Oh I’ve really gone and done it now.

“So what’s it like traveling?”

Should have minded my own fucking business.

“In what sense? You mean the actual traveling itself or the seeing new places aspect?”

But no, I just had to shove myself into something that had nothing to do with me!

“Both, I guess. It’s not that I’ve never traveled myself. I’ve been to E-Rathel many times and even went to Kami Miyako once. But from the sounds of it, you’re very far from home.”

I wanted a break from being dragged into the Plot.

“Um..I know the first place, but where’s Kamei Myaku?”

Cute girls will be the death of me!

“Kami Miyako,” Arche corrected me. “It’s the capital of the Slane Theocracy; the nation to the south-west.”

It's been a couple of hours since I ran into Arche and I think we’ve been hitting it off quite well.

The three of us, because it’s easy to forget that Mya is following me due to how quiet she is, just walked aimlessly. No real destination. Just talking.

The blonde was a bit apprehensive at first. A little guarded, even a bit round-about with her words. But slowly, bit by bit, my easy going and gregarious nature brought her out of her shell. She actually started to talk about her family in detail rather than the impartial ‘I have a family’ and say nothing more on the issue.

In hindsight, the whole apprehensive bit might have been from being put off by my motor mouth like talking. Felt like I was doing enough talking for five people. But could anyone blame me? She’s basically the first person I’ve been about to talk to in years without having to walk around eggshells. No worry about saying the wrong thing. No “Lord Ainz” this or that. No inhuman monstrosities that think of humans as less than insects. It’s a liberating feeling.

Pretty sure Arche was a little overwhelmed by my endless string of commentary and questions.

I managed to keep my story straight. Lilly the traveling foreign mage arrived by boat along the Dragon Kingdom, then after nearly getting attacked by bandits, I followed the road to Arwintar. I was just a tourist, seeing the sights of a foreign land and saw her altercation with the money lender. The rest was history.

At least, that was the story I was sticking with for now.

“They're super pro-human people right?” I ‘asked’. I knew the Theocracy was that place where early players were worshipped as Gods. They even have some items left over from them; hence the incident in the near future where they will try to mind control Shalltear.

Arche nodded, “that is their most well known trait, yes. According to their priests, The Six Great Gods gave mankind the divine mandate to govern the world. Over time the meaning behind it has swung back and forth as the Theocracy leadership debates and scrutinizes their words to the tiniest detail. This means the Theocracy’s policy swings between mankind governing the various races of the world, with all non-humans being subordinate to humans, and humanity alone being worthy of existing in the world.”

“That’s a little dark,” I mumbled. Pretty sure one or more of those “Gods'' were not human. Thinking about it, assuming that the priests took down everything correctly and did not just make stuff up that made sense to them, even if the Players back then weren't human they’d probably still identify with the human populations of this world.

It’s kind of funny in that dark humor sort of way that the human supremacists might be worshiping non-humans and using their words, or what they think their words were, to justify racism against non-humans.

“True,” Arche agreed. “No matter how civilized a non-human is, they will always be seen as beneath even the lowliest of humans.”

We walked quietly for a minute or so after that. The conversation took a bit of a heavy tone.

“Thank you,” Arche suddenly said. ”Again, thank you for.. for everything. I don’t know how I’ll pay you back but-”

Oh geez not this again.

She’s brought up this point of ‘paying me back’ three times already! No matter how many times I tell her she doesn't own me anything, she just keeps bringing it up.

I held my hand up to stop her, “and I told you that you don’t owe me anything. I helped you because I could. That’s the end of it.”

“It just doesn't feel right for me to-”

“Arche,” both my hands landed on her shoulders. My eyes look into her blue orbs. “You don’t owe me anything. I-”

I stopped short as I felt the tingling sensation of a message scroll connecting to me.

