CH.337 Unika’s family_Yugioh Card Summoner

CH.337 Unika’s family

 It had been three days since we got back from the Green dungeon when we finally got a call from Unika. We hadn’t spotted Nel again, by the way, so we still have no clue where she is hiding, and I actually almost sent one of my monsters to check out the house she entered, but I can wait a bit more.

 But back to Unika. Since she called for us, I’ll go meet up with her.

 <hr>

 With the emergency device (not finished) that I gave her, I located Unika in the city and beamed down very close to her. Not right next to her, but pretty close. I also brought Ria with me, just in case.

 “Unika. I’m here.” I called out to the purple tailed fox-girl.

 She was standing in an almost empty alley with a young boy, probably 10 or so years old. The boy didn’t have a tail, but he does seem to have some sort of ears on the top of his head. Though unlike with Unika, where her ears are standing up straight, the boy’s ears are t against his head. Oh, and his hair was cut quite short and was a blue-ish color. Quite a light blue at that. It is an interesting contrastpared to Unika, as she is a very dark blue. Well, purple, but purple is a mix of blue and red, while this boy is a very light blue.

 “Ah? Lord Brian? You really came?” Unika seemed genuinely surprised that I hade to meet her. Did she not trust me?

 “Of course. I promised as much.” I reassured her. “Is this your younger brother? It is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Brian.”

 “I’m… I’m Valoa.” The boy introduced himself.

 “I apologize that our mother couldn’t be here. She wasn’t able to take a day off.” Unika told me.

 “Don’t worry. That is no issue. Let’s head to a local tea-shop or something, where we can talk in peace.” I told the two, and as I saw their faces change, I quickly added. “Don’t worry. I’m paying.”

 “Then… then we can go to the ce mama works at.” Valoa said. “... maybe she can take a break.”

 “I’m not so…” Unika tried to say no in a gentle way, but actually, Valoa’s idea sounds just fine.

 “I think that is a great idea. Can you show me the way?” I asked.

 <hr>

 After just a short walk, we stopped in front of a small diner. It looked … fine, but it looked a bit run down, so maybe itcked customers. Or maybe the owner was just a cheapskate.

 Following Valoa and Unika, we entered the building. I quickly noticed that there was a considerable number of customers inside, despite the somewhat early hour and the state of the building. If I owned this ce, and I had this many customers every day, I would fix this ce.

 We were quickly spotted by a server, and she rushed somewhere to probably get someone. And very soon, a fox-folkdy with dark blue hair, ears and tail came to us. Her work uniform… well, I can definitely see what kind of ‘diner’ this is. She was dressed in a skimpy uniform that covered just a bit more than the minimum. If I didn’t know any better, actually I don’t know any better, so maybe this ce is actually … that kind of ce. Hopefully not.

 “... what are you doing here?” She didn’t yell, speaking quietly but assertively. “I told you not to visit me while I work.”

 “But mom…”

 “No. Leave.” She said, still in that hushed tone.

 “We came to eat. Would that be possible?” I asked.

 The foxdy then turned to look at me, as if this was the first time she noticed me.

 “... Sir? I’m not sure you would enjoy any food in this ce. Are you sure you don’t want a rmendation for a better restaurant?” She asked.

 “... is that really how you treat your customers? No wonder the owner doesn’t fix this ce.” I said, before I told her. “But yes. I would like to eat here. And I would like you to join us.”

 “I… I’m not sure that is possible.”

 “It isn’t if it is possible, but how much it costs. So how much for you to dine with us?” I asked, as I got a gold coin out of Storage and handed it to her.

 “I… I’ll go ask.” The fox-woman agreed to my suggestion. She guided us to an empty table that would fit all four of us, before entering some back area, possibly the kitchen.

 <hr>

 “The manager allowed me to eat with you for the cost you already paid.” The foxdy came back and told me. She then sat down at the table with us.

 “That’s good.” I was honestly expecting him to ask for even more money for this, but just one gold is very little. “Can you rmend some good foods?”

 “A-Are you sure? This ce is..?”

