Finally arriving at the hostel did not make me get calm at all, I was on my own. The girls had gone separate ways in order to purchase some women’s stuff they could only find in the capital city. It was not my intention to worry them for any reason, but I felt I had to leave as well so I left a simple note behind.
On purpose I skipped all sensitive information and only wrote about unimportant things that would not make her get excessively furious. My girlfriend would eventually kill me if I would ever survive my creepy visit to the Evil Magic Pot. This silly eyes of mine could not keep my darn tears from staining the wooden floor.
Then on my way to that infamous shop, I met some strange guy. His name was Vlad Hammer and he came from the Kingdom of Fountain. You could say he was something between a swordsman and a mercenary for he had pretty much no issue with working for anybody for the right price. That certainly included some delicious and kind of expensive meals. He was visiting the city after finishing a partially well paid job. Since I thought that I had nothing to lose I then changed the topic, hoping he could shed some light on the matter.
“Say Vlad, have you ever met a seductress that could captivate a man in a blink?”, I inquired of him.
“A mysterious woman capable of alluring men in a blink… that sounds like the woman that tried to get some free lunch at a tavern so she got very close to your servitor as if she were expecting me to treat her, at the end I only paid for her mildly cheap drink”, mister Hammer stated after recalling how he did not enjoy that tricky girl’s company.
So far I had only confirmed her existence, it no longer seemed to be feasible to get any useful data from her servant, he might not be her henchman but just another unaware victim like me. That should mean she had to change her methods or potions in order to get something useful like an increase in her alluring powers, even so what would her actual goal be then?
For I did not expect him to tell me anything worth my precious little time left, I just let him know, “Thank you for sharing this piece of information with me, but the time has come for me to head to the so called Evil Magic Pot where I’m supposed to find out what she had purchased to allure men with such an incredible ease.”
He stared at me as if he had already heard lots of awful stories about that place, it got to be famous for some evil reason after all. Did I really need to go there in person?
“Are you sure you don’t need any bodyguard of sorts? That shop is no playground for newbies, unless you’ve become a reckless black mage or even a devilish necromancer overnight…”, Vlad Hammer warned me.
Vlad looked at me as if he believed it was a good idea to hire him right away. Normally I would have considered it seriously, even so I had no money to waste there. Plus my girls should have squandered a small fortune in the local shops back then.
The mercenary stopped me telling me, “I dunno why you don’t wanna get some badly needed backup, but it wouldn’t be bad to pay priestess Claudia Sophie a brief visit.”
I made a huge effort to interrupt him a few times, even so he told me, “I do insist, mister Bodkin, it’s for your own safety!”
While still being confused I commented, “I just wonder why people keep telling me the same kind of fairy tales over and over…”
If both the shopkeeper and the swordsman advised me against going to the magic shop without an amulet, it got to mean it was quite a risky place. Stuff like asking strange questions about their customers might not make a good impression on ill-tempered people. It was highly probable that they might prefer to keep their secret identities safe up to the point of disposing of those that do not seem to be part of their exclusive group.
Extreme nervousness would soon leave me on the verge of suffering a lethal heart attack if I did not do anything to soothe my horror-stricken soul.
The Most Adorable Priestess You Could Ever Meet
Hammer escorted me to the White Shrine of Purity, one of their many holy places. It was consecrated to some female entity. Yeah, I still refuse to call her a deity! I have always thought their religions smelled quite fishy for my taste, she had to be just another scam of their clergy.
There her assistant Gia Melissa showed me their beautiful gardens as a natural method they recommended me to calm me down in a timely fashion. Who could keep calm if he already knows his jealous girlfriend would tear him off for holding a nice conversation with a cute priestess?
My dear friend Vlad then informed me that being virgin and single was not mandatory for those priestesses. You know, that Gia really looked awesome with her white garb, enough as to make both of us drool in our silly minds. Nonetheless, I had to focus on my mission so I asked her to help me out.
Unexpectedly, she told me, “My apologies, mister Bodkin! I am not allowed to discuss such serious matters with you.”
“Come on, Gia!”, the mercenary exclaimed while pinching her ass softly. “There gotta be something you can do for him.”
The assistant did not like his bold approach, still, she accepted to lead me to the Office of Pure Whiteness where the head priestess was waiting for me. That woman was even more gorgeous than her humble assistant, she was slightly curvy but well shaped for sure. It was difficult for me to start asking questions. Was my face blushing already?
