“Say Meredith your brother is named Gary as well, right?” I asked as we walked toward the guilds in border town. It was the weekend, so we were going to visit the two Garys.

“Yeah, my parents apparently went to school with one of their older brothers. They look older than they are. Mom said because of the stress of running a guild branch. They named him after both of them, his middle name is merchant Garys’ middle name.”

“I see. So, they are younger than your parents? So closer to early 30s?” I ask, I had assumed them closer to their late 40s.

“I think so, maybe. Mom says it is rude to ask people their age when you are an adult. Some people are more sensitive about it.”

“Alright I’ll keep that in mind.” I nod remembering my past lives, many women would get angry at the question. I hadn’t noticed men getting angry though, maybe they do as well here?

“Welcome, would you like to come into your private room?” A guild receptionist brought us to the room we had been assigned. Since our business was confidential the Gary guild branch managers would handle it themselves. Often, we were expected, and a room was always set aside for us.

“Hello children!” Merchant Gary smiled warmly having arrived first.

“Should I inform your husband?” A maid asked as she put down tea.

“Yes please” Gary waved her off to do so while he poured the tea instead.

“Your married?” I asked after a few minutes, just as adventurer Gary walked in.

“Of course, I am?” Merchant Gary looked at me confused.

“Aren’t you married to the job? What weirdo would marry you?” I asked with a big smile, I was teasing him but also curious.

“Um, I am that weirdo.” Adventurer Gary blushed as he sat down. “Did you kids not know that?”

“You, and you?” I pointed between the two.

“My moon, did you seriously not pick up on that?” Jensen looked towards me with genuine shock.

“Yeah, we all figured that out. The people here refer to them as husbands, and they often sneak kisses when they think no one is looking. We are all looking by the way Gary.” A triplet smiled towards merchant Gary.

“Wow how can someone so smart be so clueless?” Meredith asked the room.

“Well, she is still trying to deny she and Jensen will wed one day so what do you expect?” Chloe spoke next.

After about ten minutes of everyone agreeing Auna was a very dense person when it came to matters of the heart they moved on. Leaving Auna trying to understand how she did not notice the two Garys were husbands and running the branches together.

“Wait” Auna raised her hands while the others were going through the crop list. “So, you both are named Gary, and are married. On top of that you run the branching guilds. Did you pick to run them in one building? Is that why many other towns have to separate branches for the adventurers and merchants’ guilds?”

“My moon, my dear clueless moon.” Jensen sighed. “Small towns merge the branches as they are too small to need two separate ones. The staff doesn’t have enough work to justify having two sets of everyone.” Jensen put his arm around her bringing her ear close to him. “Now for the talk about how a relationship works while both have the same name is best had behind closed doors. However, they do probably use pet names during evening activities instead of calling their own. If you know what I mean.” Jensen winked everyone was blushing a bit except Auna. She had no idea what he was getting at. This made the boy actually laugh and excuse himself for a few minutes.

“You are going to have such a hard time with her Jensen.” A triplet told him when he came back in.

“We have a few years yet before we have to deal with that. It isn’t her fault many of her lives she never went through puberty. She didn’t live long enough for it. Though she should be this time. Are you going through puberty my moon?”

As soon as he said it, he regretted it. He had forgotten for a second how bad her temper could be. “I just asked a short-tempered girl if she was going through puberty.” This thought was loud in his mind. He wasn’t even surprised as her hand connected with his face. Nor was he surprised when she angrily grabbed his collar dragging him to a more private area to give him a good scolding.

“Welcome back, we have finished the usual transactions while you two were having your lovers spat.” Adventurer Gary teased as Merchant Gary elbowed him very hard in the ribs.

“We wanted some advice as well. On a few things.” Auna sat back down, with Jensen on the floor. Theo nuzzled between the two.

“Yes, go on.” Merchant Gary said.

“The people that are trying to kill me. Can we try to track down who they are or who sent them?” I ask a bit unsure.

“Both the dukes are already working on that, so I don’t think you should concern yourself right now. Once they have more information, I am sure they will bring you into the fold of what is going on. Just keep doing what you are.”

“I don’t think the crops are going to allow me to make enough money. The king has said I need to be making nearly two pallidum coins a year. That is close to what upper nobles with two working adults make a year.” In her old world it would be nearly 200,000. She didn’t know how she could manage to make so much. Most jobs paid closer to 60,000 a year.

“Yes, I heard he set such a high number for you. I think it is because you have Ciela and yourself going to such an expensive school. Also, if he had set it too low the church might have accused him of being unfair.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Even if I took everyones’ share from our crops, it would only equal a handful of platinum coins. How can I actually meet this?”

“Hmm. I would recommend exploring your dungeon more, find more resources that can be sold more often. Your flowers are exceptional, but they bring up too many questions if we sell them too often and in too high of volume. Your syrup trade is going to bring in more now that the trees are properly grown and established. You should be able to tap them twice a calendar year.” Merchant Gary got quiet still thinking. Everyone kept quiet to let him think.

“I think, you could try to do something else instead of making a stable income. If you do something that gains you a noble title you would be free of the deal as you would automatically gain land to which would make more than the needed amount.”

“How do I get my own noble title?”

“Well, you could map a new dungeon with many resources and gift it to the king, you could achieve great victory in a war, save the royal family from death, things like that.” Merchant Gary is a bit of an air head. How could I do any of that?

“Gary, how is my moon supposed to do any of that? She is ten. There is no war, and no one seems to be going after our royal family. And we can’t give up our dungeon, we would have to give up the moon door for anyone to get there.” Jensen was shaking his head.

