The Bubbling Cauldron had to be in some sort of decline. Every time we stopped by, the place was nearly empty. Sure, it was getting late, but this was Amoranth, a huge city with an even bigger population. There should have been someone there perusing the goods, or maybe someone enjoying a good lecture on the finer sides of potion-making, but there wasn’t anyone to be seen. Save for the apothecary herself.
Madame Turquesse, for once, was not behind her counter. She’d taken it upon herself to restock the vast supply of stamina potions she had on the display stand nearest the store front.
I’d thought so before, but seeing her from the side in her skin-tight dress as she moved vial after vial from her basket with a loving smile meant only at her potions, I had to say she was small. Small and thin. About as small as Mana, but clearly without the cat girl’s love of meat.
As mildly concerning as it was, her polar opposite in Elane, had to dip her head so her axe’s handle didn’t knock against the doorframe when she entered behind me.
“Welcome, Dear Customer…?”
With a tired, honest smile, she tried to greet us, but her eyes flew open at the sight of me. She nearly dropped the basket of potions in the process.
“Why are you here? Don’t tell me you haven’t left for Guerraway yet? I told you I need the ingredients by the end of the week!”
“Relax,” I laughed. “We’re just getting back. We’ve collected thirty-two Connefery Flowers. Hope that’s enough.”
Madame Turquesse looked over at Yua, but she lingered on Mana with her brow raised as the girl gave into her curiosity and dashed about the shop to look around. Soon enough, a knowing smirk played at the green-haired apothecary’s lips. She looked like she was about to say something, but she knowingly kept her mouth shut. Then her eyes went wide.
“Thirty-two?” she gasped, ignoring my complaint. “How did you manage to make it over there, trudge through the forest, find the flowers and come back in just a few days?”
I threw my thumb over my shoulder at Elane and she smirked proudly.
"Since I happened to be headed to Guerraway myself, I let them share my usual carriage."
This little story was actually entirely Elane’s doing as, according to Erika, she was apparently well-known for hiring the fastest carriages available to have them go on booze runs for her. Madame Turquesse ate it up with a nod.
“Ah, yes," she murmured, placing the basket on the table. "Lady Bellenfort, welcome, welcome. Although, I must remind you that I still do not sell alcohol."
Elane rolled her eyes, "Very funny, Turquesse," she said dryly. "But I'm not here for that. I’m escorting my new husband here on his errands."
"Husband?" Madame Turquesse repeated, her eyes widening in surprise for a second time before a knowing smirk spread across her face. "Ah, I see. Well, Dear Customer," she said, turning to me, then to Yua and Mana. "You've certainly been busy. Hahaha! Then let's see the fruits of your labor, shall we? You don't even need to ask if I have enough stamina potions for you all, because I do."
“…”
Ignoring her smirk, I brought Yua over to the counter and pulled half of the Connefery Flowers out of her bag. Elane had already given the okay to out our marriage status in the city, but I got the feeling this woman was the last person she should have told.
Madame Turquesse took them one by one, assessing their condition with an appreciative smile. In the candlelight the flowers’ vibrant purple petals shone almost like velvet. The apothecary’s eye sparkled with excitement.
“Excellent. Excellent! The sooner we get to brewing, the more potions we’ll get to create!”
“Don’t you mean the more coin we’ll make?”
“Yea, yea. That too. Now, let me put up my side of the agreement.”
Slipping past us, she nearly skipped into her backroom. She came back a minute later carrying a basket filled with a pile of puke-green balls that looked like they were made of gelatin. She offered them to me, basket and all, with an honest to Goddess smile.
“These here are War Frog Eggs. They are the only other ingredient you’ll need. Well, these and water, obviously. Here.” With an unneeded flourish, she slipped a hand up her sleeve and pulled out a slip of parchment. “This is the recipe for Cure Poison potions. Follow it to the letter and I promise you’ll have no problems.”
I took the paper and, though I memorized it the second I saw it, I made a show of reading it over carefully.
“I’ve been wanting to learn more potion recipes, but I wasn’t expecting it to be so simple.”
“Oh, yes. The Cure Poison potion, while very useful, is only a novice-level brew. Perfect for a beginner like yourself.” She paused, as if expecting me to thank her after she was the one to offer it, but then her finger shot into the air. “Ah, right. You’ll be needing proof you’ve completed the quest since you delivered the ingredients to me and not the guild. Do you still have the quest slip?”
I once again made a show of rummaging around in Yua’s bag, pretending I didn’t see the knowing smile on her lips, and reached into my item box.
Madame Turquesse took the slip and pulled out a quill and ink bottle from behind her counter. She quickly detailed what we brought her and signed her name. Blowing on the paper to dry the ink, she handed the slip back to me.
“You’ll still need to collect your reward from the guild, but make sure you come sell me all the potions you make. And remember, if you sell them to anyone else, I’ll never ever speak to you again. Now get going. I have potions to make.”
“Alright, thank yo…”
“W-Wait,” Elane said, grabbing my sleeve. Her grip was strong, but her arm was shaking as she turned to Yua. “Could you and Kitty wait outside a moment?”
“Hmm?”
“I’d like to speak to Alex alone.”
Yua tilted her head, but agreed easily enough. Adjusting her backpack, she took Mana by the arm and hauled her out of the shop. Once they were gone and once we saw Yua press down Mana’s ears through the shop’s window, Elane pulled me close. After a brief look to make sure Madame Turquesse wasn’t listening, she whispered to me.
“So, um, I don’t know how things are done in your old world, but we haven’t really had a chance to talk about this yet. It’s usually one of the first things people discuss after they get married.”
“What is?” I asked, but then I saw how red her cheeks were and how hard she was pressing her thighs together. I figured it out and my own cheeks heated up.
“U-Um… Alex, what do you think of children? With me, I mean. D-Do you want me to bear your children?”
“… I’m not ready yet.”
I’d been thinking about it since I was reminded of the fact that she was a human. And I came to the conclusion that I was not ready to be a parent. Specifically, one inhabiting this new world. There were still way too many things I need to learn before I go and try raising a kid here.
Not to mention it might come as a slap to the face for Yua and Mana, but that was a talk we’d have to have later.
“I’d like to someday,” I clarified. “Just not yet.”
Elane’s wavering cobalt eyes rested on mine for several seconds before her shoulders slumped and she let out a long sigh of relief.
“Thank the gods. I’m not ready yet either. I don’t want to give up my sex life before it even starts.”
“That’s…”
… certainly one reason to want to put it off.
“Well,” I continued. “Is there something we can do about that? I, uh, to be honest, I never had to worry about that with Yua and Mana, so…”
“I have just what you lovebirds need.”
Elane and I jumped in unison and, shakily, we turned only to find Madame Turquesse wearing the widest shit-eating grin I’d ever seen.
“I, uh… How do you even…?”
“How? We’re the only ones in my shop. I don’t have to be a cat-kin to hear you.”
“Then…”
“Oh, but don’t worry. I didn’t hear anything about other worlds or anything like that,” she said, resting her chin in her palm. “But I would like to remind you that I have plenty of stamina potions for sale right this second.”
“… And how can you help us?”
Pulling out my coin purse, I was fully prepared to accept her forced bribe. Blushing, Elane looked away.
Giggling to herself, Madame Turquesse pulled a key out of her witch’s hat and stooped below her counter. The faint sound of something being unlocked echoed throughout the shop. Elane squeezed the hem of my shirt, looking almost like a lost child as she pressed her forehead into my back.
Madame Turquesse popped up and, with a wide grin, carefully set a vibrant pink potion on the counter. Finding it familiar, I tried to focus on its info box, but she beat me to it.
“This here is called Lasserwort’s Melange. Have her drink this once a month and you can pin her to your bed as long as you want, and as often as you want, and you two won’t have anything to worry about.”
“… I’ll take ten.”
“W-Woah, there killer. Didn’t you hear me? This potion’s effects last an entire month. And I guarantee its quality.”
“Great. Ten it is, then.”
Though I was sure both the women in this room were misinterpreting my intentions, I’d really rather keep this embarrassing situation from occurring again for as long as possible. And judging from how Elane softly and repeatedly thumped her head into my back, she felt the same.
Goddess… Why does it feel like I’ve snuck my high school girlfriend to the convenience store to buy a box of condoms for the first time? And why did it have to be this tiny witch selling them?
With a smirk and a shrug, Madame Turquesse produced nine more pink vials and I added a whopping twenty more stamina potions to the pile in order to buy her silence. Combine these with the ones I bought the other day, and we should be good for a while.
