Leona and Merlara having a bath

As I take off my armor, the burned and blackened remains of my clothes underneath start to fall on the ground. It really is all ruined and I am covered in soot. Gosh, even my underwear is burned away. Merlara still seems to have some issues with her left arm, so I help her take off the rest. It feels incredibly light and ask Merlara about it.

“I had it enchanted to be lighter than normal.” Merlara explains. “I even traveled all the way to the dwarven capital for it. Cost me a lot of money too.”

“I see.” I reply. “That certainly explains why I saw you moving so quickly in battle. I first thought you had a special skill that made you faster or stronger.”

When Merlara starts removing the clothes underneath her armor, I get surprised. She has an incredibly beautiful body and impressive breasts and her hips are making me jealous. I am again surprised when I see she also has several tattoos across her body. All of which are glowing. But Merlara ignores my stares, just walks into the bath and sits in it. I walk in after her and when I dip my foot into the water I squeal quickly pull back. It’s so freaking cold.

“Come on in.” Merlara calls out after me. “You need this bath more than I do. Or do you want to return as a dirty kitty?”

I know she is just joking and not insulting me like humans normally do. I have never experienced the Dark Dragons to be like that. I do still frown and flatten my ears in disapproval, though. This time I gently dip my foot into the water and let myself get used to the temperature. Only then the other foot goes in. Gosh darn it, this water is so cold it makes my nipples hard. I walk next to Merlara and slowly ease my butt in like I did with my feet.

“You’re not used to cold water, are you?” Merlara asks.

“Not at all.” I reply while my legs start to shiver. “My whole life I have always much preferred hot baths.”

Without saying anything, Merlara suddenly reaches for my breasts and with her index finger she scoops up some of the soot that’s on there. She even got close to my nipple while doing it. Feeling her finger touch my breast like that made me shiver. Next, I see her write some symbol on her arm with the soot she took from my breast. When she completes it, it suddenly starts glowing. Then the glowing stops and a magical effect leaves her body into the water. That is when the water starts heating up. I take a deep breath and moan. My legs even stop shivering. This feels great.

“It’s my little secret.” Merlara explains. “Since I’m a dark knight, everybody expects me to only cast dark spells. But one of my skills is that I am a [Rune master]. The rune I just used means [Heat]. It is a spell for which normal mages need to combine water and fire magic.”

“Ooooh, so you’re kinda like Darx then. He’s got [Rune master] too. Except he writes his runes on a piece of paper.” I tell Merlara.

“It doesn’t really matter where the rune is written. As long as it is written correctly, and you remembered to charge it, and you can make physical contact with it. It is for that reason that I had the ones I use most often tattooed on my body. This way I am always in contact with them.”

Merlara then stands up and shows me her runes. To my shame, I must admit I started immediately focusing on her impressive butt. Gosh, Leona, that’s another girl. Stop thinking like a guy. I try to distract myself by starting to wash the soot off my body.

The first tattoos Merlara shows me are the ones on the back of her shoulders. The one on the left is a rune which means [Mist] and the one of the right means [Freeze]. So, that is how she could freeze those water elementals.

Then Merlara turns around and suddenly my heart starts beating really fast. Her body is glistening from the water and she looks so darn pretty. Merlara lifts up her left breast and shows another rune on her underboob.

“This one means [Cure] and would heal bad physical ailments like poison or necrosis.” Merlara explains. “Whenever someone tries to cast one of those curses on me or poison my food, I use this one and it leaves them all confused as to why it didn’t work. It is quite the lifesaving rune. That’s why I decided to place it close to my heart.”

I quickly check up on my nipples and even though I am no longer cold, they are still rock hard. “Uh huh.” I reply.

Then Merlara lifts up her right breast and shows me the [Levitation] spell hidden there.

“That one is for when I need to jump off a cliff or tall building. It doesn’t cause me to fly, only descent slowly. Another lifesaving rune.”

