After parting ways with the Chiron Tribe and the Myriad Beast that was prone to mood swings, William continued his journey to gather allies. This time, his destination was towards the North of the Hellan Kingdom.
According to Takam, there was a Giant Trollhound that was hunting around the base of the Kyrintor Mountains. Since this particular Beast wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary, Takam ignored its existence.
Naturally, William knew the identity of this Giant Trollhound. This time, it had the perfect bait to make it join his team since he was about to fight against the same Organization that had made it, and its kin, suffer.
They had been traveling for four days before they decided to rest at a valley they found along the way. William had allowed the Centaurs and some of the other creatures inside his Thousand Beast Domain to hunt the wild beasts that inhabited the area.
Centaurs liked to eat meat as well, but they didn’t like eating goblin meat. For them, it was disgusting so William accepted their proposal to hunt every now and then when an opportunity arose.
Ashe was also weary of their long days of traveling, and William couldn’t bear to let his lover suffer. The two spent some tender moments in a hidden hot spring on the Northern side of the valley. After that, they had a light dinner before sleeping in the villa inside the Thousand Beast Domain.
When William opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was Ashe’s sleeping beside him. She was sleeping peacefully in William’s embrace. The red-headed boy looked at her with a gentle gaze, as he moved away the strands of hair covering her beautiful face.
William knew that if his current self traveled to the past, and told his younger self that the person whom he always quarreled with would end up becoming his lover, that younger version of himself wouldn’t believe it, and would even spit on him and say, “You mad, Bruh?”.
William chuckled internally as he thought of this scene, because he himself found it hard to believe.
While he was pondering about such things, a notification appeared on his status page.
—–
< Ding! >
< Happy Fifteenth Birthday, Host! >
< I wish you more experience points to level up all your Job Classes and enough stamina to keep your lovers satisfied! >
—-
The system also played a Happy Birthday song that made William realize that he had completely forgotten that it was indeed his birthday.
He checked the date on the lower right side of his status page just to be sure that the System wasn’t pranking him.
‘Day 13 Month of Strength.’ William looked at the date for a few more seconds before shifting his attention back to the sleeping beauty in front of him. ‘To think I’d be celebrating my fifteenth birthday with you. Lady Fate sure knows how to crack a joke.’
William planted a kiss on Ashe’s forehead as he held her firmly in his embrace. ‘I guess we can spend one more day here to rest before we go to the North, where it is cold year-round.’
The two of them would always sleep inside William’s Sea of Consciousness during the night. Ashe insisted that, even when resting, she wanted to help speed up the recovery of William’s Spiritual World.
William welcomed her proposal because Ashe had a habit of hugging him tightly as she closed her eyes to sleep. This habit had rubbed off on William, and he too, looked forward to hugging his mermaid lover every night.
Two hours later, Ashe finally stirred from her slumber.
“Good morning,” William said with a smile.
Ashe sleepily kissed his lips before returning his greeting. “Good Morning. What time is it?”
“Around eight in the morning. You must be very tired if you oversleep this much.”
“I’m not used to traveling non-stop and going from place to place.”
William smiled as he kissed her lips before helping her to stand up. The Half-Elf decided to hold a little celebration to commemorate his birthday, while also giving Ashe some time to recover from their hectic traveling schedule.
“What?!” Ashe looked at William in a daze. “Today is your birthday? Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
William scratched his head. He wanted to say that he had completely forgotten about his birthday and was only reminded by the System. However, he couldn’t do that, so he just said that he suddenly remembered that it was his birthday after waking up.
“Sorry, I don’t have any gifts that I can give you,” Ashe said as she looked at William with a pout. “I would have been able to prepare something if you had told me a few days ago.”
William pulled the pouting mermaid to his embrace and kissed her forehead. “Silly, you’ve already given me the best gift of all.”
William then held Ashe’s hand and placed it over his chest. The blue gem embedded in William’s chest glowed as its previous owner touched it.
“Thank you,” William said softly. “This is the best gift that someone has ever given me. I will properly repay you with my body three years from now.”
“Three years from now?” Ashe looked up at William because she didn’t understand what the Half-Elf was hinting at.
William nodded as he whispered something in Ashe’s ears, which made the Mermaid blush from the nape of her neck, up to the tip of her ears.
The red-headed boy thought that Ashe would get mad at him for teasing her, but contrary to his expectations, the mermaid only rested her head on his chest, and replied in a volume that William could barely hear.
“I’ll be waiting.”
That was what Ashe said and because of that… the two left William’s Spiritual World an hour later.
—-
Sounds of merry-making echoed inside William’s Thousand Beast Domain as William’s companions ate and drank their fill.
The Half-Elf spent fifty God Points to buy delicious food and wine for everyone that made them extremely happy.
“I never tasted wine as good as this!” Bastian exclaimed. “And this meat! Just what kind of meat is this? It literally melts in my mouth and the aftertaste is simply out of this world!”
“That’s right! This is amazing!”
“I wish I could bring this wine back to my brothers in the tribe. They would definitely love this!”
“Cheers to William! I pray for more birthdays to come!”
“”Cheers!””
Everyone ate happily and William looked at Erchitu who was wholeheartedly eating roasted boars one by one.
This Giant White Ox was the first Millennial Beast that had joined William’s Herd, and the Half-Elf wasn’t able to stop himself from thinking of the possibilities of having more Millennial Beasts to bolster up his legion.
William imagined himself standing on top of a hill overlooking a mighty Beast Army numbering in the hundreds of thousands. They were all part of his King’s Legion and allowed him to move unhindered across the land.
‘If only it were true,’ William thought as he gazed at the Magical Beasts that were happily celebrating his Birthday.
Currently, William’s legion was less than a thousand strong. It was a mere drop in the bucket compared to the majestic scene that he had envisioned. However, someday in the future, he was sure that he could make it a reality.
The party lasted until the evening. William had decided to retire for the night because he still needed to continue his journey in the morning. Also, Ashe had tried the delicious wines that William had suddenly procured out of nowhere and became dead drunk because of them.
She liked them all, but it didn’t take long before she got drunk because of her low alcohol tolerance. William decided to take her back to the villa so that she could rest properly.
Unfortunately, he underestimated the effects of the wines that he had purchased from the God Shop. William would soon realize that it wasn’t only Cernunnos whose moods could switch without warning.
That night, he would understand that a drunk mermaid… was a very dangerous mermaid in more ways than one.
