The words, “What an interesting phrase,” seemed to echo in the surroundings. I looked over to see the leggy Fox Spirit standing nearby, looking around. She looked incredibly out of place in the woods. Her eyes had been locked on me until I looked over at her, and then she started to look around as if she had not been staring.

  “Any reason in particular you are still here?”

  “No,” she said simply.

  I paused, looking at her for a moment. “Alright. Well, I have some herbs to gather,” I said as I started to wander away. I still needed more handle root, and six leaf. Thankfully it wasn’t long before I found the roots that I needed, but those leaves were being elusive. Hardly any time had passed while I was in the Spirit Realm, so I still had most of the day to look.

  Unfortunately I was being followed. When I finally found some six leaf and started to make my way back to town, I finally spoke. “Not that I don’t mind being followed by a pretty Spirit, is there a reason you’re doing so?”

  “No,” she said, a bit of a smile on her face.

  Spirits tended to be weak to compliments, so I had hoped that doing so would get an actual answer. “Alright. Well, I’m going to go give these to my Kobold friend.”

  Suddenly her head was on my shoulder. “Do you not want me to follow?” she said softly, placing her hands on my sides.

  I knew I had a bad feeling the moment she said that I was interesting. “Why would what you do matter to me?”

  “Mmm…” She took a deep breath, her nose practically against my neck. “You know…you smell really good…”

  “Shuzshu has told me that,” I said, wondering if there was some sort of biological thing I had going on? That might actually be able to explain some things.

  “That is one of your pets?” she asked, her breath coming out over my neck as she spoke.

  “Yes. That’s my Gnoll.” My current predicament was a bit concerning, but it’s not like I could do anything. Or more to say that I didn’t want to do anything? That was a rather sudden realization.

  “So you like canines, hm?” I could hear the grin in her voice. “I can smell her on you… and see her teeth marks…”

  “She does bite,” I confirmed. My heart was racing a little bit.

  “I want to leave my own marks,” she said before I suddenly felt the slight prick of teeth. Thankfully at that moment we were out of the forest. I twisted, activating my gauntlets as I aimed to knock her across the jaw. She was several feet out of my reach before I was even fully turned around. Giggling as she spoke, “Aw, what’s wrong? Do you not like my teasing?”

  I reached up and rubbed my neck, pulling away my hand to see a bit of blood. “What makes you think you have permission to bite me?” Judging by how quickly she moved, she was expecting my reaction.

  “Oh? Do I need your permission to indulge?” She moved a bit closer and I stepped back, wanting to distance myself from the forest. I had to let her do whatever she wanted for the most part while in the influence of that place, since with her power she could easily trap me inside.

  “You need my permission, and Shuzshu’s. Only she gets to bite me.” I realized only after saying it how that sounded.

  “Do I have to be your pet, too?” she asked, licking a bit of blood off of her mouth. “I wouldn’t mind that…” Suddenly she had quite an interesting expression on her face. “I can lay in your lap, and you can pet me. Or you can lay on mine,” she emphasized this by showing off her leg and running her finger down her thigh.

  Her words honestly left me speechless. Was she just teasing me? Why? What sort of nonsense did she get out of it if I agreed to such a thing? Then I noticed something on her exposed leg. Just around her ankle; a small cuff that was barely visible. It barely looked like a ring of light. “Oh? You’re leashed?”

  She froze, her entire body tensing up. There was a moment where she seemed even more at a loss than I had been a moment ago. Her leg suddenly retracted as she glared at me, though there was hardly any heat behind the gaze.

  I let my thoughts go for a moment, thinking of the advantages and disadvantages. Obviously she was trying to get me to either break her leash, or take it. She was a powerful Spirit. There was little doubt in my mind that I wouldn’t be able to control her. It would be like giving the leash of a large wolf to a child and then sending them out for a walk.

  Eventually I remembered a little detail from a past experience, and removed my left gauntlet. “You are going to have to listen to me,” I said as I began to dab the blood from my neck and draw on my palm. Her expression shifted and she looked rather excited now. “You will get one chance, and no more. Go against me and your leash will be so short you can’t breathe.”

  I took a step forward and raised my hand, showing her the spell circle. It was a rather simple one, but immensely powerful. Rather than breaking her leash and making a new one, I simply became the new anchor of it. She frowned when she realized this. I’m sure she had been planning to abandon me when she grew bored. “Do you think so little of me?” she asked.

  “As Lady Amaterasu put it, I am a very untrusting individual.” It was very true. More true than I would like. I hated to admit it, but I didn’t even trust Shuzshu or Velvese. At least not very much.

  She nodded and then her face turned playful. “I know exactly where I want your mark,” she said and then much to my surprise, began to slip out of her kimono. She only removed the upper half, exposing her chest to me for a moment before turning around. “Right here,” she said with an almost musical tone, pointing to the small of her back above her tails.

  All I could think of was how I was about to give her a tramp stamp. Normally such a mark would be placed on the chest, neck, or head, depending on the one who was placing it. Though I suppose the spine would still be a powerful place to put it. With a sigh I moved up and placed my hand on the spot she indicated, and I saw how the fur on her back bristled.

  Now came the part that I really didn’t want to do; the incantation. “Oh Spirit, I offer you a piece of myself. Will you accept and yield?” As I spoke I forced mana into the symbol, and through it into her. It was the strongest Spirit contract that I knew and would bind us until I died, or I released her. Normally I wouldn’t have gone so far, but with how powerful she was I wasn’t taking any chances.

  Her tails were twitching. I could practically feel her hesitation. Of course I didn’t blame her. She may have made jokes about being my pet not being so bad, but this contract would make her subservient to me. Not quite a slave, but to some there would be no difference. After taking a deep breath, she softly said, “I yield.”

  Immediately as she spoke, I felt something wrap around my wrist. Looking at it I could see the faintest glimmer of something. I sighed softly as I stepped back. On the Fox Spirits lower back was a sort of mark, almost like her fur had been dyed. It had been a long time since I had seen my Spirit Brand. It gave me a rather nostalgic feeling.

