Phillip stepped into the guildhall with Misaki. Where almost instantly she was intercepted by Melisa. “There you are! Seriously Phillip, I looked everywhere for you! Where were...” she trailed off when she noticed Misaki behind her. Then she smirked, “Oh, I see! I hope you two had fun, but next time pay more attention to the time. Remember you are guildmaster! It sets a poor example to show up late.”
Phillip turned red. Glancing around, she was happy to notice the only one here was Sarah, and she didn’t seem to have noticed the conversation. That was good. Taking a moment to let out a breath, she spoke up, “I know. Did anything happen while I was out?”
Melisa sighed, “Thankfully no. I did save some paperwork for you. Nothing pressing thankfully. Oh, and I should remind you that the representative for Moonlight Departures will be here later today.”
Phillip turned to the office, “I’ll get started then.”
“Sure, and while you are working we can discuss your attire.”
Phillip blinked, “Huh?”
Spoiler
Laki stepped out of the house. She and Qerni had finished their run of the area. Not every house near Qerni’s home had a family with a child. No surprise there, but she did spend some time learning things. Like that first girl she saw, Flower. Apparently the man of the house was dead and Qerni had been helping the family out. Since she started she had been speaking with Qerni a lot about the state of the town.
It seemed things had gone downhill since the trade route with Stormwind started drying up. Part of the reason the town had so many inns was due to the high volume of traffic it used to get. The magical metals produced here were not only of military value, but highly sought after by the elves. Many families grew rich off the ore trade. Selling refined ore to the elves and in return purchasing quality elven metalwork. While Elven steel didn’t quite match dwarven metalwork, it was still better than what local smiths could make. Not only that, but it was cheaper to import elven metalwork over the dwarven equivalents.
When the trade route closed, demand for the local ore dropped sharply. As a result ore started piling up and sales shrank. It wasn’t long before many were out of work. Many former miners, like Flower’s father, turned to adventurer work to make money. Not all of them made it.
She glanced at the group of scantily clad women advertising at the corner. More victims of the changes. The loss of jobs, the dead and then there was also the town’s lord. The last lord was sacked after everything started going downhill and the new one brought in a lot of his own people. None of whom seemed to care for the town. The town guard stopped patrolling the roads, monster dens multiplied and everything just generally seemed worse.
Qerni had also told her about strange caravans that came through every couple of months. The guard actually protected those and even maintained a couple of roads for them. The only supplies in and out of the town came through those roads or from the few merchants who could afford to travel the poor roads.
Not only that, but she had heard a few more things about the brothel that raised questions in her mind. Apparently she wasn’t the only girl every townsman kept trying to send there. A lot of beastkin girls and any elven girls in town were pointed there if they tried to do anything in town. Not even humans were exempt. As it turned out, the only girls not sent there right off the bat, were those that had already been there. Qerni and the women she had spoken with didn’t really know what was up with that. They were all locals here before the strangeness with the brothel and they had someone who could get supplies for them. Qerni was actually making sure some families like Flower’s got what they needed.
It seemed she was going to have to check out the brothel sooner or later. Not only that, she was going to have to look into the matter with the local lord. There was a lot to do. Master needed a nice stable baby farm to supply Revarra with new baby girls. Stable meant the locals needed to be happy and well fed. Safe routes will also be needed to move the babies. They could use warp gates, but they weren’t cheap. Master would prefer physical caravans, but they would make do for now. It occurred to her that she would need a proper outpost in the town, but Qerni’s house seemed like a good place for it. The building was located in a good area and all the families she had spoken with were within easy walking distance.
Laki had been briefed by Master about the logistics of baby farming. The goal was to collect all the baby girls produced in a town. So that they could be raised by Master. Of course doing this would detrimentally affect long-term growth in the town. As such a small number of girls would be sent back when they progress out of the baby stage. This would give them time to acclimate to the town before they mature. Once mature they would be encouraged to breed and produce babies for the Master. There was more to it than that of course but they weren’t there yet.
One more thing on the plan would be to meet Qerni’s sisters. Thinking of that, she recalled she never asked something. “Hey, um Qerni?”
“Yes, Mistress?”
“Why weren’t you afraid of me? You knew I was corrupted but instead you were so kind.”
“Oh? That? I told you my sisters love belly rubs. Well they were also corrupted by something. Just not the same thing you were corrupted by.”
“Ah!? I see. I guess I should really meet them then. What corrupted them anyway?”
He frowned, “You know? I’m not entirely sure.”
“You don’t know?”
Qerni shook his head, “I never asked, and I always had other worries. I had three sisters to care for. The Gods know mom couldn’t.” He sighed, “Sometimes I wish she was still around.”
She frowned, “What about your father?”
He scoffed, “Him? Worthless bastard, I haven’t seen him in years. Good riddance too.”
