Well, Arthur meeting wasn’t as dull as I thought it was gonna be, now that it’s sorted, I’m gonna go meet Rushka, it hasn’t even been a week since I st saw her, but I miss her a little bit, in fact I think she missed me as much, since I received a letter from her, inviting me over and things like that, her handwriting it’s quite amazing, not cutesy or anything of the sort, but it almost looks like it was made by a machine, every letter it’s exactly identical, I wonder how she got that good at it, my handwriting it’s terrible, anyways, other than her endearing words, she also mentioned that her father wished to meet me personally, so now I have a ‘work’ excuse to go there, despite me abandoning the station constantly, paperwork keep piling up, more so with the orphanages now.

  “Heather!”

  “Marisa, you’re back, as quick as always”

  “Yep, and I’m leaving again!”

  “To Dagdar right? I’ll get a carriage ready, want me to accompany you?”

  “Nah, thanks for the offer Heather but the carriage it’s also not needed, I’ll go there by myself”

  Heather just chuckled, it seems she’s starting to get used to my eccentric behavior, there’s really no need for people to accompany me, not for this anyways, I have an agenda after all, so the less people that accompany me, the better.

  “Do you know how to get there?”

  “Nope, I’m guessing north, and then I’ll continue from there”

  “...Are you sure you don’t want me to accompany you at least?”

  “I need you to stay here, there’s a lot of work right?”

  Heather looked at me with a sour face, honestly, Heather does a better job than me for a town lord, plus she knows almost everyone so it’s easy to have her manage the workforce and such activities.

  “Yeah... Well, it’s straight through the desert and then I recommend you going northeast to reach our neighboring town, unless you pn to go through the empire”

  “Another invasion, got it!”

  I then gave Heather a passionate kiss, as our lips locked together for a bit~

  “Well, I’m off~”

  “Safe travels!”

  And so I left, finding Celestial in the entrance.

  “Going over with Rushka? Want me to teleport you there?”

  “Yep, you know it, although a teleport could come in handy, I want to go there and try to memorize pces so I can come and go freely myself, so I’m ok for now”

  “Ok, truth be told I dislike the pce, but take care, and if anything happens, make a ruckus, I’ll be there in a moment’s notice”

  “Ok, but I think I’ll be fine”

  Celestial it’s worried about something, she’s barely around as of te, She’s usually studying in the basement, or going out to god knows where, if it wasn’t for the amount of work that piled up, I really want to help her with whatever she’s been doing.

  “Well, I’m sure you’ll be fine”

  Celestial then rubbed my head ruffling my hair, and headed back inside, probably to the aforementioned basement.

  Let’s focus on Rushka for now, so I went to the dwarf kingdom, and by that I mean, the desert, the remains of the soldiers that were massacred here have all but been removed, the ground however, still remember as there’s still gss visible from the fight, and the sand and blood made a sort of sandstone in the ground, it really ended up being quite a visage, bummer.

  I continued going north, I did know of Rushka’s country, I saw it on the map, It is still quite daring to go around like this, on that note, I was told that it’s in a quite imposing mountain, so I’m looking for those, not long after, I found a little outpost, is this the town Heather mentioned?

  “This is the Dagdar border! Please state your business before you can proceed”

  Ok, those are dwarves, smaller than me, so maybe I screwed up somehow? Did I end up going through the empire side at the end?

  “Yo!~ Chill a bit, I’m Marisa, Rushka invited me over”

  They flinched when they heard my name, the guards just looked at each other, then they doubted whether I’m Marisa or not.

  “Why would the town lord just walk through the empire border alone? And without an escort or a carriage at the very least?”

  So I hit the nail on the head, funny.

  “I like traveling lightly and I got kinda lost, but if you still doubt me, here’s Rushka’s letter”

  I said, showing them the letter that Rushka wrote to me, I’m keeping it in case I need it. Now that I think about it, I don’t even carry my backpack anymore.

  “T-this is certainly the royal family signature!”

  “Yep!”

  “R-right this way, would you like us to escort you to the capital?”

  “Nah, just point me in the general direction?”

  “It's northeast of here...”

  Said the guard, pointing through a dirt road.

  “Thanks!”

  I then dashed to the capital, I got there rather quickly? I don’t know, I can feel Rushka’s presence around, so I headed up the mountain, but there’s nothing here...

  Hmm...

  Am I forgetting something? They’re supposed to be here I think.

  You can’t fool me, I feel Rushka’s presence! Are they invisible? it’s just...

  Oh! They’re underground? I can definitely feel everyone under the mountain now that I focused for a second, weirdly enough since I can’t smell them per se, but I can somehow tell there’s people down there.

  Where’s the entrance though? I’m looking around but I can’t find anything, hmm...

  Could I dig a hole from the top? Maybe I can teleport inside?

