Starting Life From Zero: Far From Home

Chapter Nineteen

Anastasia Hoshin was probably the most unremarkable of the Candidates for the 42nd Ruler of the Kingdom of Lugnica. She wasn't divinely blessed by this world and she wasn't any manner of Demi-Human. There was also the fact that she didn't quite look her age, her body was slender and not the kind that would generally turn heads. Her most noteworthy feature, her lavender hair, was well cared for and brushed out. It reached almost to her butt at its current length, but she wondered if she would need to cut it before the meeting at the castle in a few days.

The things that she did have were mostly of her own making. She was one of the richest women on the continent mostly by her own determination, to her that was much more telling of the kind of person that she was and what she could do than someone who had magic talent and passed down blessing.

Though she didn't have any issue with those around her who had those things and could lend her a hand.

One of her servants opened the door wide and poked his head in through the doors, the brown strands of his hair flopping down over his face. "Miss Hoshin, there's a merchant here to see you—it seems that he has some kind of a negotiation offer for something he thinks you would rather like," the man said.

"Oh goody," she said.

"Do you want me to go ahead and—wait what?"

"If I turned away everyone who was my competition without hearing them out I would probably still be living on the street," Anastasia said. "Now shoo, go and fetch them. Thank you."

The attendant closed the door and stopped back out in the long lavish hall that led up to the room where Anastasia was staying. This manor, situated in the middle of the financial district of the town had been for sale and vacant for some time.

A rich old man who had owned it before passed and had no one to give his things to, so she was able to rent the place fully furnished for almost nothing and since she was in the heart of Lugunica much of the money she was spending on the place was made back through connections and dealings.

She shook the mug at her side, watching the beer inside of it foam from the disturbance.

"You should at least have them send up some of the members of the Iron Fang with this merchant." The spirit that hid itself, wrapped around Anastasia's neck and pretending to be a scarf spoke.

"No one would come up here to kill me. And no one knows about you—if they wanted to end me they would do it in the street or one of the bars I frequent. There's no good way out of here."

A few seconds after Anastasia replied there was a knock at the door. The spirit was a guarded secret of hers, not even her closest companions knew of it.

"Miss Anastasia," the attendant said. "I have here Otto, Miss Kate Bishop, and—" the attendant paused to glance over at the bipedal raccoon. "—Rocket."

Anastasia leaned out over her desk some, her green eyes moving over the three people in front of her. She smiled, nodding her head. "I see," she said. "I've met you before, Otto—though it has been some time."

Otto looked to his two companions. "We've had dealings in the past," he replied, though his tone implied something else was going on.

"Aww," Kate said.

"Wait—are we here for some kind of love confession thing?" Rocket started. "You're not going to talk me into helping you get laid. No way!"

"I told you two to let me do the talking," Otto said.

Rocket swung his arms out to his sides. "I can talk whenever I want."

Anastasia smiled deeper as she talked and her tone was as chipper and friendly as ever. "We have a saying in Kararagi," she began. "Spend words as efficiently as money. Right now, whatever it is that you're offering, you are spending all your time and losing the potential money you could be getting from me."