(Jamie)

"What do you two think of this home?" I ask.

"I like it," Cole gives a simple answer.

"It's spacious," Light answers. "Plenty of room, and the magics protecting it from damage and eavesdropping are quite excellent. It would only take me a few hours to fully buff them to make it so that it would be impossible for someone to override them."

I look over at the Fairy, who decided to don clothes. As I expected, he's switched back to his natural form and is floating a little behind me and to my right, only he's more than a foot off the ground, now, instead of an inch or two. His current outfit consists of a pair of pale blue pants that have a smooth, soft texture to them.

That's all, but it's a start. He told me that he would need to grow accustomed to it in stages, but that he will make the effort to do so, for me. I then politely let him know that everyone knew he was a Fairy, and was just pretending he was a Human because he was, and it was easier than calling him out on it and causing a scene.

He was confused, but accepted it. So he's switched back to his natural form completely, telling me that he'll take on his Human form every now and then, and that he requests my assistance with learning to actually blend into Human society.

I'm probably not the best example for that, but I informed him that I would do my best to try, and that made him happy.

"It also has plenty of space," the Fairy continues his assessment, ignoring the nervous agent in front of us. "That we could use for training in various ways, including a room designed and warded against damage, though they might not be enough, which is where my own wards and buffs would come in handy. In addition to that, it has a nice bath that can fit us and more members of the harem, should you acquire them, and even a sauna.

"The yards," he continues without pause. "Are decent as well, with plenty of space for us to train outside as well. In addition to that, we would be able to have some animals of our own and a garden, which I would be happy to take care of."

He's mentioned having chickens and a garden at each of the six properties we've checked before this one, declaring several of them unfit if we were to have them. This time, he said 'animals', but I know he really wants chickens.

Apparently, they don't have them in the Fairy Realm, and eating them and eggs is something of a desire for him. And raising them so that he can have his own source of them.

"In addition to that," the Fairy continues. "The basement was quite nice, and would be a decent place to store weapons, food, and wines."

He also brings up wine cellars quite often. This house has two of them. From what I understand, Fairies are of the legal age to consume alcohol once they're fully-grown.

Not that that would matter for this one, considering he's probably outlived every person in the world, but the way he talks about wine makes me wonder if he's an alcoholic. He hasn't had any since we met, as far as I can tell, but still…

"Why do you like wine so much?" Cole asks.

"I don't," Light looks at him. "I've never had wine before in my life! We don't have it in the fae realms. Well, not the kind of wine Humans and Beastborn and Elves and Dwarfs and stuff have, since ours isn't made from grapes. So it's not really wine. But isn't wine important to have in a Human home? I heard that in some old stories. Lots of wine-drinking by wealthy and nobles and stuff."

Ah. And right, he comes from the Fairy Realm, which hasn't interacted with mankind in over a thousand years, so they'd probably have all sorts of weird stories.

"I like this house," he says. "Let's get it."

"We should look at the others first," I say, though I'm tending to agree with him, even with the massive price of a hundred thousand gold royals. "Come on."

We finish checking out the other houses, but agree on the big one when we finish. I pay the hundred thousand, then we head out for dinner.

The rest of the day, we spend looking at various stores, then head back to the inn to wash up and rest. When morning comes, we eat a quick breakfast, then make our way to the first store on our list, where we pick out furniture for the new home, which we're allowed to move into today.

After picking out our furniture and telling the associates where each item will go, we head to another store to perform our grocery shopping, then make our way to the house to put everything away before heading out for lunch. After lunch, we head to another store to buy household necessities, such as blankets, towels, pillows, dishes, and so on.

With those purchased and set to arrive at the house, we head to a restaurant for dinner, then make our way to one of the odder parts of town. Cole sticks close to me while Light looks around with awe, completely oblivious to the fact that most people don't normally come here.

It takes us almost an hour once we reach the bazaar for me to locate the person I sought. He doesn't stay in the same place often, and finding his new location is always a pain in the ass.

It's a man in his early twenties, with dark brown hair, and when his eyes are open, they're a light gold in color. Not amber, but gold. He's dressed in rags, and is a little bit dirty, but that doesn't bother me. His job is always done well, and he's reliable.

Right now, he's sleeping on the blanket he uses as his stall, his supplies locked away in a pair of chests, one resting on either side of the blanket.

He's not a day person, and will wake as the sun goes down.

"Ow!"

Or when I kick him.

"Evening, Benjamin," I say, and he glares at me, only to smile when he recognizes me. I flip him a gold royal. "The usual. I might ask for more, depending."

"Alright," he yawns.

Benjamin Human Seer of Mysteries Level 43 Seer of Mysteries

He might be our age, but his powers and skills are genuine, despite being a bit abnormally high for someone our age, even for a native-born, and he hasn't lied to me once, from what I can tell. And now, I think his Class and Title make sense. It's confused me up until now, but I've never asked him about them before.

