The Quantum Wanderer

“What is The Flight?”

Cecilia interrupted.

“Can we get home and wash up, please?  I have to get rid of all this gunk.  Girls here!  We are soft, and smell good, and all those nice things.”

“By the gods!”

I hear some one shouting from the top of the stairs, entering the room, and I recognize Edward. 

“You have to tell me how this went?  When did you guys start the job?”

“Oh, that was today.”

At this point, Cecilia hugs me from behind, and whispers in my ear.

“My villain, this helpless damsel really needs to get naked and smelling good…”

“Well, Edward, can we catch up later?  We kind of need to wash up…”

“Why don’t you that here in Ironhold?”

I am kind of conflicted.  I would feel weird about trying to get some additional service from my girls in the bath in his house.  Cecilia gets the girls together, and plots a little, then comes out as, apparently, their representative.

“We would prefer here, actually.  We really need a deep bath.  Nothing against what we have on Frolk, but we prefer to be pampered a little.”

They do deserve it.  We leave the guild, accompanying Edward, by a back door.  We go all the way up the streets, up to the noble district.  I can see the guards stare when we enter the noble’s district.  We are not dressed as expected.

We continue our way, up to the palace entrance, and turn right, just like the last time we went through here.  When we get close to Edward’s house, instead of turning left to enter it, he takes us to the right, to this huge mannor right in front of his. 

There are two guards outside a gate, and another one inside a guard station.  The two guards outside point to us and giggle a little.  We follow Edward, that is right in front of the two guards, and he is looking kind of pissed.

I get to his side.  At this moment, Muninn and Huginn land on my shoulders.  I can see the guards freezing.

“By the gods!  Two crows! It’s Sir Marcelo.”

“I am sorry!” Says the other one.

“EXACTLY! IT IS SIR MARCELO YOU FUCKING MORONS!  BETWEEN THE TWO OF YOU THERE ARE THREE STUPID PEOPLE!  NOW OPEN THIS UP, AND LET THE OTHERS KNOW!”

He actually shoves the guards towards the gate.  The one in the station goes running to the big house.  The other two open the gate, and we enter.  He was angry.  I don’t think this was a big deal, they don’t know us.  The mannor has this beautiful front garden, with some flowers closer to the walls.

The house is absolutely gigantic.  I wonder what kind of noble lives here.  The front has two columns, with this red carpet that goes down the two steps we have to take to get inside the house.  The guard is there at the door.  When we get close, he opens both sides of the door, and lets us get in.

There is a red carpet, that goes straight, until a stair, that halfway splits into a stair to the right and one to the left.

Along the carpet, in the living room, there are two rows of people.  At the start, there is a butler.  After him, there are two rows of maids.  Somewhere around 8 to 10 on each side

A table in the middle of the room had this big flower arrangements.

“Welcome home, Sir Marcelo and wives!”

Muninn cawed really loud.  One of the maids, in the middle, said, in a timid way.

“And crows?”

Apparently that was enough for Muninn. .  The luxury in the room is amazing.  Above all of them, hanging on the ceiling, this chandelier with gems emitting light.  On the walls, there were some motifs, of some battle scenes.  Some of them had a group of people facing monsters, some others were facing other soldiers.  Here and there there was a table with a vase on it.

I look at Edward, he is apparently happy that he was able to surprise me.

“Well, I am going to leave you guys so that you can take your bath and enjoy your new house.  This is your house, so do with it as you will.  We can sort out the details in a later date.  If you need a cup of sugar, or if you want to invite a poor, hungry family for some steak dinner, I am across the street.”

He laughed and left.

The butler approaches me.

“Sir, may I suggest a bath?”

“YES!  PLEASE!”

He turns to the maids.

“Molly and Julie, go prepare a refreshing bath for sir and ladies.  The others can get back to their duties.”

They do a courtesy, and leave.  I take the time to look at the place.  I don’t feel like walking too much because of all the gunk that we have on us.

