Kapitel 141: She Discovers a Stowaway
"What was that!?" The old fox sat straight up in his chair when he heard the guard captain's report.
"You said they left already!?" He asked again, not believing what he had just heard. That was not possible. After all, Ekinshire Kingdom's Prince Christian was held captive in the tower of meetings. No hero would simply up and leave him behind!
The strategist frowned, and rubbed his brow in thought. "Did their entire party leave? they didn't leave anyone behind to keep in contact with the prince?"
"I have news from the inn that the whole party checked out this morning." The captain informed him.
The strategist paused. Perhaps the prince had sacrificed himself to send them on their way? The strategist stood up, and made his way to the palace entrance.
"My lord, where are you heading?" The head servant asked.
"The Tower of Meetings." He said. He wanted to try and pry some information from the naive prince-ling. But, instead, he was met with the sight of an empty room. He stared at the room, completely bare of any sort of cover to hide behind.
There was a teleportation barrier, so it was impossible for him to leave. It was as if the prince had up and disappeared in a puff of smoke. In a daze, the Strategist walked into the room, looking around for any sign of the vanished prince.
Then he froze and realized he was inside the room. That meant... Turning his head, he was just in time to see the door shut by itself. He yelled and banged on the door.
And that was the beginning of the Strategist's worst bumbles since his childhood. In the history books, he was reportedly stuck inside for two days before he was found.
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"So, where are we going to next?" Robin asked, looking to Christian, who had the map.
"Right!" Christian un-rolled the map. "This here is around where we are now. Where we're headed is this way, towards the great dwarven city of Ragnock, where demon protectorate Throm is."
"Wait, it's a dwarven city, but there's a demon protectorate?" Robin asked, mildly confused.
Quinn cleared his throat, and explained. "Yes. Dwarves aren't usually considered demons, but protectorate Throm is of half dwarven, half dragon descent, and he was strong enough to defeat at least half of the protectorates. So he earned his right to be be included amongst us as part of the dwarven-demon trade agreement. The actual dwarven territory is close to the demon territory."
Robin looked at him. "He probably made some kick-ass armor for you, didn't he?" She said, seeing right through him.
"The most kick-ass armor! It's too bad that dragon war ended up scrapping it." Quinn agreed, before pausing, as he noticed the others looking at him strangely.
"Ahem! Perhaps I should request another set of armor. Oh, that reminds me. His father, Dragon Ra'oru, is also one of the demon protectorates." Quinn said, recalling something.
"Wait, I knew the names of the protectorate members, but Ra'oru is Throm's father!?" Christian asked, feeling a bit overwhelmed.
"You didn't know? I thought it was obvious given they bear scales of the same hue." Quinn replied bemused.
"Er...no we did not know that." Christian replied, feeling slightly miffed at Quinn for looking more knowledgeable in front of Robin.
Keith smiled. Although Christian knew how to conceal his emotions, Keith could tell Christian was slightly annoyed.
"Perhaps we could get back to the topic, please?" Keith suggested.
"If you're talking about dwarves, they are quite reclusive craftsman. But as Throm is also part dragon, he has an ever-burning thirst for golden things of beauty. If you could offer him something like that, it would probably be much easier to have a conversation with him, without him blasting a flame breath at you, of course." Quinn suggested.
"Do we have a golden thing of beauty?" Robin asked the crew, as she started going through her storage bracer.
"Not on me." Gerard shrugged.
"Nope!" Elise shook her head.
"I'm just a healer, so, not really." Chelsea replied.
"Um, I think we have gold and jewels in case we needed to bribe someone, but golden things of beauty are more a jeweler's area of expertise." Jasmine said, thinking about the things placed within the bracer.
Robin sighed. "We have the raw materials, but not the skill..."
"It will be interesting indeed to meet someone half my kind." Sir Drago noted. "If you don't mind leaving it up to me, I think I might be able to make something of interest."
Robin paused a moment as she gave a look at Jasmine.
"They should be inside your bracer." Jasmine pointed out.
Robin nodded, then looked inside. She pulled out a few gold bars, and handed them to Sir Drago, along with a pouchful of precious gems.
"Here. Might as well give it a try." She replied. "Shall we stop and take a break?" Robin asked. "It's almost noon. time to take a lunch break."
"Might as well. I'll let the driver know to look for somewhere to pull over." Keith nodded, before heading to the other carriage room, where a communication window was.
"Thank you." Sir Drago nodded his head towards Robin.
"We would have stopped soon anyways."Robin replied. "But, now that I've gotten my mana source fixed, what do you say to teaching me some more spells after lunch, Jasmine?" She asked Jasmine.
"That's right! In all the hubbub of that Paradise incident, I had completely forgotten! How did your mana source get healed so quickly?" Jasmine asked.
"I met a friendly king slime." Robin replied.
"Oh. I was wondering why you had a tag-along with you." Quinn nodded. "You became friends, huh. Good for you!"
"Wait. What tagalong?" Robin asked.
"Since it wasn't trying to eat you, I assumed you already knew. You can come out now." Quinn poked Robin's belt, where a thin film detached itself, and gathered into a palm-sized familiar blob, that hopped onto her hand.
"A web slime?" Robin asked, confused.
"No, it's a king slime!" Chelsea exclaimed. Skye's fur bristled up as it backed away from the tiny blob warily.
"Quinn, can you translate for me? I don't speak slime." Robin asked.
"I am proficient, yes. But what precisely did you want to ask it?" Quinn queried.
"Let's start with why it decided to travel along with us. I heard king slimes do not move often. Why attach yourself to someone that's moving all the time?" Robin pointed out.
Quinn's hand turned clear as it moved to touch the top of the slime. After several long moments, he withdrew the hand.
"He heard that king slimes are rare in your area. That means, that, in their absence, a lot of what they consider to be food may have built up in the area. And king slimes need a lot of food if they are going to divide themselves." Quinn answered.
"Is that so?" Robin mused, glancing over at Chelsea.
"Looks like I have been volunteer-obligated to repopulate the local king slime popuation." Chelsea's face was not fully visible, but Robin could tell she was highly excited.
Robin stood up, walking over to Quinn, who sat by the door. "Let it know it's welcome to join, but as we can't communicate with it, if it needs to communicate with us, to contact you." She clapped Quinn on the shoulder. "Congratulations. you are now our king slime translator."
"Am I getting paid for this?" Quinn asked.
"You will be paid in the food of planet earth." Robin replied, half-joking.
"You have yourself a slime translator!" Quinn saluted immediately.
"Good. Glad to see you're on board~!" Robin chuckled, as she walked out into the hallway.
"Is the food of this...planet earth that good?" Gerard asked.
"It should be. You've been eating it this whole time. it's not necessarily foodstuffs, so much as recipes and cuisines, though. So he's trading some nostalgia for his cooperation." Chelsea noted.
"I am right here, people. You can just ask me, all right?" Quinn pointed out. "No need to act like I'm not really here, just because I am a slime translator~" He half-jokingly scolded.
"Okay...But, why did Robin need to go out into the hallway?"
It took everyone in the room a few moments to realize that the carriage had already stopped. Robin was ten steps ahead of them, and already outside, enjoying the nice weather.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
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Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein