Chapter 58

"You're a pretty good shot with that."

The five of us turned to the new voice, a male mousekin barely taller than the shopkeeper, stood at the door of the fence that separated the outside blacksmith forge from the archery range.

He was wearing a blackened leather apron that covered most of his body over baggy clothes and large oversized looking leather gloves. On his belt was a large metal smith's hammer that looked grossly oversized for the rest of his body. Despite being a smith he had a lithe, almost feminine looking appearance and seemed perfectly at ease despite the warmth I could feel coming off his clothes.

"Oh Twill, I was showing off one of my bows to this adventurer, are you almost finished with your work for the day?"

"Yeah, the sword I was working on for that order is hardening right now in the cooling box." He looked over Torien. "How is it? Meena was really proud of that one when she finished making it. She wouldn't stop talking about it for a week when it was finished."

Torien looked over at the female mousekin. "You crafted this yourself? I'm sorry I assumed you were just the shopkeeper here."

Meena fiddled with her tail and replied with an embarrassed smile, "I'm a carpenter and a fletcher, I actually do all of the wood working for this shop. Even the wooden shafts and handles that Twill uses for his weapon smithing."

"Well the craftsmanship on this bow is amazing. I'm very impressed, truly," Torien smiled while glancing down at the bow in her hands.

I grinned and put a hand on Torien's shoulder. "Well I'll be happy to purchase the bow, we also need some daggers? knives?" I asked looking over to Torien.

"Are you sure?" Torien asked me with a concerned tone.

"Of course, you had some with you before right? I want to make sure you have everything you need while we're adventuring. Everyone's less likely to be hurt that way."

"I suppose..." She seemed a bit unconvinced but looked unwilling to argue with me.

I sighed. "Torien, it's okay to disagree with me. What's on your mind?"

"Oh uh, it's just, with you being our vanguard and Bella being our healer, I thought that my personal defense wouldn't be as important. I think it's a waste of your money to arm me with melee weapons."

I was a little confused where this was coming from. I might need to ask about her motivations here in a little bit more detail once we're in private.

"First, giving you some melee weapons gives you a lot more versatility in how you can help us. Second, if we somehow get separated it would make sense for you to have a way to defend yourself, or even Morrigan and Bella if it came down to it. We can't count on our formation being perfect all the time." I could see in her eyes that not only did my argument make sense to her, it made her feel stupid for arguing.

It felt peculiar having to convey this to her, I didn't think I would have to explain something so ...basic to her. There must be something else going on here, is it because she's a slave? I didn't really follow.

"You act pretty friendly towards your slave. Oh, or does she belong to someone else?" The male mousekin asked.

I looked over at Twill and he turned pale. Even Meena took a step back from me. Their reactions seemed exaggerated but it probably wouldn't be best to sour our relationship here. I took a breath and tried to relax. I liked these two so far, I didn't want to ruin our working relationship over something stupid like this.

"Sorry but I care about these two... despite our difference in status... and I'm not happy I had to become their master at all, rather than freeing them. It's... the wound is still fresh."

"I'm really sorry, I meant no offence!" Twill hurredly squeaked out.

"Relax, relax. I'm not mad. Let's just forget about that. Now, back on the subject, what weapons do you need Torien? Even if they end up being unnecessary, I would feel safer if you have them."

"Uh, alright. I could use two daggers, and maybe... throwing knives too if that's possible."

I smiled. "Sure." I looked over at Meena. "Do you have anything good in stock?"

She was a lot more guarded than before but seemed relieved that we could go back to a professional topic again. "Of course, lets go back inside and I can show you a few things."

We all walked back inside and Twill joined us awkwardly as we moved over towards the weapon racks near the front of the store. Torien glanced at me before walking over and inspecting some of the weapons on display. She found a pair of daggers that seemed to balance well in her grip, each were about as long as her own forearm. I was a little surprised daggers were as long as they were, I always thought of them as being like, six inch knives or something. Big, but not forearm length.

She handed the two of them to Twill who took them over and placed them on the counter before going into the back.

I turned to Meena, "And the throwing daggers?"

"Ah, yes they're over here." She pulled out a bundle of black cloth out from under the counter and rolled it out. Torien picked up one of the small knives and balanced it on her finger before nodding. Meena rolled the bundle up and sat them next to the daggers just as Twill was getting back with a pair of sheathes for the daggers.

Meena looked over everything we had gathered on the counter. "Okay, that's 4 gold for the bow and a quiver, 2 gold each for the daggers, 50 silver for 20 throwing knives, and 25 silver for 40 steel arrows. That's a total of 8 gold and 75 silver. D-do you have enough to pay for all that?"

