Not only was she some kind of Vampire, but she was also a guild mistress?!

“Your tongue is quite long,” was the only thing I could stutter.

“Yes it is. Thank you for noticing,” she replied sarcastically, “So, have you thought about the price?”

“For my silence about your vampirism?”

I felt there was something wrong with her deliberately licking her mouth like that. Was it a threat? Would the whole guild not attack her if the word got out?

“What? No! Silly. You are not the only adventurer in the guild with Status Check.”

“Suddenly no one bats an eye to a vampire walking in broad daylight?”

“Why would they? I have citizenship of Velia granted by a special royal edict,” she said matter-of-factly.

“That.. is strange.”

Elfin must have heard the commotion and approached us with her dagger drawn.

“Master is our career advisor a monster?”

“Apparently so.”

“Should I attack?”

“No, look at her level. If she was hostile we would already be up in Heaven.”

Though our reaction speed would decide whether we would teleport there in one or more pieces. Guess I need to set up a safe/panic room for such cases. I cannot just use Heavens for that and..

“I am sorry for being useless, master.”

“No,” I said sliding towards her, while maintaining eye contact with the Guild Mistress all along. I dragged my companion towards my side of the bookcase and closer to me, “I do not think she would attack, when we are together in a public place like a guild.”

“Damn you, mister Lynx. I am not some bloodthirsty murderer. Though I do drink blood. It is kind of a racial thing,” she said shaking her head, ”I approached you to ask about the price of your slave. Have you thought about it?”

“Oh, yes. I have had. I kind of expected you to not give up on that.”

Elfin started trembling. Or was it my and the rage I felt?

“Please do not sell me, master Lynx,” Elfin said and grasped my hand firmly. The dagger fell on the floor with a bang.

I grinned and winked at her.

“We will see if she can afford you.”

“So, how much compensation would you require?” eagerly asked miss dhampiress.

“This Elfin can be yours today for but a meager sum of just 8 675 417 medium gold coins of Velia! Purchase today to get a complimentary set of clothes and a fruit basket!”

That was an increase in price to accommodate increased total number of coins on Thrope proper. I wondered briefly where from those hundred-ish coins appeared in just one day.

In response Guild Mistress gritted her teeth or fangs rather. It would be hard to call something so long a mere tooth.

“Damn you. Is that not an even higher price than yesterday?

Someone was being observant today.

“Oh, yes, it happens to be so.”

“Why the increase?” further inquired dhampiress.

Elfin tried to whisper in my ear something like “Master tell her my eye is healed..”, but I rudely ignored that advice.

“She has learned a new skill,” I stated.

“What skill?”

At least she had the courtesy to not check with Status Check she had.

“It is called ‘Hug’,” I said and hugged my elf to make fun of a monothematic vamp. Assuring this lithe bundle of nerves she was safe was a welcomed bonus. “If that is not worth a hundred gold I do not know what is.”

“Damn you, Lynx. You will regret it.”

“Why would I? Are you threatening me?” I asked being genuinely curious.

“No, but you will run out of savings one day.”

“Oh, is that so?”

Sooner the hell would freeze over, you know? Wait, maybe it is actually frozen? Frozen and fiery hells were both common among the Earth’s mythologies. Which one is it for Thrope?

“Yes. You have not even turned in one quest since registering. I also found no record of entering the dungeons on your card.”

“What if I am a disgustingly rich and disgustingly fat noble that will never run out of wealth?”

“Pretending to be a noble is a major crime. Sometimes capital one,” she chided me for my joke.

I did not want to lose my head. Regrowing that would be a major pain in the posterior. Do not rat me out dhampire.

“I am merely hypothesizing.”

“Master could not turn in quests because our designated career advisor slept the whole day!” intertwined Elfin.

Well, that was technically correct. I wanted to turn in the herbs and ask about those bear monsters as soon as the classes finished.

“Guild mistress! This is a library! Please be quieter,” she was scolded by her own employee.

“Tsk. I will get you,” she complained. Though I was not sure if she actually meant me, Elfin or the Librarian.

“Stop being grumpy or I will revoke your Library card,” threatened the Librarian.

Damn scary to do that to an ancient blood stalker of the night.

“You could have at least kept quiet about my position in the guild,” she whispered back to him.

We already knew that. I mean I did use Status Check. What was it all about? Was it a secret?

“Maybe we should move to another room, miss Lusinda,” I suggested.

Clearly making noise in library was a no-go. However no one else was here to read right now. The Librarian position must be higher than that of Guild Mistress. Knowledge is power after all.

