<~> Book 3 - Chapter 107I was finally getting my first true look at what they sidered a city in this world and wow. The city was incredibly iing to look at. There was a mix of architectural styles that weren't much like any I remember seeing before. Their ability to raise solid straight walls ehem to create shapes that wouldn't be otherwise possible iive teological period I'm currently in. It looked almost brutalist in appearah its sheets of tiguous simple crete shapes but was also decorated brilliantly with different kinds of paints, murals, embossments, and fancy embellishments. What was most noticeable to me was the distinct ck of ns, bricks, or distinct floor partitions. I would guess the outside walls are so sturdy on their own, traditional building teiques are just not as necessary when you pull a solid wall out of the ground. ...or perhaps other material, sidering some of the buildings are made from different kinds of stone.

  "You look like you've literally never seen a building before," Silva said with a snort.

  Bel ughed. "She did this the first time we came to Traehall as well. She led me around for maybe an hour before she even began to look for an inn for us. She even stopped and stared at the streetmps."

  I flushed in embarrassment. "The different architecture is iing to look at!" When my party members gave me an odd look I remembered they didn't seem to have that word here. "Erm, the building teiques and the shape and design of the buildings here..."

  Man took another look at one of the buildings. "Hmm, terra mages are often very involved with stru. And this pce does seem to mainly feature buildings clearly made with terra magic. I see why she would be ied sidering Lilith es from a pce without any terra mages."

  Silva tilted her head and squi me. "For once you sound like you e from the boonies rather than some noble's castle."

  Torien cleared her throat. "I know it's not super exg to follow wagons slowly through town but we should be looking out for threats. We are still doing a jht now, remember?"

  On my left was one of the wagons full of Timber. Since our party is made up of less experienced adventurers we weren't guarding anything actually important. We were mainly just there to look scary enough no one would try to steal the wagon or something... not that it would be possible with the territorial uunas pulling the wagons.

  Despite how amazing the sights are, this pce has clearly seeer days. Looking around, the only people in this part of town were either in lio leave or barely ing in. There were a number of wagons with all sorts of goods or even filled with soon-to-be-refugees looking to get out of here. Town guards were walking up and dowh, trying their best to keep order between the ky civilians ing and going. From what the priest of Morkinnen had said, this was one of the few parts of the city that had any kind of guard presence right now.

  I nodded. "Torien is right. We should stay professional, I shouldn't have let myself get so far off task like that." I sed the crowds a wat the people who were nearby. I suspected that we would see some demon summoners among the people in the crowds but I haven't noticed a. I haven't noticed anyone in the bck brigaher but they would obviously be ying low sihe ey guard is looking for them here. Despite how chaotic the priest had made it sound, everything looked orderly here by the gates. Then again it was a gigantic city. I only just make out the far wall of the city from here, faded off in the distance like mountains that towered over the mostly three-story houses. The wall isn't visible everywhere but there are occasionally roads that travel far enough through the city that you see it.

  The wagons began to slow to a stop. Being so far towards the back, it wasn't super clear what was happening but I was hoping that we had finally found a stable. Tarklin didn't wao help che the uunas this time since we might be splitting up soon. Apparently splitting up at the st stable had been enough of a headache for him.

  After a quarter-bell or so the wagons and carriages started to be led off inte building up ahead, presumably the stable. I tio s our surroundings as we got closer and finally rexed when we followed the wagons in ourselves. The front of the stable was just a fairly rge plot of nd with a huge wall in front for privacy. The inside had enough room to store the wagons and carriages for the time beiher until we left or the merts opted to sell them off somewhere. None of the fires or damage seemed to be his gate but I kind of wao go see the extent of the destru for myself. Perhaps I was starting to bee a bit of an adrenaline junkie.

  Tarklin and Fae suddenly came out of the carriage she had spent most of the trip in. Tarklin looked rather irritated, more so than usual. He sed around before spotting me and heading over.

  Tarklin put on a wry grin. "Sorry Lilith. As I thought this will have to be where we part ways. It leasure to meet you and I wish we would have had more time to spend together. I would have at least liked to make time for that thing we discussed back at the dungeon." He gave me a wink that made my face heat up.

  "S- Silva..." Fae stepped forward, in this moment her hardened fa?ade was gone and she looked more like a young girl than I had ever seen her before. "Silva... thank you for saving my life. I'm sorry..." She quickly looked away. "I couldn't e to trust you more. You deserve better than a mistress like me." She looked over at me . "Lilith, please treat her right. I haven't known you for long but I have seen how you treat your other sl- ...party members. I hope you will dht by her as well."

