The Quantum Wanderer

We wake up, and after having some fun we go down for our breakfast. The girls are already dressed for knight school and magic school. When we finish breakfast, I open them a portal into their room in the dormitory in the campus.

The first thing I do when alone is creating the neutron crystals around the blades. The dragonesses left their swords with me so that I could enhance them. The new blades also have a mana channel engraved on it. The frequency I have to use is slightly different. However, after some testing, I realize the huge difference. The vibrating mana gets fed by the mana in the metal. That means that once I place the vibrating, it is going to take a very long time for that mana to be used up.

I also take a look at the holding bag that Dávrin gave me. There is a lot of everything in it. It is about the size of the first holding bag I ever had, the one that Leopold had given me. It is full to the brim with riches. Gold coins, platinum coins, jewels… I decide to just place it in the money safe for now. I probably should do some accounting on it, but I already have so much money. And that is disregarding the girls’ money. The dragonesses made a figurative killing with the termites.

When I look outside to have an idea of the time, it is already past noon. Time passes really fast when we are busy with something.

I decided to enjoy my garden a little bit, so I sat underneath the tree to watch the clouds a little bit. I started thinking about other races that I could try to visit. A lot of it was limited because of bad relations with them. I have heard that elves are not too found of humans, specially because their lands also border the Holy Kingdom, and those guys think that humans should be above the other races.

Morons. In this planet humans are not even the best builders. There are better races all over. The only thing is the numbers, apparently. The guild gave a general idea of the elves location. I wonder if they trade with anyone.

I should also visit the Holy Kingdom, to at least have an idea on what they are like. I know some of their beliefs, but everything I heard was from third parties. I never bothered on visiting them, on trying to understand their culture. They do sound bad, though. High amounts of slavery, specially of other races.

That comes with a high dose of fanatism for their religion. I was told that they have a holy inquisition there, and that it is basically a might makes right on a national level. If someone is accused, the person is tortured until confession. Sure, I do some torturing as well, but I make sure the person I am torturing is involved. I did kill a couple of innocent people, though. I am not completely innocent as I would like to believe. These hands now have a lot of blood on them.

The sun goes lower on the horizon. I look at the tree, the crows are all staring at me and at Muninn and Huginn that are on the tree. I stand up, and I look at Muninn and Huginn. I extend my forearm before me, and they land on it.

“Do you guys have any crows in the lands of the elves?”

Munin caws.

“Can you check if they trade with anyone? I am interested in stablishing contact with them as well. If possible, though.”

Muninn caws. I start to lower my forearm, and Muninn and Huginn move to my shoulders. I go back to the house, the girls ring me on the Comm Gem. I open the portal for them, and we get ready for the dinner with the demons.

After we are ready, I go to the living room, and I open the portal to the palace. I step out, and Rajesh and his family are already there, well dressed and ready. Sidhu is with them. He has a kind of sad smile on his face. I think it is strange. His wife and kid are not here either.

“Sidhu, where are you wife and kid? Are they not going to come to the dinner?”

“Your goddlyness, you didn’t invite me…”

I look at Rajesh, that shrugs and shakes his head. I slap my forehead.

“SHIT! I am. So. Sorry. Is it too late to invite you guys?”

Sidhu is kind of frozen.

“Come on, please go get them. Wait! Where do you live? We can probably create a portal there.” I turn to Rajesh. “Can I ask you to go ahead? Tell everyone that I messed up, I am going with Sidhu to get his family.”

“Sure, friend.”

Rajesh and his family go through the portal. I am left with Sidhu.

“Let’s go, Sidhu.”

With that, Sidhu starts walking, and it go besides him. The guards all salute us, Sidhu is still pretty popular, apparently. We leave the palace, and go to a smaller house on the end of the street. Still in the nobles district, but the smallest of the houses.

Sidhu was about to enter, when I have an idea. I sign him to not say anything. I knock on the door. I think I have been around Muninn too long.

