Chapter 197: 4-11 Lodestone

Order was returning to the streets of the subjugation of the thugs. Only now did the city guards come running to help and ascertain the situation. The guards tried asking Erin for a statement but she ignored them and simply walked on. Some of the guards attempted to stop her but they were held back by their superior officers.

“Don’t get on a Fae’s bad side,” Erin heard one of the officers telling his peers. Erin chuckled under her breath, relishing in the privilege of a Fae.

“Who is this?” was Lyra’s first question upon Erin’s return. She was staring at the brawny and towering woman beside Erin. Her eyes were particularly fixed on the slightly curved long horns protruding from the giant of a woman’s forehead.

Erin smiled wryly at Lyra’s priority. She was asked the same question when she reunited with Nivia, who was walking behind her with a glare that appeared to be permanently glued to the Augru. Amyra’s confession had been curtly rejected by Erin but she didn’t relent. She insisted that Erin would come to like her as they spend time together. Since Amyra wasn't exactly a bad person, Erin didn’t see much of a problem to let her tag along on the condition that she would not lay her hands on her or her companions. Before Erin could introduce her new acquaintance, of sorts, the Amyra herself beat her to it.

“Amyra,” the Augru answered as she flaunt her adventurer tag between her fingers. There were five stars stamped on her tag.

“A five-star adventurer,” Siv breathed.

“Why, hello there, lady” Amyra greeted with a wide grin and raised brows as she took notice of Siv, who hopped down from the wagon. “Aren’t you just refined for a Beast-kin.”

“Thank you for the flattery, Miss Amyra.”

“Bah, drop the miss. Amyra alone will do just fine.”

Siv frowned faintly and looked to Erin for aid.

Erin shrugged and returned the aid emptily.

“If you say so, Amyra. I am Siv of the Blackwood Tribe, by the way.”

“Lyra,” Lyra introduced herself dryly.

Hearing the unfamiliar voice in the midst, Lilian also came out of the wagon and climbed down. “Oh, my,” she gasped as she laid eyes on Amyra. “Aren’t you a tower of a woman? And here I thought Erin was big.”

Erin scoffed soundlessly and glare at Lilian for that remark of hers. While she wasn’t as tall as she was when she was Argon Raze, she was still tall for a woman, standing around the height of five feet ten.

“Another beauty?” Amyra gasped flippantly at the sight of Lilian. “Damn, little fox, how many beauties do you have in your harem?”

Though Erin didn’t like to see her companions as her harem, she couldn’t deny that they were indeed her harem, especially now that she was looking at Nivia and Lilian in a lustful way. She had long cast aside her denial. She wanted to fuck them too but she didn’t want to just force herself on them. Lilian certainly wouldn’t mind but Nivia on the other hand, Erin didn’t want to disappoint ir force her.

“There is one more girl inside the wagon and she’s a beauty too,” Lilian answered for Erin.

“I’m sure she is.” Amyra chuckled. “Ah, where are my manners? My name’s Amyra and you are?”

“I am Lilian, a Dryad.”

“A Dryad, huh. Fascinating,” Amyra said, licking her lips conspicuously. “I heard Dryads are very good in the arts of the bedroom. Is that true?”

Erin could see Nivia’s face deforming to a scowl of disbelief and absolute disgust.

“Well… you’re welcome to find that out on your own,” Lilian responded.

“Oh, I certainly will.”

“Alright, enough of this.” Erin cut in between Amyra and Lilian before the mood could escalate any further into debauchery. “We have a timetable here and time is of the essence.”

“Of course,” Amyra said. “My apologies for that, Erynthea.” Or so she said as she did not look the least apologetic at all.

With the introductions out of the way, they all climbed back onto the wagon as more and more city guards came ambling to the places that they were needed around an hour ago. Even though they were late in their appearance, none of the guards was making any haste. Neither did the guards look worried at all despite walking into potentially life-threatening situations as if they knew everything had already been resolved.

