Today is the 17th.

-

We ask for breakfast to be delivered right outside our door -.

We eat delicious fruit cakes and mousses with soft, herbal teas to cleanse our palates of the sweetness.

Klein stretches and even her tail shoots straight up, then she yawns, then I yawn, then Alissa yawns, and then everyone else yawns.

I chuckle at the silly moment but my excitement quickly dies down immediately afterwards.

We are under watch by someone, I think. If only they actually attacked us I could use [Godly Language] on them.

That's a stupid thought, thinking so lightly about killing someone.

Remembering the thugs we killed in Goldcross makes my stomach churn. Remembering the bandits we killed makes me sad and slightly angry.

Stupid, but effective. Someone is planning something and I don't know what. I need an opportunity to learn more about my enemies. I hate to be passive, to just wait for something to happen and hope for the best, but that's the only thing I can do right now.

"Wolfy?" Alissa brings me out of my depressive musings, most likely because my emotions spilled through the [Bind].

"Hm?"

"What do you all want to do today?"

Klein is the first to speak, "I want to spend some more time… with you all for the morning. In the afternoon, my Da' wants to buy more equipment for us."

"I want to meet with Oura, she said she would lend me some books," Lina says.

Good.

"I'll go with you," Roxanne says.

Ciel looks at her with a tinge of suspicion but lets it go. "I'll pay a visit to the temple here. They're not very big in comparison to Rabanara," she says.

"We can donate some gold," I say and Ciel nods with a wide smile.

"Is there an orphanage there? I'll go with you," Alissa says, her tail wagging excitedly.

I look at Hana and she shrugs.

"Let's just play around, then," I say.

"Gih."

Today is Fis, the day of Nature, so he wants to play with the other nature spirits again.

"So it's just me, Hana, and Aoi?"

"Yes, it's a date!" Aoi exclaims.

"A what?" Ciel asks and looks at the calendar.

"It's something from my homeland, two lovers or lovers-to-be spending time together is called a date," I explain.

"Why is there a specific name for it?" Hana asks.

"Well, there are certain expectations that come from calling an encounter a 'date,'" I say with a shrug.

"So it's like courtship, but for the commoners?" Ciel asks.

"Yes…? Yeah, it's kind of like that. It was being used in such a broad sense that it was becoming hard to define it properly."

"Your homeland is really odd," Klein comments.

"You have no idea," Hana says.

"Anyway. For the morning, let's visit the market," Roxanne says and claps the tips of her fingers.

We finally put on some clothes and leave our room.

Without the mist to block our view, we can now see how truly comfy and cute the town is. There are hundreds of flowers spread around the town: they are in the crowns of the trees, mixed in with the leaves; randomly growing in the walls of the buildings; neatly arranged on the sidewalks and in the holes in the middle of the streets; and also on the clothes and in the hair of the people, including the beards.

First, we go to the Row of Statues, a famous street full of wooden mannequins wearing all kinds of clothes.

We properly fit and buy elven not-bikinis for all of the girls and the uncomfortably tight pants and vest for me. Not that the cloth itself is uncomfortable, it's just that I feel very "exposed" in it.

"Oh, yes, I look amazing," Hana says as she pushes up her two large distractions. Then she strikes poses like a body-builder would. Roxanne hugs Hana from behind and feels up her lean muscles.

Ciel looks uncomfortable in hers, likely suffering from the same problem as I am.

Lina's is so thin that you can make out her shape - if you pay attention. Ciel raises her eyebrows and the others smile suggestively.

The female attendant coughs uncomfortably and picks a similar black not-bikini for Lina but with a piece of cloth that can be tied to cover the important areas.

Aoi looks at us with curiosity. "Should I wear, clothes too?" She asks.

"Well, no," Hana answers.

Aoi looks at her own blue scales and I feel her conflicted heart through the [Bind].

"Maybe we should make clothes for her, one day. Something that befits a true dragon," I say.

"Ooh…" Hana seems very pleased with the suggestion.

The elven attendant loses her composure as she inadvertently overhears our conversation.

We end up taking two sets of the not-bikinis. One thin set in the usual colors of the girls, and another in a light green (the most common color) with a more "conservative" design, as if they were something that a prude would ever wear.

We leave while wearing our new clothes. We blend in much better now, especially because we are all quite attractive and don't seem out of place among the beautiful elves.

