"To tell all this to someone that you barely know… Are you sane?"
"Good question. Since yesterday I felt like I'm living in a dream. However, I think that if you want someone to trust you, you should trust them first." I said to her with a playful tone.
"You still are hiding some things from me though." She said with suspicion in her voice.
"A man can have his secrets. Everything in its right time. I intend to tell you girls all in the near future. Consider yourself privileged, you already know a few things before Sarah and Alicia." I said to Diane.
"What kind of thing?"
"I didn't tell them about the guys wanting my head and about the content of my tattoos." I confessed, but I didn't expect the smile emerging from Diane's lips. I was right, she had a beautiful smile.
"Hmph. You avoided telling them the part that would make them worry, and the part that would make them targets for interrogation." She said smiling.
"I just don't want them to worry needlessly. I don't want to hide the truth forever, but only when the time is right."
"So you carry the weight alone." She asked me.
"I gave half of the weight to you, so I don't feel so alone." I replied to her. "That just shows how much I want you to trust me."
She sighed deeply.
"What a tiresome man I stumbled upon." She said, giving a small laugh. "But you're a good man."
"So what do you say?"
"Hmph, I don't know if it's the right choice, but I'll trust you, at least for now." She told me in a monotonic voice.
'To me, this shows some progress for today.' I thought positively, and then I said, "Well, let's stop those two before they go to each other's throats."
…
The fresh nightly air brought a pleasant sensation to my new room. We decided to rent a room with a bigger bed at the inn. With our money together it was affordable for me and Sarah, and it was better for us now we are together.
"So a three bed bedroom?" Miss Grace asked me back then.
"N-No. Only one big bed should do. If you don't have one, two beds will do." I responded to her.
Miss Grace's mouth opened in an expression of surprise.
"Oh my. It's really a surprise. What an energetic man you are." She said in a flirty tone. "I mean… in the same room with two girls. It's so good to be young." I took it as a compliment to my virility, smiling back. Thankfully Sarah and Alicia weren't there to hear this.
Alicia and Sarah finally stopped fighting and I retrieved my t-shirt without much damage on it. For some reason they seemed to be getting along after spending the rest of the day together walking through town.
Sarah brought her stuff to our new room and one of her items was a brown package that seemed to be new.
"Don't you think about opening that." She said sharply. I was curious about it, but I thought that it wasn't worth the risk of taking a peek.
They went to take our meal so we could eat together in privacy, so I decided to take my time to look at the Valkyrie System.
'Just now I have peace and quiet to clean the room.' I thought inwardly.
[
Name: Richard Forster
Class: Valkyrie Tamer
Level: 2
Valkyries: 1/3
Health: 60 points
Mana: 25 points
Strength: 3 points
Defense: 1 point
Magic: 2 points
Agility: 2 points
Status Points: 4 points
]
'I think that I should get stronger so I won't need to depend on Ero Boost. What would I do if the effect wears off in the middle of a fight? Forget it! I should use it as a last resort. I think this build should do.'
[
Name: Richard Forster
Class: Valkyrie Tamer
Level: 2
Valkyries: 1/3
Health: 60 points
Mana: 15 points
Strength: 6 points
Defense: 1 point
Magic: 2 points
Agility: 3 points
Status Points: 0 points
]
'Healing Fluids looks good as it is, so adding points to magic isn't a priority. I'll raise Strength and Agility, after all they were my most useful weapons in my last fight. Oh, it's true! Sarah's stats.'
[
Name: Sarah Lockhart
Level: 3
Class: Swordmaster
Title: Valkyrie
Master: Richard Forster
Health: 70 points
Mana: 30 points
Strength: 5 points
Defense: 1 point
Magic: 2 points
Agility: 3 points
Status Points: 8 points
]
'8 points!? That's impressive! That's the result after defeating two bandits.' I thought a bit about how to distribute the points. After some time, building her status became like that.
[
Name: Sarah Lockhart
Level: 3
Class: Swordmaster
Title: Valkyrie
Master: Richard Forster
Health: 70 points
Mana: 30 points
Strength: 7 points
Defense: 3 points
Magic: 5 points
Agility: 4 points
Status Points: 0 points
]
'This way Sarah will deal more damage from her abilities, without forgetting defense and agility.' I thought a bit about if I was forgetting something, and then it hit me. 'Brandish, are you there?'
[ Yes! Is there something that you need? ]
'Not really. It's almost time to go to bed, so I just wanted to thank you for your help today. You're being pretty helpful to me so I wanted to show my gratitude.' I said to her.
[ T-Thank you. I appreciate it, truly. ]
'So I will count on you tomorrow again. Have a good night.'
[ Have a good night! ]
As I finished talking with Brandish, I could hear the door creaking, and there it was Sarah and Alicia bringing our dinner meal.
Sarah passed a bowl of a brown, hot, thick liquid. Some pieces of vegetables, carrots and potatoes, were swimming in the mix. It was a simple soup, but the smell of that meal woke up my hungry stomach.
This room had a table with enough space for us. Me and Sarah were digging into our food as usual, but Alicia didn't move her spoon, which called our attention.
"Hmm, something is wrong, Alicia?" I asked her, hesitating. I was afraid that something like that could happen. Alicia was a noble, so changing from fine dining food to our common soup must be a shock to her.
But what really surprised me was when a tear dropped from her face, and then she started crying.
"Finally I can eat real food…" She was talking while sobbing. "I was tired of eating roasted squirrels and nuts. Thank you, goddess."
"Calm down, Alicia." I repeated these words, until she stopped crying.
Thankfully Alicia wasn't spoiled to the point that she couldn't enjoy a good but common plate, so she happily ate all the soup that was in her bowl. We all filled our stomachs, compensating the work of the day. Nobody died or was harmed today, and that was a reason to celebrate.
"I wish that Diane could enjoy this soup." Alicia said with sadness in her voice.
"It couldn't be helped. That woman is so stubborn." She said, catching Alicia's eyes. Her expression became grim.
"It's nothing personal. Diane doesn't like to stay near other people. She has been like that since we were kids." Alicia said, while rubbing her bowl of soup with her index finger.
"So you have known each other since childhood. Is she a noble?" I asked, curious about Diane. If I learn more about her past maybe I could get close to her.
"No, she is not from a noble family. She was taken to the royal castle when we were 5 years old. At that time my father just said that she was my new bodyguard." Her smile returned to her face while remembering her past. "I was so happy that there was another kid my age, that I wanted to be her friend, but she was always 'cold like this.'" She said this last part trying to imitate Diane's monotonic voice.
"Wait! You said that she was your bodyguard at 5! Is this even possible?" Sarah asked nervously.
"Diane's case is… complicated." Alicia said, looking at her empty bowl.
"Hmm, I see." Sarah said, ashamed of her early comment. "Well, I will ask Miss Grace to make some for her in the morning. She's part of our party, so it's not good if she doesn't eat well. She'll slow us down."
"And we'll go on an adventure through the country, so we'll have a lot of opportunities to eat together." I helped to make Alicia feel better.
Alicia smiled like she was covered by a shining aura. "Thank you very much!"
"But this will have to wait until tomorrow. Our night isn't finished yet." I said to them.
Alicia was embarrassed. She knew what we were talking about. I offered her my assistance, turning her into my Valkyrie, but for that she needed to sleep with me.
But Alicia turned her head toward me, her beautiful green eyes were fixed on mine.
"I know. I won't step back." She said with bravery.
"Even knowing that we would be having sex with a commoner?" I asked.
"If it's you I don't mind." She leaned in my direction and gave a kiss on my cheek, in front of a dumbfounded Sarah. "I like you."
[ New mission available! ]