Chapter 5: Chapter 5
A meal was put before my eyes, my mouth drooling a bit by the smell of it, a steak with herbs and spices to compliment it.
Even if it had been raw I still would have drooled over it, the hunger I felt from a day's travel and an intense battle had tired my body and without any food between those events it demanded even more.
I wiped the drool from my mouth with the napkin provided to us and brought the fork and knife down carefully, cutting it under Atalanta's gaze.
Even if she had not been watching me I would have done the same, I had been scolded who knows how many times for my wild manner of eating and manners were engraved in my head because of that.
However, that didn't stop me from devouring the meal in a matter of minutes.
When I was done eating I looked to Atalanta who sat next to me sipping on the water that had come with the meal.
All around us adventurers were noisily drinking and partying, looking around I saw some wallowing in alcohol at some rejection and others that were as happy as could be.
My ears twitched and I grunted in pain, the constant noise had made its way into my ears. So much was the pain of hearing them so enhanced that I had covered my ears, burying my head into Atalanta as if in askance of a solution.
Atalanta gently pat my head and with slow strokes through my hair, brought my attention to her.
"Don't worry, child, you'll learn to ignore them eventually"
With warm eyes, staring down at me she caressed my ears with that silk like voice of hers.
Although the voices had not receded, at that moment I could not have felt any more comfortable.
The motherly figure that Atalanta was projecting onto me had affected me, in that moment she felt like more of a mother than my actual mother.
"Thanks…" I mumbled out, holding her closer to me.
"Ahem" our waiter coughed into her hands as she interrupted us.
My eyes slowly opened as I stared at her, malice in my eyes as my moment was taken from me.
"Ah… sorry to interrupt but- your key and room have been prepared. If you are ready of course." Atalanta nodded her head, taking the key into hand and following the waiter, she led us upstairs to a room.
With the key in one hand and my hand in the other Atalanta unlocked the room, looking inside I saw that it only had one bed, a nightstand and a table with two chairs.
It was bare but what could you expect from a seemingly medieval world.
Strangely enough there were lights powered by the same magic stones that we had harvested for money too, though that just strengthened my point. There were not many technological innovations here.
yawn~
A yawn escaped my mouth as I again looked at the bed, my body moving on its own as I made my way to it.
I pulled the covers up and pulled myself in not caring about the clothes that I was wearing at all.
I closed my eyes, letting darkness overtake me as I felt a presence curl up behind me spooning me into her chest.
…
The morning sun shone on my form, forcing my eyes open.
The first thing I saw when waking was Atalanta's green eyes staring into mine, her arms hugging me into her own.
"Good morning, little Inari" She greeted, a small smile on her face.
I nodded, wiggling my way out of her embrace. Though it was all for nothing as she took a grip of me and brought me to her lap, a comb in hand.
I had no idea where it had come from but I just sat there, curiously staring at nothing as I wondered what she was going to do.
"Nn…" A slight noise came from my mouth as the comb was gently pulled through my long hair.
Slowly, over and over, the comb was pulled down and back down as my hair was styled.
"There, that should do" I heard behind me, Atalanta talking into the air, not particularly addressing anyone.
"Ready for breakfast?" Atalanta asked, gently petting my ears as she sat me down next to her.
I nodded in response, pulling myself from the bed as I followed her downstairs.
…
I sat on the stool, my head dropping down onto the table as I waited for breakfast to be served.
Next to me Atalanta was talking to one of the waiters, Syr Flova, if my hearing was correct.
Something about taking care of me while Atalanta was out for the day, my ears dropped at the thought. Atalanta, in just these few days, had cemented herself as a mother to me and I didn't want to be depressed from her, no right now.
A plate of food was placed in front of my eyes, the scent wafting into my sensitive nose.
It was simple just some hash browns and some sauce but I wasn't expecting much else it was what I had ordered after all.
A soft hand pat my head, breaking me out of my thoughts.
"Eat, I'll be back in a couple hours, just wait"
I looked up from the food, staring right into her eyes.
"Don't go, not without me…" I pleaded, my eyes feeling slightly watery.
"I have-"
"Atalanta… please" Before Atalanta could finish I interrupted her, doing my best to look as pitiful as possible. It wasn't hard as I already felt that way and because of that my ears had flattened onto my head and my tail had receded down.
Atalanta sighed, looking down at me and shook her head. Despite my pleas to her she had still refused me.
…
I waved Atalanta goodbye, the waitress that had promised Atalanta to watch over me smiled down as Atalanta had left my vision.
"I'm Syr Flova" She said, reaching her hand down to my head to pat me on the head, however I dodged out of the way. There was something suspicious about her, even discounting the flirty attitude she held, there was something that just irked me.
However I decided to go against those instincts, Atalanta had left me in her care and she wouldn't allow me to be hurt so there was no way that this Syr was of any harm to me.
"Inari" I succinctly told her, even if I could go against my instincts didn't mean that I would be nice to her, she had yet to earn my trust.
Syr seemed to be a little put off by the distaste that had come out of my mouth when addressing her however she didn't let that get to her. Even if somehow I could tell that it slightly irked her she didn't let it appear on her face.
"I got the day off for today, do you want to do something, Inari?" She asked, staring straight at me, like her eyes could see through my soul.
I shook my head, not wanting to say anymore.
…
Looking back at the inn I worried for Inari, not that he wouldn't be safe, the waiters at that pub were more than qualified to protect him but that he would be lonely.
I thought back to the looks he had been giving me, they were of hope and attachment. I sighed, I hadn't noticed how much attachment I had placed upon him, not only because he looked as if he could be my son but that his childhood was too tragic.
Inari had been forced to stay bedridden for his entire life, with nothing but the sterile walls to keep him company, even his family was a sort of reflection of mine.
Just as how my father had abandoned me so too was Inari abandoned by his parents, only visited out of duty.
Again I sighed, traversing the streets as I made my way over to the dungeon.
In a matter of moments I was there, the guild busy with adventurers.
I walked down into the dungeon, my bow astralized at my side, there was no need for my bow at the moment as I was going to go deeper, deep enough that I could gather enough money to keep us afloat for a few days.
Thinking back to Inari only hastened my steps, the weak goblins were ignored as I went further and further into the dungeon. Absentmindedly I traced my route, a mental map being memorized so that I could easily leave whenever I had deemed it the right time.
As I passed floor after floor the walls changed from blue colored to green. The monsters that I encountered were also different, instead of the lop olds and goblins, it changed to war shadows and killer ants. Although I could have stayed here and killed the killer ants or war shadows and brought back a decent chunk of valis, I still went deeper.
Eventually the ceiling became taller, the rooms wider and the hallways narrower as I passed more and more floors.
On these floors I found the same monsters that appeared on the previous floors just stronger, again I ignored them in favor of advancing further down.
Fog started to fill my vision and as I went further it became so much that others would have been blinded however I could still see through it.
All around me were silverbacks, monsters that looked like monkeys with silver fur. Those didn't interest me, what did though was the infant dragon that I saw lazing about.
It was a small dragon no more than four meters long and even smaller in height.
With a flash of light, my weapon appeared in my hand, an arrow already knocked onto its strings.
With the release of my breath the arrow flew true, piercing the neck of the infant dragon and killing it.
…
The dragon's body turned to dust as a magic stone was pulled from its body, I astralized and desastralized getting rid of the blood that had appeared from digging through the corpse.
I pocketed the magic stone and started to pick up speed, running my way back to the surface.
In a matter of minutes I was at the surface, my A rank agility allowing me to run at speeds that little could match.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone