Chapter 3 - Dwarves and Deals

Three Dwarves. Three Merchants.

Finding this bunch of people out in the open, quite away from any visible settlement, was as much of a surprise as it was a blessing in disguise due to the circumstances we were in. Both for us and for them.

First thing first, an introduction was needed.

The leader of the group, the only female, was Forfokara Nightmail, shortened to Kara, a lively individual that was quick to see us as what her group had been trying to get- decent guards at an affordable price.

Her red hair was soft-looking, like a cloud that was put in a ponytail. A small scar stretched from below her right eye, barely getting too deep in her cheek and doing little to steal attention from her happy blue eyes.

She was quite short, a bit busty and relatively experienced in traveling despite her youthful appearance, with her ‘assistants’ being actually younger than she was. Yep, Dwarves were officially weird to me.

Especially with how frightened her assistants, Hustatalin (Talin) and Firfin (Fir), were with us as they thought we were mindless ‘half-dragons’. Yep, they didn’t know we were Kobolds or what a Kobold was, confirming my expectation that the world had slowly started to forget about our species.

Still, that wasn’t the point of the situation. Kara wanted us to join the group and be the ‘mercenaries’ guarding their goods while they made the trip to their home, the city of Gurlodir within the Principality of Buloger.

We already were within the Principality’s borders, but the circumstance driving the woman to seek protection so desperately was driven by a very relevant detail that left me in a chagrin: Orcs lived in this area and… they weren’t of the intelligent kind.

Which was really bad considering I had thought of trying to find an Orcish settlement to tag along with the rest of the group but… Oh well, Dwarves felt like a good alternative at the moment.

“So, you want us to just protect your stuff and you will pay us?” I asked flatly.

“That’s correct,” Kara assured with a wild grin, trying her best to hide away a bit of unease at how I looked. I didn’t mind since I was inherently a monster at this point. Plus, it would be futile to just tell them we weren’t bad as actions would speak louder than mere promises would. “You do a fine job, and you’ll get paid for each good head that puts an effort in this.”

That didn’t sound as promising as I would have wanted, but money was not what I was looking for at the moment. It was a matter of finding civilization, letting the rest of the group settle down, do jobs and then we were going to start to do stuff that would help us with our… quest of survival?

If I have to be honest, especially towards myself, I didn’t think beyond the ‘being safe’ part of the plan as… really, what is my- our purpose at this point? I wasn’t going to follow the Dark Lord’s plans, that much was assured, but what would be our goals after that?

…

Despite how relevant this was, I made what I felt was the best decision at the moment: ignore it and then think of it only after our survival was guaranteed. Despite how insane this predicament was, I had a bit of a commitment to these other Kobolds I was leading and I was never one to just bail from a responsibility as meaningful as this one.

So, I put my attention elsewhere. Specifically the biggest map that Kara gave me the chance to keep as she had spares, and I could finally get a greater insight of our current location in the world.

[https://i.postimg.cc/cJWd3kdJ/First-Map-Kobold.png]

The map itself was an ‘incomplete’ map of the continent, showing just a good part of the Northern section of the Dhalian Continent, but giving me a good understanding of how far we had gone by actually marching South rather than North.

We made several miles through a relatively dangerous part of the world, avoided any dangerous confrontations with what was defined as ‘land of Dark Elves and Orcs’, and managed to make it to safety- well, we were close to it and, as fate would dictate, no one could get to success too easily.

Right as we were making the last few miles before reaching our destination, we stumbled on a small patrol group of orcs. They were all sleeping, perhaps taking a break and thinking that they were deep enough in the bushes to not be spotted by anyone passing by.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“W-We could pass around and-”

“There could be more around so… if we stray we may end up facing issues that are awake,” Kara interjected on Fir’s idea, giving me a look. “Can you help with this?”

I delivered a slow nod and turned to look at the rest of the Kobolds, each holding a differing degree of interest in taking care of the problem we were dealing with.

“Aqua, Grise, and Rocky,” I called for the main troopers, the trio looking ready for the job. “Two things, one- stab them in the head. Nowhere else but the head. Second, get any bags they may have with interesting things.”

