Chapter ‌‌3.19 G‌‌

FLYING PAN ATTACK

 

Kingdom of Ravaryn

5th Lightday of the Full Moon

“Excuse me, but would you perchance have any more of that ‘cake’ you let the couple just try?” asked the older Elf.

 

“Oh, sure. I have one more slice left.”

 

“I would gladly buy that slice from you.”

 

“Oh no, it’s not something I’d sell. I want to get it perfect before I start selling my cupcakes. Here, you can have it.”

 

Ginka pulled the plate from her bag and handed it to the Elf. In the blink of an eye, a golden fork with an onyx insert like the alchemist had appeared in his hand. He took a large bite. The Elf started doing little cute happy hops in some sort of dance. His eyes still closed the entire time.

 

“My, this is remarkable! This cake is nothing like bread. It’s slightly sweet and moist. And is this butter and honey sand mixed on the outside like a spread?”

 

“Yes, it is. I’m going to make a better frosting tonight with what you call cheese butter here.”

 

The Elf seemed to be thinking over something before coming to a decision with a nod.

 

“Pardon me, Mam. I am the Head Chef for Duke Kurisu. I would very much like to pay you for your services in making this ‘cake’ for an upcoming Phaseday party for his son’s 10th phase.”

 

“I would love to! Do you know what flavors the youngster likes?”

 

“I believe Ravyn’s blood is one of the young master’s favorite fruits. Is that what you mean by flavor?”

 

“Perfect. I’ve worked with Ravyn’s blood already. What day is the party?”

 

“In two days, on the 5th Waterday of the Full Moon. Is that enough time?”

 

“It’s plenty. How big of a cake do you need? And would you be able to have someone pick it up? I wouldn’t trust putting a larger cake in my magic bag.”

 

“Could you make enough cake for around a hundred-fifty guests? Sure, I would be willing to come pick it up myself.”

 

“Oh, I can make enough cake for that many. I will have it done the night before if you like. I’m working out of the kitchen at Zippy’s Thorn. You can pick it up there.”

 

“Marvelous! Your cake will be quite the talk of Master Kouya’s coming of age party and will be highly remembered. Thank you again. Here is half your fee upfront.”

 

The Elf handed Ginka a red, white, and blue coin and began walking away. Unsure what kind of coin it was, Ginka just tossed it into her magic bag. She would have made the cake for free. With everything done on her list, she now had one last thing to do tonight.

 

Arriving back at the Inn, she found it to be empty and Aelithis behind the bar. Ginka removed the strange coin from her bag and presented it to the Lamia. 

 

“Do you know what this is, and where is V?”

 

“Where did you get a Royal, Ginka? And she’s at the innkeeper meeting. The innkeepers hold it every 5th Lightday of the cycle and switch what inn they hold it. Back to the Royal, how did you get one?”

 

“I got my first job! I’m making a cake for a Duke’s son’s 10th coming of age Phaseday in a few days.”

 

“Wow, how did you meet with Royalty again? Do you have some kind of charm that pulls them in?”

 

“I haven’t met them. I ran into the Head Chef of the duke at a butcher shop. He saw me hand a slice to the couple who run the place. .”

 

“You have some interesting luck, my friend.”

 

Ginka stayed in the inn for a while, speaking with Aelithis and petting Zekie. When the evening’s end bells rang out, she excused herself and went next door to her apartment.

 

“Alright, let’s try this out. What’s the worst that can happen,” Ginka said to the empty living room.

 

[You summon General Roth'h'ar Sarris, and he kills you.]

 

“Did you just make a joke, Sig?”

 

[I believe I have. The others are big on jokes and mischief. I quite like it.]

 

“Ha, an AI with spunk. I like it.”

 

Ginka thought about the [Contract] skill, and a prompt filled her vision.

 

 

The list was incredibly long, but Ginka found Rubrafreet towards the bottom around the 110th spot. Many of the names she had never heard of before and had no knowledge even with the book she had used. Mentally selecting Rubrafreet, the prompt changed.

 

 

Confirming her selection, her living room began to darken as the light itself was being sucked away. In front of Ginka, a tear began to form on the wall and slowly grew.

 

“Oh yes, Come to me, Doctor!” Ginka yelled with a giggle.