Seer of Mysteries is another Holy Class – a Mythical Class that can only be obtained from a god. Specifically, Trickster. If that's true, then our patron has no qualms doing things outside of Monk, Paladin, Priest, and Mage. The Title is the same as his Class because anyone with a Holy Class can show it as a Title as well, and he's chosen to do that.

Likely to confuse the fuck out of people with the mystery of it, since from what I've heard, there's no Holy Seer Class.

"So is this the Paladin I heard about?" Benjamin asks as he opens one of his chests and starts pulling out a few items. "The one I heard challenged you to a duel?"

"Indeed."

"I was pretty amazed," he says. "When I heard that you'd become a Paladin for Riddle. I wasn't aware he was even in the area until I heard his laughter while I was doing a search for another customer."

"You heard him laughing?" I ask.

"A few days ago, yeah," he sets out the items. "Riddle has a tendency to do that whenever he adds someone to his following – if there are others with his Holy Classes nearby, they hear him laughing. We don't know why. Is it true that both of you are Ultimate Skill holders?"

"All three of us," I sit down. "Cole and I both possess a single Ultimate Skill, while my fellow Paladin has mastered three Mythical Classes, Ranked-Up four times, and taught himself two more. By the way – do you have a sharper knife? I acquired a fair bit more END as a result of the duel, and your normal one might not pierce my skin."

"Alright," he grabs the knife he had on the blanket and starts looking through his chests.

The other items spread out on the blanket include a blank sheet of paper and a crystal orb roughly a foot in diameter and completely clear to the point that it would be invisible, were it not for the slight bending of the light passing through it.

He also has out an array of crystals of varying colors, with seemingly no rhyme or reason to them, numbering twenty-one in total, forming a circle and star pattern on the paper.

"Here we go," Benjamin locates a knife with a pale blue blade. "If this one won't cut you, I don't have anything that can."

I nod, then sit down as he places the orb on the center of the paper, in the middle of the array. I stick out my arm, holding it above the crystal, and Benjamin pierces my skin, the blade having some resistance as it penetrates. The psychic keeps the blade in me, adjusting it, until several drops of my blood drip onto the crystal.

Once enough blood has touched the orb, the psychic removes the blade, and I pull my arm back as he places his hands to either side of the orb, which then takes on a golden hue – the same golden hue as the psychic's eyes.

Several minutes pass, and then the crystals on the paper shatter, turning to dust before fading away, a window to Earth appearing, switching between several different scenes before stopping, the images fading away.

The orb returns to normal, dropping onto the paper, and Benjamin frowns.

"One of them was missing," he tells me. "I couldn't locate all of your siblings – specifically, a brother. I couldn't tell if he was dead or not, but he was-"

"He's not on Earth," I tell him, and he raises an eyebrow. "It looks like my siblings are all doing okay, though. At least, the ones still there. Can we do another scrying, this time to see the brother who's here?"

"Yes," he nods. "Though it'll have to be just me viewing this time."

"That's fine," I nod, tossing him another gold royal.

He sets up another crystal array, and we repeat this process, only no images form on the paper this time. About five minutes pass, then the orb returns to normal and drops down.

"He's doing okay," Benjamin informs me. "He's located in a town with a fair few people who came from Earth, and is learning his first Class. At the moment, he's… with a guy. It seems he moved fast in getting laid, once he got here, unlike you."

My brother's probably going to have slut-related Classes, based on what I knew of him before we came here. Only his sexuality was different from what I'd thought.

"He's safe," Benjamin tells me. "How did you know he was here? He's thousands of miles away."

"Die of Mystery teleported him there from here."

"Ah," he smiles. "The great and mysterious Die of Mystery. I've only used it a couple of times… I tend to get bad rolls."

"It all balances out in the end," I shrug. "Thank you, Benjamin."

"You're welcome," he tells me. "Is there anything else?"

"No," I stand. "Enjoy the rest of the evening, as well as the night."

He nods, then I leave, my team following behind.

"You check in on your brothers?" Cole asks.

"At least once a week, since I learned of his powers," I nod. "Though Benjamin is grumpy during the day, so it's best to wait until night."

"Why did his agitation fade when he saw you?" Cole asks. "It calmed down immediately with no trace of it left."

"I pay him a gold royal," I say. "No matter the cost. None of his individual services costs that much. In addition, I am much kinder than many who seek out his power, and have never insulted him. He respects me because of that. I am probably the only person he won't hit with a nasty Skill for waking him up. In addition to all of that, utilizing his powers to view into other worlds is taxing on him, but also rare, and a single view gives him a decent amount of Experience. He's gained three Levels since I found him, mostly due to me."

"Oh, okay," Light says. "A few of the people back home are psychics, but his was definitely the strongest gift for it I've seen. The most any of the ones I know were able to do when peeking was about two seconds. He managed to peek into another world for several minutes."

"Yeah," I nod. "Might be why Trickster picked let him become a follower. Anyway, let's head to the house, and see if everything's been set up right. We might need to visit some shops tomorrow."

"Probably, not" Light says. "I left some familiars behind, to make sure things were done right."

Uh… which kind of familiars? And when did you Summon them?