I set the coin on her silver tray and dumped as many of the vials into my pockets as I could. However, before I could grab the last Lasserwort’s Melange, Elane snatched it off the counter, uncorked it with her teeth and downed it on the spot like it were a shot of her favorite rum.
Feeling myself heat up as I watched her throat move as she gulped it down, I noticed. She didn’t spill a single drop. And when she finished, cheeks bright red, she quietly set the now empty bottle on the potion, kissed my cheek and hurried outside.
Flinching when she accidentally slammed the door in her haste, I could almost hear Madame Turquesse smirking.
“Wow,” she said, her chin in hand again. “Considering how I’m sure she knows it takes a few hours for that particular potion to work its magic, I’d wager you’re in for a wild night. That being said, can I interest you in a second cauldron? Brewing at twice the speed will allot you more time for… other activities.”
“… How much?”
Thankfully, the Adventurer’s Guild was a much more inviting destination. A real sight for sore eyes after the implied blackmailing and bribery.
Amidst the sounds of drunken revelry, lively music and a slew of men and women alike, all patting themselves on the back after a long day’s fighting in the dungeons. That, or they spent their whole day hear, drinking themselves stupid.
One such man slunk out of the guild, nearly knocking into and falling over a handrail, before skillfully dodging it, only to then miss two out of the three stairs leading back down to the street. Looking happier than he’s ever been, he fell flat on his face and a pair of angry housewives hiked up their dresses, stepped over him and stomped straight towards the door. Likely there to collect their husbands.
As the man’s laughing buddy came to help him up, I had to wonder if this was just what I should expect at a bar, or if the alcohol in this world was just more addictive.
Elane grimaced at the sight.
“You guys go on ahead.”
“You sure? It’s not like you have to have a drink, you know?”
“Yea, but I’ve actually been banned from entering this guild branch. Some, uh… drunken mishaps led to me breaking a lot of their stuff. So, yea.”
I do remember the Guild Master telling us something like that. It’s a shame that an Adventurer like her can’t even enter the guild anymore, but I guess making her do so would just cause trouble at this point.
“Once someone sees me, the Guild Master will be on us before Yua even hears him coming. Trust me.”
“Speaking from experience?”
Elane shrugged, barely hiding her smirk. The walk here from the Bubbling Cauldron had been more than enough to cool her down.
“It’s fine,” I said. “I have to be the one to turn in the quest anyways. You coming, Mana?”
Curiously observing the drunken buddies carrying themselves down the street, Mana didn’t seem to register what I said until she looked towards the guild and lifted her chin. She took a long whiff of whatever the bartender was selling and her ears drooped. She then looked to the smiling Elane. And then back to the tavern for another whiff before her ears dropped again.
“I… I’ll stay.”
The scent of so much booze must be too severe for a cat-kin who wasn’t used to the city. How it was that she managed to brave the tavern in Guerraway despite this was a mystery. Maybe one of the drinks inside the Guild just didn’t agree with her nose?
Dropping her chin, Mana turned herself to Elane and, while her cheeks were a little pink, she put up her arms like she were offering herself as a human sacrifice. And without missing a beat, and with a delighted squeal, Elane scooped her into a hug that lasted only a second before she set her back down.
“Thanks for that, Kitty. I feel empowered again, but I’ll have to leave you for a little bit. I actually have a friend that lives nearby. And since I’m already here, I’d like to let her know I’m leaving. I’ll be right back.”
With a quick wave, Elane walked off down the street and Mana let out a cute sigh. When she thumped her forehead into my chest, I couldn’t help but pet her.
“You know,” I said once Elane was out of earshot. “If her hugging you like that really bothers you that much, I can ask her to stop.”
Much to my surprise, Mana shook her head.
“I don’t… hate it. It’s just… weird.”
At this, Yua tilted her head, brow furrowed in confusion as she stared at Mana’s chest, but she shrugged it off quickly enough. And I had to agree. Elane’s my wife and if what happened at the apothecary was anything to go by, she was deadly serious about seeing this marriage-thing through.
And yet, she’s only embraced me once with that level of enthusiasm.
I’m not jealous.
Telling myself this, I led Mana to the alleyway facing the guild building. There, I kissed her, intentionally making it seem like we were nothing but a pair of lovers that couldn’t quite wait to make it home before locking lips. But all I really wanted to do was discretely slip my hand up the back of her skirt to request something of her as her mate. So, I made sure nobody was looking.
The very second my fingers slipped inside her, her big blue eyes shot open and her tail swished, just as revitalized as Elane had been a moment ago.
“Mana, we won’t be in there long. So, please, just wait here.”
“Okay!”
With a happy grin, she skipped over returning her people’s groping customs and tiptoed into another kiss. I let her go and took Yua’s hand to hurry inside. Mana, still grinning, leaned on the alley wall to wait for us.
I was sure I could trust her so long as I asked that way, but I didn’t want to push my luck and have a repeat of the last time she found me in a bar if I didn’t go that extra mile.
The line for the guild girl’s window wasn’t too long, but getting to it through the crowd was a little annoying. We were no longer dressed in our battle gear, so we couldn’t blend in perfectly with the other Adventurers, but the civilian population inside the guild helped us from standing out.
That being said, while we waited for the bunny-eared guild girl Milly to work her way through the line of Adventurers, I wrapped my arms around Yua’s waist and let my chin rest atop her head. Over the hustle and bustle of the bar’s patrons, I could only guess that she laughed a bit as she tried to pry my hands off her. Naturally, I resisted.
“Alex…”
“I don’t care anymore,” I said. “Let them watch.”
This whole thing about showing affection towards slaves was nonsense anyways. The guild, or at least the Guild Master, knew she was my slave, but I didn’t mind if they knew what else she was to me.
“Besides, with Elane blabbing about us to everyone, people are going to find out sooner or later.” Tightening my arms around her just a little more, I added in a whisper, “And I never got to do this sort of thing back where I’m from.”
Or, in other words, let me engage in a little PDA already. Specifically, the kind that won’t get me arrested for public indecency like they do in your village.
“Well, if you’re sure…”
“I am,” I said, stepping forward with her when the line moved. “So, are you okay with this? What happened at the apothecary, I mean.”
“Hmm?”
I laughed. “Come on, Yua. We both know you were listening.”
Since she was too busy covering Mana’s ears to cover her own… Well, if she heard any of that, she was nice enough not to comment on it. Thankfully, she didn’t look at all upset at being left out of a conversation our different races said we couldn’t even have. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t.
“It’s not like I haven’t thought about it,” she said, her hands slipping off mine to briefly caress her abdomen. “But I don’t regret how things turned out.”
The line moved forward again.
“Besides, if Elane can give you what Mana and I can’t, then I see it as a good thing… We’ll just have to make sure any children you have can fight!”
Eagerly clenching her fists, Yua stepped forward with the line, looking very much like she was dragging me along. I laughed again.
“Well, thanks for being so supportive. Though, I guess you know that sort of thing won’t happen for a while yet.”
“Mhmm.”
The line moved ever forward and, as I thought, nobody bothered us. And while resting my chin between Yua’s fluffy ears was way more comfortable than it should have been, we thankfully made it to the window before I could doze off. We parted just before our turn.
“Good evening, Adventurer,” Milly said with a soft, tired smile. “Are you returning a quest or accepting one?”
“Returning. It was a collection mission and I already delivered the requested items. Here’s the signed quest slip.”
She took the slip and quickly skimmed it. Do perhaps to how tired she looked, she didn’t seem to notice the discrepancy with the distance and time it took to complete. Instead, she merely nodded and pointed to the Scrying Orb on her desk. I set my hand on it and let her confirm my information.
Again, she nodded, this time her expression just a tad brighter.
“Good work on successfully completing your first quest, Adventurer Alex. Madame Turquesse can be quite the handful to work for, especially since her requests usually come with little to no time to complete them.”
“We just got lucky. Ran into a friend that showed us exactly where to go.”
“Fantastic,” she chirped, clapping her hands together. “Completing a quest with a little help is just fine. However, since you are the one that accepted the quest, I can only issue the reward to you.”
“No problem there.”
Not like the spriggans cared. They were content just having their cave back.
“Wonderful. Just a moment, please.”
Milly jumped up from her seat a little too fast, fast enough to make her breasts bounce. With such abundance being a trademark of guild girls everywhere, I assumed, it was impossible not to notice, but it did earn me a slight playful elbow jab from Yua. Even if she was tired, I guess even a rabbit-kin could underestimate the power of her legs.
