Yvette, finished clearing off one of the tables and walked over to her mother. "That good for nothing guild master sure has been gone for a while. You don't think he's getting into any trouble, do you?"

"I don't know, I just hope that if he brings back more servants that they'll at least know how to wash dishes." Wendy sighed.

WHAM!

The door to the Guild was kicked open and Cal burst through with a Half-breed girl on his shoulders.

"Wendy! I've got good news, and better news!" He proudly exclaimed.

"And here we go." Yvette rolled her eyes.

The girl on Cal's shoulder, bowed down to whisper in his ear.

"But first, I'll need five of the daily specials!" Cal found his way to a nearby table laughing with the girl on his shoulders as he took elongated steps.

Wendy glided across the room and helped Cal take the half-breed of his shoulders. "Honestly, Master, I don't think that kidnapping cursed children is a good way to build the guild." She set Ophelia on one of the chairs and then straightened the Half-breeds clothes.

"Oh, Wendy, you worry too much. She's not cursed. She's an oracle. And I didn't kidnap her. I adopted her." He smiled and ruffled Ophelia's hair.

"This poor girl," Wendy rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I'll have a bath prepared so that she can clean off that filth once she's eaten. Naomi! When you're done cooking I need you to go prepare a bed for our new house guest and set aside some clean clothes!"

"There's another one?" Naomi's head peeked out of the kitchen.

Wendy left as she continued barking orders.

Cal and Ophelia just giggled at each other.

"-back all this time and he doesn't once visit me." Princess Shayley opened the door to the guild and was followed by two others. One was a full-bodied woman with long black hair with an even longer designer black dress that perfectly hugged all her curves. She was the very picture of a femme fatale. The second was a teenaged girl with purplish silver fox ears and long fluffy hair.

"Princess," Wendy bowed even while balancing four plates of food. "Please take a seat anywhere. I'll personally serve you in just a moment."

"No need, I'm looking for Naomi's master, that Gaia plaguing pirate."

Even Wendy's unending calm was pushed to the test as she realized who she was looking for. She swallowed. "Master Cal is just over there." She motioned to the table where Cal stood.

His intention was to stand up and call Shayley over, but after he stood he was stunned by her divine beauty. Shayley and Wendy caught him drooling over the princess.

Shayley stormed over to Cal, meanwhile the two girls with the princess helped Wendy as they set the food on Cal's table.

"It's been a week, and I haven't heard from you once. And what is this that I hear about you surrounding yourself indulgently in beautiful women?" Shayley saw a small girl shrinking behind Cal's leg. "Who's that?"

"Papa, why is mommy so angry?" Ophelia asked.

Shayley's face turned from pinkish rage to a scarlet so red you could almost see the steam coming from her head. But that wasn't the worst of it, every head in the café turned to Cal and the princess.

Cal laughed nervously. "Shayley, this is my daughter, Ophelia."

"Y-you, have a daughter?" Shayley's head was spinning.

"Yes, she's an orphan so I'm taking her in, as of today, she's my daughter." Sweat beaded down Cal's spine. He had predicted that this would be awkward, but not this awkward.

"So, you didn't, you know?" Shayley played with her fingers nervously.

The buxom babe leaned over to the fox maiden and whispered, "This is the first time I've ever see her act like this."

"I know, they're so cute," the fox girl replied as they shared a giggle.

Cal and Shayley's faces glowed a fiery crimson.

"Master, how do you know the princess?" Wendy's head was also spinning, many people were familiar with the casual nature of the warrior princess since she visited the city often. But none were on a first name basis with her, not even some of the Sylvan Knights referred to her so casually.

Cal laughed nervously again. "I guess the cat is out of the bag." He cleared his throat to regain his composure.

"Princess, please sit down we have prepared something for your visit. Wendy, we are closed, collect everyone's bill and excuse them."

He pulled open his menu and clicked the elemental menu for the guild. He selected Ricardo since he had returned Lucinda to the castle after he finished construction of the guild. He clicked on the empty space between the guild and the tavern and clicked the close button.

He had left an auto command so that he wouldn't have to open the construction menu and trouble himself with the dimensions of the wall and other time consuming hassles.

The wall between the conjoined buildings slid up from the ground cutting them off from the busy tavern. Meanwhile, Wendy was ushering out the respective customers who all bowed to the queen as they left. At the same time Cal sat awkwardly with Shayley, Ophelia, and the two escorts. The two escorts beamed and giggled at the Princess's obvious shyness.