  After 15 minutes of wandering around really quickly I finally found a road that goes into the mountain, so I headed there, only for me to get lost 5 seconds ter because this pce it’s a fucking maze! There’s not a single road, everything is dark although that doesn’t really bother me at all, but there’s barely any indication as to where I’m going, essentially just an endless mine...

  Hmm...

  For now I wandered about, until I eventually found a dwarf pushing a minecart along the road.

  “Hey!”

  “Waa! Demon!!”

  Of course, now he’s pointing at me with his pickaxe...

  “Seriously? I just got here, can’t you-“

  “W-wait! Aren’t you Marisa?”

  “Yes, do you know me?”

  “Oh! My apologies, I just didn’t expect to see you here...”

  Who are you to begin with?

  “Yeah, anyways, I’m lost, how do I get to the capital?”

  “It’s pretty close, follow me, we’ll be there in a minute”

  Oh! I wasn’t so off! Good luck getting out, this maze would be impossible to get around, this just made me gd to learn teleportation for when I need to head back home!

  “Oh!”

  “Is this your first time here? Welcome to Dagdar, the city of dwarves”

  It’s quite a nice pce! There’s buildings made of stone everywhere, and there’s no sunlight but bright shining stones along the walls and roof of the huge cave opening illuminate the pce in a dim but bright enough light!

  It’s quite an interesting pce, what caught my attention was a central pza, just in front of the castle in the middle, there’s a bunch of people here, but the center seems to be a huge circle with writings on it, I can’t tell what it is supposed to mean, reminds me of the book of gibberish Celestial gave me, but it looks old, like really old, it’s also covered by guardrails so people can’t get into the circle, there’s no one in it so it’s probably not open for public, albeit you can see it in a lot of pces, it is dead middle and quite rge.

  As I said, the stone carvings look ancient and faded, I’ll ask Rushka about it ter.

  For now, she’s probably in the big castle over there, I can feel her presence, I’m not even gonna bother entering from the main door, window it is, I’ll make it my signature move.

  “Rushka! Long time no see!”

  “Wha!? M-Marisa!! Why through the window!?”

  “You know I’m not really one for normal entries!~”

  Rushka was on a desk, writing down in a notebook, there’s a lot of trinkets sprinkled in the room around her.

  “I can see that”

  Said Rushka with a smile on her face.

  “I received your letter, but I though fitting to come over instead of replying, you know, face to face conversation and all of that”

  “You came all the way from Welst just to see me?”

  “Of course! Although weren’t you the one who invited me in the first pce?”

  “But I’d thought you’d be busy with the post war and all of that...”

  “It’s fine, speaking of, how’re you guys doing? The empire hasn’t bothered I hope”

  “Oh! The empire ceased all attacks! We were thinking of starting gathering troops to retaliate and-“

  “No! Don’t do that! It’s time for peace right now, don’t engage the empire anymore!”

  “E-eh? But... actually, maybe we should go with my father, he’s the king here so you should speak about such important things with him!”

  “Right, let’s go then~”

  And so I followed Rushka to another throne room. I'm getting tired of these, when will I get ‘MY’ throne room? I should order to get one built.

  ...

  ...

  “Ah! Rushka, I just- oh! Who might you be?”

  “I’m Marisa, pleasure to meet you”

  “Ho!, so you’re ‘that’ Marisa, I’m Tinka, king of Dagdar, and Rushka’s dad, I have to say you’re just as she described you”

  “Oh? Rushka talked about me?”

  “Of course! She wouldn’t stop talking about you in fact!”

  “Dad!”

  Heh~ I couldn’t help but smile. Anyways, I’ll spare the boring talk about politics, peace treaties and stuff like that. Let’s skip to the end!

  “So gd to finally have peace, we can’t thank you enough dy Marisa!”

  “It’s fine, they were a pain to me too anyways”

  “I can’t just let you go empty handed, please, if it’s within our capabilities, we’ll help you with what we can”

  “Hmm... for now how about strengthening the trade routes between my nd and here? I’m sure we could all use more of the other people’s stuff”

  I just said the first thing that came into mind, for the good of the people and whatnot.

  “Oh, that could be useful, but...”

  “Yes?”

  “Nothing, I just thought you’d ask Rushka’s hand in marriage, that’s-“

  “Dad!”

  “Hehe, we did got officially married back in Welst~”

  I like Rushka’s dad, he seems like a good person just like her, the first ruler that I like!

  “We’re aware, it was quite a shock knowing you were a woman, but if Rushka’s happy then as her dad my responsibility it’s to look after her happiness”

  “You say that yet you already tried to marry her off before”

  “They were desperate times, I regret that choice from the bottom of my heart, at least now, I want to do what’s right!”

  I know, Rushka told me the whole story, I just wanted to poke him a little bit.

