City of light

The group reached Florence in the afternoon and flew into the city of light a bit later. From the sky, the city was well worth its name and was dazzling to look at. The three were very impressed by the view offering itself to them through the windows of the vehicle.

Blaze really liked the architectural style of the region and the tower standing in the middle reminded him greatly of Paris. He had never been there before but it was famous and easy to recognize.

"It looks like a huge p-ball!" Pointed out Gilly.

It must have taken a lot of pre-planning for it to take this shape.

Blaze kept the helicopter up above the city for a bit to let the girls take in the view and brought the machine to the airport.

The first thing they did after landing was to go on a sightseeing tour.

"You know, I always thought we would go around Gleanne collecting badges for a while before we stopped somewhere and I gained you all to myself. Look at us now, on a different continent just to get some exotic monsters. This is good too, I think this place is really romantic." Gilly told him as the trio walked the roads of the capital.

"It's true that it's impressive. I'll do my best to make you keep a lot of good memories from here."

She took every opportunity to snuggle up to him as she pointed out all the things she saw with Aurora.

Mostly, she loved the numerous clothing stores, the high class shops of all kinds, famous jewelers and perfumers and also, the many dogs.

"Look at the style of that one! This one is so impressive too! I so want one of those dogs."

Blaze really didn't like those things, he thought they were really ugly dogs with messed up fur but Gilly liked them so he made no comments. It would have ended up in another poshog situation.

"That dress looks so good, and that hat is so fitting with it. Look at that store Blaze! We never see that brand in Gleanne maybe it's time I build back my wardrobe."

"It's pointless, you'll have to wear that uniform everywhere for a long time still. Don't waste your money on those."

"You're such a killjoy, that's no way to answer your pretty girlfriend."

"That's because I can't see how pretty you are since you're wearing a mask right now."

She made a dejected groan and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"I know this place is like a paradise to you since you adore those kinds of things but we have nowhere near enough money to spend freely here. There will be more occasions in the future, look, we have a chopper. We can come here whenever we want."

"I guess that's true."

(This place is very pretty. It looks both old and new.) Aurora changed the subject.

"Yeah, I heard there's a lot of old castles in the region too, that's why they have more haunted blades here."

(I love castles, there are so many good stories taking place in castles!)

"Like the fairy tales? Cinderella and the beauty and the beast?"

(I like those! I also like Snow White and Frozen.)

Was it a coincidence that Aurora liked Snow white and Frozen better? Blaze thought it was a funny bit of information.

"I don't know any of those." Gilly poked Blaze to get an explanation.

"Cinderella is about a girl who goes uninvited to a ball where the prince falls in love with her. She was told her magic dress would disappear at midnight so she leaves without giving him her name but looses a shoe in the process. The prince then has everyone in the kingdom try out the shoe one by one in order to find her and finally free her from her evil mother in law before marrying Cinderella."

(You are really bad at telling stories.) Objected Aurora to his rendition of the classic.

"Isn't that the plot to the Belle of the blossom?"

"I guess it is a bit similar. Even in other worlds, everyone seems to follow the same kind of inspiration."

"What about the other three? Are they just another version of something I know too?"

"Hum, the beauty and the beast is about a girl who get locked up in the palace of a guy turned into a beast because of nonsense. She gets Stockholm syndrome and fall in love with him."

(You can't explain it like that! You'll ruin it!) Objected the smaller girl with some vehement motions.

(Don't listen to him! It's about a prince who was turned into a beast by a witch because he refused to show kindness to an ugly old woman. The witch tells him that the only way to turn back into a human is to get a kiss of true love before all the petals of a rose she gives him falls off and wither. The beast gets angry and locks itself up in the castle. Eventually, a man get caught disobeying the rules of his castle and he locks him up in a prison cell, the daughter of the man shows up to take his place in the dungeon but the beast frees her because she's too pretty. At first, she is afraid of the beast but she eventually learns to see the good man under his exterior appearance and free him from the curse. They live happily ever after.)

"I'm not sure your version is much better than mine, in the original, the witch is a evil fairy who tried to seduce him."

(It's not important at all who turns him into a beast!)

