Chapter 270

Oceane and I split up when we got near the brothel. She still had other work to do at the mercenary building, so she waved me goodbye as I entered the Ruby Vixen. When I walked in, I saw Cecilia, Sibyl, Fellia, and Madeline talking to each other at one of the tables in the lobby. I didn't have anything else planned for the day, so I decided to see what they were working on.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" I asked as I sat next to them.

"Oh! Lilith, are you interested in coming with us today?" Fellia was quick to ask. The elf woman always seemed enthusiastic around me.

I shrugged. "Depends on what you're inviting me to."

"I was planning on introducing them to Duke today," Sibyl said. "They're still looking for goods for the trip to Traehall."

Cecilia nodded. "We sold everything we brought from the capital to trade, but we haven't had good luck finding something to bring to the frontier."

"Does Traehall not need anything?" I asked.

Fellia shook her head. "The problem isn't the demand, it's the supply. Goldenhearth just doesn't have much to export right now after everything that's happened to the city."

I nodded. "That makes sense. What does Traehall usually import from Goldenhearth?"

Cecilia sighed and crossed her arms. "Mostly metals and crafts. Both are in short supply here right now, though. Typically there's a surplus of metals in Goldenhearth, but they are being used for tools and the rebuilding effort. There might still be some craft goods around, but I'm looking for someone who can sell me things in large enough quantities to make the trip worth it."

"What kind of craft goods?" I asked.

"Things like jewelry, artwork, decorative metal work. Things like that," Cecilia replied.

"I suggested introducing her to Duke. He sometimes has weird stuff lying around, so I thought that he might have something worthwhile to trade," Sibyl said.

"Do you want to tag along with us?" Cecilia asked.

"I don't really have much better to do," I replied.

"Great!" Fellia said with a large smile.

"Good, we were just about to go," Cecilia said while standing up.

"Alright then, follow me," Sibyl said while leading everyone to the door.

As we walked out of the brothel, I looked over at Maddie. She hasn't been talking much, but she had been paying close attention to our conversation the entire time. I decided to speak with her as our group made its way into the industrial part of town, where we met Duke the last time we were here.

"Hey, Madeline. How are you doing?" I asked the girl.

"I'm fine, Miss Lilith..." she replied quietly.

"You can just call me Lilith. No need for the 'Miss.' How have you been enjoying working with Fellia and Cecilia?" I hung back a little and let the others walk ahead of us so that we could talk more privately.

"They have just been asking me to watch and listen... maybe carry stuff for them sometimes..." she replied.

I scratched the base of my horn. "I don't know how much the others have told you yet, but we're an adventuring party on our way back to the frontier town Traehall. Nelly and my girlfriend Bella will be coming with us, and I was wondering what you wanted to do."

"What I... want to do?" she asked. Her little raccoon ears had perked up.

I nodded. "We were talking about taking you with us, but only if you would like that. After talking about it as a group, we thought that learning to be a trader under Fellia and Cecilia might be a better life for you than being left here at an orphanage... It might be closer to the kind of life you were accustomed to before..."

She gripped her skirt. "You... you want to take me with all of you?"

"Again, only if that's what you want. It might be more dangerous traveling with us than it would be staying here in the city. But all of us are pretty strong. We would be able to protect you from most monsters. It might be a more chaotic life, lots of traveling and exploring, but it could be a richer experience than growing up in an orphanage. Would you rather come with us and learn to be a merchant under my friends, or stay here where there are other kids your age? All of us have already agreed we'll try and support you either way," I told her.

"Would I have to be a merchant?" she asked.

I shook my head. "No, you wouldn't have to be. We would still teach you to read, write, do arithmetic, and maybe some basic accounting, but if you wanted to come with us and help us in some other way, we're open to other ideas. Cecilia up there also takes care of uunas. You could learn to help her instead or do something else. You wouldn't have to choose something to do forever, but you need to contribute something to help pull your own weight if you want to come with us."

