Book 3: Chapter 42: Frog and Letter's Completion

"Welcome back!" Soph greeted Lone.She was sitting on a bench in the centre of their pavilion's lake while cuddling Kyuubi. She was also experimenting with her barriers, namely, small ones no bigger than an inch that she was spinning on the top of her index finger. Lone smiled at her, thinking the sight was adorable.

"Thanks. Anything interesting happen while I was out?" he asked as he carefully picked up Kyuubi's lower half and sat underneath her. The wolf-sized fox didn't resist or seem to care at all since, of course, she was sleeping.

Soph snuggled up to him and grabbed a few of his tails. "Nah. I'm not making much progress on smaller barriers right now so I think I'm gonna pivot into focusing on getting a new use out of Body Manipulation. What about you?"

"While it came earlier than we had planned, the negotiations went well. Well, besides Rodorick constantly mumbled that I was surely going to kill him, and Rinrin threw a tantrum when her finger was pricked for her blood. But yeah, all in all, Operation Merchant Overlords is a-go. Or at least, attempt number one is," Lone replied.

He was hoping only one attempt would be needed since he had a decent amount of Luck, and Soph's own Luck would surely influence the wolfkin family's chances at success too, but still, long term plans for more avenues to enter the merchant world would be made in case they were needed.

"That's good news!" Soph beamed. "Wanna help me work on Body Manipulation? Got a particular skill you want to work on levelling for the rest of the day?"

"Art Mastery. It's a parent skill, but maybe I can get it to intermediate if I paint my lovely girlfriend while giving her a hand. I hope to unlock Painting Mastery too," Lone replied.

"Ohhh sounds fun! You're not allowed to just paint me and immediately store the pictures, by the way! I never get to see your sketches of me," Soph pouted.

Lone smiled awkwardly. "They're not good enough. Bet my paintings will be shit too, but sure... if you insist, you can see. Let's get to it then. oh, by the way, we're going to visit Grimsley and Shana tomorrow, and then go to Golden Pass City. I want to fight an X-ranker. Guildmaster Brux is likely willing if the prince isn't in town."

"Okay," Soph agreed then clambered up off of her seat, being careful not to drop Kyuubi.

Lone helped her as he got up as well. He used Creation Magic to whip up a fairly decorative and sturdy easel alongside a whole array of paints and brushes. "Fair warning, if your painting ends up looking more like a potato than an amazingly beautiful Russian princess, then don't get upset at me. Get upset at yourself for insisting on looking at it."

"Stop laughing," Lone said to Sophie coldly.

Soph had taken one look at his first ever painting and smiled awkwardly before Sophie had forced her way into control only to full on belly laugh in his face.

"I-If that is... haha.. If that is how you see us... then... hah... then we are thankful you like us at all, let alone love us!" Sophie cackled.

"Look, Art Mastery is only beginner ranked. It and my experience with Drawing Mastery can only help so much. You keep laughing like that and I'll make a concentrated effort to mass-produce and sell this thing across the entire continent," Lone threatened.

"No, no, it is... haha... we understand but by the gods is it hideous. We love it. Give it here," Sophie demanded, one hand holding her belly, the other reaching out for the painting.

Lone frowned but did hand over the piece to her. "Don't destroy it."

"We would never. Unsummon and resummon us. We wish to cherish it for its... heh... charms. It is your first painting, and we can use it to remind Soph how our beauty is not a curse, for looking like this would truly be a horrid existence indeed," Sophie explained, brutally insulting Lone's painting at the same time.

He sighed. "Let me frame and sign it at least. Give it some value, if nothing else..."

Lone signed the back of the painting with an 'L Immortus' in cursive before closed his eyes, focusing, and expended a decent chunk of MP to create a solid gold frame around the shitty painting with a magic-infused glass pane for good measure. That almost drained him dry of MP.

Lone handed it to Sophie who quickly held in it both hands. "Heavy."

"Yeah, gold tends to be that. Unsummon Sofia Vladimirovich," he replied.