As we enter onto the main road, we see the Lord's castle's wall, the "Shell." It looks like a cracked egg and it's the same color as the bark shield wall: black with gold inlays. The flowery patterns of the inlays mimic the styles from the "tree-knitting" the elves do. There's also the portraits of the current Lords drawn with gold. They are so big that we can already discern their features from where we are: a man with soft features and a round face in the middle, Lord Mavel Este; two similar-looking women with sharp features and square jaws on each side, his wives; below his portrait is a young girl with a soft face and very sharp eyes, his first daughter; beside the daughter are two twin young boys with very similar faces to the Lord.

From behind the "Shell" we can see the peaks of the branch-like golden towers of the castle proper.

The main road is completely straight and points towards the castle just so that most of the traffic can have a clear view of it. It can also serve to remind the population of who their Lord is.

After having enough of the view, we pass by the Otoro Totoso bakery. There's a tree grown in the shape of a bull in front of it. The place is very high class, with a white and gold interior and some very refined furniture.

The normal desserts, while looking very appetizing, aren't what we're looking for. We browse through the premium items that are so beautiful that they're locked behind a glass display, but also because they're making sounds. To some, they look like a blob of horrors, but, to me, they look like the key to heaven.

We've found the Delicious Horrors again: the bizarre balls of squirming tentacles that would trigger a weeb's lewd senses from a mile away. I want it not because it's delicious, but because of the magic behind the tentacles. I must learn it and add it to my body transformation research!

There are also Globin Grapes, small little balls with a goblin's nose that scream when you eat them. I have no real hate for any sort of monster, but a lot of people do, so they get plenty of delight from eating a sweet and hearing the dying screams of a goblin. There's also a whole-body version of the Globin Grapes, but it's way too expensive to be commercially viable, so it's rarely ever seen.

There are plenty of psychedelic sweets too, though they are magically psychedelic, as if the normal psychedelics weren't enough. We get a set of these for each of us.

"Hmm… now this is nostalgic," Klein says as she holds a pink and purple mushroom that glows softly.

We all turn to Hana and she turns awkward. "Yeah, they are really good," she says.

Roxanne looks at the mushrooms with fascination. "Ohohoh. Just don't eat it while anywhere near family."

"These are really good," Lina says and points to the one in Klein's hand.

"You've tried them before?" Ciel questions with a raised eyebrow.

"No, but mushrooms all have similar biology. If you know one, you know them all."

I don't smoke, in part because there's no need, and also because I might have a problem with regulating pleasure-seeking behavior. But psychedelics are much safer, so the benefits outweigh the risks for me.

We see some Everlasting Crunches, which are very odd. They're an infinite pork rind: you eat all but the black part of the rind and it comes back. It comes with a piece of bread which is teleported inside your stomach, bite by bite. The pork rind that was eaten then is traded with the bread, then reattached to the black part of the rind, and finally returns to its uneaten state, all in an instant.

Now, the most popular of the magic foods are certainly the non-caloric ones. Literally. Non-calloric. Sweets. The most popular type of magical food that has ever existed. Eat as much as you like and suffer literally no side-effects except for higher MP regeneration. This is because the food works like a potion; it's turned into mana and absorbed by the body. The only thing that remains is the inert "not-matter," something that still fills the stomach but slowly dissipates away as it's "digested."

"H-how much money can we spend on this?" Ciel asks.

"A lot…" I answer.

"How much?"

"You don't want to know."

Ciel swallows heavily while her eyes are glued to the cupcakes.

My heart burns with pain, but I must do this, I must be the mature person here and find a middle ground.

"A gold coin for each of us, that's all we can spend," I say.

Ciel sighs deeply and nods.

We have a second breakfast and eat until our stomachs nearly burst.

"Isn't this stuff supposed to disappear after we eat it?" Alissa asks, holding her belly in pain.

"After a while," I say.

Lina is frozen and her face is pale. She swallows heavily and breathes slowly.

"Lina?" Ciel asks.

"I can't move or…" Lina stops talking and swallows heavily again.

An elven attendant silently deposits a tray with a cup containing an odd silvery liquid in front of Lina.

Without another word, Lina drinks the liquid and shudders. In a minute, her skin regains color and she sighs in relief, though her tummy still hurts like Alissa's.

After recovering enough to move again, we leave the bakery and return to the market. It's getting close to midday so the bustling of the population is increasing.

The stares of the commoners make me tense again. Now that there's no mist, they can't stare at us as freely, but they still stare at us when we're not looking. Holly also noticed some people following us, mostly elves this time, though.

