“Let him go!”

After a delay born of pure shock, Yua slammed a fist straight into Miss Bellenfort’s face hard enough to make my teeth ache. The woman’s cheek dimpled and her head whipped to the side, but it did nothing to end her glare. Nor did it break her grip on my neck. Pushing back against Yua’s fist, she slowly straightened her neck again.

Utter disbelief colored Yua’s face as she pulled her fist back, leaving behind nothing but a small bruise. Miss Bellenfort didn’t seem to notice.

“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?!”

Once my lungs remembered how to breathe, I said, “What are you talking about? How did you get here so fast?”

She pressed her axe harder still against my neck. With her hold unwavering and with my own body weight pulling me down, I gripped her wrist and tried to lift myself to keep from hanging myself.

A list of spells I could use to break free of her hold popped into my mind. None of them would leave her uninjured, which shouldn’t have been a problem, but that fact stopped me from casting them. Something about this situation wasn’t right.

“… Tch!”

Breaking eye-contact with me for the first time, she threw her glare over her shoulder at the street. A small crowd had gathered once they heard the commotion, but that one look from her ended their interest.

“H-Hey, isn’t that Lady Bellenfort?”

“Oh, shit. It is. Run!”

As fast as they gathered, they fled. Some screaming, some hefting their children into their arms before pushing heir way through the crowd. Most ran as fast as though they theirs lives were being threatened by just her gaze.

“Because of you, I’ve been turned into a Thief! My… My life was already…”

Her grip on her axe tightened, the joints in her fingers popping under the pressure.

“What are you saying? I never did anything to you.”

“Don’t lie to me! You’re the last person I talked to yesterday! And when I woke up, I knew. I just knew something was off. I felt dirty. So, I checked my old Scrying Orb and… Damn it!!”

Unable to believe what she was saying, I bit back the pain and focused on her info box. As she said, the Thief tag was there, right below her name.

But how? She’s never had the chance to touch anything we own, let alone steal it. All our stuff is either back at the cabin or in my item box. And she’s never handled Yua’s bag.

Could it be, that incident with the maids in the city? If slaves being unable to own money somehow kicked back on her after they bought her some booze, then… No, that can’t be it. Yua used coin to buy lunch that day and neither she nor the meat vendor questioned it.

It can’t have been me. She must have drunkenly done something stupid after we left and just forgot. But she seems so sure that I’m responsible that I can’t bring myself to outright deny the possibility.

Yua readied herself for another punch. I could practically see the incantation for Iron Fist on her lips, but I stayed her with a hand once Miss Bellenfort’s eyes locked on me again.

Clearly sober now, she looked every bit the bombshell beauty she had been when we first met, but now there was a twinge of dispair interlaced with her fury. She was sweating as much as I was. The hand she held the axe with was shaking.

Regardless of the circumstances, waking up to find your life had been permanently changed like this must have been world-shattering.

“So, what was it?” she demanded. “Was it because I ordered that girl of yours around? Did I say something mean? Did I accidentally hurt someone you know? Hurt you? What did I do? What made you seek revenge?”

“Revenge? Miss Bellenfort, I swear, I didn’t…”

“Liar!” she yelled, her voice cracking. “What ever it was, I-I must have been a little tipsy. I didn’t mean it. And yet… And yet you did this to me!”

Unable to move the axe any closer without cutting into me, she instead slammed me against the wall again. Pain ripped through my spine, almost making me wish for the instant knock-out Tama gave me.

But, gritting my teeth, I endured.

“Stop it,” Yua yelled. “I said let him go!”

Yua tried to launch another attack, but I stopped her again. If that first hit was anything to go by, a fight between these two likely wouldn’t go in her favor.

Besides, something about this wasn’t right. After Yua’s past showed me how easily a life can be ruined by a simple mistake, I started being extra careful with all my transactions. Overly cautious. I even went out of my way to be mindful of how I paid back her maids, who were already slaves. There should be no way I did this to her.

