Chapter 2034: Peeping Toms

By the following afternoon, Adventurer Black owned a mansion, and Veshara had found an excellent reason to sit on someone else’s roof.

The property agent had been quite pleased to tell her about the sale. Less pleased about the price, judging by the sigh that followed.

Apparently, the elven smith had offered to inspect the foundations too.

Veshara rather liked her.

From the highest roof across the avenue, she could see over the trees screening Black’s grounds. The work awaiting her at the harbor would have to wait.

Below, people kept finding reasons to pass the entrance to his lane. Two adventurers had stopped beside a merchant’s cart, discussing the man who’d cleared the greenskin nest.

A well-dressed woman had asked the same servant twice whether this really was his new home and if she may introduce herself or it’d be against etiquette.

"I heard he brought back enough treasure to buy the whole street."

"My cousin says the Guild promoted his entire company."

"Do you think he’ll be hiring?"

Black had gone inside shortly after the agent left. His women, however, were making themselves thoroughly at home in the garden.

The platinum-haired alchemist knelt beside a bed of seedlings. Across the lawn, the smith had produced an anvil from her ring, along with tools and a compact furnace.

Veshara rested her chin in her palm.

"No way miss tomboy starts smithing already, right? Why does she have a full smithy on her to begin with?"

"This is my husband’s home."

The white-haired witch stood beside the garden wall with one hand pressed against the masonry, smiling at a peasant boy clinging to its top. Dark magic gathered beneath her palm.

"You will remember that before you climb over."

The boy stared at her red pentagram eyes, smitten to the core by her beauty.

"I-I just wanted to take a look at the pretty ladies-"

"[Hex of Trespass]."

Her curse sank into the masonry beneath his fingers, leaving a black mark that pulsed before fading into the stone.

"Do climb, then. But I suggest you make your peace first."

"Help!! Evil witch!!" The boy in question pissed himself then and there, scrambled down the far side, and ran for his life.

She moved a few steps farther along and cast the next curse, humming a happy tune under her breath.

"No touching his things, peeking at his windows, or sneaking into his estate."

"..."

Well. Someone had strong opinions about property ownership.

"Vex~"

The foxkin had wandered over with the dogkin, both watching the witch press another curse into the masonry.

"Are you marking your territory?"

"I’m protecting Hubby’s home. Which you should be doing too, considering your class."

"Mhm. Blossom does that too. As for me, I’m warming up."

"Blossom does!"

The dogkin’s tail wagged proudly until Kitsara leaned closer to inspect the latest mark.

"Though this method seems considerably more dignified."

"...?"

Vex looked at the foxkin. Then at Blossom. Then she sighed.

"You’re messing with her too much recently."

"But it’s too much fun!" the foxkin giggled.

Blossom’s eyes widened. "Mess with Blossom about what?"

"She’s insinuating that you piss on the territory like a dog, but I cast hexes, so I’m more dignified."

"Slutty Foxy!!!!!! Come here!!!!!!!!" Blossom gave chase, and Kitsara yelped as she made a run for her life.

"Kya! Hubby, help, your mutt is on my butt!"

"[Furnace Flame]!"

At the makeshift forge, Serika thrust her palms toward the furnace mouth, feeding it a roaring blaze. Kaelira waited with tongs in hand and a piece of metal in the coals.

"A little less, please."

"Like this?"

The flames shrank. Kaelira nodded to Serika and brought the glowing metal to her anvil.

"[Runic Tempering]!"

Her hammer rang against the new door hinge, driving the strengthening spell through its runes. While she turned the piece, she explained how much heat she’d need for the next one.

"I’m learning so much! Father will be proud."

"I’m afraid your father believes you to be a lost cause."

The tanned beauty’s green eyes snapped open in alarm. "Kaeli, how dare you?!"

"What? It’s the truth."

"You’re a much crueler woman than I ever thought!" Serika wept.

"Uh, sorry... I should’ve worded that better. But he did take strangers as his apprentices, not you..."

Serika grasped at her own heart. "When will you stop with these terrible words?"

"Kaeli, she’s messing with you," Sera giggled. "She knows she has no talent for that, hence she is the fire punch woman."

