The Quantum Wanderer

And just like that, today is the dinner date with Anthon, Edward, Leopold, and families.

I use Leopold’s Com Gemm, and check with him if he is ready. I meet him in his office in the guild. He is sitting on the couch, with his friend. I gesture them, and they come through the portal. Once we are on the other side, Leopold and his friend are looking at the inside of the house.

“Are you sure we in Andrea?”

I laugh. That’s the second time someone asks that.

“I am pretty sure, yes.”

The girls are coming down the stairs. Their view, in dresses, passing by the illuminated huge glass sculpture, the view is stunning. They come all the way.

“Hi, Leopold. Is this the lucky fella?”

“Yes.”

I look at them… Then I realize it. I start laughing at my own innocence. Then I shrug it off. The dragonesses don’t quite understand. Opal makes a face.

“What?”

I pull them to a corner.

“They are a couple.”

“But they are both males.” Opal suggests.

“Yes. What’s your point?”

“What is the point? How are they going to have hatchlings?”

“They decided they like each other. Shouldn’t that be enough?”

“Without the ability to procreate? How is that a family?”

“Opal, I am with you because I love you. What if we can’t produce a hatchling because I was not born a dragon?”

She gets a realization face, and stay still for some time. This is the first time the dragonesses have a relationship that is not purely mating. Cecilia is apparently more exposed to this kind of thing. I go over to them.

“Sorry for that, I hadn’t realized. It never mattered, so I didn’t pay attention.”

“What about them?” Leopold asked.

“They are experiencing a lot of new stuff. You know that their culture is way too different from ours.”

Leopold nods. I extend my hand to his partner.

“Nice to meet you. I am Marcelo.”

“I am Aymon.”

“What did Leopold already mention about me?”

“Nothing, actually. I am just… lost in here. What do you do for a living? I thought I knew the name of most kings. Where are we?”

“I am an adventurer. We are currently in Ironhold, I would think Leopold would mention that. I am just going to ask you to keep most things you see and hear under wraps, I don’t want people to gossip about me.”

“Of course. But… How? This house! Is this a palace?”

“No, but I was told that it used to be a noble’s home before. I was gifted it.”

He walks around the room, the touches the handrail to the stairs, marveled at the work of art it is. Then he goes a couple of steps, and starts looking at the map of Drakonia.

“What is this?”

I smile. I shouldn’t enjoy talking about it so much.

“That is a map of Drakonia. A continent that is ruled by dragons. And it was made by a dragon.”

He pulled quickly the hand that he was slowly extending towards it.

“What? What about the Land of Dragons, in the mountains?”

“That is just their nursery. Drakonia is where you find the elders.”

He looks at Leopold that nods. He looks at me. He looks again at Leopold, that shrugs. He turns back to the map, fascinated. I have to admit, the light crystal on the stand, throwing light up through the glass was a master touch by the dwarves. Everything was a master touch by the dwarves.

He spends some time looking at it. At this point, Rudolph signals me that Anthon and Edward are arriving. I go to the door to wait for them. This is the first time I see someone using the path way from my door to the gate with little light. When Anthon steps on the first stone, the light crystals on the side of it light up. He looks at Edward. Edward shrugs.

Anthon takes a step back, the pathway goes dark. Then he puts a foot on the ground, it lights up. He takes it back, it darkens. He does this another 2 or 3 times, until Andrea clears her throat. He stops, and starts coming to the door. Sophia and Cesar are taking a look at the stone floor, but then Andrea calls them, and they come over running as well.

The two women look at the entrance with their fans covering the lower part of their faces, while Anthon and Edward are touching the columns. Edward finally turns to me.

“This is absolutely fantastic!”

“I agree. I didn’t know myself what they were up to until I came back. They were originally only building the servants’ quarters. The boss told me to get away for a week, so that they wouldn’t have to worry about the dust. When I came back, it is looking like this. This is the first time I see the pathway at night, actually.”

Then come into the living room, and see the map with the light crystal illuminating it from bellow. Everywhere there is the dwarven design reflected.

“This room is different, right?” Edward asks.

“Yes. They doubled the house size, expanding to the back.”

We do a tour around the house. It is a little dark outside, but I show them the servants’ quarters and the park. Edward points at the toys.

“What are those?”

“That is a children’s playground. Those things are kids toys. Come, let me show you.”

We go to the playground, and the adults are examining the huge toys, fixed on the ground. The children are behind their parents, the whole thing is a little bit off their normal. I turn to them.

“Who is going to be brave enough to experiment something different?”