  “Is that so, well... it’s true I was pnning on eloping with her but...”

  “Oho! bold of you, how brazen!”

  “That’s just me I guess~”

  “Still, that simply cannot stand! Let me celebrate you guys properly! A wedding is every girl's dream after all. I'm sure you’re in a hurry, but we can get everything ready by tomorrow probably! What do you say?”

  “Dad! That’s...”

  Rushka it’s a broken record, it’s funny seeing her flustered like that.

  “Ok! I could wait a day or two without a problem!”

  Just don’t tell Heather I said that.

  “Great! Let’s get everything ready then!”

  The dwarf king then proceeded to yell at one of the assistants, and before we knew it, the room got filled with people. It's quite amazing how he can give orders freely to everyone, even if it’s just for a random st minute wedding. As for Rushka and I, some maids took us out and into a corridor.

  “Princess, let’s get your dress ready!”

  “Eh? W-What!?”

  And then a maid took Rushka away. They don’t strike me much as dwarves, except for the fact everyone is rather short, like I’m one to talk though, no way they can tailor her a wedding dress in a day! That king must have pnned this beforehand!

  “You too Lady Marisa, please accompany us!”

  “Eh!? Me too!?”

  Oh crap...

  ...

  ...

  “Kill me...”

  “What are you saying! It fits you perfectly!”

  “Never in my life I saw myself wearing something like this...”

  The maids took me to a changing room, and started fitting me with wedding dresses. I take it back, why do these people just have these around! Plus they’re squeezing me a bit too tightly...

  “Although it’s weird that the couple both wear white dresses... it’s usually a white suit”

  “I can wear a suit, let’s change this!”

  “But you look so good...”

  “Let her use a suit, I think Rushka would be happier that way”

  Oh! Rushka’s dad, thanks for butting in! But also, when did you enter the room? What if I was still getting changed? I'm surprised none of the maids questioned about the bulge in my panties to be honest, I’m not hard but it just makes a bulge regardless.

  “I-I’ll prepare it right away your majesty!”

  “Great! I have something to talk about with Marisa, could you give us a moment alone?”

  “Of course your majesty!”

  And the maids left as ordered, I don’t really want to talk in this dress, but such is life, at least they’re puffy enough for my tail to not be awkwardly smushed in my waist.

  “What’s up old man~”

  “Ha! it’s been a while since someone treated me so casually, it’s refreshing”

  “Yeah, I like you more than Arthur or the goril emperor”

  “Goril emperor?”

  “Never mind me, what did you want to talk about”

  “The wedding ring of course”

  “...oh crap! I don’t have one”

  “Seeing you it doesn’t surprise me, but it’s fine! here!”

  Rushka’s dad then gave me a box, a ring box to be more specific, with a ring inside obviously, just one though.

  “I’d like you to give that ring to Rushka on the wedding”

  “Ok, but it’s quite a shitty ring isn’t it?”

  I mean, it looks rusted to hell, and if that bck ball in the middle is supposed to be a gem then it’s a terrible one, pitch bck, it basically looks like a rock.

  “It’s a shitty ring isn’t it!? Truth be told, I hate it, so I gave my wife a separate ring as well!”

  “Then why do you guys keep this one?”

  “Well, for now, can you pick it up and see for yourself?”

  “Pick it up? Ok?”

  As I touched it, the ring started shining, it was blinding, so we both averted our gaze, as the light faded, I looked at the ring again, it’s now quite fancy, the rusted ring now shimmers in a silver and gold hue, depends on the light reflecting off the ring, and the bck rock turned into a shiny blue gem, said gem has a symbol I’ve never seen in my life.

  “So it’s true”

  “What happened? Expin old man!”

  “You know very little of yourself and your family huh?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about”

  “Marisa, this ring, it’s one of the rings given to the 12 heroes of old, they were handed down by queen Hestia on her campaign to take down Maldi, this ring was handed by her to Glenn, who was a, hmm... long list of grandpas away”

  “Oh! I still don’t get it”

  “You’re Hestia’s daughter, the ring reacts to the direct bloodline of the original wielders of the ring, that would be Hestia’s and Glenn’s descendents”

  “Oh! Shouldn’t it react to you guys too then? Why did it look so terrible!?”

  “It’s been over 4000 years, my retion to Glenn it’s basically just in name only, but you’re a direct descendent of Hestia, so the ring reacted to you instead”

  Nepotism again! Whatever, I’m not gonna retort about this anymore.

  “It’s been going down in my family from a long time ago, it’s just a trinket to us, I have no problem handing it to its rightful owner, plus if you want to bind it with Rushka and make her the new representative of the Dwarves, then the ring could continue its legacy for more generations”

  “This was your pn, old man? Not that I’m against it but I still feel like you’re using me”

  “Ha! Many thanks, now you get a ring to give my daughter, so we both win right?”