 

The tear stopped growing horizontally and began to expand up and down, forming a perfect circle of white light. In a flash, the white ring was replaced by calm water as if looking down at a lake. 

 

Ginka stood there staring at the water, wondering what she needed to do next. Before she could consider it more, a form seemed to step through the portal. As soon as it had crossed into the room,  the portal disappeared with another flash. Blinking away the spots in her vision, Ginka looked towards the wall again and then down at a two-and-a-half-foot tall burnt humanoid tree.

 

The Rubrafreet looked like the old Marvel character Baby Groot but was black like he had been set on fire. Parts of the Rubrafreet’s body glowed like embers. Ginka studied the man, or woman, more closely. It took a moment for her to realize her new summon was shivering in fear. 

 

“Master has summoned Rudbi. What need do you have for me?”

 

“Rudbi, is that your name? I’ve summoned you to make a contract.”

 

The little burnt tree man stopped shaking and looked up at Ginka with wide red glowing eyes. She thought it was a most adorable sight.

 

“Master would contract with Rudbi? Rudbi can stay on Mea again?”

 

“Yes, I’ve been asked to help you and your race out. What do you mean to stay on Mea again?’”

 

“Rudbi died, couldn’t clean fast enough, so no food was given.”

 

The little burnt tree man looked sad for a moment as he recalled memories of his previous life.

 

“Well, you don’t have to clean for me. Well, sometimes, but not all the time. Though I was never big on cleaning myself. You know what? We’ll play it by ear. In the meantime, I’m going to need help around my shop, so you will have to work sometimes. I need to make money to buy cores to keep you guys here. Speaking of, [Contract].”

 

 

Mentally agreeing, Ginka felt something snap or attach to herself. She looked over to the now dancing Rudbi. The little guy seemed to be quite happy with how things were unfolding.

 

“Rudbi, what normally happens if you’re summoned?”

 

“Last time, I was used to lead a monster away from the group and was eaten. The time before that, I was used as target practice.”

 

“Oh my god, that’s awful. I will never ask you to do that, Rudbi. Let’s go. I’ll show you what you’ll be helping me with.”

 

Ginka led Rudbi down and through the front door. Locking the door and turning around, Ginka could hear a pin drop. The entire street had come to a standstill. All eyes were on Rudbi. Ginka, not ready to deal with racists, or was it speciesist, grabbed Rudbi’s hand and walked him inside the Zippy’s Thorn.

 

Walking into the common room, she found it still empty, save the Lamia, who was looking at Rudbi with a very surprised expression.

 

“Ginka, what have you done?” asked Aelithis.

 

“What do you mean? Why do you look surprised? And why the hell did everyone stop what they were doing outside at the sight of Rudbi?”

 

“Oh, Ginka. Your luck is about to run out. You openly brought a Rubrafreet or a Demon onto the streets of Ravaryrn, the capital of the Seraphim! They absolutely hate any of the Demonkind and helped push as many of their races to fail The Games. You befriending one and bringing him out in the open is a slap to the face of King Thronnos and his allies. They keep his kind to the alleyways and sewers as workers. The city's guard will hunt him down and kill him for that transgression.”

 

“He’ll just come back the next day if they kill him.”

 

Rudbi was now visibly upset and looked to be crying. Dark red sap seemed to roll away from the corner of his eyes.

 

“He’s contracted to me. And I plan to contract more of them.”

 

“You can Contract? How?! That shouldn’t be possible. You’re new to The Games. [Contract] is a tier-three skill evolved from [Summon]. How would you even get enough Energy to evolve it?”

 

“Bastiva is how.”

 

“That’s why you were spawned here! A God sent you here with a purpose. Does Vastra know about this? Is that why she has been marked?”

 

“Yes, and I believe, yes as well.”

 

The Lamia sighed and waved away Ginka.

 

“Try and keep an eye out for him. Since he is contracted, even King Thronnos can’t openly harm another player’s companion. He could revoke your privileges in the kingdom, but I doubt he’ll ever do that. The Seraphin is honor-bound to protect all players, but the Demons, not so much,” said Aelithis.

 

Ginka brought the black Trent-looking man into the kitchen and began to explain how each appliance worked. Much to her pleasure, the Rubrafreet seemed quite bright and intuitive. Ginka then grabbed a high chair so he could sit next to her while she worked on a cake batter. After mixing everything into the batter, Ginka pulled a spoon from the drawer, scooped a bit out, and gave it to the Demon. 