Next, she shows me the runes she’s got on the back of her hands. On the left she’s got a fire rune, [Ignite], and on the right an earth rune, [Crevice].

“Aha,” I interrupt her. “So that is how you trapped that earth elemental.”

Merlara simply continues by bringing her hands to her belly. Above her belly button she has the [Nausea] rune and below her belly button is the [Dispel] rune. Though instead of looking at that last rune, my vision is focused a little lower, where Merlara’s pubes are supposed to be, but I can’t find any. Then I look at my own pubic region and see a bunch of hairs. Should I start shaving down there?

“Eight runes total.” Merlara says and sits back down. “It’s the maximum I can maintain. If I were to activate a ninth, one of my other runes would lose its charge. I got one from each basic element, aside for Dark of course. That’s an element I can cast on my own so I have no need for any Dark runes. That one is replaced for an Ice magic rune.”

“But enough about me.” Merlara says as she starts washing her body. “Tell me about yourself.”

“What is there to say?” I shrug. “I’m a human with cat ears.”

“Don’t you mean a beast-kind with cat ears?” Merlara tries to correct me.

I frown at her and say, “My mother is a beast-kind with both cat ears and a cat tail. My father is a human.”

“I see. Is that why you see yourself as more human than beast-kind?” Merlara asks.

I sigh and lie back, letting my hair into the water.

“Tristanis is close to the border with the beast-kind kingdom. But trade between the kingdoms is forbidden. The only beast-kind that trade there are smugglers. There are some legitimate travelers of course, but those tend to move on past Tristanis to other destinations. The ones that stick around are either poor people that had to escape their debts, or criminals who are trying to avoid the law. No wonder why the humans there don’t like beast-kind very much.”

I bring my hands to my head and start washing my hair while I speak. It is kinda hard to hear myself with my ears full of water, but I manage.

“My mother came to Tristanis because she wanted to escape an arranged marriage. It was a lot harder living by herself in Tristanis than she thought. Then one night my mom was being harassed in front of my dad’s bakery. Dad didn’t like it, so he went out to tell those hoodlums they were picking on his employee. She wasn’t his employee, of course. That was a lie. But to make it seem real, he took my mom by the wrist and pulled her inside. The hoodlums apparently stuck around and looked in through the window, so he even put my mom to work. Getting her to kneed some dough. After a while they left, but mom stayed inside. She felt safer there than on the streets. Now, since dad was a baker, he had slept for most of that day and could work throughout the night. But mom had been awake all day and ended up falling asleep on a chair shortly after. She woke up the next morning to a bakery filled with freshly baked bread. Dad’s sister then came in to work the store and sell the bread and heard the whole story. And as you can guess, many years later, I asked my aunt how my parents met and she told me all of this.”

When I pause Merlara tells me that I missed a spot and starts rubbing her hand across my thigh. I know she is just helping to get the soot off me, but darn it, her touch is making me so aroused.

“Yes, well, later that day my mom came back to offer her thanks. Who knows what might have happened if she was left to those hoodlums. She returned regularly and at times even offered to help my dad. Eventually they fell in love with each other and a few years later I was there. Which left me as a half beast-kind with only my mother as a full beast-kind. No beast-kind uncles or aunts, or grandparents. All of those I knew of were human. So as a half beast-kind, growing up in a nearly all human family, I’d say I grew up more human than beast-kind. I even went to a middle class school, where I was the only beast-kind. All my friends were humans, all my family were humans. Even when I was training for becoming an adventurer all my fellow students were humans. I am not a beast-kind who grew up in a human city. I am a human who grew up with cat ears.”

I then get my head out of the bath and start pushing the water out of my hair.

“Yeah, I can see where you’re coming from.” Merlara answers. “Nobody chooses their family.”

I then look at Merlara and ask, “So, what about your family?”

Merlara looks away and says, “I don’t like to talk about them.”

“Come on. I don’t like talking about my past either so don’t be an ass.”

Merlara sighs. “Fine then. But only if you do my hair in the meantime.”