Following Yua’s example, I tried to play it off like I hadn’t noticed, but Milly had already disappeared, completely unawares. She came right back with a silver tray with three neat stacks of silver coins piled on it.
“Here you are. 30 Silver coins for a job well done. Get a few more quests like this under your belt and you’ll be able to rank up within the guild.”
“Looking forward to it.”
And to the more lucrative rewards that doing so will bring. I don’t even have kids yet, and I already have four mouths to feed. No reward was enough.
Although, after all the trouble we went through during this quest, when I scooped up the neat stacks of silver and felt their weight in my palms, it felt like we weren’t being paid enough.
Sighing to myself as I stuffed the coins in my pocket, we took another quick look at the quest board. Now that being an Adventurer was my job, I needed to make it a habit every time we visited, but we found nothing within our rank waiting for us.
With a final wave to Milly, and a quick refusal to Guild Master Cade as he offered us both a drink to celebrate our first completed mission, we hurried out of the guild to rejoin the others.
Only, when we stepped back out into the dwindling sunlight, we saw that Mana was indeed still there, but she wasn’t alone. And the blonde girl pinning her to the wall in that way that only works in anime, was most definitely not Elane. She was much too small in the chest and Mana looked way more confused than flustered.
Confused myself when the blonde lifted Mana’s chin with only a single finger and an openly seductive smile on her lips, I took a quick peak at her info box and saw that it was none other than the Thief Lilt.
Yua, having come to the same conclusion via her nose, clenched and pumped her fist with a powerful grin.
“Your luck really is something, Alex. Now we can get our revenge on her for stealing the panties and the coin you gifted me.”
“Ah, yea. That.”
I did promise her we’d deal with that after we finished the quest. But what freakish luck that she’d show up literally right when we finished it.
“What?” Yua smirked. “You forgot that she stole from you?”
“No, I didn’t forget. I have perfect memory, remember? I simply misplaced the thought.”
“Ha. Well, just leave this to me and I’ll…”
“Hold on,” I said, grabbing Yua by the arm. “Calm down a second. Lilt hasn’t noticed us. Let’s not scare her away by charging over there.”
Lilt was a level 5 Thief. Regardless of her circumstances, she’s likely been at the thieving game for a long time now. She probably knows the city like the back of her hand, as well as all its hiding spots. We really can’t risk her running away.
Yua huffed, but stayed her fists. “If she runs, you can just open a portal to somewhere secluded right in front of her.”
“True, but I’d still rather not do that in public.”
Though the night was growing heavy, the streets weren’t quite empty yet. Someone would see. Flirting with Yua or the other two in public was fine by me, but showing off my magic would just be idiocy.
“We need to catch her before she sees us.”
“How are we going to do that without your magic?”
Normally, I’d be on Yua’s side on this one. We were on the sidewalk outside the guild, while they were near the mouth of an alley on the opposite side of the street. Trying to book it down the same street we were already on would be like begging us to catch her.
However, since the alley itself stretched far enough to reach the street on the other side of the building Lilt had Mana against, that’d probably be her go-to route for escape. She could easily make it to the other side and round the corner before I could enter the alley to cast my spell where others couldn’t see. She’d be gone and we’d be left trying to track her via smell.
Let’s just skip the hassle so we can get out of here already.
“It’s easy,” I said. “Lilt is a human like me. So she can’t hear us.”
Nodding along with my unspoken plan, Yua discretely readied herself to lunge. I did the same. We’d decide what to do with the thief once we slapped a pair of handcuffs on her.
“Mana,” I called just loud enough for her to hear, and her ears perked up. “Catch that girl and hold her down for us. We need to talk to her.”
With a nod and a furrow to her brow that looked a little too cute to take seriously, Mana grabbed both of Lilt’s wrists in a single swift move. Using a bit of her new strength, Mana then pushed her shoulder into Lilt’s chest, pivoted and wrenched her arms around to slam the thief into the wall.
Lilt, for whatever reason, blushed when the tables were turned on her. Although, the seductive twist to her lips didn’t abate. We rushed her.
“O-Oh my. I wasn’t expecting a cutey like you to be so forceful. But why don’t we wait until we get to the inn before we…”
“Hey, Big Bro, I caught her. Now what?”
“Huh? Big Br… Shit!”
Finally noticing us, Lilt tried to wrench herself free, but Yua caught her by the scruff of her neck. Circling around to put myself between her and Mana, I wrapped an arm around Lilt’s shoulders.
“Walk with us for a minute, would you?”
“Wha… Hey… Who are you? What did I do?”
“Hands out in front of you. Keep them where we can see them. Now, walk.”
I’ve had my fill of thieves and their tricks for a while. I’m not about to risk her running away under the cover of a hidden smoke-bomb or something.
Ignoring her complaints and pointless squirming, the three of us led her further into the alley and out of sight.
“L-Let go! If you do anything weird, I’ll scream. I’m pretty popular around here. One word and a bunch of the adventurers in the guild will…”
“Scream and I’ll yell and make sure everyone knows that you’re a thief.”
“Wha-What are you talking about? I’ve never stolen anything in my life! Let me go!”
Trying and failing to free herself again, I couldn’t help but compare her strength to what Mana’s was when we first met, even though she was a higher level. Meaning I felt like I was being a brute. Lilt must be some sort of dex build.
“Do you really not remember us?” I asked, stopping our little walk in the middle of the alley. “I know you’re a thief because you stole from us.”
“I-I don’t know what you’re…,” she started, then stopped to squint at me. “Wait, you’re that guy that didn’t know where Guerraway was.”
“Exactly. And you’re the girl that stole a bag of coin from Yua here.”
“And my panties,” Yua added truthfully, but unnecessarily.
“P-P-Panties? Why would I ever steal those? If you couldn’t tell from my tits, I’m a girl too.”
Blushing, she pointed towards the wide leather strap that made up the entirety of the clothing covering her chest. I had to admit that I looked at her modest bust, but I wasn’t falling for any tricks here. I kept her hands in sight at all times.
“Lilt, we know you’re the one that took our things. They disappeared right after we met you and you’re the only one that touched Yua. I mean, really. Accidentally bumping into someone to pick their pockets has to be the oldest trick in the book.”
I say that, though we did make it all the way to the forest before we even noticed anything was missing. And technically speaking, the only reason we’re sure it’s her is because I read her info box. To anyone else, what we were doing was nothing more than guessing.
“Not to mention that, while not the same thing, you did just try to steal my wife from me.”
I pointed to Mana, who waved back with a bemused, bored but still very cute smile. Lilt paled.
“Y-your wife?”
“That’s right,” I said, letting her go to show I meant no harm. Yua did the same and Lilt unconsciously backed herself into a wall. “You can’t lie to Yua. Tell her yourself that you weren’t the one that stole our things and, if Yua says you’re telling the truth, we’ll let you go.”
At this, Lilt turned a hopeful, pleading gaze towards us.
“R-Really? You’ll let me go? Just like that?”
“Yup.”
“… You won’t tell the guards we had this conversation?”
“Won’t need to if you’re not guilty.”
She looked to each of us dubiously, the trembling in her shoulders was unmistakable. I couldn’t know if this was the first time she’d been caught, but knowing what lay in store for a caught thief would put the fear of the Goddess into anyone.
We gave her a way out. Maybe I was being too lax since she was a cute girl, but it’s not like I wanted to beat on her or hand her into slavery. I just wanted the coin she took back.
Seemingly having made up her mind, Lilt took in a long breath and spoke as calmly as possible. She looked Yua dead in the eye and…
“I didn’t steal anything from you.”
Yua’s ears flicked, then she cracked her knuckles.
“She’s lying.”
“Oh, come on!”
“Also,” Yua said, taking another whiff of the air. “The bag that had the coins was made from an old shirt of mine. I can smell it on you right now.”
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“What?!”
On reflex, Lilt’s hands flew towards the pouch on her hip and I had to question the legitimacy of her Thief class’s level. She was clearly a Thief, but to steal a coin purse from a beast-kin, then hold onto it for days without discarding the purse? Knowing it could be used to track her? Even I wouldn’t make that stupid of a mistake. And, unlike me, she was born in this world.
Unable to deny a beast-kin’s nose, Lilt quickly produced the bag of coin.
“I-It’s all there,” she promised, her voice cracking. “I was saving up for something, so I didn’t use any of it yet.”
“Good,” Yua said, snatching the purse back. “Now give me my panties back.”
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about. W-Who would steal something like that?”
