Chapter 187

Morrigan and I went downstairs and met with the rest of our group. I glanced at Silva but she was just sitting and talking with Morrigan. I'd better not bring it up. Maybe what she was hiding from me wasn't anything important. I hoped so. A few of them had empty plates, having just finished breakfast. I sat down across from Cecilia who smiled when she looked up from her food.

"Good morning, Lilith."

"Morning. What's your plan today?" I asked.

"I have to go sell the cargo we brought from Goldenhearth. How about you?"

"Too much to do honestly. I have a delivery to make to a mousefolk at Gordian Smithy, that shouldn't take long, so I want to have that done before I go and meet with the head of the guard. He'll probably want to discuss demon hunting stuff. After that, I need to visit the cartographer's guild and give them a letter of introduction and see what the training schedule for that will be."

I turned and looked over at Raya and Sibyl who had been quietly listening in. "How about you two? What are your plans?"

"Sibyl and I talked about it, we'll need to go to the adventurer's guild and register. Sibyl doesn't look like her old self anymore and I've never signed up before so we have to register as new adventurers. We're not sure how long that will take, could be a while if it's busy, could be empty because of the situation in the city. Other than that, we don't really have many plans," Raya answered.

I scratched the base of my horn. "I kind of want to check out the adventurer's guild as well, things were a little messed up in Goldenhearth so I'd like to make sure we got credit for our last quest. Besides, wouldn't it make sense to register you two as part of our party?"

Sibyl shrugged. "We're not in any rush so we could wait if you want to go together. We could just go shopping today instead. As for the party thing... I wasn't sure how you felt about that. We were intending to register as a duo party but if you don't mind us joining yours, I'd be happy to do that. As long as you take Raya's strength into account when choosing jobs of course. I'd like some input on what we take."

I nodded. "Not a problem. We'll save that for tomorrow then."

"Maybe it's best if you came with me then?" Cecelia asked the pair. "I can go shopping with you after I take care of my business but with everything going on, I'm not sure how safe it is for beastfolk to walk the streets alone right now. It would normally be fine in the capital but it feels risky with the Tamin church running around."

"That sounds like a good idea, plus it'll be fun!" Raya replied.

"Are the rest of us going to meet with the Guard Captain?" Bella asked.

"I think that would be best. Four of us are demon hunters and we shouldn't leave Silva and Mimi alone while we're here."

"Not to suggest that you're incapable but are you going to be alright without a human around?" Cecilia asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know but you have your own business. The Tamin paladins will probably leave us alone since we have [Demon Hunter] titles, as long as we don't push our luck around them."

"Are you going to take on a pseudonym?" Torien asked. "The letter suggested you take one on."

I sighed. "I probably should, what should I use?"

"How about Lily?" Bella suggested

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Do I look like a Lily?"

"I think it's cute," Morrigan added.

Sighing heavily I shook my head. "Fine, Lily then."

With that settled we split up for the day. The twins, Bella, Mimi, Silva, and I all went to look for the Gordian smithy while Raya and Sibyl went with Cecilia for the day. We promised to meet back here by sundown. As the six of us walked through the bazaar I had to fight to keep myself calm and collected at the sight. Sadness, pity, and anger were warring inside of me as we continued to walk. I chose to look at anything but the slaves being displayed as goods and focused more on the crowd as we walked.

There were beastfolk of all kinds mixed into the crowd. I had mostly seen more of the common types of beastfolk in the other cities but the sheer variety of species here was amazing. Some even looked like animals I wasn't familiar with, some had multiple ears in different shapes and sizes and others had spectacular colored fur. There were also a lot of other races around, elves, what I assumed were dwarves, people that looked like animated rock, and some races that had no real analog to the fantasy novels I was familiar with. Unlike the other cities, this place had a wider range of peoples compared to the predominantly human and beastfolk places I had passed through.

Some of the vendors, for both slaves and other wares alike, were occasionally from one of these other races of people. I looked over the wares as we passed but nothing really drew my attention. Jewels, rugs, pottery, magical trinkets, lots of different things that didn't seem all that practical for me or my group. We finally made it to the other side of the bazaar but this was where things got a bit more complicated. Cecilia had never heard of Gordian Smithy so the best we could do was head to the artisan district and look around from there.

The crowds were intense and we had to stop a few times to make sure we all stayed together. I didn't mind the crowds actually, they felt familiar. I feel like it's a safe bet I had lived in a large city, things felt less strange here than in some of the other places we had passed through even despite the somewhat alien looking populace. The only thing that felt different to me in this environment was the architecture.

Silva tapped me on the shoulder before leaning over to whisper in my ear, "That looks like the place over there, to the right and on the left side." I looked around the corner and a fair distance down the street was a sign made of light wood with an anvil burned into it.

"Thank you, Silva," I replied quietly.

She nodded in response and stepped back behind me. It was still uncomfortable to treat my friends this way but the twins insisted the three of them act this way in public. I wouldn't have taken their warnings so seriously if it wasn't for every Tamin priest and paladin we crossed paths with inspecting us so closely. It would be annoying to stand out right now.