"But then, isn't it just Mayana and Sharcodon? And it was based on many true story between the love of a human and a monster. Many got married in real life too."

"Don't remind me of that, it's super weird."

"How is that weird? Love doesn't have anything to do with races." Gilly fought back.

"It does when one side is a literal monster that could kill you easily! You can even capture them and put them into a small balls. How does that have anything to do with love?"

"I'm just saying, even if you were some sort of dragon instead of a human I'd still be in love with you. It doesn't matter what they look like as long as they are a match for whomever. I'm not saying I would do it either, unless you were a monster, then sure, but you aren't. And, they're just as smart as anyone too."

"What about Starburst." Pointed out Blaze.

"Well, I mean, there are some stupid humans too."

(Can we talk of something else? this is getting gross and nobody here is in love with a monster so who cares?)

|| I think Slush likes Blaze though and I'm sure Houndy is in love with his mistress.|| Sunsun chimed in as the other two agreed to talk about something else.

|| Please, don't tell them that, Blaze is bound to kick the both of them out of the group for that. Anyway, the dog has no chance, She only loves Blaze, it's obvious by her aura.||

That and the more obvious and important fact that he was a dog. (1)

|| True, Slush has no chance either, his heart is closed and locked. Only Gilly has the key.||

Aurora was a bit curious about what Slush felt exactly but that subject was making her face all hot so she was eager to talk about anything else.

(What do we do first then? What do we need in this region exactly?) She asked Blaze instead.

"We need a Haunbla, something flying for Gilly, probably a flyogonal or falscorch, I want a gueultrap, a fire-dragon, a crowned dracosaur, we need a ninfrog and a niosu for you, a mimic, a pinrabbit and maybe a rank turtle, a chuckling demon and a sligon. Aside from all of them, there's a lot of cool ones we don't really need and some that you and Gilly just find really cute."

(I know all that, it doesn't answer the question, where are we going first?)

"I'd like it if we started with one of mine since you already have two more. With only Dawnshield to use, most of those I want might be a bit difficult to get though. I can't wait to get a gueultrap or a haunbla but there is no way dawshield can win against those, even if he evolves in the meantime. For the easiest path, I would need to beat a water type, catch it, use it to catch a fire type and then use that one to get the gueultrap. With all that in mind, we should follow the rivers upward until we find either thiefrogs or rank turtles."

"Or, we could ask a water gym, beat the champion there for our first badges and ask him for the location we are most likely to encounter those." Proposed Gilly. "Then we won't be running around haphazardly and we get some money. A water gym won't be hard for you two anyway."

"I guess that's true but is there even a water gym in Florence?"

Blaze didn't remember any in his previous life.

Aurora checked her phone and came up with an answer easily.

(There is one in Harmoneau, south of here, their slogan is: Water and civilization in harmony. The gym is led by a man called Carver. People usually skip his gym because Harmoneau is so out of the way from everywhere else, you need to take the long way around to get there.)

"Ho wow, awesome then, let's go to Harmoneyahu, how do you even say that?"

"No idea but I like the way you said it." Giggled Gilly.

(We should get a room for tonight and leave tomorrow.)

"We should but aren't the hotels here super expensive to rent?"

(I'll pay for it.) Aurora assured him.

Because of that, he left it all up to her and she found a lavish place to rest. Maybe he should have been a bit more assertive on what kind of room they were ranting. He understood she was rich but there was no such thing as infinite money and the room they ended up in screamed expensive.

The hotel was set up in an old historical building and since Aurora felt that way, she rented one of the biggest rooms. There were fancy furniture and velour everywhere with an impressive and soft carpet over a floor so polished you could almost see your reflection in it. Plus, the room was so high in the building that the view over the city was gorgeous.

They had a great angle on prism tower and when night fell for good, they were able to witness its splendid work of light. Aurora and the others were enraptured by the view and all huddled together by the huge windows and the balcony, except for Blaze.

"I can't believe you spent all that money on an hotel room."

"I think you worry too much about the little things Blaze. Come here and have a look."

She skipped to him, wrapped her arms around him and dragged Blaze back to the balcony to share the view with him.

