NOVEL NEXT Chapter 203: Back
“Ami, I think we are all ready to go.” Nikki walks over to me.
“Okay, let’s hope this works.” I nod.
“Are we not taking a cart?” The mother asks.
“No, we aren’t. At least not in the best case scenario.” Hilda smiles. “We’ve got a mode of transportation that’s quite a lot faster.”
“Oh…” She quickly grabs her kids with her and looks at what we are doing.
Sam puts her hand on my shoulder. “I think we are far enough away that your teleportation skill will work. And if it doesn’t, we know it works at the crossroads.”
I give my girlfriend a friendly nod and beckon the others to come closer. The kids look a little bit nervous about what’s going to happen. “Don’t worry. We’ll be at your new home in just a couple of seconds.” I smile at them. “But it’s best that for what happens next that you three close your eyes, okay?”
The kids all give me an affirmative nod. When everyone is close enough to my liking I start concentration on my teleportation spell. As usual the wind picks up around us as I focus on casting the spell. I’m prepared for a stinging headache to follow, but to my great relief that seems to not happen this time over.
When I open my eyes back up again, I’m met with the familiar interior of our mansion in Hofudstadr. It looks no different from when we left a couple of days ago.
“Ah, we have arrived.” Hilda smiles and rubs her hands. “Home sweet home.”
The mother and the three kids still have their eyes closed. Sam walks over to them. “You can open your eyes now.”
Brielle opens her eyes first and is noticeably surprised by the change in decor. The surprise looks to be a pleasant one though.
As for her kids, it takes a short while longer for them to open their eyes too, but the wonder we see in their eyes as they do… It already makes my heart melt.
“Mom! We are in a palace!” Aine calls out.
“Woaah!” The other two kids call out in choir.
Sam takes a knee and gives the kids all a head pat. “This is your new home from now on.”
“We’ll show your rooms to you in a bit.” Hilda walks over to Brielle and takes something out of her back pockets. It’s a leather money pouch. “You can use this when we are not around to go and look for some food to buy in the markets outside. The city is quite a bit bigger than what you are used to though. But the market is really closeby.”
“Thank you so much. We will definitely manage.” Brielle nods happily while she is embracing her children.
While Nikki, Sam and Hilda talk to Brielle and the kids a bit more about the city, I notice that Lise is just staring idly, not really interacting with anything until she quietly walks off to the bottom of the staircase and sits down on one of the bottom steps, after which she starts to rub her cheeks with her hands. I walk over to sit down next to her.
“Are you tired?” I ask.
She gives me a nod. “Yeah, I don’t think I’m going to stay awake for much longer. Time to go back to our cats back home.”
“Hmm, that sounds nice.” I put my head on my sister’s shoulder. Just high up enough so that the tip of my left ear touches my sister’s cheek.
My sister hums in return. “That tickles.” And then proceeds to scratch me behind the aforementioned ear.
Hilda takes off together with Max, Carol, the mom and her children to show them their rooms in the mansion, leaving Sam, Nikki, my sister and I in the main hall together with our wolves.
While I’m still resting my head on my sister’s shoulder, Nikki walks over to her partner and sits down on the other side of her. Putting her hand on my sister’s lap. “Why don’t we take a bath before going to bed?”
Lise nods slowly in return. “Yeah… that sounds good.” She then turns her attention back to me. “Sorry, Sis. Duty calls.”
I lift my head from her shoulder and give her a big smile. “I completely understand.”
She returns my smile with another couple of scratches in between my ears.
“If we don’t see you two anymore before you head to bed. Good night.” Nikki smiles at Sam and I.
“Good night and see you in a bit.” Sam nods back.
“Nini!”
Nikki and my sister make their way to the bathroom, leaving me sitting alone on the staircase with my girlfriend standing over me. “It’s actually rather good that we got some more people in the mansion. They can take care of our pups too when we are gone.” Sam gives her wolf a good scratching on the back.
“Sounds like we are going to put all the responsibility on Brielle and her kids.”
“They did ask for something to do. It’s not like the mansion is very high maintenance. And our dogs are neither.”
“That’s true.”
