Chapter 21: 21 – A Personal Request

I wake up alone in bed. The windows have been left ajar to let in the morning breeze. I'm usually the one who wakes up Loraine, but I guess she's up early for once.

As soon as I get to the stairs, the smell of coffee wafts up to my nose. One of the maids greets me as I reach the first floor.

"Good morning, Lady Micchi. I have breakfast prepared for you in the living room. Lady Loraine and Lady Yui have already eaten," the elf maid informs.

"Yui's here? Since when?" I ask.

She opens the door to the living room. "Lady Yui cited that she was 'bored as fuck, the guild's got things handled anyway,' or something along those lines."

"Heh. Sounds like her."

I head inside to find Loraine brushing Yui's shoulder-length black hair by the fireplace.

"Anego! I came to play~" Yui springs off of Loraine's lap to get a punch off, but I grab her fist and redirect her momentum face first into the ground. "Urk… as expected of… Anego…"

"You can't beat me without those nunchucks. Shouldn't you be working?" I ask, lifting Yui by her head.

"Frey said I could take the day off, so I came to see you!" she says, beaming.

Something about that doesn't sound right. "Wait, Frey gave you a day off? Who's the boss, here?"

Maybe making Yui guild leader was a mistake. But it sounds like Frey is keeping the place intact by sheer administrative willpower alone. Office workers are about as diligent in this world as they are in mine.

I put Yui down as Loraine wraps her arms around me and gives me the usual kiss in the morning. Any other day it would happen as soon as I wake her up in bed. Loraine is smiling from ear to ear.

"What?" I glance behind me thinking she's smiling at something else.

"This might be the first time you put on a smile after a kiss," she says.

My hands snap to my face. "Y-You're imagining things…"

I can't let her know about the ring. Kain and Mildred already agreed to keep quiet, but I'm the one around Loraine the most. I'm my own biggest liability.

When I turn to take a seat at the table, I stop in time before running into Yui who has her lips puckered in my face. "Chuuuu~"

I grab her face and squeeze.

"Owowowowowow— uncle, uncle!" she yells, tapping out on my hand.

I take a seat at the table where a tray of hot scrambled eggs and sausages await to be eaten. A single gulp of the coffee wakes me right up. The one thing I'm grateful for in this world is all the overlap in food. Though I guess when the ingredients are basically the same as on earth, people will come to the same conclusion on recipes. 

While I eat, Yui and Loraine talk up a storm across from me. 

"Since when did you two chum up?" I ask.

Loraine throws me an affectionate side glance. "Since you won't tell me about your childhood, Yui's been more than happy to talk about you."

"Ahh, she was so cute back then. She used to wear frilly dresses and had a bow on her head." Yui gushes.

"Hey—!"

***

After breakfast, we head down to the guild hall to check in on things and maybe pick up a few quests.

We're welcomed to the sight of Oaks working furiously on the paperwork Yui dumped on him. She's also hired a few of his syndicate goons, and they had no choice but to accept. Despite having less of a work load, Frey doesn't look happy in the least.

"Yo." I throw a hand up as we come through the door. Frey's ears perk up when she sees us. Oaks has the opposite reaction, burying his head deeper into the paperwork.

"Oh, hey guys! Yui, did you come back for more work? Because I have work for you," she says.

Yui hides behind me. "You gave me a day off. No takesies-backsies!"

"What's there to mope about?" I tease Frey.

She lets out a long, seemingly overdue sigh. "Oaks and his gang aren't exactly unknown. A few of the guards saw him come in and tried to arrest him. So I bribed them away."

"What, are we getting extorted? Whose heads do I gotta bust?" I ask, rolling up my sleeves.

"No! Just let me handle it without violence!" Frey hands me a scroll sealed with a wax imprint. "Since you're here, would you mind taking a look at this request form?"

"What is it?" I ask, breaking open the seal.

"Occasionally the guild receives what are called 'personal requests'. Clients can make requests of a specific guild member and generally pay more," she explains.

"They asked me? Wouldn't anyone here do?"

Frey points to a poster behind the bar. Names of every member in the guild are listed in descending order by question completion rate. Mine and Loraine's names are at the top, then Mildred and Kain below us, followed by Yui's name below them.

"For a number of reasons. Perhaps a certain class or subclass is required to perform the request. They may have biases to races. In your case, I think it's due to your flawless record in quest completion." Frey says.

Loraine comes back from the tavern with three hot yams. She hands one to me and another to Yui.

"You're one of two SS-rank of the Cynderace Branch. It's no wonder someone who needs a request completed would ask the strongest members." Loraine blows a cold breath to cool down our yams.

"Ah!" Frey jumps from her seat. "Mildred took a reassessment yesterday. She's officially an SS-rank enchanter. That's a big deal because high level enchanters are rare in Dysentia. They make for powerful supporters."

"Heh. Kain must be shitting bricks being an A-rank." I put the yam up to my mouth and read the request form.

You are reading story Micchi Versus the New World at novel35.com

Frey, Loraine, and Yui crowd around me to get a better look.

Apparently a stray elemental wolf has wandered too close to a lord's estate along the countryside. I'm being asked to take care of it before it causes too much destruction to the local area.

"Aw, poor thing!" Frey says, her ears drooping.

