“You need to sign this,” he said, lazily sliding the paper closer. “It confirms that you handed over the flower and received the reward. Legal stuff.”
“Okay,” I said, quickly reading the paper. Nothing looked suspicious, just a formal exchange receipt. I signed it and set the pen down. “Well… anything else?” I asked, hoping there wasn’t.
“Actually,” he said, “as you probably saw in the quest notice, there’s an optional reward too.”
“We… didn’t really get a chance to read the whole thing,” I said, forcing a stiff smile, my hand on the back of my neck.
“That’s fine. Nobody cares about the details once they see the hundred gold,” he said, sighing. Then he slid a copy of the notice toward me and tapped the text at the bottom.
“It says here,” he said, “that if you report the exact location of the flower, the kingdom will grant you a noble title. You’ll live a comfortable, privileged life.” He narrowed his eyes. “But like I said, this is optional. I understand if you’d rather not reveal this information, hoping to find another. The choice is yours.”
“Then I refuse—”
“We accept!” Aoi jumped forward, almost shouting, her eyes sparkling.
“What?!” I turned to her, shooting a laser from my eyes.
“Thank you for accepting,” the man said a little too quickly, clasping his hands. A small, sharp smile crept across his face. “So,” he added, leaning forward, “where exactly did you find it? Which mountain?”
“We found it at—”
I slapped my hand over Aoi’s big mouth. She still kept mumbling, cheeks puffed up. She was this close to falling into the trap, ready to hand over the demons’ home address like a candy bribed child.
“Silver Reach,” Midori said, stepping forward. “At the very peaks of the Silver Reach.”
“Silver Reach?” he repeated. “You found it all the way out in the far west of the elf lands?”
“Yes.” Midori nodded, all confident.
“This can’t be right,” he muttered, clearly shaken. “We know that area very well. Every year, trained scouts and tracking dogs search it top to bottom. There’s no way they could have missed it.”
“We found it in a cave,” Midori said quickly. When that didn’t impress the man, she kept going. “A hidden cave, actually. We were fighting a griffin boss, and one of its blows shattered the ground. We fell into an underground cavern. That’s where the flower was.”
“An underground cavern, huh…” the demi-goblin muttered, his body going tense as he thought it over. Then he looked back at Midori.
“It’s not impossible,” he said slowly, “but it’s hard to believe too. Can you tell us the exact location of that cave?”
“I’m afraid I can’t,” Midori said immediately, as if she had prepared for this conversation all night. “It was huge, and our fight with the boss went on below. The spot we fell into wasn’t even the same as where we came out.”
He squinted at Midori, and I did too, just as confused. I knew she had found and even eaten a flower before, but not the details. The man looked at Aoi and me. Instead of acting like this clearly made-up story shocked us, we nodded along as if we’d lived it ourselves, faces full of fake understanding, silently daring him to believe it.
“If you had used the name of any other mountain,” the demi-goblin said after a long pause, “I would have laughed in your face. But this would be the second flower reported there. And… well, the fact that it can also grow in caves is very new and useful information. So…”
He leaned down, pulled a badge from his drawer, placed it on the desk, and pushed it toward us. “…Here is your noble badge,” he said, looking at all of us, “But only one of you may benefit from it.”
“Come on,” Aoi said, pushing me forward. Her eyes were shining. “Go take it.”
I turned to Midori. She nodded, her eyes also shining with far too much excitement. With a defeated sigh, I stepped forward and took the badge. A single crown sat on it. I turned it over in my hand and looked back at the man.
“So what do I do with this? Pin it on my uniform or?”
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“Oh no,” he said. “That was the old way. You can now merge it into your identity card.”
“How?”
“Your card, please.” He held out his hand, face tired.
It seemed explaining it would take more effort than just doing it himself. I handed him the card. He asked for the badge too, so I gave him that as well. He placed the badge on top of the card, and that was it.
The badge got pulled into the card by magic and just vanished. He gave the card back. I looked at it. My name now had Lord title stuck in front of it. In the corner, a small golden crown sat there proudly, with a tiny 1 inside it.
“So what is this crown and the number, then—”
“That’s your lord rank,” he said. “As you serve the kingdom, you’ll earn more crowns, higher rank, and more privileges. That includes bringing in another flower too... if you plan to keep searching.”
“Ah, no, I don't think so. Finding this was a pain on its own,” I muttered, shooting Aoi an annoyed glance before turning back to the man. "We just need… some rest.”
“Perfectly understandable,” he said, pointing at the door. “And with that, all our business is done. You may go and rest, my lord.”
Finally, we stepped outside. I kept tossing the gold pouch up and down as we walked. I loved the clinking sound it made. Even more, I loved what it promised. A good dinner, soft beds, and no sleeping on the floor. We had entered the city broke and in debt, and now we were leaving the palace rich.
