Chapter 273

I stretched as I walked down the stairs of the brothel. After I managed to get Oceane and Grace together the day before yesterday, the two of them surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, canceled most of their appointments and shoved a majority of their responsibilities onto others the following day. Since nothing else eventful happened yesterday, I spent most of the time relaxing in the lobby of the brothel and hung out with some of the succubi and my lovers who were around while getting some sketching in. I've been so focused on studying ritual magic and taking care of all the little problems that cropped up with transporting so many people to Goldenhearth that this was the first time in a while I had given myself some time to relax.

It was a new day though, and I was going downstairs to wait for Nelly and Kal'daeryn to return. Cecilia had spent most of yesterday getting everything ready to leave, and assuming the two showed up at a reasonable time, we would be leaving today. One of the few things Oceane had made time to take care of yesterday was finalizing the plans around the second carriage we would be leading to Traehall with us. Sibyl and the twins found us a caravan escort job from the adventurer's guild, and a group of a dozen succubi managed by Eira the cheetahkin would be headed with us as minor guards. They were the succubi that Oceane was sending to the frontier to spread out our influence. I had also overheard some plans for them to start a brothel there, but I don't know if those plans were set in stone yet.

The lobby was loud for this time of day and I smiled when I got to the foot of the stairs and could see what the cause of it was. Nelly was standing there with a flushed look on her face while wearing her new priest robes. The group of succubi that surrounded the cowkin were shamelessly trying to tease and flirt with her. Something about the religious outfit has struck a chord with some of the girls as especially attractive. Not that strange to me really, considering the fascination with nun outfits from my old world.

Like the Velenthel priests I had seen before, Nelly was dressed in light green and white robes. Her robes looked much more durable and higher quality, with a few golden accents that made them stand out from other priests I had seen. The outfit looked most similar to the robes I had seen the Tamin priests wear, though obviously with different colors and symbols. Under her robes, she wore a dark navy outfit that looked well-tailored and supported her huge breasts more comfortably. She held a long wooden staff with a pearlescent green orb embedded into the head, and the staff looked like it had writing carved all across it in the wood.

Next to her, Kal'daeryn also looked like she had been equipped by the temple. Rather than the durable robes Nelly had gotten, Kal'daeryn was wearing heavy plate mail in the style of the paladins that stood outside of the temple. The only reason I assumed she wasn't actually a paladin was she wore a plain white coat over it that didn't have any of the same color, markings, or iconography that the other paladins had. In addition to the longsword on her waist, she had custom metal gauntlets that covered her fists in interlocking plates that seemed to not restrict the articulation of her hands at all. I would have concerns about its durability if it weren't for the dark color of metal that I recognized as magically reinforced. There were gaps in the fingers that would leave room for her large claws to slip through as well, which made the giant armored white tiger look even more dangerous.

"Lilith!" Nelly called out. "We're done with our training at the temple. Truth be told, I'm a little happy to get out of there. The number of things they were trying to stuff in my head in three days was overwhelming..."

Kal'daeryn smiled and nodded. "I enjoyed the training they gave me. They decided that if I was going to travel with Nelly and protect her, they wanted to sharpen my skills and make sure I was as well-equipped as possible. I spent nearly the entire time we were there fighting."

I looked her up and down. "I can see that. That armor looks really intimidating on you." I turned to Nelly. "Those robes also look very high quality. I think that you two may now be the best equipped in our group now."

Nelly gripped her staff awkwardly. "They wanted to make sure their oracle was well protected... it seems that becoming her oracle was an even bigger deal than I had thought. There were many that had argued and complained that I was leaving until they found out that I was on a direct mission from my Goddess Velenthel herself."

"It is reassuring to have a priest traveling with us. That should take a lot of strain off of Bella's mana reserves," Morrigan said as she walked up to us.

"Morrigan! You're a succubus now!" Nelly said while excitedly pulling her into a hug.

Morrigan blushed when pulled against the woman's large breasts but managed to reply with just as much enthusiasm. "Yeah! It's been great! I'm so happy we finally took the plunge."

Sibyl looked around at everyone. "Since it looks like everyone we were waiting for is here now, I'll go tell the others to get ready to leave. Gwen and Quinn are still up on the balcony, I think," Sibyl said before heading up the stairs.

"I'll go tell Cecilia!" Raya volunteered before running out the front door.

I turned back to Nelly. "Looks like we're going to be leaving immediately. We were hoping to leave today, so it's good the two of you are here early."

Nelly nodded. "Altiena assumed as much. She wanted to make sure to return the two of us to you early in the day and keep her word about only delaying you for three days."

"I appreciate it. I'm rather excited to see Traehall again," I said.

"It looks like your visit with us is over already," Oceane said from behind me.

I turned around and was caught off guard by the hug she pulled me into. "I hope to see you again soon, even though I bet it'll be a while. Thank you for sticking your nose into our business. I truly appreciate it."

Smiling, I returned the hug. "I'm glad you two seem so happy. Take care of yourself, Oceane, and don't get yourself into any trouble."

She laughed. "That should be my advice to you. I'm good at slinking out of trouble. It's you I worry about."

When I started to pull away, she pulled me into a deep kiss and her long tongue pushed forward to twist around my own. When she released me, she had a big grin on her face. "Call that a goodbye kiss from us both."

I laughed. "Alright. Where is Grace anyway?"