That is when Merlara lays down in the water. I am now given a perfect view of her whole front. Her hips, her breasts, the tattoos on her body. I have to squeeze my legs together real tight for a moment and groan softly. Ok, now I can do it. I sit behind Merlara with her head above my lap. Then I get my fingers into her hair and start gently washing it.

“Have you ever heard of a fire mage named Gregory Phyre?” Merlara starts her story.

“Can’t say that I have.” I answer while I stare at her nude body. I don’t know why but I am starting to get curious about how Merlara’s breasts feel.

“He lived about 160 years ago. He was an S rank mage and very skilled in fire magic. I asked Aelbrecht if he remembered him and he does. Apparently, the two were friends and had some friendly rivalry going on. Well, long story short, Gregory often went on quests and saved a lot of people that way. When he eventually retired from adventuring, he used his fortune to basically found his own village. He paid for the construction of a lot of houses, a mansion, roads, some basic defensive walls, some wells, the formation of a few farms, the whole thing. Then he collected a large amount of homeless people from Riledo and offered to resettle them into his village for free. Many accepted, because it meant a new life and a new future. For this, the king of Riledo from back then gave him the title of baron. With it, Gregory decided to adopt the Phyre family name and thus the Phyre dynasty was born.”

“Your family has a relation to this Gregory?” I ask.

“Sure do.” Merlara replies. “My full name is Merlara Phyre.”

“Oh, so you’re like his descendant?”

“Kinda. My father is a Phyre, but my mother is an elf. Just like you are not a full human, neither am I. I too grew up in the human kingdom, surrounded by fellow humans, and just like you only have your ears linking you to you beast-kind heritage, so too I only have my golden irises. And my young appearance too, I guess. I’m 32 by the way.”

She’s already 32? Dammit, I thought she was only 20. Even though Merlara just said only her eyes are elvish, I still pull her hair out of the way to check her ears. But no, they don’t have any points like Ryul’s ears. Not even small ones. They are perfectly smooth like those of a human.

“Your hair is done.” I say. “Want me to help with your torso too?”

“Yeah, ok. It’s actually kinda nice just floating like this while someone else cleans me.” Merlara smiles.

I move to her side and start by rubbing some water up and down her belly. Only after that do I got for her boobs. By Imris, this is the first time I am touching breasts which are not my own. They feel so round and soft.

“S-so, did your dad just marry your mother because she was beautiful? Or just because she was an elf and would stay young for a long time?” I ask.

“I’m sure both of those have something to do with it, but the main reason is because she is a noble herself. A higher class too. A countess. But she had rivals in the elf kingdom and through trickery she ended up losing her money and her lands. She kept her title of course and, in her desperation, she decided to marry a human nobleman. At least that way she could remain linked to nobility, even if it is human nobility. Not only that, the village dad inherited from Gregory has grown into a town and other villages sprouted up around it. All of them feeding into the town’s economy. That makes it so my dad has a decent flow of income to stay rich.”

“I don’t get it.” I say. “So far, you described your family as wonderful people to live with. Your dad’s wealth could easily fund you the best teachers. Yet you already told me you had to learn everything herself.”

Merlara gets up and starts squeezing the water out of her hair.

“You would think so. It’s just that there is one catch to be an heir in my family. When Gregory’s children grew up, it was not his oldest or even his second oldest, but his third child that showed an aptitude for fire magic. He was not an S rank like his father, but he was the only one of Gregory’s children who could use fire magic. Gregory, being so obsessed with fire, made his third child the heir. Ever since then, my family has had the tradition of making the kid with the greatest skill in fire magic the family’s heir. I am my father’s firstborn and the first years of my life he was very much involved with me. He spent time with me, gave me books on fire magic to read, and he often practiced with me. But I could never cast a fire spell, which kept making him more and more frustrated. When my younger brother got old enough, dad started teaching him fire magic as well, and yeah, my little brother showed he has the ability to cast fire magic. Ever since then, my father has been neglecting me while focusing on my brother. My mother too sees him as the future of the family. I instead was discarded as a failure.”

