Chapter 99: Nicknames
Chapter 99: Nicknames
’I am the very first one,’ Clara’s thoughts completely spiraled into victorious ecstasy. ’The girls are out there freezing in the mud, bickering over head-pats and I am the very first one in the entire territory that got an exclusive Lord-accurate sex toy!’
She was happy about this... Clara was going to try and seduce her Lord and before that, she wanted to train her insides for him.
"Ehehehe~"
Thora wasn’t finished though.
She reached into a small leather pouch on her belt and pulled out a tiny glowing pink glass vial. She set it on the workbench right next to the toy.
"And this," Thora whispered with her perverted grin widening. "Is the localized cherry on top. An incredibly potent lust potion I engineered utilizing the corrupted nectar from the Umbral Basin."
Clara leaned forward while being completely mesmerized. "Does it do what you said it’ll do?"
"Upon putting a single drop of this directly into someone’s food," Thora explained the mechanics. "you completely spike their internal mana system... It bypasses their standard inhibitions and makes them incredibly lustful for the very first person they make eye contact with. It is a guaranteed one-way ticket to getting your back blown out."
Clara didn’t hesitate for another microsecond.
She violently snatched the glowing pink vial and the massive bio-resin toy right off the table.
"I will make sure to use this..." Clara vowed as her eyes burned with pure degenerate intent as she completely shoved the contraband deep into her satchel.
"Excellent," Thora smirked, leaning back in her heavy chair. "Now, it is time for you to fulfill your end of the localized bargain."
The Dwarf pointed a soot-stained finger directly at the tailor.
"We are heading back into that massive cavern to completely mine those crystals tomorrow morning," Thora stated. "I require you to quickly craft a complete set of authentic Dwarven Miner clothes for the group of girls..."
Thora leaned forward, her eyes narrowing intensely.
"And I mean incredibly tight," Thora demanded the exact specifications. "I want heavy leather straps. I want deep plunging necklines... I want steel-mesh accents that completely emphasize the glutes... They need to be sweating, and the Boss needs to be actively staring..."
Clara didn’t argue with the artistic vision.
"I completely agree," Clara nodded sharply, entirely on board with the degeneracy. "Come get them completely first thing tomorrow morning. I already have absolutely everybody’s exact measurements, including Lady Morwenna."
"Perfect," Thora thanked her, a massive, highly lustful grin appearing entirely on her face. "Pleasure doing business with you, Tailor."
Clara didn’t waste any time.
She turned around, clutching her heavy satchel tightly against her chest, and quickly slipped out the heavy iron doors, disappearing back into the rainy shadows of the courtyard.
Thora sat alone in the heat of the Foundry.
She let out a satisfied perverted chuckle.
She stood up, walking entirely back to her mythril anvil.
She grabbed her heavy forging hammer and pulled a glowing hot ingot of deep-earth alloy entirely out of the furnace with her iron tongs.
She placed the heavy metal on the anvil.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Thora began aggressively hammering the alloy into the shape of a heavy mining pickaxe.
As she worked alone in the heat, the Dwarven blacksmith began loudly singing a filthy sea-shanty style forging song.
"Oh, the Lord is strong and his core is bright!"
CLANG!
"He’s gonna completely wreck my spine tonight!"
CLANG!
"I want to be bred till the break of dawn!"
CLANG!
"With my dignity completely gone!"
CLANG!
Her abrasive voice echoed entirely through the Foundry, completely unbothered by any sense of shame.
Meanwhile, entirely across the muddy courtyard, the atmosphere inside the main Keep was vastly different.
Silas was currently sitting completely alone in his quiet reinforced private office.
The heavy ironwood desk in front of him was entirely covered in thick bound leather books, scattered pieces of paper, and a massive glowing 3D holographic wireframe of the newly discovered cavern.
Silas stared blankly at the complex detailed ledgers he had purchased from the Valoria City corporate market.
He leaned back in his heavy leather chair, running his hands entirely through his dark messy hair.
