Author’s Note: I bet no one expected me to actually get the next chapter out within 3 days. Please enjoy it.
Also this poll is just for fun and has nothing to do with the story or any possible future events. It was just something that resulted from a random conversation Karami and I had a few days ago and I was curious how readers would respond.
Chapter 25
Let’s confirm my enemies. Other than the scum in front of me, there’s three presences in the woods to the left and three presences in the woods to the right. Two of the presences on the right don’t feel human though, they seem to be beasts. One of my enemies must be a beastmaster like myself then. Makes sense, if they take Coa from me or kill me, they would need to tame her temporarily I suppose, until they found a buyer for her.
Next there’s one other thing I need to confirm. “Excuse me, do you mind if I ask you a question?”
The scum looked at me like I was nuts. “Hah? What would you ask at a time like this? Just give up the dragon and you won’t get hurt. I already know you’re just a runaway noble playing at being an adventurer and a weak beastmaster without any beasts. So just do what I tell you or else.”
“Well, you see there is something important that I need to know. The question is, are you adventurers?” After all, I did make a promise not to kill other adventurers if I could help it. I don’t plan on killing them anyway though, unless they make some very, very poor decisions. There’s more amusing things I can do to them. It’s a shame that I don’t have any rope. I’m really regretting that right now.
“Course, I’m an adventurer. Now, are you going to hand over the dragon or not? I won’t be asking again.” the scum said.
I shook my head. “Nah, I don’t think I’ll do that. What I’ll do instead, is give you a warning. Right now, you haven’t taken action against me so I’m willing to forget that this encounter and your threats ever happened. Please take this out that I’m offering you or I guarantee you’ll regret it.” I know he’s not going to accept this warning. I think it’s important to at least give it though.
“You little bitch! You dare to threaten me?” the scum snarled at me. He drew his sword and started coming toward me. As he did, he waved the sword in a slightly odd way. All of a sudden, I felt a new presence from my right. Wow, I hadn’t even noticed whoever that was until now! What an amazing ability for hiding. A knife came lancing at me barely a moment later. Without even taking my eyes off the scum in front of me, my hand snatched the knife out of the air when it was barely ten centimeters away from my head. Still without taking my eyes from the man in front of me who was now frozen in shock, I sent the knife back from whence it came with a flick of my wrist, embedding it in the man’s throwing hand and pinning his hand against the tree he was standing by.
I spoke to the scum in from of me. “Well, come on already. Don’t just stand there with your mouth open. You and your party wanted to steal from me so prepare yourself to face the consequences.”
As he roused himself I felt the presences in the woods, other than the knife thrower that was busy trying to free himself from the tree, surge into action as well. One of the presences from the left jumped out swinging a large axe. I side stepped, dodging it and then sent a kick into the man’s side blowing him into a tree. He went down and didn’t look like he was getting back up any time soon. The scum finally rushed me with his sword stabbing at me. I side stepped again and with a quick grab and twist I had broken his wrist, causing him to scream in pain as he dropped the sword. I then swept out with my leg knocking him off balance, allowing me to easily throw him. I tossed him at the same tree as his companion and they ended up in a pile together.
Next enemies approaching were the two beasts from the right. The assumed beastmaster on the right was still hanging back though, so I’ll probably have to pursue them myself after I take care of the others. The people on the left were taking action too, but they seem to be ranged types as they weren’t getting closer. I momentarily turned my attention to the two beasts that bounded out of the underbrush. Wolves huh? They looked positively cute in comparison to my wolves. I directed an overwhelming amount of psi at their poor little minds. They didn’t take it that well. To them I must have suddenly seemed like a ferocious giant monster, because they instantly stopped getting closer, rolled over and displayed their stomachs in submission.
Leaving the now useless beastmaster for last, I rushed to the two others to the left. As soon as I entered the trees an arrow came flying at me. I caught it like the throwing knife, snapped it and then discarded it. Suddenly, I felt the now familiar pressure of magic power converging together as a spell and it was right between me and my targets. Right before I hit the location I jumped to the side and the ground I had been about to step on erupted upwards in a pillar. Earth magic? Another arrow diverted my focus and again I caught it and broke it. The archer wouldn’t have time to shoot another as I was already on top of them. She tried to pull out a dagger, but I was too close and I put her to sleep with a focused blast of psi. The mage tried to get off another spell but ultimately joined the archer before he could do so.
I picked up the two with my psi and returned to the road dumping them in the growing clump of their companions. The wolves were still lying in the same place, motionless. The knife thrower had finally gotten his hand free and him and the beastmaster were attempting to run. That won’t do at all! Escaping was definitely not allowed! A quick check told me that the four I had beaten weren’t in any shape to make an escape attempt themselves, so I darted after the other two. It didn’t take more than a minute for me to run them down and knock them out just like the others. The beastmaster turned out to be another girl. I dragged them along and dumped them in the pile of people.
Now that the short fight was over, it had only lasted a few minutes from start to finish. It was now time to amuse myself and give them their real punishment.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Oh, it looks like the lot was finally waking up after being out for half an hour. Rousing people out of unconsciousness was harder than knocking them out. On the other hand, I might have permanently damaged the wolves. They still haven’t moved a bit since earlier. Not my problem, it’s that beastmaster girl’s problem to solve later. “Hello, you idiots. It’s nice of you to finally get up. It would be smart of you to quickly realize your situation and not try anything stupid.”
They were looking at one another in shock. The archer girl and beastmaster girl quickly covered their chests and clamped their legs together. That’s right, I stripped all six of them while they were out. They are now naked as the day they were born. The men were stripped with my psi, while I used my hands for the girls. It was worth some extra enjoyment. Lynn called me a pervert though which I sadly couldn’t really refute. I had also taken some time to give some of them quick medical aid like the knife thrower’s hand for example. If they die from injuries, it removes the point of me sparing them.
The scum quickly tried to get up and yelled at me. “You bitch! Where’s our equipment!?”
I tossed out a quick kick to his gut, knocking him back on his ass. “Look dumbass. If you call me that again, it will be the last thing you do, understand?” He nodded carefully while holding his stomach. “Good, it seems you can learn after all. Now see, we could have avoided all this unpleasantness if you had just taken my warning, but you didn’t so I had to punish you all. I took the liberty of taking all your items and stuffing them in your very convenient bags of holding.” I held up the two bags that I had found while stripping them. “All your stuff is in these two bags. I’m not going to give these to you though.” They looked at me bewildered. “That’s right you will have to make your way back to town naked. You’re all just lucky I don’t have any rope on me or I would have hung you all from the trees here. This is pretty light as far as punishments go in my opinion. We’re only what five or ten kilometers at most away from the town here?”
Archer girl spoke up next. “What are you going to do with our equipment then?”
“Since I believe I was told the adventurer’s guild handles disputes between adventurers, I will be turning over the bags to them and explaining the situation in full.” Archer girl face went pale when I said that. No surprise really, they tried to rob and kill a fellow adventurer. They are lucky it only ended with this much.
“You can’t! If you do that, they’ll terminate our guild registrations. We’ll probably be fined, if not imprisoned or enslaved!” The mage guy said desperately.
“How is that my problem?” I asked. “You guys attacked me, not the other way around. Like I said before, I gave you a warning and you ignored it.” I decided to give them a bright smile. They flinched away from me, how rude! “I’ll make you a deal because I’m feeling extra kind today. I’ll talk to the guild master and recommend to her that this ends with just a fine. She’ll probably be ecstatic since it will be less work for her to handle. So you’ll get to stay as adventurers and you’ll get your gear back. You might have some trouble at the gate, but again that’s a problem you’ll have to solve.”
“You, you, you!” Scum finally regained his senses. “Don’t think this is over! I’ll get you back for this!”
“Do the rest of you also feel that way?” I glanced around and enquired of the others. They didn’t meet my eyes. “I see. Then let me just give you another warning.” Like I had done with the wolves earlier, I pressed in on all of their minds with a large amount of psi. Luckily, they were sapient so they didn’t have as extreme of a reaction. They still started shivering uncontrollably. “The next time you take action against me, it won’t end with just some humiliation. I will simply kill you. This is a promise from me to you. This also goes if I ever find out you were behind an action taken against me. Trust me, I will know if you were involved. Honestly! I was nice enough to spare you morons and you still want to have another go?” They all frantically shook their heads. “Great. Now, I’m going to head to town. You lot better hurry along as well.”
I left them to their own devices. I watched over their presences until they were out of detection range. The beastmaster girl had gone over and started taking care of her wolves. No surprise there. The wolves are really their only fighting force outside of their bare hands if something attacks them. I hope nothing does though. I mean if they die, then my warning will be totally wasted! Once they get back to town they’ll tell others and then those others will tell others and as a result no one should attack me again! Well, mostly no one. Some idiots can’t truly be helped, so I’m sure someone will still make an attempt. Like the scum back there. The rest of the party seemed to take heed of my warning, but he alone was still thinking stupid thoughts. I believe I’ll be seeing him again in the future.
The best part about this punishment was the looks on their faces when they realized they were naked and that they would have to get back to the town like that. Truly perfect looks of horror. Of course, I do realize that they could try to say I was the one that robbed them, but I’m counting on the guild master to know that is a lie. She was so perceptive about me after all.
The downside to this event is that my strength is now out in the open. I hadn’t really wanted to reveal it so soon, but at the same time it will be useful in some ways to have it known. I’m still kind of on the fence about it. I can’t ask Lynn about this either, since her opinion on anyone attacking me is always the death penalty. She says that it is an action that forfeits any right the individual in question has to life. She can be a bit extreme sometimes.
The good news at least, is that I only really showed off my physical capabilities and even that wasn’t anywhere near my actual limits. They wouldn’t have understood my psi, other than feeling it to be some kind of weird force, and will probably mistake it just for magic use. It also leaves all my tech still completely unknown! Which means I still have plenty of hidden cards to play. I also bet a number of people will still underestimate me anyway. Those guys other than the knife thrower weren’t anything great.
Getting through the gate was no problem, since it was late barely anyone was even in line. Once inside the town, I immediately went to the guild. Just like the previous night, the guild master was lounging at the counter and the guild was rowdy with adventurers drinking. I walked up to the counter and the guild master obviously recognized me, because she quickly put her head face down. I wasn’t sure if that reaction was a good or bad one.
“Hello, I’m here to report something.” I decided to take the initiative.
“What happened? You didn’t kill someone already did you?” Was her muffled reply.
“No, no. You told me not to kill any adventurers so I let them live. A group tried to rob me and then had the tables turned on them. I stripped them of their equipment and clothing and came to drop that off. They’ll probably be stuck at the gate for a while since I tossed their adventurer cards in these bags too.” I explained the situation.
“I knew when you walked in that it wasn’t going to be anything good. Less than a day as a member and you already just made a lot of extra work for me! I’m going to have to deal with deciding their punishments and probably will have to handle the paperwork to revoke their licenses. I might even have to have the guards come and imprison them.” It sounded like she was starting to cry. “Two days in a row I’m going to have to work late!”
“On that topic, I have a suggestion for you. Please only fine them. They didn’t hurt me and I feel like they’ve already received a good punishment and warning to behave in the future. I don’t think the situation deserves being escalated any further than that.” I stated.
The guild master finally looked up. She was indeed crying judging by the tears rolling down her cheeks. I never expected such an extreme reaction. She actually looked really cute like this. Stop Seri, stay focused. She’s already a mother too. Ahh, but that just means she’s also experienced. No, bad Seri, concentrate on the matter at hand. “Only fine them? If they attacked a fellow adventurer with intent to rob and possibly kill them, and I can tell you’re not lying, their punishment should equal -” She stopped and then nodded. “I see, you intend on their example dissuading any further attempts. If they were imprisoned as they would have been, there would be less knowledge of what happened spreading. Regardless I’ll agree, a fine is a lot easier to process. Just please the next time you show up, make it a time when I’m not here. I think you’re a magnet for paperwork.”
“That’s fine. I had one other thing I needed to handle. I was told the guild buys the fiend stones earlier. How many would I have to turn in for getting payment?” I asked.
“You visited the dungeon? That must have been child’s play for you.” Thankfully, I managed to stop myself from reacting. Yeah, child’s play, right. She continued, “We buy the small fiend stones in batches of 10 for 20 copper. That might seem cheap at first glance but they’re easy to collect and not really that valuable. If you killed any sub boss, that fiend stone would be 20 copper and the dungeon boss’ stone would be 5 silver.”
