The Quantum Wanderer

Addrianna approaches the counter.

“Good morning. I was wondering how the relaxation sessions work.”

Indira takes out a large book from underneath the counter, with several different images.

“Well, there are some options to enjoy, milady. We have two different segments you can opt. There is a beauty treatment and the relaxation itself.

“The beauty treatment involves a hard scrub with pumice stone, as well as preparation for hands and feet nails.

“There is then a hot bath with healing herbs and oils, with sliced fruit for eyelid relaxation.

“After that, there are brows modeling and some hair removal. We have repeat clients that come here just for the body hair removal. They say that their husbands enjoy it very much. I believe we may have salvaged a marriage or two, if I can say so.

“Then we have the nail painting.

“As for the relaxation part, we have normal massage or hot stone. Our masseuses are trained with bard skills, and we have incense burning for climate. We suggest one of our hot baths before that, possibly with sauna, for a better effect.”

Addrianna’s and Cecilia’s eyes are shining at the prospects. I imagine that the relaxation package would actually be entertaining. Addrianna looks at her two kids and sighs.

“Perhaps some other time. I have to find who I can entrust the kids.”

I gesture her to get away from the counter. I cast a silence spell around us.

“I have a room here. We can open a portal there, Sophia and Caius could spend the day in my home. That is, if you guys don’t mind taking care of them.” I say the last part looking at Huginn and Muninn.

“I would enjoy it, papa.” Says Huginn.

“I don’t mind, father.” Says Muninn.

I look at Addrianna. She is pleased. I undo the silence spell. I turn to the group.

“Sophia, do you want to play in my backyard?”

“YES!” She answers.

Caius nods.

Addrianna holds their hands, we all go to my permanent room. We enter. Huginn opens a portal, and the four of them go through. I exit the room, locking it. We go back to the front desk. I approach it to talk to Indira.

“Indira, the kids are left in my room, they are not be disturbed. The door is not to be knocked, I don’t want anyone entering it. Can that be done?”

“Of course, honored guest. I am going to put an internal notice. Are you also going to have a relaxation session?”

“Can you first attend to lady Addrianna’s needs? After she has chosen her treatments, I will choose mine.” I turn to the girls. “Girls, let’s give Addrianna preference on the stuff. We can come back a lot easier than she can.”

The girls nod.

Addrianna goes all out. She chooses, based on Indira’s suggestions, first the beauty round, then the relaxing one. Indira advised that the first hair removal with wax, including eye brow sculping, can present some discomfort, but such is the price to pay for beauty.

Our group is a little too much for the place, so we end up dividing. The girls play rock-paper-knife, their version of rock-paper-scissor. The knife is the open hand, but vertical. Paper is horizontal, palm down. They are more interested in beauty treatments than the relaxation.

Cecilia, Opal and Shandon get the beauty, while Ruby and Aquamarine get the relaxation. I go with the relaxation one, as I had planned all along.

Currently the beauty rooms are busy. They apparently have 3 different rooms for the beauty treatments, and those are already occupied. I am guessing Dyrgja, Dalvina and Ildra. I could be wrong, of course.

We sit down on the café part of the inn, while doing some small talking. Addrianna jokes saying that we are really indulging her, and that I will hear complaints from Edward. We all laugh. She proceeds on to tell how much innovation this luxury inn is. There are no inns like this in other cities she has been in. I wonder if I would be creating a monster if I introduced the concept of franchise to Akiko. She is as nasty as Ildra on that account.

We have some drinks. Time passes quick. After some time, we finally taken to a hot bath. It has a Japanese style to it. We are instructed to wash ourselves before immersing in the hot tub. We are taken to separate areas, male and female.

I wash myself and enter the hot tub. The water is cozy, but not beyond that. But then again, I have enjoyed boiling water with the girls, this is the low level version.

After I sit on a stone and relax a bit, I think a little about the time we spent here. Although there was a constant worry, it was a time to practice magic, and have a lot of contact with the girls. I miss our almost daily sex time, though. They did want it, but I felt uncomfortable doing that in someone else’s home. It may be another of my hypocrisies.

After some time, a male helper tells me that the massage room is ready for me. I step out of the bath, he hands me a towel, gesturing me to put it around my waist. He guides me to another room. This small room has what looks like a bed with a sheet over it. There is a girl there. She gestures me to lay down on the table, face down.