He thinned his lips into a tight line and let out an incredibly heavy sigh.
’I now officially own an entirely untouched Resource Node right in the middle of the Umbral Basin,’ Silas thought. ’We are going to start actively mining it tomorrow but the volume of raw mythril and mana crystals is going to completely bottleneck our production so I might need to sell some.’
He looked down at his own calloused armor-plated hands.
’I really want to learn how to craft and forge,’ Silas thought. ’If I could refine the raw ore into weapons by myself... I wouldn’t need to buy or trouble Thora.’
He let out another sigh.
’Though surely I wouldn’t be able to do it anywhere near as good as Thora,’ Silas admitted to himself. ’I don’t possess the finesse to magically engineer a floating anti-gravitational lantern.’
It was times like this that Silas wished that he had studied Engineering at the very least but alas he had not.
Before he could completely spiral into depression, the wooden door to his office quietly clicked open.
Aeliana stepped entirely into the room.
The Starlight Arcanist was dressed in her enchanted spider-silk robes as usual. Her long beautiful hair cascaded flawlessly down her back.
She didn’t announce her entry formally.
She walked up to his massive ironwood desk and casually, sharply dropped a cold perfectly chilled glass cup of glowing purple juice directly onto the polished wood.
Clack!
Silas looked up at the cup, and then up at the Royal Elf.
"Thank you, Aeliana," Silas offered a genuine exhausted smile.
Aeliana didn’t smile back.
"Hmph!" Aeliana scoffed loudly.
She completely turned her delicate face entirely to the right, crossing her arms beneath her chest.
Her long pointed ears violently twitched, refusing to make direct eye contact with him.
She was still being petty about being left behind to play base-manager while the rest of the girls went out to slaughter a Tier 4 Boss and then... he didn’t even trust her.
Silas didn’t get angry.
He slowly stood up from his heavy leather chair. He walked entirely around the massive desk, stepping directly into her personal space.
Aeliana aggressively kept her face turned away, though her cheeks were actively beginning to flush an undeniable shade of pink.
Silas calmly reached out his calloused right hand. He gently, softly placed his palm entirely on top of her soft hair.
He gave her a slow and deliberate head-pat.
Aeliana froze. Her internal defensive walls instantly shattered into dust.
"I really trust you," Silas murmured softly. "And I am incredibly glad that I can absolutely depend on you, Aeliana... You completely secured the territory while we were out and I hope you can do so tomorrow..."
Aeliana’s glowing silver eyes went completely wide.
The pink flush on her pale skin instantly exploded into a hot overwhelming crimson blush.
’My Lord must think less of me to think that something like this would work on me...’ Aeliana thought.
She slowly turned her face back toward him, looking up through her bangs.
Before she could speak and completely shatter her remaining dignity, Silas looked down at her thoughtfully.
"You know," Silas asked casually, completely changing the topic. "Do you want a nickname?"
Aeliana blinked, entirely thrown off balance by the sudden casual question. "A... nickname, my Lord?"
"Yeah," Silas nodded smoothly, leaning back against the edge of his desk. "Your full name is beautiful, but it’s quite long for call-outs. I figured a shorter way to say it would be highly efficient. If you have anything specific in mind, you could tell me."
He offered a completely soft teasing smile.
"Plus," Silas added shamelessly. "It would be significantly cuter that way."
Aeliana’s heart practically did a violent high-speed Olympic backflip inside her chest.
The Royal Elf aggressively gripped the sleeves of her spider-silk robes to keep her hands from trembling.
’He thinks a nickname would be cuter?!’ Aeliana internally panicked, overwhelmed by the casual rizz.
She looked down at her polished boots, suddenly becoming very shy.
"I... I am entirely unaccustomed to informal titles, my Lord," Aeliana stammered softly with her pride entirely melting away. "Please... you decide."
Silas crossed his arms, looking at her and actively running through the options.
"Aeli," Silas tested the sound of the word, nodding in complete satisfaction. "Yeah. Aeli. It’s short, it’s fast, and it perfectly suits you."
