"Come on! We'll use that as our base for now."
"Are you sure?"
"It'll be all right, it's abandoned anyway."
Three goons were discussing as they were camping at an isle surrounded by water near Kaer Morhen, they just arrived at the place by accident as they were just trying to set their adventures wherever their hearts led them. "We'll set out it five." informed the leader.
"Five days?"
"Five minutes you dumbass!"
XXXXXXXXXX
"Say ah..." Dante was currently feeding Ciri lunch, chicken soup as per her request with the reason of, 'sore body' from training. The ashen-haired just happily munched what was on the spoon, enjoying the special treatment she was receiving.
They were now living at Bastion, a former residence that was torn down by fanatics when Kaer Morhen was attacked years ago. When both Dante and Ciri arrived at Bastion, the place was filled with wraiths floating around. However, that didn't bother the lad as a simple bullet made by fire ceased them from existing in this plane. Now, the raven-haired remodeled the place and turned it into a 1 storey wooden mansion. Wooden, so it'd be warm and cozy every winter.
Ciri kept asking on what's what, especially the word mansion. But only she gets an answer of "That's what we call these things in our universe." Although she understood it, albeit a little.
The now mansion was filled with lots of things. Being a guy from a modern era, Dante didn't forget creating sofas, fireplaces, sinks that has water supply from runes connected to rune-filtered lakes. One cool thing about the house was that it had a light switch, that's right, the room had lights but it was powered by runes.
Dante's few months of staying in this universe had him breakthrough in his relationship with runes as he could now write runes in any surface, damn, he could even write in the air itself. But he was still behind in accomplishing the reverse-engineering part of his work and to actually connect the gateway from this universe to the one he came from.
Ciri loved the place they were currently living in. It had what she needed for everything. Full glass Greenhouse, trophy room, lots of bedrooms, and a wine cellar. But the one-room she really liked was the so-called living room, Dante told her that this was where people could relax and talk, or even hold a party. It makes her think about the witchers coming back, all of them could relax while Dante would cook for them. How nice would that be...
Dante cleaned up as he finished feeding the lazy pig that drank some water, "Ciri, I'll be heading to Kaer Morhen and smith some things, I'll be back by night." He said while cleaning the dishes.
The girl nodded and patted her stomach in delight, "Okay, I have something to do as well."
The raven-haired finished cleaning up and pecked the ashen-haired's lips, then went to the bedroom to dress up. Wearing a simple long-sleeved shirt, black pants, and leather boots, then finished it off with a straw hat and his favorite glasses. The reason he wore the hat was that he was preventing his face from wrinkling up as much as possible, gosh he hated wrinkles.
He went to the second floor of the greenhouse and found the windows open, and Ciri, weaving while enjoying the view and sounds of grass blown by the wind. She was playfully humming some kind of tune, which made him smiled. He knew it was quite early for them to move in together and live in the same house, but none of them minded that. Both of them decided that it'd be better to live in a warm and cozy place than live in a depressing looking keep. Plus, they were both already matured enough to make their own decisions, Ciri may be goofy sometimes, but she was really smart and matured for her age.
Dante went behind the ashen-haired and hugged her. He didn't get a response as she already knew that if someone could sneak up on her, that'd be Dante. "I thought you were going to the keep? Nice hat by the way..."
"Right? I knew I looked exceptional with it. And I thought I could use a little kiss before I go..." Dante shrugged but smiled as Ciri grabbed his collar and pulled him, locking their lips passionately.
"There, satisfied?" Ciri smiled and pushed him, "Now go, before I won't let you."
Dante chuckled and nodded, giving her a kiss on the forehead, then went outside his house. "Hm... how 'bout that, someone actually managed to find their way to Kaer Morhen. Why don't I greet them?"
XXXXXXXXXX
"A-are you sure we should do this? Maybe I'll just stay in the camp and rest for a while..." A man who had a skinny build question for how many times now. He had shiny black long but thin hair tied to a ponytail, wearing glasses, and a Beauclair doublet, signifying that he was from the duchy, Toussaint. Although his clothes were tattered.
"You whoreson, quit being a pussy and stop talking! There's literally no one in this damned ruins!" One goon that looked to be the leader reprimanded the now named Loki as the latter only fidget in response.
They walked until they saw signpost and a bridge leading up to an open gate. However, they were surprised as they saw a young man that wore a straw hat appeared below the massive frame of the gate out of nowhere, making them tense up.
'Sorcerer?' The leader rested his hand on the hilt of his sword while the other goon readied his crossbow, loading it up with a bolt, Loki on the other hand was finding the best possible way to escape, and Dante noticed that.
