The lunch is finished and we move outside to the backyard. We sit on a porch surrounded by flowers, a few sofas for the girls while me, Lyle, and Horvath sit around the tea table, Werner stayed inside. There’s a pool with clear water and a few fountains in front of us. Deeper in the yard there’s a raised tile platform with multiple lightning rods, should be where they train magic.

Horvath glances to me with the side of his eye and asks, "Ever been to the capital, Mr. Ryder?"

"I haven’t," I say, "I would like to pass by one day, the Hyper Loop and the Throne of Ascension sounds like an incredible sight."

"You should see the Bay of Three Kings in the morning, the morning mist dissipating is quite the sight," he gives me a toothy smile.

"I will believe you," I calmly say and take another sip.

"You would do well to keep away from the supremacists. They have some bad habits towards women of certain races."

"We are quite united, I believe we can handle it. But I would prefer to know who belongs to that side, I’m not that knowledgeable about politics."

"Really?" He turns his head to me and raises an eyebrow, "Supremacists are everywhere. Haven’t you met any yet?"

"I come from a very quiet place, not much politics there," I smile wryly.

"I would like to visit that place one day," he turns back forward, "We left the Capital to keep away from the politics, a place as idyllic as you say sounds like paradise."

"It was…"

"Why don’t you return?" He glances at me.

"My life is here now. I take the good with the bad."

"A free soul through and through," he says and I smile wryly. "Where are you planning to go to?"

"The birthplaces of my wives."

"Bring some protection when you reach Mountainhome," he twirls his mustache, "The refugees from Aremut are filling their towns and some places have become quite bad."

"I see, makes sense."

He spends a few seconds looking at me with what could be believed to be a warm smile. His mustache really makes him look like villain.

"The demon race outside their Holy territories are also prodding each other. Skirmishes will start again."

"There’s no need for us to go so deep. We will simply go to Mashoor and then Xane."

"I see..." He quietens and we continue our tea without much more talking. The girls are more noisy, Helena loves talking about desserts and the golems are putting up their usual show.

Lina comes to the table and they start talking about the translated dragonoid books. Mostly about etymology. I see that Lyle really is a little tense near his father.

Dusk starts to show and we decide to leave. They give us a warm goodbye and Sebastian escorts us out.

Ciel drives the dinghy since Roxanne drunk a little and I want to be safe.

"More pleasant than I imagined," Ciel says.

"The grandfather was a little annoying," Roxanne says with a slight frown. "I don’t really want to divulge all of my secrets."

"It must irk him seeing a mage like you roaming around without belonging to somewhere more important," Hana says. "I have seen plenty of noble mages like that, quite patronizing."

"I understand," Alissa says. "Wolfy doesn’t have much of a presence so they must think we are wasting our power."

"If only they knew," I say and massage my temple. "I feel like Horvath was prodding me."

"Anyone who investigates will know you don’t have a background," Lina says, "Nobles don’t like mysteries."

I feel emotionally exhausted, too much socialization for my taste.

-

Today is the 12th.

-

"Tonight is party time!" Hana drums her hands on the table.

"Gih!"

"I will buy the ingredients," Alissa says.

"I will go with you, I want to take a walk," I say.

"Kweh! Walk, me, too!"

"I’ll go with you and spend the morning at the training grounds," Hana says.

"Let’s deliver some laundry on the way," Alissa says.

I store in my "Items" a large basket filled with mostly bed sheets.

The washer is a few blocks away so we walk there. The shop interior is decorate entirely with pure white and completely clean tiles, there's a few chairs for people to wait and a heavy stone counter that is waxed and shining. An old woman with white hair and a kind, wrinkly smile is on the counter.

"Ah, Alissa," she says and smiles as we approach.

"Morning, Vosha. A large basket as usual."

-

Alissa puts the coin on the counter, Vosha takes the money and carries the basket away.

"I somewhat pity that woman," Hana says.

"She likely has other people help clean," Alissa says.

"Still…"

I drive us to the hunter's guild to drop off Hana there. I decide to enter and take a look at the requests.

