Chapter 186

Chapter 186<~> Chapter 186

I woke up the next morning before everyone else. At some point while I was asleep Morrigan had joined us in our, much too small, bed. Bella had rolled over and was hugging her while Mimi was still curled up in my arms. She noticed me stir and slid off the bed to help me escape without waking the others. Unlike everyone else, she never actually slept and just enjoyed spending the peaceful time passively recharging her mana.

"Good morning, Lilith," Mimi whispered.

"Morning, Mimi." I pulled her in a quick hug and kissed her on the cheek. "How are you doing?"

She smiled. "I'm doing good. Excited about seeing the new city."

I frowned for a moment as the sight of the bazaar briefly passed through my thoughts. "Mmm, hopefully other parts of the city will be a bit nicer to look at. I'm going to see if breakfast has been made yet before everyone else wakes up. Are you gonna stay here?"

Mimi nodded. "Yeah, I wanna wait for the others to get up."

"Alright, see you in a little bit then." I patted Mimi on the shoulder and got dressed in my casual clothes. I'd probably want to dress in my armor once we started walking through the city but this is fine for breakfast.

I heard Silva talking to someone while I was walking down the stairs... Her tone was hushed and quiet so I stopped to listen in before they noticed me. "—the genuine article, I'm sure of it."

"You can't be serious..." The other person Silva was talking to was Lorriene, the twins' aunt. She let out an exasperated sigh. "And what's this about you courting my niece? This isn't some ploy to get back at me is it?"

"I didn't know you were related when we met. ...It's purely a coincidence," Silva replied defensively.

"Coincidence, right. You expect me to believe that?"

"Look, I admit that she reminded me of you when we met, but I just thought you just looked similar, I swear. I wouldn't sleep with someone just to piss you off, that'd be weird. Besides, I didn't even know you were going to be here, Lorriene"

There was a long pause. "I didn't either. Sophin brought me here last minute, I've only been in the capital for less than a month. I'd be surprised if this place doesn't go down in flames within the week the way things are accelerating though. How did you link up with Lilith anyway, what brought your new mistress here?"

Silva chuckled. "I'd say she's my 'mistress' in name alone, much like Sophin. I met her by complete chance. I was escaping Goldenhearth with the Baron's daughter when we ran into her at one of the forts on the way to Traehall. It was good timing too, the girl almost bled to death. I barely got her out at all. When I met Lilith my curiosity got the better of me so I handed her off to an elf of Silvergrove named Tarklin and manipulated the situation to travel with Lilith instead. She's a titled [Dungeon Destroyer] so she's doing something here for the adventurer's guild."

"Tarklin Silvergrove? I've heard of him actually. That's good, the elves will keep her safe. I've heard Tarklin can be ruthless when he wants to be, things are likely to turn bloody. That almost guarantees they'll enter the conflict soon though," Lorriene replied.

"It'll be fine. Things will heat up soon one way or another. How do the Tamin church's movements look?" Silva asked.

"Ah, no. I just changed my mind. I think I'll wait for the others to get up before worrying about that." I sat on the bed next to her.

"Wanna keep cuddling then?"

I laughed. "Sure, Mimi."

I spent the next bell relaxing and waiting in bed with Mimi before I started to get the itch to get up and get moving. I wanted to take care of Meena's delivery before meeting with the head of the guard to get it out of the way. I needed to get it off my plate as soon as possible, I already have too many other things to worry about.

The other two girls weren't hard to wake up but Bella took a while as usual. I wouldn't say she's being lazy, just that she actually had a hard time waking up for some reason. Come to think of it, I'm not sure we've ever had the chance to sleep in for a long time. I wonder how long she would keep sleeping if no one woke her up. It was a funny thought. Despite being the most difficult to wake she was also the first one to leave the room to see how the others were doing.

While I was finally changing into my armor I couldn't help but drift back to that conversation I overheard. I felt conflicted about it. Silva is hiding stuff from me but... how much should I really pry? It didn't sound like she was planning on hurting us or trying to get something out of us... she just didn't want to tell me everything.

I grimaced. I could force her to tell me what she was hiding with the collar but that felt wrong. It would be different if she had malicious intent but I didn't get the sense that was what it was about. I also didn't think she was only hiding things because she didn't want to have an embarrassing question about dating Morrigan's aunt though. How old was Silva anyway? I had assumed she was early to mid-twenties but if she dated Morrigan's aunt maybe she's actually older than she looks.

I'll just have to keep an eye on her. She's saved my life before and she hasn't really given me a reason to distrust her so I don't think she's trying to hurt me or our group. But it did sound like she had some ulterior motives for becoming my slave. Did she freak out Fae just to push me to buy her? Had she suspected I wasn't actually a beastkin from the beginning and that was why she was interested? There's just too many questions...

"Are you alright?" Morrigan asked. "You seem really lost in thought... more than usual."

I smiled and pulled her into a quick hug. "I'm fine. I just have a lot on my mind. How about you? It was a big surprise running into your aunt here I bet. Did you enjoy talking to her last night?"

"I did!" I let go of her and she sat next to me on the bed. "She's apparently found a kind master who gives her a lot of freedom too. They uh, don't have a relationship like us but she said she was good friends with him. A human man named Sophin. I told her about you a little but I don't think she trusts you yet. I tried to tell her I was happy and that you were good to both me and my sister but she seemed really concerned for us for some reason... a lot more than I expected based on the servant's uniforms you've given us honestly," Morrigan finished with a sigh.

"Are you close to your aunt?" I asked.

Morrigan looked down sadly. "Yeah, Mother died when Torien and I were pretty young from an illness. My aunt is younger than she was but she immediately volunteered to take care of us afterward. Aunt Lori wasn't interested in becoming an adventurer like we were so she was being trained to become a personal assistant and maid, our trainers thought it would be good experience for her to take care of us, so they let us stay together for a long time. About four years before Torien and I finished our training, Aunt Lori was sold off to a noble somewhere. It was hard having her taken away but it was around then that our adventurer training really started getting difficult. ...They thought it would be better for us if she wasn't coddling us anymore and they wanted to sell her while she still looked pretty."

I pulled Morrigan into a hug which left her a bit flustered but she didn't resist me. I got the impression that I was more sad for her than she was. She acted like it was... normal for her to be separated from family like that. She seemed to barely react to it at all...

Morrigan gave me another squeeze before pulling away and continuing, "So yeah, Aunt Lori basically raised us for as long as I remember. I really missed her so it was nice to stay up late and talk with her. I asked if she would get in trouble for spending so much time with us but it turns out that she's basically in charge here when her master isn't around. Torien was happier than I had seen her in a long time too. She doesn't like to show it but she really loves Lorriene a lot." She laughed. "I was hanging all over Aunt Lori but I think Torien actually missed her more. I had to basically drag her away last night or else we wouldn't have gotten any sleep."

I patted her leg. "Well don't worry, I'll make sure you have plenty of time to spend with her. I'm sure we'll be here for a while."

Morrigan leaned over and kissed my cheek. "Thanks, Lilith."