Sorry I was a bit te this week. Volunteering at a summer camp meant I had to get up early every day, and as a result, I had no energy for the whole week.

  Lenore's face swiftly changed back, but I still caught it. In my time as a noble, I became more aware of rapidly changing expressions, a skill that holds great importance in the world of masquerades that is the noble world.

  I expected her to be surprised of course, and now suspicious, because variants are rare enough, and frankly, I can't actually recall the amount of monsters that could use telepathy. Most that could communicate talked. I'd talk, but I've found that my current vocal cords are unable to talk. Shame. That could've been one less gamble in this situation.

  "Good to see you can understand me. Do you have a name I could call you by?" she said, fshing the turtle a friendly smile. She was a bit suspicious, but ultimately, she doubted the turtle was a spy. Suspicious in so much of its true nature, but it was unlikely to be involved in this battle, when it would not benefit the perpetrator to make the pn needlessly complicated, bringing in extra factors where there need be none.

  The turtle had nearly risked its life as well, a risk that only an extremely devout spy would take, and if that were the case, it would continue to follow them as well.

  The turtle had a bit of an accent, one that was easily traceable to the Romana empire, which made sense since they were on the outskirts of the empire, though this led her to specute that he was a turtle not from around here, otherwise he'd have less of a romanan accent, and more in line with the elven way of speaking.

  It also sounded very refined, and reminded her very much of a noble, a stark contrast to the ft little turtle before her.

  "My name is Earl. A pleasure to make your acquittance"

  The turtle introduced himself eloquently and even his stance seemed more proper and upright as he raised his head.

  Perhaps he just liked acting like a noble?

  That would certainly expin why he spoke with a Romanan accent rather than with an elvish one, meaning he may have purposely have learnt the way nobles spoke, though how simir it was to the real deal was a little eerie.

  "My name is Lenore and my partner over there is Servante." Servante merely nodded in acknowledgement before getting back to writing.

  "we wanted to thank you for saving the young miss during this incident."

  The turtle waived his hand in dismissal. "It is of no consequence to me. She appeared suddenly before me, and gave me a chance to repay the favor of saving my life when I fell from a great height."

  "Perhaps," said Lenore. "But you were helping before this as well right? Helping to lower the number of monsters during the monster wave? That was a great help."

  "Hardly," The turtle disagreed. "With 2 B-rank knights such as yourselves and an A-rank guild master, I suspect the danger was never that great anyway."

  "How did you know about that?" interrupted Servante, and even Lenore seemed slightly more on guard, watching carefully as Earl pulled out a leatherbound book.

  "One of the scouts attacked me due to my interference. Luckily, he also had all their pns written and relevant info written down."

  Servante strode forward, grasped the notebook, and quickly ran through some of it, as his face darkened some.

  "They pnned this ahead of time, even taking note of our route and all possible obstacles to their pn. Intel was leaked." He growled, while Lenore looked mildly upset.

  Earl nodded. "Probably. Unfortunately, all of the bandit fakes are dead so more info is unlikely."

  Indeed, the stupid Lenard had left a trail to pursue thankfully, or else the best they would have is conjecture. Now, they have a paper trail.

  Her eyes flickering between the turtle and the book, she smiled.

  "It seems we owe you more than we thought before."

  "No worries, I consider the debt paid." The turtle firmly denied.

  Lenore pushed anyway. "I would still like to repay the debt." She insisted.

  "We're heading to a port town some distance away, and we were thinking, perhaps we could take you with us, and you could pick your rewards on the way there Your choice."

  "This would perhaps be a great boon for an adventurer. Unfortunately, as a turtle, I myself find such a reward unnecessary. Such thanks is unneeded. I would find myself more grateful if you were to leave me here. "

  Lenore clicked her tongue, understanding both her and the turtle both knew something was up.

  And Earl did know something was up.

  After all, I was a noble. And I knew that even a B-rank knight belonging to the royal family could easily repay me with something else. If not gold, then just bringing me a good magic stone would've sufficed.

  Or honestly, maybe nothing, since as a monster, normally they would've known nothing about the world, so the offer of a trip was pointless.

  Most monsters in a low-level forest are unwilling even, to leave their home.

  Besides, Earl already had a hunch he knew about what they wanted.

  "Fine. You're a smart turtle Earl, a little too smart; you should know it's not just about favor."

  "Of course. Had I thought this was purely a favor, I might've considered; though you haven't actually listed the port in question."