By the door there was a small plaque with the words "Beastkin allowed" burned into the wood along with a small image of a tall-eared mannequin below them. It took me all the way back to that time in Traehall when I had accidentally entered a weapon shop that was specifically not beastkin friendly. I opened the door and was about to hold it open for the group when Torien took my place and nodded for me to continue. I frowned but followed her lead.

A canine demi-beastfolk sat at the counter. He looked pretty average but had grey wolf ears on his head, he looked almost bored until he looked over our group. I'm not sure what exactly got him to sit up straight but it was a little bit comical to see him act this way. My guess was just the difference in our levels, the guy had so much less mana in him that he felt... small by comparison.

"W- welcome to Gordian Smithy! How may I help you ma'am?"

"I'm looking for... uh." I turned to Bella. "Do you remember the name of Meena and Twill's cousin?"

"...Tenna I think?"

I turned back to the shopkeeper. "Uh, Is Tenna here?"

The young guy scanned our group again before nodding. "S-sure. I'll go see if she'll see you."

"Tell her I brought a delivery from Meena and Twill."

"...Right," he replied. He stood up and walked to the back of the shop.

"It's weird isn't it?" Silva asked.

I turned to her. "Hm? What is?"

"How other people act when you're higher level. Especially in towns." She laughed to herself.

I shrugged. This had been one of the first times I'd noticed it.

"Um, she'll see you in the back but I don't think all of you will fit..." the wolfboy awkwardly told us.

I nodded and turned to my friends. "Okay, I need you to come with me, Mimi. Everyone else stay here and see if there's anything you want."

Morrigan and Torien bowed in sync. "Yes, Mistress." It left a bad taste in my mouth. I didn't comment on it but I also didn't like it. I just nodded to acknowledge I heard them and led Mimi to the back with the store clerk.

The back of the smithy was warm but it didn't seem the forge was lit right now. A large table was covered in swords. The middle-aged and muscular mousefolk woman set aside the weapon she was sharpening and let her spinning whetstone come to a stop.

"You have something for me?" the woman gruffly asked.

I nodded and turned to Mimi. "Can you give me the box we were holding onto for Meena and Twill? Those two mousefolk I talked to in Traehall, they had that locked box and the letter."

Mimi nodded and in her hand, a small box appeared, which got the attention of the woman. "Oh, this must be good. Here, place the box on the table and I'll look through the letter."

"You're Tenna?" I asked.

"I am. You said this is from Meena and Twill? Does this have to do with their shop in Traehall?"

"Uh... close." I looked around the room. "Do you want me to put up a [Zone of Silence]?"

She squinted at me for a second. I was a little bit higher level than her from what I could tell. Pretty impressive for a smith I assumed. I didn't know if stuff like smithing increased your level or not.

"Fine, if you think we should then do it. You'd best not think I'd be defenseless if this is a ploy, I know how to use this hammer here." She waved a smith's hammer at me threateningly.

I laughed. "No need to worry." I snapped up a [Zone of Silence] and then handed her the letter. "Your cousins think they discovered a mithril mine."

The woman's eyes widened. She tossed the half-opened letter aside and fished out the key that hung from her necklace. It slid right into the lock and clicked open the small box that held the chunk of ore I had brought all this way. The chunk of mystery ore started to release its hazy mirage again. I looked at it with my [Mana Sight], just to see if it stood out to me. To my [Mana Sight], the rock was glowing a bright blue hue. I couldn't really tell what kind of magic it was though, it didn't look that similar to any of the other flavors of magic I was familiar with.

The smith jumped up from her stool and grabbed a small wooden box and set it next to the box on the table. Sitting down again she opened the box and pulled out a small jeweler's lens. I was actually a little surprised that they had this kind of magnification tool, how far along were their optics? Bella hadn't seemed to know anything about bacteria. What this an education issue or a technological one?

The mousewoman picked up the ore and inspected it closely. She didn't take long to reach her conclusion. "It's fucking mithril, no doubt about it. High quality ore too."

She put it back down in the box and snapped it shut before picking up the letter and tearing it open the rest of the way. She quickly skimmed down the letter before setting it down and looking back up at me. "What took you so long? This letter is dated back more than three weeks ago. Did anyone find out about this?" she asked gesturing to the box.

I shook my head. "No. We were delayed in Goldenhearth by something completely unrelated. The city was still recovering from the Baron's death and the outbreak of demons there."

"Ah good, I was worried that someone may have learned about this and gave you trouble. My cousin says you seem to be a trustworthy sort. Are you planning on going back to Traehall soon?"

"I'm not sure. I came to get cartography training here in the Capital and I have half a dozen other errands to run. I'll be here for at least a week minimum but I'm supposed to return within six months at the most," I replied.

"Hmph. Fine, I'll have to send a different courier back. Unfortunate, but I know someone who can keep this quiet. As for your payment on this, Meena told me to give you 20% of the ore's market value but that's stupid. I'll pay you more than that to keep your traps shut about this." She gestured at the closed box. "The other problem is that mithril is very expensive right now. That's not a problem of money, the issue is that I don't want to go around asking for mithril market value while there's such a small supply of it. I can't let anyone catch wind of this, a mithril mine would be huge for our family. So how about this, have you ever owned a mithril weapon before?"

I think I liked where this was going. I smiled and crossed my arms. "I have not."

"Would you like to?" she asked with a fierce grin.