Chapter 36 – Visiting the Mayor
After buying our goods of dubious legality, we head back to the hotel. Mina put on the bracelet before we left, and we confided that it hid all of her infernal aspects. I was able to see through it for some reason, but I suspect that just has to do with the fact that I’m also infernal.
After getting back to the room, we’re greeted at the door by Alice and Lulu yanking us in and yelling out at the same time,
““WE FORGOT ABOUT THE MAYOR!””
I get confused by this, as does Mina. We both look at each other with furrowed brows for a second before I remember,
“Oh shit! What time is it?! We got too into it last night!”
Alice points to the clock on the wall and says,
“It’s eight minutes after nine right now! I know where the mayor’s manor is thanks to my family’s business, so we should be able to get there pretty quickly. Thankfully, this is just a large town and not a city like Gulfhaven, so we shouldn’t get lost!”
I let out a sigh of relief and rub the back of my head,
“Fucking hell… You girls scared the shit out of me! Alright… Uhm… Anybody got any idea what we should wear in this meeting?”
Lulu walks over and hugs me, missing my presence for the little while we were apart. I dunno why, but I feel it too… Almost like we’ve been apart for a year… Weird.
Alice scratches her chin while she thinks until shrugging and sighing. She says,
“Honestly, our current clothes are fine. If we get dressed up just to meet him, he might feel more emboldened to screw us out of the compensation.”
I shrug my shoulders. Honestly, the dresses that Lulu and I have are already pretty fancy anyways. I sigh and take off the comfy hoodie, revealing my nude body underneath. Lulu looks at me with a smirk and pokes me in the titty, earning a light slap on the hand from me.
In response, I squeeze her ass, earning a cute yelp and a blush from her.
“Jeez! You’re gonna make me horny doing stuff like that!”
I roll my eyes and wrap my arm around her waist. I lift her chin slightly. She goes stiff and looks at me with wide eyes and a flustered face,
“Please… Like you aren’t ready for me to take you anywhere.”
I lean in and add a light gravel to my voice at the end of the sentence, causing her knees to tremble slightly. I smirk at her as she lets out little whimpers.
“Ahem!”
““Eh?””
Lulu and I turn to look at a wildly blushing Mina, and a mildly annoyed Alice. Alice has her hands on her hips and is tapping her foot impatiently.
“You two need to get dressed and save the flirting for later!”
Lulu and I sigh and kiss for a second before pulling away. Instead of getting dressed, I walk over and kiss the other two earning blushes from them as well.
I open up my status and store then equip my dress again. This takes it from the bed where it was laying and instantly puts it back on me. Lulu’s already done doing the same, so I turn to the four of them and say,
“Well, you girls ready to go?”
I walk over and take Lulu’s hand before we leave, exiting the inn for the last time most likely. Everything’s already stored in Alice and Lulu’s inventories, so we’ll be leaving after getting paid.
While walking, we spot Rochelle walking the opposite direction. When she sees us, her beautiful white eyes have clear surprise, but she smiles and waves us over. She calls out quite a ways away, earning a few sideways glances from the people around us,
“Howdy! I was gonna come’n escort you gals myself, but I see that wasn’t needed!”
I shake my head and look back at her. She runs her fingers through her long, white hair that seems to glisten in the sunlight, while her stone-grey skin perfectly compliments it… God I wanna fuck her…
“Ahem… Thank you! Fortunately, Alice knows the way to the mayor’s manor. I’ll absolutely take the company, though!”
She chuckles, her voice booming slightly. More people stare at us, causing Lulu to bury her face in my back. I smile at her apologetically and get her to stand beside me before wrapping my arm around her. She, in turn, buries her face against my breast.
Bashful in the streets, menace in the sheets…
Rochelle pats my head, earning a pout from me, before saying,
“I’m sure you little flirts wouldn’t mind my company! Well, alright. I’ll show you a faster way to the manor than just walking down the street.”
We chat with her while we walk through different alleyways, which were surprisingly clean and crime free. Hell, I don’t think I’ve even seen a homeless person since I’ve arrived here… Normally you’d see at least one beggar by now…
Eventually, we head into the nicer district. It’s not too much nicer, about like the mansions we visited before. Just walked in bigger houses. Overall, this town has been really nice looking.
