Without prolonging, Cain quickly finished Sofia’s care. She was sleeping beside the other two with a satisfied face.
“It’s over!” Cain gasped in happiness. His sword can finally lay to rest.
Still, on her knees, Gracie bowed slightly. “Master, thanks for your help earlier.”
Hearing her words, Cain did have a lot of questions for her.
“Instead of thanking me, Can you answer some of my questions?” He asked bluntly, this was better than just guessing.
Using his ‘appraisal’ on her didn’t show anything special.
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“You don’t want to be seen naked?”
Gracie nodded.
“Even with that, you dare to enter the room at this time? What if I asked you to lay on the bed with them?” Cain was trying to pinpoint her limitations, he already has a hunch about the cause of her actions.
“I don’t mind, as long as you don’t see me naked!”
‘Shit! Please have an answer, I don’t want to deal with the likes of you!’ Cain thought, his fears only grew larger with each question.
“The brew you gave to me, what did you put in it?” There was something strange about it, Not only soothing his marbles pain, it also gave him an extra load!
“Herbs.” That wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear.
“And? Speak!”
She stared at him in silence, not opening her mouth until he showed signs of irritation.
“My saliva…” Anyone besides him would have been disgusted by her. ‘I felt that her story was a bit off, no normal girl would have survived over a night in the hands of an incubus.’
The last thing I need to confirm my suspicions is, what does she want?
Cain glanced behind him, all the three girls seem to be awake and listening, they are just pretending to be asleep. Selena even had her claws extended, ready to strike.
“It’s enough, go bring us a towel and some hot water!” hearing the orders, Gracie raced out.
“Cain…” Sofia whispered as if trying to get Cain’s attention.
“Don’t worry, it’s alright. Go back to sleep.” He assured them. In his current condition, there was no way he could deal with Gracie.
It didn’t take her long to return with a big bowl of hot water and a couple of white clean towels.
Gracie laid the on the bedside table, soaking each towel well.
Cain took one of them and proceeded to clean Alice’s lower part, making sure he got every corner. Gracie on the other hand went to clean Selena.
“Don’t hurt her.” Gracie thought he was talking to her, no he wasn’t. Selena had her claws out and Cain needed to warn her.
Cain then proceeded to clean Sofia, she dripping more than he anticipated. The made by Gracie was that effective, whatever she made it off, it was potent.
“Master, Cain I clean you off?” Gracie asked as if it was normal, her never-changing face was getting on Cain’s nerves.
The appraisal said she was a human, is it broken. No matter how I look at her, she is acting weird.
Cain gave up, he was going to ask directly, let a fight break if she want.
“No need, get out.” Hearing his order, Gracie silently left.
The girls woke and helped him clean, asking about what just transpired. Cain just said that he felt Gracie acting suspicious, weird, to the point of making him worried.
Sofia called out how Gracie added her spit to the herbal tea, it must have been disgusting. To that Cain just nodded, but in all honesty, he felt it was delicious. If she was the creature he thinks she is, spit was her being considerate as she could have used any other bodily fluids to work as an aphrodisiac.
Selena didn’t have much to say, only she was going to attack if Gracie laid a finger on him.
Alice just mentioned that her mother-in-law, Lisa, was very fond of Gracie, Giving her special care and attention. Sending her to Cain was weird in and of its own.
Cain was finally feeling the exhaustion settling in, and they did stay up long.
The morning quickly came, Cain woke up to horrible pain in his marbles.
Cain discovered his current limit, three bolts were his comfortable threshold for the time.
After a very awkward greeting by Gracie and having breakfast. They headed back to the guild, Cain was in dire need of money as he wanted to build alchemy and enchanting setups.
As soon as they passed through the guild’s door, Mary called them in excitement.
From her expressions, Cain could guess she had something special.
After a brief greeting, she got directly into business.
“You know the Blacksmith named Dolrig?” She asked, taking off the quest papers. Seeing them, Cain immediately realized it was an escort quest.
“He seems to have received a large order from the capital, for that he is going to the next city to restock on ores. He has asked especially for you to be his escort, of course, the invitation is for the whole party.”
