"So what was all that about just now?" Komer asked confused when Eisen stepped back out the door, and the old man squatted down to pet the wolf Automaton standing next to him.
"That boy that was with me, Sky, is a Fey-Kin just like Bree. I met him a few hours ago and figured out that he and Bree were siblings. That's quite a coincidence, I know, but it's true." Eisen chuckled while standing back up properly to look at Komer. "And I actually need to talk to you about the situation of how I met Sky." Eisen explained, leaving Komer to only look at him in even more confusion.
"What do you mean? Did something happen?" The young merchant asked, leaving Eisen to simply nod in response.
"Yes, something did happen. Something quite huge, actually. I'll tell you and the others about it in a bit, just come to the restaurant with me, the others should be waiting there." Eisen said this and began walking to where he and the others said to meet up in a bit, and when he saw them again, the group was sitting around a large table in the corner of the restaurant's main room.
"Hm? Eisen, who's that? He's a Beastperson, right?" Komer asked the moment that he laid eyes on Jyuuk, who simply chuckled softly while leaning further into his chair.
"My name is Jyuuk, nice to meet you. I am one of the originals, just like Eisen and Evalia." He explained, and Komer sighed out loudly in response.
"Another original? Which one are you then?" Komer asked as he sat down at the table, narrowing his eyes in confusion when he spotted the human-sized dragon sitting across from him. Eisen sighed out loudly as he shook his head, sitting down next to Kiron and Caria, before Melissa instanty flew to sit on the table in front of him.
"That's a kind of rude thing to ask, right?" The old man exclaimed while chuckling softly, in response to which Komer began scratching his cheek with a wry smile.
"Sorry about that…" He muttered quietly, before Jyuuk began laughing. "No, no, it's fine, don't worry about it. I'm the Original of the Living, but that kind of also includes the dead, so… yeah. I'm well-versed with Taming, Plant Control and Necromancy, so that's the general area of what I can do."
Komer listened to Jyuuk's explanation before slowly nodding. "Huh, gotcha… So you're a pretty Minion heavy guy then." Komer summed up. After thinking about that for a while, Jyuuk ended up nodding with a light shrug. "I guess so. Anyway, I think Eisen wanted to talk about something."
"Yes, I do. I'll explain everything that happened after Komer and Bree left the carriage, up until now." Eisen said, before he began to do just that. How, after finishing a few more books, Melissa's scouts let her know about where Komer's elder brother was, and how they made their way there to simply check him out a little bit, and to see what was going on. How Merc had killed two scout bees inside of his own monster shop, up to how Eisen then killed the majority of monsters in said monster shop until he reached level 97.
In response to this story, Komer, Evalia and Jyuuk looked at Eisen full of surprise.
The young merchant spoke first, however. "So… my brother did that? He enslaved that boy that was with you before, and trapped so many different monsters?"
But to his surprise, Eisen shook his head. "It seems like that shop was a thing for a w
hile, and Merc only bought it up. But to be honest, a Monster Shop in itself isn't such a bad idea, it's just that it was done in the wrong way. First, people like Sky or Kiron shouldn't be trapped, and none of the monsters should be kept in such tight spaces. I think once we start building a town, we should reserve some large space for a monster shop ourselves, where we can bring wild monsters and treat them properly. It would be quite profitable, because Tamers will jump at the chance to buy rare monsters." The old man explained, and Jyuuk simply nodded in agreement.
"Definitely, yes. I personally like going out and trying to tame monsters by myself, but that's because I'm confident about knowing what the different monsters will react to encounters with me. Someone that doesn't, but still wants to be a tamer, may appreciate being able to buy their first few monsters." Jyuuk explained to Komer, before turning to Eisen. "But you're level 97? Already? You were 70-something when you left Melroe, and you said that you didn't do much combat since then…"
Eisen chuckled softly as he began scratching his beard with a smile. "Haha, yeah, I didn't really fight much since then. Only because of the Monsters in the monster shop that I killed did I level up this much. There were a few rank 5 monsters, after all. Since I killed them all on my own, I gained all the experience and leveled up quite a bit. Although, now that I think about it… maybe I should have let Caria and Melissa do a little bit to the monsters as well.." Eisen sighed out loud as he was looking at his two tamed monsters. "But they're both within five levels of evolving, so it should be fine."
"Huh, really? They are that close to evolving? Caria will be rank 3 and Melissa Rank 2 then, right?" Jyuuk asked curiously, and Eisen nodded while looking at the two monsters next to him.
"Yeah, exactly. I'm quite curious to see what will happen to them."
Afte saying this, Eisen turned his head to look at his Knight, Kiron. "And what about you? Why have you been so quiet this whole time? I said to just tell me if you want to eat, so you don't need to hold back."