“My parents may have issues with paying off their debts, but I do not,” Arche explained, taking my pause as permission to continue. “What you did was...was something most people wouldn't think to do. It may have even saved my sister's lives. So I can’t, in good conscience, let you walk away without some form of compensation. Remember how I told you I’m a worker? Well-”

Yet as Arche had started talking, another voice overlapped her.

“My Lady,” Eva’s voice rang through my skull overlapping Arche’s words. “I wished to inform you that I contacted Nazarick and a collection of workers teleported moments ago onto the grounds. They’re currently performing their initial assessment of the building. They claim that by-”

“Wait,” I said.

“Yes My Lady?”

“Is something wrong Lilly?”

Both Arche and Eva’s questions overlapped with each other. Holy shit this was weird.

Fuck. I still don’t know how to converse with a message scroll in my head. So I need to find a way to just walk off for a moment to take this ‘call’.

I look around the street we’re on for something to- there! Out of the corner of my eye I saw a nicer looking shop selling artwork. It was at the end of the street we were on. Through the clean windows I saw busts, statues, props, and paintings. Looked relatively empty.

That’ll do.

“Sorry, but can you wait for a second,” I hurriedly said to both pointing to the store. “I just want to check on something really quick.”

“Of course, My Lady,” Eva immediately replied.

Arche looked over to the store I was pointing to. “Oh. That’s not a problem. I’ll just wait here.” She pointed to a shady spot in front of the store. “Take your time.”

“Thank you” I thanked Arche as I quickly crossed the distance into the store.

Just as I hoped, it was pretty empty; just some old guy with a clerk inspecting a painting towards the back.

“Sorry about that Eva, I was talking with someone else and your voices were overlapping. I had to get somewhere more secluded,” I apologized to the homunculi. I leaned forward to ‘inspect’ a random piece of art. A statue of something; no idea what it was. My gloved hand was strategically placed over my mouth to muffle my voice to any potential onlookers but still be heard clearly through the message scroll.

“Do not worry, My Lady. It is I who should apologize for being so abrupt.”

“What were you saying about the house? I got that the Tomb’s workers arrived,” I asked.

“Yes,” Eva began. “They teleported in a few minutes ago and began their initial inspections of the grounds. They have noted that the structures, while substandard in both material and integrity, are equivalent to surrounding structures.”

‘Anything compared to the Tomb is probably substandard,’ I mused. ‘It's made of magic and processes this world could only dream of.’

“Furthermore,” Eva continued. “There are several outstanding issues that need to be addressed. Fith gave me a sizeable list of solutions pending your approval.”

“Sorry, Fith?” Who was that? Did she mean fifth?

“My apologies, Fith is the maid assigned to oversee the renovations,” she clarified. I could hear a short snort of dismissal from the other end of the connection as she muttered something to herself, “...we get what we need, not what we want…”

“Excuse me?” I asked.

“Sorry My Lady, just talking to myself. I had assumed that we were going to receive...skilled laborers not...what we received.”

I don’t like those pauses. Don’t need to be there to feel the sense of bad blood radiating off Mya.

“Is there a problem?” I asked.

“None my lady,” she explained. “Despite appearances, they are quite skilled at doing what their told if nothing else.”

Yeah, really bad blood.

“Alright then, let's hear what has to happen, from the top,” I went to the next art piece to continue the illusion that I was actually looking at the art.

Mya cleared her throat, the amount of air she took in one breath causing me to be filled with dread at the length of the ‘list’.

“Her list begins with a note about the color scheme and cleanliness of the estate. Or lack thereof…”

---
---

Arche tapped her foot as the minutes ticked by. She has seen Lilly walk around the gallery of paintings no less than three times by now from the window. Always with the same pensive stare; looking at each piece in deep thought. Like she was examining each and every little detail of the artwork.

The artwork was beautiful, Arche had no doubt of that. But the finer details were lost on her.

‘Maybe she’s comparing it to works from her own homeland?’ Arche mused. ‘Her parents might have instilled a greater appreciation for the arts than mine did. Then again, I doubt they care about the art beyond following a new art trend their friends were raving about.’

