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Chapter 322: A Plant’s Matter. [Release Version]
🕑 Added 2022-05-31 00:56:28 +0000 UTC“Rita! That is my name, fauna friends. Summer’s dying embers careth for you, as we meet under Autumn's moon. May the fae Goddess bless you with calm winds!”
The green-skinned androgynous person clapped their hands together in prayer, before doing it twice, joyous to be finished with her introduction. She tippy-toed over to us, staring at us with the curiosity and starry eyes of a wonder-filled child.
“My name is Hestia, and—”
“She’s my little sister, Rita,” Neill interjected herself immediately before I could state what she said.
“…” I stared at Neill’s thumbs-up, as if she was saying “Don’t worry, I vouched for you” with that smirk of hers. I continued, ignoring her, “ Yeah, I’m her half-sister from the same father. This is my mother, Melloxtressa. My friends Tasianna, Shayatierus, Bethlieranha, and—”
“Graaa!” Rajah jumped out from my shadow, before stroking his head against my leg. He was pretty sad he couldn’t do anything when I went berserk before, so this was his way to soothe me.
“Rajah.”
“Oooooh, a virigress! Now this is a feline monster I haven’t seen in a loooooong time. You don’t find them much in the western part of the continent. Oooh!” Similar to how Rita picked up my tail and inspected it, she was now staring at Rajah as if he was something extraordinary, out of this world.
Rajah froze in place, snapping his eyes to me as if he wasn’t sure what he should do. Rita herself pulled out some parchments and a journal from her flowery bag, and began scribbling things down on them. She was too focused on her curiosity to stop. To bridge this silence, Tasianna stepped forward.
“You are a dryad, no, Miss Rita?”
“Ooh? Ahh, yes, that I am! Miss Tasianna, you are a f— Mhmm!” Before Rita could say anything, Tasianna stuffed her mouth with her hand and pulled her to the side, agitating Renee. Neill immediately grabbed her shoulder, pulled her back, and told her everything would be fine.
“I’m in this form to—” I heard Tasianna mumble something before diverting my senses away to not accidentally eavesdrop. After a few seconds and a lot of nodding, the two of them returned to us.
Rita, having calmed down, bowed her body. “I apologize! I think I was a bit too excited there. The world had changed so much I just wanted to experience it all, and I think I got, too, well, I guess you know what happened.”
We nodded.
“Rita has always been extremely curious, since we met a couple of months ago. Don’t let it bother you,” Renee added. As Neill said, Renee didn’t like showing her face, so I couldn’t really see her expression through her helmet.
“True. Probably should have warned you, but I forgot.” Neill was speaking about the tail inspection and upskirt incident from a moment ago. “She did the same thing with me, but unlike how calm and composed you were, I nearly stomped her face into the ground.”
“Oooh, I understand, but you have to admit a kirin-dragon is an extremely rare, and probably, unique subrace of the dragonkins! I just had to!” Rita started to become excited again. “Oooh, Fargryneill, I would like to ask you again! Could you show— Wahh!”
Neill flicked the dryad’s forehead, looking unamused. “Once again, you can’t ask me to show you my form as if it's some favor!”
“You two, break up, now! We have helpers! Stop embarrassing yourself even further!”
The stern but worry-filled voice of Renee, the fully-excited and remorseless tone of Rita, and the tomboyish actions of my big sister. These three were arguing amongst each other, showing a rather fiery dynamic we couldn’t stop even if we tried to. In my group, we decided unanimously to allow the three to let them sort out their issues.
Once they were exhausted and parched from all the talking, Renee and Neill gave us a quick rundown of why we were here exactly.
To start, this area northwest of Elyonda and about a three-hour ride with a carriage away used to be the homestead of her family. Renee didn’t specify if she was a noble or commoner, staying silent when I asked her about that. Instead, she simply changed the topic and directed our attention to her magic ring, the catalyst she used to create that wind-based carriage.