Immediately, Kiron nodded lightly as he gulped down the saliva in his mouth, while Eisen waved at a waitress to get her to bring them the menu.
While the group was looking at the menu, two more people chose to join them at the table, Bree and Sky who had finished talking alone.
"Well hello there, you two. How are you?" Eisen asked with a light smile, and the both of them smiled back.
"We're great. Thank you for bringing us back together, Eisen." Sky said, seemingly feeling a lot more confident now that he managed to achieve the goal he had been pursuing for years.
"Of course, don't worry. Now come on, let's eat." The old man told them, before the two siblings sat down and joined them at the table.
From then on, the group spent about two hours simply sitting there, eating, and talking to each other in a small party for the two new members of Eisen's group.
---
Later that day, the group had somewhat split up again. Just in case Merc would come looking for them, Eisen, Sky and Kiron stayed together, and Bree joined them so that she could spend the rest of the day with her new brother. Of course, Caria and Melissa were in that group as well, since they constantly stuck to Eisen like glue, and the old man chose to take Aulu along as well.
And then Evalia, Jyuuk and Komer chose to go out for a while to talk amongst themselves, just to have a fun day, and since Jyuuk chose to spend the next night in Ornier as well, he wanted to get a little tour around.
While the group of three players was doing that, Eisen chose to make his way toward his carriage with all of the NPCs in their group.
"Eisen, where are we going?" Sky asked him curiously while Bree was slung around her brother's arm. The old man looked back at the two Fey-Kin following him and began to explain.
"We're going to my carriage, where I keep most of my crafting tools and supplies. It seems like I will end up sleeping for far, far longer than usual for quite a while starting from a few days from now, so I want to prepare for the times that I do end up being awake." Eisen explained, and Eisen's two new companions, Kiron and Sky, both looked at him in worry.
"M'Lord, what do you mean? Is everything in order with you?" Kiron asked as he stepped up next to Eisen, who simply nodded.
"Yes, don't worry. I'm not sure if it's a side effect from my experience being stolen or if it is because of something that happened far, far before then, but us that peaked and those that were created through our experience all have irregular sleeping patterns, meaning that they sometimes may sleep for days or weeks on end without being affected. I already suspected something like this happening to me soon, so I told everyone about it when I figured out when exactly it would happen. Seems like I forgot telling you two as well, sorry."
Kiron nodded slowly as he frowned deeply. "I see… Is this not something that you are worrying about, M'Lord?"
And now, Eisen shook his head, because he simply didn't. He was doing that to spend time with his family, after all, but it seemed like he also had to come up with another half-lie for the NPCs.
"I have already lived an incredibly long life, and I will continue to do so for a very long time. What difference do a few missing days here and there do?" Eisen said quite simply, before Kiron slowly nodded while sighing loudly.
"I understand, M'Lord. I have not seen it that way." The Half-Dragon muttered, before Eisen turned to him and smirked lightly.
"Kiron, you do know that you don't have to call me that all the time, right? You can just go ahead and call me 'Eisen', like everyone else does. The conditions for you being my Knight were an equal standing after all, or at least as equal as possible."
"I'm sorry, M'Lord, I'm afraid I cannot do that. That is simply a matter of respect a Knight has to bring toward their Lord, one that should not change no matter what the actual relations between Lord and Knight are." Kiron told Eisen quite clearly without budging for a moment, leaving the old man to reply with a soft laugh.
"Well, if you really think that way, I can't change that." He said as the group got closer to the stables where their carriage was standing. What Eisen was actually planning to do at that moment was to sit down in the carriage, make a bunch of small items that could be made quickly and in large quantity, and then prepare them to be sold by Komer in his absence.
But instead, something else happened.
"There that fucking asshole is! Cial, he's the one that messed up my fucking business!" A familiar voice yelled out, and immediately, Eisen stopped and sighed out loudly in annoyance.
"Is that so? That old man? How did you get beaten by him?" Another voice by a young man asked the first voice, while Eisen quickly chose to message Jyuuk so that they would come to where he was just in case something was going to happen and Eisen needed help.
"I told you he's a fucking Original! He was prepared"
"Merc, could you stop swearing please? That's pretty unbecoming."
"Oh fuck off, just help me so that we can continue our competition."
As Eisen slowly turned around toward the source of the voices that began to come somewhat closer by the second, the old man saw who he expected to see. Merc, and a group of about six or seven others that were probably players from his company, as well as another man, dressed all in white with light red hair bordering on pink.
"I told you, stop swearing." The man, Cial, said as he glared over at his younger brother as Merc wore large metal gauntlets and Cial grasped a large wooden staff.
This seemed like it was about to become pretty troublesome.