Chapter 10
I told myself that nothing was going to happen and that this was the perfect opportunity to find out more information from Lillia as we made our way to her apartment. Lillia’s apartment turned to out to be in the nice part of town. I noticed as we walked there that all the dwellings here looked like they were seriously expensive. Could you really make that good money from adventuring and summoning heroes? I had no idea, perhaps she came from money, she did have a little air of rich girl about her.
Of course, the apartment building where Lillia lived happened to be the most expensive looking of the lot. They even had a doorman that greeted us as we entered.
“Good evening miss Lillia.” He said while holding the door open for us.
“Thanks Alfred.” Lillia answered with her usual smile as we passed.
We made our way through the building’s lobby and I was expecting us to have to take the stairs, but it turned out that they had elevators in this world. We both climbed inside and Lillia pressed the button for her floor. At this point I shouldn’t have been surprised that she lived on the top floor. It didn’t turn out to be a penthouse room, but there were still only another four rooms on the entire floor. It meant that Lillia had a rather large apartment, it was much bigger than my room in the guild house and much more lavishly furnished.
“Make yourself at home.” Lillia said leaning her staff against the wall. “I’ll be back in a moment. I just want to freshen up a little.” She said disappearing into one of the other rooms.
Seeing a sofa at the far end of the room, I did as Lillia suggested and sat down trying to make myself comfortable. I had an odd feeling as I sat there waiting for Lillia to return, she seemed to be taking her time, so while I was waiting, I took of my armour. It wasn’t particularly hot or uncomfortable, but it did seem a little weird wearing it all of the time. I pealed off the outer layers and carefully placed them on the ground next to the sofa and leant my sword against the wall next to the pile. It felt nice to be out of all that gear.
Just as I had finished taking off the gear, Lillia finally reappeared in the living room. It seemed she had spent all that time getting ready for bed, as she had changed into her night clothes. She had changed into a virtually see through, dark purple nightdress. I tried my hardest not to stare too obviously as she walked over.
“I was thinking of heading straight to bed. Is that okay with you?” Lillia asked, her voice now sounding a little seductive.
“S-sure’¦ Do you have a spare room?”
“Follow me, I’ll show you where you’re sleeping.”
Lillia leant forward to where I was sat on the sofa and offered me her hand, in the process revealing everything that I couldn’t already see through the dress. I was starting to get the feeling that I wasn’t going to be able to get anymore rest staying here with Lillia than I would back at the guild hall even if Altria did come over.
Lillia led me into a bedroom, it was the room she had disappeared into earlier, so I could only assume that it was her bedroom. I just resigned myself to having another night with little sleep.
“Go ahead a sleep where you like, I’ll be in right after you. I just need to tie my hair up.” There was just the slightest hint of something in Lillia’s voice.
I didn’t really think any more of it, thinking I already knew what was going to happen next. I took off my shirt and trousers, folded them neatly and left them in the corner of the room before climbing into the bed. The room was dimly lit, only a single candle at the far end of the room lit the place. I supposed it was mood lighting. I could just about see Lillia at the far end of the room seemingly fiddling with her hair. I made myself comfortable in the middle of the bed while I waited for her, stretching out a little whilst I yawned.
As I stretched, there was a click noise to my right, and I could feel the coolness of steel close around my wrist.
“Got you.” A recognisable voice said followed with a cheeky chuckle.
The voice came from where I heard the clink a moment before, I knew who it belonged to instantly. I quickly glanced at my wrist just to confirm what I already knew. My right hand was handcuffed to the bed.
“Altria, is that you?” I asked quite concerned.
“It is.” She answered whilst appearing from seemingly nowhere next to me on the bed.
“How did you?”
“My concealment skill is maxed out.” She replied smugly.
“Oh right’¦ Hold on, what are you doing here and what’s going on?” I asked my brain struggling to catch up with the situation.
“You’re about to find out.” Altria replied looking into the room.
I followed her gaze to see Lillia stood in the middle of the room. She had at some point gathered her staff. Her eyes glowed a pale blue colour in the gloom of the room.
“Bind.” She called out.
My free hand was enveloped by something, it felt like tree roots had sprouted from the wall and wrapped themselves around my wrist. I desperately tried to struggle and free myself from the bindings, but I couldn’t budge them. I was really starting to worry about what this situation had turned into.
“I wouldn’t bother, that’s enchanted steel. You won’t be breaking it.” Altria reassured me.
“And you would need to be at least a level fifty to break those bindings.” Lillia said as she approached the bed, eyes still glowing blue in the dark.
“Does someone want to tell me what the hell is going on?” I asked desperately.
“Well, we decided to settle things.” Lillia said climbing onto the bed.
“Is this about the other night?”
“Yes’¦ What else did you think it would be. I couldn’t just leave things like that.”
Oh crap, I thought to myself. I should’ve known better. I couldn’t have just expected to come to a new world sleep with the first girl that I met, then sleep with her best friend the same night and just get away with it. There was no way that they would blame each other was there? They had been friends for who knows how many years and I had only met them both the day before.
“Look, can’t we talk about this first?” I asked still struggling.
“No, we have to settle this. I don’t want things to be weird between me and Altria. I would stop struggling if I were you. You’re only going to hurt yourself.”
I stopped pulling on my restraints realising that I wasn’t going to be able to break free no matter how much I struggled.
“You’re just going to go along with this Altria?” I asked in a pleading tone.
“Well I did agree to it.”
“But why?”
“Because it sounded like it would be fun.” Altria answered with a mischievous grin.
“When did you organise this? I was with Lillia all day.”
“The adventures’ system can send messages. You would have noticed if you’d checked after we’d partied up.” Lillia informed me. “Look, you’re just going to have to lay there and take this. We aren’t going to stop until this matter is settled.”
The look in Lillia’s eyes sent the sensation sheer terror down my spine. I had a horrible suspicion I was now about to find out what had happened to all the other heroes that Lillia had summoned.