"That's the thing though, it's not a small thing with how much it cost us."

"I'll tell you right now, I want something at least as good as this for our honeymoon."

Shit, the bill kept getting higher.

"Don't make that face, I know you can do it. I may seem unreasonable but it's just because I like to make you suffer. Anyway, I'm just saying all that because you wanted me to say it. I'm fine with a small shack in the wood as long as you're there with me. You can give up on that wedding anytime."

"No way."

He was annoyed of this situation but he had to admit that watching that view with his girlfriend was very nice. They were together all the time but there weren't many opportunity to be lovey-dovey like that. Blaze was either training himself or a monster most of the time and when he wasn't, displaying their affection for too long made Aurora uncomfortable.

The girl would redden whenever they shared a kiss and with her being able to see aura and learning little by little how to harness her psychic talent, even their heart and mind were constantly on display. Blaze wasn't some pervert who enjoyed showing off in front of everyone or anyone so he limited his interactions to a family friendly level as much as possible despite the insistence of Gilly.

Gilly didn't care at all about all that but she understood that Blaze wasn't like her. That was why she wanted some time alone with her boyfriend sometimes, like tonight for example.

"Hey Aurora, I'd like some time in private with him tonight to cuddle and stuff. It's a rare occasion since we each have our own small rooms, could you take care of all our friends for a bit?"

(Sure.)

She didn't ask what she meant by "and stuff" because she knew it wasn't "that". She spent some time alone with Gilly whenever it was Blaze's turn to go take care of the laundry. At those occasions, Gilly had complained a lot about how Blaze didn't want to do stuff with her before they were married. Aurora felt embarrassed by the subject every time. She was still surprised that Blaze was that kind of guy though. She would have believed he was more the kind to push for it rather than hold back, more like the macho guy in movies.

"Thanks, I'll owe you!"

Gilly gave Aurora all the balls she and Blaze had and dragged him in their room, closing the door behind them.

It was better for them to do those things away from her so she was glad they shut themselves in the other room. Watching them together like that sometimes felt icky. It was much more fun to play around with the monsters instead.

She reached for the balls and let out everyone that wasn't already at her side.

"Where are my lord and my lady?" Asked Dawnshield right away.

|| In the other room spending time together. They don't want to be disturbed.||

"Understood."

"What? You mean they're alone together? We can't let that happen, she's going to steal him away from us." Complained Slush.

"Yeah, I don't want mistress to be alone with him. We have to step in!"

"Yeah, the mutt gets it."

"Who's a mutt imp?"

"An imp? My claws are sharper than yours, if one of us is an imp than it's you, it would be fitting for the empty head that serve as your master."

"Yeah? Come get it then, I'll show you what happens to those who disrespects the mistress!"

"Stop it you two, we are all on the same team, there is no reason to fight." Dawnshield stepped in.

"We aren't though, that's the thing, all three of us follow a different person. Although I feel like you don't fit yours at all."

"What is it you are trying to say? I faithfully serve my lord as I should."

"You're almost radiating righteousness, that's painful to look at. The guy is cold and cool so you stick out like a sore thumb. You'd be a better fit for Aurora instead. You're too small to be of any use to him anyway, let's switch I'll be by his side and you get Aurora."

"There is no way I will leave the duty laid upon me by my lord and let a devil at his side instead! And I won't be small for much longer, my lord told me I would reach the next evolutionary stage before we got to the next designated target."

Slush snorted and turned her back to both Dawnshield and Houndy.

Magus seemed really annoyed at her but Aurora was more curious than anything else. She sat down close by and had Sunsun call her over.

|| Aurora would like to talk with you.||

"Get out of my head fairy."

"Then come here, you know she can't speak."

"Why does she want to speak if she can't speak, that's dumb."

Slush complied anyway.

"She heard your talk with the other two and wants to know what you find so interesting about him."

"Ho, that's right, I forgot she can understand us. Humans understanding us are pretty rare aren't they?"

"Just as rare as one of us talking their tongue."

"Can't be helped, my mouth isn't made to make all those weird sounds they use to make words, its painful to even try."