  Of course that feeling was abruptly halted, as I was rather suddenly gripped by a Fox and pulled into a rather tight embrace. “Oh, Master… This is quite an exhilarating feeling.” She was very purposefully shoving my face into her breasts.

  I had to shove her away a bit in order to talk, though she didn’t let go of me. “You can call me Arc. What should I call you?” She had never told me what to call her.

  “Mmm…” She tilted her head to the side as if thinking. “You should give me a new name, since you’re my Master now,” she said with a grin down at me, still trying to smother me.

  My face scrunched up a bit. I was horrible at names.

  “Do you…not want to?” she asked suddenly.

  “Give me a moment,” I said, a bit annoyed. “I’m bad with naming things, and if you really want me to give you a name, I don’t want it to be a bad one.”

  “Oh?” She suddenly squeezed harder, and I actually started to struggle. Even with my gauntlets still charged she was noticeably stronger than me. “I’m flattered that you would put so much thought into it.”

  “I could probably come up with something faster if you released me,” I said. If I had both gauntlets on this wouldn’t be a problem.

  “Mmm… I am content with waiting,” she said with a grin. “I am in no hurry. We have all of your life to spend together, afterall.”

  Regret. All I could do was regret. I realized I had made a rather hasty decision because I planned to foist the search for the people hunting Spirits on to her, but now all I could do was regret. “Mae,” I said.

  Suddenly her grip loosened and I managed to escape. “Mae? Hm…”

  I took a few deep breaths now that I had some distance. “In the other world, there was a legendary nine tails.” I put my gauntlet back on as I spoke, only able to see the leash when I looked for it. “What with you pressuring me, literally, it was all I could think of. Tamamo-no-Mae.”

  “Oh?” Her head tilted to the side. “Such a figure existed in the other world?”

  “Yes. She was a courtesan of an emperor and caused… two rebellions? I think? It’s been a while.” I only remembered because when I was in my thirties, the stone that was said to be her prison had broken, and I had done some research because it was interesting.

  “What happened to her?” She took a few steps towards me.

  In turn I took a few steps back. “She was eventually imprisoned. Spent nine hundred years in a rock before one day breaking free. I never heard of her doing anything after breaking free.”

  She placed a finger on her chin, looking up thoughtfully. “Nine hundred years is a long time to reflect. I’m sure she wanted to lay low for a few decades.”

  “Probably,” I agreed. “Now, put your clothes back on. We’re going into town. People are going to gawk enough at you, so you won’t need your tits out to get attention.”

  She laughed, but did as I asked. “Most mortals would, as you put it, gawk at such a display. And yet you remain so calm, and poise.”

  “Shuzshu has six, and walks around naked,” I said bluntly.

  That seemed to catch her off guard. “Huh?”

  But I didn’t elaborate and just turned around and began walking back to the city. She would see what I meant. Once we passed the dungeon, we started to draw a lot of attention. “Reign in your aura,” I reminded her. I could see some of the younger adventurers struggling.

  “What a bunch of weaklings,” she muttered, but did as asked.

  “Everyone starts somewhere. Few are born strong.”

  She huffed at my words, but didn’t argue.

  As we entered through the gates into the city proper, I watched as the guards were about to make an attempt to stop us, but thought better of it and avoided us instead. In fact most people avoided us as we walked down the streets, and it went quiet.

  I could hear the guild from down the street. It was common for there to be celebrations every day. I used to look forward to loud nights in the guild. It meant you accomplished something. It got a bit quieter when I entered, since the only reason I had been coming to the guild lately was when something bad was happening. And of course today was no exception, as the Fox walked in behind me.

  Now it was dead silent. Some people dared not even breathe. “Is Landerson here?” I asked. The guild staff behind the counter simply pointed up at the door to his office.

  I didn’t say anything as I made my way up the stairs. However Mae couldn’t help herself. “What’s wrong with all of them?” she asked, a smirk on her face.

  I rolled my eyes as I looked back at her.

  She tried to put on an innocent face, but was failing miserably. “What? It couldn't be… little me?”

  “Well it sure ain’t me,” I said flatly as I made my way to Landerson’s door.

  “It could be. You’re preeeeetty scary,” she said with a giggle.

  I ignored her and opened the door, just in time to see Landerson attempting to escape out the window. We locked eyes as I walked in, taking a seat on one of the couches in the center of the room. He slowly came back in the window, fixing his clothes as he did.

  Mae entered, closing the door behind her. Then, with a refinement that she had only shown when in the presence of Amaterasu, she began to prepare tea without a word.

  Landerson eyed her curiously as he came over, taking a seat across from me. “So uh… I take it the talks went well?”

  “This is Mae,” I said, watching as she placed tea down in front of both of us. This time I couldn’t help but grimace.

  “Do you not like tea?” she asked softly, having moved to stand behind me.

  “No, I don’t,” I said with a sigh. “Mae will be conducting the investigations of Spirit hunting, under the orders of the Goddess Lady Amaterasu.”

  Landerson nearly dropped his teacup, though he did spill a bit on himself. “She… She is?”

  I could feel the questioning look Mae was giving me, but I ignored her. “This is an extremely serious matter, Landerson. I’m simply informing you. I will be acting as the liaison, and while she isn’t supposed to intervene, I won’t stop her.”

  There was a slow nod from him as he kept glancing at the Fox Spirit. He seemed a bit too nervous, but that could easily be explained because there was a seven tailed Fox Spirit in his guild house. This was a thing he would have struggled against in his prime.

  I would be extremely worried as well, if I wasn’t holding her leash. It was an odd feeling, not unsimilar to how it felt to hold a slave contract. If I told her to attack Landerson, I don’t think she would even hesitate. That was honestly tempting.

  “I expect the guilds cooperation,” I said before standing up and walking out. Mae was close behind me. I saw her give a wink to Landerson before she closed the door.

  The guild wasn’t loud, but there was a lot of chatter now, though it died down a bit as we came out. Without acknowledging any of them I left. “They don’t like you,” Mae said with a giggle.

  “The feeling is mostly mutual.” Though I suppose I didn’t treat my fellow guild members kindly, none of them had been very welcoming. It was not a secret that I hated the nickname I had gotten, and yet they still used it.