When we get to the mayor's house… It’s… Different…
“Holy supervillain house…”
Okay, Lulu absolutely is reading my mind. It’s a giant black manor with red stained windows, a pointed roof with bright red tiles, and a spiky wrought iron fence… I turn to Rochelle and ask her,
“Is the mayor a vampire or something?”
He looks at me and tilts her head in confusion,
“No? Why?”
…
“No reason.”
I guess vampires aren’t associated with the gothic architecture style in this world… Maybe I shoulda brought garlic just in case…
Rochelle opens the gates with ease and leads us inside. The other guards around are wearing uniforms, similar to revolutionary war-style military outfits. Funny enough, not a single one of them seems to be human. There’s an elf, a dwarf, even a gnome… I think that dude is a Dragonborn… or a lizardman… Not gonna ask, because that’s probably rude as fuck.
As the at-least ten-feet high doors to the manor open, the inside is completely different to the outside. White marble floors, golden accents everywhere, and large paintings of happy-looking villages…
I lean in and whisper to Alice,
“I’m getting increasingly worried about meeting this mayor…”
She nods her head and whispers back,
“Yeah… They seem… Unstable…”
Mina leans in next, noting the same thing I noticed,
“They also seem to have an… Obssession… With nonhuman races…”
Yup… A lot of the paintings are of elves, dwarves, beastmen… is that a hydra girl with three girl bodies at the end of the necks?
…
Kinda hot…
Ahem! Rochelle leads us through the halls, where we eventually come to a large wooden door. She pushes them open without knocking, revealing a rather large study with books from floor to ceiling both on shelves and off.
Sitting at a wooden desk, dressed in a white suite and a black T-shirt is… Holy fuck she’s hot.
Shoulder length black hair, tan skin, long blade-like ears at the sides of her head, red lipstick painted on her lips perfectly compliments her dark eyes. Her body is curvy as hell, but not fat. Like one of those Greek goddess statues, but with larger breasts and a slightly thinner waist. She wears a black pair of glasses and has a beauty mark on the lower half of her right cheek… she looks kinda familiar somehow…
Lulu tugs at my dress behind me and whispers,
“Is it just me, or does she look kinda like… What’s that video game where you play a hot lady with guns? Not the Indiana Jones girl, the other hot lady with guns…”
The mayor is looking over a piece of paper, unaware that we’ve even walked in. She holds her pen in her hand before pulling it up and lightly biting the tip of it, frustrated with what’s on the page. The spring of her lip against the pen and the slight pigment left behind on it…
Oh fuck… I’m way too easy…
Alice puts on her business face and walks forwards, sitting in the chair across from this woman without being prompted. Rochelle simply giggles at this and walks forwards. Alice clears her throat to get the woman’s attention, which doesn’t work. Rochelle just walks over to the desk and slaps it. Hard.
*POW!*
“GAH-FUCK! SHELLY, YOU BITCH!”
The mayor stumbles back, nearly falling out of her chair and looks at Rochelle angrily. Alice clears her throat a bit louder this time,
“Ahem!”
It gets her attention this time, as she turns to look at Alice with anger at first, which quickly turns into a business smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes. She folds her hands in front of her on the desk and speaks calmly, acting like we didn’t just see her reaction to Rochelle.
“Ah! Ms. Drakea! Rochelle here told me all about you. You were attacked by those awful terrorists, weren’t you? I apologize. I would never have expected them to resort to such terrible, and stupid tactics. I assure you, they will face the fullest exte-“
Rochelle interrupts her,
“Miranda, they’re already gone. The man responsible for the attack is dead. I’m sure I submitted that report yesterday.”
…
…
“Ahem… As I was saying… I assure you that such an attack will never happen in this town ever again! I have already taken precautions so their religion is banned from this city, and it’s followers are to be execu-“
Rochelle interrupts again,
“Exiled.”
Miranda pauses and nods her head,
“Exiled! Rest assured, your business is safe here…”
…
…
Miranda and Alice stare at each other, neither speaking. Alice gets an increasingly frustrated look on her face, while Miranda’s business smile starts to crack. Rochelle sighs and shakes her head,
“Compensation, Miranda. Did you read the report from last night at all?”