I'm starting to feel even tenser. Every time we leave a shop I'm reminded of the danger outside.

"Is there a problem?" Alissa asks inside my head.

"Kweh!" Aoi noticed it too.

"There are people following us," I answer.

"Stare at them, it will make them paranoid and you can also write down their names," Alissa suggests.

"Sounds like a good idea."

It's better to show that we notice them than to look like sitting ducks and get attacked again.

At any moment that we stop, I look back and meet the eyes of our stalkers. A few show immediate reactions and leave right away, while others play the fool and just smile cordially, but then after a while, they leave too.

I pull out a small piece of paper and discreetly write down their names.

"What are you doing?" Klein asks.

"Just making personal notes for research," I say.

We buy a dozen crossbows for Ted and Suzy since they can easily manipulate and even reload the weapons with [Telekinesis].

"We can use, bigger," Ted says.

"Nobody will sell me a ballista," I say.

"We create one, then," Suzy says.

"Can you?" I frown.

"With trial and, error, we can learn, to build," Ted says.

"Methodical re-search," Suzy says.

Well, I think that I could probably learn to build a ballista, so maybe they think they can, too.

"Sure, I might build a mobile workshop for the two of you one day," I say.

Now that we've seen their effectiveness, we buy some caltrops of our own; the ones we previously used belong to Rande.

We see some flammable oil and buy it, too. It'll make for a good basis of research for pseudo-napalm and gunpowder. I have some reservations over recreating something like napalm, but I'll use any weapons that I have if the need arises.

We buy some high quality Hearthtree shields for Lina to enchant and a new shaft for her war hammer. The heartwood from that kind of tree is nearly as tough as metal, which is why it's used in shields and also for the shaft of Hana's enchanted spear.

That spear's blade comes from the bark of the Tree of the Stalwart, which we now know is a type of bark that retains a razor sharp edge when broken, just like obsidian.

The elven merchants also gave us tips on how to maintain the weapons. They sold us some fertilizer that can be mixed with the earth of the High Forest, so it has the appropriate nutrients for me to cast [Grow] on our weapons and allow for them to be properly maintained.

Just before lunch, we notice that the main street is getting eerily loud with the murmuring of the commoners. We stop and join the growing crowd near the sidewalk and find the source of the commotion.

Like the caravan we crossed yesterday, we see the light radiating from them before we can actually see it properly: two men, each wearing a complete set of armor that covers all visible openings. A scary mask of a stoic man covers their faces. Their golden armor is set with enchanted gems of all colors, and it glows so brightly white that it hurts to even look at them when they get closer. A sun is engraved in their chest and its rays radiate out from it to cover every surface. A heavy golden cape with a blood red lining flows from their shoulders as it seems to flutter in the wind, even though there's barely a breeze.

They are the Hands of the Emperor and they are here to give the Lord a light spanking. The Hands are not good news. We can all easily tell why the Emperor would send his proxy to the High Forest and so blatantly display them for the populace: the Emperor is not pleased.

"I felt a chill," Klein says.

Hana nods. "Me too."

"May this problem finally end," Alissa says.

"It won't end today. The Emperor won't kill Lord Este so easily," Lina says.

"The other elves will take the matter into their own hands before the empire has the chance to meddle," I say.

We move on and search for the hunter's guild.

The guild's outer wall is decorated with very fine and intricate carvings of the monsters found in the High Forest. It gets an approving nod from Lina.

The inside looks similar to Ostodos: scented logs being slowly burned in an enchanted fireplace, lightly warming the air, and giving off the calming sounds of crackling wood burning; upholstered furniture covered in Uspidor leather; displays of Proofs of Extermination embedded in the interior walls. Though, everything looks so much more elegant and grandiose that I feel like I entered a pseudo-baroque building with a nature theme.

"Let's 'taste' some of their booze," Hana says and walks towards the bar. Klein, Roxanne, and Ciel follow her.

I look at Lina with questioning eyes. "You don't want to go?" I ask.

"I don't feel like it," she answers.

"Gih."

She looks away and fiddles with her leather slave collar. "I would rather stay with you than drink."

"Awn…" I grab her hand and give it a kiss.

With a flower on each of my arms, we walk together to the boards to see the news.

There's a heavy bounty for our Aberrant, 70 gold coins.

Oof.

There are multiple warnings about a variety of dangerous monsters about. I take note of a few of them so we'll know what to watch out for.