While just about anyone else with any amount of common sense would agree to that, her voice cracked at every other word. Seems like, if put under enough stress, she becomes a terrible liar. Funny to think, after she managed to trick us so confidently and with a straight face when we first met.
Yua, however, didn’t find this so amusing.
“If you don’t steal panties, why don’t you show me what you have in that pouch you carry on your belt?”
“I-I-I-I don’t know what you mean! There’s nothing in there like that. Nothing at all!”
Sighing, I reached for the pouch, but she squirmed away, turning against the wall to hide her bag.
“D-Don’t touch me! If you take my bag, you’ll be branded a thief!”
“Then show us what’s inside.”
“There’s nothing…”
“I can smell the scent of other women on you. In that bag.”
“Eeep! Okay, okay, fine! You win! I took them, okay! I’m sorry!”
“Then just give them back,” I said.
“You want them back? Like, now? What, do you think I’m wearing them or something? Why would I wear something so precious? Hers are back at my place.”
“…”
Yea, Imma go ahead and keep quiet on that one. Yua may not be easy to embarrass, but if Lilt didn’t steal her panties to wear them, then I didn’t want to force out the real reason. Not in public, anyways. Watching her try to pick up Mana was kind of proof enough of her motives.
“Why do you even want more of these things?” Mana, the sole member of the peanut gallery in question, said. She grabbed at the hem of her skirt and ruffled it. “They’re so uncomfortable.”
The paleness in Lilt’s face started to brighten, but it skipped her normal complexion and jumped straight to beet-red in an instant. Chest heaving as though she’d somehow run a mile within the span of a second, tears spilled down her cheeks. She clutched at her chest. Before I could check if she was having a heart attack, she pleaded.
“I’m sorry! Please don’t report me to the guards! I don’t want to be a slave! I’ll do anything, I swear! Anything!”
The sobbing’s thief’s knees were shaking so badly, that it was a wonder she was still standing. Yua was so taken aback by her plea that she nearly dropped her coin purse when her fists slackened. I knew at once that the thief’s pleas struck a chord on the heart of the girl who had once gone through the same thing Lilt’s capture would mean for her.
Lilt collapsed to the ground, rubbing at the river of tears spilling down her cheeks, no doubt because she knew her freedom was coming to its end. By the time Mana had caught up with the severity of the situation, Yua’s anger had already left her body completely.
“Alex…”
“I know.”
Even if she was a thief, I didn’t want to ruin her life just because she had sticky fingers. Going to prison was one thing, but you can’t get out of slavery on good behavior.
“Lilt,” I said, bending down to look into her eyes. “Why would you resort to stealing women’s underwear? You clearly don’t mind flirting.”
“I…I…”
She continued to rub her eyes, unable to speak. So, I gripped her wrists and pulled them down to force her to look at me.
“I…I just… I like girls. And it’s hard to find other girls like me. So…”
I nodded, content with the answer I knew I’d hear.
It was hard to hate her for what she did when I once felt the same. Wanting what you told yourself you’d never have, only to then feel like you had no choice but to take it by force. I bought a slave, she stole from the women that likely couldn’t return her feelings. Like Yua, the beauty she saw hanging all over me. For all I know, the stealing was just a strange sort of revenge on the girls that ignored her.
The problem was that what I did was technically legal, if not amoral. I only did it once and I regretted it the moment the contract was signed. And judging by how she protected her bag, I was confident in saying she was a repeat offender.
Unsure of how or why this turned into an intervention for the girl we barely knew – I just wanted the coin back – I discretely checked Mana’s status box to confirm she wasn’t going commando before I turned to Yua.
“Yua, she stole from you. What do you want to do about it?”
Yua’s anger had already mostly disappeared after the thief’s explanation, but when she huffed and crossed her arms, she looked unsure of what to do herself. And to be honest, so was I.
If it’d just been the underwear, I’d say we could let it go. But it wasn’t that simple. While I didn’t want to doubt how absurd this world could be at times, I wasn’t going to let myself assume she grew to be a level 5 Thief just by stealing underwear. Letting her go could be dangerous.
Already anticipating the worst, Lilt clenched her fists and another river of tears started down her cheeks.
As a former victim of the same consequences Lilt was facing now, I knew her tears were only going to further weaken Yua’s resolve. After the years she spent suffering in that slave house, even a realist like her would have a hard time condemning someone else to that fate. So, I whispered to her to help ease things along.
“Forget the panties she stole. I’ll just make you a new pair myself when we get home.”
Knowing her, she valued them because they were a gift more than because she needed them. So, I didn’t mind doubling down on the gift by putting Material Creation to good use. And as I thought, this helped Yua come to a decision.
“You said you were saving the stolen coin for something. What was it?”
Lilt gulped, then blushed, but she saw Yua’s firm gaze needling her. She bit her lip and answered.
“Th-There’s, um… There’s this woman I like who, um…”
Before the stuttering thief could finish, Yua’s ears shot to attention, as did Mana’s, and both whipped around to face the mouth of the alley we’d come from. Suddenly, we weren’t alone anymore.
Fifteen men slowly filed into the alley. In the dwindling sunlight, I couldn’t tell their faces apart, but all of them were wearing armor. Some wore a set of simple adventurer’s leathers, while others donned sets of full plate mail. Regardless, each and every one of them were carrying a weapon that had already been drawn. The street behind them was empty.
For a brief moment, I thought someone had called the guards on us after seeing us pull a poor defenseless Lilt into the alley, or maybe that they were the Adventurer buddies she said she had, but after looking at them, she took a step back, eyes wide.
I focused on them, on their info boxes, only to learn that most of them were labeled as Thugs whose level ranged from 10 all the way up to level 18. All save for one man, the only Slave Master and only one of them without a combat class, was level 19.
This man, Brennen Michaelis, stepped further in front of the group with a gravitas that suggested he was confident in his complete control of the situation. The pale blue glow of the city’s street lamp illuminated his face and his lordly sneer. He was clean shaven, gaunt with sunken eyes, but he wore a finely tailored suit beneath a breastplate that was far too small for him. It was like he threw on the first peace of armor he could find before coming here, but still somehow found the gall to laugh at us.
“Heh heh heh! Looky what we have here,” Brennen said, tapping his sword on his shoulder. “A human man with dark brown hair and a cat-kin bitch with lighter brown hair, right? Say, you two wouldn’t happen to be Alex and Yua, would you?”
My hand fell to the hilt of my sword.
“I recognize some of these guys,” Yua growled, raising her fists. “From DeGrave Imports.”
“DeGrave… You mean these are Alphonse’s goons?”
“Speaking of Mr. DeGrave,” Brennen said, shunting his sword into the cobblestone to use it as a cane. “Where is he? He’s been missing for weeks now and nobody knows where he is. Thanks to that, I had to come all the way out here to Amoranth just to fill his position, but without him, all our purses are still feeling mighty light these days.”
As he spoke, more of the thugs stepped into the alley, barricading one of our escape routes. I quickly locked onto only one of the faces among the crowd. He alone was familiar, but his face was just plain enough that I would have forgotten him completely were it not for my improved memory.
It was the same balding man with his over-worked muscles that had been guarding the DeGrave building the day I bought Yua. He must have noticed us in the crowd tonight and rallied his buddies while we waited in the Guild.
Realizing this, I whispered, “Mana, can you track Elane?”
“Yea? She didn’t go far. What’s happening? Who are those guys?”
“Don’t worry about that. Run. Go get Elane. Tell her what happened and that we need her help.”
“But…”
“Don’t question me and go. Now!”
Shocked, her ears jumping at the haste in my tone, Mana didn’t argue and took off down the back end of the alley.
She had her bow at the ready, but her fear of heights meant that teleporting her to the top of either of the buildings bordering the alley would only cause her to freeze up. And leaving her to shoot from ground level was a no-go. The alley was wide and with only me and Yua to defend her, any number of the thugs could slip past us and head straight for her. Sending her for help was the best option.
Brennen watched her run, but his smile never wavered. Hopefully, he knew she had nothing to do with what happened a month ago.
Lilt too looked like she wanted to run, but she stayed put. A trembling in her knees stopped her feet from moving.
“H-hey, why are those guys after you two? Don’t tell me you were stupid enough to mess with DeGrave’s possie.”
“I’d like to know that too,” Brennen said. “Last I heard, he had something of a deal with you.”
“Yea. I bought a slave from him and paid her off. Far as I’m concerned, my business with him is done. For all I know, he went on vacation.”