A maid comes back, and does a courtesy to the butler.  We follow him, and enter this big room, with a very big bed in the middle.  To the left, there are two doors.  The floor has this fluffy carpet on it, I am almost feeling guilty of being so dirty inside here.  We follow the butler to the second door, to this big bathroom.  There is no tub; it is a small pool.  The floor is made of stone, and there are water stones on the ceiling.  There are some stones on the wall.  Apparently, if you touch them, the ceiling will work as a shower.  Close to the door, on the right, there is a huge sink, with 3 fawcets.  There are a lot of creams and sprays on top of the sink.  On the wall opposite the door, there are other three doors.  I open one of them, and it is a privy.  I don’t look at the other two yet.

“Sir, let us know when we can come to collect the dirty armor, weapons and clothes.  We will get them clean.”

“Oh, ah…  I am sorry, what is your name?”

“My name is Rudolph, sir.”

“Rudolph, our weapons kind of have sharpening enchantments on them.  You probably don’t want to risk touching the blades, you may get cut.  Be very, very careful, ok?  On the other hand, you should not have to scrub the blades at all.  Just pour some water.”

“Of course, sir.  If you need anything, you can ring the bell on the dressing table.”

He leaves the room, and closes the double door.

I go into the bathroom.  The girls are undressing.  We are all taking showers.  If the day wasn’t so full of everything, I would probably be attacking my girls right now.  But between the whole experience, insect nest during the day, new house during the night, I am kind of tired.  I just take a shower.  The girls are in the bath.  I can see that some of them are eyeing each other with some lascivia.  In particular, Shandon and Cecilia are kind of staring at each other…  That is going to be something worth watching, but I still have something to do.

I inspect the bedroom.  The bed is comfortable, it is actually better than ours.  The other door in the room is the entry to a massive closet, there are some male clothes and a lot of female clothing.  From pants to dresses.

I choose some very light clothing, a shirt and a pair of pants.  Since I am about to walk around the mannor, I may as well go to the kitchen. I portal to the guild in Frolk, get the huge piece of dragon meat that we have there, and put it in my bag.  I come back, and go outside the room, to walk around the mannor.  This suite occupies the last bedroom space on the right wing.  I can assume that it is the master bedroom.  There other doors.  I take a look at some of the other doors, they are all suites, just not as big and comfortable as this one.  This one is occupying about double the space of the others.

Then I am at the top of stairs, that go down, until half the way.  On the other side, there is another corridor, that looks like this one.  I go down the stairs, to the entry that had the lines of maids.  I turn to the right, and there are other large rooms.  The first one has some sofas with a coffee table in the middle, and it has a bar, with a lot of liquor in it.

After this room, there is a dining room, with a big, long table in the middle of it.  This table has chairs around it.  I count the chairs, there is one in head of the table, and then 20 chairs on each side, for a total of 41.  I don’t know if my introversion is ever going to allow me to have this many people in a party.  I can see my social battery draining of only thinking about that.

This room has a side door, by the end.  I can hear some noise of people talking and utensils click clacking coming from it.  I open the door, and everyone freezes and bows to me.

“Hi everyone, please don’t mind me.  Are you guys already preparing supper?”

This older lady comes closer.  She is around her late 40’s, not really tall.  She is not lean either.

“Yes, sir.  Today we are going to have Fenrir on the reduced honey and mustard sauce.”

“Ok, we need to talk about a couple of things.”

“Sure, sir.”

“Have you already started preparing the steak?”

“Not yet, sir.  The steak is the last thing, since it is the fastest one.”

“First of all, you saw my wives, right?”

“Of course, sir.”

“The ones with the pointy ears EAT.  About 10 pounds of steak in a sitting.”

“Excuse me, sir?  10 pounds?”

“Yes, 10 pounds.  Ten times more than what I eat.  Twenty times more than what Cecilia and Siratra eat, the two girls without pointy ears.”

“Oh!  OOOHHH!  I get it now.  There is no party.”

“I am sorry?”

“We were told that there was going to be a party for 85 people, that we should cook food for that many.  I was following orders, but I was kind of worried on the amount of food that was going to be thrown away, since I don’t see any guests.  I have to confess that I was kind of holding on preparing all that meat, sir.”

I giggled a little.  She is taking this very well.  I wonder how she would react if she learned that the girls are not girls.

I go to a big table, and place the huge chunk of dragon meat on it.  This weights around as much as I do right now, around 200 pounds of meat.  A big slab.

