<~> Chapter 147"I'm starting to get worried..." Bel was looking off in the dista had been a few hours sihe three others left and they hadn't said when they would be back.

  After ying down for an hour Raya had recovered from her mana siess and ractig trolling the ambient mana around her with Man again. This time she made sure Raya was only w with the ambient mana and Raya lenty motivated to stick with that after vomiting. If she used up any more of her own mana she would be right back to where she had been an ho.

  "...I don't know. What do you think Man? Should we be worried yet?" I asked.

  Man looked up at the sky, it wasn't getting dark yet but we only had a few hours of daylight left aill had to walk back. "I wouldn't worry too much about them but Torien probably would have been back by now if she didn't find anything."

  "Do you think she's in trouble?" Bel asked.

  "Eh, probably not." She shrugged. "But it's te enough that it probably wouldn't hurt to look for them. Most likely they found something but haven't been able t it back yet."

  I looked over at Raya who was still sitting in the grass, she seemed a bit better now but still looked kinda sick. "What about Raya? Would it be too dangerous to take her with us if she's feeling this bad?"

  Man looked unsure. "I don't know, normally I would say yes but if we got stuck outside of the walls at night, I'd rather do it as two groups rather than three. Do you think you'll be okay to walk Raya?"

  "I'm okay I think. I just hope I don't have to run."

  Man and I gave each other ed looks.

  "W-what?" Raya asked.

  Bel smiled and helped Raya to her feet. "Sometimes running is the best option."

  Sibyl took Raya's hand. "Don't worry, I have a strength and endurance build. If we o run I carry her."

  Something about the cute and short catgirl saying something so serious made me ugh to myself. I tried very hard not to let it show on my face but I don't think I did a good job because Sibyl turned aouted.

  "Sorry, I trust that you know what you're doing but are you sure it won't be too awkward to carry her with your new body?" I didn't want to point out how much shorter she was, I didn't think that would do me any favors.

  "Let me check." The smaller catgirl picked Raya up and held her in her arms bridal style. While it did still look a bit ical, Sibyl didn't seem to be having any trouble. Raya however didn't fare as well, her face was bright red, the least posed I've seen her since Sibyl had ged.

  Sibyl smiled, "No problem! Raya feels light!"

  "G- great! You put me down for now then, I'll be fine."

  "Oh um, sorry." Sibyl put her ba the ground and Raya wobbled on her feet but seemed to recover quickly.

  "That settles it then," I said. "Let's get moving, we o find the irls before it gets dark." I ripped a piece of paper out of my journal with a o Torien in case she came back here while we were gone. She was actually a tracker, so she would probably have an easier time finding us than we would be finding her. I stuck it under a ro a spicuous spot aarted heading off in the dire Torien had headed.

  Without Torien or Silva, I led in front with the girls in the middle and Sibyl in the baone of us knew anything about trag so the best we could do was head in the dire they went and hope for the best. The more I thought about this pn the less I liked it but we didn't have maer options, we o find the rest of the party. [Bonded unication] had a maximum range so even though Mimi was with them it wasn't going to help until I got in range of the ability. While it seemed reasoo send Torien at the time, I was feeling her ck of presence pretty clearly right now.

  About half a bell of looking around I heard some voices ing from off in the dista sounded like some kind ument. roup headed in the dire of it and it wasn't that difficult to figure out what the problem was. There was a rge animal that I didn't reize with two arrows in it. It had been shot from two opposite dires. One had fletg I didn't reize and the other was Torien's.

  There was a group of six men, the man in the front was yelling at Mimi while Silva blocked them from getting any closer. She had her spear ready which was thankfully enough to keep the men back but not enough to make them leave. Torien looked incredibly annoyed but kept quiet and rolled her eyes whehe man spoke.

  The moment I got in range of the bond Mimi noticed it and turo look at me with eyes filled with relief. -- "Lilith! These guys are yelling at me and I don't know what to do! They're sayiried to take their kill but Torien hit it first!" --

  When I walked up the men from the roup looked at us warily. The man who was berating Mimi turo me. "What do you want animal?"

  I walked over and put my hand on Mimi's shoulder. "What seems to be the problem? Why are you yelling at my party members?"

  The man g Silva then bae. "Are these your sves then? They don't know their pce, trying to talk to me while the only one of them without a colr stood there looking at me like an idiot. That halfbreed is trying to steal my kill, she shot at the animal I had been trag for hours," he said indig toward Torien.

  "Torien?" I looked over to get her side of the story.

  "If they were trag it, it couldn't have been for hours. We followed it this way and even got upwind of it for me to take my shot. We circled around it, there's no way they were trag it. At least not for as long as we were. When I took my shot their arrow hit a moment after. ...They didn't eve a kill shot."

  "How dare you lie bitch! Who would believe a halfbreed sve like you?" The man tio rant which caused Torien to roll her eyes.

  She looked back at me. "Lilith, please order me to speak the truth so I prove to this patheti I am not lying."

  I felt unfortable about giving orders but since she asked I would. "Torien I order you to speak truthfully, did you steal this man's kill or were you hunting it first?"

  She turo the man as the lines on her clowed blue. "I spoke the truth, we were hunting it first, there was no way he could have been trag it. They are the ones who are lying."

  I turo the man and gave him a look over. His hair looked rough and his clothes were torn. He looked emaciated, like he hadn't beeing enough and the group behind him didn't look much better. The only thing any of them had that looked to be det quality were their ons but those could have easily been on loan. They were desperate, probably for food.

  I sighed. "Apologize to Torien and Mimi for insulting them and we'll split the carcass with you."

