6:13 P.M.

February 14

Frostmonth 16

The Unusual Huntress, Limeroom, Veotera

Gary was sitting across from Jack at a table in one of the upstairs meeting rooms at the tavern and was feeling his pulse thunder in his carotid arteries as he stared at the runees and sovereigns arranged before him. There were a lot of the hexagonal and round coins, favoring the round coins by a wide margin. The pile was physically kind of small, but the sovereigns represented a substantial concentration of wealth. He knew the payout was going to be big, but this was a bit much. His thoughts must have shown on his face as Jack leaned forward and steepled his fingers in front of his mouth.

“I’ve never paid out this much to a single Delver in my entire career, Gary. You understand why I couldn’t send a runner with this, right?”

“Oh, I understand. I was expecting it to be pretty big as far as payouts go, but goddamn this is a lot. It’s a good thing you warned me to bring stuff to wrap this up with.”

Jack nodded but kept his hands steepled over the mouth as he watched Gary methodically wrap the coins in strips of random scrap cloth and stuff them into his backpack he’d brought. He shifted his glances to and fro around the otherwise empty room until all of it had been stowed away. Gary gave the bag an experimental strong shake and was pleased at the lack of sound. He set it down under the table again and turned his attention to the three sheets of parchment that had accompanied the coins onto the table when Jack had entered.

There were a list of locations on each sheet, and before he did anything else he took pictures with his Virtual Network in case he lost the originals somehow. Each line item on the list was the location of another dungeon, what had been encountered in it, and which Delver branch was in command of the clearing of it. This was only the Ridiana list, but Jack had promised more were on the way.

“Thank you for this, Jack. You have no idea how much this means to me,” Gary said as he waggled the parchment for emphasis. Jack’s fingers couldn’t hide his rueful smile completely.

“If it helps people by removing the sources of monsters, I’m delighted to offer my assistance. I gotta admit you’ve given me a fright, though. How’d you get the Inquisitor of the Sacred Purge to vouch for you to Quinloz? They don’t like anybody interfering in their country’s works.” Seraphina’s file gained a recording of her epithet, but outwardly Gary shrugged.

“Got into a duel with her because she wanted to test my strength. I won, and after some talking afterwards I guess she liked the cut of my jib. ..Sorry, nautical turn of phrase. She liked what she encountered. I think getting rid of another curse weapon without losing anyone also helped her mood.” Jack shrugged and was about to speak when a knock sounded at the closed and locked door. The two men shared a look before Jack got out of his seat and opened the door.

Delilah was at the door; tavern worker dress on in a slightly different shade of its normal colors, beaming smile, and bearing a tray with three tankards on it. Jack stepped back and aside to let her into the room, and as she moved past him Jack gave a cheeky smile towards Gary over her shoulder. Gary tilted his head to make it obvious to her that he was looking towards Jack when he gave him a look that said ‘I see you and your sneaky look, you bastard’. The smile grew as Deliliah reached the table and set the tray down on it.

“Would either of you care for refreshments?”

“Aye,” Jack said as he walked up to the barmaid and she handed him one of the three tankards. Gary could smell the beer from where he sat and frowned a little. Delilah turned and looked towards him.

“Not if it’s alcohol, Deliliah.” Her beaming smile cracked wide as she scooped up the second tankard and presented it to him with a flourish. He dubiously took it and looked down, and thought he recognized the liquid’s look when the smell rose to his nose and the frown on his face lifted up into a light smile. It seemed that she’d procured apple juice. He took a sip and was surprised again that it was actually cool. He nodded a little bit at the happy surprise and her smile grew a hair.

“I saw that you didn’t really have a taste for beer, and it took me a bit to think of something you’d like that didn’t have alcohol in it. I take it you approve?” He nodded and her stance settled into a happy one, complete with confident bounce on her heels that set her to lightly jiggle in all the right places, as far as Gary’s male mammalian brain parts were concerned. Another sip of the juice was taken to cover his expression as he looked up to her face.

She took the third tankard up and pulled a long sip. She couldn’t see his gaze from the angles and obscuring container, but Gary watched as her throat made movements that showed her swallowing the drink within. If he didn’t know better he’d swear it was an open attempt at seduction. A glance at Jack with a quirked eyebrow received a toothy grin and indicated Jack knew what she was up to. Wordlessly, he waved his own tankard slowly through the air and made to leave.

“I’ll leave you two lovebirds alone. Some of the others should be around soon to get their shares for clearing the dungeon. Happy hunting,” he crowed as the door closed behind him before loud laughter could be heard as he made his exit. With the room closed to outsiders again, Delilah looked at Gary expectantly as she clutched her tankard in both hands against her bosom.

