On Astral Tides: From Humble Freelancer To Astral Emperor

Fifty

“Wait, what?” I asked, confused.

“You know what!” Karen-chan snapped. “That girl is clearly underage. She doesn’t even look old enough to work, never mind be your colleague. And you are plying her with alcohol, even hard stuff like whiskey? I’ve sorely misjudged you. No doubt when her guard is down you’ll take advantage of her and do all sorts of criminal things.”

Uhh… shit. Didn’t see this one coming, but I guess I should have.

Ignoring Shaeula, who was looking at the situation with interest, I hastily explained. “Hey, you have it all wrong. I swear she is older than she looks, she’s twenty, she really is! Besides, she is my colleague; she helped out a lot in the big project we just finished.”

“Yes, we have certainly won a great victory, have we not-not?” Shaeula said proudly, drawing a quizzical look from Karen-chan, whose hands had paused on her phone.

“She’s foreign, so while her Japanese is really good she does say odd things occasionally, but please don’t hold that against her, after all, she’s learned our language, which is more than we usually do, right?” I explained her comment away.

“Twenty?” Karen-chan looked sceptical. “She’s so cute and small if she was in a high school uniform she wouldn’t look out of place. Maybe even a middle school one.”

“I won’t deny she’s very cute, but I’m not doing anything bad to her, I swear! I’ve not taken advantage of her at all, I wouldn’t even think it.”

“Hmph. I should say not, or my noble father and my siblings would have you executed, as well you know-know!”

The tense atmosphere was suddenly cut by a burst of giggles from Karen-chan, her tense face loosening. “Oh my, she is just so hilarious. Executed!” she laughed more. When she regained her calm she looked at me. “Sorry about that. But you can’t really blame me. Anyone would think that you were imprisoning a young girl in your room and keeping her occupied with games, ready to get her drunk and have your way with her.” as I nodded to accept her apology she turned back to Shaeula.

“Sorry about that. It’s nice to meet any colleague of Akio-kun’s. My name is Watanabe Karen, but since we’ve met under such circumstances I think you can just call me Karen.”

“Very well then Karen. You may call me Shaeula. I am not from your country, so these… honorifics … do not sit well with me-me.”

“I’ll do my best.” Karen agreed. “Shaeula. That’s a pretty name. Your eyes are a really unusual colour as well. You could be a model with those looks. I’m not sure why you would want to work in IT, you could do better.”

Now that the conversation was moving into safer topics I relaxed. Though I shouldn’t be too relaxed. Shaeula is smart enough to not say anything too weird, but she doesn’t have a full understanding of how the Material world works yet to know everything that is weird… to distract them as they chatted I pulled out the bottles of sake and whiskey, opening up the expensive single malt I had purchased. The rich aroma filled the room, causing Shaeula to stop her embarrassing explanation of how great the feat we had just achieved was and to turn to me, eyes bright.

“That smell… it is rather divine. Is it better than your beer-beer?”

“That’s an adorable verbal tic you have there Shaeula.” Karen giggled. “So cute!”

“I do not understand quite what you mean.” Shaeula answered primly. “I talk with perfect grace, as befits my noble status-status. But enough of this. I was asking you about the drink, Akio.”

I also took out three whiskey glasses which I had also purchased, made from rather nice patterned glass, and slowly filled them up with the amber liquid. Once I was done I handed a glass to each of the women, keeping one for myself. Lucky the glasses came in a set of four or I’d have been embarrassed here.

“I should say it’s a lot nicer.” I grinned. “Although it is a lot stronger, so you savour it by taking sips, rather than the gulps you usually take. Enjoy the flavour. Besides… the colour matches your eyes so well, doesn’t it?”

Karen-chan made fake retching noses. “I knew it, you are trying to ply her with alcohol and have your way with her. That was totally flirting right there!”

Ignoring Shaeula, who had cocked her head quizzically, I rebutted, my face flushed. “Hardly. She’s my cute junior co-worker after all. I’d feel bad if I didn’t compliment her when she worked really hard. Anyway, cheers everybody!”

I took a large sip of the whiskey, feeling the rich flavour and fiery glow. Shaeula and Karen-chan did as well, Shaeula almost purring in delight. “This is indeed excellent, worthy to be served at the court of my father indeed. You have made an excellent choice-choice!”

“This tastes really expensive.” Karen-chan said, though she made no move to stop drinking. “You must have had a really big result if you are drinking this to celebrate. That or you really want to get into that yukata.” She eyed me sternly.

Taking another large sip I unpacked the various pans and other items I had gathered and began to start the preparations for dinner. “I’m pretty sure I told you that isn’t it. What senior would hit on their junior so callously?”

“You would be surprised.” Karen-chan said darkly, her hand white around her glass. She gulped down the rest and held out the glass. “More please.”

Damn, I must have stepped on a landmine there. I refilled her glass, and then topped up Shaeula, who was looking at me like a puppy. “I’m going to get dinner started. You two chat and enjoy yourself. There’s beer there if you want it.” I also passed around some snacks, with a warning not to eat too much and get full.

