Chapter 9: Traveling with the duke’s family

We walked through the forest in the south-east direction. Apparently this was the closest way to get out of the forest, but it would still take at least half a day on horseback to get to town from there, so there were carriages waiting for us.

„Welcome back, my Lord!“ a female dark elf saluted Henry and gave him a report about their findings in the forest.

„R-ruuuuuuuuunnn!!!“ a soldier that was apparently missing ran out of the forest with fear in his eyes. Close behind him were some humanoid monsters. First I thought they were goblins, but no, they were taller, more muscular with horns on their forehead. Even their skin was more on the pale side of green than the vibrant green of the Goblins.

„Ogres?! I have never seen them in this part of the forest!“

„You know about them, Arito?“

„Yeah. I run into them from time to time, when I go hunt bears in the northern forest. But they never come this far south,“ as I said that, the man reached the first unit. I already had my bow in one hand and a quiver with arrows on the shoulder of the other. I tugged at the first arrow and shot it. One Ogre down. Then next and another. I took down one Ogre after another. Blanche took a little longer, but was quickly firing arrows as well. Soon, the Dark elf captain picked up her bow too, and started helping us. The Archer unit followed shortly, while the knights made a wall between us with shields and spears.

Soon the Ogres were killed. There were few staggering ones so I went to them. I casted <Tame> on one particularly lively and asked him „What are you doing here?“

„Ork king and Spider Skull Bear do battle. Us who don’t want to be caught up move away.“

„That’s certainly smart, but you know what will happen if you attack humans right?“ I kept my voice calm to not scare the ogre more than she already was.

„We will serve you!“

„How can I trust your words?“

„I’m daughter of the chieftain you slew. If I say to my people you lead us now, they will follow.“

„Collect all that are alive and I will spare you. If you betray my trust however, I will show no mercy, is that understood?“

„We follow the strong. We will follow you forever!“ The Ogre said while thumping her chest.

Well, that’s still only… five? No, six ogres. They are Magic born monsters similarly to Slimes and vampires like Romi, I’m quite looking forward to their evolutions.

„Everything will be alright. I tamed the remaining ones,“ I called out to the group and their mouths hit the floor. While they were still flabbergasted, I dropped all the Ogres into my Dimension home and had Romi instruct them in the hierarchy of our group.

„Are you sure you can tame them? Ogres are quite dangerous monsters.“

„They definitely are, but I had them learn what will happen if they disobey. I had quite the history with their tribe. I slew their last four chieftains and many of their most accomplished warriors. Some mages too, if I recall.“

„Simply amazing. Your bow mastery is cut above all,“ the captain sang my praises.

„Yeah, Arito is amazing,“ Blanche hugged me with an angry look towards the Captain which she hadn't noticed before.

Oh? Are you jelly Blanche? I smiled to myself as I patted her head.

As the Ogres entered the Dimension home, the Corpse and Grime slimes went out and ate the circa twenty dead ogres, except for the horns the soldiers decided to take. As I found out later, the soldiers were paid quite handsomely, so only low ranking ones actually needed some extra cash they would get from selling monster parts. Still though, even at low rank they were paid enough to live comfortably, so I had to ask why they needed the extra cash.

“Well, some of us have families in villages or have low income, so we send the money to them,” was the answer of one soldier.

„Wow… that was fast. I guess if Arito wanted to work in the underground organizations no one could ever know as they would never find any bodies,“ Henry said with a slightly exasperated look on his face.

My words exactly… not like I can say that.

When the bodies were taken care of, I boarded the carriage and found myself riding with Henry, Laina Lena and Raven. Last two seats were for me and Blanche. Henretta was riding outside on her horse which had an unnatural red color and black mane.

„Is that horse a monster too?“

„You are perceptive. It is a Warhorse, they are usually all black, but this is a subspecies called Infernal Warhorse. My sister has an aptitude for all four legged monsters. She can’t make contracts with humanoids and birds at all though,“ Lena said and smiled brightly.

„Is aptitude something you are born with?“

„Yes. Though you can’t really say what your aptitude is until you try taming a lot of different types of monsters. Lena still doesn't know her aptitude as she only contracted the three slimes yesterday, but once we make it to the city, we will try to determine it in the local Summoners guild.“

„The mating season of Blue-tailed lizards is close so I want to tame at least one even without apptitude!“

„Are Blue-tailed Lizards some kind of rarity?“

„Indeed. They grow up to one and a half meter at full lenght and have beautiful blue tails and red heads while the rest of their body is either black or dark blue. It’s said that each of their shedded scales is equal to precious gems in appearance.

