"Pfft— HAHAHAHA!!!"
Lily was laughing loudly as we walked our way downstairs towards the tavern's dining area.
"Not funny, Lily. And here I thought we gave John a nightmare that he'll never want to see," I told her.
"Were you expecting something to happen?" she placed her index finger on her lips and winked at me.
"Even if things were to happen, there's no way I'm doing it with John sleeping in the same room," I explained to her.
"I was just messing with ya. I saw John eating downstairs, so I thought of giving you a scare by lying down next to you," chuckled Lily.
Good thing she didn't go as far as to strip down just to tease me. Ever since that kiss, it seemed that something was unlocked inside of her. It's like a floodgate of feelings that she's been keeping all those years had finally been released. Say goodbye to the shy Lily Moonshine.
We saw John and Rose chatting as they were having breakfast at the dining area. There was another food bowl on the table. Is that mine? How thoughtful of them to order for me in advance.
"That took a while for you to use the washroom. Is everything alright?" asked Rose as she saw Lily approaching.
"Hm? Oh. I went to wake Zen up. Sorry it took so long," said Lily as she smirked.
Rose squinted at me. She must have suspected something had happened. I'm innocent, I tell you! Glad I didn't give her the bracelet instead. Her perception had always been over 9,000! Giving her more might cause the universe to implode on itself.
So much for being thoughtful. That meal was actually Lily's. She must have ordered it and then came up to mess with me. Sheesh. Guess I'll need to order my own.
"Why didn't any of you wake me up earlier? We could have eaten together," I asked as I sat down on an empty seat.
"Disturb the only individual capable of hurting THE Underwater Dragon King? Who would be crazy enough to do that?" chuckled John.
"We just wanted you to rest as much as you needed, Onii-chan. After all, you were the one who saved all of us yesterday," answered Rose.
As I thought of raising my hand to order some food, a waitress came and placed some food in front of me. Oh, it would seem that they had ordered for me in advance. Thank you, my kind, thoughtful friends.
"Rose, how's your wound? It didn't look that great yesterday when you showed me," I asked her.
"Oh, it's certainly getting better now. The cooling gel worked miracles, honestly," answered Rose as she showed me her wound. It was definitely healing up nicely.
"Cooling gel?" asked Lily as she tilted her head.
"It's just some healing items we found when we were at the Northern continent. Too bad you weren't there, Lily. The demons were really crazy to fight against. We even fought a greater demon there too. I'm still amazed we made it back alive that day," answered John as he smirked to himself thinking about it.
"You guys have healing items? Isn't that like, even more valuable than the water breathing potion? I want some healing items too!" said Lily as she slammed her fists on the table lightly.
Both Rose and John turned to look at me. Why are they asking me for permission? I don't own the rights to those healing items. But—thanks for telling me that my most prized possession doesn't even compare with a common healing item from the north. I appreciate your honesty, Lily. That didn't make me feel dead inside at all.
"If you want, I'll make some for you later," I sighed.
"Making potions and healing items, someone is trying to be the indispensable one in the group. Is there anything you can't do, Zen?" asked Lily as she smirked at me.
"Plenty, to be honest. Don't get me started," I explained.
We finished our meal but stayed for a chat as we had not planned anything for today. I have to stay within this city for two days, and I'm sure Rose won't leave without me. Not sure about John or Lily though; will they be staying or leaving after this?
Just then, Q popped out from the ground to pass me the daily newspaper. How is he able to find me all the way down here?! I wished I knew either. I took the paper from him while Rose picked him up to pet him. He always loved his belly rub from Rose.
"Seems like you made the front news, John," I showed him the paper.
Written on the front page was his name and hand-drawn face with the title 'New Viking Lord Appointed! Survived the Underwater Dragon King's Carnage'.
"Will you be going back today to establish yourself as the new guildmaster? You made it, John. You should be proud of yourself," I said to him.
"Who knew that the little boy that asked me to follow after him to the city would end up becoming the Viking Lord? Congratulations," chuckled Lily.
"I think I'll put it on hold for the time being. I want to enjoy myself to the last second before I officially take on the role of a guildmaster. Two days, right, Zen?" John asked me, and I nodded to him.
"What about you, Lily? Going back with your Elemental guild?" I asked her.
"Huh? They already went back yesterday. I told them I'll be staying here until you officially leave here. It's been so long since I met you. I want to take this opportunity to hang out together. And besides, if the Viking Lord is still here, I can't leave without him." she explained.
"W— What? Then what about the Viking members? You're not going back with them, John?" I asked him.
"They went back along with the Elemental guild yesterday. Didn't you know about it?" he asked me back. Of course I didn't know about it because no one told me about it!
"So, y'all are telling me that you three had already decided to stay here with me for the next two days? And no one is planning to tell me until I asked?" I confronted all of them as I rubbed my temple.
"We thought you knew," all three of them answered simultaneously. Wow— I'm completely speechless.
"Well then, let's go enjoy ourselves for the next two days," I stood up ready to head out.
***
We visited various places around the city. From a farm, a forestry, to even a park. Underwater! I can't tell you the number of times I was mind blown that such things actually existed down here. I have a deeper respect for the elves now for actually being able to pull such an insane feat themselves.