Caius looks curious, and gives a step ahead. He keeps silent.

“Awesome. Here, go up these stairs.” He goes up the slide stairs.

“Now, sit down.”

…

“Now lean forward.”

He does, and he slides down the toy, until the end. Addrianna does a little gasp. Edward bites his lips, and Anthon bulges his eyes just a little bit. Caius stops when the slide ends, his feet on the sand that covers the ground around the kids’ area.

“This is AWESOME!”

The next one to run towards the slide stairs is Sophia. She actually doesn’t stop in the end of the slide, she ends up on all fours on the sand. Addrianna gives one step forward, but Sophia just brushes out the sand from her knee and does a little jump of joy.

“What is this one, then?”

“That is a swing. You put your body forward and back, and you can swing.”

I sit down in one and do a little demonstration. Brutus tries one as well, and starts swinging it. Caius is now by the wheel.

“How does this one work?”

“Grab at the bars.”

He grabs it, and I start spinning it carefully. He keeps yelling to go faster, but I hold back. The adults stay some time watching their kids play. Then we get into the house. Edward and Anthon finally realize that Leopold and Aymon are here as well.

“I am sorry, I ended up forgetting to do the introductions.”

Leopold extends his hand.

“Good evening, I am Leopold, and this is Aymon.”

Edward grabs his hand.

“Good evening, I am Edward, this is Anthon. This is my wife Addrianna, and his wife Andrea. Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too.”

Leopold is scratching his chin. Aymon is the one to voice the question.

“I am sorry, but is Anthon a common name around here?”

“Not so much, why?”

“You have the same first name as the emperor, sir.”

Anthon and Edward giggle a little. Edward clears his throat.

“Yes, we have heard that before.”

Leopold bulges his eyes, and knees down.

“I am sorry, your majesty.” He pulls Aymon to kneel down as well.

“Don’t be. This is a place that I can actually put my title to the side. I prefer to keep it that way. Where are you from?”

“We are from Orora. I am the guild master there. He is an adventurer.”

“Orora… This is in Arthuria, right?”

“Yes.”

“One of the few places in Arthuria where corruption is not widespread.” I comment.

Leopold looks at the floor. Not much to say, he knows it. I continue.

“I have lived there for some time. It is a really nice place to live as well. And Leopold has helped me a lot when I needed.”

…

…

I take some time, and I see that they are admiring the glass map.

“You guys have to see the statue! Come with me!”

We go to the mantle, and the effect of the light coming from behind the glass is very nice. It gives an otherworldly feeling to the piece.

“Now look at this! A statue of a dragon, made by a dragon! Not only that, a very beautiful female dragon at that.”

Opal was looking closely at the scene, and blushes. I smile at her. I give Aymon and Leopold some time to look at the statue before I pick it up. I hold it in front of Leopold and tell him to pour just a little bit of mana on the red dot. He does that, and the fire come up. I smugly put the statue back on the mantle.

“I have never seen something like this before.” Aymon says.

Edward giggles. “Marcelo has that effect on people. Neiter Anthon nor I have ever seen another statue like this. Or the ones that lady Opal gifted us, for that matter.” Then he laughes harder. “Those really leave an impression.”

I scratch the back of my neck. Those statues embarrass me a little bit.

“Why?” Aymon asks.

Edward laughs.

“Come on, please, you have to do the pose.”

“But I never did the pose. To anyone.” I defended myself.

“Please, just once.” Edward asks.

I sigh. I tap on my shoulder, and Muninn lands on my left one, Huginn lands on my right. I put my right foot forward, and I mimick the pose from the statues, right arm extended forward, pointer finger pointing to the ground.

Leopold looks at Opal, and starts laughing. “Did she really gave a statue like that to them?”

Edward laughed a little. “The resemblance is cunning.”

Aymon is trying not to laugh, but ends up not resisting. Then he stops, and looks at Opal, inquisitively.

“Wait. Was it Opal that did this one as well?”

“Yes.”

“But you said…”

“Yes. Opal, Shandon, Aquamarine and Ruby are dragons. And hey, look at them. Are they not beautiful?”

Aymon is hearing, but I can see that he is not actually realizing the situation. At this point, Roberta comes out with the appetizers. It’s funny how the first time tasting kraken people always close their eyes and make faces of pleasure. I have to admit that I am getting spoiled with the life I am leading right now.

“What is this? You have served dragon before, but this…?” Edward asks.

Aymon is recovering from the effects of the mana rich meat, and after sometime his eyes bulge.

