My plate is half-empty and the glorious cup of vanilla milk is too when I suddenly get hugged from behind.

“Good morning sweetie.” Sam kisses me on the cheek.

“Hey Sam. Did you sleep well?”

“Mhmm.” She sits down at the head of the table next to me. “I felt like an angel kissed me on the cheek this morning.”

“Oh…” I blush. “I may or may not have done so when you were still sleeping.”

“I know.” She winks.

“Is Hilda coming too, Sam?” Lise asks after having swallowed down a piece of egg.

“Yeah, she was chatting with Nikki in the hallway when I left the room. They said they were coming soon.”

“Great, that way we can be ready to leave soon enough.”

“Are we in a hurry?” I ask.

“Uh, no, but I remember the lady behind the counter didn’t actually tell us a time to come by so I don’t want to keep that guide waiting all day.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah, we have an appointment at a time we do not know, so I’d rather not be too late.” She laughs.

“Ah, you also realised the little mistake?” Hilda walks into the room with Nikki next to her.

“Mhmm.” Lise nods.

“We should probably get breakfast then.” Nikki moves towards the other side of the table while Hilda keeps standing next to us.

“Is that your new shield?”

“Yes!” Lise glows. “Look what it can do!”

Just as she did with me, she gives Hilda the demonstration and an explanation of what it can do.

“That’s quite cool indeed.” Hilda nods, impressed by the little demo. “Can’t wait for the rest of us to get some cool Ami merch.”

“Everything in it’s time.” My sis puts her shield down again with a smile.

“Easy enough for you to say, you got your stuff already.” Nikki waves over Amanda who’s standing behind the bar. “It’s not like I’m jealous or anything.”

“That’s exactly what a tsundere would say.” Sam comments to which the rest of us start laughing.

After that the rest of the group orders and receives their breakfast as well. It doesn’t take very long before we are finished and ready to get our gear together and head out towards the city’s city council building.

Me, Sam and Hilda are ready the fastest and await Nikki and my sister downstairs.

The clanking of armour betrays my sister’s arrival.

“Sorry it took so long, putting on a new armour set always takes a bit of getting used to.” My sister looks incredibly cool in her new armour. It really fits her perfectly.

Sam rubs tilts her head and rubs her chin. “Mhmm.”

“What’s wrong, Sam? Don’t like my new armour?”

“I do, I do.” She nods. “But I feel like it would look better with a cloak or with a cape.”

Lise enthusiastically nods. “See, Nikki! I told you a cloak would complete the look.”

Nikki shakes her head. “It looks perfectly fine like this. Cloaks just get in the way and it’s another thing to keep clean.”

“I disagree wholeheartedly.”

“We can get a spell to keep her cloak clean, can’t we?” Sam proposes.

“Ah! Like pres… presti… that one C&C spell.”

“Prestidigitation.” Hilda laughs and pets my head.

“Yes! That one!”

“Wouldn’t that be a bit of a waste? Learning one spell specifically for that?”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Aesthetics are important babe.” My sis kisses her partner.

“Are you leaving?” Harold comes walking out of the kitchen together with his wife.

“Yes, we have an appointment at the city council.” Hilda nods.

“Alright, I’ll open the gate for you.” Harold nods and starts walking towards the door.

We follow him along and wave Amanda goodbye.

“Thank you for the patronage and be sure to spread the word of our fine establishment.” He smiles as he starts opening the gate.

“No problem. Thank you for the generosity.” Élise helps him with the gate while the rest of us get on board our walker.

The machine roars to life and walks towards the now opened gate, waiting for a second for my sister to get in.

“By Harold!” Me and Sam wave him goodbye as Hilda makes the machine turn the corner.

“Goodbye!” He waves us along, closing the gate behind us.

We arrive at the council building in no-time.

“We probably could’ve gone on foot.” Élise helps us out of the back of the walker.

“It would be a bit weird to leave our walker behind, especially if the university is further away.”

“I guess that’s true.”

Hilda graciously jumps off and starts leading us per usual.

When we enter the building the lady yesterday is already at her desk, conversing with another Dwarger woman standing in front of her. She's wearing some kind of lab coat and has a set of goggles on her head. Her red hair is tied up in a knot.