"That doesn't answer the question though. She doesn't blame you for wanting to switch since she used him as an incentive to convince you to stay but she is very curious to know."

"Isn't it obvious? He's merciless and ruthless, he stands like a boss should, he isn't afraid to step over those in his way or their corpses and doesn't mind punishing his underlings like he should. He doesn't care about anyone, isn't that cool? I said it, cold and cool. The two human girls following him are like poison, corrupting his ways and softening him. It's painful to watch. If it was only me and him, we'd be sitting on top of the world soon, with so many worthless minions doing our bidding and catering to my every whims."

"So you don't love him, you just want to use him to bring you on top of the criminal world?"

"Of course I don't love him! Demuret and Deviret don't love! That would be shameful, unworthy of us, disgusting even. No, what I feel is admiration for the way he thinks, and sorrow at the way he is lead around by you lot."

Aurora was pretty sure he wasn't being lead around by Gilly and her though. He wasn't really a bad person, he just took the shortest path more often and it happened that the shortest path was unethical. Since he could be reasoned with easily, things didn't turn out to bad up until now.

Anyway, if she wanted Slush to work for her more reliably, she needed to convince her that she had her place here and that Slush was better off helping her than hindering her.

"She wants to tell you that she made a pact with him in front of a powerful entity so she won't leave his side ever."

"Pacts are made to be broken."

That demuret, was she edgy just to be edgy or was she really like that? Both were just as annoying a perspective as the other.

Aurora had to explain to her the content of the pact, how every ten years they would be sent to a new world and how the pact could only be broken by the death of either. She also spoke about how the amount of power they received was shared between them. Another devious smile crept up Slush's face when she heard the specific.

"I think I see the plan, I see what is happening."

"What plan?"

"No nothing, it doesn't matter. So, what did you want to tell me after all that?"

"Does she really need to say more?"

"I guess not, I know what I must do now. Ehehehehehehe. This is going to be much more fun than I thought and I was already waaaay interested."

Aurora let her go for now. She didn't know what Slush intended to do but as long as she wasn't doing too much mischief it would fine.

After that, Aurora decided it was a great moment to spend some time with each of them. She went around and shared some fun and words with everyone to see how they were doing.

Levy had walked up to the balcony and complained about the city when Aurora came closer.

"Too bright, hard to see the stars. Bad city."

She still spent her time mostly staring at the moon and barely interacting with the others though. If you wanted to do something meaningful with her, it had to be during the day.

She left Levy to her moon gazing and saw that Slush was now crouched beside the door to the next room. She had just left her so instead of going there to see what she was doing, she went to Magus and Dawnshield instead. The two were talking about evolution.

It was true that the two of them had a lot in common, they were both grass type, loyal and serious, both were a rare variant with a different coloration and they were also both just about to evolve. They meshed together well and usually agreed on most things. Both also didn't talk very much, one was too focused on his task and the other was just a sleepy head. It was fun to watch them speak vividly about something for once.

Aurora had never seen a monster evolve in real life. She had seen it in the games and anime of her previous life and often on TV here but she had not yet experienced it from close. She was eager to see it.

"I did not see your fight well from inside the ball but the way you planted those seeds was ingenious."

"It was just a reflex, I didn't even know I had them. It is proof that the training my lord put us through is working well. Soon, we will both grow and our task will become easier."

"Yes but this isn't the end. I want my flower to bloom soon. I'm sure Aurora will like the smell of it. I still remember the scent my mother's flower emitted, it was so soothing and gentle, I hope mine will be alike. Then, I will relax all day in the sun and Aurora will be able to nap on my head."

What a cute dream. Aurora rubbed his head in good spirit.

"Hi second lady. No worry, even asleep, a flowering saurian is a highly ranked protector. I heard that the flower's scent alone is enough to stop attackers and even if it isn't, the forest itself listen to their commands and they are almost as sturdy as one of my people."

Aurora wasn't worried at all, she trusted the two small guys a lot.

"I'll work hard and grow big before we reach the gym. Then, I'll show the other three who's your true guardian."

She wanted to cheer him on but she also wanted him to be friends with the others. There was no reason to compete. She picked him up from the ground, hugged him and placed him back down. Magus squinted his eyes in content and she left the two to their conversation to go see Starburst.

