Ryuji yelled at the Cat beastfolk and dark-elf to get them to back off so he could explain. “Okay, I get it! I just have to finish up some things and leave the city as soon as possible. I don’t want to be here in five days, well six actually. I need to have all of my stuff wrapped up by then and be elsewhere. I can’t join either of your parties because I’m cursed.” At the mention of parties both of the women flashed the other a glare before looking back at him.
Miyako was the one who replied. She suddenly got a contemplative look on her face as she watched him. “So, this is another case of the wolf curse! I thought that was what this was but I didn’t know for sure. Oh, this is your first cycle having wolf curse, isn’t it? You’re trying to get away so people don’t find out.”
Ryuji would have called it lycanthropy but that was almost certainly the same thing. He shrugged with a sheepish look figuring that if he was going to get in trouble for it that he was already caught. “I just don’t want to hurt anybody. I read that a werewolf loses control of themselves and attacks everyone on their first full moon. That’s in…”
Kyarako jumped into the conversation as realization dawned on her. “SIX DAYS! Sorry. *She looked a little bashful about shouting all the sudden* The next full moon is on the night of the sixth day from now. So, you said five days to beat the sixth day of the curse. But that means…”
Miyako folded her arms and picked up where Kyarako trailed off. “That means that you had no intention of joining me in my mercenary work. Also, if I heard you right, you said you couldn’t join either of our parties. I’m guessing that you told her the same thing you told me. You know, you really shouldn’t tell a woman something you don’t mean, it’s liable to upset them.”
Ryuji looked sheepishly down at his feet. “Look, I feel bad for deceiving you but I didn’t want anybody to get hurt. I could become very dangerous on that day and I can’t stand the idea of what might happen if I’m still in town when that day comes. I have to go.”
His last words came out as barely a whisper. He couldn’t hold the emotions back despite his best determination and slowly sunk to the ground and began to cry with his head down while hugging his knees. The sudden vision he had earlier of him covered in blood as some kind of monster and Karen dead left him both crying and gasping for breath. Both women looked at one another but they were both too shocked to hold any animosity and both squatted down next to the man one after the other.
Ryuji didn’t know they were next to him but suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder and his anger at his situation came bubbling to the surface. “If you’re going to report me to the town watch you better hurry up before I can get away. or maybe I should just let you cut my head off with those cleavers. Anything is better than… than… that!”
Miyako visibly recoiled from his words and she couldn’t help but feel her emotions being drawn to him. She wrestled with her emotions for several second and that was the reason the beastfolk girl beat her to the punch and suddenly embraced him from the other side. Miyako was still hesitant and all the more so since the other woman was literally right there but she felt her heart ache with sympathy and longing and couldn’t stop herself from leaning in and hugging the cowering, vulnerable, and oh-so-handsome elf.
It took Ryuji what felt like forever to finally get a rein on his crying and bring himself back to awareness of the world around him. He was shocked to suddenly discover that the two women were both hugging him. When he flinched, they both disengaged from him and he sat up.
Kyarako leaned over and started licking his face without thinking and only stopped because he giggled at the absurdity. Miyako had to chuckle when the cat-girl realized and turned beet red before falling backwards on her butt when her legs wouldn’t respond from them falling asleep while they were squatting too long next to Ryuji. Miyako them exclaimed in an excited voice getting the attention of the other two on her. The sudden shift of attention was enough to make her fall over too and as she was rubbing her legs in pain the other just chuckled a bit.
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After waiting a moment for the feeling of a swarm of angry bugs to leave her legs, Miyako looked at Ryuji and continued. “Now that I think about it, I know what to do about the wolf curse. I’m studying to be a summoner after all!”
Ryuji was wary of getting too much hope because it just didn’t seem likely. Too often he had gotten to withing a meter of some goal only to fall flat on his face at the last. He thought back to his many failed hobbies culminating in the last one where he had almost won the exhibition match to represent his high school only to blow the last deciding shot of the match. So it was with that caution that he answered her claim with one simple word. “Really?”
Miyako looked at him and her jubilant mood seemed to evaporate. “Well, to be honest, I never got to start any training. I came from a village that had a history of having strong summoners but I left home before I could train with one, assuming they would have trained me. I was going to get Master Dorn to train me but then he found an apprentice and told me to stop asking him about it. I was actually hoping that you would tell me how to…”
Miyako couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence and that led Ryuji to misunderstand. “Maybe later but I actually meant the part about knowing how to deal with the curse. You actually know what to do about that? The book I read didn’t mention anything about that, or at least I don’t think so.”
Miyako perked back up and nodded her head vehemently. “One of the men of the village caught it when I was little and the summoner at the time had to handle him. It was actually quite easy! They just put him in a very sturdy room that was deep in the stone and put silver all around the room. I think they nailed it to the walls so that he couldn’t break or dig out of the stone on the weakest wall. The only wall facing into the villages central passage.”
“If you put enough silver around you, there won’t be a problem because a werewolf in full form can’t touch silver. Oh, I guess that probably won’t work though. Having enough silver to cover one wall was one thing and it took all the silver in the village to do it. I guess that you wouldn’t have that much silver and you would need enough for every wall.”
She began to look miserable that her vaunted knowledge was useless but then Ryuji started laughing. “Actually, if it’s just silver, I have plenty of that! I was worried that it would be something really complicated. That is all we need right?”
Miyako had an introverted look while Kyarako looked desperate to get attention but had no way to do so. After a moment Miyako replied with a look of worry forming. “There may be a problem after all. It would take a really strong building and I don’t think any of the buildings in the town are strong enough. These buildings are made of melded stone but the ones in my village were literally carved from the rock of the mountains. Werewolves are very strong in their full form and could probably break through one of these.”
“Actually, you wouldn’t need a whole building. Just one very strong room should work. The problem is where to find one that’s strong enough. I’d say you could have one built but not in five days. But where?”
Kyarako looked down too but then she suddenly got a big smile. “I know where we can find one. Well, it’s not actually a room but it’ll certainly hold you. You see, the guild has a pair of huge cages for capturing wild monsters alive. The only problem is there aren’t very many mercenaries capable of bringing in a big monster alive and the ones that can are too busy killing them to bring one back alive.”
By this time, Kyarako was practically bouncing and her tail was swishing wildly. “It’s perfect. The guild never uses the cages and they’re too big to keep inside so the hunters of the guild put them in a warehouse near the guild building. It’s always locked but I can get the key because I’m a hunter and nobody will even be looking for it. We’ll have the building all to ourselves for as long as it takes!”
Ryuji got increasingly more relieved as they talked. “Finally, I can ride this thing out and I won’t have to worry about hurting people or worse. Thank you, both of you! If not for you I would…”
Kyarako cut him off with a smug grin. “That’s right! Without us, you would have to run from the city with your tail between your legs. But this isn’t going to be free. You need me to get the key for you still and I have a condition.”
Seeing Kyarako’s smug grin Miyako’s heart sank. She had already given up all of her information and was left with nothing to bargain with. Then Kyarako went on surprising her into stunned and tearful silence. “If you want my help with the cage then you have to form a party with both of us in it. I won’t help you unless you become a mercenary and bring us along on your quests.”
Ryuji was left speechless too. He was going to become a mercenary. Not only was he going to be a mercenary, he would already have a party! And as if that weren’t enough, he was becoming some kind of anime protagonist with a party full of girls!!!