This was just how things were as the wagon travelled through the city. Many other places had also suffered from random acts of violence by the local thugs without any good reason at all. It wasn’t even a territory dispute between opposing factions. Erin could hear the numerous speculations and suppositions from the concerned citizens as they gradually approached the Adventurer’s Guild building.

“What a waste of resources,” Amyra remarked who had taken upon herself to travel with Erin as she too was heading towards the Adventurer’s Guild. She wasn’t in the wagon with them but on her own mount, which was a bison-like beast that was called a Gaurus. It was a magic beast even. It was staying in Amyra’s shadow and the Gaurus’ appearance caused quite a bit of trouble as the horses went wild but Lilian managed to calm them down.

Erin raised an eyebrow at Amyra’s mulling. “A waste of resources? How so?”

“Practically more than half of the space in that building is unoccupied. They didn’t need this much space but they have it anyway just so they could flaunt it to the world.”

“They?”

“The Guild officials.”

“Huh…” Erin murmured uncertainly.

“The accursed vanity of humans,” Nivia grumbled in the back.

“That’s a bit ironic coming from an Elf.”

Erin thought Nivia would baulk in response but surprisingly, she didn’t.

“At least our vanity meant something,” Nivia retorted without raising her voice.

Even Lilian was finding it astonishing at the change in Nivia’s temperament.

“We’re here,” Siv said, drawing everyone’s attention to the front.

The wagon stopped right before a hillock of steps that led right to the main entrance of the Adventurer’s Guild building. Just as they were deciding on who would be handling the wagon, an amicable-looking man trotted up to them. He had the sigil of the Adventurer’s Guild on the pocket of his vest. He introduced himself as the valet for the guild. Erin turned to Amyra who gave her a nod, attesting to the man’s claim. And so, they handed the wagon over to the valet and climbed up the fifty and so steps.

“They’re all looking at us…” Aera muttered softly and pulled the hood of the cloak she was wearing over her head. She was glancing around worriedly, wary of each gaze that was thrown her way.

“Let them,” Lilian said. “They can’t do anything to us anyway.”

All the passers-by and onlookers of various races, mostly human, were staring Erin’s way as she climbed the steps. Various remarks were made about her and her companions but most of those remarks were about her. Specifically, her unparallel beauty and her exploits. The news of her heroism in Green Scar and Maven’s Creek had travelled far and wide, reaching even here. As much as Erin hated being leered at by those lecherous gazes, she did feel proud of her beauty and hearing those praises, though she wished they could be moderate with those praises.

There were also a lot of remarks and gossip directed at Amyra but all of it was about her brutish appearance and how unbecoming it was for a woman to be taller and more muscular than most men. Instead of feeling down, Amyra looked smug about it.

When they entered the building, all the gazes were turning to them one by one. Erin couldn’t enjoy the luxurious scenery that was the guild’s magnificent interior as the muttering, chattering, and gossip were all that she could focus on. Most of them were just pointless crude and lecherous remarks as usual but there were a few important pieces of knowledge among the gossip. They were attributing the random outburst of the local thugs to the appearance of the Venerers and Erin’s presence. Some of these mullings even sounded a little bit too certain. Erin made a mental note of these people’s faces.

“This looks more like an affluent inn than an Adventurer’s Guild,” Lyra muttered as they walked down the relatively long hallway in order to reach the reception desks.

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“Because a good portion of the adventurers here is noble children,” explained Siv.

“And how old are most of these highborn children?”

“Fourteen at the very least.”

“Fourteen and already looking forward to dying in some ditch where their bodies would only be found after several days?”

Amyra chortled out loud. “You don’t hold back at all, Lyra. Aren’t you afraid that a noble kid would hear you?”

“No,” she said and latched herself onto Erin’s arm, rubbing her face against Erin’s shoulder.

“How brazen.”

“It’s from being a crime.”

“Not to the untaken men or women. Look, you are already the envy and jealousy of some of them.”

Lyra grinned faintly at those gazes of envy and jealousy. “Let them seethe.”

