Chapter 74

A week passed since the incident with Sart. Rakk didn't stay for long and left the girls after just one night. The week was enough to fill Nicole's inner storage and their bags with monster meat, skins, and other valuable items they had gathered. It was time to go back to the Hive and make some money.

"What about the house?" Annie hovered above the ground as the four of them stood outside the front door.

"Nothing." Nicole shrugged. "We can't just leave one of us here. It's too dangerous to stay alone. And we need every one of us to carry the materials, too. I left a message on the table, asking whoever comes here to keep the place clean. All we can do is hope that if someone comes, they won't damage anything," she said as the girls set off.

"Hah, you are still too naive, Nicole." Soi chuckled. "At this rate, we might as well just forget about it."

"It's not that hard to build, except for the time it takes. I can make more of those if we need to. And if someone gets to spend their night in a house instead of in the middle of the forest, fine."

Soi squinted at her. "You are way more generous than I thought. Are you sure you don't want to set traps inside or something?"

"I don't know… The whole thing with Sart got me thinking. Life is hard enough. I don't want to come back and find the body of an innocent person inside."

"Bark!" Mignon barked, walking next to Nicole.

"You agree too, eh?" She rubbed the top of his head with a smile, making him bark again.

Half a day later, the girls left the forest and got past the colorful fields to the entrance of the underground city. First thing, they headed to the guild. Inside, they were greeted by the loud chatter of other adventurers, all sitting at tables or standing in groups around the room. After waiting a bit in a short line to exchange their goods for coins at the stand, they were welcomed by a Voru'kai girl who perked up at the sight of Nicole and Annie.

"Hello. It's you, humans! I-I am new here. I got the job after you left."

"Hi." Nicole waved in a friendly manner. "I hope you like it here. Here is everything we got."

They unloaded the bags, and in the end, Nicole emptied her storage. The total amount of materials was so large that the Bee girl had to call another assistant to help with appraising everything and calculating the final outcome. When Nicole was handed the coins, she quickly split the amount into four parts, sharing it with the rest of her friend group.

"Here. All fair."

Iloe licked her lips nervously. "A-are you sure? I didn't do much to earn those."

"What are you talking about? You spent your time and effort picking herbs, and you helped to keep the house clean. Plus, you were the main cook, too! All work is important," Nicole said, unusually serious. "Please don't feel like you are not contributing. You earned this too."

The catgirl blushed and nodded, accepting the money. Yet before the girls could leave the guild, they were approached by the head manager of the guild.

"There is one more matter. We received a letter from Lord Obsidian for you a couple of days ago. Please." The manager held out an envelope to Nicole.

"Huh? For me?" Nicole grabbed it hesitantly. "Who's that Lord, anyway?"

"Y-you don't know?" The woman seemed surprised, as if Nicole were lacking common knowledge. "A Torakai man. Before his retirement, he was a big merchant. Now his caravans are circling around the island, trading with important figures." The woman leant closer, half-whispering. "I heard he makes deals with the Queen herself."

Oh, a big shot. I wonder what he wants from me.

The girls moved to sit down at one of the tables as Nicole opened the letter. As she took the paper out, there were just a couple of sentences. Nicole quickly read through them before speaking up.

"Well, not sure what we did, but this Obsidian wants to meet us at his place, mainly me and Soi. Said it will be easier to discuss in person."

"Me?" Soi's brows went up. "That's interesting. When?"

Nicole shrugged. "Not specified. I guess we can go see him whenever. The guild manager mentioned he is retired, so he should have plenty of time."

Soi stood up. "Should we go, then?"

Annie giggled. "You seem eager, huh?"

"Wealthy people mean either trouble or riches. And it's better to sort things out as fast as possible, no matter what we will get out of those two."

"Fair." Nicole stood up. "But wait. We have our dresses from the times we went to see the Queen for the first time and from the ball. Whatever he wants from us, looking good will never be a bad thing."

The girls quickly changed, keeping their weapons on them just in case. Following the directions from the letter, they had no issue locating Lord Obsidian's house. On the edge of the Blue and Yellow districts of the city, they found a big mansion. Stone walls stood high, and at the entrance stood two armored Torakai men. As the girls got closer, one of them squinted at first, his tail going tense behind him. Yet after a couple of seconds, when they stood right in front of him, the man seemed to relax.

"You are humans, right?" His eyes darted between Nicole and Annie's heads, noticing the lack of any kind of ears as a sign. "Lord mentioned you may come sooner or later. Please come in. He should be inside right now." The two guards turned to the double doors at the same time and opened them for the group.

"Thank you." Nicole nodded, stepping inside.