“True, so try to just push forward. You have six years left. Ask me again closer to the time I might actually have a reasonable answer.” Merchant Gary shrugged. It was obvious he too was still at a loss.

“Anyway, can we buy some mapping tools?” Auna moved on.

“Sure, is that boat ready?” Merchant Gary asked as he beckoned a maid in, giving her a paper with what the children would need. It would automatically come off the top of what their party would be owed for the crops.

“Yeah, Duke Pearl tested it.” A triplet nodded.

“I can’t believe he did that.” Merchant Gary was sighing. “So dangerous.”

“Not as dangerous as us just doing it ourselves because he wouldn’t help.” Jensen shrugged. He was of course right; the children were building a boat either way. The low-level bug monsters on the island were no longer giving exp to the kids. They had to venture out more. They had to explore their dungeon to gain more levels, to protect themselves.

“That is true.” Merchant Gary smiled as a box of mapping material was given to him.

“I seem to remember you have a mapping skill, why use instruments like compasses?” Adventurer Gary was staring at Auna.

“Yeah, but apparently Mr Voice said she is going to have actually use tools if she wants to improve it. Also, we should all know how to read, write, and do mapping.” Chloe spoke without thinking. Everyone gave her a hard stare as the two men named Gary gave a concerned look to Auna.

“Mr. Voice?” Merchant Gary asked in a tone that one would carefully ask a crazy person a question.

“It is a skill that started as a pure narration or log of everything around me. Now it gives me useful tips or advice when it isn’t being sassy.” Auna was sighing heavily as she knew Mr. Voice did not like to be called sassy. She knew Mr. Voice would be more difficult to deal with.

“A skill. Is it called World Voice by any chance?” Adventurer Gary asked, while merchant Gary looked wide eye at him.

“Yes, how did you know?” I asked while merchant Gary looked even more shocked.

“I knew a guy when I was younger with it. He ended up going crazy, he still lives in a safe room at a hospital complex. He went crazy.” Adventurer Gary looks very concerned.

“I don’t think I will go crazy, don’t worry.” Reaching forwards, I put my hand on his knee. It looked so small compared to the huge mans’ knee. Will I really go crazy? I remember few lives where I did spiral into madness.

“Please don’t think too hard about the few times you went mad on our last world. It usually triggers the madness.” Jensen was staring right into my soul as he spoke. He isn’t wrong even now I can feel the madness threatening to enter my mind. It always is just on the edge of my being, for as long as I can remember it has been a close companion. I nod slowly.

You won’t go mad, at least not in the way you think. As long as you learn to accept all parts of you, the sane and the insane. You will be fine. Mr. Voice was uncharacteristically straight forward and serious. I don’t want to go mad though. A little madness will do you good. Mr. Voice pushed.

“I’ll believe you for now. Please be careful though.” Gary looks very sad, a weird expression for the joking man.

“How will you explore in secret? Being on the boat you will be trapped inside the dungeon for extended periods of time, no?” Merchant Gary quickly changed the topic patting other Gary on the back.

“Auna can place a door on a different island if there are any. She can’t place on the boat though. We tested that and it isn’t stable enough.” Jensen answered as Auna, and Gary kept looking at each other in silence.

“Is that what you two were doing back home during the summer? We thought you lost your marbles!” A triplet shouted snapping the two staring at each other out of it.

“I placed a door in a carriage and one by the house. When the carriage was moving sometimes, we could walk through the door. Sometimes we could not, and rarely it sent me to a random spot. I ended up in a random forest once, so we decided it was too dangerous. Though if the carriage is brought back to the spot, it was when I put the door in it works normally.” Auna shivered a bit remembering the panic she had at being transported to a random location forgetting for a moment she could easily teleport back through a door. She left her door in the forest it automatically was labelled unknown forest. She didn’t feel like breaking it down.

“I see. I suppose that does make sense. So, you will be careful to come back at appropriate times then?” Merchant Gary asked.

“Of course. We plan to mostly explore on days off, no one bothers us anymore. Especially since we are allowed to go to dungeons alone now. We only have to check in at the school gate on entry for security reasons. We have a door at the villa, so we plan to always hit that one and walk back in through the front gate as an alibi.” Auna said matter of fact.

“That is actually a smart plan. Aside from the people trying to kill you will have access to you while you walk outside without an escort.” Gary shook his head.

“Wouldn’t they be watching the school for us to leave though? At least in the beginning they should be. We will take different routes coming back each day. If it becomes too dangerous or the time isn’t too late, we can just come back to our rooms. And make up an excuse.” I shrugged.

“I suppose you can try it for now and see what happens. Today I think you should do that. Head through the front gates to see if they make a big stink about it. It will also help us to see if anyone starts watching the villa or scanning the capital for you.”

“Are you trying to have us flush them out?”

“Yes”

The kids said goodbye to the two men named Gary. They put their hoods up and went to the mayor’s home. Burt was still following them as per usual. The few years he had gotten bigger with more muscles. Still, he seemed obsessed with Auna. He asked to come through the door more often now. Every time Auna told him no.

Even in their rush to get to the villa to test their plan of walking casually through the gates he bugged to join. They assumed no one would question it, that no one was monitoring the outgoing people as much.

They were right as they signed in no one seemed to notice they had not left that way. However, at dinner they were asked when they left as everyone had thought they were in their rooms. They would have to come up with a different plan. The kids didn’t want to sign out, head to the villa and then to the crater. If they did this the people waiting for a chance to follow and kill Auna would be waiting for them at the villa or try to take them out before they made it to the villa.

They would need to consult the different dukes on a plan. Auna was thinking about stashing a door or two in different areas around the city. Which could also create issues with the moon door being exposed.