- Arthas -
On one side was Kurumi and on the other side was Bina. Rose and Elaine were in the middle looking tense while Veena was sitting and sipping tea as usual with a smile on her face.
My arrival brought the attention of everyone to me, defusing the situation temporarily.
"Arthas!" Rose looked relieved to be out of that situation and quickly came towards me. "Did you have your breakfast already? Would you like to have something now?" She asked, quite eagerly, probably trying to shift the topic.
I didn't want any of the tension either so I replied according to her expectations. "No. I am starving. I would really love something to eat."
"Great. I will serve breakfast." She answered and began to leave but was interrupted by a voice.
"Please leave that to me, Rose." Bina said, stopping Rose from intruding in her territory.
This wasn't a surprise to any of us.
Bina never let anyone help in her duties, well except Elaine.
Veena only cooked sometimes because she liked it as a hobby.
Other than that, the kitchen was a forbidden zone to anyone who was not a maid.
Rose knew better than to argue and stood back while Bina gave us a bow and left the room.
"So… what was that about?" I asked Veena who was still unphased by the whole thing and was calmly sipping her tea.
"Nothing. First meetings are always fun to watch."
"...if you say so." I said unsurely, taking a look at Kurumi who huffed and sat down. She didn't look too angry so who knows what happened.
I will ask her later.
"Any progress on the Battle Aura Skill?" Veena asked.
I shook my head. "I feel like I am close but I just can't get it to manifest. Arnold says many people train for months, even years to get this skill so I shouldn't get disappointed. It will just take some more time." I looked at Elaine who was quiet now and spoke. "Was the journey difficult?"
"No. The knights and our guild members made sure there was nothing wrong."
"How many guild members have come?"
"Twenty. "
"I take it that you all will be going on to make business deals today?" I asked, Veena.
"That's the plan. Did you have something else in mind?"
"Not really. I am planning to return back to the Knight's Academy. Sir Ralph has offered to spend the rest of the day teaching me to see if I can get a hang of the Battle Aura before leaving Greenfrost."
While we were talking Bina returned with plates of food and served breakfast for everyone… even Kurumi.
The breakfast was quiet and I did notice that Rose was feeling awkward between Bina and Kurumi.
One was a comrade she had known for a while and shared many hardships with in this world while the other was a new friend, one of the very few friends her own age.
She didn't want to side with anyone in fear of pushing the other side away. Seeing this I decided to give her a way out.
"By the way, Rose, would you like to accompany me to the Knight's Academy to spar with some Knights? You could train some of your skills there."
Looking like a drowning person who just found a straw she nodded her head quickly.
"Great. Then we will leave after breakfast. What's your plans for today, Kurumi?"
"Eh me? Nothing much. I will get my equipment fixed today. The durability on some of them have come down quite low. Don't want to break them when in the middle of a fight." She shrugged.
…that was such a blatant lie.
Gasper fixed her equipment everytime she went back. All her equipment was always at a max durability.
Unfortunately Rose didn't know this. "You should get some spare equipment in that case. I have some extra armour if you want." Rose offered.
Neither Veena nor I called her out for this.
I looked at Elaine and asked. "Did you bring the blueprints for the equipment we had bought on Sabaody?"
She nodded.
"Then go with Kurumi and give them to Gasper. See if that helps him level his skills." I ordered. I could imagine them wanting some time to talk to each other.
We left the house after that and went to the Knight's Academy for the rest of the day.
_________________________________x_________________________________
"That's more like it. Keep pushing harder. You are near." Sir Ralph said and chugged down water from his glass.
"Hmm. Any advice for me when I go to the capital tomorrow?" I asked as I ate some food to restore my health which I had lost in the spar earlier.
It was almost evening and Rose was also resting after sparring with the Knights all day long.
"Advice? No, not really. You will be fine. Lord Uther himself recommended you and Prince Arthas presented you with the position of the City Lord of Alverton. I doubt anyone would mess with them. You should be fine. His Majesty is a fair and just man. He maintains a fair rule in the capital. So as long as you don't go out of your way to antagonise anyone blatantly, no one is going to do anything to you."
"Yes. The process is not that long either. We can be done in a few hours. Just the reward and a round of drinks with the other Knights for the introduction purpose. Then we can leave there."
"That sounds reasonable." I replied.
I have had too much politicking even when I wasn't actively getting involved in all that went around here. I just wanted this to get over to go back to levelling up again.
"Oh, one thing you can do is ask for supplies for your new town in case you want to develop it according to your own choice. His Majesty can provide you with a budget to fund any changes there. Funds are one thing which you will never have enough of when working as a City Lord. Trust me. I have been there too. Ask Arnold."
"Hahahaha yes… that… is not a lie." Arnold laughed awkwardly.
"But I don't even know anything about the town of Alverton. How do I even estimate something like that?"
"Oh, they have documents in the capital. Every year, all the cities in the country have to send documentation of the city's affairs to the capital. You can access them and decide what you want to change. Sure there are many things you can only know when you go to the city but there is always later for that."
"Any ideas how much I should ask for starters?" I asked.
