<~> Chapter 145"Oh good, looks like it's still open!" Raya poio a restaurant a few streets off of the main road. It happeo be in a part of town that hadn't taken much damage. The restaurant had a cute little cow sign hanging by the door.

  The ded with an appropriate cowbell as we came in. The restaurant retty quiet right now, not sure if it was the time of day or the state the city is in. There were a few adventurers by the door watg the entrahough. Their eyes looked over us and our ons but they didn't say anything or stop us from ing in.

  "Oh, hello travelers. Were you looking for lunch?" A teenage human waitress came to the front to greet us.

  "My friend Raya here told us that you might serve ice cream, is that true?" I said pointing to Raya with my thumb.

  She smiled. "Yep! We make it in the back. Would you like a table?"

  "Sure table for..." I looked over my group, "eight."

  She led us te table he back of the restaurant. "Would all of you like menus or just the ice cream? We normally mix in some fruit but we're kind of out of that right now, sorry."

  I looked across the group. "Would any of you like anything else?"

  Maly raised her hand. " I get something small too? Like a sandwich?"

  I nodded. "No problem, Torien? Silva?"

  They g each other before Torien nodded. "The three of us should probably all get sandwiches I think."

  Mimi jumped up. "Me too! I want a sandwich too!"

  I ughed. "Sure, no problem Mimi."

  What was left unsaid was that only the members of the group that weren't succubi actually needed to eat. The succubi in the group weren't jumping at the e to treat them.

  I decided to ask Raya and Sibyl just in case. "How about you two? My treat."

  They both shook their heads.

  I shrugged and looked back at the waitress. "So, four sandwiches a ice creams then."

  The waitress gave an awkward smile. "Er, just to make sure, because of all the... trouble, the bowls of ice cream are ten silvers right now, is that okay?"

  Raya coughed in surprise. I g her and gave her a smile before turning back to the waitress. "No problem, I have the money on me."

  She brightened up, "Great! I'll be right back with those sandwiches first!" She rushed to the back with a smile on her face.

  Raya looked exasperated. "Lilith! You didn't tell me ice cream costs that mubsp;I never would have asked for any if I k was that expensive!"

  Sibyl patted her on the shoulder. "If it makes you feel better, that's actually a lot more expehan usual. Must be because of the attack, food is short everywhere right now. With how busy this pally is at this time of day they're probably happy anyone is something at the moment. Anything they sell us is something they 't eat themselves."

  "Not that ice cream is all that filling," I added.

  She shrugged. "It's high in energy though. Might not be as good for you... us, but if the food she gets any worse then that milk and ice cream will save lives."

  I nodded. "Sibyl, how is the food she looking? You probably have a better idea than most."

  She grimaced and shook her head. "Not good. A lot of pces like this have already stopped serving ers or closed entirely and there isn't news on any increased shipments of food from outside caravahe only reason a lot of restaurants are still operating at all is because their stores will spoil too fast otherwise, better to get what mohey bsp;now. Hunters are still bringing i from some of the nearby game, which is helping, but Goldeh has always been a food importer since we live so close to the frontier. With the increase of people who've lost their homes and shops, more people have been turning to banditry which will probably make the roads less safe for food imports. Especially si will be food that motivated a lot of the bandits in the first pce, they'll be happy to rob a food caravahe orading gold and jewels."

  "Here's your sandwiches!" The waitress handed out the sandwiches. "I'll give your friends a bit of time to finish their food while we prepare the ice cream."

  "Sure, thank you."

  "No problem!" She smiled and headed back to the kit.

  I turned back to Sibyl. "How did the city get to be in this bad of shape food-wise anyway?"

  "I heard that in addition to the fields outside the city that were burned, one of the pces that was destroyed was a local caravan pany that had ered the market on food distribution here. They had muscled out most of the petition years ago so all of the caravans trading in food had to work through them. Their rgest ste warehouses were destroyed and all of the owners were killed iacks. Not only is there less food in the first pce but everyone iy suddenly had to figure out who to even buy food from, the only people selling food iy were all gone. Whoever's in charge of the city right now stepped in to stop the merts from h what was left by buying up everything from the surviving warehouses. Now the city is distributing it themselves but that doesn't help pces like the Ruby Vixen which isly the most respected business iy," she finished with a grimace.

  "Are they trying to starve you guys out because of your profession?" Torien asked.

  Sibyl shook her head. "No, I wouldn't go that far. They just uimated hoeople actually live at our brothel. Oe has been trying to get the city to reallocate some more of the rations to us but they've beeant. She's had to dig into her emergency funds just to keep everyone fed. Until you guys brought the rice, our rations were quickly running out and there just wasn't any more food to buy. We've been buying other people's rations at high prices to survive until now but the food was quickly being more valuable than any amount of money we could offer. After getting that rid... the other thing you're doing, we might actually be in the clear until things stabilize again."

  The waitress pushed through the kit door with a tray covered in bowls. "Here we go! Eight ice creams, freshly prepared." She began pg them in front of us one by oil all of us had a bowl. "If you need anything else just call for me."

  "Sounds good."

