Double Trouble - Chapter 15 - Playtime (Patreon)

Mikaela

“What can you tell us about this request?” I asked, striding up to the counter the moment the adventurer in front of us had cleared the line. 

“You could at least say hello,” Charlotte remarked, drawing a glare from me. I wasn’t trying to be rude here. I was merely getting down to business with what had to be a rather busy individual.

“The rat king request?” the secretary asked, frowning at the paper I was holding. By coincidence, it was the same secretary we’d seen so recently. His line had been the shortest, so we’d taken it. The fact that he wasn’t eye candy for Charlotte to obsess and distract herself over was simply a pleasant bonus. “I wouldn’t recommend it for a rookie. Your guide might not have mentioned it, but sometimes the difficulty ratings can be deceiving - they often reflect danger more than difficulty. Personally, I think this one should be at least two stars considering the high chance of failure. What do you actually know about rat kings?”

“Well… it’s a collection of rats that all have their tails tied together, right?” Charlotte piped up.

“Not exactly,” The secretary said. “Though it’s true that the tails of rat kings are generally knotted, there’s no evidence of there being other rats tied to them. Rather, they control their smaller brethren through some form of unknown magic, causing them to act as one and follow their leaders orders.”

“Smaller brethren?” Singh asked. “Hold up! I don’t entirely get what ‘brethren’ means, but the smaller part means that the rat king itself is bigger, right? How big?”

“About the size of a wolf,” the secretary replied, eyeing us. “And yes, I know you’ve claimed to take on something far more dangerous than that in the recent past, but there’s more to this request than meets the eye.”

“Such as?” I asked, arching an eyebrow and gesturing for the secretary to continue.

“Well, the quest is to kill the thing, right?” the secretary said. “Which means you need its corpse. But those things have a habit of scattering when they’re in danger, leaving their mun… I mean leaving the normal rats behind to cover their escape.”

“And I’m guessing there’s no reward for bringing in the smaller rats?” I asked, just to be sure.

“Correct,” the man replied with a satisfied nod. “Though potentially dangerous under a rat king’s control, they are ultimately just rats. There’s no way of even proving that what you’ve brought in was part of the horde and not just rats from your attic.”

“Got it,” Charlotte said with a smile that told me she most definitely didn’t get it. At least so far as this human secretary was concerned. “So as long as we get the big rat we’re fine, right?”

“Well… yes,” the secretary reluctantly confirmed, “but if it gets away the request will remain unfinished.”

“I’m not seeing the problem,” Charlotte replied. Which was… fair. We likely wouldn’t have any issues taking the thing down. The secretary didn’t know that, though, and his frown only deepened. 

“If you fail to kill it within two weeks, the request will be considered failed and you’ll be charged a fee for every day the request was off the board - one you’ll have to pay if you wish to take on any further requests here.”

“But it’s fine as long as we kill it, right?” Charlotte responded, frowning herself now. “I still don’t get the problem.”

“I do,” Singh grumbled from the back. “Do we even know where the thing is right now?”

“...Yes, actually,” the secretary admitted, though it seemed to almost physically pain him. “Or at least we know the general area. It’s been sticking to a singular patch of woods, attacking anything that gets too close but not really moving to chase things far away. We think it’s getting ready to breed.”

“All the more reason to kill it now,” I decided. “If the main difficulty is simply its ability to get away, then we’ll simply have to catch it off guard.”

“It’s not just that,” the secretary told us. “It’s also the rats they command. They might seem small and insignificant, but even a grown man can fall to enough rats swarming them… and even if you get away, the wounds often end up infected. We’ve seen a lot of adventurers get sick, too, after dealing with those things.”

“Not a problem for us,” I replied. “We have enough money to pay a healer should things get bad.” Technically not a lie, just misleading. It was likely my sister and I who’d be playing doctor if Reckt or Singh got bitten, but there was no need to advertise our capabilities.

“What’s the point of even doing the request if your plan is to waste all your profits on healers?” the secretary demanded. “I’m telling you this for your own good - unless you’ve got special skills suited for it, that request is a bad idea.”

“Please don’t worry about us,” I said to pacify him, speaking up before Charlotte could get any funny ideas about revealing more than she needed to. “I promise that we’ll take this beast down without fail. We truly do know what we’re doing and we aren’t underestimating it.”

The secretary hesitated a moment before letting out a sigh. “Well, it’s not like it’s my job to stop you… Rookies or no, adventurers have a right to pick their own requests… I told you about it as much as I can… Don’t say I didn’t warn you if you find yourself needing a limb hacked off a few days from now.”

