Ero-Game: Power and Sword

The week went by in the blink of an eye.
I’ve been living a solitary life for the past few days, working while everyone else was asleep and vice versa. And I missed having wholesome breakfasts with the whole family. So I felt tired but happy when I arrived in the dining area on time for breakfast, with the finished pendants in my pocket.
Bella was at the table, and as soon as she saw me, she asked, “What happened to you? You look like you met a banshee.”
“Just been working.” I sat down at the end of the table.
“I’m glad you made it to breakfast.” Otto smiled as he moved over the table, putting down plates and forks.
I returned the smile and said, “Yeah, me too.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re here,” Bella spoke again. “It saves me the trouble of finding you.”
“Oh? What’s up?” What do you need to find me for?
“Well, can’t you tell?”
“Ah?” I looked around the room like an idiot.
“The renovation’s complete.”
“Oh.” I was wondering where the workers were, so they’re done. “Hmm…”
“What do you think? You like it?”
Despite not having seen a lot of the completed rooms, I said, “Yeah… It looks amazing.” At least everything I had seen looked amazing.
“Good. Good. I’m glad you’re satisfied.”
I nodded. “So, how much do I owe you? 17 gold?” I had already paid them 15 at the start of the project.
“Well…” She scratched her head. “You wanted the cellar done just as quickly as the rest of the house.” When did I say that? “So we had to  pull in people working at the west end to help out… And we had to tear  down and rebuild 5 walls, which was more than what we expected. And the  sewage system in the spa wasn’t just clogged but broken, so we had to replace those pipes…”
“The spa’s complete!? We should try it out.” Nikola butt in. “Woodie, you should come too.” Woodie’s been helping out in the kitchen lately,  and she’s been missing him.
I ignored Nikola and asked, “So, how much is it going to be?”
“25 gold.”
What!? I wanted to shout, but I kept my cool. “So you’re saying it went 10 gold over budget.”
“8 gold.”
“8 gold over budget.”
“Yeah.” We locked eyes, and she added, “I wrote up the bill; unfortunately, it’s in my office. I’ll send you a copy tomorrow.”
I sighed. I was too tired to argue, and there was no point in it either. “Talk to Garth. He’ll pay you.”
“Okay.” She nodded.

Otto took his seat beside me. Finally, after days of eating alone, I was having a meal with my boys.
Garth showed up after we started eating and exclaimed, “Master, you’re here!”
I swallowed the steamed crowberry root and said, “Yeah. Why is that surprising.”
“Oh, it’s not. I wanted to show you the label design. Let me go get it.” So he left the room as soon as he appeared. I shrugged and put more roots in my mouth.
“When are we going to a dungeon?” Terrie asked; she was getting bored of waiting around.
“Now that the renovations are done… I don’t know, I’m still waiting  for-” I didn’t want to explain that I was waiting for Madelief to show up addicted to poppy tears. So, I changed the topic. “Well, we have to talk to Delaron’s auction house about the potions, but Garth can do  that.”
“Didn’t you hire the alchemists to make the potions? And if Garth is going to do the rest, do we need to wait around?” Terrie asked.
“Ah, that… We have to wait.”
“Why?”
“Trust me. It shouldn’t be more than 2 weeks now.” If Madelief’s anything like she was in the game, she should be using it day and night. It won’t be long before she finishes the bottle and starts craving  more.
“Why? Why wait 2 weeks. We’ve already spent more than a month in Delaron. We should at least go to Mammodun or Fingeon.” Mammodun and Fingeon are dungeons inside Delaron, F-rank and E-rank, respectively.
“No, they don’t have anything I want.”

“They have cores!” Terrie shouted.
I shook my head. “We don’t need that. We can make enough money from potions.”
“Then why are we, adventurers.” She raised a confused eyebrow.
Don’t be melodramatic, I thought as I shook my head. “We’re going to Gwawleon. We need to be adventurers to enter it, don’t we?” It’s not like I want to wait around either, but levelling up comes above everything else. “Just relax for now. Why the rush?”
“Yeah, why the rush?” Theo was upset she was so vehement about leaving.
“Come on, babe.” She pleaded with him. “I feel useless here.”
“Hm.” He grunted. “If you’re feeling so useless, why don’t you help out in the kitchen. Or the garden. Benard and Sterling are planting flowers in the cleared sections; you can help them.”
“In the kitchen…” She mumbled and scratched her cheek. “That’s for… men…” She was practically whispering. “I mean, I’m not… really… good at cooking or… gardening… I. I need to train.”
“Training is important too.” Theo only wanted her to stick around, so he was quick to appease her. “It’s not useless to train.”
“Yeah.” She cheered up. “I’ll do 10 000 swings today!”
“Don’t go overboard. Do you want lemonade or Orange juice?” He liked to bring her drinks while she trained.
“Ah, I’ll have lemonade today.” Then, she turned to Nikola and asked, “Nikola, you up for a spar?”
“Aaa…” Nikola groaned. “I want to try out the spa. Why don’t you stop training for a day and check out the spa.”
Terrie shook her head. “Where’s Brigitte.” She looked around the room, hoping to find a sparring partner.
Susie, who was standing beside her mother, answered, “She went out last night for points and hasn’t returned.”