  She turo Bel st, her eyes had tears in them now. "B-Bel... thank you for being there for me... I wish we could have spent more time together, if... if you e across another deer beastfolk named Matilda... Please tell her I'm safe. It would mean a lot to me..." Bel stepped forward and pulled the young girl into a hug. We stood there for a while as Fae quietly sobbed into Bel's dress. Bel just held Fae as long as she needed while gently stroking her hair.

  When Fae finally pulled away Bel kneeled down and kissed Fae on the forehead. "Stay strong Fae. Wherever this road takes you, know that it's never wiving up. I know from experiehat even the worst things in life lead you to the best outes. Stay strong and keep moving forward, let this horrible experieemper you like steel, not break you like gss."

  Fae sniffled and put on a big smile. "Thank you Bel. Even if your words are a bit cheesy, I know they're heartfelt. I'll do my best to keep moving arohank you for taking care of me." She bowed first to Bel, then to me, then finally to Silva.

  Tarklin stepped forward and pced a hand on Fae's shoulder. "This is goodbye then. I'll notify the adventurers guild of your mission pletion tonight and I already gave you your payment. Stay safe Lilith, Bel, Torien, Man, Silva. May your trees stand ever taller."

  I smiled. "And may the winds be at your back."

  The five of us, plus Mimi of course, were now standing outside the stable watg the crowd tinue by.

  Silva sighed and scratched her head. "It feels weird knowing the young dy is leavih you. Not that I'm pining of course, I holy like you guys better. It's just weird, I was being traio be her bodyguard and personal attendant for a while and now I'm... an adventurer?" She looked at me for firmation.

  I shrugged with a smile, "Among other things."

  She sighed again. "Would it be weird if I asked you if we could get some drinks? I haven't had any beer for half a year now."

  "Mmm, I don't mind." I looked at my party members and none of them seemed particurly against the proposition. None of them seemed all that excited for it either. "Er, what do you girls think?"

  Man looked a bit embarrassed. "Well, uh, I've never actually had any alcohol before. It's a luxury that few masters offer their... servants. How about you Bel?"

  "I've never had alcohol either. My father was a bit of a drunkard and I didn't trust being inebriated around him after... everything."

  I gave Bel a ed look. "Are you unfortable around alcohol? Should we do something else?"

  "Oh no! It's not like that! I don't mind if you guys drink, it... was my father I was more scared of than anything... I'll try some too, ...if that's okay of course."

  "Right! Let's go to a tavern then!" I g Silva's exposed steel colr. "They won't have an issue with sves drinking iavern would they?"

  Silva shrugged. "Some pces might have an issue but your best bet would be an adventurer's bar. They tend not to worry about stuff like that and adveend to drink so much that adventuring sves are more likely to be included in the fun than other kinds of sves."

  "Alright, a bar then! Maybe we should find the adventurer's guild first and then we go from there."

  We walked for a while and quickly noticed how different the city seemed without the guard presence. Less than a half a bell's walk away from the gate and it was already like a ghost town. There were only a few people oreet and most of them looked like they were in a hurry to be anywhere else. The only exception to this was the occasional mert fidently walking by with guards at each shoulder.

  There were signs posted for the adventurer's guild regurly at interses but it was rather eerie how little foot traffic there was. Eventually we followed the signs to the guild but only found a crumbled building with burn marks all over it. Across the street were four burned down buildings and it seemed easy to guess why. The only thing that survived what looked like an intense fire artially burned sign of beer mugs, showing that this building used to be a bar and their alcohol only made the fire that much more extreme.

  Despite the buildings being made primarily of solid sto seems that something also made them crumble into destroyed piles.

  "Gods, the fuckers burned down the bar too," Silva said with an irritated huff.

  I scratched my horn. "The priest said they were targeting specific people iy. Seems the guild and the guild's apparent hang out was included iargets."

  Torien crossed her arms. "So much for Tarklin's report then."

  "I wouldn't worry, they'll get his report eventually," Man said. "The bigger issue is what do we do now? The city is so messed up it's going to be hard to figure out arts of the city are even safe to travel in right now."

  "I mean, we could go from city gate to city gate. There's sure to be a bar open somewhere right?" Bel asked.

  Silva sighed. "Maybe. Any bar lucky enough to be that close to a gate is probably charging a fortune or already out of liquor with the way those crowds looked. I've known lots of people that make a point to grab a drink before they go on a mission, or leave a city... or if they just feel like it."

  I was going to say something when we heard a cry from a nearby alley.

  Saine

  Hello! It's the first chapter of book 3! A bit of a cliffhanger but you gotta keep things iing sometimes! I hope you ehe chapter and see you ime!

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