Chapter 8: Musketeer

We soon arrive on the main floor of the inn, still somewhat giggling about Hilda’s predicament when we see Nikki sitting at the bar sipping from a glass of water.

“I heard from my little sis that you got to Hilda.” Élise snickers

“Hey, you told me she was free game!”

“Yep and you did a great job.”

“Thanks, she was teasing Amicia yesterday so I wanted to pay that back a little.” Nikki giggles.

“Oh, you didn’t have to do that for me.” I blush

“Don’t worry about that Amicia, we both enjoyed it.” She winks.

“Nikki, if you tease my little sister I might have to do some payback of my own.” Élise smiles.

“I’m already looking forward to it.” Nikki gets of her seat to give Élise a good morning kiss.

“Good morning, sweetie.” My sister embraces her girlfriend and lifts her a bit above the ground.

“Good morning to you too, Lise.” 

“Geez, get a room already,” I laugh.

“Nah, it’s too early for that kind of thing. Besides, we need the energy to do some fighting today.” Her comment makes me blush a bit more.

Élise puts down Nikki and heads towards a table. “We should probably eat something before we head out.”

“Ye, I’d definitely like some porridge. Oh, and milk!” I scream out, my mouth’s already watering in expectation.

“Haha, that was to be expected.” Élise runs her hand through my hair. “Watch out though, they serve their meals really hot here, and I don’t want the kitten to burn her tongue.”

I stick my tongue out as I sit down with Nikki, Élise heading back to the bar to order our food and drinks. 

A few moments pass before Nikki speaks to me.

“Hey Amicia, you don’t mind me being this touchy with your sister right?”

“Of course not!” I say, a bit taken aback by the sudden question “Why would I? I love both of you, and I think you two fit super well as a couple.” I smile.

“Thanks, we never really spoke much before so I just wanted to make sure.” She pats my head.

“Gee, don’t worry about it!” I laugh. “Also, why does everyone keeps patting my head, my hair is going to get all frizzy!” 

“Didn’t you hear? Everyone likes petting catgirls, it must be the ears. Don’t you like it?”

I pout. “It’s not like I dislike it or anything... it’s just... everyone I meet does it…”

“That’s because we all love you, silly; we want to make you comfortable.”

“I guess...thanks…”

“Is this better?” She moves her hand behind my ear and starts giving me ear scratches.

Oh Goddess. This heavenly feeling...

“I...I…”

“You like that, don’t you? That little tsundere act disappeared real fast.” She winks.

I try to speak but find I’m almost completely unable to do so.

Luckily Élise arrives at the table with the food before I completely get entranced by Nikki’s scratching.

“Hey Lise, so I just found out your little sis here likes getting the scratchies behind her little ears.”

“Oh, does she now?” she smirks and places down my plate in front of my bright red face.

“W-w-w-when is Hilda coming back?” I stammer, trying to change the subject. 

“Shouldn’t take that much longer, this city isn’t that huge and I heard her niece was in this half of the city center already.” Nikki replied.

“And Hilda is not someone who just dilly dallies around.” Élise ads.

“I kinda noticed that when traveling with her from Cagogonte.”

“Do I hear people gossiping about me?” Hilda suddenly appears at my shoulder.

“U-uhm, n-no. I was just asking when you were coming back…” My heart beats in my throat.

“I see,” she smirks. “Anyway, I got someone to introduce.”

We all look around but we can’t see anyone.

“Are you sure you aren’t imagining things Hilda?”

“Hush kitten, hush.” She motions behind her back ”You can stop hiding behind me now, Ember; these are my friends.”

A tiny girl with bright red hair and a brown musketeer’s hat pokes out from behind Hilda.

“She’s a little bit shy.”

“You are Ember, right?” Élise puts up her usual friendly smile “I’m Élise and this is my girlfriend Nikki, we are colleagues of your aunt.” Then she points to me. “And this cute catgirl over here is Amicia; she’s my sister.” 

“Hey Ember.” I try to put on the same smile as my sister.

“H-hello…” She steps completely steps out from behind Hilda revealing her very short size.

“Give me a sec, I’m going to get some drinks for us.” Hilda removes herself from the conversation, making Ember even more nervous.

“Oh my, you are tiny!” Nikki exclaims.