"Damn... I thought I'd have to wait forever for you to arrive..." Dante folded his arms and leaned on the wall. "so, how 'bout you guys introduce yourselves?"
"I'm Lo-"
"Shut up Loki, Hey you, isn't it common courtesy to introduce yourself before asking for our names?" The leader grunted as Loki was cut off, making him sigh.
Dante chuckled, getting on their nerves, "That's true, if we weren't at my property."
"Oh? Then how about we make you cough out your name then?" The leader unsheathed his sword and the other goon pointed the crossbow towards the raven-haired, then fired it off.
The goon grinned in victory, only to drop his jaw as Dante only held up a finger to stop the bolt. Then it got incinerated in a blink of an eye. "Come on, a little bit of excitement, will ya?" He yawned as he encouraged them.
The goon gritted his teeth as he went to load another bolt, while the leader ran towards Dante. However, he never got to cross the wooden bridge as he hit a transparent wall, staggering him back. "W-What trickery is this!?"
A bolt traveled fast towards Dante but the transparent wall stopped it, "I don't want to waste my time on you and dirty my hands, bye-bye..." The raven-haired shook his head and sighed, firing bullets towards their heads, and this time, it was made with air, piercing their helmets. "Damn... I wonder if Zeno passed a bit of his personality in me..." he muttered.
Loki on the other hand dropped on his butt as he saw the dead bodies. This was so much for him to take in. He knew that there were sorcerers living in the continent and heard of their powers, but this was simply too overpowered. He trembled as the guy who killed the people he came with walked towards him. To others, it may seem like the man was just walking normally, but to him, it was like he was sauntering, savoring the moment to kill him.
"Are you okay?" Dante stretched and offered his hand towards the pony-tailed guy, "You didn't look like one of them and have malicious intent so you don't have to worry about anything."
Loki was scared, but it seemed like he'd live for the day so he grabbed the man's hand and got help in standing up, "Thank you, and you're right, I'm not one of them."
"Oh? Then how d'you end up with these handsome looking men?" Dante raised a brow in question, interested at this man's story. "Ah, I'm Dante by the way."
"And I am Loki of the duchy, Toussaint." Loki bowed elegantly despite his current state, "I am a former master merchant. I decided to go on an adventure to fulfill my life's longing for excitement, but it turns out, I'm not cut out for that kinda things."
Dante listened then nodded. He smiled in delight as he found an interesting and future partner without effort. "That's unfortunate... what'll you do after this then?" he motioned for Loki to follow him, leading him to his place in Bastion.
Loki followed and thought for a moment before deciding his answer, "I guess I'll find my way back to beauclair and go back to being a merchant, starting over again." He laughed.
"You know, you're pretty cool with your current situation..."
Loki raised his eyebrows, "Am I? Well I encountered lots of problems before, starting over isn't entirely new."
Dante turned around and nodded to Loki, "I agree, and I've decided!"
"Huh?" Loki opened his mouth in confusion.
"I'll help you open up a business, be it Vizima, Kaer Muire, Oxenfurt, Novigrad or Beauclair, or even all those places, I'll provide you with money!" Dante explained wonderfully, making Loki gasp in amazement. "However, you must give 40% of your business to me."
"Deal!" Loki didn't even need to think twice, this was such a good opportunity none could ever turn down, especially a master merchant like himself.
"We'll dive into that later. For now, come in," Dante said as they arrived at his mansion, "We've lots to talk about."
The raven-haired opened the door for Loki to enter while the latter could only gawk at how beautiful his this place was, it felt so unreal and expensive.
"God, this is such an amazing design! How much did it take you to build this? Wait, let me guess," Loki excitingly exclaimed, "Half a million crowns!"
Dante just chuckled. He was younger than this man right in front of him, a decade younger maybe, but this man was so childish. "If I'd convert everything to crowns, I'd say you're right."
"Woah..." Loki shook his head in disbelief.
"Oh? I thought you were coming home late?"
They turned around to see Ciri holding a red scarf that had beautiful designs on it, "I see you've brought a friend."
She then handed the scarf to Dante who seemed surprised, "It'll be cold by next week, I prepared this for you."
"I only see you weaving for fun, I never thought you'd make something like this for me... thank you." Dante smiled and went to kiss her, but stopped as it'd be awkward to do that with a man staring at the both of them. He wore the scarf which he found extremely comfortable.
"Ah, my apologies. I am Loki of the duchy, Toussaint," Loki immediately bowed as not to disrespect her, making the girl smile and quickly went in front of him and stopped him from bowing.
