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Chapter 78

I got back into the bath, and the two girls remained a bit more civil for the remainder of the bathing. Problems arose once again when we made it back to the inn. No, the bunnykin didn’t cause any troubles. She deliberately refused to look at us as we walked back up to my inn room. The problem came that we had a single bedroom and there were three of us. I wasn’t about to ask the bunny to rent more rooms, not that I could afford them after what I had left after buying Miki.

Previously, it was just me and Lydia. Although we hadn’t had sex since that one night, we were at least comfortable enough sleeping in the same bed together. However, three was a crowd, and even the thought of snuggling with Lydia felt a little embarrassing with Miki in the room.

“It is okay, I will sleep on the floor,” Miki explained, her pale face being quite noticeable in the poorly lit room. “It’s no less uncomfortable than the wagons. I’m used to this.”

Lydia shook her head. “No! That would be wrong…”

Even though they had the talk, assuming Lydia was over her jealousy would be a bit premature. Still, she was a good girl, and wouldn’t want to suggest an ill woman who had recently died should take the floor.

As a result, we decided to all crowd in the room. Lydia first tried to lie in-between the pair of us, but Miki complained because her tail kept slapping Miki’s leg and she couldn’t get to sleep. Lydia was nearly in tears claiming she couldn’t help it. The final configuration put me in the middle with both girls on either side. One girl was snuggled against my chest, while the other was laying a little lower. I could feel their hot breath on my skin and the scent of both girls assaulted my nostrils. How I had ended up in this situation was anyone’s guess.

Before drifting off, I put my hand on Miki and cast an assortment of spells. Using the mana actually made me a bit sleepy, so it had a dual effect of making sure Miki woke up in the morning and making me sleep deeper. First, I used a Weak Heal, then I used Cure Disease, Weak Heal Poison, and finally Remove Curse. I found it odd that only poison seemed to have levels. If there was a Weak Heal Poison, it meant that there were probably stronger poisons in the world. However, Remove Curse seemed to be a catch-all, as was Cure Disease.

I wondered if diseases included cancer? I think a lot of people back home would cry if they realized I had the ability to cure cancer at my fingertips. How about sexually transmitted diseases? Well, I didn’t want to live such a lifestyle where I’d need to find out about that. Perhaps that was subconsciously one of the reasons I decided to forgo the busty wolfgirl. Who knew what she’d be bringing home if I chose to play with her…

Even after exhausting myself healing Miki, I still felt sleep was hard in coming. The next morning, we’d hit up the guild and Miki could tell me all kinds of things with her ability to read. After that, I could plan out how we’d level more properly to unlock the best skills for all of us. Perhaps a sleep spell would exist. I could really use it.

Despite my complaining, it only felt like a long time. I ended up drifting off to sleep with two women in my arms. Once again, I found myself thinking that this world wasn’t that bad after all.

That’s when everything went crazy.

Chapter 79

Thump. Thump. Thump.

I realized the bed was shaking. My eyes snapped open. Feeling next to me, I realized there was only one girl holding me. It was Lydia. As for Miki, I could not see her at all. The entire bed flew up off the ground and then slammed back down. This time it was enough that Lydia woke up.

“Eh? Master!” She cried out, jumping off the bed. I jumped off the other side.

At that point, an item flew off the nightstand and at my face. I dodged, only realizing it was a bucket after it bounced off the wall. The bed was still dancing like the floor was lava, and then the window slid open and slammed back closed again.

“M-master!” Lydia cried out, “I-it’s ghosts!”

“You can see them?” I asked.

She nodded tearfully, hugging herself and backing into a corner.

“Miki! Where are you?”

Miki didn’t answer. If there was some way to track where she was by her slave seal, I was not aware of it. I felt that was probably a future Slave Master skill. However, I was only at level 1 right now. Miki could be in severe trouble, and it was really worrying me. That’s when I remembered that we were still in a party together.

“Lydia!” I looked at her as she was shaking in the corner. “I’m going to go.”

“Please, master, don’t leave me!”

“Please watch after Miki. I’ll return as quickly as I can. Don’t let her go anywhere.”

“Master?”

“Position Switch!”

A second later my body disappeared and appeared outside. I was standing on the street and there were several people around me shouting angrily.

“You foxkin! This is your-” Their expressions instantly froze as the person in front of them was no longer an animalkin, but the so-called hero of their town.

I looked around to see the entire village was in pandemonium. Doors were opening and closing. People were screaming. Stuff was flying. The entire town was under an attack by ghosts that no one could see nor touch.

“Ah… Deek, we…” The person looking guilty was an animalkin who I had healed during that first day. “It has to be her, right?”

“We’ll talk about this after the crisis is over,” I responded sternly. “Where is the Guild Master?”

He pointed and I didn’t have to walk far to see the man. He had gathered a group of Adventurer’s, specifically mages, and they were casting attacks on anything that would move.

“Deek! I’m glad you’re up. We might have some wounded soon.”

“Is this serious?” I asked. “Like… Old Chalm?”

The Guild Master blinked and then shook his head. “I don’t think it’s that bad. This is just a couple of poltergeists. When you entered and left Old Chalm, they must have followed you. I’d say there are only a dozen total and mostly low level. Ghosts are never an easy monster to fight, but we’ll defeat them or they’ll flee. Just head back to the inn, and we’ll get this settled.

“Okay…”

Although I did feel a little guilty. I was being chased by puppets and jumped straight back to here using a portal. I wasn’t certain, but I suspected these guys slipped through the portal with me. That meant all of the damage tonight was my fault. Had I just used Return at the time, none of this would have happened. However, at that time, I didn’t know what I knew now.

