Chapter 26

… ... why does my belly feel wet? I reach my hand to try and find out. Mmmmm... what is this? It feels soft, and... warm. Ummm... I open my eyes to find a white-yellow haired fairy happily curled up on my belly, drooling out a waterfall. Still not fully awake yet, I grab her by the wings and lift her up to eye level.

She rubs her eyes, "Uhhh huh....?"

"What are you doing? I thought I brought you back to you village yesterday. Why are you here?" I ask, trying to keep my eyes open.

"I came back." She says with her eyes still closed.

"... ... and?" I asked further, but she only hands me a tiny brown paper scroll with an amber seal. "What's this?"

Let's see…

'Dear, Ether bla bla bla…

I hope you are in good health bla bla bla…

Even though you were our guest, you've to contributed bla bla bla… I am thankful… It was fun…'

There is way too much formality in this letter, I wish she'd kept it a bit shorter. I can't read this first thing in the morning. I haven't even had my coffee yet. There's almost four paragraphs of formalities here, but the actual letter is so small I can barely read it. I mean the whole scroll is half the size of my finger.

Is this how important people are suppose to conduct themselves? That's a lot of etiquette just to get a simple message over.

'As you may know, my daughter is a very adventurous soul… She wants to go out but it is dangerous… it is for that reason that I request you to allow her to join you on your journeys…'

So she wants me to be a baby sitter, essentially.

'Of course I do not expect you to do do this without any sort of compensation. I do understand that in the human world you deal with trade of goods and services. So in exchange for allowing my daughter to accompany you on your journeys, I have prepared a gift for you.'

"...huh?"

"That's how it is. And also here." She weakly hands me a small branch.

What's this? It looks just like a miniature tree branch, complete with mini leaves and everything. I put it in my inventory to analyze it and the information that pops up is…

'Gift of Titania'

'A small branch given by Queen Titania of the Third Grove as a sign of gratitude.'

'Increase MP regeneration by 5%.'

Oh? That stat doesn't look too bad actually. But that's the only stat it has. In the game this would be somewhere between a low and mid tier item. Not something I'd usually use, but since it looks like it doesn't take up any of my slots to equip it, I'll use it.

With her eyes still closed and drowsiness taking over, she manages a big, bright, sleepy smile for a second before slumping back to sleep. She must be tired after flying back to town in the middle of the night like that.

What am I gonna do with this girl?

I drop her back down and slump back on the bed myself. Just 5 more minutes...

...

It's been over a week since that morning. Since then, Piccy has been following me around where ever I go. Constantly keeping up the invisibility was pretty taxing on her, and since Silvia seemed to think that it was safe for her to be here, we decided to drop the invisibility.

At first, people were very surprised to see a fairy in town and we drew quite a lot of attention every time we went out. But after a few days, they got used to it and the amount of astonished eyes started to decrease. Piccy herself also started to open up more to the people and has now become a lot more comfortable talking to the people of the town. The once mysterious fairy is now just another residence of the town.

It had slipped my mind at the time. Piccy says she gets lost all the time, but that time they threw a party for her return. Why was that time special? Was it because she was gone longer than usual? Or was it because I was there? Surely they can't be throwing parties every time she comes back to the village, right? But in fact, that was exactly it.

Through Piccy, I leant that fairies are usually very shy creatures. That is, when it comes to things unfamiliar to them. But once the feel comfortable and safe, they become very carefree and just wants to have fun. Fairies will take any and every opportunity they can get in order to have fun. That's why the village holds a party every time Piccy comes back. Actually, they hold celebrations for every occasion, small or big.

That is just absurd. And yet it makes me extremely jealous! Why do they get a party every few days? Why can't I do that?!

*Ring ring*

Markus, "Oh! It's you two. Good mornin! What can I get cha taday."

"Good morning Markus!" Piccy greets, before immediately hovering around the sweets, like a predator eyeing its prey.

Well, thanks to that carefree out look on life, she is now extremely sociable with the people in town.

"Sigh... Sweets for breakfast again today."

"Hua haha. She's a free spirit. Leave her be. So what will you be getting today? We managed to get our hands on some cow yesterday, so we have some beef and cheese sandwiches today."

