Chapter 151: Last Business – Part 2

Chapter 151: Last Business – Part 2

Since today is harvest day across the entire world, we have a veggie-heavy lunch. There's a not-spinach frittata that's to die for, and even Aoi likes it, probably because of the eggs. My favorite part of the meal is the crunchy bean pods, but the vegetarian fajitas come in at a close second.

Allura is the most hesitant about eating this exotic food, and she prefers the more meaty dishes or the ones with flour, like pies, but she still eats at least a serving of most of what's available, probably to be polite.

"Now that I think about it, don't you Verners have your own embassy?" I suddenly ask them.

"Of course, we do, but it isn't as big as this one or as comfortable," Léonne answers matter-of-factly.

"And it'd be harder to spend time with you," Allura blurts out, then flushes embarrassedly at her own answer.

"That, too," her mother agrees with a teasing smirk.

"Yeah, I'm fine with this," I hum back.

And fox mommy nods. "Of course, you are."

For the afternoon, we continue our combat training, but we don't immediately go heavy on it because we want to keep an eye on Yunia as she meets with the Thieves Guild.

We also tell the Verners what we're doing, and Léonne's response is...

"You could've just asked me for an introduction," she flippantly replies, sounding mildly offended. "We keep them on a tight leash around the Misty Low Forest, so I know the Council by name."

"I-I'm sorry, mother, we're not used to sharing information and asking for help," Alissa reflexively apologizes, surprising me with how averse she is to disappointing her mother. But then again, it shouldn't be surprising considering how far Alissa went as a Blood Slave to make her family proud.

And Roxanne immediately goes for some banter to lighten the mood, "Someone was simply too eager to extract information from our captives and then meet with a shady organization. It's almost like scheming is in her blood."

Yunia doesn't reply or even acknowledge the taunt, but her internal feelings say she's very annoyed... and a bit embarrassed.

Léonne seems to understand (and possibly even relate to Yunia) as the fox matriarch quickly calms down and starts to deliberate, "Individual meetings also have their advantages since the Council puts on masks whenever they meet, so I guess this shouldn't hurt."

And we simply nod along sheepishly in respect of our senpai from the Rupegian school of scheming.

Anyway, Yunia dons a shabby cloak to hide her stunningly beautiful elven features, and then she, Romy, Aneta, and Kyora take a [Gate] to an alley in the undercity.

Romy peeks out of the alley and remarks as she looks around, "Don't let anyone get close, Your Highness. I've seen thieves steal gems from armor after a mere bump."

Kyora grunts in agreement and adds, "They have a sneaky spell that's like [Manipulate Metal], but it instantly melts the armor around the gem, and they swipe it before you even feel the heat."

"How daring," Aneta hums as she adjusts Yunia's hood to make sure her face is well covered.

"We are in a shortage of enchanting gems, after all," Yunia remarks, wishing that Aneta wasn't wearing gauntlets so that she could kiss the hands of her diligent protector.

"Not for much longer, hopefully," the loyal silver elf brightly adds with a smile, then lowers the visor of her helmet and pulls up her hood.

"Hm," Yunia hums in agreement, and the other two bodyguards mirror Aneta.

The undercity/underside is the city under the surface, dug mostly by dwarves, but it still has a strong imperial flair. The area they're in is in the lower-class section, so it's a chaotic mess of roads, streets, and alleys that surround large apartment-like buildings that rise up to the ceiling.

It's kind of like Goloria in its design, but bad. At least the elven capital of the Eastern High Forest has maps and identifiable landmarks, but this part of Mac Gantus' underside has neither, and any long-range view is blocked by the tall buildings.

Luckily, the thieving duo we have captive know this place like the back of their hands, so they gave us clear instructions on how to reach the Prancing Little Ronti tavern.

Since it's a day of Fis, even the underside is filled with nature spirits, and a good number of the commoners that roam the streets are paying attention to the cute little plushies, but then the spirits start to stare at Yunia as she passes.

Gify suddenly pops out of existence, and a few seconds later, the spirits suddenly lose interest in the girls. Then my little griffin pops back onto my shoulder, looking quite proud of herself.

"Thanks," I hum and caress her back, right between her wings.

"Gih~..." she chirps back, her wings twitching in sync with my movements.

The underside doesn't look particularly dangerous... as long as you don't attract attention, like by being an obviously wealthy noble wearing incalculably expensive and heavily-enchanted armor, but we also can't have Yunia wear nothing, and that's why she needs to wear a cloak over her Bastión armor. Even going without a helmet is already risky since it leaves a very obvious weakness open for assassins to attack, but with [Precognition] and Kyora's presence, this much risk is acceptable.

The streets they walk along are fairly well illuminated, but the alleys aren't, though at least everything is very clean. The people aren't dirty either, as expected of most towns in the empire, and even though it's underground, the air feels fresh, so despite this area not being high-class, it isn't impoverished.

The Prancing Little Ronti tavern is a bit out of the way, though, and it has a rougher, adventurer-like crowd in spite of its name. The tavern is made out of cobble and decorated with dark wooden furniture, giving it a very rustic look, but the air is thick with the smell and smoke of cigars.

Sending four women might not have been the best choice as the overwhelmingly male patrons immediately notice the presence of female prey. Even with them hidden under a full set of plate armor, some men just have a radar for hot women.

