As we entered through the double doors at the top of the stairs, I immediately sensed something. Using a special command that I had as the guild-master, I signaled Fyu to hide himself and keep watch; a positive response came back, and I looked up again as we continued through the hall. Ariana looked over at me curiously, and I tapped the side of my head near my right eye. She nodded back at once, understanding the message. Keep an eye open.

At the end of the hall was another set of double doors. We were ushered inside these, where we found an assembly of nobles, generals, priests, and other such influential folk gathered around in a circular seating arrangement. Seated upon a grand throne at the far end of the room was, no doubt, the emperor himself. He motioned with his hand, and we were brought forward. General Dai-Gong then rose to join us, but he did not address us at once.

“General Dai-Gong; you include yourself in this audience of wandering adventurers who sell their blades for profit instead of honor?” one of the nobles remarked.

R-rude. We have our kind of honor.

“I trust in the honor of such adventurers more than I trust in your pretentious honor that was bought with profit, Minister Okizawa.” the general returned to the man in question, who scrunched up his features in annoyance.

Well dang!

“General Dai-Gong, what is your purpose in bringing these here today before this important gathering?” the emperor asked.

“Exalted One, forgive my methods! There were things I had to be sure of, things I could trust no one at this court with, and so I sent out a plea to wandering adventurers such as these who I have had helping me to put together the pieces of this mysterious darkness seeping into our lands.” the general replied.

“Your methods have kept this land safe for two decades; I will not dispute them now! Yet it is strange that you could trust no one, not even myself, with your concerns!”

“Again I must ask your pardon. It is true I did not trust you with this matter; yet it is my hope even now that what these adventurers have risked their lives to bring me will expel my doubts,” the other returned.

“Bold words,” the emperor said with a hint of displeasure. “Very well! Adventurers, I will turn you over to your handler,” he then said, and we brought forth the scrolls and medallions we had collected. The general summoned one of his aides, who helped him scan through the items almost absurdly quickly.

“Two wolf head medallions; it seems the rumors of the Lángtou Cultists are not rumors at all!” the general remarked, and a stir went through the assembled court. “And these records show an accounting of finances regarding arms, armor of the highest quality and weapons of the best make, being imported from across the Jade Sea, as well as a number of mercenaries being quartered in various locations around our peaceful land. And... furthermore, there are records of people in this very assembly being in league with the Lángtou!” Dai-Gong said with outrage, and an even greater stir made its presence known. The emperor raised his eyebrows.

“I understand now; my faithful general, you assumed that I had something to do with the influx of brutish mercenaries that I, too, have been wary about. And you hired these adventurers to exonerate or condemn me based upon what they found,” he said as he rose from his throne. Dai-Gong prostrated himself before the man, and we ourselves took a knee, bowing our heads.

“As I have said before, I ask your sincerest indulgences! I stand ready to obey your majesty!” the man said.

“Rise! And you also, adventurers, rise! It is forgiven! Call the names of those who stand guilty, and let the guards take them out of this assembly at once!” the emperor said with a clap of his hands, and nearly four dozen guards poured into the room.

W-whoa... I thought to myself as we stood up.

“This is getting a little intense, huh?” Ariana whispered to me.

“Y-yeah,” I agreed. The list of names was read off, and after five minutes the guilty ones--twenty-three in all--were rounded up. But the last one simply leered at the emperor and the general with amusement.

“It is no use. Even without the sacred scrolls stolen from the Temple of Lángtou, our allies have finished their work. Kurai-oukami will awaken, and your reign will end!” he said as they dragged him out.

“At least, Minister, we will stand united against him instead of being divided by your duplicitous machinations!” Dai-Gong asserted, and the emperor nodded. When they were all gone he turned to the general.

“You did well, my friend. I admit that I also did not trust you these past few months; but see now! You did the right thing in the end, and these adventurers have prevented a terrible rift that would have ended our kingdom.” he said. The general bowed low, as did we. “Adventurers! I shall present you with the general's promised reward, and I shall also--” the emperor started to say, but then a messenger rushed in.

