<~> Chapter 56I sat back up on the couch when I heard Jacob and Mary e back to the room. Mary brought two simple hooded robes and hahem off to the girls while Jacob approached me with a silver tray. Oray was a bag of s and a gold medallioo it.

  "As agreed, 50 gold pieces and a gold sve token. If you would return the silver sve token I left with you on your previous visit we plete the transa."

  Without a word I pulled out the silver medallion I had from our st visit and ha to Jacob. The bag of gold s was heavy and I tucked the bag away into my pack for now. I should probably give Mimi some of them to hold on to. Both in case I lose my pad to give Mimi a backup to rely on if she is about to run out of magic.

  I also took the goldeoken. On its face were weigh scales with embossed edges featuring pnt motifs. The only hint about the trade this medal was reted to, was the hint of s in the background of the scales. I put the token away with my other things and stood up.

  "It seems this pletes our business."

  Jaods. "It does indeed. My business with you has been rather fruitful. It is clear that my profession is a busihat is not to your tastes but if you e across another unique individual I would be happy to trade with you again. Please e to me personally if you have any further business with the guild." He me and shook my hand.

  I looked over, Bel was standio the two twins wearing their hooded robes. They both looked unfortable but I didn't know if it was because they were basically naked uheir robes or because of our new retionship. Worried about my mood now that I had even more power over them.

  "Are you three ready to go?" I asked.

  They all o me.

  We left the building. All four of us were silent, though likely for different reasons. Ameliana's shop was he Adventurer's guild, it would be good to stop by there after I get the girls properly dressed and outfitted. Then we'll have to find a on shop to repce Torien's bow and daggers. Luckily Man could take the Staff of Manaflow we had found in the dungeon. I was already pnning on giving it to her once everything was sorted out anyway.

  The twins walked close behiheir robes ched tightly closed. These outfits didn't hide the shape of their bodies as much as their previous clothes did, their breasts weren't as rge as mine or Bel's but they looked a lot bigger thahey were hidden uheir previous outfits. I'm not sure if that was by choice or not though.

  I went through my notifications while I had the time.

  [Haggling has increased from level 1 to level 15][Novice mert has increased from level 1 to level 7]

  [Learned Mert Skill Calcutions]

  *[Calcutions - ert Ability]You're on the road to making money. Now you're able to better keep track of the amount of money you've made! Calcutios merts do arithmetic accurately in their head. The speed of calcutions scales with mert level.

  I got a lot of levels in both Mert and Haggling, I guess that's further proof that I did pretty well in those iations. Taking those two as sves just ate away a huge k of my Karma though. I was now down to 7ing my Lubsp;stat all the way down to 90, and my Charisma down to 80 when using Karmic Sedu. I got 6 levels but only one mert ability. Though I'm sure I would have killed for an ability like this in college. At least I think I would have. It's all still very fuzzy. Maybe there are less mert skills because it's easier to level them up outside of bat, maybe there are just fewer mert skills, or maybe I was just unlucky for ohe system seems rather random sometimes, I haven't really been able to dis a pattern. I sighed a walking.

  It had been a long fifteen minutes by the time we arrived at Ameliana's shop. It seemed like everyone's emotions were still running high but I wahem to be in proper clothes sooner rather than ter. Allowing them to walk barefoot through the city naked uheir robes bothered me, I suspect more than it bothered the two of them even.

  Uedly Ameliana was awake this time, not that she looked any less bored than before. With a snap the front of her chair caught the ground and she jumped up. "Lilith, Bel! A pleasure to see you two again! Oh, and yht friends this time? Hopefully these ones are dressed better than Bel was here st time. Let's see!" Without waiting for a response she pulled open Man's robes revealing, nothing underh.

  "Hey!" Torien forcibly closed Man's robes, only for her own to fall open as well.

  I just put a hand on my fad groaned.

  "Lilith, you didn't tell us your seamstress of choice rite! A little bit of warning would have been nice!"

  I looked over at Ameliana. "Sprite? I thought she was an elf."

  "Hey! I am NOT an ELF! You're lucky I like you or I would throw you out on your ass." Ameliana suddenly jumped up with a fervor I hadn't seen in her before.

  "Woah woah, I'm sorry! I've never met either before a few weeks ago."

  "That's what you get for pulling my sister's robes open!" Torien excimed.

  "I-it's alright, really. Let's just buy some clothes a out of here." Man tried to pcate her sister while I scratched the base of my horn awkwardly.

  "W-we came to buy some new dresses!" Bel yelled out a little loudly. The sudden noise scared the sprite and she fell over her desk in shock.

  I looked over the edge. "Oh god are you alri-"

  Ahem. It appears that Ameliana likes cy bderwear.

  She scrabbled to her feet and pointed her fi me. "H-how dare you look at my undergarments you... you demon!" I looked at all of my friends, none of which seemed eveely on her side on this one.

  "Ameliana, you've seen me naked and this is the sed time you've looked under one of my friends' clothes only to discover they were bare down there."

  She turned around in embarrassment. Her cute elf, er, pointed ears were red at the tips.

  Bel awkwardly stepped fain. "Ehh, let's all start over! My two friends over there need some new clothes and we all thought that you'd be a great choice for some adventurer's gear. What do ya say?"

  We all stood silently while we waited for Ameliana to get her embarrassment bader trol. "Right, yes. Well.... You've e to the right pce then! I get some nice equipment together for you, would it be for these two, er, pantharian girls?"

  "Yeah. We just came from.... they just lost all of their equipment and we o repce it. Man is a mage and Torien is a rogue. Do you think you could put together a pair of adventurer's gear fashioned like... servant's wear?"