During our discussion about Maddie, the point was brought up many times that we should emphasize that she would have to contribute in some way, even if it was a token effort. I was told that we needed to bring her on as a helper, not act as surrogate parents to her. Raya in particular made it clear that we shouldn't treat this as an adoption. I wasn't entirely sure of her reasoning, but I trusted Raya to know what she was talking about in this instance. She's always been good with people, and she was an orphan herself. I trusted her to know what she was talking about.

"Is that why I've been helping Fellia the last few days?" Maddie asked.

I nodded. "Yes, we thought it would be a good idea for you to get to know her better before we talked about this. To be honest, I only recently met her myself. While I'm confident she's not a bad person... I don't actually know her that well yet. I trust Cecilia a lot more."

"You trust the human more?..." she whispered.

I chuckled. "I do. Cecilia is a good person who's helped me out a lot. While I can understand that humans can be difficult to trust sometimes, they're not all bad. They're just people like everyone else. We shouldn't pre-judge them for what they were born as... Besides, Cecilia was actually raised by elves."

The girl's eyebrows comically rose. "Really?"

"Really! You'll have to ask her about the details, but she spent most of her life up north in the Northern Greens," I replied.

"Is that why we can trust her?" she asked while looking at Cecilia's back.

I laughed. "No, you can trust her because she's a good person. I don't think it's just because she was raised by elves. Even beastfolk can be bad too, you know. You can't know just from looking at someone that they're bad... usually."

"Will Nelly really be coming with? She's been gone the last few days..." the girl asked quietly.

"She will, I promise. Right now, she's training at the Temple of Velenthel," I replied.

"Really? She talked about wanting to become a priest when I talked with her, but I didn't think it would happen so fast!" The girl lit up with a smile.

I chuckled and patted her on the head. "She told you that, huh? Yep. Things are a bit out of the ordinary in this case, but she's been training at the Temple since I went there with her the day before yesterday. She should be finished by tomorrow, and we will be leaving Goldenhearth the day after if everything goes according to plan."

"That fast? I thought it took longer to become a priest..."

"Like I said, things are a bit out of the ordinary. Normally, they would be, but Nelly was a special case. Velenthel herself came down to approve of her," I said.

Her brow furrowed. "No way! Don't lie to me."

I laughed. "I'm not lying. You can ask her herself when she comes back."

"...Fine," she said with a pout.

"So, do you have an answer for me? You don't have to tell me right away if you need to think about it, but you do need to decide what you want to do before we leave the day after tomorrow," I told her.

"I'll stay with you and learn to become a merchant... but only if Nelly goes too," Maddie said.

I nodded. "Great to hear. Thanks for the answer. Nelly told me that you like to be called Maddie by your friends. Does that extend to me, or should I keep calling you Madeline?"

"Maddie is fine..." she replied quietly.

"Thanks, Maddie. Let's go catch up with the others," I said.

The two of us caught up with the group just as we reached Duke's familiar warehouse. It seemed a lot busier than the last time we were here. Sibyl waved down one of the men and asked him if we could see Duke.

The man shrugged. "I'll go see if he wants to talk with you, but he's busy. Who should I say wants to see him?"

"Si... uh, Sarah," Sibyl replied.

"Sure, wait here. I'll see if he wants to talk with you," The man said before walking toward Duke's office.

"Sarah?" Cecilia asked.

Sibyl sighed. "I had to give him a fake name last time I was here. He knew the old Sibyl, so I couldn't give him the same name."

"Oh, that makes sense," she said with a nod.

"I'm not happy about it either, if I'm honest," Sibyl replied.

"Sarah! Kitten! I didn't think I'd see ya again so soon! You still with Raya? I'd love to get in a quickie with her if she's back in town!" Duke called out with absolutely no shame.

Sibyl laughed at the weaselkin's frankness though. "She is back in town, but she's been beating customers away with a stick the entire time," Sibyl said with a laugh.

Duke sighed wistfully. "Ah, shame that. I loved that hot vixen. The brothel's gotten some really hot lookers recently though, don't tell her I said that..."

