<~> Chapter 185Another woman from the room behind the ter came and took over the desk while Lorriene showed us to our rooms on the sed floor. Our rooms were above the kit so she jokingly told us not to worry about the he woman's presence really had an iing effean. She was usually pretty serious and shy out in public but she was like a pletely different person around her aunt. It was really cute. She was giggling and ughing and almost hanging off of her like a kid.

  The older pantharian was a bit wary of allowing Man to behave that way in front of everyo first but she soon realized I didn't mind and wasn't going to punish Man for ag that way. She eventually loosened up and started to enjoy Mahusiasm, hugging her bad teasiorien looked excited too and eve in fs occasionally, which was rather abnormal from the typically aloof cat girl.

  It was obvious to me that their aunt was a rather important figure in their life. I didn't know too much about their past... I've been a bit afraid to ask frankly. I'm ed hearing about their childhood would just rile me up given their history of being sves since birth so I've beeant to even bring up the subjeeither of them has been forthing with their history either so I had just assumed it was better to leave it alone.

  Uhe rooms we had stayed in at the brothel, this building had wooden shuttered windows with thick curtains c them. Right now the curtains were parted and the shutters were opeing the te afternoon sun in. The weather was just starting to warm for the start of spring so the breeze and the su wouldn't be very long before the su down for the day and I wasn't ied in trying to navigate this city at night. I already felt rather put off by the sights I had seen ing here and I could do without trying to find my way back here through that market.

  Bel smiled and looked around the room. "This is a really ni for a pce that's supposedly in the slums."

  "Thank you," Lorriene said with a smile. "This inn is in the southern quarter but it's close to the market so the neighborhood isn't as bad as it gets farther south of here. That normally means there's enough ers to keep this pce running and in good shape. But right now, there are a lot of problems iy after those two nobles were murdered and the Tamin church started patrolling the city at the king's request. I've heard some rumors that the young king has gotten more involved in w enfort retly. That may have been a wele ge if his first act wasn't to put the city guard under the Tamin padins. I'm sure I don't have to remind you folk that they aren't kind to beastkin and demi-humans like us."

  I grimaced. "Unfortunately not. We've had some issues with them in the past but at least being demon hunters has eased the pressure. I've already had a few of their demon hunters nod at me as we passed. It was rather surreal."

  "Mmm, I suppose that makes sense," Lorriene replied with a curt nod.

  "How long have the Tamin church been in trol of the city like this?" I asked her.

  "Only withi week. When the news spread of t Kornd being murdered so shortly after Baron Morrister, people assume the ki inte... or a panic. There were already heavy patrols of guards going through the city but it wasn't until the Tamin padins took trol that they've been doing things like funneling all of the beastkin into the southern quarter," Lorriene said.

  "Have you heard anything about demon summoners iy?" I asked. "There apparently was a lot of them in Goldeh before the ihat led to Baron Morrister's death."

  "I'm afraid I haven't heard any rumors about things like that. I don't have any way of knowing about demon summoners ma'am. Those types would probably be hidden in the more secretive parts of the city, not here right o the market."

  "Ah, alright. Thanks for the information heless, you've been really helpful."

  She leaned forward in an overly formal bow. "My purpose is to serve ma'am." Her gesture made things incredibly awkward and I didn't really know what to do after her respohe overly formal response fused me though, as if the versation had turned chilly out of nowhere.

  I cleared my throat. "Perhaps you would like some time to catch up with Torien and Man in private? It sounds like the three of you haven't seen each other in a long time. I don't want to intrude on your reunion. Assuming you have the time to spare of course, I wouldn't want you to get in trouble..."

  The woman's eyebrows rose a bit in surprise. "Would that be alright? I would like the opportunity to speak with them alone if you would allow it..."

  "Not a problem," I replied with a smile. "I'm going to spend some time rexing up here for the day. I have a lot of errands to run tomorrow so I don't want to stay up that te. The three of you should spend some time together now that you have the ce."

  I didn't want to kill everyone's mood but walking through that sve market had taken a toll on me mentally. I didn't think I to hanging out and socializing right now. I think it was going to take some amount of ving from the twins before their aunt trusted me anyway. It robably better if I let them have some private discussions without me there before I tried to get to know her better.

  Man practically crashed into me and pulled me into a hug. "Thanks, Lilith! I'll slip into the room ter." I hugged her bad smiled.

  "Thanks, Lilith," Torien said. "I'll see you tomorrow m then? Unless you want to talk ter tonight?"

  "Nah, it's okay. Just enjoy yourselves. There will be a lot to do tomorrow but it'll be fine as long as we get an early start. The only thing that's set in stone is meeting with the guard captain at the sixth bell. We'll probably be in the capital for a while based on the list of things we have to do."

  Quickly doing the math in my head, that means the meeting is around two p.m. sihe first bell is at eight a.m. It was kind of fusing verting from my own time system but at least one bell is approximately an hour and the fourth bell is at noon. I have no way to tell for sure but it feels like a bell is roughly an hour. I haven't really had to track bells for time-keeping reasons before and Goldeh didn't even have a funiower while we were there so I haven't o think about it.