“Majesty! Majesty!” he cried, bowing low before reporting. “A great demon is at the gates!” he said, and once again there was a stir. I suddenly got a warning notice from a follower; well, there was only one follower we had. Fyu. He had also noticed the demon, and had sent us a warning.

“By all of Heaven! It cannot be -- Kurai-oukami is already here!” the general shook his head. “Adventurers, I am reluctant to ask anything further of you, but will you aid us one more time?” he turned to us, as did the emperor.

I looked at the others, who were looking at me expectantly. Undoubtedly this was the kind of epic adventure that at least Lizzy was hoping to have before real life interrupted her gaming schedule, for she was grinning from ear to ear. I then turned back to General Dai-Gong.

“Of course we'll help!” I said, and once more the quest log updated.

Defeat the Xuanpu World Boss, Kurai-oukami.

H-huuuuuhhhh?!?!

“W-world boss...!” Anhe remarked with a mixture of panic and fascination.

“Let's go and do this!” Lizzy said excitedly, rushing out the door.

“We're gonna end up in another forum post, aren't we...?” I mumbled as we chased after her.

“Probably!” Ariana grinned.

“I have to admit that I'm excited too!” Healina said, and Maryn nodded.

“Definitely!” she agreed.

“Same!” Anhe smiled.

“And me!” said Ariana. I let out a gentle smile as we exited the palace, nodding to them.

“Me too; let's make sure it's a forum post to remember!” I then said.

“Oh wait!” Lizzy suddenly said, skidding to a halt like a cartoon character as we caught up to her. She flipped through a few panels, and then pressed several buttons on her interface, grinning like a Cheshire cat when she was done. “Smile for the camera, girls! We're on live-stream now!” she exclaimed as a magical recording device showed up to hover nearby.

“I-if our parents' find out...” Ariana said hesitantly.

“Like any of our parents would be watching a gamer's channel.” the blonde girl said confidently.

“She has a point,” I said with bemusement.

All of a sudden, we heard an unearthly howl that seemed to make the very ground shake. The six of us rushed out of the gate, and I dashed over to where Fyu had hidden himself, releasing him from the waggon.

“I take it you desire me to fight at your side?” he said.

“It'd be a big confidence booster to have you along, pal,” I said to him. He grinned at me in satisfaction.

“Then I shall make you proud to have me as your ally!” the dog-beast asserted, and I smiled back.

“Let's go, Fyu! It's time to challenge Kurai-oukami!” I exclaimed as I drew out my daggers, and the two of us rushed over to the others.

When we regrouped with them we saw a massive wolf-demon in the distance. I would later learn that this world boss' name literally translated to “dark wolf”, or maybe even “wolf of the dark”; his fur was blacker than night, and an evil aura like a mist hung around him. His eyes were a venomous red, and he had gleaming fangs that looked sharper than any weapon made by mortal in this world. He howled again; it was a chilling and eerie sound that reminded me very much of an old locomotive whistle. It was answered by a plethora of other howls, and a horde of wolf minions came to his side.

“Adventurers! My men and I will handle the minions! Please do your best to defeat Kurai-oukami!” Dai-Gong said as he and a platoon of soldiers, along with some of the imperial guard, swarmed out of the gate to help us.

“Still...!” Healina softly grimaced, taking in the monster's monstrous health bar. I could only nod in agreement.

So, okay. Right now, Maryn is level sixty-nine; from what I understand, about sixty-five percent of her stat points go into vitality. As of now, with how high her stat is and with the gear we got from completing the secret quest in the Marshes of the Wyrd, that puts her health at around a respectable fourteen-thousand points. With her regeneration, resistances, armor-rating, and a random assortment of spell-nullify skills, it would probably take a normal boss or even a champion elite boss around twenty minutes on average to beat her. Why am I going over this? Because most bosses our level right now have comparable resistances to Maryn, and they average between fifteen to twenty-thousand health.

