章節 49: Bookkeeping, the backbone of this isekai ecchi power fantasy
5/4 morning
In retrospect, I'm pretty sure Tessa was just pretending to sleep while I was having my fun; we weren't quiet. That was a bit hot all on its own for some reason. We all piled in together in the bed, which was a bit crowded with four people in it. I slept well anyway.
In the morning, I checked my app as always. I had a mission ticket, just as I had hoped. The new minor mission was a bit of a surprise.
Redridge Goulash
Ensure that Chef Breanna of Lakeshire does not make Redridge Goulash within the next 24 hours.
Chef Breanna will take a liking to your retinue, treating them as trusted friends she is willing to do favors for, up to the equivalent of feeding and boarding ten people for a week.
It was for Redridge. Which was where I had been when Jitters had relaxed and accepted his new situation, and the mission had been completed. That gave me an idea; I was busy today. I could visit someone in my retinue and get a mission near them. If I was lucky, it would be something they could do.
I looked over my options. Only one person was actually in my retinue but didn't have any important tasks I'd given them. Tony. About time he start earning his keep. "Hey Tony. You up?"
"Uh. Yeah, bossman. You need something?" Hiss deep bass voice came out of my necklace.
"Are you alone?"
"Yeah. Taking a leak actually."
"Alright. I'm coming to see you. I want to see if something works and I might need you to do something for me. Let me know when you've got your pants on." A few minutes later, I joined him in Elwynn. He seemed a bit confused, but relaxed. I could appreciate the go with the flow attitude.
I dismissed the less than exciting mission, and unfortunately the new one was not much better.
Thuggish Behavior
Sabotage the work of Eldrin, the tailor working in the Eastvale logging camp. Your actions must cost him at least 10 work hours of lost time.
Reward: Big Tony will be noticed by his superiors at the Stone Cairn Lake base, and promoted to a position of leadership among the work crews.
Did the company notice what I was doing, or was it just an uncanny coincidence? Either way, I might as well ask him to give it a try. "So, touch your necklace and ask for missions, it'll be easier to explain that way."
"Oh, alright." He touched his necklace and got a distant look in his eyes. "So you want me to mess with some tailor? Sure, boss. Might take a few, but I think I can make it happen around lunch." That was quick. Was he smarter than I gave him credit for?
"Oh. Yeah. Basically that. Try not to kill anyone. Do you need anything explained, or any support?"
"Nah man. It'll be pretty easy I think."
"Huh. Alright." Well if he thinks he's got it, I'll leave him to it. Worst case scenario, Tony wasn't getting a promotion. With me or with the Defias.
••••••••••
I popped right back to the room to find the ladies getting dressed. I put on my Abercrombie face and we went downstairs to eat. I let Drusilla handle the transaction. I was still looking over my app for the first part of our meal.
Time kept passing, and necklaces kept working. Abercrombie was only 16 hours out from full capture. Knowing my plan, I decided to throw on a new obedience to prep "Abby" in advance: acting as a person born female paired with a strong sense of affirmation. I didn't particularly want an old man in my harem, but there was always room for more pretty young women. I'd probably need to use the Orb to properly rewrite that aspect of "her" identity, but that was doable.
Tessa would get a heavy dose of negative emotion reduction whenever she was within 100 feet of me. Not euphoria. Just a sense that everything isn't so bad. Serenity. Yes I will keep going with a theme for her.
Eva was surprisingly chill about this whole thing, already at 90 hours. That's an obedience and a disobedience after one night's sleep. I didn't know what a young Eva would look like and imagining the current old lady in a sexual way made me shudder, but I knew what I intended to use her for primarily. She was going to be an item identifier and crafter. Apparently she could use bits of monsters to make magic items, and I was entirely on board with letting her do that full time.
Being generous with members of the retinue: modest euphoria
Questioning the motives of a member of the retinue: deep shame
The last person up for consideration was Eliza, who had in the night passed the 120 hour threshold and was up for her first Obedience. She was an undead monster, and I didn't really intend to interact with her much until I'd finished The Hermit mission and she got a face lift. She was probably having a very bad time right now.
