Irony?

After visiting the Golden Ferry we next went to an upscale tailor's store where I was forcibly measured and fitted for a uniform of sorts. The others would also be receiving uniforms but instead of a custom suit like mine they would be given clothes similar to Mr. Harlow's. The colors would be whatever Lana chose for her house colors, though.

My suit was actually completed before we left and I found myself dressed up in a rather formal but plain white tuxedo with a regular black tie rather than a bow tie, black gloves, and single black panel down the pique vest under my open and tailed coat. There were shiny gold buttons of actual gold on the coat and cuffs and the look was completed with a pair of black dress shoes with a white seam or band around the bottom of the show above the sole.

Unlike Mr. Harlow's formal attire, though, mine was made entirely of silk and not just a worm silk but some kind of magic spider, the suit actually offered eleven defense for the coat, vest, gloves, shoes, pants, and even the tie! My uniform as a head retainer came with sixty-six defense as well as +5 to all of my stats but the suits the others got would only offer eight for piece for forty-eight defense overall even though they got the same stat boosts. On top of this, it repaired itself!

The suit cost over a thousand gold and I felt extremely awkward walking down the street dressed like this while wearing weapons. I really only wore Midnight Hauntings across my back but it felt more like I was an actor going to a party with a movie prop than anything else. However, I was not going to tell Lady Mara or Lana that.

Next on their list of errands to run was stopping by several different shops and businesses that used to have tied with Lady Mara's family. Everybody was happy to give us the time of day but when it came to talking actual business they were hesitant to get involved with somebody who was basically nameless. Especially after Lady Mara had already cut ties with these places. They found other backers and while most were polite about it a few deserved to get slapped.

"All of my old friends don't seem to remember what that word means," Lady Mara sighs softly as we make our way through the residential districts back toward her home. "But, that is fine. I only visited them out of courtesy. Once they see the opportunity they missed when we finally bring Lana out into the world, they will come to us. And be sent away just, like us."

"Revenge tastes best when served cold," I agree gladly, wondering if I would get the opportunity to have some fun during those occasions. I had to sit quietly and listen to several people say some very rude things. I had already made a point to remember all of their names and businesses so that I could ask Ferithar about them tomorrow.

Giving me a tired but wry smile, Lady Mara asks, "Are you thinking what I think you're thinking?"

"If you're already thinking it then do I even need to?" I ask curiously, neither confirming nor denying but telling her she was absolutely right all the same. "No worries, though. it's too soon to do things like that. I can't even have Merch follow them around and collect information until his stats are higher."

"You were serious?" Mr. Harlow asks suddenly, looking at me with wide eyes while Lady Mara just looked back and forth between us in confusion. Looking to Lady Mara, Mr. Harlow bluntly states, "The one called Merch is an assassin."

"So is Oleander," I inform the group with a shrug. "They just work differently. I send Oleander to deal with special targets, people who are hard to get to but are easily distracted by a pretty face- if you know what I mean. Merch handles everybody else, though."

While Mr. Harlow and Lady Mara were staring at me as if I had suddenly grown a second head, Lana on the other side of them from me looks over with a bright smile and excitedly asks, "Is that true? How many times have you had to use them? Have we ever heard of their work?"

Thinking about how Sir Beryl had reacted to the whole Traveler thing without 'losing his coding' I realize that players and different worlds were already a concept here to some extent. Hoping to test this, I say, "Not in this world, we only just recently got here. I mean, I only just reached level twenty-five on the way to the Golden Ferry."

Accepting this response with ease while the other two only continue looking more confused and even a little worries, Lana asks, "That's right, you were only just reaching level ten when we met… last week? What about your last world, what was it like? Being a Traveler must be so exciting."

Looking over sharply, I ask, "How did you know? I don't remember telling you about that. I mean I obviously haven't been hiding it but I also never actually said it."

"Your clothes, silly," she replies with a light laugh. "When we met, I had never seen so many pockets so I tried to see what kind of clothes you were wearing but all that came up was the single name 'Traveler's Outfit'. So, I just told myself you were a Traveler like from the myths and stories So… your last world…?"

Shrugging while looking forward down the road and ignore the stiffness with which Mr. Harlow walked or Lady Mara sat, I answer, "Not much different from this one. There were many races of people like this world with the inclusion of demons and a few others. However, it was a world constantly at war. As fun as fighting is, sometimes you want to just… relax, too. So, most of us Travelers moved on to new worlds and this is one of 'em."

