The Quantum Wanderer

I have dinner with the girls. Cecilia has her face a little redder than normal. The other girls are normal.

“How was the day, girls?”

“Oh, it was nice. After repeating the hair removal a couple of times, it is hurting a little less. I think I am getting used to it.” Cecilia answers.

Ruby shows me her hand with the fresh painted nails. I look, smile and nod, appreciating.

“It was fun, my lord.” Aquamarine says.

I look at her. She gets a little embarrassed. I like to see Aquamarine getting a little bit out of her shell.

“What about you, my villain? Did anything fun happen in school?”

“Did I tell you already that professor De Albano is helping me train to multi-cast?”

“Really? That is insane. Did you know that there are only about half a dozen multi-casters in Andrea?”

“I didn’t know that. Who are they? Are they adventurers?”

“No. Most of them reach that level with a very advanced age, so they are too frail for adventuring. They become too valuable. Professor De Albano is one of them. I have to say, though, that there have a lot of people that asked to be taught that.”

“I have to remember to thank him. Should I get him a present?”

“If you want. It is not unheard of.”

“Do you have any suggestions?”

“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask your other pals? Ambrose might give you a tip.”

I think about Cecilia’s suggestion. I get tired just by the thought of interacting with Ambrose. I put this on my to do mental list.

I tell them about the day in school, and that I mentioned to the gang that we can cast fly spell. I needed that to justify the nail painting somewhere further than Mayara’s curiosity.

They tell me about their beauty treatments, and we retire for the day.

Next morning my routine continues. The girls are going to have some leisure time during the morning and visit the elves later in the day. They have to get their dresses ready for the ball.

Opal created glass shoes for them. It looks fantastic, specially with the painted toes.

I go to school with Edward, he drops me at the usual spot. I enter the classroom, Muninn on my shoulder. Lucas with his umbrella.

Mayara is not in the classroom.

“Hey guys, good morning.”

“Good morning! How are you?” Dedi asks.

“Very well. What about you guys?”

“We are well too.” Dedi answers.

I look at Travis.

“Is Mayara preparing for the ball?”

“Yes. For us it is a matter of putting some clothes on, but she was going on about getting hair oiled. I like the result, but the amount of work they go through… Is just not worth it. And it is not really for me… I mean, you guys know, right? She is also getting a new dress. Don’t even get me started on the amount of dresses she has. How many times did you guys ever noticed that a woman was wearing the same dress twice?”

We all shake our heads. Men just don’t see that kind of thing.

“Doesn’t she have to do all that because of her image as a noble?” I ask.

“Perhaps, but only other women notice that.” Travis say. “What about you? Are you going in armor or in suit?”

“Suit.” Dedi answers.

“Armor.” Chet answers. He gives out a smug smile, closing one eye. “I have to look cool for the ladies.”

We all laugh. Dedi turns to me.

“What about you?”

“Since Chet is going with armor, I am going with armor as well.”

“Right! You’re an adventurer! What is your armor like? Is it fancy or sturdy?” Chet asks.

I think about my armor. It looks like it just left the forge. The metal doesn’t change at molecular level.

“Fancy. I have never adventured with this set, to tell you the truth. I don’t know how sturdy it is.”

“Really? Didn’t you ask the smith?” Chet asks.

“Well, it was a gift from a dwarf I helped during some travels… I thought it would not be polite.”

“Wow! A dwarven armor! Those are the best! It is a pity they are so expensive…”

“Really? I understand that the number of dwarves is smaller than humans, but why are those so expensive?”

“Not only the-“

At this point, professor Maggio enters the room, we sit in our seats. The class progresses smoothly.

On the interval, the gang reconvenes. Chet talks a little bit more about the armor that he is going to use. It has some motifs of lions. Again the talk gets interrupted by the arrival of professor Curie.

She arrives with her umbrella, the crow passing through the door, landing on the bean. I am thinking that she already go punished enough. I take a look at Muninn. Then I point to professor Curie’s crow. I turn back to Muninn and nod, indicating that she has had enough.

The teacher is setting her books on the table. Muninn caws very noisily at the crow that is above her. The crow takes flight and goes away through the window. That is not what I had planned.

Professor Curie puts her umbrella to the side, looking up. She sees that the crow is gone. She closes the umbrella, and nods at me. I shrug.

Lucas mutters something, but I can’t understand what it is.

The alchemy class goes on normally. She talks about mana imbuing during the processes. She mentions that a successful potion working also relies on understanding what is natural for each potion, and using the right spots for imbuing the potions.

We all go to the cafeteria, for our noon snacks. Between some nuts, Chet asks me.

“So tell me, how did you get dwarves to make you an armor?”

I shrug.

“Like I told you, I helped him, he ended up gifting it to me.”

