by Brent Tyman
“I have asked Juliana to join my Clan, and she wants your blessing to do so,” I said.
Juliana looked at me, shocked that I had brought up the issue so bluntly, but also relieved.
Her father chuckled at this as he stood up to his full height and spun around to gaze out the window.
“My blessing for the heir of Clan Tasberg to leave to join a Clan of little note…” He snorted. “My reputation would plummet in all three nations.”
Juliana’s face fell at this, but I figured we weren’t out of the race yet. I knew exactly what he was doing.
“But you don’t care about what other folk think,” I said, and he turned to look me in the eye, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
“So very true… Even so, this request of yours would overturn centuries of Tasberg tradition. It will not come cheaply, but I’m sure we can come to some arrangement.”
He made a show of thinking, but after hearing the grand assembly, and seeing Clarissa’s father in the city, I already knew what to expect was coming next.
“Win that tournament the accursed Head Commissioner roped me into agreeing to and Juliana may do as she likes,” he said.
“Fine,” I said quickly, locking this deal in.
“What?” Juliana breathed, startled that he’d agreed so easily. “You only wish for us to win this tournament?”
“Tringall will be mine,” Juliana’s father said, clenching his fist. “One way or another, I will have it. To think the city state council had the temerity to refuse my demands in the first place.”
I had no idea what he was on about now, but Juliana seemed ecstatic her father had actually agreed to our request.
“Very well, Father. We will win this tournament for the Sovereignty,” she promised, smiling at me.
“Do not fail me in this. Now go prepare for the trials ahead. I won’t have the Yunissan ants or Hogannan whelps take this prize from me,” he said, sinking back into his chair. He picked up the parchment he had shown me earlier, glanced back up at me with the smallest of smiles and set it on fire while tossing it over his shoulder. It turned to ash before it hit the floor.
I didn’t think the man could get more overbearing if he tried.
Seemingly dismissed, Juliana quickly grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the room. Of all the times we had been together, this was the happiest I had seen her. I hadn’t realized joining my Clan had meant so much to her. Heck, it meant a lot to me, too, now that I thought about it.
We finally had a clear path to make it happen.
“Come Alex, we must go prepare for this tournament as best we can,” she said, a beautiful smile on her lips.
“Not without visiting your mother first, you will not,” a smooth voice called out.
Standing beside the guards outside the study was a woman garbed in a red dress. Her features matched Juliana’s, though she was a much older version of the beauty by my side. She even had the same long hairstyle and quick gait.
Her eyes twinkled as she appraised me, calmly looking me up and down.
“Mother!” Juliana pouted as the woman stepped up to me.
“I have heard some rather… interesting tales, of late,” she said as she examined me. “Very interesting tales, indeed.”
I supposed it was inevitable that Juliana’s mother would hear about our relationship. At this point, with people like Kesara sharing any tasty rumor they were privy to with anyone they came upon in the street, I shouldn’t be surprised in the slightest.
“A pleasure to meet you,” I said, trying to be as proper as I could. “Your daughter has helped me out quite a lot over these past few weeks.”
“That and more…” she said with a smirk, causing Juliana’s cheeks to heat up.
“Mother, please,” she protested, “not in front of the guards!”
Her mother chuckled softly to herself.
“Very well, both of you will come with me. I would very much like to hear exactly what has been going on these past few weeks.” She gave her daughter one of those looks, before cocking an eyebrow at me.
“Every. Exquisite. Detail.”
I was surprised when she pulled me and Juliana along the corridor behind her with incredible strength. We looked at each other with wide eyes.
What had we gotten ourselves into…?
15
When she wasn’t dragging us behind her like unruly offspring, Juliana’s mother seemed to be quite a reasonable and pleasant woman. She asked so many questions, that I was almost sure she was going through a checklist of them in her head.
Fortunately, most of them were directed at Juliana, after my initial explanation of our journey to Valdura.
At the end of the barrage of questions, Juliana’s mother knew her daughter’s sleeping habits, what she’d had for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the past few weeks and how many dresses she had on hand at the Academy.
I wasn’t entirely sure why she wanted to know that last one, and it sort of reminded me of Clarissa’s rather obscenely large shoe collection, but as the woman fussed over her daughter, I couldn’t help but smile at the scene.
It reminded me of my younger years, with my own family…
There was a point where they spoke in hushed tones, and I could only imagine what they were discussing about me. The conversation was pretty short though and not long after that, the woman wished us both luck in the tournament and sent us on our way.
She made me promise to look after her daughter. Naturally, I assured her I would. We walked out of the manor exhausted but with a new purpose.
“Whoa, that was just… wow,” I said. “Why does it feel like we were in there for days?”
“I apologize about my father,” Juliana said. “I just didn’t believe he would look into you so closely.”
I reached behind my shoulder to scratch my back. It seemed I had a bit of explaining to do.