I nodded. "No problem." I pulled out my money pouch and counted out 9 gold. "Can I have another 40 arrows for an even 9 gold then?"

Meena brightened up. "Of course!" She ran over to the bow area and came back with two more bundles of arrows.

"Lilith, the new quiver can't hold that many arrows..."

I looked over at Torien, "Don't worry about it, I'll let Mimi hold on to them for you."

Torien's eyes widened and she nodded.

Just as Torien started packing up all of her new equipment I saw Meena elbow Twill in the side and whisper something to him. He walked over scratching his head awkwardly. "I wanted to apologize for my thoughtless comment. As an apology, how about you bring back those daggers and I'll sharpen them for you at no charge, whenever you need."

I smiled at him. "Thanks Twill, I appreciate that. I'll be sure to come back another time." I looked over at Meena. "By the way, Do you guys buy equipment, like from dungeons and monsters and things?"

She looked excited. "We sure do! We can buy any of your mundane equipment. We can't really appraise anything enchanted or magical but there's a friend we can refer you to if needed. Bring over anything you have and we can either buy it or point you to the right place."

"Perfect, I'll be sure to bring some stuff your way."

We left the building and I started walking in the direction of the public baths we had visited last night. It was a little pricy but after the dungeon and the long day I had, it felt worth treating the four of us. I think all of us could use a little bit of relaxation, especially since I knew we were going to have to have a long talk about some of my secrets.

It might be a good idea to stop at a restaurant for dinner to celebrate. Things didn't go how I'd hoped but at the end of the day I could take solace in my belief that I would treat them better than they would be treated by someone else. And for better or worse the four of us had conquered a dungeon together. Our first dungeon together. That's not something just anyone could say.

"You looked really scary back there you know." Bella said with a laugh, breaking me away from my thoughts.

"Did I?"

Torien stepped forward. "You didn't see those two shrink away from you?"

"I thought they were overreacting."

"You looked like you were going to eat them alive. Your teeth... look longer than they should. It was kind of freaky to be honest," Morrigan said.

I sighed. "I need to be more careful, I didn't mean to react so strongly. It's something I'll have to get used to."

Torien nodded. "You will. Though people would be less likely to say something like that when it's clear we're servants. The expectations are a lot different, insulting someone's servant is like insulting them. In the same way, servants making mistakes will reflect poorly on their master. They're seen as extensions of their owners rather than just property."

I frowned at how she put it but I mulled over her words regardless. "I am going to dress you two as servants but I want to be clear that I don't see you two that way. I still just see you two as friends, comrades in our adventures. I don't want to think of you as slaves or servants, as my property. Please promise me that you two will try your best to behave as if we're equals... even if we can't be."

"...Is that an order?" Torien asked.

"No. If I forced you to behave that way then it would be meaningless. If you can't, you can't. I'm asking this as your friend, not your master."

We kept walking in silence for a few minutes. I didn't demand an answer from them but I was a little disappointed they never gave me one. The two of them walked behind me but I didn't look back. I would give them time to think about it. Talk about it among themselves.

Morrigan came up to walk next to me. "Hey Lilith?... We bought Torien new weapons but we still haven't found anything for me. Is that where we're headed to next?"

"Nope! We already found you a weapon, remember?" I asked with a smile.

Her eyes went wide and her face had the smallest hint of a smile. "Y-You still have it?"

"Yep! Like I would sell it off, it's perfect for you. I was hoping to avoid selling it altogether unless I was forced to."

Suddenly she hugged me tight, stopping me in my tracks. She's surprisingly strong for her frame and what I assumed her stat spread to be. "Thankyou-thankyou-thankyou! You're the best ever!"

I patted her on the back. "It was obvious it was perfect for you the second we found it. There was no way I would sell it."

Morrigan put her forehead against my shoulder. "Thank you Lilith. Everything you've done for us... it means so much to me..." She sounded like she was on the verge of tears again.

I smiled and hugged her back. "You're welcome Morrigan. You deserve to be happy. I'll do my best to make that happen for you two, for all of us." I looked up and saw Torien smiling warmly. She looked happy and at peace. I waved her over, beckoning her to join the hug. She looked over to Bella, unease in her eyes, but Bella just smiled and nodded.

Torien joined the hug and Morrigan jumped slightly before scooting over and letting her join in. Bella came from behind and wrapped her arms around us, she only barely was able to wrap around the two other girls and reach me.

We stood there quietly for a minute or two before Torien finally spoke up. "Can we stop this now? This is really awkward and we're standing in the middle of the street."

Bella and I laughed as we released the two blushing twins.