 

“Try it.”

 

Rudbi looked at the spoon for a few moments, then bit the head off the utensil and began to crunch on metal and batter alike. Ginka watched in horror.

 

“It’s good, very crunchy. I like the sweet gooey part the most.”

 

“Oh no, Rudbi. You don’t eat the spoon.”

 

Ginka grabbed two more spoons and scraped some batter on both of them. She then made a big showing of licking the batter off the spoon. Satisfied he understood the process now, she handed the second one to the Demon. Rudbi then stuck out his long forked tongue, wrapped it around the spoon’s head, and pulled the batter off.

 

“Yes, much better. Rudbi is sorry for eating your spoon.”

 

“Don’t worry about it. Your tummy won’t be upset by eating metal?”

 

“Oh no, I ate rocks for a while for food when I wasn’t fed.”

 

Ginka, not able to hold back anymore, went up and hugged the Demon. The act surprised Rudbi for a moment. He wasn’t used to positive feedback, so it took a few heartbeats before the little Demon began to hum in contentment as the human held him. 

 

Rudbi was nothing like the Demons she had thought about in her head. He seemed to be a sweet and kind creature whose only fault was looking evil. 

 

Letting the Rubrafreet go, she could see he was smiling now and could see his mouth was filled with rows of pointed teeth. He then held out his spoon to Ginka. She scooped up more of the batter and handed it to him.

 

“Ok, the rest we are going to bake. Then you can try the finished product.”

 

“Okay!”

 

Twenty minutes later, Ginka slid out the tray of cake partway and pricked it with a fork. Seeing no goo on the utensil, she pulled the tray all the way out of the oven and set it on the counter to cool. From her inventory, she removed some of the cream cheese they called cheese butter around here and was about to start making the frosting when she heard yelling coming from the common room. A moment later, two armored guardsmen came bursting into the kitchen. 

 

Before either of the guards could say anything, a large pan flew across the kitchen and hit the right one in the head, knocking him out cold. His partner, a youngish-looking Elf, went wide-eyed in amazement.  He quickly exchanged looks between his senior, a burley jackal Beastman and the little green-haired woman.  

 

A few shocked “What’s?” and “How’s?” escaped his lips. Then the Elf seemed to get a hold of himself finally. 

 

“By order of King Thronnos! We are to escort you and the Demon who has been sighted walking the streets during the light of day. You are both to be executed while…”

 

“Shut up. He’s my contract.”

 

“He’s your what? No...What? How?”

 

“He’s my contract. I summoned and contracted with him.”

 

“But that shouldn’t be possible. You’re not royalty. Only royalty should have the skill to do so.”

 

“Well, I do. I’m told there is nothing you can do about it as he is now a companion to a player.”

 

“What? No? Wait… I’m not sure.” 

 

The Elf looked down at his partner, who was only now starting to stir. He reached down and shook the Beastman.

 

“Zeal, get up. I need you to [Identify] the Demon for me,” said the guard.

 

It took a couple of more minutes before the guardsman was finally back up on his feet. The jackal gently rubbed the large red welt over his right eye as his partner reported all that was said during his forced slumber.  Zeal knew he should be writing this down, but the little Faeries were still dancing before his eyes, and the constant ringing in his head was just too distracting. Getting the gist of what was going on, the guard turned to Rudbi and said ‘[Identify]’ then shook his head.

 

“He’s a companion, alright. The sergeant isn’t going to like reporting this news back to the castle. As for you, lady. You threw a pan and harmed a guard of his majesties.”

 

“Not my fault. You came running in here like madmen and didn’t even announce yourselves. I acted on instinct to protect myself.”

 

“Zeal, let’s just go and report to the sergeant. I don’t want to be in the middle of this when the Seraphin sends their own.”

 

Zeal shook his head. The ringing had stopped, but the faeries were still dancing. With a heavy sigh, the guard nodded in agreement to his young charge. Soon after both guards exited from where they came, Aelithis came slithering into the kitchen.

 

“You ok, Ginka?”

 

“I am, but I have a slight feeling I’m going to be meeting more royalty soon.”