A Tale of One Deviant (Book 2) (Technically Hiatus, but kind of not)

Chapter 197: With the Bhemuses

"Hello, Mr. Bhemus!" I called out cheerfully, striding right through the front door of the Dwarves' shop with the brightest of smiles on my face. "I'm here for my appointment!"

"Mademoiselle," one of my favorite Bhemuses, of the many I favored, rose up from where he worked at the front desk. "We've been waiting for you."

"Hm..." I hummed in the best mood I'd been in in days and glad to hear that, having been running around as usual to make sure nothing at all had the possibility of popping up while hiding away in Strathmis. "How have you been?"

"The same; nothing much changes around here. And you, Mademoiselle?"

"Well," I flashed an even brighter smile, feeling my professionalism melting away with each passing second. "Same old, same old. Are you ready?"

The smile on Jerry Bhemus' face, seeing my youthful excitement and unconfined innocence, only made him shake his head while standing up and going for his cane. "As ready as one can be for the project of the millennia."

"I can't wait...!"

For those few days I'd been running around, the problem of not having a weapon that I could properly use without it breaking after one or two uses was finally getting on my nerves. Fed up with the weakness of everything around me - probably just because I consciously knew I'd get something stronger soon - I'd reached my breaking point as well.

And therefore, the euphoria of knowing that everything was about to change hit me like lightning. Bouncing off the walls that morning, Magaris gave up on trying to contain me when I rushed around magicking everything to prepare to be away for just that one day. In case Magaris needed this, I gave this to her, and in case the children needed that, and yada yada yada-

"Go. Just go. Be back by dinner."

"I'll see you at breakfast!"

And off I went to Strathmis, clicking my heels together. Magaris must've sighed "good riddance" the moment I was gone.

"Mr. Bhemus," I greeted the first I saw, shaking hands, "Mr. Bhemus, Mr. Bhemus, Mr. Bhemus-"

"Missing an arm now, are we?"

"Gotten up to some trouble the past few months, have we?"

"Something like that!" I laughed, noticing that my hand was already blackened by the time I'd gotten halfway through greeting everyone. People that could leave their stations came over to see me bouncing around from place to place, just happy to be in one of the best places in the world.

Major Bhemus put a halt to all of my greetings soon enough, calling out to me. "Mademoiselle de Libellule."

"Huh?" I turned around, finally calming down, taking some deep breaths to somewhat smother my smile.

"May we begin conducting our business? All of these old men have work they're shirking at the moment."

Cold water splashed over my radiance as I really reigned it in then. "Sorry...I was just excited to be here."

"And I don't blame you," the Dwarf said, glancing down at a pocket watch in his hand before slipping it back into a pocket. "However-"

"Oh, don't mind him," Grant Bhemus came up from behind and smacked the other Dwarf, causing him to stop. "He's merely nervous about the coming of the Moon Finery Competition, and the project he's relying on your time converted space to be able to complete it."

"Moon Finery Competition?"

The Bhemuses, having had their fun, began to disperse while the few meant to aid me - or take advantage of my appearance - stayed.