Ero-Game: Power and Sword

At breakfast, I learned that Garth had already gone to book us our seats for the ride to Delaron.
“Right, I didn’t tell you guys,” I said to Woodie and them, “Terrie and her boyfriends will be joining us.”
“Yeah, we know,” Woodie said. “Terrie told us.”
“Oh. Okay.” Then I remembered what I told Garth. “Damn, I told Garth to book 8 seats. I should’ve told him 11.”
Nikola shrugged.

“Ms. Squirrel isn’t here,” Janice said in a sad voice. “When do you think she’ll come back?”
“I don’t know,” I told her.
“I’m going to go put these nuts on her pile,” Janice said, picking up a bowl of nuts.
“Janice! Don’t go using our nuts for the squirrel! And don’t put that in that pile!” Mrs. Horvat yelled at her. “Bruce! Did you give her those nuts!”
“Ah, sorry.” Her husband apologized.
Janice ran out with the bowl. “Hey! Don’t you dare put more in that pile!” Mrs. Horvat shouted, but she was long gone. “God damn kids.”
I smiled and ate my breakfast. She seemed like a good kid to me.

“So we’re going to Delaron today?” Terrie asked.
“Yeah. Ah, did you pack?” I forgot to tell them.
“No, but it shouldn’t take us that long.” She said.
I wondered what she planned on doing if she hadn’t joined us. I had enough tact to not ask, but Nikola didn’t. “So, you’re coming with us, huh.” She started. “What were you planning to do if we hadn’t come along?”
“Ah, well, we would’ve stayed another month here. Then probably head back to the capital… and go about like we used to.” Terrie said.
“Oh.” The table became a little quieter, though the kids continued to talk, the adults didn’t say anything and ate their food. “We’re sisters  now…” Nikola smiled at Theo and Benard. “You have cute boyfriends.”
“Ah, thanks.” Terrie avoided eye contact with Nikola. I didn’t know what was going on, but I got the sense Nikola was making her uncomfortable.
“Floppy ears, stop bothering her and start packing up,” I said as I finished my plate. “Garth should come back any minute now. And we should  head out early so we can get good seats. Maybe we’ll pay extra again… I don’t know what Garth’s doing; maybe I should’ve gone with him.”
“We never really unpacked. Did we guys?” Nikola asked her men. “We’re already ready.”
“Alright.” They were the same as us, I thought. We didn’t really unpack either.

***

Garth still hadn’t shown up.
“What the hell’s taking him so long. Did he decide to wait for us at the station?” I asked as we got ready to leave. I thought the plan was for  him to come back after booking the seats. Now, I was having a hard time remembering if I told him that. If he’s not coming back, “You have to  carry the space expansion bag,” I told Nikola.
“Okay.” She lifted it up without a problem and put the strap over her shoulder.

As everyone was saying their goodbyes, Mrs. Horvat came to me with a serious face.
“So, we’ll keep in touch.” Mrs. Horvat said. “I expect you to be a good leader and take care of my son and daughter-in-law.”
I felt like she was doing some kind of tough-guy routine, but I agreed  nonetheless. “Don’t worry, they’ll be safe in my hands.” I had no idea  if that was true or not, but people liked hearing reassuring things. Considering everything I have to do, she’ll be put in danger quite a  lot. Still, hopefully, I can provide her with everything she needs to succeed. I made a mental note to give her a Bracelet of Eros. I can only give her the bracelet; she’ll have to do the leveling up.
“Hm. 3 is a pretty small group. Do you plan on getting more people?” She asked.
“Yeah, this is just the beginning. I only started adventuring a month ago. We’ll be gathering a lot more people in the future.” Maybe 10 or  20… Facing the demon generals and the queen won’t be an easy task.
“Only a month?” She was surprised. “Did the men join you before?”
“Ah, no. I know, it all kind of happened fast.” I said.
“Oh.” I didn’t know what she was thinking about.

As Mrs. Horvat was thinking, I noticed a carriage stop in front of the house. I  looked over, and Garth stepped out of the passenger area.
“Oh, what the hell took you so long?” I asked him as soon as I saw him.
“I got us a carriage to the station.” He said.
“Yeah, I can see that.” He clearly didn’t want to carry our luggage all  the way to the station. I turned to Nikola and Terrie and said, “Alright guys, Garth got us a carriage, get your luggage and get on.” And added.  “Don’t forget anything!” Then I turned back to Garth and asked, “How  many seats did you book?”
“11.” He said.
“Okay, good. So you knew Terrie joined us.” I said.
“Yeah, she told us.” He said.
“Good. Good.”

They put luggage on the carriage, we got in the carriage, and the driver drove the horse forward. The kids stood in the road and waved to us as we sped away. Everyone else waved while I sat there in the crowded carriage with my arms crossed, considering the future.
“We have to buy a carriage,” I mumbled.
“What was that, master?” Garth asked.
“Ah, nothing,” I said.