The bounty on harpies increased again. The amount of Dragolite attacks decreased, this means there's some strong monster in the skies of the Sea of Trees controlling air traffic, likely the Cooka-thing.

I look around and feel something is different. The atmosphere is much more… Friendlier. There was always a hostile gaze or two, specially after I started to gain fame, but now I feel the gazes are cordial, even.

Could this be due to Darean's influence? Now that he's gone his minions among the adventurers might have dispersed and not want to mess with me anymore since they don't have support. Helios is position 3 on the city defense, that's the only real strength ranking available and it puts us among top 10. Not that many people would be brave to mess with us now.

I turn back and continue reading. There's reports of Grim Giants on The Smirk, threat level 6, you should simply turn around and run if you ever meet one. Grim Giants are skinny old men around 10 meters tall, they walk in all fours and have some very resilient skin. You need a dedicated squad to take them down, even us would have trouble dealing with them.

Orcs are making a resurgence, could be that a new Orc Lord has spawned.

Alissa waves to Carmen and she sends us a kiss.

"Excuse me, Mr. Ryder?" A male voice calls out.

I turn around and see a pair of tall brown-haired young men with well maintained stubble's, olive skin, and well-made padded red monster leather armor.

"Yes?"

"I am Mellissus and this is Nectarios, my brother," says one of the duo, a handsome smile on his face. He has a more chiseled face, while his brother is more on the pretty boy side. Their hair looks scruffy but not too much, like it's deliberate scruffy. "We are from the mercenary company Katasko. Have you ever heard of us? We are the biggest escort on the eastern Mainland, our influence even extends well past Goldcross."

"No I haven't," I say, my frown slowly growing alongside Alissa's.

"We would like to invite the fellowship Helios into our company," says Nectarios with a perfect white smile that gives me shivers, "We could certainly negotiate quite a beneficial contract for such a powerful group of people. If anything, our other contractors are known among the elite."

"Thanks for the offer but we are not interested," I say, forcing myself to keep polite.

I motion to turn back but Nectarios lifts his hand to catch our attention.

"Please, Mr. Ryder, I'm sure we could have a conversation to find some middle-ground," he smiles again.

What middle-ground?

"Not interested," I repeat, flatly.

"There are many benefits from joining us, our company is a favorite among nobility. It would certainly be an introduction into higher society for someone as talented as you," Mellissus says, slightly bowing.

I stare at him, forcing myself to suppress a groan. Alissa's tail stands upright beside me. Even Aoi and Gify glare at the pair of obnoxiously handsome men.

"Our beneficiaries regularly search among our elite for candidates for knighthood. Plenty of royalty from the Capital belong to those who turn to us for talent," Nectarios says, his smile unflinching.

"Many of our elites retire early and open their own business due to the amount of money they receive. You could certainly create a prestigious lineage by working with us," Mellissus says.

"Listen," I give them a phony smile, "I am not interested."

To follow up, Aoi's nostrils flare and glow, she huffs a large cloud of smoke at the two men, making their faces twitch.

"You are a bother," Alissa says, she steps in front and motions them to the door. "Please, leave us."

"Katasko is large company," Mellissus says in a softer tone, "You benefit from joining, but the inverse is also true."

Is that a fucking threat!?

I maintain my smile and motion to the door. I see Alissa's hand tremble on her back over where her concealed dagger is.

The men bow respectfully and leave. Me and Alissa relax and we let out a very long sigh escape in sync.

"What now? Mercenaries? Why are they interested in us?" I ask.

"They were very aggressive and even used a veiled threat," Alissa says and frowns. "This is not normal for Rabanara. The Lord doesn't let companies bully adventurers, he protects them, us, rather."

"I don't think it's related to Darean, he shouldn't have influence over this company."

"The other choices aren't very attractive either."

I just hope Ankara didn't blabber. I feel like this could be another headache coming.

We leave the guild and go shopping for ingredients.