  Lorriene smiled and bowed again, albeit less formally. "Thank you, Lilith. I'll make sure not to keep the two of them up too long tonight." The three of them left the room and headed dowairs hand in hand. It was o see Man ugh and smile like that. She always had her excitable moments but I'd never seen her like this.

  Silva poi the door. "I guess I'll be headed to my room with Cecilia then. Knock if you need anything, or I don't know, do your weird mind magic with her. I think I'll go to bed early. I'm sure the capital is going to be a headache to deal with over the ing week and I'd prefer to be rested for it, especially since I finally sleep in a real bed."

  I ughed. "True enough. See you in the m Silva."

  Once everyone else cleared out of the room, I took Bel and Mimi's hands ahem over to the bed. The two of them intuited my emotiht away. Mimi used her magic to take off my armor, leaving me in my underwear, and the three of us slid uhe covers to rex.

  Mimi slid into my arms, her soft fur shifted back to her smooth skin as she pulled my arm over her and sandwiched it between her bare breasts. Bel slipped in behind me and pulled me against her, nuzzling lightly into the bay neck.

  "Do you want to talk about it?" Bel asked quietly.

  I sighed. "I don't know. Maybe it's a bit stupid to get so worked up over all of that."

  Bel lightly traced paths through the fur on my hip. "I don't think so. The sight retty shog for me too actually. I could tell it hit you harder but I'd never seen anything like it either. Actually, I'd never seen so many people in one pce, let alone sves... Everything was already a little overwhelming but just the sheer number of sves up in the cages was... pretty staggering."

  I turned back to look at her, carefully avoiding poking her with my horns. "How do you feel about all of that? I was so preoccupied with my owions I didn't even realize..."

  She smiled warmly at me before turnio face back the other way and hugging me from behind. "I'm okay Lilith. ...It's not that I'm used to it exactly... but I'm aware that pces like this existed. I'd heard stories. I never experienced any of that myself, you rescued me before I was even traio be a sve, but I wouldn't have been surprised if I had ended up being one of those people up there." She kissed me on the ned let the thought sink in.

  I squeezed Mimi as Bel held me from behind. Mimi didn't say anything but I felt warm reassurances ing from her too. She would do anything she could to help me and make me feel better. She also felt like I rescued her, pulled her out of an intensely lonely and isoted life where the closest thing she had to family wao eat her. She hadn't shared these emotions with me before and they brought tears to my eyes when I felt it.

  Walking through that bazaar had made me feel powerless, pletely uo make a difference just from the scale of the problem I was looking at. But maybe instead of fog ohings I couldn't ge, I would focus ohings I could. I would have to move forward oep at a time. Perhaps I could start with the twins' aunt, I don't know her full situatio but maybe she could e with us too? Maybe I could do something bigger for other people iure but right now my friends and I were still in danger. Even if the specter of it wasn't looming too closely, the [Dungeoroyer] title was a big enough problem we o get reassurances from the guild that they would protect us from the sequences of having it. I o get my cartography lise and do some work for them to get the adventurer's guild and the other people who would take issue with the title off my baot to mention all of the demon activity that kept happening around us.

  Now that I khe scale of svery in Torlimal, the whole thing dwarfed me, maybe when I visited the Great Library I could find out more about the abolitionist movement here. I wasn't sure if I would be able to help but I would feel better if I knew more about the situation than I already did. That's just one more reason to go to the library.

  I doubt I would be the first [World Traveler] to go there looking for answers. There was a lot about myself that I didn't know, let alohe rest of this world. I had a crude uanding of local geography and history and that's it. Most of my time has bee on learning magid dealing with immediate issues instead. Would they know a way to get my memories back? Or even why I was here in the first pce? If anyone could give me those answers it would be Sorsette. I wasn't sure if the goddess just hung out at the library but if there was anywhere I could learn about myself it had to be there, right?"

  "It seems like you've calmed down and gotten lost in thought again." I could hear the smile in Bel's words as she leaned against me. "Are you feeling a bit better now?"

  I reached bad grabbed one of her hands so that I could interce my fingers with hers. "I do. Thanks, you two. I think I just needed some time to process everything. I feel like the moment I'm starting to get a handle on things, something else crops up and throws me for another loop."

  "I know," Bel cooed. "We've been so busy and the most time away from stress we've had on this trip was when we were traveling from Goldeh. The mome here we're faced with this. I know you'll figure it out though. I believe in you."

  "Thanks, Bel," I said with a smile. I squeezed Mimi and pulled her into a tighter hug. "And thanks, Mimi. You two are always so good to me. I really appreciate the two of you."

  I leaned against Mimi and closed my eyes. I felt mentally taxed. Some sleep will do me some good.

  Saine

  Hello! A bit of a somber too end on but it shouldn't be a surprise things would go this way. Lilith is aional and perhaps overly empathetic person, seeing others like that is hard for her to handle sometimes. At the same time she has trouble showing weakness even to her friends, to some extent the bond is a good thing for her, it makes it harder for her to bottle things up and hide them from her fellow succubi. Thank you for reading.

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