“Out with it,” she barked. “What did I do to you? I know it was you. I remember enough about yesterday to know you’re the last person I spoke with. I remember you coming to me. I remember my maid’s misunderstanding. I remember you wanted a map to Guerraway. That’s why I’m here! I thought I’d find you on the road, but somehow you got here first.

“Fess up,” she demanded again. “Whatever it is, whatever I did, you could have just asked for an apology. I would have apologized. We could have shared a drink and laughed it off. But to go this far is just…”

“A drink…?”

Wait… The map? No, it must have been…

“It’s the silver trays.”

“What the hell are you talking about? Do you think this is a game?!”

She lifted my back off the wall, ready to slam me again, but I took my hands off her wrist to plead my case.

“Wait, wait, wait! I’m serious!”

After the mess I got into with Alphonse, I learned that the world’s thievery system forced the people adapt by exchanging money by setting them on trays first so neither the seller or buyer turned Thief. It was a simple and easy solution to the problem. The trays didn’t necessarily have to be silver, but every trade I’ve been a part of since coming to this world involved one.

Every single one… but the trade I made with her.

“It was when I bought your map. I took out some coin to pay you, but you grabbed them out of my hand before I could.”

Something must have gone wrong in the trade. In her drunken stupor, she must have grabbed the coins in a way that counted as stealing. Possibly because I’d forced myself to become accustomed to trading via these trays, I still subconsciously considered the coins as my own since she didn’t have one ready.

As a business owner and natural resident of this world herself, a mistake like this should have been had she been of exceedingly difficult to make. If she was sober, anyways. It was her own fault this happened.

No, I suppose it was on both of us. Not only did I not consider her actions at the time either, but I was too distracted to notice.

Distracted by what, you ask?

Well, even now, in the periphery of my vision, for I dared not look at them directly, I could tell the only thing covering her torso was the same captain’s long coat she wore when we first met. Just like last time, she kept it wrapped around her overly-abundant bosom in place of a shirt, confining it just enough to show off the scar she had running down her cleavage. From what I could see, she wore nothing beneath it.

I thought she didn’t have the time or mental clarity to clean up and get dressed before meeting us yesterday, but this was apparently how she normally dresses.

“You were probably too drunk to think clearly.”

Miss Bellenfort’s face blanked at the realization. Then she winced, her cheeks brightening before anger returned to her brow.

“Liar! I wasn’t drunk! I-I was just a little tipsy!”

“Again with this tipsy nonsense? You were drunk. Just admit it. You passed out like twice while I was in your mansion!”

“I-I-I was not drunk! You shut your mouth!”

Her grip tightened around my neck as embarrassment tightened her lips in turn. The sight of her worry alone could have forced my silence, but a strained gasp for air still squeaked out.

“Stop! Iron Fist!”

Her bawled-up fist glowing a bright silver, Yua pulled back her elbow and bent her knees, ready to push off the ground to give her next blow every ounce of her prided strength she could. Glaring, blushing, Elane didn’t seem to notice this at all until….

“Wait! Mistress, wait!”

Another girl, a maid with a pair of floppy dog ears resting atop her head, appeared in the alley. Breathing heavily, her face was a wreck of panic and sweat. No doubt she ran as fast as she could to make it in time.

“Mistress, h-he’s not lying!” Erika said, chest heaving. She must have heard everything until now well before her legs could carry her to us.

“Hoho?” Miss Bellenfort showed no surprise at the sight of her maid, but a look of vague amusement creased her lips. “Are you calling your mistress a liar? For something like this? For someone like him? You know him even less than I do!”

“..!”

Under the intense pressure of her mistress’s gaze, Erika gulped, lifting her arms to cover her face as if to block a strike that never came. Even if Miss Bellenfort was angry with her, both her hand and axe were still trained on me.

Clink. Clink.

