’t go and decide those things by yourself! You know the rule, Alyana has the last word when deciding who joins us.” Missya hissed at her.

“Well… It’s not like I’m against it... ” Said Alyana in a feeble voice.

At that moment the guard captain came out of the barracks along with five guards and the four prisoners: three men and a woman, dressed in rugged hemp clothes with their hands tied together and their eyes and mouths covered by pieces of cloth.

“Finally, let’s go.” Said Alyana, returning to her cranky behaviour.

“Yes.” Answered the even more nervous guard captain.

We walked around the barracks and reached the stables used by the soldiers. Once there Alyana said, “we’ll take the six strongest horses, the captain and guildmaster will each bring a prisoner with them” she looked at the remaining members “Missya and Lyra a prisoner each too, Lord Granger will ride with me, Vilandra with Lady Fortuna. Any objections?”

“None,” said the guard captain, “guys, tie those four to the horses.”

The soldiers replied with a “yes sir” before tying together the feet of the prisoners and securing them to the back of four horses.

I mounted on a free horse and Vilandra mounted behind me. When everyone was ready I told her, “hold tight,” to which she answered by hugging my waist and resting her head on my shoulder before saying, “is this tight enough?”

“Perfect.” I said and kicked the horse to follow Alyana who was leading the group.

We kept a walking speed up until the gate, which was being opened just enough to let us through. As we passed the gate Alyana shouted “keep a tight formation, let’s try to be on the other side as fast as possible,” before commanding her horse to gallop.

We followed suit and soon we were speeding through the soldiers in front of the wall.

“Vi-vi, stop staring at the hero’s boobs and put on a wind wall.” Alyana said as we were about to reach the first treants.

“I wasn’t staring! Just… looking.”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Vilandra!”

“Yes ma’am!” Vilandra said as swirling wind surrounded us.

“Mi-mi, Ly-ly, be ready to intercept anything that gets through.”

“Yes ma’am!”

We galloped through the sea of treants without any incident, as practically any treant we met was blown away. The few broken branches that managed to pass through the wind wall were swiftly intercepted by Lyra and Missya using water and wind magic.

“What level are these horses, Captain?” Alyana asked as we were nearing the moat.

“All of them are just past level thirty.”

“We’ll jump then.” She said, spurring the horse to go even faster.

We did the same and, just before reaching the moat I heard her say “Vi-vi, stop the wall, upward lift on all the horses.”

Vilandra’s “yes ma’am” came as the horses jumped the moat and, the moment the hind legs of the horses left the ground, a gust of wind hit them from below, ensuring they’d reach the other side.

We soon entered the forest, barely lit enough to see as the rays of the setting sun couldn’t reach through the tree crowns. After a few seconds since we entered Alyana said “Lord Granger, is there any road that leads to that sacred tree?”

“No, because it’s prohibited to go near it, there is no road that leads directly to it but we should soon meet a path that leads to north-east that should bring us pretty near it.”

“Very well, we’ll use that.”

After not even a minute had passed we arrived at the road the viscount talked about. Once there we headed north-east, going further inside the forest, where trees were becoming sparser, replaced by holes in the ground where the treants once rested.

After a few dozen minutes of galloping Alyana slowed down and said “Mi-mi, we just passed the maximum proximity point of the road, estimated direction of the great spirit is north-west, do you confirm?”

“Yes.”

“Everyone, we’ll now head north-west towards the sacred tree.” Alyana said, before steering the horse and heading into the unpathed forest.

We soon reached the border of a clearing, in the middle there was a twenty-five meters tall white tree that almost seemed to glow in the blue light of dusk. If not for its color it would have looked like a really old, unkept yew. On one side of its trunk, near the ground, there was a black, charred patch where pieces of the bark seemed to be about to fall off at any moment. We dismounted the horses and tied them to some trees, before getting the prisoners down their backs. The captain and Lyra tied the four prisoners together and we set off towards the tree.

We were halfway there when Alyana stopped, turned around and said “I, the captain, the branchmaster and Lord Granger will go to the tree with the prisoners. Vilandra, Lyra, Missya and Lady Fortuna will stay here on the lookout. Some treants might decide to pay us a visit.”

Seeing that no one had any objection she started walking again, followed by Lord Granger and the captain and guildmaster who were holding the rope the four prisoners were tied to. Meanwhile Lyra opened her storage from which the three elves drew three halberds with mithril heads. I, instead, sat there on the spot, while keeping an eye on the other group.

“Do you think everything will be alright? ” Lyra said behind me.

Vilandra sighed and said, “it’s just a great spirit, there is no way he’ll go against a leaf, especially considering they’ll let him punish the culprits.”

“Yeah... you’re probably right.”

“Come on, stop being a worrywart and relax.”

“Well, sorry if I worry about ours and Alyana’s well being.”

“Lyra, we are talking about a great spirit and some treants, heck, even the human hero doesn’t give a flying fuck and -”

“Watch your mouth Vilandra, you know I don’t like it when you talk like a wharf rat.” Said Missya angrily.

“Sorry Mi-mi. Anyway, Ly-ly, stop worrying so much.”

“Fine, fine. Speaking of Lady Fortuna, you said you think she’ll agree to spending the night with us but we practically haven’t even talked.”

I got up, turned towards Lyra and told her “oh, I just didn’t want to interrupt, feel free to ask anything” in their elven language.

They all froze on the spot for a few seconds before Vilandra said, “wait, you speak Taelish?”