It was a gift from her parents, belonging to her father before he perished. While her mother returned to live with her grandparents, she sent Renee a letter specifying the details of her father’s heirloom and most valuable treasure, a medallion. The object was returned to the mansion after her father’s death and, according to her, was somehow sealed and almost killed her, wasn’t it for Neill’s intervention.
“Pretty strong blast of arcane corrupted mana. I reacted in time with the dragon paths, but it probably would have blown the mansion up if I hadn’t done anything.” Neill sighed, not fond of that memory.
“I personally would evaluate myself as a B rank adventurer, as you could see from my performance during the elimination match. However, compared to my father, I am nowhere even close to his strength. He was one of the greatest knights I’ve ever known.” Renee went silent for a moment, probably melancholic for her lost family member.
“My condolences,” I said.
“No need.” She shook her head, her emotions unclear to me with her stoic voice. “Father was a grand knight, and he died in battle in the service of his Lord. There is no greater honor for a knight. As his offspring and a knight myself, I have a responsibility to carry on his light. The Goddess watches our every action, after all. Isn’t that correct, Lady Priestess?”
I nodded. Aurena and her aides were watching us right now, probably.
“So, little one, you brought us here for that heirloom, yes? If you wanted Hestia to burn the vines down, you should have just asked her sister to do so,” Mother pointed out after Renee gave us the gist. I nodded also, but that was not the end of the story.
Rita jumped forward, shaking her hands wildly. “No, no, please! Those are my vines. They are there to protect the outside world from entering the place, so nobody can get hurt.”
Rita was a dryad, a plant person who was more similar to the grass and trees inside this area than me, being of flesh and blood. According to Tasianna, who sent this information to me through [Telepathy], dryads were similar to treants — tree monsters — in the sense they were spriggans — a faefolk — who inhabited a plant-based host to create for themselves a tangible body.
However, unlike treants, dryads were considered the “pure” version, as instead of turning into monsters, they turn into humanoids. In this form, they were more similar to a grimgarian. They could get jobs but also had the ability to evolve. However, since they remained pure, their original faefolk personality remained in them. They were more curious, mischievous beings.
In Rita’s case, she was 240 years old, but acted more like a young adult in their early twenties. Rita was actually gender-neutral, but preferred calling herself with female pronouns, even styling her androgynous body to be more feminine.
Surprisingly, this was Tasianna’s first encounter with a dryad, telling me they were extremely rare and that, to her knowledge, there weren’t any dryads in Saelariel. Instead, there were countless treants, both hostile and peaceful — like Muraina’s owl treant — to be found in Saelariel. Meaning, to remain “pure” was quite a hard task for most spriggans.
“So, you can retract the vines at any time?” I asked, to which Rita nodded vigorously.
“Of course! As long as I am rooted to them with my mana, I control them however I want! Hmm, yes, I perfected it after I met with one of the Kurnistus drakes, so you can trust me!” Rita named an ancient drake, using their name to vouch for her ability to me, a dragon.
Kurnistus? Hmmm, wait?
“Kurnistus? Hold on, do you know Cernust?!” My eyes widened wide when I remembered the meaning of that name, figuring she might have some connection with a friend.
“Ooooh, you know Cernust, too? Wow, what a small world! Mhm, yes, I met him three years, 4 months, and 16 days ago in a place called Artorias, I believe. Ahh, but no, I learned the ability from his father when he visited me at my old home. But, that was before I went into hibernation.” Rita looked troubled for some reason, before shaking it off and directing my attention back to Cernust. “In any case, how is he doing? As a fellow botanist, I must know if he is still traveling and collecting seeds on his trip!”
Considering Rita knew Cernust’s tendency to collect whatever seed he found interesting, I fully believed her statement. Which wasn’t as surprising, since Cernust had been on his pilgrimage for a while now, and probably had met people and seen things. Since he was a [Woodland Drake], it made sense he would bound with a dryad.
I wanted to speak with Rita about Cernust, but before we could, Renee's deep voice halted us. “You may bond later. I know this isn’t right for me to rush you, but we technically only have today and tomorrow afternoon before we must return to Elyonda for the tournament. If possible, I wish to make as much progress as possible.”