Obey commands from Erich Bismark: Euphoria
I considered opening a line of communication, but she might be screaming and raging against the world due to her confinement. I looked up from my spider cakes and saw that there were several night watchers in the tavern. I did not want to have my necklace start releasing the howling of a damned soul in this room.
Speaking of necklaces, today we got a sapphire on a silk cord. Looking at current timers, I'd be missing a necklace in two days between when Abercrombie and Tessa were captured. New goal is to try to get Mor'Ladim off to paradise or hell or what have you in the next 48 hours. Easy, right? That way I could pop a necklace onto his newly captured daughter and there would be no waste.
"The commander said she would send Ladimore to speak with us, or at least let her know we wanted to talk to her. She's due to get back and go on leave by around noon. That means we have around four hours to use productively. Drusilla, I want you to stay here and be a point of contact if Ladimore arrives, and for us to get back to easily. Lividia, Tessa, we are going to get some directions and then see about getting some ghost hair."
"Are you sure you don't need me?" Drusilla objected, "Hardly anywhere is safe in Duskwood off the roads."
"We should be fine. We don't plan on going into the graveyard itself, and these two are excellent fighters. What's the worst that could happen?" There was a bit of grumbling, but in the end I'm the one making the call. Hopefully I wasn't tempting fate.
••••••••••
We got directions, and several warnings, from the watchers. They definitely agreed with Drusilla's assessment about the old graveyard, but I was able to persuade them by letting them know we were doing something for Madame Eva. She apparently holds a lot of clout in this community. Kindly old business owner who gives them protective magic swag? It checks out.
Once we were nicely out of the way, I turned into a dragon, ostensibly to scout, and pulled up a connection with Eliza once I was unlikely to spook Tessa. I heard a croaking hiss on the other end of the line. "What's this? Some new torment?" Oh yeah. She would have suddenly heard the ambient noise; I imagine her grave is pretty quiet.
"No torment. Please just listen to me."
"Release me! I'm so hungry!" That was not listening, I'd go so far as to call it the wail of a damned soul.
"SILENCE. You will receive no explanation until you stop talking. Now listen." I heard a grudging silence. Good. "This may be painful now, but my goal is to rid you of your unholy hunger and your binding to the grave. Don't tell me you want to stay there every day forever?"
I heard a faint sound of surprise and joy. It had a raspiness to it, but she was interested. "At what cost?" I wondered if a massive sense of euphoria would alter how she would take the news?
"Listen carefully. You will serve as a knight in my army. You are strong, and I don't believe that you would be a danger to release if I heal you of your unnatural bloodlust. You could do good in the world. Believe me, submission to my will is the quickest route to happiness for you."
She snarled at that. "I am no slave!"
"Think about it." I figured that she had been working on the longest possible timeline according to the catalog. It couldn't hurt to at least plant the idea that this was a good thing. As far as my last order, she didn't really have anything to do but think about it anyway. It was practically a kindness to leave her with an order to follow.
••••••••••
Vanessa was surprised when she arrived at the old farmstead to find quite a few tents set up around the burnt out husk of an old farmhouse. She was going to need to send one of her runners to get these people more supplies; she had her own mission but she was also a leader among the brotherhood. She would not leave these people without support.
Their report was surprising. A fly by from a black dragon? That was odd to have this far south, and concerning. The wolf men had been quiet for the last week, which might mean they were plotting. The undead, ubiquitous as they were, had apparently been agitated by something last night. That might be good news actually, as their general response had been to run off towards the little hamlet to the northeast.
In any event, the Defias outpost here was not in great shape, but she needed their support. They agreed to put an ear to the ground and get her in contact with their allies in Darkshire to try to find "Otto of Westfall." It would be odd if this man were connected to all these things, but Vanessa couldn't shake the feeling that he might be. Otto gave the impression that he was an erratic little ball of chaos from what she'd seen so far.
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