I now realize that Lina and her family shouldn't have actually changed or even aged since she left, so it'd be very easy for her to recognize them since they all look so alike.

Then Lina crashes into Fuda and pulls him into a hug. Even in her Bastión armor, she has so little mass that the impact isn't even noticed by Fuda.

"It's you! It's you! It's you!" He shouts repeatedly as he holds her head and stares at her in complete disbelief.

She loosens the hug and straightens her posture, allowing them both to look each other in the eye, but then the tears start to flow, and they hug again.

We don't want to interrupt their moment, so we spend a long awkward minute in silence while we wait.

Suddenly, the heavy door to the shop opens up, revealing a woman's face that looks just like Lina's, but with the subtle signs of age that the dwarves still get over time.

"Elven hai'r! What in Listink's name is going on he're?!" The woman exclaims.

Yunia looks at her own majestic drills in confusion, but I smile wryly because I think she was using an idiom.

"Lina is back!" Fuda yells, and Lina looks up to see the newcomer, then the woman's face pales.

"Mom…" Lina mutters weakly and gives her a pained smile.

Toulin, Lina's mom, opens her mouth wide as she hoots, "Waaa~h…" Then her head disappears inside the shop. "OMUME, COME HE'RE! LINA IS BACK!"

"WHAAT?!" A muffled, but also awfully high-pitched male voice replies.

The door to the shop opens wide with a bang, and Lina's mom joins in on the hug. A moment later, a cute, round-cheeked boy with blonde hair runs out and tackles them.

Lina is surrounded by her family, and they start barraging her with questions, though everyone, including Lina, has some difficulty in understanding their accent. They talk similarly to the Sommerlande accent by pronouncing the "r" with a retroflex flap but also pronouncing the "s" or "c" followed by a vowel as a faint "sh."

"You'r master let you come back?!" Omume asks incredulously and only spares us a glance.

"I'm not a slave anymore. He's my husband," Lina proudly replies with her chest puffed up.

"Y-y-you ma'rried?" Fuda exclaims.

"Elven hai'r! A're you a noble, now?!" Omume shouts and gives us another glance, but he still doesn't seem to have noticed Aoi yet.

Lina nods and tries to hide her grin. "I'm a Lord."

Toulin's droopy, gloomy eyes open wide. "A-a Lo'rd? Not a Choshen Deschendant?"

Lina nods. "Crown Lords of the Western High Forest."

Toulin dramatically holds the back of her hand against her forehead and starts to tilt backwards. Her husband immediately catches her by the waist and holds her as she starts to hyperventilate.

"Elves! Elves!" Fuda exclaims excitedly and glances repeatedly at Yunia. My Queen remains lofty, but she's secretly enjoying the boy's worship of her.

"But…" Omume's eyes fall on me, and I grin happily. "He isn't a mustch elf!" He shouts, completely incredulous.

"It's a complicated story," Lina softly replies with a wry smile.

Toulin seems to recover, and she grabs Lina's shoulder. "We'll talk about it late'r. For now, we need to cheleb'rate!" She happily shouts and beams with a beautiful smile.

Honestly, their accent is kind of cute.

Lina nods shyly, then gives each of them a tight hug.

Omume suddenly notices her armor and opens his eyes wide as he breathes, "Diamond d'ragon scales… That is beautiful."

"Should we go inside? It's really dry out here," Lina awkwardly suggests.

"Of courshe!" Toulin exclaims with a nod. "I know how the big raches a'ren't ushed to the dust," Then she looks at our troupe and stiffens. "Wait, you have an actual d'ragon…"

Fuda becomes speechless, while Omume mumbles, "What…?" Then he notices Aoi's toothy grin. "Azhu'rite d'ragon scales!"

"I'm also a Lord, too," Aoi calmly states, her powerful double voice terrifying them.

"She… speaks!" Fuda shouts, both in awe and fear.

"Please don't do that…" Lina pleads through [Bind].

"But it'll be fun!" I whine back.

"Hm…" She grumbles, a bit annoyed. "Fine, but you'll have to explain it to them later…"

I knew she was a mischievous little girl at heart.