  "Oh, you've decided to upgrade your sves' equipment to servant's gear have you? Of course of course! In that case e here you two," she said as she dragged them along towards the fabri the other side of the shop. "It's ary for servants who've just earheir status to choose their own fabrics. e e."

  I was flicted. It didn't feel right that being upgraded to be a servant should be something to celebrate but the two cat girls looked happy aed for the first time since we left the sver's guild. Any animosity they had for the sprite shopkeeper had been pletely washed away as they examined and pared fabric patterns.

  Bel walked up and took my hand, drawi of my thoughts. I looked over and Bel smiled at me. "I know this isn't what you wanted but you did the right thing. They're happy right now, they'll be happier with us than anyone else they could have goh. They were hoping to be bought by adventurers partly so they wouldn't have to serve a noble's bed. Instead of advehat would take advantage of them and treat them poorly, they were bought by us, likely the only pair of adventurers who would treat them as equals. I know you wished you could free them, like you did me, but it's not your fault they're in this situatio's just treat them like we always have. Let's be their friends."

  I sighed. "But now we really aren't equals. I made a bad call going into that dungeon, even though we made it out we now have to deal with those titles following us everywhere. What happens if they're afraid to go against me? What happens if I make a bad call ahem killed?"

  Her hand squeezed me more tightly. "Lilith, they've never been your equals. Even though we weren't their owners at the time, you're free and they're sves. They assumed you would just tell them what to do and they would follow your orders. Instead you asked their opinions, took their advibsp;Gave them a vote whether or not to ehe dungeon. Even if you made the final decision, you listeo what they thought. Give them time to get used to how things are now and I'm sure it won't be long before we're joking and ughing around the campfire again."

  I smiled weakly. "I hope you're right."

  "Lilith..."

  I looked over and Man had e up to me. "Um, these are the patterns that we chose, is this okay?" She held out two swatches with prices attached. Man's was slightly more expehan Torien's but they both fit their personalities well.

  "These look great, are they both your first choices?" I asked.

  Man smiled, "Yeah. I viorien we should ask if it was out of budget first, I figured you wouldn't mind and just tell us if it was too much."

  "They look great. You go ahead and tell Ameliana that these are the swatches we'll go with."

  "Thank you Lilith." Man smiled and blushed before quickly turning away and heading back to her sister.

  Bel kissed my cheek. "I think she likes you."

  I smiled wryly. "I think so too."

  "Would you accept her if she asked?"

  "I... don't know."

  Bel rubbed her hand against my back. "We talked about this already but don't let me hold you back. If you like her, I don't mind. If she's open to it we even share."

  I smirked at her. "It almost sounds like you want me to go after her, just so you don't have to do it yourself."

  She turned away from me but her cute deer ears gave away her blush.

  I patted her ba turn. "We'll see. I think we'll o clear some things up and share some of our secrets first before we start thinking about that."

  "Yeah, that's true," she replied.

  Ameliana came back up to me. "So, let me show you the patterns we have avaible and you give me any alterations before I start."

  "I would prefer it if you let them choose. As long as it will pass for servant's wear I have no other requirements. I want them to have whatever they feel is most appropriate for themselves."

  She nodded. "That's not how it's normally do I have no issue with that. Do you want them to match each other at least?"

  I shook my head. "Leave it to them. If they want to match that's fi I don't think it's necessary."

  She cpped her hands. "Good! What's your budget? It would be good to keep in mind before we start."

  "Hmm, what would be on the high end for something like this? I recall Bel's dress was only 1 gold with everything else included."

  "Servant's wear demands a bit higher quality fabrid with the swatches they chose their gear would likely cost somewhere between 4-6 gold for both. Upwards to 10 if we went particurly extravagant."

  It was kind of only hitting me now just how much 100 gold was in addition to the two of them.

  "That sounds fine, we do a rush order ooo?"

  She scratched the back of her head. "I'd really rather not to be ho. These clothes be delicate work so I would prefer to take some time with them. I have at least a few days with them?"

  "Sure, once you pick a style for the two of them give me a quote and I'll give you extra if you have them done in three days. Would that be enough time?"

  "That sounds fio me." She nodded.

  "Oh, and some underwear and work clothes for the twins too. I'll also need some rept work clothes for myself. Actually now that I think about it, some casual clothes for the four of us would be nice as well. I'd rather no one go naked while waiting for their equipment to be ready. Do you know a good pce for boots?"

  "All of that sounds like no problem. I'll point you in the right dire for some quality boots when you're ready to leave."

  I nodded in reply.

  She went to one of the bas aurned with a binder mixed with part and paper. Rather than e to me with them, the girls were surprised when she zipped over to the two of them with the binders.

  It was another bell before the four of us left Ameliana's shop, in total I gave her 10 gold in advahe twins looked satisfied in their work clothes, they looked a lot more fident and rexed now that they weren't walking through the streets in nothing but a robe. Plus I now know from experiehat us girls need support, that alone probably made them more rexed.

  We also quickly picked up some new boots and cloaks from a nearby store before it was time to head to the adventurer's guild. Man and Torien were now ughing and talking with Bel again which made me smile. Bel robably right.

  Maybe things would be okay after all.

  End of Book 1Saine

  Hello! This is the end of book 1! Though iy, this is more or less purely for my own satisfa and to give me a nice mental bookmark. I don't io ge the Scribblehub page, reintroduce the characters or eveart the chapter ter. I merely thought this would be a good pce to pnt a fg and say, I wrote a book.

  Nothing else will ge, I already have more chapters written so there won't be ahank you everyone for reading up to this point, I'm very happy with how this novel has been progressing so far and for all of the support I've gotten in ents here and financially through Patreon. I don't do this too often but I just want to say that I'm very thankful for everyone who thinks my writing is worth supp. As always, thanks for reading and see you ime!

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