“Dragon meat?”

I press my lips together and incline my head.

“Yes, there were some mishaps, I ended up with dead dragons. We were basically eating that before this meat.”

“But… Aren’t your girls…?”

“Even among dragons it is quite common to eat one that lost to you in combat. That is not a big deal for them.”

And then Aymon looks at his fork.

“What about this?”

I smile.

“This is kraken.”

Edward and Leopold look at me, eyes bulging. Anthon and Aymon don’t really react to it. Anthon turns to Edward.

“What is a kraken?”

“There are some old legends on the absolute king of the seas. The only thing we know is that it has tentacles, and it is big. It can sunk a large ship just by swimming close to it.”

They turn to me.

“How big was it?”

I look at the girls, and signal them to tone the voice down. I don’t want to be shaken by Ruby again.

“It was big. It was an octopus, actually. With the tentacles, I think it was around 600 feet. Perhaps a little more. The eye was a little bigger than that.” I say pointing at the map of Drakonia.

They look at the map, and imagine an eye. They they swallow some spit.

“How tough was the hunt?” Leopold asks.

“This time I got a little hurt. My knee suffered a little. I am alright now.”

Leopold takes a bite on the meat.

“Why are we whispering? Is this a sore issue with the ladies somehow?”

“I don’t really understand. The battle was in Drakonia, and after I got the experience, I kind of passed out, I had one of my elders hold on the ground. I didn’t foresee all the issues. Not having them close apparently pissed them off.”

Leopold interjected.

“Wait. After you got the experience? What is your level right now?”

I decide to take a look at my status screen, it has been sometime since I last looked at it.

I probably should not divulge these numbers, they are too high. I look at Leopold. “High.” He doesn’t press for the information any further.

Aymon stopped mid-chew. “One of your elders?”

Edward and Anthon started laughing. Leopold rolled his eyes. I shrugged.

“Yes. Troggar sometimes help me. He was the one that designed the map in the glass, by the way.”

Aymon makes a face like the sentence makes no sense. Edward is having a fit. Rudolph tells us that dinner is served. I go with Addrianna and Andrea to call the kids. The kids wash up in a bathroom downstairs that did not exist before the dwarves. We all sit down for dinner. I let them know about the mana hangover on the kraken meat. I suggest them to be careful with the amount consumed, specially by the children. Brutus asks what is a kraken, and Anthon explains that it is something that he should pray to never see alive.

We chit chat about some generic subjects. They let me know that Brutus is going to join the knight school next year. Of course, even he has to participate in the exams, but he has already received some training, so chances of failing are almost non-existent. Edward talks about the noble’s son that wanted to challenge me for a duel, that he showed him the menhirs. We laughed a little bit. I remembered about the gifts from Brokkr.

“Did you guys know that Brokkr got me a new katana?”

“How come? I thought he had given you one already.” Edward commented.

“Yes, but some stuff happened. This last one is made of enchanted adamantite.”

“CAN I SEE IT?” Brutus stood up.

His mother threw him a terrifying look, he sat down. I giggled.

“Right after dinner. But hold it with caution.” I turn to Edward. “It had an improvement on the last one; this one can hold the sharp enchantment longer.”

Anthon’s eyes are shining with curiosity, and Brutus forgot to eat. Caius and Cesar are less interested. We continue with some additional chatting.

After dinner, as promised, I show them the katana. I stand by the statement that men don’t really mature, we are always interested in toys. Edward holds the katana.

“Should I assume that you can do the same sharpening enchantment with it?”

“I can, but what do you want to try to cut?” I giggled. “Do you have that many mithril shields you want to destroy?”

The faces Aymon is doing are ever funnier. Even Leopold has his brows up.

“How many did you destroy already?”

“Well, one of them it was destroyed by Muninn. “ Muninn caws at the top of the crystal case in the dinning room. “The other one he decided to cut it with the sword. Kind of like we did on the floor of the guild’s office.”

Aymon tilts his head.

“Are you guys talking about an actual mithril shield? Weren’t they fake ones, perhaps? I never hear of one of those breaking or not holding a hit.”

Edward laughs. “Kid, don’t get me wrong. Are you still trying to apply common sense?” He laughs. He looks at me. “Would you mind showing him your adventurer tag?”

I take the mithril on my neck. Edward sighs. I take the enchanted adamantite one from my holding bag and show it to Aymon. Aymon looks at it.

“What is this tag made of? Is this real?” Leopold puts his hand on his shoulder.

“You are looking at an enchanted adamantite tag.”

