Dragon Goddess’s chosen

Answering the dragoness's questions took nearly as long as Max's and by the time she was satisfied, Max, Kat and I were ready to go grab dinner. Saerrei acted reluctant about it, but also joined us as well. Thankfully, the effect of her presence was much weaker on Max and I outside of the small room, especially for me when I was less dragon as well. After dinner, she decided to return to wherever she was staying, leaving us to rest for the night to be ready for the next day.

‘Ugh… we should've done something to deal with this yesterday… This is going to be rough being around her more…’ I thought as I fanned myself a little with a wing to try to cool down. As I did so, I glanced at the rest of the “domestic” staff in the morning briefing Max and I were brought to. There were a dozen of us, five maids, three butlers, two groundskeepers and two cooks from what I could count. ‘I wonder if they do this every morning… we're here and ready earlier than yesterday…’

“You must be the new girls I heard Natasha was training!” a feminine voice said excitedly and snapped me out of my thoughts to look at the source. It was the saurian girl I saw before meeting the Lord.

“Yep, I'm Lexi… and this is Maxine” I responded and introduced both of us as the aliases that were decided on for us. Natasha wasn't that impressed that we still based them on our actual names but it made it more likely we would respond to them.  

“N-nice to meet you Ms…?” Max shyly greeted her.

“Iriane,” She grinned a little as she answered and the end of her tail flicked back and forth. “Glad that I'm not the only one without scales anymore”

‘Sorry to get your hopes up there…’ “Yeah… you're the first other person I met with any reptile in them in the city…”

“There's not many of us around here. Winter you know? Hard to find a place to stay when you want to sleep for a quarter of the year.” she laughed. “Oh! When Natasha finally lets you work on your own I can show you a few spots that get really good sun most of the day to take breaks at.”

“Oh… um thanks but…” I shyly shuffled my wings a bit.

“You… don't need the sun do you?” She sounded a little disappointed.

“She… um runs a little hot actually…” Max explained softly.

“Half of my dragon side is fire, so…” I added.

“Lucky you, I can still show you the spots, you can keep the sunbathing excuse for breaks every now and then, I'm sure even Natasha would overlook them.”

“Thanks… So… um, are these meetings common?” I asked, trying to change the conversation and she shook her head.

“It wasn't on our schedule yesterday but I bet it's for the party, normally Mr. Smythe is the only butler during the day” I glanced towards where the men were grouped together and quickly confirmed that the two in black suits, a Doberman Inugami and black-furred nekomata with a single tail, looked dead-tired. 

“I wonder why…” Max said softly.

“Looks like we're able to find out…” I observed  as I watched Smythe walk in front of the double doors with Natasha right behind him.

“Everyone, may I have your attention.” he announced in an authoritative tone. Immediately all the others lined up in front of the staircase, facing him. I gently grabbed Max's hand and followed the others to the lineup. “I will try to make this quick so that you all may get back to your duties. As you may have learned yourselves, the Metrian ship, Dauphin, arrived at the docks earlier this morning with battle damage. One of our guests, the young Lord Castellane of the Armand-Castellane family was on board but unharmed.”

‘That must be Eris's cousin… battle damage though… pretty vague,’ I thought as I heard the others mutter softly to themselves.

“He will be staying as a guest until after the soiree. Seeing as the event may have been very traumatic, we must show our hospitality and make sure his stay is as comfortable as possible to assist our Lord in keeping a positive relationship with the Armand-Castellane family.”

“Mr. Smythe?” The cattledog Inugami I saw the other day spoke up.

“Yes, Caitlyn?”

“The other day, a Nores-Castellane visited the Lord, should we be ready for any conflicts between the two?”

‘Oh, the rivalry is known even in this country…?’  

“You do not need to concern yourselves with that, Lady Castellane turned down our accommodations to stay within the city instead and both are younger members of their family. Gods-willing, they do not harbor the same resentment for each other as their fathers.”

“Lexi, Maxine,” Natasha said, making me flinch slightly at the sudden attention “If Lord Castellane or any of our future guests make requests of you, please defer them to me and I will make sure they are fulfilled.”

“Yes, Ms. Natasha,” Max and I acknowledged the order simultaneously.

“Speaking of, later in the week, we are also expecting to receive other guests of our lord's gathering: Daimyo Miyasaki of the Yokai Shogunate, Lord Orebender of the Collective, and Jarl Rendvi of the Northern Archipelago. Make sure to treat them with respect as well.”

‘...Quite a few countries are going to be present… the Collective though… haven't seen them on any maps… I'll ask Eris later… if I can find her… or if I word it right I might get some info from Natasha without making myself sound clueless about the world…’ I thought, not realizing I was tuning out the last bit the head butler was saying until everyone was going their separate ways.

“Al- Lexi, come on… we gotta meet Ms. Natasha in the kitchen…” Max whispered, grabbing my hand to get me to follow.

‘Great… it's affecting my attention span too…’ I sighed and followed my boyfriend, politely returning a wave to the lizard girl as she went off with Caitlyn down a different hall.

 

---

 

10 minutes later.

“So… these other nobles, what should we expect about them?” I wondered aloud as I followed behind Natasha and Max, pushing a cart with teapot, honey, milk and even little danish-like pastries, on a tray on top of it.

“Hmm?” the catgirl responded without looking back.

“These guests, what should we know about them? You said that you'd take care of their requests, so that means you know about them, right?”

“I suppose it would help you in your ‘position’  for you to be more familiar with our guests,” she mused. “Except for the Castellanes, Lord Hargreave is close with the nobles that were invited. Daimyo and Lady Miyasaki are Lady Hargreave's parents.”

“I see why they were invited… gotta keep the in laws happy.”

“That is one reason. They also secure trade to the rest of the Shogunate for our Lord. The other two I only know for their business deals with him: Lord Orebender has the best forges of all the dwarven city-states and Jarl Rendvi keeps ships safe in the Northern Archipelago with her own.”

“What does he want from Eris's family then?” Max asked.

“I assume you mean Lady Castellane?” she corrected. “Not my place to tell.”

“So you know more but you aren't telling us.” I observed. “You probably know more about all of them that you aren't saying.”

“Not more than what you need to know at the moment or would be proper for us to discuss.”

‘I hate all of this etiquette and being proper…’ I sighed as she brought us to a door at the end of the hall.

“Miss Asuna, we brought your morning tea, are you up?” Our mentor announced, knocking on the door.

“Yes, come in!” A girl's voice called back and Natasha motioned for us to enter. Max shyly opened the door then helped me navigate the cart inside. The room was certainly something to be jealous of, basically the size of a normal master bedroom of a house back where I was from, silk blankets over the large bed, doors that I could only assume led to a closet and bathroom. “Oh! You're the ones Father told me about!”

“He already told you about them?” Natasha gave a disappointed sigh, shutting the door behind us. I looked over to see a young half-inugami girl still in a Victorian kind of flannel nightgown, probably about seventeen at the most, sitting in front of a vanity table with a brush in hand. “What do you know already?”

“That they're adventurers here to help him with something,” The girl answered cheerfully, her triangular black-furred ears perking up as she grinned at us. “And she's a real dragon.”

“Lovely.” the catgirl's tails flicked slightly. “Please remember to keep this to yourself, Miss Asuna. Do your siblings know? Or your mother?”

“Father trusts me to keep a secret, Natasha, why don't you? Thomas found your kunai on his own."

“Kunai?” I looked at the maid and she pinched the bridge of her nose.

“I am in a similar position as you, just a more permanent one.”

“That would have been good to know for our plan.” I pointed out and her tails flicked more before my magic detection lit up around her and she touched the door she just closed. A shimmering field went over it along with the wall it was on. “So that there aren't any prying ears… You can ask what you want, Miss Asuna.”

“You know me so well, Natasha.” The noble girl laughed and smiled at Max and me.

“Maxine, you go ahead and serve it like I showed you yesterday, your hand was steadier.”

“Yes Ms. Natasha…” He responded, his ears perking up as he moved to the tea set.

“So, Father told me you were adventurers but he didn't say much else. He always saves his stories and gives them a little bit at a time… It's so annoying…” Asuna said, looking at me expectantly.

“Well um you know I'm a dragon so… basically the biggest secret I have…” I started and she kept giving me the same look. “Well… um what do you want to know?”

“What's it like? Being an adventurer?  And what class are you?”

‘Here we go again’ “It can be a bit hard… I'm a bloodrager so I take a lot of the hits of the group…”

“Wait, you're a barbarian?” her eyes lit up excitedly. 

“Guess it's hard to believe when I'm dressed like this” I sighed. 

“You are also well-mannered,” Natasha added. “Despite your cursing”

“What class are you?” the noble girl asked excitedly as she smiled at Max.

“Oh um Sorcerer…” he answered, mid-pour of the tea and faltering a bit.

“Really?! I could be one too if Father let me practice more. What kind are you? Maybe you could teach me!”

“U-um, dragon-blood… I-I don't think I would be a good teacher…” 

“Miss Asuna… you know how dangerous that is… Even if he was willing to teach you” Natasha reminded her and Max and I glanced at each other.

