. I continued smiling at the girl and caressing her cheek while I brought to my mind images of Mother, of Grandmother, of the dryad Möemnen, of the Fairy Queen, of every mature fairy whom I had ever seen operating in seduction mode. It was time to become one of them for a bit. If my suspicions were correct, the …

. A fairy knight entered through the inn’s front door, making the diners taking their supper somewhat nervous. Her amethyst-hued hair pulled at the eyes and her minimalist armor used less metal than her sword, but that sword was long and likely made of an exotic magic metal that held a particularly deadly edge, as fairy blades always were. Male …

. I am a knight, in soul and in fact. If I see a robbery happening in front of me, I have to act. Even so, I was in a foreign land, of unknown alignment with respect to my friends and foes, so I had a need to keep my visibility to the local government at a minimum. That fact …

This is an author’s note, not a chapter, so it isn’t locked. It’s ‘Chapter CC’ as in Roman Numeral Two Hundred. The real Chapter 200 will post immediately after this item. So, here I am at Chapter 200, and I am now quite confident reaching Chapter 300 which I was predicting before that I would not. Each of the stops …

. Watching the girl fly along, I was torn between dealing with her directly and just watching to see what she did. Finally, I decided to leave her for the time being and go alert Dilorè. Unlike the ghostly presence tailing the team’s covered wagon as it rumbled across the plank road spanning a section of boggy ground, I could …

. The morning air was clear and crisp as the team boarded the wagon for our fourth day of travel. The teamsters had just finished hitching the mountain goat team up and were giving them sugar treats. These beasts are peculiar creatures. They look just like the Earthly animals of the same name, except they are much larger, as big …

. Allia didn’t say anything, but she grew a complicated expression after Ceria and I appeared for dinner. Ryuu was avoiding speaking to me as well, I noticed. The Ryuu that Tiana first met had been rude and demanding– well, actually, from my Robert perspective I knew he had actually been angry and lashing out about the summoning and the …

. This situation was bad. My body was craving mortal mana and my vampire instincts were demanding I partake of the ample supply right in front of me. I bit down on those instincts violently, forcing them back as far as I could, which wasn’t very far. It was vital that I avoid giving in. I could feel the presence …

. The sky was a nice clear blue and the wind was relatively gentle. It was already the fourth week of the Month of Early Flowers, but this was up in the mountains, and well north of relatively southern Relador. There was still a serious bite of chill in the air. On the sidelines, Ceria stood and raised a [Wind …

. Knight training kicked in before I consciously recognized the threat. I probably reacted to the cue of Wind mana blooming in the practice sword, betraying its secondary capacity as a magic focus before she could fire the spell off. I had instantly flooded my skin with Earth mana, using the crude skill Matthias had taught me, so I tuned …