Reena smiled, and running her hand past her hairline, she blushed towards me, which was always a pleasant sight to see as Reena glowed in the light. I smiled back towards her. However, Arthur, who was listening in on our conversation, upon hearing that we’re going to the Arena, asked about the tournament being held tomorrow and said, “Say you seem like a man who likes to make bets; how about this for one?”
He could tell exactly what I was about, I began to bust out in a little grin and smile at that moment, and without hesitation, I stopped flirting with the ladies mid-conversation and turned towards the older man and said, “Just when I thought I have you figured out, old man, you caught my attention. I am listening.”
Arthur looked at me after I said that with a smile on his face, our eyes locked, and I looked at him with one on mine. At this time, the other two men he was with said, “Arthur, you have to stop making bets!”
The girls I was with there looked at us like we were strange, as did the other two men Arthur was with. We stared at each other down in the alley as he had the high ground on a step; it was kind of like high noon in a western film. Finally, Arthur started chuckling, which broke the awkwardness we created in the atmosphere; answering me, he said, “How about this for a bet? If you can beat us in the tournament, we will cover the costs of the damage you caused, however.”
As Arthur paused for a moment, the jolly older man quickly turned serious, as he then followed up, “If you lose, though, you will owe our guild a favour that I can choose to ask you to do, and as a kicker, you will have to pay x2 the costs of repairs you did yesterday.”
I took it in, pondering on the bet, this would skip the need for the guild information if we won, and as I stood there for a moment, I thought about it before responding to his bet terms replying to him, I said, “Hmm, sounds like an interesting proposition, and what if my party here and I bests you guys? How do I know you will honour your word?”
I noticed after I had said that the Elf Lest he was with got mad, and his pale skin turned red. When Lest heard me accusing their leader Arthur of being dishonest, it clearly upset him. I saw a look of frustration and disgust boiling on his face, a look I was all too familiar with at this point as I even thought, 'I must have really struck a nerve.'
That was when Lest joined into our conversation. Angry and bright red in the face, he started angrily saying towards me, “Our guild would never lose to you and the beasts, plus the idea of Arthur going back on his word he has never lied, he is a good man, take it back Demon apologize for saying that.”
'What's with this guy? I started to think.’ Jacosta and Reena stood behind me in silence after that comment; I saw they looked upset as the two of them looked like they were clearly used to hearing those rude remarks. Turning to face Lest, I argued with him now for a few moments, as I started saying to him, “You know, I was going to apologize until I heard that crap about the beasts; they have names just like you and me, Lest and even Paul over there, should I from this day every time I see you, call you Elf-boy and Human-lad.”
Lest looked shocked, as he never properly introduced himself to me, as did Paul too. They both had a general look of confusion on their faces. However, their leader Arthur did not look like it phased him too much, as with age came wisdom, and he probably thought I had asked around about them.
Raising his hand again, Arthur asked the men he was with to stop quarrelling with me as we began our conversation over again about the betting terms. Arthur then continued to say to the three of us, “If you Reena and Jacosta all manage to make it to the end of the tournament, and I mean all of you, not just you Azurith, we will honour the deal with a contract if you would like or as two gentlemen with our words, the choice is yours.”
He then began extending his right hand forward, reaching towards me, waiting to accept the deal and shake hands. I walked over and shook his hand and told him, “I am going to make you look like a fool. You are going to regret making this bet, older man. You got yourself a deal.”
Gripping his hand tightly, we struck our bet; we smiled at each other with a grin on our faces. Then, he said back to me confidently, “Well, will see who makes who a fool their young demon.”
As he let go of my hand, he then followed up and said to our group, ”We will skip the guild information for now as a sign of good faith as you don't sound like the kind to skip out on a bet. However, I will allow you to get supplies from our guild shop for your ass whipping tomorrow.”
I could not help but laugh, as it was not an arrogant laugh, but I could not contain myself. It was the first time I actually truly laughed in this new place. What he said was funny. Now walking back to the ladies, I started looking over towards them. Everything seemed right. As they ran over towards me and started to talk to the other men backing me up, even Jacosta started saying towards them all with confidence in her voice,” We won't lose!!”
