The Quantum Wanderer

The next morning, we are getting more and more excited with the upcoming wedding. Only 4 days left. Everything is already prepared, so there is actually not much to do.

The girls ask me to send them to Aisha, and after breakfast I open the portal. The girls and Lucille go through the portal. After a moment, Charles and I are left alone. He claps his hands once.

“So, how do you usually spend your time here?”

I shrug.

“It depends. We can go to the guild to sit down and hear some news. They have some nice ale there… Other than that I sometimes go on a quest, just because I am bored.”

“A quest…? Because it can be fun?” He laughs. “Do you know just how few people can say they are bored? I had to work every day in our village. Being bored is a luxury reserved for nobility.”

“So… What do you want to do?”

“Well, future son in law, we can be bored having some ale.”

He giggles. Muninn comes to my shoulder, and we leave for the guild. Even though he has been around several days, I can see that he still gets impressed with the way the noble district is laid out. We take our time, going through the streets, passing luxury inns, luxury shops, till we get to the gate for the less afortunate.

The other side of the gate is not that bad, though. The merchant district is very close to it. Perhaps an aspiration from the shopkeepers to try to sell their wares to a better paying public. The shops sell what is expected of this world. The shops closer to the noble district still try the noble approach, looks over functionality, cost over usability.

The shops in the noble district are mainly focused on beautiful clothing, good smelling parfums, and useless gems. Right after the gate to the merchant district there are mages’ shops, alchemy shops. The closer to the gate, the more expensive their stuff.

After that the weapons and armor shops start to appear, and finally food shops, utensils. This is all more of a tendency than a fact, though. The capital is absolutely huge. Several miles huge. The merchant district is the densest one. People want to stay close to the stores, to the places where the economy thrives. This is also the point where the gate to the noble district is.

Farther away things get cheaper. Both materials and people. We go over to the guild.

“Lionheart! How are you?” Griffin shouts from the inside of the guild. I remember something that I had heard once in Earth, that introverts don’t get friends; they are adopted by some extrovert.

“Hello, Griffin. How are you?”

“Fine, fine. Who is this? Some uncle?”

“No, this is actually Cecilia’s father, Charles.”

We move towards a table, Griffin comes with us. I gesture to the girl serving the tables. Griffin extends his hand to Charles, that shakes it.

“Nice to meet you.” Griffin says.

“Nice to meet you too.”

Griffin takes a long look at Charles.

“You don’t strike me as an adventurer. Smith?”

“Farmer.”

Griffin nods.

“It must have been a big change for you. How is it having Marcelo as a son-in-law?”

“It is my first time getting in touch with a mithril adventurer… It was a weird experience.”

Griffin laughs.

“Definitely. And the other girls? They are kind of peculiar…”

Charles takes a big gulp from the ale that has just arrived at the table.

“You have no idea…”

Griffin laughs again.

“How long are you staying in town?”

Charles looks at me. I shrug. I don’t really make long plans. I do take some actions expecting to have a better future, but I don’t really plan it. Charles and Lucille have been good guests. As far as I care, they can stay with us. That is something for Cecilia to decide, though. Charles turns back to Griffin.

“I don’t know. At least until the wedding.”

“WHAT WEDDING?”

I give out a yellow smile. I raise my hand.

“WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL US?” He turns around. “GUYS! LIONHEART IS FINALLY MARRYING THEM!”

People start encircling our table, and sitting around it. Since there is no way around it, I gesture to the girl serving the ale. She comes close.

“One round of ale on me.”

“HURRAH!” “CONGRATULATIONS!” “MY RUBY!” “HOW?!?”

I can see the opinions on the subject are really divided, but this is fun. I shake a lot of hands.

“When are you having the bachelor’s party?” Griffin asks.

I make a sad face.

“I kind of had one already.”

“Really? When?”

“A couple of days ago. Nothing special, though. You would probably be bored.”

In spite of all the noise around, we have a moment of silence.

“When is the wedding?”

“It is going to be in four days. It is going to be a very small thing, less than half a dozen invites. I am sorry.”

Griffin does this exaggerated gesture of pretending to have his heart broken.

“It’s ok. Don’t worry about it.”

