Author’s Corner: HELLO HELLO! A Past revealed and a man captured!

ANYWAY, I hope the old man’s past was interesting enough for you guys, because I had fun writing it down. And for a moment I wondered if I would have to pump this up to mature, but in the end I thought that I wouldn’t need it, as it was mostly funny stuff and nothing serious.

ALSO, I noticed that I might have made a small mistake, where I first introduced Lily (the clerk at Argento’s), I called her a treant, but later on I kept calling her an Undine, and even thinking of her like that, so yeah…

Have a good read!

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Oh, the wonders of instant messaging! Even though we were literally locked outside, after a brief message, it took Yuu no longer than twenty two point five seconds to open the door for us.

Though, in this short time I couldn’t help but look at Sol with a suspicious gaze, as she had a mischievous smile while she giggled cheerfully. Heck, even the crowd around the door was shocked with what happened back there. Taking my attention from the strangely excited Loli-baba, I turned to look at the cat. I have no idea how the hell he knew about this, but I’m extremely proud of him right now.

Things are about to get exciting.

While thinking so, I couldn’t help but start to smile mischievously myself, which left the poor kitsune confused as she stared at me and the elf in turns. I simply entered the house once again while petting her. This pretty much made her ignore any kind of doubt she had.

Distraction complete, I walked in while letting out a wicked smile that was a breath away into becoming a cackle. As I smiled away, I couldn’t help but feel a strange feeling of satisfaction at the fact that the old man was about to show us something amusing.

And in fact, that’s exactly what happened. The moment we found Wallace, he was literally with one of his legs on the window from the workshop while carrying a leather bag on his back. He became startled when he saw us and immediately turned to jump away.

Dang it. If he managed to jump away, I’m pretty sure that not even the old hag would be able to keep up with him. While thinking so, I immediately took out one of my freezing knives and threw it on the window below him. This caught him by surprise as it suddenly froze his leg in place.

Taking this chance, I quickly darted to go and grab the old man, but through sheer brute strength he managed to break the ice almost immediately and flexed his legs to jump away.

But, surprising both of us, something else managed to hit him while we were having our short exchange. What flew by me was a vial with a strange yellow liquid inside that broke the moment it entered in contact with the old man, and the liquid immediately evaporated into a yellow cloud.

Wallace fell back flat on the ground, his limbs twitching slightly as he became unable to move, shocking not only me, but also every one else on the room. Except Sol, who cheerfully walked towards Wallace, picked him up and threw him into a nearby chair in a sitting position.

“Just like the old days, huh?” The alchemist said as she nonchalantly leaped into his lap and leaned back against his chest.

“Why? Why?” Wallace said while trying to move around.

Sol simply smiled while everyone looked in confusion at the scene.

…

“Okay, now that we are all gathered here, let’s start our talk about embarrassing things of the past.” I said while sitting down on the ground. The other blinked surprised, but they quickly followed me as I sat down. Seeing that we had all gathered, I turned to Sol and made the question. “So, how did the two of you meet?”

“Well, it was back when I was still traveling around…” Sol said with a nostalgic smile. “I was walking around a battle-field, looking for some interesting herbs and so on, when I met him walking near a river. He immediately kneeled on the ground and confessed to me then…”

“AH WAS DRUNK AND HAD LOST A BET, OKAY?” Wallace said while squirming his head, but the rest of his body wasn’t moving.

With the corner of my eyes I glanced over at Melinda, who had sat down on one of her tables and crossed her arms before her with an unreadable expression.

“After that, he invited me to a drink where he showed me around their friends. Their faces when they learned my age was the best.” Sol said with a happy laugh.

“They thought Ah was a sick man until Ah told them her age!” Wallace said with a pained voice.

“After a few more drinks with the gentlemen, I ended up following Wallace here back to his tent, where we…”

“You fooled me! You told me that you were afraid of passing the night alone!”

“Well, after that…” Sol completely ignored the squirming old man and shut him up with a head-butt.

However, before she started, there was something very important that I had to do. Raising my hands open so as to stop her from going on, I turned to Yuu besides me and smiled to her.

“Yuu, it seems that Crys and the others are coming back soon, so why don’t you go and help them with the food?”

“Huh? Why so sudden, Shishou?” She asked me with a slightly suspicious tone.

“Well, I felt like eating something that you cooked.” I told her with my best smile. She blushed slightly, but quickly nodded and stood up, making her way towards the front door while skipping. Smiling a bit awkwardly, I waited until she was out of the room to turn back to Sol. “Okay, now that her innocence is protected, you can go on.”

