Date Promise Secured. New Quest.

"Old Farmer Crocket, a well known trouble maker. In fact, he has tried to claim a Trainer's Guai for his own before. Not to Awaken, of course. To him Guai are the same as his chickens." Ero started. "Your, let's say, sentencing is lower that it should be already, for the amount of damage you caused. A broken shoulder blade?" She cringed just thinking about it. After shaking off the goosebumps she returned. "You will pay him 100 Confederation Coins, immediately. A Large sum, five times the amount you earned, to replace the cost of getting a Guai he so dearly wants, so he can choose one on his own. You shall also be banned from stay and food in the Guild, all beginner bonuses and allowances shall disappear, for a whole month, until the start of the League. Meaning that if you want to participate, you will have to to do so on your own resources and training."

"This is not lenient at all. If you knew better you would be raving right now, mad that I would dare impose such harsh conditions upon a Trainer, and a Man at that. I only got to where I am by sucking dick and slinging my vagina around. Surely" She continued, and then smiled once more. It was as enchanting as before.

"I wouldn't. Even if I knew. You have nothing to do with it, but isn't that, basic decency?"

{SNAP!} Went her fingers. "You wouldn't, I know. That's what's interesting about you, and I'll have you know, nothing about it basic."

"Anyway, I shall give you an out. Take this Quest, Travel North, and come back, if you can. When you do, Let's have that dinner, and a special lesson before the league begins, which you will want to join. Even if you don't come first at the end, you will still gain too much from participating than not. Tournaments, fame, opportunities, experience, rewards, connections, too much to count. Do you really want to become an S Ranker and claim a Frontier Zone for yourself?"

"I do."

"Even if you don't know what that entails?"

"Doesn't matter. Since the moment I learned that there was magic, and since the first look I took at the world after awakening, I have never been the same, my world view has not remained the same. If before I thought the impossible possible, then right now… I can turn the world upside down. All I need is my will, and my Guai." I took the Bronze Seal and hovered it above the Quest, my decision had been made, she nodded, an elegant smile on her lips. I grabbed the quest and scuttled away like a mouse.

"So you are going to read it first after all?" Her smile faltered.

"I like you Ero, you're hot, and smart, and you seem strong and capable as well. I like Mesh too. But I can't trust you so easily. You are a product of your system after all. I don't know what is up with women in this world, I too have noticed some worrying signs, especially after our little hypothetical and your reaction, but whatever it is, you took this position for a reason, you wouldn't risk it all for just a simple guy from another Realm. There are many of us around I'm sure." I said and started reading. Quickly I realized that going in blind would have been dangerous. An escort mission to Soap-Land County to the North. We must be there before the end of the week, and we must set off today. We must stay out of big villages and camp outside the main roads at night, and after the end of the client's purpose there, we must safely return them as well. Duration: 1 Month. The reward is 200 Feds for each of the four trainers, and a land title for some high end apartment in Pristine city, as well as a special reward that was hidden. If that didn't ring any warning bells, or make sirens blow out my eardrums, then what would?

The Quest itself seemed simple, yet was anything but. Losing my life would not be out of the question during it. "It says here in fine text that I get one crucial piece of information revealed to me by the Vice Head Ero herself?" It didn't.

"It does?" She laughed, a hand over her mouth, a canary song, crisp and certain. "Well. Let's just say, An S Ranker's daughter, and the Son of the Bloodline that jailed and replaced him are both aboard that Wagon."

"Huh. That doesn't sound ominous at all."

"It isn't. Not one bit. The Previous Count of Pristine City will never get out of that prison. You didn't hear that from me."

"My reward will be exemption from all punishment, as well as the rewards here?"

"And a date with me of course. I'm a known prude, never been touched by a man, only a Guai, they say. Do you find that valuable enough?"

"Sure I do, but to help you sweeten the deal… buy all my Guai at least three outfits of their choice, top to bottom. Is that alright with you girls?" I shouted out the question, though they would have known as I sent it through the bond anyway.

They came back into the room. "Sure." Mara said first.

"YES!" Ingrid jumped and hit her head on the ceiling.

"I'll make sure to buy something sexy." Temesia said, biting down on her lip with her cute little fangs.

"Frey!" Frey was just Frey, she twirled around in glee. I could tell she was excited. She's never had anything but combat clothes before.

"What do you say?" I turned to Ero.

She stood and came forward, took my hand with her own, delicately, she leaned forward to give me a view of her chasm and whispered in my ear, it made me tingle, both upstairs and down in my pants. "Of course I do, Also, from now on, you can call me Erophili, my full name. Nice to meet you, Andras." She pulled back after painting my cheek red with her lipstick. I retreated from there and to my room to pack up our things a little stunned, my head in the clouds.

"Girls, can I ask? Did you not feel jealous just now?" The question came tumbling through my teeth before I could stop it.

They turned to me all with a different set of questions in mind. "Right, sorry. Temesia, are you not jealous?" I understood that Mara, Frey, and Ingrid didn't have anything going on with me so I took them out of the equation.

"Why should I be?"

"I just flirted with a Human woman, she is not even a Guai. It seems a bit… outside the limits of what I should be doing in front of my bonded partner?"

"Not really. I don't think it's just me either. It's just sex. Woman have sex all the time, human and Guai. What I did find weird in fact was how she took pride in being called a prude. Everyone knows that a Human woman's flower is a double edged sword, there isn't much value to it." We spoke as we went about our business. Soon we were down and out the Guild to the place the Quest required us to be. There were another three Trainers of F-Rank that had taken up this Quest and they were waiting for us to depart. 'Wait. What did she just say?'

"Rewind that bit. What are we talking about?"

"Sex has little value when you can get it from so many sources, and sex with women is dangerous."

"Woman are the known and only possible gatekeepers of sex." I sent out the statement as a reflex.

"They aren't, because Sex with Guai can never result in Human Children and thus sex with Guai who are made to mate with Humans for their own existence and benefit is cheaper and easier. We have sex during the capturing process. This. This is like, taught to every girl in the world. Ever since the evolution of Guai, their birth into the world, Women lost their standing and their value. Sex came cheaper and better through another source, because Guai were mostly female, because men were much more willing to procreate with them." Temesia said.

Ingrid added. "That is why you see women as clerks, and guards wearing skimpy maid outfits, and also why so many women try to cross the Sanguine Ocean to find a better future in the Lands without Guai, though I haven't heard great tales about that place either."

"This is too much information. I wish we could parse through it all right now. I have so many questions my head hurts. For now, and we'll get back to it later… let us meet our clients, and fellow travelers."

We stepped under the canal into a humid tunnel and out the other side, facing a cliff. There was a waterfall of crystal clear water to our right, a few dilapidated old homes of marble and prestige long gone to our left, vines had grown over them, dirt caked the marble floors, pillars lay in shambles. On the very edge of that cliff, past a fallen roof of clay tiles that were once painted a deep green, there was a wagon strapped to a cliff elevator. It was moving back and forth precariously, and above that massive wooden monstrosity, hooded with plain gray fabric, stood the other three trainers. It was the twirling glimmer of cyan and sky blue that warned me, and the surprised exclamation of righteous anger which made me shake my head.