Now that he had a moment of silence free from his lover's incessant laughter, he went over his short but informative notification log.

The host has developed the passive skill: Painting Mastery.

Passive skill: Painting Mastery

Cost: Mastery:

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Art Mastery] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 7.

He sighed. "No direct improvement to my painting ability unlike Drawing Mastery with drawing... Summon Sofia Vladimirovich."

The short gorgeous woman appeared, no longer laughing but still smiling from ear-to-ear in glee. "You have no idea how much we will cherish that painting."

"I'm sure. Now, I want to try again but use Drawing Mastery to make an outline that I will then paint. Be a good model and sit on the water with a barrier under you to make the illusion you're floating atop it," Lone ordered as he waved his paintbrush in Sophie's direction.

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"Soph can do that. We have had our fun," Sophie shrugged. S~ᴇaʀᴄh the NʘvᴇlFɪre.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

"Stop shifting to your kid and teen forms! Try to change the length of your arm or something. I'm struggling to draw your outline here!" Lone exclaimed in frustration to Soph.

She turned to look at him in her child form and smiled sheepishly. "I'm just getting the feel of the skill. I rarely use it outside of training like this. Won't change again, I promise!"

Lone shook his head but smiled. This peaceful moment was nice.

The peaceful moment was utterly ruined when a red frog the size of a housecat erupted out of the water, startling Soph, before it landed on the top of Lone's easel. Its webbed feet ruined the parts of the still-wet paint completely.

It didn't seem to care as it croaked and then jumped on Lone's head before escaping back into the lake.

"That was the G-ranker spirit, wasn't it?" Lone asked Soph.

From the lake's surface she nodded at him. "Uh, yeah. Think it wanted to say hi?"

"It's a rude fucker if so. Next time it does that, I'm grabbing it and giving it a good squeeze. Can't kill or hurt it, but no rules against making it uncomfortable if it won't be a friendly neighbour," Lone grumbled.

"It has a lot of emotions. It seemed happy to see you, so I think it was being friendly," Soph said. "I dunno why, but it's pretty easy for me to see the emotions in the mana of spirit animals. Like the big floofy fox. As soon as it saw you, it has every intention to just let its dungeon auto-clear."

"It wasn't your love of all things cuddly and soft that did that? And what, I attract spirit animals or something? I have a hidden quality that makes them like me instantly? Even dead ones like Eltoro?" Lone asked, scepticism oozing out of him. "You'd think I'd get a passive for that if so."

"Maybe it's just your charm. Sophie is saying that's usually quite hard to resist when you don't open your mouth. Um, her words, not mine," Soph replied. "I think you're plenty charming when you speak too, even if I don't understand what you're talking about half the time. That, uh, happens a lot. maybe it's more than half."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Now stop talking about my charms and get back into position before I decide to give that frog a real show to watch," Lone said.

Soph blushed and did as she was told.

"Gonna have to restart the damn thing now. Don't want to patch up the bits it ruined... Ha-ah..." he sighed softly.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Drawing Mastery] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 10.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Painting Mastery] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 2.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Painting Mastery] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 3.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Painting Mastery] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 4.

Lone marvelled at his creation. It wasn't a masterpiece by any means but it was... special. Soph's innocent beauty was on full display as she sat upon the water, staring longingly at the setting sun, her head on her hands as they rested atop one knee, the other leg being fully extended in front of her.

As in real life, the painting version of Soph was wearing a pair of adventurer shorts and a white button-up shirt with only the very top button undone. Her feet were bare and her long golden hair flowed behind her back, threatening to be submerged into the water though it didn't as if she were as fairy beloved by the waters. The lake, seemingly too afraid to spoil this serene moment by disturbing her, was silent.

Now the painting needed a name. It wasn't exactly right, but it felt appropriate to Lone and came to him in that moment like it belonged. "Lady of The Lake."

Lone wondered, perhaps fleetingly, if this moment in time would contribute to his Historical and Cultural Appreciation skill were he to become renowned across the continent as a master-class painter. He didn't know, but he liked to think it would given how powerfully this was all resonating with him.