But when Erika moved, the bags she carried under each arm raised as well, jostling their contents. The clinking of several glass bottles filled the silence. Miss Bellenfort’s eye twitched, her cheeks reddening again. Nobody in the alley doubted that those bags were filled with various alcohol bottles. Each one belonging to her and each acting as proof of her guilt.

Seeing that violence wasn’t coming her way, Erika lowered her arms.

“M-Mistress, I heard everything,” she said, pointing to her ears. “Your meeting with him, I mean. You drew the map he wanted and took the coins yourself. You never even asked me to bring the tray like you normally do.”

This little fact that none of us noticed that day caused most of the strength in Miss Bellenfort’s hand to fade, freeing me to breathe again.

Clenching her hands together in front of her chest, Erika pleaded.

“Don’t you remember? You received a letter that morning and something in it upset you. You spent the whole morning drinking after that. I was beside you the whole time refilling your glass. M-My nose still hurts from the smell of the alcohol.”

When met with Erika’s pleading gaze, Miss Bellenfort looked away, only to look me in the eye. I could see in her steely-cobalt irises that her confidence was beginning to waver. She clenched her teeth, hiding her eyes from me.

As we were both technically slave owners, she knew as well as I did the easiest way to get the truth here.

“Erika,” she said, her voice low and shaky. “As your mistress, I order you to tell me the truth. What really happened?”

If the slave binding spell the two showed any sort of magical fanfare, some fantastic light show after being given an order, it would have been the small smile that managed to eek across Erika’s face.

She said before that Miss Bellenfort wasn’t as mean to her slaves as she appeared, so that smile must have meant she wouldn’t be reprimanded for whatever she had to say next.

“Mistress,” Erika started, sounding surer of herself now. “You were really tipsy when he stopped by the mansion. You could barely walk to the drawing room without holding onto the walls. Then you drank more. Then you spoke with him and you drank more. You drew the map he asked for, drank even more and… and I heard you take the coins from his hand. You even stuffed them into the little coin purse you keep between your breasts. I heard everything.”

As she finished, Miss Bellenfort pressed her eyes shut, but she couldn’t hide the mix of anger, confusion and embarrassment at having her dirty laundry aired. And because of her own order, Erika was completely incapable of telling a lie. She had no more reason to refute her own guilt.

“But why didn’t you tell me that before we came here?”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Because you said we were coming to collect more rum. I didn’t know about what happened to you until I heard you say it just now.”

“D-Damn…”

The grip on her axe slackened, its true weight becoming more apparent once it looked like gravity might steal it from her.

“M-Mistress,” Erika continued. “Please don’t kill him. He, um, he seems like a nice man. I’m positive he didn’t mean for this to happened any more than you did.”

At this, she looked to Yua, who lowered her fist. When its silvery glow faded, Erika continued.

“You know what you’ll become if you do, right?”

“… Of course I know, but what am I supposed to do? This life I’ve built is over. All because of a stupid mistake.”

“It doesn’t have to be over,” I said, trying to sound calm despite the pain. “We’re the only ones that know, right? We’ll keep it a secret and you can…”

“It’s not that simple,” Miss Bellenfort said, still refusing to lower her axe. “Eventually, I’ll be called to return to the capitol. And when that happens, I’ll be found out.”

“How? As long as nobody says anything… I mean, I don’t think anyone heard you.”

Angry as she was, she did manage to keep her voice down when she accused me of turning her. She was still careful after the people around us all fled. Erika clearly heard us, but she was likely listening intently as she searched for her mistress after being separated. Other beast-kin may be present, but it only matters if they were listening.

Despite this, Miss Bellenfort scoffed. Her shoulders slumping, she met my eyes again. This time, disbelief flew across her face and was quickly replaced with a sneer.

“Are you stupid? Nobody is allowed in the king’s castle without being checked by a Scrying Orb first. And if I choose not to follow the king’s order to show, then he’ll just send someone to see what’s going on. I can only evade their questioning for so long.”