I asked Lily whether she knew about the history of why the elves were actually willing to help the Vikings build this underwater city in the first place. She informed me that the elves were intrigued by the idea of doing the impossible. It was actually the Underwater Dragon King that made it possible in the first place. Without his help, this city would never have existed. Perhaps it was him trying his best to help his daughter in making things work with the first Viking Lord. Without this city, it was practically impossible for mermaids to meet with humans without getting captured or poached. Mermaid kidnapping was notorious before the first Viking Lord made it illegal. This city is living proof that merpeople, humans, and elves can co-exist together and live in harmony.
How romantic. I never expected the Underwater Dragon King to be so idealistic. But he is certainly an honourable being, seeing that he's still willing to keep his promise to the first Viking Lord. He must have loved him like his own son.
We decided to head to the tallest building in the glass dome. It's a shipyard where all ships are kept or being serviced. Every ship must be inspected properly before heading back to the surface. The elves made it an absolute rule that there will be no accidents or deaths, whether it is from the journey down here or back to the surface. To date, there have been zero deaths thus far. There were some accidents in the early days when they were still testing on ships and such, but the merpeople were kind enough to help out to ensure that all of them do not end up drowning themselves.
We bought our tickets earlier to ensure there were seats for us to return to the surface in two days' time. I asked the receptionist if I could refund or change the date in the event that the city council doesn't allow me to leave in two days' time. She said that if I can show proof that I am staying here due to a contract waiting duration, then I can change the date. No refunds are allowed, sadly.
***
The following day, we decided to head outside of the glass dome. But before that, I told them that I wanted to find a way to restore my gauntlet's spell charges. Those spells do not restore by themselves after usage despite a day having passed. I went to numerous blacksmiths and merchants, and none of them knew how to restore those charges. They didn't even know that it was possible for an item to contain spells in the first place. One of them recommended that I check with the priestess instead. Anything "magical" or mysterious is usually handled by the priestess in the city.
Doesn't hurt to check out. We don't have much to do today anyway. On our way there, I asked Lily why she decided to be a brawler. I always thought that she would end up using a sword or a bow instead. She came closer to me and held my right hand, but it was hidden behind my cloak. She told me that during her training, she tried out numerous weapons, but she excelled in none of them. It was her instructor that passed her these gauntlets for her to test out. She said that the words of the instructor will be forever etched in her mind. 'Punch as hard as you can' was what he told her.
Even though the gauntlets increase her strength and defence, she was actually quite proficient in using them, which was a complete surprise. Hence, the gauntlets were given to her as a parting gift, which she still uses now.
A female that can punch you hard enough to send you flying. Not to mention getting burned or electrocuted in the process. I better not mess with her if I really do end up going out with her.
We arrived at the priestess's location. I was confused by the signboard hanging outside as I couldn't make out whether it read as Akara or Adria, as the wordings were ridiculously cursive. Either way, this should be the right location based on the bizarre items that I can see inside the building. I opened the door and the amount of mystical items and such were on full display from the entrance to the counter area. I talked to the priestess as the other three browsed the shop. I asked her whether she knew of a way to restore spell charges to an item. She said that she had heard of such a thing before but it was purely based on research. Thankfully, she is willing to test it for me.
I passed her my gauntlets for her to inspect. She warned me that it could be quite costly to perform. In the event that it's not successful, I will only be charged a small service fee. But if it ended up being successful and depending on how much I used, it might cost me around five to ten gold coins to restore all the charges.
Yikes, that is certainly expensive! I seriously hope that my potion royalty would start hitting off soon, otherwise I'll be eating grass due to the expenses of my gauntlets alone. I checked my pockets for how much remaining money I have with me. Thankfully, I still have enough since I only spent a small portion out of the total amount that I brought so far. There was no reason for me to bring so much in the first place when I have no idea if I was going to survive the Underwater Dragon King's wrath. My will states that I will be giving all my possessions to either Rose or Q should anything happen to me. Obviously, Q is unaware of it.
I told the priestess to proceed after I showed her that I had enough to pay her. Good thing she accepts Western currency as payment. She brought out some tools and some shiny-looking stones or gems. I asked her whether it would take long, but she said that it would take around ten minutes at the most. I can wait for that.
I headed to check on what those three were browsing. John was alone, checking out some weird-looking artefacts. As I walked closer to Lily and Rose, I could hear them talking about a ring. Is there another enchanted ring here? I am definitely eager to buy another one if there is. But it turns out their conversation was about Rose's ring. Lily was asking Rose who bought it for her, and she said it was me. When Lily was about to ask whether it was a proposal ring, she quickly shot down the idea and said that it was just a constitution ring that boosted her stats.
Huh? The 'Rose' that I know would have taken the opportunity to boast about it, but she quickly cleared up the misunderstanding with her. What's going on?
I decided to hang with John instead as I don't want to be caught in the conversation of two ladies. It was not long until the priestess called out to me to inform me of the success of the charges recovery. As I did not use too many of the spell charges, it ended up costing me six gold coins in total. Still painful, but thankfully not the full payment.
