I stretched as I squinted up at the people in the fort, who were calling down to us. I tried to wipe the annoyed look off my face, but, judging from the fact that Mia kept patting my cheek, I clearly failed. With a sigh, I looked back to the girls, who gave me wary looks.
“Do you seriously think I’m dumb enough to try to kill anyone right now?” I asked. “I’m dumb, but not an idiot.”
Merry instinctively snapped back, “They’re the same thing, idiot Abyssal.”
I wagged my finger. “Nuh uh. Dumb people say stupid things. Idiots do stupid things. There’s a stark difference.”
Amy simply sighed. “What is it with your absolutely unnatural mood swings? You just sounded like you would murder anyone and everyone around you, given the chance, and now you sound all innocent, like you never just threatened the Elves in the fort.”
I frowned. “I… actually don’t know.”
It’s what happens when you have the emotions of multiple people fluttering in your head, Systie said, floating above my head in circles as if she was my halo or something. It’s not entirely his fault. It’s probably my fault, since you stupid Elves are annoying me.
I looked up at her. “So your first thought is to kill all of them?”
That was your thought, not mine. I just… influenced it.
“So it was you.”
Nope.
“Affirmative.”
Negative.
“Correct.”
Incorrect.
“True.”
False.
Amy interrupted us, poking my back. “Would you two stop it? I’m starving, so can we just make it so we don’t look suspicious?”
She glared at the two of us and I sighed. “Okay, okay, we’ll stop.”
“Oi! I know you’re talking in your head. Stop already!” Amy said, grabbing my ear.
“OW! Let go of my ear, you damnable woman!” I cursed, trying to pull her hand off my ear.
“Excuse me? The hell you’d just call-?!”
Before we could continue, the gate to the fort suddenly began to creak and the five of us looked toward it in confusion. A few seconds later, an Elven man stepped out of the door, frowning at us. Merry seemed outright baffled when I glanced at her.
Does she recognize him-?
“Dad? What the hell are you doing here?!” she exclaimed, rushing forward.
I looked at Amy and she looked at me before we both looked at the man rushing forward to hug Merry.
“Heh?”
“The hell?”
Excuse me?
~~~
“So yeah, this is my dad, apparently the current commander of the fort,” Merry explained nervously as the other three of us sat down on the very comfortable chairs…
Well, at least me and Amy sat down. Mia decided to rub her body against the soft cushion, letting out a purr that shook the entire room. Amy, Merry, and I simply ignored her, while Merry’s father, Joseph, stared in confusion at the very loud child as Systie tried to convince Mia to stop.
Mia, you’re going to cause the damned chandelier to fall out… wait, why the fuck is there a chandelier in a damned military encampment? Isn’t it supposed to be official? Systie said, clearly already distracted.
I sighed. “Sorry, they’re a bit…”
Systie glared at me. A bit what?
“Unruly and annoying,” Amy finished for me, glaring back at the eyeball.
EXCUSE-
I smacked Systie, causing her to dematerialize, cutting her off. I then picked up Mia and handed her to Amy, who gave me a betrayed look as Mia looked up at her curiously. However, she patted Mia’s head, who seemed to think about it before rubbing her horn into her hand. Amy seemed taken aback, but smiled slightly before rubbing Mia’s horn, who cooed and nuzzled her self against Amy.
Huh. She only does that with Leah, @#$)!, and me- WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT? I mentally yelled.
A splitting headache wracked my head and it took all of my willpower to not grimace as I looked back at Merry. “C-continue.”
She frowned at my stutter, but looked at her father, who shook his head. “I hadn’t gotten word that my daughter went on a mission, but clearly, something happened, since you four look like you’ve been through a blender… except for you, boy.”
Amy frowned and looked down at herself and I followed, noticing she was covered in mud and dust. “Right… I don’t exactly have a change of clothes though…”
I shrugged. “I’m sure I have some somewhere. I’ll have to look.”
Merry gave me a suspicious look. “Just how much stuff do you have in your storage?”
Mia looked at me smugly and I looked up at the roof nervously. “Uh… a bit.”
Joseph cleared his throat. “Whatever. You get outfitted as well as that… girl.”