Oops, she’s right.
I agreed to help Renee, so letting myself get distracted wasn’t the right thing to do. Although Rita pouted, she also understood Renee's desire to have this over with. After all, her father’s heirloom was inside that vine ball.
Renee, happy to see us work with her, nodded and continued where she left of from, “Returning to the topic, after Fargryneill and I were nearly torn into pieces by that explos—”
“You would have been blown up, even with your armor and runes. I have innate blast and mana resistance due to being a kirin-dragon,” Neill interjected herself, always competing with others.
“… Can you not, for a moment?” Sis shrugged her shoulders, so Renee continued. Their dynamic really was interesting. “Haaaa, in any case, after I was nearly blown into pieces, we began searching around for a way to unseal the heirloom. Since we knew we had to get rid of all that corrupted mana, the best way forward was to find an alchemist or scholar from Aleistunum. However, on the way, we met Rita.”
“Rita isn’t much a scholar of texts or really anything outside of flora and human interactions, but she resonated with us better than the mages we found in Aleistunum,” Neill added.
“The reason was mostly money. Smaller or not, a kirin-dragon still has the appetite of a dragon. I presume you two should know, Lady Hestia? Empress Melloxtressa?” The both of us nodded. Outside of equipment, most of our spending went into food and spices.
Renee placed a hand on her head, probably exasperated at this fact. “I see… Well, money concerns meant we couldn’t hire a good enough scholar to follow us here, so we had to rely on Rita. However, it was like we struck gold.”
“Mhmm! You see, I have a unique evolution of [Identify] in the form of my [Investigate].” Rita looked proud as she explained to us her skill’s function.
<Investigate: An appraisal skill able to bypass [Identity Blocker], however, this skill does not allow access to another’s Profile without their explicit consent. Enables the reveal of an organism’s race and biological function, an object’s material construction, and situational analysis>
… Oh. That’s why, huh?
The reason why she immediately knew I was a dragon the moment she saw me was due to this skill, and since it wasn’t as invasive as [Identify] or [Mana Eyes], it didn’t trigger my [Identity Blocker]. Which made me realize why Tasianna stopped her from speaking before, as Rita probably knew Tasianna was a fairy with this skill.
I asked Tasianna about it through telepathy, which she confirmed. In other words, [Investigate] also bypassed transformation skills like [Humanize] and [Elvenize]. Although it didn’t show a person’s Profile, it still felt like a privacy invasion in this case. Still, since you couldn’t inspect a person’s skills and stats with this skill, outside of with people who granted you their permission to do so, this appraising skill probably wasn’t as good during a fight, and was more suitable for research.
When I pointed that last point out, Rita flinched, looking shocked. “You figured it out?! Wow! Just like Renee and Fargryneill! You really are smart.”
Wasn’t that obvious?
“But, yes, it isn’t the best skill for fighting, but all this violent pow-pow-pow really isn’t my forte. Life is far too precious for me to wilt and waste it on combat. I rather escape, even if I could handle most situations as a C rank.”
Surviving was winning. That mantra was something I agreed with 100%.
“So, the reason why Miss Rita is ‘gold’ is because of her skill?” Tasianna deduced from the meaning of our discussion.
“Correct.” Renee nodded before turning to Rita. “Has your investigation led to anything? Is there a way for me to get to the medallion safely?”
“Oh yeah, of course.” Rita nodded confidently. “It is just an accumulation of arcane corruption, after all. Also some demonic energy, but that can be easily cleansed with the correct concoction.”
“Hold on, demonic energy?!” I stopped her from continuing and looked over to Renee, prompting her to answer.
“My father died during a battle between the demonkins. I guess it should have been obvious that some demonic taint got to it.” I wasn’t fully satisfied with her answer, but I accepted it nonetheless. With my question answered, Rita continued.
“So, there is a way to drain the mana, however, you can’t do it with macula seeds, sadly. They only work when in the ground, but the mana is in the air inside a fairnite room. We need an alchemical drainer.”