They eventually arrived before the reception counters. There no were lines nor queues but there were a lot of people waiting in front of the counters on benches or simply sitting on the floor. There were blackboards on top of each counter that displayed a set of numbers in white. The numbers would change by themselves every few minutes.

“No queues?” Lyra asked.

“Don’t need one,” Amyra said and pointed at a certain device. It was an orb on a stand with a lever attached to the side. “See that thing? Pull the lever and you will receive a number on a small piece of paper. Then just wait until the number on the paper appears on one of those blackboards.”

“Impressive,” Erin said. “But how does that work?”

Amyra shrugged. “I don’t know. Magic, I suppose?”

“There’s a lot of people around. Will we be waiting long?”

“Let’s hope not,” Amyra said and was about to go and pull the lever when a female clerk scuttled right up to Erin and her companions.

“Lady Erynthea!” exclaimed the female clerk as took Erin’s hand and shook it.

As the female clerk was quite loud with her exclamation, her voice drew quite a bit of attention to them, more than they already had.

“Pardon me.” Nivia came in between the clerk and Erin, slapping the clerk’s hands off of Erin’s. “You should introduce yourself first before doing what you just did.”

“O-of course, I beg your pardon, M’lady Elf. My name is Layla.” The clerk turned her attention back to Erin after introducing herself.  “Lady Erynthea, we have been expecting you.”

“Who’s we?”

“The Guild, of course. The Guild Master wishes to speak to you…” Her voice trailed off.

“Yes?”

“H-however— it’s quite embarrassing to say this— the Guild Master is away at the moment. She’ll be back in an hour.”

“Unbelievable,” Lyra and Nivia muttered in unison.

“Bur rest assured, the Guild Master had given me strict instructions to take good care of you and your companions while you wait for her. If you would follow me, I can escort you to a private waiting room where there will be less… disturbance”

Immediately, Erin could hear the cries of injustice and jealousy being resounded from the surrounding onlooking adventurers but none dared to voice their dissatisfaction directly since the other party was a Fox-kin with five tails.

“Very well.” Erin nodded. “Lead the way, Miss Layla.”

The clerk nodded back with a relieved smile and began leading the way.

“Looks like this is where we part ways,” Amyra said, waving at Erin and her companions.

“You’re not coming with us?” Erin asked.

Amyra blinked. “I can?”

“You did help me with those… thugs. This is the least I can offer as thanks. That wouldn’t be a problem, would it, Miss Layla?”

“Oh, not at all, Lady Erynthea,” affirmed the clerk.

“Oh, Erynthea…” Amyra sighed, shaking her head. “You’re going to make me fall for you even more. I’m starting to see how you managed to have so many beauties in your harem.”

There wasn’t much reaction from the surrounding adventurers as they had already speculated the women around Erin were in some kind of relationship with each other but they were a little bit shocked to hear that the women were all Erin’s.

“I appreciate the offer but I”m afraid I have important matters to attend to at the moment. Perhaps we could get a drink when night falls.”

“I don’t drink,” Erin said.

“Shame. Well, till we meet again, sweetheart,” Amyra bade and disappeared into the crowd.

Hearing the word “sweetheart” from Amyra’s lips spurred the onlookers to intensify their already absurd head narratives. Before Erin could correct or say anything to clear up the misunderstanding, not that she cared to, an unsavoury individual had intruded upon the group.

“So the infamous Fox-kin, Erynthea, has a harem? How scandalous.”

Erin sighed and turned in the direction of the voice and so did the other girls. All of them were wearing a frown as if they already knew this would be trouble.

The voice belonged to a man that was just as burly as Amyra, wearing only trousers and harnesses. The man’s features were as crude as his temperament. Right beside the man on both sides, in his arms, were two nubile ladies in low cut mage robes.

“Ronan,” Layla muttered the intruding man’s name under her breath.

Lilian was stifling her laughter. “You really are a lodestone for troubles, Erin.”

“Oh, shut up,” Erin retorted.

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