"What's an elemental wolf? A wolf with magic?" Yui asks. 

"Close." Loraine takes over to explain." Elemental wolves are rare-birth wolves infused with magic. They're usually abandoned by their non-magic counterparts and left to fend for themselves."

"So I'm going to finish the job?"

"You can't!" Frey exclaims. "Wolves are pack animals. It's probably hungry and afraid being so alone. Can you maybe just shoo it away? Killing it would be so sad."

"I'm going to be honest, I'm more of a cat person." I look up from the request form and see Frey red up to the ears.

"Nyaahaha~ normally that would make me happy, but that doesn't sound like it bodes well for the elemental wo— OLF?!" Frey catches herself from falling over after Yui hops onto her back. "H-Hey that tickles— nyaha, ahhha!"

"Whaddya say Anego? Maybe it just wants to play?" Yui asks while groping her guild receptionist in a clear display of workplace sexual harassment.

"Doubt it. No guarantees, but I'll see what I can do." I offer.

***

The three of us borrow horses from the guardhouse to ride out. Our destination is Lord Bennet's domain, but we're to reach a cozy town called Evernoir. According to the request, the elemental wolf was last sighted skulking around the farmers' livestock there.

We reach Evernoir by sundown. Unlike the cobblestone and layered brick masonry of Cynderace, this town is fashioned in wood and stone. The only extravagant landmark is the fountain at the town center, from which smaller channels feed water to the different parts of Evernoir.

Despite it being early in the evening, there are few people out with the exception of guards. It seems the fear of an elemental wolf is keeping most people indoors.

Local guards direct us to Mayor Oliver Aubry who meets us at Evernoir's only inn. He's a skittish dwarf, whose sparse white hair is peppered with fewer black strands. The mayor hops out of his seat to welcome us.

"Welcome to Evernoir! I am Oliver Aubry, the town mayor. Which one of you is Micchi?" His finger floats between the three of us.

"That'd be me." I say, taking the seat across from him. "My wife, Loraine, and guild leader of the Cynderace Adventurer's Guild, Yui."

Oliver's glasses fog up. He goes red in the face and apologizes profusely, panicking to bring seats from the other tables for Loraine and Yui.

"I had no idea we would be receiving the guild leader herself! P-Please, the meals and your stay will be on my tab." Oliver gestures for the tavern keeper to bring more food to the table already crowded with plates. 

Yui throws me a smug grin. "You hear that, Anego? I'm important."

"Yeah, yeah." I brush her off and turn back to the mayor. "So about the elemental wolf. Must be a big deal for Lord Bennet to offer ten platinum as a reward."

He nods, weariness showing on his face. "Evernoir's livelihood is dependent on its crops and farm animals. The creature has already killed several livestock, and farmers are too scared to come out of their homes to collect harvest."

"Why haven't the kingdom's soldiers stationed in Evernoir taken care of it themselves?" Loraine asks.

"The wolf is either timid or smart. It runs from larger groups, and knows if we send too few they are no match for it. Six soldiers have been gravely wounded with burns and frostbite from their encounter," he explains.

Dire boars get sent flying in one swing. Demon giants keel over from a few good hits to the knee. Mildred was able to beat a dragon by herself, so maybe this elemental wolf will finally give me a good fight.

We're in luck, too. My clothes are enchanted with magic resistance, so I should be able to face it head-on. Loraine should also be fine, which leaves Yui as the only one vulnerable to magic.

"You can leave the wolf to us. We'll start tracking it first thing in the morning," I assure the mayor.

"Thank you so much! The last sighting of the wolf is at Horace's farm. I'll have a guard escort you there tomorrow." Oliver bows and takes his leave, livelier than when we first got here.

I lean back on my seat and take a sip of the closest stein. My mouth is immediately assaulted by the bitter taste of beer and a hint of honey. 

"Hey, Anego… hic!" Yui clings to my coat, face red as a cherry.

"Geh, you're fucking drunk?" I try to peel her fingers off my jacket, but they keep sticking back on me.

She begins to tear up. "Waaaahhhhh! I miss Chika! Uuu— waaahh!"

I'm only now just seeing two empty steins smelling of beer next to Yui.

"Not this again… Loraine, can you—"

"Micchi… it's getting a little hot in here. Can we go upstairs to cool each other off?" Loraine's already dark complexion has taken on a shade of red. 

"Just fuck me, will you?" I say, sighing.

I grab the key from the tavernkeep and carry my drunk companions up to our room. It's a modest room with a single large bed. There's a chest at the foot of the bed to store our belongings, but the place is small for three people.

"Tsk. That's right. The mayor thought I was the only one coming." 

I lay Loraine and Yui side by side and pull the covers over them. As soon as I turn around, I feel a pair of hands pulling me onto the bed.

"What are you doing?" I ask, struggling in Loraine's clutches.

"Ehehe… Micchi, you're so cute when you're embarrassed…I have a surprise for you…" she leans in close and whispers, "It's playtime."

My jacket suddenly slips off my body. The sarashi on my chest unravels and binds my wrists together, pulling me up to the bedpost. Loraine, with lust in her eyes and hazy from her drunkenness, traces a finger along the length of my body. The same fingers hook onto my pants and pull downwards.

"Wait, wait, wait! Yui's sleeping right next to us, I'm— aahh!"