"Harja! It's good to see you're alright!"
I forced a smile as I approached the chieftain.
"Hey! Looks like you've been having trouble huh?"
But sohow, Geirskogul ruined my attempt at pleasantries imdiately. The scowl which the dragonkin leader gave the both of us told more than enough.
"You..."
"But you know, it's a bit frustrating that now I owe you two, though."
Frankly speaking, I didn't want to damage our relations in the slightest. Harja hadn't liked from the beginning, and while that wasn't sothing I could do anything about, lowering her hostility towards as a whole was sothing I would like, and have already made efforts towards.
But it was clear my efforts were only providing limited results, and she was far from getting over her initial dislike of .
Having Geirskogul set back due to his thoughtlessness wasn't really sothing I could afford.
Frankly speaking, he was quite a lot like so of the fairies despite how badly the imps got along with them.
"O...owe?"
"That's right. You ca and saved us back when the intruders first showed up, then again you held back most of the group leaving us free to go directly for our objective."
I gently stroked the body of the canister in my arms as if it was an infant.
Killing that assassin was really just a bonus.
"Though, I'm sorry that due to us, you lost your prey."
I did my best to make my apology seem as heart felt as possible. While I couldn't condone murder, it was clear that to her it was a hunt, and we were the cause for the remaining mbers of the group to retreat.
That wasn't to say that Harja and her subordinates were guaranteed to actually succeed in their hunt, but the fact that my actions did inadvertently forcibly end it was a fact.
Acknowledging that much shouldn't cause trouble for . Or rather, it was possible that it would placate the dragonkin leader.
"If there's anything I could do in return, don't hesitate to ask."
"Hmph."
It didn't seem like my words had much of an effect on the woman towering over . She barely even gave a glance.
"Maybe I could make a large amount of so sort of dish you liked? Or so drink?"
She did like so of the things I made before. At least it seed like it, but as she never really vocalized any opinions, or even asked to make any more of anything, it was hard to say that she actually liked it, or simply consud them for appearance's sake.
But her subordinates did properly enjoy many of the things, so it couldn't be so sort of racial difference.
And to my pleasant surprise, the fingers on her crossed arms did twitch a bit when I ntioned a drink. Maybe this line of thought wasn't wrong at all.
"I an, I would really like to pay off my debts to you, but there's so little I have which such a strong chieftain could want. I an, the chieftain of the dragonkin? Seriously, you have power, you have lots of strong people under you, and since I've already opened up the dungeon to everyone, you even have the ans to get so of the best food ingredients. The only thing I have that could be of value to soone who has almost everything is my recipes."
If I wasn't imagining it, I was sure that Harja was standing a bit more straight than just monts before.
It didn't really feel good to kiss her ass like this, but if a bit of pampering her pride ant that our relationship would tip away from hostile, it would be worth it.
"But if there's a chance that there's anything amongst my recipes that you want, maybe I can pay my debt through it?"
It was a bit shrewd, using the recipes that I had stolen from Earth to improve our relationship. But at the sa ti, I might as well use the one advantage I held over her that I hadn't already promised away.
"Fire water."
"Huh?"
Her voice was low, so I wasn't quite sure I caught what ca from it.
"That fire water. I want that."
Turning to face directly, she looked down at imposingly while declaring what it was she wanted.
"Ah, you an vodka? Sure. I'll prepare a few barrels of it as soon as possible."
The little twitch at the corner of her lip when I ntioned barrels gave confidence that I had won my bet.
"But that alone is a bit short, since I owe you twice. How about I teach one of your guys how to make it as well?"
"Hmph. You planning on winning my favour by wagging your tail like so hatchling?"
"Eh, well, I an, rather than that, I just want to pay my entire debt as soon as possible you know? It doesn't feel good to owe soone when I have the ability to pay it off, you know?"
Whether I was successful at covering myself up or not, I couldn't read it from her expression. At the very least, she didn't seem to press any harder in regards to the matter.
"Well, fine then."
And with those words, Harja presented her hand to .
I stared at the hand for a mont before looking up at its owner's face. The dragonkin chieftain didn't have any particular sort of expression on at first, but as I stared it warped into a scowl.
"What? You can't shake my hand?"
"Ah, no! I an yes!"
I quickly grabbed her hand and shook it, making sure my grip was strong, like I put all my sincerity into it. I rembered reading that limp wrested handshakes was actually a form of insult and firm handshakes was a sign of respect and trust.
After we let go, Harja gave one last look before turning to her subordinates.
Past her, I saw Magni as he looked on.
The young dragonkin looked away when he noticed my glance, and after a mont of gaze wandering awkwardness, he turned to and waved his hand. I waved back and gave him a casual smile before turning away.
