I left the humans to their own devices and went to check on the monsters. In the jail two monsters, one human, one demon accounted for. Around the meadow, several monkeys and goblins are evolving from the Exp earned in the Battle Spring. Unfortunately the dungeon is running at a deficit because the spawns are being camped. I got to charge the core a bit more. More wolves came because Alice's recruited their kin and maybe we are going to see some goblin cavalry. My own tame monsters are doing fine, but one thing hit me when I was inspecting them.

I have...

Goblin Ninjas.

Yeeaahh. Let me double check. Shadow powers. Stealth. Assassination. Scouting skills. Checked.

I have goblin ninjas.

They are rank 2 monsters so they are not going places yet, but there is potential. especially if they grind the skills courtesy of my shared skills without using SP. I will tell Kochurearc to give them a good training menu.

Back to the humans.

Shraaizar seems to have overcame her loathing of humans. I don't know how much the tamer link influenced her, but her body language shows no hostility. They were touring the palisade on the foothills away from the meadow. Hilde and Azelinus don't have the poison resistance necessary to go near the willows. Nothing our magic could not fix but still a hazard.

"I'm borrowing the lady for a while, please go on. We are going back soon." I wave at them and pick up Helen.

She is smiling, but the moment we get away from the others she creases her eyebrows and frowns.

"Darling, please grow a spine. You should have entered when I told you to, together we would convice them without half the drama."

Oh, so that is what she meant with that message. "Sorry. A lot happened, I..." Ugh, can't talk about the admin thing. "... wrecked half the town, killed a lot of adventurers and guild staff and if it weren't for Petal things would have been way worse."

"So I heard." She looks away and sighs. I think it would be better if she was angry.

"A hidden title! When were you going to tell me you got that one?"

She blushes, glances at me and turns away. "No-nothing. I have a setting in my status to hide features, I told you before. When we were alone in the forest, remember?"

Half a year ago. Of course I don't. "Fancy that. I think I recall something like that... But I don't have any setting like that. Actually none of my monsters have it either."

She shudders a bit and mumbles. "... don't burden you." I couldn't hear most of it.

"It is an unique thing you have, right?"

"Yes. I asked around when I was little, nobody can hide traits like me. I could even hide everything."

"Do hidden traits remain active?"

"Yes. Let me show you." Her gaze floats to the status windows in front of her and after a while she looks at me and nods.

"Appraise."

Race: Human

"Race only. I guess you can't hide that, right?"

"No. I can hide even race. Appraise would give only a blank window. But what is the point of hiding my race?"

"Good. Are you still angry at me? Disappointed?"

"You owe me one. I expect to be pampered and spoiled rotten by you. Marcy too."

"Deal."

I dismiss Atlas and find myself back as Beowulf. Puppet plus possession rox.

With the S-rank quest 'Make the in-laws trust you as a monster' cleared, we were ready to teleport away from the monster settlement.

Right before joining hands, Azelinus changes his mind, "Can we visit Mirfield? I'd like to look around the town."

"Of course. We can walk through town until the next bell. Then we should go back to Colchester."

I have some mixed feelings about all this ordeal with the inlaws. On one side they seemed pretty pissed, but now it feels like we were being tested. Azelinus is no stranger to politics but honestly they did not gain anything more than what I was going to offer them. I don't know and I'll probably let the thing slip.

"That is fair enough. Here." He offers his hand.

"Teleport!"

We arrive at the Lord's estate and just moments later the Butler is at the door.

"Sebastian, these are Azelinus and Hildegard, parents of Lady Helen. They are to be treated with all the hospitality and then some."

"Absolutely, my Lord." The butler bows.

"Where are we now?" Asks Hilde.

"This is the Lord's private chambers, mother. Come to the balcony, we can see Mirfield from here."

I think I could make a viewing tower. It would even help with managing the fields.

"Sebastian, send runners to the town hall and the guild to warn them of our arrival."

"At once, sire."