“..Well, that’s one way to do things.” Gary leaned over and pulled one of the chairs closer so that she could sit down, as she was clearly intent on staying in the room to presumably talk to him. “So. Runee for your thoughts?”

She giggled a little before taking another sip of her drink. He didn’t smell alcohol in the air anymore, so she probably went with juice as well. The honey blond sat down in the chair and finally set her cup onto the table. She scooted her chair closer to him so she could reach out and touch the back of his left hand with slim fingers. Her amber eyes looked him in the face as she worked her jaw for a moment, trying to find the right words to put into the air and not embarrass herself like last time she’d blurted something.

“I was thinking that it’s good to see you again. And that I’m happy you like the juice. It’s a bit difficult to get in Frostmonth.” He flipped the hand she was touching so he could wrap his fingers around hers in a gesture of solidarity.

“Thank you for the consideration, Delilah. I’ve been having a time trying to find anything to drink that wasn’t water. Not that water is bad for you, but you gotta boil it to make it safe and that’s just a hassle if you’re not making tea with it.” Her demeanor was now one of lightly beaming pride at having gambled correctly. Gary noted her hand had a few tiny calluses but nothing that would indicate anything other than working in a tavern. The fingers were otherwise soft and warm, tightening around his as they silently squeezed each other for contact.

“It’s nothing too special,” she demurred, “the owner knew someone in another tavern in town who keeps a small reserve through the winter months.” Gary took a full mouthful of the drink and relished the simple taste before swallowing. It was good and simple. No apple-flavored sugar water, no bitter apples used; just light and natural sweetness. Delilah had good taste in getting this for him. It was clearly an attempt to get closer to him, and he decided he’d allow it.

The two sat in companionable silence for a couple of minutes drinking their fluids of choice before she set her tankard down and gave him a full-on look. “Do you think I’m pretty, Gary?”

He’d been expecting this question. “Yes, you are. It doesn’t hurt your case that you clearly take good care of yourself.” Her smile flashed at him and it took a great act of will not to melt in the glow. This conversation and where she clearly wanted it to go was bound for sorrow.

“I think you’re very handsome, too. I just.. It’s like..” She was struggling to find the words, and Gary knew that if he intervened in this he’d cross a line in her heart that would make him an asshole for leaving soon. “I want to make you happy. You’re so polite and helpful to everyone, but has anyone ever tried to help you?”

He sighed as he placed his other hand over the one he already grasped and let the warmth envelop her fingers. “Plenty of people have helped me with my problems, but as for what you’re talking about then no. My heart is fine and strong. I know where this conversation is going and I don’t want to hurt you when I leave.” Her smile withered a bit as she looked down at their hands before she sighed and looked back up through her lashes.

“You have to get married at some point soon, Gary. Your heart may be strong but someone will make it belong to them eventually… I just want to be in the competition.”

Gary felt for her; he truly did. She probably didn’t have many good prospects even with the populace of Limeroom, and she saw a golden opportunity before her. She’d be a fool to not try and seize the day. The problem was his lifestyle was going to be nomadic once he gathered the momentum and left this place to pursue dungeons and ultimately a way to contact Earth. He raised her hand up between them and fully grasped the hand with both of his as opposed to just her fingers now.

“My problem is that I know I’m not the one for you, Delilah. I will break your heart if this continues and that’s as bad as having blood on my hands. It’s not that I’m not interested, it’s that I know nothing but sorrow awaits you on this path. Inflicting that pain on you would be cruel and evil, and you’ve been nothing but kind to me.”

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“I don’t care.” That earned a startled blink out of him. “I want to be hurt by you. It’s stupid of me to say it and you’ll think I’m not right in the head, but I want to know you better. There’s something inside of me that is telling me I’ll regret it for the rest of my life if I don’t at least try. Can I at least have the dream?” He saw her eyes beginning to sparkle a little as tears were getting closer to forming. A ragged sigh came from him as he put the clasped hands against his forehead and closed his eyes.

“I’d be evil to crush your dream, but understand that it’ll be a nightmare before too long.”

Without speaking, she pulled her hand away from his and shifted her position from her own seat to sitting in his lap. Her arms hugged around his shoulders and neck as she laid her face against his collarbone and just sat there in silence as she regained her composure. He gently wrapped his arms around her mid-back and gave her a soft hug to let her know he wasn’t trying to be heartless. She wasn’t crying into his shoulder, but he still felt like an asshole for what was inevitably going to happen from here.