“I’m not used to say this kind of things for I should be a beacon of equanimity, yet, you leave me no other choice. Are you out of your stupid mind?”, Claudia Sophie yelled at me out of nowhere.
I really thought she would refrain from talking like an average person. Of course, I had seriously provoked her by telling her about my intention of visiting the Evil Magic Pot any time soon. Things seemed to be complicated since she remained silent for several minutes.
Then the head priestess asserted, “I cannot even understand why on this world you would willingly enter such a terrible place on your own, at this point I can only offer you a blessing of temporary protection against evil forces or lend you one of our most powerful amulets.”
Really, I tried to explain my motives, but she interrupted me to tell me, “It seems you cannot realize how serious this is, mister Bodkin, normally I’d suggest you to be escorted by one of our advanced trainees…”
That sounded a bit promising, getting a blessing, an amulet and a cute priestess to back me up should be what I had been searching for.
I had to inquire of her, “Why would she be a trainee? Why won’t you assign this mission to any fully trained priestess of yours?”
Claudia Sophie could not believe what she had heard, she reluctantly told me, “Well, mister Bodkin, there is no priestess available right now and I got to admit that our trainee is not really our most reliable apprentice. In fact, she looks quite competent until she attempts to cast any spell.”
I did listen to her carefully, but I still asked of her, “I don’t mind, we all know how badly I need her assistance if I ever want to solve this case.”
Silence returned. It did not seem that my words could ever impress her so I added, “We’ve got to prevent more people from becoming slaves so please introduce her now.”
Her looks made me think she could not be that bad. The new girl was not as cute as Gia and still, she could make me fall in love with her tender face and slender body. She got to be about the same age as my little Sue, I could not find any reason to make me believe she was not capable of protecting me with her magic knowledge. Gia got to have learned something useful during her stay there after all.
The head priestess finally introduced her, “Gentlemen, this is our incredibly clumsy student Sylvia, better known for screwing up everything in the last minute.”
It was clear then that her own teachers did not trust her even by mistake anymore, even so I would keep her close to be able to watch her smiling all day long.
“Greetings! It’s very nice to meet you, guys, I’d love to work with you!”, my dear Sylvia cheerfully stated
She made my heart melt like hot chocolate bars. Seriously!
Vlad Hammer did not waste the chance to let me know that he had to be an integral part of my team. What a resourceful guy he was!
After her superior had informed her about my situation, she approached me telling me, “Don’t worry, dear, I’m very positive I’ll do my best to bring you back safely, just never tell any lies to me, sweetie!”
Those supportive words and her mesmerizing wink hit my heart quite hard, I felt I could definitely trust her with my life. Vlad almost dropped his cup of tea for he got jealous for my damn good luck. But I never noticed when they had served him his damn tea!
Recalling that was the kind of things that got me into hard punching troubles with Faye, was no fun. I really, really wanted to date Sylvia for some mysterious reason… Could she be the same girl that allured me the first time?
At the same time I had a weird impression that I have met miss Claudia Sophie some time ago. Yes, she had to be the perfect suspect, because she made me feel she was guilty of doing something bad and still managed to divert our attention towards anybody else around.
Was it a trick of hers to convince me of her fake innocence? My mind no longer knew what to think about that, out of the blue I just wanted to find suspects everywhere.
“There’s something I’d love to know about you, Sylvia, why don’t you have a middle name like the other priestesses?”, I suddenly asked her.
She giggled a bit before replying back, “That’s because I’ve not graduated from our school, yet, sweetie, but be sure I won’t stop working hard to get my magic title.”
Thus I had figured out that her middle name somehow represented a title of sorts, that was an unexpected discovery in my bewitched opinion.
We left the shrine with no hurry at all. I had asked them to let me write and send a letter to my boss back in my new hometown to tell him everything I had discovered lately, except that part about Susanne being pregnant. They gladly showed me the way to the postal service building, actually it was a sort of long trip.
I also noticed I had not given the pregnancy test to my dear Sue, and started suspecting I had spent too much time in their strange world, making me wish I could return to my own. My main concern was that I did not know if I was a time or plane traveler. That truly made it harder than usual to ascertain what should be the best way to go back home once and for all.
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