Yugioh Card Summoner

CH.345 Bringing Cailie Home

After a good night’s rest at a high-class inn, or maybe I should just call it a hotel, I met up with Ula again. I do have to question her job still. Is keeping an eye on me really that important? … that was a joke. I know it probably is.

From there, we headed for Cailie’s house. It was located in an underwater residential area inside the city. Basically an underwater apartment building for mer-folk and other aquatic races. There were only very few of them inside the city, as the space was limited, so Cailie originally lived in one in the lake surrounding the city, but after she became a singer, her management company moved her to live inside the city.

Ula’s card got us inside the building itself, and from there we went to the door leading to Cailie’s room. It was quite small, nothing more than a small apartment. Not really something you’d expect a rising star to be living in. Some of the room was underwater, but there were also a few spots where you could stay above the water. 

… Actually, do mer-folk usually sleep in water or above water? Well, at least for Cailie, her bed was about half-way in the water, so that when she lays in it, just a bit of her would be in the water, while the rest would be above the water. But she can also sleep fully outside of water, as I learned from the time she spent with us. The part I don’t know is if they can live fully submerged. I mean, mer-folk do have gills, so maybe? But for gills to work properly, you have to have water flowing through them, so perhaps it is only possible if there is a fan or something moving the water. So maybe just sleeping half-submerged is the easiest?

“Good morning, Cailie.” I greeted the girl inside. She had seemingly packed all of her stuff, as all of the closets in the room were empty. There was still furniture and things like tableware, but those are probably a part of the house, not something Cailie owns.

All of her stuff was inside a backpack style magic bag that I’d given Cailie. It was actually kind of cool, because it could be used under water. Most magic bags, if opened under water, would fill themselves with water, but Cailie’s wouldn’t, so the one she had was a bit special in that way. And it was of course waterproof. 

“M-morning, Brian.” Cailie responded to my greeting.

“I see you’ve packed. So no change of heart.”

“No! I still want to go with you.” Cailie said, clearly with determination in her voice.

“Happy to hear that.”

“At least two of us are.” Ula commented.

“Ula, this isn’t about you.” I pointed out. “Sure it will be a bit more paperwork, but do you even have to deal with it? Don’t you have someone to pawn it off to?”

“I wish I did.”

“... you don’t? Maybe you should get one.”

“I can’t for security reasons.” 

“Well, then I’d like to apologize for the trouble. Is there something I can give you that will make it better?”

“... maybe an airship like the ones you have?” Ula asked, probably jokingly.

“I can look into that. I think you know that for now it is impossible, but I can check if I can make it into something that you could use.”

“Wait? Are you serious?”

“Sure, why not? But it will take some time, so I can make the mapping software, I’ll also have to install the location beacons, make some sort of power source that doesn’t rely on HomeBase and so on, so don’t expect one any time soon. But maybe in a year or something, I might have them. And I might just think about giving one to you.”

“... maybe something more simple would be better after all.”

“Yeah, maybe. And I feel like your higher-ups will purchase a few ships from me anyway, when they are available.”

“Most likely yes.”

“Well, since you don’t know what you want, I can at least give you this.” I said, as I got a letter exchange box out of Storage.

“... and this is?”

“A letter exchange box. If you put a letter, or anything small really, inside of it, it will instantly be transported to its other half. Which I will set up in my office. So when you come up with something you want, send me a letter.”

“... Are you sure you want to give me one of these?”

“Sure. Why not? Admittedly, they aren’t that difficult to make.”

“Then why didn’t you give one to Miss Cailie when you left her here?”

“I hadn’t designed them at that point.”

“So you made these … in two months?”

“Actually it took me about three hours. As I said, they are simple. And as I also said, if you want something as an apology gift, even if it is something that doesn’t exist, I might be able to make one. As long as you give me a bit of time.”

“I … I’ll think about your offer and I’ll be in contact.”

“You can… you can also send me letters, Ula. I’ll respond to them.” Cailie told her.

“Thank you, Cailie. This city will be more quiet without you.”

“... that’s fine. It is too loud anyway.”

