Chapter 53: Chapter Fifty – Home Sweet Home

Without caring whether or not she made a scene, Otrea led us to the nearest town. Commandeering their teleportation circle to send us all home. Not to the manor in Lorepashe. But to her cavernous home hidden in the Woods of Everlasting Terror.

It’d been months since I’d left. Months since I’d seen the little room Otrea had given me after my capture. It was just as I’d left it. Though someone, probably Harriette, had come around to make the bed.

“It feels strangely comforting to be back here now.”

“Agreed,” Kyra replied, kissing my cheek. “On that note, if you don’t mind Bernie. Adelita and I will be spending time in our bedroom. She’s terrified of Libelle and I’m running out of time today.”

“She is pretty scary,” I said, gazing over at my new draconic companion. “Take care and rest. I’ll swing by to spend time with Adelita later.”

“Love you Bernie.”

“Love you too Kyra.”

I waved at Kyra as she left. While Eurycelia pouted, clinging to my free arm. “You say that so casually now.”

“You’ll always be my first Euri,” I giggled and rolled my eyes. Then gave Eurycelia a kiss. “And I’ll always love you with all my heart.”

Eurycelia’s cheeks flushed as she pulled me into another kiss. Pushing me backward onto my bed. All without breaking the kiss even once.

Our tongues entwined with one another as Eurycelia’s hands slowly started to explore down my side. Her touch caused a warmth to spread throughout me as a very specific hunger bubbled up from just below my stomach. That was until Libelle’s awkward coughing reminded me that we had an audience.

Pushing Eurycelia off of me I straightened myself up. My face heating with embarrassment to the point I was certain I had become a very deep shade of red. “S-Sorry.”

“If you desire an audience mor—Master, I cannot refuse you. Though if that was not your intention I ask that you show me somewhere else to spend my time.”

“You could stand outside the door,” Eurycelia noted, shooing Libelle away.

“Euri, maybe we shouldn’t go that far right now. Eskame could be running in at any time. I don’t think Harriette can pacify her with sweets forever.”

Eurycelia grumbled but said nothing further. She just clung to my arm and laid her head against my shoulder.

“Take a seat Libelle,” I noted to the dragon who was still standing awkwardly in the center of my room. “Once Harriette and Otrea have finished Eskame’s checkup I’ll ask one of them if there is a spare room for you. I’m sure there is.”

Libelle huffed but did as she was told and sat down. I gazed curiously at her for a bit. She had horns that were easily as long as Harriette’s, but she was lacking a tail. I wondered if, like Eurycelia, she had one and it was just too small to be seen.

If we were closer I’d probably ask. As it was I felt too awkward. Especially after almost accidentally letting my hormones overpower me in front of her.

“So, how about we process those coffee cherries we harvested? If we don’t do it soon they’ll rot.”

“How do we do that?” Eurycelia asked nuzzling her cheek against me.

“Well, big disclaimer I’ve never done this part. But if I remember correctly from the documentary Mommy Laura made me watch, we have to dry them out in the sun. After removing the beans from the cherries of course. After they’re dry we have to remove nasty flaky skin from them, and then we roast them. Then we can grind them however we like and make some coffee.”

“That sounds like a lot of work.”

“It is. Though in my former world everything except for roasting and grinding was done before we got the beans. All of this is new territory for me.”

“Are you not an alchemist?” Libelle huffed. “Do it all with your magic.”

“She has a point Bernie,” Eurycelia noted. “If all you need is to take something raw and turn it into a processed version of the same thing, it should be ridiculously easy. Even if your transmute skill is at a low rank it should still be enough to do that much.”

“Alright,” I kissed one of Eurycelia’s horns. Which caused her to shiver and purr something incoherent. “Let’s go grab some alchemy books. The faster we figure this out, the faster I can get all of you addicted to the greatest beverage ever discovered.”

“I’ll follow you.”

I smiled and gave Eurycelia another kiss before the two of us went to Otrea’s library to gather books on Alchemy. Specifically, those dealing with the transmute skill now that I could use it.

We quickly found the tomes I wanted and returned to my bedroom to pour over the books. It turned out that transmute was extremely similar to the infuse skill in how it worked. I needed to create a circle of draconic runes, place the item in the center, and say a chant.

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The only difference was that this time I wasn’t wiping my blood on the item, instead I was infusing it into the ink. Frustratingly this meant that I couldn’t reuse the circle as I had with the infuse skill. As the blood-infused ink would vanish after my chant completed. Even if I botched the attempt, and botching was very easy to do. As the rune sequence needed for transmute was extremely complex.

“Libelle, are you good with draconic runes?” I asked looking up from my book.

“What?” Libelle looked at me disgusted. “Why would I be?”

“Because you’re a dragon?”

“Foolish Mor—Master, Dragons are not born with special knowledge of runes. I for one never saw them as important enough to study.”

“Ah, shame. Here I was thinking I’d found a use for you,” I faked an exaggerated sigh. “Guess I’ll see if Otrea still wants your heart.”

“Give me the book!” Libelle demanded holding a hand out. “I’ll have these runes mastered by sunrise.”

“Here you go,” I smiled handing the book over to Libelle. “Just remember they have to be absolutely perfect. If not my transmutation will fail and my coffee will be ruined. And there are few things in life that can upset me more than ruined coffee.”

Libelle ground her teeth. I knew she wanted to make some quip about not giving a damn about whether I was upset or not. But she was at least smart enough to keep it to herself.

“Bernice,” Harriette called from the doorway. “Your mothers are here.”

Without waiting for a response from me Mommy Laura and Rysa stepped into the room. I could feel the temperature drop as Libelle turned to stare at the two primordial goddesses. Lucky for her, she chose to do nothing.

“Back where you started eh Baby Bernie?” Mommy Laura smiled.

“Sort of. But I have coffee now, and that’s all this place was missing. Well, that and a vast shelf of manga. I’ll have to try fixing that next. What brings the two of you here?”

“We’re here to speak to Otrea,” Rysa noted stepping forward to pull me into a hug. “But decided we could speak with her after seeing you.”

“You terrified both of us,” Mommy Laura commented joining in on the hug. “We thought we were going to lose you for a moment.”

“There is no way I would’ve made it out of that fight alive without Eskame and Otrea. I really owe both of them more gratitude than I could ever properly express.”

“As do we,” Rysa smiled. “Which is why we’re here to speak with Otrea today. Would you like to join us Bernice?”

“Sure. I’m just waiting on my dragon to study the transmutation runes right now. So I don’t have anything better to be doing.”

“Ah, I nearly forgot you got yourself a new servant,” Mommy Laura stared daggers at Libelle. “She seems quite clumsy.”

“Huh?” Libelle turned to stare back at Mommy Laura. Her hand striking a bottle of ink, knocking it into her lap.

Jumping backward in an attempt to avoid the ink bottle Libelle tripped over the leg of her chair. Knocking the bottle skyward and completely coating herself before falling face-first onto the floor.

“How unfortunate,” Mommy Laura chuckled. Though her laugh failed to reach her eyes. “Do you need help?”

“I’m fine,” Libelle grumbled, shoddily cleaning up her mess.

“Laura, you can torture the dragon later,” Rysa chuckled. “We should get on with the business we’re here for.”

“Right,” Mommy Laura winked at me. “Come on Baby Bernie. Let’s go toy with the witch.”

“I thought you were here to thank her?”

“Hmm? I can do both.” Mommy Laura laughed deviously as the three of us were led by Harriette towards Otrea’s study.