Gify grumbles and switches to Alissa's shoulder, then Aoi and I suddenly transform into our secondary forms, and she makes sure to [Equip] her clothes before the transformation is complete.

The eyes of the trio go round, and their chins fall to the floor, all in sync.

"Shymbol of Might!" Fuda exclaims in awe.

Omume partially recovers from his daze and glares briefly at his son. "Of cou'rshe he isn't one! He's just a… copy-…" -He sends me a frightened glance, afraid that he might've offended me- "Uh, a humanoid. Of cou'rshe, a humanoid can't be the Shymbol of Might." And he nods sagely, sweating cold under his flimsy mask of wisdom.

"How… how about we go inshide and talk ove'r shome tea?" Toulin kindly suggests with a forced smile, only now realizing how improper they've all been acting in front of nobility.

Aoi and I switch back to our normal forms, and we kindly take her up on her offer, only keeping half of the Lordsguard stationed outside for protection because we don't need to have them all out there in this uncomfortable weather.

I summon a Shad and a Holly to keep watch, masking the spell by summoning a water elemental at the same time, which will humidify the air so that the girls standing watch don't suffer too much. Our Lordsguard should already know about my [Monster Summoning], so they don't openly react to a monster suddenly appearing beside them, if they even sensed them, to begin with.

We get a curious glance from Lina's family, but they say nothing, likely chalking it up to a noble's peculiarity.

"Watch you'r head," Fuda warns as we cross through the rather short door, but I still end up hitting my horns on the top of the frame, earning me some confused looks from Lina's family.

"They weren't warning you," Lina explains through [Bind], and the girls hold in their giggles.

"I'm not used to having these tall things poking out of my head…" I grumble back.

The door may be short, but the interior is very roomy, as expected from dwarven architecture. I also notice how the air instantly changes from uncomfortably dry and hot, to fresh and cool.

The shop is one large square room with sofas and tea tables on one side, and shelves with equipment, gems, and enchanting tools on the other, the two sides separated by a simple counter. Everything is carved directly into the stone without using a single brick, which even includes the furniture, except for the chairs behind the counter.

The intricate patterns that decorate every last surface are quite pretty, and the prominence of blues and greens along with the comfy crystal lights make for a rather calming atmosphere.

There's a chestplate suspended on a workbench, which I'd assume is what they were working on before we crashed their routine.

We un[Equip] our armor at the same instant that we [Equip] our social clothes. If we ever got the timing wrong, we'd end up flashing everyone with our nakedness, but the girls and I all have a pretty good hang of the spell.

Lina's family isn't used to the elven loose dressing standards, so they become visibly disconcerted and struggle to act normally while they get used to seeing so much skin, which amuses Yunia quite a lot.

I guess it was a good idea to not bring Osaria and Hukarere with us today…

They're wearing simple, but well made medieval-style clothes, though their colors are quite a bit more vibrant than what I'd expected, given their limited wealth.

"Mushrooms make for vibrant pigments," Lina explains through [Bind].

They take us to the only set of non-dwarven-sized sofas. Aoi shrinks down so that we can all comfortably fit on them, and Omume and Toulin share a look and smile wryly. I think they've now entered the "acceptance" stage of our ridiculousness.

Toulin pulls a tray of tea and some baked sweets out of her [Item Box], then Alissa also pulls out her own tray of teas and cookies.

"How about we exchange some of our delicacies?" My foxy wife suggests with a grin.

Fuda definitely won't say no to that, while Toulin seems intrigued, and Omume is neutral.

I recognize baked Giftig mushrooms, a blue, beard-like mess that tastes like fruity blueberries and menthol. They're pretty tasty, but I pick something new, a powdered bread roll that seems incredibly fluffy.

I take a bite, and my suspicions are proven true as the gray bread melts in my mouth. The powder is kind of like sugar, but it has an earthy taste that I don't recognize.

I take a cup of some unknown warm orange tea and recognize the faint taste of ginger along with cinnamon and something lemony.

Omume politely lowers his head and pleads, "Fo'rgive us, my Lord, fo'r we lack dessherts wo'rthy of shomeone of you'r station."

"Don't worry about formalities. We were just adventurers not even a month ago," I immediately reply with a kind smile, then I point to a powdered roll. "This is actually pretty tasty."