She blinked. These were his honest feelings and it seemed he really hated his father and it seemed his mother had passed at some point. Laki wasn’t sure what to say about that. Instead she had other questions, “I see. Other than belly rubs, anything else you noticed about your sisters?”
He was silent for a moment, “Now that you mention it, they did occasionally disappear, but it's been years since they last did that.”
Laki gave him a look, “They used to disappear? For how long and why does that only now strike you as odd?”
Qerni frowned, “I’m not sure why, but I never really thought about it before. They would just vanish and I wouldn’t think anything of it. Neither did mom.” he paused, “They were usually only ever gone for a couple of days, sometimes a week or two. Never more than a month.”
Laki noted that down. That was a pattern, but it didn’t narrow things down much. Clearly however they were being taken away for some purpose. It could be a few things, training of some kind, alterations, experimentation or something else. It really depended on what exactly it was. The belly rub thing however? That was a rather specific trait, common among the different kinds of pet keepers. Hmm? Perhaps Master would know? She figured he might tell her when she gave her report. In the meantime, she needed to start work on that outpost. “Interesting, I’ll speak with Master about this. Maybe he will know, but first let’s head back to your house. I have something I need to do.”
[collapse]
Misaki watched the aide leave the room and felt a bit of relief. Then she turned back to Phillip who seemed rather dismayed about the skirt she was suddenly wearing. She wasn’t entirely sure what to say about that, but that encounter seemed to explain why she didn’t have pants before.
Instead of words, she closed the distance and drew her into a hug. After a moment Phillip responded. It felt nice and simple just to be in each other’s arms, feeling the other’s warmth. There was something special about this, that she just couldn’t put into words. It seemed Phillip liked it as well and she soon calmed. “Um, thanks.” She sighed, “I guess I’m not going to be wearing pants anytime soon.”
Misaki nodded and then changed the subject. “So um earlier we were talking about our pregnancies?”
Phillip pulled away and turned before sinking into her chair. She let out a breath, “I don’t even know what I am going to do about that. It’s happening so fast. I’m not ready! This wasn’t even how I imagined things would go.”
Finding a chair, she sank into it and said, “So how did you think things would go?”
A smile graced her face, “I was never happy just sitting around.” She gestured around her. “That’s why I accepted this position. I wanted a guild of my own. Something more stable than an adventurer’s job and I could still use my skills. I... Well I thought I would have more time before I suddenly had to think about kids. I haven’t even finished my house and...” She paused, blinking, “Oh! Crap I’m going to have to change the design. I don’t even have a nursery and the only ‘spare’ room is planned for Lilyn to use.”
“Lilyn? Who is that?”
Phillip shifted, “A poor young girl I rescued from an Ogre. She’s with my mother. By the gods what am I even going to tell them?”
Misaki tried to imagine that, “Yeah I don’t envy you. I guess that is one blessing I had.” she glanced outside, “I can’t help you there, but I can help with the house.”
“Right! As a dungeon, you can finish it right now can’t you?”
Misaki nodded, “Shouldn’t be too hard. The whole town is sitting in my territory. I’ve made changes out here before. Mostly to improve the area’s viability for a town.”
She paused, looking around and then just decided to summon some paper. A smile on her lips, she had fun doing this with Lily. This project was much smaller, but just as important. Phillip watched her lay out some paper on the desk. “What...”
“I was thinking we could work out some building plans together. It will be fun! What do you say?”
Phillip leaned over, and pulled something out of her desk, “I guess we can start with the original layout and work from there? I didn’t plan for anything crazy, three bedrooms, a nice kitchen and dining area, an office and a sitting room. That’s about it outside of storage. I considered adding a basement too, but digging one out takes a lot of time and mana.”
Misaki nodded and started adding her input. Before long the two of them were working together to design a better house. As a dungeon she didn’t have the same constraints that the local mages and architects had. She could do it in a fraction of the time and spending a little mana was nothing to her. With that in mind, they added the basement Phillip gave up on before and increased the size of the building. Instead of just one floor, it now had three, if you included the basement. The main floor had a lovely office, a huge kitchen and pantry. A dedicated dining hall and a lovely sitting room. Misaki even included a full enchanted bath on the plans and a maid quarters on the floor. On the second floor were the bedrooms. Including a guest quarters, a nursery, several bedrooms including spares and a large master suite complete with the best bath features she could think of.
As for the basement, she added a few features, a storeroom, a secured vault and a hidden entrance into her dungeon. Dungeon law was so useful, as she was able to restrict who would be able to use it. Just in case someone did manage to get past that safety feature, she made sure it led to the Harpy’s Nest. Great spot, perfect to slow unwanted guests. It also had some really good views and it wasn’t hard to add a nice welcoming new area to the nest.
Oh, and it needed a nursery too, didn’t it. Misaki made it a little big as they were already having twins. She picked a nice spot on the second floor for that. The nursery was located in a spot with convenient access from both the maid quarters and the master suite. Done with the plan, she turned to Phillip, “So what do you think?
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