The elf laughed loudly for a moment, while Yami and Hanbei had awkward smiles in their faces, but still kept quiet. I’m pretty sure they thought of something similar themselves.

I mean, Sol speaking about her past with Wallace will certainly not end up in a way that the innocent Yuu would be able to take it, so I’d better protect her innocence for now. It’s not good to be too sudden with this kind of thing.

Job done, Sol recovered herself from laughing while Wallace looked at me confused. I made a mention for the elf to go on, which made the old man pale once again and start to try and squirm himself, but his body still wouldn’t listen under the effects of the Hag’s poison.

“Well, after that, all that I needed was some seduction in the middle of the night, and soon we were in the mood…” She said while playfully nibbling her finger.

“You said that you used some kind of aphrodisiac incense on me!” Wallace said with a voice close to desperation.

“Oh? That little joke? You still believe that?” Sol asked with a fake surprised tone. Wallace’s eyes widened in shock before he hung his head lifelessly as all his self-esteem leaked through his skin. “And don’t come saying it like that, because we both know you liked it.”

Wallace said nothing, but it didn’t feel like he didn’t hear it, instead, he was unable to deny it. Yami let out a short snicker while Han-chan shook her head slowly. I was holding myself back so I wouldn’t start laughing like a mad man again.

“After that, seeing that we both were happy with our relationship, I decided to stay a bit longer with him.” Sol said with a proud nod. Wallace’s eyes simply lost all the light they had.

“Darkest days of my life… She followed me around, would suddenly drag me when on the mood, but play the innocent when others were around.” The words started to leak from his mouth like tar through a pipe. “She made herself sound way younger than her age, people thought I was into strange things. Respect all but gone…”

“Then why didn’t you simply shrug her off?” Yami asked intrigued. “You look strong.”

“Too young, not strong enough.” Were his simple words.

“How young?” Melinda asked for the first time, her voice completely hiding any kind of feeling.

“Nineteen. Just got the class and joined the army.” Was his reply.

“And you met mother when you were twenty seven, right?” The half-garuda asked, and the old man’s eyes suddenly recovered their light and he nodded.

“Ah swear upon my name as Dragon-general Wallace that Ah never touched another woman while your mother was with me.” He said with serious eyes, and Melinda visibly relaxed as a small smile appeared on her face.

“Besides, I would never touch a man who’s dating, married or something of the like.” Sol added with a slight annoyed tone. “Can’t guarantee singles, though…”

Hmm, I suddenly feel that I should start dating someone quickly… Still, there was something that left me really bothered in this story.

“That did sound embarrassing and all… But that still doesn’t explain why you are so shocked…” I said with a confused tone.

Once again his eyes went dead and the head fell back as the energy left his body.

“The potions… The potions… She… Potions… Me…”

We all turned our gazes towards Sol, who gave a smile nothing short of a perfect angel.

“I had just reached a deadlock on my alchemy skill, so I took the chance to test my potions with him, since he had a good resistance.” She said with a happy tone. “And he was so kind to let me experiment with him…”

“YOU DID THOSE THINGS TO ME EVEN WHEN I WOULDN’T LE…” Wallace started to shout at her, but was silenced when she turned to him and licked her lips. He paled and turned his head away. “No… No… No…” He said with a worried tone.

“Aww… You still remember it, don’t you?” She said cheerfully before turning back to us. “Whenever he got angry, I always calmed him down with a kiss.” She said with a proud nod.

“And take the chance to shove some strange pill down my throat.” Wallace complained.

“Aww, it wasn’t anything bad…” Sol said with a fake hurt tone.

“Once my skin turned green for a whole week…” WALLACE SMASH!

“And…?”

“That was, by far, one of the least problematics.” His eyes looked up to the ceiling as he started a dry and weak laugh.

Wow, Wallace really had it bad with Sol, huh? And if what I got from my brief time that I knew her also applied to how she was back then, then…

“You also got blast resistance?” I asked him. His eyes widened as we exchanged glances, and we both felt a brief link of sympathy between us. It didn’t last long because a smirk appeared in my face. “You had it rough, old man?” I said not even trying to hide my mocking tone.

“YOU DAMN BRAT! I’LL KIL…” He start to freak out and shout angrily, his head shaking from one side to the other angrily as he clearly wanted to have a go at me, however unable due to the poison.

While I lost myself into laughter, the old man’s mouth was shut close with Sol’s. It was so sudden, that not only the old man, but all of us stared in shock at the scene. I even caught sight of Yami covering Hanbei’s eyes with her hand, as if she should not see that.

“Well, you aren’t married anymore.” Sol said after taking some distance and licking her lips. “So, why don’t you come to my house so we can remember the old times?”

“Aren’t you worried that he might be a bit too… Old?” Melinda asked with a slightly confused tone. Strangely enough, she wasn’t all that bothered with the fact that it was her father that Sol was planning to prey upon.

Sol blinked for a moment at her words before turning back to Wallace and nonchalantly lifting his shirt, leaving all the other staring surprised.

Ripped, was only somewhat close of describing the old man. Seriously, his chest alone was enough to leave most of the 20 years old in shame! I even saw as Yami and Hanbei blushed slightly at the scene.

“Seems fine enough for me.” Sol said with a satisfied tone before putting his shirt back on and jumping out of his lap. She took out another phial from beneath her dress and uncorked it in front of his nose. “Just to make sure you don’t try to run away.” She said cheerfully before picking Wallace up and throwing him up her small shoulders with scary ease.

She then walked up to the window cheerfully and leapt into it before turning back to Melinda and saying.

“I hope you don’t mind…” She said with an apologetic smile.

“It’s not up to me who father decides to spend his night.” She said with a shrug.

“Okay, I’ll bring him back tomorrow then.”

“MELINDA!!! SAVE MEEE!” Wallace said in despair as he squirmed, but soon his voice disappeared as Sol ran away from the house.

“I wonder if that qualifies as… You know… Rape?” I asked with a worried tone.

“Nah, he’ll probably like it.” Melinda said with a shrug.

“You seem awfully at ease with Sol taking your father like that.” Hanbei said confused.

“And I’m beginning to doubt his tastes a tiny little bit.” I smiled wryly. “Doesn’t it bother you that your father would be so… intimate with Sol? She looks like a kid for Cygnas sake!”

“I deny any and all relationship to a man with a dangerous taste like that.” Melinda said in a deadpan tone before giggling. “Besides, we all know that old Sol isn’t as young as she looks.”

“Yeah…” I said with a wry smile, unable to deny her words.

Yami and Hanbei also seemed to be at lost on how to react at this whole scene, but I couldn’t help but be glad that Yuu wasn’t here. I’m a bit afraid on how she would react at that kissing scene… And at the rest of the story too.

I wonder if I’m overreacting a bit at this whole Yuu’s innocence thing. What if she isn’t as innocent as she actually acts?

A mature and flirtatious Yuu…

That… Would not be good for my health. I don’t think my self-restraint would last long under such heavy siege, so let’s try to keep Yuu as innocent as she is now. Seriously, if she were to become flirtatious… It would be a weapon of mass destruction.

…

And I might become a bit jealous… Can’t really deny that.

“Where did Wallace-san go?” Yuu said as she entered the room. She tilted her head innocently. “And Sol-san too?”

Yeah, an innocent Yuu is the best.

I started to pet Yuu pleased with how she actually was. Besides, I seriously doubt she would have this reaction if she weren’t innocent as she is. And that would be simply a bummer.

“They left for something.” I told her briefly. She nodded her head with a pleased expression. “So, what did you want with them?”

“Me and Crys-san wanted to know if there was anything they didn’t eat.” She said with a confused tone. “But since they left…”

“Yeah. No need to worry about that. Just do whatever you were going to do.” I said with a nod, and she replied with a smile.

…

After having our lunch, me and the girls left after giving our goodbye to Melinda. After stopping to think for a moment, I decided that it would be better to go and take a look with Argento to see if there would be any problem with bringing the girls with me or if we would need to pay ourselves.

So we quickly made our way through the now only slightly packed street, as most of the watchers had scrammed home, but the few more fervent fans were still hanging around. Thanks to Sol leaving through the back door, it seems that they didn’t see when they left. And I don’t think that happened by accident.

She’s surprisingly a good girl, right?

Okay, that was an overstatement. She’s not a horrible person, but she DID kidnap the old man so that she could have her fun with him.

Should it be grandnap then? Since she kidnapped a gramps?

Oh well.

Since we weren’t the reason why people were standing in front of the house, we did manage to quickly leave the crowd and reach the elevators. A few slightly way too over-used elevator rides later and we reached the other overcrowded building. But this time it was a shop, and not a house, so it was fairly more understandable.

After shamelessly abusing my connections to cut the line and enter the building, I didn’t even take a step inside before a certain undine popped up in front of me.

“Mister Gon! It’s good to see you again.” Lily said with a cheerful tone, but before she could get even closer, Yuu suddenly popped up in front of her. “Ara… It’s good to see you, Miss Yuu.”

“Hello, Lily-san.” Yuu said with a wide friendly smile.

“Is it just me, or did it get a bit cold?” Yami said while shuddering. The shudder creating ripples through her whole body.

“No… I think it’s not only you, Yami.” Hanbei said with a worried tone.

Cold? What are they talking about.

Can’t they see the ice crystals forming on my clothes?

Petting Yuu gently, I immediately broke down their deadlock when the kitsune broke down into a slightly silly, but pleased smile.

“Can we go talk to Argento?” I asked her, and she quickly nodded while taking us to the inner room.

In there I saw the Gnome sleeping happily on a large bag that I was almost sure that it was full with coins. Smiling a bit awkwardly, Lily quickly ran towards the man and shook him awake with a worried face. Argento grumbled a bit while scratching his eyes before looking to me with a surprised face.

In a brief second he had already jumped up to his feet and approached me with a wide smile.

“Moneybag! What can I do to help you?” He asked me.

“Well, supplies. I came here to ask you about that travel towards Sandroze.” I went straight to the point. He widened his eyes before nodding.

“I’ll need two… no, one day to prepare.” He said before looking at the girls. “I take it that they are also coming with us?” He said with a raised eyebrow. I nodded a bit worried if this would make him annoyed, but luckily he didn’t seem all that bothered. “I’ll cover it. IF, they work for a couple of days on my new store I’m opening there.”

I blinked and turned to the girls. Yuu smiled while nodding, which was soon followed by Hanbei. I didn’t really wait an answer from Yami since I knew she would end up following Hanbei whatever she chose to do.

“Wonderful! I can even see the money flowing into my pockets!” he said cheerfully while walking around and having his eyes changed into a pair of coins. Smiling wryly, I waited until he stopped his Scrooge Mcduck moment to see if there was anything else. “Oh, I also decided on who you’ll take with you to open the new store!” He said with a happy nod.

It took me a moment to understand his words, and only when I remembered that he had to send someone to open the branch that I nodded in an understanding tone.

“Who is it?” I asked curious.

“Level eighteen Bandit, Argento Belomondo, at your service.” He said while bowing deeply. I blinked surprised for a moment. Bandit?

For some reason that fits him… I’d better not tell him that, though.

“Hmm… Level eleven Ranger, Lily Clearheart.” The Undine said hastily, which left me a bit shocked. I pointed at her and looked confused at Argento, who nodded.

“She may not look like it, but she’s an extremely good manager.” Argento said with a nod.

“… Really?” I asked doubtful, but he simply smiled. Shrugging I quickly forgot about it, since I learned that judging people by their looks isn’t exactly the smartest thing to do. “Well, level twenty nine Skirmisher, Gondorrer Gravelheart, similar level Aura, Freezing tail, and similarly, Trick-cat, Lieutenant General Whiskers McBallofur Maximilliamus Von Scratchy the Third, Non-leveled Lesser Crystal elemental, Crys, and lastly, level thirty something, Greater wyvern, Rioreia.”

Damn, it has been so long since I last introduced Lieutenant… I kind of missed the feeling. While smiling inwardly to myself, I couldn’t help but notice Lily blinking surprised at his name. The girls, out of formality, quickly introduced themselves too.

Satisfied, I nodded after the formalities were complete, and quickly went straight to the question.

“So, how are we getting there?” I asked with a raised eyebrow. Argento nodded before pulling a notebook from his inventory and reading it.

“Firstly, we will take a blimp to a small intermediate village to the northwest of here. From there we will have to take a ship to make a crossing near the northern strait, this should take one to three days according to the weather. Afterwards we can take a carriage for around one to two days.” He said with a nod.

“Then we arrive?” I asked surprised at how close it was, but Argento shook his head.

“Nope. We get to Ezorea Argus. There I will have to plan the route to Sandroze.” He said with a wry smile.

“That… Is pretty effing far, isn’t it?” I asked surprised, and he nodded. “Well, as long as I get some interesting things to hunt, I don’t really care.” I said with a shrug, and he laughed a bit.

“Okay, so We are going to prepare ourselves here.” Argento said while closing his notebook. “What are you going to do?”

I stopped to think. I already spoke with Melinda, Torg, Sol, Wallace, Arcus and gang. I think this only leaves the lovebirds to talk to…

Oh! Evelyn! She did tell me to come back once I reached a certain level… With me leaving, won’t that be a bit troublesome? While thinking so, I decided that I should also pay my class mentor a visit.

“Girls. I’m going to pay Evelyn visit. What are you going to do meanwhile? Want to visit your trainers too?” I asked them, they quickly crossed their gazes before nodding.

With that decided, we chose to split up while we went out to see our mentors. Hanbei and Yami, Me and Yuu… And Aura, Lieutenant, Rio and Crys.

So, we set off to meet my teacher, deep down on the forest.