Chương 8: Just Bart

The door swung open on well oiled hinges, revealing a cozy room with polished dark wooden furniture and cheerful oil paintings lining the walls. Bella's inspection of the room was postponed by Sebastian stepping inside and bowing as he declared, "Announcing Gemma Hollyhope, High Paladin of the Order of the Uplifting Spirit, and her wife, Bellasora Hollyhope, Archmage." His hand swept forward, gesturing the pair into the room.

Bella followed Gemma into the room, hoping she managed to hide her slight cringe from the use of their characters' titles in the bagginess of her robes. And that she managed to hide the flush in her cheeks at the mention of them being married. A quick flick of her eyes revealed that Gemma maintained that slightly arrogant look her character did so well - but she still had the tiniest bit of red in her ears.

From one of the couches burst forward a bear of a human man, six-and-a-half feet of muscle and belly, with a thick mane of tightly braided fiery red hair and a beard fashioned to match. He crossed the room with heavy thumping strides, face split by a massive grin, a monstrously large hand stuck forth, "A pleasure to have you both! Count Bartholomew Gryphonsmaw, but call me Bart. Can't stand the name, don't tell the Queen though." At his statement the butler looked like he might scold the man, or faint, or both.

After she considered the hand for a moment, Gemma inclined her head in a nod and shook the offered hand firmly. The two remained clenched for a long moment, staring at each other before 'Bart' winced and their grips released. A test of strength? At least he's not telling us to eat his shorts, Bella thought with a smirk. She took the hand when it was offered to her, inclining her head as well.

"It's our pleasure to be here, Count Gryphonsmaw," Gemma said warmly; the Count winced at the use of his title, but she pretended not to notice.

"Rest assured, we are not on such casual terms with the Queen," she continued with a smirk of her own.

"And please forgive Robin's absence. They had duties of their own to tend to in the capital." Bella nodded along. For all their characters' deeds, she could scarcely imagine rubbing shoulders with high nobility. It was strange enough they were here with a Count. She certainly felt out of her wheelhouse here. He, on the other hand, waved his hand dismissively, "Not yet, at least. But after what you've done… I'd wager it's inevitable.

While it truly is an honor to have you both here, I did have an ulterior motive for inviting you here. My initial report to the Queen was sparse and I'm required to submit a more thorough one post-haste. I hope you won't mind a bit of storytelling over dinner. I'm sure my wife and son would enjoy the tale as well," he laughed as he stepped aside, gesturing behind himself. Two figures appeared as the bearded man no longer blocked the entire view with his bulk.

His wife smiled nearly as large as Lord Bartholomew, curtsying welcomingly at the pair. She was striking – an elf of fair skin and jade hair with shoulders nearly as broad as her husband's and hands that look like she'd wielded a sword every day of her life.

"I am Lady Cecilia, my Ladies. I apologize for my husband's enthusiasm. And for Sam's, whenever he gets to his questions." The aforementioned son stared silently from behind her, tucked into her skirts and eyes filled wide with awe. Bella bowed slightly to Lady Cecilia before dropping to her knees and offering the hiding child a broad smile. Warnings about his curiosity promptly ignored, she wiggled her fingers in greeting at him.

"Hi Sam, I'm Bella. Do you want to see a magic trick?" The half-elf boy nodded quickly, taking a half step forward out of his mother's skirts with excitement. The catkin's fingers wiggled again before lighting up; each one took on a different hue of the rainbow, their prismatic lights pulsing slowly. She flicked her pointer finger towards the ceiling and the sky blue light darted upwards, spiraling quickly into the air.

Another finger, and now it was joined by a crimson orb, the two of them spinning around each other like ballroom dancers. A third finger, a disc of green spun up and floated below the first two like a grassy floor. The glowing magic from her fingers joined one after another, creating a dazzling lightshow around the first two dancing orbs. After a few minutes of showing off, Bella let her connection to the exerted mana fade and dropped her gaze to Sam, who was staring slack jawed.

To be fair, Gemma and Sam's parents were also rather stunned by the sudden show. Bella grinned with fierce pride at the reactions, though a small part of her was wondering just when she'd thought of putting together such a spell, or if it was her in-character self's doing.

"That. Was. So. Cool!" shouted the young boy, hands balled to fist and rocketing up into the air as he shimmied in place, unable to contain his excitement.

"How did you do that? Can you teach me? What kind of other spells do you have? What- " Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. A massive bear's paw of a hand cut the boy off, landing on his head and ruffling his hair affectionately.

"Hang on there, Sam. If you start now, we'll never get to dinner." The half-elf grumbled up at his father, attempting to push the massive hand off his head.

"Don't worry," Bella said as she hid her hands in her robes and leaned in conspiratorially.

