This Used To Be About Dungeons полностью

“Next time you write a report, tell your mom I said hi,” said Mizuki.

“We try to keep things professional,” said Alfric. “Though we do follow a heading system to separate out messages that are more… frivolous.”

“Fancy,” said Mizuki.

“Not really,” said Hannah. “Most larger guilds have such a thing.”

“I joined the druids’ guild,” said Isra. “This morning.”

“Oh really?” asked Verity. “You should have said. I’ve been going on about the garden and you had actual news to share. Though I suppose you haven’t heard anything from them yet.”

“There was a welcome message,” said Isra. “I think I need some help writing a reply.”

“You just think it,” said Alfric. “It’s pretty easy, I’ll help you with it later, if you’re going to be sticking around.”

“Isra is the beneficiary of always planning for an extra person,” said Mizuki as she continued cleaning the fish.

“I didn’t mean to intrude,” said Isra.

“You didn’t,” said Mizuki. “You can treat this like your house, and the spare bed in Verity’s room like it was your bed. But you should have used the party channel to let me know that you were going to be eating with us, and then I could have gotten a bit more food so we don’t need to stretch.”

“But you prepare more than we need,” said Alfric. “So it’s not actually a burden.”

“You’re going to lecture me about contingency planning?” asked Mizuki, momentarily stopping her knifework. “And I never said it was a burden, just that I like to plan out food, and it’s easier to do that when I don’t have to walk back to the shops right before dinner. Think about it like this, if we’ve got someone claiming the extra plate, what are we going to do if we have a random visitor?”

“How likely is that?” asked Alfric. “Do you get random visitors often? The kind that you’d feel obligated to have a meal ready for?”

“Well,” said Mizuki. “No.”

“Um,” said Verity. “I talked to the town cartier, Xy, today. Alfric, you’ll need to arrange things with her, but she’s shown some interest in being the first member of our counterparty.”

“Oh,” said Alfric. “That’s great news. But when you say town cartier, you mean she serves a wide region?”

“She does,” said Verity. “We would want to give her as much advance notice as possible, and I suppose I’m not entirely clear on what her duties would be, so the whole conversation was light on specifics.”

“Friendly though?” asked Hannah, keeping her voice casual.

“That’s something that I’d actually like to talk with you privately about,” said Verity. “It’s not really something I have all that much experience with. The, uh, mores and things, if there are some specifics.”

“Wait,” said Mizuki. “Are you going to be dating this girl?”

“Well,” said Verity, “that’s part of what I wanted to speak with Hannah about, because it seems like the arrangement she was interested in was being something less than partners.”

“Well you can talk to us too,” said Mizuki. “I know all about partners.”

“And you’re good at relationships?” asked Verity.

“Oh,” said Mizuki, deflating somewhat. “Well. Quantity has to count for something, right? Otherwise what was I doing with all those boys?”

“Ay,” said Hannah, raising an eyebrow. “What were you doin’ with all those boys?”

“Perfect chastity, no doubt,” said Verity.

“Well,” said Mizuki, blushing. “Chastity is only a virtue for Kesbin. But the point is, I have plenty of advice to offer. And if a boy came to me saying that he wanted ‘something less than partners’, that would raise some alarm bells, unless I was also looking for something less than partners, but I don’t think that usually turns out well.”

“With due respect,” said Hannah. “I did go to the seminary and spend quite a bit of my time learnin’ best practices for relationships of all kinds, but especially those between two women, platonic or otherwise. It’s among the duties I’m expected to perform as a cleric, givin’ advice. But that said, I do agree that I raise an eye at ‘less than partners’, unless that’s what you’d like. You don’t seem the type though.”

“I don’t?” asked Verity. “For all you know I’ve been with dozens of women.”

“Have you?” asked Hannah, voice quite innocent.

“No,” said Verity. “But I’m not sure what ‘type’ I seem like.”

“A sheltered life of parental pressure aside, and that’s just me readin’ between the lines, you seem like the type to go for the first girl to show strong interest in you,” said Hannah. “And from there, a relationship that moves quickly, because you like things to be sorted away. Then you’d get all the problems that come from that, the quickness, mostly things comin’ to a head some years down the road as you realize that you never built a solid foundation. But I’d be happy to hear your take on what you like and who you are, if that was all a load of feathers.”

“I like to think I’d be more circumspect in my partners than that,” said Verity. “But you’re probably right in the broad strokes. It’s a prophecy that I, well… think there’s some merit to.”