Then walking up, placing her hand on my shoulder Reena stood beside her sister. She nervously began patting her on the head with her other hand, running her hand through her white hair, saying to her sister,” As long as we're with Azurith.”
We all had a good laugh and then walked to their guilds building, which was apparently close. Now Arthur and the two men he was with continued to lead us to their guild house down the narrow alleys. After walking for what seemed like half an hour, we finally arrived at the guild house; Arthur looked back with excitement on his face and said to all of us, “Welcome to The Knights of Geroleo guild house,”
I could see the giant building before us Arthur was showing us was the Knights of Geroleo guilds house. They made the guild house out of giant glass panels, stone, and metal, which would allow for large amounts of light to be shined down inside the building. The whole structure itself was massive. It looked like the supporting structure was made of thick oak or some wood.
In front of the building, there were also these giant stone pillars leading up a metal staircase; along the sides, there were various plants, and at the front of the entrance leading to the front door were a few statues. So I looked over and asked Jacosta and Reena,” Have you guys ever been here before?"
I was surprised when both of them shook their head 'No' Reena started looking up at me, then she said something that did not surprise me,” This was the rich area of the city, and we tended not to go to this area as it was very high class.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Arthur, Lest, and Paul started walking up the steps. Looking behind them at us, Arthur asked, "Well, are you coming?" We enthusiastically ran after them and followed them shortly up the stairs after he said that. We slowly walked up the steps; I noticed various Human males and females, same with various kinds of Elves, leaving the guild entrance and walking down the staircase looking at us. The armour everyone was using here was so foreign, even for my old world or game. I couldn’t help think to myself, “Wow, this is some real high-grade stuff.” As they walked past me, I checked a few of them out.
Now, our group walked up to the door with Arthur still in the front with Lest and Paul following; I followed with Reena and Jacosta behind me. I continued to stare at the various people walking past us. There would be the occasional female taking a glance back at me and checking me back out, which I truly did not mind. I accepted the looks of the woman.
The guild entrance was now in front of us, and we were met with large wooden double doors that, if I had to guess, were roughly 4 metres tall in height and width. As Arthur approached the massive doors, the door opened wide enough for all of us to enter like magic without him having to touch them, and we walked inside.
Once we walked inside, I could see it was a very decorative building with all kinds of post-modern furniture I could relate to; with lots of other nice furniture around the entrance hall, it had a nice professional vibe. There were even several lazy members sitting around on the couches, reminding me of the old days when my guild, The Celestials, ruled a city called Darkon In Gepot.
I saw people reading and relaxing on the couches. I noticed there was also a garden inside the building with running water irrigated on aqueducts. I could hear the noise of water as it ran, and all around, flowers and trees were growing inside all over the entrance room. It had such an enchanting forest feeling atmosphere. I turned to Arthur and said,” Nice guild house. I like the plants hanging around. It is very cozy.”
He smiled when I said that and then told me with a kind of charm to him, “I am glad you like them, Azurith. If you would be so kind as to follow us over here, I will show you where our supplies are. You can buy them for the tournament tomorrow.”
Reena and Jacosta' were looking around in awe as they had never seen the inside of this building. I could see them run over and start staring at the flowers. Once they saw some flowers they recognized, Jacosta started running over towards them to smell them. Jacosta then called her sister over, pointing now to one of the flowers in the garden before saying to Reena,” Look, Reena, these are Juelio blossoms. We have not seen these in so long it must have been 10 years.”
I could not help but look over at the flower she was pointing to when she called her sister Reena over. It looked kind of interesting, not gonna lie. The flower was an orange flower and white. It was like the colour of Reena’s hair, but the inside of the flower was an ivory white colour like Jacosta's. I could see why they liked this flower. The flower was a long-hanging flower that hung over the side. The bud of the flower looked rather heavy for the stem, causing it to droop over. As each of the petals hung over it, giving it that drooping look, the petals went all the way down the side, covering the sepal of the flower.
The flower's pistil emitted an intoxicating aroma. I found it to be kind of a pleasant smell, though like a fancy perfume. I smiled over at Reena, who was bent over. Reena was shaking her hips back and forth as her tailed swayed with them. I could see from Reena's position as she bent over with her hands on the floor. She had her ass in the air. ‘Nice,’
As she was smelling the flower, her face went red in embarrassment when she looked back and saw me staring at her ass. Then I told the two of them, looking around now,” Why don’t you guys stay here with Elf-boy and Human-lad and enjoy the flowers.”
I heard Lest started ranting at Paul, as he started saying in a serious tone of voice,” Now he is giving us orders, what the fuck” Paul, ignoring Lest, just looked at me in the eye and said,” I did not do anything!”
I could not help but chuckle as I mentioned to the two of them, “How about you call those two by their name, and I will call you ‘Paul and Lest’? Do we have a deal?”
I saw Paul looked at the two girls as the noise of running water ran and the scent of the flowers could be smelt; he then went on and said to them,” Reena, Jacosta, do you like flowers? We have a nicer garden over here. If you would like to follow Lest and me, let us start over.”
Paul clearly aimed to please people, and he seemed like a genuinely nice person upholding some of the principles of the Gepot Humans in the game I use to play. So while they walked away, I shouted at Paul, ”Hey, Paul!” As he looked back, some of the other guild members poked their heads up at me, and I asked him, ”What do we do if someone falls?”
He looked generally surprised at what I had just said to him, only taking a few seconds to gather himself, to which he then responded, ”We pick them back up.”
Smiling, he then accompanied the girls down a different hallway to what I assumed was the nice garden the Elves had made for herbs. As Arthur looked over at me, generally confused, he asked me,” Where did you hear of that saying?”
Smiling at Arthur, I scratched my head, and I said, ”I use to run with a Human Elementalist mage. That was the saying of your race, was it not?”
As I finished answering his question, I remembered what I had just said about an Elementalist. Would he understand what I said?’
I was not going to mention it again to him. However, Arthur had other plans about that when he asked me about it, saying, “I heard stories of Elementalist mages from the age of high magic, but that was in a time long ago, now a day's you won't find any of them around. If you are telling the truth, that will take you over 900 years old, Azurith. I don’t think demons live that long as you don’t look older than 100. But, as you don’t seem like a liar, you are intriguing to me nonetheless.”
He stopped for a moment and then continued, “If you would like to follow me now down this hall to the store, you can buy what you need from it.” When he finished speaking, Arthur began to walk down a hallway quickly. This time, the hallway we walked down was more human than the front entrance; this was a traditional stone hallway and path. As we walked down it, I could not help but think to myself,
“So there were Elementalists once upon a time in this place, in this world, but they don't exist in this place any longer 900 years too late during the age of high magic? Am I stuck here now this age has passed? I wonder, does anyone use magical staffs still?”
I wanted to ask him these questions, but I wanted to find the perfect opportunity. As the hall we walked down led us to an area that opened up, together we walked through it, and once we got inside the area, I saw a few benches with desks out with an area off to the side with items on it. Next to the desks, there was an area with heavy bars and a teller at a desk sitting. Behind the person at the desk, there was a door to a back room of some kind. Arthur walked over to the woman at the desk and began to speak to her and said,
”Here, Natia, this is our friend Azurith. He is the one I had you fill out the paperwork for with the damages yesterday for the fight at night. Can I ask you to hold that off on that for a day, as we have a little gentleman's bet going on now?”
The woman called Natia responded to Arthur laughing like a maniac, which generally shocked me. She then said to him, “One of these days, the guild leaders are going to get tired of your little ‘gentleman bets. But for sure, Arthur, I can hold off for a day. Anyways, hi Azurith, come over here. I don't bite...Hard. My name is Natia. I am the guilds store clerk and accountant. Nice to meet you!”
'This woman seemed very nice.'
Calmly responding to her, I started answering her, “The pleasure is all mine Natia, Arthur promised me I could purchase some supplies here; I hope that is not going to get you two in trouble.”
I could see the woman Natia looking over at Arthur, who I saw lowered his Fedora to cover his eyes, then he started to lean up against the bars, as she went on to say towards him,” Oh really, did he? Well, I can let it slide this once; what did you need?”