The table is soft but firm. I am guessing that it is pressed hay under leather, with a fresh sheet covering it. The girl spreads some oil on my backs, and starts with my shoulders. I can barely feel it. Akiko was right. I can sense the girl is doing her all, but she is not strong enough to press the muscles.

I sigh and sit up. She bows down, apologizing. I have an idea.

“Can I go to my wife’s room?”

“I am sorry, honored guest, but those are the establishment rules.”

“Fine. Can you then teach me how to apply massage?”

“I again apologize, but it is not the same unless we have a body to teach you. And even then, there are muscles, joints and techniques to be used. I am not saying you can’t learn, but it isn’t that fast. Do you want to try the hot stones?”

I think about the current experience, and I realize it is not going to work. The stones would have to be almost melting to be considered hot for us.

“It’s ok. Don’t worry about that. The girls and I are just a little too rough for this.”

“My deepest apologies, honored guest. I haven’t yet tried massaging that high a level person.”

I didn’t tell her my level, but I do have my mithril adventurer dog tag on. I gesture her that everything is ok. We get the excess oil that she poured off. The way I understand it, we are supposed to end up with some oil on the skin after the treatment.

I get back to main area in the inn. In the restaurant, I meet Dávrin and Brokkr.

“Master Marcelo!” Brokkr exclaims. He is a lot lighter than usual.

“Master Brokkr, lord Dávrin.”

Brokkr pulls one of the chairs, so that I can sit with them.

“This inn is absolutely fantastic! I had no idea such a treasure existed!” Dávrin said, with a lot of enthusiasm.

“I wonder if we can create something like this in Rockslide!”

“You probably could, but you would have to get a lot of training and management from Akiko. She is the mind behind all of this. But I imagine some sort of deal can be made.”

“So, how did you enjoy the massage?” Dávrin asks.

I shrug.

“The girl is too weak to make me a massage. It comes with the levels.”

“What about the hot stones?” Brokkr asks.

“Fire immunity. Right now I can dip my hand in lava…”

“That makes me envious, “ Brokkr says “ so I don’t pity you right now.” He laughs.

We all laugh a little bit.

“Didn’t your go in for the treatments as well?”

“Yes. Some of them went in for beauty, some for relaxation. I wouldn’t expect them to be able to be handled by the staff, though. They are going to have the same issues massaging the girls as well.”

“And yet, they are still being pampered inside.”

“Yes.”

I have some juice, the dwarves opt for some ale. It’s a little early for me, but they say that facial hair doesn’t grow with milk alone.

“What are the plans for today?” Dávrin asks.

“You can actually answer that question. You can do whatever you want. I just need an idea of when you want me to open the portal. Other than that, it is a rare chance to see the surface world. And a very touristic place at that.”

“Well, I appreciate the novelty and all, but I don’t want to tempt fate. The front of the inn is already full of worms ready to jump any body that is not moving too much.”

I raise my cup.

“I have to agree that you are getting a lot of attention. That being said, what are the plans?”

“I am just going to wait for the girls to finish their experiment, and we are going to summon the dwarves around. After that, we can leave in 15 minutes.”

“Take your time.”

“Thank you.”

We take another sip. We talk about some other light subjects, how dwarven merchants are expanding their routes using the big river and their affluents. With less scrutiny from the Holy Kingdom and Arthuria, everything is a lot easier.

Shortly after, Ruby and Aquamarine join us. They look dejected.

“Hi, girls.”

“Hi, my lord.” Both of them greet me.

“Why the faces? Did something happened?” I ask.

Ruby is looking down, putting her index fingers together.

“I am sorry…”

I sigh.

“What happened?” I ask again.

“Well, I noticed that the girls in there would not be able to apply us the massage, so I tried to be helpful to sister…

“The beginning was ease, when I was massaging sister’s shoulders. Then the girl told me to use my elbow on sister’s lower back… When I applied the pressure, the bed broke… I swear, my lord! I was only following instructions!”

I open a smile.

“It’s ok. I will settle that with Akiko later. Don’t worry about that.”

She smiles at me, relieved. We keep our chit chat.