  "You..." The man gritted his teeth and the men behind him shifted unfortably.

  I gred at him. "I could cim the ehing for myself, it sounds to me like you were trying to poach our kill, not the other way around. Apologize to my friends and I'll let you split the bounty on it, you're not going to get a better deal."

  "Like I'd trust you animals and halfbreeds!" Before I realized what was happening an arrow plinked off my breastpte thehing happe once.

  Silva knocked out the one who shot at me immediately after with the back of her spear, spinning it around like a staff. Sibyl dashed forward and leaped into a spin kick that smmed a man's fato the ground befrappling with another and breaking the man's arms. The two in the back were ed up in roots that shot from the ground and Mimi held one of them in the air by his neck after he had tried to stab her with his sword. She crushed the man's wrist until the hand limply dropped the sword he was clutg.

  "Don't kill any of them," I called out.

  Silva's eyes found mine and she pulled back her spear.

  "Is anyone hurt? Er, any of us hurt?" I asked.

  I looked everyone over and they seemed fine.

  Sibyl checked the one she had kicked after letting go of the sobbing man with broken arms. "These amateurs probably need healing, they'll probably die if we leave them unscious in the forest."

  What a pain in the ass. The mohey had killed retty rge, it looked like some sort of fusion of a tiger and a horse. It had hooved legs that were shorter than a horse and a feline-looking head, the whole thing was white and covered in bck stripes. I wasn't sure hoere supposed t back the monster carcass and five unscious people but I wased to wake them up either. We also couldn't just dump the body into Mimi's ste without advertising she had spatial magic. It was too rare to show off, I'd rather not have a bunerts flog to us right now.

  I turo the one man who was still awake. "Hey you, I'll ask Bel to heal your arms up if you help us drag your friends back to the guards. Beats sleeping in the forest right?"

  The teary-eyed man nodded his head so I turo Bel. "You heal him up while I tie these guys together. I don't want to leave them here so we'll have to heal them up too."

  I dug through my bag for a coil of rope from my camping kit. It wasn't as long as I would have liked but it was enough to tie all of their hands together at least.

  "Sure." Bel sat dowo the g man and healed up his arms. He rexed once he was able to move his fingers again.

  "Does this sort of thing happen often?" Raya asked.

  Sibyl shook her head. "Which part? Others attag you or the Racism?"

  She shrugged. "Both I guess..."

  Sibyl sighed. "A lot of people are prejudiced like this but they get worse when they're desperate. Most of the time adventurers don't attack each other without knowing who they're attag because a lot of powerful adventurers are hard to identify at a ghese guys are hardly advehough, more like small game huhat picked a fight with people that clearly outcss them. Their arrow didn't even pierce the Korton's skull like Torien's had. They should have known from Silva and Torien alohat they wouldn't win in a fight, even at a disadvantage. I didn't expect Mimi to be s though."

  I looked at the dead monster. "This thing is called a Korton?"

  "Yeah." Torien pulled the arrows out of the creature's head. "They're monsters but their meat is edible, tasty too. They should have taken your offer to split the bounty, this thing is worth a det amount. It also has a core but the city wants to keep those as part of the bounty."

  I was suddenly curious what it tasted like. "Do you think we could keep it and have the brothel use it for food?"

  "Unfortunately no," Sibyl said. "Normally that would be allowed with a hunting lise but right now all game is being purchased by the city. That's usually good enough sihere are still people who are trading portions of their rations fold. They might o ge the iives if food tio get more scard people's willio take gold goes away though. That hasn't happened yet though."

  I nodded, finishing up the st knot on the unsen's wrists. "Okay Bel, heal these guys up too, a's head back to the city."

  The walk went a lot slower on the way back. Silva and Sibyl carried the rge carcass together while the rest of us guarded the men who attacked us. I just wish the defacto leader would lighten up on the expletives and racist name-calling, it was getting old really fast.

  We made it back as the sun was setting over the wall, it wasn't pletely dark yet but it was getting close. I spotted the guard we had talked to earlier by the gate and decided it would be easier to expin what happeo someone whnized me.

  He smiled when he saw the rge carcass Silva and Sibyl were carrying but the expression dropped wheiced we were dragging along six people with their hands tied together.

  The guard sighed when he saw them. "Another friendly fire i?" he asked.

  I shook my head. "Worse. They tried to steal ame, then when we offered to split the bounty, they tried to attack us."

  His brows furrowed auro the group. "What, are they stupid?"

  "That animal is lying! They attacked us out of nowhere and tried to steal our bounty!"

  The guard gave them a ft look. "Seems like it. Hey, dumbass, you see that deer-kihere? She healed me yesterday when a shadow demon stabbed me i. I'm more ined to believe them over a damned racist. Their party is strong, they wouldn't o attack you and take your stuff and if they did, they sure as hell wouldn't lead you by the wrists back to town. Are you willing to make those same accusations in a [Zone of Truth]? If you want, that be arrahis party is friends with the city's leadership."

  That ent made the leader of their group cm up hard.

  The guard turned bae. "Don't worry, I'll take care of this. I'll call over someone else to help you with your bounty." He turned and waived down anuard.

  I looked at the stunned man. "Don't go too hard on them, people are desperate for fht now."

  The guard looked at him again. "You hear that, this 'animal' is showing you mercy. Thank the nice sheep-kin."

  The man looked like he swallowed a lemon. "Thank you, ma'am." He looked away in disgust.

  I ughed. "Not very si I'll take it. Thanks uh, what was your name?"

  "Nico." He held out his hand and I shook it.

  "Thanks, Nico, I'll see you around."

  Saine

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