Unrequited Tragic Maiden, perhaps? The trope suited her, but was hopefully not going to be a full fit. He felt guilty for the fact he was enjoying the warmth of a woman he was going to leave pressed against him, but at the same time he chose to revel in the fleeting sensation. There were doubtless dark times ahead and good memories would be of help in seeing him through them. He leaned his head on her bare collarbone and surreptitiously took a breath in through his nose. She probably felt the tiny rush of air against her skin but it wasn’t too obvious.

She smelled like a faint trace of some perfume he could quite place. Her blond hair tickled the side of his face and they just sat there in silence for a bit. Eventually she leaned back from her headrest and regarded him with now-clear amber eyes. He sat in the chair and focused a lot of his willpower on not giving her a ‘pointy seat’. Gary freed his left hand and brushed back an errant long lock of hair behind her, exposing an ear that had a tinge of red forming at the edges to match the growing blush on her face as she smiled warmly at him.

It wasn’t the most romantic setting. There were so many things wrong with this scenario that it almost set his teeth on edge. It wasn’t right to take this from her; her first true feelings of love. He knew he’d likely never see her again unless he was passing through Limeroom in the future. But damn it to Hell. The part of his mind that housed his Class was pointing at her and practically screaming for him to plunder her heart. With a heavy heart for the evil he was about to commit, he went in for the kiss.

Her bosom actually got in the way for a moment before she understood his intent and tilted herself in a way they could meet lip to lip. Soft, quiet, testing; it was a bit of touch and retreat a hair away before going back in. Each contact of the lips led to something a bit deeper and more confident between them. It was clear she was without experience just as he was. No one had ever really caught his interest on Earth; the women there caught up in their own worlds and were unable to even try and make something lasting. It struck him in the moment when Delilah and he had seemingly the same brainwave to go a little deeper still with the kiss and fully commit that perhaps Veotera was a fertile ground to find someone he could love.

Their respective hugs - her around his neck and shoulders and he around her mid-waist - slowly constricted until they were solidly pressed against each other. Locked with arms, locked with lips. Gary was losing his prided self-control, and felt other parts responding to the contact of her warm embrace. They came up for air at about the same time and he opened his eyes to see her face brightly flushed with a rosy blush. It was a lovely sight. He almost took a picture of it, but decided against it. This would be his memory; not something that someone could download out of the nanomachines in his head later in life. A little bit of Plunder all his own.

Gary’s hands slid further up and further down to focus his embrace between her shoulder blades and at the small of her back. His head leaned back a bit as he pressed her even tighter against him. She was at a semi-awkward twist in his lap but obviously didn’t care as she responded with a tightening of her own grip and practically flattened herself against him as best she could.

“Lovely,” he murmured to himself and her blush gained a few shades to wander into the upper stages of red as opposed to the pink she’d previously been. She leaned into his face and put herself nose-to-nose.

“Be my dream, please?” Her long hair slid forward to form a light curtain to either side of their faces as he felt her breath on his lips and knew she felt his as well.

“I won’t leave for a while yet… Plenty of time before that final sunrise.” Her eyes showed the smile he felt as she rubbed noses a little and withdrew to regard him. The way her back arched in his grip threatened to bump his chin into the top of her bustline but he didn’t rightly care at the moment. “I suppose it depends on how long you want to dream, Delilah.”

“As long as I can, Gary. I want to remember this one for a long time.”

“Then I propose we take some measures with it. Think of something you’d like to do, and we’ll go do it.” She tilted her head back a tiny bit to look at the ceiling about twenty degrees off of vertical above his head, the look on her face clearly contemplating the request. He didn’t mention that her neck looked very kissable at that moment.

Her eyes sparkled as she clearly came up with something. Delilah looked back into his eyes and spoke. “I want to go for a walk in the countryside. Normally I’d be stuck here in the city, but if I have someone strong like you with me I can go and see the world outside these walls.” Gary met it with a bit of a smirk. That was easily doable.

“I like that plan. The question is when are you able to be away from the tavern? Maybe the day after tomorrow to give me time to get some things ready for this little expedition?” She nodded at that confirmation and with that Gary released her from his grip as she slid her arms off of him. She was far more reluctant to get up, and seemingly knew about something in her lap as she gave a very obvious wiggle of her hips before she got back to her feet and drank more of her half-forgotten drink.

“I’m sure they’ll not miss me for a day. That day’s usually pretty slow anyhow.” Delilah smiled warmly at him and winked in a cheeky manner. “If they have a problem with it they can take it up with you!” Gary gave her a wry look and reached up to boop her on the nose with his left index finger at her playfulness. Her blush deepened a little more and she half-turned towards the door before looking back at him. “So should I come to the church, or will you meet me here?”