This world boss we're up against right now? It has over two-million health. And I can only assume that its resistances are better than the average bear -- I mean, boss. Its attack power had to be above average as well, which meant--

“Maryn!” Healina called out anxiously, warding our shield-user with a protection spell. Our enemy lifted a paw from the ground and took a swipe at her. The spell was instantly broken, and seventy-five percent of Maryn's health was knocked out in an instant as Maryn herself was swept aside.

“Ho-ly...!” I exclaimed in disbelief as Healina cast several emergency spells on her. The dark-haired girl got up without one complaint, side-stepping carefully towards us as the wolf eyed her.

“Hya!” Anhe cried out, taking up her staff and casting several auras of her own on us as Healina put up new wards to nullify at least some of the damage we might take.

“Still... if one of the three of us gets hit...!” I said, referring to myself, Ari, and Heali.

“I can keep Healina safe,” Anhe said confidently. “Even a world boss demon will have a hard time dealing with holy skills!”

“Let's hope so!” I nodded back, reminding myself that this girl had soloed quite a few group quests before joining us to dispel my doubts. She nodded in turn, and I turned back to the boss. “All right! Maryn, you and Anhe stay here to protect Healina and keep that thing's attention away from the rest of us; Heali, focus on healing, but if you can summon up anything that might help that'd be great!”

“I'll get some Moonlight Imps out now!” our Sea Elf replied.

“What about the rest of us?” Lizzy asked, her halberd at the ready.

“You, me, and Ari will attack from the sides or the rear; we still have enough potions, right?”

“Just barely!” Ariana said.

“They'll have to do; Fyu, help the tanking group, please!” I said to the dog-beast.

“Of course, masters. It will be my honor!” he replied.

“Right! We'll improvise and adjust as needed -- let's go!!” I then shouted, speeding off to the left with Ari at my side while Lizzy charged to the right.

Maryn challenged the world boss once again, but this time, before his paw could strike her, I saw Fyu batter it aside with his own mighty strength. Kurai-oukami actually reeled a bit from the impact, and I tore into his flank with Ari backing me up as Lizzy did the same on the opposite side. His health went down by a mere five-hundred, but we had only used basic attacks in case of a reflect. Nothing retributive happened to us, so on our next pass we used stronger skills, charging in with ferocious yells to begin the battle in earnest.

The battle lasted for almost four hours of Panarena time. For the first hour, we were taking him down quite nicely, I thought, if slowly--which was unexpected. With Fyu's help, the tanking party was able to avoid fatalistic damage, and Kurai-oukami's attention was kept away from the rest of us. Dai-Gong and the NPCs put up an excellent fight against the minions as well, dispatching them handily even as new waves kept coming with each bone-chilling howl that the world boss unleashed. Partway through the fight I switched to my bow, adopting the run-and-gun style I had once used in Midgard Rings.

I kept this up until the second hour began, when I finally ran out of arrows and was forced to switch back to daggers. The boss had around one-point-eight million health left. Which I kind of expected, considering there was only seven of us counting Fyu, but it was still just a tad discouraging. Then the boss' aura changed; instead of a shadowy presence, there was now a stinging poison seeping from him.

“Yipe!” I screamed as I first felt it.

“Lana!” Ari cried out, casting a quick heal on me.

“Lizzy, jump back!!” I shouted over to our halberdier, who put on the brakes and scurried off a bit.

“What is it?” she called back.

“Some kind of poison mist!”

“Dang it!” she swore.

I looked back over towards the tanking group; between Healina and Anhe, I was over ninety-five percent confident they would be fine, but sometimes things happened. Healina gave me a nod; she had heard me, and was no doubt adjusting her skill rotation, along with Anhe. Maryn--well, I was sure her resistances were decently high enough so that a poison mist of all things wouldn't budge her health too much. And Fyu was probably classified by the game's system as the nearest thing to a world boss that a player could ally with. Well, except that he now leveled up with us.

“Ugh, I had to run out of arrows at this juncture of the fight!” I said ruefully.

“No helping it now,” Ariana patted me on the shoulder.

“I guess this next part is up to--” I began, when suddenly Anhe ran up to us and tapped us with her staff, running over to Lizzy to do the same before she dashed back to the tanking group. I then noticed my poison-resist was at ninety percent.