Toulin smiles warmly, and Ciel and I have the same thought: she's as cute as her daughter.

Omume raises his head and politely introduces himself, "Thank you, my Lo'rd. My name is Omume Gilbik, a me're enchante'r, and this is my wife, Toulin, and my shon, Fuda."

After some quick introductions, Toulin curiously asks, "Sho, how… did you meet? What happened to Miss Hildega'rd, you'r fo'rme'r maste'r?"

Lina recounts her journey, starting from her travels across the continent with Hilde as peddlers, her master's change in profession when she became a supplier for the Armorer's Guild, then her meeting with me, and her untimely death.

I kind of forgot that I saved Lina's life. I was so focused on my failure to save Hilde that I didn't pay any attention to how much she had felt that she owed me. I do remember that I thought I looked like a prince in shining armor to her, which wasn't that far from the truth.

Ciel shares tea and cookies with our men, or rather, women, and also sends some cold tea out to the ones stationed outside, who are standing in the hot sun and dust.

Then Lina mentions how she fell in love with me, and then with Ciel too, and that raises some eyebrows.

Her parents share a look while Fuda tries to keep himself from staring at Ciel and smirking.

Omume awkwardly clears his throat and comments, "We'd… neve'r questioned he'r tastes since we neve'r expected he'r to join a noble's ha'rem…"

"But we're happy that you found… mo're than one pe'rshon to love," Toulin adds with a slightly teasing grin.

Lina's Trivia: nobles and aristocrats are encouraged to explore their sexuality because simply being bisexual effectively doubles the number of potential marriage candidates. Commoners don't have such customs since they rarely form or enter harems.

"You're greedy, shiste'r," Fuda blatantly teases, and Lina lowers her head as she blushes heavily.

"So, yes, I'm her wife, too," Ciel announces with a half-proud, half-embarrassed grin.

"Pleashu're to meet you, not-blood-shiste'r, not-blood-b'rothe'r," Fuda announces with a grin, though he only looks me in the eye for a brief second.

"It's our pleasure," Ciel replies warmly, and I simply nod.

Then Lina continues the storytelling, though now we all participate.

Alissa's tone turns grim as our retelling moves on to someone very infamous, "As we rose in power, we got close to the Lord's daughter, and she's a terrifying person. There's something about her eyes that makes you really nervous."

"Like [Intimidate]?" Omume innocently asks, his curious and round face almost like a baby's.

"Maybe, but a lot stronger, and it only activated when you looked her in the eye."

"Isn't she like you, my Lo'rd?" Fuda asks me, his gentle demeanor so strikingly similar to Lina's.

I smile and calmly reply, "You can just call me 'Wolf' in private, but I believe mine is just something related to my draconic side, while her 'power' is focused solely on her eyes."

Omume rubs his chin in thought, the childishness suddenly gone. "Hm… you shound like a we'reanimal."

"I'm actually a weredragon," I proudly state.

Toulin tilts her head to the side, making her bangs sway. "A demon rache?"

"No. Just weredragon, a new race. It's a long story, but the Gods changed me from human to this." I raise my claws and clack them together like pincers.

They all just blink blankly, not really knowing how they should take it.

"Is Miss Aoi the shame…?" Fuda tentatively asks, but he's also unable to maintain eye contact with her, probably for the same reason as with me.

"No. I'm a breeder-type dragon that converted. The Gods are gradually giving me a system," Aoi happily answers with a toothy grin, almost sounding like an excited child instead of a mean, dangerous dragon.

Toulin suddenly frowns, then she looks from my claws to Lina and touches her own uterus as she shares, "I still remembe'r how ha'rd you kicked my stomach befo're you we're born. How will you'r p'regnanchy go when you'r husband has claws on his hands and feet?"

The girls all suddenly become worried.

"We'll… pray a lot," Ciel hesitantly answers with a wry smile.

Omume sagely adds, "The Gods a're wishe. If they gave you this rache…" -he smiles a bit awkwardly- "and this many women… they'll want you to sp'read you'r inhe'ritanche far and wide."

