Chapter 61: Mistress Aura

Therina and Irie walked into a dim, shady tavern in the back streets of the slums. Even the city guard only patrolled here on the rare occasion, often leaving as fast as they came.

In here, those that lived off the scraps of others lurked in the shadows, an ever-present stench of rot and faeces lingering in the air.

Both of the girls wore thick robes with the hoods pulled deep over their faces to hide their identity, as this meeting was arranged in secrecy with the adventurers under Styx's rule. They were expendable, but Therina and Irie held much more sensitive positions.

Styx had partitioned off a small portion of his core and information processing abilities to serve as a communication function between the women whom he was bonded with. This way, they could actively contact each other regardless of distance and Styx himself didn't have to spend his attention being a gopher of messages.

Two female adventurers were in the tavern awaiting the two dungeon wives an hour before the meeting. They had the male adventurers stand as lookout in case they were followed, following them from a distance with their eyes outside, even drinking in dark corners of the tavern while keeping their gaze on the other customers.

"Styx also captured civilians, couldn't we have just met them in their private residence?" Therina complained while resting her hand on the hilt of her sword, ready to draw it at a moment's notice.

Breaking the law was a severe punishment in the city, especially killing someone, but people in the slums cared far less about the iron clad laws than they did gold or food.

"You assume they had nice homes like mine. Half of them probably lived in the slums, or shared a property with several others."

Therina glanced around the tavern and curled her nose the filthy, rot smelling humans inside of it, "How does Aura even stomach these things. It's like they're living in their own filth."

One of the human adventurers, a woman, waved for them to sit down.

"This I guess I will have to welcome you to the bottom of human society. Unfortunately, we can't all live as clean and pure as an elf. If pure is what I can call you."

"Watch your tongue, human."

Now that they were no longer trapped under the constant threat of being eaten any day, the humans had regained their crass attitude which came hand in hand with their lifestyle. Whilst they wouldn't dare go against Therina or Irie due to their position, they were still cynical.

The woman shrugged her shoulders and pulled out a dirty and torn folder. Irie scowled and struggled to decide whether the quality of the paper inside of the folder or the handwriting on the paper was worse.

"What is this? It's basically bark. Surely you could have at least bought some proper paper. Paper is cheap"

"For you, maybe. I have more important things to spend what little money I have."

"Next time, buy better paper. I will reimburse you for any costs incurred."

"Really?"

Therina glared at the woman a hissed under her breath, "Don't think you can take advantage of that. Styx sees everything you do, and should you try scam us, you know what will happen."

"I get it, alright. No need to be such a prude about a few coins. It's pocket change to you, at least let me earn something for my time."

"You earn your life," Therina mercilessly stated.

The human woman broke eye contact and looked elsewhere, fully aware of the fate of anyone who disobeyed.

Therina and Irie didn't stop to enjoy the sorry excuse of what they called alcohol in this establishment and directly left.

One the way out, Irie bent over the female adventurer's shoulder and dropped a small sack of silver coins into her hand.

"Don't worry about her, just do as you're told and don't question. If you do your job well, I will ensure you are… remunerated. Share this to the other women, and you all decide who gets what."

The adventurer silently nodded and drank her ale as the two walked out of the rundown tavern.

"That wasn't necessary," Therina coldly stated to Irie as soon as the two stepped outside.

Irie shrugged her shoulders and hunched her back as the two silently departed the slums.

Back inside the tavern, the female adventurer gulped down the last of her ale before motioning the her compatriots.

"Move it, you bastards. We'll go meet up with the others and split the earnings."

One of the male adventurers, twice her size and covered in muscles slapped his hand on the table.

"Who are you calling a bastard? I'll have you know that my ma' and da' were married. How bout you hand the money over to me and I'll decide how its split."

The man was much stronger than her and also higher in level.

She looked him directly in the eye and questioned in a frigid voice, "Son of a bitch, are you telling me what to do?"

"So what if I am? Hand over the money."

"Stop making me waste my breath and get a fucking move on. You're in no position to tell me what to do."

The man had a sinister look in his eye as his hand inched towards his waist.

"Go on, do it, you bastard. You'll have a far worse fate than me, and not even a cell will stop her coming for you."