It took us about ten minutes to leave the estate. Our destination is the town hall and then the guild. Going to the town hall is not that big a stretch to reach the guild in the east side of town.

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Walking on the streets the people greets me. "Good afternoon, Lord." With honest smiles. There are few people around, but all of them are happy.

We go past some food stalls, and the vendors offer us some free meat skewers. I take but use prestidigitation to stealthily put a few silver coins back. It is wolf meat.

Townhall. We go inside and Alvus is already greeting Azelinus. "It is great to see you here after so long." He jokes we laugh. They were together yesterday. In a town more than twenty days of travel away north.

"Alvus, I've hired Azelinus to work as the minister of finance for both towns. They will be back to Mirfield soon, and will live in the Lord's manor."

The former apothecary nods, "Both towns. I assume you met Shraaizar and Mittens then."

"Yes. We met Lady Shraaizar and Sir Mittens earlier today when we went to Willow Hill,"

Azelinus confirms with a nod and a mischievous smile. Alvus reaches out and shakes his hand.

"Well, if that is out of the way, I'm looking forward to working with you. I am sure we will revive this town in no time."

I cut in, "Alvus, we are pressed for time, we need to visit the guild before going back to Colchester. Needing anything?"

"No, we are low on supplies but we can make do. I'm sorry for taking too much of your time. See you soon, Azelinus!"

We say our goodbyes to the mayor and go to the guild. We go inside and some adventurers yell, "Petal, you are back! Hooray! Petal is back!"

"Why are you sulking, silly grown men! I had errands to do and a town to save! I'm not your personal entertainer, you know? But I guess one dance won't hurt. I even brought my sister Sepal today!"

Fairy and clone go and do their dance. We go straight to visit Mercy.

She seems tired. And shoots straight away, "Where is Zahariel? I need receptionists! Too much paperwork!"

Maybe I can get a veteran receptionist and dismantler for her. "I think I can hire a receptionist from Colchester. They are all unemployed now anyway."

She raises an eyebrow, "And why would they be unemployed?"

...

We explain to her what happened. The full uncut version. There were details even the girls didn't know.

She raises the other eyebrow, "You were beheaded, lost control and went berserk, became a giant troll in the middle of town, killed the guild master, destroyed the guild along with a good part of the town and fled. Nice."

"That is too abridged, but it is what happened. There was nobody in that town capable of defeating a berserker colossus troll."

"No beheading heroes. It is a new rule of our guild. Marcy?"

Marcy nods. Nobody is in the mood for laughing at the joke Mercy unwittingly made. We give our goodbyes and gather the party. We are greeted by Zahariel in the living room.

"Hey. Soren is awake. She wants to talk to you, Beowulf."

"I'll go there then." I leave them to talk about their monster country experiences and climb the stairs to the bedroom. From a narrow gap I can see Soren sitting on the bed. I entered without announcing myself. A sudden movement and the girl is hanging on my neck. She is fast.

"Beowulf is alive! I'm so glad! I had a terrible dream!" She looks confused and dreamy. If I had to guess, she is rationalizing things with the bare minimum amount of reflection. Her eyes are red. It seems she has been crying. I peel the squirrel girl from me and make her sit back on the bed.

"Please, tell me that dream of yours. Can I sit by your side?"

"Of course! I dreamed I was working at the guild when an adventurer ran inside saying he saw your party on the town. Kareena had orders to capture you dead or alive. She told Yvonne what she was going to do, and left with some guards to capture you. I felt terrible and went after them, but it is hard to sneak around if you are a squirrel-kin. I got on a roof, and I saw something strange, the guards seemed frozen in place. You argued with Kareena but things got better. You turned your back and Kareena cut your neck like it was butter. I could not scream, I had no voice. My heart seemed to be broken, even now I..." She starts crying again.

"Soren, I need you to be strong. Please tell me what happened after that. Did your dream end there?"