***

The wagon to Delaron wasn’t crowded, unlike the wagon from the capital. We were the only ones in it.
“I don’t need to pay for the seats?” Terrie asked. Garth, via me, had paid for everything.
“No, you’re part of the sisterhood now. Don’t think about it.” I said.
“Don’t worry, she’s rich.” Nikola blurted out.
“No, I’m not,” I said.
“Yeah, we're rich.” Nikola smiled.
“No, we're not,” I said. “Everything we made in the auction will be gone when we put a down payment on a house.”
“What? What house costs 150 platinum?” Nikola asked, looking at me as if I was the idiot.
“Platinum!?” Terrie was surprised to hear such a high denomination.
“You said the down payment?” Theo said. “Is that even a house?” They were baffled.
“I guess you could call it an estate or a mansion,” I said.
“Wait! You’re serious!” Nikola said.
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” I looked back at her like she was the idiot (which she was). “We need an estate with enough room for my plants, my lab, and possibly a training facility for you guys and our future  sisters.”
Nikola slouched and crossed her arms and said, “But we can buy so many boys with that amount, though.” The boys looked out the back of the wagon as soon as they heard her words, as if they didn’t want to listen to the conversation that’d follow.
“Isn’t the bracelet enough for you to get men?” I asked. Terrie had no clue what we were talking about yet.
“Yeah, but I heard the brothel in Britamala has men with 20 000 points worth 50 platinum.” She said. “I wanted to try that.”
“That’s a stupid amount to spend for 20 000 points.” The brothels are always the worst places to go to get points. They might be a fun place to go, but for points, they’re worthless.
“Hmm. Maybe.” Nikola wasn’t convinced.
“We’ll buy a house/mansion when we get to Delaron. I’ll need to start up my business again to maintain our finances. Also, we’ll need to buy a carriage and hire a driver; we can’t keep relying on these carriage companies. We’ll need to move around a lot in the future.” I said,  giving them an overview of what we’ll have to do in Delaron.
“Hm. Okay, you’re the boss.” Nikola said.
“You don’t sound pleased about that,” I said. She shrugged. “Hm.”

Terrie and her men simply listened and tried to make sense of everything. I didn’t bother explaining it to them. I was sure Garth or one of the other men would eventually do it.

“Will we be buying a castle, like your mother’s, master?” Garth asked.
“Ah… no.” I frowned. “I wish.” My mother was a real noble, a noble with actual power over a whole town. Unlike me, who’s only a noble by name. “There’s no way we can take out a mortgage for something as big as her castle with our status.” I shook my head. Maybe if we were an A-rank adventurer group, that’d be possible, but as an E-rank group, there’s no  way. That’s why ranking up is essential; you can’t function in this world without good credit and status. With E-rank status, I’ll have to  put in at least a 150 platinum down payment to get something close to what I have in mind.
“But if it has a separate lab and training facilities… Will we be hiring more staff after we buy the mansion, master?” Garth continued to talk.
“Ah.”
“Because if it’s an estate, I don’t think I’ll be able to do the whole cleaning by myself, master. Perhaps hiring a few butlers and maids would  be good. And a head-maid like Mrs. Lunde would be great.” He said.
“Ah, we’ll think about that later. I need to hire alchemists too. We’ll see what we can do when we get there.” I said.
“Okay. But I think if it’s going to be a large estate, we’ll need more staff.” He said.
“Garth, I’ll think about it,” I said while rubbing my head. So many expenses.

***

We arrived at Delaron around 4 in the evening. It was a 3-hour ride from Haneul, and everyone was feeling tired.
We hired a carriage to take us to the nearest hotel. The hotel was a bit  more expensive than the inn we stayed at in the capital. A room was 7 copper per day.
I turned to Garth and asked, “Do you need a separate room, or are you good with staying in Nikola’s?”
He blushed when he heard it stated so directly. It was kind of cute, but I still had to roll my eyes. He was acting like a kid; it was obvious to everyone he was part of her harem now.
“…” He said something, but I couldn’t hear a word he said.
“What was that?”
“I’m fine with sharing.” He said a bit louder.
“Okay.” I turned back to the receptionist. “We’ll take 3 rooms. For a week.”
“That’ll be 1 silver and 47 copper.” The receptionist said.
“Right, ah, then make it 9 days,” I said and put 2 silver on the table.
“Wonderful, I’ll put you guys in for 9 days.” He said, taking the 2 silver with a smile.
“Will the meals be included?” I asked.
“Ah, no. Sorry. You can buy a buffet pass in our restaurant, but the fee for the rooms is separate.” He said as he handed us our keys.
“Alright, thanks,” I said.

So we climbed up the stairs to our respective rooms. “Let’s have dinner at 7,” I said as they went into their rooms.
“Okay,” Terrie said.
“Alright,” Nikola said.

As soon as I entered our room, I found the bed and collapsed. The boys brought in the luggage.
“Are you going to make a mess of this room too?” Otto asked.
“You mean work?” I stuck my tongue out. “No, we’ll buy a house, then I’ll work on my potions and magic stuff.”
Then he sat down beside me, leaned over, and kissed my lips. And Sterling laid down on my other side and stroked my thigh. Then I felt him kiss my ear.
I pushed them both off, “Guys, no, maybe after dinner.”
“We have enough time before dinner,” Otto said, groping my boob.
I pushed his hand away. “I said, no. We have work to do. Actually, I have something for you guys to do right now. I want you to go downstairs and get us an address book. A hotel like this should have one.”
“Right now?” Otto asked. “We just got here.”
“Yes, right now. If you have the energy to be thinking of sex, then you have enough energy to get me an address book.”
“Alright, babe,” Sterling said and slid off the bed and went off to get me my address book.
“What are you waiting for?” I asked Otto. “Go help your brother.”
He sighed, got off the bed, and followed behind Sterling.