Party at the Pleasant Owl

(Darx point of view)

Even when the fight is over, I am still processing all that I’ve seen. It was just so much. I notice Kiara’s voice, but I didn’t hear what she said. I turn my head to her and ask, “Huh?”

“Ah well, it’s just hard to believe.” I reply. “One spell after another. First those 5 rings, and then that ball of electricity, and that pillar of fire which became a flame tornado. It was all so big and spectacular.”

“That is why, every 10 years, when Aelbrecht participates, we have a lot more foreign dignitary. Everybody wants to see an ancient mage show off his skills. There are also more S-ranks visiting then. Most of them trying to test themselves against Aelbrecht.” Kiara explains. “Now pay attention, the queen is going to talk.”

Similar as to when Kase received a speech when he won, now Aelbrecht too receives a speech for his victory.

“Great mage, Aelbrecht. You have again presented us with a marvelous showcase of your abilities. You bring honor to your guild. Thank you for presenting us with a wonderful spectacle. You are of course welcome in the castle, later tonight, to accept your reward for being this year’s S-rank champion.”

Queen Zara’s voice travels across the entire arena. It has obviously been enhanced by a mage who can use sound magic. Otherwise only the nobles would be able to hear her.

After her speech, everyone starts leaving the arena. It takes a long time for everyone to leave, and once we are inside the inner corridor, the royal guards are guiding us to the exit. I do notice that unlike previous times, this time they are making sure the members of Oblivion are being led to a different exit than us. I guess that has to do with Aelbrecht winning that last duel.

Once we are outside, Kiara suggests heading the ‘The pleasant Owl’ to inform Oliver about the outcome. I feel it is a great idea and I ask Ryul and Leona if they would like to join. Ryul agrees and of course suggest for his girlfriend, Shalia, to join. Leona wants to join too and would like for Merlara to join. But Merlara says she doesn’t like inns and declines. So, out group separates from the rest of the guild and starts heading to the inn Oliver works at.

We separate ourselves from the rest of the Dark Dragons, who each go their own way. On the way to the inn, we come across Amelia, who quickly hugs me.

“Darx, I saw the fight against Url. You were so brave.” She says excitedly. “And then you got air magic, and you launched a [Water Lance], and then you even upgraded to A-rank. That means you are now the highest ranked adventurer from our village.”

At least I can be happy with Amelia being excited for my rank upgrade. She too joins the people who believe I should have been declared the B-rank champion. But I remember Kiara’s concerns so I gently wiggle out of Amelia’s hug by telling her we are on our way to ‘The Pleasant Owl’. She agrees it is a great idea to celebrate there and joins our group.

When we get there, we quickly notice that there are already a lot of people present. A lot of them adventurers. I see 3 tables filled with members of the Blue Legion guild. Among them I see the person who became the D-rank champion. Yeah, I do remember hearing that the Blue Legion started liking this inn after Oliver started working here.

The two tables next to those are occupied by the Blue Legion are taken by members of the Singing Bluejays. Among them are Miranda, Monica and Lacey. They are clearly celebrating Lacey’s victory and becoming the C-rank champion.

Surrounding all of them are non-adventurers celebrating together with them. My friends and I need to take one of the remaining tables on the side. It takes a while before a waiter finally comes. To my surprise, it is Emma.

“Emma?” I ask. “I didn’t know you were working again already.”

“Hey Darx, Amelia, everybody.” Emma greets us. “Yeah, I am just feeling really guilty over not contributing like Oliver does. Plus, with the tournament, it has been really busy. So, I wanted to get back to work.”

“B-but what about your baby?” Amelia asks.

“The owners live in the back.” Emma replies. “They are a cute elderly couple and are watching her while she sleeps. In the event she wakes up and needs to eat, they can quickly inform me and then I’ll go feed her. Aaanyways, congratulations about your ascension to A-rank, Darx.”

I grimace and ask, “You heard already?”

“News travels fast.” Emma says. “Especially when people are drunk.”

