Hello everyone! Chapter 3/4 for this week. I've lowered the donations quota in case you guys did not notice. its now $30 for extra chapters. the donation link can be found on my profile page. please support if you like.
27/30
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“Halt!” a Guard ordered as he observed the party approach the Thoreni city gates. It was still very early in the morning and it was rare for people to arrive at this time of the day. Most of the activity at the city gates at sunrise would be from hunters and gatherers leaving the city to carry on their daily work.
Aside from the odd timing of the arrival of the party, it was several other factors that seemed to scream at the guards that this party was suspicious. For starters, there seemed to be the large young adult Pritor amongst the mix, sauntering towards the gate alongside the party of humans. Next was their odd foreign green, brown and black clothing.
Lastly, it was the impeccably well-dressed man who followed at the back of the group. He had a metal full helmet hiding his face and was easily over 2 metres tall. He was clad in a black blazer donned over a vest and white shirt. There was clearly a tie to go along with the business suit, but the guard had never seen such impeccably neat attire before, so he did not know what to think. His guess was that this oddly dressed party was escorting some kind of royalty from another country, except the size of the party seemed too small.
“What’s your business in Thoreni?” the guard inquired, carefully inspecting the party of 6 while keeping his wary eye on the wild beast.
“We were dispatched to subdue the Pritor that had been attacking the trade routes. My name is Kiria Isanagi. First daughter of the Isanagi conglomerate,” Kiria answered, stepping forward and flashing a palm sized green and red badge.
“Young miss!” The guard instantly recognised the badge, pulling on a thick rope that hung from the side of the gate. A bell rang on the other side of the gate as 2 guards began cranking the handles on the wall, causing the heavy doors to creak open. All three guards watched in awe as the party made their way towards the adventurer’s guild, with the prideful Pritor strutting its 3 tails.
“Let’s stop by a workshop first shall we? We really should place an advanced order for new weapons and armours so they will have them ready by the time we are done with our business,” Victor suggested, studying the incomplete sets of steel armour that everyone was wearing. He himself would have liked to procure a custom made claymore to replace the one he lost.
With the agreement of everyone, the team soon made its way towards a famous workshop. The workshop itself was hidden towards the back, with a neat and clean shop front facing the main street. Cargo such as raw ores, coal and wood fuel were transported to the smithy via an alleyway that ran around the back of the workshop.
The floor was made of levelled stone, while the walls were built out of timber. That however, applied only to the shop. The smithy attached to workshop was sweltering hot, with the building made out of stone. It was so hot in the workshop that the heat radiated out to the front of the shop. There, Harvey stayed outside with his Pritor, attracting plenty of curious gazes.
Victor’s team was greeted by a salesgirl with rabbit ears. After bargaining for quite a bit, they finally decided on several sets of items, choosing to sell their current incomplete sets for some spare change. The two vanguards Victor and Visage acquired some readymade steel platemail, while Clara and Nortrem replaced their leather armour. Nortrem bought a light chainmail for Kiria to wear over her army fatigues which she felt had no need to change.
They spent nearly 2 hours inside the shop choosing their new gear. Victor ordered a custom Claymore with the shop while Nortrem and Clara restocked their supply of crossbow bolts. Clara even bought a new set of gauntlets specially designed to climb trees. It had small claw like protrusions at the base of each finger on the side of the palm to improve grip onto climbing surfaces. When they came out, the sight that greeted them left their mouths gaping.
The Harvey was, sitting down on a wooden bench facing the Pritor, who had one paw in his hands. A crowd had gathered to watch what he was doing. In his left hand, he held the cat’s front paw tenderly, while in his right hand, he gripped a nail file. Having gotten tired of waiting for the party, Harvey decided to spend the time giving his new cat a manicure, using the nail file to sharpen the Pritor’s claws. The majority of the crowd were simply watching in awe at how tame this supposedly wild beast was.
Victor and the rest though, silently cursed within their hearts. Having faced off against this beast multiple times, they felt as if Harvey held some grudge against them, sharpening their enemy’s claws as if they weren’t already dangerous enough.
“Harvey,” Victor called out. “Is there really a need to sharpen them?”
“Well, no. but I was bored, so I thought I might as well do something,” Harvey replied nonchalantly, not even looking up from what he was doing. He gingerly moved onto the next claw while the Pritor purred at the luxurious treatment it was enjoying. “Why don’t you guys go ahead and report your mission status at the adventurer’s guild? I’ll stay here while I wait for you. It’ll take a while before im done.”
“Fine,” Victor sighed, while Kiria and Clara chuckled. With that, the party left hastily for the adventurer’s guild.
They returned within the hour, with the intention of inviting Harvey for lunch, only to realise that he was no longer where they had left him. Searching the nearby streets, they could not find any trace of the man, and so they began asking questions. Once they did that though, it wasn’t very difficult to find Harvey. After all, a 2.5m man with a domesticated Pritor isn’t exactly hard to miss. Within minutes, they learnt that Harvey had led the Pritor into the workshop where they had bought their gear.
Once again, they cursed inwardly when they saw that Harvey had taken grooming to yet another level. This time, the Pritor was laying lazily on a bench on its belly, its four limbs dangling from the sides of the bench. Its eyes were closed while a faint smile could be seen on its lips. Even the white stripes were glowing softly as it purred.
On each side of the bench was a salesgirl with a thick brush in their hands. They were brushing its fur along the length of the body. At the end of the bench, Harvey was squatting down. In his hands was one of the Pritor’s tails. A soft grinding sound could be heard as Harvey ran a sharpening stone down the edge of its daggered tail. The other 2 daggers gleamed in the light from the workshop’s furnace, clearly having been sharpened and polished by Harvey.