I asked the priestess whether there are other locations in different cities that would be knowledgeable enough to perform this charges recovery. She said that all the major cities should have a priestess that can perform this. She will be teaching her findings at the upcoming meeting with all the other priestesses.
Wow, I didn't even know that priestesses had their own gathering to discuss new things. Perhaps it is due to the mysteries of using magic, which was still foreign to us even after all these years. We had only unlocked fortification magic and nothing else thus far. I am sure someone out there is finding ways to unlock magic to its full potential.
I curiously asked what gem or stone she used to recover the charges. I hope it's not a gem that contained souls or something. She told me that she used a stone that contained the soul of a dying child screaming on the brink of death.
I gave her the most worried and concerned look, to which she said, "Just kidding." I was not expecting a priestess to joke about that. She said that it's a rare stone that contains magical properties within it. It is certainly rare but not impossible to find. Perhaps I should find out more about these stones in the library one day. Hopefully, there is a book about it.
I gave my thanks to the priestess, and we left the store. Onwards to our underwater tour! We decided to head to the southern entrance instead. That was where I saw the merpeople's building and houses when we first came here.
Rose walked up to John, who was ahead of us, and pulled on his arm. Huh? What's going on? Since when did Rose have romantic interest in John? Perhaps something happened that I'm not aware of.
The idea of Rose and John being together? Not the worst I can think of. John is a Viking Lord now, and he is certainly my best friend. Yes, I had confirmed with him. I would not deny them should they wish to get together.
Lily took the opportunity to get close to me. She wanted to hold my hand, but I asked her whether we should really be doing this when we are unclear on our relationship status. She was taken aback by my words but nodded lightly. I would prefer to know where we stand before we started going all lovey-dovey or something. I proposed to her the idea of a date when we returned to the City Of Pines. She agreed immediately to that idea. Until then, we just kept close to each other as we walked to our destination.
The underwater walk was certainly a sight to behold. There is something captivating in being able to walk, breathe, and see clearly underwater. Between the fish swimming around you and the merpeople, it was—breathtaking indeed. Some of the merpeople noticed that we weren't wearing any helmets and immediately rushed in to check on us. We told them everything was fine and they would be knowing more about it on the news, hopefully by tomorrow. I really hope nothing goes wrong with the recipe and potion. I want to go back to the surface.
Right, so do merpeople get to visit inside the dome? Sure, they do. They are capable of breathing air directly. Their only limitation is movement on land, where they have to slither. But there are free rides for them where they can sit to reduce their slithering movements.
No matter how much I looked at it, I just can't get used to seeing a building without a door. There is something unique yet feeling strangely wrong at the same time for a building to only have windows. We enjoyed walking around while keeping track of the potion's duration with an hourglass. I really should start thinking about finding other ways to estimate time properly. We garnered a lot of attention from the merpeople and some elves that saw us walking without a bubble helmet. We told them that we're not at liberty to discuss the details of it. Should they wish to know more, the city council will be telling them in detail soon.
We reached a famous site where we stood on top of a cliff overlooking the city from above. We could see the entirety of the city from here. We sat down for a moment to enjoy the scenery. Lily rested her head on my shoulder. I decided to allow it as we were enjoying the moment. I had already denied her the chance of holding hands together earlier; I should give her some leeway if I wished to stand a chance at dating her.
We decided to call it a day when John's stomach started rumbling loudly. As I was standing up, Lily gave me a peck on the cheek and went on ahead. That certainly made me smile a little. John came up beside me and whispered.
"You—might want to start treating Rose better after this," whispered John.
"Huh? What brought this on? I had never treated Rose badly before," I explained to him.
He just tapped my shoulder and walked away.
Damn, something must be going on, and I need to get to the bottom of this, or my name is not Watson.
I walked up to Rose and asked her how she is faring, but she was tight-lipped. She is definitely not acting her usual self. I really don't like when things are awkward between us, and I don't know the reason. What did I do wrong? What exactly happened when I was asleep? Is it possible for Kirin or Byakko to affect my friends or something?
***
Another day arrived, and the moment of truth approached. Did the mayor successfully create the potion based on my recipe, or did he fail? I've written down every single detail, down to the measurements and preparation method, inside the recipe for him.
We met the mayor at his office, along with a city council member waiting there. When I walked up to him, his expression turned a 180, and he started smiling as he held out his hand, which I took. He shook my hand with extreme excitement. He was smiling and laughing like a little boy receiving his first toy. I'll take that as a sign that the recipe is a success. The city council handed out a scroll for the mayor to sign, which he gladly signed. His signature is required to confirm that he had indeed succeeded in making the potion, and he cannot make any turn-back in saying that he made changes to the recipe, which might cause a dispute to not pay me because of that. As I was the one who provided the main recipe, any changes or additions to the recipe do not affect the contract as I am still the one who provided the original recipe. Unless he can prove that he is using a completely new recipe with different ingredients, then that's debatable.
Until then, I am entitled to my royalty profits. My luxury life awaits me back in the City Of Pines. All the things I can buy or do when I am rich! I can even buy my own property should I wish! Once again, how wrong was I?