Chapter 48 – Reporting Back

Miria made it out of the forest in just a few minutes. Without Asterios on her back, she could go at full speed without worrying about him falling off. The duo did practice riding like that, and Ast was able to keep himself on her at her best speed, but that was quite some time ago and Miria felt that she got faster again. 

The more time they spent together, and the better their connection was getting, she was also receiving more and more benefits from Asterios that enhanced not only her physique but also her abilities. She felt like the biggest changes took place twice in the past. 

The first time she got stronger a lot was after Miria finally stopped being shy about deepening their connection, which happened during and after the Bloodfang incident. Since that moment, she kept growing in power faster than before when she was only on her own.

Then, the second major change happened after that one particular night when he accepted all of her. She didn’t notice it at the beginning due to how embarrassed Miria was about the way she approached Asterios and the things she said at that time, but the difference in their connection’s growth and her personal progress was visibly greater when compared to the first one. 

Miria wanted to talk about it with Asterios, but discussing such embarrassing things with him was still too hard for her. She really wished she could overcome that shyness of hers and be more open about what she wanted to do, but it kept proving difficult for her to take any even slightly intimate action without a proper momentum, specific atmosphere or situation, like recently in the underground. It was usually Ast who drew out her courage with kind words and actions.

She shook her head in a try to stop her mind from wandering too far into areas inappropriate for the current moment. The Guild’s building was already in her sight as she was currently making her way through the village, carefully avoiding bumping into people walking around. It wasn’t hard as most of them heard the loud thumping of the huge black panther in the distance and quickly removed themselves from her path to not get rammed by the speeding beast.

Still not fully focused, and while distracted by thinking about how she wished she didn’t have to rely on being in heat to act bolder like a true Pantherkin, she jumped through the Guild’s main entrance, retaining all her momentum from the run.

Noticing a sudden change in scenery, Miria realized she reached her destination and pressed her massive paws hard into the ground to slow down, sliding over the polished surface and stopping just in front of the first line of tables at the section meant for socializing, where a few groups of adventurers were currently sitting down.

The party which was chilling by that specific spot fell down from the benches after seeing a huge panther almost crashing into their table. Everyone looked towards the commotion and Miria could see some of the people standing up and pulling out their weapons, including the fallen group which looked quite shocked and perhaps scared.

「Oh shoot. I shouldn’t have barged in here while looking like this. Even if he won’t say it, Master will definitely be disappointed in me after he hears about this. I messed up...」she cried inwardly.

Before she or the adventurers did anything, someone came running towards her from the side.

“Wait! Everybody calm down! It’s a summon!”

Miria turned her head and saw Venera quickly approach her and extend her arms. She stepped closer to the woman and pushed her head into them, hoping for that action to ease the worries of the other people around. Ven gently brushed her fur while looking at the adventurers with a wry smile.

“Ah… I think I saw it some time ago by the side of some dude,” someone from the crowd said.

“Right. Look. She has a badge too.”

“Damn, that scared me shitless…”

Some people sighed in relief and the commotion began to disperse with everyone coming back to their seats. Ven turned back to Miria and glanced at her with furrowed brows, making the panther lower her head in remorse.

She then sighed too and chuckled. “Well then, what’s the hurry? Also, I’d like you to refrain from bursting in through the front door like this in the future. If that’s possible.”

Miria nodded. She was going to switch forms when she realized that even if they are no longer hiding that, it would be way wiser to avoid showing it off while literally every gaze in the Guild was directed at Ven and her, so Miria angled her head towards the corridor leading to the meeting rooms they used recently.

“Ah. You want to get out of sight? Alright. Give me a moment. I’ll just let the other girls know.”

Ven ran back to her station and Miria walked up to the beginning of that corridor, lying down near it as she waited. Some people were still intently observing her, but the moment she met their eyes, they quickly turned their gazes away. After a few minutes, Venera came to fetch her and they went into one of the rooms. Miria didn’t waste any more time and changed the moment the door closed.

“So? Why are you here alone? Did something happen to Ast?”

Miria shook her head. “No. Master sent me to tell you that we found the boy.”

Ven’s eyes slightly widened. “Really?! You left not that long ago! That’s amazing! Where is he?”

“Master and Selene are escorting him here as we speak. They’ll reach the village very soon. He told me to ask about a good healer to take him straight to the person.”

“Healer? Is the boy hurt?”

“Yes.”

“How badly?”

Miria shook her head. “I don’t know. Master gave him medicine but he is still unconscious. He was hurt by a Phantasmal Horror and his body looks bad even from outside.”

Ven’s hands moved to her mouth as she gasped in shock. “Phantasmal Horror?! That’s severe! Why did a Horror appear in a simple, abandoned watchtower?!”