“I see. Then I’d like to turn in 120 small stones.” That still leaves me with about 30, not counting the boss stones, to play with later. I took out the stones from my pack and handed them across the table to the guild master. I received 2 silver and 40 copper coins in return. “Thanks. Oh yeah, almost forgot to give you these bags of holdings. The belongings of those adventurers are in here.” I passed those across too. She took them with a grimace. “I’m off to go get dinner and rest. Sorry about the trouble.” She waved her hand at me in a shooing motion like she had done to the guard the previous night. I found myself smiling in amusement, but didn’t say anything further.
I wondered how the maid would react when I got back to the inn. I mean, I did kind of send her off on a random errand just to get away from her today. At the same time though, I never told her I would be staying in the inn while she was gone, so she probably won’t be able to make any complaints. Since she’s working at that fancy inn, she should hopefully handle it like a professional.
Upon entering the inn, I didn’t bother to check in at the desk. I already had a room after all. I wanted to get cleaned up and then acquire food as soon as possible, so I strode straight upstairs to my room. Once I opened the door, I saw Myura standing there in the middle of the room waiting for me.
When she saw me, she immediately curtsied. “Welcome back, my lady.” She was professional and calm on the outside, but in her thoughts she was quite sulky. She was so upset that it was like I was hearing yelling, I wasn't even trying to listen to her thoughts. I would run off alone without her since I could have gotten hurt or worse, in her opinion, would be if someone had disrespected me! At the same time she was afraid of voicing these complaints because she didn’t want me to dismiss her from being my personal servant. I still haven’t figured out why she wants to serve me so much.
“I will be taking a bath and then would like to have supper. I would appreciate it if you assisted me.” I said to her. I felt like I was being a bit light on the lady mode, but I was tired so I want to be excused from that kind of hassle. I didn’t even get much sleep last night because of Seran! Why did I decide to spend today running around!? I should have spent the day in bed!
“With pleasure, my lady!” Myura replied with a bright smile. Now she’s happy that she gets to do her job again. I really don’t understand this girl. I suppose I’ll let her accompany me tomorrow. I’m just going to spend the day talking about magic with the witch girl. It’s very important that I acquire more knowledge on that subject as soon as possible. Witch girl might know of a way to speed up the growth of my mana pool too. I’ve noticed that it was still growing ever so slightly.
Those are thoughts to be considered tomorrow though. Right now I’m after a good bath, a good dinner, and a good night’s rest.
Also this poll is just for fun and has nothing to do with the story or any possible future events. It was just something that resulted from a random conversation Karami and I had a few days ago and I was curious how readers would respond.
Chapter 25
Let’s confirm my enemies. Other than the scum in front of me, there’s three presences in the woods to the left and three presences in the woods to the right. Two of the presences on the right don’t feel human though, they seem to be beasts. One of my enemies must be a beastmaster like myself then. Makes sense, if they take Coa from me or kill me, they would need to tame her temporarily I suppose, until they found a buyer for her.
Next there’s one other thing I need to confirm. “Excuse me, do you mind if I ask you a question?”
The scum looked at me like I was nuts. “Hah? What would you ask at a time like this? Just give up the dragon and you won’t get hurt. I already know you’re just a runaway noble playing at being an adventurer and a weak beastmaster without any beasts. So just do what I tell you or else.”
“Well, you see there is something important that I need to know. The question is, are you adventurers?” After all, I did make a promise not to kill other adventurers if I could help it. I don’t plan on killing them anyway though, unless they make some very, very poor decisions. There’s more amusing things I can do to them. It’s a shame that I don’t have any rope. I’m really regretting that right now.
“Course, I’m an adventurer. Now, are you going to hand over the dragon or not? I won’t be asking again.” the scum said.
I shook my head. “Nah, I don’t think I’ll do that. What I’ll do instead, is give you a warning. Right now, you haven’t taken action against me so I’m willing to forget that this encounter and your threats ever happened. Please take this out that I’m offering you or I guarantee you’ll regret it.” I know he’s not going to accept this warning. I think it’s important to at least give it though.
“You little bitch! You dare to threaten me?” the scum snarled at me. He drew his sword and started coming toward me. As he did, he waved the sword in a slightly odd way. All of a sudden, I felt a new presence from my right. Wow, I hadn’t even noticed whoever that was until now! What an amazing ability for hiding. A knife came lancing at me barely a moment later. Without even taking my eyes off the scum in front of me, my hand snatched the knife out of the air when it was barely ten centimeters away from my head. Still without taking my eyes from the man in front of me who was now frozen in shock, I sent the knife back from whence it came with a flick of my wrist, embedding it in the man’s throwing hand and pinning his hand against the tree he was standing by.