„Doesn’t that mean they are hunted en masse?“

„Not really. The market for them is only for naturally shedded scales as the scales that are taken off by force tend to have pieces of flesh and marks of tools used for the shedding and such. It is also hard to tame them as they are fast swimmers and runners. There are some Blue-tailed Lizards that can even run on the water surface.“

„During their mating season it is easy to capture them. Especially the females as the males are the ones guarding and raising the kids. Mothers have little to no part in raising newborns. Though there are some rare exceptions.“

„Do you know your aptitude Arito?“ Henry cut in between the two women.

„No, but I know I can tame bugs, humanoid, wolf and slime monsters without problem. Even birds are no problem to me.“

„I see, and do you feel some tension between you and the monsters?“

„No, not really. The wolves are educated by their parents in hierarchy so they submit to me by reflex by now. Owls still can’t fly, but their parents definitely are showing them off proudly whenever they can. Slimes are slimes, I can’t talk about them much. And as far as the goblin trio goes… I honestly don’t know. Our initial relationship was that of protector and protectee. I hope it changed in their eyes by now, though.“

„I see, maybe your aptitude is for all forest dwelling monsters. Every tamer can tame a slime, so we can’t really say that being able to tame a lot of them is due to aptitude or not.“

„Are you all tamers too?“

„Yes. I can tame anything that has feathers,“ Laina said with a proud look on her face.

„I on the other hand can tame any monster that can use fire magic or fire attacks,“ Henry confirmed.

„Grandfather on the other hand can tame any monster that can fly. And they don’t even need to have wings to fly, some of them just hover in the air,“ Lena added with a smile.

„I see… Well, maybe I will find out my own aptitude there,“ I looked up at the ceiling of the carriage and then looked at Blanche next to me.

„And miss Blanche, you can’t use Taming magic?“

„Sadly no. I was once depressed by it, but not anymore,“ Blanche said with a smile one could usually see on a mother’s face as she leaned against me. Not like my mom ever smiled like that.

„I believe Blanche has a talent for summoning instead of taming, but we could not confirm it or deny it in the forest.“

„That’s right. Not like it really matters,“ Blanche plopped her head on my shoulder again and closed her eyes with contempt. Fiiiine, I’ll pat you…

„I think you are spoiling her too much.“

„I’m sure I don’t care that much.“

Me and Lena exchanged a few words before bursting out with a small laugh.

They became friends quickly, didn’t they? Everyone in the carriage thought with happy smiles on their faces.

Right, Lena never had someone her age who would oppose her, or rather spoke back, so it must be a first for her, Laina thought with a wide grin plastered on her face.

The ride continued until late evening, when we could see lights of a town. The walls were tall, but the light escaped towards the sky for a magnificent show.

„That is the city of lumber, Macedia.“

„Wooow…“ all three of us, me, Blanche and Lena let out sighs of admiration.

„Oh… I… forgot…“

„What, have you left something in the forest?“

„No… it’s just that… I don’t have proof of identity…“

„Oh, don’t worry about it. You can make a temporary one at the guard station. We need to stop there so don’t worry, everyone will be there with you,“ Laina smiled at me reassuringly.

„I… I’m suddenly getting nervous…“ Blanche touched my hand, her worry seeping into her cute face.

Seeing her made me calm down quite a bit so I just held her hand and waited for the inevitable.

„Right, you won’t know about the currency here, right? Let’s do that really quick. By the way, the currency is called Alba,“ Henry took out his purse and started taking out several coins. There were two varieties of copper, silver and gold coins plus one variety of platinum coins.

„Each coin is divided by size into small and big varieties and each of those have three types of coin. Their value can be also told by shape so blind people have easier lives. The value is always one for Round shape, two for Octagonal shape and five for Pentagonal shape.“

In other words it looked like this:

Round Small Copper = 1 Alba

Octagonal Small Copper = 2 Alba

Pentagonal Small Copper = 5 Alba

Round Big Copper = 10 Alba

Octagonal Big Copper = 20 Alba

Pentagonal Big Copper = 50 Alba

Round Small Silver = 100 Alba

Octagonal Small Silver 200 Alba

Pentagonal Small Silver = 500 Alba

Round Big Silver = 1,000 Alba

Octagonal Big Silver = 2,000 Alba

Pentagonal Big Silver = 5,000 Alba

Round Small Gold = 10,000 Alba

Octagonal Small Gold = 20,000 Alba

Pentagonal Small Gold = 50,000 Alba

Round Big Gold = 100,000 Alba

Octagonal Big Gold = 200,000 Alba

Pentagonal Big Gold = 500,000 Alba

Round Small Platinum = 1,000,000 Alba

Octagonal Small Platinum = 2,000,000 Alba

Pentagonal Small Platinum = 5,000,000 Alba

„There is also Big Platinum for tens of million and a Star coin, but that is solely used by the royal family for international trades.“

„So the big Platinum coins go for ten million, twenty million and fifty million, right?“

„Yes, exactly. Platinum coins are mainly used by nobility and wealthy merchants, so it can take quite a while until you see one.“

Given the size, I have one of the big platinum varieties from a bandit loot. How did they even get their hands on it?