People around have been receiving their free ale. They lift the cup, thanking for it, and they start getting back to their own tables. After some time, our table is now emptier. Just Griffin, Charles and myself.

“So, what are the news?”

“Other than that the most desired women in the city are getting hitched? Not much… There is a rumor, though, that some high level priests from the Holy Kingdom have all died at the same time. Natural causes, apparently. Or so they say.”

“That sounds weird.”

“But then again, they were all old. It just sounded weird because of it happening at the same time. So it could have been just a coincidence.”

“What do you think happened?”

“Some stuff like that happens within the Holy Kingdom from time to time. Their succession is really brutal. You would think that those saints, devoted to the betterment of humanity would be calm, but each cardinal swam through a lake of blood to get there.”

“Hum. What else?”

“There is a first shipment of rental weapons that is due to the guild in the Holy Kingdom.”

“Rental weapons?”

“Yes. You do know about the ban, right?”

“Yes, the dwarves banned sales of their weapons to the Holy Kingdom.”

“Exactly. Apparently, someone on the upper echelon procured a new deal with the dwarves. They would, instead of selling the weapon to the adventurer, rent it, for the duration of the quest. It is beneficial for people that have reached mithril a short time ago. After the quest, they give back the weapons. The cost is taken from the reward. Since the weapons are not being sold, the dwarves allowed for it. Genius.”

“This is nice! Things must be tough for them right now.”

“It is going to take some time for it to improve, though. But the prices for the quests are currently very high, so things are going to end up getting balanced.”

“Lots of news, apparently.”

Griffin shrugs.

“It is what it is. What about on your end?”

I shrug.

“I am not particularly good with hoarding information. What can I say?”

We have one more moment of silence. Griffin puts his cup on the table after a sip.

“Are you going to take on any quests?”

“I don’t think so. Too close to the wedding.”

“Well, at least now you have an excuse. I have never seen you take on a quest.”

I shrug.

“I have had some.”

I know it is taboo to dig deeper for this kind of information, so I am in the safe. He drinks some of his ale. I continue.

“What about you? Are you picking up one?”

“I am picking up an escort mission to the Holy Kingdom. They are paying double the normal pay.”

I make my impressed face.

“Cool, congratulations.”

He shrugs.

“If only I could hire one of your girls to come with me… The word around is that they are killing it in the knight school. Specially Ruby.”

“Cecilia is tough as well.”

Griffin looks at Charles.

“Don’t get me wrong, but Cecilia is normal. The other girls are… a force of nature.”

Charles raises his cup.

“I understand what you are saying completely.” And then drinks a big gulp.

“They are becoming a legend in the knight school. Ever since little winter.”

“Little winter? What little winter?”

Griffin and I laugh out loud.

“This one kid challenged Opal for the chair in the knight school. I asked her to go easy on him, so she just kicked the kid once. On the balls.”

“Is he still alive?” Charles asked. For an instant, he remembers what she looks like when she is not disguised as humanoid.

“Yes, but he got the nickname of little winter. No fruits.”

Charles half laughs half feels pity for the kid. Griffin raises his cup.

“And the following week the kid became an orphan.” Griffin complements.

“What happened?” Charles asks.

“I was invited to a party. Little winter’s father was there, and he hired some mercenary to challenge me to a duel. He wanted to avenge his son. I told everyone that his life would be on the line as well, since I was having to fight for my life. The emperor even changed the laws after that, he saw that if you challenge someone to a duel, no matter if you have a champion or not, your life is on the line as well.”

I shrug.

“They lost.”

Charles eyes are bulging.

“You killed a noble?”

I shrug. Apparently, that is what impresses him. The guy that has been eating kraken meat for some days now. Tough crowd, apparently.

We talk a bit more, and the day end up passing a lot faster than expected. I pay our check and we both go back home. The girls are coming out of a portal when shortly after we come in. Huginn did it for them.

We wash up, have dinner. Charles is really chatty about the stories told in the guild. I can see the girls are excited about things that happened during their meeting with Aisha, but they don’t provide much information. Cecilia is enjoying her surprises.

We finish up dinner and retire.

