Chapter 214

Chapter 214<~> Chapter 214

I walked through the streets of the Capital with Bella, Mimi, the twins, Raya, and Sibyl at my side. We were kind of a large group. Silva and Lorriene left to make contact with Sophin and set up a meeting for me. This would likely be our last chance to get anything done in the city so we were taking care of the last of our business before we helped with the slave rebellion. I still had mixed feelings about the situation but I felt committed to this course of action now. Hopefully the Order of Lilith will be helpful as allies here, I'm still not sure of the extent of their influence and power yet. So far I only know of them as an organization that sets up assassinations and fights with the Tamin church.



"The first thing I want to take care of today is a pickup I have to do at Tenna's blacksmith shop. She promised me something good there and I'm excited to receive it. Then we need to swing by the Adventurer's Guild to register Sibyl and Raya to our Party. Rather than waiting I want to swing by the cartographer's guild so I can finish up the measuring test there, and if we have time left over I want to do a little shopping," I told everyone.



"Silva technically isn't in our Party at the guild either right?" Torien whispered.



I frowned. "Well... yes, but the situation is odd with her. Until recently it didn't matter much if she joined because of the collar. Now though... it would make sense to but she's a little busy right now. It probably won't hurt to get her registered somewhere else instead, like Goldenhearth if their guild is back up by the time we get there." Not to mention Silva and Torien haven't had their much needed talk yet.



"Do blacksmiths normally sell weapons for mages?" Raya asked curiously.



"Not usually," Sibyl answered.



I laughed. "Bella's scepter actually came from a blacksmith. The guy at the counter was just trying to offload it before we got yelled at though."



Bella gave a wry smile. "We had accidentally walked into a store that didn't serve beastfolk without realizing it."



I glanced over at the twins. They were walking in the back to show deference to us even though they weren't wearing slave collars anymore. It must have felt odd being in the same city when not long ago they were making a point to act more like slaves. I was happy Torien spoke up at all under the circumstances. They were wearing their servant's uniforms still so they technically had the same status... even though people treated slave servants differently than free servants in practice.



When we reached the blacksmith shop it looked... different. Like, closed different. All of the signage that indicated what kind of store it was had been taken down.



"Are you sure this is the place?" Sibyl asked looking up and down the storefront.



I nodded. "I'm sure..." I tried the door and luckily it was open.



A familiar demi-beastfolk guy was seated at the counter but all the shelves of weapons were bare now. All that was left was empty stands.



"We're closed!" he started to yell before a look of recognition came over his face. "Oh, it's you again. Let me go tell Tenna that you're here." He jumped up from his seat and went in the back while we awkwardly looked around at the empty store.



"Lilith! Glad to see you again. I was hoping you didn't get killed or arrested in that scuffle the other day!" Tenna walked out of the back holding a longsword in a beautiful black leather sheath.



Sibyl gasped when Tenna unsheathed it and rested the blade against her wrist to show it off. "How does it look?" Tenna asked.



"Lilith, is that a mithril sword?" Sibyl asked. The envy in her voice was obvious.



Tenna raised an eyebrow and glanced at Sibyl. "Are these your friends? They a trustworthy sort?"



"I trust them with my life," I said before taking the sword from her. It felt light but sturdy. The blade wasn't quite as wide as I had expected and came to an extremely sharp point. It looks like it was made for piercing chainmail. The blade had a simple yet elegant looking crossguard and a decorative pattern on the first third of the blade.



I cleared my throat. "The uh, the guild would give us good cover for what we're about to do."



"Right," she said in a deadpan tone. "Lock up, Kino. We're headed for the adventurer's guild," she said to the wolf boy.



"Yes, ma'am," he replied immediately.



I released the magic I had going and exited the shop and waited for them to lock up. "What's going to happen to your shop?" I asked the woman.



"I sold it. Finished getting rid of the inventory yesterday and was just hanging around today waiting for you to pick up the sword. I'd have kept it if you didn't show up today," she said with a grin. "...but then I'd have had to find another group leaving for Traehall in the next few days who would take both a demi and a beastfolk. Harder than you might think."



"I believe it," I replied with a sigh.



I took a moment to strap the new sword around my waist before handing my old one to Mimi who covertly made it disappear under her cloak. Being able to wordlessly indicate what I wanted through the bond was always nice.



"How much do you trust your friends?" the mousefolk asked me quietly.



I turned to her with a raised eyebrow. "All of them are family. You don't need to worry about that."



"Even the one with the space magic?" she asked.



I smiled. "Especially the one with the space magic." I pulled Mimi over to me and kissed her on the cheek.



Tenna snorted. "At least I can safely guess how much the Tamin church probably likes you."



Laughing, I turned back to her again. "They certainly do have their issues with me."



Our group which had now swelled to nine people made our way through the city to the adventurer's guild. The streets weren't as dense as the first day we were here, a lot of people weren't hanging out anymore... and I didn't see any of the homeless people panhandling either. After seeing the amount of beggars the first day, that was what struck me as the oddest part.



We followed Tenna into the adventurer's guild and started milling in line.



She looked at me with an eyebrow. "Is your entire group going to talk to reception?"



"Well... Raya and Sibyl still need to sign on as party members and Morrigan and Torien were still listed as slaves last time we talked to the guild so I wanted to fix that too..."



Tenna slumped a little bit and suddenly looked really weary. "Ugh, this is going to take forever. I hate dealing with the guilds."



I looked over at the other lines and laughed internally. None of this was even half as bad as the DMV, I could tell just from the lines that things were moving without any problems. Poor woman would have to suck it up.



"I hate paperwork," the mousefolk grumbled to herself.