“I have to say, we're rounding out pretty nicely as a party -- even I can tell that much,” Ariana said with a smile as she noticed the effect as well, though her resistance was probably at a different percent than mine.

“You mean with a healer and a support class?” I grinned back.

“Exactly!”

“It's true, we've got a pretty solid team going!” I agreed.

“Dang right!” Lizzy called over. “Round two!” she then shouted, and we resumed our melee against the world boss.

For the next hour, our enemy's health bar went down faster. If I had to guess why, I'd say the dark aura he'd had earlier was a resistance aura, while this one gave him no resistance bonus at all in exchange for its potentially deadly effect. Anhe ran back to us a couple times to renew our resistances, but nothing major happened until that hour was over, at which point the boss let out a howl even louder and lengthier than the previous ones. We were practically knocked back by the force of it, and when we looked up again, it was in disbelief.

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It had taken us nearly three hours to get Kurai-oukami's health bar down to just below half. That massive bar was now steadily refilling itself. I sank to my knees, feeling a numb shiver run through me. It had been a long time since I had felt this kind of despair in a game. The first time was when I had gone up against the Demon King Molek in my first game. He had practically one-shot me. I stopped playing that game for nearly a week before I mustered the resolve to try and beat it again.

“Y-you gotta... be... k-kidding m-me...” I stuttered out as Ariana's eyes widened in shock.

“What--!!” she squeaked. I heard some angry choice words coming from Lizzy.

“Adventurers!” Dai-Gong came up to me, and I numbly turned towards him. “It is no good! We cannot stand against Kurai-oukami like this! We would need to summon the emperor's patron, but no great summoner has been in this land since the founding of the royal dynasty!”

Suddenly, I found a renewed confidence rising up in me.

“A summoner, you say?” I said, looking over at the tanking group. I looked back at the general. “Don't worry about a thing!” I said to him. He looked nonplussed, but nodded back.

“What are you doing?” Ariana asked me.

“Regroup with Lizzy, I'll send the others after you soon!” I told her, and she nodded at me as I headed over to the others while she went to Lizzy and the general followed after me.

“Lana!” Maryn said to me. “What now?”

“Take Anhe and join the others, then drag this guy around for a bit!” I told her.

“Huh? You mean, kite him?” she asked me.

“Exactly!”

“But without Heali--”

“You'll be fine with Anhe and Ari, so long as you keep out of melee range!” I told her. The boss' dark aura was coming up again, and he seemed about ready to pounce on us. “Trust me!” I implored her. Maryn looked me in the eyes, and then nodded.

“Come on, Anhe!” she said, and the two of them took off to join Lizzy and Ariana, taunting the boss and leading it away.

“Lana?” Healina asked me in a confused tone.

“General Dai-Gong! My companion here is a summoner! Please tell us what we need to do to summon the Emperor's Patron!” I said with a bow, and the shocked Heali had no choice but to bow also.

“You are certain you can do it?” he said to Heali, who shook her head in affirmation.

I have a feeling I might lose points for this, but right now I don't much care, I thought as I took note of her reaction.

“Then take this sacred scroll; it was among those you reclaimed from the Lángtou Temple. I can only assume they were trying to destroy it in case his royal majesty happened to find a summoner powerful enough to read it!” he said, handing her the scroll.

“I'll do my best!” she said, and he then bowed, heading off a moment later to rejoin his men. “Y-you're taking a big risk,” Heali said to me with a scolding look in her face.

“So long as I don't lose any points,” I shrugged.

“Only if we fail!” she said with a cheeky grin.

“Fair enough.” I nodded, and she began reading from the scroll. Fyu glanced over at us curiously, keeping watch over us.

While she did so, I kept one eye on the nearby wolves and the other eye on our friends who were kiting the world boss. Even if we don't technically defeat it ourselves, this has got to be one of the most exciting Panarena Fantasy streams going on right now, I thought to myself with a sense of satisfaction and glee. Wait a minute: if Panarena time is four times faster than real time, how can anyone live-stream anything? Is there some sort of program or something that does adjustments to the feed for people in real-time?