We buy lots of flour, butter, sugar, milk cream, Dragolite eggs, shredded blanched Dragolite meat, baker's yeast, ground meat, dulce de leche, cereal, a blobby fruit that taste like grape called Stafali, and a very peculiar bottle that Alissa removed the label of.

Aoi and Gify are quite useful for bartering, the merchants instantly get a brighter disposition when they see the cute dragon on my head or the cute griffin on Alissa's arms.

"You are not messing with their heads, right?" I ask.

"Gih."

"If you say so."

The streets are busy with people, announcers, and wagons. I'm seeing horseless carriages become more common lately, I wonder what's making them move.

The streets may be busy but a sword at your side makes you untouchable, people really don't want to invade the personal space of someone who's armed. There's no real risk of pickpockets due to [Item Box] so you can walk much more calmly, it's mostly trinkets that are in danger of being stolen.

The morning air is quite fresh. On Earth things could get a little polluted during the rush hour. I think mana could be said to "pollute" the air but it's hardly the same thing as fossil fuels. Magic tools are as carbon free as it's going to get. Now that I think about it there's not much smoke coming out of houses, when everybody can summon a small flame or light the need for burning wood reduces a lot.

We go back home and have a simple lunch, shouldn't eat too much when there's good food coming for dinner.

I crack the eggs on the bowl and beat them. The gnomic magic beater does the work as I drizzle the oil slowly. After oil comes sugar and then a little of not-vanilla extract. I heat up butter a little and add it to the batter. On a separate bowl I whisk a little of flour, baker's yeast, and salt. Add the mix to the first bowl slowly. Then pour the full mixture into the two cake pans and bake.

"Alissa, what did you dream about when you were being trained?" I ask.

"I dreamt of meeting you," she says with a sweet smile.

"That's uh..." I blush slightly at her sneak attack, "not exactly what I meant. Did you also dream about being a teacher, an adventurer, a dancer, or something like that?"

"No, should I?" She tilts her head cutely.

I shrug, "I don't know. I guess I just want to know if you ever though about something that's not related to being a slave."

"I did but I quickly abandoned these thoughts. Well, I still think about it but it's not the same thing. Thinking about these things wouldn't help me, my destiny was set so I only dreamt of what was in reach, not what could have been."

I check on cake and turn back to molding kibbehs with my hands.

"Feels so, limiting. Did you ever not want to be a slave?"

"I never really had a choice of being a slave or not so I didn't think whether I wanted to be one, I just accepted my destiny. In the end, I have a freer life with you than most people have."

"The freedom of your world is incomparable to ours, Wolfy," Ciel says. She seasons another kibbeh and hands it to me. "Even Lords, even royalty, they are all chained to their duty. Nobody is truly free, or alone."

"When I was younger I dreamed about having my harem, or joining one," Hana says as she kneads some dough. She suddenly turns serious and introspective. "I guess I really dreamed a lot about sex. Actually, I still do. I guess nothing really changed; I just fulfilled my dreams," she shrugs.

"Most commoners dream about not dying during monster attacks and living long enough to see their grandchildren grow," Ciel says. "I dreamed of that too I just also dreamed of traveling."

"I just wanted to grow old with Mithra," Roxanne says, molding flour dumplings in a teardrop shape. "After that I kind of stopped dreaming. Now that I'm with Wolfy I dream about the wonders we will see," she smiles adorably.

"You are breaking the dumpling," Ciel says.

Roxanne snaps back to reality and groans as the shredded Dragolite filling escapes out of the ruined dumpling.

"So finicky," she mutters.

"I dreamed of inheriting the shop," Lina says, shyly covering assorted fruit pieces with dulce de leche, "After being bought by Hilde I also stopped dreaming. Now I feel like I need to aim for something higher."

"What do you dream about?" Ciel asks me.

"A long life with all of you around me... I guess," I answer. "I haven't thought much about the future, my destiny here keeps me from thinking anything solid, we will see after everything is done."

"Maybe you should focus on [Golemancy]," Alissa says, "You said it could cause a revolution one day."

"Perhaps... I was a researcher back on Earth so I guess my dream is to simply keep living like one."