“No, I don’t think he did. See, I happen to know he was staking out your room at the Lazy Cat a month ago. A few of the boys here saw him enter your room, but never saw him leave. Never saw you leave, either. Ain’t that funny?”
“Boss, are you saying he killed Alphonse?” one of his men, a level 11 Swordsman named Albin, asked. “Didn’t he say that Alex kid was only level 1? How’s that even possible?”
“I don’t know how he did it, but Mr. DeGrave never would have up and left like that without asking a bunch of you to tag along with him. You were supposed to be his bodyguards, after all.”
“Guess we should have just followed him into the inn that day.”
“Maybe, but that’s his fault for not asking. Still, I want to know how you two managed to off him.”
Apparently, they’d already decided our guilt. The worst part was that they weren’t exactly wrong. Even if they couldn’t know the details of what happened in our room that night, if they’d been watching the building like they said, then they’d have their proof that we never left on foot.
And sneaking away via other means after knowing we’d sprung Alphonse’s trap, only for him to wind up missing might as well be proof enough that we killed him.
“Well, how’d you do it? I know you two didn’t call in any help, or they would’ve been seen. So, how’d a couple low-leveled brats like you manage to beat Mr. DeGrave? We’re all ears. Please, tell us why we’re missing our benefactor.”
Sneering, Brennen pointed his sword at us and the rest followed suit. Any loyalty they had towards Alphonse was purely business, but that was all it took to earn their ire. I doubted what I had on me could match the lifetime of steady work Alphonse had offered them. Not that I planned on giving them a single copper.
I drew my sword and the moment its blade touched the open air, it sparked against the sheath and burst into thick, roaring flames that illuminated the darkness of the alley like a torch.
The flame had no need for fuel. Until I sheathed it, it’d burn continuously no matter how long the flames danced along its edge. And yet, the flames themselves were hot enough to put my Fire Ball spell to shame.
Unfortunately, however, this meant I had to put some distance between Yua and myself. Can’t risk burning her with a bit of friendly fire. Not that she minded. She just took up her usual fighting stance.
We couldn’t run from this. If we did, if we’d teleported away the moment they found us, we’d just run the risk of Elane walking into their trap all on her own. And waiting for her and Mana before fleeing would just mean that these guys would attack us every time we showed our faces here from now until we saw the fight to its inevitable conclusion.
Amoranth would be off limits until then, meaning no apothecary, no guild and no food runs. And more worryingly, there was no way of knowing now if they’d catch wind of the maids back at the mansion and their relationship to us and decide to target them to get to us.
Without even knowing the full breadth of it, they had us in a bind. Still, we just had to hold out for Elane. She may be able to throw around her nobility to get these guys off our backs.
“Wh-Why did you drag me into this?” Lilt cried. Still shaking, she scrambled to draw a small knife out of her bag.
“Ha!” Brennen laughed, unimpressed with our lineup. “Look, boys. They want to fight. Guess that means they did kill Mr. DeGrave.”
They all laughed as if our deaths were already a foregone conclusion.
“Alex…” Yua whispered without looking my way.
“I know.”
No holding back this time. If I saw an opening, I’d have to take it. And that was exactly what I was doing.
Running through my list of spells and scanning the crowd, I took in their armor and weapons, trying to decide which to attack first and how. The heavily armored guys seemed the best bet. With their armor being made of heavy metal that surely slowed them down to some extent, I was pretty sure a few silent casts of Lightning Bolt would do the trick.
At best, it’d instantly take them out of the fight and at worst, it should momentarily stun them and I could follow up with something that hit a little harder. Either way, it’d thin their numbers significantly. After that, we’d thin their numbers even more by focusing on the ones with the lowest levels.
But that was only assuming they didn’t reach me first.
My mind made up, I discretely focused on the man I meant to strike first. Brennen and the others all readied themselves, a mixture of smiles and excitement written all over their faces. They were cocky. Maybe that was a good thing.
“Hope all that fighting in the village didn’t tire you out.”
“Not at all. I still have plenty of energy to watch your back.”
“Wh-What about me?!” cried Lilt. “I’m not a fighter!”
Yua and I looked to each other, shared a brief and silent conversation that quickly ended with a nod.
“Lilt, go track down some of the city guard and bring them here, fast. Do that, and you can consider us even.”
If she can’t fight, then she’d just be a liability. I didn’t want to run the risk of Yua or I getting hurt trying to protect her.
“R-Really?” she said, the beginning of a hopeful smile cracking her trembling lips. “I-I know where all the guards are stationed and their patrol routes. I can get them here in five minutes.”
“Then we’ll do our best to hold on until then.”
“Y-Yea. Just promise you won’t tell them what we talked about.”
“Fine, just go already!”
“Okay!”
Behind me, I couldn’t watch Lilt take off running, but I did listen for her footsteps. They began to fade and then they vanished without a trace.
I don’t know what I was expecting, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if Lilt betrayed her promise and fled the city just to be free of us and Brennen’s men. She didn’t have a good enough reason to actually follow through with her promise. And that was fine. This was our fight. Thief or not, I didn’t like the idea of dragging her into it.
“N-No…”
However, what I never would have expected was to still hear her voice behind me.
Weary of the men in front of us, I chanced a look over my shoulder only to witness Lilt’s knees give out. She fell onto her ass beside me and stared, not at Brennen and his men, but down the opposite end of the alley. Color faded from her face until all that was left was a sickly white. Sweat beaded on her brow. Her eyes wider than the moon was round, she trembled violently, like every muscle in her body was twitching with an intense burning she could never hope to stop.
Shit. Are there more of them behind us?
Brennen managed to rally this many men on such short notice, so it wasn’t hard to guess he might have had more waiting at the other end of the alley incase we tried to run. But what did that mean for Mana?
With a click of my tongue, I turned and put my back to Yua’s, ready to take on half this make-shift army by myself, only to find the other end of the alley stoppered by a buxom, woman whose usually golden hair was shaded in the same blue of the street lamps above. And beside her was a comparably much smaller cat girl looking all proud of herself.
Elane was gripping her axe tight with both hands, while Mana cautiously nocked an arrow.
A relieved sigh escaped my lips.
“Looks like the cavalry is here, Yua.”
“… I don’t know how to feel about being saved by her twice in one day, but the odds weren’t in our favor.”
“Tell me about it. I’m the husband here. I’m supposed to be saving her.”
“Haha. I think you’re going to need a lot more training before you can save her from anything.”
“Haha. Ouch.”
Unfortunately, I couldn’t disagree. The only way I really had to save anyone right now was to teleport them out of a situation. Or, in other words, run away. And unfortunately, that wasn’t an option here.
Perhaps sensing the admittedly abundant relief I’d been fueled with in seeing Elane again, Lilt tried to stand, but the earth-shattering trembling that had consumed her caused her to fall right back down. Her legs refused to work, so she looked up at me from where she sat. Eyes wrecked by a manic confusion in the face of our casual banter, she looked at us as though we’d gone crazy.
“Wh-wh-what are you two talking about? D-Don’t you know who that woman is? That’s Elane Bellenfort! Her being here is a thousand times worse than facing Alphonse’s goons! Just look how pissed she is!”
“What are you talking about?” I said, then tapped my forehead. “Oh, right, guess you don’t know. Elane’s actually my wife.”
The revelation caused Lilt’s jaw to drop and not in the “how the hell did you manage to land such a beauty” way. Her assumptions of my insanity were now set in stone.
“Y-you married her? Didn’t I warn you about her?!”
“So? Come on, now. She’s a fun person once you get to know her.”
Lilt’s mouth opened and closed several times as she stared, but I couldn’t say for certain if she even meant to say anything. Her complexion was still worryingly pale.
I offered to help her up, half tempted to just teleport her back to the mansion so she could start breathing again, but she didn’t notice the hand I extended her way. Her eyes were fixed on Elane. And Elane stared right back.
“Hey, Elane!” I shouted. “Think you can come talk some sense into these guys for us?”
Unhesitant to ask her to throw around her former title to put an end to this since these guys wouldn’t know any better, I waved to her. But she didn’t move.
From a distance, I could see Mana’s ears twitch with recognition, but I was sure Elane should have heard me.
“Hey, who’s that down there?” Brennen said, shielding his eyes from the blue light of the street lamps to see better. “Albin, I thought you said you were able to trick the guards into going somewhere else. I wanted this little get together to be a private affair.”
“I did,” the swordsman said, stepping up beside him. He too peered down the alley and I could have sworn I saw his grip tighten around his sword. “… I don’t think that’s a guard.”
