Chapter 48 - Night in Dulsalies
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I woke up in a bed with a light cotton sheet covering me. Over me I could see an unfamiliar wooden ceiling, between two walls of light gray stone lit by candlelight. I sat up and met Holiés’ eyes.
He was sitting on a wooden chair next to the bed, eating from a bunch of red berries. When he saw I was up, he took a bowl full of the fruits and offered it to me saying, “want some?”
“Yeah,” I said, and took a handful of berries.
“So...” he swallowed the berries that were still in his mouth, “you’re a goddess?”
“Yep. I’m the goddess of luck, to be precise,” I said, with a mouth still half full of those acidic but sweet berries.
“Wait, I thought there were only two gods.”
“The hero summoning brought me here from my world.”
“I see...” he shrugged, “well, that explains the ducks at least. And why you’re so random.”
“You seem pretty unfazed, considering the situation.”
“Honestly, I think I haven’t registered it yet. I mean, a king is something I can get my mind around. A god… It’s as if someone just told me they have a billion gold coins. It just doesn’t register.”
I just nodded as I kept eating the berries.
“Are you going to smite me or something now?” he asked.
I burst out laughing, putting a hand in front of my mouth to stop me from spewing pieces of berries everywhere. When I finally managed to stop my laughter, I said, “no, definitely not. Why would I?”
“Well, you didn’t really seem happy about me before. Also, it seemed like something that should remain a secret.”
“You have that slave contract on, right?” I cleaned my mouth with a handkerchief I took out from my storage. “That thing by itself should be enough from stopping you from talking.”
“I see… I guess you’re right.”
“Also,” I continued, “if I were to smite every person who insulted me there wouldn’t be a single living soul in my world. Do you have any idea how many people curse their luck?”
“I guess that’s true too...”
“And it’s not like me being a goddess is much different from me being a baroness as far as your well-being on that front is concerned, you know?”
He looked up at the ceiling, and took a deep breath and. After a few seconds he looked back a me and said, “I don’t have much of a self-preservation instinct, do I?”
I giggled a bit. “Oh no, you definitely suck at that.” I smiled at him. “But it’s fine. I’ve been worshiped as a deity, I’ve been respected as a noble, I’ve also been a priest a few times. But there were times when the same people who respect nobles and revere priests have insulted, tortured, or killed me, because I wasn’t holding such positions, or I was and I was betrayed by them. Some of them, when it seemed fun to do so, saw retribution on my part, but most of them I just let go, as I know well how human nature is.”
I took a deep breath, “Anyway, what I wanted to say is, I’ve seen a lot, and lived a lot, and two things that are rare to find in people are coherence and honesty. You’re too honest for your own good, but at least it’s a nice change of pace.”
“I don’t really know what to say… Thanks, I guess?”
I giggled. “I’m practically calling you dumb, you know that, right?”
He shot up from his chair and shouted, “oh, come the fuck on! I thought we were having a moment here.”
I burst out laughing, and Holiés soon followed me. We kept laughing and laughing for a few good minutes.
At one point Holiés was finally able to take a few deep breaths to calm his laughter and said, “bitch.”
“Dick,” I said, and we resumed laughing.
It took us another couple of minutes to be able to stop laughing completely, at which point I said, “so, where’s my new oracle?”
“It looked like she needed some time to think, so I told her to tend to the horses once we were all settled.”
“What?!” I shouted, jumping off the bed. “Do you have an idea of how much that dress cost me?”
“Don’t worry, I got her some cheap work clothes,” he said, taking another bunch of berries from the bowl. “Speaking of which, between the clothes, the fee for the inn, and dinner I practically ran out of money.”
“Don’t worry, tomorrow we’ll go on a quest and I’ll give you some pocket money afterwards.”
“Oh, thanks mummy,” he said, grinning.
“You’re welcome, my sweet child,” I said, playing his game. I then realized what he had just said and shouted, “you already had dinner?!”
“Yeah, a couple of hours ago actually, you’ve been out for quite a while.”
“Do you think they still have something to eat?”
“I told them to keep something for when you’d wake up,” he said, setting aside the bowl. “I’ll go get it for you.”
“Thanks,” I said, waving at him as he left the room.
Now alone in the room, I went towards the window and opened the closed shutters, revealing the streets where the silver light of the moons danced around the warm orange light of the lanterns. Despite the fact that it was already late into the night, the streets were still bustling with people who were coming and going from buildings with red lanterns outside their doors.
At that moment I heard the door opening again behind me, and turned to see Holiés with a bowl and spoon in hand.
“Holiés...” I said, making it clear that I wasn’t happy.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Yes?” he said, putting the bowl on the bedside table.
“Are we in the red light district?”
“Maybe…?”
I sighed, “is this a brothel?”
“Of course not!”
“Oh, good.”
“It’s just a normal inn that happens to also offer a very specific kind of room service.”
“Holiés!” I shouted.
“What? I didn’t know about it, ok? I just asked around for a good inn. I realized that we were in the brothel district only after dinner,” he said, trying to defend himself.
