TDH Vol. 2 pt. 8

Zurie managed to get a day off for me and Elanah by moving around the days we had to fight in the dungeon. Instead of having two days off in a row at the end of the week, we’d get one day off then and one day off now. As for the current day off, Zurie wanted us to take her around the city. That was apparently something she had planned to do with Fane. He was going to give her a tour and show her everything that he learned about the place.

But considering that he was stuck in the dungeon while me and Elanah took his place as her sponsored… the task of guiding her around the city was up to us instead. To be fair, we would make better guides than him in the first place since we knew the city for a longer time. I assumed we did, anyways.

I was kind of excited about it. Sure, we weren’t allowed to leave the city or anything, but being sponsored meant that we could go out and actually walk around on our days off. We got to act like normal people again instead of just criminals.

Then, while Elanah and Zurie were getting dressed, I realized something.

Everybody was going to know who me and Elanah were.

Back when my parents brought me to the city, I was just some nobody from the countryside who wasn’t worthy of being checked out in any way. I was some random kid not worth paying any attention to.

But everybody knew who I was now. Well, even if they didn’t know who I was before exactly, they knew me as Woofen. I wouldn’t be able to walk around without drawing any attention to myself or anything. Elanah could potentially get around without notice if she covered herself up, but that wasn’t even an option for me.

Unless…

I could already imagine it.

Zurie could tuck me down between her boobs. In the same way that women sometimes hid things like lipstick or money between their breasts, Zurie could hide me between hers.

That would be great. Seriously great.

But, I doubted that was going to happen, and Elanah wasn’t busty enough for something like that to work.

Maybe they could put me in a bag? Women in the city always liked to walk around with fancy purses to show off, so maybe Zurie had one and could stuff me in there?

Wait, does it even matter if people recognize me? Shouldn’t I be happy about that instead? Me, some nobody from a small country village, is going to be recognized by everybody in the city. And I’m pretty sure they like me or else they wouldn’t keep on voting for me. So, is there really a probl—

I wrinkled my nose.

Something smelled. Something smelled seriously bad. It smelled like… rotting death.

When I looked up to check on the source of the smell, I saw one of the creepiest smiles in the entire world smiling down at me. It was enough to make me jump and get into a defensive stance.

“Worry not, Master Woofen,” the creepy-smiling figure said with a deep, raspy voice. That smile was pretty much all I could see of his body, too. Everything else was wrapped up in white bandages. Even his entire head was wrapped up, leaving only his mouth exposed. Though, looking into his mouth and seeing all those old, jagged teeth he had, I wished that was wrapped up so that I didn’t have to look at it, too.

Other than that, he wore what looked like a butler’s uniform with a top hat sitting on top of his head. He looked very… clean, and professional, but he still smelled like something worse than death.

I couldn’t help but to press my snout down to the ground and surround it with my paws to try and block the scent from reaching my nostrils.

“Oh, my sincerest apologies. I forgot to take into consideration that some beasts have a stronger sense of smell than Chosen,” the bandaged butler said before pulling out what looked like a vial of perfume to spray himself with. “Is that better? I do believe that should mask the smell well enough to not cause any discomfort.”

I was scared, but I lifted my snout back up and sniffed the air.

It smelled…

Like flowers.

Like really, really strong flowers.

The scent of overpowering, rotting death was replaced with the scent of overpowering flowers. Even so, I’d gladly take the latter over the former. At least the flower scent didn’t make me feel like I was about to vomit up anything I’d ever eaten through my entire life.

So, I nodded.

“Ah, splendid,” he said. “Oh, I have yet to introduce myself. How terribly rude of me. You may call me Ghoul.”

For some reason, it felt weird having somebody else talk to me in a one-on-one conversation when I had no way of talking back. All I could do was lift one of my front legs and wave it at him.

“If you ever need anything, please do not refrain from making any request of me. I am sure I will be able to assist you with any and all matters. Whether you require a meal, a bath, or anything else, I am here and would be delighted to serve.”

It’s not like you can understand me even if I do make a request. Though… I could seriously go for some steak. I haven’t had steak in… so long.

“I am sure that there will be quite the communication barrier between us. Rest assured, I am nothing if not patient. The moment I know you have a request of me, I shall do everything within my capability to discover what said request is.”

“Alright,” I barked. “Get me a steak. Oh. Please.” Couldn’t forget to say please after something like that. Even if my parents probably weren’t ever going to find out if I left out a “please,” I still felt like I needed to include it.

“A bath?” Ghoul asked.

“That’s nowhere near what I asked for!”

“Would you like your fur brushed?”

“I want a steak. A steak. Steak. Steeeaaaakkkk.”

“A massage?”

“You’re way too patient. Seriously too patient. And I’m not.”

“Hmm. I must admit that this is a bit more complicated than I believed it would be. My apologies, Master Woofen. I will have to—”

“Woofen!” Elanah shouted. Before I could even react, she managed to run, dive, grab onto me, and slide across the floor for a few seconds while hugging me against her chest. “I missed you! I’m not used to having to leave you and then getting to see you again in the same day! Ehehe… I’m so happy. I could barely even believe that I’d get to see you again today.”

Well, I might not have gotten the steak I wanted, but at least I got to feel Elanah’s warmth against me. That was always nice. Also… she had on some new clothes. Her clothes were pretty simple like they were for all of us prisoners before, but now she had a short, white shirt around her chest that left her abdomen bare, white shorts with a belt, black pantyhose, and a jacket with a hood attached which seemed a bit too large for her and hung off her shoulders. She actually looked pretty… hip? She definitely looked like one of those people wearing modern clothes from the city instead of like us peasants out in the fields.

