<~> Chapter 58"You're a pretty good shot with that."

  The five of us turo the new voice, a male mousekin barely taller than the shopkeeper, stood at the door of the fehat separated the outside bcksmith fe from the archery range.

  He was wearing a bed leather apron that covered most of his body gy clothes and rge oversized lookiher gloves. On his belt was a rge 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 appearand seemed perfectly at ease despite the warmth I could feel ing 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 w 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 w for this shop. Even the wooden shafts and hahat Twill uses for his on smithing."

  "Well the craftsmanship on this bow is amazing. I'm very impressed, truly," Torien smiled while gng 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 ed tone.

  "Of course, you had some with you befht? 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 unvinced but looked unwilling tue 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 Bel being our healer, I thought that my personal defense wouldn't be as important. I think it's a waste of your moo arm me with melee ons."

  I was a little fused where this was ing from. I might o ask about her motivations here in a little bit more detail once we're in private.

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

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

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

  I looked over at Twill aurned pale. Eveook a step back from me. Their reas seemed exaggerated but it probably wouldn't be best to sour our retionship here. I took a breath and tried to rex. I liked these two so far, I didn't want to ruin our w retionship over something stupid like this.

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

  "I'm really sorry, I meant no offewill hurredly squeaked out.

  "Rex, rex. I'm not mad. Let's just fet about that. Now, ba the subject, what ons do you orien? 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 koo if that's possible."

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

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

  We all walked baside and Twill joined us awkwardly as we moved over towards the on raear the front of the store. Torien g me before walking over and iing some of the ons on dispy. She found a pair of daggers that seemed to bance 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 inives or something. Big, but not forearm length.

  She hahe two of them to Twill who took them over and pced them on the ter befoing into the back.

  I turo Meena, "And the throwing daggers?"

  "Ah, yes they're over here." She pulled out a bundle of bck cloth out from uhe ter and rolled it out. Torien picked up one of the small knives and ba on her finger before nodding. Meena rolled the bundle up and sat them o 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 ter. "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 poud ted out 9 gold. " I have another 40 arrows for an even 9 gold then?"

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

  "Lilith, the new quiver '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 pag up all of her new equipment I saw Meena elbow Twill in the side and whisper something to him. He walked over scratg his head awkwardly. "I wao apologize for my thoughtless ent. As an apology, how about y 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 e baother 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 buy any of your mundane equipment. We 't really appraise anything ented ical but there's a friend we refer you to if needed. Bring over anything you have and we either buy it or point you to the right pce."

  "Perfect, I'll be sure t some stuff your way."

  We left the building and I started walking in the dire of the public baths we had visited st 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 rexation, especially since I kneere 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 dio celebrate. Things didn't go how I'd hoped but at the end of the day I could take so 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 quered a duogether. Our first duogether. That's not something just anyone could say.

  "You looked really scary back there you know." Bel said with a ugh, 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 overreag."

  "You looked like you were going to eat them alive. Your teeth... look lohan they should. It was kind of freaky to be ho," Man said.

  I sighed. "I o be more careful, I didn't mean to react sly. 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 frow 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, rades in our adventures. I don't want to think of you as sves 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 't be."

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

  "No. If I forced you to behave that way then it would be meaningless. If you 't, you '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 disappoihey never gave me ohe two of them walked behi I didn't look back. I would give them time to think about it. Talk about it among themselves.

  Man came up to walk o me. "Hey Lilith?... We bought Torien neons but we still haven't found anything for me. Is that where we're headed to ?"

  "Nope! We already found you a on, 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 erfect for you the sed we found it. There was no way I would sell it."

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

  I smiled and hugged her back. "You're welan. 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, beio join the hug. She looked over to Bel, unease in her eyes, but Bel just smiled and nodded.

  Torien joihe hug and Man jumped slightly before scooting over aing her join in. Bel came from behind and ed her arms around us, she only barely was able to around the two irls and reach me.

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

  Bel and I ughed as we released the two blushing twins.

  Saine

  Hello! Lilith be spooky sometimes, I'm sure it won't be a problem. After the long run of dungeon chapters there's going to be a run of hanging out in town chapters while the characters talk ao know each other. bat is fun to write and all but it's the character iion that I love the most. I hope you enjoy reading, see you ime!

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