Chapter Eighty-Four
Tiffania was wheezing. Her robes were fluttering by the strain of her chest contracting and expanding, her face flush with fatigue and red. In a certain, definitely non-endearing way, she reminded Louise of Saito. In another, far less nostalgic thought, she also was an elf with impossible breasts, so she could sweat a bit.
"Maybe we could stop for a little while," Saito suggested, making Louise bite her lips and sigh.
"We won't reach Lutece by nightfall if we keep wasting time," Louise said. She drummed her fingers on the handle of her swordwand, gazing ahead at the vast plain. "I could try to shorten our trip though," she added. "But I don't know how you'd take it. It would be the first time I bring someone along."
Saito blinked. "You mean, that Teleport of yours?"
"Yes," Louise nodded. "The more of the spell I chant the further I go, but I have no idea if I can take someone with me or not, and the Willpower cost associated with more than one person."
Tiffania wheezed a long, drawn-out breath, and then fell down on her knees with her chest wobbling about -even if hidden for the most part by her large robes. "I'm sorry," she whined pitifully, looking downcast. "I'm slowing you down-"
"It's not your fault," Saito said with a small smile, kneeling down. "We could have bought a horse near Versailles, or taken a coach from there, but-"
Saito felt something sharp poke one of his ass cheeks. "Say it," Louise said offhandedly. "See if I don't keep my promises."
Saito began to sweat, and then smiled brightly, changing line of thought, "But a nice walk in the countryside is good too! Very nice for the lungs, the heart, and it slims people down!"
As he 'enthusiastically' spoke about that, the sharp tip left his buttocks and was quickly holstered once more, as Louise snorted in approval. "Very well," Louise said with a sigh. "Five minutes of rest won't kill anyone, but then we have to hurry ahead."
Moving to the side of the road, where a loose rock wall had been erected to separate the fields from the road itself, the trio caught their breath with various degrees of effort. Saito stretched his arms, the clinking sound of the gauntlets every now and then striking a hearty tune against the breastplate. Louise hummed as she began to polish her breastplate with a piece of cloth, as if mud was an inexcusable sin that needed to be washed clean.
Tiffania simply caught her breath her chest heaving up and down, in a sort of hypnotic pattern that would have made Saito really interested, if it weren't for something sharp by his side poking him every now and then to remind him that yes, Louise was keeping an eye on him too.
"Can't you use Elf spirit magic to fly or something?" Louise asked suddenly.
"Ah-no," Tiffania whispered. "The spirits-they don't like me. My mother told me it was because I was half-human, but-" she fidgeted, "It's not that they don't like me, it's more like they hate me."
"What are these spirits anyway?" Saito asked, furrowing his brows. "I mean, I fought a couple of mages-"
"One," Louise said.
"Definitely felt like more than one," Saito answered in turn. "Your mother is a mage too, isn't it?"
"If your definition of 'fighting' means being thrown through a wall and nearly dying, then yes, you 'fought' my mother," Louise said dryly.
"Well-There was that time with the assassin that killed me," Saito pointed out, only for Tiffania to gasp with both hands in front of her mouth, "Don't worry, I got better," he added to the girl with a smile.
"That was a one-sided slaughter," Louise said offhandedly, before her eyes widened suddenly. "Saito," she mouthed, "The assassin-"
"Yes? He was under Charlotte's orders, wasn't he?"
"It was Wardes," Louise said. "He-He used the same technique to kill you as he did with the Elf-"
"But the assassin had blond hair, Louise, not grey," Saito pointed out.
The girl spluttered. "Then it could have been Bleu, I guess. He said he was a Wind and Water mage, didn't he? Perhaps-argh, I don't know. How do you think lightning is made? Wind and...Fire? I don't think Earth has anything to do with it, but Ice is definitely Wind and Water so..."
"We could ask Wardes?" Saito hazarded. "It's something he can do, so he might know who else is capable of doing that."
"And if it's him and he lies?" Louise drawled back. "What then? Could you kindly blame yourself of being an assassin for the Crown? Do you really think he'd go that far?" she snorted. "Well, I'm sure I can ask a more experienced mage once we return to Tristain."
Saito blinked. "I just realized something," he said. "Since I'm not going back home after all, do you think your father will be pissed?"