There was no point in buying all those fancy clothes if they were just going to get ruined while working outside.

As for Zurie, she was wearing another red dress that looked similar to the one she had on earlier, but it was a bit less revealing. She also had what looked like a closed umbrella in her hands. Wasn’t sure what she needed that for given that I could see outside the windows to the clear and sunny sky above, but—well, she was pale. Seriously pale. Maybe she didn’t want to get sunburnt.

“Are we ready for our expedition?” Zurie asked.

“I’m ready!” Elanah shouted. “It’s going to be like my first real date with Woofen! We can get something to eat, and sit together on a bench, chase each other through the streets… rent a room in an inn…”

I’m pretty sure I know why you would want to rent a room. Haven’t we done enough of that today already?

“I am sure we will have plenty of fun,” Zurie said. “Ghoul, do keep the place tidy in our absence.”

“Of course, my lady,” Ghoul said with a polite bow. “Given that we are only temporarily staying in this manor, I would feel horrible if we were to leave it in a worse condition than that which it was in upon our arrival.”

“Good. Thank you. I would rather not deal with its owners trying to get even more money out of me over the tiniest of accidents.”

“Rest assured, my lady. There will not even be a single strand of hair left anywhere by the time that I am done with my cleaning.”

With that, Zurie nodded and led me and Elanah to the front door. Well, mainly just Elanah. Seeing as how Elanah was content with holding me against her chest, she did all the following for both of us.

“Let us be off then,” Zurie said and stepped outside.

Me and Elanah followed right behind her, stepping out into the sun while leaving Ghoul to close the door behind us. Only, just before he finished closing the door, he said, “Ah, and Master Woofen, I will make sure that the finest steak is ready for you upon your return.” With a smile that was somehow even creepier than usual, he bowed and closed the door.

It was only after following Zurie onto the busy street ahead that I realized what just happened.

That creepy bastard understood me?! Wait, if he knew I wanted a steak, does that mean he was just screwing with me?! Did he know what I wanted that whole time?!

I had too many questions I wanted to ask, but neither Zurie nor Elanah seemed to care and instead just wanted to get on with our trip through the city.

Zurie opened her umbrella, which turned out to be large enough to easily cover her and grant shade to her entire body, and made sure to keep the top of it facing toward the sun.

So, she really just does want to keep out of the sun as much as possible. Not like I can blame her when she’s that pale.

“Well, where to first?” Zurie asked. “I figure it would do best to leave the lead to those native here.”

“A-ah, well… actually… I’m not from here, either,” Elanah said. “I only came here a few months ago, and I got arrested before too long. So… I’ve seen some of the place, but not all of it.”

“Oh, I see. Woofen is a native, however, yes?”

“Well, from what I learned about him, he’s from one of the farming villages outside the city’s walls. I don’t know how much experience he has in the city. Sorry. I probably should have explained that earlier…”

“I expected more experience, but that is fine. Woofen, would you say that you know enough of the city to lead us through it?”

That was a tough question to answer. Yeah, I visited the city before when I was younger, but I never did much. The most I did was go wherever my parents needed to visit and then some food stalls.

But… I probably knew enough. Even though I never really explored it on my own and only saw a few different districts, I knew enough of it to show them a few interesting places.

So, I nodded.

“Wonderful then,” Zurie said. “You will be our tour guide.”

“Ehe… getting led through the city by Woofen. I can’t wait,” Elanah said.

Then let me down so that I can get started.

…

…

…

Elanah never let me down.

How am I supposed to lead you around if you don’t let me down?!

“What’s wrong, Woofen?” Elanah asked. “Just point your paw where you want me to go and I’ll go there!”

You… you seriously plan on carrying me around the entire time? I have to lead you around by pointing?

“Well? The day is only so long,” Zurie said.

And you’re alright with it?! Can’t you tell her it would be easier if I was put—screw it. Alright. We can do this the complicated way. Not like I’m going to complain about being held by Elanah all day, even if it might be a little embarrassing being seen by everybody.

Honestly, I could have struggled within Elanah’s arms to get the point across that I wanted to be let down… but I didn’t really want to be let down. I just thought it would be easier to lead them around if I was walking on my own. If Elanah was seriously fine with carrying me all over the place all day, I didn’t have any real problem with that. So, I looked around to get a quick idea of where I was.

Thankfully, I actually did recognize where we were. It was on the street that my dad nicknamed the “Rich Kids’ Street.” It was a street lined with large, beautiful manors on both sides that were rented out to visiting guests of importance from other nations. The kind of people who stayed in the manors were usually members of royalty or the children of wealthy merchant company owners.

As for why it was named the “Rich Kids’ Street,” that was because nobody of real importance stayed there. Anybody who was genuinely important in the eyes of the city’s leaders were given special lodging that couldn’t simply be paid for.

I remembered my dad wanting to show me the street to get the point across that no matter how big and fancy their manors were, the people who rented them rarely ever looked happy.

There was one time as a kid where I was jealous of those who lived in the city in such large houses. Seeing that, my dad brought me to Rich Kids’ Street and asked me if any of the people I saw staying on it looked happy. Sure, some of them did, but none of them looked like they were having fun. None of them were smiling and laughing and having a great time together like my parents tried to always provide me with back on our farm.

Of course, years later, I saw the problem with that logic. We only saw a tiny glimpse into those people’s lives. I had no idea how much fun they might have been having when I wasn’t there watching them.

But it did help me get over my jealousy as a child. It helped me appreciate the little things in life.

Remembering that, I figured out exactly where I wanted to take Elanah and Zurie and pointed my paw in the direction that would take us there.