What I said was the truth, mostly. The world might have been a video game and Travelers were players, but that world ended up controlled by the players where guilds went to war constantly over land and resources. The NPC population was actually dying out and the players were all so toxic that the game and its excessive freedoms killed itself.

This game had similar world settings for freedom but there were 'gods' here who controlled all the important things like deciding who rules the world and all that.

Four or five minutes later, Lady Mara asks, "Mr. Hack, would you happen to know how many are coming here like you?"

Even though Lana did not seem to mind my being a Traveler it was becoming clear that all of the older and 'wiser' NPC were wary of us, similar to how Sir Beryl was. For someone as powerful as him it seemed like he was scared by just the idea of Travelers. Clearly the NPC in this game were wired to be ready for random massacres and general world-level chaos.

Unable to meet the expectant eyes looking at me, I can feel myself start to sweat a little as I say, "Less than ten million… so far. It will become even more, though. The world I come from is… closing its borders, I guess. This world, though, is protected from the same problems as the last one because you guys have gods. Even if one of us cannot stay dead, there are things out there that can make us wish for it."

A common practice used to threaten other players is to capture their character and trap it somewhere that they cannot die. If they did not have a strong enough guild or clan or friends in general in games without a teleportation system, they had no choice but to give up and make a new character, give in to demands if there even are any, or move on to a different game.

There were some games were this was considered bullying and could correlate to reality charges in some instances but other games allow it and warn to play at one's own risk this was one of those big warning games but it also came with a suicide option like biting off your own tongue. It costs an entire level to use, but at least they finally put an escape route from bullying in a video game.

Was it ironic that biting off your character's tongue was the most effective way to evade bullies? I tried not to think too much about it.

The rest of the walk back to the estate was quiet except for a few random questions from Lana to which I tried to answer as shortly and simply as possible. I was worried about how Lady Mara was taking the information I had made the mistake of sharing. It was entirely possible she could suddenly decide she did not want us around Lana even though it was better to have us as guards than other NPC.

When we were entering the property, though, Lana says, "I'm honestly surprised at you, Hack. All this time and you haven't once asked about the crystal you gave me. Don't you want to know what we talked about?"

Knowing I should probably be careful with this question, I simply say, "I gave it to you, what you do with it is up to you. If you wanted to donate it to a charity or just smash it to see what it sounded like, I would tell you you're being foolish but I would not stop you."

"That's no fun," Lana seems to pout, making Lady Mara laugh lightly in a way that eased the earlier tension for everybody. "Well, just because you don't want to know then I will tell you! We were offered as much as fifty thousand gold for the crystal who's starting bid will be ten thousand."

Giving the young lady-to-be a sidelong glance, I ask, "What did you say?"

"Auntie- I mean… Aunt Mara asked me what I thought," she replies slowly at first and then quickly amends herself. "I said that if they offered that before the auction then the crystal would probably sell for twice as much at the auction. So, I told the lady to keep it in the auction."

"Very well done," I say proudly, wondering if it would be wrong to go and rub her head now that I worked for her. "If I had a reward to give you, I would. That person alone is willing to spend fifty thousand to avoid a bidding war, someone in a bidding war really could pay twice as much. I was told items like that crystal are rarely on the market so anybody in the market for them will be coming for it."

All but skipping around the dry fountain in front of the manor, Lana calls out, "That's just what Aunt Mara said! By the way, that lady at the auction house seemed to be pretty familiar with you and really curious about how we came to hire you. Are you and her… getting to know each other?"

"No," I state flatly, walking casually around her and to the front door so I ca open it for the others. "Now is not the time in my life when I should be interested in such things. Especially now that I have committed myself to your future household. I want to be at least level one hundred before I consider settling down and that should take another month at the very least."

Barking out a short laugh, Mr. Harlow says, "If you stayed around here, you'd be lucky to get there in another year. You would probably need to travel further north toward the Winter Wood where the monsters are in their fifties. Even then a month would probably not be enough."

Winter Wood? I seemed to remember hearing about one of the first dragons in the game being spotted in that northern region. There was currently no verification that the dragon actually lived there, but it was like the third or fourth REAL dragon ever spotted. By real, I meant really big because there were smaller dragons used in the 'mortal armies'.

"Ah," I say suddenly as I shut the door behind the others. "I'm sorry that I did not bring this up to your first because it happened spur of the moment, but I invited the Golden Ferry's Grand Alchemist, my teacher, and their Beast Master to come over tomorrow around noon and help in training my friends and I. The only magic I have right now is the magic allowed me by the spirit in my sword and our familiars need to have their babies soon so I can start training them."

*