But on my last toss at the gate, a hooded figure darted past, snatching the pouch out of midair before disappearing down the street. My brain froze. I pointed after him, mouth half open, then slowly turned to Midori and Aoi, as if waiting for someone to explain what had just happened.
Then, even though he should have been long gone, the guy suddenly appeared right in front of us. No doubt about it, that was Aoi’s summoning. He barely had time to look confused before Aoi grabbed the pouch from his hand and smacked him hard with the back of her hand.
This wasn’t a normal hit. No way. The sound from the guy’s neck was horrible and unhealthy. It twisted, maybe even cracked. He spun, flew a few meters, and slammed face first into the ground. Red liquid spilled from his mouth, and he stayed there, completely out.
Then Aoi looked at me. Her eyes were still full of anger. At the same time, guards at the gate rushed over to the guy lying on the ground. One of them checked his pulse. I swallowed hard. My own pulse was close to stopping as I fought not to meet Aoi’s sharp stare.
“Hmph!” She sighed, turned away, and flicked me with her hair like a warning.
After that, she shoved the gold pouch into what had to be the safest spot in the world, right between her chest. Yeah. After that neck-snapping slap, hiding it there was probably safer than putting it in a dragon’s hoard. And if I had to bet on what was safer, I’d put every coin on Aoi.
“I'm so sorry, I—” I started, looking sheepishly at both Aoi and Midori.
“It’s fine,” Midori said, touching my back, then leaning closer. “But I think the guy is dead, so maybe we should leave. Like, now—”
“You,” the guard called, walking toward us before we could vanish. “First, sorry for the unpleasant incident. And thank you. That man was a key member of a long-wanted bandit gang, the Red Hand Jacks.”
“Oh, no problem at all, and… uh, we were just leaving anyway—”
“But,” he said, grabbing my arm as I tried to walk away, “the lady’s sharp slap killed him instantly. You’ll need to come with us for further investigation, and I’ll need your identity cards too.”
I shot Aoi a sharp look, then shrugged and handed over my card with a defeated sigh. The guard studied it for a while, then froze. The hard look on his face drained into panic.
“My apologies, my lord. I meant no disrespect.” He straightened up fast. “We consider this a service to the kingdom. You are free to go.” He handed the card back carefully, as if it might explode.
“It’s… fine, just doing our duty. Yes. Good work!”
Before anyone could add medals, applause, or worse, detailed questions, I snapped into action. I spun around like a well trained soldier, grabbed Midori and Aoi by the arms, and marched us away at full speed.
“Our duty?” Midori said, chuckling.
“What did you expect, peasant?” Aoi scolded. “He’s a lord everywhere he goes. My dear lord, of course.”
“…Dear?! Please,” I muttered, already dying inside. “Let’s just forget this ever happened, and walk fast!”
We walked until I was sure we were far from the scene and safe, then I finally stopped. Cold sweat ran down my back the whole time.
“That lord title turned out way more useful than I expected,” I muttered, a faint, stupid smile on my face.
“Obviously,” Aoi said. “But why did you refuse it like an idiot when they offered it on a silver plate?”
“I thought… I would end up responsible for a bunch of people again,” I said, my voice cracking from pure embarrassment.
“...What?” she shot back, almost laughing from nerves. “Since when does every lord come with a personal village?”
“I don’t know!” I said quickly, then my eyes landed on a building we had just passed. Up ahead, a sign caught my eye: Kitty Tail Inn.
I pointed at it. “Food!” I shouted, hungry and tired.
When we went inside, evening had just fallen, and the place was nearly full. Only a few tables were free, but the one by the window in the far corner was perfect for us. If these two ecchi manga runaways weren’t with me, I could almost pretend we wouldn’t draw any attention there.
We had barely sat down when a waitress appeared, a demi-human, or a cat girl, whatever they call it here. Small furry ears peeked out from her wavy brown hair just touching her shoulders. Her cat-like brown eyes, pretty face, slightly curvy body, and way too generous, probably service-included cleavage made her both cute and distracting. And her fluffy tail too. I felt light, like a feather floating in the air.
?“Welcome to the Kitty Tail Inn, nya! What can I get for y'all? The menu is right here, so take your time!”
For a moment, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. It wasn’t just that this was my first time seeing a cat girl, it was that I had never seen one so sweet and cute. My gaze kept drifting to the ears atop her head. They looked so soft, so unreal, as if something that perfect couldn’t possibly exist.
“Your ears,” I said, the words just slipping out on their own. “They’re so cute.”
I had been too honest, and it came out way smoother than I intended. Her ears twitched, and her tail started swaying on its own. That made me melt even more. Then a faint wave of bloodlust hit my nose.
A sharp stabbing sound almost knocked my soul out of my body. I slowly turned my head. A knife was buried in the table, just a breath away from my fingers. I swallowed hard. So this was it, I guessed. I was about to die over cat ears. My end was coming.
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