The next ones to arrive are the dwarven girls. Ildra and Dyrgja shake their heads when they get close to the table. That makes Dávrin and Brokkr blush, while Dalvina hides her face behind her hand.

“Perverts!”

Brokkr and Dávrin don’t seem to have heard Dalvina. They are hypnotized by their wives. The girls sit besides their husbands that become stiff.

I cannot hold my laugh anymore, and they finally relax a little. Ildra opens a smile.

“A place like this in Rockslide would make a killing!”

I smile.

“Yes, we have just talked about this. So, how was your experience?”

“It was great! They have some hair products here that are absolutely amazing! Our beards have never looked softer!”

Dávrin, absent minded, nods and grunts an “Uhum…”

“FATHER! PLEASE!”

“Oh! Sorry! I… It…”

“Don’t worry about this.” I say. “I sometimes also fan over my wives a little bit. Have I told you about their end of year knight exam?”

I don’t really let Dávrin answer, I tell them how the girls did. I may be repeating myself, but worth it. During the tale, Cecilia, Opal and Shandon arrive. Cecilia has some redness close to her eyebrows.

After sometime, everyone is relaxed. Dyrgja is using her beard to play with Dávrin’s ear. He sweats a little. I am pretty sure the goal is to just gross Dalvina out.

Aquamarine and Ruby arrive.

“Hi, you girls took a long time… How was it?”

“Well, my lord, we noticed that the girls were too weak. So we ended up doing the massage on one another. That served as training.” Aquamarine says. “But a lot of their instructions and location for the muscles were wrong, so we had to adapt a little.”

“Do you want a massage, my lord?” Ruby offers.

“Not now, I will want one in the future. You didn’t break anything, did you?”

Ruby looks at the floor, putting her two index fingers together.

“I am sorry, we were learning how to do it…”

I look at Aquamarine. She continues.

“There is one technique that you apply force with the elbow. The massage table wasn’t strong enough for sister Ruby.”

“Ok. I will try to talk to Akiko later.”

Brokkr is laughing. I look at him. He covers his mouth, but then says, faking a female voice, “Last hit! Last hit!”

Dávrin and Brokkr just roll over laughing. After they ease up a little, I turn to the Cecilia, Opal and Shandon.

“What about you? Did you enjoy the beauty treatment?”

“That shit is just not fair!” Cecilia cryes out. “The treatment consists on scraping dead skin off, which I liked, but then there was all the body hair removal. It is not fair that Shandon and Opal can just waltz in there, ‘Oh? No hair here?’ and the hair is gone!

“Then we had the eyebrow modeling. They tried using a thin rope with me initially, it didn’t quite work, of course. But then sister Opal took out some spider silk and managed to learn to technique. When it was her time, it was just ‘Oh, here as well?’”

I laugh, but then I take a closer look. All three of them have sharper eyebrows, it really is looking better.

“Hum, I like the result! It looks good.”

Ruby and Aquamarine inspect the results in Opal and Shandon’s faces, and their eyebrows assume the same format. Shandon growls something to Ruby and Aquamarine, drawing a V on the air. They both smile. Then she turns and smiles at me. I smile back.

Addrianna arrives, finally. She apparently did both sets, and that took some time. Her face has less red spots than Cecilia. Probably the relaxation thing helps taking those off.

“Lady Addrianna! Did you enjoy?” I ask.

She sighs, shaking her head.

“Wow! Just wow! I don’t know who created this, but it is absolutely fantastic!”

“I am glad you enjoyed.” I smile.

At this point, Brokkr does the universal sign that he plans on taking off, by slapping his legs and standing up.

“Well, master Marcelo, it is time we get back. Can we count on your help?”

“Of course!”

Dávrin just looks at another dwarf that is also in the restaurant, does a couple of gestures with his hands. He does a circle with two fingers up, then closes his hand. Then he lowers it. The dwarf nods, and leaves.

Brokkr looks towards the door.

“I think I should give a bone for hienas.”

He walks outside, close to the hotel gates. The crowd gets absolutely frantic with this. Some people trying to hand over cards with their names, shouting, gesturing crazily.

“Very well, never let it be said we don’t try to please the peoples. LISTEN UP!”

After this, their shouts go silence, and Brokkr does his announcements.

“OUR STAY HERE WAS JUST A VISIT TO A FRIEND, LADY AKIKO .”