“I’m sure they’ll hear you out if you tell them what really happened. That it was an accident. I can even back you up.”

This broken-ass thievery system may have ruined a great many lives accidentally, but if the person she supposedly wronged comes to her aid, then they can’t outright punish her, right? After all the work she said she did for him, why not return the favor and protect her?

If her boasting was to be believed, it was thanks to her that he now knew more of the world than anyone else. Surely, he owed her enough to sympathize with her.

She, however, saw it differently.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I just don’t know. I may be in his good graces, but it’d be too risky. If I tell him what happened, who’s to say he won’t decide it’s better if he’s the only one that knows what we both know? And if I keep it a secret until they find out some other way, then he could say I betrayed his trust. And that can’t end well.”

“Come on, he can’t be that narrow minded. He’s got to…”

“You don’t know him like I do!” she barked, her axe arm steadying itself. Thankfully, the tension looked to be more from anger than bloodlust. Though she still hadn’t released me. “My only option, the only one I can trust will work, is running away.”

“Mistress…”

“Staying isn’t worth the risk anymore, Erika. If we leave before I’m found out, we’ll be able to put so much distance between us and the capitol that won’t be able to track us.”

Erika’s eyes dropped to her feet. There was nothing she could say to that. And as a slave, she’d likely be dragged along to whichever corner of the world Miss Bellenfort chose to hide in.

“Um,” Yua started. “There is another option.”

“Hoho? And what would that be? Please do enlighten me.”

“Well, if you become Alex’s slave, you won’t have to worry about the king. You’ll be safe.”

“… Excuse me?”

“Yua, what are you saying?! Can you not suggest something like that when she has an blade pressed against my neck?!”

She looked to me, lips pressed tight together, but she clenched her fists and continued. The animosity she showed this woman mere minutes ago seemed to have all but vanished. Meanwhile, Erika, a slave herself, looked completely lost by the concept.

“I’m serious. You’re worried about the king punishing you if he ever found out, right? Well, if you’re already someone’s slave, then why would he bother? And Alex doesn’t treat me like a slave. To him, I’m just his mate and wife.”

Yua clapped her hands together, looking rather pleased with her conclusion as she continued.

“It could be the same for you. He’d be your master in name only. You won’t need to see him again because we don’t live in Amoranth. You could just go back to living your life the way you were and if the king tries anything, he can explain what happened for you. No need to punish someone that’s already been punished, right?”

Miss Bellenfort balked at this, trying just as hard to figure out if Yua was serious as I was. Finding her answer, she broke into a fit of laughter.

“Hahaha! Seriously? You must really trust this man if you’re think the solution to my problems is slavery. Ridiculous. I still haven’t decided if I’m going to silence him myself before I take off, and that’s what you come up with?”

Yua’s ear twitched in annoyance, but she didn’t seem to take what was just said seriously as she pressed on.

“Liar. I can hear your heart. You stopped thinking about hurting him the moment Erika asked you to spare him. Tell her, Erika.”

The maid jumped and squeaked when the conversation suddenly came back to her. She trembled when Miss Bellenfort looked at her, but straightened up when Yua pat her on the back.

“I-It’s true, Mistress. Thank you for your patience.”

“Tch… Regardless,” she said, pink returning to her cheeks. “Why the hell would I let myself become this man’s slave? It’s more his fault that I’m like this. He spent just as much time staring at my tits as I did drinking, you know? He could have been more careful, too.”

“D-Don’t try and turn this all on me!”

“Why not? I know these things are like magnets for the men’s eyes. Trust me, I get it, but you were staring the whole time I was drawing your map. That much I can remember for sure!”

Remembering the pink tips that accidentally slipped into view as she drew, my cheeks heated as much as hers did in her recollection. Yua’s loving defense of my character was nowhere to be seen and Erika’s smile took on an oddly sympathetic hue.

“Look, even now! I have an axe to your neck, and you’re still looking at my tits!”

“I am not!”

“Yes you are!”