Once the room was emptied a small squeaky voice spoke up.

"Papa, did I do something bad, why is everyone leaving?" Ophelia asked nervously.

Cal relaxed a little and patted Ophelia's head, "no, you didn't do anything wrong. Papa, just wants to introduce you to your new family and talk about a few things. Now, eat. I know that you're still hungry after the picnic food." Cal dipped a spoon in her soup and held it out for her to eat. "Open wide, ahh."

"Ahh," when Ophelia's mouth closed around the spoon her eyes lit up. "It's so good!"

The table of girls sighed a cutsey "aw" and the tension was lifted as Ophelia and Cal ate their food.

"Shayley," Cal said while chewing a mouthful of bread and soup.

Shayley coughed and jumped when Cal said her name and dropped her spoon.

"Your manners are slipping," he said with his mouth full. "You never introduced us to you friends." He swallowed. He noticed that some of the soup was dripping from Ophelia's mouth, without a napkin in sight he used his sleeve to wipe the dribble from the girl's chin.

Wendy, Naomi, and Yvette all rolled their eyes at their master's impudence. They were finishing up their duties and were wiping done the tables until they were called.

"Excuse me, this is the light Sylvan knight, Clera." She motioned at the raven haired temptress.

Clera stood up and bowed, "It is an honor, might I say that your swordsmanship is truly remarkable."

"And this is Calico, handmaiden of the Crystal shrine." The teenager with fox ears also stood up and curtseyed.

"It a pleasure to see you again. The mistress sends her regards." She smiled warmly.

Cal did a spit-take and soup splattered half-way across the round table. His face paled, "Calico, you- but the Calico I met was a cute little fox!"

Ophelia hid under the table from the outburst, but Wendy and her daughters were mortified.

"You mean like this?" Calico responded with a popping sound turning into puff of smoke from which a fox with five tails emerged.

Ophelia gasped, "she's so pretty, Papa, can a pet her?"

Giving her consent, Calico hopped into Ophelia's lap and rubbing the top of her head against Ophelia's chin. Both Cal and Ophelia's eyes sparkled. Ophelia nuzzled the fox, then Cal lifted them both up and embraced the cuteness as he nuzzled them both.

"Calico!" Shayley coughed. Then checked her jealousy. In a mild tone, she said, "this is neither the time or place for that."

In an instant, there was a popping sound and through a puff of smoke the fox turned back into a teenager. Ophelia was pressing her check against her leg.

"I apologize, my lady." Calico apologized.

Cal found his face buried in the fluffy hair of a teenager with a hand full of-

"GIRL!" Cal jumped off the fox girl. His face had lost all color, in a city of long-lived beings the line of acceptable behavior between the ages often grew fuzzy. But for Cal, who was originally a full blood twenty-four-year-old human, Calico still had the appearance of a much younger underage teenage girl.

Luckily, he was saved by Wendy, who was reaching the depths of her patience. "Master, all the customers have left and we've closed up."

Cal coughed. "Yes, then let's get down to business." He opened the menu and summoned the guild's elementals. He then scooped Ophelia off the fox girl's leg and held her hand as he faced the room. He closed his eyes while addressing the fox girl, "Calico, I need this room sealed from prying eyes and ears."

"Of course," Calico summoned her magic, the edged of the room glowed five different colors then went back to normal. "It is done."

"Thank you. What we are about to discuss is not to leave this room, any who transgress will suffer consequences which does not exclude death or the painful torture of 10 hours of showtunes."

Cal started, Ophelia squeezed his hand.

Cal crouched down to look her in the eyes, "It's alright Ophelia, nobody is going to lay a finger on you as long as I can help it, I promise."

She nodded, and he scooped her up into a hug and then stood back up.

"This is the Oracle, Ophelia. From this day onward, I am adopting her as my daughter."

Cal pointed to everyone and introduced them to Ophelia, first the elementals, then Wendy's family, then Clera.

When he got to Shayley he paused, "This is... Princess Shayley O'heira Van Dravenkin, she's my..." he felt the dull ache in his chest after what he'd done to the poor girl's heart.

He walked with her over to Shayley. He held out his hand. Shayley blushed and took it as he pulled her to her feet. He held her left and stroked the line where her ring used to be.