"Oh go high. Twenty minimum."
"Millions?"
"Yes. His Majesty is more likely to grant you the amount if you ask for it the first time as he himself rewards this. From the next time on, you will have to deal with the finance department and those people are…"
"The worst." Arnold completed.
"How bad?"
"I'd rather attend ten parties with nobles than have one round of discussions regarding the budget with them." Arnold said with a straight face.
To my surprise, not even Sir Ralph who generally chides Arnold on his lackadaisical attitude towards socialising with nobles, denied and just nodded his head.
"I will ask Veena or Shiroe to take care of that then. We don't have to do it in person, do we?"
"Oh but we do. They know we hate that, that's why they make it a rule. The City Lord has to participate in the discussion by themselves and while they can have the documents and points prepared by advisors, they cannot bring in anyone to help negotiate the budget itself. Tricky gremlins, those officials are." Sir Ralph spat, looking as if he was remembering some unpleasant things.
"You don't look intimidated by that." Arnold asked.
"Hmm? No, not really. My parents are… merchants. Quite well to do ones too. I have been trained in these things since I was a kid. Apart from that, you seem to forget that my guild members can communicate with each other even when we don't see each other." I smiled slyly.
"You little… hahahaha. Yeah, fleece them some for us too." Sir Ralph laughed and we joined in.
I looked at Arnold. "Up for another round?" I said, getting up and raising my sword as Holy Ray fell on me, healing up the rest of damage on me.
"Anytime." Arnold said with a smile, as he took on a stance in front of me.
_________________________________x_________________________________
I thrust in one last time and shot out jets of my cum in Veena's ass as I fell down on top of her.
She breathed into the bedsheets which were completely drenched in our sweat and juices by now.
We had been going at it for three hours already.
She wasn't lying when she said that she wanted me to herself tonight.
Rose would have fainted if she were in the room by now… although I doubt she missed much with the amount of noise Veena was making.
Suddenly I think it was less for Rose and more for Bina who had arrived today… and just happened to be in the room beside ours.
Veena had dragged me into the bedroom right after dinner. The new house did have separate baths for every room. Nobles did have a great selection of houses to buy in Greenfrost too.
We started in the bath and came to the bedroom and continued and now we looked like we needed another bath.
Finally, I rolled on my back and she turned to lay with her head on my chest and snapped her fingers, casting a quick Clean Spell on us, cleaning the bed and everything around us.
There was still the smell of sex in the room for anyone who walked it. The game was very particular about the weirdest of things.
I ran my hand on her back, softly caressing her back and ass as she hugged me closer. "That was… amazing." I breathed out.
"Umm. You looked like you wanted a good day after working so hard to try to learn Battle Aura… and I did promise to reward you for that amazing performance in the Tournament Finals. We just never got to it yet."
"That was the best reward I have received in this world." I replied… not even lying.
Sorry, Game Master. No offense.
Veena giggled at my words and gave me a peck on my cheeks.
Since we were alone, I decided to ask her about the issue with Kurumi and Bina.
"Bina just doesn't trust people so easily. While she knows that there was something wrong with her case, she will not let her guard down until she is sure about her innocence by herself, and she can be… a bit blunt with her words."
"Oh, so I guess she must have told her something and Kurumi reacted aggressively."
"Something like that. Don't worry. Although she can be rude with her words, she doesn't do it without any purpose. It's generally used to test out the people she is speaking to, to observe how they react or what kind of things ticks them off. Believe it or not, Bina is quite adept in interrogation. She and the current Leviathan, Serafall…"
"The one who plays around as a Magical Girl?" I smiled.
"Hehehehe yes, that one. She does look cute in that costume of hers." She defended. "Anyways, both of them are very good at negotiation. Bina could have been the Leviathan if she had won against Serafall and would have been in charge of Foreign Affairs so don't fall for her stoic and blunt persona. She can be very tricky when she wants to. Both of them were very good at extracting information from their enemies, even better than the current Asmodeus, someone who is in charge of the military of the entire Underworld."
"I have never underestimated her." I replied.
"Good. Don't worry. She will go back to normal when she is satisfied with Kurumi. It would be easier if Kurumi were to honestly have a talk with her and explain her situation.
"I doubt that would be so easy. Both of them are stubborn people. For this to work out they would have to find a middle ground or one of them will have to take a step back. I just don't see the second one happening."
"Well, they will get there. Just let them sort it out. I doubt whatever happened back then would be easy for Kurumi to talk about seeing how defensive she was whenever the topic came up."
"Any guesses what it could have been?" I asked.
"Hmm. I have seen some of the information. She seemed to be doing very great in the Rating Games before the incident, showing a very impressive growth. Her King however… seemed quite lacking. Some devils can be very petty. I can see him abusing her and her just snapping and killing him in rage." Veena replied.
I looked at the ceiling. I already had an idea what had happened but couldn't bring up that without a solid reason. Veena did have some points right though. At least about the abuse and snapping and killing him in rage but the rest is off.
"What do you think could be the reason?" She asked.
"Me?"
"Hmm."