“I hope that at least the food is good,” I said, sitting on the side of the bed.
“Oh yeah. It’s amazing,” he said, offering me the spoon.
I took a spoonful of the soup that was sitting in the bowl and tasted it. The soup seemed to have beans and shrimps as its main ingredients, with a clam here and there.
“I wouldn’t say it’s amazing, but it’s pretty good,” I said, dipping the spoon again in the soup.
“Food aside, knowing you I would have never thought you’d be so against staying in the middle of the brothel district,” he said, before laying down on the bed behind me.
I shrugged. “I have nothing against the profession, though I prefer a partner who does it for passion rather than money or because they’re forced to do it. It’s just that it can get noisy at night.”
“Oh right, it might get difficult to catch sleep at night.”
“That’s not the problem.” I turned to face him and stared straight into his eyes. “I might get too excited and jump on you like a crazy animal.”
“Fuck off,” he said, throwing a pillow at me.
I started laughing and, in that moment, a knock came from the door.
“Yes?” I said, still giggling.
“Mistress, it is me, Akiko. I have finished tending to the horses,” Akiko said from behind the door, her voice barely audible.
“Come in,” I said and, a moment later, Akiko slowly entered the room while looking down at her feet. As Holiés said, she wasn’t wearing her yukata-like dress but a simple and loose linen dress that wasn’t even dyed. When she was finally inside, she closed the door behind herself and stayed there where she was.
“Don’t stay there, come sit here. I don’t bite, I swear” I said, smiling.
A smile she probably didn’t even register, as she kept looking down while, with a, “yes, mistress,” she went to sit at the end of the bed.
We stayed there in silence for a few minutes as I finished eating. When the bowl was finally empty, I put it back on the bedside table and asked Akiko, “how are you feeling?”
“I am doing well, thank you,” she said, still not daring looking at me.
I moved closer to her and put a hand over her back, which made her tense up for a moment. “Please, Akiko, talk to me. Do not lie thinking that it will please me. I know well that this situation might be difficult for you, so, please, tell me how you truly feel.”
She looked at me for only a second, before looking back at the ground. “I… I do not know, mistress. I do not know what to think. I do not know what I should do…”
I saw tears starting to flow down her eyes, so I drew her closer to me and closed her in a hug.
“Akiko, I might have pushed myself a bit on you today, but if you don’t want to be an oracle I-”
“No!” she interrupted me, pushing me away, but still clinging at my shirt. She looked at me, tears flowing down her cheeks, and said, “please, let me serve you. I know I was born an abomination. I know I do not deserve this. But please… please…”
I brought her closer to me once more, letting her rest her head against my chest, and said, “you are not an abomination. You are a young and beautiful girl, and, for what I have seen, you are strong and good too.” I put a hand over her head, between her wolf ears. “But, most of all, you are my oracle, Akiko. I will not abandon you, and I will not allow anyone to call you an abomination, not even yourself.”
Those simple words were enough to let her burst into a loud, liberating cry, while she kept clinging against me.
She kept crying and crying, only stopping after about half an hour had passed, when she fell asleep, her head still on my chest, and her cheeks still wet from her tears.
I gently placed her on the bed, and decided to let her sleep. I then looked at Holiés, who, in the meantime, had gone to sit back on the chair.
“Want a drink?” I asked him.
He shrugged. “It definitely can’t hurt.”
I sat on the bed in front of him. I then took out a half empty bottle of liquor from my storage, took a sip, then passed it to him.
He took a sip too, before saying, “that wasn’t what I was expecting.”
“Yeah, to think someone would call such a cute girl an abomination...” I said, turning to look at Akiko. She was laying on her side, her expression finally relaxed, and her lips slightly apart as she slept. Her white ears twitched now and then seemingly for no reason, while her tail went over her side to reach for her belly. The loose linen cloth had moved, revealing a bit of her breasts.
(Damn, I’d definitely do her.)
At that moment, Holiés flicked my forehead with his finger. I immediately turned back towards him, only to be met with a raised index finger right in front of my face.
“No! Bad goddess!” he said, moving his finger as if he was scolding a dog.
“Hey! I didn’t do anything!”
“But you thought about it.”
Instead of rebutting, I [looked] at him again.
Name: Holiés
Race: Human
Lvl: 37
Job: Hunter
HP: 2985
MP: 345
SP:2486
STR: 276
DEF: 98
AGI: 267
INT: 98
WIS: 86
Skills
Dagger mastery lvl 2
Archery lvl 6
Hand to hand combat lvl 2
Stealth mastery lvl 7
Path finding lvl 4
Sense danger lvl 3
Magic manipulation lvl 1
Titles
-
After a bit, as I was still staring at him without saying anything, he said, “what?”
“I was just checking if you had perhaps gotten some mind-reading ability,” I said, letting his status fade away.
“Maybe I’m an oracle too,” he said, before taking another sip.
“No, I think you’re a god in the making,” I said, keeping my tone as serious as possible.
“I what?!” he said, bottle still in front of his mouth.
“Yes, you’ll soon be the mighty God of Annoyance,” I said, as a smirk crept on my face.