“You are really lucky. Dwarves rarely make anything other than weapons. They say that it is not worth the effort.”

“Why?”

“Apparently, the amount of work that goes on a good set of armor is way bigger than producing a fine weapon, and charging the right value is really hard.”

I press my lips.

“I didn’t know about that. Again, it would have been rude.”

“Still, that explains. Can I assume that your wives’ armors are the same?”

“Yes. They were all done on the same moment. I had a previous one that got scratched, so when I met the dwarf again, I got a talking, and he made me a new one.”

“Really? How did you get it scratched?”

“Oh, it was a spar with Ruby. I got distracted.”

“Really? You manage to spar with your wives?” He laughs. “I wonder how come you are still alive!”

I laugh.

“You guys know that the fiercest one is Opal, right?”

“Noo…” Dedi comments. “Ruby’s temper is legendary.”

I laugh.

“Opal won most of their spars. But the fight is fierce. They are the strongest people I know.”

They are looking at my face.

“Do you guys know the stories around the entrance exam for the girls?”

“We have heard only pieces, here and there.”

I laugh.

“So, Edward already knew that they are very strong adventurers, right? So, instead of the normal exam, he allowed a different test for them, destroying a menhir. I think they had this test this year as well, but I am not sure…”

“Yes, I heard something about that. Your wives destroyed the menhirs…” Chet says.

“Are those hard?” Dedi asks, turning to him.

Chet has a pure look of disbelief.

“Have you ever seen one of those things up close?”

“No. Why would someone have one of those things?”

The only place I had ever seen one of those was in a french comic book. That question was really valid.

“Ok, let me answer that. First, the thing is a piece of mountain stone, several tons, wider than a person with open arms. As for why would someone have something like that… I have no idea. Some people say that it helps to practice earth magic or something.

“Anyway, back to you question, on how hard it is break one of those… What do you think?”

Dedi stops to think a little. I let him digest it, and then I continue.

“So the girls destroyed their stones… “ I continue with the story. “ then one kid decides to challenge Opal for the seat in the knight school…” I laugh. The guys start laughing with me.

“I had to ask her to avoid maiming or killing the guy. She gave him a kick on the balls… Later I learned that he got the nickname of little winter.”

“Little winter?” Dedi asks.

“Yes. No fruits.”

We all laugh for some time, until it settles in the girls’ level of strength.

“How strong in an absolute scale are they?”

“I am a mithril. They are around that level.”

“It is amazing! You guys are probably one of the strongest parties in the land.  Very few groups are made of mithril level adventurers!”

I scratch my nose, puffing my chest a little bit.

The rest of the day goes on without anything exceptional. Edward provides me a ride home, he tells me that he would pick me up in two hours, time enough to get ready.

The girls are already at home, dressed in their ball clothes. They are all wearing puffy dresses. Nice cleavages. They have different colors, all given by seeds placed in the dresses. They sit down to eat, but they place a towel over themselves, so that they don’t dirty the dresses.

After I am done, I hand them the bag of holding that has the dwarven treasures, so that they can pick jewelry, and I go upstairs to get ready.

Rudolph helps me put the armor on. When I get down, the girls are in the living room. I freeze for a minute while I see them. Standing up, I can observe them better.

Their dresses are tight around the body, and then puffy skirts. The jewelry each of them wore complemented their visage.

Once I come down the stairs, Opal is the first one to turn to me.  She turns her nose up.

“My lord, are you using the dryad’s cologne?”

I open a wide smile.

“Yes.”

Opal sighs. Ruby holds her arms, Shandon and Aquamarine also react a little bit. Cecilia is looking at them, inquisitively.

We chat a little bit, and move to the front yard. Edward’s carriage is in front. We enter it.

“Good evening, friends! How are you?”

“We are well, how are you?”

“We are well as well.”

We look at each other. I am wearing my armor, Edward decided on wearing his as well. Caius has a refined suit, Adrianna and Sophia are wearing dresses. Rebirth, as always, on Sophia’s shoulder. Adrianna is examining the dresses from my wives, while Sophia is pouting. Rebirth does a courtesy towards Muninn and Huginn, that are on my shoulders.

“Looking up close, those dresses are absolutely fantastic. It is amazing that they are just going to be ripped apart after a single use…”

”That’s the way of nature. Things get eaten and recreated. This permanent thing humans try for is not common.”  Aquamarine comments.

“What do you mean, eaten and recreated?” Addrianna asks.

“Once we are done with the dresses, we bring them back to the elves. They feed it back to the spiders.” Shandon answers.

“Spiders eat their own web?” Edward asks.

The dragonesses look a Edward at the same time. He shrugs.

“What better way to get the material back in your body?”