It wasn’t just Albin, all of the men before us suddenly looked cautious of the figure they could barely see. Lilt, too, hadn’t found the strength to stand yet. She just continued staring at Elane.
Elane in turn did nothing but stare right back until her chin lifted and her attention turned to Brennen and his men.
Seeing this, an idea popped into my mind. Hopefully Elane doesn’t mind us using her negative reputation. The path to avoiding a fight altogether suddenly didn’t seem so far away.
“Like Lilt here said,” I started. “That’s Lady Elane Bellenfort. And she happens to be my third wife.”
“What?!” Albin shouted, gripping his sword with both hands. I could hear the hilt clattering against the blade’s steel as he pointed it defensively at Elane.
Brennen, however, shrugged. His smug smirk hadn’t shifted an inch.
“You brought a woman as your backup, hmm? No, I suppose there’s two girlies over there. If she’s your wife, shouldn’t you be telling her to run away while you gallantly sacrifice yourself for her sake?”
“B-Boss,” Albin started, his voice quaking. “The woman with the huge tits is Elane Bellenfort. She’s The Terror of Amoranth.”
““Terror?””
Brennen and I spoke in unison, but I shook off the disgust I felt in doing so and looked to Elane. Sure, she was holding a weapon I’d watched her use to cut down three men, but she was standing almost perfectly still.
I knew she had a reputation, but terror? If anyone saw the type of woman she was back at the apothecary, terror would be the absolute last word they’d use to describe her. Next to her, Mana tilted her head at Elane, as if she too thought their reactions silly.
“What sort of ridiculous name is that?” Brennen snorted, unintentionally agreeing with me. “She’s not even wearing armor. If she’s dumb enough to fight for this buffoon, just kill her too.”
“Fuck that!” Albin said sharply. “Not even Alphonse himself could pay me enough to fight her. That bitch is insane!”
“Hey!” I shouted, firing a low-powered Rock Throw at the man. “I just said she’s my wife. Watch your mouth!”
Though I’d fired it in haste, I was surprised to see the projectile strike home. The small stone bounced off Albin’s forehead, doing no more damage than a pebble thrown by a child before it clattered to the ground. I was expecting a Swordsman of his level to deflect such a deliberately weak and direct attack with ease, but Lilt’s trembling seemed to have infected him as well.
“Hey, Big Bro,” Mana said, appearing beside me to tug at my shirt. “Booby Lady’s heart sounds weird.”
“Weird? What do you mean?”
“Like, um… I don’t know. It’s just weird. Not normal.”
Confused and leaving Yua to keep an eye on the thugs, I turned back to Elane. She still hadn’t moved, but she was clenching her axe a little closer to her chest now.
“I think she’s mad.” Mana, ears drooping, circled around me, putting her back to the thugs instead.
“What do you mean?”
“Like I said,” Albin shouted, a thin stream of blood trickling down from his forehead. “I ain’t fighting her!”
“Boss, you’re not from here, so maybe you don’t get it,” the bald thug said, his voice shaking just as much as Albin’s. “But you don’t want to challenge that woman. Ever.”
It was then that I noticed the rest of the thugs were unconsciously stepping back towards the street and away from the alley. Faces pale with fright, they’d clearly lost their will to fight.
The only one still holding his sword with any level of confidence was Brennen.
“Again, you pussies, it’s just a woman. Get in there and fight! I’m not paying you just so you can stand around shitting yourselves!”
His smirk giving way to a sneer, Brennen grabbed Albin’s collar and shoved him towards us, but Albin smacked his hand away.
“No fucking way! You can have your money back. I ain’t fighting her!”
Albin reached under his breastplate and fished out a bag of coin and tossed it at Brenne’s feet.
“Boss, you haven’t seen her cut loose before. Fighting her would be suicide! If she’s that guy’s wife, then you better give up on him and...”
“Don’t give me that crap!” Brennen shouted back, kicking the bag of coin back to Albin. “I know what this is about. You lot just got your panties in a bunch because the kid called her a Lady, right? What you want is more coin, isn’t it? Skewering a noble costs more, does it?”
Leaving his sword standing up in the stone floor, Brennen grumbled as he reached for his own purse. He took out a gold piece and flicked it to Brennen. The coin struck the cobblestones with a small metallic clink, but the thugs all flinched as though the sound it made was deafening.
“There you are. Now go kill her, and the others.”
“What part of no don’t you get?!”
“Guys, guys, guys,” I said, trying to draw their attention. “Look, nobody wants to fight, right? Let’s just talk this over so nobody gets hurt.”
If Elane’s heart was acting up, we needed to deescalate. She was pressing her axe to her chest, not like she intended to find comfort in it, but almost like it were a hurdle she were trying to throw herself over. Clenching, grinding her teeth now, she glared, her gaze fixated entirely on the thief beside me.
If the beating of her heart was enough to make a cat-kin worry, it had to be serious.
“Alex…” Yua said, brow drenched in sweat. “Something doesn’t feel right.”
“I know. I’m trying to…”
A sudden tug on my hand shifted my line of sight back down to Lilt. Squeezing my fingers with everything she had, the thief sobbed hysterically.
“I-if she’s your wife, tell her to let me go! Please! I don’t want to be here any…!”
“LIIIIIILT!!! DON’T YOU TOUCH MY HUSBAND!!!”
[CAUTION: Slave Elane Bellenfort Has Activated Berserker Rage!!!]
A wave of overwhelming dread swept past, engulfing us all in a vacuum where no other sound could dare exist.
Elane’s voice was deep, deafening and entirely unlike her. It was unrecognizable.
Nobody moved. Not the men, not Yua or Mana. All were transfixed on the origin of that bellow. Finding my own arm shaking a little, I alone pointed my sword towards Elane so the flames writhing along the blade could illuminate her. I shivered at what I saw standing there at the edge of the alley.
The vibrant, cobalt blue eyes I’d not-so-secretly longed to watch fall into pleasure had faded from existence, leaving behind nothing but an empty white void. The velvety-smooth skin that made it impossible not to gaze upon her without lust had suddenly turned a deep shade of scarlet. Steam bellowed off her, warping the air around her and it was as if the very blood coursing through her veins had started to boil beneath her flesh.
Gripping her giant battleaxe hard enough for its metal to squeal, she took a single step forward and the world quaked beneath her boot.
Brow contorted with malignant anger, she looked like she wanted to start a one-woman stampede down the alley, but her movements were unbearably staggered, like just the thought of moving caused her muscles to tear.
Eye twitching, teeth grinding, she took a second step.
“LILT, YOU BITCH! YOU DARE TRY TO HAVE MY HUSBAND KILLED!!! AFTER ALL THESE YEARS, I FINALLY FOUND SOMEONE WHO…. ARRGGHHHHH!”
Elane stopped, wrenching a hand off her axe to grab at her head.
“N-no… I d-didn’t do n-noth…”
Unable to tear her eyes off Elane, Lilt didn’t seem to notice a wetness spreading from her crotch to dampen the cobblestones.
Elane took another step and Lilt curled into a ball, the thought of running never even occurring to her.
“What are you waiting for?” Brennen shouted, kicking Albin in the leg. “Get in there and fight! She’s distracted. Now’s your chance!”
Albin was almost too transfixed on Elane’s slow approach to notice the hit.
“N-no… not this again…I’m leaving. I’m getting out of here!”
“Like hell you are!”
Albin tried to turn tail and run, as did several of the others, but Brennen grabbed hold of his collar again.
“I told you to get in there! Continue acting like a coward, and I’ll make sure you never find work in Amoranth again!”
Elane took another step.
“N-no…”
“Get in there!”
“NO! L-Let go!”
Unable to tear his gaze completely away from Elane, Albin tried to wrench himself free of the man’s hold, but couldn’t seem to muster any strength, even though Elane’s manic glare was fixated only on the cowering Lilt.
“You weak, worthless little piece of human detritus! Stop being such a chicken and fight! You’re a damned mercenary! Fight!”
“Let go! I have to get out of here!”
“Fight! I’ll pay you double what we agreed!”
“Gods dammit! I said let go!”
In flash, Albin shoved his sword into Brennen’s gut. It looked as though he merely meant to push him back, but the pointed tip easily slid through fabric, skin and muscle alike until its blade slipped out the man’s back, covered in thick viscous blood.
Yua gasped, giving up her fighting stance to cover her mouth.
“Wh-what… did you do?”
Too stunned to feel the pain, Brennen gripped the part of the blade jutting out of his stomach. With shaking hands, he tried to pull it out, but all it did was dig into the flesh of his palms. The under-sized armor he wore had been useless.