"She's..."

Cal gazed into Shayley's eyes, finally confronted with what she meant to him now that he was living in a video game world. She blushed wildly from the closeness, she waited on bated breath for her love's true feelings.

"She's... the single most beautiful women in the world, and the love of my life." He couldn't bring himself to kiss her on the lips yet, so he leaned forward and kissed her forehead. "I hope to redeem myself and reclaim my place by her side."

Shayley felt faint, she had no words, but she couldn't look at him anymore. She sat back down as quickly as she could and hid her face, at least until her dopey smile went away and her face turned back to a normal color. That wasn't nearly as drastic as the reactions from Wendy and her girls.

Wendy held onto a chair like she was an old lady while her daughter pale and shaking forms helped themselves to the floor.

Cal put the girl down and walked back over to Calico.

"Aw, I've always wanted to meet the cursed witch girl," Calico cooed at Ophelia.

A tremendous presence suffocated the room. An unholy terrifying bloodlust came from none other than Ophelia's Papa.

[Aura of the Dread Pirate] May now be activated without weapon when character's bloodlust exceeds tolerable range.

The figure of the dread pirate is imposing, his blood lust is legendary. They say that if looks could kill the dread pirate's gaze could strike down a dozen men before he even raised his sword.

Cracks formed around Cal's feet and his eyes glowed red hot with anger. The entire room was paralyzed, none of them could have guessed that this was Cal power. Not even Clera or Shayley had experienced this much pressure on their stats when they fought in the castle.

"This is Ophelia, she is not a cursed child or a witch girl, she is my daughter and will be treated with respect. She is also an Oracle and extremely rare and powerful hidden class that I have seen only once before. Any indiscretion will be met with the full force of her papa."

Cal took a deep breath and released the Aura of the Dread Pirate. Then he smiled warmly, "Calico you may take your seat, your legs look the they are about to give out on you."

Calico nervously complied as soon as she could move again. In the meantime, he comforted Ophelia who had gotten a full blast of his aura since she was standing right next to him.

Cal turned back to the crowd that he had gathered. "I was hoping for a little more time, so that Wendy's family would grow more comfortable around me, but I guess it is time I properly introduce myself. Just for clarification, my identity is to never leave this room."

He waited for Wendy, Naomi, and Yvette to swear that they'd never reveal his secret.

Wendy and her girls were taken aback by their master's show of force as well as his closeness with the warrior princess. Too many things didn't add up between the lazy bumbling master they knew and the man standing in front of them.

Cal pulled of his eye-patch and the scares on his face disappeared. His unmarred face bore a striking similarity with so many statues and works of art that dotted the city.

"My name is Calloway Calphius, former guild master of the Elves of the North Wind, and self-proclaim Parton Saint of the City of Perils. It's a pleasure to finally meet you all." He smiled so warmly that the room completely forgot how terrifying he was only a moment ago.

Wendy and her girls weren't so comforted, their shock was evident.

"What!" They screamed defiantly.

"One of the reasons I found your family so charming was that they didn't put me on a pedestal. Naomi even went as far as protesting for the last seventy years." He got a kick out of their reaction. "Please just treat me the same way you have been treating me."

Wendy pulled out a chair from a nearby table and had to sit down.

"Now it's confession time." Calloway sobered, "a week ago I broke off my engagement with the princess. The truth is that before I proposed I knew my time here was limited. I left expecting to never be able to return and see anyone here again, and then woke up 250 years later. I discovered the city I cultivated had flourished, but the princess had not, she was stuck waiting for a man that would never come.

"When I reflected on my callous and selfish actions I was overcome with shame. I disguised myself and challenged the princess to a duel, when I won I forced her to terminate the engagement in order to free her. To my surprise she didn't stab me in the heart a second time. I am shamefully imperfect, but I plan to do all that I can to redeem myself. When that day comes I can only pray that she'll still have me."

The room was silent, nobody had seen that coming.

"That being said," Calloway continued. "There is an upcoming threat to our way of life. An enemy of unknown origin threatens the world and our current circumstance is lacking if we want to survive it. Lots of things need to change. No longer am I going to wait around for quests to fall into my lap, as a guild we are going to push ourselves to the limits. That way when the City of Perils calls, the Verdant Oathkeepers will be there to rise to the challenge."

Guild name: Verdant Oathkeepers

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