Dungeon of Niflheim

Frost and his group quickly alighted the carriage, with Nanna and Loki assigned to the window seats so as to wave goodbye to the tearful Cassandra.

“Hyaahhh” Edwin whipped the horses reigns causing the carriage to make its way out of the manor. They were finally leaving.

“Haaaaaa our son and daughter in law really made an impressive friend.” Douglas sighed with a gentle smile on his face. Ever since Leo came in contact with Frost there’s been nothing but blessings. Furano was now free of the cancer that was Adam, Leo was now no longer immature and na?ve, now on the precipice of being ready to take over as Viscount. Douglas himself was also on the road to recovery, something he’d never been able to imagine, especially in the past few months, wherein he struggled to even continue fighting. His dream of improving Furano to compete with the major, flourishing territories in Northrend could continue, with both him and Leo at the helm, they’d be able to heal the damage caused by Adam in around a year or perhaps even sooner. The people of his territory were resilient after all. As long as nothing major happens in the coming months, Douglas was sure he’d be able to get the territory on the right track.

“I couldn’t agree more darling.” Cassandra agreed with her husband, leaning in close and resting her head upon his shoulder as she watched the cute phoenix kin wave at the window. It filled her heart with warmth, she still needed to bring up the prospect of another child with her husband.

“Ryuu, Bastion how goes the investigation of the territory’s corruption and how are the other towns and villages doing?” Douglas wrapped his arm around his wife’s lithe waist with love before his aura changed. It became regal and dominate, not from power but from his station as a noble.

“It’s proceeding quite well, Adam kept quite detailed records of his dealings, making this process much easier than expected.” Ryuu reported with a stoic expression.

“In regards to the other towns and villages, I’ve sent adventurers to report their statuses but from the records it looks as though Adam focused primarily on Furano.” Bastion spoke up next, Adam kept most of his business here in the main town of the territory thus the outlying towns and villages shouldn’t have been affected as much. But they still needed to investigate and burn out the corruption.

“Good, we need to act fast otherwise the many rats that lived under my younger brother’s protection will get away.” Douglas was frowning as he spoke. With that order he turned away along with his wife into the manor, the carriage was already out of sight.

.....

Ryuu and Bastion however sighed deeply, Douglas just gave the orders it would fall on the two of them to see it through. They weren’t exactly young anymore and were severally short staffed at the moment. The two middle aged men looked at one another, reluctance in their eyes. There was one man who could greatly assist in this endeavour, but they really didn’t want to ask for his aid, he was technically retired after all.

“We don’t have a choice, he’s the one with the best information network and most personnel available.” Ryuu shrugged as he spoke, feeling annoyed with their inadequacy.

“Yeah, you’re right and knowing him he’d be more than willing to help.” Bastion sighed again and shook his head. The man they were talking about was Sebastian the current guild master of the merchant guild. He was very, very old, could keel over at any moment. The two of them didn’t want to be the ones to cause such an event, Sebastian should die in his own way and on his own time, he deserved that much at least.

“Jaina, you return to the guild and have Thrall manage it, I need to stay here with Ryuu for now.” Thrall was one of his most senior staff members, he’d be able to manage in his absence.

“Yes father” Jaina responded with a serious expression before making her way to the guild.

Once she left Ryuu and Bastion returned to the manor and headed to their offices to work out a plan.

“Woahhhh” Edwin yelled to have the horses halt, they’d reached the Furano council building, Leo, and Luna’s stop.

Leo and Luna looked towards their friends with reluctance in their eyes.

“I guess this is goodbye then Frost-senpai.” Luna spoke with a slight sniffle, preventing herself from crying by latching onto the cute creatures that were Loki and Nanna.

“Thank you for everything senpai, hopefully we’ll meet again soon.” Leo spoke with his hand outstretched hoping to shake Frost’s hand, his eyes however were red.

“Haaaaaaa likewise Leo, Luna, its truly been a pleasure meeting the two of you.” Frost sighed and shook his head before shaking Leo’s hand, even he with his frosty exterior was getting a little choked up.

Luna gave Maya a big bear hug before jumping out the carriage and running into the council building, she was afraid that if she did it slowly, she’d change her mind and be unable extricate herself from Maya’s embrace.

“Goodbye Frost, Maya, Nanna, Loki.” Leo looked gently towards each of them as he bade farewell.

“Goodbye Leo” Frost smiled as he watched Leo leave the carriage quickly following after Luna.

“Sir Frost, young master has asked me to escort you to the Northern gate if you’d like.” Edwin spoke a few seconds after Leo left.

“Thank you, Edwin, but we’ll be fine, if you could take us to Kathy’s inn, we’ll make our own way from there.” Frost responded while wiping his eyes, a few tears had accumulated there as he watched Leo disappear into the council building. Maya as well was welling up; she’d grown really fond of Luna and Cassandra. Nanna and Loki were in the best state, their emotions were still rather numb, and they hadn’t developed such an attachment. They still felt a little sad but nothing worthy of tears.