Tasianna explained an alchemical drainer was used to extract mana from water or the air to fuel mana batteries. Nowadays, there were manatech made to replace them, since the alchemical version was a one-time use item as it simulated the function of a macula plant.
Usually, mana created from spells would linger in the air for a bit before infusing themselves into the ground. Mana was easier to find in more corporeal substances, like earth, compared to the air. It also didn’t help mana in the air would move freely, sometimes even escape an area entirely. That was why it was easier to lower a location’s total mana accumulation through macula plants, by sucking the mana out from the ground.
As such, drainers weren’t as common to find, mostly used by alchemists or as a mana battery refueler for non-mages. However, in both cases, if a mage was around, a drainer wasn’t usually needed. As such, drainers were uncommon and expensive to buy. Although, the most egregious version of this drainer was the one the humans used to suck the mana out of faefolk.
“Can’t we use a manatech drainer?” Tasianna asked as such.
“Urgh, not a fan of them…” Rita grimaced, something Tasianna shared, before replying. “Seriously, it probably won’t work, except if you can spare the money to buy a high-quality one. No, we need multiple of them working at the same time, and depending on your funds, it would be best to make them ourselves.”
“So, what do you need for that?” Neill asked.
“Thank you for asking! So, we need a drainer that can absorb mana from the air, right? In other words, we need plant-based ones. After we do that, Fargryneill, you need to cover the medallion’s in a mana barrier, or I can cast [Air Shield] around it. After that, we leave the rest to Renee,” Rita explained her plan, before pulling out a loose parchment from her journal. “So, for the drainer, we need: a talented alchemist or multiple of them, a super-strong flame as we need to boil the concoction, strong alcohol to bind the ingredients, salt, some other herbs, but, most importantly, mandragoras.”
“Mandragoras?” I tilted my head, somehow thinking I had heard that somewhere.
“Yup! Those little annoying things are the best root ingredient if you want to make a non-blood potion without ruining the regenerative feature. They have so much mana inside their tiny bodies, accumulated through years from growing in the ground, that they are extremely effective for elixirs used on hard to cure diseases.” Rita produced a journal entry on the mandragora, which entailed so detailed information I thought it was a botanical book. “However, due to the mana inside them, whenever you try to harvest them, this mana explodes. People call it a ‘scream,’ but it is more like ripping the plant out of its roots of mana. This causes friction with the wind, releasing this ‘scream’ to hopefully deter predators. If they remain in the ground, the roots reconnect perfectly. And—”
“Rita, stop, don’t go on a tangent, please,” Neill interrupted her. “However, as you said, those things are hard to harvest. Expensive, even the low-quality ones. You have to be kidding with this being the cheapest method!”
However, Rita shook her head, discouraging Sis. “I am not, sadly. What we need is a herbal bath-like drainer. Set it in the room, and just leave it there. Over time, the mandragora remains will want to suck up the mana from the air. In addition, mandragoras are good elixir ingredients because they can purify arcane corruption like fulinoe leaves! They have this special function inside these so-called ‘cells’ where they can—”
“Rita!” Neill shouted. “Please, summary.”
“Uuuh, uhm, well, this drainer would be flaming hot since we will use an extreme fire for the boiling process. Once the mana gets trapped inside the herbal bath, caused by the mandragora, it will start purifying the arcane corruption and, hopefully, the demonic mana. It will cleanse everything, and should make it clear for you to move in.” She then gave the recipe of the concoction to Renee. “I haven’t made a drainer like this before, but I know how to combine the ingredients. We just need a good alchemist.”
“Tsk, more like, we need to fin—” Renee sounded irritated from what she heard, but before she could grimace over it, Tasianna moved next to her, holding her hand forward.
“I am an alchemist. May I read it?” Renee was stunned for a moment, but after looking over at me and seeing me confirm it with a nod, she handed the parchment to Tasianna.
“Hmm.” Tasianna began reading the instructions and recipe intently, before going over to Rita with questions. “You didn’t specify the alcohol, but since this doesn’t use blood, as it isn’t a curative, we probably could get away with a more potent liquor to elevate the effects of the mandragora. I actually am making dwarven whiskey, and have enough for a whole cauldron.”