"Ouuu... I'll get a few of those then. And I'll pick a few more bread as well."

She's also been going on commissions with me. She doesn't really have any high damage spells, but that doesn't really matter since she can use her wind magic to erase our scent, making it easier to sneak up on things. My stealth doesn't get rid of my scent so her magic really help.

Another thing she can do is, if things get dangerous she can also use her wind magic to slow or even immobilize the enemies for a short period of time while we reposition.

Outside of combat... uhhh... she's a good companion... I guess. Her sense of direction is terrible and so is her attention span. Every little thing in the forest catches her attention and if I were to take my eyes off her for even a second, she would disappear. Luckily I have my Perception so it's not hard to find her, but still... she needs to understand that the forest is dangerous. Actually, wasn't she the one who told me that the forest was dangerous? I'm starting to wonder how she even survived all those times she got lost.

Well, despite all that, I don't mind having her around. She talks a lot so she is a good conversation partner for me who doesn't speak much unless spoken to. She's also not as dumb as I initially thought she was, so that's also a good thing.

After Piccy got all she wanted from the bakery, we headed towards the blacksmith. And waiting for us there…

Gravel, "Oyyyy!!" she waves. "So you're finally here. Heh. So, what did you call us out here for?"

Alice and Gravel got back from their escort commission two days ago. Apparently the place they went to is a town famous for its textiles, and I can see why. They both came back with a brand new set of beautiful cloths. But...

Thought I can tell that the cloths are of very good quality. They're still wearing the same style of clothing. Alice is still in all black covering most of her skin and Gravel is still as sparsely covered as always.

I mean don't get me wrong, they both look goood, plus those sharp crocodile abs are pretty eye catching in their own right. But I feel like they could also pull of some cuter outfits, you know. You'd be surprised at what a small change every now and again can do for you.

Well, as long as the ones wearing the cloths like them, then that's all that matters in the end anyway. I also believe in function over fashion. I've also never really had a fashion sense until my coworkers pounded it in to me. Teachers should be good examples he said.

Though, I am a bit sad I didn't get any souvenirs, but oh well.

"Well, first let's get in to the shop." I opened the door and lead them in.

Right there waiting for us is Mr.Kolo, waiting at the desk as arranged. He finished all my commissions last night, and today is the day we receive them.

Right as I enter, we lock eyes. And then after a brief moment of understanding, I give a small nod.

"Hmm." He affirms with a nod in return. Then he reaches under the desk, and pulls out a beautiful spear, with a shaft of dark wood. The shaft seamlessly merges into the spear head with the clever use of the dark patterns of Damascus steel. Truly the work of a master.

The spear head is definitely made of the steel that I gave him, and it has some jagged serrations to the bottom of the spear head. That looks really painful. It almost reminds me of crocodile teeth, which, definitely suits her, since she is a crocodile.

As we both turn our eyes to Gravel, we can see that her face is slowly lighting up. Her eyes widen. Her pupils sharpen. Her jaw is slowly dropping. And I swear I can see sparkles coming off of her as she moves to get a closer look at the spear.

I look back at Mr. Kolo. With his arms folded, he give me smile and thumbs up. "Hmm!"

I turn to Alice, and she is also slowly folding her arms in. But for some reason her expression is completely different. Why?! What happened? Did we do something wrong?

She didn't say a word, but it's all written on that expression. 'Ohh..? I see. So that's how it is, huh. Alright then. Alright then. I get it.' Is what I'm getting. And it's starting to scare me. Even Mr, Kolo is starting to sweat a little.

Don't worry. We got something for you too. Just wait a sec.

Mr. Kolo, being able to read the mood, takes a gulp and reaches under the desk to pull out a shiny new short sword with a black leather grip. It looks only the slightest bit thicker than her old sword, but just from the looks, you can tell that it's a lot more durable. Sharper too.

At the sight of this, her eyes widen and she starts to lean in a little. Situation defused! I repeat. Situation defused! Good job boys!

