Chapter 92

By the time dawn had fully arrived the entire camp had come alive with everyone preparing to leave for the next leg of our journey. From what I could gather we would be travelling to one last fort before finally reaching the late baron's lands. We would have to be even more careful with Fae from then on as the risk of her being recognized and discovered there were even higher. The adventurer guards and merchants seemingly chose to be ignorant of the story behind our two newest tagalongs. No one here wanted to question Tarklin Silvergrove's decision on the matter but also seemed to think the less they knew the better.

I had sketched for a good hour this morning and felt rather refreshed by it. By the time I came back to the room with everyone's breakfast, everyone was already awake, even Bella. Fae and Silva were quite surprised when I had opted to bring food for everyone, including my servants, but wisely chose not to comment on the matter. Morrigan and Torien for their part looked a bit embarrassed but didn't complain about receiving their breakfast.

The food this morning was some kind of grilled steak on somewhat hard bread for the meat option and a salad for the vegetarian option. I unfortunately chose to opt for the vegetarian option for Bella and myself since it would be a lot more obvious than the stew last night.

That didn't stop my curiosity however. "Hey Torien, you have any idea what kind of meat that is? I didn't think the caravan had taken a lot of meat along for the trip."

Torien smirked. "You should know, you were one of the people who helped kill it."

I looked at the sandwich again with furrowed brows before it hit me. "...Wait, that is... stream stalker meat?"

"Yep! ...tastes a bit like poultry. With a bit of a fishier taste maybe."

"Uh huh..." Maybe I'm a bit more glad I skipped the meat this time. Eh, I don't know, perhaps it tasted fine. Maybe I should be a bit more adventurous with food too but it's hard to get that monster's image out of my mind when I look at that meat.

"They'll probably be serving this meat for the next few days, I doubt any of the mages here could preserve it, other than putting some of it on ice of course, so it would be a waste not to eat it," Morrigan helpfully added.

I nodded, that made sense.

After our quick breakfast we were all loaded up and on the move again. I was back in Nikka's saddle. I was told I would be doing a double shift of uuna duty today since there were only so many among the group who could ride and it was my turn to take the extra shift. While I enjoyed talking to my friends, I didn't mind being on uuna duty. It didn't seem to fatigue me as much as it did some of the other riders from what I could tell. Let's see if my ass agrees with that assessment at the end of the day though.

The weather was pretty nice today. After the rain yesterday it was a little cloudy out and pretty cool during the day. Looking at the path ahead of us, there was a little bit of mud but it mostly didn't affect the hard packed almost stone road. It was about two hours in when we started spotting roaming monsters again. They weren't as big or as dangerous looking as the stream stalker, instead they looked more like wild ostriches. They seemed to claim territory at random and sometimes that meant they would try to fight you and attack the caravan while you were passing through.

One of the creatures started bolting towards us. I was in the back right hand side of the caravan again and for whatever reason the monster decided to attack me rather than the other rider that was farther up ahead.

I drew Mimi from my sheathe and held her ready for the incoming monster. I signaled Nikka to stop following the caravan and face the oncoming threat. I felt a strong vibration shiver through my body as I heard an uuna growl for the first time. Rather than dismounting, I thought it would be better to fight this monster mounted up and my [Uuna Riding] skill agreed with me.

A giant beak tried to peck at me but Nikka jumped back before lunging forward, managing to dodge the attack and let me retaliate while the uuna attempted to cripple its legs at the same time. The monster managed to pull its neck out of my range and leap away from the uuna's teeth but not before taking a long and deep slash from Mimi's blade. Rather than drip off, the blood soaked into the blade and disappeared, probably looking quite ominous to anyone who might have been observing. Mimi's blade handled well, her fears of being broken from use seemed like they wouldn't be a problem. I just needed to make sure I treated the angle right.

The attack created a stand off between the two creatures. Each time the monster went in for a peck Nikka dodged it and retaliated with a lunge that couldn't seem to connect after the first time. Just as I was starting to think this strategy wasn't working Nikka leaped to the left before pouncing from that angle, catching the monster off guard. I slashed again, getting a really deep slash in but at the same time, I took a peck so hard it bent the left shoulder of my breastplate into my flesh.

I yelled in pain which the uuna under me interpreted as a command to aggressively lunge again, luckily giving me the opening to finish off the monster with a final strike, lopping of its head.

[Your party has killed a Brown Featherjack]

I quickly looked over at my shoulder. The metal was bent inwards, cutting into my upper arm and leaking blood. I sheathed Mimi and quickly caught up to the caravan that had stopped shortly ahead. Naturally Bella was the first to come over to me, even from up here I could tell she was in serious mode. One of the other handlers took Nikka's reins and helped me dismount and I quickly moved over to Bella.

Only then did I realize that I hadn't been feeling the pain yet and that I must be in shock. My right hand was shaking when I tried to reach over and unlatch the breastplate but I couldn't manage it. It was surprisingly Silva who first came over to help me with it. If people were talking to me I couldn't process it right now, my shoulder was beginning to throb in pain and all I wanted in that moment was to get the bent piece of metal off of me.