As I laid out some fine high-quality meat into the pan and started sizzling it, I then began to work on the side dishes and rice. I couldn’t say I was the world’s best cook, but everyone in my family had learned. My parents insisted if I was going to live away from home I would need to know how to keep healthy. Not that I usually bothered, it was cheaper just to have cup ramen or rice balls. It was funny that I was a better cook than Eri-chan now though. She looked like she would be a girly girl, but when it came to household chores she was rather lousy. Just part of her charm I guess, it makes people want to do things for her…

“Oh, I have received a text from Ichika. I must answer this-this.” Shaeula said suddenly, as her phone beeped. She quickly began tapping away, causing Karen-chan to laugh once more, her dark mood fading.

“Ichika? A friend of yours?”

“Yes. Akio came across her when she was being accosted by some low scum, and he promptly aided her by crushing them with admirable ruthlessness. After that we became friends-friends.”

“That story sounds awfully familiar…” Karen-chan said. Turning to me I nodded with a sigh.

“Good guess. I don’t know how the same person could be so unlucky, or how the same thing can happen to me twice, but we ran into her being harassed again by the same bunch of thugs. They won’t be doing it again though.”

“That’s pretty amazing.” Ignoring the beer Karen-chan had topped up her and Shaeula’s whiskey. Her face was getting noticeably red. I did want to ask her to slow down, but decided against it. Maybe venting will get it off her chest. It’s Sunday tomorrow anyway so she shouldn’t be working.

“Maybe it’s destiny.” She continued. “A guy saves a girl not once but twice from danger. It really sounds like fate.”

“I don’t think it is anything that impressive.” The scents filling the room were quite enticing, and Shaeula was eyeing the meat greedily. “I just stepped in. A lot of people would do the same.”

“But not just anyone could crush those scum like you did Akio-Akio. I was quite moved at the way you dispatched them so thoroughly.”

“Dispatched them?” Karen-chan snickered, her voice a touch slurred. “It sounds like you killed them. You didn’t, did you Akio-kun?”

“Of course not.” I scoffed. “Though to be honest I did really kick their asses.”

“You are like some kind of action hero. I’m jealous. I wish someone would do something like that for me…” Karen-chan continued, emptying her glass and waving it for a refill.

“Yes, Akio is quite the warrior in battle.” Shaeula agreed, also draining her own glass. “His recent performances have been encouraging to me-me.”

“Are you sure?” I asked Karen-chan, ignoring Shaeula’s praise. ”You’ve had quite a bit.”

“Don’t be stingy Akio.” She said without an honorific, though whether that was intentional it was hard to tell. She looks a bit drunk. She has been downing it quickly… “A glass more won’t hurt, and it isn’t often I get to drink the good stuff.”

“Well, if you are sure. Don’t blame me if you are horribly hungover tomorrow though.” I topped up their glasses and left them chatting as I continued to cook dinner…

********

Shaeula finished her glass, lying on her back, looking up at me. “That was most pleasing. We should do this more often. As a princess I am accustomed to such luxuries, poverty does not suit me-me.”

“Sure. If we continue to succeed we can.” I said, gulping down the contents of my own glass. Beside us the bottle was three-quarters empty, and an empty bottle of sake that we had drank with dinner accompanied it. The soft snores of Karen-chan who was lying in my futon were a background noise to our quiet conversation. I knew she drank too much. I didn’t have the heart to move her. Let’s hope she doesn’t wake up and think I did anything weird to her though. I was a perfect gentleman. Not that I could be anything else with Shaeula watching…

“This one was rather amusing. I have not known many mortals, but they are certainly… passionate indeed-indeed.” Shaeula commented. “I feel some shame I was so dismissive of their value-value.”

“Well she’ll probably be really embarrassed about this in the morning, but it seemed she enjoyed talking with you. And you didn’t let anything too weird that I couldn’t explain away slip out, so we are all good.” I began to clean away the remains of dinner, impressed at the volume the two girls had eaten.

“Of course I would not. I am as wise as I am beautiful.” Shaeula boasted, her face flushed.

And as drunk as you are cute, too. Shaeula could handle her drink, whether that was due to her Material body or natural talent I couldn’t be sure, but even so she was feeling the effects. As for myself, my head was feeling a little fuzzy and I was pleasantly buzzed, but I felt fine otherwise. Guess my superhuman stats help my body take care of the alcohol.

Once I had finished tidying and taken the bottle of whiskey away from Shaeula before she finished it all, I turned on my PC and opened up the roulette application. It only took twenty or so minutes to recover the funds I had spent on all of the shopping I had done today. I continued for another twenty, adding a few hundred more Pounds to the pot, before closing the application.

“No need to get greedy. I’ll try again tomorrow.” I turned back to Shaeula. “Well, we may as well head to the Boundary for a while. With the way Karen-chan is snoring I doubt she will wake up any time soon.”

“Very well. I am curious to see if those musclebound idiots have managed to understand your orders. I would not be surprised if Grulgor has done something foolish-foolish.”

“Nah, I think it’ll be all right. Your sickle-weasel is there to keep an eye on him anyway. In any case, we need to take as much advantage of the etheric tide as we can before it ebbs out. I want to continue our training as well, it is really helping, and I feel a breakthrough is near.”

“In that case, shall we go?” Shaeula asked, and with that we entered our Territory, leaving me feeling vaguely uncomfortable that my Material form would be sleeping next to not one, but two women. I guess this is my time in the sun. Now if only it didn’t make me so stressed…

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