“The church is shorter to the gate, but the tavern is a better bet since I don’t know where you live and it’s a public space. So let’s go with the tavern. Bright and early day after tomorrow?”

“Then we have an accord. I’m looking forward to it!” She nodded a goodbye and swished out of the room with her tankard in one hand, the tray she’d brought the cups with in the other, and a suggestive sway to her hips that she knew he was watching before she opened the door and disappeared around the corner with a final sly glance towards him before vanishing.

Gary let her get a bit away judging by the sounds before he quietly cursed at himself in English. “You fucking idiot! You belong right in the basement of the horny jail!” He huffed angrily at himself before sitting back in his seat and grumbling incoherently into his apple juice as he slowly worked on it; mostly to give his manhood time to calm down before he started walking around the tavern and out into the late afternoon to early evening air of Limeroom.

“You’re a goddamn traitor, you know that right?” Again he stared at his crotch as he called what was technically himself out again in English. “I know I’m a damn virgin, but this is gonna be cruel to string her along like this. What if I make her unmarriable? I don’t know the standards around here! That kissing alone could have made her untouchable. Damnit to fuck; Uncle Thomas would give me such a scolding for this…”

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Remmy and Seraphina were sitting in the church speaking in quiet tones on matters; mostly her giving him news from Quinloz that he was unlikely to get from the trickle of information due to sheer physical distance. They both looked up at the sound of the front door opening briefly then closing, and finally the gray-eyed ghost of a teenager walking up to the lantern she had brought with her to provide better illumination for their evening’s talk.

“Greetings, Delver Zavon,” Seraphina said as she inclined her head towards him. He looked at her, at Remmy, then to both their surprise a bit of a blush crept onto his cheeks. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath to try and calm himself, failed miserably, and let it out in a great and exaggerated sigh.

“Hello, Inquisitor. Remmy.” He nodded to both in greeting before he made for his room.

“Something the matter,” Remmy called out. Gary stopped in his tracks, another ragged sigh escaping him as he responded with an annoyed voice.

“I did something very stupid and evil to a young woman. And the day after tomorrow I’m going to continue my evil stupidity. I’m going to my room to work off some of this energy with exercise and go to bed repenting letting my balls drive me towards wickedness. Good night, you two.”

The two clergy watched the Delver vanish into the side rooms in search of his quarters before Seraphina looked quizzically at Remmy. The old man ruefully smiled and shook his head. “The boy’s been approached by a worker at the Huntress. He’s been trying to avoid attachments to this place that he can’t leave alone; mainly a romantic one.”

“Ah. He is aware that marriage is the law across the continent by order of the System, yes?”

“No. He has enough on his plate as it is. It may be wicked of me but it is a problem he can solve later. Perhaps a lingering regret or two would do him some good.” The nun shook her head as she read the response letters Remmy had shown her to the letters he’d sent out on Gary’s behalf subtly suggesting that the System and the dungeons were part of an invasion strategy. She was still wrapping her head around Remmy revealing what Gary had revealed to him, but it was making more and more sense as she thought about it.

His mannerisms, his outlook, his unusual combat style? His knowledge of things that he shouldn’t have and his relaxed attitude towards meeting someone of her rank and profile? She had assumed it was merely due to his Class’ raw power, but to find out he was torn from his world and was on a mission to either return or at least warn them of the System’s arrival?

“That child has a heavy burden upon his soul, Father. Many would abandon such weight. It speaks greatly to his upbringing that he carries himself with such clear purpose. Have you contacted the Sacramental Archive about his suspicions yet?” Remmy shook his head.

“The idea is too heretical for their delicate sensibilities. They view the System as a work of God; not the invasive force he feels it to be. To be honest I was strongly debating not showing this to you, either. In the end I feel that he would be best served by having someone higher in authority to back him than a simple old priest in a border city.” At that the nun scoffed and ran a finger through her silky raven black hair in a bit of a nervous habit.

“‘Simple’ is not a word to describe you, Father. Everyone knows you took the demotion to give the Cardinal face he has yet to earn. I at least understand the world outside the halls of the church exists. But I understand your eminence’s meaning. If he requires my services I will not hesitate to offer them further. His cause is a righteous one, though his piety could use work.”

Remmy laughed softly at that and patted Seraphina’s hand. “I doubt either of us could convince him to give more than neutral lip service to the scriptures, but at least he works to not blaspheme or say anything in public that would stain the image of the church. But enough about me; how are your little ones back home?” Seraphina smiled wanly and responded into the quiet air of the church’s main hall, the night stretching on as they conversed further.