-=Plush POV=-

“You want me to tell you about my teleportation magic?”

“Sort of, yeah.”

I had just finished buying the sewing needles and thread at Ike’s and decided that I might as well take the opportunity to ask Alexander about his oh so handy spell that I witnessed the last time I was here.

“Okay, so let me get this straight: You want me to just tell you about my teleportation magic, the thing that makes taking care of the slave firm possible, the thing that lets me do all the shady things I need to do to keep both my and Ike’s businesses going without her finding out.”

“Sort of, yeah. If you want me to pay for it I might be able to do that.”

“No merchant would give away the key to their success, especially not to someone who they have no way of knowing if they’ll spread it to others. You must’ve lived an easy life to think that you can get something just from asking for it with a bag of money in your hand.”

‘Well to be fair that has worked ever since I came to this world.’

“Then what if I signed one of those magic contract thingies? To make sure I only use it myself I mean.”

“Ha! There are tens, no; hundreds of ways to bypass those. And even if you couldn’t, did you not listen to me? I may have added the ‘especially people who could share it’ part to the end but that doesn’t mean you can ignore what I said before that about not giving it to anyone.”

“Right… But then what about some sort of magic tool with the spell on it?”

“So you can reverse engineer it? LIsten I appreciate the effort you’re putting into getting this but you’ll have to try way harder than that.”

“Ehm… Well can I pay you for a two way trip to Eastern lake city at least? It’s been awhile since I was there so I’m kind of curious how things are going for my friends there.”

“Only if you leave everything you’re carrying here.”

“Why?” I ask.

“There are ways to record magic being used in you, I’ve had some acquaintances fall for that kind of trick before.”

“Okay, fair enough. And how much will it cost?”

“Fifty gold there, fifty gold back.”

“That’s too expensive!”

“Yeah, how odd, it’s almost like I don’t actually want to do it.”

*sigh* “Fine, but is there anywhere I could put this stuff?” I asked while pointing at the book.

“Anywhere.”

“And how do I know no one will steal it?”

“You don’t. But hey, you’re the only to have anything to gain from this, I have no reason to want you to do it so either you take it or leave it.”

In response to that I simply took off the book and tied it to a nearby support pillar for the roof after I took out an iridescent coin.

Also I had made the book tighten its straps around the pillar enough for no one to be able to take it.

“Alright, I’m ready.”

“God fucking damnit…” whispered Alexander. ”Alright, just give me the money and we’ll go. But I’m only gonna be there for fifteen minutes before we go back, time is money.”

I gave Alexander the iridescent coin after which the ground below us started to glow blue and I soon found myself in one of the corners of the adventurers’ plaza in the middle of Eastern lake city.

“Hurry up now, I’m repeating myself but you’ve only got fifteen min-” Before Alexander could even finish I had already started running to the adventurers’ guild in the middle of the plaza.

I lightly used phasing on my feet in order to go faster however I didn’t want to show it fully to Alexander, though once went into a large mob of adventurers carrying their respective game to the guild I submerged myself in the ground to go as fast as possible.

‘I could just go inside and say hi, but with how many adventurers are here I would probably be forced to help with booth duty and I don’t have time for that. I’ll just write a letter and leave it somewhere. How about Cathy’s room? Since she does the paperwork she should have some paper and pens, err, quills?’

And so I hurried to the side of the guild building and went up to the second floor where Cathy’s room was.

‘Oh… Well let’s try Hugh’s room instead…”

When I had gotten up to Cathy’s window I decided that maybe it wouldn’t be a good idea to try and write a letter in the same room as a couple… “exercising”.

Luckily enough Hugh’s room was empty.

‘Guess they either finally managed to make him do booth duty or Joanne finally managed to teach him to cook. Either way works for me.’

Thus I went inside by phasing through his window and wrote a letter about what we’d been through, about Ronnie, the new magic I learned on the trip as well as a few of the less important things that would happen and where we would be going next.

“Alright, I’m done.” I tell Alexander once I return to him.

“Tch, just barely on time.” He answered, still very much grumpy over having wasted precious time.

After he said that the ground below us once more lit up with a familiar blue colour and we returned to Ike’s store.

“Right then,-” I say while untying my book from the support pillar and picking it up. “-thanks.”

“...Sure.”

Then, as soon as I put the book on my back a nostalgic blue slip of paper came out from the pouch one one of the straps.

Ghostly haunting

Ghosts have always been known to appear from certain places in folklore, so why shouldn’t you be able to?

Allows you to teleport to and from places associated with the appearance of ghosts, such as closets, beneath beds and at graveyards or morgues..

You can only appear somewhere during times when ghosts are thought to appear there, such as dusk or midnight.

You can only appear in places you have a connection with, such as places you’ve been or places where people you’re acquainted with currently are..

You can only bring with you objects that ghosts in folklore are known to either take or leave during emergence or disappearance.

‘Huh… But what’s with all these criteria? I don’t understand most of it to be honest… Shiona and Cy are smart so maybe they could help me figure it out later?’

“You sneaky little shit…” Came a frustrated voice from behind me. “So that was your plan eh? Fucking hell I must be going soft to fall for something like that…” Said Alexander as he shook his head disapprovingly.

“What? N-”

“Shut it. I’m really pissed off right now and your fake pity won’t help. Just leave me alone and I’ll recover and the for the sake of being a ‘professional’ I’ll just pretend this never happened next time we meet alright?”

“Okay... But-”

“But what!?” Practically screamed Alexander.

‘Good god, I must have fucked up real bad for him of all people to get this angry.’

“But I don’t know what way to get out…”

“Oh for the love of-!”

Then Alexander snapped his finger.

“Yes-men! Lead Plush outside!”

“Yes yes!” “Yes yes?”

‘Oh god no…’

“Enjoy.” Said Alexander with an evil grin as I was dragged off by the two small balls of flesh.

“”This way yes(!/?)””

I was pulled by the two small bouncing, mustached, lightly bearded, top hat wearing men by both my arms, and although I could escape by phasing through them that would only make it take longer for me to leave Ike’s and thus take longer to get away from them.

* * * * *

“Goodbye yes?”

“Yes!”

“Right, right, bye.” I say exhaustedly as I’m finally allowed to leave Ike’s and walk away from the yes-men.

On the way we actually passed Ike, she called out but gave up when she realised the yes-men weren’t stopping for anyone.

‘I suppose those yes-men fellows were actually a blessing in disguise then, honestly Ike kind of scares me.’

I then started walking back to the inn while trying to make what had just happened seem like something positive.

‘Oh yeah, I wonder whether Shiona and Ronnie are up yet? They’ll probably be grumpy since I left them without any breakfast so maybe I should buy something on the way?’ I think as I start following the Logholm pamphlet I got from the guild to the local marketplace.

* * * * *

‘Big stores like Ike’s are good and reliable and all but when it comes to getting something cheap you can never quite beat places like this where the all the merchants have to battle amongst one another to have the best price for anything to get sold… I’m totally not just here to avoid going back to Alexander okay? Who am I even trying to convince with this… Oh right, myself.’

Thus I walked around the marketplace, avoiding the merchants that seemed like shady people or like they would freak out over thinking I’m a blessed doll and bought a number of cooked foods, mostly grilled, and put them in the book’s storage.

“This was a good haul.” I say to myself.

“That voice, is that you Plush?”

“! Fallis!?”

“Woah man, I know we all haven’t met in a little over a month but no need to get so shocked.” Came the voice of Shro as he peeked out from behind her.

“Let him have his moment I say.”

‘Kosei too!? I mean, I knew they were coming today or tomorrow but-’

“Why are you all selling pizza!?”

All three of them were standing in a stall much like the other merchants and they were selling newly baked pizza which had been made on-site by the elves.

“And Kosei, aren’t you the elf chief? Do you really have time to faff about making pizzas just a month after the necromancer incident!? And why are you making pizzas while wearing your armor!?”

“Hey, setting up this setting up the stall as well as kneading and rolling the dough is tough work, if the chief is willing to do it for us I’m all for it.” Answered Shro as he took out a baked pizza from a stone oven.

“But that still doesn’t explain why you’re selling pizza in the first place.”

They all looked at each other before both Shro and Kosei seemingly both agreed to look at Fallis who sighed and started explaining.

“Well… We may not have packed enough fuel for the carriage, and we may or may not have also not brought enough money with us to buy more fuel… So we may or may not have needed to earn some money to get the fuel which we may or may not be lacking...”

“I see… Then what are the plans for today? Do we leave as soon as we have the fuel?”

“Yup.”

“All right, well you all seem to be doing fine so do you think you could come pick us all up when you’re done? We’re staying here btw.” I then hand Fallis one of the inn’s commercial flyers which had been laying around in the reception, after handing it over I start walking away.

***grooooowl***

I stop in my tracks.

“A-actually Plush, we’ve been here since morning without eating anything, d-do you think you could take over for a bit so we can fill our stomachs…?” She asks while putting one of her hand vertically in front of her face and smiling embarrassedly..

*Sigh* “Fine, but I expect free pizza for me and my companions when we’re done.”

“““Thank you!””” Shout all three at once.

‘Lizz.’

‘You still have that armband that lets you move far away from the book right? Could you fly back to the inn and tell the others to come here? You’ll get some pizza if you do.’

Lizz then flew out of the book, quickly greeted the elves and flew back to our inn, leaving me to make as much pizza as the three elves until they finished gorging themselves.

***munch munch munch***

Which didn’t look like it was going to happen anytime soon by the way...