I was about to grab Mia back when the man continued. “Also… I know you, Amy, but what happened to Henry? And who in the world is this boy?”
Freezing in place, I scrunched up my face and tried to think of an excuse. “Henry’s…”
“Henry’s dead,” Merry said. “And that’s Jason… our…” Merry seemed to have trouble coming up with an explanation. “Um…”
Amy seemed to realize that something was about to go horribly wrong if something didn’t happen and, clearly without a single thought in her head, she said, “He’s my partner.”
Heh?
Amy’s face seemed to scrunch up as she immediately realized her mistake. “Uh…”
Fuck it, let’s roll with it.
“You didn’t need to tell him that,” I muttered in an exasperated tone.
Amy, understanding that there was no going back, gave me an apologetic look. However, Merry’s father stared in shock. After a few moments, he shook his head and began muttering under his breath, though it was still perfectly audible.
“Amy… a boyfriend…world am I living in?” he grumbled.
Amy cringed and I simply shrugged. “Strange world, isn’t it?”
“Certainly so… wait, you can-”
I simply stared at him for a good moment and he just shook his head. “Clearly Tier 4… Anyways, why can’t I [Identify] you?”
Shrugging again, I responded with, “Everyone likes their own privacy, don’t they? Plus, I choose who can use an [Identify] Skill on me.”
He nodded with a “Fair enough” look on his face before sighing. “Anyways, just go to the barracks and get outfitted with one of the uniforms here.”
I nodded. “What do they look like?”
Joseph looked at me strangely. “Like mine, but with green stripes instead of blue… why?”
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
I scrunched up my face as Systie popped back into existence, momentarily glared at Amy, and flew in a few circles around the man, who looked bewildered. Afterwards, she flew back to me and settled in my hair. My cloak then warped and shifted before morphing into a uniform, green stripes instead of blue.
I then frowned. “Man, this is uncomfortable. Anyways, Mia, let’s get you cleaned up.”
I lifted Mia off of Amy’s lap and she scrambled onto my shoulders, crawling over me like some sort of spider. The man simply stared after me, baffled.
~~~
“Ow. That kinda hurts, Merry,” I said in a deadpan tone as Merry held my ear, not giving her the pleasure of knowing that it actually hurt at all.
“Don’t fuck with me; I know that doesn’t hurt. Now, what the hell were you thinking?” she hissed. “Why did you lie to him?”
“ME? Was I the one who said that? I think not, little girl. Now let go of me and talk to her instead. And, yes, you’re just as dirty as Mia is, and I’m not sure how Mia’s so dirty. Plus, look at what I have to deal with, other than you.”
Mia, who sat in the river that I’d found, blinked at me with a fish in her mouth, hair and face wet from diving down.
“Glutton.”
“Hey! Listen to me! Why’d you agree with her?!” Merry hissed, pulling on my ear further.
Finally fed up, I lifted Merry up and she yelped as I brought her up to my eye-level. “Now that we can see eye-to-eye-” I started, staring her down. “-First, let go of my gods damned ear.”
She clearly wasn’t listening though, as her entire face had gone red and she was desperately trying to not look directly at me.
“Second, what the hell is your problem?”
Merry glared at me. “What do you think is my problem? You’re lying to my father.”
I gave her a flat look. “Me? Lying? I don’t see it.”
She puffed up her cheeks. “Could you put me down?”
“If you let go of my ear.”
We stared each other down for a few moments before she let out a huff and let my ear go. I set her down and went back over to watch Mia as she swallowed the last of her fish, spitting out the bones and something else that I assumed was the scales. She then locked her eyes on another fish, getting ready to pounce on it. I simply got a bucket of water and dumped it over Mia’s head, causing her to lose focus and giggle. I smiled as I made sure her hair was completely clean before lifting her up out the water and pulling out a towel for her, seemingly out of nowhere, as Systie had already opened my [Void Storage].
I set Mia down on my lap and began to brush her hair as Merry watched, clearly having already washed off at some point. After a moment, she sighed and sat down in front of me.
“So? What are you going to do about your new ‘girlfriend’?” she asked smugly.