Bella laid me on the ground and Silva stepped over me. She placed one hand on my chest to steady me and before I could protest dug her other hand into my wound and physically bent the metal out of the gaping hole in my shoulder. I yelled in agony until she managed to completely rip the front of the breastplate off and Bella got to work next.

The warm rippling of mana on my shoulder was such a huge relief that my shaking stopped and my breath calmed. Only a few moments went by and all of the pain was gone. Once the healing was complete I started to sit up only for Bella nearly fall over me panting.

I wrapped my arms around her. "Bella, are you okay?"

She smiled back at me. "Just used a bit too much mana. How's your shoulder?"

I ran my fingers through the fur and felt a scar. I was a bit worried that it would be worse than it was but instead it was just a thin scar where the metal had bent inwards. I sat up the rest of the way and tested my range of motion.

"Other than feeling a little sore it feels fine now. Thanks Bella." I looked over at rabbit demi-beastkin, "Thanks for ripping that thing off of me."

Silva grinned back at me. "I was a bit worried you wouldn't see it that way when you came to. You were rather out of it and your healer's instructions weren't pretty." I looked down and saw that she was wiping my blood from the hand she had shoved inside of me off on her pants. In the end she looked messier than I did, which was kind of a shame. I should probably buy her some new clothes as a thank you. She wandered off pretty quickly, probably heading back to Fae.

I helped Bella up to her feet and realized my shirt had been torn open to get at my shoulder. Bella was a bit unsteady but insisted she didn't need my help to walk.

Tarklin was the next person I saw come over. "Lilith, are you okay?" He pulled my arm away and ran his fingers over my shoulder. Luckily there wasn't any pain but it still felt quite sore. "Bella, your healing is remarkable."

She smiled. "Thanks but it took a lot out of me."

I stretched my arm. "I'm good but my arm is pretty sore. It doesn't feel like there's any lasting damage though." I looked down at my mangled breastplate on the ground, it was completely destroyed, bent in two different places. "Can't say the same about my armor though."

Tarklin nodded. "That's good." He looked over my chest that I was a little awkwardly covering with the remains of my shirt. "I don't think we have anything spare that would fit you though... Armor I mean."

"That's fine. I'm going to change my shirt before we get back on the road."

He shook his head. "No, you're off uuna duty for now. Even if you're fine, magically healed wounds can take a toll on the body." His eyes flicked over to Bella for a moment. "Take care of Bella, she used a lot of mana to help you."

Right as we were finishing up we heard a scream from the carriage Fae was in.

Tarklin and I rushed over ready for the worst only to see the young noble hyperventilating with Silva standing aside with a guilty look on her face.

Tarklin kneeled down to Fae and started helping her calm down.

I walked over to Silva. "What happened?"

Silva had a frown on her face. "I walked in with blood all over my pants and she started freaking out. I think... it probably brought back memories and she was afraid I killed someone again. I probably should have known better but I didn't think about it."

I nodded. "It's okay. Tarklin and I will talk to her when she calms down. For now why don't you go find Torien."

"Alright." Silva walked away and I came back over to Fae who was now breathing normally again.

Once she had calmed down all the way I kneeled down next to her. "Are you feeling better Fae?"

After a moment of hesitation she nodded. "Yes... I'm sorry for such a disgraceful display." She looked over my outfit, her eyes stopping in particular on the blood covering my shirt. "Are you okay?"

I shook my head. "Don't worry about me, I'm okay. I got pecked by a monster that ruined my breastplate and Silva helped pull it free so Bella could heal me."

"O-oh," she looked away. "I just saw the blood and..."

"It's okay," I reassured her.

This event really highlighted the rift that had formed between the two. It was a bit early and maybe inappropriate to bring up in this situation but I didn't see how things wouldn't continue to escalate unless we separated Fae and Silva as soon as possible.

I cleared my throat. "I... meant to bring this up to you later but... would you be willing to sell Silva to me? I think that having to manage her is bringing you a lot of unneeded stress and... I don't think your relationship with her is healthy for either of you."

She looked up at me, she was hesitant but I could see it in her eyes. She wanted to be away from her. "I... I can't just give her away. I need the gold..."

"I have a gold slave token. I could either give you that, or I could give you something like 50 gold directly. How much would you need?"

She was quiet, considering the offer. "...I'll take the Gold Slave Token."

It felt gross buying another slave again and the relief I saw in Fae's eyes made the feeling even worse. Relief to be selling another person. I chose to crush the feeling down, my only justification was that she committed some crime that put her in this situation. ...not that I fully trust in the justice around here either. The feelings squirmed in my stomach while I went to get my backpack and change my shirt, quickly retrieving a change of clothes from my trunk.

I came back and handed the slave token to Fae. She instantly looked like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders as she looked down at the heavy token in her hands. Silva came over with Torien and was surprised to she how the situation had changed. She did not argue and kneeled without question.

"Do you have a surname?"

"No."

Fae placed her hand on Silva's collar and took a hitching breath. “I Sera Faelyn Morrister, hereby willingly transfer ownership of this slave to Lilith.”

Lines on Silva's collar glowed red and settled back to blue before fading away entirely. A sight I was more and more beginning to recognize.

[Karmic Energy reduced by 500]

...why did the Karma penalty for this go down this time?