As I pondered this little paradox, Healina's chanting continued, and then finished with a grand flourish as she brought down her staff. Immediately, Kurai-oukami came to a halt, setting its eyes on the two of us.

“Ahh--”

“Oh boy...” the two of us exclaimed at the same time. But our friends had noticed this a split-second before we had, and now they came racing back.

“Hang on!!” Lizzy cried out; the four of them reached us just as the boss began pawing the ground for a charge.

But at that moment, a mass of clouds gathered in the sky. Everything came to a stop, and we all looked up, world boss included. Yet again, I stared in disbelief. Coming down from the sky was a beautifully regal Nine-Tailed Fox, who let out a howl that was as inspiring as the wolf's howl had been chilling. It nullified his aura, and his minions -- and reduced his health bar to ten-thousand hitpoints.

“Ten--”

“--thousand?” Ari and I exclaimed in surprise.

We looked at each other, and then back up at the fox in the sky, who was looking at us intently. We looked back at each other, and we readied our weapons one last time, the six of us charging with ferocious yells alongside our faithful dog-beast, who let out a howl of his own. In less than ten minutes we blasted Kurai-oukami back into nothingness, and he went up in an explosion of magic and flame. Our levels went up to seventy-two on his defeat, and a large chorus of cheers rang out from the NPCs as we shared high-fives and a few hugs.

“So no points lost?” I grinned to Heali.

“No way! Plus ten!” she grinned back.

Then the general and the emperor came over to congratulate us. We were awarded the deed to the estate by the sea, as well as a decent sum of gold (twenty-thousand) and special cosmetic rewards. After thanking both of them for their generosity, we went back to the waggon with Fyu, and set off for our new home.

***

“All-righty; so we'll see the estate, spend a night there, and then logout to real life again, huh?” Lizzy remarked as we rode along.

“Pretty much.” I agreed. “We'll have plenty of time to furbish the place up and see what all we can do with it.”

“There'd better be a hotspring.” Healina said.

“I'm sure there is,” Ari smiled.

“That would be lovely!” Anhe agreed.

“W-why are you embarrassed about skinny-dipping but not bathing together?” I suddenly wondered. Anhe herself suddenly looked surprised, but then came back at me with a perfectly reasonable answer.

“Because when we were bathing together it was in private, while anyone could come across us while just swimming!” she replied.

“Ah--oh, that's true, now that you mention it...” I mumbled, my cheeks reddening.

“What's the matter, Lana?” Lizzy grinned.

“Oh be quiet.” I quipped back, and she snickered. “More importantly, it'll be Thursday in the real world when we wake up, right?”

“Ahh... yep, it will be.” Healina replied.

It was the late afternoon in Panarena right now; when we reached the estate, we would have plenty of time for down-time, so we would explore our new house and its grounds, do some relaxing, and then sleep until morning, at which point we would log out to our real lives again. Fyu estimated at least another hour until we reached it, so we readjusted ourselves once more to get comfortable again, and continued chattering about what we might do from now on.

“Well I'm definitely doing some smaller scale quests after this, no matter what,” I said.

“I'm gonna stick to crafting a lot when I can get in, so make sure you get plenty of materials if I can't!” Lizzy said.

“Of course!” I nodded.

“I think it would be fun to see if there are quests we can do to get furniture and stuff, or maybe if we can find NPCs to hire. I heard you can get merchants, crafters, and guards, among others,” Anhe told us.

“Cool!” Ariana remarked. “We'll have to look at a guide sometime and see what professions they all have.”

“It really would be fun to do that sort of grind for a while, and to be more leisurely with playing!” Healina smiled.

“We'll save the going-all-out for special events, I guess,” I agreed.

“Agreed.” Anhe nodded.

“Whatever you decide, masters, I will be glad to continue accompanying you on your adventures,” Fyu told us as he headed along the road at a steady pace.

“Any time, Fyu!” we said in unison.

The sun was setting in the distance when we reached our destination. Fyu drove us to the stables of the estate, where we promptly got out and unhitched him so he could do his own thing for a while as we explored the place.