The next day I spend on making sure the armor is spotless. I create the neutron crystal on it, and clean out every dirt on it. It is shining clean, ready for the wedding. I use the time to also prepare the meat that I am going to serve in the wedding. I prepared two different cuts, one of kraken and another of dragon meat. That way everyone can have a taste of different meats. I also do some experiments with magic, in particular anti-matter. I want to be able to control it. Muninn observes this with some interest at first, but then he just gets bored. The girls are spending these last two days before the wedding with Aisha.

We come down for breakfast on the day before the wedding. There is this electricity between me and the girls. Everything just seems a little bit better. During breakfast, I receive an invite for lunch from Edward. I am not used to having lunch anymore, it is not a meal that gets much attention in this world.

The girls are really excited, but when I get close to try to hear something, they just stop talking. Then I notice that they have a silence spell around them. Not fair. For the morning, I sit under the crow’s tree in the yard, and focus on my anti-matter research. Every now and then, the tiny amount of anti-matter I generate transform into a burst of energy.

One of the things I notice is that I can get around the energy needed to create the anti-matter if I use matter as a starting point. I still spend mana to make it, but it is a lot easier than creating it from scratch.

When lunch time is near, I go inside to let Charles know so that he can dress appropriately. We get ready, and go over to Edward’s. Charles is nervous when we get to the gate. I hand them the invitation, and we are taken into his home. Muninn is with us. The door opens up, and Edward’s butler takes us to the living room while they prepare the meal.

We meet Edward, and Sophia. She also has her crow on her shoulder. She has her hands closed, on her waist, in a super hero pose. Her crow flies down and lands by my feet. It then lays down, belly up, wings open, in a submissive pose.

“Rebirth! Come on! You are costing my street cred.”

Muninn stretchs out his wing, and the crow stands up. Muninn then points to the girl’s shoulder, and the crow goes back there. Sophia is dejected. Edward is laughing.

“So much for the messenger of Wrax!”

I would love to say something to Sophia, but I don’t really know what would make her feel better. She then sees her brother coming down the stairs, going to the back of the house, and goes after him, running. It looks like I didn’t have to worry too much. I scratch the back of my head.

“Do you think she is going to be fine with Muninn’s true form?”

“Of all of us, I think that she is the one that would be fine.”

He laughs. I shrug.

“Edward, this is Charles, my father in law. Charles, this is Edward.”

They both shake hands. Charles is not really impressed by Edward that is using casual clothing. Edward and I don’t really enjoy wearing fine clothing. Sophia is a tomboy, so she is not wearing some silk dress either, specially because her clothing is special. It is reinforced around the shoulders, providing a padding so the crow’s nails don’t hurt her. Even if not sharp as Muninn’s, it can still scratch when she tries to hold herself against loosing balance.

“Nice to meet you.” Edward says.

“Nice to meet you… sir.” He looks around. “Where is the lord of the house?”

Muninn flies from my shoulder to this big painting on the wall, depicting Edward and his family. He then clears his throat. Twice. Charles looks at the painting. Then he looks at Edward. Then repeats the process, then kneels down.

“I am sorry, my lord. You have been so… Casual…”

Edward laughs.

“Don’t worry. Besides, Marcelo is nice enough that spares us from kneeling down…” Edward laughs harder.

Charles is puzzled. “What do you mean?”

Now Edward is puzzled. “Doesn’t he know?”

Muninn is the one to answer.

“He knows, he just doesn’t believe it.” And he giggles. He looks back at Charles. “He probably thinks it was just a nightmare. And that was after seeing my true form in the party.”

“Party?”

I scratch the back of my head.

“Rajesh and Dávrin set up a bachelor’s party, but it was inside the demon’s palace. I didn’t think you or Anthon would feel safe in there. It was a couple of days ago.”

Edward does mental calculations, and end up nodding.

“How was it?”

Muninn starts laughing.

“Marcelo destroyed the floor of the room! It was fantastic!”

I shrug.

“Well, Dávrin brought the girls, so the whole thing was a bit… weird. It is hard to get aroused by the women brushing your face with their beards. Very straight beards, though. That must be said.”

Edward starts laughing.

“THEIR WOMEN ALSO HAVE BEARDS?”

He keeps laughing.

“Yes. But the women’s beards are straight, like straight hair. And the girls Dávrin brought, according to him, ‘such soft beards that the slightest breeze will shake it’.”

Edward is laughing, holding his stomach. After some time, he can’t resist.