After nodding at the tasks, the three Kobolds slowly made their way to where the orcs were sleeping, silently getting within range to kill the slumbering monsters and… soon were back with the loot I asked for.

Four bags, three filled with precious items and gold and one with some fishes. We were now close to the sea, so it was possible the orcs had raided someone carrying fish-related goods in this area.

Kara took this opportunity to claim a few of the items as we were hired by her, but let us keep the coin in exchange for us forfeiting the pay we were promised. It was actually a good deal with us as I doubted the pay would have been anywhere near the little treasure we just got out of the orcs.

With that little victory, the path to Gurlodir was now open and we were soon making our way through the capital’s front doors, guards nervous but calming down a bit as Kara vouched for our reason and assistance in helping them get back to the capital.

Turns out her little business as she called it was actually a major trade post within the city and recognized as one of the ‘big four’ by the locals. So, when she promised us food and shelter, we were…

Given a lot more than I could have predicted.

The building was roughly the size of a normal house- an unused location that should have been used for a new store in town, but that, due to circumstances tied to lack of workers to staff the place and a lack of ‘interest’ in the area, had been left unused up to this point.

The storage area had been given enough food to sustain for a whole month with careful planning, thus making the food issue easier to handle in the long run. Yet, while things had been quite nice on us, there was a small issue early on.

There were just a few available rooms, and I was quick to divide boys from girls despite some whining around about it. I had to blame my decision about the cuddle-pile, knowing that going that far just made them a bit too into being near one another.

At one point, due to how difficult it was to draw some warmth, I had allowed this to be a thing. Only because we needed to keep ourselves warmth- not to incite debauchery the very moment they had a bed to get that over with.

Rather than face an open revolt about it but refusing to reinstate the cuddle-pile solution, I created the ‘room-sharing’ schedule. Everyone was put through a lottery each day to determine who they would end up sharing the room with.

I was not excluded despite trying to do that on the fact we were not an even group, with the majority creating the ‘triple room sharing’ chance for the one that ended up excluded by the count. One of the already made couples would have the remaining one tag along for the night, depending on who wanted who.

I had a feeling that some cheating unfolded in that regard when it was clear that Rosa was meant to spend the night with me. She looked way too pleased by the result for this to have been the result of a genuinely randomized lottery.

Despite that, there wasn’t much for me to say or oppose in that regard, as the ‘lottery was absolute’ as Gris reasoned, only to secretly accept favors as bribery to make some couple happen more than they should by chance alone.

Still, the living conditions were not for free after a month, with Kara mentioning that we would have to start paying her rent. The price set for the bargain was driven by the building’s size rather than how many occupied it, and the overall contract I was introduced to left me realizing something I hadn’t exactly been given the means to confirm-

Calessa had mentioned cramming basic knowledge inside our heads back when we were eggs… and I could actually read the contract because of that.

How many languages could we read and speak? I couldn’t tell on the spot, but it also opened up the many questions of how much my fellow Kobolds knew and could do with said knowledge.

I decided to not let my brain melt down due to the paranoia, taking one step at the time and focusing on getting everyone to settle down, to bathe properly and to ultimately keep the interest to get too intimate around to either never or in proper spots.

It wasn’t a dangerous phenomenon since it wasn’t too frequent, but I was rather reluctant to let some smuttery unfold while we were still facing the uncertainty of our survival. We had a home, we had food, but neither of those were confirmed if we didn’t secure a legit source of income. And there were many paths to explore and many places to check as Gurlodir was full of some potential routes to entertain for the sake of money and more.

There was a lot to unpack and my poor brain wasn’t ready to do all of that at once with the other immediate priorities I had to keep an eye on. And, to make things more interesting, it was soon nighttime, we all had dinner and…

Rosa was already waiting for me by my bed, her clothes on the floor and a rather lustful look on her face as she stared at me. I blame pheromones, but damn she looked so… so fucking hot.

FUCK! My body is not helping with this!

“Hello boss~.”

Her sultry voice was just too much…

And, much to my own awkwardness on the matter, the night proved to be as exciting as one would think when handling a very excited girl with a body geared for sex.