“So, what should I call you? Do you have a preference?” Cain asks the new chef, who immediately nods.
“Call me Brother Liu. In my cooking skills knowledge, there is a man by the same name who looked much like this. So I shall be Brother Liu.”
Cain sets his unique designation so that others can see his name with their interface, and the chef claps his hands and turns to the kitchen.
“Alright, ladies, we will be adding a few more items to the morning baked goods. Where is everything stored?” That’s Cain’s cue to return to his search through the available skills.
He ends up using a notebook to write down things that look useful as well as which
Summons they come from. Before he knows it, the sun has fallen from the sky, so he heads up to his bedroom for the night, falling asleep seconds after his head reaches the pillow.
He wakes to a pair of bright red eyes directly in front of his face and the sound of Misha laughing.
“I told her she can’t wake you up, so she’s been waiting exactly like that for the last ten minutes, saying that the proximity helps with her nerves,” Misha explains, then sends a private message to Cain.
[Our little Lamia is an odd one. The more we talked last night, the more I realized how broken her mind is. She only managed to appear to be coping because she stayed silent. Can we keep her? Even if it’s just until she’s better, that’s alright, but I think it would break her if we sent her away.]
That makes some sense. Before meeting them, anyone who heard her talking to herself or saw her doing strange things would assume she was having a vision or had gotten herself lost. Since she was born with the Oracle class active, there was no baseline for others to compare against; she was just always like that.
Of course, it was also possible that the pleasure feedback loop when she tried using her transmute ability on the notifications was the last straw. In that case, they owe it to her to help her recover.
“Again, I’m very sorry; it’s just taking me a little while to get used to this body. The best way I can explain it is that everything that used to be a comfortable background noise is now cranked up to 11.” Cyrene says, leaning over the top of Cain with an eager expression.
Cain laughs and brushes her hair out of his face. “Misha, can you lock the door and bring the moisturizing lotion? The Lamia I based this body on suggested that the physical contact of maintaining her scales would help.”
Forty-five minutes later, when they emerge, Cyrene is much more in control of her instincts and smells pleasantly of herbal moisturizer.
She’s holding Misha’s hand as they head down to the dining room to see what Brother Liu came up with last night. Even though she can presumably see just fine now, Cyrene isn’t used to going anywhere without a guide. Her assigned maid follows after the group with an amused look, so Cain listens in to her thoughts for a few seconds.
[Brother Liu is going to love her. All those bite sized snacks are perfect for a Lamia]
That’s about what he was expecting, thoughts of work. As well as the baked snacks, this morning has eggs cooked to order, an assortment of meats, oatmeal, and a stack of breakfast burritos. Brother Liu might have overestimated the number of residents that actually eat here.
The food is fantastic though, and Cain decides they should put the leftovers in the Guild Bank for the others to try. Skyview isn’t really stable enough to invite the whole guild to visit yet, but maybe in a week or two, they can hold a banquet.
[Master, you have a visitor at the travel circle.] One of the maids sends to Cain, causing him to turn and look out the window. A very concerned-looking Count Dufas has just left the circle and is heading for the front door.
Cain greets him with a forced smile, wondering what exactly he’s been up to since the banquet.
“Oh, Duke Cain. Pardon my unannounced arrival; Duke Chen said my daughter was in your care. Her older sisters seem to have played an unfortunate prank on her after I was called out to check on some issues at the farms I work with.”
So, he left early and just got back from a business trip. Maybe Cain judged him a bit too harshly for not being there for Cyrene.
“What gave them away?” Cain asks, curious how long it took him to understand what happened.
“I met Duke Chen at one of the farms, and he told me you were looking after Cyrene. Then I got home and the girls told me she found a home for the blind to help her, but no such thing exists in Skyview. It was quite possibly the worst lie I’ve ever heard.” Count Dufas says, shaking his head at the memory.
“It wasn’t entirely untrue. I agreed to help her for the foreseeable future. I also raised her level past the first advancement to get rid of the curse of the Oracle.”
The Count looks a little pale, so Cain places a hand on his back to escort him to the sitting room nearest the door.
[Cyrene, when you’re done eating, come see us in the sitting room.]
“You’ll want to be sitting down for the next part. Your daughter has undergone a few minor changes along with her class change. They could be a bit shocking, though.” Cain explains to Dufas.
“How minor are we talking? Can she see now? Please say she can finally see.”
“I can see, father,” Cyrene says, sneaking up behind the Count. Her voice had changed with the transformation, so he didn’t recognize it right away and turned to look at her with his mouth open in shock and a confused look in his eyes.
“That’s your daughter. Through a series of circumstances, she advanced to a Warseer and adapted a Lamia body to go with it.” Cain says, using a gentle prod from [Superior Mental Domination] to make him believe and save Cyrene some family related trauma.
Cyrene has wrapped herself around the chair her father is in, then touches his face and smiles. “So that’s what you look like with eyes. It’s strange, only a single day passed, but everything before that feels like another life. Does that make any sense?”
Cain nods, thinking of the day he transferred in, but Dufas is more concerned with examining Cyrene’s new body in her Armored black dress.
“Is that chain armor? What sort of class is a Warseer?” He mutters, gently lifting a handful of her pink ponytail.
“It’s a Shaman-type seer class, and a really good one. It can see the outcome of battle tactics and visions of future battles or betrayals, plus it can even use lightning magic. Like real lightning. Can you imagine that? I’m a real adventurer now.”
Count Dufas tried to get up to hug her, only to realize she was wrapped around both him and the chair, trapping him in. So, he settled for a seated hug before wiping happy tears from his eyes.
“You know your grandmother will be upset you lost your furry ears, right? These long ones are cute, but not like the other ones.”
“Yeah, she loves those ears. If we really need furry ears, maybe Nemu could stand in for me? Or I could bribe my new Guild Master to make a Puppet that looks like the old me.” Cyrene suggests.
“Guild Master? Oh, you have joined a guild. The Darklight Host… isn’t that? Ah yes, Duke Cain’s guild. Good work, my girl. To think, the one daughter who managed to fulfill her dreams would be the one everyone underestimated.”
Count Dufas then turns to Cain. “Your Grace, please take good care of my daughter.”
The way he says it makes Cyrene smile. It reminds her of the knight whose daughter married her older brother. He used the same tone and nearly the same line when the engagement was finalized.
Brother Liu brings out a tray of appetizers for the group, with the maids serving the tea and bringing the dishware to set the end tables for a light snack.
The sight of the maids seems to have rattled Count Dufas even more than the sight of his daughter as a Lamia. “Are those identical quadruplet Elves? How on earth did you manage to hire such a rare group? Not even the Royal Palace could boast such a feat.”
“They’re puppets, Papa. They’re identical because they were designed and built to be identical. It’s one of Master Cain’s skills.”
“Really now? I’ve heard a lot about the might of your summons lately, but to think they had this much versatility. You truly have been blessed with your class options.”
Blessed doesn’t even begin to cover it. Even Cain recognizes his progression has basically been cheating and exploiting the system. Still, the little luxuries, like having Elven maids serve you tea in a country estate, are so good he’s not about to complain about the advantages.
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