Author's note: I felt like this chapter is finished anyway, so have fun reading it. On that note: the last few chapters had a pretty consistent length of around 2500 words each (which i consider on the lower end word-wise), but I dont really go for a specific length. Pure coincidence.

Chapter 23: Arriving in Steinnes

Paul pulled his spear out of the wolf and picked up Kana’s sword, which she had dropped nearby. He sat down next to one of the rocks and leaned his back against it.

“Kana, you alright? Got hurt anywhere?”

“No, Master. Just some scratches-…. Wahh, Master is bleeding from his face!?” Kana started shouting mid-sentence.

“Yeah, someone nearly decapitated me with a sword blow… hey, don’t look so worried! Do I really look that bad now?!” Paul felt the wound on his cheek with his fingers. It was several centimeters long and pretty deep. It had completely perforated the skin and blood was flowing freely down his face and even into his mouth from the inside. Due to the adrenaline it only started hurting now.

“I’m sorry… I just wanted to help Master” Kana, who had gotten close to inspect the wound, looked like she was about to cry.

“I know, I know. You actually saved me there. Just try not to hit me along with the enemy next time.” Paul reached out to rub Kana’s head, but noticing the large amount of blood on his hand, it became an awkward patting with his underarm.

At first Paul wanted to just bandage the wounds, but noticing the large bruise on his left arm that started to hurt like it was broken and remembering swallowing a decent amount of wolf blood, he decided to use one of the health potions instead. He rubbed some of the potion onto Kanas bruised hand that got slightly injured while punching the wolf, then did the same to his external wounds and drank the remaining liquid.

After treating the cut in his face, it closed rather quickly, but not completely. It was still an open wound, so he crushed some of the herbs he had collected and wrapped a bandage around his head to prevent infection. The pain in his arm stopped as well.

Paul had lost 18 of his 80 HP during the fight, and after using the potion for treatment, he was back to 76/80 HP. Kana was as full health.

He then went to pull the arrows out of the wolves. The two he had shot into the leader were broken now, probably during its fight with Kana.

“Let’s make camp here for now. It’s still early, but I don’t really feel like travelling on. I also want to skin the wolves. Could you collect some dry wood for a campfire, Kana?”

The wolf girl went off to fetch some wood, and Paul went to work, starting with the alpha wolf. After skinning it, he started butchering it for some meat. When Kana returned, he made a fire and left her with the meat to roast it while he went to skin the remaining wolves.

There was no water source, so he just scraped off the fat and blood from the hides as best as he could using his knife. The wolf meat was stringy and tough, but Kana ate it while smiling happily.

Both of them were covered in blood, especially Paul, but he could not help but feel a sense of accomplishment. Without Kana, Paul would have utterly lost against the wolves, but the fight went very well, even amazingly so. Kana was a bit clumsy, even in a fight, but her strength was something else.

When they were done eating and Paul had wrapped the hides into a package with some rope, it was already starting to get dark. With his night vision and Kana’s wolf senses it should be possible to travel through the darkness, but he wanted to avoid having to camp in the middle of the road, so he made a makeshift shelter with the tarp, some sticks and a bit of rope.

One of them would sleep while the other one would keep an eye out for any danger. Paul felt fatigued from the short fight and his work skinning the beasts, so he went to sleep first.

Kana sat right next to him, dutifully keeping her eyes open. When he woke up a few hours later it was surprisingly dark around him. He could Kana breathing next to him and he activated his [Night Vision] skill. The girl had laid herself down next to him on the bedroll and Paul could feel the warmth radiating from her body. Her tail was resting against his legs.

It looked like she had neglected her guard duty, but Paul felt like he wanted to hug her from behind. Kana was still wearing her armour though, so it would not be a very satisfying experience and Paul refrained from doing so.

When tried to quietly get up, Kana turned around.

“Oh, Master is awake?” At first it looked like she had been awake and just laid down, but the way her eyes were blinking away the sleep told Paul otherwise.

“Weren’t you supposed to stay up and guard the camp?”

“Ahh, I did, but nothing happened. Master looked so comfortable, so I just laid down for a bit. But I would probably wake up if anything comes close, so no need to worry.”

Ignoring the worrying word “probably” in her sentence, Paul decided that she was basically correct. Sleeping dogs also woke up easily, so if something like a bear or a group of bandits approached there would should be at least time to wake him up.

Checking the minimap, Paul confirmed that there was no immediate danger nearby.

“Yeah, you are right. You can take off the armour if you want. It will probably at least a few hours until sunrise, so get some proper sleep. I will stay up.” Paul tried to climb over Kana.

“Hnn, I will take off the armour, but stay here Master. I will get cold alone.” Likely due to being sleepy, Kana was bolder than she was before. Paul decided that was OK. He helped Kana take off the heavy chest piece, then lay down on the bedroll again, making sure to leave enough space for the girl.

It was indeed a bit chilly, so he got closer to Kana and pulled her a bit closer with his arm. They were basically spooning now. Kana snuggled up to him and her butt rubbed against Paul’s crotch, giving an immediate reaction, or rather, erection. She didn’t seem to mind though.

Paul had never been really worried about being rejected by Kana if he had made an advance. The reason why he tried to avoid doing anything sexual with her were basically two things: the main reason was, that she was his precious party member and he wanted to keep the relationship somewhat professional. They would be fighting together, working together and living together, if things got weird between them, it would hurt him in more than one way.

The second reason was the strange binding spell she was under. Paul could not discern how much power it had over her. Did she feel compelled to fulfil every one of his orders? Did it completely supress her own feelings, or could she still feel them but just not act on them? Compared to her previous “owners”, Paul was probably among the nicer ones, but was that enough for her to truly accept him?

Those thoughts aside, Paul was more and more convinced that making a move on her would most likely be fine though. She definitely had urges of her own, that much he had found out already. Her “M” nature was perhaps a bit strengthened by the spell, but he did not think that it was result of only the spell. He sure wouldn’t have to worry about soiling her, her [hentai] skill level seemed to have maxed out a long time ago.

Paul pulled the girl a bit closer to him. Whatever he would do with her, he would not start it right now. There was a pile of dead wolves on the other side of the clearing and both of them were soaked in grime and blood. He laid his head down on the bedroll and went back to sleep.

They woke up early. The forest was still pretty dark, but Paul could see the sky starting to turn bright above the canopy.

After packing up their things and eating some more roasted wolf for breakfast, they started walking towards Steinnes again. The road forked once, but there was a sign pointing into the correct direction. Otherwise nothing noteworthy happened. They didn’t stop for lunch and just ate while walking.

It was early afternoon when they exited the forest. There was a small river running along the treeline with a wooden bridge crossing over it. Behind the river the forest had been cleared and fences indicated that the land was used as pastures.

Paul considered properly washing the hides, but rising smoke behind one of the hills meant that they were in the immediate proximity of the village, so checking it out first wouldn’t hurt. In the backdrop Paul could see a rather large mountain, with several hills around it. The mountain wasn’t high enough to have snow on its top during summer, but it was definitely not a hill.

Fifteen minutes later they were standing on top of the slope and looked down at Steinnes. It was definitely a lot smaller than Prozor, but a metropolis compared to Marcus’ or even Jonas’ settlement. There was a wall around the settlement that was partly made of stone, partly of logs, about two and a half meters high. The gate was flanked by wooden guard towers on either side.

Roughly estimating the size, Paul guessed that there were about two hundred huts and buildings inside the walls, maybe a bit more. Smoke was rising from several chimneys. The roofs were mostly made of wood, but some even had proper ceramic tiles.

Paul and Kana approached the gate and were greeted by the guards, or rather stopped.

“Traveller! State your business in Steinnes!”

