<~> Chapter 92By the time dawn had fully arrived the entire camp had e alive with everyone preparing to leave for the leg of our journey. From what I could gather we would be travelling to o fort before finally reag the te baron's nds. We would have to be even more careful with Fae from then on as the risk of her being reized and discovered there were even higher. The adventurer guards and merts seemingly chose to be ignorant of the story behind our two agalongs. No one here wao question Tarklin Silvergrove's decision oter but also seemed to think the less they khe better.

  I had sketched food hour this m a rather refreshed by it. By the time I came back to the room with everyone's breakfast, everyone was already awake, even Bel. Fae and Silva were quite surprised when I had opted t food for everyone, including my servants, but wisely chose not to ent oter. Man and Torien for their part looked a bit embarrassed but didn't pin about receiving their breakfast.

  The food this m was some kind of grilled steak on somewhat hard bread for the meat option and a sad for the vegetarian option. I unfortunately chose to opt for the vegetarian option for Bel and myself si would be a lot more obvious thaew st 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 md 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 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," Man helpfully added.

  I hat made sense.

  After our quick breakfast we were all loaded up and on the move again. I was ba Nikka's saddle. I was told I would be doing a double shift of uuna duty today sihere were only so many among the group who could ride and it was my turn to take the extra shift. While I ealking 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 retty oday. After the raierday 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 whearted spotting roaming monsters again. They weren't as big or as dangerous looking as the stream stalker, ihey looked more like wild ostriches. They seemed to cim 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 thaher rider that was farther up ahead.

  I drew Mimi from my sheathe and held her ready for the ining monster. I signaled Nikka to stop following the caravan and face the oning 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 giaried to peck at me but Nikka jumped back before lunging forward, managing to dodge the attad let me retaliate while the uuna attempted to cripple its legs at the same time. The monster mao pull its neck out of my range and leap away from the uuna's teeth but not before taking a long and deep ssh from Mimi's bde. Rather than drip off, the blood soaked into the bde and disappeared, probably looking quite ominous to anyone who might have been . Mimi's bde handled well, her fears of being broken from use seemed like they wouldn't be a problem. I just o make sure I treated the angle right.

  The attack created a stand off betweewo creatures. Each time the monster went in for a peikka dodged it aaliated with a luhat couldn't seem to ect after the first time. Just as I was starting to think this strategy wasn't w Nikka leaped to the left before poung from that angle, catg the monster off guard. I sshed agaiing a really deep ssh in but at the same time, I took a peck so hard it bent the left shoulder of my breastpte into my flesh.

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

  [Your party has killed a Browherjack]

  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 Bel was the first to e over to me, even from up here I could tell she was in serious mode. One of the other haook Nikka's reins and helped me dismount and I quickly moved over to Bel.

  Only then did I realize that I hadn't been feeling the pai and that I must be in shock. My right hand was shaking when I tried to reach over and untch the breastpte but I couldn't ma. 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 pieetal off of me.

  Bel id me on the ground and Silva stepped over me. She pced 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 mao pletely rip the front of the breastpte off and Bel got to work .

  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. Ohe healing was plete I started to sit up only for Bel nearly fall over me panting.

  I ed my arms around her. "Bel, are you okay?"

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

  I ran my fihrough the fur a 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 aed my range of motion.

  "Other than feeling a little sore it feels fine now. Thanks Bel." 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 instrus 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 Bel up to her feet and realized my shirt had been toro get at my shoulder. Bel was a bit unsteady but insisted she didn't need my help to walk.

  Tarklin was the person I saw e 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. "Bel, 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 sting damage though." I looked down at my mangled breastpte on the ground, it was pletely destroyed, bent in two different pces. "'t say the same about my armor though."

  Tarklin nodded. "That's good." He looked over my chest that I was a little awkwardly c 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 ge my shirt before we get ba the road."

  He shook his head. "No, you're off uuna duty for now. Even if you're fine, magically healed wounds take a toll on the body." His eyes flicked over to Bel for a moment. "Take care of Bel, 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 hyperventiting 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 knower 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 dowo her. "Are you feelier Fae?"

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

  I shook my head. "Don't worry about me, I'm okay. I got pecked by a mohat ruined my breastpte and Silva helped pull it free so Bel 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 betweewo. It was a bit early and maybe inappropriate t up in this situation but I didn't see how things wouldn't tio escate unless we separated Fae and Silva as soon as possible.

  I cleared my throat. "I... meant t this up to you ter but... would you be willing to sell Silva to me? I think that having to manage her is bringing you a lot of unress and... I don't think your retionship 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 wao be away from her. "I... I 't just give her away. I he gold..."

  "I have a gold sve 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, sidering the offer. "...I'll take the Gold Sve Token."

  It felt gross buying another sve 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 itted 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 backpad ge my shirt, quickly retrieving a ge of clothes from my trunk.

  I came bad hahe sve 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 ged. She did nue and kneeled without question.

  "Do you have a surname?"

  "No."

  Fae pced her hand on Silva's colr and took a hitg breath. “I Sera Faelyn Morrister, hereby willingly transfer ownership of this sve to Lilith.”

  Lines on Silva's clowed red aled back to blue before fading away entirely. A sight I was more and more beginning tnize.

  [Karmiergy reduced by 500]

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

  Saine

  Hello! This chapter has been a bit of a long time ing, Silva is a character that's been po join long before she was introduced. She's actually among some of the characters that existed in a previous version of the story along with Man and Torien. I've heard a lot of pretty positive things about her character and soon everyone will get to know her eveer. I hope you enjoyed reading, see you ime!

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