The lot of us order food and drinks and shortly after, Emma arrives with the booze. Because of course you get **** when celebrating. While waiting for the food to arrive, Leona and I are both asked questions about the finals we fought. I of course tell everyone about the silence charm Url used on me. Ryul replies that now he understands why Aelbrecht suddenly decided to participate in this year’s duel. It was to teach Oblivion a lesson. The others, including Amelia, quickly agree.

Leona also brings up her previous duel, the one against Thialha. She explains that she had discovered a shield in a Zrephian ruin. An ancient artifact that attracts projectiles, like arrows. It works great from protecting her party members, as any arrows shot at them would change their arc and go for her shield. But in her duel against Thialha it didn’t work so great. First, the elven archer quickly discovered her arrows were not heading where she aimed them. So, she then fired two arrows on opposite directions, just to have both of them home in on Leona’s shield. That’s when she used her special skill with the metal arrows. So, while in theory, this shield can come to good use, it really depends on which opponent she has.

After that story, Emma starts bringing the food. She brings Leona’s plate last, but when she does everybody turns around and looks at her. She was bringing in a large plate, with an extra helping of smoked quails and two sparklers.

“A big congratulation to the A-rank champion, everybody!” Emma announces as she brings the plate to Leona.

From our table, we of course give Leona an applause. But surprisingly, the nearby adventurers of the Blue Legion start applauding as well. Those from the Singing Bluejays join in also, with Miranda shouting a congratulations at Leona. The poor cat girl seems quite uncomfortable at all the attention is getting. Shalia leans over and suggest Leona to give a little speech. It would be awkward if she just accepts their praise with nothing to say. Leona takes her advice and stands up. The other guests get silent and allow Leona to speak.

“Thank you, everyone.” Leona starts her speech. “I uhm … don’t often get this kind of attention. I’m honestly not quite sure how to react to it. Certainly, I’d like to thank my friends for supporting me, sparring with me, helping me in my quests. I uhm … Oh, what the hell. Next round of drinks is on me.”

That sure got everyone to cheer. Leona then sits back down and starts blushing.

As the waiters start going around with drinks for everyone, Lacey comes over to our table and congratulates me on my victory against Url.

“Uhm, thanks but I actually got disqualified.” I reply and take a bite from my food.

“Yeah, I get what the judges mean. A-ranks fighting against B-ranks isn’t fair and all that.” She replies. “But you totally entered the arena as a B-rank. Like, it’s not as if you could choose to upgrade like that, right?”

I quickly swallow and tell Lacey, “Nope, totally outside my control.”

Lacey then squats so her head is closer to mine and she asks, “So, you can’t give me like any tips? I mean, I don’t think I would mind getting an upgrade like that myself. I would probably get like an extra skill too, right?”

I am very well aware that the reason I get my rank upgrades is because of my red eyes. They apparently mean something special. But I really don’t want people to judge me for my eyes.

“I’m sorry, Lacey.” I reply. “I really wish I knew how I triggered this rank upgrade.”

Lacey seems a bit disappointed. I too wish I could help her out, but I really don’t know.

Ryul then interrupts us by saying, “Oh, come on, Darx. You’ve already gone through several rank upgrades. You’re saying you still haven’t figured it out?”

I turn my gaze on Ryul and look at him as if I am telepathically trying to let him know he needs to shut up.

Lacey, obviously, perks up and asks, “Really?”

“Oh yeah. His original rank was a question mark. But then he got D and then just kept upgrading.” Ryul continues.

Some of the other guests overheard Ryul, who then start talking about it themselves, until the news gets to the other adventurers. Soon, our table is swarmed by Blue Legion members, including their D-rank champion, asking me about rank upgrades and how to do them.

Fortunately, i am not the only one getting unsolicited attention. Two members of the Kedamono Brigade have also showed up to have a chat with Leona. I guess they must have a table with more of their members in the back.

On the other side of the inn, past the tables occupied by the Blue Legion and the Singing Bluejays, are Mia and her friends having dinner. When they heard the others cheering for Leona, they stood up and applauded her too. Leonora jumped up and down while applauding, but it is doubtful the A-rank champion heard them.

Shortly after, Emma comes along and says Leona is paying for a round of drinks. Craig, Leonora and Roland are all interested in a free drink. So are Mimizu and her friends of the Kedamono Brigade, one table over. But Mia declines.

