Moriko was enjoying their stay in Riverbridge quite a lot; mostly at Kazue’s expense. It had been shocking but cute when Kazue had asked for rabbit stew when she saw it on a nu, and she had blushed before muttering. “What? I am not going to create simulated rabbit at and eat it there. That would be rude, no, that would be an. And I think that rabbit is tasty.” That last was said with a aningful half smile that made Moriko laugh.
The little red-headed kitsune had also beco a local celebrity as soon as word had passed around that the dungeon’s avatar had co to visit, and while Kazue could be quite the extrovert, this much public attention was a bit overwhelming for her.
All of the attention helped pick up business for a few days at the shop, however, as Moriko’s parents insisted that people at least buy so tea or infusions if they were going to stand around and gawk. So of the shelves were empty by the ti the initial hubbub had died down.
It had also been a useful stress test while they were deciding a final dosage for Kazue, and even then they gave her a leather pouch-roll with a lot of tiny, numbered pouches and a notebook, with instructions to go through her dicine in order and take notes on her day. Moriko was pretty certain that she was going to have to be Kazue’s minder on that last part.
She had been ‘torturing’ her wife as well. Moriko had deliberately not used a healing prayer on Kazue in order to find out which muscles were the sorest, and had begun setting morning stretches and exercises for Kazue to start working them out. When Kazue complained at one point that the stretches were going to break her hips, Moriko replied that it simply ant that Mordecai had been too gentle with her, and smirked as she watched Kazue blush at the implication.
They didn’t have a specific schedule, but Moriko wanted to delay until she was sure Kazue was up to the longer trip. They were going to be taking the road that went around to the north of the Azeria forest before another road branched off to head to the clan itself. This was the first part of the route that Moriko had used when traveling to the capital. It was also slightly longer when going to the clan instead of the capital, but part of the idea behind this trip was for Kazue to get used to being away from the dungeon. So taking the southern road that passed by the dungeon was out for now.
There was one evening of particular note: Moriko and Kazue were enjoying a drink at a tavern when a human man who looked like he’d had a bit too much approached their table with a confident smile. His accent imdiately caused Moriko to recall the incident three months ago with the noble. “Well, you two pretty ladies look like you could use so company, and I would like to buy you so drinks. And after that, well, we can always see how things go from there.”
It wasn’t the worst pickup at a bar soone had tried on Moriko, but it wasn’t the best either. She and Kazue exchanged glances and small smirks, then raised their left hands to show off the matching rings. “Sorry, we already have each other. Happily married and all that.”
The man frowned in slight confusion for a mont before his face cleared. “Oh yeah, that sort of stuff is legit out in the open here. So, ah, do you two, ah, ‘experint’?”
Moriko rolled her eyes while Kazue giggled and answered the man. “You’re out of luck there too. We also have a husband for that.” The kitsune grinned at him in what could be mistaken for a friendly gesture, but Moriko could see that she wanted the guy to go away.
As he took a breath to have another go, Moriko spoke up first, her eyes flicking briefly down and back up the man’s body. “And I have to say, you don’t quite asure up.” She finished with a smirk. The comnt was sharp enough to possibly provoke a negative response, but he’d already been told no, twice. Moriko started gathering her shadow-chi, preparing to end this quickly if the man didn’t heed this third ‘no’.
Then a large hand landed on the man’s shoulder from behind. “Enough.” Said the newcor, an older man with a scowl on his face though with the sa northern accent. “You need to learn when to walk away. Go outside, I will deal with you in a mont.” The younger man had paled slightly, and submitted to being pushed toward the door, where a few other younger n were frowning at him or shaking their heads.
The older man bowed slightly to Moriko and Kazue. “I apologize for the disturbance. We are on leave, and so handle the reduced discipline less well than others. I will handle this if you will allow, and make sure he does not bother you again.”
Kazue relaxed with a swish of her tail and Moriko gave the slightly grizzled man a more genuine smile even as she ntally reached out to grab Mordecai and other-Kazue’s attention. “You saved your junior so pain. I was just deciding on how best to take him apart without doing anything permanent.” When she relaxed her chi, Moriko let it visibly ripple the shadows around her. “I don’t think even sober he’d have lasted long.”
Their visitor inclined his head in acknowledgnt. “I was not sure, but I did notice both you and your wife leaning more toward action rather than leaning away.”
Kazue started at that, and then blushed. “Er, I guess I was. Heh, I guess being married to two ass-kickers has rubbed off.” She made a face. “But this one is a sadist, makes exercise every morning.”
Moriko eyed her wife as Kazue took another large sip from her ad. The man just laughed. “Then I must be evil incarnate, for I make many people exercise very early in the morning.”