Oh, we will…

"You just need to have a tough belly, like mine," Hana claims, pulling open her blouse and almost ripping it as the snap buttons are a bit too tight. She exposes her supremely sexy abs and her black, lacy bra. Omume only glances at her briefly and immediately looks away, then a second later, Toulin jerks her head to face him and narrows her eyes while she slaps the back of Fuda's head.

"Hey!" The boy complains, then blushes heavily.

Hana guffaws and slaps her thigh as she closes her blouse again, then I realize how thoroughly the elves and Chimeras have corrupted us since not even Lina is bothered by Hana's prank. Yunia's dousnadeia is just barely more modest than lingerie, anyway.

Lina clears her throat, and we continue on with the story.

"Golems…" Omume mumbles, his cute face full of innocent curiosity, but Toulin and Fuda are much more wary of the golems since they know far too little about [Summoning Magic] to understand their significance.

"A da'rk elf?!" Fuda whisper-shouts, trying to contain his excitement.

Ah, I see he's a man of culture.

Toulin covers her mouth in horror as she breathes, "Giants? I mean, d'ragonkin a're al'ready giants to us, so I can't imagine how a real giant would look."

"Just big… but you definitely don't want to look up at one," Lina quietly adds.

"Wh- oh…" Omume realizes why almost instantly.

"Ah… a 'mountain home,'" Omume shoots off a dad joke and grins proudly, earning some hearty laughs from Hana.

"It was my first contact with dwarves after so long, so I enjoyed it a lot there," Lina nostalgically reminisces.

"There are a few dwarven undertowns near our territory that we could visit periodically," I happily suggest.

"That's… not necessary," she shyly declines, but she's actually very happy inside.

"A chity of gold…" Fuda mumbles in wonder.

"Not really. It's like a fake gem," Lina pops his bubble.

"The real beauty is Ultirei's Tomb," Ciel happily states.

Toulin hums in thought as she remembers something. "I heard about that place," she recollects, then Lina retells its history to us. Toulin and Omume listen happily to the story about the first emperor since they're actually rather pious.

"Again with the gigantic things, but now it's t'rees…" Toulin murmurs as she shakes her head.

Roxanne grins and plays with them a bit, "A long time ago, they used the bark and branches to create statues of elves laying with one another in all 'combinations' possible."

"Mustch elves…" Omume mutters under his breath with a frown, though only Alissa could hear him.

Lina's Trivia: that's an ancient slur for weak-willed or wimp.

"Bandits, huh," Omume mumbles with a dark tone, and the three of them become awfully quiet. It was only because their valuable enchanting tools were stolen that they had to sell Lina, so they're understandably pretty prejudiced against criminals.

"Escansho sheems like an inc'redible plache," Fuda comments in wonder.

"But isn't it… above the g'round? Like, ve'ry fa'r above?" Toulin questions worriedly.

Lina nods, which makes her bangs sway. "It is, but there's so much mana around that I didn't notice any difference in my [Stonebody]."

"And then the man confessed that they'd have killed us all and kidnapped the nobles!" Hana exclaims, and Toulin lets out a cry, horrified.

"Involving othe'rs in thei'r dange'rous schemes is exactly what a noble would do," Omume remarks and snorts while Toulin nods in agreement, then he pales as he realizes something. "I apologize, my Lo'rds, I-…"

"It's fine. We understand your frustrations," Yunia composedly assures him. For her, it's simply not worth it to get angry over just any perceived insult from some humble commoners.

"You killed humanoids?" Fuda suddenly asks Lina with a grim tone.

"A few…" Lina mumbles back, her tone becoming quite dark.

"You're b'rave, my daughte'r. We're p'roud of you," Omume praises her with a serious tone, temporarily purging the childishness from his expression.

Lina nods slowly. "Thank you."

"Now, Golo'ria shure must look like shomething…" Toulin wonders with a faint smile.

"Escanso is more beautiful," Yunia immediately replies flatly.

"Yes, I'm shure…" Toulin stiffly affirms, but she breaks into a smile once she sees ours. Yunia's trying hard to not look offended, but the natural elven snobbishness is hard to hide.

"The shea shounds a bit f'rightening," Omume embarrassedly admits.