“Oh? Oh, no, we don’t really need that much! I think five or six mug-sized drainers should be enough for the process. Speaking of the liquor, if we can find extremely potent ones, there is also the need for us to buy a more high-quality mandragora, otherwise, the alcohol would simply overpower it.” Rita quickly adjusted to Tasianna’s sudden question, answering it and giving her more information to work with.
Now grinning, Tasianna seemed like she was in her element right now. “Oh, I know. We need to balance the ratio and also the purity of the alcohol per the mixture. Without blood or mana water as the base, I presume you want the alcohol to become the base, right? So it could endure the flames longer? Why would you need such a flame?”
“The reason is that mandragoras require extreme heat to work properly! You need to extract the mana from them to see their healing factor in action, but you can’t get the mana if you crush them. You need to slice them and then have them boil in the fluids. That is why most alchemists dislike using them, although they are one of the best! Hard to harvest, rare, and also difficult to handle.”
“Was Lady Fargryneill’s flames not enough?”
“No.”
“Arck!” Neill took emotional damage to her pride, but didn’t respond back.
But Rita’s answer quickly repaired it before it broke down. “Her black flames aren’t designed to be used for alchemical usage. They are better used to burn things down and destroy things, but pure, red flames would be better! Princess Hestia is a fire dragon, no? She doesn’t share the same black scales as her sister.”
“That is correct,” Tasianna nodded, glancing over to me as she managed to extract the reason why we were here. Renee told us she needed my flames, so the reason for that was due to Rita’s concoction. “So, let us say we have high-quality whiskey, if we were to use an extremely valuable mandragora, how many batches would we need and how difficult would it be to brew?”
“If we’re talking without accounting for expenses, with the best formula, we would only need one batch. The best mandragora probably has the highest quality mana you could use for alchemy, while also having the best mana absorption ability. However, since we need to extract its mana, we need flames so hot you could only find them in a volcano or lava field. Not to mention, we need better equipment for something like that.”
“Understood. I believe I have a plan.” Tasianna stood up and walked over to me, before beginning to whisper her favor into my ears. “Since Sir Farron is healed, we don’t need the hellscream mandragora anymore, right?”
Ah, that was why I remembered that item.
Among the five ingredients we needed to cure Farron, one of them included the [Hellscream Mandragora]. One of the finest medical plants out there, Yorshka had successfully acquired it for her husband’s sake. However, after I healed his crystallized lungs with [Miraculous Grace], the need for the mandragora pretty much faded.
Yorshka should still have it, including another ingredient — the [Jabbermight’s Bloodclaw] — were both in my storage for safekeeping. I had completely forgotten about them, but Tasianna remembered them just in time for today. I didn’t really have a problem using them, but before we could, I had to ask Yorshka since the mandragora was hers.
“Do you think you can do it?” I asked Tasianna, who smiled back at me without a shred of doubt.
“I am not a master yet, however, we know of somebody who is a master alchemist. And I am not talking about Cernust here.”
“… Oh, Reajaen! She also has her own laboratory, right?!” I remembered Reajaen was technically the guild master of Gleisvale’s alchemy guild. She learned her craft from the Prince of Sloth. “Wait, I thought you hated her, Tasianna.”
Tasianna hadn’t forgiven Reajaen for anything she did, even if she decided on her conscience to spare her. However, it wasn’t done on goodwill alone, as Tasianna did it purely to not blight her own soul by killing Reajaen for revenge. She understood the meaning of vigilante justice, and Reajaen was simply biding her time until she could transfer all her work to her son, her heir, before she would accept the Saelariel’s justice for orchestrating the death of a fairy princess.
“That isn’t a problem to me, Lady Hestia. I despise her with every fiber of my body, but she is currently, until she is judged, one of your servants. In your service, I can bite my tongue and simply endure it. I mean, I managed to do it when we first came to Firwood, no?” She giggled a bit at that last part, bringing back fond memories of our time in Carine village and Firwood.
