Invisible, I teleported back to Barbara, who was arduously hiking her way back to the surface access with everyone else. I let the party move ahead and hid behind a bend in the tunnel.
Before my hour was over, I changed into Haru's to use her kitsune tails for a discount on a summoning spell. Then I called a level 60 Origami Fungaloid Ogre Mage Eidolon, for 148,000 MP and an hourly maintenance cost of 10,000 MP.
The paper Ogre was comical, and I would laugh were it not for its stats. I had to remind myself it was the equivalent of a level 120 monster back when the Cap was 200 and had extra Attributes to boost. With all the Perks and bonuses to summoning, he could fight with any fourth-rank monster head-on. Adding my leadership buffs, anything that didn't fly would die of paper cuts.
It was orange for some reason, and almost flat. Like those cartoons characters that got steamrolled. Yet it had some depth and no problem keeping its balance. The folds gave it full range of movements and its fingers ended in sharp paper triangles that could both slash and puncture. It could use all abilities of the original ogre, including spawning minions, also made of origami. So long a cut-out of some faux-Italian plumber from Japan didn't hit them with a cut-out hammer or stomp on them, they would be fine. Yeah, the minions looked like origami "goombahs".
I dismissed the experiment and lamented my short time. This was not my life; it was theirs to live. I was just a special guest whenever my alter-ego, Netherbane, requested my aid. I hoped he would find a way to break the curse. They didn't have the {Mana Wellspring} to siphon MP for the curse breaking.
Despite my despair, I knew getting out of this curse was a matter of when, not if. The little counters to seven on each of my Perks said as much. Nenandil was off-grid, my dragon-golem clones still hadn’t sent notice back. They were all "alive" and out in the world, doing their thing.
I resigned myself to the backseat drive this time. If Netherbane could score one with Lorna's new incarnation, that was also progress. The world wasn't going anywhere.
After sorting my feelings and making a log entry in the Flying book, I left Netherbane a message telling him to buy the [Warrior] Perk {Charge}. It would unlock yet another combination.
*
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*
I came back to my senses and immediately tried to contact her.
I could hear her mental sigh of relief.
No surprises there. After I convinced the centaur I was the reincarnation of his Goddess, I was certain he would do what he thought was best for me. I would facepalm if I had both a face and a palm. My stupid single-digit Mind newborn-self mistook the book where I was trapped for "my mom" and the factoid stuck. I recognized now what I was, but I was afraid of Barbara's reaction if I told her it was all a delusion of a newborn dumb mimic. I feared she would think I was deceiving her. But that was one band-aid I had to rip rather sooner than later.
I reported.
I made sure to shapeshift back to my old form.
She got a job in the middle of the Labyrinth. Good. Good. Great.
No! Dumb mimic brain. What the fuck? How the hell did that happen?
*
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The above was re-written from ch. 35.13. We now resume our normal schedule. i.e. whenever I have a chapter up.
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*
I could think of only one person who would offer Barbara a job down here. Lord Isaac Hamilton. Among the many interests he could have on the girl, hiring her as a retainer was the most mundane and not the least creepy of them all. My first impulse was to give him a piece of my mind, tell him how Barbara was destined to higher things and not be bound to the service of a third-rate nobleman, that she could earn a hundredfold more money on her own but that was me imposing my own worldview on her.
Barbara wasn't destined to anything, not even meeting me. Surely, the Fate spell Lorna and mom... and I cast would bring us together most of the time, but that was it. She had free reign over her life and I just wanted her to be happy. If happiness could be found working for that Lord, then so be it.
Yet I couldn't help but worry she would be under valuated as a minion of some minor Lord. She was the Goddess' lover, for crying out loud. Not that anyone could know that, much less herself. Just thinking about what would happen if I told her gave me the creeps as Fate, the ever-fickle mistress, whispered dark tidings and hinted at a terrible doom. Nope.
As my mind cooled down, I remembered the Academy rules. Barbara couldn't commit to employment, patronage, or retainership until she graduated three and a half-ish years from now. Well, she could start negotiating but Hamilton couldn't sink his fangs on her, and she could always back off later without any legal implications and few social ones. Damn. Even if he wanted to sing his actual fangs on her or any other part of his anatomy would be less creepy than this. A monster whose intentions you knew was not scarier than the unknown.
The major problem with getting involved with a noble was the ever-present faction wars and the game of power and influence. Those that opposed Hamilton's group would see Barbara as a potential enemy agent to be wooed, used, and discarded. Or "neutralized" for good. Killed, in layman's terms. The control freaks couldn't just leave people alone. And may the Matriarch forbid him to be just a naive someone armed with only good intentions. Those were the worst. I knew it very well, mom... I had been one quite a few times from what I read in the book.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
Absorbed with my fears and musings, I missed reaching the group on the flying book.
"Nethe!"
Barbara called, my senses suggesting she was coming my way as much as the book carrying me was going hers. I could sense distress in her voice. As she cleared the last bend in the tunnel, she halted and shrieked at the sight of something unknown floating toward her. My fault for not carrying or depending on lights. I fixed my mistake by conjuring a few.
She clutched her hand in front of her chest, the staff already in her hand and one of the rubies already powering up. Not only she inscribed a few more complex spells on it, but she also got better at summoning it quickly from its necklace form. How long was I away from them? Surely only a few hours, right? Not several days as it seems. Then she exhaled deeply as her head bobbed down, a warm smile back on her face as it rose again to look at me.
"I'm glad you are back, but you should hide this book. Nobody should see it, Nethe!" She admonished as she picked me up from mom's floating book, which vanished as I dismissed it.
She kissed the top edge of my cover and hugged me, "It's fine. How was your adventure?"