I returned back to the inn, even though the night was still filled with screaming terrors. If this was the act of just a couple poltergeists, I’d hate to see what level was needed to force the people to flee the city of Chalm. Although truthfully, it was probably higher level and more deadly ghostly spirits.

“Miki, wait!” Lydia was outside and Miki was walking on her own.

She ran in my direction as soon as she saw me, her expression anxious. “M-master! I can help! I have a special talent. I meant to tell Master about it when the time was right. It’s called Spirit Fire. Only a 3-tail or higher fox can make it. My previous master used it for alchemy… but it also can fight ghosts.”

As she spoke, she ran towards me, and a blue flame started to form between the palms of her hands.

“Ah… don’t worry about it. They have it handled.” I said, eyeing the fire.

Miki shook her head, nearly in tears. “No, Master. The ghosts are definitely here because of me. This is my fault! The rabbitkin was right. All my tails do is cause trouble. The least I can do is help fix it.”

“Wait, watch out!” A flying horseshoe hit her in the ankles as she tried to approach me. She let out a cry and fell to the ground. Her arms went up, and the blue flame went with them. Her blue flame ended up heading straight for my face!

Chapter 80

A blue fireball slammed into my face. Remarkably, it was quite cool to the touch. Actually, it felt somewhat good. Text suddenly popped up in front of my vision.

{An ally has used a skill on you. Would you like to create a combined skill?}

“Uh… yes?” I spoke out loud.

Nothing happened. Well, this world never told me what worked anyway. I never even would have known about combining if it hadn’t just mentioned it. In that case, my mind shot through my skills. I had equipped White Mage as soon as the ghosts attacked so I had the bonus there. I also kept Hero, so I had a connection with my party. Then, one seemed to pop into my mind, and it seemed absolutely right.

“Holy Circle!” I cried out, throwing my hand down at the ground drastically.

The blue flame followed, and a second later…

{You have created the team skill Holy Circle of Fire.}

An explosion of light burst out from the ground in a massive sphere. It shot out with a blue flame trailing the wave of light. There were screams as suddenly visible ghosts were struck with the shockwaves and flung away. The flame seemed to pass harmlessly through the people and objects, but the ghosts were instantly expelled.

“Master is amazing…” Lydia spoke in wonder while Miki looked around with her mouth open.

In an instant, half of the city had been cleansed of poltergeists. More than that, the remaining ghosts stopped causing trouble, likely fleeing for their lives.

{Hero has increased to level 8.}

{Protect has been unlocked.}

I apparently leveled, and checking quickly so did Miki, but just in Alchemist. I should have turned her job to Spiritualist sooner, but I wasn’t sure that was a good idea. Right now, her strongest job was Alchemist. I’m not sure what status benefits it gave her, but if switching to a level 2 job even weakened her a bit, it could be bad.

At the very least, I wanted to get another status up on her and give her a little more time to recover from her death before we started worrying about leveling her ability. There was only a month of time left, but it had only been a few days. I wasn’t hard pressed for time at the moment.

With things settling down, people started coming back out and picking up after the mess that was made. I grabbed the two girls and turned to head back to the inn. However, I was stopped by a large crowd of people. Most of them were animalkin.

“This is her fault!” One of them shouted.

“The second a foxkin comes into the city, and now we’re attacked!”

The truth was that I had brought the ghosts into the city. Perhaps her presence had riled them up from their docile state, but she certainly didn’t have all the blame.

Miki didn’t know this, and she had her head lowered, a sad expression on her face.

“If it wasn’t for her Spirit Fire, we wouldn’t have been able to get rid of the spirits so easily,” I said.

“We wouldn’t have needed it if she didn’t bring the spirits on us in the first place! This city has been spirit-free for 15 years! The first time a foxkin is allowed to sleep here, and now we’re under siege!”

Several people shouted in agreement. More and more people were joining, and I was meeting a lot of angry glares. Miki was sinking into herself too.

“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…” I heard her squeak quietly.

“What would it take for you people to change your mind about Miki?” I asked. “I have a feeling that even if she saved this city single-handedly, you’d still throw her under the bus.”

“Deek…” The Guild Master came up with the Mayor in tow. “We can work something out.”

“I think I’ve heard enough from this city,” I said, my mood completely soured. “Let’s go, ladies.”

I grabbed the two girls and turn around, walking away.

“Where are you going?” The Guild Master asked.

“Old Chalm,” I responded. “I think I like the company better there.”

A lot of people had bitter expressions on their faces from those words.

“Deek…”

“I assume Chalm will at least honor the mansion as my property?” I asked.

The Guild Master nodded. “We will honor all of our debts, I swear it.”

“In that case… listen up!” I shouted out. “I’ll clear out the city of Old Chalm and reclaiming it as my own. It’ll be my city, with my rules. I don’t do charity cases. I reckon it’ll take me a week to clear out the outside of the village. At that point, you can come and help reclaim Old Chalm, or not. Those that don’t help… have no right to set foot in my city. You will be banished for life.

“You can’t do that!” Someone from the crowd shouted.

“Don’t be unreasonable!”

“Unreasonable?” I sneered, “Unreasonable was asking a man and his one slave to reclaim a city on their own, and then expecting to reap all the rewards. Your city has been the unreasonable one!”

I pulled out the gold hero coin, and then I tossed it at the mayor’s feet. “Find another hero for your town.”

“Deek… wait!” The Guild Master looked somewhat flustered. I opened a portal just outside Old Chalm. I knew I had been saving it for a reason. The three of us stepped through, and I shut the portal, and the city of Chalm, behind me. Now there was only one path to move. Forward.

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