Chapter 34 Voyage to ‘The Republic of Beliersia’-1

Book:Alex Brim, Hero for Hire Published:2024-5-1

When Sakamo was in his room again and already in his Azurath clothes, he grabbed all the weapons he had stashed in the closet and took one deep breath before grabbing his pendant and touching the knob of the closed door. “By the power of the fallen Spirits, use the same time and open a Passage to Azurath!”
Sakamo opened the door and went into the light. On the other side of the new door, Shinatobe was seated on the edge of the bed, playing with the frills of her dress. She raised her eyes as soon as he exited the closet and gave him a big smile. “Look what the cat brought in! So, anything new in School?”
“Well, kind of… When I returned after making the contracts with Kagu and Suijin, the strangest thing happened. I more or less… kissed Hangaku Mae, my classmate. I felt a bunch of her feelings and sensations, and I got a little dizzy. As for her, she fainted. I am not sure what happened, but perhaps it was because of the Magic of the contracts. I used a small amount of the Healing Magic that making a contract with Suijin granted me, and she recovered, but that situation was too weird.”
Shinatobe slowly nodded and took something from her pocket that she gave to Alex while explaining, “Here, next time you go back, give this to her as a present. It’s a piece of that Magic Orb you gave me last time. I asked your artisan friend Aya Martin to make this pendant disguised as a light blue crystal. I have one bracelet made for me, and Sarutahiko Okami has a set of earrings. For us, this won’t do a thing except look good, but for that girl on Earth, it will protect her from your excessive Magic when you go back. She probably fainted because her body is not used to Magic. This pendant will absorb it, and she won’t faint anymore. It will get a darker blue colour when absorbing Magic, but after some time, the absorbed Magic will dissipate and return to the usual light blue. It will also immunise her from the attraction you emanate because of your Magic, and you will find out if she likes you, or your Magic.”
Alex looked at the small pendant, a small obelisk with a round tip on one side and a tiny hole on the other side, where a string was attached. He touched the interlaced silver string and asked, “This string, what is it made of?”
“Silver, of course, like my bracelet and Sarutahiko Okami’s earrings. I guess this could be relatively cheap on Earth, but around here, because of the fame of the artisan, this pendant would be a fortune. Fortunately, the obelisk made from a piece of a Magical Orb that doesn’t exist on Earth resembles more or less a light blue crystal. At least, that was what your father told me many years ago. I suppose that girl will like it.”
Alex stared at the pendant and glanced at the puzzled Spirit of the Fire that was following their conversation. Shinatobe gave Alex a big, flat wooden box. “Since you will travel to ‘The Republic of Beliersia’, Aya Martin gave me these so that you could sell them. She said it’s an exclusive collection that she has been working on over the last few weeks, and she asked if you could find an auction in Beliersia where they could be sold. For your usual two gold coins percentage, of course.”
Alex put the box inside his bag, and Shinatobe got up from the bed, pulling the arms of the Spirit of Fire. “Get up and shine, Kagu-tsuchi, it’s time to travel!”
Shinatobe turned into a small dot of light and went to her usual place, hidden behind Alex’s right ear, and Kagu-tsuchi went to the left ear.
Alex got out of his room and went downstairs. A few Adventurers were at the tables, drinking or talking, a small group was in front of the Quest Board, and Sarutahiko Okami was waving at him from a table on the left corner, with Suijin at her side, together with the Party of James Macdonald.
Anika Wright made a big smile and asked while looking around when he got near the table, “Glad to see you again, Alex! It seems Shinatobe will not join us! Now that you are here and Okami said that she took care of your share of the supplies, we can get going, right?”
Alex crossed his arms, and his eyes narrowed. “It’s just me, or are you too eager to start an extremely dangerous voyage? Unless you fear that Shinatobe joins us at the last minute. Maybe I need to remind you about her warning because even if she is not around, she is not too far away as many people think.”
Alex rubbed his right earlobe with a serious face, and Anika glanced at his ear and gulped. She turned pale and slowly nodded. Okami squeezed one of Alex’s butt cheeks and looked at the others with a big smile. “What about if we go to start our glorious adventure? I don’t know about you guys, but I am in the mood to kill some Monsters.”
Alex frowned and asked without looking at her. “Are you really hoping for some Monsters to try to kill us? I am so going to use your animals as a decoy if we are attacked! I couldn’t care less if they were eaten, and you had to go the rest of the voyage on foot. Maybe that will teach you not to call bad luck on our way.”
Okami slowly removed the hand from his butt and stuttered, “Y-you… a-are joking, right?”
“No, I am not. In fact, maybe you should call a few more animals as soon as we leave the City because considering how you are so eager to fight Monsters, I bet we will need more decoys when your boar and deer get eaten. What about if we get going, Mister James? We have a long ride ahead of us.”
James Macdonald got up in silence, impressed by the cold way that Alex implied he wouldn’t have a second thought about sacrificing Okami’s animals in case of danger, and the others followed him, also surprised. Suijin muffled laughter and tapped Alex’s back on his way out while whispering, “That was a good one, Alex. It has been a long time since I last saw Okami so worried.”