I told her what mom's book recorded regarding her meeting with Bit the God of Monsters and Dungeons. About the biomes that would appear in the Labyrinth and the newest addition to my summon roster.
As we caught up with the delving party on their way back to the surface, she rubbed her chin, "I think we should tell Mrs. Blatherwick. That's huge news, Nethe!"
"Mrs. Blatherwick!" The impulsive halfling shouted and ran to tell her chaperone the news.
"What is it now, Ambrose?" She demanded, tired. The Labyrinth had this effect on amateur delvers. Not everyone was fit or used to spending weeks in its cavernous depths.
"Nethe made a huge discovery!" She squealed. "The Labyrinth is changing!"
The teacher glanced sideways at Axion the centaur. "Is there a safe place to stop and rest? What about that tunnel up there?" The huge man nodded. "Well, let's make camp for the night earlier today. Ambrose, you can tell me everything after we sat and rest."
Everyone seemed tired. I noticed part of Barbara's rush was to shift focus away from her, away from her employment offer. But I didn't blame her. We needed to talk and the one that deserved a scolding was me, for withholding critical information. Maybe I was making a mountain out of a molehill, but that was how I felt at that moment.
Slung on Barbara's hip like a messenger bag, I went along with her as they broke off the main tunnel and entered the side branch that would allow them to make camp safely.
Inside the teacher's tent, Barbara relayed to Mrs. Blatherwick what I told her earlier, and I showed some freshly picked mushrooms as evidence. "Mr. Axion didn't tell me about any shrines," she remarked.
I created a mouth on my cover, taking care to shape the origami teeth like a person's. "Bring him here and he'll confirm my story," I shrugged. The Centaur knew my true identity and he did exactly as I expected. With that out of the way, the teacher went from suspicious to as amazed as the starry-eyed girl I had for master.
"May I keep these mushroom samples, Netherbane?" Pointing at the mushrooms on the table, she asked me after the centaur left the tent.
"Be my guest. These are just samples," I replied.
"Should I assume you have more in some spatial storage?"
"A few more," I lied. Using Haru's kitsune powers, I could create more easily now that I had sampled them.
She smiled and softened her gaze in a way that seemed both maternal and condescending. "Have you {Appraised} them? They'll be worth ten or twenty times more than the System baseline price."
So that's it. She knew the mushrooms were worth a lot and thought I didn't know when I didn't care. Mom's wealth made the monetary worth of these mushrooms negligible.
"Thanks, but we're not struggling for money at the moment," I dismissed her concern. Barbara glanced at me and pursed her lips.
Mrs. Blatherwick smiled, a rare find. "Very well. I'll make sure to recommend a commendation to the expedition board for Miss Ambrose."
Now the mushrooms counted as a contribution to the Academy from Barbara. Much better than hard cold cash. "We are honored to help," I concluded.
After an awkward freeze, Barbara also nodded frantically. "Yes, thank you, Mrs. Blatherwick!"
The teacher's smile became a grin. Barbara froze as she realized what was coming her way. "Well, you got yourselves an assignment. I need you to document that cave, in writing with drawings."
*
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Outside the teacher's tent, Barbara crosse the camp to her spot. Despite the nobles warming up to her, she was still the odd one out and it showed in the sleep arrangements. The girls slept together in a larger tent, Isaac Hamilton bunked alone next to the teacher as it was proper for the only male in the student group, and so did Barbara but next to the girls. Sometimes they invited her to their tent, but today we needed the privacy.
She removed her hiking shoes and threw them against the corner canvas, flopping on the mattress face-first. Her tent was small for a single human, but she was a halfling. Everything was twice as big for her. After a while smelling her pillow, she raised her torso and pulled me in front of her, removing me from my silk sleeve.
"It's a big opportunity, Nethe!" She defended herself preemptively.
"Society sees me as a commoner, despite my special connection," she continued rambling. "Working for the Hamilton house will be good for me. And Lord Hamilton offered very generous conditions! I won't even need to swear fealty to them!"
Isaac wasn't stupid. He knew I could sour his deal, but his timing was something odd. He had weeks to breach the subject and did so exactly when I was away. I felt tempted to read his mind and find what he intended but knew I wouldn't do so.
Nevertheless, the worst he could do was hurt Barbara's feelings and incur my wrath. Or worse, mom's wrath. Countries fell for less than that. With that in mind, I surrendered.
"And it will open doors to work for the nobility later. Maybe even become a [Court Wizard]!" She went on, then finished processing what I said. "Eh? You're not..."
Dismayed, she whimpered, "But I haven't yet said everything!"
Apparently, Barbara had prepared a long list of arguments as to why working for the Hamiltons was a good thing. As a good familiar, the least I could do was to lend her an ear.
She did. Her list was thirteen bullet points long, with some premade counterarguments to the obvious objections. I presented these counterarguments as I thought of them, and she quickly loosen herself as we playfully pretended to have a heated debate. After an hour arguing the pros and cons, she finally put all of them out of her system. It felt like I stayed away from her longer than I expected. Did I experience a sort of time-dilation? I had a gap in my memories every time I suppressed the curse and let mom take over, but it was supposed to last only one hour each time. Did Bit do something to let mom stay awake for longer than an hour? When I asked Barbara, she told me I was away for four days.
But now we were together, and nothing would make me leave her side. Tired from our debate, she laid on her mattress on the tent floor, staring at the canvas and the soft magical light with me across her stomach.
"I hope we get back to the surface soon," she sighed wistfully.
*
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As if the world wanted to contradict her, a distant and slightly familiar wave of Divine power washed over everything, making the whole Labyrinth shake.