"Since the third wheel is gone, I will show you to your room. This is sudden so I can only afford to give you one room. Is that okay?" Elder Siva asked as she turned to grab a small runic rock.
"That's fine. We may not look it, but we are actually all engaged. Well, they are all engaged to me." I replied with a smile. Elder Siva turned and looked me up and down before nodding her head. "I can see why even girls would fall for you. So young and so strong already. You have a bright future ahead. It is better to indulge with girls than men who could ruin your future. Although I guess I am not one to talk since I got married at seventy years old to my husband."
As a person who grew up as a human and also lived as a human in one of my lives, I am not sure how many I have had now. I can say for sure that this sounded strange to me, but to the elves, it was a normal thing.
"I will take you to your room. Please make sure you buy everything expensive on the menu tonight when you get back from running around the city." Elder Siva really seemed to want to make the government pay her some money. I smiled and happily obliged. After all, the government needed to pay their dues.
The structure of the inn was quite unique. It was built into the tree itself, but it did not seem to harm the tree in any way. The roots outside were not affected and, in fact, seemed to work as steps leading into the inn. The inside was completely carved out of the tree trunk. The stairs leading to the second floor and even the desk Elder Siva was standing behind was carved from the tree. It was not even a secondary piece, but actually still one sold chunk of the tree and connected to it.
The light, grainy, smooth wood looked very welcoming and warm. It was definitely a relaxing place. "This is the room. The bed is quite big, so you should all fit." Elder Siva explained as she opened the door. When we walked in, we were met with a well lit room with what seemed to be a luminescent pearl on the ceiling. The bed was monstrous and filled up a good portion of the room.
There was a closet built out of the side of the wall as well. The thing about having such thick wood walls was that it was nice and cool in here year around. If it was not for the type of tree that grew in the elven kingdom, a place like this would not be possible.
"If you need anything, just let me know I will put it on their tab." Elder Siva handed me the key and walked out. I like how they used runic markings to lock and unlock the door. Unless you have the same magic wavelength in the rune and the correct pattern, it was almost impossible to break into a place unless you wanted to blow the door off its hinges.
"Faith, should we hang around a bit?" Adel asked as she sat on the bed and bounced up and down a few times.
"Let's go see the city. I know you wanted to look around." I replied and then looked at the other girls. "What do you think?"
"We will follow you." Sophie, Grace, and Atolie were always the same. If I walked through a pit of fire, they would be right behind me. Luckily, they seemed to understand that I was putting Adel first since she was still young, both physically and mentally. And thanks to my pampering, she was much more young minded as well since she did not have to deal with everything on her own. I am not sure if this was a bad thing or a good thing, but I do know that I wanted her to be happy and grow up properly. As she grows older, she can deal with the adult stuff then.
While I may be the same age as her, I was still much older than her mentally. However, I did get to act spoiled with my mother again, which was not bad. She was still just as strict as before, though. But I guess not as bad as last time. This time, she knew my strength and did not force me to hold back on my training.
We left the inn and headed out into the streets, where we saw a small wooden lift not far away leading to the second layer. This place was the main shopping district of the city, and it spread throughout the entire city, so I was kind of excited to see what might be on sale.
When we arrived at the lift, the attendant smiled and gave us a nod. "Word has already spread about you. You can ride for free."
"Thanks." I smiled and got on. I guess strangers being led around by guards in the city was a hot topic among the gossipers, but I had to admit the speed at which word spread was very scary. To think that even the attendant here knew about us in as little as an hour.
The lift was powered by magic and, once activated, allowed the lift to rise up into the air at a slow yet steady speed. It probably could use a bit of work because the speed at which it rose was very slow. Steady, but I think I saw a snail pass us not too long ago type speed.
When we finally arrived at the second level, we got off to see the tree bridges were packed with elves running about doing their daily routines. But what really caught me off guard was the stands that stood as far as the eye could see throughout the bridgeway.
