Lily was under a tree catching her breath as she saw the pair of Tina and Tibaut come outside.

“Wow, that ritual's doing wonders for you.” She commented as she saw Tibaut.

Tina had realised there was a difference in Tibaut but couldn't quite put her finger on it until Lily had stated that.

She grabbed his arm and lifted it up. While it wasn't the size it was a few weeks prior, it wasn't as skeletal-looking as it did a few days earlier. He had gone from looking half-dead to extremely skinny.

“You're starting to look human again,” Tina commented.

“I hope that means you'll treat me like this is a spar,” Tibaut commented.

“A man shouldn't be so quick to beg for mercy from his opponents,” Tina commented.

Tibaut only sighed in response to this.

The two got in their fighting positions and Lily for her own amusement started heckling Tina.

“You know he's tired, right? We went for nearly an hour earlier, so I hope you don't get too big of a head if you manage to inch out another win, Amazon.”

“Oh shut up, fighting you shouldn't even be considered a warm-up.”

Tina, seemingly in the mood for violence and not bickering, shot off towards Tibaut.

----------------------------------------

In the mansion, Elizabeth watched some of their fights from a floor above.

“Hoh, he already seems to be doing better than yesterday. Who knew a book from that gag gift would actually be useful for something? Though I suppose without Merrill, I wouldn't have known such a book was included in the first place.”

As she watched them fight, she saw someone approach the group before being pointed towards the front door.

“Hmm? Who's that? Oh, wait, I recall seeing him at the guild during our first meeting after Ezekiel died. I wonder why he's here.”

She made her downstairs and opened the front door. In front of her was a young man, with white hair and pale skin. It was easily the palest she had seen.

“Um, you're Elizabeth, right?”

“Yes, good afternoon,” Elizabeth responded.

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“Uh, right, good afternoon too. I'm here, uh,” the boy seemed nervous and kept stumbling over his words as she spoke. “Here.” He handed her a letter and quickly went on his way.

“Hmm, he must be shy.”

The sender of the letter was Mr. Bentley and it also had the words "Urgent-Read Today” written on it.

“Tsk, don't tell me they've started moving?” She went into a nearby room and opened the letter. When she read through she couldn't help but go through it with anticipation. While it wasn't what she was expecting, she was surprised it came this soon. It was a letter detailing that all guild leaders were to be at the Adventurer Branch tomorrow as soon as the sun rose to discuss their plan of attack. The scouts had discovered the location of the cultists and based on its size it might have been their main base in the parish.

“By the sounds of this letter, we may attack them by the end of next week. I guess they weren't doing nothing, while we were gone all this time.”

She got up and decided to pay a visit to the basement. The scorching air slammed her face but she remained unperturbed as she headed down.

“You really should open a window,” Elizabeth commented.

Vanessa was at an anvil methodically hammering away at a piece of steel. Her skin glistened with sweat and the yellow wife-beater she wore was completely drenched in it.

“Actually, I think a break would be way-”

Elizabeth placed her hand on the small woman's shoulder.

“You lounge and do nothing but drink in the time I'm gone and you think you have the privilege to ask for a break? Until you make up for the time you spent drinking away down her, you can consider breaks a thing of the past."

“Come on, Liz, don't be so cruel! I was helping a friend out.”

She picked up a nearby bucket of water and drank the contents.

“At least use a cup to collect the water,” Elizabeth commented as she looked inside the bucket.

“Why do that when I can drink straight from that thing? Anyway, as you can see, I'm working. (Tch, I can't slack off with her around.)”

“Actually, I came here to make a deal.”

Vanessa stared at her curiosity. She stopped hammering whatever she was and quickly placed it into an oil bath.

“Don't worry he's not my boyfriend but I'm not sure you even-”

Elizabeth pinched her cheek.

“Shut up and listen. If you fix my sword in the next three days-”

“No.”

Vanessa didn't even give her time to fully state her case before she rejected it. She had been given Elizabeth's sword last night and from the moment she laid eyes on that piece of scrap metal, she quickly put it in the furthest reaches of the workshop so she wouldn't have even to think about how she was going to fix that.

Elizabeth pinched another one of her cheeks and started pulling on them. “Listen here you fat-chested hag, if you don't want to die down here from being broiled, you'll fix that sword.”

“Hell no, you couldn't force me to look at that thing again.” She said with her cheeks (the ones on her face) stretched.

She started throwing a tantrum to show off her displeasure, by beating her fists against the floor while laying down against it.

Elizabeth quickly sat on top of her and put her in a boston crab.

“You're gonna fix it, grandma, now stop complaining and get to it.”

Even as she was subjected to pain as she lay on the floor, she stayed adamant.

“Never, Liz, you couldn't force me to-”

“I know where you keep your stashed liquor.”

They both stopped struggling and got off the floor. Vanessa dusted herself off and shook Elizabeth's hand.

“Geez, I'd do anything for you, Elizabeth, there's no need for the jokes, haha. (Damnit, I underestimated your cruelty Liz!)”