“My lady, lord Sidhu has sent me to escort you and your kids, he is waiting in the church.”

“By the gods, he doesn’t even come himself! Sitra, get dressed! Viraj, go wash your face! Your father sent another one of those assholes to take us to the church!”

I hear some movement inside the house. Sidhu is mortified, I am having fun. After some minutes, she opens the door. And stays there, frozen. The kid pulls her skirt.

“Mama, why doesn’t he have horns?”

I lower myself, until I can look at the level of the kid. She is probably a year or two younger than Rutra. It is difficult to me to estimate their ages.

“Because I was born in another land, little one.”

The mother pulls her arm, trying to discipline the daughter. I look at her.

“Please, she didn’t do anything wrong. Her curiosity is normal. What is your name?”

“I am Lakshmi.”

“Nice to meet you. I am sorry for the prank, I think I have been around Muninn a little too much.”

I giggle.

“Rajesh is already waiting for us. I am inviting you to dinner. Let’s go?”

Lakshmi nods slowly. I open a portal right there, to my living room. Sidhu grabs her hand, and we all go through it.

In my living room, Rajesh is already looking at the new home. Viraj jumps through the portal. He looks at everything as if he were inside a spaceship. Sidhu comes a little slower. Everything is leaving him flabbergasted. Sidhu’s wife is kind of wide eyed, she has the deer in headlights expression.

“Are we in heaven?”

I giggle.

“No, I don’t live in heaven. You are in my home.” I turn to the kids.

“I am going to ask you guys to keep all that you see here a secret, ok? Just between us?”

They both nod their heads. Aisha gets close to Lakshmi and pulls her and Sitra away, to ease them into the shock. I start showing the house to Viraj, Sidhu and Rajesh, while the girls are with Aisha and Lakshmi. I see that Rutra is fixated on Muninn and Huginn, that are on top of a bookcase. I nod at Muninn, that sighs, and he and Huginn land on a coffee table. Rutra starts petting Muninn. Sitra sees that and gains some courage. She gets close to Huginn. Then starts petting her as well. I see that the kid is divided between enjoying the crows and staying with us.

I tell them that the neighbor right in front has a daughter as well, and that she bribed a crow into hanging out with her.

“Her father told me that she plays with her brother and the crow, by impersonating the god Wrax.”

Rajesh and I laugh, Sidhu smiles. Sidhu is a little worried, apparently. I turn to him.

“Is everything alright, Sidhu? You seem a little distant. Am I taking you away from a previous engagement?”

He shakes his head. We go to the dinning room, where Roberta has some appetizers ready. Rajesh produces a bag of holding, and gets some liquor from it. He really knows my weak spots, that liquor is absolutely fantastic.

The four of us taste the appetizers. The women get silent when Rajesh and Sidhu start moaning with pleasure and making some unsavory expressions. I take a look at the kid, to evaluate his levels. He is a level 12 in spite of being so young. I am concerned. I talk to Sidhu.

“We have a problem. His level is not bad, but not high either. You guys are already have a mana hangover if you only eat this steak today. We can give him a taste, but I think that it might be dangerous if he eats more than that in one go. Of course, the whole thing is on you guys. Cecilia had a very bad mana hangover, and she was high thirties at the time.”

We three decide to give the kid half a cube. Aisha gets close with a questioning look, Lakshmi has a worried one. My girls are holding the laughter. They do some quick exchange, and come over.

The women have some of the kraken meat, and do the same expressions as the men. I repeat the warning.

“Just be careful not to have too much of this. This meat has too much mana for even high level adventurers. If you eat too much, you are going to have a bad case of mana hangover tomorrow.”

Rajesh takes a deep breath.

“What is this? I have not ever tasted something like this. It really makes me believe Lakshmi was right on her guess that we are in heaven.”

I smile. I put my finger in front of my mouth.

“Ok, please don’t spread this around. This is kraken meat.”

“Kraken? What is a kraken?” Viraj asks. He seems impressed.