 “You still have plenty of customers, and they do seem to be eating happily, so it cannot be terrible, right? If it was, you would be shut down, or at least basically empty.”

 “If you say so, but …”

 “Mom. Rx.” Unika spoke over her mother. “He asked for your rmendations, so just give them.” She then added in a bit quieter tone. “He likes pretty normal foods.”

 … are my foods normal? I mean, I suppose they are. They are just … regr-ish ingredients prepared with the highest possible skill. Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but they are prepared by the highest skill I have avable. And a lot of the meat ingredients we usee from B-rank monsters, so that also adds to the vor. Higher rank monsters do generally taste better. Though I haven’t tried any of the SS-rank monsters, so I could be wrong. But that theory does apply to all monsters from D-rank to A-rank, so it might be correct.

 “Then …” The foxdy quickly began listing foods she would rmend and I picked a few of them to order.

 <hr>

 After the foxdy took our order, which I went a bit overboard with, to the kitchen, she returned with some drinks and sat down with us. Though our drinks were just lemon water with some ice. But I have to say, having ice in drinks isn’t supermon, so I’m actually pleasantly surprised by the fact that this ce has some.

 As we waited for the food, I introduced myself to the foxdy, though she did already know my name. Her name is Olia, age … well, you don’t have to know ady’s age, and race is fox-folk. … I’m just pointing out the obvious.

 Anyway. Olia had some questions, as was to be expected. She had heard of my offer from Unika, but had deemed it ‘too good to be true’. Which in a way it is, but also isn’t. I mean, I am asking them to leave their entire life behind, basically. And I know Unika probably told them about how she ‘lived’ on HomeBase, but workers'' rooms aren’t quite as nice as the guest rooms. Still good, and things like the beds are just as good, but they are a bit smaller and might not have all the features the guest rooms do, so hopefully they aren’t expecting too much. But it will hopefully still be better than where they used to live. … Actually, where was that? Did Endy track her like he did Nel? He probably did, I just didn’t ask.

 “... So let me see if I got this right. You want us to live in your manor and act as maids?” Olia asked to confirm.

 “Yes. Well, maid for you, Unika would be a part of mybat force, as she is already an adventurer and has some skills. And I won’t expect Valoa to work until he is fifteen.”

 “... and we will be paid 7 gold a month?”

 “Plus you will get three meals a day, and snacks. I’ll supply all of your clothing and any other day-to-day necessities. … as well as work uniforms that actually cover some skin. Oh, and the payment is 7 gold for you and another seven for Unika. Unika will also get a danger bonus when she goes out on quests. And you can each get a raise if you impress me. Valoa can also earn some pocket money by doing tasks, but again, that isn’t expected.”

 “And you will teach him how to use magic?”

 “Not just him. You two can also join the lessons, magic, swordsmanship or some other skills. I have people who can teach a lot of things. We just don’t have a full schedule yet.”

 “... I see… But why?”

 “Why? Because I can?”

 “But why us? What is so special about us?”

 “Unika. She has a skill I’m interested in, as well as an interesting way to use it.” I answered honestly. Just getting ess to Tamer’s Paradise is already worth paying some money. And honestly, I do need more people, so why not get them.

 “Just for that? You would use this much money on just that?”

 “... What is ‘a lot of money’ in your opinion? Let me guess, two gold coins? Maybe just one?”

 “... I currently make 10rge silvers a month.” Olia answered.

 10rge silvers, huh. That is two and a half gold. … yeah, that is low. The maids at Sawyer manor made 3 golds every two weeks, so six a month, so making less than half of that is … kind of a joke.

 “I see… so probably as little as onerge silver would be a lot.”

 “... Yes.” Olia confirmed.

 “And that is the difference between us. For me, seven gold is something I make in my sleep. Multiple times over. It isn’t something enormous for me. If I were to look at it from your point of view, it would be equivalent to you using one copper coin on something you really want. Actually, that isn’t even a fairparison, but I hope you get the point. The money is of no concern.”

 “... I … I just don’t understand. We are nothing special. You could find another person with the same skill. That just… doesn’t exin it. Why us?”