Mary handed the papers to Cain, for further details they needs to talk to Dolrig himself.
“What do you think, Should we take it?” Cain asked.
“Let’s talk to him at least.” Sofia wanted to hear more details, It was a type of quest that could both end badly or feel like a paid picnic.
“I never had to get far away from the city, I say we go!” Alice jumped, to her this was going to be a first. She couldn’t hide her excitement.
“I quite like Camping in the wilderness, I say it’s worth a try-nya.”
After hearing their thoughts, Cain decided that they will go check with Dolrig about the details. He can’t see the reward written anywhere so it must be negotiable, he could make quite a sum if everything goes well.
Their next target was Dolrig’s workshop, as expected, they saw a large wagon parked beside his door. From it’s size, It was obvious they have a lot to bring.
“Four horse wagon, It’s going to get heavy.” Alice commented, she was right. The large black and white wagon in front of them was made to carry heavy loads. Right now its empty, but on their way back its going to be filled.
“Dolrig!” Cain yelled, “We’re here for the quest, come out!”
A sharp shout echoed from inside, Scarring the birds out. “You bastard get in!” Cain smiled, Typical Dolrig.
…
“Sorry for earlier, did they increase by one?” Dolrig counted the girls beside Cain, there seem to be an extra one today.
“It doesn’t matter, we’re here for the quest.” Cain just found an anvil to sit at, It was extremely cold.
Dolrig started explaining, The quest was quite a simple but hard to execute. In it’s Core, getting him and the goods safely back.
The order was given by the capital. A revolution is happening in the elvish kingdom and they wanted to take this opportunity to make a profit.
Dolrig didn’t know the full details, apparently the Elvish princess started a coup d’état out of the blue, Aiming to dethrone her father.
“I don’t know how did it come to that, this have never been heard about the elves. They will eventually put her down.” Dolrig was puzzled, he was relaying the new but still couldn’t believe them.
Cain started laughing, barely able to hold his tears. ‘Sylph is on the move, her father must be losing his mind, screaming -Why did she awaken now?-‘ The other princes must be terrified at how much raw power she has.
“Why are you laughing?” Dolrig asked, he wasn’t the only one concerned about Cain. Sofia, Selena, and Alice all had a worried look on their faces.
“Those elves always ridiculed us humans for internal conflict, now it’s their turn to suffer. Both the Dragons and the Fenrirs aren’t going to stay quite as well, this war is going to set the world in motion.”
Dolrig could understand the first part, he always disliked the elves prideful nature. The second part is where he didn’t get it, What does the Dragons and Fenrirs have to do with the elves problems?
“Let’s get to the quest, let the elves deal with their own problems.” Cain said, changing the subject back to the quest.
The quest is going to be a three days and a half long trip, one day to the mining city of Ourals, half to stock, and two to get back. What they are going to get is Iron, copper, and gold ores for weapon making.
“Why gold?” Sofia asked, it didn’t seem like an ore used in making weapons.
“Elves like decorated weapons, they won’t just by a plain blade. I need the gold for aesthetic.” Dolrig reply made Sofia’s opinion on the elves change a bit, not understanding why are that stuck up on weapons looking cool.
“Are you carrying the money, or is it payed by the kingdom?” Alice asked, money was a problem in those kind of deals, they might get attacked by thieves on their way.
“You don’t have to worry about that, The royal court already paid for it. The likely hood of us being ambushed by thieves on our way out is low.” Dolrig cleared her concerns.
“What do we expect, monsters-nya? Bandits? What about food, do we have to hunt-nya?” Selena also had her questions, she was more worried about the practical part of the quest.
“We will take ration with us, if we wanted fresh meat we have to hunt. Foraging is also an option.” Selena just nodded at his answer, she seems satisfied.
“So how about our pay? How much is the baseline?” Cain asked what he thought was important.
“The base is 10 gold coins, more depending on what we face, how much we lose and if the mission was successful or not.” So it depended how much work they will do.
Cain thought it was fair, especially since Dolrig is going to be the one to determine their pay.
After a quick meeting, Cobra’s fang agreed to take the quest.