“Something that an elder dragon is too weak t face.” Opal answers.

Viraj’s eyes are bulging now. “Huh? I thought there was nothing stronger than dragons.”

“Not on land, nor in the air. Krakens live in the deepest part of the ocean, according to legends. And now, according to my lord.” Opal says smiling.

“What does it look like?” Viraj asks Opal. She shrugs. I am the one to answer that.

“Do you know what a giant octopus looks like?”

“Yes, those things are nasty. Father told me that it takes a lot of mithril adventurers to bring one down.”

“A kraken is like one of those, but big.”

“How big?”

“This was was around… Let’s say the eye was just a little bigger than the Drakonia map. I had a very good look at the eye. Or the eye had a very good look at me, actually.” I say, pointing at the huge slab of glass created by Troggar. Then I giggle. Apparently this is not as funny as I thought, everyone else is just staring at me. Viraj is now all but hypnotized.

“How was the fight? Was it long?”

“It was short, but I got a little hurt, actually. There are a couple of things that I intend to improve, should I ever face another aquatic monster.”

“So… You spent a day out because you were… Hurt? Why didn’t you call us?”

I remember now that I hadn’t told the girls how it had gone.

“Well, I moved the fight to the Big Nothing, the desert. The sound brought in some dragons, I am guessing from the other clans. The regeneration healed all the important stuff that got hurt. I called Troggar, he came with some elders from our clans. Then I did the final killing. It was already about to die because it can only breath under water.

“When I killed it, I passed out from the experience. Troggar kept me safe.”

I look around, the girls have a bad face on them. I think this pissed them off a lot more than I expected. I am looking around at their faces.

“I am sor-“

I am picked up by my shirt by Ruby, my feet are dangling off the floor. “WHY DIDN’T WE GO WITH YOU! WE ARE YOUR WIVES! DON’T EVER DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS AGAIN!”

I raise my hands in defeat. She pulls me, and gives me a deep kiss. There are tears rolling down her cheeks.

“I am sorry… I really am.”

Ruby turns around, and starts crying on Cecilia’s shoulder. Aquamarine comes, holds me by my jaw, and kisses me. Shandon is next. She shakes her head, and then kisses me. Opal comes close.

“Think of us as well, my lord. The kraken meat is worthless without you.” And she kisses me.

I am looking towards the floor, scratching the back of my head. I can see a smile on Aisha’s and Rajesh’s lips. Sidhu took a couple of steps back. Wise move.

I can see that Rajesh would love additional details on the fight with the kraken, but it is a sore subject right now. Roberta saves me by announcing dinner.

There is a lot of kraken meat left on the table. The dragonesses barely touched their food. I don’t know what to do in this situation. I plan to check with Cecilia tomorrow, she might have some tip on how to get me out of the dog house.

After dinner, the girls humor start to improve a little. Cecilia does a lobby effort on improving their humor, I go along, promising that I will always keep them in the loop for anything dangerous, that I am going to get support from them, and stuff like that.

Their appetite comes back, and they go in the kitchen to get some steak. They come back from the kitchen as if no crisis ever happened. I am happy. I am having some drinks with Sidhu and Rajesh, and we are talking about the new toys I got from the dwarves. The katana, obviously.

I also show them the apartments for the service crew and the little park. Unfortunately, it is not possible to let the kids play outside because of exposure. I really hope some day I can do better than just show them the stuff through a window.

We get back in the dining room, and chat some more. The two little girls are sleeping on a couch, each one of them hugging one of the crows. I look at Muninn, and he sighs. I giggle a little. Rajesh and Sidhu decide to leave, and I open the portals for them. Rajesh carries Rutra, and Sidhu carries Sidra, princess style. The kids don’t wake up. We say goodbye and they leave.

I look at the girls. I kiss each one of them. I understand that the anger they felt was a demonstration of care. Opal has a mischievous face, the others have a post-stress one, that happens when you get very nervous, and then relax. We go to our room to retire for the night.