“Noted,” I replied, a wry smile touching my lips even as Reckt paled. Charlotte had it under control, of course, placing a hand on Reckt’s shoulder and shooting her a reassuring glance.

“For now, I’ll register you for the request,” the man said. “If I can see your cards?”

Again, we repeated the process of handing our cards over - and again, the secretary made a point of testing Reckt’s. Everything went smoothly, though, with the secretary copying our names before asking us to press our ink-painted thumbs against the final document. 

Since we were essentially taking the request off the board, it was important that we be held accountable for it. It also kept other adventurers from killing the thing before we could get to it and claiming the reward.

Not that I was particularly worried about anyone beating us to the punch on this one. The thing had likely stayed on the board for a while, what with its difficulty and high risk of disease. Even though it offered three full saints for success, it still likely represented an endeavor too risky to be worth it in most adventurers minds. After all, they weren’t invincible like my sister and I were, and a disease or lost limb could permanently end their adventuring career.

“Come on girls,” I said, gesturing for Charlotte and the others to follow me. “And Reckt, of course.”

“...I don’t know if I should be appreciative or not about being singled out,” Reckt muttered, but I pretended not to hear her. If she wanted to be treated as a girl, I’d oblige, but while Charlotte might be content to focus on Reckt’s current femininity, I saw her for what she was - a non-binary individual who didn’t fully adhere to either side. I wasn’t going to stick labels on her without her express permission.

…Besides, it was also quite fun to tease her.

***

Charlotte

***

“So… what’s the big deal about a rat king, anyway?” Singh asked.

“You’re asking this now?!” I demanded, glancing around us. “Forget how we’ve already taken the request, we’ve already left the city!”

“Yeah, well, unlike the rest of you I’m not entirely willing to discuss the Demon Queen in the middle of town. That’s the sorta thing that can get you some bad attention.”

“Bad attention my foot! What have you got against Mama? Granny Liz already told everyone she isn’t made of concentrated evil!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Singh said, rolling her eyes. “With a big broad announcement to everyone who was alive at the time, right? But I for one never heard it, and neither has anyone else born after she made it. And… I mean, she’s the Demon Queen!”

“But this is Derrin,” Mikaela pointed out. “It’s quite literally the place demons are meant to feel safest outside the tower - a crossroads where humans and demons intersect, to trade and exchange ideas.”

“In theory, sure,” Reckt said. “But… uh… you might have noticed a lack of other demons walking around? Most of the trade is done via deliveries to and from the tower…”

“Well, the war did last two thousand years,” Mikaela replied. “It’s understandable that not a lot of demons are willing to test their fate in human lands, considering how close you all drove us to extinction.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Singh interrupted, rolling her eyes. “The humans are all horrible monsters and the demons are just poor victims - whatever. Most humans aren’t going to see it that way, and there’s still a lot of people who fear the literal Queen of all Demons!”

“Well… they shouldn’t,” I grumbled. “Mama’s a big softy.”

“She is,” Mikaela confirmed with a sigh. “And it’s a shame more people don’t know that. But I suppose proclamations from on high can only do so much to ease tensions after a war that lasted so long almost no one alive remembers the times before it… We’ll need to be careful about discussing her if we don’t want to risk ruining our human disguises.”

I let out a grunt, rather than giving a proper response. I could see the wisdom in what Sis was saying, but… I didn’t like it. I got that we were pretending to be humans, but what she was suggesting was just ignoring the problem and I… I kinda wanted to try and fix it.

Not that I had any idea how.

“Anyway,” Singh said, “about the rat king? I still wanna know what the big deal is.”

“Ah…” I laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of my head. “Don’t spread this around, but uh… Mama hates rats.”

“Rats?” Singh asked, her brow furrowing. “Like… the tiny, four legged, furry things? What’s wrong with them?”

“Other than being dirty and spreading disease?” Mikaela asked. “It’s… complicated.”

Complicated was right, considering it was less hatred and more outright terror. One she’d inherited from a past life, no less! 

“Let’s just say the fewer rats there are in the world, the happier Mama will be,” I said after a moment. “Though I’m not sure this is going to be a tale we can actually tell her about…”

“We can if we skimp on the details,” Mikaela said. “All she really needs to know is that we took on the enemy in her name.”