  “So…you want me to investigate the Spirits?” she asked after a moment.

  “Yes. Since you’re a Spirit, it will be easier for you to do than me. It’s part of the reason I agreed to bring you along.”

  She huffed. “And here I thought it was because you liked me.”

  I snorted. “I don’t dislike you, and that’s about as good as you’re really gonna get right now.”

  She wrapped her arms around me, putting her head on my shoulder. “Oh I don’t think that I could stand living if you hated me.”

  I sighed before making my way towards Red Bottle. Mae continued to hug me from behind, looking around and asking questions. She had been quiet on the way in, but now that she could tell I was more relaxed, she wanted to know things. She had never been to a human city, so everything was new to her.

  We would have gotten there a lot faster if not for her constant questions, and having us stop to look at things that caught her interest. People were nervous at first, but listening to her talk and interacting with her quickly put everyone at ease. It also helped that most of them didn’t know how powerful she was.

  “This place does not look as nice?” Mae said as we entered the poorer district, her tone was a bit questioning.

  “The disparity of wealth,” I said simply. Entering Red Bottle, I immediately looked around. As usual there were no customers. Which was strange. I wondered how the little lizard made their money.

  Coming up to the counter, it wasn’t long before the little thing herself made an appearance. “Arc! You have… new thing? Fox?”

  “New thing?” the Fox asked.

  “This is Mae,” I introduced before starting to pull out everything that I had gathered.

  The Kobold let out a gasp, clapping her hands. “Yes yes! Materials! Good materials!” She immediately started sorting through the things I had brought. I realized that I may have gone overboard with the blue bell, but I just kept finding it and taking it without thinking.

  “I don’t think there’s much six leaf in Everlast,” I said, looking over the meager amount that I got.

  “Is fine. Still enough.”

  “She’s an Alchemist?” Mae said, looking at the plants on the table, but not really knowing what she was looking at. Spirits didn’t have professions. It was one of the biggest gaps between them and mortals. Or I suppose it was more accurate to say that Spirit was its own profession, or perhaps the type of Spirit was? It was hard to say.

  “What did you think I was gathering plants for?” I asked, looking at her on my shoulder. She was still clinging to me, her head not having left my shoulder in some time. It was a bit bothersome that I could not tell if she was trying to flirt or just be affectionate. Or if she was just trying to tease me because she knew it was bothering me.

  “I dunno. You mortals do all sorts of weird things,” she said with a bit of a smile.

  I rolled my eyes before turning my attention back to Eulreka. “Everything good?”

  “Yes yes. Good materials,” she said happily. “Much to debt.”

  I nodded a bit at that. “Alright. I’ll check at the guild again in a few days to see if you put out any requests, and if they get lost again, I’ll be back here.”

  “Yes yes. You go do things! I have many potions to make!” She made a shooing gesture at me, which actually caused me to crack a smile.

  There was a gasp to my side. “You can smile?”

  “You’ve just not done anything to bring a smile to my face,” I said as I started to head home.

  She scoffed with an offended tone. “If showing you my tits could not get a smile to your face, I just assumed you were incapable.”

  I snorted. Just before entering my home I stopped. Pointing an accusatory finger at the Fox on my shoulder I warned, “If you hurt my House Spirit, you’ll be doing their job until the world crumbles to dust.”

  Her hands went up in a sort of mock surrender. “I’ve never hurt anyone before.”

  “The teeth marks in my shoulder say otherwise,” I said as I entered the house. Glancing around, I could see the pile of clothes that showed Shuzshu and Velvese were here. As soon as the door closed, Shuzshi rounded the corner, her hackles on full display as she glared at the Fox Spirit. “This is Mae,” I said as I moved to the table.

  Mae used me as a shield, putting me between herself and the Gnoll. “Oooh scary.” There was a pause. “And nude. You weren’t joking.”

  I shook my head with a sigh as I began removing my gauntlets. Shuzshu stared at Mae for almost a full minute before she seemed to relax, and nodded. “Strong,” she said.

  “No. This is different than that.”

  “She is subservient to you, yes?” Shuzshu asked.

  I paused, glancing down at the vague golden shimmer around my wrist. I had to admit, “Yes.”

  “Then she is part of the pack,” she declared, before standing up a bit straighter. “I am at the top.”

  There was an amused look on Mae’s face. I just sighed as I placed my coat down on the table. “Then I must ask for your permission, yes?” Shuzshu nodded without hesitation and I scowled a bit. “Then may I bite him?”

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  I frowned at the Fox, who returned my look with a grin. I don’t know why she wanted to bite me so badly. “Yes,” Shuzshu said after a moment.

  My gaze snapped to Shuzshu, an odd feeling of betrayal stirring inside me, but before I could protest I felt teeth. “Ack-” The Fox had bit down on my clavicle. But this time she was far more gentle, not breaking skin but she was definitely going to leave marks. “Don’t I get a say in this? Am I just a chew toy?”

  Shuzshu shrugged. “It feels really nice to put teeth on you?” she said, her head tilting to the side.

  “Mhm,” Mae made a soft noise of agreement, though on top of her teeth, I could also feel her tongue moving over my skin.

  Looking over at Velvese I asked, “Do you want to bite me too?”

  She jolted at being directly interacted with, her face went a bit red and she didn’t respond. Instead she quickly left the room. I couldn’t believe that she had just ran away rather than answer me.

  I sighed, annoyed at the position I found myself in. But the more annoying part was that I didn’t dislike it. It felt…extremely affectionate. Like she was trying to convey an emotion that she couldn’t express with words, and this was the only way to do it. It was probably why Shuzshu did it as well. They could say words, but this was a way of saying something more. They were saying; I could hurt you, but I don’t want to.

  I just didn’t understand why it had to be here, and now. Just sort of standing in the middle of the room. After a moment I tensed, as she slid her hands up my shirt. Shuzshu had simply left the room, off to follow Velvese to wherever she had run to.

  Mae’s eyes were closed, her arms slowly wrapping around me. I was just about to make her stop when I realized that she was crying. That startled me a bit, as I didn’t know where that was coming from. With a soft sigh, I put my arms around her, deciding to just ignore the probability that she was acting to try and gain sympathy.

  “Gods I wonder why my life is like this,” I said softly, taking a deep breath. “Somehow I get along with everything that isn’t human.” I looked at her, and I could see the corner of her mouth twitch a bit. “Is it a curse, do you think? Am I doomed to be despised by humanity? I mean, I even get along with Gods better than I do my fellow humans.”

  That actually got a bit of a snort out of her as her eyes opened to look at me. It was at that moment that she realized that I was actually looking at her. Rather suddenly there was a sort of woosh and she was several feet away, her back turned to me. Even with her facing away I could see her whipping at her face. “It might be that your otherworldly soul makes them untrusting of you,” she suggested.

  “Mmm I had thought about that,” I said with a nod, turning back to the things on the table. I wanted to look over my coat to make sure it was unchanged from traveling through realms. Because it had a sort of pocket dimension built into it, I wasn’t sure if it would have long lasting effects. “It wouldn’t change the fact it’d be considered a curse.”

  “I suppose by the definition of curse, yes. A permanent negative trait that is either difficult to remove, or impossible,” she said as she came over, and leaned against the table a bit to see what I was doing.

  I didn’t even look over at her. “Are you alright?” I asked softly.

  A sort of soft breathy laugh escaped her. “Yeah. It just… sort of hit me that I’m free now.” We both looked down at my wrist. “Well,” she continued, “More free than I was. And it’s not like you’re a horrible person. Especially considering that you’ve not tried to take advantage of our contract, and you’re kind, though cold and distant.” I could practically hear the large smile in her voice.

  “I find that being kind takes little effort,” I responded. “But being warm, or gaining closeness is difficult.”

  She was suddenly hugging me from behind again. “It’s fine. You don’t have to explain to me…” She put her head on top of mine. “Do you want to know why I decided to follow you?”

  My brow furrowed. “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t curious.”

  “Because I can see them,” she said softly. “All those scars on your heart. How brutalized your back has been. And yet… you say that kindness takes little effort. I can see that warmth in you. That little flame of hope that you’re so desperate to protect.” She took a deep breath, and sighed.

  It was a bit frustrating to find out that that stuff could just be seen when she looked at me. I wondered if other Spirits could do that as well. If they could, it would explain why Yasragoth was so keen on me. It had quite a love of the suffering of others, so it probably saw me as a plaything that had taken such abuse and could take more.

  I pat my coat a few times, satisfied that there was no lasting damage. “I want you to be as discreet as possible during your investigation,” I suddenly said, deciding to change the topic. “You are not to do anything that would cause stress to this city or its populace.” She made a sort of disgruntled noise. “The only exception to this is if you find any Spirits being held captive against their will. Then-” I paused, trying to think how best to word it. “Ah, fuck it. You can do whatever you want to any parties you discover to be responsible. I don’t give a shit if it’s the Duke himself. Just be aware that killing those on lower levels makes the higher ones go into hiding.”

  Her hug suddenly tightened. “Oh? Murder? Mmmm it has been a very long time since I’ve done any of that.”

  With a roll of my eyes I reached into my coat. “I don’t know if you even need this, but in case you do.” I pulled out one of the little rune stones that let someone access the house. “This’ll let you bypass the barrier.”

  She practically snatched it from my hand. “I’ll gladly take it,” she said softly.

  I let out a bit of a snort before I picked up my coat, putting all the parts of my gauntlets into it. Normally I just left my gauntlets out, but that was a habit I needed to get out of. I highly doubted that anyone but me could actually use them, but they were worth a rather ridiculous amount in terms of materials.

  When I turned around Mae was gone. I hesitated a moment as I glanced side to side but she was actually gone. Suddenly I felt a tension leave me. It was pretty obvious that I was not comfortable with her presence yet.

  Rubbing my face a bit I decided to head up to my lab. I wanted to sketch something. However, as I made my way upstairs, just as I turned to go to the attic I was grabbed and pulled into the bedroom. Hitting the bed, I hardly had time to register anything before there was suddenly the weight of a Gnoll on top of me. I couldn’t see her expression, but from the sound of her huff she was obviously upset. With a sigh of my own in response, I started to run my fingers through her fur.

  “You’re the one that keeps saying that the pack should be larger,” I said after a while.

  That was met with some grumbling, but I think she realized she didn’t have much of an argument to make. I did hear something about her not liking Spirits.

  “It is better to have her here than not. The consequences were-” I paused, trying to think of the best way to explain it. “I don’t even know. But I saved myself an immense amount of work, gained someone extremely powerful as an ally, and most importantly I won’t be getting pushed around by any Spirits or Gods for the foreseeable future.”

  “Gods?” she questioned.

  A rather heavy sigh escaped me. “Yes, Gods. I got dragged around and unfortunately was shoved in front of two Gods.” I explained how my day had been and the interactions with the two powerful beings had gone. Although I did leave out a lot of it that referenced my soul and their Fox Spirits reactions.

  “I dislike Spirits,” was her response. I wasn’t sure if she was referring to the Faerie, or to Spirits in general.

  Eventually we got up, although it was only because the two of us were hungry. Velvese had actually gone out and gotten food for all of us. Including Mae, even though she wasn’t there. We left it on the table for her, even though I could tell that Shuzshu wanted to eat it.

  I spent the next several weeks alternating between tinkering, and doing gathering requests for Eulreka. Mae appeared every now and then, every time looking more and more frustrated. I could only guess that her investigation was not going well. I was glad that I wasn’t the one doing it. Mae had also started to join in the sleeping pile after finding out about it. Though she didn’t walk around nude, or sleep nude, she did have a rather revealing nightgown.

  My tinkering was going well. As the only way for me to advance was constant improvement, I had to make my gauntlets better. Since I had had such an over abundance of magic silver, I designed a way to take advantage of it. But I was hesitant to test it, because it would use an immense amount. Theoretically it would work, but that was just in theory.

  Since I was done but had no real way of testing it at the moment, I decided to change my schedule a bit. I had shut myself in way too much in the past and I realized now that I had become a shut in. So I was making a point to get out often enough that people didn’t forget who I was. Especially at the guild.

