"This place, huh?" Lone asked himself as he and Infa arrived in front of what was probably the largest and best-looking building in the district of Uk-uk-thar that the two of them were currently at. "Well, even if it's the most-ripe apple of a rotten bunch, it's still a rotten apple."

Lone rubbed his neck as he said, "Wait here, please, Infa. You're way too fat to fit in that tiny door."

Infa nodded his large head and plopped himself down onto the dirt road. "I shall await your return, Foxkin Lone."

"I shouldn't be long. An hour at most," lone replied as he walked up to the building's door and pushed it open before entering.

Marvelling slightly at the bizarre interior decorations of the building, Lone moved his eyes from the walls and onto the sole High Goblin in the room - this one, wrinkled and wearing a pair of rounded glasses, making it rather different to the ones he'd seen thus far.

"Cans we helps you, Sir?" it asked with a higher-pitched tone than that of the gate guard's voice.

'A female?' Lone wondered before he replied, "Yeah, I'm looking for some non-goblin adventurers, two humans, in particular, one of which has pink hair."

"Wes sorry, but wes can't tells you about other customerses. Our integrity can't allows it, you sees," the old goblin claimed as she shook her head sadly.

'Well, I already know that they're in a room on the third floor, but I shouldn't be a dick here.' Lone reached into his pocket and pulled out a pouch full of ruby-gold coins. "Does your integrity speak the language of money?"

The High Golbin's eyes shined. She pushed her glasses up her massive crooked nose then scrambled over the desk she was sat behind as fast as lightning then snatched the small sack from Lone's open palm and gave him a very sloppy bow in thanks.

"Our integrity is yourses to commands, Manytailses. The sleepy one is ons the floor nearest the skyses. We's cant remembers what rooms. Wes is getting olds, see? Perhaps more monieses will helps us remembers, yes." The High Goblin bent over, revealing her massive hunched back as she grinned maliciously and rubbed her callous-covered hands together.

Lone sighed. "Go tell them a person called 'Sarah' told me to meet them and that I'm here to help them complete the quest. Do that perfectly, and you'll get another sack of ruby-gold. Deal?"

"Yous is wise and kind foxy mans, Manytailses! Wes do what you wishes nows! Wes won't disappoints you, no, no disappoints at alls!" the goblin announced before she ran up the crickety set of stairs at the side of the room which no-doubt led to the bedrooms of this shabby inn.

Lone sat down on a chair that was missing a leg and was nailed to the floor as he chuckled softly. "They're pretty weird and disgusting, but they're also kinda charming. Being so easy to motivate with money is great. I kinda wanna meet their king now and see exactly why they haven't been wiped off of the map since they're so weak collectively."

He craned his head back and rubbed his neck. "One thing at a time. War-ranked quest, then squeezing Master Dilroy and Master Rangah of their soul skills. With Soph's new Remembrance Teleportation, I can come back here whenever I want."

He closed his eyes and began meditating as he patiently waited for the High Goblin to return with Sloth, Envy and Greed.

----------------------------------------

Lone slowed opened his eyes as he felt one of the three powerful souls leaving the room they were all in and stealthily make its way downstairs.

Looking in its owner's direction, Lone could see a very small white-skinned snake slithering along the wooden planks towards him.

Used to scaley things thanks to Swind, and clearly being aware of how intelligent something with a soul as powerful as the one this snake held was, Lone showed no fear towards the little creature.

He put one of his hands down onto the floor and smiled. "Are you Greed or Envy? You're awfully cute for a deadly sin, now aren't you?"

The snake happily wriggled about on the floor before it coiled itself around Lone's hand and slithered up his arm. It settled around his bicep and pointed its head towards his own.

"Can you not speak?" Lone asked in a soft voice as he used his free hand to softly pet the scaly creature.

It shook its head sadly. "That's a shame. You're surprisingly soft for a snake. You must take good care of your scales, huh?"

It hissed joyfully and bobbed its head around in response. "Hahaha, I honestly wasn't expecting a non-humanoid to be one of the famed Seven Deadly Sins. Where's your adventurer plate, little guy?"

"She... doesn't have.. it," a quiet and quite honestly adorable voice stated, pulling Lone's attention away from the snake wrapped around his arm.

Gazing at who had said those words, Lone saw a tall and handsome middle-aged man standing at the bottom of the stairs with a pink-haired human girl held in his arms who was barely keeping her eyes partially opened.

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

She was wearing frilly pyjamas and was cuddling a pillow that seemed to be impossibly soft as she peacefully lay in the man's arms.

As for the man himself, he had short slicked-back purple hair and his apathetic eyes were covered by a set of glasses that looked a lot like Lone's.

With a short cough to clear her thoughts, the girl added, "Greed... eats her... plates. Had to... take it... away from her... after the fourth time. Sarah... was... annoyed at... how much... diamond was... being wasted..."

'Huh... So this is Greed? She's only an X-ranker, but these two, Envy and Sloth I'm guessing, they're both triple-X-rankers...' Lone wore an interested expression. "You're sloth? Talking sounds tough for you, so maybe you should let him speak?" he suggested as he gestured to the tall man who could only be Envy considering that Greed was the tiny snake attached to his arm.

The man frowned while Sloth very slowly shook her head. "He can't... talk. Everything... he... says, comes... true. It could... kill him... if... he... makes something... massive... come... true. Dangerous power... so... he chooses... to simply... not... speak."