„Well… Actually… <Item box> I found this one among the bandit loot,“ I showed them the Big platinum coin I had on me.

„Wha—?!“ the entire family’s eyes went wide.

„Ten million Alba…“ Blanche’s eyes sparkled.

„Oh, boy… you keep surprising us… should we exchange it for you?“

„I think it would be for the best. I can’t really pay for anything with it.“

„On it sir. <Item Box> Here’s your pouch,“ Raven quickly handed over a highly decorated pouch with a red base and a family emblem with two dragon wings and a sword on blue shield.

„Here, twenty Pentagonal big gold coins.“

„Thank you, and here is the Round Big Platinum coin.“ We exchanged the money and I took out my own pouch to store the coins.

„You can keep that pouch if you want. Actually, if you ever come to trouble, you can use it as a proof of our trust in you.“

„I can’t accept that! My blame should be on me only, I can’t pull you in any of my troubles!“ I tried pushing the now empty pouch back to Henry.

„Well, think of it this way, if any other noble tries to force you to work for them, you can use it to decline their offers. There are no other nobles in the towns we are about to visit, except for the last one, but it nevertheless can happen. Just be careful,“ Laina added.

„My Lord, we have arrived at the gates,“ the dark elf captain called out as the carriage came to a sudden stop.

„Let us depart then,“ Henry nodded his head and Raven opened the doors and let us get out.

The guard station was bustling with people and the guards who were not at counters at the time were standing by walls saluting.

„It’s an honor to welcome you, lord Duke Nomille!“

„Pleasure to meet you, too. I won’t keep you too long, we just came along with these two children to make them temporary identification papers,“ Henry smiled pleasantly at the guards which I could instantly tell was fake.

Laina was holding my and Blanche’s hands as she gracefully strode to the quickly cleaned counter.

Everyone, I’m really sorry…

„H-hello, young sir. If you would please touch the crystal ball so I could make a read on you,“ the Wolf-faced guard asked me pointing at a ball roughly fifteen centimeters in diameter.

„Okay,“ I did as he asked me and the ball shone with a beautiful blue color with small hints of gold.

„WOW…“ the guard’s eyes went wide, „Umm… sir… could you come with me to the back?“

„Why?“ Laina smiled coldly.

„I-I’m sorry my lady… it’s just that there are rewards for bandit bounties… that need to be confirmed… I won’t keep him long…“

„How do you plan to confirm it?“

„I-I just need my superior to see some parts of the bandit equipment…“ the guard was sweating, he certainly wasn’t used to dealing with nobles.

„Then bring him here,“ Laina said softly.

„Yes!“ the guard saluted and ran to the back.

„Arito, do you have anything from the bandits?“

„Most of the things were eaten by my slimes… I guess I could submit the weapons, though.“

Soon, a burly man with hairs, wings and lion-like ears of color similar to sand came in, looking like he was about to eat me. I guess this is the race the gods called Sphinx's.

„So this is the boy who slayed three most notorious bandits?“ his eyes gleamed with golden light.

„Yes, that’s me.“

„According to our crystal ball, you slew Black Staff Adam, Black Blade Adolf, Everpretty Gina and Raigo the Yellow spear. How did you even do that?“

„I used… poison, ambush, existential crisis… that kind of thing.“

„Wait, existential crisis?!“

„That female bandit kept on boasting about how pretty she is… was covered in makeup practically from head to toe. Without it, she was nothing more than an old hag. I told her that her face and body degraded so fast because of the makeup she used. It broke her spirit.“

„Kid, that’s brutal…“

„To tell a woman her makeup is making her ugly… you have balls, kid…“

„She was a bandit and was using illegal slaves as her toys. So I have no hard feelings.“

„Well, anyway. Could you show me some of their equipment?“

„I have weapons, will that do?“

„Yes.“

„Okay. <Item box>“

The things I took out were a Yellow spear, Black Staff, equally Black Sword and a Pink Rapier.

„…yeah… these are definitely their weapons. Oy! Calculate the rewards for those four!“

„Understood sir! Here you have it sir!“ The wolfkin guard from before saluted and handed over a small piece of paper.