  "You wouldn't know the name."

  "That's for me to decide, no?" he snapped mildly insulted.

  "Alright then; we'll be heading to Sobek's snout, before taking a prearranged boat to the kingdom of elves."

  "Oh HADES no! To think you would scam me that way! That is all the way across from the Romana empire!"

  "Thank you!" Called Servante, as he clearly agreed with the statement. Chances are, they had to go the long way here in order to collect the young high elf themselves.

  The empire was by no means small, covering a huge amount of Europe, dipping into Asia and Africa as well as Americas continent, with Snowsberry vilge being located far innd, with Sobek's snout being a port at the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea.

  That is a very long, year-long ride. If there were no problems.

  Unlikely

  Admittedly, I'm a turtle now, so a year or so shouldn't be too much peril, but the fact remains that the year will likely be filled with perils and dangers just a little too much for fun.

  Lenore's face turned awkward, revealing she did in fact know what that meant.

  "Well... I thought since it was only a year... and you're a turtle... that it wouldn't be too much for you..." she muttered awkwardly

  I gave her a very long look, letting her know that we both knew that was a load of behemoth shit.

  She sighed. "Look, Willow seems to really like you. And, she'll have to deal with this the whole year, so I was hoping you could come along and keep her company."

  "You and I both know how dangerous this will be with a high elf in the bance."

  She nodded. "I know, so how do you think this is affecting the child? She's been an orphan her whole life, isoted and rejected, and now her life is being pced in mortal peril, with this being just the beginning."

  I'll admit, my heart softened a little at that thought. Being an orphan, it often feels like everything is stacked against you and that the world is out to get you; being a high elf likely only accentuates that feeling.

  Perhaps she could read my face somehow, because she continued on with renewed vigor. "I understand that I'm asking a lot of you, and I can assure you that you'll be properly rewarded for your work. Although gold probably doesn't mean much to you, we can get you equipment and artifacts as well as potions amongst other things; stuff that you can't get in this small vilge. "

  That... was tempting. It's true that as nice as the forest was so far, it was also sparse of fun to a certain extent. I like being active after all.

  No, it's more like I'm not used to being inactive, so I've already been causing nonstop havoc in this forest.

  So a tour through the empire could be great fun.

  "Regur visits to forests and dungeons. At least once a week."

  She showed no hesitation. "5 hours a week."

  "Weekly budget of 10 gold."

  She frowned a little. "10 gold a week is a lot. 6 gold."

  "Fine. And in return I'll comfort and protect the child when you can't"

  Lenore gave a dazzling smile. "Works for me. You want to draw a contract up or..."

  Hmm...

  I mean, how much should I reveal?

  Should I use the binding contract of Anubis?

  No, that'd probably be too much.

  Well, 6 gold a week for the elven royal family really shouldn't be that much, so a simple contract sounds fine, perhaps bound by a simple binding contract spell.

  Pulling a piece of paper out of [shop] alongside a pen, I quickly write up the contract and terms, and imbue it with a quick binding spell.

  [ You have unlocked the spell, minor contract binding!]

  Lenore was quite surprised, though she managed to keep her face straight this time around.

  "...Understands the concept of spells..."

  "Do you agree to these terms?"

  She gave them a quick look over, noting the clean handwriting and inwardly marveling at how professional the contract was, in terms id out, as well as the careful use of words, to avoid any loopholes, at least none that she could see.

  "I agree" she stated as she picked up the pen and signed it, with my own signature quickly following suit.

  Al right, a year long babysitting journey with a high elf.

  This will be... Exciting likely.

  For people curious, yes, in this world, the Romana empire is basically one of the rgest superpowers, its main competition being the Qi-ng empire and the spirit federation, or essentially, the whole of the america. Just a fun little thing. A great deal of africa has been divided amongst the superpowers(like the real world lol) and Australia is the nd which connects to the hollow earth where kaijus occasionally come up from, so no one's bothered conquering them, since its a lot of management.

  Just fun little trivia, that will likely never be relevant, but still

  Oh, and these are all temporary names, until I can find actual names for the continents I like. I named the Ro-mana Qi-ng and the spirit federation after their main forms of combat, but the continents I'm still looking for inspiration. Maybe just call it all Pangea? who knows, still thinking about it.

  And seriously, go look up the Mediterranean sea; it vaguely resembles a snout so close enough for me!