"Shall we compete to see who's going to evolve first?" She heard Dawnshield say as she left.

Friendly competitions were a good thing too. She liked it when they all got along.

She walked up to the short legged table in front of the sofa and found Starburst on top of it. It's surface was a large mirror and Starburst was threatening his reflection.

"You think you're as though as me? Go on then, try me, I'm top speed. I can even break trees with only my wing. I was trained by a world famous guitarist and a crazy bank robber. Nothing can scare me. Ha! Ah!!!"

He gave a peck towards his reflection and seeing it do the same he got scared and fell off the table.

Aurora wondered if he would get smarter once he evolved. In the mean time, she picked him up and placed him on her shoulder rubbing the back of his neck with the tip of her finger.

"Aye pretty, you saw how cool I was right? Magimagus and Slushotopia made a big mistake when they decided to try me. You see, I think I deserve a pack of noodles for my hard work."

Houndy snorted loudly at that. The dog was half sleeping on the sofa but it did not stop him from witnessing Starburst foolishness and mock him.

Aurora thought Houndy was a bit mean. Gilly never scolded him because she didn't understand what he was saying but the demon dog really felt like he was above everyone else. He snickered in the back of everyone, felt derision for the others, believed Gilly to be his possession and wasn't helpful in general.

He wasn't the kind of person(?) she wanted as a friend but he was the friend of a friend so she had to live with it. He was too spoiled and he needed to be scolded, she should probably tell that to Gilly later.

Keeping starburst on her shoulder to stop him from doing anything too crazy again, she walked up to the door to see what Slush was up to.

She admitted her wrongs right away, even before Aurora could ask.

"I tried to breathe cold air into the room to force them out of it but she just squeezed herself against him harder complaining it was cold suddenly. I should have thought harder about this before I tried. Damn it!"

|| Give up for now and join up with the rest of us. Neither of them will disappear without us.||

"I guess that's true, get out of my head fairy."

Aurora wanted to tell her that making people cold wasn't a kind thing to do but the cold was a part of her. Telling her cold was bad wouldn't be nice either.

She scratched the neck of Starburst again because he was rubbing his head into her hair like a cat and brought Slush to the two guardians and Sunsun.

She spent the rest of the evening talking about food and playing small games with the others.

***

The next morning, Aurora had the hotel bring them some food using the room service while Blaze was looking at the map of the region.

He had a great time with Gilly the previous day but now, he really needed to plan out the path they would take.

"To get to that gym in Harmoneau, we'll have to go through that forest there, the forest of Fontailune. There's a warning on it asking the travelers to watch out for twin-needled wasps nests in the forest."

"Huh, I don't like those, they're too aggressive it's scary. Should we go around?"

"No, we have to go there."

"Why?"

Blaze showed her a grin he didn't make often. It was the kind of face he made when they were about to do some bad pranks all over town.

"You don't get it, they have twin-needled wasps there! It's one of my favorite, look at it!" He turned the screen towards her to show her the picture of the wasp. "It's awesome."

"I know what a wasp looks like, yes, and I do remember you like them but, I don't get what you like about it."

"Everything, they look cool, they're super protective of their group, they're fast and violent."

"But it's not even that strong and you don't have any space for it in your team of six."

"I know but I'm greedy, I want one anyway."

"How do you even think you're going to get one of those? They travel in swarms and the whole group attack if you do something to one of the larvae or cocoons."

"They can't possibly watch out for all the larvae across the whole forest at once right? We must be able to get one sneakily like all those bug catchers."

"You're the worst. Let's at least buy a bunch of Antidote before we leave then."

"Of course, as if I would forget that. Anyway, this might just be enough to trigger Dawnshield evolution and we can catch you a bird there as well."

"Well, I'll tell you right now, there's no way we will dodge all those wasps so easily. We better be ready to run."

"I'm glad you're saying it like that."

With a bit of luck, the so called curse would activate again and he would manage to get out of there with what he wanted without triggering the ire of the swarm.

