Chapter 26 – Collar Up

“What about it?” Asterios asked with a smile.

Miria kept twiddling with her thumbs. “It’s just… Master never mentioned anything about collars so I’m curious what that person meant.”

Certainly, he never brought that topic up for obvious reasons. But, since she inquired, Ast wasn’t going to just brush off her curiosity. He had a feeling that no matter what he would say, the conclusion to this conversation would still stay the same.

“It’s a thing for Summoners and Beast Masters or similar professions. When registering as an adventurer, one gets a shoulder plate with a visible rank, as you already know. Additionally to that, the Guild also issues collars with similar plates for beasts and familiars to make them more recognizable from wild ones and also make it clear who they belong to. It’s not an obligatory practice, but advised one,” he explained.

“I see. Then… why didn’t Master commission one for me?” she asked, visibly interested in the answer.

Asterios sighed. “If I were to put a collar on you in your panther form, what would happen to it when you morphed?” He raised one of his brows.

“It would stay where it was placed, so I assume, around my neck, right?” She answered instantly.

“Right. That’s what I thought. The answer is simple. You would look like a slave and I definitely didn’t want to force something possibly insulting onto you. It’s not like beasts always agree to them too, some are just too proud or straight-up hate the idea. And since you are quite special with your appearance, I just threw it away from the very beginning. Also, we were pretty much hiding the fact that you, as a person, are my summon back in Rosewind at first, since it’s a heaven for summoners.” Asterios gestured with his hand as he fully presented his thoughts.

Miria nodded through Ast’s monologue while keeping her gaze down on her thighs. The reasoning was sound and logical. She understood that and again was reminded of how considerate Asterios can be, which made her smile. But, she also felt something different inside…

After finishing, Ast looked at Miria who sat silently, definitely contemplating something and hesitant to speak up. He chuckled and decided to make it easier for her.

“You want one?”

“Eh?” She raised her face and turned to him with a slightly surprised expression. “But…”

“What? I never said I hated them or even had anything against the idea. I just didn’t want to be rude towards you, that’s all. It’s a different matter if it’s something you want,” Ast said, placing his chin on top of his intertwined hands.

A faint blush began surfacing on Miria’s cheeks and Ast could notice her tail starting to show more excitement. It was as he suspected. Miria looked away for a second and then returned her gaze to him, with her eyes jumping around, clearly showing her embarrassment.

“Wouldn’t that be… weird... hahaha...” she spoke meekly.

Asterios shrugged. “Maybe.” Miria shrunk into herself a bit. “But, do I care? Not in the slightest.” He flashed her an even wider smile. “Did you already forget what I said about doing what makes you happy?”

She glanced straight at Ast again. Her eyes filled with a visible gleam now. He chuckled again at that reaction.

“So?”

“Ummm… what does Master think… about me having one?” 

Asterios made a thoughtful expression. “Well, from the practicality standpoint, it would definitely be useful for your panther shape. As for the stylistic one, and your current form, I don’t know, but one thing is for sure, I definitely won’t allow an unpleasant looking one to sully your beautiful neck.”

Miria’s hands subconsciously shot towards her neck as she felt her whole face getting increasingly hot from Ast’s sudden compliment. Whenever she tried glancing at him again, she instantly averted her gaze to the side after seeing Ast’s charming smile. She took a moment to calm herself down before speaking again.

“I-I see… Could I… ask for one then?” She kept shooting him shy glances, still slightly embarrassed, but the excitement was bravely pushing through it.

“Of course. If you don’t mind though, could you tell me why? I didn’t think you would be willing to have such a thing. Oh, but I’m not judging you, I’m just really curious.”

Miria could tell that he was telling the truth. It was truly embarrassing, even from her standpoint, to ask someone to put a collar on you. She took a moment to figure out words which wouldn’t sound weird.

“Ummm… I just think that having one would be… an additional proof of our connection… our bond… and… and—nyahn?!”

Miria was so focused on her thoughts that she didn’t notice Ast walking up to her and plopping his hand onto her head, scratching gently around her ears. She looked up at him with her face covered in a tinge of rosiness.

“Okay, no need to force yourself to say more if it’s that embarrassing. Let’s make an order for it while we ask for details about the dungeon.”

He brushed through her hair for a second or two more and started heading towards an empty spot at the counter on the other side of the guildhall. Miria stood up and began walking behind Asterios, feeling disappointed that she couldn’t voice her honest thoughts properly.

Staring at his firm back, she shook her head and mustered up a bit of determination. Asterios already said he didn’t find it weird. Miria quickened her pace and after catching up to him, leaned herself over Ast’s back, hiding her face in his neck and grasping the material of his coat with her hands. He obviously noticed the motion and stopped while slightly turning his head.