„Always quick, eh? Well, that is quite the sum for four bandits, but then again, that ol fox Raigo was causing troubles all over the kingdom.“

My total for the bandits is a grand total of 1,171,000 Alba. What kind of crimes do you need to do to be worth one million Alba? And he died in no time too…

With that we received our temporary ID’s and entered the city. The city was already colored with lights of magic lamps and on the main street there were just little to no people. I was so looking for the city, but it’s not that great a surprise. It has a feel like those posters from traveling agencies luring you to visit Greece or Italy. It definitely has that ancient civilization vibe. Though the clothes hint at more northern culture to be influencing here too.

The city was constructed on the right bank of a big river and was mainly dealing in lumber so most of the houses were made with wood. In the surrounding forests was a great number of monsters called Treants and Greater Treants that caused trees to grow quickly. Treants were easy to deal with as they couldn’t move, but people here lived in symbiosis with them. I guess that is the most fantasy-like thing about this world.

Blanche on the other hand was on cloud nine. Everything was new and exciting to her.

„Whoa! What is that monster? I never saw it in the forest!“ Blanche pointed at a sea serpent-like monster pulling a boat along the pier.

„I believe that is Shiirpernan, right?“ I turned to Henry for confirmation and he nodded.

„This town has a great deal of tamed and summoned monsters that are used to do heavy labor people can’t do on their own. Me and Laina have to meet with town officials tomorrow, so Father-in-Law will take you to be baptized in church so you can recieve your status board and then to register in tamers guild together with Lena.“

„Okay,“ Me and Blanche nodded simply, yet with slight excitement.

*** ※ ???‘s POV

The carriage which carried the duke and his family arrived at Golden Moon inn, a high class inn in the northern part of Macedia city. The entire family and their servants, alongside Arito and Blanche exited the carriages and entered the lobby, where Edgar asked for additional room for the two kids nearby the duke’s room. This wish was quickly agreed to as who in their right mind would stand in duke’s way, especially if the one on the other side was a commoner.

Arito secretly apologized to the receptionist and went to his and Blanche’s rooms and prepared food for his monsters. The new Ogres were lectured by Romi already so they were behaving little better then they did before.

BZZZZ…

The Fire beetle duo came flying to Arito and sat on his shoulders. As each of them was as big as a fist, they could not fit just on one.

„Let’s get cooking, then,“ Arito took out a stand and a bowl and placed them on the table he had here. Both of these things were made from pure Titanium so they were highly heat resistant. The bowl was for the beetle to lay in and the stand was placed above it. On the stand was then placed a pot, wok or a frying pan.

Today, Arito went with a pot and soup dish for the Goblins and Ogres. He used minimal spices and Flame Crystal Deer he hunted just that morning.

But while he was doing that, the Ducal family held a meeting in their own room.

„Tell me, how was the ride here?“ Kalvig asked as he stroked his beard.

„That boy… he worries me.“

„Indeed. What could have happened to him if he had such an empty look?“

„Empty look?“ Kalvig asked his daughter.

„When we entered the city after visiting the guard station, he had this empty, distant look. Kids should not look like that. Blanche was much more curious than him…“

„Yes, it was worrying me too. His speech became ragged again too,“ Henry added.

„He said he had enough of humans when I met him… Father I would like to find the place he came from,“ Henretta said while placing her hand on her chest, still covered in armor, which made for quite a cool look.

„Me too, but if we ask him, I’m afraid he would just up and return back to the forest. Edgar taught him how to use Teleport after all.“

„It will be fine. Leave it to me,“ Lena spoke up with a soft smile.

„Yeah, you two became quite friendly already. How did you manage that?“ Laina asked.

„We talked alone yesterday. I couldn’t sleep due to the new feeling I got from the contract, so I went to drink some water when he came to the kitchen area. He made us some tea and we chatted.“

„Do you think you could help him?“

„If we all treat him normally he will make a steady recovery by himself. I believe Blanche helped him the most so far, though.“

„I feel bad leaving it to you, but please do your best.“

„Right,“ Lena, who already knew that Arito‘s hatred for humans is not based on this world, felt a tug of guilt from lying to her parents.

„What worries me more is the girl, Blanche. She looks twelve, but for an elf she is extremely developed,“ Kalvig added.

„While half elves tend to grow at similar speed to humans, she is pure blooded, it doesn’t make any sense…“ Laina added.

„Is it really that weird for her to look like any other twelve year old?“

„Elves usually become adults when they are around 50 years old. Compared to elves her age, it’s like looking at an adult and a toddler…“ Henry answered Lena's question.

„Those two are definitely weird for children, but they are not bad kids,“ Laina added.

„Let’s watch over them for now,“ Kalvig proposed.

„Right!“