“About what your father said, about my origins… Well…” I honestly had no idea how to explain that I was from another world entirely, and dropped into this one by a Goddess, but Juliana stopped me with a finger to my lips.
“No,” she said. “You do not have to explain anything.”
She pulled her finger away and looked over her shoulder at the manor behind us.
“I am sure you will tell me everything when you are ready and not a moment before. I trust you Alex… and no one, not even my own father, can break that trust.”
Jeez…
How did I end up with such an amazing woman on my side?
I pulled her close and gave her a kiss, which she happily returned. We ended up laughing about different parts of the whole ordeal as we walked back to the Academy. On the way, we also discussed how we planned to spend the few days we had before the tournament started.
I was still dead set on leveling up my magic and, once I let Juliana know, she agreed with Clarissa that Magical Power should be my main focus. I’m sure my blonde healer would be happy to know Juliana had backed her up.
In terms of spells, though she was happy to teach me magic like her fireballs, there was a slight problem in that learning spells from another took quite a lot of time and patience. By the time I’d finally learn any of her spells, the tournament would be well underway. Doing so would take up a lot of valuable time we could have spent grinding.
Because of the time constraint, there was another way she mentioned I should consider, but it was pretty expensive.
Spell books.
“We can travel to the library in the Academy and buy you some spell books. That would allow you to level your Magical Power starting today,” Juliana said.
“How much did you say those cost again?” I asked. I had to hear the disgustingly high amount a second time, to be sure I wasn’t imagining it.
“Some spells can cost several tens of gold coins,” Juliana admitted. “But I am happy to provide you with what you need.”
“You know…” I said, thinking back on when we had first gotte
n my armor. “I do have the loot I got from the Glower Serpent and the Titan. We might as well make use of them.”
“That’s right,” Juliana said, clapping her hands together. “I am unsure how much coin a Glower Serpent scale is worth, but it must be significant. We will not be able to trade in the Academy library, so we’ll have to sell it to the Adventurer’s Guild.”
It sounded like a good plan, and we turned to follow the street that led from the High District into the other parts of town. Juliana kept an arm tucked around my own, not unlike how Clarissa liked to travel with me. I didn’t fail to notice how she maneuvered her cleavage so that it was always in my line of sight.
She seemed to be in superb spirits, and to be honest, so was I.
This tournament was a way to further my stats and make Juliana happy at the same time. What wasn’t there to be happy about?
Although we’d need to check out what trials we might end up facing in the later stages of the tournament, I figured anything in the Dungeon should be fairly easy for us to overcome.
Especially with Aurielle on our team.
It didn’t take long for us to reach the Adventurer’s Guild, and it honestly felt like an eternity since I’d last set foot inside it. The building stood several houses wider than any other in the vicinity. Dozens of adventurers bustled in and out of its entrance.
It seemed that for the Guild, it was business as usual.
Heck, with the tournament having been announced, I would have been surprised if there wasn’t as much activity here. Having spent all morning at the manor, I figured news of the tournament would have spread all over the city by now.
“Are you signed up as an adventurer, Juliana?” I asked, curious.
She nodded. “Yes. I did so when I first arrived in the city for my studies. Because of my background, they assigned me a gold rank, but I didn’t care to advance my rank with any of their quests.”
“That’s way better than my lowly copper rank,” I said glumly. “And yeah, I got caught up in just doing my own thing in the Dungeon to pay much attention to the Guild’s quests. I do know you can get some decent coin, if you complete some.”
“I imagine any adventurer worth their guild badge will do whatever they can to enter this tournament,” Juliana said. She glanced at me and threw me a brilliant smile. “I don’t believe any one of them can compare to you, though.”
I laughed at that, shaking my head. “Haha, I don’t think I’ve really seen truly powerful adventurers yet. Who knows what the best ones are capable of?”
Juliana shrugged her shoulders as we passed a group of Elven adventurers with massive bows across their backs. “I believe our greatest challenge will be from the Academy students. Adventurers can be strong, but if they had the talent, wouldn’t they already be enrolled in the Academy?” she mused.
Clearly, Juliana didn’t think too highly of most adventurers, but if she’d played any of the RPG’s I had sunk so much time and energy into back home, she might take them more seriously. Some RPG stories had adventurers get so overpowered, they could take on world ending threats.
Comparing that kind of power to people like Daiver? There was a rather wide gap between the two.
The first thing I noticed when we stepped inside the adventurer’s guild, was the racket.
“We gotta find more people for the tournament!”
“Looking for a fifth member to join our tournament party!”
“Mage needed for tournament! Surely someone here needs a Clan?”
Things were the same as ever, it seemed. At least most of this talk was confined to the bar and lounge area of the main hall and we had a clear shot to get to the reception area at the back.
I kept an eye out for the receptionist I preferred to work with and smiled when I spotted Selina sitting behind her usual desk.
“Welcome back to the Guild, Alex,” Selina said, her long ponytail swishing behind her. The green embroidered blazer she usually wore was stretched over the back of her seat, leaving her wearing a white, frilly top.