  It was almost noon by the time I entered the guild, and it was actually fairly empty. Walking up to the counter, I noticed it was a receptionist that I hadn’t seen before. “How can I help you,” he said with a rather forced smile.

  “Yes, I wanted to know if any requests had come in for me,” I said as I placed my guild card on the counter.

  He took it, studying it for a moment. “Ah, Archanist. Yes, there are a few uh-” he hesitated, “Special requests…” He turned to walk back to a shelf, rifling through papers.

  That was a bit concerning. He came back eventually, setting a small stack of papers down. Immediately I spotted something that caused me to frown. The top paper had the seal of the Duke.

  You are requested to visit the Duke’s estate at your earliest convenience- was all it said.

  With a sigh I put that into my coat, the second only making me frown even more.

  Scouting Request: Investigation of area to North East of city. Reports of something large in the area. Noticeable rise in temperature. Large claw marks. Eye witnesses testify Magma Lizards sighted. Request size and count of lizards.

  Required Tier Ten

  10 Gold

  That was annoying, but I guess the guild master was going to make use of me if he was going to raise my tier. There couldn’t be that many in a city of this size above ten. It did sound like a Magma Lizard from that brief description. Magma Lizards were between Tier Ten and Thirteen. Slow, but they could melt rocks in their stomach and spew them out as lava.

  I nodded as I pocketed this one as well. The other two requests were ones that I expected, another request for six leaf, but also wanting large chunks of rock salt. I knew that she would need more six leaf. I would have to try looking somewhere else. I had no idea what she needed chunks of rock salt for.

  I picked up these and my guild card before putting them all into my coat. “Alright. I’ll begin conducting the scouting mission tomorrow.” Scouting was easy, since technically I didn’t have to engage with whatever it was, just had to confirm whether there was something there or not. The reward would also be increased by tenfold if I also solved the problem.

  There was an obvious look of relief on the receptionist's face. “Thank you. The Guild Master was very insistent on you taking that. He instructed me to send a runner for you tomorrow if you didn’t show up.”

  That was a bit interesting. But not to be unexpected. He pulled out a map from under the counter. It was the first time in a long time that I had seen a guild map. The area he gestured was about fifty miles from the city, an area that he described as a playas, surrounded by a sort of mesa. A dried lakebed surrounded by near sheer cliffs and canyons. Not the worst type of terrain, but I was going to need some sort of heat protection. Especially considering what was there.

  I left the guild and started to make my way home when I had a realization. Sighing, I turned and began to head towards the more affluent part of the city. I might as well get it over with.

  I had no idea where the Duke’s residence was, but thankfully when a guard stopped me to ask what I was doing here, I had showed him the request that I received. He was extremely skeptical, and decided to escort me there in order to keep an eye on me and confirm the legitimacy.

  The gate was absolutely huge, and the walls around the ground must have been at least twenty feet tall. The two guards outside spotted us a long ways off and watched as we approached. Before they had a chance to question us, I held out the paper to him. “I received this notice at the guild that the Duke wanted to see me.”

  His eyes narrowed at me, but he turned to another guard on the other side of the gate. “See if the Duke made any such requests.”

  The other guard nodded and started to jog towards the massive manor in the distance. The other guard was hanging around just to see what was going to happen. Must have been an extremely slow day for him. “You look like you really don’t wanna be here,” the guard said with a bit of a smirk.

  “Of course I don’t,” I said with a glance towards him. “How would you feel if you were suddenly summoned by the Duke?”

  “I would be honored,” the guard said, practically glaring at me.

  I stared at him for a moment, wondering just how stupid this man was. Mixing with nobility was bad enough, but mixing with high nobility was even worse. Unless you were also a noble yourself, they could kill you without consequence.

  A slight commotion at the front of the house caused all of us to look over at the manor. I did my best to keep my face neutral as I saw a familiar red haired woman sprinting full speed towards the gate, having to hike up the dress she was wearing in order to do so. She looked much better than she had two months ago.

  “Archanist!” she exclaimed as she practically slammed into the gate.

  I gave her a slight bow. “You're looking much better, Lady Lillece.”

  She gave a bit of a huff. She made a series of gestures with her hand. “Open the gate. He is my guest.”

  That seemed to snap everyone out of the stupor they were in. “Yes, my Lady,” one of the guards said as they quickly opened the gate.

  “Come, come,” she actually grabbed me by my coat and began pulling me towards the manor.

  I didn’t know whether to be annoyed or amused at her actions. Certainly this was no way for the Saint to act, and all the guards seem to have the same thoughts. “Lady Lillece, may I ask why I was summoned?” I finally said after we were out of earshot of the guards.

  “My father wanted to talk to you. He never got the chance after the incident.” She had let go of me and was now walking beside me. “Honestly he probably would have forgotten who had rescued me if I hadn’t reminded him.”

  There was a rather pained smile on my face. “Ah, I see.”

  “Oh there’s no need to be nervous. If anything, you should worry more for the safety of the Guild Master,” she said as she sort of nudged me, a smirk on her face.

  It felt strange that she was being so friendly with me, but I suppose I did save her life. “Why would I have any concern over that useless trash?” I said before I could stop myself. I coughed a bit. “I mean, I am sure that he had his reasons.”

  “Yeah, a bunch of poor excuses.” She shook her head as we finally made it to the manor. There were several guards there, as well as several maids and butlers.

  There was also a maid I recognized. I gave her a slight nod. “I am glad that you also seem to be doing well.”

  She went rigid, clearly not expecting me to remember her, let alone address her. “Ah, yes. Sue is one of my personal maids. It’s honestly so good that you carried her out.”

  There was a bit of a blush on the maids face, and I saw several others in the background giggling and whispering to each other. “Well it’s not like I would have left her,” I said as I turned my focus away to look at the large room I found myself in. And it was absolutely huge. My entire house could fit in this one room, yard included.

  “I still appreciate it,” Lillece said as she continued to guide me. There was a rather grand staircase that I was being led up, several maids were following behind. I kept my hands clasped behind my back, trying to give off a nonchalant presence even if I was freaking out internally.