"Wolfy…" Alissa calls my attention and points to a specific note.

A new dungeon was found at the border of the Western and the Eastern High Forest, a dungeon called "Legado."

"Damnable brats!" A voice yells from some ways behind us.

Fuck yes! We found it! And it looks like it's a lost tomb that resurfaced… Around five months ago, which is roughly the time that I came into this world. As if I needed any more reason to explore it.

Heavy footsteps stomp closer to us.

If it's at the border between the two regions, then Goloria is closer to it than Escanso. I'll make sure to keep a [Gate] "coordinate" outside the town when we reach there, then. It's unfortunate that we still have to complete this job, but it seems there hasn't been much progr-…

Alissa's ear twitches and through Shad's sight, I see a tall man quickly approaching us.

A heavy hand falls on mine and Lina's shoulders and spins us in place. While we spin, the three of us reach for our daggers below our shirts and draw them, then we immediately point them towards the man behind us.

The mature golden elf man quickly takes his hand off our shoulders and shows us his palms, displaying non-aggression.

"Who are you?!" I yell at him.

"Uh… I'm Ardian… aren't you from the Academy?" The man asks, very unsure of himself.

"Academy? Do we look like we're from there?!"

"Uh, kind of?"

I look at Alissa and Lina.

Okay, we look like young, high-class foreigners with a pet dragon and nature spirit, I guess we fit the profile.

Hana and the others appear behind the man, looking very serious. I pull back my dagger and we relax a little.

"I'm Wolf Ryder, leader of the Helios fellowship." I point to the girls behind him and he takes a look. Hana gives him a fearsome smile and he swallows heavily.

Ardian's eyebrows shoot up in surprise. "S-sorry to bother you, Sir. I mistook you for one of the… young warriors of the Academy who overestimate themselves and take requests they are not ready for."

I clearly remember you calling us "damnable brats."

"It's fine. Let's just move on and continue with our days," I say with a diplomatic smile. I would like to swear at him but the guards of the guild have their hands on their batons and I still want to use the Dismantling Room.

"Sure, sure. Again, forgive me, Sir Ryder." Ardian bows, then he turns around and quickly walks out of the guild with a rigid posture.

"Odd man," Ciel says, eyeing him up with a sharp gaze.

I sigh and shake my head. The tension from being stalked all day is making me tired.

I enter the Dismantling Room and greet the burly butcher.

"I'm Alto, pleasure to meet you," he says.

"Wolf Ryder, leader of Helios." I shake his hand and he looks slightly pensive.

While he tries to remember where he heard about us, I pull out the Aberrant, the Watchful Tons, and the Proofs of Extermination for the other monsters we killed.

He jumps and gasps in surprise and his assistant immediately shoots up, suddenly wide awake.

"You got the fucking Aberrant?!" Alto exclaims.

"Yes. Quite the hard fight, if I must say," I say, smugly.

"H-how? These wounds… h-how?!"

I shrug. "Don't ask me to reveal my secrets."

It's time for lunch, so I don't spare the time to chit-chat with them. I get my rewards and leave. Then we dawdle a little until the "Notable Hunts" board is updated.

"Fellowship Helios: Masked Aberrant - stone and thunder quadruped. 70 gold coins bounty."

A few people exclaim when they see the update on the board and soon, a small crowd forms as people make comments about us. Quite a few notice us and make the connection.

Hiding our accomplishments would look too suspicious. We don't want to participate in politics, but we can't fully avoid garnering fame.

We leave after that and go have lunch in our room at the inn.

We're served a delicious mix of roasted vegetables. They are mostly sweet and each has been slightly browned, then a small amount of meat sauce was applied to add to the taste. It reminds me of Ratatouille.

"Hmm… this is nice." Klein stretches on Hana's lap as the dragonkin's fingers massage her brain.

I play with Ciel's silky hair and let my mind wander.

"Right, it's time to go." Klein gets out from Hana's lap and looks at us sadly. "Have to meet my parents, now."

Awn…

"Do you know where they are?" Ciel asks.

"Yeah, we three are in a fellowship."

"Does it have a name?" Roxanne asks.

Klein blinks twice. "No," she answers, flatly.

"Okay…" Roxanne smiles mischievously.

I summon three Hollys and three Shads. One pair is given to Klein without her knowing about it. Now that she's temporarily part of my harem, I fear that she might also get targeted.

Soon after the girls leave, Holly already identifies several people stalking the three groups.

