Book 2: Chapter 6: Patch 1.0: Encounter at the Festival

Now that Fenrir thinks about it, he never did ask her for her name. He also didn’t ask about the rest of the girls in Ull’s apparent harem. As much as he just wants to get her to safety, he has a ton of information to try and get out of her.

He also has to think about what to do with the rest of those harem members once he gets to freeing them. It wouldn’t be right to just free Ull’s most prized possession while leaving all the other girls behind. How did this girl even escape without the rest escaping as well?

Fenrir makes his way back to the alley with a heavy robe in hand.

A sinking feeling strikes his gut.

What if she’s not there? What if somebody found her while he was gone trying to get her a robe? What if she tried pulling some dramatic trope where she turns herself in to avoid pulling him into her troubles?

He turns the corner and hurries into the alley!

She’s standing there with a wide smile waiting for him.

“I was getting worried for a second there,” Fenrir tells her.

“Why?” she asks, head tilted.

“Don’t worry about it. Just my mind being stupid. Anyways, here you go,” he hands the robe over to her. “I got the biggest one I could find, so it should be more than enough to cover you and your tail up.”

Seeing her hold it makes him doubt his selection. She looks so regal and feminine, yet he’s telling her to put on a cheap and dirty robe.

She puts it on, obscuring all but her face, and then looks up at him with the same smile as before. “How do I look?” she asks.

“Like a princess on the run,” he answers, causing that smile to grow even wider. “By the way, what’s your name?”

“My name? Ah… he calls me Nehalennia, and… it has been so long that I do not recall the name I originally chose for myself,” she explains.

“He makes you go by a new name?” Fenrir asks her as he grabs her wrist and leads her out of the alley. “Stay close to me.”

She nods. “Yes. I never played with others originally, so I did not give out my old name often. Now I am just Nehalennia,” she answers, stepping closer to him. Her eyes keep on getting distracted by his swaying tail as he walks. It’s just so large and fluffy! She wants to feel it. In fact, she can’t resist. Using her hand that he isn’t holding, she reaches forward and gently brushes her hand against his tail.

The motion causes Fenrir’s tail to shoot up in surprise as does the rest of his body! With a blush on his cheeks, he looks down at her and asks, “Wh-what are you doing? My tail is sensitive.”

Nehalennia raises her hand to cover her mouth as she giggles. Everything she does is very proper and ladylike in appearance. “I am sorry, I couldn’t resist any longer. Oh! You asked me my name, but you have yet to tell me your own, my hero. May I ask?”

Fenrir looks forward, still blushing. “It’s Fenrir,” he answers.

“So, the wolf is going to save the goddess from the hunter? I would think that it would be the other way around!”

“I could always let him save you from me,” Fenrir teases.

She responds by closely clinging to him. “I am much happier with the wolf than the hunter!” she says, looking up at him with her beaming smile.

Her smile is too much for him. He may be taken now, but he has always been weak to genuine smiles.

Fenrir leads her back to The Shoebill without any trouble. They get a few curious looks on the way there, but none that care enough to start trouble.

He checks to see if anybody has been following them or is watching them before taking her aboard. Nobody.

“Welcome aboard The Shoebill,” Fenrir says, leading her aboard.

“What is she named after?” Nehalennia asks.

“You never heard of shoebills? Well, I guess that’s normal. They went extinct a little over a decade ago. They were like these awesome dinosaur birds that made really cool noises, were pretty tall, and they would even bow to people because—” he starts explaining, but looks down at her and remembers that he’s supposed to be acting like some cool white knight saving a princess. “I – I mean, they were just… birds.”

She raises her hand to cover her mouth as she giggles again. “It is alright, my hero. I like this side of you as well. It is very cute.”

He proves her point by subconsciously wagging his tail as he looks away again. His inner Cassiel is wanting to tell her to shut up out of flusterment, but he resists.

Now that he thinks about it, back when he first started playing this game, Saya did essentially imply that he has a tsundere within him.

“Told you so, Onii-chan!” Saya mentally chimes in.

He mentally swats her away. “Anyways, let’s go below deck,” Fenrir says.