“Then wear a damn bra next time!”

“The hell’s a bra?!”

Fuck! Damn this world! Goddess, why did you make it this way?!

Pinching my eyes shut, more to calm myself than to shut out any sights I may or may not have been looking at, I drew in a deep breath.

“Okay. Okay. I’m sorry. Can we just get back to the topic at hand, please?”

Even if I didn’t mean to look, even if I did, and Yua’s forced smile didn’t exactly make me feel confident in my innocence, we had more pressing matters to deal with. Namely, the position of her axe.

“Tch… Whatever. It’s still true that you know too much. Just leaving you like this is dangerous.”

“And like I said, I’ll promise not say a word to anyone. I’m sure Erika can confirm I’m not lying.”

At this, Erika nodded profusely, her tail lifting up the back of her dress enough to wag.

Regardless of who was more to blame for what happened, I didn’t want to hurt this woman any more than she already was by blabbing her personal info out to anyone willing to listen.

Her treatment of Erika, while sober, makes me think she’s not a terrible person at heart, but the way everyone fled from her in a panic makes me cautious.

Don’t. Make. Her. Angry.

Were they warning an ignorant idiot to be scared of her power as a noble? Or was she just known to be a mean drunk? Experience and hope point to the latter, but I don’t know what happened for her to earn the people’s fear.

What I do know is that, she looks more like a scared girl than a wicked tyrant. If this weren’t the case, I probably wouldn’t be breathing right now. If word got out, someone somewhere would definitely use this information against her and she’d be one sneaky Slave Binding spell away from an auction block. And with her looks… I’d rather not think about that possibility.

That’s why she’s so worried. I don’t want to make that problem worse.

“We can work together to keep this mess a secret,” I said. “Really. Nobody has to know.”

“Dammit…”

Miss Bellenfort clenched her teeth, lowering her head to think it over. The hand she had wrapped around my neck slackened more, enough for me to have to hold onto her wrist again to keep my body weight from choking me.

We had the benefit of two beast-kin being here to confirm that I was telling the truth. So, now that she had her options, I was more than happy to give her time to think it over. Though it’d be nice if she a least lowered her axe.

After a long pause, she finally lifted her head. The strength and anger that had been burning in her eyes had all but completely left her. In its place was nothing less than someone fearing for her life.

“If that’s the case, I…”

“Hey you, Booby-Lady! Let go of my mate!”

Appearing so suddenly that even Yua and Erika gasped in mutual surprise, Mana jumped into the alley.

Her ears sharp and her tail just as straight as her back, there was a fury in her eyes that I never could have expected from her. She must not have noticed the potential peaceful conclusion to our conversation as she drew her bow and aimed it.

Miss Bellenfort’s jaw dropped at the sight of her, her eyes slowly growing as large as the moon as they reflected the small girl. Her lips trembled. She could take Yua’s punch, but her soft flesh surely could do nothing against the razor edge of an arrowhead.

Mana’s thin arms were trembling under the sheer pressure she needed to keep the bowstring pulled. Her fingers turned white where they held it, but her grip on the arrow looked loose. It could fly at any second, regardless of whether or not she meant it to.

“Mana, wait! We talked it out and…”

“Huh?” Mana grunted, struggling against the weight of the bow. “Her heart sounds excited. She must be like Big Sis. She wants to fight!”

“That’s not true,” Yua said, but she was too cautious not to make a grab for the bow. “Miss Bellenfort, just put Alex and the axe down and let’s…!”

As if only listening to Yua on pure reflex, Miss Bellenfort didn’t so much as blink when she dropped me. I crashed into the ground, legs a little too numb from the choking to catch myself.

Next to fall was her axe. Her fingers went limp and the mass of metal came crashing down with a loud, ear-piercing clang that cracked the pavement.

Mana winced, her ears flicking with painful displeasure. Her hands slipped.

The bowstring snapped forwards, launching the arrow.

