Ch 50 – Royal Tent

"Why didn't you tell me you had one of your own!?"

"Because... Sleeping with you seemed like a much better alternative, right? Did you hate it or what?"

"No... It's not like that... But still!" Ace and Necro had a little bit of a discussion after Necro revealed she had a tent inside her ring.

"Girls! Relax. It's not like this will change anything, right?" Mary interrupted the two as they made their way outside.

"Guess you're right..." Ace grumbled. "Why did you say we should come outside though? Couldn't we just take the bedding from it and lay it inside?" Ace's argument was pretty solid, but Necro's answer surprised her and Mary out of reason.

"Ah... But it's already assembled."

"IT'S WHAT!?" Mary asked, surprised.

"HOW!?" At the same time, Ace made a similar question. Knowing a bit about storage rings, she knew one able to store a tend assembled had to be pretty expensive. Moreover, fitting a tent and the bones used to make Atanase would make it massive.

Necro, however, didn't question the oddity since it was what her father had given her. She did, however, from Soleir's memories, know he used to have one equally as large, based on how much he could fit inside it. So this should not have been something impossible to obtain.

"It is how it is, I'mma take it out." Despite having seen it when she peeked inside the ring, she only had an idea of what it looked like from the outside, the inside was still a mystery.

Going beyond everyone's expectations, a massive square tent materialized in front of them. It was two meters wide in both directions and a meter and a half tall on the front. It's roof did go a bit over that, since its A-frame style made it fairly tall on the center. The odd thing about it was its straight sidewalls.

While Ace and Mary stood there, dumbfounded. Necro took a small hammer and began wedging the Straps that secured it to the ground. It was fairly windy, and there was a good chance a tent this large could just walk away on its own. By the time Necro finished wedging the tent to the ground. Ace and Mary had come out of their trance.

"YOU HAD A THING LIKE THIS AROUND!?" Ace yelled at Necro, who just appeared from the side of the tent.

"Yeah... I hadn't realized it was this massive though."

"But didn't you use magic to see inside the ring?"

"She did what!?" Mary was once again flabbergasted, but neither of them paid any heed for her.

"I did! But it was hidden behind barrels and the skeleton. There's no way I could've seen it clearly."

"Barrels!?" Mary's brain just completely locked up. There was too much information she could not comprehend in that single conversation. She sat on the ground with a blank look on her face.

"I'll let it pass this time but... We're sleeping in that from now on! You hear me?!"

"Sure... I mean, I'd much rather sleep in this larger one too. Oi! Mary!? Are you okay?!" Necro rushed to the dead-looking Mary, who mumbled some gibberish over and over.

"Huge Tent. Barrels. Seeing inside ring. Huge tent..."

"Mary! Hey! Mary!" Necro called her.

"Wake the fuck up!" *Plaf*

"Ow..."

Ace, much less patient, slapped her once, which seemed to do the trick, since Mary slowly stood back to her feet rubbing her reddened cheek. Ace staring at the dumbfounded Necro with an air of superiority.

"Should we go and see how it looks inside?" Ace said, prompting the rest to go towards the entrance of the large tent. "You can put out that hammer you're holding you know?"

"Oh, right, I completely forgot I was holding it." Necro put away the hammed that had appeared by the side of the tent with the wooden wedges that came with the tent. She wondered whether metal ones wouldn't last longer, but she realized that would probably damage the woven straps, made out of the same fabric as most of the tent. Most being key, since the top and bottom of it were covered by a layer made out of dyed and waxed leather, making it pretty much waterproof.

'This thing must cost a fortune and half.' Though Mary, as she followed Necro and Ace towards the tent.

"Wow..." Ace exclaimed, as soon as Necro pulled open the entrance of the thing. The inside was lined with two linen-covered mattresses that looked very comfortable. There were also a couple pillows and a couple sets of different material blankets.

A large emblem of the Draculesti family was embroidered on the back wall.

"Drakul... HOLD UP! You're a royalty?!" Mary was once again surprised at seeing the emblem of Wallachia's royal family in the back of the tent. "No... This much is to be expected isn't it. There's no other way you'd have such a storage ring and this expensive of a tent." Oddly enough, she accepted the truth with little to no reaction, which was surprising for Necro.

"Now we've seen it." Said Necro, closing the door-like curtain.

"Ah..." Ace wanted to explore more the contents of the tent, but accepted the closing since she would sleep in there anyways.

"Eer..." Mary seemed to want to say something, but was too embarrassed.

Necro turned around to see her fumbling with her fingers.

"What is it Mary?"

"I know it's asking a lot and that you've already helped me a lot today and that I did that earlier only to ask you to excuse me and that I had to think and..." She sounded extremely nervous, which made Necro think she looked even cuter. "What I want to ask is... May I-"

"Of course. You can." Necro did not even wait for her to finish the question and interrupted her.

"But you didn't even hear her question!" Ace said, on the side.

"Isn't it obvious though? She was gonna ask if she could sleep inside with us."