“I am sorry, but what is your name?”

“Roberta, sir.”

“Ok, Roberta.  So, I happen to have a lot of this meat here.  When this one is over, I can get more, ok?  Don’t phreak out.

“That being said, how many people work in this house?”

“23, sir.  There are 16 maids for cleaning, helping the ladies, and keeping the house as a whole.  As you can see, we are 4 in the kitchen.  We have another 2 garderners and then Rudolph, sir.  He is your butler and the manager of us.  There are guards that work on security, but I was told that they are provided by his highness the Duke.”

At this point, Rudolph appears on the kitchen.  I can see that everyone is looking at him.  I look at him, and he uses the time to intercede.

“Excuse me, sir, how can I be of assistance?”

“Hi Rudolph.  I was walking around the mannor, taking a look.”

“You could have rang, sir.”

“What for?  Discovering by myself is more fun.  You guys are busy.  But anyway, I was explaining Roberta a couple of things about my girls’ and mine normal diets, and bringing some of the meat that we like to eat.

“But anyway, here is my way of thinking.  If there is food in the house, it is to be eaten.  But in the house.  If someone needs food at home, then they should ask, and I will see what I will do about that.  But anything that I have in stock is for everyone in the house.”

“Sir, that is kind of…  Peculiar…  Does sir understand that sir has 23 employees, and 4 guards in the property?”

“Sure, no problem.  And the way the girls eat, I don’t think I will be noticing it all that much…”

I giggle a little.  When he knows, he knows. 

“So this meat here is for us and for all of you as well.  I would suggest you to not eat too much of this, specially if you have lower levels.  You will probably get some mana hangover.  Actually Cecilia got mana hangover and she was in her early 30’s, in levels, of course.  I don’t know if it is safe for someone level 20 or below.

“Perhaps you can grow used to it, but be very careful, now that I think about it.”

Roberta and Rudolph take a look at the big chunk of meat.

“Oh, now that we are talking about this, the two crows that you can sometime find around me are Muninn and Huginn, and I am particularly attached to them.  They can get these pieces of meat as well.”

I turn to Rudolph, and I scratch my head.

“I kind of like crows, they are smart, they were a company to me in a time where I needed.  So I enjoy them in general, and these two in particular.

“You are going to find that they are very smart.  If they are in your way, a simple ‘excuse me’ is going to work, and I promise you that they are not ever going to hurt any of you.  No crow is ever going to hurt anyone in this house.

“But please treat them with kindness.  If some crow comes around, a little wooden plate with some water and some of the cheap meat goes a long way.

“And don’t ever try to place Muninn or Huginn in your shoulder, arms, or anything like that.  Their claws are very sharp.  They can hurt you unintentionally.  But you can pet them.  I mean, you can ask them, actually.  They enjoy it, as far as I know, and they will allow.

“Any questions on this?”

“No, sir.”

“Any questions, Roberta?”

“No, sir.”

“Great.  I will be in your care, then.”

I go back to the girls, and I am doing the math on my mind on how much maintaining this place is going to cost me.  I have to see if I am going to be able to maintain it.  I have no idea on the wages, though, so there not much accounting I can do right now.

I enter the room, the girls are still in the bath tub.  I would expect the water to have cooled down by now, but when I get close, I see vapor coming out of it.  It is very hot, I can see that Cecilia and Siratra are sweating a little.

“How is the bath, girls?  Anyone hungry?”

“Ahhh…  This is almost as good as the hot spring.  I think Shandon heated the water a little bit too much though… “ Cecilia was almost melting.

The word hungry kind of got the attention of the dragonesses, and they start leaving the tub.  Or pool, for a lack of a better term.

They go in the room, and I show them the closet.  Each one of them pick a different style of dress.  It is fun seeing how each is comfortable in a different way.

Siratra gets out as well, I pull Cecilia out.

“We have to have dinner in a little bit.  We can’t do that naked.”

They get dressed, and we start going down to the dining room.  I pick the second chair on the side of the table.  That way, I can be in a much closer contact to all of them.  They all sit down around me.  I can see that something is kind of bothering Opal.

“Hi Opal, is there something wrong?”

“My lord, why don’t you sit at the head position?”