A few more sobbing sounds later, she continues, "Your head rolled but you transformed into a giant horned monster, a really big one. You grabbed your head and put it back on the neck. Then you killed the guards, Kareena, and roared really loud. I woke up after that." She turns to the side, grabs my shoulders, and places her head over my chest. Those long bushy squirrel ears of hers tickle my face, but I endure. Her tail props up a bit. "I was terrified, but what really broke me was to think you were gone. But hearing your heartbeat calms me somehow."

There is one thing that she said that bothers me. She cut my neck 'like butter'. The sword she was wielding is not the same from the duel. What kind of weapon did she use? I check the sword in my item box manifest. It is called 'Trollslayer'. Best scenario became really bad. The guild thinks I am a hybrid. The worst scenario is really terrible. The guild thinks I am a monster that can disguise as a human sent by the demons to infiltrate and destroy them. It could range from a witch hunt to a full-blown annihilation war.

"Like a true hero would die from just a severed head!" I make a joke-boast. "But how did you end up here? What is the last thing you remember doing before coming here?"

"I was... I don't remember. Where are we?"

The girls' room has a front-facing window. "Look outside." If she really breaks down, I can treat her.

"I don't want to." She still hasn't let go of me. Didn't even raise her head.

"Why don't you want to look outside?"

"I'm afraid I'm going to see that monster outside."

"Do you think that monster from your dream would hurt you?"

She clenches me stronger, "It is what monsters do, right?"

"What if I told you there are some monsters that won't hurt people? That the monster from your dream wouldn't hurt you?"

"Don't joke. It was scary enough to make me feel sick just from remembering it."

"Are you that weak? The truth outside is not a pretty one. Will you just run away?"

And I stepped on a landmine. She let go of me and dropped to the other side of the bed, sobbing and inadvertently slapping me with her tail. Dangerously soft. I jumped away, got out of the room and called in the cavalry. Helen and Marcy came running before I even opened my mouth. My guess is that they were already in a state of readiness to pounce on us should something happen. But I am not one to take advantage of a girl in a state of weakness. I like my women strong.

I get out of the bedroom and sit next to my wives at the top of the stairs.

Helen is worried about the girl, and asks with a hushed voice, "What happened with Soren?"

"What did you do to her?" And Marcy with something else.

"We just talked about what she thinks is a dream. But something I said hit some weak spot. She broke right after."

There is a faint sound of wood grinding before Helen asks me, "Can you remember exactly what you said to her?"

"Something about running away from the truth."

Marcy hits me, "You have a special skill to tick off people, right? She indeed ran away, from her homeland. We don't know the reason though."

"Beowulf, everything would be over if you had just erased her memories. You didn't, so what is on your mind?"

"Acceptance. She is a witness to what happened. I want her to judge me. I want to know what she thinks. I feel like I won't be punished for what I did if I just wipe out the event from everyone's memories. Nothing will change. I'm a monster in human clothing. I can't even permanently delete the berserk skill."

[Berserk Rage] level 4 deleted. 7 SP refunded. Skill Berserk Rage (innate) level 4 awakened.

Figures. The System is really broken. But I am not exploiting it.

Marcy's mood lightens and she smiles, "I know what you should do to begin your path of redemption. Rebuild the guild. C'mon, you weren't joking when you said you could make a castle in five days, something like the guild building would be easy, right? It will be good practice for earth magic manipulation."

"It would also be good to improve your ratings with the town. I'll help you with my magic and I'm sure Zahariel would chip in too. With the three of us, we can do it by tomorrow morning."

"I'm fine with it, but Soren is still like that. Shouldn't we help her first?"

Marcy waves her hand to dismiss something, "Give the girl time. She will bounce back to her hyper happy mood soon enough."

But it seems the girl won't spend that time. Her voice comes from the bedroom, "You shouldn't underestimate my ears. I have a really good hearing even for beastkin."

We turn to the bedroom and the ridiculously long ears of the squirrel-kin are popping out of the door along with a pair of eyes. "How much did you hear?"

"Everything."