Without ever letting her gaze fall from Mana, Miss Bellenfort snatched it out of the air less than an inch before it struck her in the stomach. She then dropped the arrow, too, as if it meant nothing to her. She just stared in stunned disbelief at her would-be assailant.

Hunched over, Mana clutched her ears. The pain brought by the metallic clang of the axe proving to be more than a mere human like myself could possibly imagine.

No, I suppose I didn’t need to imagine it. When she looked up, the brave front she had a moment ago was gone. In its place were a pair of big blue eyes that were wet with tears.

The very moment she turned those eyes on Miss Bellenfort, with her lips puckered into a pout more deadly than her bow, the larger woman chest expanded as her quivering lips inhaled a gallon of air.

This sudden chain of events abruptly ended with Erika sighing and covering her ears before...

“KYAAA! SHE’S SO CUTE!”

Miss Bellenfort leaped over her abandoned axe and was on Mana before she could think to react. A hulking mess of shockingly-cute squeals, the blonde scooped Mana into her arms and pulled her into a powerful hug.

Her face pressed forcefully into the massive mounds I hadn’t been looking at earlier, Mana wriggled and writhed with all her might to break free of the hug, but couldn’t.

“Cute. Cute. Cute! Too cute! So damn cute!”

Spinning on her heel, Miss Bellenfort swung Mana around and around and lowered her hold on so she had room to move, room to look up at her. Mana’s head shot up from inside the generous cleavage and she sucked in a desperate gasp of air. Shoving her hands with just as much force into the softness of blonde’s breast, Mana tried and failed to push herself away from her. The arms wrapped around her waist were far too strong.

“Big Bro! Save me. Save me! Her boobs won’t let me breathe!”

“Oh Gods!” Miss Bellenfort bellowed. “How could such a cutey exist and I not know about her until now?! Just look at those eyes! And those pointy ears! Kyaa!”

“Let go of me, Booby-Lady!”

“Hoho? Booby-Lady, is it? That’s fine by me. You can call me whatever you like. I’ll call you Kitty. How’s that?”

“Get your boobs off of me! I can’t breathe!”

“So cute!!”

Yua and I watched in stunned disbelief as Mana was once more smothered. Neither of us knew how to react to what we were seeing.

Was this really the same woman that was threatening me over ruining her life a minute ago?

Elane Bellenfort was clearly the sort of woman that would have looked beautiful no matter what expression she wore, but the bright and cheery smile she had painted over her lips was nothing less than breath-taking as she gushed over Mana. Just one look at the smaller cat-girl and it was like all her worries pulled their weight off her shoulders before floating up into space to be forgotten.

It was a look that made my heart catch in a way that a woman with nothing but good looks couldn’t. So much so that I felt a little jealous of Mana, but the sight of a beauty whose looks could make a runway model weep with jealousy, holding a girl so cute she made your heart melt at her slightest shift in expression was overwhelming in its own way.

And still…

“What the hell am I watching?”

“M-My Mistress likes cute girls, so…” Erika said, blushing out of embarrassment for her mistress’s shamelessness. She offered me a hand up and I took it.

“Yea, I noticed. I’ve seen her maids.”

Not to mention how surprisingly girlish her bedroom was. It seems she enjoyed cute things as much as she did her rum.

“O-Oh, um, thank you,” Erika said, blushing.

“For what? I didn’t…”

Wait, did I just indirectly flirt with her? Was flirting always something so easy that it could be done by accident? I shook my head.

No, what was more important was what was in front of us.

“Miss Bellenfort,” I said. “I know Mana’s super cute. We can at least agree on that, but…”

“Kyaa! Is she yours too? Like that other cat-kin?”

“My name’s Yua…”

“Yes. Mana is my mate. So could you please let her go?”

To my declaration, the biggest response came from none other than the cat-kin in question. Mana’s eyes lit up and her struggling stopped. A bright smile that was aimed at me quickly spread across her lips and the arms she pushed against Miss Bellenfort’s chest began to wobble until she collapsed into her again, sucked into the gravitational field that was her bosom.

