-=Plush POV=-

Waking up earlier than Shiona I snuck out of bed to start preparing breakfast.

Pancakes.

Before I could start doing that however, I saw that the other bed in our room was now occupied by Ronnie and Lizz, Ronnie was so tall her legs stuck out at the end of her blanket while Lizz laid on top of her head.

Feeling relieved that they came back without anything happening I lay down on the end of the bed next to Litly, Shiona was too short to occupy the entire length of the bed after all, after that I switch places with Cy inside the book. As I walk past the TV I see Cy, now in control of my body, sleeping right where I was before switching places, making me think a made a good decision.

I walk inside the storage and grab the things I need, milk, eggs, flour, sugar, and some dragon meat too.

I mix the eggs, sugar, wheat and milk together in a bowl into a batter before pouring it into a frying pan that I’d put on the stove already.

While the pancake batter was half solidified in the pan I poured in some finely chopped pieces of the dragon meat which got stuck in the pancake.

Dragon meat was incredibly versatile, there was some part of it that would fit for every dish.

One part of it had the same consistency and texture as pork, another was the same as beef, one was the same as chicken, and finally there was even a part which was the same as salmon. They each obviously tasted different than their counterparts, but since they reacted the same way to heat as their counterparts they could be used in the same recipes without being ruined.

When all the batter was used up all the pancakes laid on top of each other on a plate and I went to put them back in the storage, also bringing a few extra plates and spoons with me.

Seeing as Cy was still asleep I put a plate with some of the pancakes on the living room table and sat down on the sofa, then I went back outside by changing places with her again.

“Good morning.” I say to everyone after I finish setting up the table with the food.

“...” x4

*sigh* ‘Desperate times call for desperate measures.’

I take out an arc of paper from the inventory, fold it into a fan shape and start fanning the air around the pancakes over to the sleeping people.

*GROWL*

“Come on, come on, come get your pancakes.”

All four of them, including Litly, rose from their beds like zombies and started shuffling towards the table, so I put some pancakes on their plates and took out some of the pet food we’d bought at the monster pet shop for Litly.

‘Shiona isn’t normally this bad with mornings, she must have been unable to sleep from worrying so much about the others… As for the people in question they could never wake up on time.’

After the last pancake had disappeared from the tray we all leaned back in our chairs and let out a collective sigh.

“Thanks Plush, that really hit the spot…”

“Yeah, I’m jealous master has been eating food like this for so much longer than me.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Shiona and Ronne both glared at Lizz for not saying anything while I just brushed it off as Lizz being Lizz and started cleaning up the table.

*knock knock*

“Hello?”

“Who is it?”

“It’s the innkeeper.”

“Oh, come in then.”

*creak*

‘Honestly, what’s up with this world and creaky door?’

When the door opened and the innkeeper came in he was followed by a number of city guards.

“What’s going on!?” I ask frantically, worried that we might have a repeat of Vartan.

“Oh, it’s you guys.”

I turn to the voice and see the guard captain who helped us out during the merchant incident.

“What’s happening?” I ask again, slightly less worried than before due to seeing a familiar face.

“There have been civilian reports of disguised individuals knocking people unconscious last night, the most recent reports say they were seen jumping to the roof of this building before disappearing. Basically we’re just looking through the place to see if they’re still here.”

“Sounds dangerous, by all means carry on.”

The guards start looking through our room, in the closets and, much to our amusement, under the beds.

“You guys don’t have a lot of baggage for travelers.” States the guard captain.

“We make do with what we find on the road.” Replies Shiona.

“Don’t worry, I’m not pointing fingers or anything.”

Soon the guards were finished with their inspection and they left the room again, leaving us to plan out our day.

“Is there anything we need to do before we leave?”

“Well, we didn’t get to buy anything yesterday because of what happened with the merchant. How about we walk through there and take a look?”

“Oh yeah, I also need to stock up on more food for Litly. Anything else?”

“...” x2

Neither Lizz nor Ronnie responded so we put on what little gear we had and left the inn.

* * * *

About half an hour later we exit the town through its east gates and start walking down the road leading to Uphalla. As for the shopping it didn’t take as long as we expected, everyone had heard what had happened yesterday so they stopped asking me to ‘steal that’ or ‘destroy that’ before we could buy anything.

The guy who’s stall yesterday’s merchant had tried to make me destroy even gave us a discount as thanks for, well, not destroying it.

“Anything we need to be aware of? Like, any mountains or stuff.”

“I don’t know, the map’s not detailed enough to say.”

“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see with our own eyes then.”

We then started walking down the road according to the map.

-=Castle City Vartan’s Guildmaster POV=-

“I wonder how well sis did.”

I was sitting in my office on a delightfully sunny day and finishing up some guild related paperwork while looking forward to news from my sister.

“She’d better done well, otherwise I’ll ‘ve ter go hunt ‘em down meself!”

In my office I was joined by my significant other.

I say significant other, but I doubt it will last long enough to even get to the point of engagement.

She’s a hot-headed elf with a penchant for revenge and causing suffering, and she has me wrapped around her fingers.