I spoke to the scum in from of me. “Well, come on already. Don’t just stand there with your mouth open. You and your party wanted to steal from me so prepare yourself to face the consequences.”
As he roused himself I felt the presences in the woods, other than the knife thrower that was busy trying to free himself from the tree, surge into action as well. One of the presences from the left jumped out swinging a large axe. I side stepped, dodging it and then sent a kick into the man’s side blowing him into a tree. He went down and didn’t look like he was getting back up any time soon. The scum finally rushed me with his sword stabbing at me. I side stepped again and with a quick grab and twist I had broken his wrist, causing him to scream in pain as he dropped the sword. I then swept out with my leg knocking him off balance, allowing me to easily throw him. I tossed him at the same tree as his companion and they ended up in a pile together.
Next enemies approaching were the two beasts from the right. The assumed beastmaster on the right was still hanging back though, so I’ll probably have to pursue them myself after I take care of the others. The people on the left were taking action too, but they seem to be ranged types as they weren’t getting closer. I momentarily turned my attention to the two beasts that bounded out of the underbrush. Wolves huh? They looked positively cute in comparison to my wolves. I directed an overwhelming amount of psi at their poor little minds. They didn’t take it that well. To them I must have suddenly seemed like a ferocious giant monster, because they instantly stopped getting closer, rolled over and displayed their stomachs in submission.
Leaving the now useless beastmaster for last, I rushed to the two others to the left. As soon as I entered the trees an arrow came flying at me. I caught it like the throwing knife, snapped it and then discarded it. Suddenly, I felt the now familiar pressure of magic power converging together as a spell and it was right between me and my targets. Right before I hit the location I jumped to the side and the ground I had been about to step on erupted upwards in a pillar. Earth magic? Another arrow diverted my focus and again I caught it and broke it. The archer wouldn’t have time to shoot another as I was already on top of them. She tried to pull out a dagger, but I was too close and I put her to sleep with a focused blast of psi. The mage tried to get off another spell but ultimately joined the archer before he could do so.
I picked up the two with my psi and returned to the road dumping them in the growing clump of their companions. The wolves were still lying in the same place, motionless. The knife thrower had finally gotten his hand free and him and the beastmaster were attempting to run. That won’t do at all! Escaping was definitely not allowed! A quick check told me that the four I had beaten weren’t in any shape to make an escape attempt themselves, so I darted after the other two. It didn’t take more than a minute for me to run them down and knock them out just like the others. The beastmaster turned out to be another girl. I dragged them along and dumped them in the pile of people.
Now that the short fight was over, it had only lasted a few minutes from start to finish. It was now time to amuse myself and give them their real punishment.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Oh, it looks like the lot was finally waking up after being out for half an hour. Rousing people out of unconsciousness was harder than knocking them out. On the other hand, I might have permanently damaged the wolves. They still haven’t moved a bit since earlier. Not my problem, it’s that beastmaster girl’s problem to solve later. “Hello, you idiots. It’s nice of you to finally get up. It would be smart of you to quickly realize your situation and not try anything stupid.”
They were looking at one another in shock. The archer girl and beastmaster girl quickly covered their chests and clamped their legs together. That’s right, I stripped all six of them while they were out. They are now naked as the day they were born. The men were stripped with my psi, while I used my hands for the girls. It was worth some extra enjoyment. Lynn called me a pervert though which I sadly couldn’t really refute. I had also taken some time to give some of them quick medical aid like the knife thrower’s hand for example. If they die from injuries, it removes the point of me sparing them.
The scum quickly tried to get up and yelled at me. “You bitch! Where’s our equipment!?”
I tossed out a quick kick to his gut, knocking him back on his ass. “Look dumbass. If you call me that again, it will be the last thing you do, understand?” He nodded carefully while holding his stomach. “Good, it seems you can learn after all. Now see, we could have avoided all this unpleasantness if you had just taken my warning, but you didn’t so I had to punish you all. I took the liberty of taking all your items and stuffing them in your very convenient bags of holding.” I held up the two bags that I had found while stripping them. “All your stuff is in these two bags. I’m not going to give these to you though.” They looked at me bewildered. “That’s right you will have to make your way back to town naked. You’re all just lucky I don’t have any rope on me or I would have hung you all from the trees here. This is pretty light as far as punishments go in my opinion. We’re only what five or ten kilometers at most away from the town here?”