But Roxanne tries to ease his heart, "As long as you keep to the shallows, it should be fine, and if you don't go somewhere deserted, it's likely that there'll be merfolk in the area to save you in case you start drowning."

"'Sta'rt d'rowning,'" he repeats with a worried frown, making Roxanne grin and shrug.

We don't mention the Innocent Nymph. Not only would that embarrass Lina if they learned what the place was famous for, but it'd also be really hard to explain what happened to it. Few people know about our relation to it, anyway.

"So you got you'rshelf involved in a Lo'rd's schemes?" Omume concernedly asks, his gentle eyes narrowed in reproval.

"It had its benefits," Lina answers with a shrug, making her father sigh tiredly.

"If you thought it was worth it." He shrugs and shakes his head.

"So, you deposhed the Lo'rd of Escansho, then late'r became its new Lo'rd?"' Toulin inquires, her eyebrows knit in disbelief.

Yunia sternly replies, trying to hold back the sadness she feels from just remembering it, "Exactly, he was my father. That's how I was introduced to Wolfy." Then she gives me a loving smile.

"You… ma'rried… him…?" Fuda hesitantly asks, nearly stunned speechless.

Yunia nods and gently replies, finding comfort in my mental hug, "My father and mothers failed their duties and paid the price for it. I was fortunate that I was allowed to live, never mind being able to find my own happiness in this warm family."

Toulin clutches her heart and smiles achingly.

But Fuda's mouth hangs open, his expression warped in horror. "That's ho'rrible. You'r fathe'r, I mean. His death, I mean!" He hastily corrects himself repeatedly.

Omume's strong, small hand falls on his son's shoulder, forcing him to stop talking. "Lo'rds live diffe'rent lives from us. They a're above us, but they also live unde'r harshe'r rules," Omume sagely recites.

"We're responsible for the well-being of the commoners, after all," Ciel agrees, and they share a stern, understanding nod.

"With higher power comes higher responsibilities… and higher punishments," Yunia adds grimly.

"So, we entered the dungeon…" Hana starts, preparing to boast and embellish just a little bit about all of our adventures.

"A flying dwa'rf!" Fuda blurts out and wheezes.

"Just wait until we tell the neighbo'rs," Omume teases, and Lina groans softly.

"Naked…?" Fuda whispers, trying to hide his excited grin.

"All of them," Roxanne answers matter-of-factly and calmly nods.

He swallows heavily.

Someone get this boy a woman to take his virginity, already!

Then we superficially explain Arreira's "experiment," which gave the Gods the opportunity to fuck with my race.

And we at last reach the final part of our adventure…

"ROYALTY?!" The trio exclaims in unison, and Toulin faints, for good this time.

Intermission 25 – Osaria

I sigh as the last supplicant leaves. Everyone is always asking for too much from the Lordship. We can give them moderate help, but "life isn't fair," as the God of Luck has warned us.

I notice that there's a significant number of complainers, but, thankfully, the summary for each of their petitions is almost everything I need to separate the weasels from the victims. Their "Piety" must be so low that they could barely even feel any awe from the Intervention, so they now think that it's a good idea to try to abuse the patience of their King.

A sigh escapes my lips as I remember Wolfy's touch; the addictive taste and smell of his seed; the thickness of his spear; the beauty of his majestic face; his body's perfect balance of cuteness and manliness; and the way he makes me bend over with just a look.

I sigh again and start playing with myself as I think about him.

Rande, your mother has fallen in love again… If only we could both have him like in the old days, then things would be perfect, but I mustn't be greedy. I'll never find someone like Wolfy again if I lose him.

I look out through the window of the Lord's Hall and notice that the sun is almost at its zenith. I don't think Wolfy is coming back for lunch today, so I need to find someone else to share the meal with.

Maybe I should call for the twins and play with them for a bit. They should still have some of that adorable virgin shyness in them.

I grin mischievously and pat Wolfy's little bird as I think out loud, "As long as I don't touch, Wolfy wouldn't mind a bit of teasing, right?" Then I boop its cute little beak and giggle happily as my chest almost bursts with happiness. Every day is so satisfying that it's almost like I'm living in a dream.

Take that, Rico, you rotten husk. I'm happy without you!