“Ah, there they are.” The lady points at us, making the other one turn around.

“A punctual bunch, that’s good.” The dwarger woman smiles.

We approach the desk.

“This here is Ruva, she will bring you to the archaeology division of the university.”

“Nice to meet you.” Ruva smiles.

“Likewise.” Hilda extends her hand which Ruva gladly accepts.

“Do you have your own transportation?”

“Yes, we are parked right outside.” Nikki replies.

“Okay, good.” Ruva casually walks out, leaving us behind.

“You should follow her, Lady Ruva doesn’t like waiting too long.” The lady behind the desk says as she starts reading the first letter of a pile of many on her desk.

“Oh, alright. Thanks for the guide!” Élise quickly follows Ruva outside and the rest of us decide to follow.

When we get outside Ruva has already jumped in the back. “What are you waiting for, we don’t have all day.” She waves us over.

We move at double pace so as not to annoy our guide.

While Hilda starts the walker yet again she turns around towards Ruva. “So, what direction are we going in?”

“Take the main street at that exit.” She points past Hilda’s shoulder.

“Okay.” The machine starts moving in that direction.

“The university is a bit outside of the city walls.” Then Ruva sits back down again.

“Excuse me, but isn’t that a bit dangerous? Keeping your university outside of the city walls?” Nikki asks.

“Not at all.” Ruva shakes her head. “Where do you think our weaponry gets developed and tested? There’s an entire military training facility next to it.”

“Testing experimental weaponry is probably best tested outside of the city.”

Ruva laughs. “Exactly! They had to rebuild the testing hall twice this year already.”

“I hope no one got hurt.”

“Just some minor injuries, nothing Dwarger engineers can’t handle.” She proudly taps herself on the chest.

We quite easily pass through the gates, the guards didn’t even stop us as they say Ruva was sitting with us.

“At this pace we should arrive in ten minutes or so. Just keep heading straight.”

“Alright.” Hilda nods.

“Hey, Ruva. You are not an archaeologist, are you?” Sam asks, leaning on her knees to look past me at our Dwarger companion.

“Actually I am.” She smirks. “I am both in the engineering department as in the archaeology department.”

“Wow, aren’t those very different fields?” Sam asks on.

“They are but I wanted to study both so I did. I got my degree in engineering first and then applied that to also get my degree in archaeology later.”

“How does that work, exactly?” Hilda turns around to look at Ruva, just for a second as she still needs to watch the road.

“Engineering devices to make life easier for archaeology for example. Transport methods that can more easily and safely transport items. Why are you asking?”

“Our Hilda is a bit of a history buff, you see.” Lise smiles.

“Is that so?”

Hilda nods. “Although none of that historical knowledge can help us here sadly enough.”

“That’s a shame, I’d like to hear some more of that when we don’t have work to do.” Ruva nods.

“We’ll see.”

As we break the tree line we see a big complex showing up in front of us.

“Here we are. Just park up in front of that building in the center. That’s the archaeology department.”

“Will do.” It doesn’t take long before we are at the designated spot and dismount our walker.

“Please follow me, it’s a bit of a maze inside.” Ruva starts walking at a pretty decent pace so we are hard-pressed not to lose sight of her.

The inside of the building reminds me a little of my university’s arts department with a couple of showcases that show important and very old-looking items. Sadly there was not a lot of time to look at the things as our route kept winding through the building. This goes on and on for a couple of minutes until Ruva finally halts in front of a door.

She knocks twice before entering. “Professor, these people are interested in one of the new dig sites. When we enter the room as well we see a very old looking Dwarger man bent over some kind of placard, reading it intently.

“Is that so.” He straightens his back and turns toward us. He pushes his small glasses up his nose. “Ah, welcome. My name is Theodore Rufflington.” He then scratches his long white beard.

Sam pokes me and whispers in my ear. “Doesn’t he kinda look like Santa?”

I had to do my very best not to start laughing. The resemblance was uncanny.

-God damn it Sam, this is not the time!-

My girlfriend smirks at my attempt to keep quiet.