Archer girl spoke up next. “What are you going to do with our equipment then?”
“Since I believe I was told the adventurer’s guild handles disputes between adventurers, I will be turning over the bags to them and explaining the situation in full.” Archer girl face went pale when I said that. No surprise really, they tried to rob and kill a fellow adventurer. They are lucky it only ended with this much.
“You can’t! If you do that, they’ll terminate our guild registrations. We’ll probably be fined, if not imprisoned or enslaved!” The mage guy said desperately.
“How is that my problem?” I asked. “You guys attacked me, not the other way around. Like I said before, I gave you a warning and you ignored it.” I decided to give them a bright smile. They flinched away from me, how rude! “I’ll make you a deal because I’m feeling extra kind today. I’ll talk to the guild master and recommend to her that this ends with just a fine. She’ll probably be ecstatic since it will be less work for her to handle. So you’ll get to stay as adventurers and you’ll get your gear back. You might have some trouble at the gate, but again that’s a problem you’ll have to solve.”
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
“You, you, you!” Scum finally regained his senses. “Don’t think this is over! I’ll get you back for this!”
“Do the rest of you also feel that way?” I glanced around and enquired of the others. They didn’t meet my eyes. “I see. Then let me just give you another warning.” Like I had done with the wolves earlier, I pressed in on all of their minds with a large amount of psi. Luckily, they were sapient so they didn’t have as extreme of a reaction. They still started shivering uncontrollably. “The next time you take action against me, it won’t end with just some humiliation. I will simply kill you. This is a promise from me to you. This also goes if I ever find out you were behind an action taken against me. Trust me, I will know if you were involved. Honestly! I was nice enough to spare you morons and you still want to have another go?” They all frantically shook their heads. “Great. Now, I’m going to head to town. You lot better hurry along as well.”
I left them to their own devices. I watched over their presences until they were out of detection range. The beastmaster girl had gone over and started taking care of her wolves. No surprise there. The wolves are really their only fighting force outside of their bare hands if something attacks them. I hope nothing does though. I mean if they die, then my warning will be totally wasted! Once they get back to town they’ll tell others and then those others will tell others and as a result no one should attack me again! Well, mostly no one. Some idiots can’t truly be helped, so I’m sure someone will still make an attempt. Like the scum back there. The rest of the party seemed to take heed of my warning, but he alone was still thinking stupid thoughts. I believe I’ll be seeing him again in the future.
The best part about this punishment was the looks on their faces when they realized they were naked and that they would have to get back to the town like that. Truly perfect looks of horror. Of course, I do realize that they could try to say I was the one that robbed them, but I’m counting on the guild master to know that is a lie. She was so perceptive about me after all.
The downside to this event is that my strength is now out in the open. I hadn’t really wanted to reveal it so soon, but at the same time it will be useful in some ways to have it known. I’m still kind of on the fence about it. I can’t ask Lynn about this either, since her opinion on anyone attacking me is always the death penalty. She says that it is an action that forfeits any right the individual in question has to life. She can be a bit extreme sometimes.
The good news at least, is that I only really showed off my physical capabilities and even that wasn’t anywhere near my actual limits. They wouldn’t have understood my psi, other than feeling it to be some kind of weird force, and will probably mistake it just for magic use. It also leaves all my tech still completely unknown! Which means I still have plenty of hidden cards to play. I also bet a number of people will still underestimate me anyway. Those guys other than the knife thrower weren’t anything great.
Getting through the gate was no problem, since it was late barely anyone was even in line. Once inside the town, I immediately went to the guild. Just like the previous night, the guild master was lounging at the counter and the guild was rowdy with adventurers drinking. I walked up to the counter and the guild master obviously recognized me, because she quickly put her head face down. I wasn’t sure if that reaction was a good or bad one.
“Hello, I’m here to report something.” I decided to take the initiative.
“What happened? You didn’t kill someone already did you?” Was her muffled reply.
“No, no. You told me not to kill any adventurers so I let them live. A group tried to rob me and then had the tables turned on them. I stripped them of their equipment and clothing and came to drop that off. They’ll probably be stuck at the gate for a while since I tossed their adventurer cards in these bags too.” I explained the situation.