  At the landing of the staircase there was a large portrait, as I was expecting there to be. It was of the Duke and his family. Or at least, part of it. The man had fifteen wives, and near countless children. More children than I had been led to believe.

  “That’s my mother,” Lillece said as she pointed out the only redhead in the portrait. “She’s not in the city right now, but I know she also wanted to meet you.”

  “Ah, that’s a shame,” I said politely. Honestly I didn’t want to meet more nobles.

  I was led down the hall a bit before coming to a door. Lillece lightly knocked. “Father? The Archanist is here.”

  After a moment the door was opened, and the man standing there immediately set me on edge. While he was dressed as a butler, every instinct I had was screaming at me that he was going to kill me. “Ah, Lady Lillece, please come in.”

  As she entered, I stared at the butler. “If you don’t reign in your killing intent, you’re not going to like the results,” I said, surprising everyone with my words.

  We continued to stare at each other for a moment, my hand clenching. I was calculating the cost and benefits. He was clearly the strongest person in the manor, probably near Tier Fifteen if not in it. A fight with him would cause a lot of damage to the manor, and while I didn’t think I could beat him, I knew that I could wound him and kill the Duke.

  Maybe the new things I had done to my gauntlets would help, but they were untested. The entire manor would turn against me, and I that many opponents would be the deciding factor. The Duke would have several high tier guards, and I wasn’t good at fighting groups. One on one fights were where I truly shined, but this would quickly turn into a me versus many.

  He seemed to realize what I was thinking as I saw his stance shift slightly. Before anything happened, a voice called out, “Tony. Enough.”

  The tension immediately eased and he stepped out of the way, gesturing for me to enter. “After that, there’s no way in hell I’m showing you my back,” I said, not breaking eye contact.

  “Tony, come inside,” I could tell now that that was the voice of the Duke. I watched as he retreated, and made sure to keep him in line of sight as I then entered the room slowly. “Please forgive him,” the Duke said. “He is overly wary of new people.”

  I wanted to complain that that was an understatement, but he was a noble. So I didn’t say anything.

  “Please, have a seat.”

  “I do not sit down in places I am unwelcome,” I said with an even tone. “I am responding to your summons, Duke. After I learn of the reason and decline whatever you are trying to give me, I would like to go home.” While what I was saying and doing could be considered rude, I wasn’t about to go further than the doorway into the room after a display like that.

  The Duke sighed. “Well, we certainly got off on the wrong foot. Tony, please leave.”

  The butler's attention snapped to the Duke. “My lord-”

  “I said leave,” he said, not even looking over at the man.

  Tony didn’t argue further, simply bowing and began making his way to the door. I moved inside the room, taking several steps out of his reach and watched as he exited the room and closed the door. “Will you please sit now, Archanist?”

  I hesitated for a moment before walking into the room. “I apologize for my reaction, but he had the full intention of killing me.” I took a seat on one of the lounge chairs that allowed me to see most of the room.

  “Oh I think he was just being overly cautious,” the Duke said with a wave of his hand.

  I had a deadpan expression as I looked at him. “Unfortunately, My Lord, the only reason he did not was because you stopped him.”

  He seemed to ponder that for a moment before nodding slowly. “And what would you have done in response?”

  “I would rather not elaborate on hypotheticals, as they could harm our amenable relationship,” I said as I looked him over.

  He waved his hand in the air as if to brush off the statement. “Think nothing of that. I am just curious how you would have responded if Tony had gone through with it.”

  “Unfortunately my immediate reaction would have been to kill you,” I said flatly.

  That seemed to surprise him and he glanced over at Lillece, who I noticed had gone quite pale at the whole interaction. But she gave a slight nod. That was a curious reaction. “May I ask why?” He honestly didn’t seem bothered by my response at all.

  “I am at an extreme disadvantage due to the location. Your guards would side with him. You are his Lord. While I don’t think I could do anything more than severely wound him given where we are, I could do so while killing you before help arrived. He would then be an enemy of the crown for having failed to protect his Duke,” I explained, the tension in my arms was starting to relax.

  “Which would have had him hunted down and killed,” the Duke finished my explanation with a nod. “Assured mutual destruction.”

  There were several moments of silence, before Lillece asked, “But why?”

  “He’s from the church,” I said, glancing at the door as if expecting him to burst in. From the look on both of their faces, that wasn’t enough of an explanation. With a sigh, I added, “For being the Saint, you sure don’t know much. It’s because I have no name. A name is something given by the High Gods, and to be without one means you are unclean.” It was the big reason I didn’t get along with the church, and the reason I believed Tranna turned against me.

  “And that deserves death?” she said incredulously.

  “No, it is because I touched the Saint that he deems me worthy of death.” She went rigid at my words. She was pretty naive considering she had to be close to twenty, but that’s what happens when you have a sheltered upbringing.

  “How did he know?” the Duke asked, a puzzled yet curious expression on his face.

  “No idea,” I said with a shrug. “If I had to guess, I would say anyone with a high tier that can use holy magic can tell.”

  He seemed to think on this a moment before nodding. “I will tell him to leave you alone.”

  I sighed. “No point in that. He’s probably already informed someone that some filth has touched their precious Saint. No fault of yours, Lady Lillece,” I added.

  That caused the Duke to frown. “I see…”

  “You’re going to have a lot of dead priests pop up over the next week or two,” I said, tapping my fingers on my leg. “And probably a burned down church or two if they don’t take the hint after that.”

  Now he sighed. “Does it really need to go that far?”

  “I’m just going to defend myself, as I have always done. Although-” I paused for a moment before reaching out with my left hand, gently giving the golden leash a few soft tugs.

  As if melting out of the air, Mae appeared. “Mmm what’s this? You’ve never summoned me before, Master,” she said in a rather teasing tone as she looked around the room.

  “This is Tamamo-no-Mae, a servant of the Goddess Ametarasu, and soul contracted to me. She is assisting with my task given to me by the Goddess to put a stop to the spike of Spirit hunting happening in this city.”

