Chapter 32- Change of Plans

[Luna POV]

After sending letters to everyone back home, I decide to go to sleep.  Before I jump into the bed, I have an idea.

‘I wonder how it feels to sleep in my fox form?’

After having that thought I transform and jump onto the bed.  I get surprised due to how spacious the bed feels and decide to roll around a bit.

‘I realized just how embarrassing what I was doing right now is, I really hope Tamamo wasn’t watching.’

{…}

‘Anyway, time to sleep.’

{That was soooooo adorable!}

I thought I heard Tamamo say something, but sleep was quickly overtaking me.  The next morning, I woke up strangely refreshed.  It seems sleeping transformed is really comfortable.  I changed back to normal, walked over to the window, and opened the shudders.  I took in a deep breath to help completely wake myself up and noticed something.

‘It’s going to rain a lot today.  How annoying.’

While looking out the window, I see Velvet approaching our meeting spot so I decide to try the telepathy skill I got when I first transformed.

“Hey Velvet, it’s me Luna, you should come inside the inn for now.  We are going to have to change our plans for the day.”

Her reaction was funny, she kept looking around trying to figure out what was going on.  She finally looked up at the inn and I waved at her smiling.  She seemed a bit confused for a moment but started heading to the inn.  I shut the shudders again and changed into some casual clothes.

I walked downstairs, found Velvet sitting at the table we usually sit at, and sat in front of her.

“Morning Velvet.”

“Good morning, Luna, what did you mean we have to change our plans for the day?”

“I could smell some rain on the wind earlier, so it’ll be a bit difficult walking around the city while it pours.”

“Oh yay, rain.  My favorite thing.” Velvet said in an emotionless voice.

“Don’t like rain?”

“I couldn’t care less about rain; the worst part is going to be the humidity.”

After hearing that, my ears and tail drooped.

“That’s going to be horrible, I’ll have to spend an extra hour on my tail brushing and even then, it’ll be at my minimum standard.” I said as I put my head on the table.

It was then that the proprietress walked up to us.

“What’s wrong dears?”

“It’s going to rain today” I said.

Her ears drooped as well.

“Thanks for the heads up, I guess I’ll be busy with people coming in for shelter.”

We order some breakfast, and she walks off to the kitchen.

“So, what are we going to do today since we can’t walk around?”

“I have a few things we can do but they’ll only stave off the boredom for so long.”

“At least it’s a start, what you got?”

“I have a deck of cards and a chess set that I got a few years ago.”

“Isn’t chess that one game that the Celestia Kingdom spread.?”

“Yeah, the other hero that chose to stay in this world spread it.”

“Wasn’t there a total of four heroes that stayed?”

“No, only two, the others were forced to stay here due to problems they caused.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“I guess since we don’t have anything better to do today, I’ll tell you some stuff about me that only a few people know, but first, breakfast.”

Our food arrived and we ate.  After we finished, we headed upstairs to my room.  Once there I sat on the edge of the bed and Velvet took the chair.

“So, what did you want to tell me?”

“Mostly things about my life, my other life, and goals for the Celestia Kingdom when we get there.”

After I said that I heard the rain start to fall.

“What do you mean other life?”

“You know about reincarnation, right?”

“Yeah, there have been people like that before.  Wait, you are one of those people?”

“Yep.  Though my case is probably different from the ones you’re thinking of.  I was a summoned hero in my last life.  I was killed in a dungeon by the Hero and Saint for a stupid reason.  Then I met Tamamo, she brought my soul to her place in the divine domain, told me about reincarnating me here, and after I chose to, she gave me her divine protection saying that I was fated to be with her.”

“That’s quite a bit to take in, but it also explains some of your behavior.  I didn’t buy all your excuses yesterday when we were going around shopping, but it makes sense now.  Though I do want to know why you’re telling me this now.”

“Well, I don’t like having to hide things from people I consider friends.  Mind you I would never tell people like the guild master even if I am friendly with him.  Plus, I just feel a weird connection with you.  I don’t really know how to describe it, but I just feel like I can implicitly trust you with my secrets.”

After I said this Velvet had a small reaction, but I didn’t ask about it because I think she’s just happy I trust her so much.

“As for the Celestia Kingdom things, apparently the two who killed me in my previous life are being held in the main office of the Adventurer’s Guild and I need to confront them.  I also need to clear the dungeon I died in in my previous life, then we can move on to doing whatever.”

“How do you know all of that?”