Our new estate had dozens of rooms, some of them large halls and some of them mid-sized rooms, along with a number of small ones we decided at once would be storage rooms. Of course, we had picked up quite a lot in our recent travels, and it was starting to tax our inventory limits. We allocated all that we didn't need, especially resources, to several of these small rooms at once, and then began divvying up the medium sized rooms for our quarters. Once this was done and we had set some personal objects in what were now our storage containers, we exchanged our gear for some relaxed vestments and continued exploring the grounds.

Ari and I found ourselves sitting near the cliff that overlooked the sea. We could see a deserted set of piers and jetties below us on the beach. She had put on a soft green dress, and convinced me to put on a sky-blue one.

“O-only as Lana in Panarena,” I had remarked, and she had giggled, nodding back.

Now I had stopped thinking about it, clasping her hand in mine as we stared out to sea together, our heads resting against each other. The gentle roar of the waves crashing upon the beach and the sound of seagulls was the only sound we could hear, aside from the others laughing and chattering at each other as they explored the grounds.

“If there's no hotspring here, I guess we'll be using the wayport to go back to Cloverbell for the night,” I suddenly said, a smile crossing my face.

“Or we could just go skinny-dipping in the ocean.” Ari grinned back.

“Ah-heh,” I grinned back shyly.

“Actually, we could use the wayport to do something else!” she then said, taking my hand as she got up.

“Hmm?” I asked as I got up with her.

“Come on!” she said as we dashed to the wayport.

“Where 'ya going?” Lizzy called over to us.

“We'll be back soon!” Ariana called back, setting our destination to Ti'jori. We were teleported away, and soon found ourselves on the other side of the map.

“What are we doing?” I wondered as she continued leading me along.

“Getting some food and stuff!” she replied.

“O-oh! Right! We need to have a little party after all that,” I said with a grin.

“Exactly!” she smiled back.

The two of us suddenly started hearing whispers and seeing people point at us. It wasn't long before I figured out why. The internet wasn't the only place live-streaming worked. There were places around Panarena itself where you could watch other players who were streaming their game-play. In short, there were most likely a great deal of players who had watched our fight against that world boss earlier.

Sure enough, when we reached the market, I saw a replay-projection of the fight in question. Ariana caught sight of it too, and we watched for a few moments before grinning at each other wryly and returning our attention to what we came for. The exclamations and whispers only increased, though, and when we had finished with our purchases I was all too relieved to get going back to our new home in Xuanpu.

“Hahh...” I sighed as we stepped back into the newly familiar grounds, a keg under each arm, a sack of bottles over my one shoulder and another sack over the other.

“Stressed more by player gossip than by fighting?” Ari asked me playfully as she toted the rest of our purchases along.

“Always.” I grimaced.

“Ooh, nice idea!” Lizzy said as she and the others came to greet us.

“Definitely!” Maryn smiled.

“Fyu!” I called. “We picked up a treat for you!” I said, handing the kegs to Lizzy, who took them inside with an all-too gleeful look on her face.

I pulled out Fyu's treat from the other sack as the dog-beast came over; it was a large meat roll. His eyes widened and his tail began wagging furiously. I stifled the urge to break out laughing then and there, and I could see that the other girls were doing the same as I handed it to him. He took it in his mouth, and gazed at us fondly.

“My thanks, good masters; enjoy your own respite, and rest well!” he said practically skipping off to enjoy his treat as we went inside.

“Oh my gawd I want to laugh so badly...!” Healina said in a strained whisper.

“Right?!” Maryn returned, barely holding it together herself. Once we got inside and shut the door, we let loose, giggling and cackling at how adorably dog-like Fyu actually was.

“The heck are you gals laughing about?” Lizzy wondered as she found us in the foyer.

“Ohhh, you so totally missed it!!” Heali remarked when she had a breath to do so, which sent the rest of us into giggle-fits again.