  Lillece looked like she was going to pass out as I spoke, nodding several times when her father looked over. Did she have some sort of truth detection skill? Mae did her nearly instinctual thing upon seeing a tea set and began to prepare tea for everyone.

  “Dammit… so even the Gods have taken interest in that…” He put his face in his hands. “We’ve been trying to figure it out for years, but they’re so thorough that we can’t get more than two or three layers deep before hitting nothing.”

  “I know, right?” Mae said, her tails twitching. “They only ever know their boss, but then their boss knows nothing. They’re using some sort of powerful obfuscation magic, which is the only thing I could find out.” She set cups down in front of everyone as she spoke.

  Immediately I could tell that mine wasn’t tea, which confused me a bit. When I tasted it I realized that it was some sort of fruit juice. Mae was thoughtful in her own way. The tea seemed to have quite the calming effect on Lillece, though it was clear she was still very worried. There was a lot of stuff just dumped on her lap.

  “So you’ve been unable to find anything either…” The Duke sighed, also taking a sip of his tea. Although Lillece probably didn’t even consider poisoning, the Duke was well aware that with a being like Mae in the room, it wouldn’t be necessary to poison him to make him disappear.

  “Not yet. I’ve taken a different approach,” Mae said as she moved to stand behind me, preferring to be in a position she could keep me in sight. “So far I’ve cleared the church and the thieves guild of suspicions. Though the thieves guild has been doing their own investigation as well, since it used to be that people got illegal Spirits through them in the past. I emphasized to them that this is not a good thing to do.”

  “You’re hoping to just stumble on the other end?” the Duke asked, a bit bothered that he hadn’t tried that yet.

  “That is the plan. Though it is taking foreeeeever,” she groaned.

  He nodded. “Yes, I would expect-”

  Suddenly the door burst open. There was Tony, and behind him I could see at least three other paladin types. “Archanist. You are hereby-” he froze as he caught sight of Mae. Immediately he dropped to one knee, as did those behind him. “I pay respects to the Messenger of the Gods,” he said. I hadn’t even had the chance to get up before his attitude changed.

  “Oh?” There was a rather mischievous grin on Mae’s face as she looked down at the man. “And what does a mere Paladin think he is about to accuse Goddess Amaterasu’s chosen champion of?”

  Immediately he paled, sweat pouring down his face. And that wasn’t from regret, Mae was exuding her magical pressure onto him. She was so intensely focusing it at him that I could see the air around him vibrate.

  “Mae,” I said after a moment, sighing and looking back at her. “Those whose profession uses holy magic are extremely susceptible to Spirits. He can’t respond if you pressure him that much.”

  Her grin just widened as the pressure was suddenly gone, leaving Tony gasping and trembling. “Oops,” was all she said before giggling.

  I looked back at the people behind him, one of which had apparently passed out. “Did you just… have those guys nearby?” I asked, confused at the speed in which he got backup.

  “The church posted several Paladins around the estate to protect my daughter,” the Duke responded. He looked so disappointed. “Tony.”

  The man jolted. “Yes, my lord?”

  “I hereby revoke your permission to be within my city. You have two hours to leave.”

  “What!” Tony exclaimed, managing to get to his feet. “My Lord, this is a mistake.” He pointed a finger at me. “He must have-”

  He didn’t have a chance to continue as his words melted into muffled cries of pain as his arm was removed. Mae had been nothing but a blur as she cleared the room. “How dare such trash try to besmirch my Master.” Her fur was bristling, and while I couldn’t sense any mana from her shadow step ability, I could see the mana coating her hand that she had used to sever the man's arm.

  “Mae,” I said softly. “It’s alright.” I watched as she relaxed. With a huff she turned and walked back, this time sitting on the arm of my chair rather than standing behind me. She folded her arms in front of her, glaring at the man on the ground who was using healing magic to stop his bleeding.

  “All church associates are to leave my estate. You will inform the Pope that I will no longer be cooperating due to how your supposedly high ranking representative has disrespected my guest. Not once. But twice.” He tossed a letter over towards them, which I realized he had been writing for a little while now. He had some sort of ability that allowed him to write without needing a pen. An interesting ability, but useless to someone who doesn’t have tons of paperwork.

  The way that the letter actually stuck into the armor of the Paladin was actually impressive, even if it was just into one of the joints it was good aim. The two didn’t say anything, simply grabbing Tony and dragging him away.

  “Now then. I won’t take anymore of your time, and I’ll simply move onto my request,” the Duke said, obviously quite annoyed at how this had gone. “I would like for your assistance in training my daughter.”

  I frowned, glancing over at Lillece. She was staring at the arm that was sitting in a pool of blood. “Are you sure she even wants to be an adventurer anymore after her experiences?” Although the question was aimed at the Duke, it was for both of them.

  She turned to me. “I do.”

  There was still a frown on my face as I glanced again at her. I sighed, leaning back in the chair. “One lesson a week. Ten gold per session.”

  There was an actual excited expression on her face as she looked over at the Duke. “That’s reasonable.”

  “If you want me to teach any of your other children, it will cost a lot more.” I thought about the two other children I have met that belonged to the Duke. “I do charge an asshole tax.”

  “Ah, yes, I believe you had a run in with some of my children that were… less than favorable. You need not worry about that.” He looked down at a piece of paper. “As her schedule is rather busy for the next few days… Can we schedule the first session for four days from now?”

  I thought about it for a moment, estimating how long my scouting mission would be, before I nodded. “Yes, that will be fine. Is there anything else?”

  He shook his head. “No, thank you for coming. And thank you for pulling my daughter out of the dungeon.”

  I stood up and bowed slightly. “Alright, Mae. Let’s go home.”

  “Gladly,” she said as she wrapped her arms around me, and rather suddenly we were standing in the entry room.

  I furrowed my brow at her, but she just grinned. “I’m tired,” she said as she leaned into me. “I burned through most of my mana.” Her voice was very soft.

  “Do you want me to get you something to eat?” I asked softly, smiling a bit.

  Her tails started to wag a bit. “I want stew. And I want you to feed me.”

  I snorted. But, I suppose I should reward her for a job well done. She made that go extremely smooth. “Okay. Let me go get you some.”