Edward ponders quickly and nod at them. Ruby  snorts.

“You guys are so weird! Akiko just  threw the placenta away! That was so rude!”

Addrianna and Edward give them a yellow smile. Cecilia and I giggle a couple of times. Addrianna gets back at looking at the dresses.

“Still, the whole thing is absolutely fantastic.”

“It has to be…”  Cecilia comments.

Addrianna, Edward and I laugh.

“Also, the necklaces you are wearing are exquisite. I have never seen anything like that.”

“Thank you.”  Cecilia says.

“They are different from the previous ones, are they not?”

“Yes.” Cecilia says.

“We actually have a lot of them.” I say.

“Really? Where did you get them?”

“Remember that we have freed a couple of dwarves cities from infestations? Ants and termites?”

“Yes.”

“They thought it would be only fair to give us the contents of the vaults in those cities. The original owners were no more, and by their rules, if an area is taken over by monsters and you clean it up, the area and everything in it belongs to you. Unless there is a contract of sorts, or course.”

“Do you want to borrow one for today? I see that you already have one on you, though.”

“No, thank you.” Edward answers for her. “I can’t even fathom  how much one of those would cost if we were to misplaced it.”

After some chit chat, we get to the venue.

The manor is way smaller than Edward’s and mine. It is still a manor, adequate for a marquis. The gate and gardens are simpler, but well cared for. Less bell and whistles, more simple but comfortable environment. Very ligned up with the military culture around the Empire.

The guards recognize the duke’s sigils on the carriage. They just come to the window to make sure. We go through the open gate, and stop in front of the main doors, on the road circle in front.

We get down the carriage, Edward tells us to go ahead. In front of the door, the crew receiving the guests are flabbergasted. This time, with Edward. I present them our invitation, but they don’ t take their eyes off Edward and his family enough to look at it.

“Your grace! What an unexpected honor!”

Edward just gesture them, them. They basically push us out of Edwards way.  He is smiling, this is all an internal joke.

The family goes inside the house. We follow them. We are basically invisible to the crew now. We are taken to the ballroom, where Edward stops by the closed door. One of the house’s crew opens the door slightly, just a small slit, and talk to the person on the other side.

After what feels like half a minute, they open the doors, and Edward and his family enter the room. The ball is actually silent. I see the scene from behind.

The whole ball is now bowing or doing a courtesy towards Edward and his family. They enter the room, and Mayara’s parents come closer, then bow and courtesy. Edward gestures them to stand up.

“Your grace! What an unexpected honor!” the husband says.

“I hope I am not intruding. I do realize I wasn’t expected.”

“Oh, your grace, not at all! We are honored by your presence. Please, feel at home!”

“Thank you, marquis. My family and I appreciate your hospitality.”

Edward walks away from the door, accompanied by Mayara’s parents. Mayara notices us still in the corridor. The crew around the door basically ignores us, we just enter the room. The herald by the door looks at the girls’ dresses and my armor. Muninn and Huginn, on my shoulders, seems to really throw him off. He takes a some minutes thinking about how weird I look, armor, red cape, crows on shoulders.

“I  am sorry, my lord, but I am not privy to your patent…? Who should I be announcing?”

“Just Marcelo and wives. I am not a noble.”

“Aham!” Opal clears her throat. “My lord is a council lord!”

The herald looks at her, she has a very commanding stance. The mana leaking makes him unease. He looks back at me. I nod. He sighs. The lack of enthusiasm runs deep in this guy. Specially after having announced the duke. He taps his staff on the floor, but in a  light way. It is more of a click than a stomp.

“Council Lord Marcelo, and wives.”

Opal is satisfied, apparently.

Mayara is laughing at the awkwardness of the interaction.

“Lord Marcelo! Lady Cecilia! Ladies!”

The guys from our group approach us. Chet is inspecting my armor. Dedi is accompanied by a girl in our age range. I assume it is his wife.

“By the gods! That armor is absolutely fantastic! The work, the details… Your dwarf friend seems to like  dragons a lot!”

“I think he does.” I say. “But then again, who wouldn’t?  They are beautiful, majestic creatures.”

My girls get a little red on the cheeks, but I don’t think anyone else realizes.

“And strong! Imposing! The size! The spikes! The claws! The teeth!” Chet says. “Can you imagine, the legends of old, where the hero party actually managed to hunt one?”

“What about that Romuelan guy? Wasn’t he a dragon in disguise?” Travis asks.

“Do you guys really believe that hogwash? It even ends with the current, or currently missing hero shooing the guy away.”

“Besides,” Opal chimes in, “the dragon that hero killed was a hatchling.”

“Just a second… That teeth thing you mentioned… Is that the reason why people smile?” Ruby asks.

“What?” Chet asks.