"I'll be sure to show you more after dinner." Bella leaned back in her chair with a spectacular sigh and patted her belly as she finished the last dish of the meal. While no single thing was the most spectacular food she'd ever tasted, every dish had been unique and varied and showcased a different sauce or cooking technique. The urge to curl up by the fire and take a catnap was nearly overwhelming, but even with her lack of social graces she knew that was a bad idea.

Thankfully, she was rescued from the temptation when Lord Bart spoke up.

"Well I'm glad you both enjoyed it. And it's nice to have a guest who doesn't start every course by having their mage cast Detect Poison." Truthfully, it was a nuance that would be unheard of back on Earth, so the thought of needing to test for poison had never occurred to her. But she couldn't miss this opportunity. The catkin's brows rose and she leaned her chin onto her fist, smiling broadly and toothily at the Count.

"You'd need more poison than a Rotdragon to have any effect on us, and we'd know innately. Before you could watch us take a bite, we could obliterate the whole castle." She silently cast a spell, a ball of pure blue fire appearing lazily over her other hand. Whether the Count was sweating from the blazing heat of the magical flame or the threat was unclear.

Gemma leaned over and flicked Bella in the forehead hard enough to shake the room with a loud crack, but it only left a small red mark on the catkin's forehead." Enough," the elf commanded forcefully. The spell dissipated, though it left the room significantly warmer than it had been, and Bella fixed her with a mighty pout. And some severely flushed cheeks. Similarly on the other side of the room, a thwap echoed when Cecilia smacked her husband on the back of her head.

"Idiot." The two elves shared a knowingly frustrated look with each other over their partners' foolishness, heads shaking. Sam just sat silently, staring at the spot where the conjured fire had been. Cecilia cleared her throat after admonishing the count, then asked jovially, clearly intending to move past the moment, "So – before my husband says something else stupid to try to get our home destroyed, I must ask. Could you tell us the story of your victory over the corrupted forces of the Exiled Moon now?"

Gemma nodded and leaned forward; her countenance adopted a more serious look as she appeared to consider how to approach the tale. In truth, she and Bella had spent a good portion of their bath discussing the best way to tell the story without giving themselves away. As they reviewed and revised the tale between themselves, some mysteries had surfaced in their recollections of their character's memories.

In particular, they spent quite a long time going back and forth on the fact that their memories carried pop culture references and knowledge of game mechanics. Things their characters couldn't have been aware of. After enough talking in circles, Bella washed her hands of it, chalking it up to a common trope she'd read in her frequent ventures into the isekai genre: that their memories were merging with those of their characters.

She had voiced some trepidation at the idea but ultimately found no actionable resolution. After a moment of pretending to gather her thoughts, Gemma began the story the way they had chosen.

"I'm sure your officers have reported on some of this in greater detail, but we had heard about the expedition to chase after the cultists and rushed to join from our last job in Timbermire. After two day's march through the wilderness, we linked up with the excursion forces, just shy of the cultists' hideout in the outpost ruins.

"The moon-corrupted monsters grew thicker as we approached. There was a veritable horde of them surrounding the fortress. We provided our aid to your forces wherever we could during the fight." Bella grinned to herself, legs swinging below the table as she played with her glass of wine. What Gemma didn't say was that there was no way the Count's soldiers would have survived without them.

In the game, the players showing up turned the tide of the battle, keeping the exhausted forces from succumbing to the overwhelming number of corrupted monsters. After the fact, the end-game credits revealed that an incompetent officer seeking merit had pushed the soldiers past their limits in an attempt to be the one to stop the cult. The Count and Countess, however, seemed to understand the truth of what happened after the reports from their soldiers.

"It's greatly appreciated", Lady Cecilia murmured, "I doubt our men would have made it home without you." As she continued, Gemma dismissed the thanks with a short wave of her hand.

"They would have found a way. Regardless, once the situation outside was under control, Bella and I pushed into the outpost to meet the cult. The fighting was swift, and in short order we fought our way into the structure's crypt. It turned out that the cultists had converted it into a vast tunnel network." What the elf hadn't said was that they had enjoyed playing the game so much that they had grinded far beyond standard endgame levels and gear.

By the time they reached the final 'dungeon', they were wiping the floor with enemies who were meant to provide an immense challenge. There's not really a good way to frame that as our characters, Bella thought to herself. Thankfully, the soldiers hadn't followed them into the final area and so their fight had been unobserved. It took them significantly longer to navigate the tunnels than it did to splatter the cultists in their way.

"At the final end of the tunnels, we encountered the cult's leader, an ancient vampire." Amusement filled the catkin as she watched the jaws drop on the noble couple across the table. If they thought that was wild…