Chapter 523: Settling/Reporting In
[Hey, director? Since I finished my scouting assignment, is it okay if I go check out the festivities in my human form? There were these dance performances I wanted to check out in person.]
‘Yeah, go ahead Razorstella, just try not to attract too much attention to yourself.’
[I make no promises, since I am an unnaturally made star.]
‘Fair enough.’
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“Welcome one and all to the Cozy Maple Hotel, please leave your bags by the front desk and I’ll make sure they’ll get to your assigned room once you pick which ones you like.”
“Much obliged.”
“No problem. Ah! If you and your party don’t mind waiting an hour or so, I can also prepare dinner! Is bread and stew okay, and are there any allergies I should be aware of.”
“I believe the youngsters are going to go and check out the festival soon, so if you are going to prepare dinner, I think you’ll only need to prepare half as much. Apologies for the trouble”
“Oh it’s no trouble at all. If anything, the leftover amount can be a midnight snack for the youngsters when they return from the festivities.”
“Ah, very thoughtful of you.”
“It’s nothing, just good ole fashioned hospitality like my daddy taught me.”
Once the Zhen Clan scions had confirmed that the Cozy Maple Hotel was going to be their domicile for their foreseeable stay in Willow Scale, they immediately split off into groups in order to retrieve the other parts of their group.
It took a bit more time than anticipated to get everyone together again due to how big Willow Scale was, and how scattered people were, but they managed to eventually gather everyone up to drop off luggage and distribute room keys.
Whether or not this reunion was due to the group instinctually finding each other, luck or the machinations of one fellow with eyes everywhere thanks to questionably ethical beings at once was up for debate.
There were some protests, initially, about convening at this hotel, due to its location in Stomp Town, which for all intents and purposes looked incredibly…sketchy, but those protests immediately died down once they saw the hotel itself and how amiable Gao Ren was…that and how cheap the prices were relatively to their room value.
For context, a swanky inn in Willow Scale at this point in time would cost someone five or so gold coins a night to rent a room that consisted of a single bed, meals not included.
The Cozy Maple Hotel was charging a gold coin for a room big enough to fit at least five people with room to spare, for an entire week.
An additional gold coin could then be spent on top of that to have meals included during their stay, breakfast or dinner, two gold coins for both meals.
The Skyscales company merchants traveling with the Zhen Clan were astounded at this deal, but chalked it up to the quality of the area they were in more so than the business sense of the owner. Either way, they knew a good deal when they saw one.
As the Zhen branch clan and Skyscales merchants settled into their new temporary home, some planning to relax and enjoy the festival, others planning to deal with some not-so-fun family matters, a particular member of the former was busy handling some news that wasn’t exactly good, but it wasn’t exactly bad either.
It was just…uncomfortable.
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‘Huh…hell of a view,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself as he stared out the window of his “suite” and into the cityscape of Willow Scale.
The aforementioned suite was actually one of the many giant spiky “fruits” that were growing out of the branches of the Cozy Maple Hotel’s tree-like exterior. He had apparently lucked out with his room assignment, due to his suite being on one of the higher branches, which gave him a damn good view of the city center and its surrounding districts.
As he stared at the city’s architecture and compared it to the Cozy Maple Hotel, he came to the conclusion that the former was too “modern” looking while the hotel would’ve been more suited for a forest city, like the kind ran by elves, wood spirits and beastmen.
‘Granted, I have no idea if elves are even a thing in this world and as for beastmen…I am like eighty percent sure the bloodliners would consider that term a slur,’ Zhen Liu mused as he continued to stare out the window.
‘Huh…I wonder if this how my old world would’ve looked if magic and qi was more of a thing…or global warming gets real bad and the cities finally get flooded…’
Willow Scale City reminded Zhen Liu of a jumbo size version of a type of town structure he learned about once back when he was able to browse the internet more leisurely called “water towns”.
Like the name implied, these water towns were essentially just that, towns built on giant canals, with a majority of people having to navigate them using hand-powered boats as opposed to bikes and cars. That little tidbit seemed to imply to Willow Scale city as well, with a majority of people using simple boats to navigate the city canals. Granted, he did see some people around here using water-based aether beasts as opposed to boats to get around, but those types tended to also be either rich, powerful or both…which was a category he technically belonged to now…maybe?
‘Man…I hope Tiny is okay…with her current lodgings…the stables here aren’t as nice a snack home, but we’re the ones who run them…speaking of, I should probably check on Archanidame and Lacerage soon…’
Zhen Liu’s mind continued to jump from stray thought to stray thought at this point, due to the fact that this was one of the rare few times his mind was actually quiet.
Normally, his head would literally be abuzz with conversation between the kaijin, either making commentary about what was going on around him or arguing with each other and the curators out of boredom.
One of the downsides of being literally connected on a spiritual level.
However, at this moment in time, Nepherage, Hurricroak, Frosttusk and Spring Brawler were still off scouting at his behest while Razorstella was enjoying her earned free time.
From what Zhen Liu could subtly sense, she was making use of her human form to participate in some local dances.
It was very touristy.
However, this relatively quiet period didn’t last much longer, because just as Zhen Liu was about to think about what to do in regards to answering the more carnal feelings of Rianna and Jin Fang, the voice of four different kaijin went off in his head all at once.
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[Maestro/ring master/milord/jarl! Your not gonna believe this, but-!]
‘Hey, hey, whoa. One at a time, one at a time. What’s got y’all into a shock?’
[House Howlite is here!,] Nepherage yelled.
[Your fiancée’s family is here!,] Hurricroak said at the exact same time.
‘…I’m sorry, could you two repeat what you just reported, because I am fairly certain what you just said shouldn’t be possible.’
Seeing how their respective scouting partner had already delivered the news before themselves, Frosttusk and Spring Brawler stepped back to let Nepherage and Hurricroak argue for their right to speak first.
[He should know about possible enemies before all else,] Nepherage purported.
[Yeah, so enemies to his love life should be a priority!,] Hurricroak insisted.
The kaijin began to argue amongst themselves about who’s information was more important in the moment for a couple of seconds before finally settling on seniority to determine deliverance order.
In other words, Nepherage was going to give her report first.
[Alright, milord, as I was saying, we just came across people who appeared to members of House Howlite attending the festival. Apparently they’re here to make a business dealing of some sort and-]
‘Okay, wait. I thought y’all eighty-sixed Marquis de Howlite a while back. Remember? We burned his house to the ground and Razorstella sliced his head off like it was the French revolution. How can there be members?’
[That’s the thing milord, apparently House Howlite is a lot… bigger.]
‘Of course it is…’
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A couple hours ago in one of the more martially inclined sections of the Sapling Festival…
[Are you sure these guys are related to that Marquis guy? Just because they have a wolf as an emblem, doesn’t mean they all belong to the same organization,] Frosttusk asked Nepherage.
[Yes, I’m sure. I’ve looked up a lot of wolf themed emblems in my free time, so I can tell the difference,] Nepherage told Frosttusk, [unless that wolf is actually a wolverine…]
Moments ago, the two of them were just about to wrap up their assignment and report back to their lord.
Just as they were about to do so though, the two of them spotted an emblem they hadn’t seen since their adventure in Emerald Eye City.
One that belonged to a guy, that they pretty sure they murdered not too long ago.
The Marquis de Howlite.
[Hold up, they’re here.]
“My, what a strange forge. I never thought to use boiling water as opposed to pure flame. How fascinating!”
