Chapter 11 Bedtime talk
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Erin looked at me with a gaze that demands an answer. It probably had been in the back of her mind the moment she first heard of the title until now. Always bugging her and gnawing at her. Yet she only now managed to find the moment to ask. I could understand her curiosity. War princess is a rather unusual title and definitely doesn’t fit me. In fact I actually despise the title they gave me.

“War princess is a title given to my by the nobility, for my achievements. It doesn’t resemble me in the slightest. They just gave me a romanticized title that has nothing to do with my accomplishments. I am neither noble nor did I partake in a war. When I rose to fame the nobles gave me this title disregarding my accomplishments, only seeing me like a female heroine in a romance novel, who surrenders herself completely to the protagonist.”

“Did they really think you would behave like a damsel in distress.”

“They believed it wholeheartedly.”

“Well I agree with them you are as gorgeous as a heroine from a romance novel. Sadly for them you are from a brutal novel, written by a sadistic author, who loves to describe death, misery blood and gore.”

Erin fell silent for a moment thinking about how she wanted to continue the conversation.

“May I ask what the most fitting title thy could have given you, would be?”

“The most fitting would probably be the heroes staple Wyvern Slayer. After all I managed to defeat a Wyvern with Henry and Charles. Another contender would be something with Arsenal or Weaponmaster, given my fighting stile. What made you remember to ask now of all the times?”

“Reading the book.”

Erin pointed at the book about Elysian she had been reading.

“It is filled with useful information and warnings about Elysian. One of those warnings mentioned to be extra careful around Elysian, who claim a noble title. This made me remember since you to have a title with nobility in it.”

A logical explanation. I could understand Erin’s thought process. Erin once again was absorbed in the book reading it. I too am very excited to read it.

“Is the book good?”

I asked Erin, closing my book after I made finished the page I was on and made sure to remember, which page I was on.

“It is. Lots of information and explanations about Elysians. There are maybe to many warnings, but its understandable given their danger.”

“What are the best warnings you have read so far.”

“Wait a moment.”

Erin flipped in the book for a few moments before finding the right pages.

“Here: If you are with a Dragon, beware Elysian actively pray upon Dragons. Or this: If you are in battle with an Elysian prey to your Gods that you die without pain. If you are in a battle with a noble Elysian prey that death of your Gods doesn’t destroy the world.”

“Sounds pretty metal, what else do you have.”

“You may save your life by distracting an Elysian with a Dragon, I order to try to run away before the Elysian kills it and resumes to hunt after you.”

“Sounds like a reasonable advice.”

“I agree. As ridiculous as it sounds, it would work.”

Seeing that I had put my book away Erin too put her book away. Then we made ourselves comfortable on the bed. Each one of us confining themselves to their side of their bed and leaving a big empty spot in the middle.

“Good night.”

“Good night”

Erin snapped with her fingers turning off the magical flames that had been illuminating out room, whilst we where reading.

“I don’t move, when I sleep, so don’t role over to my side.”

“Likewise.”

This night had one of the best sleeps I ever had. The first time in a comfortable bed after a much to long time. A warm and fluffy blanket, no wind or unpleasant smell and no monsters that could intrude. Just a warm and cozy bed. I could simply let my guard down and sleep without a worry and I did.

I had a nice long and pleasant sleep. I slept like a stone. I didn’t even have a dream, but in pleasant way. I only awoke when the sun had fully risen and the bustling of the town could be heard up to our room to the Inn. Still I didn’t stand up or even opened my eyes. Instead I remained half asleep in the bed hugging the warm and soft pillow in my arms and enjoying this moment of peace and tranquil.

Ah enough of it even if it is the best, it has top end and I can’t spent the entire day in a bed. I opened my eyes and was met with the image of an ample chest. I had been hugging Erin for who knows how long thinking she was a nice, warm and soft pillow. She was completely relaxed her breath was slow and steady and just like had an arm around her she had one around me.