Gaping, mouth floundering like a fish out of water, Albin looked horrified by what he’d done. As if it were an act of self-defense, pure reflex. Here was a man that had apparently taken over the slave trade when Alphonse went missing, the same man who’d seemingly decided to foot the bill for these thugs, and now one of them had killed him.
The look of shock never left Brennen’s eyes as his consciousness slowly faded. Albin tried to blink the sight of his blade skewering the man out of existence… but then Elane took another step.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!”
Repeating the word as though it were some sort of mantra to calm his nerves, Albin squeezed his eyes shut before ripping his sword out of the corpse in his arms. Brennen fell to the ground, unmoving.
Albin turned to the five of his men that found the will to stay, or worse, were too scared to move, and screamed at them.
“Let’s go! We ain’t fighting that lunatic!”
A few of his men managed to crack a weak, wiry smile before fleeing. A couple even dropped their swords, their weight would only slow them down.
“What the hell is going on?” I said. “There’s no way they could be…”
There was no way they could be so scared of her. She was a skilled fighter for sure, but their reaction to just the sight of her was unbelievable.
Refusing what I’d just seen, and knowing something drastically wrong was happening, I opened her status page.
Her main page said that she was under the effect of that Berserker Rage ability of hers, but it didn’t give any details, so I rushed through the rest of her information in search of something, anything that looked out of place and, on her stats page, I found a set of numbers that were different from what I remembered when I first made her mine. We hadn’t been together long enough for my abilities to make any sort of a difference to her stats, but doing the math, I saw that…
“Oh. Shit…”
Both her Strength and Vitality stats had been boosted by an entire fifty-percent!
“LIIIILT!!!” Elane bellowed, the veins in her neck bulging, her voice nearly demonic. “HOW DARE YOU!! MY HUSBAND!! TRIED TO TAKE HIM AWAY!! TRIED TO KILL!! NOW YOU DIE!!”
“No… no… no… no… I didn’t. I didn’t do anything. I just… I just wanted a woman.”
The target of Elane’s hatred was holding her head, rocking back and forth, chanting her innocence like it were the incantation to some sort of barrier spell. Her sense for fight or flight had abandoned her.
I snapped out of my confusion and called to Elane as she continued her forced-slow approach.
“Elane, you can stop! Lilt didn’t do anything wrong! And the bad guys are gone already!”
“LIIIIIILT!!”
My words had no effect on her at all. She just continued walking towards us, axe gripped tightly in her hands, her grip bleaching her knuckles white.
“Shit... Mana, what did you tell her when I sent you after her?”
“N-nothing! I just said that you were talking with a female called Lilt in an alley when a bunch of males carrying weapons showed up. That’s it!”
“LIIIILT!!! YOU WANT TO KILL HIM?!! TAKE HIM AWAY FROM ME?!! YOU?!! NO. NO. NO!!! YOU’LL DIE FOR THAT!! YOU HAVE TO DIE!!!”
“I didn’t! I didn’t!”
A sickening pit opened up in my stomach. Time seemed to move in accord with her every step, daring not to advance unless she did herself. This became unbidden law to all. To the entire city. The once bustling streets were empty, the guild had shut their doors.
Even Yua gulped as she raised her fists. Though now they were shaking.
I stepped between Elane and Lilt.
“Elane, stop!”
“LIIIIILT!!!”
“Elane, I order you to stop!”
But she didn’t. For a brief second, she clenched her teeth harder, grinding them with enough force to turn a diamond into dust, but she took another step. She ignored my order.
“Impossible,” Yua muttered.
Elane drew closer and the tip of her axe got caught on the wall, but she continued anyways. Without trying, without showing that it slowed her in anyway, the axe cut through the stone wall, leaving a deep gouge along its face, just from the force of her stepping forward.
She almost looked to be trying to stop herself from how slow she stepped.
As her master, my orders should have been absolute. If she was conscious, she should have been forced to obey. She looked like she tried, but anger caused her to break free of the slave spell’s magic. Or was it because I wasn’t specific enough?
“Stop it already!”
Before I could order a more direct request, Mana dashed through Yua and me to stand before Elane.
“Mana, get back! What are you doing?!”
I tried to stop her, but telekinesis failed to grab hold of her, like it too was disobeying me. I chased her, but she faced down the berserk Elane anyways. Her ear twitched at the heavy sound of another footstep, but she held shockingly firm.
Throwing her arms up high in the air, she presented herself.
“J-Just this once, you can hug me however you want! But you have to stop!”
“What?”
I was flabbergasted. Now of all times, she was offering her hugging services, but the way she turned her head and squeezed her eyes shut made her look like she were making some grand gesture of sacrificing herself. And yet, Elane brushed past her. She didn’t attack. Didn’t even yell. Without so much as a glance to the petite girl, it was like she hadn’t even noticed Mana was there.
Mana peeked when Elane passed her, and when she saw that she remained unmolested, her eyes widened in disbelief. Her tail drooped.
“LIIIILT!”
“What the hell is going on?”
As ridiculous as the thought of stopping her rampage with a hug sounded, in Elane’s case, it almost made sense. Since we met, Elane had taken advantage of every opening Mana gave her to scoop her up. Hell, Elane seemed to completely forget her anger towards me the moment Mana showed her face. And I essentially had a hand in ruining her life. Mana might as well be her kryptonite.
Wait… No. This isn’t right.
I can’t look past the fact that Elane looks like she’s trying to stop herself from moving forward. She thinks Lilt’s trying to kill me and yet she’s ignoring my demands to stop. Her feelings came quick, but they were serious enough to embarrass herself just to ask for a potion whose implications shouldn’t be heard of outside the bedroom.
If she’s outright ignoring her husband and her master’s orders, ignoring Mana, then…
So, I picked up Bonda’s axe and… and I don’t know. I just kind of blacked out after that. But when I came to, all of the bandits were dead and Bonda’s axe was covered in blood.
I’d taken that story with a healthy portion of salt, assuming that maybe she just repressed the memories of fighting those bandits, but what if she didn’t? What if she wasn’t even conscious right now? Was her anger the only thing keeping her going? If so, then maybe there was still a way to end this without any bloodshed.
“Mana, get away from her!”
Shouting, Yua dashed for her friend, who’d sped over in front of Elane again. Yua grabbed Mana by the sleeve and yanked her out of the woman’s warpath, only to end up in the way herself.
“LIIILT!!”
Despite the interference, Elane’s empty, twitching glare remained locked on Lilt, who’s hysterical sobs only increased in intensity the closer the axe got.
Yua, a born and bred fighter, stood her ground and put up her fists, but she didn’t know of the changes to Elane’s stats.
“Yua, stop! She’s way stronger than she used to be!”
“LIIILT!”
Undaunted by Yua’s presence, before she could even ready herself to throw a punch, Elane’s elbow rocketed into Yua’s stomach.
The movement was so natural, it was almost automatic. It didn’t look like she even tried to hurt her. Like Yua had simply walked into the natural swing of her arm as she continued walking forward, but it threw her across the alley and into the wall opposite us.
Stunned only briefly, Yua got right back up, but clenched her stomach, eyes wide with disbelief.
“What…? It’s like getting hit by Daddy…”
“That Berserker Rage ability of hers has increased her strength by fifty-percent. Neither of us are a match for her.”
“Should we teleport Daddy to…”
“No! I’m not about to ask him to fight her.”
He might actually kill her, even if accidentally.
“Then what about Guild Master Cade? Mana can go ask while we hold her off.”
“We don’t need help,” I said, sheathing my sword, returning the alley to darkness.
“But you said she’s stronger now. And I couldn’t even hurt her when she was normal.”
“We’re not going to try to hurt her.”
I couldn’t be sure if my hypothesis was correct just yet, but if she wasn’t actively aware of her actions, then, in a way, she wasn’t fighting at one-hundred-percent. And that means we have a chance. There was something we could try, but I had to trust Yua to understand that we couldn’t risk discussing a plan wear Elane could hear it.
Not when Elane was so close to Lilt. When all this was done, I didn’t want her to have to find out she killed an innocent person, all because of a stupid misunderstanding.
It took Yua a moment, but she must have picked up on my idea, because she let go of her stomach to ready herself again. As did I… by getting out of Elane’s way.
“LIIILT!!!”
The path to her target now cleared, time flowed again and Elane picked up the pace. There was a certain melancholy behind the pale white of her eyes, the cobalt blue I’d come to love was begging to be noticed as they twitched. I couldn’t help but feel as though that, somewhere deep inside her, she just wanted this to end.
