"Welcome back." Aquamarine greeted Ruby, the Viscountess. Her eyes shone brightly the moment she saw us. Ruby ran towards me and hugged me out of the blue.
"Maria! You're back! It has been a hellish week! Ah! Hello everyone..." She quickly greeted me and then everybody else. She was acting more less formal now that she knew us better.
"Ah, hello." I said. "Don't get too closer or Nyx is going to bite you."
"Bite? Oh, that little baby?!" Ruby quickly noticed the baby.
"This is our child, her name's Nyx." Said Lucifer.
"By the gods… Maria you've got a kid?!" Asked Ruby.
She quickly tried to look at Nyx more closely, but the little dragon girl opened her tiny jaws and attempted to give her a little nibble more than once, so the viscountess quickly walked back.
"We are also mama's children…" Takeshi sighed.
"We are adopted though, maybe it is not the same, Takeshi." Said Laura.
"It's not like I liked being born in a lab- Mfuh?!" Takeshi's mouth was quickly covered by her twin sister.
"Don't go around telling stuff like that dummy!" She whispered to him.
"R-Right, sorry…" Takeshi sighed in relief.
"Of course you're my children as well, you're Nyx's older siblings." I said. "But babies always get all the attention when they show up. How about you kids take care of your little sister and have a bite? Aquamarine can you bring the kids some sweets?"
"I already prepared them." The dwarf grandma nodded with a smile, as her maids and butlers brought tons of delicious pastries, sweets, and even other snacks to the table, alongside some delicious milk tea.
We quickly sat down around the table, and as we enjoyed the meals, we started to talk about what had transpired here for the entire week.
"So you're telling me the nobles are going bonkers? Did you told them I have to at least spend a week cleansing the dungeon from its miasma so it doesn't make the plants turn into either monsters or into poisonous vegetables?" I sighed.
"I did, but they were still rather impatient. There was not a single day I didn't received their annoying complains. All of my siblings are spoiled idiots." Sighed Ruby.
"Viscountess don't say that out loud if possible…" Aquamarine said.
"Ah, but it is true!" Sighed the red headed beauty, looking all tired of her annoying siblings, she drank a big sip of beer and looked like a true dwarf for a few seconds there. "Ah this shit's good."
"Well just tell them to wait and take out the stick they got up their assess. We'll go work on it after we are done eating here." I sighed. "But we also gotta do a few mining trips. We need several ores we want to mine, especially Barrier Stone."
"Barrier Stone? That rare ore that is used to make the Barrier Artifact? I see, you want one for your village?" Asked Ruby.
"Yeah, we've got… a few enemies we have to keep watch on. So to prevent anything bad happening, we want to get that done as soon as possible." I said while sighing. "We also need all of this. I scratched the stuff we'll get from the mines, but the rest is stuff we need to buy, can you help us buy everything?"
I gave the paper to Ruby as she nodded while drinking another cup of beer.
"Yeah I can bring you everything no problem. Leave it to me." She said with a reassuring smile.
"Ah, Ruby, you're really a reliable friend." I sighed in relief.
"So? How did the unfreezing went? Were you able to…?" Asked Ruby.
"No that one cursed ice wasn't unfrozen despite the artifacts you lend to me…" I sighed.
"What?!" Ruby reacted in surprise. "But that's… how strong is this ice anyways? Who's your enemy? Can you tell me more? I really want to know who wants the head of my ally, especially such an important one."
"Well… To tell you the truth, it is an alliance." I sighed.
"An unexpected one at that." Emeraldine said.
"Vampires and Ice Giants." Partner added.
"We could stop them but we have no idea where the Ice Giants are." Sighed Lucifer.
"Ice Giants?! But weren't they a peaceful tribe that lived in the snow?" Asked Ruby.
"Well… Long story short…"
And like that we explained her the case of the Frost Queen and Veredorr, the ghost that told me about her. We also showed her the Ring she used to transform the bandits into Ice Golems and all.
"This ring… incredible, I had never seen someone be able to shape a golem core into such a small and compact form and use it to transform someone that dies into an ice golem no less…" Sighed Ruby. "This Frost Queen and her Crown of Skadi… not only they might be a threat to your village but to our own nation as well. I've heard the Ice Giants live very close to our mountain, somewhere in the snowy mountain peaks, or below. I have no idea."
"Hm, if all of this is really true, then we should tell the King right away." Aquamarine said. "There might be a risk for an invasion when we least expect it. If she's able to control such powerful B Rank and A Rank Ice Golem Monsters, then we would be doomed without proper defenses. Unlike living troops, these monsters are tireless, even with the barrier…"
"Yeah, could it be possible to report this to the King? We won't mention you in the report if you want to." Ruby said.
"Well, if you don't mention me then I guess it would be okay." I sighed. "As long as you guys could lend me a hand at dealing with her…"
"For sure." The viscountess said. "In fact, I'll tell some of my guys to begin investigations about anything we know about the Ice Giants right away, and about this "Crown of Skadi". This is now something that involves our nation's safety."
It seems that things got pretty serious.