Miria softly whispered to his ear, “I want it to show that I’m yours…”

For the first time since he heard the phrase somewhere in the past, Ast truly experienced what it meant for his heart to skip a beat. The sound of that confession just had something… captivating in it. He felt a little bit of guilt for talking about other girls previously, even though he knew Miria didn’t view him having more partners as an issue.

Faced with Miria’s timid, upturned gaze from above his shoulder, he couldn’t do anything but smile and pat her head affectionately.

“Got it,” he whispered back.

They waited a minute for Miria to stop blushing and stepped again onto the path leading to a free receptionist, walking side by side. The girl with a charming and professional smile noticed them from quite far and waited without dropping it for even a second. She had long, blond hair and yellowish eyes and emanated an aura of a mature woman.

“Welcome! My name is Venera, how can I help you today?” she spoke in a voice perfectly matching her appearance.

“Hello, I’m Asterios and this is Miria. First things first, I wanted to ask if I can commission collars here or if I should head to a different person. I’m a Summoner.”

The woman nodded along. “Yes, yes, I can take the order from you. Also, I don’t think there are any other right now and our artisan should be here, on the spot, so we could pass it over to him immediately, having it done while we talk since I assume there are more things you two wanted to discuss.”

“That would be perfect.”

She clapped her hands. “Great! Can you tell me more about it?”

“I’m an E-rank so the plate should naturally be adequate to that. Would be nice if it had magnetic clips. Ah, and as for the material, do you deal with self-adjustable, mana-woven fabrics?” Asterios inquired after going through the main parts.

“Hmmmmm… Yes, we do. They aren’t that popular so I’m not sure if we have anything besides black though.” Venera made a thoughtful expression.

Asterios glanced at Miria and she nodded her head. “That would be fine with us.”

“Okay.” The receptionist ducked under the counter for a few seconds and appeared again with a ribbon in her hand. “I would kindly ask you to show me the minimum and maximum sizes with this strap. More or less of course. It allows us to reduce the amount of unnecessarily wasted material.”

He took the small belt from the woman’s hand and made a circle out of it, capturing Miria’s panther’s form neck diameter. He didn’t need her to change as he already hugged it a lot of times while riding on her back and could almost precisely reproduce it with his hands.

Venera took a peek at the markers on the belt and noted down the number. “Thank you. Now, onto the maximum.”

Ast showed a wry smile. “Erm, that was the maximum.”

“My apologies, let me fix that mistake quickly. Done. Then, the minimum now, please.” She gestured again.

Miria stepped closer to Ast and raised her chin, obviously, she couldn’t avoid blushing while staring at him. Asterios led the strap around her neck and held the loop with his fingers so that the receptionist could get the correct number. 

After he looked at her though, she seemed to be focusing on a different detail, with a confused expression and furrowed brows. She couldn’t understand why the man in front of her was using his friend to size the collar. 

In the first place, they didn’t deal with collars for people, and even if they did, the size difference was the weirdest part. The Guild sometimes had customers who tried to get a choker for their partners for much cheaper than the accessory stores due to them being obliged to provide the collars to adventurers at an affordable price, but—

“Achoo~!”

“Bless you.”

“Thank you, Master.”

Something made Miria’s nose itchy and she sneezed softly. Just the way she addressed Ast resulted in some gears in the receptionist’s head to begin turning and she finally noticed the two pointy things that twitched along the girl’s head-bob.

“Erm… the collar… is for her?” Venera asked, not being sure what to think.

It was Miria who answered this time. “Yes, I’m Master’s summon and I wanted one, so…”

“Is there any problem? I can prove our contract if it’s necessary,” he added.

The receptionist shook her hands. “No, no, no. I was just… surprised a bit. I don’t mean to be rude but, you don’t really look like a beast, so I thought for a moment that you are trying to get a slave collar for cheap or something. But, I guess... the ears...”

She still was a little bit befuddled by the whole situation, but the pair in front of her seemed honest. And well, if they lied and used some kind of illusion magic, then that’s not her problem and they would be found out soon enough. Venera collected herself quickly and cleared her throat.

“Okay, I got the measurements, thank you. Anything else to add?”

“I would like it to have my Brand on the rank plate.” 

Asterios took off his right glove and made a few brushes with his fingers in the air, making his Summoner’s Brand to surface on the top of his hand. Surprisingly, the one on Miria’s forehead also showed up. With that, all the doubts of the receptionist were cleared too as it wasn’t easy to fake one.

“I’ll add that to the notes. Erm… Then, give me a moment and I’ll deliver the request and come back here in a second.” She bowed lightly and left through a curtain behind.

Asterios chuckled and shook his head. “I should have mentioned it from the start.”

“But, her confused face was kinda funny.” Miria smiled.

“Are you turning into my mother?”

“Sorry, ehehe~”

Venera returned quite quickly, just as she promised. Asterios informed her about their plan to visit the dungeon and that it was their first time around. The woman talked to them about it with great enthusiasm. It was visible that she liked interacting with adventurers that weren’t complete jerks.

They learned the location and some basic rules. There was a small adventuring hub ran by the guild on its site, where they could get much more detailed information about the interior and existing monsters. They had to register their entry and return for logging purposes. Ast already knew about it, but they listened to the woman’s explanation about the requirement to bring the money and unidentified artifacts to the guild. There was a small operating fee for the dungeon, but that was kind of obvious.

Venera handed them a small guide about the dungeon so that they could familiarize themselves with it also that way. After finishing talking, she glanced at both of them, sizing them up.

“Well, just don’t push your luck too much. Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer. Many aspiring adventurers lost their lives because they were too prideful to back out. I’d advise you to find at least one more person if you are planning on heading there alone.”

Asterios nodded his head. “Don’t worry, we are mostly aiming to train there at first. And it will be a great occasion to figure out the areas we are currently lacking in so that we can think about who would be best suited to fill those holes.”

“Yes, Master is a really cautious person. And I’m not the same as I was before too,” Miria joined in.

Asterios brushed through her hair, making Miria squirm a bit. She knew he was cheering her up so that she didn’t think about that time again after they already went through a deep analysis of it, so she just smiled beautifully at him.

“Ummm…” Venera tried her best to grab their attention back without looking rude. The duo stopped their show and turned to her. “Would you perhaps be willing to register me as your advisor? Of course, if you want and if you don’t already have one here.”

They looked at each other and nodded. “I think it would be fun, Miss Venera!”

Miria’s joyful smile took the receptionist a little bit off-guard and she averted her gaze. The cute girl with cat-like ears was just too adorable. She was curious about her origins, but it wasn’t the main reason she asked. Venera just wanted to become friends with the peculiar duo. They seemed like very kind people and she felt that she would definitely enjoy helping them out. She looked back at them and showed her best smile.

“Thank you, I’ll do my best for you! And you don’t need to address me like that, just Venera is fine. Or… Ven… That’s how my friends call me.”

“Well then, we’ll be in your hands then, Ven. I better not catch you using anything other than Ast now.” Asterios also put up a nice smile of his own.

“I don’t have any short nickname so just call me Miria!” The panthergirl obviously had to add her part.

Ven blushed a little, happy that they accepted her so openly, making her their friend. “Thanks! Let me fetch the collar, it should be ready by now.”

And again, after disappearing in the back room, she soon returned with their ordered item. It was a small, oval plate made out of bronze, with Ast’s Summoner’s Brand etched onto it. It was in the form of two thin pieces connecting together in a Z-shape, attached to two ends of the slim, black strap. When joined together, the parts formed a single badge.

"How much?" Ast asked.

"Ah, it's your first one, right? Then it's on the house. It's a rule." She smiled kindly.

"Woah, thanks a lot."

Asterios sent a bit of his mana into the clip and it parted. He put the collar gently on Miria’s neck and closed it again. Next, he controlled the amount of energy in the strap and made it shrink until it firmly but gently embraced Miria’s neck.

“How is it, not too tight?” he asked.

“No, it’s great. It doesn’t feel uncomfortable. Actually, quite the opposite,” she answered while touching the badge with her hand. A faint smile found its way onto her lips.

Asterios stepped back to take a better look at her. He brushed under his chin while taking a few glances, assuming a serious expression.

“Just as I thought…”

Miria, noticing his tone and look, was suddenly filled with anxiety and she glanced at him uneasily.

“It made you even cuter.”

It wasn’t what she expected to hear. A second passed before she completely registered Ast’s compliment and her eyes widened, accompanied by her face getting as red as a tomato. She instantly covered it with both of her hands and squirmed. Her ears started twitching like crazy and her tail danced happily.

He chuckled and stepped closer to give her some pats. “Shoot. Now I can’t see the cute.”

Miria slowly took her hands down and tried her best to look at Ast while he played with her ears. What he saw was a furiously blushing girl trying very hard not to look away. That picture actually made him want to give her a kiss. Out of his own volition, not just because she wished for it or it was necessary. It was something new that Asterios hadn’t experienced yet. Previously, he did it mostly because he felt like it was the right thing to do at the moment and she would like it.

He decided against it though. Ven was literally by their side. It could get awkward. Especially since they just literally introduced themselves. Little did he know that the girl in question could already clearly see that there was something going on with how meekly Miria acted towards her master. It piqued her curiosity even more.