Lone held his chin with his free hand. "Huh. So he's Envy because he wants to talk like everyone else, but can't in fears of his own ability? Still, that's a crazy powerful skill. Is he a summoned hero?"

Sloth nodded slowly as she gently pushed herself free from Envy and began floating in the air. "Tails. Let... me... cuddle... one. We... can... talk... after that."

"Hmm? Sure. Go ahead, but only one. My lover is very possessive of them," Lone stated matter-of-factly.

"Wise... lover," Sloth muttered in response as she wrapped both her legs and arms around a big golden generator of fluffiness. "Perfect... should make... pillows... out of... yourself."

Lone chuckled as he carefully stood up. "Are you two usually so... physical with people that you team up with? I don't particularly mind a cute snake on my arm, and I'm more than used to a little girl immersing herself in my tails, but we only just met."

Sloth started snoring. 'I fell asleep. I'll talk to you via my Dream Speech if you don't mind.'

"Oh, you can do that? That's interesting. No, I don't mind, go ahead. Please answer my previous questions, if you don't mind," Lone replied.

'Okay. First, every single sin of the Seven Deadly Sins adventurer group is a summoned hero. We all have unique powers. Secondly, no. I've never met someone as cuddly-looking as you, so this is a first for me, as for Greed... she's usually only so nice to her food, but I don't feel any desire from her to use her power to consume all of you. She's only with the sins out of convenience. This is a first for me to see her actually seem to like something,' Sloth explained and commented with a much more chipper tone that her physical body could ever have been capable of producing.

'She's really open, isn't she? Still, 'power to consume all'? That sounds dangerous as fuck. Good thing she likes me, huh? Maybe because... Hmm... Actually, I can think of a few reasons... Stats, my state as an Ascending, or, just maybe...' Lone met eyes with the curious little reptile. "Do you not want to eat me because you know it's impossible?"

"Hiss!" the adorable snake bobbed its head up and down.

'You can't be eaten? How?' Sloth was curious.

Lone shrugged. "I'm a very unique individual. One of the many unique things about me is that I am damn-near immortal. If she tried to eat me, I'd recover and kill her before she could finish the job. Your unique skill probably lets you know that, right? I'm a pretty good guesser, and I'm guessing that I'm right."

Greed slithered along Lone's shoulder and rubbed her head against his cheek.

'She's happy that you can understand her. I'm surprised. So, if she cannot eat it, then she wants to be friends with it? You learn something new every day,' Sloth said casually as her body continued to happily snore. 'Anyway, you said that you can and will end this war-ranked quest today, right? goblins can lie from time to time, but I trust the one working here. Is it true? Can you do that? End the war between the humans and the demis?'

Lone nodded. "Easily. But not right now. We need my lover, but she's out of mana. Let's sit here and talk for a bit, shall we? She'll be ready to help us in about thirty minutes."

Envy looked annoyed, but he sat down and crossed his arms over his chest patiently regardless. Sloth simply answered, 'Sure. I don't care. What do you want to talk about?'

"Well, for starters, you're all summoned heroes? Tell me all about that," Lone said as he failed to hide his excitement. The last summoned hero he'd met excluding his sister, Scott and Alisa, was Daisuke Tamiko, and boy was that a letdown in several ways.

A sudden thought crossed Lone's mind. "Ah, by the way, before you meet Soph, my lover, get off of my tail and please don't mention having slept attached to one, okay? Like I said, she's incredibly protective of her 'floof kingdom'. I don't really want to see her pouting, despite how cute she is when she's like that."

'Regrettable, but okay, I can do that. I don't like talking much in my physical body anyway, so I won't mention it ever happened,' Sloth answered before she started to tell Lone about the rest of the Seven Deadly Sins.

The goblin proprietor approached Lone and the sins cautiously as she rubbed her hands together. "Manytailses, wes dids as you asks. We gets extra bagses of coinses now, yes?"

Lone nodded and tossed an additional small sack of ruby-gold coins at her. "I keep my promises." 

----------------------------------------

Thirty minutes later, Lone sent Soph a telepathic message. 'Hey, Soph? Are you good to teleport us to the Crimson Foxkin Clan now?'

'Mmm... Wha... Uh... Oh. Sorry. I fell asleep when I was cuddling Kyu and Gara. You surprised me... Um, yeah, I'm good now,' Soph tiredly replied as she left The glade and stumbled into the goblin inn with a fluffy dragon held tightly in her arms.

She looked at the small snake that was sitting on Lone's head a bit curiously before she glanced at Sloth and Envy. "Um, four people and a snake will be expensive..." she muttered as she gently stroked the cautious Garadia. The baby dragon didn't know these two humans nor the snake on top of her father, so she was on high-alert.

Lone grinned. "You two are adorable, but yeah, don't worry. They'll be entering The Glade, so it's fine."

Soph cocked her head to the side. "Mmm... If you say so..." She trusted Lone, so if he felt it was fine for the two people and the tiny snake to enter The Glade where the vulnerable Rachel was, then she didn't feel the need to question him.

Lone gave Soph a quick kiss then opened The Glade for Envy and Sloth before he went outside with Soph and entered The Glade himself with Infa, Garadia, and Greed.

Sure that everyone was inside Lone's pocket dimension, Soph invoked her newly evolved skill for the first time. "Remembrance Teleportation."