After making sure Cailie had all of her stuff packed, it was time to tell the people she is quitting. Cailie said that the lady at the herb store will understand, so we decided to start with her first. And while it got a bit tearful on the part of the store owner, she understood why Cailie wanted to quit and let her go. As a thanks for the store owner being so understanding, I ended up buying a bunch of her herbs.

After that was all dealt with, it was time for the idol agency. It isn’t actually called that, but that is what I’ll call it, because it sounds almost like a Japanese idol agency. Just because how controlling the people are, and so on. And with me using an intermediate water spirit as a booster, since I didn’t have that rebreather thing today, we again zoomed across the city so we arrived at the idol office quite quickly. 

I have to say, zooming in water like that is really fun. Maybe I should turn one of the water floors of HomeBase into some sort of underwater race track? It probably wouldn’t even be difficult and all I’d have to develop is a rebreather, which I already wanted to make, and an underwater booster thingy. 

And think about this. If I turn the booster thingy into a duel disk, then we could have underwater duels. Card games on motorcycles don’t got nothing on card games underwater. It could even come with limits like only being able to use cards that can survive underwater, just limit deck building. 

Well, before I worry about all of that, I need to figure out we can have regular duels. I mean, we can have duels already, but even though Lua and Alice know the basic rules of Yugioh, they haven’t really put any time into understanding deck building, so we really just don’t do it. We did have a few duels with decks that I made for us, but I’m not sure if either of them are sold on the idea of really getting into Yugioh. Maybe I should speak Lady Janina into it. I feel like she might enjoy it more and she does seem to have the time to build custom decks.

The building where the idol agency was housed wasn’t actually one that had a water entrance, so Cailie and I got out of the water at a near-by spot that had some dressing rooms. Because Ula and I had to take off my swimwear. Unlike the rebreather, I did purchase my swimwear yesterday, and Ula carried hers in a magic bag.

I also got the wheelchair out for Cailie, so I could push her into the building. With Ula’s help, we quickly got inside the building and from there, Cailie was quite quickly able to get a meeting with someone from the company. Though it did seem to be rare for a mer-folk to come to the main office, instead of sending a message through their manager.

But despite us taking the abnormal route, Cailie was given the opportunity to meet someone.

“I quit, effective immediately.” Cailie just said.

“You can’t. You have a contract.” The man quickly said. He wasn’t a human man, but some sort of dog-folk actually.

“I don’t recall signing one.” Cailie said. “Would you show me this contract?”

What Cailie was saying was something Ula and I came up with yesterday, after we heard she doesn’t actually have a physical contract. So all that actually ties her to the idol work is a promise she made to both her manager, as well as the manager that first realized her talent. They legitimately have nothing they can use to force her to keep working.

“You gave us your word.”

“Did I? I don’t recall doing so.”

“Don’t screw around with me!” The dog got quite angry with Cailie’s tone. “What do you think your fans will say?”

“They’ll be quite disappointed, I’d imagine.” Cailie said nonchalantly. I guess all of that singing practice has given her some acting skills.

“And what are we supposed to say to them!?”

“How about ‘We are an evil company that tries to force people to do what they don’t want to do?’” I suggested. I was going to have Cailie say it, but it might be a bit too much.

“And just who are you?” The dog asked.

“Honorary Baron Brian Wood, at your service.” I introduced myself.

“Some wannabe noble thinking they can do whatever they want. What did you do for your title?” 

“Just founded a dungeon, nothing much.” I said as I revealed my terminal. “But you do realize, Cailie isn’t asking for permission to leave. She is informing you she will leave.”

“And just so both of you know, if Miss Cailie is to leave our company, she will never work in this industry again.” The dog-folk said.

“Good.” Cailie responded. “I never really wanted to work in it in the first place. Bye.”

“You think I’m going to let it go like that?” The dog called after us.

“Yes. I expect that you do.” I told him. 

“At least you will pay out the money to refund every ticket to Cailie’s next concert, won’t you mister noble?” The dog egged me, and I will admit, I 100% want to fall into his bait.