“We found him and the boy in a hidden underground. It looked like a prison or something. I don’t know. Master should be able to explain more.” Miria wanted to avoid talking about that topic to not say something unnecessary by accident.

“Okay. Go tell Ast to bring the boy here. In the meantime, I’ll—”

“Done.”

Ven raised her brows in surprise as her mouth was left open from getting interrupted midway. 

“Right. Mental connection. Come with me then. I’ll request help from our staff. Also, this is more serious than we thought so I have to let the Guildmaster know. Tell Ast that I apologize in advance but he might want to query you guys about this personally.”

Miria’s eyes wandered from spot to spot for a moment before returning back to the woman. “He says it’s fine as he already expected that to happen after reporting the quest back to you.”

They then left the room and Venera quickly informed her colleagues about the situation, sending them to bring their healers to the infirmary section of the Guild’s building while she went to talk with the branch leader. 

Asterios and Selene arrived at the place a few minutes later and escorted the boy lying on the spiritual platform to the medical room. There was no direct rear entrance there so they were unable to avoid all the curious gazes in the lobby. He quickly explained the boy’s situation to the three healers present in the room and left him in their hands.

As Venera expected, the Guildmaster wanted to personally hear them out and she led the trio to his special meeting room on the upper floor. When they entered the chamber, the person was already waiting for them on one of the fancy sofas inside. 

It was a man seemingly somewhere in his mid-thirties, with short, brown hair and a neatly trimmed beard. He wore a uniform most male Guild employees used, but looking more distinguished, like a fashionable suit. His outfit consisted of a white shirt, dark green pants and jacket, and white gloves.

He stood up and gestured towards the other sofa. “Welcome. My name is Jared and I’m responsible for this branch of the Adventurer’s Guild. Please, take a seat so we can exchange a few words, Mister Asterios.”

They sat down as instructed and Venera moved to stand behind the Guildmaster who also seated himself after them.

“I was following that quest’s progression since the beginning so I’m quite well-informed about everything linked to it, and that includes the reports Misery’s Dawn and Dandelion Breeze submitted after their investigations. There was nothing unusual in either of them. Could you tell me how you found the missing boy and what exactly happened along the way?”

“Of course.” Asterios nodded and then gestured to his right, where Selene was sitting by his side. “My companion here is an expert Spiritualist and she sensed a faint trace of spiritual essence while we were searching the watchtower. We didn’t find any paths leading down so we chose a spot out of the essence’s vicinity and dug through the floor until we reached an underground room.”

Ast then glanced at Miria. “My other companion then led us to the boy after his scent and we found him lying down in one of the stone chambers. Sure it was a trap, we approached him warily and he jumped at us. I immediately recognized the symptoms of being taken over by a Nightmare and we restricted his movements. I used Spirit Water to cleanse the boy, but I was actually mistaken, and it was a Phantasmal Horror acting like a Nightmare and he tried to take over my body by surprise. I led him to believe that he succeeded and my companions helped the clueless monster find his soulbound relic. We then took care of it, returned to the boy, gave him a potion and looked for an exit. Finding a hidden passage, we went outside and the rest is obvious,” he summed up their efforts.

“I see. Did you learn what that underground complex was? Does anyone else know of it?” Jared inquired.

“It looked like some kind of prison. We didn’t explore much besides the room the Horror led us into, which was his office. He made quite a mess there. After dealing with him, we got the boy and came back, grabbing only a few valuables that caught our eyes when the monster was going through his stuff. If two teams missed the secret entrance, I don’t think others might have found it if they went there after we returned. By the way, I’d like to appraise the stuff we got. From the Horror’s blabbering, it seemed that he was a mage. You won’t be confiscating our findings, right? It’s just a few rings and necklaces,” Asterios replied.

“No, we won’t. If what you are telling is true…” The man slightly squinted his eyes.

“Are you accusing Master of lying?! On what basi—” Miria furrowed her brows and raised her voice, but Asterios stopped her with his hand and nodded at the man to continue.

“I’ve familiarized myself with your records, Mister Asterios. You are a freshly registered adventurer, an E-rank Summoner by rank evaluation, who completed three quests so far. All were minor ones. You took the emergency task alone, and although it seems you had the help of a quite unusual looking combat slave,” the man glanced at Miria and back to him, “you can’t blame me for doubting your capabilities when faced with an entity of the calibre of a Phantasmal Horror. From your story, it doesn’t seem like you had any summons with straight-up counters for ghost-types or you would have used them right after judging your opponent to be a Nightmare.”

Asterios raised one of his brows and moved his eyes onto Ven. Jared noticed that and followed his gaze, also leaning back to look at the receptionist.