“Hey there Selina,” I said, smiling. “Glad you remember me. It’s been a while.”
“After your accomplishments in the Dungeon, you would be impossible to forget,” she replied, returning my grin. “What can I do for you?”
Her gaze drifted to Juliana at my side and, after a moment, recognition flashed in her widening eyes.
“What can you give me for this?” I asked, taking a moment to pull one of the Glower Serpent scales out of my Clan storage.
Only when I’d set the loot onto her desk did I realize how big the scale actually was.
It filled up the entirety of her desk and then some, hanging out over either side. My Strength stat had come a long way, which made it feel like I’d been holding a feather, but as the table creaked under the enormity of the scale, I figured I might have been better off, placing it on the floor.
Selina stood up from her chair and gawked at the display.
“The scale of a Glower Serpent? How did you get this?” She looked up with eyes the size of saucers. “Where?... How?”
Some of the receptionists near her had also turned to stare over at us. It seemed I always found myself the center of attention, usually when I really didn’t want it.
Jeez…
“We simply wish to sell this scale for coin,” Juliana said, not skipping a beat. Unless my eyes were deceiving me, she seemed pleased by the attention. “How much will the Guild offer us?”
“Uhh,” Selina said, “Well… I would need to consult the manual.”
There was a manual for this sort of stuff?
“We haven’t had a Glower Serpent’s scale grace these halls for years… it would need to be verified.”
“Sure, sure,” I said. “Do your thing.”
We watched as Selina ran off deeper into the adventurer’s guild, towards what I had always thought of as the administrative section of the building.
She came back with a slew of people, all wearing uniforms similar to hers. They crowded around the Glower Serpent’s scale as if it were a prized treasure, scribbling on parchments while also poking at various parts of it.
One of them even pulled out something similar to a measuring tape…
“Incredible, this scale is perfectly formed, not a blemish to be seen.”
“You can see slight variances between the scale on this side compared to the other end. No doubt it had shed its scales three to six days before this scales’ creation.”
It took a long while before the Guild was ready to provide an offer for the scale, though several of them talked as if I had sold it to them already. I wondered what they might use a scale this size for. Maybe as material for fancy armor or something?
Eventually, after the verification process was done, which really was mostly the senior guild administrators fawning over the scale, Selina offered me forty-two gold coins for it.
I had to try really hard not to overreact, but in my head, I could scarcely believe it.
This reminded me that I’d only had two gold coins to my name before this. And it had taken me nearly a solid month of grinding to earn that much.
This was an amazing amount of wealth I’d gain with just one trade. And if need be, I could come back and trade the other scale I’d kept in my Clan storage. I could only imagine the amount of coin I would get if I grinded for real on whatever floor those Glower Serpents had been on.
Juliana also seemed surprised by the value of the scale and after consulting her, we agreed to sell it for that amount—provided the guild was willing to pay the same amount for any future Glower Serpent scales I might obtain. They agreed, since they evidently didn’t get much Glower Serpent scales through here at all.
“This should give you plenty of options for some of the lower tier spell books at the Academy,” she assured me.
The fact she’d mentioned lower tier made me wonder how far the higher tiered ones were outside my price range. If forty-two gold coins weren’t en
ough, then how much did I need to grind?
Selina had to have someone witness her counting the gold coins out for me as a number of rather large and imposing figures in Guild uniforms appeared to haul the scale away from her desk. Once I’d received the amount in a surprisingly small leather bag, I quickly secured it in my Clan Coin Storage.
“Are there any other surprises you would like my help with?” Selina asked as she sat back down behind her desk, smiling.
I couldn’t help but laugh at that.
“Haha. That’s enough for me today, thanks,” I replied earnestly. Though I also had a bunch of wolf pelts stuffed in my backpack, they were back at the Golden Bear. There was also the Titan’s loot, but I believed Clarissa had something special in mind for that. I didn’t have any plans for it at the moment.
We bid Selina farewell and exited the Adventurer’s Guild. I now had the means to get some spell books and it was time to head to the Academy’s library.
“Once we have some spells for you, do you wish to train in the Dungeon together?” Juliana asked, her eyes looking away from me. With the way Juliana was blushing, you’d have thought she was asking me about skipping off somewhere private to do an altogether different kind of training.
“Sure,” I said. “That had been the plan for today, at least before we attended the Grand Assembly and then went to see your father. This works out as well. I can get a minor spell or two from the Academy library and Aurielle can teach me her gravity magic at her own pace.”
After walking for a while, we made it back to the High District. The Academy came into view as we turned a corner, its huge tower casting a shadow over the rest of the street.
“I just hope I can learn fast enough to have my magic be useful in the tournament,” I said.
“With your rate of growth, I am confident you will excel at magic—just as you did with developing your Strength and Defense stats,” Juliana said. “But…” Her hand squeezed my arm. “Please make sure you do not take needless risks.”