Chapter 171

We headed back to the Ruby Vixen. It was a little awkward wandering around town carrying fishing poles. The brothel girls looked at us curiously as we carried them through the lobby and I asked Mimi to follow us up to our room through the bond.

"Hey Mimi, do you mind hanging on to these things for us? Bella and I bought some fishing poles but they're a bit too unwieldy to carry around all the time."

"Sure, I don't mind. I don't want anyone taking our stuff. What are these for though?" she asked curiously.

"For catching fish, uh, small animals that live under the water. You can cook some of them for food and Bella has been wanting to catch some for us on our trip."

"Okay! I wanna eat some!" she said with excitement.

I laughed. "No problem. I'm sure Bella would be happy to share some with you, right?"

Bella beamed. "Of course! I want to fish as soon as we get the chance!"

Mimi sucked up the poles and Bella's tacklebox into her pocket dimension and waved at us before heading back down to continue talking with everyone else. She had been so starved for socialization that she seemed a bit addicted to it right now. I thought it was probably good for her, she seemed like a bit of an extrovert. It's best that she takes the opportunity while she still can.

I grabbed Bella's hand and led her out of the door and towards the roof. "This is a place I've come to a few times now, it seems like a nice spot to draw a little."

The roof of the brothel always had a nice view. It was still daytime so everything was still clear and visible right now.

"Wow, you can see so much from up here." Bella leaned forward on the wall taking in the city.

"Yeah, I like the view from up here a lot. I thought this would be a good place to get some practice in, no matter what you're interested in drawing there should be plenty to work with up here. And we can be alone for a bit longer this way too."

Bella smiled and leaned against me. "Thanks, Lilith. I... wasn't sure how you would react to how I felt. It makes me happy that you're trying so hard to make me feel better."

I wrapped an arm around her side and kissed her on the head. "Of course." I held her there for a while until she pulled away.

"Well then! Let's get started. I am interested in learning a little bit. I've never really tried to draw before," Bella said.

"Oh?" I asked. "Never even tried it before? What's got you so interested in it now?"

She smiled. "Don't play coy, you know I'm interested in it because I've seen a little bit of what you can do."

I laughed and started digging through my bag for the chalk and chalkboards. "Sure sure. It'll be nice to share my hobby with someone. I don't know much about fishing but I'm excited to try out your hobby with you too."

"I'm sure you'll be great at it," she said as I handed her a chalkboard.

"I wouldn't be so sure, I don't think I'm very experienced with outdoorsy stuff the way all the rest of you are. If it wasn't for you and the twins I'd probably be dead in a forest by now."

I opened the two boxes of chalk and placed one on the wall next to each of us. "Alright then," I said. "Let's get started. First off, what kind of things are you interested in drawing?"

Bella shrugged. "I'm not sure. It would be nice to draw you like you drew me but right now I think I'm most interested in drawing this view." She turned and looked over the city.

I smiled. "It does look nice, doesn't it? Well, drawing something like this shouldn't be too hard. Let me tell you the basics."

Over the next few hours, I told her about some basic art techniques, roughing in shapes, sight measuring, basic perspective, getting a nice composition before putting down too many details. We kept working at it until the sun started to set.

"That was fun," she said while putting away her chalk.

"You sure?" I asked. I knew that art could be just as frustrating as it could be fun sometimes.

"Yeah, it wasn't too hard." She held hers up next to mine with a smile. "Even if it isn't as good as yours, it looks better than I thought I would be able to do. I've never tried anything like this before, it was fun."

Hers was all drawn in white chalk, she had spent more time trying to get lines right and spent more time scribbling in little details. Mine looked much different, I wanted to take advantage of the multi-colored chalk we bought so mine was drawn in a variety of colors with more solid shapes rather than lines.

I pulled out the small eraser for the chalkboard and Bella frowned. "It seems like a shame to just erase all of this though," she said.

I paused and put it away. "Well, I don't want to get chalk dust all over my stuff but why don't we at least show it to everyone else first?"

We headed down the stairs to the common room. It was about dinner time now but since a majority of the people in the brothel didn't need to eat anymore it was a lot less hectic. We headed into the side room next to the lobby and over to the table where the rest of our friends were playing cards. It looked like Silva was winning in some kind of faux poker game.

"Hey everyone," I said while waving.

I got a mixture of greetings and smiles as they continued with their game. I looked around, they weren't the only ones playing cards right now, it seemed to be pretty popular since the tables in here weren't really being used to eat except for a few of them. The majority of the Brothel were all Succubi now.

I glanced at the door that led back to the common room. "No customers again tonight?" I asked.