I let out a sigh of relief. Mr. Kolo tosses me glance and a slight chuckle before he sheathing the sword in a black scabbard with golden marbling before handing it over to Alice. "Here."

She takes the sword and takes it in and out of the scabbard a few times while inspecting it all over, tapping it, checking the sharpness. By the way, I said this already, but that looks really sharp. He really did a great job.

I flash him a thumbs up, and he gives me a humble nod.

Then, with the scabbard on, Alice takes a few slow swings and thrusts with her new sword.

Kolo, "How do you like it?"

"It's great. Light and balanced, and it feels really solid. The grip also fits perfectly. You've really out done yourself with this one."

"I got some good materials this time around, so I figured I'd give it my all." He glances over at me. "If you want to thank somebody, thank him. He was the one who gave me the materials and commissioned me to do it."

Alice, "Really!? And you're just giving this to us?" She narrows her eyes at me with an inquisitive face. As if to say 'What are you planning?' While this is happening, Gravel is still fully fixed on the new spear. She's in her own world right now.

"Yeah. Just a gift from me to you. To show my appreciation for helping me." Piccy nods as I say this. "Why are you the one nodding?" Actually, she's been beside me coping everything I do ever since we walked in.

"Ahhh.., c'mon. I was also here when you commissioned for the weapons, so I practically also got it for them. So it's all fine." She taps me on the shoulders.

She's giving me a big smile. Usually smiles are supposed to represent good feelings, happiness. So I wonder why right now, I'm having very harmful thoughts as I smile back at her.

Kolo, "Alright! Here you go."

As I turn to look, I can see him placing 8, steel tiped, ivory white, arrows on the desk. They are fletched with black feathers with grey streaks, expertly tied to the arrows. They look amazing.

"Sorry kid. I'd usually be able to make a few more with all that material, but the tusks were a bit too curved this time around. I had to shave off quite a bit of material to make it straight."

"No it's fine. This is enough. My quiver can't hold more than 10 anyway."

"Well, to make up for that, I fletched it with Moon Owl feathers. The last I bits I had. It's pretty hard to get those, but I think it'll work wonders."

"Oh. Thank you for that." He gives me another thumbs up.

As I grab an arrow and to inspect it, Piccy also flies all over the arrow. 'Ouuing' all the while. Does she even know anything about arrows? More importantly, this arrow is really light. Can it really do any damage?

'Sword tusk arrows'

'A very light arrow made from the tusk of a Sword Tusk Boar. Can travel a very long distance.'

'Attribute: Momentum, Muffle'

(Momentum) The mass of the projectile increases on impact depending of the velocity of the projectile upon impact.

(Muffle) Suppress the sound made by firing the arrows.

Wow. I really am in a fantasy world. This simple arrow just casually defied the laws of physics. Sorry Newton. We are very grateful for your contributions toward science. Well, with this I can see why it's so dangerous. Being light makes it fast and with the extra mass at the end, it's concentrating a ton of power on that small tip. However, being light also means that wind has more of an effect on it, so I don't really know how that's gonna play out.

I'm guessing the Moon Owl feather is what's giving me the Muffle attribute. But I don't think it does anything to help with the effects of wind on the arrows.

"These are some really dangerous arrows. How did you even get your hands these?" Said Alice as she picks up an arrow and spins it around a bit.

I really admire Gravels dedication. With all this commotion she still hasn't taken a single step away from that spear.

"While you were gone, Silvia took on a commission for a boar and I helped her out a bit. She gave me this as thanks."

Piccy, "Somehow, I feel like there's a bit more to that story then just that. But yeah, that's basically what happened."

"Oh yeah. I forgot you were actually there at the time."

"Hehee. It's because of my amazing stealth skills wasn't it." She looks so proud of herself while saying that. Putting her fists on her hips and puffing up. When she's this small, it's kinda cute when she does that. Is she expecting a complement?

But yeah, I really didn't notice her at the time. I need to up my game. If I keep missing things like that, it could become really dangerous.

Then I asked Mr. Kolo if he needed any more compensation for the phenomenal job he did. But he shock his head, saying the leftover materials were more than enough. So we said our thanks and our goodbyes before heading out.