“As you wish sir, hyaaah.” Edwin whipped the reigns causing the carriage to move once again. They still needed to say goodbye to Kathy and retrieve their stored clothes. Plus, their four days of lodging was over, so they needed to check out. After that they’d pop into the adventurer’s guild to let them know they’d be leaving town. Of course, Bastion already knew but it’s best to follow proper procedure.

“We’re here sir” Edwin’s voice arose with when the carriage came to a halt once more.

“Thank you, Edwin,” Frost opened up the carriage door and led his group out.

“No, thank you Sir Frost, Lady Maya.” Edwin bowed towards the two of them in thanks but didn’t say anything more, still a man of few words. He then left with the carriage, heading back to the Lord’s manor.

Kathy’s inn was still not that busy given how early it was, but a small group of people could still be seen eating breakfast, as well as a few members of staff.

“Perfect I was wondering when you’d arrive.” Kathy spoke the moment Frost and his group walked in, she was eagerly waiting for them.

“Good morning, Kathy, how are you?”

“I’m very good, even better now that I get to see these two cuties.” Kathy then proceeded to pinch Nanna and Loki’s cheeks.

“It’s good that you’re here, we’d like to say goodbye and thank you for your hospitality.” Nanna and Loki ran to hide behind his back, to avoid getting pinched to death.

“Hmmm you’re leaving?” Kathy tilted her head to the side. Given the fact that Frost now had two minors to look after and was so close to the ruling lord she thought for sure that’d he’d either extend his stay at her inn or straight up purchase a house.

“Yeah, Maya and I are returning home and we’re taking Nanna and Loki with us, we probably won’t be back for quite a while. Just here to say farewell and retrieve our stuff”

“I see, that’s a shame, it was wonderful having you here. Actually, if you’re not in a rush let me whip up something nice for you to take on your travels, free of charge of course.” Kathy smiled while making goo goo eyes at Loki and Nanna before rushing into the kitchen to start cooking.

“Looks like we’re getting a free lunch then.” Frost smiled before leading everyone up to room 14 to retrieve their stored items. There was only Maya’s clothes and a few nick knacks, so it didn’t take long. luckily, they had enough space thanks to the space rings retrieved from Shadow’s corpse and the remaining space in the ring with less than a year’s stability left.

Once they came back downstairs Kathy was pretty much finished and before them on a table was an arrangement of tasty looking bentos.

“Here you go, a bunch of bentos for your travels. No need to return the dishes just keep us in mind next time you visit Furano.” Kathy put a lot of heart into making these dishes, each of them looked incredibly tasty, a very lavish lunch and a great farewell present.

“Thank you, Kathy, it looks delicious and don’t worry we’ll be sure to stay here again whenever we visit.” Maya responded with a gentle smile while Frost removed one of the backpacks he purchased. Unfortunately, their storage devices weren’t able to maintain the state of perishables, so they’d have to carry them the old fashioned way.

“Safe travels” Kathy waved goodbye as Frost and the rest left the restaurant, another farewell done and dusted, just the adventurer’s guild left.

The visit to the guild was a lot less emotional, it was a place of business and housed no one at the moment that they were close with well perhaps one.

A young dog eared beastmen was on shift at the reception desk and joyfully waved towards Frost and Maya as they entered. The guild wasn’t too busy at this time, so Frost and Maya didn’t have to wait very long.

“Hi Maya, Frost how have you been?” Kamey asked with a bright smile, her eyes still wandering over Maya with praise, seeing her as some sort of goal. She didn’t even notice the young children by their sides until Frost spoke up.

“We’ve been good, got a few additions to our party, Nanna, Loki say hello.” Frost gestured for Nanna and Loki to introduce themselves. Although they were registered as adventurers here, Kamey wasn’t present at the time, so she hadn’t met them yet.

Nanna and Loki nervously walked to the forefront and introduced themselves.

“I’m Nanna, nice to meet you.”

“And I’m Loki.”

“How cute, I’m Kamey a receptionist here, nice to meet the two of you.” She beamed a gentle smile their way causing the two to be a little embarrassed and return to Frost’s side.

“We’re here to let the guild know that we’ll be leaving Furano and won’t be back for quite a while. The guild master already knows but we’re here to give you proper notification.” Frost rubbed Loki’s and Nanna’s heads with affection while he spoke.

“Huh? You’re leaving but you’ve only been here for a few days, what about racing up the guild ranks?” Kamey asked with a surprised expression. She’d even placed money on how fast they would reach D-rank.

“Yeah, we need to return home, along with the little ones. Whether we rank up quickly doesn’t really matter to us.” Frost shrugged his shoulders, with the amount of gold he gotten from helping Leo, standard quests held no value. Perhaps when he runs low of cash he’d return and rank up then.

“Tsk my silver” Kamey clicked her tongue knowing that she’d lose her betting money, but she didn’t lose hope just yet as she racked her brain for possibilities.

“Hmmmm where is it that you’ll be going?”

“The southern exterior of the Glacial Mountains why?”

“That so, then how about a long term quest?”