“Dangerous…?” Max asked as he shyly brought the tea over. 

“Sometimes… another spell comes out when I try to cast something…” the noble girl explained and looked at Natasha. “I think I just need someone to teach be but Father and Nat think it's too dangerous for me to even use magic."

“Last time I tried teaching you, Amos had to replant half of the shrubbery in the back garden.”

“That was one time!”

“You teleported to the roof another time.”

“Fine… I did” she smiled at my boyfriend “If you can't teach me can you at least show me some of your magic? Please? Or share some of your stories?”

‘Definitely Wild Magic or whatever they have here…’ I sighed.

“U-um, I think I have a few I can show…um…” Max shyly glanced at me as he responded. “M-maybe… the quest that we met on?”

“Up to you, pup. I can help fill in anything you miss, I already told her dad about a few of our quests,” I shrugged.

“Pup? Ooh is that a pet name? Are you two together? How does that work with a dragon?” the girl asked excitedly and Max's ears immediately went back. “I would love to hear it!”

‘Shit’ “Um… yeah… didn't mean for that to slip out…” I sighed.

“Well now you've done it. She's always wanting us to bring back romance novels when we have to run out for errands.” Natasha half-laughed.

‘Yay… more story time for a noble …’

 

---

 

“Sweet girl, I think she really wants to be an adventurer too,” I thought aloud as we were finally walking away from the room.

“Lord Hargreave would never allow it, not until he finds a way to stabilize her magic” Natasha responded. 

“What if she just needs practice…?” Max shyly suggested.

“It's… possible but it's not my place to question him on that. I also do not want to see her get hurt from her own backlash.”

“Are the other two like this…?” I asked.

“Miss Nora and Young Master Thomas? No, they haven't shown any aptitude for magic yet.”

“Huh… she said she could be a sorcerer, I thought the others would have it too” I shrugged. “What's next for our training…?”

“Both of you could use more practice keeping the trays balanced while serving. If you are able to improve on that, we will handle serving lunch today.” She mused, turning to face us at the landing at the top of the stairs. 

“Oh… the trays again…” Max sighed, his ears flattening against his head again.

“Remember Maxine, head up, ears up. Look proud and don't look like you're upset with the job.” She scolded. I got distracted as she spoke, when I saw Smythe below walk to the front doors, open them and in walked a familiar face: Theris’s chosen, Adrian in a similar outfit I saw him in last time.

“Lord Castellane, welcome to Hargreave Manor.” the butler greeted him.

“Shit, this is going to be a problem.” I hissed under my breath and immediately got a scathing look from our mentor.

“Language. And what will be a problem?” She followed my gaze down the stairs to Adrian talking with Smythe, who was trying to take his luggage. 

“He knows me, he's seen me in a similar form. I need to talk to him”

“You know him??” Max whispered. “How??”

“A certain meeting I was pulled into.” I answered, hoping putting emphasis on the last part would be enough. “I didn't know his last name was Castellane though. Ms. Natasha, I need to talk to him to make sure he doesn't out me accidentally.”

“...” she glanced between me and the other chosen, then sighed and called down to them. “Mr. Smythe please let our trainees handle bringing Lord Castellane to his room. I believe it would be good practice for them for the plan for the soiree.” She motioned to me slightly with her head. Adrian looked up and his eyes widened when he focused on me. I quickly shook my head and motioned for him to keep quiet.

“Hmm, you may be correct, young Lord, would you mind if Lexi and Maxine helped you to your room?” Smythe asked as he waved us to come down.

“I really can carry my own stuff, it's no problem.” He responded, still staring at me. The embarrassment of being in the maid uniform was already starting to come back.

“Nonsense, you are a guest, it is the least we can do.” 

“Ok…?” He relented and I took initiative and stepped forward to grab his luggage. He grabbed a longsword in its scabbard out from it. “This stays with me though.”

“Of course. Lexi, the room you used yesterday to get ready was prepared for our guest, do you recall where it is?”

“Yes, Mr. Smythe.” I replied, starting to walk that direction and glancing at Natasha. “Maxine and I got this, there's a couple things I want to ask about.”

“Don't be pestering our guest for gossip,” she warned, seeming unsure about letting us go off alone with him.

“I wouldn't dream of it. This way Lord Castellane .” I immediately heard him start to follow with Max shyly coming along as well. We walked in silence for a minute before the other chosen broke it.

“What is going on?” He asked “I thought you said you were a bloodrager. Why are you smaller now?” I glanced back and around for any other service staff.