“It seems like I can speak any language of this world from the moment I hear it. It’s one of the perks of being the hero of humanity, apparently.”

“Oh… so?”

“So what?”

“Are you against having sex with us?”

(Man, these girls are more horny than I am.)

“Vi-vi! You can’t just ask that to people! Especially a human!” Lyra shouted at her.

“But she already heard us talk about it, it’s not like we can beat around the bush now. So? What do you say, Lady Fortuna?”

“Please, just Fortuna is fine and… I’m not really against it but can you wait tonight for my answer?”

“Sure, we wouldn’t want to force you” Said Missya.

“Thank you. Can I ask you something?”

“Yes, sure.”

“I think you called Alyana a ‘leaf’ before. Has it something to do with her hair?”

“Well, I think you could also say so.” Vilandra said while laughing. Her laugh was soon stopped by Missya, who planted her elbow in her stomach before saying, “Fortuna, the only elves with green hair are the women of the royal family and in Tae we call them leaves.”

“Oh,I didn’t know that. So Alyana is…”

“The second princess of Tae, Alyana Silva Taelys.”

I raised an eyebrow at Missya’s statement and said “Shouldn’t she be married to some noble, attend parties, take afternoon teas with her lady-in-waiting and stuff like that instead of adventuring around with her harem?”

Missya and Vilandra laughed, while I could see a bit of anger in Lyra’s eyes. Missya put a harm on her shoulder and said “Fortuna, only the eldest princess is allowed to bare children in Tae’s royal family and Alyana’s sister already has four daughters.”

“So, she decided to live the life of an adventurer because of that?”

“Pretty much.”

“Well, her being a princess explains why Lord Granger, the branchmaster and the captain were so nervous.”

“Oh, that’s not it,” said Vilandra, which made me raise an eyebrow, “it’s probably because she’s also the first executioner of the guild.”

“You girls are telling me quite the outrageous things today.”

“Everyone knows about it, it’s almost as if you lived under a rock all this time.” Lyra barked at me.

“Or, you know, in another world.”

At that moment a flash of light came from the white tree and we all turned towards it. Between Alyana and the tree the faint outline of a kid could now be seen, though only barely. Alyana stepped forward then, after a few moments, the ghostly form moved an arm and four roots sprang up from the ground, impaling the four adventurers on the spot. Alyana bowed slightly to the spirit and the three men with her soon followed, before the spirit disappeared in another flash of light.

“It seems like everything went well,” Vilandra said.

“I hope so,” I said.

Missya turned towards me and said, “what do you mean? The treant couldn’t have possibly breached inside the walls in such a short amount of time.”

“Oh, I know that, I wasn’t worried about the townsfolk.”

“What then?”

“They planned to use the liquor stored in the distilleries to burn the treants if they got too close to the walls.”

As soon as I said that the three of them froze on the spot. After a few, long, seconds Lyra said, “girls, we weren’t too slow, right?”

“I hope so or Alyana won’t be happy.” Missya said.

Vilandra looked first at Missya, then at Lyra and said, “let’s not tell her, ok?”

“Agreed,”  the other two answered at the same time.

After not even a minute had passed since I gave them the shocking news, the group that went to the three finally returned and Alyana said “Everything went well, we can go home.”

We walked back to the horses and mounted. This time the guard captain, the guildmaster, lord Granger and Alyana decided to ride alone, while Lyra and Missy took a horse in two and I, obviously, mounted again with Vilandra.

As soon as we left the clearing behind us it became too dark to see the road in front of us and Alyana said, “Vi-vi, Mi-mi, give us some fire.”

“Wait, I’ll light the road with holy magic.” I said and spurred my horse to move to the front, before using holy magic to create a cone of light in front of us and a small, floating light sphere far in the back. As soon as the area around us was illuminated again I saw that the four who went to converse with the spirit were staring at me.

“Hero Fortuna, I didn’t know you knew the elven language.”

“Apparently I can speak every language I hear thanks to being the hero, else I wouldn’t even be able to converse with you, Lord Granger”

“Of course, that makes sense.”

“Sorry for not telling you... Princess Alyana.” I said.

“No, you weren’t obliged to… Wait, girls, you told her?!”

“It’s not like it’s a secret, she would have found out anyway sooner or later.” Vilandra said behind me.

“I know but… what is she says no because of it?”

“Alyana,” Missya said.

“Yes?” She said, turning to look at her.

“She still knows Taelish.”

Alyana slowly turned her head back towards me and I nodded, to which she blushed immediately and turned again the other way.

“She sure is cute,” I whispered to Vilandra.

“I know, right? One wouldn’t say if they only saw her when she keeps her ‘first executioner’ front though, also she tends to get all stiff when she speaks other languages.”

“I think that makes her look even cuter.”

She let out a small laugh behind me and said, “I totally agree.”

“Princess Alyana,” I said

“Just Alyana is fine.”

“Alyana, I’d really like to spend some time with you, Vilandra, Missya, and Lyra,” I said, which brought a small smile on her face, “but I have to talk to a few people before I can do so.”

“Sure, no problem.”

The ride to the town was pretty uneventful after that, except for the few times we saw some treants take back their place in the holes they occupied before the battle. Even when they came close to us, though, they completely ignored us and just kept minding their own business.

We were almost at the gates when we noticed a few broken and charred barrels, along some patches of burnt ground. Lord Granger seeing them jokingly said, “it seems like we were too late to save all of our precious liquor, Lady Fortuna.”

That night Lord Granger had to draw from his personal reserve to pacify two really pissed off women.