‘Or so she thinks, but frankly that’s just me playing along, this way if one of my future assassination attempts go wrong she won’t suspect me.’

I was a man who liked to be ready for every foreseeable event, whenever I did something big I would usually spend a few hours, maybe even days, weeks or years, creating contingency plans for all the possible outcomes, and little miss high and mighty betraying me was one of the first things I prepared myself for.

*knock knock*

“Yes?” I answer to the knocking.

“Mail.”

“Come in.”

The door opens (I had some workers oil the hinges so it wouldn’t creak anymore) and in came a man wearing a blue and yellow scarf with a shoulder bag.

“Here you go sir.”

“Thanks.”

I took the letters from the mailman and started sorting them while the mailman himself left the way he came in.

‘Bills, bill, new registrations, more paperwork, bill, bill, bill, personal letter…’

A few minutes later I had sorted everything into neat piles depending on what I classified them as.

“Here’s a letter for you dear.”

I hold out letter signed from her father towards her.

*groan* “Oi’ve a ‘eadache, cud yer read for me ‘on?”

As she said that she was pushing her breasts together using her shoulders and trying to look as seductive as possible.

Frankly I couldn’t care less, I’ve already seen and touched everything so she doesn’t interest me anymore in the slightest, however in order to keep up the charade I still have to comply.

“S-sure!” I respond while using a hidden low circle magic tool to heat up my cheeks and make it look like I’m blushing.

“T’anks ‘on.”

I take the letter, open it and skim through it before giving her the short version.

“It’s from your father, it says that the village is expecting incredibly important guests and he’d like you to come back home while the guests are there..”

“Ugh, if only dat auld coot cud die already! If things keep ‘eading dis way an’ ‘e’s and he’s allowed ter write a ‘ill before he passes there’s feck dat I’ll git any inheritance! It’ll al’ go ter me sister”” (Ugh, if only that old coot could die already! If things keep going and he’s allowed to write a will before he passes there’s no way I’ll get any inheritance! It’ll all go to my sister!)

I start spewing some bullshit about how she doesn’t need the inheritance and how if things go poorly I’ll take care of her, after she finally calms down she asks if there are any more letters for her before leaving to get ready for her journey.

‘Then the next letter is for me from… sister. Guess she must have dealt with them already.’

[Dear brother, I did what you asked and tried to hinder the adventurers you told me about as much as I could, however the two were hardly in the guild at all so I didn’t get any chances and had to settle for the next best thing;their slave who was registering as an adventurer.]

‘That’s acceptable, maybe not optimal but acceptable.’

[But here’s the thing bro! I set her up against the strongest guy we had during her examination, but she still aced it!]

‘Bah, guess Burt must’ve left for another region, he was the only good one they had.’

[The slave kept dodging all of Burt’s punches! Even when he got serious!]

‘M...M-maybe they got a d-different Burt…”

I kept reading the letter and was filled with horror.

Turns out that it was the same Burt I’d been thinking of.

The very same Burt who I used to party with.

The guy who could take down almost anything in one good hit, and he never missed either.

The companion ho I had never been able to beat in a fight.

I started worrying about the female elf. I wasn’t so much worried about her as I was about losing my chance at her father’s fortune though.

‘Hang on, she’s just going to the elf village. She’ll be safe there at least, right?’

Feeling relieved I start looking through all the new paperwork that had come with the mail.

-=Ronnie POV=-

Yesterday Lizz and I went a bit… Over the top to say the least.

In fact I think we may have single-handedly put a stop to organized crime in Gavely. Though probably just a temporary one.

And we may have been chased by guards.

A lot of guards.

Probably the entire guard corp.

In fact it was tothe point where we couldn’t run away unseen without Lizz casting an illusion spell when we were on a roof.

Sadly that roof ended up being the roof of the inn we later found Plush and Shiona staying in and because of that the entire inn was searched through by the guard corp this morning.

Luckily enough Lizz had burnt the rags I used as a disguise while she herself didn’t have to worry since she looked nothing like what she did when she transformed.

Before the guards searched our room we had some pancakes that Plush had made, it tasted as heavenly as usual, and after we finished breakfast we went around the town one last time and bought some travel supplies before leaving for uphalla.

“RRAARGH!”

And as you’d expect the journey got interrupted by monsters.

Or rather A monster. Just one.

It was a big lizard, bigger than a basilisk but not quite a dragon, proportion wise it was thinner than a behemoth but thicker than a wyvern.

There are so many different kinds of monsters in this world so I wasn’t taught all of them at the black market, but regardless of what it actually was it was soon killed by Plush and Shiona, as expected.

“Ronnie, this one’s on you, show me how much you’ve learnt.”

-Or not.

‘How the hell am I supposed to do this!? I can’t grab this thing’s arms! Does it even have arms!?”

The lizard creature roared and rushed at me headfirst with its mouth open.

“RAAAH!”

“!”

I was barely able to avoid the giant lizard’s maw before it could clamp down on me.

“Go Ronnie!”

I look to the side and see Shiona sitting on a picnic blanket and cheering me on while Plush is a small distance away with a… a grill?