I make my corniest face.

“Because if I sit there, I am going to be farther away from you girls.  Here I can grab Cecilia’s leg to the right, Shandon’s leg to left, and talk to looking in your eyes, and have all of you very close to me.  Nothing in this house is as valuable as you girls.  The most valuable must be as close as possible.”

Opal pretends a cough, and blushes just like Aquamarine sometime does.  All of them give me this look with affection.  Cecilia pulls me close and kisses me on the cheek.  Shandon sees this, and copies her.

I stretch my arm on the table, and the other girls grab it as well.  Cecilia starts caressing the back of my head, and I lean forward, to enjoy most of it.  This is so good.  Shandon starts doing the same, but she is using a little bit too much strength.

“A little lighter, please, Shandon…”

And she lightens up her hand.  This is good.  I am wondering how they would say ‘cafuné’ in [common].  It is one of those words that just doesn’t have translation.

They serve the dinner, and it is absolutely wonderful.  Besides the steaks, all the food around it is absolutely delicious.  Stuffed potatoes, some other dishes, some different fruits also available.  The whole thing is colorful.  The sight, smell and taste is absolutely fantastic.

The dragon steak on the sauce is absolutely wonderful.  These guys are going to ruin my tastes.  I am thinking that I will never be able to just enjoy a dinner out, knowing that I can have something like this here.

Once we finish eating, Rudolph come close.

“Sir, can I order dessert in?”

I think that right now the girls like Rudolph better than me.  Their eyes are sparkling.

“Sure.”

The maids bring in 4 pies, each of a different fruit.  The pies don’t last long.  I don’t get to taste them.

Rudolph get close.

“Sir, was the supper acceptable?”

“Acceptable doesn’t even describe me.  It was absolutely wonderful.  Can you call Roberta for a minute?”

“Of course, sir.”

He signs to a maid, that brings out Roberta.

“Girls, this is the person, with her team, that cooked that meal for us.  Roberta, the food was absolutely wonderful.”

She comes closer, and takes a look at what was left of all the food she sent in.  Nothing.  The plates are clean.

“Glad to hear, sir.”

Oddly, Opal is the one to interact.

“It was delicious.  You are now my third favorite human.”

“Third?  Who are the other ones?”

“Cecilia, of course, and Leopold.”

“What about me?”

“Oh, no.  You’re dragon.”

I could see some confusion between Roberta and Rudolph, but they decided not to ask.  Roberta went back to the kitchen, and Rudolph remained.

“Sir, what about the open house?”

“What’s that?”

“When a noble stablishes in the neighborhood, it is customary to have a party to same level of nobles.  Sir, if you serve dragon meat, your prestige will be very high.”

“Humm…  Not feeling like inviting people I don’t know to try to impress people I don’t like.  We can have a dinner, and invite Edward and Anthon, though.  And family and very close friends.  What do you girls think?”

“Well, he has been very nice to us.” Cecilia agreed, and the other girls all nodded.

“Rudolph, can I ask you to organize that?  I don’t even know how many people we are talking about.  Edward had the wife and two children.  Anthon, I have no idea.  Then there is the invite, and we can ask them to confirm their presence.  Just let me know the cost of the stuff, so that I can give you the money.”

“Edward, sir?  Who is Edward?”

“What do you mean?  He was here earlier.  The neighbor right in front of us.”

“Oh.  OOOHHH!  The Duke of Stormwatch!  That would make Anthon…”

“Yup, his cousin.”

“The EMPEROR!”

…

…

A maid brought a glass of water to Rudolph, he took some time to calm down. 

“Sir, are you saying that you are only going to invite the duke and the emperor?”

“And family, perhaps very closest friends.  My ties right now are with Edward, actually, Anthon is already the closest friend.  But I prefer something small, I don’t like big parties, to tell you the truth.  We had a bad experience with a fancy one.”

Cecilia was giggling, the dragonesses were nodding.  Siratra was looking at her plate, and Muninn cawed.

“So, Rudolph, can I ask you to get in touch with Edward’s butler, and check the details?  I don’t know how you guys do.”

…

“Girls, today was a fun day, I am tired.  Lets try out the new bed?  I must say, I am really looking forward to a nice sleep right now.”