The door was closed behind them, sealing the girls in the front room. It wasn't big and had a staircase going up to the higher floor. Past it were doors leading somewhere deeper into the house. Paintings hung on the walls, and potted plants stood in the corners.

Annie whispered, "Damn, our crude house in the forest looks like a poor shack compared to this."

As she spoke, a bunny girl stepped down the stairs. She was wearing a simple blue dress with white frills. The girl bowed in front of them with a polite smile.

"Hello. Welcome to the house of Lord Obsidian. May I ask the reason for your visit?" Her voice was high and girly, fitting the young Zunthari.

Nicole waved the letter in her hand. "Yeah. We got invited. He wanted to discuss something with me and my friend in person."

The girl bowed again. "Please, follow me into the waiting room. I will notify Lord Obsidian that you are here."

She turned around and approached the door next to the stairs. Nicole and the rest were led into the next room—this one was much bigger and seemed more suited to a museum. Between the paintings on the walls were now horns and skulls of monsters. Underneath them, on stands along the walls, were different items and creatures displayed in glass as if frozen in time. Above the burning fireplace hung two swords and a shield. In the middle of the room was a long table with soft chairs around it. The girl gestured for them to sit down before excusing herself.

"Okay, now I am speechless." Wide-eyed, Annie was looking around in awe.

"I wonder what he wants from us." Soi's hand ached to reach for her dagger, yet she held back.

Nicole grabbed Mignon's arm to keep him away from anything that could be broken or torn. After a couple of minutes, the girl returned. "Please follow me."

This time, she led them upstairs into one of the rooms. It turned out to be an office, with bookshelves on the sides and a big, heavy table against the farthest wall. A black-haired Torakai man was sitting at the table, looking down at some papers. He wasn't outright muscular or strong, yet Nicole felt an aura of confidence from him before he even looked up. As the girls stepped in, the bunny girl bowed and closed the door.

Two guards at the sides. Nicole glanced at the catmen standing still and silent. Things can get bloody if they go wrong.

Lord Obsidian nodded to the newcomers. "I am glad you decided to come, human. Please, sit down."

In front of his table stood another chair across from him. The girls stepped closer, but none took the offer, feeling uneasy in the rather narrow room.

"Thank you, though could we get straight to the matter?"

"Of course. You see, a man as wealthy as me has to have somewhere to put his money. Coins are useless if they just sit in your pocket, right?"

Oh great, here we go. Half an hour of my life wasted on some rich guy's talk about how great he is.

"So I do two things—put the coins into whoever I think can bring me even more, and, two, more importantly for now, I am a collector of fine and interesting items. The waiting room contains just a part of it." The man leant forward, elbows on the table. "And I always look to expand my collection. Recently, I heard that in the forest, somewhere on the border between the Voru'kai and Narakai territories, a powerful beast was seen. And a similar one was already slain not that long ago on Torakai land, near the Greenshore Village."

In that moment, Nicole and Soi's eyes met as they looked at each other. That thing? There is one more?! Nicole's hand absentmindedly went to touch her missing right eye and the patch over it.

"And here I need you. From my information, you, Nicole, together with Soi, were part of the group that hunted it down. Am I right?"

The girl nodded. "Yes. Though most of the job was done by another person."

Fuck, maybe I shouldn't have said that. Could have bargained more with him. Though he probably just wants information about the Chasm Beast.

"Yes. Tiralie, I know about her… Yet she won't be able to help me with this, as far as I am concerned. What matters is that you saw and fought that creature. And since it's the second time it has appeared, we don't know how many more Chasm has stored. If this were the last one, I have to get it." Lord's eyes glistened as he smiled. "Here is the deal—I made a bet with my fellow collectors about who gets that monster first. It doesn't matter how much money they pour into their people, I have you. I believe that experience is much more important than raw power. Bring me that thing dead."

Nicole's eye went wide. "Kill it?! We barely did this last time, thanks to Tiralie! And we lost part of our people as well. I don't think we can do this."

"Are you sure you want to reject my deal without even hearing about the pay? And being on the good side of one of the richest men in the Hive is alone worth a lot." Lord Obsidian's smile grew wider.

"Fine. What do we get?"

"First of all, of course I will fund the expedition. Let's say, ten Claws for the start. Plus forty more if you get the job done."

"Just that? I can get that in a week of working for the Queen." Nicole bluffed.

"Greedy, eh?" The man licked his lips.

"I want to see your collection. Maybe some item will be worth the price?"

Lord frowned at the idea of his precious collection getting smaller. "I don't think that's going to work."

"Can we at least look around? If nothing catches our attention, we can always just get more money."

The man stood up, his chair screeching against the wooden floor. "Just don't expect me to be ready to part with any item. We will see."