While I was worried when Harja and her people found out about Magni, especially after I saw how desperate he tried to avoid them. But lately it seed like things were a bit better. If they weren't he wouldn't have been chosen to co with Harja in her hunt after all.
"Hey, sorry about your sword Sarah."
I returned the mithril sword I borrowed from our resident FPS player. Even if she didn't really use it, I still felt bad about the abuse I put it through.
The once shiny pearl white sword was quite dinged up with chips in its blade. It wasn't so bad that it couldn't be fixed up, but it would take quite a bit of work. If she wasn't too attached to it, it might actually be easier to scrap it and forge a new one.
"Naw, it's fine. I barely used it anyways."
The mont she received the weapon, Sarah chucked the thing into her bag, barely giving it a glance.
"By the way, that last shot was quite impressive. What was it anyways? An adamantium bullet?"
"That's right! It was a copper jacketed adamantium core bullet! Oh man, I had to beg so hard to get that scrap adamantium and have it shaped just right! Did you know that even in this country, there's barely any of the stuff? I wanted so tungsten, but nobody's even heard of it. But when I heard about adamantium, I got so excited! But apparently only the most important smiths have any, and they used almost all of it up to make their tools! In the end, there wasn't enough to make any parts for my gun. Only that one bullet. Oh, I gotta go and find it. Maybe I can fix it up and reuse it."
"Wait!"
"What? You don't need anything from anymore right? If I don't look for it now, there's no way I'll find a single used bullet later on!"
"No, what I an is, I want to give you sothing for helping so much today. If you want adamantium, then I can just give you a few ingots of it!"
"Really! You're the best bud ever!"
Sarah leapt onto , pushing my face into her boobs. They weren't as big as my own, but they were big enough to stop from being able to breath. And after a few monts, once it was clear that the woman wasn't about to let go to refill my lungs, I quickly stopped returning her hug and started to tap her shoulder to be let go.
"Oh, sorry."
"No problem."
If sothing like so adamantium made her that happy, then I wasn't going to get angry about it.
"I'll get you the adamantium later. Maybe you'll like so orichalcum to go with it?"
"What's that?"
Considering where she ca from, I wasn't too surprised by that response.
"It's a tal that's really good at being a magical conductor. Maybe it could help improve your rifle in so way? Like in your expansion chamber?"
"Hmmm. It's worth a shot I guess. I'll take so."
"Alright. You'll have to wait a bit on the adamantium, though I do have orichalcum and mithril for now. I'll give those after we've cleaned up."
"No problem."
"Geirskogul, you too. Thanks for the help. Sa with you three as well."
Next, I turned to the four imps who followed here.
"Ah, it's all good! We had a bunch of fun!"
"""Yea!!!"""
It was a bit cute how Geirskogul's subordinates cheered they way they did.
"Even still, I owe you guys as well."
"Nah! We had fun! That's all that matters!"
"""Yea! Fun!"""
"Well, how about this? I make you dinner? You can have lots of candies and treats."
"Candies!"
"Treats!"
"Sweets?"
"No, well, I an...but..."
Unusually, the imp chieftain hesitated at the thought of being rewarded with treats. Normally he'd be at the front of the line to fill up on sweets.
"I know you think you don't need to be compensated because you had fun, but enjoying what you did has no thing to do with the fact that you helped out. You both ca to my rescue and ca with to get Orphne's soul. You deserve it. And I want to reward you for it. Is that wrong?"
"Ah, umm, no. I guess it's not. Yea. It's not! Alright! Candies!"
"I'll make sure to prepare a whole bunch for tomorrow then."
"Yea!"
"""Yea!"""
With the imps all excited, I finally turned to the last mber of our little expedition.
"Claret, you had enough?"
"Huh? Oh yes, Master!"
I've been doing my best to ignore the bloody pile of dented tal despite the fact that I was salivating the entire ti so much from the sll that I was worried I'd start dirtying my robes.
That familiar of mine hopped over, the sound of tal screeching as she pulled her feet from the ss.
"Geez, you got yourself so dirty. Here."
I conjured up so warm water and rubbed it along her body wherever I found blood and gore sticking to her. Frankly, I was amazed she took things this far. And that expression full of happiness and joy told just how much stress she'd managed to pound out of her.
"Thank you Master!"
"Yea yea. Well, it's the usual anyways."
While she rarely got herself dirty like this, having to clean up and take care of her like she was a child wasn't anything new. If anything, it's completely endearing.
"Now, what to do with this trash..."
I glanced over at the mostly unrecognizable pile of at, blood, and bent tal while I casually stroked Claret's hair.
"Well, whatever."
Rather than really think about it, I just set the entire thing to fire. The blue-white flas quickly incinerated all traces of that assassin's body, his armour even warping and partially lting from my casual incineration.