Venera slightly bowed. “My sincere apologies, Mister Asterios. Your recent delve must have not been yet registered in the main Adventurer’s Guild network since our exchange took place just earlier today. It’s usually updated in bulk at different times. So, while we do have it mentioned in our local registry, Guildmaster must have reached for the data stored in the interguild system, unaware that it isn’t completely up to date.” She then straightened herself and turned to face Jared. “Guildmaster, this person is the one who provided us with the almost completely intact, full set of Hobgoblin Warlord’s armour from the tenth floor of the nearby dungeon, and the lady to his right is the one who almost completely obliterated its shield with a single punch.”

“What?” Jared returned his eyes to the youth.

“Ah!” Venera gasped softly when remembering something and walked up to Ast. “The order was already finished. Here, this is for you. I’ll deduct the cost from your completion reward later.”

She passed to Asterios a finely looking, small leather belt of a silvery-white colour, with a bronze clip-badge in the front, in the same fashion as in Miria’s collar. He accepted the item and the girls looked at it curiously.

After Ven returned to her place, he glanced at Selene. “May I?”

She brushed her hair to the back and Asterios gently put the collar on her slender neck with a soft click. Selene grazed it with her fingers and smiled beautifully.

“Thank you, my Lord. I’ll be sure to treasure it greatly.” She bowed her head.

He chuckled and smiled wryly. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to being thanked for collaring a beautiful girl.”

“Ufufu~. Just a few more and you’ll get over it, my Lord.”

Asterios shook his head and returned his focus to the man in front of them. It would be rude to keep this flirting up in his presence and the Guildmaster seemed quite confused with the whole scene that was slowly unfolding in front of his eyes. Especially about the collaring part.

“Guildmaster Jared, are you perhaps a non-combatant?” Ast asked.

The man furrowed his brows. “Why does that matter? Yes, I’m not a retired adventurer but a civil officer.”

“Figured out. She was able to realize Miria’s strength instantly.” Asterios nodded to himself, reached into his pocket, picked up a gold coin and sent it flying towards the man using his thumb. “Is this enough to guarantee my credibility?”

Jared caught it with his hand and brought it in front of his eyes to examine the item. Both he and Venera instantly realized what it was. As a Guildmaster and a Receptionist, they obviously had to memorize a lot of things connected to the inner workings of the Guild, and the meaning behind this Token of Fealty belonging to Guildmaster Suanori from Rosewind’s branch was clear as a day to them.

Not every Guildmaster in existence had the right to issue those. It was reserved only for the most prominent and experienced adventurers that took the position after retiring or deciding to settle down and were offered the job. It meant that the one who issued the token had full trust in the gifted individual and they could even act on behalf of them. Jared and Venera were sure it was a real one as impersonating a Guildmaster’s Envoy in front of the Guild’s officials would be utterly stupid as they could check its authenticity in a few moments.

The Guildmaster nervously swallowed his saliva, placed his hands on his thighs and bowed his head. “I apologize for my rudeness, Sir Asterios. I hope my words didn’t offend you. It’s in my nature to be doubtful in cases like these and I’ve experienced a fair deal of swindlers in my life.”

“It’s fine. I know how it must have looked from your side. There’s no need for unnecessary formality. Also, to clear things up, these girls aren’t my slaves. They are my summons.”

To prove his point, Miria stood up from the couch, moved to its side and transformed into a panther before jumping back onto it and laying her head on Ast’s lap. Venera smiled seeing Jared's surprised face.

“So this is the beast I’ve heard about… I’m sorry I didn’t realize it. I thought they were some exotic race I’ve never heard of or those ears and tails were magical trinkets or spells for aesthetic purposes. My sincere apologies towards the two ladies too.”

Selene and Ast nodded while Miria released a soft growl.

“Then, do you want to ask about anything else or was this just about me being slightly suspicious?” Asterios asked him.

“Are there any more things you could share with us about the place or the situation?”

“Not really. The area seems to be a secret prison of some sorts. There were lots of skeletons in the cells. As for the Horror, he might have been the overseer of that place. Someone murdered him. The weapon is still lodged in his chest in the office. I only know his name was Dane if that will be of any help.”

The Guildmaster nodded. “Alright. Thank you for your cooperation. It’s obvious that without you we wouldn’t be able to find the missing kid. Also, are you planning to investigate the facility yourself? With your background, I have to ask first.”

Asterios shook his head. “No. I’ll leave the rest to the Guild. I’ve taken this task as an adventurer, not an envoy. I wouldn’t reveal that if it wasn’t necessary.”

“I understand. I can promise you that we’ll keep that fact to ourselves if that’s what you want. The rank of this quest was E so there won’t be any issues.”

They talked for some more time and Venera led Ast’s group to the appraiser after they finished. Their spoils seemed to be just your ordinary jewellery and he decided to keep it with him for the time being, planning to show it to his mother as she was more knowledgeable about things like these than the Guild’s officials.