Miranda’s face starts to crack as all at once, tears start flowing from her eyes and she grabs onto Rochelle’s shirt while wailing,
“WAAAAA! No! I didn’t! How can one person get through all this paperwork?! I’m still on the stuff from last week! It’s impossible I tell you! Impossible!”
…
I mean… Girl failures are kinda hot too?
Rochelle sighs and shakes her head before saying,
“Well, maybe you’d get through that stack of papers-“
She points at a… Rather small stack of paper… Like maybe the same height as a novel, then points at the stacks of books all around,
“-if you wouldn’t get distracted with smut novels! Do you want me to call your mother to the manor yet again?!”
Miranda gets a betrayed look on her face and shakes her head wildly before saying,
“NO! You wouldn’t dare! Traitor!”
She punches Rochelle’s stomach and then pulls back her hand, shaking it in pain,
“Ow! Stupid stone ribs!”
She looks down and wipes her tears away before catching us staring out of the corner of her eyes. Her face immediately turns from pale white to bright red. Then, nearly instantly, she goes back to a business smile, while her face stays red and her mascara is running,
“Ahem, yes, compensation, right? Uh… I’ll allow the four of you free entry into the city from now on, which will also let you skip any lines that may form. Any trade done by the Drakea household in the city shall not be subject to tariffs for ten years total. I shall also grant the three of you a total of three thousand gold each, with an additional two to Ms. Drakea.”
…
Wow, she’s like a different person again. Does this girl have multiple personalities or something? Alice’s grimace turns into a business smile as well, even more flawless than Miranda’s. She speaks with a sweet tone laced with venom,
“I’m afraid that won’t work for us, mayor. I was attacked and nearly killed in broad daylight. I would have died had it not been for my friends here knowing healing magic. I was left within an inch of my life. Not to mention how my caravan was attacked, and nearly all my hired guards were killed. My maid, Anya, died in my arms. That’s not something you can get over that easily. All-in-all, my time in your city has been terrible. Truthfully, I’ve been rethinking the deal I signed that would benefit your town massively.”
Miranda starts to sweat slightly and nods her head,
“Of course. I suppose I could add on another five hundred gold on top… It would be quite difficult to grant anything higher from the treasury, so-“
Rochelle cuts her off again.
“Now, now, little Miranda. I believe you have a rather sizeable amount of money yourself, don’t you? Seeing as how it was your idea to invite in those terrorists, despite my objections, I believe you should set a good example and pay the compensation yourself, shouldn’t you?”
Rochelle looks at her with a cold smile and slightly furrowed brows. Miranda looks up at her with tears beginning to form at the corners of her eyes and nods dejectedly.
“Y-yes… It’s only right… I’ll… compensate you with… seven thousand gold from my own coffers… but not a coin more! Even with everything that has happened to you, I cannot go any higher!”
Alice nods her head and says,
“Alright, I’ll agree to that, added onto what Ms. Rochelle promised us earlier. Security for my family’s carriages while inside the city.”
Miranda sighs and nods her head before saying,
“Alright. In that case, I believe our business for today is finished. Here.”
She passes Alice, Mina, Lulu, and I each a check. Alice takes each of them for us and gives them a look over before smiling and nodding at the mayor,
“Alright, Miss. Miranda. I look forward to a good future business relationship between us.”
Alice reaches a hand towards her, which she takes and shakes before not-so-subtly asking us to leave. We do, and head to the bank, where we withdraw all of the money from the checks and keep in our inventories. Alice elects to keep hers in the bank, as she already has an account with them. I saw her account papers while we were there and ho boy. I’m dating a rich lady!
With all that done, we get ready to leave. Alice rents a carriage to Gulfhaven for us, and we all pile in.
The coach driver originally refused because we didn’t have guards to protect us, but when Alice revealed that every one of us is above level 30. Technically she’s not lying? I mean, her status is higher than a level 30 human’s normally would be!
Well, we’re finally leaving Rauterdale. Honestly, it feels weird. Feels like we’ve been in that town for like two years almost, even though it’s been about a week and a half. I guess that’s what happens when you find love, huh?