“Captain,” Moriko said thoughtfully, “seems like you lot have traveled a long way. If you want to tell so tales over a drink or two, that sort of company would be welco before parting ways.” She lightly stepped on Kazue’s foot to silence her when she frowned in confusion. Moriko was running this by the others even as she acted, so far they’d seen no reason to change her plans.
“Hah, even that would make him fu, maybe I should.” He paused, then grinned. “And you got my rank without asking, well done, and good guess. Captain Alain Vitomir, at your service. May I have the honor of knowing your nas?”
“Moriko of Riverbridge, and Kazue of Azeria clan.” She answered with a smile, deliberately not ntioning the Azeria Mountain Dungeon. How much that mattered depended on what the captain already knew, but she didn’t want to actually lie either.
“A pleasure to et the both of you. But while I rather like the idea of swapping tales, I think it would be bad form to do so tonight, or at night in general, for the sake of discipline. However, if you are available in the morning, I would be glad to be shown around by so locals, and would be happy to pay for a couple of als for your troubles. Ah, and to be clear, I am also hoping to hear more about this new dungeon of yours. I thought it might be a fun training exercise, but it is not sothing that could be done on duty, so I got so of my n willing to spend their leave for this.” The captain shrugged. “We’ve only been here a day, but most are very vague in what they are willing to tell us.”
Moriko’s suspicions had been t, though she appreciated the straightforward approach. She wasn’t sure she bought that they were actually on leave, but it was reasonably plausible. It also bought deniability. She smiled at Alain. “That we can do. We’ve both been there. As for the reaction you’ve received, well, you are foreign soldiers. Even without uniforms, it’s easy to see the military bearing. And we all really like our crazy little dungeon. But I think I can give away a little more without saying anything that the dungeon wouldn’t like.”
Moriko could see Kazue biting her lip to keep silent, and once the captain had left after a eting ti and place had been arranged, she leaned across the table to whisper at Moriko, “What are you doing? Doesn’t that an these guys are allied with the ones that tried to kill us?”
She smiled calmly at Kazue. “Maybe, maybe not. It might be so other faction gaining information, the cult hardly represents the whole empire. But this seems like a good chance to learn sothing in return.” Moriko tapped her head then. “And I’ve been in contact since we started talking with the good captain.”
“Bah.” Kazue made a face. “I don’t like not being in the loop.”
“I’m sorry love. I wish I could fix that part. But sotis you just have to trust soone’s judgnt when you don’t have the ti to talk about it.” Moriko leaned across the table to et Kazue’s lips with a kiss. “Co on, I want to talk to a few people tonight and make sure tomorrow goes smoothly, and then we can go to bed.” She smirked at Kazue. “And then we can see about adjusting your definition of being evil.”
Things had picked up a bit at the dungeon while Moriko and Kazue’s avatar were enjoying their vacation. It had been amusing for Kazue to watch the newest arrivals be confused over the small town that had grown outside the dungeon. There had been only a handful of buildings when the caravan had left, but the bunkin had been quite industrious.
She’d spend a bit of ti helping the new bosses adjust to their position, and she guided a few of the laganthros in what to say when letting visitors know of the new rules, but overall it had run smoothly. As an added bonus, having a few inns and taverns ant that people had a better way to mingle, which ant more chances for groups to mix and match.
Not everyone who challenged the dungeon did so at the maximum of seven, but a lot of people did. And there were people coming from farther away now as well, so so of them were tight-knit groups that didn’t want to mix others in.
Kazue had been worried that with so many people having heard about them there would be a lot of stronger warriors and mages showing up who would be able to clear the dungeon, and after that attack she was a little nervous about hosting people who could clear the floors, but Mordecai didn’t seem to think it was likely that they’d get a team of people as strong as her parents, or at least, not very often. As interesting as so of their offerings might be, most of the people who could overwhelm them had more profitable work to be doing. It was always possible they’d get a trio of legends who were bored or such, but her husband didn’t consider it likely to happen often. The people who were just strong enough to clear the dungeon without casualties were the ones who could make the most relative profit.
Still, she was nervous running so much of the dungeon herself. Mordecai was spending a lot of his core’s attention on keeping Li entertained, and his avatar was usually either playing with Li in person or working on his crafting.
Speaking of which, part of her wanted to be annoyed that he’d set up his workbench in his bedroom and it was spilling out into the central bedroom. But, it was also unoccupied by anyone else at the mont, since it wasn’t like she could use it without her avatar here.
Sleep and cuddles had been added to her list of things she was missing about having a physical body.
Well, tomorrow should be an interesting day, she and Mordecai were both eager to find out what they could about the captain and his n.
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