Finishing the process of reporting the completion of the quest, they received sixty silver coins from Ven and bid farewell as it was slowly getting late. It was quite a hectic day for them. Miria and Selene jumped back to their world and Asterios headed towards the inn they previously stayed in before departing to the dungeon.

Shortly after he took a shower and was drying his hair with a towel while sitting on his bed with just pants on, Selene entered the room through the portal. Seeing his quite muscular body, she raised one of her brows.

“For a Summoner, your body looks pretty impressive, my Lord.”

He hung the towel over his neck and smiled at her. “What can I say. Since I couldn’t raise my magical prowess, I divided my efforts to focus on the body too. You must have heard from Miria that I was pretty much a spiritual cripple.”

“Yes, and I find it really hard to believe.”

“Anyway, what can I help you with?”

“I’ve come to receive my end of our deal, my Lord, if it isn’t an inappropriate time for that.” She brought her tail to the front and softly stroked it.

“Ah. I almost forgot about that part. Miria is so cuddly that I’ve started patting her subconsciously whenever she is near. Sorry.”

Selene chuckled. “There’s no need to apologize. Even though I asked for this, I was slightly uneasy as the last time a man touched my tail was over a century ago when I was a little fox. But I’m fine now after spending some time by your side, my Lord.”

“Well then, if you teach me the proper way to do it, we can start immediately.”

“May we use our connection? I think showing you my memories will work better than words.”

Asterios nodded and Selene moved to the bed. She sat down in the middle in a cross-legged position and turned her back to him. Then, they deepened their connection enough to be able to steadily share memories and images. Selene passed to Asterios her personal comb and he looked it over. It had a very pretty and lady-like design, being made almost purely out of silver. The handle was in the shape of a walking fox.

As he watched the memories unfold, Asterios began very gently and carefully copying the movements onto Selene’s tail. It was an unimaginably soft and fluffy sensation. He felt like his hands could drown in the sheer amount of silky-smooth threads and each pass brought a feeling of calmness and relaxation from just stroking them. He didn’t know which side was supposed to be the one feeling better from this.

Meanwhile, Selene enjoyed the affectionate caresses in complete silence. At first, Ast’s movements were crude and irregular, but she was shocked to see how fast he started to reenact what he saw in her memories with almost complete perfection. 

The sensation started getting so delightful she had to cover her mouth to not accidentally leak an inappropriate moan. She didn’t feel this good from having her tail combed even when it was her father who did it tens of decades ago. Shivers ran down her spine each time Asterios finished a long stroke from the base of her tail to its very tip. If he had his eyes open, he would definitely notice her trembling.

Fortunately, Asterios was fully focused on doing his best while watching her memories and also enjoying the heavenly sensation that blessed his hands. After fifteen minutes of affectionate brushing, he stopped and waited for Selene to cool down a bit. 

He could tell how much she enjoyed it through their bond. It wasn’t as clear and strong as with Miria, it would be impossible for Selene to reach that level since the duo took a quite intimate step forward which boosted it by lots, but it was enough to sense the pleasure she was receiving as she wasn’t shyly shielding her mind as the panthergirl did.

Selene turned around with a brilliant smile and Asterios could notice a very faint blush on her cheeks. “Thank you for the service, my Lord. I honestly didn’t expect you to get so good during your first time. I thoroughly enjoyed this.”

Asterios chuckled. “The pleasure is mine. Literally. I could easily get addicted to this fluffiness.”

“Ufufu~. If you say it like that, I won’t be able to stop myself from demanding lots and lots more.” A mischievous glint appeared in her eyes.

“Whenever you feel like it.” He smiled.

“I won’t be polite then. Let’s just hope that Miria won’t get jealous of me stealing her precious time with you.” Selene winked at him and returned to her realm.

After a calm night, they discussed what to do next and decided on heading back to Rosewind for now, to check on Ast’s mom and show her the jewellery. The group met with Ven before departing and said their goodbyes. It was only natural to inform their advisor about leaving the village. They didn’t want her to worry about them suddenly disappearing.

There were no escort quests towards his city so they went alone, with Asterios casually riding on Miria’s back. Without having to focus on protecting a caravan, the duo took their time to appreciate the sights on their way back.

Before reaching Rosewind, they stopped for a night in a small village slightly off their main path. It wasn’t necessary to camp in the wilds like the last time when they accompanied the wagons.

As he was lying in the bed in a rented room, a crimson portal opened by his side and Miria gingerly walked out of it. She was wearing a simple and cute negligee with a semi-transparent gown hanging down from the bra, reaching slightly lower than her panties. It was of course black.

She glanced at him with rosy cheeks while fidgeting a little. “May I… join you… Master?”

He raised the sheets and smiled at her. Miria quickly jumped under them, snuggled to him, and took a deep breath which immediately calmed her down making her relax as Ast’s arms covered her back.