“It's a job. Security, playing a part” I hissed. “Wait until we're in the room.”

“You're being very secretive.” He pointed out.

“Only the butler and that maid know about the job, there's other staff. Now shush it.” He listened this time and stayed quiet until we got to the room and I pulled him and Max inside, setting the luggage down by the door.

“You know it's kind of a relief for a maid to not be so proper for once,” he joked as I closed the door behind us.

“It's a pain in the ass to learn the etiquette” I sighed and looked back at him. “Really? A lord though? Didn't think of mentioning it back on that mountain?” He glanced at Max hesitantly.

“Is that safe to talk about around her?”

“Why wouldn't it be?” He grumbled, his hair and fur puffing up a bit as he moved closer to me. “You're chosen like her, Kat, and Nicolas right?”

‘There's that defensiveness again.”

“Oh, you know already. Glad to hear you found the kid…”

“Yep, Adrian, this is my boyfriend, Max” I said as I hugged the mage from behind, making him relax a little. His closeness and whiffs of his scent made my heat flare up a bit but I didn't need him to act like he did towards Nicolas at first.  “I told him about all this a little bit after the meeting…”

“...boyfriend?” the noble looked him up and down in confusion. “What happened to you and Katrina?” 

“We're still together, he's also with her. Like I was saying. You're a lord?” I quickly re-directed the conversation, not wanting to talk about my relationships again today.

“My dad in this world is. It wasn't really necessary to tell you, I thought it would be a while before I'd run into you or any of the others out in the world.”

“Why did you think that?” 

“This is the first time I even left the city I was born in. My lucky ass gets to go right back into the military, just as an officer now or knight I guess here…”

“Wait back into the military? How old are you?” Max asked, more confused now instead of his inexplicable defensiveness.

“Eighteen here, technically … huh, I guess I'd be forty now…” he shrugged. “I was lucky enough to be reborn here when an I.E.D. took my leg and I bled out.”

“Uh…”

“Something that can explode like the plasma breath you saw me use before.” I explained and looked back at the other chosen. “You were a soldier…?”

“Yes, a Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps” 

“Huh… my dad was a marine…” I mused. ‘He does not  need to know how long those wars eventually took… ’ “Funny coincidence… and speaking of… your cousin is in our party.”

“Which one?”

“Eris,” Max answered for me and Adrian flinched a little.

“Oh… she… doesn't like me too much. So…  I take it she's in on whatever,” he waved his hand up and down at our outfits, “this is? You said it was security? What for?”

“Something has been going on around here” I shrugged. “Eris accepted the job for us to hide in the staff and guests of this party that's coming up in case something happens”

“Where is she and the rest of your party then? Are they here?”

“Kat is, she's outside somewhere. Um, what were Nicolas and Eris up to again, pup?”

“She said she was going to ‘keep trying to improve his footwork’ and get him a suit the other day…” my boyfriend answered, shyly leaning back against me. 

“So she's teaching him how to dance…” I sighed. “They're definitely going to be the ones dressing up like this if we ever have to do this again, Kat too”

“If you need any help with this I can see what I can do.” Adrian offered.

“All we need right now is to act like we’re just maids. Anyways it sounds like you had enough excitement for a bit, your boat was attacked?”

“Let's just say Azion was right…” He answered, glancing at Max again, obviously not wanting to say too much in front of him still.

‘Azion… what did he say… something about demons making a move?’ “What about the others on your boat? They're probably already telling everyone at the docks”

“I ordered them not to.”

“I hate to remind you, but you just said you're eighteen, probably still just a ‘kid’ to most sailors”

“... I'm hoping I earned enough respect during that fight that they'll listen,” He sighed. My boyfriend gave a soft annoyed huff and his ear twitched a little against my cheek.

“Someone is coming,” he mumbled softly. 

“Let's meet up sometime then, bring Katrina and Nicolas and I'll tell you all,” Adrian suggested.

“We won't have much time until after the party probably and I need to fill Max in on that part of the meeting. Guess it was less boring than I originally thought…” I shrugged, ignoring the look I got from the other chosen as I gently led my boyfriend back out the door. We nearly ran right into Natasha, who crossed her arms as she looked at me and Max.

“It's not a good idea to get too friendly with our guests suddenly, the others might spread gossip.”

“Sorry, I haven't met a dragon-lady before, I didn't mean to get her in trouble by keeping them for so long,” Adrian interrupted.

“It's fine, thanks though…” I looked back at her. “I guess since you're here it's time to get back to training?” 

“Yes, before the others notice at least.”

“Back to work I guess…” I sighed and stretched a bit.