Garth barged back into the room, holding 3 pieces of paper. “The underside isn’t sticky. They said they’ll add that later, but here’s the design.” He said and put the 3 labels on the table.
“Hm… Why do they look like seed packet labels.” All 3 of them were small rectangular squares with flowers along the edges. Very bland.
“What? You don’t like it?”
I didn’t, but I wanted to leave it to him. If I start micromanaging everything, I’d only be wasting my own time. So, “I’ll leave it to you. Do whatever you think is best.”
“You don’t like it. What’s wrong with it?”
No, I refuse to think and/or explain! “No, it’s fine. The potions are what’s important anyway. The label’s just there to- You know, be a label.”
“Okay, so you don’t need me to change it, right? I’m going to order 30 of each.”
“Yeah, it’s fine. Do whatever you want.”
“Okay.” He picked up the labels. “There were other designs, but I thought these were the best.”
“Okay.”
“And you’re fine with the font?”
“Yes. Yes. You’re in charge of this. And you need to go to the auction house too, to set up everything. Let them know you want to auction 30 of each every month. They’ll come up with a schedule to maximise profits. They’re the experts, so leave that to them.”
“I have to do that too?” He frowned.
“Yes!” This little… getting sad over a bit of work! I’ve been too easy on him.
“But I’m a man.” He moaned. “They won’t take me seriously.”
“This excuse again.” I clenched my jaw in anger.
“It’s not just an excuse. You never know; they might not want to talk to  him.” Woodie came to his defence. “We couldn’t use our bank cards in Pavia. It was Pavia, right Dixon?”
“We were trying to meet up with Luken,” Dixon affirmed with a nod.
“Yeah, and the bank wouldn’t let us withdraw our money.” Woodie nodded. “So we ended up hitching a ride back to the Captial. It was such a waste  of a day.”
“The same thing happened to me in Delolmo.” Theo jumped in with his experience. “Remember, Terrie?”
“Ah… no.” She couldn’t recall.
“You don’t remember. Remember I had to borrow your ID because they wanted me to show I had your permission.”
“Oh, you were using her account.” I clarified.
“No, I was using my account. They wanted me to show I had permission to access my

account.” He corrected me.
“Oh… Hmm… Did that happen to you?” I asked Garth.
He shook his head.
“No. Delaron is fine. You don’t need a woman’s permission to do stuff here. Delolmo’s a backwater town with one bank in the middle of it. With a smug asshole for a manager.” He grimaced. “I’m sorry, sir, but I can’t let you do that. I’m sorry, sir, but I’ll need to see your wife. O  sir, you’re not married at your age. O sir, then I’ll need to see your girlfriend. Errr!” He grunted. He was angry, but everyone else thought it was hilarious and smiled. I noticed Otto wasn’t smiling; at least the women in the room thought it was funny. Men - no sense of humour. “That  smug asshole. Just thinking about her makes me want to Errr!”
Anyway, I ignored him and said to Garth, “Then just come get my ID when you go. But the bank account also has your name on it, so I don’t know… If you need it, come get it.”
“No, he won’t need it here.” Theo stopped being angry and jumped back into the conversation. “Delaron is the same as the Capital; you shouldn’t have any trouble here.”
“Well, if you need it, you can take it.” I offered nonetheless.

“Would you like another serving?” Bella had finished her plate, so Maura offered her seconds.
“Oh, no. I couldn’t.” She refused.
“Then I’ll take these away.” She took the plates away.
“Garth, take the money for the renovation out of the business account,” I told him. “I’ll transfer it from my personal account when I get the chance.”
“Oh, how much am I taking out?” He looked to Bella for the answer.
“25 gold,” I answered him.
“Oh.” He was surprised by the amount too.
“I’ll give you the invoice, so you can look over it.” She said.
“Can I go to the bank after I have breakfast, master?”
“You’re hungry. This is why you should have breakfast together with us.” I shook my head. He ignored me and helped clear empty plates off the  table. The wholesome breakfast was coming to an end. “Yeah, sure.”
I finally answered him, and he stopped ignoring me and said, “Thank you, master.”

I looked over at Benard and saw that he was playing with his food. He cut up a wiener into a big piece and a tiny piece; he’d eat the tiny one and give the big part to Wilf. And Wilf would gobble it.
“You don’t like the wieners?” I asked him.
“Huh?” He wasn’t expecting me to talk to him. “No, it’s fine.”
“Hmm.”
“I don’t like meat.” He mumbled.
“Oh, right, you’re a sheep.” I nodded.
“No, I’m not a sheep!” He shouted and put the big piece in his mouth. A terrible frown grew on his face as he chewed.
“Don’t force yourself,” I told him as I finished my plate.

Just as everyone was about to go their separate ways, I stood up and said, “You two, follow me to the bedroom.”
“Huh?” They were confused.
“Me?” Nikola asked.
“Both of you. Come on.” I said and led them to my bedroom.

Inside my bedroom, I looked through the drawers and complained, “I thought I had a ball of string…” I searched all over the place while they waited. “Okay, I can’t find it.” I finally said.
“String? I think they have some in the kitchen,” Terrie said.
“Maybe it’s for the best.” I shook my head. “I should use metal wires.” I took out the pendants. “Okay, I wanted to give it to you guys now, but it’ll have to wait.”
“What is it?”
“These should protect you from E-rank curses. And minor damage.” I showed them the pendants. “I was going to give it to you after I threaded them into necklaces.”
“Oh.” Terrie was about to take one, but I closed my hand.
“No, I’ll give it to you when I find the string. I’ll use a chain.” I sat down on the bed, feeling tired and needing sleep.
“You made them for Gwawleon?”
I nodded. “Yeah.” And added, “But it should be useful everywhere.”
“Did you make one for Brigitte?” Terrie asked. “She’s coming with us, isn’t she?”
“Dammit.” I forgot. “Dammit.” I was hoping to spend the night with Sterling and Otto, but that’ll need to be postponed. “Dammit.” I deeply sighed. “I’ll make one for her.”
“So, why did you call us here?” Nikola asked, losing her patience.
“Ah, I was going to give this to you guys, but I don’t have the string.” I got under the sheets. “You guys can leave.” I closed my eyes.
“So…”
“Come on, let’s go.” Terrie pulled her out of the room and let me rest.