I shouldn’t have worried.
With that settled, I spoke with Neill telepathically for a second. [“Hey, Sis, can I trust both Renee and Rita with my [Space-Time Magic]? Do you think they will leak it?”]
[“Hmm?! Oh jeez, that was a surprise. Warn me when you speak like this. I haven’t communicated like this in ages,”] Sis was flustered, causing everybody to become suspicious. [“In any case, yeah, probably. Rita has a good heart and head. Renee is a bit more of a mystery, since I have no idea what her background really is, but I think you can. I would like to think my two-year companion wouldn’t betray me, at least.”]
Betrayal might have been a strong word, but I guess having your friend inconveniencing your little sister, especially after you vouched for them, probably would hurt Neill a lot. She wasn’t the scheming type. She was straightforward with her intentions, and that was an aspect I liked about her. As Mother said, the strong do not need to trick others, and that showed in Neill’s attitude.
With her word, I warned everybody of my [Terra Wall]s, using the spell to construct a dome around us to hide what I was about to do. In the darkness, I created a small fire before throwing down my [Room] runes on the floor, opening the portal. Renee and Rita were both surprised, prompting me to ask them to be quiet about it.
“… A void-touched, huh? If you are going the distance to help me out, then by my honor, you have my word I will bring this secret to my grave.” Renee then glanced over to Neill. “Now I am really interested in your sister.”
“Oh, sure. Not like angering two dragon princesses sounded very smart if I want to continue living, right? Hehe,” Rita, on the other hand, was quite excited about everything. She even jokingly agreed to keep her mouth shut.
First stop, the nexus.
I hurried everybody into the portal. Neill had already been inside the subspace before, so she wasn’t as surprised as Renee and Rita, however, I would leave the explanation to Tasianna.
“Mhmph!” The first thing I heard when we all got through the portal was the sound of people eating.
[“Master, look! Ellaine and the others are here!”] Rajah pointed my attention to the dinner table, causing me to snap my head around and run over to them. I haven’t seen them in like two weeks!
“Guys!”
“Mhmm? Oh, Hesti-chan, hey!” Kohaku was the first to greet me, prompting the others to quickly do the same.
“Oh, hey! Sorry for the long wait!” Kazumi added, but for some reason, just like Kohaku, she looked pretty roughed up. As in, they were both sweaty, dirty, and just looked as if they had been underground for a long while. In fact, all of them could be described as such!
Tamae, Nishio, Misaki, Haruka, Daichi, and finally Ellaine. With Kohaku and Kazumi, all the young adults in Grimnir’s group were here, but the one person missing was—
“Ghrm! Hestia!” Ellaine swallowed a mouthful of food in one good, looking like she was about to choke. Although Josine, her maid, was worried about her, Ellaine still stood up to report to me. “Sorry! I apologize for going silent for all this time. Some things happened in Inkoran-Tazul, and, well, we didn’t exactly have the luxury to come and go into the subspace.”
“Wait, what happened?! Where is Grimnir?!” I was starting to worry about how Ellaine worded it, but it settled down a bit when Ellaine began to shake her hands animatedly.
“No, nothing that serious! It’s just, as you know, zuekluks are despised amongst the dwarves. We’ve not been having a good time. Some important dwarven personages have approached us, none of the high king, though, but due to Master Grimnir being around, we’ve been making enemies. Recently, Master’s old clan paid us a visit. The altercation got a bit chaotic.”
“Chaotic? More like physical!” Daichi bashed the table with his fist, looking furious. “They expected Master to hand over his blasthammer! Not only that, but everything he had! ‘Strip yourself, for you have no honor!’ It got even worse when they learned Master’s cousin died! Fuck those dwarves, honestly!”
“Hey, Daichi, mind not spitting?” Nishio glared, disgusted at Nishio’s spit nearly touching his dish. “In any case, don’t worry too much about us, Hestia-san. It looks as if we are having a problem, but it’s actually pretty beneficial.”