The man visibly flinched at this and touched the phantasmal scar on his chest through his old clothes. He spat on the ground in anger, but no longer dared demand the money.

~~~~~

⠀

"What is it, exactly?" Therina asked Irie while looking over her shoulder at the dirty, coarse paper. She could speak the human tongue, but couldn't read the language, especially one so terribly written.

"It is the information on the Duke's son, Gabralter."

"Oh, The Relevant's mysterious informant of information he shouldn't know. What information on him?"

"Nothing private, just what he has been up to when going out. The things he has done, who he has talked to, what he has asked… oh my, this is interesting."

"What is?"

"He has been looking for an elf. With waist length long gold hair intricately plaid, vivid green eyes, and looks just like you. Also, this elf's name just happens to be Therina."

"…"

Styx's voice directly entered their mind at this moment, "Therina, have you ever met the duke's son?"

"Of course not."

"So how does he know you?"

"I don't know."

"Then you should go find out, shouldn't you?"

Therina hurriedly agreed and asked Irie in an unamused tone, "Where should I go to find this person? Perhaps I should head back home to get one of the new soulium daggers? I'm sure that would make him talk very quickly."

"There is no need to torture him! Not to mention, he is the duke's son." Irie grabbed the elf and playfully pulled on her hair. "If he is harmed or even dies, it will bring an enormous amount of danger to Styx and the dungeon. It may not be just the Duke as well. If the matter becomes too serious, he could inform the royal faction of the Maple Dragon Kingdom itself."

"There is no need to worry," Styx's calm voice stated to the two in their heads. "With Aura here, the kingdom would find any intervention to be a useless endeavour. As long as she doesn't attack the kingdom and only defends, the human goddess, Eve, won't intervene. That being said, don't kill or harm him until I have given you permission."

"What should I do?" Therina asked obediently, not showing any displeasure in being forbidden from hurting him.

"Get close to him. He obviously knows you and doesn't want to hurt you if he's looking for you in secret. Find out what he knows, and how he knows. But you will have to be discreet about it and make a good impression. He's a human... can you do that?"

"For you, I would do anything~"

Therina happily giggled to herself while Irie smiled wryly.

"Why can't you ever listen to anything I ask like that?"

Therina cupped her hands on her Irie's cheek and commented, "I like you, but not that much."

She merely rolled her eyes and rebutted, "Don't forget halfway through and remember, it's his highness' command."

"I always listen to darling~"

~~~~~

⠀

In the dungeon, Styx was constantly running simulations in his mind on how the duke's son could have learned about the dungeon and also Therina. No matter what he tried though, it simply wasn't making any sense.

He felt like he was missing an important key piece of information but simply couldn't figure out what it was.

Currently, Aura was sitting in his lap with her back against his chest while he was working on her mana network. He had increased to level 15 over the past three months and most of his skills had levelled up too, making the work slightly easier.

Her current experience bar was at 717,995/1,088,510. It was a huge improvement from what it used to be stuck at and was reflection of the countless hours he put into helping increase the size of her mana network.

The time together had also brought them together closer, Aura now letting Styx take slight advantage of her body with his hands.

Those wolfish paws were currently sliding into her shirt, caressing her slender, bare stomach before making their way further up.

This kingdom had both corsets and bras, but Aura naturally didn't wear either. Styx first felt her soft underboob, running his fingers around her soft curves before sliding upward and taking full grasp of her breasts.

Her thick tail wrapped around his waist and locked him in tightly against her with an iron-like grip, a form of affection she showed to him.

He felt the pointy nubs of her nipples pressing against his hand as he grasped and massaged them, humming to himself lightly in pleasure. Her breast head the perfect firmness and with her monstrous body strength, he could grasp them as hard as he liked.

His fingers ran through her tight cleavage and his head against the back of hers, closing his eyes while enjoyed the grand feeling of his fingers sinking into her buoyant flesh.

He pinched her rosy nipples between his index and middle fingers, slowly rubbing them.

Styx secretly thought of her southern lands, and also wanted to try and sneak a hand into her pants. The last time he tried though, she had released a low, otherworldy growl which warned him of the consequences if he went any further, made him freeze in abject terror.

Just as he was secretly sniffing her hair, he detected six adventurers entering with four prisoners. These prisoners were Aura's recent favourite food – humans.

Aura also detected this and immediately looked towards the entrance of the dungeon as if the walls weren't there.

Despite how careful she was, she almost crushed Styx's waist in her tail due to her eagerness.

"Go," Styx said with a sigh. "Make sure you record whom is making the delivery and add it to their debt."

Aura was only interested in the food but Styx had taken this as a chance to teach her how to read and write, as well as a bit about management.

She had incredible learning capabilities and learned to read and write very quickly, but her limited attention span and interest in it caused her to often forget things or make otherwise simple errors.

Styx was left with nothing but a warm spot on his lap from where the wolfgirl was sitting before she vanished to collect her most recent meal.

The adventurers entered the dungeon with nervous expressions on their faces, their fears rapidly surging to the surface. The four people they were carrying, four mercenaries who signed up for a dungeon raid, were heavily dosed with a sleeping tonic and completely unconscious. They never expected they would have their food drugged right before getting to the dungeon, only to be offered as a sacrifice for the others' wellbeing.

Without a sound, Aura appeared in front of the group like a ghost, her obsidian eyes glowing slightly violet glow around the iris in anticipation.

"Miss…Mistress Aura, these are our offerings," The party leader hurriedly bowed and indicated to the unconscious people.

Aura did a quick count and responded, "There are four offerings, but six of you."

"P-pl-please forgive us, we could only bring four today. W-w-we will bring more before the end of the m-month."

Aura looked at them in disappointment and secretly considered just eating one of them anyway, but Styx had demanded that she must follow the rules, or it will do harm to any future food quantities.

"Okay," She blandly said, but the adventurers felt pure fear upon seeing her unhappy expression.

The wolf-eared woman then opened up the ledger in her hand and squinted her eyes at the sheets of paper inside of it.

"Who's offerings?"

Four of the adventurers identified themselves once again as Aura never bothered to remember them. The wolf girl held a pencil in her long fingers, carful not to tear the paper with her claw like nails, and marked off their offerings on the paper.

She treasured this ledger a lot, as it meant that should anyone ever not offer her food on time, she was allowed to go eat them.

"You can leave."

"Y-yes. Th-thank you, Mistress Aura."