Louise blinked in return, and then she began to giggle. "Don't worry, dad's a real softy. It's mother you'll have to worry about, Saito."
It turned out that a coach trip back to Tristain, and to be more precise the city of Valier, would cost a pretty ecu. Well, not really a 'pretty' ecu as much as a 'lot' of ecus.
"We could-" Saito began, only to yelp as he grabbed his punctured buttock with an affronted gaze at Louise, who simply flicked her index finger against the tip of her blade, letting it ring harmoniously.
Tiffania winced and shyly fidgeted, "I don't have much-"
"Don't worry," Louise said offhandedly. "We're adventurers first and foremost, and nobles in our spare time. Let's go Saito. I'm sure there's an Adventurers' guild somewhere in this city, or I'll eat my cloak with salt and pepper."
Saito sighed and passed a hand through his hair. "Well," he said. "Let's find an inn and go from there?"
The inn they found was relatively clean and kept in order, if a bit closer to the walls of the capital than what the 'merchant' tastes would normally accept. Near it, the slums were pretty much visible from the second floor, a mass of mud and barely serviceable houses of wood held together by sheer miracle. Still, even the workers needed someplace to sleep.
The inn was a notorious mercenary cove, and as Saito soon realized upon stepping inside, it wasn't a place for the faint of hearts.
The acrid smell of smoke hung heavy, the stench of sweat and blood profusely left to ripe was like a fist to the stomach, and more than one set of eyes turned to look at them as they entered.
"I don't think this is a good idea," Saito murmured as Tiffania hid behind Saito, her two voluptuous qualities squishing against his back, and thus annoying Louise to no end. "But we don't have to leave immediately."
"We're adventurers," Louise said gruffly, her mask firmly set in her place. "Looking for work," she added as she sat by the counter. "You heard about anything worthy of our time?"
The barman scoffed, but refrained from saying anything rude as a couple of golden Ecus found their way upon his counter, and then quickly disappeared to be replaced with frothing beer.
"Adventurers are all about monster slaying, not human hunting," the barman replied. "Still, oi, Ulfric!" the man gestured to a burly looking and menacing giant of a man, who stood up to his full height at being called. "You said your favorite purse had trouble with a Hydra?"
"Yes," Ulfric nodded once. "Lord Belmont has a hydra in his garden. He's grown annoyed with it and wants it gone," he added.
"How many heads does it have?" Louise asked.
"Twelve," Ulfric answered plainly. "He already tried to get it to leave, more than once, but lost people to it."
Saito whistled. The more heads a Hydra had, the more dangerous they became. "Didn't he try hiring a knight or two?" Louise asked.
The mercenary simply laughed at that. "Smuggling a Hydra is already a grievous crime by itself, letting it grow so close to the city? His garden starts barely outside of the city walls," Ulfric shook his head. "He fancies himself a collector of rare beasts, the man. Manticores, Gryphons, Dragons, Basilisks...more than a garden, he has a zoo of deadly species," here the man smiled, showing a large gash on his shoulder. "This one, I got this one wrestling a Satyr into its pen."
"He must have quite the influence," Louise began, "Which means he's going to pay a lot, won't he?"
"That he will," Ulfric nodded. "But the Hydra's pretty tough to anything magical, so your fancy spells might do little good, sir knight," he furrowed his brows. "What's your name, again?"
"It's Louis," Louise said, perplexed at being asked.
"Ah, I see," Ulfric said. "Well," he continued, "I can put a good word in with the Count, and you can leave rich in a few hours," Ulfric moved a hand, rubbing his fingers with each other in the universal gesture of 'money', "But I would like remuneration for putting a good word."
"What's your usual fare?" Louise asked, sighing with a bit of defeatism in her voice, before her eyes blared to light with the fire of a proven haggler.
Ulfric however was no mere young upstart mercenary, and thus the haggling battle went on for a few minutes, both sides throwing numbers at each other and words like 'risk-revenue' and 'potential future jobs' hitting and clashing against 'adventurer specialization on monster slaying' and 'mercenaries aren't really cut for this'.
In the end, a price was agreed for.
Somehow, the words 'Ulfric has joined your party' and 'Quest: Slay the Hydra' entered the back of Saito's mind.
Being an adventurer really felt, sometimes, as if Saito was playing a game.
One of those games where you had only one chance, and had to restart from the beginning if you died.