“... Sure, I can do that. How much?”

“... what?”

“I asked how much. Or do you want me to count? The tickets I picked up were two small silvers each. I think there were around 1000 or so people in the audience, so all those tickets would be about 100 gold.” I did the quick math. “But to be fair, my audience estimation might be off, so let’s double it. Here are your 200 gold.” 

I got a pouch filled with gold coins out of Storage and not so gently threw it right at mister dog’s head. Trying to slow it down at least a little, he put his hands in front, but it didn’t matter and the bag ended up crashing into his face with enough force that his chair fell over and the dog ended up on the ground.

“... is he okay?” Ula asked.

I quickly checked up and the man was breathing. I then got a Goblin's Secret Remedy and shoved the leaf it gave me directly into the dog's mouth. It was an effective healing method, but I didn’t usually use it because the taste left a bit to be desired, but it was perfect for this dog.

“He’ll live.” I told Ula. “Let’s go.”

With our message delivered, we left the room. Surely someone will check on that dog-folk man soon. And if they don’t, that is their problem.

Once outside, I decided it was time for us to leave this city, before this idol company has the time to do something stupid, like sending a task force after us. And I got to vent some of my anger with that money toss, so let’s get out of here before I actually punch someone.

“I will take you to the airstrip then.” Ula said.

“Nah. We aren’t flying back.” I told her.

“... you aren’t?”

“Nope. Teleportation.” I just said.

“... okay? Why didn’t you arrive that way?”

“Sorry. I can only teleport back home.” I told her. “Please tell Lieutenant Jawy that I don’t need his services. I’m guessing he is waiting for me somewhere near the airstrip.”

“I’ll be sure to do that.” Ula said.

“Cailie, you ready to go?” 

“Yes. … Do I need to do something special?”

“Not much, but I do need to hold you in my arms. I hope you don’t mind.”

“No. It’s fine.” 

After Cailie said that, I picked her up into my arms. While it might be a bit … wrong to say, she had gained a bit of weight since the last time I carried her. Not that it is a bad thing, as she was quite thin back then. She is clearly much better now.

After that, I took both Cailie’s magic bag and the wheelchair into Storage, and we were ready to go. 

And as I said, we are teleporting home. Not with Space Magic. I’m not quite there yet. But I don’t need Space Magic when I have HomeBase cheats. Both Agunan and I can teleport back to HomeBase’s True Core. It is an emergency feature of the Chaos God Core, after all. And anything we happen to be holding closely will come with us. That is why I had to take Cailie into my arms. If I didn’t, there is a full chance she would have been left here, instead of teleporting with me. 

So after a goodbye to Ula, we disappeared from the Hero’s country.

As soon as we arrived in the True Core room, I teleported us out of there and directly into my office. Because while I do feel like Cailie will eventually learn about the existence of the True Core, for now she doesn’t have to know about it.

I then got out Cailie’s wheelchair and placed her back onto it.

“Welcome back, Master.” Endy welcomed me. “And welcome to HomeBase, Miss Cailie. My name is Endymion, but please feel free to call me Endy.”

“H-Hello, mister Endymion.” Cailie responded. “... Brian? Where are we?”

“This is my office. Inside HomeBase, aka my home.” I told her. “Endy, anything I need to know now?”

“Nothing major. We have some movements on Princess Nevelle as well as a report from Miss Alice.”

“Alright. I already know Alice’s report, as I heard it from her in the Factory, and I’ll hear about Nevelle later.”

“As you wish.”

“Also, can you send a few maids to prepare one of the water rooms for Cailie?”

“Tinkhec is active today, and I don’t believe she is the best fit for it. Do we have the permission to activate someone else?” Endy asked.

“Yeah. Give the avatar room the permission to activate Nudyarl. She can deal with it, and keep going for her tomorrow’s shift with a short rest, I believe.”

“As you wish, Master. It shall be done.”

“Alright. Thanks.” I thanked Endy for his work. “Cailie, you ready to have a tour?”

“... I … Yes?”

“Good. I’ll push you around and introduce you to everyone new.”

“O-okay?”