Alex stared at Okami and whispered, when they were the only ones at the table, “If you are so eager to kill Monsters, perhaps you should go ahead of us and act as a scout. Run back if you face more than you can chew, but if you find Monsters, you can have a blast fighting them.”
Okami made a slight frown. “You… look mad…”
“Not mad, just fed up with your way of searching for danger without thinking about others around you. And you wonder why I don’t travel with you more often. Shinatobe never searches for danger or asks for it. I know you are the older sister, but sometimes you act like a child. Why are you still here looking at me? Go to your deer and boar and do some scouting. Come back by lunchtime.”
Okami slowly nodded. “I see… I can do that, but I would prefer to be near you during the voyage.”
Alex slapped the hand that was rubbing his left thigh and answered, “See why I want you to do the scouting? You are always doing things like this. I want to have a quiet voyage. I don’t want to always be wondering when you will try to abuse me. Yes, you heard me right. You are always trying to abuse me or seduce me. Did you ever consider the fact that I might not be interested or in the mood? I already had a lot of annoying situations with that crazy Mermaid. I don’t need to be worried about you.”
Alex then slapped his right ear, and a low shrill came from behind his ear as he whispered, “You be quiet, Shinatobe. You are hurting my ear with your whining! Are you two going to behave like this for the entire journey? One is always annoying me and the other is whining with jealousy. How old are you two, anyway? Stop acting like brats, geez!”
From Alex’s left ear, a burst of low laughter was heard, “Ahahah! It’s not very often that these two get scolded at the same time! This voyage sure is promising!”
Alex got up and went to the door, with Sarutahiko Okami following him in silence and with a worried expression.
He went to the stables on the right side of the Guild of Adventurers and grabbed the reins of his horse that the stable boy gave him while worriedly staring at the big grizzly bear that Suijin was riding. Alex barely had time to move out of the way as Okami exited the stable at full speed, riding an enormous deer with sharp and dangerously looking stems, followed closely behind by an Armoured Boar covered with bone plates that were growing from underneath his long fur.
Alex looked at the boar’s back as he ran, remembering the last time he hunted such a dangerous animal and why most Adventurers never try to do that, considering the danger of fighting a strong beast armed with two big upward pointy fangs and covered in bone plates, that deflects arrows and even stops the best of swords.
He mounted his horse and followed Suijin, with James Macdonald at the front of the group and the other members behind him. As usual, Alex was responsible for protecting their backs, a position that was assigned to him on their last voyage.
Along their way to the front gates of the walled City, Alex made a few slight bows every time someone waved or shouted his name. Then, he saw a young girl smiling at him, with her bifurcated tongue sticking out now and then. Alex stopped the horse near her, and the little half-girl, half-snake, stood up on her lower snake half and stretched her arms to hug him.
She spoke in her funny hissing voice, “Have a ssafe trip, Misster Alex! Come back quickly, you were ssupossed to have lunch with me before your next trip, remember?”
“You are absolutely right, little Maryam. I totally forgot. I am really sorry. A lot of things have happened since I came back from my last journey, and I didn’t remember you asked me to do that. Maybe if I saw you at the Guild, I would remember, but you were not there, right?”
“I had Sschool to attend. I am having trouble with Mathss, but Sshinatobe helped me with homework. Iss sshe alsso going with you?”
Alex glanced at the other members of his Party and whispered, “She is following me. You know she doesn’t like it when I travel without her. Be a good girl and play with your friends in our absence, okay? Try not to bite anyone with those scary fangs of yours! Remember what happened last time, when your mother grounded you?”
The little girl stuck her tongue sideways and made an awkward smile. “That Dog-kind boy wass bullying my friend. There wass no way I would be sstill while he messsed with my cute Cat-kind preciouss friend! I am ssure he will not try it again, but I won’t mind being grounded again if he bulliess one of my friendss!”
Alex rubbed the head of the little blond Lamia girl. “You little menace! At least try not to hurt him too much if he doesn’t learn, okay? I don’t want to be called to talk with your Teacher again.”
“I will try… Come back ssoon and be careful, okay?”
Alex gave a kiss on the cheek of the little girl, and as she went down, Alex turned the horse around and trotted to meet the others, while waving at the little smiling Lamia. Anika Wright slowed down her horse and asked, while looking back, “That little Lamia is your friend?”
“Yes, she is Maryam Martin. Her mother is Aya Martin, also a Lamia, an artisan excellent at making jewellery out of Magic Orbs. Her father died during an attack on a merchant’s caravan that I was protecting. I couldn’t save her father, but I could make sure she and her mother didn’t suffer more than they already had. I always give her mother the Magical Orbs I get from my jobs, and she makes the most exquisite jewellery out of them. She has a few tools and devices that I created for her, and those, together with her sharp claws, help her make the prettiest jewels on the market. The Nobles are crazy about them, and when she has a new set ready to sell, it always goes to an auction where they fight for the price.”