“Think she’ll be proud?” I asked, already grinning at the thought of it. Mama was… I mean, she was actually pretty quick to give compliments and affection, but she also kinda took it for granted that me and Sis were capable of great things, and since she didn’t want it to get to our head she always made a point of… well, pointing out that we had extra advantages. Which was fine! But… sometimes, rarely, when we did something especially good, she’d get this look of genuine pride in her eyes. This look that let us know she wasn’t just happy to be our Mama, but actively proud of it, too.

I think Mikaela and I both strived for that look. That approval… We were loved, and we knew it, but it was only when one of our parents gave us looks like that that we felt it was earned.

“Is it just me, or are the big scary demon princesses who think they can boss everyone around just a pair of mama’s girls?” Singh asked, crossing her arms.

“So?” I retorted, glaring at her. “Mama’s great!”

“As much as I hate to publicly agree with my sister, and thereby boost her ego, she does have a point,” Mikaela remarked. “But also, maybe don’t tease the girls who will be taking you into the sky?”

“...Into the sky?” Singh asked, suddenly looking a lot less sure of herself.

“To hunt. Unless you have a better way of getting to the rat king’s territory?”

“Can’t you just… walk?” she asked. “That’s an option, isn’t it? You’re really fast, right?”

“Too attention grabbing if we go at full speed,” I replied. “Why? You afraid of heights?”

“N-No,” Singh muttered, looking away from me.

“Really?” I asked, stepping towards her. 

“H-hey! S-Stay away you succubus!” she demanded, stumbling backwards.

“Succubus?” Reckt asked, looking confused. Mikaela just looked amused.

“Oh, you’ve done it now,” I teased, drawing on my succubus side to turn my eyes black before sprouting bat-like wings. At the same time, my tail unwound itself from around me, emerging from a hidden slit in my skirt.

“W-wait! I take it back!” Singh declared, far too late. “I’ll take it all back! Just don’t take me into the-”

Too late. I had her cradled in my arms and we were flying up into the air, even as she cried out and squeezed her eyes shut.

“Relax,” I said, laughing. “I won’t drop you. But seriously, you’re going to need to get used to flying if you wanna be with us for more than a day or two. We’re planning to go all over the place, after all…”

“I-I never a-asked to travel with you,” she stuttered out. “Y-you all b-basically kidnapped me!”

“With your permission,” I pointed out.

“Eventually,” she retorted.

“And you were stealing, so I honestly think ‘took you into custody’ is more appropriate.”

“Yeah, well… Screw you!”

“You sure you want to keep your eyes shut?” I asked, deciding to change topics. “You’re missing quite the sight.”

She was silent for a moment, and I thought she was going to say no. Instead, a soft ‘wow’ escaped her lips and I realized she must have opened her eyes, at least a little.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” I asked, resisting the urge to gesture to the woods below us or the clear skies above. I needed to keep holding Singh steady, after all.

“…” Singh didn’t reply, but she didn’t need to. As long as she wasn’t screaming, I was good to start moving towards the rat king’s territory - so that’s exactly what I did. Slow and steady to avoid scaring her, of course.

“Were you seriously planning to just take off without us?” Mikaela called, from behind us, rising up into the sky with Reckt similarly in her arms. Unlike Singh, Reckt apparently had no issue looking around with wide eyes and taking in the sight.

“Wanna make it a race?” I asked, in lieu of answering, a grin on my face.

“If you make your rider pees, you’re disqualified,” Mikaela replied, smirking at me.

“Unfair! You’ve got the good one for this!”

“And you should do your best to avoid traumatizing your passenger. Tata!”

“You…” I scowled at Mikaela’s back as she took off, flying at high speeds. Not our highest speed, mind you - she was probably focusing on keeping herself hidden from those who might look up, rather than using magic to increase her aerodynamics. That meant I could catch up if I was willing to take some risks…

“You probably wouldn’t like that, though,” I muttered, mostly to myself despite looking down at Singh.

“Screw it!” she replied. “Catch up! I wanna wipe that smirk off her face!”

“You sure?” I asked.

She nodded, her teeth grit into a snarl, and I grinned. “Then off we go!”

I moved - not at top speed, but still faster than Mikaela. While she was focusing fully on concealing herself, I was dodging between clouds to keep safe, using my magic to protect Singh as I accelerated. Once we got closer to Sis, I’d level off and start focusing on images, too, and then it would all come down to who could get just a little more speed out…

At least, that’s what I thought going in. Until I heard a scream in the distance. In the same direction as the Rat King. 

“...Damn it,” I muttered, glancing down at the little passenger in my arms. “I think I’m going to have to leave you with Mikaela. Play time just ended.”