“I’ve already drank enough.” Mia says. “I am simply not thirsty anymore.”

“You still only drink when you are actually thirsty, huh?” Emma replies to her sister.

“If I drink too much, I’m going to be sick.” Mia tells her sister. “Don’t you remember our 18th birthday?”

“Oh, I remember all too well.” Emma smiles knowingly and then abruptly leaves.

“Ok, I have a feeling there’s a story there.” Roland says after Emma leaves.

Mia sighs and rolls her eyes. But then tells her friends about it. By the time Mia finishes the story, her friends not only had their drinks but finished them too. They then pay and get ready to leave.

As they are about to exit, Roland asks Mia, “You know, Darx is in there. Don’t you want to congratulate him on his rank upgrade.”

Mia looks over, seeing Darx surrounded by people asking him questions about how to make an upgrade happen and replies, “Nah, I don’t think I should.”

“You’re not feeling bad for breaking up with him because he’s an A-rank now, right?” Roland asks.

“I’m feeling bad for having cheated on him.” Mia replies. “I should have broken up with him first. Maybe then I still could have had him as a friend.”

Roland holds Mia’s hand and says, “Hey, we’ve been over this. You went through a scary thing while you were already having an emotionally hard time.”

“I know.” Mia replies. “But I still ended up hurting someone I care about. Let’s go to the guildhall. I’m getting tired.”

Two hours later, Darx and Kiara enter Darx’s room in the Dark Dragon guildhall. Darx quickly lies on his bed and breathes a sigh of relief.

“Please, tell me people will no longer swarm around me like they did tonight.” I groan.

“Sorry, Darxy. But rank upgrades are just as rare as S-ranks.” Kiara smiles. “And you just did one in front of the whole city. I fear it is only going to get worse.”

I groan loudly. “I think I may just stay in the guild for the rest of the month.”

Kiara walks over to my bed and sits next to me. She then caresses my head and says, “You sound like you are tired. Not too tired for one last celebration, I hope?”

I look up at her and ask, “What kind of celebration did you have in mind?”

“Hmm, just the sexual kind.” Kiara casually tells me.

I grin at her and say, “Well, you’re in luck. I’ve got just enough energy left for that.”

“Wonderful.” Kiara says. “Except, let’s make it extra special.”

“Special how?”

“You know about my [Glamor] ability, right?” Kiara explains. “How about find a creative or interesting way for me to use that this time.”

Make use of [Glamor] for sex. That means I could ask her to look like anyone. Amelia, Leona, princess Kathleen, Dove, … or maybe I should ask her to merely make her boobs bigger for a while. Oh goddess, there are so many options.

Author’s note:
1) I would like to take a moment to thank the people who offered adventurer characters to be used in the tournament. I know I warned ahead of time that it would take quite some time until I would use the characters in the story, because I still had some story elements to go through. But I placed the character submission chapter in late November 2020, and now we are January 2023. So sorry for making you wait such a long time for your characters to appear, and thanks again for providing characters that I would never have thought of myself.

2) That said, I am again looking far ahead into the story and there is another big event with a lot of adventurers which I am planning. So, if there are readers who would like to offer some character now, you still can.
Here is the chapter where Kiara explains about the adventurer ranks
https://chyoa.com/chapter/Adventurer-ranks.828167
With following chapters being explanations about the classes, magic elements and guilds.
And here is the chapter to submit characters.
https://chyoa.com/chapter/Character-submition.839564
If you have questions about what kind of characters I’m searching for, you can always send me a private message and we can work it out over there.

3) Finally, relating to this chapter, I already have 3 possible things Darx could ask Kiara to do for him in relation with using her [Glamor] skill for some sexy fun time. But if any of you would like to see something different, you can always make the request and I will see if I can write it.
I’m not going to promise for certain I will write the requested chapter. I know there are a lot of NTR fans reading this story and I am not a big fan of NTR myself. So, if anyone requests a chapter where Darx asks Kiara to glamor herself into looking like Kase and then make Darx give him a blowjob, you will have to write that yourself as I will not be doing that :)
I will only write those that I feel I can do a good job in writing them