"I, dream, fly!" Aoi says.

I take the cakes out and fill the top of the first layer with the filling of dulce de leche plus Stafali paste and some cream. I put the second layer on top and cover the cave with cream. On top of the second layer I drizzle Stafali paste on a checker pattern.

Ta-dah! Stafali cake is done.

"Looks delicious," Ciel says, her eyes already eating the cake.

We fry the dumplings and the kibbeh. We sprinkle sugar on the little balls of dulce de leche plus fruits. Everything is coming along quite nicely.

We have our fun making food and eat a few during the afternoon tea as a taste test. It goes well with some thick tea with milk.

"So we would light a thin candle in the shape of the years and sing a quick song," I say. "Since we don't really have these things just use this scented candle."

I put the thick candle on a plate and light it in front of Hana. We all stand on one side of the table while Hana stays on the other with an embarrassed smile.

"Now, sing along," I clean my throat and start clapping, the girls copy.

"Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday, dear Hana. Happy birthday to yoou! Hooray!" We clap harder. Hana closes her eyes and chuckles, her face red.

"Now, blow the candle away and make a wish!" I say.

"What is this tradition of yours? I'm sure it's made solely to embarrass the person on my position," Hana says.

"It is incredibly sugary," Ciel says.

"My people are soft-hearted," I say, "Now, blow!"

Hana blows the candle and closes her eyes. After a few seconds she opens them again and grins.

"There, done. Now let's eat!"

"♪ Oh, a drop of a noble's blood wouldn’t do us any harm ♪," Hana sings.

"♪ Oh, a drop of a noble's blood wouldn’t do us any harm ♪," Roxanne sings.

"♪ An’ we’ll all hang on behind! ♪," Hana, Roxanne, Alissa, and Ciel sing in unison.

They start the chorus. Aoi and Gify chirp along and the little golems dance in the table.

"♪ So we’ll roooll the old chariot along! ♪"

"♪ An’ we’ll roll the golden chariot along! ♪"

"♪ So we’ll roooll the old chariot along! ♪"

"♪ An’ we’ll all hang on behind! ♪"

"♪ Oh, a nice fat cock wouldn’t do us any harm ♪" Hana sings.

"♪ Oh, a roll in the clover wouldn’t do us any harm ♪" Roxanne sings.

"♪ Oh, a long spell in gaol wouldn’t do us any harm ♪" Alissa sings.

"♪ Oh, a nice watch below wouldn’t do us any harm ♪" Ciel sings.

"♪ Oh, a night with the pals wouldn’t do us any harm ♪" They sing in unison.

They sing the chorus again and burst into laughter.

Lina and I look at each other, we barely drank so we are saved from Hana's chantey.

As the singing dies down and the food runs out I cast [Purify Body] on the girls and give them lots of water to drink.

"Oof... what was that?" Hana asks, "It made even me drunk."

"Lava Jet, from the Yopparai company," Alissa answers with a wide smile but winces at a budding headache.

"Oh yes! Dragonkin brewers, no wonder, your piss water wouldn't get me drunk otherwise," Hana snorts.

"Dwarven Coffin is stronger than this," Lina says. "I only got a sip once but I can still remember the taste."

"Dwarves don't count, using magic is cheating," Hana smirks at Lina.

Lina pouts, "And your abnormal 'Endurance' isn't? It's our racial skill."

"Still magic, using mana doesn't count," Hana shows her tongue to Lina, who crosses her arms and starts thinking of a comeback.

"'Coffin'? Is that really the name of a drink?" I ask.

"It's fitting, gnomes and pixies that try to drink it will certainly die without [Purify Body]," Lina says.

"Dwarves don't fuck around," I mutter.

"Ugh..." Ciel regains some lucidity, "The hell did we sing?"

"Something we will never let you forget," I say.

"I'll... Just go to sleep," she says and grabs Lina, the little golems follow behind.

Me and Hana help out Alissa and Roxanne walk upstairs and they pass out on the bed, exhausted.