“I knew when you walked in that it wasn’t going to be anything good. Less than a day as a member and you already just made a lot of extra work for me! I’m going to have to deal with deciding their punishments and probably will have to handle the paperwork to revoke their licenses. I might even have to have the guards come and imprison them.” It sounded like she was starting to cry. “Two days in a row I’m going to have to work late!”
“On that topic, I have a suggestion for you. Please only fine them. They didn’t hurt me and I feel like they’ve already received a good punishment and warning to behave in the future. I don’t think the situation deserves being escalated any further than that.” I stated.
The guild master finally looked up. She was indeed crying judging by the tears rolling down her cheeks. I never expected such an extreme reaction. She actually looked really cute like this. Stop Seri, stay focused. She’s already a mother too. Ahh, but that just means she’s also experienced. No, bad Seri, concentrate on the matter at hand. “Only fine them? If they attacked a fellow adventurer with intent to rob and possibly kill them, and I can tell you’re not lying, their punishment should equal -” She stopped and then nodded. “I see, you intend on their example dissuading any further attempts. If they were imprisoned as they would have been, there would be less knowledge of what happened spreading. Regardless I’ll agree, a fine is a lot easier to process. Just please the next time you show up, make it a time when I’m not here. I think you’re a magnet for paperwork.”
“That’s fine. I had one other thing I needed to handle. I was told the guild buys the fiend stones earlier. How many would I have to turn in for getting payment?” I asked.
“You visited the dungeon? That must have been child’s play for you.” Thankfully, I managed to stop myself from reacting. Yeah, child’s play, right. She continued, “We buy the small fiend stones in batches of 10 for 20 copper. That might seem cheap at first glance but they’re easy to collect and not really that valuable. If you killed any sub boss, that fiend stone would be 20 copper and the dungeon boss’ stone would be 5 silver.”
“I see. Then I’d like to turn in 120 small stones.” That still leaves me with about 30, not counting the boss stones, to play with later. I took out the stones from my pack and handed them across the table to the guild master. I received 2 silver and 40 copper coins in return. “Thanks. Oh yeah, almost forgot to give you these bags of holdings. The belongings of those adventurers are in here.” I passed those across too. She took them with a grimace. “I’m off to go get dinner and rest. Sorry about the trouble.” She waved her hand at me in a shooing motion like she had done to the guard the previous night. I found myself smiling in amusement, but didn’t say anything further.
I wondered how the maid would react when I got back to the inn. I mean, I did kind of send her off on a random errand just to get away from her today. At the same time though, I never told her I would be staying in the inn while she was gone, so she probably won’t be able to make any complaints. Since she’s working at that fancy inn, she should hopefully handle it like a professional.
Upon entering the inn, I didn’t bother to check in at the desk. I already had a room after all. I wanted to get cleaned up and then acquire food as soon as possible, so I strode straight upstairs to my room. Once I opened the door, I saw Myura standing there in the middle of the room waiting for me.
When she saw me, she immediately curtsied. “Welcome back, my lady.” She was professional and calm on the outside, but in her thoughts she was quite sulky. She was so upset that it was like I was hearing yelling, I wasn't even trying to listen to her thoughts. I would run off alone without her since I could have gotten hurt or worse, in her opinion, would be if someone had disrespected me! At the same time she was afraid of voicing these complaints because she didn’t want me to dismiss her from being my personal servant. I still haven’t figured out why she wants to serve me so much.
“I will be taking a bath and then would like to have supper. I would appreciate it if you assisted me.” I said to her. I felt like I was being a bit light on the lady mode, but I was tired so I want to be excused from that kind of hassle. I didn’t even get much sleep last night because of Seran! Why did I decide to spend today running around!? I should have spent the day in bed!
“With pleasure, my lady!” Myura replied with a bright smile. Now she’s happy that she gets to do her job again. I really don’t understand this girl. I suppose I’ll let her accompany me tomorrow. I’m just going to spend the day talking about magic with the witch girl. It’s very important that I acquire more knowledge on that subject as soon as possible. Witch girl might know of a way to speed up the growth of my mana pool too. I’ve noticed that it was still growing ever so slightly.
Those are thoughts to be considered tomorrow though. Right now I’m after a good bath, a good dinner, and a good night’s rest.
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