“So, what do you say, are we gonna go and say good night to the rest of our friends and head to bed?”
“Maybe let’s get a quick wash in first, don’t wanna be stinky in bed.”
Sam chuckles. “Alright.”
As Nikki and my sister have claimed the downstairs bathroom for now, Sam and I make our way to the bathroom upstairs. We don’t waste much time soaking in as I assume that our friends also want to take a bath too before they head to dreamland.
When we exit we bump into Carol and Max who were just heading towards the bathroom we left out of.
“Ah, perfect timing.” Max smiles as she peaks into the bathroom behind us. She whistles into the room. “Damn, that’s fancy.”
“I know, right.” Sam smiles.
“Are you two heading to bed already?” Carol asks.
I nod. “Yeah, we were about to come and search for you two but now it seems we’ll only need to go ahead and look for Hilda.”
“She just went back downstairs with the others.” Max replies.
“Ah, alright, thanks. I’d say have fun bathing.”
“We definitely will.” Max gives me a wink.
“Talk to you back in our world?” Carol asks, slightly blushing because of Max’s comment.
“For sure.I’ll text you when I get up.” We still had uni classes to go to after all. Although tomorrow wasn’t a very busy day if I remembered my class schedule correctly.
“Okay.” Carol suddenly hugs me, which was a surprise to be sure, but certainly not an unwelcome one, so I returned the gesture.
We let our friends have some privacy and continue our search for Hilda. Luckily, she’s easy to find. She was just giving a tour of the kitchen and the pantry to Brielle while the kids snacking on some dried meat in the dining room.
“Hey Hilda, we are about to head to bed.” I say as we walk into the kitchen.
“Then I wish you two a good night. Don’t forget what I asked you about, okay, Ami?”
“It’s seared into my mind.” I give Hilda a smile back while Sam gives me somewhat of a confused look.
She puts that beside her as she looks at Brielle. “Thank you for taking care of the house and our wolves while we are asleep.”
“Please don’t mind it. Thank you all for letting us live here, it’s truly a beautiful mansion.”
“I hope our sleeping schedule won’t freak you out too much.”
Brielle shakes her head. “I had heard rumours about adventurers and their rather unusual long slumbers. It will be something we need to get used to but we will manage just fine.”
“Then we will see you when we wake up.”
Brielle gives us a happy, content look. “You will.”
With that we say goodnight to everyone, puppers included, and head back upstairs to our room. My thoughts suddenly drift back to the box with our rings stashed underneath the bed. I had put them there in circumstances that were a lot less serious than what we are facing now, and some part of me starts doubting if it is a good time to give them now.
“Ami…” Sam cuts off my train of thought as she starts taking off her leather jacket.
“Mhmm?”
“Did you stash something under the bed?”
“Oh…” -Drat, leave it to my ranger girlfriend to force my hand anyway....-
“I take that as a yes?” She chuckles.
“It was kinda meant to be a surprise.” I pout and sit down on the bed.
Sam joins me by sitting next to me and wrapping her arm around my waist. “Sorry babe, I just saw the corner of the box when I walked in. But to be fair. I still don’t know what’s in it, so it’s still a surprise.”
“Hmmm.”
“Is there something wrong with it?”
“Well… I bought them before the entire thing with the corruption stuff. And I don’t know if now’s the best time to give it to you...”
“I see.” Sam starts rubbing my back. “I think that means it is the best time to give it. Following the philosophy of bringing joy in times of trials, just like we did with the kids. But I will respect your decision either way.”
I think about that for a couple of seconds before I nod in agreement. “Yeah, you are right.” I psych myself up just a little bit more and get down on the floor to collect the box. I gently put it on the bed, with Sam staring at it with excited anticipation.
Instead of holding a big speech of some kind, I just open the lid to let my girlfriend see what’s inside. When she does, she eeps with glee.
“We were talking about promise rings so I decided to look around a bit. A blacksmith from over here made the-...” Before I can explain any further, Sam locks me into an embrace.
“It’s perfect, Ami. I love them so much, and I love you even more.”
And just like that, any doubt about giving the rings is gone.