“Master, we still have some time for reading reserved and paid,” reminded my sweet elf.

“Can you read anything when someone noisy speaks over your head like that?

She shook her head.

After hearing our exchange GM Lusinda went out of the room without a word.

“Have you written down the titles to research later?”

“Yes, here,” she said and tried to hand me the list, but I told her to keep it. It was quite a long one.

We left the Public Library. Truth to be told there were only a few grains of the sand left in our hourglass.

“Sorry about that. She is always grumpy when she wakes up,” apologized the Librarian. What a great man.

“Are you aware sir, that she is a vampire?”

“Dhampire. Do not mistake the two in front of her. Yes. Everyone in the guild is aware of that. Had the clerk registering you not mentioned it among the unofficial rules of conduct?”

“We got registered by her,” I explained, “There were no such explanations.”

“Mistress Lusinda? Is she your career advisor?”

I nodded.

“My condolences.”

“Uh, sure. Thanks?”

That was weird.

We went out to the main corridor where our dhampiric advisor awaited us.

“Come,” she said impatiently and stormed off.

We were led to a nicely furnished room on the third floor. There were many decorations like busts of some gals and dudes and a large painting. It showed some large battlefield that was mostly centered around an enormous yellow dragon. That confirmed the existence of draconic species on Thrope. Or did it? Earth also has paintings like “Jerry and the Dragon” or something.

Whole of the third floor was also carpeted unlike the paved first floor and second one which was tiled with plain wooden boards. Carpet was nice, but heavenly cloudlike flooring was the softest and simply the best. I wonder If I can import that material if I ever buy a permanent residence in Ythall.

“Well. Now you know,” said the dhampiress while sitting heavily, which defied her lithe frame. Her apparent fragility rivaled that of my still malnourished companion. I doubted a noble like her would face the same fate and lack money for food.

“What exactly?” I asked.

“Why would the guild mistress work as a clerk?” asked the curious half-elf sitting by my side.

The monstrous guild mistress sniffed the air in lieu of answering. She tasted it with her tongue like a snake would. Her tongue was more slender than ours were, but not forked.

“Man, what did you feed your slave? Her blood smells so different from yesterday. Sell her to me!”

“No can do, you impoverished dhampire! What even were you intending to use my elf cutie for?”

She smiled and I could not decide between calling it a hungry or lecherous smile. Elfin did not join the conversation. Whenever the topic shifted to her enslaved status and a possibility of her being human trafficked she would become strangely shy. No wonder why. She still did not trust me after so little time together. It was pretty normal.

“She would not be harmed. In fact compared to a life of an adventurer aide she would be much safer. I would pamper and feed her the best food that most nobles cannot eat on a daily basis.”

“Like that expensive apple pie sweetened with sugar at canteen?”

“Exactly like that. But maybe not daily. Sugar is really expensive after all.”

“All nice and prim, but what is the hidden downside, the final “but..”?”

“There is no but. I might sample her blood now and then. Nothing excessive.”

“You want my Elfin as a blood bank?”

“What a strange denomination. I like it,” she smiled genuinely without any hidden emotions.

“But we do not. I understand you need blood to sustain yourself, but seek it elsewhere.”

She seemed taken aback, but returned to her normal expression as quickly.

“You could give me yours. You also have an.. enticing aroma. Somewhat different, but also enticing,” she said in a serious tone and continued after a pause, “normally I would not ask that of a man, so you should feel proud.”

“Proud my ass. I get that the guild would exploit new members, but to literally feed on their blood and tears..,” I complained.

“Please, do not be rude. I can still have you expelled out of the guild.

I took a deep breath. Elfin slided towards me on the couch we were sitting on. She gently squeezed my arm as if to reassure herself and myself.

“Ok. Sorry, I will not be rude. We might have gotten off on the wrong foot. But if I ever find you drinking my blood or hers you will regret that.”

“Is that a threat?”

“It is but a promise.”

Ha ha, what a cheesy line. I cannot believe I had uttered it. How lame.

“Woah.”

“Woah.”

Elf-vampire duet had its first debut. Their astonishment was frankly surprising. I was speechless. Finally the dhampire interrupted the ensuing silence.

“I am glad we had that worked out already. I hope that we can work together to shape you up to be a proud C-ranker! Now, would you like something to drink?”

Hey, that is pretty low, right? It seems she does not have high expectations of us.

“Do you have anything besides blood?”

“Of course I do. I do not drink blood all the time.”

“Then two glasses of water, please.”

After she poured some from clay jug and we drank she asked, clearly astonished:

“Are you not going to check them for poison? I mean you are clearly hostile and suspicious of me ever since you learned of my species,” she complained.