I blinked. “We’re partners in- OI!”
I was interrupted mid-sentence as Amy suddenly came out of nowhere and bit into my shoulder, hair still wet. She glared up at me before I could complain and I frowned. Merry simply watched, surprised. I watched my Mana trickle down at a rapid pace for nearly a minute until it reached the 25% mark and I managed to pull her off of me.
She sighed. “Fine. I can tell you’re almost out of Mana. How do you have so much Mana, anyways?”
“Effective,” I responded, not elaborating more.
She shrugged before looking at Merry, whose face was a mask of surprise. “Oh, you’ve never seen me-”
Merry shook her head. “It’s… fine. I just don’t think I’ve ever seen you so… content.”
Amy huffed. “His Mana is unnatural. I’m also used to just drinking Mana Potions, so it’s just easier to eat actual Mana for a change.”
I frowned. “Huh… What are Vampires considered? Beasts or Intelligent beings?”
Merry tilted her head. “I mean, they’re considered something in between. I’m sure that if we were to somehow come to an agreement, there could be peace between them.”
I didn’t pay attention to her, but sighed as Mia slowly grew more uncomfortable by the second. “I advise leaving before Mia gets too self-conscious and locks you all in blocks of Ice.”
***
Amy was having a subconscious breakdown, even if she refused to admit it aloud.
Why the hell did I say that? I don’t even like him. He’s, at most, an annoyance. Just because he has an adorable Bond doesn’t mean I’d develop feelings for an annoyance… right? She shook her head. What am I thinking? Why would I ever like someone because they have a Bond? Is it because she’s basically a child? Is-
“-my. Amy!” Merry said in a loud voice, snapping Amy out of her thoughts.
Amy looked down at the small girl, who showed no outward signs of what she’d gone through during their capture. Of course, the strange tremors in her body whenever someone got close gave her actual feelings away.
“W-what?” Amy stuttered. She then cleared her throat. “What, Merry?”
Merry set her hands on her hips in a way that told Amy that she was about to be scolded.
“The hell were you thinking?”
Amy blinked. “About what?”
Merry frowned. “You just jumped on him. Do you do that often?”
Amy felt her cheeks warm up and she looked away. “I was hungry. I didn’t mean to.”
“You should be able to control yourself.”
“Says the person whose main way to speak to people is to yell at them or scold them,” Amy countered. “You should not be speaking about ‘self-control’ right now.”
Merry scowled at the sound logic before looking away. “Look, it’s just…” Merry scowled deeper, though Amy could see Merry’s face slowly growing red. “He has a girlfriend, but you’re literally all over him-”
Amy shook her head. “He doesn’t even remember her. What exactly are you getting at?”
“What if he does remember her when he sees her again? How exactly are you going to explain to her that you just eat his Mana on a near daily basis?”
Amy forced herself not to scowl, but was horribly failing, which was quite evident due to Merry’s smug expression. “Look… I’m not trying to do anything-”
“I think you are, even if it’s subconscious. At least I’m direct about it,” Merry interrupted. “You do like him, don’t you?”
Amy’s mind immediately denied it and she forced herself to not blush. However, some sort of bell also went off in her head, signaling the truth. Both of these things battled in her head as she shook her head.
“Of course not. He’s, at most, an interesting person. I can just explain to your dad that I misspoke. He’ll understand,” Amy responded, her tone sounding a bit unconvincing. “But Jason is a different story.”
Merry shrugged. “Say what you want. If you really don’t like him, then you should be fine with me making an attempt-”
“MIANA ANDROMEDA!” Jason’s voice roared as there was the very distinct sound of a river being frozen over. “WHAT THE HELL-?!”
There was a hiss and, just above the treeline, Amy and Merry could see the familiar scales of Mia thrashing as she wrestled with something. There was a flash of light as Jason’s portal opened above her, his cloak billowing behind him as he flew into the Serpent, a loud crash of trees breaking and creaking as he pinned the giant Dragon down.
“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!” Merry hollered.