Romy and Aneta immediately pull back their hoods, showing that they're fully armored, then open their cloaks to display the swords at their waists. They're wearing standard steel equipment, not the eye-catching elven wood stuff, but it's enough to stop most of the lecherous gazes. Then Kyora takes off her helmet, and her face and size convince the rest to mind their own businesses.

The four sit down and flag the imperial mommy waitress, who's smoking a type of cigarette. I wish I went with them because she's kind of hot and her experienced air makes me think it'd be nice to flirt with her.

"Harriet recommended this place to us. She said for us to take a private room and a bottle of Red Pilfer," Romy immediately requests.

The waitress remains silent for a couple of seconds as she puffs her cigarette, staring intently at Yunia's cloaked face, then hums back, "Follow me."

This is so corny that I'm almost cringing, but it also seems kind of fun to act shady.

She takes them to the third floor of the tavern, which is merely a set of corridors that lead to many rooms. Then she stops in front of a nondescript door and knocks.

"Poiopo, visitors from Harriet," she dryly announces.

"Let them in," a male voice immediately grunts back.

The waitress nods at our group and then simply walks away.

Romy shrugs as everyone looks at each other, and Yunia silently nods, so the Asian woman promptly opens the door. On the other side, they see a stuffy, carpeted office, also thick with the smell of cigars and smoke, where a scrawny imperial wererabbit man is working at his desk, and behind him, three fully armored dragonkin muscle-brains stand guard.

"Harriet, huh? I assume you're the Ryders?" Poiopo asks in an aloof tone with his long cinnamon ears flopped onto his shoulders and his dark eyes trained on them.

Our group enters the office, which would be quite the comfy place if not for the smell, and Yunia pulls down her cloak. "Yes, we are."

"Gods. Even your gait is that of a pisser," he grunts with a sigh and starts turning over the many sheets of paper, parchment, papyrus, and other unknown materials that cover his dark wood desk so that we can't read them.

I meditate as I imagine my current self becoming human in body only, merely what I'd look like if I weren't a weredragon, but it can't be something new. It has to be what I already am. These hands that I make with [Mana Body] aren't truly my real human hands. They're something that I made.

Aoi didn't choose her human body, so I don't think I should choose mine, either. I just have to "bring it out." Unlike a dragonkin, which is a race on its own, a weredragon is a fusion of two races, so I should have a completely human body hidden within the "fused" one.

This is just me going wild with my theories, but it does make sense, and it feels like a good mindset to have as I try to create this racial skill. I do feel that my humanoidization with [Mana Body] is becoming easier the more I meditate, so I think I'm at least doing something right.

Alissa continues her training with [Dream Veil], and she's managed to create puffy iridescent clouds that stick to her face like a beard. And so, Rainbow Santa Alissa is born.

The curious thing about [Dream Veil] is that it's completely invisible on one side, so it's used as a perfect camouflage or disguise. We do also have a ghillie suit (that we stole from a Dawn of Fire spy) enchanted with a curious camouflaging spell, so I take it out for Alissa to study.

Roxanne actually manages to cast [Annihilation], making it appear in her "Magic" tab with the (weak) suffix, though it's just a cute little light, so it has no practical use as she lacks both enough levels in [Space Magic] and the "Magic Power" to use it properly. Even so, she focuses on adding the spell to her [Explosion] to see how much it can improve its firepower.

Hana continues to neglect her [Illusion Magic] training in favor of [Draconic Body] since the skill has more practical use than the magic school. She also meditates while practicing the skill like I am, but in her case, she imagines what it would be like to "evolve" and become a stronger version of herself.

Ciel plays around with [Redirect Mana], curious about how she could use the Chimeric high-capacity mana storage gems to boost spells to ridiculous levels. It works through the same principle as the gems of staves: similar mana has a positive feedback loop, boosting the power of spells. But there's a point at which the spell becomes unstable, and she wants to find the point where efficiency starts to drop.

Lina and Aoi spar with magic only. Lina wants to increase her [Earth Wall] speed while Aoi uses her as target practice for her water ball control. They destroy the training courtyard with their spells, turning it into a muddy wasteland, but that's what the training yard was made for, and the embassy employees will restore it after they're done.

Yunia practices [Spirit Magic] so that she can use it more reliably. Her [Soul Blade] is the ultimate dueling weapon, but it's expensive to use and takes a while to chant since she still doesn't have enough levels in it to instant-cast the spell, but she'll get there eventually.

Announcement

Hall of Fame of Patrons

The patrons who support Rupegia shall have their names sung by the bards for they deserve the glory and honor. Their names are:

Prince PreownedFIN.

Prince Owldente.

Lord Andrew Meyers.

Lord Novgarod.

Lord Michale Erwin.

Lord Bakerdea.

Lord Maurice.

Lord Mattirro Draca.

Lord Mike Bartter.

Lord Warwulfv.

Lord Tenebris Lupus.

Lord Paul Daval.

Lord Paul Daval.

Lord Tmac.

Lord CopeyDunt.

Lord BlindTactic.

Lord litalmexy.

Lord Philip.

Lord d3235.

Lord William Clark.

Lord Ddraig Wynn.

Lord CardinalSteiner.

Lord Cidant.

Lord SubJef.

Lord GalacticTNT.

Lord SquiddlyWinks.

Lord Max Goodwin.

Lord Freddie.

Lord Placid.

Noble Salty Panda.

Noble Mild Fracas.

Noble Aclys.

Noble Carl Baxter.

Noble Tony Starrk.

Noble DND.

Noble Asaadullah Lassiter.