  I turo see that several of my friends had already started. Torien and Man had looks of bliss on their fad Bel seemed to be enjoying hers almost as much. Raya gave it a little lick befetting a huge look of surprise on her fad eating it with much musto.

  "Mmmm, oh gods, why does this taste so much better now?" Sibyl was looking at her bowl of ice cream in shock, apparently, her altered form appreciated the ice cream a lot more than her e form had.

  Raya giggled. "Sibyl you look so cute. Hey! Lemme feed you a bite!"

  "Wh— why?"

  "Because I want to! e on, open up!" Raya held her spoon out to Sibyl who hesitantly took the bite in her mouth.

  Silva ughed. "You two are ag like newlyweds."

  Sibyl's ears turned bright red and she turned away from everyoo cover her face.

  "Hey Silva, don't be mean! She was so cute!" Raya hugged the blushing catgirl from behind and pulled her against her chest.

  "M— my turn!" Torien held a spoonful of ice cream out to Silva, she looked about as fident as she sounded.

  Silva raised an eyebrow but had a big grin on her face. "Oh?" She leaned forward and took the spoon into her mouth, not breaking eye tact with Torien for a sed. She pulled back slowly and licked her lips. Her suggestive attitude wasn't lost on Torien who was now blushing pretty hard as well.

  Man was looking at me with big eyes and I could tell she wao py this game too so I scooped up a bite and held it out for her. "My cute catgirl is getting jealous," I said with a smile.

  "No..." She leaned in and ate the ice cream, her pretty red eyes looked into mihe eime. When she pulled back she turned away with a smile.

  When I turo look at Bel I noticed she was already holding her spoon out to me. "I thought you might want to be the oreated this time."

  I smiled and took the ice cream, Bel didn't seem embarrassed by it so I wiggled my eyebrows at her instead which made her ugh.

  Man recovered just enough to hold out her spoon to Bel. "You didn't get a turn..."

  Bel smiled sweetly at Man and leaned in to plete the circle. It seemed Man wasn't aer being on that side of the spoon because she tio stay bright red throughout.

  "Ow!" I turo see Silva holding her head in her hands.

  "What's wrong?" Torien leaned down to try a a look at Silva's face.

  "It feels like something is stabbing into the bay eyeballs."

  Ah, poor Silva.

  "Try lig the roof of your mouth, warm up any spots that feel cold," I said.

  After a moment Silva let out a breath. "That was awful, what happened?"

  "Brain freeze or some people call it an ice cream headache. It happens if you eat cold things too fast."

  "I think I'm doh this for now." She pushed the rest of the ice cream over to Torien.

  Torien looked down at it, then back up. "Are you sure?..."

  "Yeah."

  Torieantly took it but then shrugged and dug into Silva's portion too.

  The waitress giggled off to the side. "You guys look like you're having fun."

  Silva looked up with a ft stare. "That was not fun."

  This just made the waitress ugh again. "First time having ice cream? Yeah, that happens to a lot of people. Like your friend said, you just have to eat slower."

  While the waitress was here I decided to pull out my pouch. "How much for everything in total? Eighty for the ice cream, how much more for the sandwiches?"

  "Eighty-eight silver total," she replied.

  I pulled out a gold a oray. "You keep the ge." It was close enough to a gold I figured it was just easier this way.

  "Thanks!" Her eyes lit up and she ran the gold to the back immediately.

  Raya looked nervous. "Lilith, you gave her twelve silver as a tip?"

  I shrugged, "That's around fifteen pert...ish, seems fine."

  Torien shook her head, "No Lilith, you don't uand. Twelve silver is a huge tip for a waitress. A or two at most would have done..."

  Everyone was looking at me, waiting for my rea.

  I sighed. "Look, we just got paid after a very stressful meeting. I enjoyed hanging out here and since we've been in this restaurant I haven't heard one word about being a beastfolk or eating with sves and prostitutes. Instead, she just happily served me what I asked for, without any trouble. ...I his break. Things have been moving so fast tely and I haven't had much time to slow down and enjoy my time with all of you. I don't mind giving her 12 silver for that and saving myself the trouble of ting out eighty-eight silver s."

  Torien smiled. "I suppose that's true."

  There was a bit of an aause before Raya suddenly sat up. "Oh! Man! I wao ask you if you would teach me some magic. Would you be willing to show me a few things? I'll pay you bay way I but it would mean a lot to me!"

  Man sighed. "Yeah sure, Lilith told me about your request. Are you sure you wao teach you though? My style of magic might not be the best thing to start with..."

  "Please? I don't have anyone else to ask and I tell you're strong!" Raya gave the biggest puppy dog eyes I had ever seen.

  Man sighed again. "Fine. It might be a bit of a challehough... and we should probably do it outside the city walls for safety's sake."

  "Yay!" Raya jumped up from her chair and hugged Man from behind.

  Saine

  Hello! Bit of a break from all the charged emotions, instead we got a little bit more backstory and world building. Plus some more Raya and Sibyl fun! A bit more lighthearted chapters feel good every now and then! Even if some of it is interspersed with all of the terrible things happening in the world. I hope you enjoyed reading! See you ime!

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