  “Carry me,” she said as she leaned more on me.

  Unlike Shuzshu and Velvese, I could actually pick Mae up, so I did. I thought about where to take her, but decided that she probably needed to lay down if she really did burn through most of her mana. She probably had a really bad headache. While powerful, I knew for a fact that teleporting took an insane amount of mana. It was a Tier Fifteen spell. Considering she had done it twice and used a few other spells, she was probably close to gaining her eighth tail.

  Laying her down in the bed I tried to pull away but she didn’t release me. She gripped the back of my coat. “You relied on me,” she said softly.

  “Of course.”

  “Yoouuu truuusted meeee,” she said and I could hear the grin in her voice.

  I sighed, shaking her off a bit and letting her fall onto the bed. “Yes, I did.” I fixed the collar of my coat before I made my way to find her some stew.

  When I came back, I found out that she was quite literal in wanting me to feed her. She even laid across my lap as she begged me to do so. Honestly I didn’t take much convincing to do so. It was fine until Shuzshu came in and I could immediately taste the jealousy in the air.

  “You never feed me,” she whined.

  “You’ve never asked.”

  That seemed to have completely taken the wind out of her sails as she just stood there, staring at the two of us with a dejected look.

  “Do you want me to feed you?” I asked after a moment.

  She happily nodded and flopped down beside me. Velvese just sort of stood there, staring. And I knew she wanted to as well.

  I sighed softly. “Well, come on,” I said as I gestured to her. “I’ll feed you as well.”

  They had brought food with them, intent on all of us eating together, but instead I spent the next hour or so feeding the three of them as they fought over my lap. Well, Velvese didn’t actually fight for it, she just waited until the other two had dragged each other away and then took advantage of the distraction.

  It was honestly amusing, and I found myself having a rather good time. Though I realized when we ran out of food that I hadn’t eaten anything and had to go out and get something for myself. They all said they wanted more food, so I ended up getting quite a lot.

  However when I returned they were all asleep. I decided to not wake them and instead went back downstairs. I hadn’t taken off my gauntlets yet, so I did that before sitting down to eat. I had gotten stew from a place that was fairly close, it was the same place that I had gotten for Mae.

  The Fox Spirit was actually a very interesting addition to the group. One that I was happy to have around now. Seeing her take off Tony’s arm had been impressive, and also gave me a good idea of her combat abilities. I don’t think she could have beaten him if he had been wearing armor, but the two of us together could have done it.

  Finding out that she could teleport was also a pleasant surprise. She hadn’t demonstrated having that spell, but then again she had hardly shown me any spells at all. I knew she had a sort of shadow step ability that allowed her to move short distances in complete silence. That was how she was always getting close to me without me noticing.

  As I sat at the table, considering what I should do for the scouting mission tomorrow I heard someone come down the stairs. Looking over it was Velvese. She froze for a moment when she spotted me. I had found she was rather easy to startle.

  I couldn’t be certain at what was going on in her head as she stared at me, but eventually she moved over. Then she sat down on the floor next to me, and put her head in my lap. This wasn’t the first time she had done this. In fact she often did this when I was sitting alone, either eating or working on something. I hesitated a moment before reaching down and gently stroking her head. The feeling of her scales was quite pleasant, and she was cold to the touch.

  Through conversations and experience, I had found that her species of Lizardfolk were cold blooded. Apparently not all of them were, which was news to me as I had only read about cold blooded ones.

  She just closed her eyes as I pet her. Apparently she really liked when I ran my fingers over her scars. They didn’t have much feeling, but she could feel the warmth. “How are they doing?” I asked, using one hand to eat while I pet her with the other.

  “Perfect as always.” I saw how she flexed the fingers of her prosthetic. Thankfully she had completely adapted to them now. It had been weeks since she had had any problems with them, and that had just been because she wanted some of the limiters to be removed.

  “Good. It’s almost time for me to do some maintenance on them. Something like that needs to be checked every few months to make sure that nothing is going wrong.” She had closed her eyes and was pressing her face against my hand.

  It really hadn’t taken me long to grow fond of Velvese. I’m sure part of that was how she acted, but I knew that a big part of it was Shuzshu. That big dog was determined to get me more out of my shell. Which is why I think she liked Mae being here. The three of them attacked from very different angles and I was wearing down.

  I wasn’t complaining, but I also wasn’t letting my guard down. I still didn’t understand why the Gnoll was doing what she was doing. Velvese was a slave, so of course she was going to act friendly to me if I let her. And Mae… I couldn’t even begin to imagine the reasonings of that Spirit. There was just this underlying tension that they were all conspiring against me, but I couldn’t be sure if that was real or just my paranoia.

  I hated that I just couldn’t bring myself to relax around them.

  Velvese seemed completely unaware of the turmoil inside my head, simply enjoying the affection I was giving her. I continued to pet her for a while even after I had finished eating. Trying my best not to imagine scenarios of betrayal and instead focus on the here. She couldn’t betray me even if she wanted to. Even without the collar, she was still a slave bound to me.

  That bothered me a bit, but she had refused when I suggested that I break the slave bond, even after promising her she could still be with us. It had been the first time I’d seen her that upset. Some sort of mental conditioning that those who are slaves from a young age are subjected to, if I had to guess.

  Her eyes opened as she looked up at me. Since I had finished eating I was simply looking down at her with my hand on her head. I could see the blush slowly start to form on her face. It was interesting to see her blush, as it reminded me of a chameleon. “Master?” she asked softly.

  Again there was that slight feeling, like a tightness in my back. The way that Mae and Velvese said the word master were very different. Mae used it in a teasing way, but Velvese used it almost reverently. “Hm?” I tilted my head a bit, rubbing at one of her scars gently with my thumb.

  Slowly her eyes closed as she pressed her head into my hand. “Thank you,” she said softly.

  I blinked, my brow furrowing. “You’re welcome?” I replied slowly, unsure what I was being thanked for, but I felt it would be weird to ask. It looked like she wanted to say more, but decided to stay quiet. We stayed there for quite a lot longer before we finally ended up going to bed.