The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'
Chapter 141 - Would You Really Wait In Line Just To Learn Who To Yell At?

Chapter 141: Chapter 141 - Would You Really Wait In Line Just To Learn Who To Yell At?

The reborn cultivator had never liked standing in lines with people she didn’t know. There was always someone up to mischief in them... and as fitting of a self-diagnosed hypocrite - she didn’t quite like it when that someone wasn’t her.

Elua turned from her idle study of the spirits of the people within the queue when she sensed someone familiar approaching. The place they stood in had barely moved in all the time the woman was away.

"My lady."

The personal servant greeted the heiress once she had returned from her task. She carried a wrapped bundle that steamed slightly in the morning air. The brunette’s eyes lit up at the familiar scent of spiced meat wrapped in flatbread.

She had secretly hoped the servant would think of her favorite vendor nearby. They had visited it enough on trips back from the Youth Guild in the past. She smiled up at her husband-wife standing in position stoically behind her.

"Thank you for suggesting she fetch this. Though, I think you’re being a bit overprotective. I can go an hour or two without eating..."

Qatrand merely hummed in response. There was no reason to argue with the preening girl. Especially when she had heard the stomach of hers grumble four times on the trip to the Opal Scale’s office.

’And three times in line, though no one else has reacted to the sound. She must have somehow made it so they couldn’t hear...’

A few of the more observant merchants had noted how the untalkative, black haired Yecine heir’s attention never wavered far from his wife. The newly-wedded husband and their attentiveness to the girl was already a very well known rumor. News of upper society matters, especially in the spectacle of a recent wedding, spread quite fast.

Especially when it might mean money would change hands.

More than one hoped to gain favor through appearing supportive. Several of them even watched with poorly concealed interest as the Goltbred girl accepted the food from her attendant. She chewed on it happily, for *so* many reasons.

The food was tasty, all of the attention on her beloved was very good, and she could still feel the sensation on her fingers. She knew very well that the surface of the muscles only told part of the effective story, but running both of her hands directly down the exquisitely toned and defined set of abdominals had been plenty electric!

’Eight~ Delightfully asymmetrical. What a good memory to save.’

The reincarnator swallowed her chewed portion of the sandwich then held the food up and out towards the face of her tall ’fortress’. She tilted her head while her tongue darted at some of the spicy sauce on her lips.

"Are you sure you don’t want a bite?"

Qatrand shook her head and produced a mint-green handkerchief from her coat pocket. She had purchased it when looking for a gift for Elua, but decided to keep it for herself. The swordswoman dabbed precisely at the corner of the girl’s mouth to clear the stain in the corner of her lips.

A few of the merchants shifted closer trying to take note of every detail of their interaction. Learning how to appeal to the loved (or feared) wife was always a very good sales tactic. She could sense the surrounding people and their calculating observation of this display of affection.

’Some of them are literally taking notes!’

The heiress registered with amusement before continuing with her snack. The line shuffled forward incrementally as the Opal Scale Guild’s doors admitted another group of petitioners. The wait stretched another fifteen minutes, but neither of them seemed particularly concerned about the delay.

---

"Yecine and Goltbred?"

The Guild member’s voice carried surprise as he wrote their names into his ledger. His eyes darted between them... then to the line stretching behind them. He wasn’t sure if his advice would come off as calling them ignorant or not, but he gave it anyway.

"You could have come directly to the manager’s office. There was no need to wait in the general queue."

Elua’s sweet smile didn’t waver in the slightest. What did it matter to her where she spent her time with Qat? As long as it was in a very public place that grew their fame and helped curb her urges - it was all pretty much the same to the girl.

"Oh, we wouldn’t want to impose on their time unless necessary. Besides, the wait wasn’t so bad."

The man shifted his glasses back up his nose as he noted the category that the young girl had scribbled on the form for their visit. His voice dropped lower to reflect his understanding of the serious matter... and in a form of misplaced respect for their foresight.

’Young members of good families know when not to make the visit *seem* like an affair worth marching straight in over!’

"Ah. I see. Please, follow me to our verification room."

The married pair were led through a veritable maze of desks and queues. The Opal Scale members serving as clerks were processing all kinds of licenses and deeds in a display of bureaucracy that made the reincarnator’s skin crawl.