“The dwarven capital has multiple dungeons, and all of them also function as mining tunnels,” Misaki elaborated, one of the few who was eating slowly. “Except for Ellaine-chan and Grimnir, all of us are level 70 now. It is good training and it doubles as preparation for the smithing contest.”
“A contest? Wait, did Grimnir enter a tournament, too?” I wondered, but Tamae shook her head.
“More like, his honor and pride were damaged by his former clan, so he challenged them to a smithing contest. If he wins, he will receive access to his cousin’s former studio, but if he loses, he must hand over all his equipment and be imprisoned by his clan for entering dwarven territory again. He isn’t here because he is under watch.”
“Uhm, Tama-chan, we need to eat quicker!” Haruka, as meek as she was, interjected herself before Tamae could continue. “Grimnir-san is currently distracting everybody so we can eat a proper meal, instead of stale bread. I don’t want to rush everybody, but we need to hurry back.”
“Right! She’s right! We have to return quickly!” Daichi sat back down and downed any dishes before him. “Ellaine and I have to help Master as his apprentices! We need to get better!”
“Agreed!” Ellaine sat back down. “Sorry, Hestia, but we need to eat! Josine, Svena, please bring us more water!”
“Y-Yes, right away, my lady.” Poor Josine did not like how her mistress was looking, but I guess this was something that couldn’t be changed for now.
Josine, Svena, Lorena, and Haati were bringing out dishes from the kitchen, and from the sound of it, Priscilla was the only one manning it. She was cooking for eight people. I went and asked her if she was doing alright, but surprisingly, the young girl was smirking as she rushed from one station to the next. She told me she considered this training for the bistro.
I was still a bit worried about her, but with Svena, Josine, Lorena, and Haati around to help her out, I really shouldn’t worry too much. As such, I simply asked her where Yorshka was and left with my group to her.
In any case, I left Ellaine’s group to their mission, wishing them luck and that they should call me if they needed to. I didn’t care who those foolish dwarves were, nobody is allowed to imprison Grimnir for something that stupid as entering his homeland!
“In history, dragons have caused dwarves a lot of headaches by destroying their holds when they are built too close to a nest. I am so proud of you, my whelpling. You are keeping up with tradition.” I didn’t know if Mother was joking or not, but I took that praise and ran with it. Unless Grimnir did something terrible, I wouldn’t allow him to be punished for something this unjust.
Back in Firwood, I gave Yorshka a quick rundown of everything and she agreed to give me the mandragora. Although she initially rejected it, I still pushed her to accept the money I offered her, saying she didn’t owe me that much for saving Farron’s life. Thankfully, I just received that bounty money on that poison dude, so I bought the mandragora from her for a discount. I just had to add one large goldite.
Holy smokes, 15 small goldite coins! That single mandragora was expensive as hell! This single item was worth a fortune, and Yorshka earned that money just for her husband. It was really romantic.
With the mandragora obtained, and the dwarven whisky Tasianna and Grimnir had been brewing all this time in our hands, I then teleported everybody to Gleisvale, where I gave Reajaen a shock for suddenly appearing in her home. This was the first time I had actually used the nexus to return to Reajaen, after all.
After I explained everything to her, she nodded and led us into her basement, where one of her alchemical laboratories was. Once we entered the room, the smell of alcohol and blood was clearly in the air. If I didn’t know Reajaen was an alchemist, I would have honestly thought she killed someone, but, honestly, she was a gang leader so maybe she did. Hopefully not, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to forgive her if they were remotely innocent.
“Welcome, Lady Hestia. Please, you may use it in any way you see fit. Parilostro, we have guests!”
As the name of Reajaen’s son exited her mouth, the sound of something mechanical began to move, drawing our attention to a young foxian man sitting in a chair. His limbs looked like sticks, as if he had never used them for years. His expression was sickly, looking like he could fall unconscious at any moments, but he showed us a warm smile, contrasting the state of his ill body.
“Lady Hestia, welcome. Please, make yourself comfortable.”
Parilostro Rescalve, the son of Reajaen, and a former contractor of sloth.