"Let's not do that, we're not of royalty so we can skip formalities in this house." Ciri told him, "So Loki, how do you make of Toussaint? I plan to go there one day, with Dante of course." She led him to the sofa and started a conversation with him.
Dante chuckled as he went to the kitchen and started making snacks, slicing potatoes on a chopping board and coated them with a rejuvenating herb, then dipped them to a deep fryer. He then took them out after a few minutes, seeing them as golden brown. He nodded his head in approval. He then placed them to a big silver bowl and placed a pinch of salt for taste. Dante took another bowl, but a bit smaller this time and placed a new ingredient of his, ketchup. It's new, well at least in this era.
The fries were really hot as it was just out of the fryer, so he decided to leave it on the counter for now and grab fresh mango and pineapples, cutting them on the newly washed cutting board. He then manipulated the fruits to levitate them, and made them squeeze their juices out to a pitcher, before adding a few amounts of Erveluce wine 1202. Lastly, he added some ice to cool it off.
Dante grabbed the bowl full of fries and placed it in front of Ciri and Loki, who were busy conversing about the man's travels, and of course, Dante was listening. He then grabbed the pitcher with glasses, went back to the two and placed them in front, confusing Loki on what the glass was for.
Dante introduced to Loki about glasses, that instead of mugs which were hard to clean, glasses are a lot easier to clean despite being a bit fragile. Of course, Ciri knew this already. They were living together since the day this mansion was made.
"This is amazing!" Loki exclaimed as he tasted the fries and drink, "Oh! A handful Erveluce you got there, I can taste it while it's blended with the fruits you mixed it with. I bet it's at least 60-70 years old."
The raven-haired smiled and nodded, "Erveluce 1202, I've got a barrel full of it." He laughed.
Loki could only widen his eyes in astonishment, "I wonder how you got that. The duchess and her predecessors never let their stuff get haggled by anybody."
Dante and Ciri just laughed, while the lad patted his shoulder, "That's a story for another time."
"Now, let's talk about business." Dante grinned while Ciri just crossed her legs, listening to their conversation.
Loki nodded in all seriousness and dropped the smile, to which the raven-haired just waved off.
"It isn't really that big of a deal," He informed, "Just tell me what you plan to do with your business, do you have new ideas?"
"A lot," Loki nodded and adjusted his glasses, "Bankers from Novigrad and Vizima are looking to sell their properties from bankruptcy right now as we speak, I want to get a hold of those places as fast as possible. Folks nowadays do a lot of traveling between Skellige and the mainland, we need to grab that opportunity to build ships for transportation. When, and I say when because it will happen. When we get the higher-ups' recognition and the proper company fame and reputation, we may have a massive influence inside those big cities. For Toussaint, we need to offer prices to vineyard owners to get a hold of their business, if they won't agree to it, we'll create our own vineyard and I'll handle the talking with the duchess myself as I have a tight relationship with her parents before. So give or take a few years, your investment, my friend, would return twofold. No, triple, quadruple, and even more."
Silence...
Both Ciri and Dante were gobsmacked at how Loki planned everything so quickly, one minute they were just casually talking with him being really childish, and the other, he was this calculative genius. "Woah..."
"You're so good at this!" Dante got out of his daze and exclaimed in excitement. He wasn't really in it for the money as he'd just really give it to Kaer Morhen and leave some for himself and Ciri's. He was excited about how they'll get the money. He could produce gold bars, diamonds, and such, but where's the fun in that?
"Well... I'm not really that good at anything," Loki embarrassingly scratched his head, "but when it comes with money, I'm just the best."
Dante laughed and stood up, hugging him. Not minding the dirt that's on Loki's clothes, while Ciri was just left speechless. "It's already night, and it'd be rude of me to just kick you out. Come, I'll lead you to the guest room."
XXXXXXXXXX
The lovers just got into the bedroom as Dante closed the door behind Ciri, "You okay?"
Ciri was still a bit dazed after Loki's 'revelation', "Y-yeah, it was just so fascinating how calculated everything and properly explained all of it without confusing us, I don't know about you but it was a lot of information for to take in."
Dante chuckled as he sat beside Ciri on the bed, then put his arm around her shoulders, "You know, I never got to show you how thankful I am with your gift..."
He blew on her ears hotly, "Why don't I show you?"
"Stop that, he's in the room next door!" She yelled quietly as she blushed.
The lad only grinned as he carried her and positioned her on the bed, "That's why I love runes."