“And why did you destroy the room?”

“Apparently, as part of the bachelor’s party thing, the bachelor is supposed to do a last hit on a big stone, to symbolize the end of the party. I was drunk, I didn’t hold it in enough…”

Muninn is now laughing his butt off as well.

“It was BEAUTIFUL!”

After laughing some more, Edward asks.

“Did anyone get hurt?”

“No, thanks to Muninn. He protected them. When I hit the stone, the pebbles that went flying ended up embedded in the walls. The following day, I got a crew with Dávrin and we fixed the damages, though.”

Edward is removing the laughing tear from his eye.

“This is precious.”

I shrug. Edward continues.

“But even then he doesn’t understand?”

Muninn is the one to answer.

“No… Cecilia’s idea was too much. I couldn’t have planned something like that myself…”

Charles is starting to look worried. Muninn looks at him.

“Yes, Charles. The dragons landing, surrounding your cart. The horse dying from sheer fear. You leaving your wife behind. It all happened.”

Charles now is shaking. Edward does some gesture at the butler in the corner of the room, and some hard liquor appears. They give Charles a full glass, and he drinks everything. Muninn sighs.

“Don’t worry, Charles. You’re in the safest place on the planet. By father’s side.”

He looks at me. I smile, with the most calm smile I have. He looks at Edward that shrugs, then nods. He starts to relax. Just a little bit, though. He is partially zoned out. Edward turns to me.

“What did you guys do to him?”

“Cecilia had this idea, of arriving to greet them on top of dragons. Obviously, the girls. She convinced the girls. We told him to travel to Orora, that is a closer city to them, and when they were away from prying eyes, we just landed, surrounding the cart. I should have given a second thought when I noticed that this guy here was all in for the idea.”

Edward starts laughing. I continue.

“The horse took a look at the dragons, and just dropped dead. Cecilia’s mom fainted. Charles ran. Not a reunion story worth spreading around.”

Edward is now laughing really hard. Muninn is smiling.

“Fun times…”

I stare some daggers at him. Edward’s butler tells us the food is served. We go to the dining room. Edward’s family is already sitting by the table. Muninn flies to the top of a cupboard. Rebirth nests at the bottom of it. Addrianna takes a look and tilts her head.

“So-so, is your crow alright?”

“Yes, mama. Why?”

“It generally goes to the top of the cupboard when we are eating.”

Addrianna looks at Muninn at the top spot. Muninn smiles lightly. She didn’t expect it from a crow, so she just drops the whole subject. We start eating. I am not particularly hungry, though. And it is Fenrir meat. I think I turned myself into t a spoiled brat. I eat only a small amount of it. Addrianna notices.

“Is the steak not to your tastes, lord Marcelo?”

I smile at her.

“It is good, don’t get me wrong. I just got used to some more… Mana enriched meat. I know how this sounds, I am sorry. But the steak is very well seasoned. Just please bear in mind that I come here for the company, not the meals.”

Edward looks up to the right, remembering the kind of steak that I serve in my home. He sighs, and keeps eating his food. Addrianna smiles.

“Is everything ready for tomorrow?”

“Pretty much, I think. The girls took over. They are having some additional help with some other wives, and some of my guys.”

“Some of your guys?”

“Yes, my clan in Drakonia. They are also pitching in, apparently. I am purposedly being kept in the dark. Cecilia loves her surprises.”

Muninn starts laughing. Addrianna looks at him. She is just a little unsettled by him. She pretends there is nothing atypical, and proceeds with the lunch. Edward clears his throat.

“You know, my friend, there is something that I wanted to mention to you…”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“We think that the Holy Kingdom, together with Arthuria, may have summoned another hero.”

I think a little about that.

“Is it going to affect the war a lot?”

“Well, things have been bad for the human side lately, after some big mistakes. It might make it more balanced, Arthuria is going to stop bleeding fortresses for a little bit.”

“What other effects do you think this is going to have, in general?”

“I don’t know. The reports we have indicate that this depends a lot on the hero’s character.”

“Do you think it might affect us?”

He shrugs.

“I have no idea. I mean, the way things happened with you, for instance, were a first.”

“Are they still keeping the hero under wraps?”