I guess the prospect of having a good bed and nothing to fear and worry made us lower our guard so much that we both moved in our sleep. After all we, where lying in the middle of the bed. And I had told her yesterday not move to much and her I am hugging her in the middle of the bed mistaking her for a warm and soft pillow.

Unlike me Erin seems to be still asleep, completely unaware that she is hugging me. I’d love to know if she dreams right now. But she has to wake up now. Seeing her lying there like this, remind me how beautiful she is. Spotless light skin raven black hair and her long horns. Nobody would argue against it if someone said she looks like noble, a princes, a giant Oni princess.

Now how should I wake her up. After pondering for a bit I decided to caress her horns., to wake her slowly and carefully.

“You know that the horns are one of the most sensitive parts of an Oni.”

“Wha….!?”

Suddenly Erin was wide awake her gray eyes staring directly< at me and her breath had speed up to a normal rhythm for a person, who is awake.

“If you continue I might purr like a cat.”

“Its time to wake up and stop fooling around.”

“Says the one who sneaked up on me, despite what they said.”

“You did too.”

“I’m not going to deny that.”

Getting out of bed and ready to leave took us less time than I anticipated. It was much less awkward than I thought, especially after what had happened. Erin didn’t seemed to be bothered by it and I too wasn’t really bothered by it.

When we checked for Henry and Charles, next door we didn’t get any answer. They were either out and about or still asleep. I wonder how they had solved the problem of having one bed.

After that we went down into the dinning area. Sadly we where to late to enjoy a warm breakfast and had to do with leftovers and were to early for lunch. Luckily the leftovers were still quite good. The only thing that bothered me, was the Inn lady starring daggers at us, whenever she thought we couldn’t see her. We noticed all her stares and it was quite distracting. After a while Erin got fed up with her behavior and stared back, prompting her to hide in the kitchen until we were gone.

Once we were outside we decided to split up. I wanted to just stroll around the town and see the many tourist traps. Erin o the other hand wanted to go and get some more pocketmoney and after that wanted to do some shopping for things she could use in the future for her Inn.

Ironwall wasn’t really a good tourist town. They had a lot of shops and stalls, who do their business with travelers. However in terms of attractions like statues, noteworthy sights or unique institution they had almost nothing. The most interesting thing was a statue of a hero, who singlehandily protected the town against a horde of demons. The stories in itself wasn’t that interesting in fact it was rather straight forward. A horde of demons appeared threatening the humans suddenly the hero appeared and fights of the demons only to succumb to his injuries. The most interesting part about this story was the statue of the hero. The statue depicts a muscular man with a massive two handed sword almost his own size. The interesting parts were his long flowing hair and his hands. The statue had been crafted by a master sculptor two honor the hero. However his hands seemed a bit two rough and mismatched. Secondly his hair was falling weird. The sculptor definitely knew the anatomy of humanoid species very well. In other words someone had tampered with the statue at one point to hide something. I am pretty sure that it was the fact that the hero was no human. Based on what I could see he had none human hands probably some form of claws, something like an Onis clawlike fingernails. And he definitely had horns, there is no other way than that to explain the weird flow of his hair on his forehead. He either was an Oni, Ogre or Demon, I couldn’t tell what he was. The only clue I had was that Ogre are the most likely to use a sword as big as he did. I t doesn’t really matter what he was. It is simply interesting that humans were saved by a hero, who was born their enemy. I am quite intrigued two what had led him to protect humans instead of his own kind.

After that I went to the mercenary guild of the Ironwall. With that I also made my first visit to the mercenary guilds which was in charge of the mercenaries of the Eclan Kingdom. There is a multitude of kingdoms of humanity on this part of the continent and subsequently a multitude of mercenary guilds. These guild are often very similar in structure and duties, with the main difference often being the ranks of the mercenaries working for the guilds. It was told to me that there had been multiple tries to unite the various guild into one guild to make it easier for the mercenaries and the communication between the different locations. Sadly all these attempts failed, mainly because the majority of the different guild didn't want to because of one reason money. You could only legally do mercenary work if you are within a guild. If you are found without doing mercenary work without being member of the regions guild you face serious punishments. So you are forced to register anew, when you want to work in another kingdom and if you want to keep you rank you have to pay extra. Those payments are a huge profit for the guilds, not much work for a lot of money, from a customer, who doesn’t really have a choice.

I mainly went to the guild to check how far this guild stretches and how much it costs. I reckoned that it would cost a lot, since I had the highest rank in the mercenary guild of the Ferian Kingdom. It was my first time that I had to do something like this, since the guild in Ferian was one of the bigger ones and was actually present in a few other countries surrounding Ferian.

A mercenary is someone, who does all the odd jobs no one else wants to do. A client gives a request to the guild and the payment and mercenary fulfill those requests. A request can be all from daily work, gathering things, assisting in research guarding a place or person, subjugating dangers or participating in armed conflicts. Many who become mercenary do so either because this is the only way for them to make money or they dream of becoming a hero through slaying a dangerous monster or being known for a grant feat during a conflict. Such dreams ore often foolish and ultimately destructive ore outright suicidal in a glorified way. After all a vast majority of the heroes only became one post mortem. Conceitedly this saves also a lot of money. You just need to create a statue or two and a fancy grave and that’s it.

I became a mercenary, simply because I had no other way to legally make money. Also I wanted to leave my mark in history. Which I already did. There will be stories about me in generations to come in the Ferian Kingdom and the surrounding kingdoms. My only worry is that I will end up like the hero of Ironwall, changed to fit the narrative of the humans.

I left the guild without registering. It costed to much and the rank equivalent to my rank in Ferian didn’t sound as cool as I hoped it would.

After I left the guild I went around the town, with no real goal. At first I went around the various shops and stalls. There wasn’t really anything that I wanted to buy. So I settled for buying various snacks, because I had nothing better to do and the smell of food made me hungry.

Eventually I ended up roaming the roofs of the houses outside the tourist district. I found the underworld rather quickly. Suspicious person running from house to house trying their best to be unseen. They could hide themselves from others in the streets put not from me on the roofs. It’s rather obvious that they are operating under special circumstances. They were keeping themselves hidden as good as they could. Understandable considering the amount of heroes currently residing within the town. One wrong step and you had to deal with multiple near undefeatable foes.

There wasn’t anything interesting happening. No great fight between two faction, no illegal auction, or underground deathbattle. That’s why I decided to return to the Inn and because the sun was setting.

We met up at the Inn and had a delicious dinner. For all her hate the Inn lady was a pretty excellent cook. I was a bit worried that she would give us some disgusting food just to spite us. Luckily she didn’t. Maybe she wanted to, but after a glare from Erin decided against it. However we will never now if she really wanted to or was to scarred from the beginning to even think of it.

Whilst we were eating we exchanged talked what we did today. Henry and Charles had slept separated one on the bed and the other on the sofa. Today the intended to change who slept where. Just like us they had also split up and explored the town on their own. They pretty much just roamed around the town. Erin had gone out and bought a lot of stuff she would need for her Inn, like dishware or fabric for rugs, pillows or towels. Her means of acquiring pocket money must have been very successful, considering that she was able to buy all this stuff without a worry.

Back in our room we read bathed and read books in the bed afterwards. We also talked a bit about the old times and what we had done today. Erin also had been roaming around the side streets sneaking a peak at the underworld, whilst collecting pocket money and after she had bought some things. According to her there was next to nothing big happening, besides some false flag operation from some groups trying to get the attention of a hero so that he would destroy the organization they were masquerading as. A risky plan that could play of well and bring huge benefits or destroy them.

The next days played out similarly, we went out and explored the town. Sometimes together other times separated. Each evening we read books together in the bed and then went asleep on our separate sides, only to awake together in the middle. I guess sleeping next to each other meant that we could let our guard down, which resulted in two persons moving in their sleep, which they normally didn’t do. This was more or less our routine until the bell for the meeting of the heroes would commence.

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