“The food’ll be done soon so don’t take too long.”

WhenPlush started talking about food something inside me clicked.

I waited for the lizard creature to charge at me again, then I grabbed it by its fangs and I used the creature’s momentum to help lift it into the air and perform a suplex.

...Or as close to a suplex as you could get with a giant lizard the size of a small house.

I don’t normally see myself as a glutton or a picky eater, but after having tasted Plush’s outstanding cooking I haven’t been able to resist it at all.

It’s so good that you wouldn’t think it’d be possibly to make something like that in this world.

After hitting the giant lizard few more times to make sure it’s dead, such as through its eyes, I run over and sit down on the picnic blanket next to master and await the fo- Plush.

“Here you go.”

And speak of the angel, here he is with a big plate of hamburgers.

*crunch crunch* *chomp chomp* *gobble* gulp*

*crunch crunch* *chomp chomp* *gobble* gulp*

*crunch crunch* *chomp chomp* *gobble* gulp*

“Haa…”

I lay down on the blanket and see Plush walk off towards the giant lizard with a fancy looking knife in his hand.

Too tired to ask any questions I just observe him.

When he gets to the lizards corpse he takes off the book he’s always wearing and opens it. He pauses for a moment, probably to talk to one of his familiars, before two blue glowing arms reach out from the books pages and grab onto the lizards corpse.

Finally feeling like my curiosity has finally reached its limit I ask master:

“Master, what’s he doing?”

“He’s dismantling the corpse for materials.”

“Really?I didn’t know Plush knew so much about monster anatomy. Must have studied a lot. Also that’s a very weird looking magic wand, don’t think I’ve ever seen one in the shape of a book before.”

Master smiles wryly but doesn’t say why, and without us knowing so does Lizz inside the book.

After Plush has cut up the lizard’s corpse into sufficiently small pieces the two blue hands start picking them up and dragging them inside of the pages they came from.

“Storage as well? Thing must have cost a fortune.

Little did I know that master was currently trying her hardest not to laugh while Lizz was already rolling on the floor laughing her ass off.

“Ronnie.”

“Yes master?”

After a few seconds master calls out to me and I answer.

“You reacted pretty casually to the storage thing, is it that common?”

“No no no, it’s just that you two have skewered my sense of normalcy, usually only high nobles and shiny gold ranked adventurers have access to magic storage artefacts.”

“Is that so…”

“Ah! Sorry if I was rude master!”

“Don’t worry about it, I just thought storage artefacts would be rarer, guess we don’t need to hide it anymore then. Hey Plush!”

“Yeah!?” Shouts Plush back after turning around.

“Tell Cy we don’t need to disguise the book anymore!”

“Why!?”

“Ronnie says storage artefacts are more common than we thought!”

“Okay!”

After Plush turns around again and resumes dismantling the corpse I remove my paws from my ears, these two can be incredibly loud when they want to.

“Where are you going?” Asks master when I stand up.

“I’m feeling a little restless, I figured I might as well go and see if I can finish any of the preliminary quests.”

“Oh shit, I forgot about those! That means we have to return to Gavely for you to finish the delivery quests!”

“Ehm, master, I actually asked the guild staff if I could get quests for Uphalla so I can deliver to there instead.”

“Oh! Good thinking Ronnie!”

“Oh it was nothing…” I say while sheepishly scratching the back of my head.

I’m not good with compliments okay?

“Then sure, but don’t go too far and be back soon.”

“You don’t have to worry like that mas-”

“That’s an order.”

“...Yes master.”

After reluctantly understanding that it wasn’t a choice I walked off into the forest and started looking around for some feral warcats, wild weredogs and giant bats.

If you’re wondering what the difference between weredogs and dog-kin or between warcats and cat-kin is it’s quite simple; cat-kins and dog-kins are sapient and get along with other species, they live in harmony with others as long as the others in question aren’t cunts.

Though like with every group of people there are individuals of each species that acts different than the stereotype

As for warcats and weredogs? Well, they’re both sapient just like their friendly counterparts, they can communicate and speak at the same level as any human, the only thing is that they refuse to integrate into society. Okay, let me word it a bit better, cat/dog-kin won’t attack without a reason, warcats and weredogs will.

You know how goblins will kill anything that isn’t a goblin for the sake of eating it? Well warcats and weredogs are the same, if they meet any creature that isn’t a part of their species they will act in a hostile manner, as though they truly were just wild beasts.

Warcats tended to wear armor made of leather from their fallen enemies, easy to move in while still having some defensive power, as for the weredogs they wore armor made out of hand carved wood pieces which were attached by leather straps, they lost a bit of mobility but the armor was much sturdier.

Now back to the present, every here and there I would see both pieces of fur, pieces of leather and chunks of carved wood scattered about, and judging by the pure amounts it meant that two large tribes of feral warcats and wild weredogs had engaged in battle.

Seeing as the trails were still fresh I decided to simply turn around and walk the other way, maybe I’d even find a cave with giant bats in it if I’m lucky? And after that I would start following these trails again to pick the parts of the already dead corpses without needing to worry about sneak attacks.