“You mentioned the size, the claws, the teeth. Is that why people smile, to show off their teeth around?”

There is this uncomfortable silence around. Ruby doesn’t get why people are like that, but she doesn’t care either. None of the dragonesses care about any human’s opinion, anyway. I jump in to change the subject.

“Did you know that what we call the land of dragons, in the mountains, is actually just a nursery of sorts? The really big ones are not found there.”

“Really?” Mayara asks.

“Yes.” I answer. “I have met some people, in my travels, that told me that what we call the land of dragons is actually just a nursery.”

“What about the dragons in the flight?”

“The ones in front were elders. The ones in the back were adults.” Shandon answers.

“Only 4 elders, then?” Chet asks.

“No, those were actually females. The leader’s females. That was a clan. The leader, then his females, then his clan elders, then his clan adults.”  Shandon say, getting tired from explaining. Like explaining to a five year old that fire burns.

“Wow! There is a whole group scholars that are still studying that flight, and this is the first time I hear that theory… Where did you hear that?” Chet asks.

“My wives have also worked as adventurers. Apparently, female dragons  don’t have spikes.” I say.

“Have you guys seen the paitings?”  Travis asks. “In the Command School, where those guys were investigating, they managed to have a couple of paintings done, with some testimonies as a base.”

“Talking about flight, I bring you the birthday present.” Opal says.

She takes out a glass statue from her bag of holding. It is a small human being on the back of a dragon. It has a support that goes down to a base.

I look at the scene closely. The human figure sitting on top of the dragon is about two inches. The work is, as always, impeccable.

“I modeled this after sister Cecilia. I was told you would enjoy.”

“Is Cecilia the person or the dragon? Perhaps she is a dragon, like the guy from Romuela.” Chet jests.

This whole conversation is a little too close to target for my comfort. I just power through. Edward approaches us, he has been doing the room, as they say.

“So, what are you kids talking about?”

“Dragons.” Chet answers.

Mayara raises the statue, showing it to Edward.

“Look at this hand work! Opal presented this to us.”

“Yes, she could be a renowned artisan if she chose to.” Edward comments.

Opal smiles.

”I prefer to just make a trinket once in a while, when my lord asks.”

”I myself also got a statue from her. It is at home.”

”Really? Does it also have a dragon theme?”

”No. It is a statue of our friend here.” He laughs, “the only theme she likes more than dragons, apparently.”

I blush on the situation. Addrianna and the kids approach us as well.

“Is your cousin coming as well, dear?” Addrianna asks Edward.

“He said he would. But he has to be fashionably late, though. You know how that goes.”

“I am sorry, your grace…?”  Mayara kind of says, kind of asks.  “Who should we get ready to host?”

“His highness. He should be arriving shortly, now.”

“Did you  inform my parents, your grace?” Mayara asks Edward.

He thinks for a little while, then shakes his head. “I don’t think I did.”

Mayara does a courtesy.

“In this case, excuse me, your  grace.”

Mayara rushes to her parents. Travis excuses himself and rushes to his parents as well. Chet and Dedi remain in the group.

“I don’t think I have ever seen the emperor up close.” Dedi says.

“Not many people has.” Chet says. “If you take a look around, you are going to notice that most nobles here are of lower layer.”

“How so?”

Dedi looks at me, then sighs.

“You spent too much time in the guild, apparently.” He chuckles. “Knights, Barons and Marquises are lower noblehood. Viscounts, counts and earls are full nobility. The high nobility is a functional one. It is comprised of the dukes, archdukes and direct administrative personnel, such as ministers, marshals. Of course, only duchy is hereditary.”

“Why are those separated in layers like this?” I ask.

“Well, there is a life style and expectation attached to each of those. A  knight is supposed to survive more on his own services than organizing the land. They can have fiefs, but generally not something that will sustain the life style of a noble, with maids, butlers, manor…”

“The baron is one step up. Unless one is lucky with their baronate, it is not common to have a lavish lifestyle. Marquises are one step up. The difference between a baron and a marquis is the amount of their fiefdom. Full nobility, on the other hand, receive taxes from lower nobility.”

I think a little bit about Shoria, but their tourist oriented town ends up generating a lot of coin. And now, with Akiko’s sense, that region is going to explode.

As for Onora, I had never met the baron there, I wouldn’t be able to estimate how rich or poor he is. It felt like a good place, though.

I take a look at Edward. He is smiling, studying my expressions.

At this point, a butler enters the door running, and goes straight for Mayara’s dad. He receives the news whispered in his ear, and looks at Mayara, flabbergasted. He then whispers something back to the butler, that takes off running.

The butler goes to the announcer, and whispers the news in his ear. He looks about to burst into laughter, as if he was told something stupid.