Elane was still in there.
“LIIILT!!!”
She raised her axe high above Lilt’s head. Seeing it glint in the moonlight, Lilt couldn’t move. Even her trembling stopped. All she could do was watch as the guillotine raised higher and higher, its sole purpose to split her in half.
At the same time, I stepped closer and Elane showed no signs of noticing me. So, I jumped in between the axe and Lilt and waited.
Tall as I was, it was impossible Elane hadn’t noticed me block her mark, but her axe fell anyways.
Only, I used my rights as her master to instantly stash it away in my item box.
Hands suddenly empty, she swung at me and missed, striking only at the air between us. Unfortunately, she took the loss of her weapon rather well, as she recovered from her swing and instead raised her fists into the air. Her muscles bulging as lava coursed through her veins, she wasted no time in bringing them down on me.
I threw up my arms to block and incanted.
“Iron Fist!”
Her fists slammed down and my arms glowed with a silver light.
A metallic screech tore into my eardrums, but the pain was quickly overshadowed by my knee’s giving out, the right one crashing hard into the cobblestone, cracking it. I hadn’t even taken the hit directly, I’d only put my all into deflecting it. Still, the pain was explosive. It way more than I expected, but as I thought she might, Elane felt the same pain.
“GAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!”
Elane writhed in agony as the slave spell rounded all my suffering back onto her. Still red, still seething, she grasped at the invisible hands gripping her throat.
“Yua, now!”
I threw open a portal in front of Yua that connected to the space behind Lilt. Without need for an explanation, Yua reached through, grabbed Lilt by the arm and pulled her through the portal to safety.
Now that she was out of the way and now that Elane was distracted, I forced myself to ignore the pain in my knee.
Propelling myself forward on just the strength of my good leg, I wrapped my arms around Elane’s back. Her skin felt horrifically hot, but I bore with it the same as she had been and whispered in her ear.
“Elane, I forgive you. Now… Force Sleep!”
My spell cast and her writhing stopped. Her screaming came to a swift end. And the solid muscle I’d been embracing quickly softened as the redness left her skin.
“Lilt… Don’t kill… him. Please.”
The blue in her eyes returned, just in time for her eyelids to flutter shut and for her body to fall limp in my arms. When forced to bear her weight, I was quickly reminded of the pain in my knee. Carefully, I set her down, making sure she didn’t bump her head. Quietly, her breasts started to rise and fall with the gentle motion of someone in a deep sleep.
It was almost unbelievable how peaceful she looked now, but I didn’t let myself breathe easily until her status page both said that she was no longer under the effects of Berserker Rage and that she was, in fact, asleep.
“Phew… Thank the Goddess that worked.”
Guess I was only partially right about her being unconscious. She was unaware enough of her own actions to not only bypass my orders, but because the slave spell hadn’t attacked her sooner, she also hadn’t actually thought to hurt me. It sort of just happened, like some other force was puppeteering her body.
At the same time, she was also awake enough to actually be knocked out. And thankfully so, if Force Sleep hadn’t worked on her, we would’ve had to watch the slave spell choke her until she fell unconscious.
I let myself fall on my ass, but when I tried to catch myself, my left arm somehow missed the ground entirely. Realizing it was the arm that took the brunt of Elane’s strike, I took a quick breath to prepare myself and checked on my arm to see what was wrong. And I blinked when I saw that my forearm was bent at a sickeningly uncomfortable angle. Like how a street sign’s pole might look after a car rammed into it.
Many would likely call me lucky for being able to say I’d never had a broken bone before in my life, but I clearly no longer had that right. Still, I think I somehow knew the damage before I saw it, because I’d kept Iron Fist active. Thanks only to it, I truly felt no pain. In fact, I barely felt a thing.
Guess Iron Fist actually turns your body into something akin to metal. No wonder why Yua could actually shatter stone when she punched something with it.
“Alex!”
Speaking of, Yua slid to a stop in front of me and, her breathing haggard, immediately slammed her palm into the center of my chest. A bright green glow emitted from her hand and the pain in my knee slowly began to fade. It did nothing for my arm, though.
“When did you learn Iron Fist?”
“… When I fought your dad. Haven’t really had a chance to use it, though.”
Gonna have to hold back on the fact that I’d actually learned it when he asked me to prove my strength by him letting me punch him. Even if she knew it’d always be the case, the fact that that punch did literally nothing to him was too embarrassing.
“Why didn’t you use it against Tillmann?”
“Uh, because I was poisoned? I couldn’t exactly think straight, you know.”
“… Then how are you already using it on your entire arm when you only just learned it?”
That was a good question. While I knew it could be done, all I did was envision Tama doing the same. He’d used it on several different parts of his body, so I tried to replicate what he did.
“I’ll explain later,” I said. “Are you okay?”
Checking her health bar, I lifted the front of her shirt to check on her stomach. A compliment to her resilience, there was only a bruise there. A large bruise, but nothing a small potion couldn’t fix. So, I took one out for her. She took it, looking to my arm.
“That’s going to hurt a lot when you release the Iron Fist.”
“I figured. Hopefully Madame Turquesse has a potion to mend broken bones. Mana, you okay?”
“Yea… What happened to Booby Lady?”
Leaning to the side as Yua downed her potion, I found Mana squatting again in a very un-lady-like way beside Elane. She poked the woman’s cheek, but Elane just continued snoozing.
“I’m not entirely sure. We’ll have to ask her later when she wakes up.”
“What should we do with her?” Yua asked.
“We’ll take her home, obviously. We can’t just leave her here.”
“I don’t mean Elane.”
Turning, Yua’s ears flicked at the sight of Lilt, who was only now unfurling from the ball she’d left herself in. Her eyes darted around and quickly found Elane. She jumped to her feet, backing herself against the wall. Chest rising rapidly, it almost looked like she was about to pass out right along side her attacker. That is, until she noticed Elane’s eyes were closed.
“Is… Is she dead?”
“Huh? No. I worked my magic and made her fall asleep. You’re safe now.”
“R-Really?”
Turning over her hands in front of her eyes, she let out a sigh of relief so heavy it nearly lifted her off the ground.
But then she noticed the dampness in the crotch of her pants and her hands flew to cover it.
Yua and I shared a look and a smile and I knew we were on the same page.
“Lilt,” I said. “Sorry about all this. What you did wasn’t worth all this… terror. You’ve been punished enough.”
Lilt gulped, her cheeks nowhere near as red as Elane’s had been, but she asked the question that we’d been forced to leave unanswered.
“Th-Then you won’t report me to the guards?”
“No. By way of apology for my wife’s… recklessness, we’ll pretend all that never happened. Though I do have a request for you.”
Lilt’s mood brightened several shades upon learning she’d survived long enough to clear her clearly guilty name, but she braced herself. However, my request should be easy to complete.
“Stop stealing panties. I mean, I’m still a bit inept when it comes to women, too, but even I know doing that is no way to get them to like you.”
“Can you do that?” Yua added. I couldn’t see her face, but from her tone and the way Lilt jumped, I guessed she was still a little miffed that one of my gifts to her had been stolen.
“Y-Yes! I, uh, I can’t give them back without explaining how I took them… B-B-But I promise I won’t ever steal panties again! So, uh, thank you! Bye-bye!”
With that, Lilt took off running, no doubt as fast as she could. She was gone before any of us could so much as wave goodbye.
“… Can’t help but notice how she specified panties when she said she wouldn’t steal anymore.”
I sighed and got to my feet. Iron Fist was slowly draining my stamina, but at a faster rate than my stamina regeneration ability could mitigate. At best, I had six or seven minutes before I’d be drained and in a world of pain.
“I was really looking forward to using these stamina potions for something else, but…”
I popped a vial into my hand and downed it on my way over to Elane and Mana. Looking down at her, watching Mana push her finger deep into Elane’s cheek, I couldn’t help but smirk a bit wryly at the dopey smile that took the sleeping woman’s face.
“Yua… Sorry to ask, but could you carry her?”
“Sure…”
Yua scooped the unconscious woman up off the ground and walked through my portal the moment it appeared. I quietly ushered Mana through it after she collected her bow, but didn’t enter myself.
Brennen was still laying there dead. Someone from the guild would find him soon enough after they finished drinking, but he clearly meant to kill us. I didn’t want whoever found him to think he was just some victim of a mugging gone wrong.
So, I made sure nobody was looking and shot a couple Fire Balls at him. Staying only long enough to make sure the flames took, I followed the girls through the portal.