After we had recovered ourselves we cooked up a fairly large feast, and spent at least an hour and a half enjoying it and each other's company. Lizzy cackled delightedly as we described Fyu's reaction to his treat, vowing to get him one next time so she could see it for herself. We then talked a while about all the adventuring we had done so far, once again slipping into thoughts for the future, until finally there wasn't even a crumb left for a mouse. A few moments passed in silence, and then I raised my glass, as did the others.

“To us, and to many more adventures together!”

“To us!” the others exclaimed in unison as we clinked our glasses together.

“And to our new home!” Maryn added.

“To our new home!” we repeated after her.

“What will we call it?” Healina then wondered.

“Hmm...” Maryn paused, leaning back thoughtfully in her chair.

“Ehh...” Lizzy sighed, waving her hand to remove herself from the decision.

“Should be something simple.” was all that Ariana suggested, but I nodded in agreement.

“True.”

“Hmm,” Anhe said as she pondered the question. “What does Lana say?”

“Eh?”

“You are the guild leader, after all,” Maryn shrugged, a smile on her face.

“Hmm...” I then mused. Why couldn't this place have a name already? Well, not that I don't appreciate them giving us the option to name it ourselves... okay, why do *I* have to name it?

“Remember -- simple!” Ari told me.

“Y-you got it,” I replied, and she patted me on the head. Anhe blinked, and then smiled at us, a gentle smile that seemed to convey an understanding. I then smiled myself, and decided. “How about... Queen's Haven Estate?” I said, and the others clapped at the words. “Eh? Really?”

“I like it!” Lizzy beamed.

“Definitely!” Heali agreed, and Maryn nodded.

“It is very appropriate!” Anhe said, still grinning at me.

“Perfect and simple.” Ari said with a smile.

“Th-then, to the Queen's Haven Estate!” I said, raising the glass again. Once more we shared a toast, and this final toast of the night drained our glasses of their contents.

***

“No hotspring on the grounds, but the bath is luxurious here!” Lizzy remarked as she settled into the spacious thing with us about ten minutes later. Healina had found it earlier, and had mentioned it to us when we had finished our last toast.

“And the water will stay warm for us, too,” our healer smiled in contentment.

“So it's the next best thing!” the other girl grinned.

“True!”

“See?” Anhe said as she looked over at me.

“D-don't worry, I got the point the first time!” I said, and she smiled.

“This always feels better than a shower or bath in the real world somehow,” Maryn said.

“Must be the company!” Lizzy said to her.

“Must be!” the older girl agreed with a wink.

“Hmm,” Anhe nodded in agreement.

“It's definitely a plus,” Ariana agreed. I had nothing I felt I could or should add, so I settled for settling a bit more into the water. Ari looked at me with amusement, patting my head yet again.

“Meow...” I mumbled, making the water bubble, and Ariana nearly doubled over in another giggle fit as the others laughed. I'm just glad this isn't an anime or something, otherwise somebody would be -- nnnnope, nope, nope, not even gonna think about it.

It was near to Panarena's midnight when we got out of the bath to dry ourselves off and get dressed again, and then we said goodnight to each other before heading in to our separate rooms (well, mostly separate... Ari and I had picked one out together, of course). After a few moments, Anhe, Ariana, and I were the only ones left in the hall. Our sometimes staff-wielder unexpectedly gave me a big hug, which she quickly pulled Ariana into. The three of us stood there in that embrace for several moments, and then Anhe smiled, kissing our cheeks before heading into her room for the night. Ari and I then went into our own room, and exchanged a glance as we shut the door behind us.

“I think... maybe, at least, she kind of figured it out,” I remarked as we laid down next to each other.

“Hmm...?” Ariana said in surprise. “She is pretty sharp, so I wouldn't put it past her.” she then said.

“True. I guess she was telling us not to worry, in her own way.” I said as I settled in, leaning back against the pillow to get a good view of the sky as Ari snuggled next to me.

“About?” she wondered, and then I saw her smile. “Oh, I see!” she remarked with a faint giggle. “What do you know, you can be surprisingly perceptive about girls sometimes!”

“Sometimes... and I hope most of the time with you.” I said as I snuggled back against her.

“You're doing good so far.” she told me, and with that the two of us fell asleep.