Chapter 110

Madame Oceane led us into the Brothel's common room once again. It seemed that the working girls were getting ready to take customers. Despite the busy atmosphere of girls chatting and finding places to lounge, the room had an undercurrent of somberness to it. I wondered if anyone would come at all under the circumstances, it was pretty dangerous out right now. I wouldn't put it past a few desperate people to come but I wouldn't expect it to be busy enough for all the people in the lobby right now either.

Raya was lying on one of the couches, she had cleaned up and switched to a black dress that contrasted with her bright red hair, gleaming green eyes, and pale skin tone. She was also wearing makeup now, it didn't look overdone but it brought out her features and made her look a lot more healthy than she had before. She turned towards us when we entered, her bright cheerful smile lit up her face until she noticed how exhausted Bella looked. She stood up and hurried over to us.

"Bella, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, just a little sluggish." Bella rolled her neck and gave her a tired smile.

Raya's eyes moved to the Madame, an unspoken question clear on her face. Madame Oceane gave her a warm smile. "Tisha will be fine now, other than some bruises and a nasty scar, she's in perfectly fine shape. She's already awake and Jade should be eating with her and filling her in on what happened now. Healing her took a lot out of Ms. Bella here so I was planning on lending her and her friends a suite at no charge for as long as they'd like to stay, ...within reason of course."

Bella turned to the large naga. "Really? That's not too much trouble is it?"

The Madame let out a laugh and looked Bella square in the eyes. "Bella, you saved the life of one of my girls and you said you would heal more tomorrow. Giving you one of our suites is the least I can do."

The was a murmur through the room, I could hear Bella's and Tisha's names come up in the chatter quite a bit as Bella and the Naga continued to talk. I glanced over at the glass in the front door, the only windows in the entire building as far as I could tell. The sun was down now, it was lucky we had found a place to stay with the way things were looking out there. Bella had managed to secure us a nice place free of charge, I'll have to thank Raya later for taking us here.

I looked back over to Bella as she gave a little bow. "Thank you Madame."

The naga grinned. "If you want to take any of my girls upstairs with you though, that won't be free of charge of course."

Bella's ears went bright red and she looked away nervously, unable to keep eye contact with Oceane at the barb. The Madame herself actually looked quite surprised, likely not expecting her to react that way. The look on her face caused Raya to burst out laughing and she pulled Bella into a big hug.

Raya leaned in to whisper in Bella's ear but I was still standing close enough to catch it. "If you want another girl to go upstairs with you and your girlfriends, I don't mind giving you some free service. After all, you are my hero today too."

Bella bit her lip and looked at me with a pleading look. I laughed and gently pulled Raya away. "Don't tease the poor girl too bad, she's sensitive."

Bella just glanced away with a blush and Raya's expression settled into a pleased one. "I didn't hear a no~"

"L-Lets talk about this later! I need to go rest!" Bella stepped away and positioned herself behind me, which had the unintended consequence of making her look cuter, hiding behind me from the scary seductive fox girl.

"I was promised alcohol!" Silva turned to the Madame. "We can buy some of that here too right? I haven't had anything to drink in half a year."

"Of course, we have both beer and spirits, though you'll have to pay full price for those. We don't go through it as fast as the food around here but I'm unsure how long my supply will last while the city remains in chaos." The tip of the naga's tail flicked back and forth.

I smiled. "That won't be a problem. We appreciate your hospitality and you've already offered us a lot in exchange for Bella's healing. Though..." I glanced at the twins who hadn't said much in a while. "I hope you would at least allow us to buy some food as well..."

The Madame's expression hardened for a moment but weakened after a glance at Bella. She sighed. "I can't offer you much. We're already rationing what we have left so a serving of thin soup is the best I can offer. ...Honestly, I wouldn't even offer that if Ms. Bella hadn't promised to heal more of my girls tomorrow, she'll need her strength."

I don't remember Bella making any kind of firm promise but she was probably just trying to lock down more of Bella's healing. The Madame didn't need to worry though, I'm sure Bella would insist on it regardless. It's not as if we intend to go out and look for people to heal all the time but I don't have any intention of stopping her from healing when it's convenient. As far as I'm concerned, it's Bella's choice who to heal and how much to charge. As long as it doesn't stand in the way of our other goals too much, I'd like to encourage the behavior as much as possible.

I nodded. "Thank you. Small portions will be enough, we'll see if we can figure something out tomorrow. We haven't been in the city long, we only arrived today and just happened to stumble on Raya. We don't want to drain all of your supplies." I glanced around the room at all of the courtesans who had been paying close attention to the exchange. "You look like you have enough mouths to feed. I will take some beer though, I promised Silva over there I'd buy her some."

Madame Oceane smiled. "Good. I'm glad you understand the situation. I'll send someone up after you've had a bit of time to rest. Raya, please take them up to 5A."

