Chapter 538 538 It's No Trouble
The witches considered it for a second, then giggled. "It's actually kind of neat to have the same magical creature as someone else. If we have trouble, we can ask each other, and it gives us something extra in common. It might take all six of them to keep those Succubi under control, though, they have a very different idea about what the words 'making trouble' means." One of the women joked.
The witches were mostly dressed with armour spells, courtesy of the stockpile in the Den and the lack of real clothes that were suitable for a formal occasion. But a Familiar and their Witch were closely entwined, and the Succubi were sneaky creatures, subtly changing the appearance of their Witches armour to better suit their own tastes.
It wasn't a hostile act, and they were convinced that they were doing them a favour, so until they were formally ordered to stop it, the witches hadn't sensed any hostility at all from their Familiars.
The Demons weren't fans of the all encompassing Witch robes with the hood up, and their first actions had been to make the outfit form-fitting, showing off the toned bodies of career soldiers. It was when they tried to make them blue and gold instead of green that the Witches caught on that the Succubi were tampering with their appearance.
That wasn't really surprising to Wolfe. He had seen how much fun the Imps had messing with their Witches at the Academy, finding new and innovative pranks to get around the restrictions that were placed on them. One of their greatest accomplishments was the innovative interpretation of orders. For example, being given an order to do something could be interpreted as an order to stop doing what they were ordered before, right?
Those six were in for a rough time if they wanted to fight head on with a group of six fun-loving casino workers, who had no doubt seen more than anyone else in the room, except perhaps the Leprechaun and the Chimera.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtThe next group started their summoning, while two held back a bit, going one after the other to test the theory that they might get something different by waiting.
The first four all got various forest animals, and the crowd waited anxiously to see what came next.
The fifth was a Wind Rabbit, another forest creature, but a powerful one, and a twin to Priya's own Familiar, while the last was a black cloud and brought out a Nekomata, a twin-tailed Cat Demon.
"Well, that neither proves nor disproves the theory. But that's the last of our Rank Three witches, now, back to the Rank Two Familiars. Come on up and let's keep this moving so that we're not making the others wait too long. I can already see how anxious the end of the line is getting." Cassie joked.
Most of the crowd was already distracted by the huge number of new Familiars in the area, and the witches who had finished their summoning were spreading out through the city, either showing off to new friends or finding a calm spot to sit and get to know their Familiar. That made it a bit less crowded, and Wolfe pulled more of the waiting witches forward to cleanse their Bloodline Curse while they waited, keeping the cycle going steadily for the next few hours, until Wolfe was certain that they now had enough magical beasts to form their own Monster Tide.
It was a good thing that the city had expanded because not all of these creatures were small, so they were going to need some room to move about without always needing to go outside the city.
Most notable was the surprising number of bears that they had summoned today. It was getting out of hand, with dozens of the massive creatures wandering around, passing out random hugs and scaring children while they got yelled at by their witches.
With the [Familiar Binding] spell on them, they were entirely too friendly, but the beast kin from herbivore species were not ready to be grabbed by a random bear with no warning.
The sun was long gone from the sky when the summoning finished, and Wolfe finally headed back out into the city, only to find that it was completely packed. The villagers had started coming over through the underground highway system as it got close to sunset so that they could enjoy the nightlife and get settled in for an early morning at the Festival.
That was after Wolfe was already in the spire, so he hadn't noticed the change until he left, but even with the expanded city size, it was crowded both in the market and on the elevated walkways.
There were live shows started a day early, but a good crowd was a good crowd, and there were tips to be made. This festival wasn't as much of a mating event as the spring one, but there was always the opportunity, and a live concert was always a great opportunity to meet new people.
One of the witches that had arrived that morning was sitting against the wall near the door with her new Hellhound, just taking in the sights and sounds when Wolfe came outside and smiled down at them.
"It's quite the event, are you sure that you don't want to go down and get some snacks from the vendors, maybe dance with the crowd?" Wolfe asked.
She shook her head. "I get claustrophobic in crowds. It's better to watch from up here, where there isn't as much foot traffic. Were there always this many people in town?"
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmWolfe shook his head. "No, they came from the surrounding villages this evening while we were doing the summoning ritual. This is easily twice as many people as actually live here. It gets pretty insane in the evenings during the festival, and there will likely be magical fireworks every night for a week. If it gets too hard to sleep, you can activate the [Silence] charm on your apartment and block all the outside sounds."
She smiled at Wolfe's helpful suggestion. "I have a Hellhound Puppy and my roommate has a hyperactive Wind Rabbit. I doubt that silencing the outside sounds will be enough to allow me to sleep tonight."
The hound gave Wolfe a happy smile, with its tongue hanging out of its mouth, and its tail started to happily thump on the ground as it realized it could chase the bunny around the house all night.
"It seems like he doesn't mind the idea. But you should be very explicit with your orders not to harm each other. The Wind Rabbits can get irritable, and their magic is strong." Wolfe warned her.
"I will keep it in mind. Maybe I should try to tire him out before bed." She sighed.
"How about we head down into the Den and I introduce him to Ember. She loves to play, and there is a huge empty cavern just specifically for letting the Familiars unwind. It might be busy right now, but that will also help with your problem."
Now the hound was on its feet, tugging at her sleeve to get the witch moving.
"Alright, let's go see the activities room."