  “I’ll bite, thanks old man”

  “No problem my new daughter”

  Ugh... that grossed me out for some reason. Anyways, I was left to test suits now, I like it way more, even if it’s even tighter on the chest, and they had to end up making a hole in the pants for my tail, they’re gonna send it to a taylor to fix it for tomorrow, I can’t even imagine the pressure of the tailor, good luck my guy.

  Rushka then took me to meet her brother after she was done with changing as well, now both of us are back to our normal clothing.

  “Fhleen, a pleasure to finally meet you”

  “Same my brother in w”

  I said taking a page from Rushka’s dad, it was funny to see Rushka’s reaction to my remark. She's really shy about it but her brother seems to be on board and everything.

  “Yeah, I’ve been informed, congratutions and welcome to the family”

  “Thanks, it was a bit unexpected for a second but I can’t say I’m against it~”

  It was a good chat, but truth be told I’m a bit anxious about tomorrow’s wedding.

  For now, after presentations and other stuff, I headed out for a walk.

  ...

  ...

  “Nervous?”

  “Rushka!? N-no, I’m not”

  “Silly, you would’ve realized I was coming, no way I startled you if you weren’t nervous~”

  “Hehe... ok, you got me, I didn’t expect for this to get so official all of a sudden”

  “Are you against it?”

  “Absolutely not, I’m all in with all my heart, still, I never expected something like this to happen, so suddenly at least”

  “I never thought you felt that way about me, it makes me happy honestly”

  “Eh? I thought your parents were pushing you or something”

  “Of course not, and I know it’s a bit selfish to say this now a day before our wedding but, I really do love you Marisa”

  “Eh!? R-really!?”

  *gulp* Rushka then grabbed my arm and leaned on me.

  “Un! You saved my life from becoming a sve, back then I couldn’t help but feel disheartened, all I ever wished was to see my family one st time, thanks to you, not only did my plea wish was granted, you even helped my people, even now, a bit rushed but I’m getting a wedding nonetheless!”

  “That’s... I don’t know what to say”

  “But I do, my life changed for the better the day I met you, I can’t imagine my life without you anymore, I want to reciprocate these feelings, let me be your strength as well!”

  “Rushka...”

  I couldn’t help but hold her, but now I feel even worse... I was just horny! I didn’t expect this at all! For me she was just someone I wanted to do the nasty with, but she’s for real...

  I have to come clean with her.

  “Rushka! I...”

  “I know Marisa, it’s hard not to notice when someone gazes at you like that”

  “Then... and about Heather, I...”

  “I know, you two are very loud, a lot of people hear you in the pace, you know?”

  I feel like my head is melting... is this embarrassment?

  “Even so, if you’re happy with me as well, I don’t mind at all”

  “How could I possibly say no, I love you too Rushka~”

  We both stared at each other, here in the central pza, with everyone looking at us from a distance, I couldn’t help but feel embarrassed once again, I’m gonna offset it by being bold! I took Rushka by the hip and held her to my side in a warm embrace, taking her to a bench in the pza.

  ...

  ...

  “What’s with the circle?”

  Rushka broke down and isn’t responding, so I’ll take the flirty down a notch for a moment.

  “A-ah! That’s part of an old legend, it actually involves your family as well Marisa”

  “Seriously? My mother did everything or something?”

  “No, it wasn’t your mom, the legend says that long time ago, a dragon invaded this country, and it was sin by the king of the elves, records indicate that it happened many millennia ago, the dragon, with it’s dying breath cursed the nd, swearing it’ll return every two thousand years to finish what it started”

  “Every two thousand years?”

  “Un! So the king, in his endless knowledge created the device in front of us, they say that when activated, a spell would kill the dragon the moment it came back, since by then the king would no longer be alive, they say the dragon resurrected every two thousand years, only for it to be killed again as soon as it approached the town, and the spell was activated”

  “Sounds awful, is this true?”

  “There’s records of it, but the st time the dragon was spotted was almost 5000 years ago, so the device has become useless, not that anyone of us knows how to use it to begin with”

  “Why the sudden stop? Does this have anything to do with Celestial?”

  “I don’t think so, Celestial has always looked over the nd, and she has come over from time to time, I don’t see her like someone who would curse nd like that”

  “Weird, then why is it that there hasn’t been any attacks anymore?”

  “I don’t know, nobody does, but I want to believe that maybe the dragon found something better than to reviving every couple of millenia”

  “I mean when you lose every time, I would give up as well to be honest”

  “Dragons are rare, the only register of them in history is for him and Celestial, I want to believe he found love, and gave up on his revenge”

  “That’s optimistic~”

  Rushka said, resting her head on my arm, And so, we spent a quiet moment with the two of us. It's hard to tell the time in the cave, but the stones illuminating it are quite beautiful...

  Joanne_carper