Raya shook her head. "Oceane wants another night for things to calm down. Some of the girls have been fucking almost nonstop since the change and others are experimenting with their new powers and specializations. I think the transformations opened many more doors for them than any of us were expecting. A lot of the girls here could find work as adventurers or in other professions now. I doubt many will leave though. This place has become even more of a home to everyone and now has an even stronger sense of family. I think Oceane and Grace are talking about turning this place into something like a guild, though one that's secretly restricted to succubi and prospective succubi."

I raised an eyebrow. "That's a bit more industrious than I was expecting, though with the way Oceane operates, I shouldn't be surprised. Nothing against her of course but she seems like she's always looking to expand."

Sibyl jumped into the conversation. "That's true but I wouldn't forget about Grace either, the two of them are a team, always have been. Oceane has the ambition and is good with people but Grace knows how to handle the money and do the paperwork. Oceane points the way and Grace gets us there, the two of them are natural business partners and from what I know, they have been friends since before Oceane even took over this place."

I nodded. "Grace told me a little bit about that. I just hope the two of them are careful. I'm worried that not everyone will accept the existence of a race of people who thrive on sex and can partially shapeshift with open arms, whether they're demons or not. This goes without saying but we need to be extra careful around the Tamin church and their zealots."

Raya nodded. "That's not the only danger. There are also demon worshippers. I've heard from some of the girls that strange people have approached them in the past trying to get them into their weird cult. Trying to take advantage of what some of them saw as desperation. Almost all of the girls that work here want to work here though. Oceane has tried hard to foster that kind of environment. Damn, I'm out." Raya huffed and flopped her cards on the table.

Silva laughed and collected the small pot of tokens they were using to keep score. "Tough luck Raya, you shouldn't let yourself get so distracted."

"With their new eyesight they could recognize people with demonic miasma on them," I said. "It's pretty easy to detect that way, even easier than using the mana sense skill for it."

Raya slumped back in her chair. "Yeah, that's what I meant by getting used to their new powers. The eyesight has a flaw though, if anyone's looking it's a bit of a dead giveaway."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Here, take a look." Raya faced me and her eyes turned silvery and shifted to be large slitted pupils like a cat. "It's really noticeable on anyone that doesn't already have similar-looking eyes and even then it still kind of looks weird." She blinked and they shifted back to normal. "You have to be careful or wear some kind of eye covering to get away with it, it doesn't make it easy to blend in."

I nodded. "Wow, I hadn't even noticed."

"Yeah, it doesn't feel like anything's changed. The only reason I noticed at all is because I started seeing a lot of the girls walking around with their eyes like that. I asked around a little and realized what had happened. I talked to Oceane about it already and she's telling people to be careful with it. That's just one of the reasons the brothel is still closed. Everyone was being extra cautious when only half of the brothel was transformed but now that everyone is, they have been a little more... loose with the information. Everyone needs time to get used to things and Grace said we have the money to stay closed for a while since our food costs have fallen off a cliff."

I hesitated. "Are you sure it's a good idea for you to come with us? It seems like you're still helping out a lot here."

Raya smiled and looked up at the ceiling. "I think everyone will be fine. Maybe this is exactly what we need right now. For someone like me to become stronger, help everyone who wants to be more than just a whore." She waved her hand at the idea. "Not that that's bad but something bigger than that."

"Like a super whore," Sibyl joked.

Raya flicked one of the nearby cards at her making Sibyl laugh.

"I know it sounds like a complete flip of what I talked with you about before but this is something I really want to do. I'm not abandoning anyone or even giving up my life of sex and debauchery," she joked. "I'm just becoming... more for everyone."

I reached over and patted her on the hand. "No need to justify it to me. If this is what you want to do, I'm happy to have you."

She smiled. "Thanks, Lilith." She turned and looked over everyone. "Thanks everyone for letting me come with you." Raya stood up from the table. "Now I have a few more people to say goodbye to and I still need to chat with the Madame and Grace. I'll see all of you in the morning bright and early. Don't stay up too late having sex!" She said with a laugh. Amusingly the only one who turned red at the comment was Torien.

"No promises," I said to her with a grin.

Sibyl flipped her cards over. "I'll go with her. Thanks for the game, I'll see all of you tomorrow morning." She got up and followed Raya who stopped and took the shorter catgirl's hand.

Morrigan groaned and threw her cards down. "Ugh, enough. Silva's too good at this game anyway. I'm done playing." She got up and wrapped her arms around Bella's neck from behind. "I wanna go cuddle Bella for a while, Lilith's had her all day and now I'm jealous. She never bullies me like the rest of you do." She glanced at me. "But I wouldn't say no if you wanted to join the cuddle pile too..."

I laughed and wrapped an arm around the two of them. "Let's go back to the room then. Relax and get some extra rest before tomorrow morning. We're finally heading for the capital."

The three of us untangled from each other and headed back up to the room. Mimi perked up when she saw the three of us heading upstairs and decided to come join us for a real girlfriend cuddle pile.

It would be nice to get some rest for our big trip tomorrow.