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Victor smacked his forehead when he saw this, while Nortrem had an ugly expression on his face. This was seriously taking things a tad too far. Not only did Harvey sharpen and maintain the claws, he even polished and sharpened the daggered tails of the Pritor. He even managed to somehow convince the shop to lend him 2 sales girls to help brush its luscious black fur. The only way he could take it even further from here would be if he brushed and sharpened it teeth as well, and maybe equip it with a set of armour.
Within 10 minutes, Harvey was done with the grooming, handing the grinding stone back to one of the blacksmiths. The Pritor leapt up from its sleeping posture, yawning widely before looking at Victor and the rest, grinning as it reveals its set of white teeth. As it turns out, Harvey had indeed brushed its teeth as well. Victor could only shake his head as he left the workshop, With the party behind him and Harvey and the Pritor tagging behind.
This time, their destination was a local restaurant. They walked past the various craftsmen shops, turning a few corners before finally leaving the region allocated for craftsmen. After a while of walking under the hot afternoon sun, they entered the foods district where an aromatic smell drifted into their noses. Victor quickly selected a decent sized restaurant and ordered a table for the party. However, it was only after they sat down that he realised, once again, Harvey and the Pritor had lagged behind.
Looking out the restaurant’s widows from his seat, Victor caught sight of Harvey on the other side of the street. He knew that for whatever reason, Harvey did not need to eat, and that the Pritor would not be welcome inside an establishment such as this restaurant. Hence, Victor made no effort to invite the 2 of them into the restaurant. Visage and Nortrem were already listing out several dishes for their lunch.
Meanwhile, the Pritor’s eyes were sparkling as it sat upright, its head raised and gaze locked onto the large pieces of meat hanging in front of it. Right now, Harvey and the Pritor were loitering in front of a butcher’s shop. There were large slabs of meat as large as a human hanging off giant hooks on a stand. They had been skinned so Harvey could not make out what animals they used to be, but he guessed that it might have been a small cow or lamb.
Pointing at the largest of bodies hanging from the hooks, Harvey nodded his head. Then, several large men came and took the animal off the rack, removing the hooks from the body. What took 3 men to simply carry down was easily lifted by Harvey as he hoisted the whole cow onto his shoulder. He then threw the meat onto the side of the street where the Pritor pounced without hesitation. Its newly sharpened claws, teeth and daggered tailed made short work of the meat, slicing and biting through it without effort.
The meat had been handled well by the butchers, without even so much as a single drop of blood spilling onto the road despite the savagery displayed by the Pritor. Harvey watched the Pritor make short work of the meat, before handing over a single gold coin which he fabricated on the spot while his hands were hidden within the pockets of his business suit. To passers-by, it looked as if he was a well-dressed noble feeding his exotic pet. The butchers handed him some silver and copper coins as change, which Harvey quickly stored within his pocket.
By the time Victor’s party was done with lunch, Harvey’s Pritor was also just about finishing up, leaving over half the cow untouched. It had eaten its fill so Harvey simply offered the remainder to the butcher who shook his head in rejection. The Pritor was clever. It had eaten the best parts of the meat, leaving the tough undesirable parts completely untouched. Were it in the wild, it would not be able to afford to waste such precious food, but now that it was living its life of luxury, the Pritor made the most of this opportunity.
The party waited outside the butcher’s shop, loitering and discussing their plans for the day. Visage was missing as per usual, having run off to a public latrine to relieve himself. The general consensus was that they would make their way back to Kiria’s estate where she could rest properly and await arrangements to visit a healer in the neighbouring city.
Visage did not take long, returning promptly to re-join the group. They then took a slow walk towards the central district where Kiria’s estate was located. They moved at a leisurely pace to walk off their lunch. The Pritor especially was moving sluggishly, almost on the verge of nodding off. Because it was slowing the party down, Harvey sighed as he wondered of the cat had been too pampered. He picked up the large cat and cradled it in his arms, allowing it to snooze as it wrapped its three tails around his waist. One of its arms hung over his shoulder as it rested its chest against his, leaning its head on his other shoulder.
The moment they entered the central district, the atmosphere took a drastic change. No longer were there messy unorganised vendors along the cobbled streets. Noble ladies walked with small steps in groups, observing noble etiquettes to the dot. The streets were generally quiet due to the lack of vendors yelling at the top of their lungs in an attempt to advertise their wares. Even the buildings had a touch of finesse to them, showing off architecture that boasted design and delicacy over practicality and cost effectiveness of those in the craftsmen district.
Most of the nobles ignored the group, minding their own business. As such, Victor’s party made their way through the streets with ease, without the usual human traffic which slowed down their journey considerably. Still talking and chatting amongst themselves, Victor’s group walked past a seemingly harmless group of noblemen. Kiria and Nortrem frowned at the sight of these men, but chose not to react.
Its nose twitched. The faint but familiar odour entered its nostrils, causing its eyes to spring open, albeit with a hint of savagery within. It would never forget that smell. Without warning, the Pritor pried itself from Harvey’s arms, pouncing directly towards one of the noblemen that the group walked past. Screams could be heard as the nobleman’s accomplices distanced themselves from the predator, watching it prowl around the downed man. The man had three deep gashes on his chest, his wrist bleeding profusely after being nicked by one of the tails. He clutched his chest in agony, watching in stupefied horror as the cat pounced once more towards him.