“But I thought they were not a real thing.”

“They weren’t.”

Edward and Anthon laugh. Leopold smiles. I shrug.

“What did he do?” Aymon asks.

“Do you know all the rumors going around?”

“Which ones? Nobles dying in Arthuria and the Holy Kingdom? The dragons’ parade? The dragons’ corpses showing up? The anthill quest disappearing? The thing with the king’s nephew? The new church of Wrax? The new situation of the war getting worse? The queen’s cheating? The noble’s emblezzements? The dwarves exodus?”

Edward is now laughing uncontrollably, and Anthon is laughing a lot as well. I interject.

“Hey, I don’t have anything to do with cheating queen or emblezzement. That one about dwarves exodus is new to me.”

Now everyone but Aymon and Brutus are just laughing their heads off. I continue.

“And most of those weren’t my intention.”

Aymon sits on a couch. Brutus is faking a little laugh, to try to fit in. The younger kids are all laying down on the sofas.

We chat about a couple of more normal subjects, and at some point we all get a little tired. Everyone leaves, and the girls and I retire for the night.

The next morning it is an off day from school. The girls ask me to open a portal to Shoria. I decide to go with them. Once we get there, the dragonesses ask for some of their money, and I hand it to them. It is their money, anyway, they can spend it as they see fit. They tell me that they want to meet around 3 hours later, and I tell them that I am going to wait in Akiko’s inn.

We go to the nobles’ district and split there. We all have our Comm Gems, so I am not worried about splitting up. I go to Akiko’s restaurant in the inn. I talk to the manager, I ask him if I can provide the meat for the meal. He remembers me from the last time I was here. I go to the kitchen with him, and I drop a couple of pounds of kraken there. He also lets Akiko know that I am around.

I get worried about sharing this because it could affect someone with lower levels. The manager brings me back to my table. I ask the steak to be served as an appetizer, cut in cubes like Roberta had done. After a couple of minutes, Akiko appears.

“May I sit, honored guest?”

“Of course, Akiko! Please! I have some time to kill. The girls wanted to come here, so we split for a little while.”

“Thank you. I was about to get in touch with the guild to try to relay a message to you, but your showing up is almost signal.”

“No problem. How can I help you?”

She hands me an envelope. I open it up, and it is a marriage invitation to Julian and Hikari’s wedding. I open a wide smile.

“Congratulations! I assume you’re happy with this, right?”

“Very happy, honored guest. Akiko is really in love with Julian, and he has been treating her very well. They are both working a lot since he became the baron, but their face is tired and happy. I was a little worried about his family, but it doesn’t look like we are going to have any problems.”

“Are you sure it is ok to invite me? I am a peasant.”

“Of course, honored guest! You insult me a little bit with that sentence. After everything you did for us?”

I get genuinely happy. Finally something going well without any bumps along the way. Akiko tells me that she is helping on the preparations for the marriage. I get tired by just listening to it. Getting the church licenses, getting the bureaucracy, certificates. At least they are not going to have to worry about the place, they have a lot of options around. Coordinating flowers, dresses, tables for the guests. The ceremony is apparently very similar to a catholic one. You have a priest blessing the union in the name of his god, a sermon, and then the rings. They are going to have to invite a lot of people, it is considered a noble’s marriage.

The dish I asked for arrives on the table. I offer Akiko a taste.

“Honored guest, I thought you had already offered me the best meat in the planet. It seems I was wrong. This meat… It looks like either octopus or squid meat though, it is very different from the previous one.”

“Let’s say it is a giant octopus one.”

“Is it something I could buy?”

“Sorry, I hunted. You know how this goes.”

“What a pity. I even had a first thought to ask you to allow me to serve something like this in the marriage, but I can see a lot of issues coming from this. Nails that raise their head too high get hammered down.”

I agree with her. After some time talking about the things that happened, the girls arrive. They sit at the table with us. They had their nails painted. Aquamarine decided to go for a dark blue, Cecilia for a dark red. Ruby went for red. Opal now has white nails, and Shandon decided for black, that creates an interesting contrast. It really looks nice. Akiko opens a smile.

“Oh, are you also going with the latest fashion? Your nails look good.”

I compliment them. “They do indeed, I liked very much.” They all looked satisfied. I turn to them.

“Akiko gave us an invitation to Hikari’s wedding.”

Cecilia reaches for the invitation and reads it. “Sure, we will be there.”

We all chat a little bit more. The girls, Akiko and I eat the appetizers, and we leave. We get to the forest, and then portal back home.