“Is she a noble?” one of them asks.

“She is now.” Brokkr says, then continues, “ That being said, requests to us can be done through her, she is going to be representing us in this country. And don’t forget, we dwarves take care of our own!”

We turn around and go back inside the inn. The dwarves are arriving in the lobby, their usual organization showing. Dávrin goes to the front desk to talk to Indira.

“Yes, your highness?”

“We are about to depart, I want to close our tab.”

“Oh, your highness, this stay was a gift from lady Akiko.”

“Very well, tell her that we appreciate. And tell her not to forget to add her 20% on the wares!”

He turns around, laughing. The dwarves start going toward the gate, already assuming their formation.

Opal and Addrianna go to our room, to portal back home to get her kids. Meanwhile, the dwarves start marching towards their mobile fortress, in a formation that keeps the crowd away.

I just wait in the restaurant. By my estimation, there is at least half an hour before I can meet Dávrin on the road and portal him home.

Adrianna and Opal are back with the kids and brâns. Addrianna looks around.

“Is lord Dávrin gone already?”

“He is still going to a point where he can be portaled home.”

I sense a silence spell being cast. Huginn looks at me.

“Do you want me to portal him, papa?”

“Please? I don’t mind doing that, but I don’t know which way he is going, or if there are other eyes around… Thank you.”

“No problem, papa.”

After some moments, Huginn flies off. The girls, the kids and I go back to Hikari’s mannor. It is time to wrap things up.

Addrianna tells the maids and guards that we will be leaving shortly, they start preparing everything. We meet up Akiko and Hikari.

“Honored guest! Thank you so much! As always, you have done so much for us!”

“Oh, never mind that…” I say. Then I scratch the back of my neck. “So… We kind of broke a massage table… The girls were a bit rough…”

Akiko laughs.

“I am a hostess, honored guest! Accidents like these happen! Don’t worry about it.”

“Hum… Since we are talking about the massage tables… Did you ever think of making a whole on them, to put the face through?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“A lot of the massage is done with the guest with the face down, right? If you cut the shape of a face on the massage table, the client receiving the massage wouldn’t have to turn their faces to the side. They could look straight to the ground. And it is a lot more relaxing and comfortable…”

“Hummm…” Akiko is scratching her chin. “I will get someone on that right away! It is definitely worth the experiment.”

“You should also consider the idea of something called franchise…” Of course, the word does not exist in the language, I just use some sounds that look like the English word for it. It works well enough.

“What is that?”

“Let’s say that you want to open another inn somewhere else. You have a whole preparation, the building, you have to train the people that are going to work there, and there is a lot of work involved in choosing people, choosing place, etc.

“Instead, you can draw a contract with some local partner. That local partner would manage the place. He would get the information on how to do things from you, but he would be doing them. He would have to pay a fee for the brand, for the knowledge. And you can even supply the oils and candles, and other trade secrets, to him. He would be paying a fee for all of this, of course.

“But then this is just a generic suggestion. I am not getting into particulars, such as enforcing contracts, and stuff like that. I don’t know if this is viable. You probably have to check for different countries.”

She looks at me as if I had just explained a very high level magic spell. We keep talking with Hikari, while Akiko is just thinking about the suggestion.

Just like Akiko, Hikari thanks us for all the help. She promises to keep the bird safe.

We have a moment of silence, until the guards and maids inform us that the carriage and the horses are ready. We start moving out.

I keep paying attention to the scenery. Shoria is truly a very pretty city. Its use of different colors and contrasts make it look very lively. It is easy to see why it is a preferred destination for nobles wanting to relax.

We cross the city, then we to go the road. It doesn’t really matter which way we go, we are going to portal back home anyway.

After some time, Huginn lets us know that we are in the clear. I ask her to let me know of a safe place close to Stronghold, she sends me the scene observed by a bird.

I open a portal in front of the small caravan. We go through, and continue on the road for a little while until we arrive home.

Everyone that sees the carriage bows down to it. We slowly get back to the street in front of the two homes, both mine and Edwards.

Edward’s people take care of the carriage. My crew leave the carriage and the escort work and go to my house.

Although I didn’t stay out long, and I kept coming here to get the food, I still missed my home. It is good to be back home.