’So many people just in one place. So unwary. So concerned with their own matters. Not that I can say I am otherwise~’

The space they were led to proved to be a small room whose area was taken up by a heavy wooden table. A thin man looked up at them from a tiny desk in the corner as the one who had led them there turned to leave.

"He will need to see both the items and their registration card. The process will not take very long."

Elua pulled the box from her satchel and presented it to Qat to give to the specialist. Part of her very much wanted to do it on her own and keep her beloved from being so tense, but the promise to do things together kept her in check.

Calloused fingers tightened excessively for a second on the container before the dark haired teenager stepped over to the table and placed it down. She opened the lid with precise movement that showed none of the earlier hesitation. The leather bundle the instruments were wrapped in was placed on one side of the box and the card on the other.

The thin man ambled over after rising from his seat. He adjusted his collar and cuffs as he looked down at what he was dealing with. However, other than that idly nervous gesture he remained generally calm and professional.

"It’s not often we see items of this... particular nature. These will require my personal verification. The registration appears to be in the name of... Elua er Goltbred?

If the question in his final tone as he read the card wasn’t clear, his turn toward her would be. The brunette nodded at him while maintaining her pleasant expression. It was hard to do when she felt her Qat place a hand protectively around her shoulder.

’Don’t look smug, don’t look-’

"Yes. They were a wedding gift. An unexpected one."

The specialist’s eyes narrowed but he nodded. He checked each piece for their serial identification meticulously, verifying that they had not been falsified or changed since the last time one of his ilk had handled the items. One never knew what could happen in transit, storage, or else.

It was better to know if something criminal had happened with regulated materials much sooner than later. Catching when any of them went missing and replaced with fakes was often part of his task - when he actually had work to do...

"A rather unusual choice of gift. These tools have quite specific applications."

"I am of course aware. But, it is not polite to reject a gift given in good faith."

’Assuming that is what happened.’

The specialist raised an eyebrow at her ’sweet’ tone that spoke the words so maturely... yet clearly missed the icy ’calculation’ beneath it. He walked back to his desk and made a few notes in a ledger before retrieving a small jeweler’s lens from his drawer. His examination then continued as he slowly traced the etching of each number.

"The markings appear genuine. No signs of tampering or replacement. As for the card..."

He walked back to his desk again to shuffle through some papers and the heiress began to wonder what the point even *was* for the large table taking up so much space. There didn’t seem to be any particular rituals set up in the room. Her mind even began to drift toward *how* the big piece of furniture was ever placed inside.

"Ah yes, these were indeed registered through our branch."

"May we know more of the details of the registration?"

The small girl blinked away her idle thoughts as the low voice above her responded to the man. Qatrand had kept quiet all this while in mental preparation for seeing the objects. She had been quite surprised that the attempt to keep calm had worked...

"Approved by the sub-leader, which is no surprise as she handles almost everything that needs to go toward the top. The items themselves were first commissioned last year by... the Silversky merchant group. According to the notes on file. Though who all in the Guild pushed it through so quickly, I can’t say."

Mint eyes dulled slightly before rebounding back to life. The ’smile’ of her facade stretched just a little further than before... though the tendrils of her beloved’s spirit wrapped about her could only feel her ’irritation’.

"How wonderful to know exactly who to thank for such a ’thoughtful’ gift."

The specialist missed the danger in her voice like any rational person would. The Yecine’s fingers tightened a bit on her shoulder, but the teenager let out a short sigh of relief. The swordswoman was pleased to learn this had not likely been meant as a political attack on her wife.

’Just an overzealous attempt at favor from a man she has known for some time.’

The man stamped a seal on several of the documents before filing them all away once again. The speed and accuracy showed his work ethic was strong, despite being relegated to a position that only saw occasional ’use’.

"Everything appears to be in order. The registration under your name will remain unless you request a transfer of property. Though I should note that such requests are rarely approved without significant cause."

"I don’t think that will be necessary. I’ll be sure to put them to appropriate use or store them very safely. Thank you for your time."

While the Opal Scale Guild member began rebundling the tools for the clients, Qat could feel the ’retribution’ brewing in her wife’s spirit. The young girl’s voice carried a certain saccharine quality that was at odds with the schemes of revenge forming under the surface.

’Maybe I should go with her so she doesn’t do something like sitting on his back as a chair again...’