“I have already done so,” I responded.

I had silently identified both the water and the glasses.

“Are you not going to ask us about the request we had wanted to hand in since the sun rose on this beautiful day?”

I could not help, but be sarcastic yet again.

“Meh. How can you so casually mix pleasure and work?”

I wanted to say something about not coming here for pleasure nor socializing, but thankfully my slave was more rational. She used her charm to direct the derailed conversation back on track.

“We have gathered herbs and we would like to hand them in,” spoke Elfin.

“What kind of?”

“Aloes”

“Oh. A common herb. I guess I held my hopes too high for an A-ranker. Soon your master will go bankrupt.”

That was technically the truth, heh. It was aloes.

I started taking out the damaged plants. Elfin started apologizing for their bad quality. Was that little demon of mine planning some face-slapping? Was face-slapping even invented in Velia?

“..we only took the classes about harvesting today,” she continued in apologetic tone.

“Those are not aloe plants..,” replied confused Guild Mistress.

She did not comment on my “space magic”. I was disappointed. Such a thing should be rare among mortals. I shrugged and replied to her.

“If you appraise them with Identify you will see that they are..”

“Those are the royal aloe!”

I think the moment she had flipped out was when I took the fifth one out of storage. It clearly was not due to Storage itself as it was publicly displayed on my status anyway. Maybe it was due to their awful state?

“So are they worth anything? Can they be used to get the quest finished?” I asked.

“Of course they are! When and where did you pick them? After a few hours they usually wither and those are still full of life. I need to get those delivered to alchemists as soon as possible.”

She went up to the wall and pulled on a rope going down. There was a distant silent ringing coming from the floor.

“How about renumeration and quest complete confirmation?”

“Sure, sure. How does 16 keshes sound?”

I exchanged looks with my companion. That was one coin more than the quoted price of 3 keshes (or 3 small silver) per piece. Unexpectedly nice of her.

“I am sorry, but their state is really horrible. Have you hired an orc to pick them up for you? If they were not so fresh I would pay less than half of normal price.”

She must have misunderstood.

“The price is alright. Funny you are speaking about fresh ones..”

“Why is that?”

“I have a couple more,” I said and started taking one by one the last twenty. All of them still alive in pots still brimming with mana. I wonder how much were those worth to her and her herbalists. Her mouth gaped at the sight. Her teeth were really scary.

This moment was picked by a random guild worker to come in. Seeing his guild mistress misconduct he went up to her and gently closed her jaw like she was some kind of a doll. To do so to that human predator must have taken some serious balls. Velia was a notion of death-seekers incarnate. Not to mention he only glanced and the room full of potted herbs and did not comment at all.

“Thanks. Please organize immediate delivery of those 5 plants and bring me a list of all of our royal aloe purchasers from the last five years. Lastly in about half an hour send me some fast runners to pick up letters.”

He nodded, picked a bunch of plants and left. All without a single word to his boss.

“How many is “a couple more” exactly?”

“Just twenty. All in all five quest sets worth. Pretty good harvest for our first day of adventuring in Ythall, right?”

Her right eyebrow started twitching.

“One day? You harvested this much in one day? Are you kidding me? You know how rare the royal aloe is? Did you rob an ancient elven Oldwoods?”

“Are they not some kind of a common weed?” asked my cute elf. Maybe she was serious. After some thinking she would probably not make light of such a monster.

“Weed!?”

She sighed, took out a small hip flask and took a long sip. Was it spirits or someone’s blood?

“It has not been an hour since I woke today and I am already tired. For those herbs I will pay you a standard price and see how much clients are willing to pay. Then you will get a substantial bonus. I should charge you extra for making me work over time.”

“It is literally the first hour of your work today,” I pointed out.

She groaned.

“Then it is safe to assume potted weed, I mean herbs are better than those harvested?”

“Of course. No one would bother carry pots into wilderness. You are both crazy.”

She took out her purse and handed me money. All 126 keshes of it.

“Now scram. I have a load of letters to write.”

“See you tomorrow.”

“Goodbye, miss Lusinda,” said Elfin politely.

“Yeah, bye.”

We almost left her after casually littering the room with pots, but I stopped because I had one more question.

“Are,” I quickly glanced through my inventory, “bear-like monsters called Medved Mishka edible?”

“They are, but I would not recommend tackling such a monster with just the two of you,” replied the Guild mistress, “you are not even a copper-rank.”

“Point taken. We will not fight them until we are coppers.”

She grumbled something about idiots making her work hard, but we had already excused ourselves.