"I felt something!" Soph exclaiming, hopping up from her seated position on her barrier. She bounced around on the spot in excitement as she continued, "Lone! I felt my pinkie move like it wanted to grow!"

Lone didn't reply immediately. He returned his attention to his painting and very carefully caressed the side of the canvas. "I'll treasure you and this moment for the rest of life. For eternity, if all goes to plan."

He gently picked it up, turned it around, signed it, and then stored it within his Dimensional Storage - the safest possible location for such a valuable memory. He planned to carve a wooden frame from scratch for it. Lone even wanted to learn how to make glass himself so the entire frame would be free from Creation Magic.

With that done, he used Ungrounded to swiftly join Soph on her barrier. He hugged the love of his life and kissed the top of her head. "That's great! Can you do it again? Show me."

"Y-Yeah! I think I can. Come on, little pinkie, wiggle for me!" Soph replied as she scrunched up her face in concentration, the digit in question mere millimetres from her eye.

Resisting the urge to sigh in exhaustion, the queen of Milindo, Aileen Heidron, looked to the man employed by The Adventurer's Guild in hope. "Was that the last matter of court for today, Advisor Rhom?"

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Ruling Mastery] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 3.

She was surprising and very pleased by the level up, but she didn't show it on her face. The queen was too invested in her work being done for the day to celebrate the skill improvement.

The man nodded. He focused his attention towards the other nobles and persons of state that were present before saying, "Court is adjourned for the day."

He and the queen alike received bows in appreciation and acknowledgment. Before long, the room was empty save for the young queen and her advisor.

"We have finished writing the letter for Lone Immortus this morning," Aileen said, not forgetting to use royal speech, just as he so often liked to drill into her head.

"Ah, excellent. May I read it? I trust you to not upset such a powerful person, but a second opinion can rarely go amiss in such a unique circumstance," Advisor Rhom requested.

"Of course. It is why we brought the matter up. We would like you to offer your insights and if all is well, to send it through the guild," Aileen said as she waved her hand, resulting in the letter emerging from the gem of her royal signet ring.

Using her gloved hand, she passed the letter she had spent weeks thinking on and writing to her guild-assigned advisor.

He thanked her and read it carefully. "Ah, very polite but not enough so to diminish your new role. Very good. The offered rewards are lacking if what I know of his assets to be true, but it is the thought that matters. These are no small boons given our situation. An offer to spectate the upcoming hero summoning? That might be very appealing to one such as he. And of course, freely giving all we know of his tormentor is to be expected of us."

Aileen felt her heart pounding in her chest. He was saying good things about her letter, but this was usually where he tore down her ideas with good reason and made her feel like a foolish and inexperienced child.

"You have put a lot of work into this, and it shows. There is emotion here. I'll make arrangements for this to be sent immediately. I expect it to arrive within a few days. He is in the Crimson Foxkin Clan now, so a delay is expected. It is a shame he didn't stay in Golden Pass City," Advisor Rhom stated.

"What? You... You think it's okay? On the first try?" Aileen was, of course, baffled.

"Your Majesty," Advisor Rhom said like a father amused by his child, "you spent weeks on this. I would be incredibly disappointed if the ruler of a nation, young as she may be, could not appropriately apologise and invite one individual via letter with so much time to prepare."

"R-Right... of course..." Aileen muttered.

"Your Majesty," he addressed.

"Yes?" she replied.

"Do not stutter and do not speak under your breath. It is unbecoming of a queen to do so," he chastised.

Aileen commented internally. "Of course. Ah, we did level Ruling Mastery today."

"Excellent. Only eight more levels before you will be rid of me," Advisor Rhom said seriously though she knew he was teasing her.

Still, he had approved the letter. Now all that was left to do was wait anxiously for Lone Immortus's response or, Primals forbid, his arrival. She had no idea how she would hold up emotionally to a man her father had so grievously wronged, and doubly so to the man who had killed that very same father in revenge.