In the end, all that was left was a black circle of earth with a bunch of glowing pieces of deford tal no longer in a state that could identify what they originally were.
"Sarah, do you want these pieces?"
"Sure. You're not going to use them, right?"
"No way in hell."
I didn't want so sort of reminder regarding today's events. The thought of how much I needed to worry about future attacks was more than enough.
With my prompt, the rifle woman gathered a bunch of snow and tossed it onto the red hot pile a bit at a ti. The ice let off sounds of popping and hissing, and occasionally the glowing tal burst from the excessively fast cooling, sending minor shrapnel around.
But nobody in the area was low enough levels to really be hard by it. It was only a bit annoying. Especially since all the abuse we've put into it seed to have caused all the mana stored in them to dissipate.
While I waited for Sarah to finish up and put the slag away, I focuses my aura and generated a special mana treat for Claret along with a huge number of mini mana treats, all the while taking in more and more blood from my rapidly emptying blood jar to keep my MP pool topped off.
"Here you go."
I gave Claret her usual treat, though a lot earlier than usual. She was going to get another tonight at the usual ti, but she deserved her own reward for now.
"Thank you Master!"
With those words barely out of her mouth, that orifice of hers was imdiately occupied with the mana treat as she was quickly lost to the world, her expression filled with bliss.
"You guys too! Thanks for all the help!"
Turning up, I threw the mini mana treats a handful at a ti as the cloud of little fluffballs dove down now that it was clear they didn't need to keep obeying the orders I gave them through Claret.
But instead of catching the mana treats, the swarm ca down to rub their bodies against my own.
"Wah!"
It was sothing I should've known they'd do. After all, they were watching what was going on this entire ti.
"Sorry for making you guys worry."
Dropping the mana treats, I extended my arms to pat as many of the little fluffballs as I could as they circled around my body.
Sotis I forgot that they weren't just all happy-go-lucky creatures, but instead they felt the full range of emotions. Of course they'd worry if soone they liked was in trouble. Doubly so if they couldn't do anything about it.
It looked like I'd have to spend so ti playing with these guys. They deserved better than just so mana treats.
Claret wouldn't mind if I gave them most of my attention for the next while.
Right?
We went back afterwards, once I managed to convince the fluffballs that I would play with them again later. They seed to be pretty reluctant, but withdrew after a while.
It would probably be best if I spent as much ti as I could playing with them later. Things like this would get harder once Alicia was born anyways.
I went around and thanked Frigg and her people and gave them a report about what happened before heading off to where Aurae, and hopefully Orphne's body, was.
And after a bit of asking around, I arrived at the fairy elders' ho. That huge crystal structure, the only fairy ho with an entrance large enough that I could pass through without having to ball up my body.
"Aurae, are you here?"
After knocking, I entered the large elders' ho.
Reaching the large central room, I saw Aurae with Orphne's limp body. There were a bunch of other fairies forming a circle, including many of the other fairy elders.
"Elder Scarlet. Do you have so business with ?"
"Ah! Elder Aurae! I, er, we got Orphne's soul back, but..."
"Her soul?!"
Shocked, the fairies actively looked on at the tallic cylinder I presented.
"Certainly, the aura emanating from it looks like Orphne's, but how are you certain it's her soul? The soul goes to the heavens once it leaves the body. Nothing can stop that."
"Ah, normally, that's true, but there are ways to circumvent that."
"And you're saying that this is one such item? How would you even know that?"
"..."
Thinking about it, it certainly wasn't the first thing one would think when they encountered sothing like this. Aurae's question was quite normal.
"It's because, it's not the first ti I've seen sothing like this."
"You've seen it before?"
"Not this exact sa thing, but sothing similar."
Frankly, it was the sa basic principal under which my [Soul Siphon] skill worked under. But letting others know that I had such a skill was dangerous. Even if Aurae was the only other person in this room.
"Hmm..."
The elder narrowed her eyes as she stared at . But after an excruciating amount of ti, she let go.
"So, you're saying that you can save Orphne then?"
"That's right!"
More than anything, that was the most important thing right then!
Looking closely, the little fairy's aura had entirely receded inside of her body. Even from a distance it was obvious to how pale her complexion had gotten, and how shallow her breathing was.
A quick [Scan] showed that her MP was also getting dangerously low. She wouldn't last more than a handful of hours at best. It was certainly the right decision to have gone after those intruders imdiately.
"Even though I said that it was unnecessary?"
"Huh?"
Those weren't the words I was expecting from her.
"We fairies of the Hourai Commonwealth owed you, Elder Scarlet, a great deal. And with Orphne's sacrifice, we managed to pay most of it off. Are you refusing that paynt by returning her sacrifice?"