“Atmos gave my dad a letter years ago and that letter was handed to me when I left home.  I read it my first day in the city and it told me all of that.  I figured, if a letter from the Goddess of Fate tells me I need to do this, then I should probably listen to it.”

“That’s a reasonable conclusion, most of the time, if the Goddess of Fate says to do something, it’ll usually help the person in question.”

‘I bet a few times it was just a prank that turned out well in the end.’

{I can confirm that that statement is true.  Remember the whole evil dragon story, the one who killed that dragon was given an oracle that told him he could prevent a disaster and be remembered throughout history.  It’s just a shame that he is remembered more for dying from eating dragon meat than his actual achievement.}

“Pfffft.”

“What’s so funny?”

“It’s nothing.  Anyway, that’s the gist of my past in this world, don’t ask about my previous one because it doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Let me ask just one question, do you miss your previous world?”

“A bit, yes, but mostly just the people I left behind, other than that I actually prefer this world.  Here I can do basically what I want and adventure as I see fit, I have a person waiting for me to marry them, and I’m basically set for life after I get strong enough.”

“I see, well let’s get away from this heavyish discussion and move on to something different.”

“What do you want to do, paly some card games or some chess?”

“Let’s go with chess, I quite like that game.”

“Alrighty then, just a bit of warning though, I am absolutely terrible at chess, so don’t expect too much from me.”

I pulled out my chess board and set up the pieces.

“Which color you want?”

“I’ll play black.”

We started to play, and I discovered that Velvet was just as bad as I was.  The hours went by as we both won and lost.  The rain kept pouring but we didn’t notice and by the time we finished our 20th game, the rain had stopped, and the sun was setting.

“It seems we are equally horrible at this game.  Don’t you agree Velvet?”

“Very much so, Luna, but at least we had fun.”

“That’s true, though now I’m famished.”

“Same here, shall we go downstairs and eat?”

“We shall, though let me put on the sound dampeners, I can already tell it’s really loud down there.”

I took out the new magic item I bought yesterday and placed them on my ears like earrings.

“How do they feel?”

“It’ll take a bit of getting used to, but all-in-all, not bad.”

‘They’re kind of like noise cancelling headphones in the shape of earrings.’

We head downstairs and looked for an empty table.  The room is packed with several people both drunk and sober, but mostly drunk.  The smell of alcohol is quite strong, but manageable.  The proprietress sees us and calls out.

“Hey, you two, coming down for some dinner?”  We both nod and she smiles;  “Find a seat and it’ll be right out.”

We find a place to sit and wait.

“Hey Velvet, does the smell in here bother you at all?  It’s manageable for me, but still a bit much.”

“I agree with you, but you just need to get used to it.  It can be worse in some of the smaller branches of the Adventurer’s Guild.”

“I thought you just signed up in the guild?”

“I did, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been to other guilds on business before, though the branch here is a lot better in terms of how it’s run.  Normally the bar there is on the first floor, but here, it’s on the third.”

“I guessed as much since when we visited the guild master, I could smell it on the way up to his office.”

We chatted away and then ate away when our food arrived.  After we finished, Velvet stood up an told me that she had to go.  We agreed that tomorrow we would go to our planned exploration area and meet up at the same time as this morning.  I headed back to my room to sleep again.

‘Well today turned out different than how I wanted it to, but oh well, it’s not like I can change the weather.’

{I could have asked one of the weather gods to change it for you, you know.}

‘While I appreciate the sentiment, I don’t think that would have been a good idea.  This area hasn’t had rain in a while from what I remember when we last explored the forest, and I don’t want to cause any trouble for you.  You’ve already done a lot for me, both in the past and definitely in the future.  If you do anymore, I’ll have to think of something even more grand than what I already have planned in order to pay you back.’

{That’s not necessary, you know.  Everything I do to help you out; I do because I want you to be happy and be able to enjoy your time in the mortal world.  Once you ascend, you’ll probably get really bored just managing whatever concept your Authorities give you control over.}

‘I doubt I’ll ever get bored when I can spend my time with you, Tamamo.’

{I really want to hug and pamper you right now.}

‘Fufufu.  I feel the same way.’

Author's Note:

Hello reader friends, I have returned.  I apologize for the lack of chapters this week, I've been doing a really important project for one of my classes and it has taken up a lot of time.  The good news is, in two weeks, every college students favorite holiday is coming up: Spring Break.  Unless my family comes up with any plans for then, I'll be able to pump out as many chapters as I can. hopefully.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter.  Thanks for reading.