“Yes, they are probably still training him.” Edward says the training in a weird manner.

“Training? I thought that most heroes came out already powerful. And they generally cannot evolve either. Or so I was told.”

“All that is true, but Arthuria always holds them down for some months, to make sure they get the right mentality. But you have a better idea of the place they come from. What should we expect?”

I am thinking about the amount of information that is wise to share. But everyone involved already knows that I am the failed hero. It makes no sense to try to hide this.

“Well, that is the question. The place I come from have a lot of different countries. There are more land masses, and they are bigger. And there are a lot of people. And I mean a lot. All of them humans. There are no other humanoids.

“There are countries where the population is more educated than the one I came from. There are also worse ones. There are some where the average person has luxuries, and some countries where people don’t have water to drink. There are countries dominated by religious fanatics… It is a big gambling.”

Edward is silent thinking about what I am saying. He finally raises his cup.

“To a big gambling. Let’s hope it doesn’t affect us much.”

“Let’s hope so” I also raise my cup.

Sophia is distracted from the conversation. Caius pays attention to some of it, but he misses some of the explanations. Sophia stares at Rebirth, that is still on the floor. She turns to her mother.

“Mama, why is Rebirth behaving so weird?”

“I don’t know, honey.”

Edward has a smile on his lips.

“Why don’t you ask our guest?”

She turns to me, eyes pleading. I can’t hold myself.

“You see, Muninn over there is the king of crows.”

She opens her eyes wide.

“Wow…”

She turns to Muninn, stands up from the chair, and does a courtesy. It is absolutely amazing to see this little girl doing a courtesy. I smile. I turn to Edward.

“Can you ask your employees to leave the room?”

Edward nods, and gestures to his butler. They all leave the room. I sense the mana around, and once I see that we are truly alone, I look around. The room is big enough.

“Since she is going to see this tomorrow, I don’t mind showing off a little bit today… Muninn, can you show her how you really look?”

Muninn sighs. “Sure, father.”

He flies from the cupboard, and once in the middle of the room, he assumes his true form. He opens his wings a little, for some dramatic effect. Addrianna is completely flabbergasted, and only realizes that Sophia is running towards when she comes into her field of view. But then the girl is already close to Muninn.

Addrianna stands up and extends a hand. Edward puts his hand on her arm. She is frantic, and looks at him. He shakes his head.

“Everything is ok. Just trust them. I learned to do so some time ago.”

Caius has his head down, he is pretending to play with his food, but he is looking at Muninn with a side eye.

Sophia gets one step from Muninn, does another courtesy. She extends her hand, then stops halfway.

“May I, your majesty?”

Muninn laughs. This time, a heartfelt one. He looks at us.

“I am starting to understand what my wife was saying… I like this one.” He then turns to her. “Go ahead, child.”

Sophia passes her hand through Muninn feathers. I am amazed at how well he is behaving. It is refreshing. I remember again the encounter with the soldier training in Rajesh’s training grounds. Sophia’s hand disappear within the feathers. She goes inside the feathers, until she is actually hidden in it. Muninn smiles.

“That tickles a little, child.”

Sophia then reappears. She takes a couple of steps back, and does another courtesy.

“Thank you, your majesty.” She turns around, and looks at her mother. “It is really fluffy and warm, mother! It is better than our beds!” She comes back running to her chair around the table. Addrianna sighs.

“This kid is still going to give me a heart attack.”

Edward laughs.

“I heard from your mom that she used to say exactly that.”

Addrianna stares some daggers towards Edwards and sits down. Muninn uses the quantum teleport, he disappears from where he was. The rest of them take a couple of seconds looking for him, to find him once again on top of the cupboard. I shrug.

Edward rings a bell that is on the table, by his left side. The butler comes back into the room. The maids collect the plates, we go to the living room. Some liquor is served.

Edward provides me some information on what has been going with the guild in the Holy Kingdom. Apparently, it is being rebuilt. The deal with the dwarves is going smoothly. They already had their first team expelled from the guild, and the first set of mithril weapons destroyed. The expelled adventurers had their identities spread out to all the guild offices, and they are black listed from the main merchant companies.

It was a fun afternoon. When the sun is getting close to setting, Charles, Muninn and I go back home. Tomorrow is going to be the big day.