"Since when have the noble, graceful elven ladies grown such sharp tongues...?" Serika asked, eyes droopy, before bursting into laughter.

*KRAANG!*

The two little black-haired swordswomen had begun trying to remove each other’s heads on the lawn.

"[Stormstride]!"

Ayame surged across the grass, opening a red line along Iris’s cheek with her katana.

"Too slow~"

"Who are you calling slow?"

"You, darling. Did the blow affect your hearing too, not just your brain?"

"Keep talking, flat midget. [Torment Cycle]!"

Iris poured the force stored from the cut into her sword, battering Ayame’s guard aside and scoring her upper arm. The samurai stepped inside the next swing, but Iris caught her striking elbow and grinned through the blood on her cheek.

"Got you."

"How romantic. I always knew you had feelings for me, that’s why you’re so weird around him all the time."

"Bitch!"

Iris hurled her sideways. Ayame caught herself on one hand, carried the throw into a cartwheel, and landed with her katana sweeping upward.

"[Skyshatter]!"

The sword spell tore across the lawn in a broad crescent. Iris braced both hands on her blade to meet it.

*BOOOM!*

Soil burst around her boots, tearing a trench through the grass.

"He just bought that!" Veshara whispered, staring at the ruined lawn. "Your man spent all that money, and you’re already destroying it?!"

"[Dreamveil]!"

Aurora’s barrier caught the shockwave before it reached her seedlings. Dirt battered the shield while the alchemist lifted a leaf clear of the hole she’d been digging.

"Could you keep the fighting away from my seedlings, please?"

"Ask the cunt with a foul mouth!" Iris shouted.

"Since when did you pick up Blossom’s speech pattern? Speaking of yourself in such a manner is not the sign of a healthy mind."

The rude one charged again. Well, the ruder one.

"[Mass Healing]!"

Finally! Veshara turned toward Seraphiel, only to watch the healer pour her golden magic over a freshly sown flower bed.

Behind her, Ayame wiped blood from her elbow and raised her sword.

"Sera, what are you doing?" Aurora asked from the neighboring bed.

"Helping them grow up healthy."

"They aren’t injured."

"And I intend to keep them that way."

Those were flowers. Mere seeds, rather. The spell had accomplished nothing, and Seraphiel was already gathering more!

Meanwhile, her sister-wives were spilling blood all over their new lawn!

"Have you considered healing the people?" Veshara murmured toward the oblivious elf. "The ones with swords in them?"

Another sword spell threw dirt over Aurora’s shield. Sera scooped a clod off her flower bed with an indignant gasp.

"Could you stop that?! You’ve upset them! [Mass Healing]!"

Veshara covered her face as gold washed across the soil again.

"Why...?"

...

Inside the mansion, the floor trembled beneath Quinlan’s boots as the two swords met again.

<Now, Quin.>

Ayame’s voice reached him through [Master’s Link], perfectly clear beneath the crash outside.

Quinlan pressed his palm against an interior wall and cast [Warp Gate], tearing open a passage to Iskaris.

Beyond it, a crowded dwarven workshop came into view. Brokk, First Hammer of the royal smithy, stood at the head of the waiting craftsmen.

"We’ve brought builders and enchanters," she told Quinlan. "Where do you need us?"

"Everywhere."

His grin widened as the first dwarves came through with tool chests between them. More followed with metal fittings, stone plates, and carts loaded with artifacts, filling the hall while the garden thundered outside.

Every spell his women shouted gave the watchers an explanation for the magic pouring across the grounds. Beneath the overlapping bursts, Quinlan drew the mana he needed to hold open a door to another continent.

Even Sera’s ridiculous flowers had their purpose.

...

"[Serpent’s Nest]."

On her rooftop, Veshara turned toward the garden’s far corner.

The quiet woman who’d tried to cut her throat stood beside a bare patch enclosed by an old stone border. At her casting, violet serpents spilled across the ground, their little hooked claws ripping furrows through the soil.

"[Venom Sanctuary]."

The second spell sent a fresh surge of mana through the brood. Serpents reared and spat streams of poison into the furrows until violet pools gathered between their writhing bodies.

Veshara’s smile faltered as the woman took off her boots beside the poisonous pools.

"...Surely not."