"Gih."

Thanks, Gify.

He pops out of existence to go play around, but he will keep an eye on the girls, too.

"Right, so what do we do on this 'date' thing?" Hana asks.

"Something interesting, but mostly just spend time together."

"- me silly."

I smile wryly. "Maybe something that we don't usually have time to do."

"Lets spar and play around, then."

"Me, too!" Aoi raises her paw.

I pull out the golems and we play around on the balcony. It's high enough that most buildings can't see us.

I manage to summon another Holly, my 7th summon. I tell it to watch over the places that can see us and make sure that nobody is watching us.

"Alright, bring it on," I say.

Hana's sword flashes, and her arm instantly splits in three: one stays in place while the wrist spins into a slash; a second moves forward to try and pierce me; a third lowers down and tries to strike at my leg. Hana leans forward and lowers her posture a little; this gives me the answer: the third arm is real.

I bat her sword away and counter with a with a thrust of my own. It catches her on the shoulder and she clicks her tongue. "How did you know?" She asks.

"You leaned forward and down. The first one wouldn't reach me properly, the lower posture wasn't necessary for the second, so the third matched your posture the most."

"Damn you and your 'Perception.'"

We play a little more but Aoi also wants to play. She grows in size and stands up on her hind legs. She's nearly at my height, now.

"Wow," I mutter under my breath. My heart beats faster when I see her large and lean face close to mine. Her teeth and claws are sharp and huge, her scales are shining and tough, her wings are large and delicate. She's majestic.

"Hehe, you are stunned. I know, I'm amazing," Aoi says. In her bigger form, her voice takes a more lower and almost mature tone. She spreads her wings; growls; shows her bladed fangs; and opens her hands/paws, showing her long claws.

"Pounce on me and take me. You look frightening, Aoi," Hana says.

"Uh-huh…" I agree, though, I feel no fear; on the contrary…

I remember Gify's vision of what being a dragon is like, and I feel a chill. Aoi stops growling and smiles. Her smile is stiff because her face is not made for smiling, but it's still beautiful.

"I can feel, that," Aoi says and her smile turns smug.

"Feel all you want, you deserve it."

"Awn…" Hana melts. She grabs both of us and gives us such a tight hug that even Aoi feels a little pain.

Hana kisses Aoi's lips, who responds by invading her mouth for a few seconds. Once she's done, I get my own mouth invasion.

"Wow, that feels great," Hana says as she wipes her mouth.

"I know! I'm great!" Aoi says after having her share of me. "Now, fight me!"

Aoi quickly learns why reach is king. Her claws are long but not long enough to compete with even a shortsword.

"Muuh! Not fair! I can just block everything with my scales," Aoi tries to pout.

"You shouldn't rely on that. They can break, and then you'll have a weak point that can be exploited."

"Muuh… then I just have to defeat you before you can strike me twice."

"Oh?" Hana cocks an eyebrow and smiles.

"Rah!" Aoi jumps on Hana.

Hana answers by jumping backwards and striking. Aoi bats the sword away and lets it slide along her scales.

Aoi reaches Hana before she can pull her sword back and grips her shoulder. Their heads get closer and they both decide to headbutt one another. Aoi ends up winning the exchange, but just barely.

They crash into each other and fall on the floor. Aoi grabs both of Hana's arms and legs with her own limbs. They wrestle and try to get on top of each other.

They start laughing, but that distracts Aoi, allowing Hana to twist her limbs and nearly fully escape. She takes the opportunity and turns it around, ending up on top of Aoi.

Aoi spreads her wings and tries to use them to get out from under Hana, but they're too weak.

Suddenly, mana bursts from Aoi's wings and she manages to stand up with Hana still clinging onto her.

Hana takes advantage of Aoi's momentum and slings her left arm over the back of Aoi's neck and chokes her. With the right arm she pushes up Aoi's stomach and spins her upside down. The spinning confuses Aoi and she does nothing in her daze, allowing Hana enough time to fall backwards. A vertical lift neckbreaker.

They both slam on the ground with their backs and groan. Their groans of pain quickly turn into laughter.

Hana crawls on top of Aoi and mounts her. She holds both of Aoi's arms down and kisses her. "I won," she says.

"Wait until, I get bigger," Aoi says.

"Uh-huh." Hana shuts down Aoi's mouth with her own.

-

I stretch and lay back.

Thank the Gods for Holly. I would never do such a thing if I wasn't sure there weren't people watching.