"Ah? That's...!"
(That's an absurd line of logic!)
That was what I wanted to say. But from the perspective of a race what cherished the thought of debts and paying them back, maybe it was true that the thought of undoing a debt paynt was akin to blasphemy to them.
But I couldn't just NOT save Orphne's life. Not after getting so close.
Then it hit . A way to make everyone happy.
Hopefully included.
Giving the elder a toothy grin, I gave her my answer.
"Of course I'm not refusing her paynt. The paynt of the fairies here. But the paynt was Orphne's life, wasn't it?"
"That's right. She gave her life for the sake of us fairies."
Being forced to say it out loud, Aurae grit her teeth while answering. It was clear she didn't like it at all. But refusing this line was like betraying their collective beliefs. I understood that.
But understanding was different from accepting.
"But doesn't that an that her life belongs to now?"
"It does. Does that an you are claiming her body?"
"It cos as part of the life, doesn't it?"
"Alright. If you want it, we can't refuse. Orphne's body is yours."
Aurae clenched her tiny fists so hard that they grew white. Looking around, the other fairies had similar expressions going on.
Even though I was playing everything by their rules, it didn't an that they would like it.
Just because I was maintaining the sanctity of their beliefs didn't an that I wasn't simultaneously desecrating a part of it as well. At least, if I was going to do what they thought I was going to do.
I received Orphne's limp body onto the palm of my hand.
Touching her cheek with a finger, it felt so incredibly cold. Like it wasn't a part of a living body anymore.
Everything about this tore my chest apart, but soon, things would be better.
"Aurae, can you have the others clear out the room?"
"Fine. You guys!"
It was a little slow, but eventually the other fairies floated their way out of the room.
Once I was sure that the room was vacant aside from Aurae, Orphne, and myself, I levitated up both Orphne's body and the cylinder containing her soul in front of .
One more quick examination confird that I really didn't have a lot of ti to waste. Maybe a few hours at most, but I didn't want to risk letting Orphne's MP falling more than it had to. There could be complications if it was allowed to fall too far even if it didn't zero out.
But as to how to save her, I did have an idea. It was just that it wasn't one I would like to do without extensive preparations. Not like I had a choice in the matter.
I opened up my nu and switched over to the master skill list. There, I duplicated my old [Soul Siphon] skill, the skill I had originally made from [Blood Sucking] to withdrawal Alicia's soul from her body.
I then flipped around the functions in it and adjusted the inputs and outputs of each so that they would actually function properly. I spent a few minutes to double check my work. Once I was as satisfied as I could be without spending days examining every line in detail, I renad the new skill to [Soul Injection] and swapped it with so random racial skill I couldn't even use.
Then ca the most stressful part: actually performing the procedure.
My gaze went back and forth between the cold fairy body in one hand and the cold tal canister in the other.
My mind was filled with thoughts of things which I might have missed or what could go wrong during the process, or the consequences of failure. My chest tightened as my thoughts went through that downward spiral, until I caught myself hyperventilating.
Taking a deep breath, I forcefully let it out as slow as I could, before snapping my eyes open.
There wasn't much ti left, and I could miss my only opportunity if I kept checking the code.
With the sound of screeching tal, I bit into the cylinder and activated [Soul Siphon].
My senses were willed with the taste of a fruity candy. Maybe strawberry flavoured.
Soon, all traces of Orphne's soul was gone from the container, wherein I quickly bit into the abdon of her body. Careful not to do more damage than I had to such a tiny body, I activated my new skill [Soul Injection].
The feeling of life slowly filled the limp fairy body, rapidly raising my spirits.
On the other hand, my body was feeling more and more terrible as the skill progressed. Specifically, everything from my fangs to sowhere inside my chest. It was like I was suffering from the pain of regurgitation, yet rather than a burning sensation from stomach acid, if I could describe it, it was the stinging of sothing being forced through my nose or sothing combined with unceasing chills that ran through my upper body.
Regardless of the specifics, it just felt unnatural, and most likely because it was. My body wasn't made to handle such an act, and I could feel parts of it fight the process. The blood tubes that passed through the roof of my mouth shuddered as it tried to constrict against the flow. My nose twitched as it tried to make sneeze so I would let go and stop injecting the soul.
But I fought it. I fought every instinct which scread at the unnaturalness of what I was doing.
And eventually, as I continued to use [Scan] on Orphne's body checking the progress, I managed to confirm that her entire soul was successfully returned to her body. The container file for her core was properly filled, and I saw movent which suggested that her soul was functional.
And just as I relaxed my jaw, I heard the voice I was growing most desperate to hear.
"Scarlet? Am I tasty?"
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