…

  “So, what was the pn with Hamsuke again?” Lukrut asked as he rode on the carriage bringing his group, Darkness, and Nfirea to E-Rantel.

  They had just begun to make their way back to E-Rantel. Calvaria had also just told the others of her own pn, to sing in and register Hamsuke as her pet and then have her guard the vilge of Carne.

  There had been some fake and rather well-spoken lines from Nfirea. Really, the boy must have had a talent for improv. The skill that he used was astounding. After her second, more in-depth expnation, the others had looked at her with approving gazes.

  “The pn is to register her as an animal companion of mine, then I bring her to the vilge of Carne to protect it. After all, before she was only protecting it from harm indirectly. Now she will do so more closely,” Calvaria said.

  Lukrut nodded at this, then went back to scanning the forest they were walking beside. They were walking in a pattern simir to the one that they had taken to use when they had begun their trek here. The only difference was that Hamsuke was walking behind the carriage.

  Calvaria herself was lying on the back of the rge hamster. The fluffiness, and her newfound femininity proved that she could not reject the softness of the magical beast.

  Nabe, and more importantly Anna, found this utterly adorable. They didn’t say anything though. They feared that she would get off of the thing to look at them and appear more overlord like.

  They didn’t know that Calvaria herself always tried to look the part herself. Right now, she was simply trying to de-stress from pnning. She was trying her best to come up with different ways to spread her cult, or faith, or whatever word they wanted to use to describe what she was doing.

  As she looked up at the sky for answers, a flutter of ideas rushed through her mind. They ranged from making up a completely new idea or set of ideals for this world and situation, to simply writing down her own thoughts on multiple different problems with the world.

  There was also the pn of simply writing down what she thought, and evil overlord would try and think of in a slightly evil and oddly thoughtful sort of way. The main gimmick of this pn, she wanted to scrap, and yet she also wanted to incorporate some of this pn into something else.

  As Calvaria had been thinking of new pns and different ways to spread her faith, her own party was mingling with themselves. Nabe was currently trying to avoid the wandering eyes of Lukrut by standing away from him and behind Hamsuke.

  Anna herself was talking to Peter as the young man had wanted to talk to her about the differences between their baseline fighting styles. Anna was really doing her best to tolerate the human who she herself thought was bugging her, and stayed somewhat more curt than she usually was with him.

  If anyone was wondering, Hamsuke was wondering what the humans, and her own new master’s lives were like. She had only ever lived in the forest; and she had never truly been inside of a settlement before, let alone a human one.

  All the while Calvaria watched the sky, trying and somewhat succeeding at making a pn. She thought that Punitto Moe would be proud. The man himself was back on earth, and sneezed when she thought of him.

  So lost in her own mind she was that the day passed by in a blink, and the sky was dark when they finally made their way to the gates of the city. Calvaria had of course decided to boost the endurance of the mule that pulled this carriage, this was so she wouldn’t have to spend another night away from the city.

  The sky was rather dark, and the sun was setting by the time that they reached the gate. The gate guards stationed there looked at the rather rge magical rodent with awe and reverence. This was a reaction that Calvaria would never get used to.

  “Halt, you all here, who are you and why are you entering E-Rantel today?” the oldest of the guards said.

  Calvaria slid off of Hamsuke and patted her side as she hit the floor. As the lead guard looked to Nfirea as Nfirea was the one who was leading them into the city itself, others looked to Hamsuke and Calvaria’s group Darkness.

  “We are just coming home from gather some herbs from the Great Forest of Tob,” Nfirea expined and the guards nodded at his expnation.

  They must have been rather tired that night, as they simply let the lot through without searching their luggage or persons. Calvaria frowned at this as the gate guards were the first line of defense for a city, and the fact that they simply let them all through was saddening.

  …

  Soon Darkness and literal darkness had come to adventurers’ guild. Hamsuke was outside of the building, along with the rest of Darkness. Nfirea was just telling everyone what he had pnned and was simply dealing out the payments that he owed everyone.

  “Alright everyone, I have the payment here. I just need to bring the herbs and such back home and then we can all be on our way,” Nfirea said as he handed the Swords of Darkness their own payment, “unfortunately I only brought enough money with us for one party. I need to get the rest back home,” he said.

  “That is fine,” Calvaria said as she pointed a thumb to the guild hall, “I need to sort out some paperwork anyway. So it’ll be a bit of time for me to get there,” as she said this, she turned her head to peter from Nfirea, “you guys can handle the rest for now, right?” she asked.

  “Yes, of course we can,” Peter said and waved as Nfirea got on his seat in the carriage, “See you guys ter.”

  Calvaria nodded her head as they began to move to the pharmacist, then looked to the other two of her group and moved inside the guild hall.

  “God, I am stressed right now for some odd reason,” Calvaria mentioned the pit feeling in her gut as she walked through the doors.

  “Do you need help, “relieving,” some of that stress, my dy?” Anna asked and Calvaria felt a shiver of conflicted feelings go down her spine before her emotional suppression went off.

  “No, I am fine,” she said with a stiff voice.

  …

  As the adventuring party known as Darkness left the guild hall, Calvaria had decided to ride atop Hamsuke so as best to show him off. Yet, as she and the rest of the party moved throughout the city, she couldn’t help but feel embarrassed.

  There were people looking at her, peering at her. Of course, she knew that they were looking on in awe at Hamsuke, yet she still felt like a dork. Though, she was soon saved by an unlikely savior.

  “Hey, aren’t you the adventurers that my grandson hired to take him herb collecting?” an old woman asked, this was Lizzie Bareare, the grandmother of Nfirea Bareare.

  Calvaria looked down at the woman who had spoken. She herself didn’t know who this woman was. Or rather, she had never met her. Calvaria of course could figure out that this woman was the grandmother of Nfirea, and she nodded her head at the woman.

  “That I am. I am assuming that you are Lizzie Bareare?” Calvaria asked, and Lizzie nodded, “We have just come back from Carne. He should be at the pharmacy, after all, we were just going there.”

  “Well then, I suppose I could come with you? Could I also ride on the back of your mount, these bones aren’t what they used to be,” Lizzie asked.

  “It would be my pleasure,” Calvaria said and stretched her hand out to pull Lizzie up.

  …