Damn, I never knew noble families could be so brutal to their own children. For us commoners, nobody cares that you don’t perfectly align with your parents’ values. You are still their child. But Merlara had to either be perfect or they treat her like she doesn’t exist.

Merlara and I both get out of the bath to let our bodies dry. I check my armor quickly and yeah, there is still a lot of ash and soot in there. If I put them on like this I am immediately dirty again. I bring them to the bath and starts cleaning them out. Merlara even helps me with it. In the meantime, the dark knight continues her story.

“Since I stopped getting my parents’ attention, I started acting out a lot. I didn’t get it back then, but now I understand I was trying to get negative attention. After all, any attention is better than no attention, right. But then my parents moved me out of my room, to the servants’ quarters. That’s when I figured they don’t consider me their child any more. I was still not expected to do any work. Just to stay out of sight. So, I started heading into the town and walking the streets. I made a few friends there. I even stole a sword from one of my dad's guards and trained with it. Then i challenged adventurers that visited our town. That is how i tought myself. Then one day, when i was 18, I met a retired A rank warrior. I asked him tot ake me along, but he wanted to ask my parents. I lied and told him they were dead already. Not too much of a lie because to them i was already dead. I still had access to my parents’ money, so I stole some and left with him. So I left with him and my parents never came searching for me. When I became 19 he took me to Riledo for my awakening ceremony and that’s when I discovered it was not fire magic but dark magic I had an affinity for this whole time. I also learned I had the [Rune Master] skill.”

“But, if you have [Rune Master], that means you can start casting fire magic, right? Doesn’t that make you an acceptable heir again?”

“I thought that too. I even traveled all the way back home to show them how wrong they were to discard me like that. When I saw them again, they barely even recognized me. They had truly forgotten me that much. But the worst is when I showed I could use fire runes. They just laughed. Dad, mom, even my little brother. They called me such a failure in fire magic that I had to resort to trickery like runes to pretend at being a fire mage. That is when I finally understood there was nothing I could do to impress them. They simply no longer had any expectations for me. This is when I left for good. Even today, when I learn of some quest they need help with, I don’t go there. There’s just too much chance of them not wanting to pay the quest reward once they learn I completed the quest for them.”

Yeah, Merlara had a much more troubling childhood that me. I certainly had to deal with discrimination, but I at least always had my family to rely on. Not Merlara.

With our bodies dry and my armor cleaned we start getting dressed.

“Is that why you wear that helmet all the time? Because you don’t want to be recognized as a Phyre?” I ask.

Merlara starts laughing at my remark. “Nah. Any of my fathers’ friends who knew me from way back have no idea what I look like today and his new friends have never even seen me. I doubt that anyone other than my close relatives would recognize me.”

Merlara then sighs, and finally she tells me.

“I know that I have a beautiful face. Many men have walked up to me, complimented me on my face and then tried to seduce me. At first, I thought it was flattering. But soon I learned that they just wanted to brag about what a pretty girl they’ve had on their dick.”

“Ouch. Did you fall for one of those tricks?” I asked.

“Just once, shortly after I left my parents forever. I was emotionally in a bad spot and there was this one sweet talking guy. As we talked, I started breaking down and he got me to a room. Then he used a lot of nice words and he ended up being my first kiss. He wanted to go all the way, but I didn’t feel like taking off my armor, so he asked for a blowjob instead. Which I gave.”

“Do you regret it?”

“I don’t regret the experience. It was interesting. But I do regret it was with him. I asked him to stay silent about it and if he had, I would have given him more. But the very next day, I already heard people whispering about it. When he came back to ask for more, I simply told him to meet me in that same room and instead of going there, I just left the village.”

“So you wear that helmet because you don’t want to draw the attention of men with ill intentions?”

“Exactly.”

Merlara and I then exit the bathhouse and let Ryul and Shalia know it is their turn.