“My name is Paul, I have been sent by the lord of Prozor to investigate the occurrences at the mines. This is my companion Kana.” Paul fished the letter he had received from the counsellor out of his pocket and showed it to the guard.

“What happened to you on the road? You look highly suspicious for an official investigator.”

“Ahh… well, we ran into a pack of wolves” Paul pointed at the pack of hides Kana was carrying “I got showered in a bit of blood when my companion decapitated one that was pinning me down. But there is no need to worry, this is mostly wolf blood, I was not really injured myself.”

The guard did not look even a tiny bit worried about Paul’s health in the first place. He was rather looking for an excuse to not let him into the village.

“Hmpf… OK, I will let you into the village under the premise of reporting to the mayor before evening. But I advise you to check into the inn first and wash yourself. You are attracting flies already.”

“Thank you, I will do just that then. Where is the inn?”

“It’s right over there, the larger building down the road. The innkeeper will tell you where to find the mayor. Now be on your way, you are blocking the gate.”

Paul looked behind him, but there was no one waiting. He shrugged it off and walked towards the inn, pulling Kana with him, who did a terrible job at hiding her anger over the guard’s arrogance.

The inn was a relatively nice place, at least compared to the one they were staying in at Prozor. The owner was a middle-aged, balding and slightly obese man with a red face. He looked a little troubled when Paul walked in, but after Paul explained the situation he lightened up a bit.

“Normally, there is no problem with sudden guests, but due to … an incident, some of the residents are staying at the inn right now. There is only a single-bed room available right now. Of course, I won’t charge you for two people, just the regular rate for one person.”

The charge was three large copper coins per night, without food. For one more large copper coin you could get breakfast and a bowl of hot water in the morning. It was an acceptable price, so Paul paid for two nights, including the breakfast for two people and gave the inn-keeper one small silver coin in total.

After sharing a bedroll just the night before, Paul didn’t really feel bad about the situation. He hadn’t made up his mind about whether or not to make a move on Kana, but sharing a bed shouldn’t cause trouble either way.

The inn-keeper offered Paul to bring a bowl of warm water to the room at no cost and Paul gladly accepted. The comment made by the guard that Paul was already attracting insects, was most likely not a joke.

After washing himself thoroughly and getting most of the dirt off his and Kana’s armour and clothes, Paul changed into his spare shirt. The room was small but nice, with a large window towards the street. It even had a small door to a similarly small balcony, from where Paul looked over the town once again. The room was only on the second floor, so the view was not too good, but it felt refreshing to watch down on the busy street below after the long walk through the eerily quiet forest.

Paul asked the inn-keeper for directions to the mayor and a leather worker. He wanted to get rid of the hides before they started to rot.

They went to the leather merchant first. The store was near the general market area, so it wanted to go there anyway. After some negotiation Paul only got two small silver coins for all the hides, but as they were slightly hacked up and not even properly cleaned, he didn’t expect much in the first place. That amount of money should roughly cover the costs during his stay, so it was fine with him.

There were some people offering different food, but before they could eat Paul had to report to the mayor.

The administrative building was conveniently placed near the market square, so they hadn’t had to walk far. Not that the village was very large in the first place. It was one of the houses with ceramic roof tiles.

Properly washed and without the dirty bandage in his face, Paul got a warmer welcome from the clerk sitting at the front desk than he had received from the guard at the gate. Kana had left her chest armour at the inn and was looking gorgeous as always, so the pair gave off a rather nice first impression.

After showing the letter from the castle to the young woman, Paul was led to the mayor’s office on the second floor. It was plain but comfortable, with a map of the surrounding area at the wall. There were some markers on the map, which seemed to indicate metal deposits and exploration shafts.

The mayor, a man in his late thirties with thick, black hair, was sitting at his large desk.

After a short introduction, Paul and Kana sat down on the chairs in front of the desk, and the mayor started explaining the situation.