Raya beamed. "Oh! The fancy suite. You guys are lucky, the Madame is almost never this nice!" The naga's expression flattened as Raya scampered off to the reception desk. She chatted with one of the girls nearby and they helped her unlock and retrieve one of the keys from the cabinets behind reception. The girl placed the keys on Raya's upturned paw and she carried it back over like that, not even attempting to try and grab the key with her digits.

"Here's the keys! I can show you to the room right now, it's on the top floor, 5A!" She held out her upturned paw with the keys on her paw pad. When I took them, she giggled as my fingers touched her supple pads. Before I could dwell on the reaction she started heading off in the opposite direction. "Here's the stairwell! Let's show you to your room!"

All of us climbed the stairs and made it to the top floor before being led to one of only five, no wait, four rooms. The last door looked like a roof access. With her prompting, I opened the door to reveal a spacious suite with a large and comfortable looking bed. The room also had a few couches and chaises surrounding a table and held two adjoining rooms on either side. One was a private bathroom and the other was a second smaller bedroom with an equally comfortable looking bed.

Bella immediately walked over and plopped on the bed and groaned. "Oh man, this bed is so comfy. It'll be nice to sleep in something as nice as this instead of bedrolls and straw mattresses. This is the nicest bed I've been in since the dungeon."

Raya snickered. "I'm glad you like it! A lot of the beds here are quite nice but the ones in the suites are the best. It's one of the biggest perks of sleeping over with a client. N-not that I'm suggesting anything! Promise!"

Morrigan sat down on the bed next to Bella and bounced a little bit, testing it out. "It's so soft! I hope it's not too hard to sleep on, I'm usually used to firmer sleeping spots."

The fox girl looked relieved when no one called her out on her small faux pas.

I smiled at Raya. "Thanks for taking us to our room. We're a bit tired from traveling so-"

"Oh! Of course! My bad." She giggled. "I'm so used to coming here for... other stuff that I didn't realize I was imposing! I'll go for now. Someone will be by later to bring you your dinner and drinks but if you need me just ask." She grinned over to Bella. "I was serious about my offer, I'd love to get to know you all better."

My cute deer girl blushed again and nodded, the embarrassment just made her look cuter. With that, Raya left the room and all of us moved to the various couches. Even Mimi shifted back to her humanoid form to sit with us and sprawled all over me.

Torien smiled. "That fox demi is quite intense."

I laughed. "No kidding."

"I like her! She's nice... She just... comes on pretty strong..." Bella blushed and looked away.

Morrigan reached out and intertwined her fingers with Bella's. "She was cute, and she clearly offered herself to you and all of your girlfriends. I wouldn't mind taking her up on the offer as long as everyone else is okay with it."

There was a snort and I looked over to Silva who had a wide grin on her face. "Do you girls do this often? Have conversations about the girls you want to bang?"

I huffed. "Communication is important. We even talked about whether or not we'd want to sleep with you too." I grinned at her.

She grinned back. "Oh? And what was the verdict?"

"Unanimous." Morrigan's eyes traveled up and down the Rabbitkin's form. "All of us think you're hot!"

Torien looked over to her sister with surprise. "Really? All of you?"

"What's not to love? Her tall, lean, muscular body looks sexy." Morrigan shrugged.

"R-right..." Torien looked like she was going to say more but Silva laughed.

"It's not that I'm not flattered but I think I would rather get to know everyone a bit better first. I'm stuck with you, we shouldn't do anything too quick or our party might end up with some infighting. It happens with adventurer slaves all the time, they start fighting over the team slut."

Bella's ears drooped. "That's not how we think of you..."

Silva waved it off with an amused smile. "Sure sure, but the point remains. Things will develop as they go. I'm definitely not hesitating from a lack of attraction." Silva's eyes traveled down Bella's body, her skirt had ridden up a bit while she was lying on the bed, revealing her petticoats more clearly.

Bella cleared her throat. "A-as much as it all sounds... fun," she said with a blush. "I'm pretty tired after healing that girl, not to mention all of the traveling we've been doing. I think I'd rather just go to sleep early tonight after dinner. M-maybe tomorrow though..."

I nodded. "Sounds good to me. This is a good opportunity to-" I turned to Silva, suddenly remembering I hadn't explained everything to her yet. "Er, well, let's talk about it more tomorrow." I decided to change the subject. "This bed looks big enough for the four of us, do you two want to share the bed in the adjoining room?" I asked while pointing over to the door.

Both of them nodded and Silva replied with a grin, "We'll let you and your harem cuddle. I'm sure we'll be fine sharing this other bed on our own."

I huffed again. "Not a harem, we're all equal girlfriends."

She laughed, "Yeah yeah, I'm sure."

I felt a little indignant about how dismissive she was being but I chose to just let it go. We were all kind of tired. I leaned back and pulled Mimi into my side. She hadn't said anything but I could feel her contentment through our bond. All things said and done, everyone was happy right now.