An incredibly happy smile stretched entirely across Aeliana’s delicate face.
The name sounded incredibly intimate coming from his deep voice.
She looked up at him, her silver eyes completely glowing with affection.
"I absolutely love it, my Lord..." Aeli whispered softly.
Suddenly, a fierce competitive spark ignited entirely in her eyes.
She wasn’t just going to passively receive affection; she was going to actively dish it back.
"Then..." Aeli started nervously, taking a tiny half-step closer to him. "I completely want to give you a nickname too."
Silas raised an eyebrow with a smirk touching his lips.
"My name is Silas," he pointed out the grammatical reality. "It’s only two syllables. It’s already quite short."
"It doesn’t matter!" Aeli protested fiercely, refusing to lose this interaction.
She aggressively tapped her chin, completely mimicking his thoughtful pose.
"Silas..." Aeli muttered to herself. "Si... Sil... Sily..."
She paused with her green eyes lighting up in complete triumph.
"Sy," Aeli declared proudly, entirely ignoring his formal title. "I will call you Sy."
Silas didn’t correct her. He didn’t demand she use his official Warlord title.
He just looked at the beautiful, completely flushed Royal Elf standing in his office, and he offered a warm genuine smile.
"Sy," Silas repeated the name, completely accepting the nickname. "I like it."
Aeli couldn’t handle the overwhelming feelings in her chest as her face violently overheated.
"I must go check the perimeter!" Aeli blurted out frantically with her entire face burning like a star.
She violently spun around on her heel and literally sprinted entirely out of the office with the heavy wooden door slamming shut behind her.
Silas chuckled softly, shaking his head. He turned around, picking up the cold glass of purple juice she had left for him.
He took a long refreshing sip, completely enjoying the brief moment of peace.
Exactly ten seconds after he finished the glass, the heavy wooden door clicked open again.
Silas turned around, expecting Aeli to have completely forgotten her clipboard.
It wasn’t the Elf.
Morwenna stepped entirely into the private office.
The SSS-Rank Pirate Queen wasn’t wearing her armor and she wasn’t carrying the Astral Corsair either.
She was currently wearing a soft, plush and comfortable white cotton bathing robe that Eluned had begrudgingly woven for the Keep’s inhabitants.
The heavy fabric was tied securely around her waist, but the neckline plunged, exposing her pale collarbones and the scars on her neck.
Thick clouds of white steam were actively rolling off her damp pale skin.
Her wild dark hair was completely wet, plastered flawlessly against her shoulders.
The heavy scent of ocean brine and blood was completely gone, replaced by the sweet scent of lavender soap and hot water.
Morwenna stood in the doorway.
A vulnerable blush completely coated her pale cheeks.
"Captain," Morwenna announced softly, entirely dropping her feral swagger. "I... I took a bath."
Silas set his empty glass completely down on the desk.
He looked at the SSS-Rank mythic entity, completely impressed by how normal she looked without a weapon in her hand.
"The plumbing system in this place is magic," Morwenna admitted quietly, nervously twisting the belt of her robe. "I really... I liked the hot shower. It is vastly superior to freezing in a trench."
Silas smiled with a genuine warmth entirely filling his golden-ringed eyes.
"I’m glad," Silas told her sincerely. "You deserve a hot shower, Morwenna."
He completely changed his posture, entirely moving from relaxed Warlord to a highly focused combat student.
"Are you completely prepared for what I asked you earlier?" Silas inquired smoothly.
Morwenna’s stormy gray eyes entirely sharpened with her combat instincts instantly rebooting.
"Training you in swordsmanship?" Morwenna asked with a confident arrogant smirk entirely returning to her face. "My Lord, it would be my honor to teach you how to properly swing a blade."
She took a slow, highly deliberate step completely into the office.
"But..." Morwenna started, her voice dropping into a localized, mechanical hum. "We completely have to settle on a specific condition."
Silas crossed his arms, unfazed by the sudden negotiation. "About what?"
Morwenna didn’t immediately answer.