“THE DAMN SERPENT TRIED TO ATTACK A TIER 5 BEAR!” He called back before he yelped as a very large column of fire billowed from under the treeline. “IT BREATHES FIRE! WHAT THE FUCK!”
“WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?”
…What the hell is it with those two?
***
After narrowly escaping the very angry bear, I let Systie scold Mia for nearly twenty minutes before I stopped her as Mia was already overwhelmed with guilt for nearly killing us.
“Just because I don’t like bears doesn’t mean you need to try and kill the thing. You need to actually assess the threat before fighting it. That thing’s skin is stronger than yours, Mia.”
Mia, who I’d finally gotten clothes onto, pressed her face into my neck and didn’t say anything else.
Huh… I can’t hold her in the same way I used to anymore. She’s actually grown, if not a little. It makes me feel… nostalgic, a bit. She used to be small enough that she could use my arms as a sort of bed. Now she can’t do that comfortably and has to use my forearm as some sort of seat. I don’t need to really support her though… She's able to use my body to keep balance.
“You look like you were really deep in thought there,” Merry said, waving her hand in front of my face.
Systie floated around my head like some sort of halo, summoning multiple copies to do so. Yeah, She said out of all of them at once. Has something to do with Mia. He’s getting better at hiding his thoughts from me, the idiot.
“I will slap you out the air,” I threatened, summoning my still unnamed sword and swiping it at her.
I will throw your own Skill into your eye socket if you don’t name that damn sword. It’s bugging me since my programming refuses to let me refer to it as “sword”. At this point, just call it JasonBlade.
She went quiet for a few moments. Merry frowned. “I hate that it actually has some sort of ring to it.”
“I mean, I could call it something else. Also, Sys, when I first got this sword, it was made of some sort of ice-infused obsidian from before I met Mia. I’m assuming that this little demon was fighting some Abyssal who had something to do with lava and somehow managed to make this obsidian. It has Ice origins, but it’s never really… shown any of that.”
Systie seemed to think for a moment as Merry suddenly grew an interest in my sword.
I, personally, think that it’s because the obsidian is unfinished. Or, more specifically, it hasn’t really leaned into Ice yet. I’m sure that it’s next Level should help it. I suggest using some of Mia’s scales to infuse it next time. Maybe even some of her Ice horn.
Mia looked up at me, looking hopeful.
“...Maybe just the scales. I don’t want to be grinding up Mia’s horn,” I said in a bit of a concerned tone.
My Bond pressed her face against my neck again, her horns crackling slightly. I could feel that she was pleased and I smiled. I then looked over to where Amy and Merry were, who were obviously arguing with one another. I didn’t interrupt and instead pulled out a chair and waited for them as Mia fell asleep. Eventually, the two of them noticed me waiting and Amy seemed to scoff before storming away, looking uncharacteristically angry. I took in a breath as Merry stormed over to me.
Here we go-
“You need to dissolve your contract with her,” Merry snapped, hands on her hips. “I don’t know what’s going through her head, but there’s obviously something wrong.”
I blinked and didn’t respond for a few moments. Merry leaned forward when I didn’t respond, and a second later, her face was mere inches from mine. I leaned back as far as I could, but didn’t get far due to the constrictions of the power of the chair.
“I’m serious. There’s something wrong with her. And it’s because of your contract. Dissolve it.”
I stared at her for a few moments before sighing. “I… can’t. I can’t trust that she won’t tell someone what I am if I do.”
Merry glared harder. “If I can keep it a secret, then she can as well.”
I frowned at her. “I know that she can, but will she?”
She suddenly blinked, thinking hard on that statement. Eventually, she clenched her jaw and turned away. “You still have to figure out some way to stop her from this stupid phase she’s going through. I think… I think she’s seeing you as her property.”
I rolled my eyes. “Well, what would you have me do; throw her against a wall a few times? Slice her spine in half?” I suggested jokingly, however, inside, I thought, Do women actually think like that or is that just a Vampire thing? If so... women are real strange beings, with the exception of Leah; she's the most simple-minded person I know.
However, Merry seemed to think that was a great idea. “That might work…”
“I’ll just try to talk to her. It can’t be that difficult, can it?”
Little did I know, it was that difficult.