"Don't worry, Duke. Your secret's safe with me," Sibyl said with a laugh.

"What can I do for ya girlies?" Duke asked.

"We're looking for some goods to haul to Traehall. Most of the normal stuff we take has been snatched up, so we were hoping you would have something to sell us," Cecilia replied.

"What kind of cargo space do you have?" he asked.

I smiled. "It's the cargo space of the carriage I bought off of you, remember?"

"Ah! Li- uh, hot stuff! I didn't see ya back there! Well... I might have something that would sell in Traehall..."

"You forgot my name, didn't you?" I asked with a smile.

Duke laughed. "Ya caught me. It takes me a few times to remember stuff like that."

"It's Lilith. You were close," I said.

He nodded. "I knew it was something like that."

"So, can we see the goods?" Fellia asked with a grin.

"Of course, darlin'. It's rare to see a sexy elf down here at my shop. You're a rather odd bunch, but I'm not complaining. This way," he said while leading us through the yard.

The six of us walked through his warehouse to a corner that held a few large crates. Duke walked over and slapped one of them. "Someone I know liquidated a bunch of weapons real fast. He wanted to take on a quick job, so he sold me all of this on the cheap. Seemed sketchy, but it wasn't any of my business. Anyway, I got four boxes of this stuff. Two crates of swords, one of flange maces, and this long box of spears."

Duke picked up a prybar and started pulling off the nailed lid. "The crates are pretty heavy, and they're taking up space because I don't really have a quick way to get rid of them. Traehall is a frontier town, so maybe they go through weapons faster than other places. Either way, I'll sell them to you below market if you can take them soon." He pulled out one of the steel swords and handed it to Cecilia, who looked it over.

"Looks like decent quality to me. Nothing fancy, but definitely something someone would buy. We could probably unload this in Traehall without a problem," Cecilia said before handing the sword to Fellia.

Fellia nodded. "I agree. Basic but functional. You said below market, what are we talking?" she asked.

Duke grinned. "Well... I need to make a profit. Let's make a deal. What's your budget?"

The two started throwing numbers at each other and haggling in amounts of gold that I was frankly a little astonished by. Maddie's sharp eyes were focused on the conversation as the two of them went at it back and forth.

"You have this much money to throw into this project?" I whispered to Cecilia.

She nodded. "It's been building up. I've made good profit on every trip we've made since we came here from Traehall. I've just been rolling over the money I already had into new stuff every time. Do you need your cut?"

"Do I get one?" I asked.

"Sure, you own the carriage and you and the girls have been protecting it. I'm keeping a good amount of it myself since I've done most of the work, but you definitely get a cut to share with the others," Cecilia replied.

"What about her haggling?" I asked.

Cecilia shrugged. "She's better at it than I am, actually. I'm happy to let her do this part. I don't like it as much. We already talked about our budget for this, and she is doing a good job."

"Do you think bringing on Fellia as our personal merchant is a good plan?" I asked.

"If you're asking me if she's effective, then yes. I would say that you're probably a better judge of character than I am, though. If you think it'll work out, it'll be good from the business end."

I nodded. "Good to know."

A few moments later, Duke and Fellia shook hands and she started counting out gold for the weaselkin. Duke smiled as he individually weighed each coin at a nearby desk. "Nice doing business with ya girls. You keep this elf girl close. She's a dangerous one. I'd be upset that I didn't get a better deal out of ya if I didn't enjoy looking at her so much."

Fellia slyly smiled rather than reply.

Cecilia made plans to pick up the cargo later today and our group headed back to the brothel. There was a bit of logistics involved, but nothing overly complicated. The weapons would be nailed back into the boxes and loaded onto the carriage until we left. Cecilia told me the stable she uses has good security, so there was nothing to worry about if we loaded them now. As far as they were concerned, the trading side of our trip had been handled.

As we walked away from the warehouse, Sibyl sighed. "Duke is always so exhausting and irritating to work with, but he always gives us good deals. It's annoying, but I keep going back to his warehouse."

Fellia nodded. "I know what you mean."