"I swear, if we get stung by those damn things, I'll slap you so hard you'll feel like you were a fly that got stomped."

"We won't I promise."

"You better."

Blaze checked the rest of the path going to the gym but everything else seemed pretty simple. As long as they didn't disturb any of the gardens, no harm should come to them on the way.

There was a bug gym in the town just before the forest but they would just ignore it and continue forward. The leader there was named Viola. An unfortunate name really. Viol was rape in French after all, so her name read just like raped for anyone living close-by. (2)

The region of Florence also had an abnormal concentration of fairy type monsters so Slush would most likely hate her time here. Having her fight in a sea of flower would be pretty stupid. Blaze had learned his lesson, the area were the fight was taking place played a big part in how said fight would play out.

Like how the snow turned into a frozen liquid trap under Dawnshield. He needed to start thinking more about what was around as well as what the enemy was able to do. Sure, against three idiots from the working order it didn't matter much but there were some foes out there that were way smarter and way more dangerous than them.

He had also learned that it was better to ask Dawnshield to heal himself early. In real life, the other side wouldn't just conveniently wait for you to heal up in the middle of a fight.

Because of his late order to heal, Dawnshield had almost ended up frozen in a pool of liquid snow. He needed to be more devious, more crafty and think from further ahead. He knew this but this was a hard thing to do for him. He was pretty sure he would end up spacing out in the middle of a fight trying to think ten or twenty moves ahead.

Maybe he needed Gilly to teach him how to limit his thoughts to a reasonable amount of foresight.

More importantly, he needed to reward Dawnshield properly like he told him he would. The poor knight shivered from the cold for hours after the fight and he won all three of them, he deserved something good. His only real problem was that he had no idea how to reward that small creature. Was it okay to just give him some good food? That didn't seem great enough. At the same time though, he was supposed to win, giving him something too good would bite him in the ass later when he really did something worthy of a great reward.

While he was thinking about all that, Gilly posted her snowy pictures on their profiles, just like she had said she would back then.

She giggled at her own message and closed everything to eat her breakfast with the other two.

"It's way better than your toasts Blaze."

"They're toasts, I can't make a miracle with that. Why don't you make the breakfasts then, I thought you liked cooking."

"Because we're always on the road, I can't make anything decent without a kitchen. Once you're done running around and our problems are fixed, I'll make you breakfast every day."

Once everything was over. That might take a while. So many things to do, so many things to fix, how would he make everything right before the ten years were over?

He ate some more bacon and kept his mind on the closest objective. Thinking about only one thing at a time was great for keeping his spirit up.

They left the city of light shortly after, with Aurora leading the way like usual and Blaze reminding them to not break anything in the flower gardens once they crossed some.

Once they left the city, everything became way more open. By that, he didn't mean the obvious. What he meant was that here in Florence, everything seemed less densely packed with trees than back in Gleane. There were way more fields and spaces filled with flowers and low herbs here giving a pleasant view in every directions.

Aurora had a bright smile the whole day because of the pretty landscape. Thinking about her smile, she didn't seem to be hurt anymore when she did smile so it was more than time to remove all those bandages. He'd remind Gilly to take a look once they stopped for the night.

Of course, he didn't forget to train the monsters along the way. Dawnshield and magus were very close to their evolution now so it was worthwhile to push them to their limits. Unfortunately, they didn't quite manage to reach the tipping point that day.

They moved fast following the road but it still took them a full day to reach Fontailune town and the eponymous forest.

***

(1) My mother own a very small dog that keeps humping her leg when she's making food in the kitchen. She always has to 'kick' it away to get rid of it. It's super disturbing, everyone thinks its annoying but we haven't found a way to stop the dog from doing it.

(2) This is true, viola is the 3rd person of the simple past tense of rape in French. This is exactly why her name in French (and most other Latin based languages) is Violette instead which means violet. A much less stupid name but we are now committed with the English names so yeah, poor photographer. This has nothing to do with the story but I really wanted to say it. If you ever have kids, never call the baby Viola, pls.

I understand it's about plants and butterflies in English but anyone knowing a bit of French will think of rape way before that because it's so shocking.

But, off topic, let's get back to the story shall we?