Oceane looked a little embarrassed. "I wore her out... she may have some trouble walking today if I can't bring one of our healers over to her. She told me to wish you well on your journey."

"It'll be a little sad if I leave without getting to say goodbye to her too," I admitted.

Oceane pursed her lips. "I can bring you to the room, but... please don't comment on the mess. We've been... making up for some lost time."

I raised an eyebrow. "I was in there the day before yesterday..."

Oceane blushed and turned away. "We haven't had the desire to clean up yet..."

Grace cleared her throat and I turned to see her standing by the stairs. "Elodie paid me a visit this morning to complain about you hogging me to yourself. Luckily, it was just in time for me to come and see everyone off."

Oceane's expression turned flat. "You couldn't have come down before I embarrassed myself?" she asked.

Grace giggled. "And ruin the fun? Hardly."

Oceane sighed before pulling Grace into a quick kiss and moving out of the way for her new girlfriend to come over.

Grace pulled me into a hug. "I'm sad to see you go so soon, but I know it's for the best. Hopefully, once you finish up with the adventurer's guild, you can come back and visit us again. We'll send some letters your way, so check with the adventurer's guild often, alright?"

I squeezed her. "Alright, Grace." I laughed to myself. Grace felt a bit like a mom sometimes... Actually, best not go down that line of thinking...

"Ooof!" I turned to see Oceane almost be bowled over by Eira who had thrown herself at Oceane from a nearly full sprint. "Eira, we talked about this..."

"I'll miss you..." Eira said as she squeezed Oceane tightly.

Oceane smiled and patted her on the back. "I'll miss you too, Eira. Make sure you keep in touch. Not just the official mercenary correspondence, I want to see some personal letters from you too!"

"I will, Oceane! I promise!"

"Too tight!" Oceane grunted out while patting Eira on the back.

"Oh, hehe. Sorry." Eira released her and rubbed the back of her head. "I still forget how strong I am now..."

"If all goes well, we'll see each other from time to time. If our plans in Traehall work out, I'll make a trip out there. Otherwise, we'll bring you back here. Either way, I'll see you again in a few months," Oceane said to Eira.

"Yes, ma'am!" Eira said with a sloppy salute.

Oceane sighed and shook her head, but there was a slight smile on her face. "Go make sure the others are all ready to go. I coordinated with Cecilia to make sure both carriages would be housed at the same place."

"On it!" Eira sprinted up the stairs like a whirlwind.

Oceane smiled as she watched the girl run up the stairs. "The transformation has only made that girl into even more of a ball of energy. It's amazing to think just how close she came to dying shortly before you came here the first time."

I nodded. "It's crazy to think about."

It took some wrangling, but we eventually gathered everyone that was going with us and loaded everyone into our two carriages. The caravan we were joining was already informed that we were leaving today, and we're currently in export inspections. Our carriage was also being inspected for export cargo while Cecilia prepared to pay the taxes on it. I hadn't even been aware there were import and export taxes since she usually took care of it without us.

Nikka and Landa chuffed as they pulled our fully loaded carriage, but neither of them struggled with it. When I bought this large carriage, I hadn't expected to need all of the space so quickly, but now, there were a total of eighteen of us crammed in here. It was lucky we had gone so overboard when we bought it. Every seat was filled, and we still needed two people to sit in the coach seat at all times to make everyone fit. At least until we got out of the gates. We wouldn't make very good guards if we just rode in our carriage the entire time.

"Are you sure your plan is going to work, Lilith? We can still rent some horses," Cecilia said to me.

"I tested it a little and I think it'll work," I replied.

Cecilia looked at me flatly. "I don't like the 'I think' part of your statement there."

"I'm sure it'll be fine," I waved off. "We're a lot stronger since the last time we were here."

"We also had a larger group of experienced guards, and you almost got killed by a featherjack," she said.

"I didn't almost die. It just messed up my armor," I said while rubbing my breastplate.

Cecilia flicked her reins. "Sure, sure. Maybe I should ask how Bella feels about it."

Once we had reached the meetup spot with the merchants we were escorting to Traehall, I hopped off the coach seat and waited for the others to come out. Silva, Torien, Morrigan, and Sibyl were going to be joining me on this first stretch of guard duty.

"Is this going to work?" Sibyl said hesitantly.

I sighed. "Let me just try it. If it doesn't work, I'll go back and rent some horses."

I cracked my knuckles and cast [Carousel] five times. I only tried this spell out once but it seemed well suited to what we were doing. I would be able to create mounts and order them to follow the commands of the others. We haven't tried it before like this, but it should work.

The spell created five magical constructs shaped like animals for us to ride. I smiled as I looked over them. This was actually gonna work. As long as they followed commands, it would be great. It created a unicorn, a gryphon, a giant... badger?, a tiger, and... a featherjack...

Silva started cracking up, laughing. "You have to be the one to ride the featherjack! Please! After that giant bird almost impaled you, you have to!"

I looked at the others, who averted their eyes. Those traitors had smiles on their faces!

"Nope! I call the gryphon!" I called out

Everyone made a quick mad dash to claim their mounts, and it was Silva who was left riding the featherjack mount. The magic worked perfectly, and all of us were able to ride the mounts, but we had to occasionally stop to refresh their mana. I was going to replace the featherjack at the next rest stop though. Silva would not stop laughing at me along the way.