 “Because you are lucky. That is the honest reason. You are lucky. Unika just happened to run into me when she was in trouble, I helped her and because of that, we got acquainted.” I answered honestly. “And now I feel like helping her more, because she happened to interest me.”

 “... alright. I understand.”

 “Good.”

 “You are not someone that can be understood by someone like me.” Olia said.

 “... well, I suppose that might be the case.”

 <hr>

 “Thank you. For this. It will take me a bit of time to sort out everything, but once we do, we shall make the move.” Olia said, as we went our separate ways.

 “Of course. Unika has a way to contact me, so when you are ready, just use it.”

 For now, I couldn’t bring the group straight to HomeBase, even if I wanted to. They wanted a few days to deal with things like debt, their home, the school Valoa goes to and so on. And I was more than happy to wait a bit longer.

 I had given the group a total of five gold coins, as prepayment. They could use that to clear away any debt they have, and hopefully they could do what they want with their house. I did tell them that I’d expect them to live on HomeBase, so keeping a house on the surface might be useless to them. Sure they can, but it is just going to be another money sink.

 After saying see youter to the family, I located a nice quiet spot and beamed myself up to HomeBase.

 <hr>

 “Master. Endemion requests your presence.” Water Magician informed me when I arrived at HomeBase.

 Spoiler

 [copse]

 I don’t actually have Aqua-type monster dedicated avatar dolls yet, but luckily Water Magician can use the general gen 1 avatar dolls. But unlike her, a lot of Aqua-type monsters can’t use them, as … well, their bodies are kind of made of water. Or slime. Or something simr. Just not a good day.

 But that is neither here nor there. Endy needs me, so let’s see what he wants.

 <hr>

 “Someone attempted to use a visual spell on HomeBase, likely appraisal or something simr.” Endy told me when I got to my office, aka. the Citadel Core room.

 “... does that mean… that someone was able to see HomeBase?” I asked. “I mean, visual magic would mean…”

 “Yes. I believe that to be the case.” Endy answered.

 “... I assumed it was impossible. I mean, you’d need a unique skill for that, right?”

 “That was our theory, but perhaps a rightbination of skills can do it. Especially if they had a tool to enhance sight.”

 “... yeah. Maybe I underestimated the capital. Treasure items should be moremon here, so maybe if someone noticed anything, and they have ess to said items, they might go ahead and use one.” I theorized. “… Do we know who did it? Or where it came from? And did they seed?”

 “They must have seen HomeBase, but the magic was blocked by our barrier. And we have a general idea on where the spell came from, but we do not have the exact point.”

 “Show me.”

 Endy used the Citadel Core to disy a map of the capital and on it, arge circle was drawn. It was all situated over the noble’s district, with just a bit of it even entering the castle.

 “So a noble. Should have assumed as much. Is the center of the circle the most likely spot?”

 “No. We had to estimate the area based on the spot of the barrier where that spell was stopped. From that, we estimated this area.” Endy answered. “It may have even been from outside of this, but this is the most likely area. We are currently keeping a close eye on it, and if we catch anyone watching at the sky for too long, we will make a note of them.”

 “... great work. Make sure to keep me informed.”

 So someone has seen HomeBase from the ground. What kind of person could do that? And what will they try to do next? What can they do?

 Will they spread the news that an ind is levitating above the capital? An invisible ind at that? Would anyone believe them? Probably not.

 Try to attack HomeBase? First, why would they do that? Second, that is nearly impossible. Even Agunan can’t get past the defensive barrier around HomeBase. I suppose Lady Janina could, but I don’t think there is a human as powerful as she is.

 The one thing I could see happening is them trying to infiltrate HomeBase. And the way they could do that is to kidnap someone that has ess. I’m not really worried about myself, Alice, Lua, Ria or Agunan. Anyone of us should be able to defend ourselves. But some of my workers… They are a different thing. I really need to finish the emergency device and give them out to everyone. Add a feature where it will block their ess device after activating, so that the ess device cannot be stolen.

 Yeah. I’ll get to work on that.

MillionNovel

CH.337 Unika’s family