“D-don’t laugh... I wanted to play a small character for once but I didn’t realize how inconvenient that would be…” She pouts. “I even had to modify my blunderbuss so it wouldn’t be so cumbersome for me...”

Her blunderbuss with a shortened barrel and stock is clumsily flung over her shoulder.

“Oh, so you’re a musketeer then?” I ask tentatively.

“Ye! I really didn’t want to be playing a melee character, or a mage. So I went for this instead!”

“What about an archer?”

“Bows are a bit too long for me. Can you imagine me pulling a longbow?”

I picture it in my head and it would indeed look comical, a typical longbow would even be longer than my new self.

I snort. 

“Yes, exactly, you can make pretty small guns that still work though. So that’s why I picked it.”

“By the way Ember, how old are you if I might ask?” Élise jumps in.

“Uh…I’m actually 22.” Ember starts to blush.

“You’re the same age as me!” I exclaim.

“Oh, really? That’s cool!” 

“Haha, I see you two are already getting along, that’s great.” Hilda smiles getting back with the drinks. “Anyway, let’s do some fighting after we’re done here. Teach the newbies how work in a party.” She winks to both me and Ember.

As it was said, so it is done. After the food and drinks we pack our stuff together and head for the western city gate.

“Don’t forget to attune yourself to the teleportation stone in the market square. It just takes a second and makes it so you can teleport here from basically anywhere.” Hilda explains when we near the center of the city.

“Can we teleport all the time or is there a cooldown or something?” Ember asks, struggling to keep up with her short legs.

“Good question, young Padawan. There is a 1-hour cooldown but you generally don’t need it that much.”

“Padawan?” I ask.

“It’s from this old sci-fi movie from like a century ago.”

“Wait Amicia, you haven’t seen Galaxy Conflicts?” Ember says with a surprised look on her face.

“No, my parents really don’t allow me to watch or listen to media that much…”

“Our parents are straight up arseholes.” Élise ads.

“Oh, I’m sorry…” Ember looks down at her feet.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll go rescue my sister from them soon.” My sis catches up to Ember and gives her a pat on the head. 

“That’s good to hear.” She looks up at Élise who scoops her up from her feet without any issue. “What are you doing, you crazy paladin?!”

“Just making sure you don’t tire out before getting to the fight. I have enough invested in strength and stamina, I can carry you all day if I want to.”

My sister is such a flirt. 

“I-I’ll allow it for now...” 

As Hilda said, it doesn’t take long to attune to the teleportation stone at all. You basically just have to raise your hand at it and say a small incantation. Since it was my first time doing so however, I did get the teleportation skill too.

“Anyway, let’s set out now, it shouldn’t take very long before we can get in some combat after we leave the city.” Our glorious leader Hilda proclaims, still tugging a bit at her scarf.

It makes me giggle.

“What are you laughing about kitten. Just wait until she gets a hold of you…”

My face goes bright red.

“Ye, that’s what I thought.” Hilda smirks and leads us further towards the western gate.

Before we manage to reach it a guard runs up to our party, clearly in panic.

“Quickly! Come and help at the western gate! A goblin warband is approaching fast!”

“What?! This close to the capital?!” Hilda replies.

“Yes, we don’t get it either, but some scouts just came back and one of them had goblin arrows stuck in his chainmail.”

“What about the army?”

“Some of the royal guard is here but most of the army is at the Vinilian border.”

“Crap, that’s not good.” Élise ads.

“Why?” I ask.

“Well, a goblin warband is a pretty big host. While a goblin on it’s own is less dangerous than most wildlife, when they come in groups this big…”

I gulp. “How big?”

“Typically between 700 and 1000…”

“Shit…”

“Exactly, and this territory is seen as a beginner zone, plus the game is still in pre-release so not that many people are in the game yet. We do have this one guild of alpha test players in this city, specifically to help the flood of new players that’ll soon arrive. Me, Nikki and Hilda are part of it too.”

“Yep, I’ve already sent a message to Crystal. But we should go to the gate to stem the flow before they arrive. If they get inside of the walls it will be a massacre...” Hilda already starts running ahead towards the gate.

“Why’s Hilda so hasty?” I say while we all pick up the pace.

“Well, for us it wouldn’t be as big of an issue because we can respawn... but the NPC’s...they can’t…”

“…” My eyes go wide with realization.

“Everything that happens to this world ... is permanent.”