The next morning, we wake up normally. The girls are holding me the same way they did the day after Siratra left. Their selfishness towards me is refreshing. I try to wake up without disturbing them, but when I move they instinctively hold me tighter. It is a good thing my rib cage is reinforced, or it would have been crushed by now.

The girls start waking up as well, and we have a tender moment. We go down for breakfast.

“Girls, I was thinking that I could enhance another one of you today. Who wants to get the regeneration?”

All three of the remaining dragonesses raise their hands up.

“I am going to do one of you today, the other one tomorrow, and the third one the day after. You are not going to have to wait.”

The three of them look at each other, and Aquamarine and Shandon lower their hands. Opal it is. I look at the other two.

“Tell at the knight school that Opal is going to stay in the room today.”

After breakfast, I open the portal for the girls to go to School. After that I portal Opal and me to the beach in Drakonia, so that I can do the enhancement procedure.

Everything goes the same way it did with Ruby. With the exception of the sword through the hand experiment, of course. In Opal’s case, it is just a little cut to see. We go home, and the sun is already setting there. I open a portal for the other girls, and they kind of celebrate it hugging and jumping.

Rudolph is looking at them, but he doesn’t ask any questions.

In the next two days, I do the same for Shandon and Aquamarine. I feel better, knowing that they are a little bit more resilient.

***

Rajesh’s POV

I am laying my head on Aisha’s lap once again this morning. The dinner yesterday with Marcelo interesting, to say the least. Aisha’s lap is a wonderful place to come think about things.

“Aisha, what are you thoughts on the dinner yesterday?”

“There is so much, that I don’t even know how to start.” She giggles a little.

“The beginning.”

“The whole thing are so off the charts that it is hard to even measure things. We ate meat that not even dragons eat. Haven’t you ever heard the joke?”

“Which one?”

“What does a dragon eat? Oh, I don’t know. Whatever it wants.”

I giggle a little.

“And then Marcelo casually serves hunt that the dragons do not get to eat. And this is not the first case either. Remember that thing with the bullgoose?”

“Yup.”

“He talks about everything as if it was easy. It is hard to measure. But that was not what scared me.”

“No? What scared you?”

“What do you think culture is?”

“The behaviour of a group of people.”

“Just in part. It is something stronger than that. It is a set of beliefs, actually. Much like other beliefs that guide our life. Like the belief on the value of money. This set of beliefs are, to each person, a fact.”

She gives me some time to digest what she is saying. We already have had discussions on what defines the value of money, on what defines political power. That these things come from a faith so ingrained within each person in the population that it becomes a fact to them. They don’t even realize they are operating on faith.

“Go on.”

“Have you ever asked how the dragons live? What is their culture like?”

“I can’t say I have.”

“I have. They are very patriarchal. Might makes right. Females are smaller than adult males. They are only stronger than hatchlings. And in this scenario, weak serve the strong. No guards, No laws. Actually, they do have a couple of laws, but just to keep the strongest in power. Stuff like the winner of a duel cannot be immediately challenged for another duel. This only preserves the strong.

“What is more, dragons only mate in heat. The males’ goal is not pleasure, it is legacy. In this whole picture, the hunting grounds are divided in areas. If one is strong, one can get the areas one wants.

“What areas do you think females would be able to acquire by force?”

“None.”

“Exactly. So how is their normal relationship with the males?”

“Possibly servitude.”

“More than that. Female ownership is decided by challenges to the death as well. The winner takes everything from the dead. Hunting grounds, political power, females. And when they go in heat, the winner mates. Because that’s what they are there for in his eyes. Females are goods.”

“That makes sense.”

“Yes, but I haven’t finished. What is the appropriate cultural response from a female to a male in this society? I don’t believe they even understand the concept of feelings.”

“But the dragonesses apparently like Marcelo. A lot.”

“Exactly. They love Marcelo. Something that just wasn’t meant to be.”