Miss Bellenfort, though, took this a different way.

“Sell her to me and I’ll forgive everything that happened between us. No questions asked.”

“Not happening.”

“Oh, come on! Just name a price and…”

“Nope. Now hand her over.”

Dusting myself off, I took the hand Mana desperately extended to me and pulled. Mana tried to shove her way out of the woman’s hold, but Miss Bellenfort didn’t budge.

“At least let me hold her for a while.”

“No way!” Mana yelled, kicking her feet. “You tried to hurt my mate!”

“Th-Then what if I apologize?”

Mana fell silent. She stopped squirming for a moment and I once more felt the need to question reality.

Was she actually considering it? Could she really be appeased with just a simple apology? When my life was on the line?

Then again, if she was this willing to put the past behind us, maybe I could use Mana as a sort of bargaining chip. Trade a few moments of her cuteness for Miss Bellenfort’s serenity and we could have a calm conversation.

Erika didn’t seem to agree with the idea, though.

“Mistress… With all the commotion we’ve caused, the city guard may soon show. Wouldn’t it be troublesome if they try to arrest you? And you need to get ready for your meeting later.”

“Tch… Fine. But this isn’t over.”

Miss Bellenfort reluctantly relaxed her arms and Mana kicked off her to jump into mine. Crawling around my back like a monkey, she growled cutely menacingly and threw an arrow at her former captor. It twirled through the air, but Miss Bellenfort caught it easily. As she did the next two. Her shoulders drooped.

Ducking down to pick up her axe, she just so happened to dodge the fourth arrow as her seemingly delicate fingers wrapped around the axe’s handle. Completely ignoring the cracked dent it made in the pavement, she hefted the weapon over her shoulder. She showed no signs of its weight bothering her, though the thing’s total length rivaled her height.

“Don’t you dare leave the city,” she said and left us.

Erika hurried after her, the bottles in her bags clinking, but stopped to give us a quick bow before following her mistress down the street.

We copied them and fled the scene in a different direction after collecting our things. Once we were good and far away, Yua pinched Mana’s cheek. Seeing the annoyed twist to her brow, I had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn’t because the girl was making me carry her on my back. I was just her victory chariot, ready to parade her around after she secured our escape.

“Mana,” Yua said, wrenching Mana’s cheek. “Where were you all this time? You could have helped sooner.”

“Ow, ow, ow…! I-I was looking at the stuff that human was selling when I suddenly smelled something yummy. I just went to find it.”

“And you didn’t hear us arguing?”

“Not until something scared all the humans away and it got quiet… Ow, ow, ow! Stop it! I still helped!”

“You should have been paying attention! Cities can be dangerous places, you know?”

“Okay. Okay! I’m sorry!”

Yua let go and Mana rubbed her cheek. She shook her head and looked towards the amber-colored sky.

“Alex, it’s getting late. I think we should head to The Snoring Dove. Arthur ran off during the commotion, so we might as well wait for him there.”

“You can’t track him?”

“I can!” Mana chimed, still rubbing her cheek, but Yua shot the idea down.

“He left in the same direction as Miss Bellenfort. Following him could…”

“Could lead to another confrontation with her. Damn. Guess we’ll have to try and talk to him at the inn.”

If we’re lucky and The Snoring Dove was like the inn back in Amoranth, then the room should have a sound-muffling enchantment place on it, meaning not even a beast-kin’s ears would be able to hear what we talk about. So, he may feel safer to speak with us knowing he won’t get caught. Waiting for him there might actually be better than dragging him into some alley.

“And in the meantime,” Yua said, side-eying me. “We can talk about why your heart was all fluttery when Miss Bellenfort was here. Even though she was threatening your life a minute ago.”

“Er, uh…”

“And we have to get the pork!” Mana shouted, shaking my shoulders. “You promised!”