In The Shoebill’s hull, everybody but Tabitha and Corwin is fast asleep. “You two still up?” Fenrir asks them.

“Yep! Showin’ Corboy here the engine. He’s gonna be my backup engineer someday!” Tabitha explains.

Corwin chuckles and rubs the back of his head. “We will see,” he says. Looking up at Fenrir, Corwin sees a peculiar girl poking her head out from behind Fenrir. “Who is this, captain?”

Tabitha looks up at him as well now.

Fenrir finishes walking down the steps and introduces his newest companion. “This is Nehalennia. Remember that girl Ull was holding up on his ship?” Fenrir asks, looking at Nehalennia and nodding.

She removes her robe so that Tabitha and Corwin may see her scales, the fins protruding from her back like a pair of wings, and her serpentine tail. “It is a pleasure to meet you,” she says with a polite bow.

“You what now?” Tabitha asks, staring up at Fenrir. “Ya know what kinda trouble we’re goin’ ta be in if she gets found here, right, ya big dumb wolf? I thought we were goin’ to save her and the rest of ‘em after the tournament? You better not be goin’ and gettin’ us disqualified before it even starts!”

“Captain, I agree we have to save them, but do you not believe that this is too soon?” Corwin asks.

“I – I’m sorry. I told him that it would be best to leave me behind, but – perhaps I should just leave after all. Bringing trouble upon you all is the last thing I wish to do,” Nehalennia says, looking down at the deck.

Fenrir wraps an arm around her shoulder and brings her closer to him. “We’re not leaving her behind. If I saw either of you in trouble and needing rescued, I wouldn’t turn you down no matter what situation you’re escaping from. The same goes for her,” he explains to them.

“My hero!” Nehalennia exclaims, sounding like she’s tearing up again as she hides her face against him.

Tabitha raises an eyebrow. “Oi. What do ya think the girls over there are goin’ ta think about this?” she asks.

Fenrir looks over to where Cassiel and Serra are sleeping. Serra is hanging upside-down halfway out of her hammock with her shirt lifted up to her face, exposing her belly, while Cassiel has her entire body practically wrapped around the stuffed wolf that Serra won earlier.

“Before ya get any ideas, Miss Serpent Girl, the dumb wolf here has already got himself a pair of girls,” Tabitha explains while giving Fenrir a stink eye.

Fenrir was previously worried about getting a reputation as a garlic lover, but now he is worried about getting a reputation as a womanizer.

“Oh, that is alright!” Nehalennia says. “I am fine with just being my hero’s mistress.”

Fenrir, Corwin, and Tabitha all look at her.

“Just imagine it! A beautiful, pure princess saved from a cruel, heartless hunter by a courageous and ferocious wolf! And then the princess falls in love with her savior only to discover that he is already wed! Her feelings tear her apart as she wishes for naught more than to be by his side and to make him happy, yet she knows that he already has somebody doing that for him! Alas, she resigns herself to being but a mistress that he ravages in the darkest hours of the night before returning to his wives, leaving her cold and naked in a dark cellar that they have their secret rendezvous in! Then, unable to bear the stress and desire of wanting to be more to him, she ties a rope around her neck despite being heavy with his child!” Nehalennia fantasizes, squirming around as she holds her hands up to her cheeks.

Fenrir looks between her and the other two. Corwin looks shocked, and Tabitha just looks disgusted at him. “Oi, doesn’t this whole thing make you an even worse evil bastard than that Ull guy?” she asks.

“And then he finds her with a rope around her neck – no, with her wrists slit and a pool of her blood around her on the floor and a note on the table telling him why she did it! It is only when he reads the note that he realizes he truly cared for her, thus filling him with despair and causing him to take his life alongside her!” Nehalennia continues. “Does that not just sound so wonderfully tragic?!” she excitedly asks, looking at them for their reactions.

“Are ya sure ya want rescued in the first place?” Tabitha asks her.

“Fenrir, I did not know you were such a man...” Corwin says.

“Wh-why are you two treating me like I’ve already done all of that?” Fenrir asks them.

He’s definitely going to get some sort of weird reputation.