I awoke the next day with Helena in my arms. It felt really good. I looked at my sleeping girlfriend. Girlfriend… I had a girlfriend now. I smiled, I liked the sound of that.

Helena stirred and opened her eyes.

"Morning." I said, then I gave her a kiss.

"Mhhh, morning." She replied.

We cuddled a bit longer, then we got up to get some breakfast. The Golden Springs offered room service but instead we went to their breakfast buffet. It offered a large variety of food. From fruit to bacon, eggs, bread and even some sweet pastry. Of course they also had coffee.

We found Cassie and Skadi already at a table when we arrived.

"Cassie, Skadi, we uh, we have news." I told them.

"What happened?" Cassie asked.

"Helena and I… we are together now!" I said, blushing slightly.

My friends just nodded. "Not too surprising." Skadi added.

I blinked, then I looked at Helena. She just shrugged. I guess we had been rather close for a while. Skadi and Cassie did congratulate us though and they seemed happy for us.

After breakfast we packed our stuff and prepared to leave. It was time to return to Helena's home. The journey was rather uneventful and we arrived late in the afternoon. We were dismounting in the courtyard when the door opened and Hans rushed out.

"Helena! You are alright!" He almost shouted.

"Uh, sure. Why wouldn't I be?" She asked.

"You ran into the Devourer! The monster of the mountains!" He replied. "I have pulled back our patrols. We will have to be careful for a few days at least. Hopefully it does not move into Nethena. I might have to call for reinforcements. Fighting that beast with normal soldiers would cause too many casualties, we need strong mages."

"I don't think there is a problem. It was not really hostile. Just don't get between it and its food." I replied.

"Meow." Nyx agreed.

Hans blinked. "Not hostile?"

"It is a tier three undead as far as we can tell." I added.

"That does make it even more dangerous!" Hans replied.

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"It is a creature that can be reasoned with and it is not simply driven by malice, or instinct." Hatsumi explained. "You could probably reach a deal with it. The problem would be communication. It seems to only talk by meowing."

Hans looked at her like she was insane. "Meowing? You are telling me, the Devourer, one of the strongest known beasts, is talking like a cat? And we should treat it like a cat?"

"Well, it is a cat." Helena pointed out. "Just a big one."

"It might even be the same species as Nyx. Well, before they were turned into undead. They are not the same kind of undead." Skadi added.

Hans stared at Nyx. Nyx stared back. After a moment of silence he said: "You are telling me, that you have a small Devourer of your own?"

"Maybe. It is just a theory. But there are similarities!" I said.

"And Nyx sort of talked with it, through meowing." Helena added, helpfully.

Hans shook his head. "This is all mad. Any other revelations I should know about?"

"Koyuki is my girlfriend!" Helena announced.

Hans blinked. "Huh?"

"Do you disapprove of their relationship?" Hatsumi asked.

"What? No, of course not! I am happy, just surprised." He smiled. "You know, I thought Helena was not interested in anyone. I… ouch!" Helena had walked up to him and punched him into his arm.

"What is that supposed to mean, daddy?" Helena asked with narrowed eyes.

"Well… you rejected anyone trying to court you. You were a lot more interested in fighting than boys, or girls." He said.

"I just have standards!" Helena announced, I blushed.

Hans nodded. "Good, now let's celebrate the good news!"

The guards unloaded the dead ibex from the wagon. Two maids emerged to bring our luggage to our rooms. Hatsumi went to help them.

After we sat down we recounted our adventures. Hatsumi returned and brought us some beer.

"Hatsumi, stay here. You were part of the hunt after all." I told her. She nodded and sat down.

Then we continued our story as Hans listened. He seemed to be a mixture of concerned for Helena and proud of her accomplishments. After we were finished telling our story we sat in silence for a bit. Hans took a sip from his mug. Then he looked at me. "How did you get Nyx? The skeleton came from the adventurers guild, right?"

"Well, there is still a mystery there. The corpse came from them and the adventurers who delivered it disappeared afterwards. The mixture to strengthen the skeleton was changed by someone and Nyx seemed to already be an undead. I simply formed a connection." I explained.

"So you took control of a tier three undead? When you had barely any education?" He asked.

"Well… she was not really a tier three yet back then. Or maybe she was, just still suppressed? We have never found out who did it." I replied.

"You think it wasn't Ilestria?" Cassie asked.

"Ilestria is not known for using undead." I replied.

"True. Although they could see it as divine retribution or something that a necromancer gets eaten by an undead. And the undead could have caused further damage if it got loose inside the academy near students." Hans said.

"What about the Brotherhood?" Hatsumi asked, suddenly.

"Huh? They tried to recruit me, why would they want to kill me?" I wondered.

"They could have been testing you. Or maybe the corpse was intended for one of them and got accidentally sold to the academy." She suggested.

"Then why would they sabotage her magic? Why mess with the potion she used?" Helena wondered.

"A cover up." Hans suggested. "The adventurers guild is not allowed to trade in natural undead. If they have a group capturing them and selling them to necromancers that would be illegal. The Brotherhood has been getting bolder lately. They are bad news."

"Did you have any encounters with them?" I wondered.

Hans nodded. "Their existence is not publicly known but most nobles are aware. Actually, I suspect a lot of adventurers, or well connected people, know. Anyway, we have quite a few undead in these mountains. That is something that interests them. They tried to set up a base in one of our towns a few years ago."

"You never told me about that!" Helena complained.

"Because they are technically not public knowledge and there was no reason for you to worry about it." Hans replied. "They did not just try to establish a base there. They abducted people for their undead horde. We found them because we investigated missing people."

I had not thought about the Brotherhood for a while. I had mostly dismissed them and focused on Ilestria, who tried to kill me.

"If they are interested in undead, let them come. I am looking forward to finding out how they taste." Hatsumi said, licking her lips.

"Meow." Nyx agreed.

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