Arche will admit, in the short time she knew Lilly, she’s grown on her. At first, she thought she’d just entertain this traveling noble for a little while then head off to the Sleeping Apple to meet up with everyone.

But Arche quickly realized there was a bit more to her than meets the eye.

It turned out that Lilly was simply a sheltered girl rather than the noble ditz that Arche originally pegged her for. While Lilly might not have said it outright, there was no mistaking the sheer display of wealth she had on her simply screamed nobility. Very wealthy nobility. The kind the Furt family used to be.

Though Arche certainly never owned anything as expensive as what she wore right now. Actually, forget about the blade at her hip, or the clothes she wore, or the quiet maid that followed her around, her hat was probably worth more than everything that Arche was wearing at the moment.

When Arche asked Lilly why she involved herself in the whole Eight Fingers thing, she didn't know what to expect. Maybe an admission that it was ‘only’ one hundred and thirty gold coins. Some amount of money could feed an entire village for a year, yet she gave it up as if it was nothing. To Arche it seemed like some noble just doing something on a lark.

But then, what she said shook Arche more than it should have.

“Because you were in need and I was able to help”.

It took Arche for a loop.

After a little introspective on the words, and the girl’s constant talking, she realized she had misjudged the girl. Lilly wasn’t some pompous noble with no knowledge of money. She was a sheltered and naïve girl. Good natured and sharp, but hopelessly naïve. How else can you explain giving away so much money to someone you just saw on the street?.

Lilly wasn't stupid. Just naïve.

‘Seems like I’ve been using that word a lot to describe Lilly. Naïve.’ Arche thought as she quickly glanced over to the maid, Mya. Unlike her, the maid seemed to be content just standing there and observing Lilly from outside.

Who has now made her fourth round across the gallery; her eyes seemingly glazing over a bit at the portraits by now.

Regardless of her enjoyment of Lilly’s company, she didn’t really know what to think of her ‘savoir’.

Lilly had helped her, that much was undeniable.

A month ago, Arche had initially thought that her parent’s debt was twenty gold pieces when interest was taken into account. That was the number she came to at least thanks to the aid of several of the house’s servants who she asked to keep tabs on her parent’s spending. Twenty coins was manageable. Costly, but manageable.

After taking a handful of high valued contracts, and her teammates giving her a larger share of the earnings after hearing her plight, she had managed to accrue the necessary amount.

So imagine her horror when the Eight Fingers banker told her that the amount was now one hundred and thirty gold coins.

Arche’s math had not been off. When she last checked a week ago, before leaving Arwintar for an ogre hunting mission, the debt was eighty coins. In the time since she left, her parents had accrued another hundred and ten gold coins in debt. All for a damn chandelier and fucking goblets!

Her plan was to stall the Eight Finger’s collection as long as possible; to try and find some way to scrounge up the remaining gold by the end of the day. Arche didn't have much left of value to sell, at least that was both easy to move and could be sold in a matter of hours. Some old dresses or things left over from her time at the Academy perhaps?

If worse came to worse, she’d ask for a loan from the lender to help pay off her parent’s loan. Yes, she’d be placing herself in debt to the Eight Fingers, and their horrific interest rates, but she’d rather put herself in debt than risk what her parents might do to pay off the debt themselves.

After the Emperor stripped them of their titles, her parents had sold off what they could to facilitate the irresponsible spending habits. Arche was of the opinion that it was that very same proclivity for wasteful spending that caused the Emperor to revoke their privileges in the first place.

Her parents, either not wishing to face reality or were too pig-headed to accept reality, continued their wasteful spending habits; as if they thought that continuing on was spiting the Emperor to show they would never be cowed.

After her family’s accounts were drained, due to the usual taxes and rents from their lands no longer offering their spending, they started to sell ‘unnecessary’ things that admit defeat. First to go were the vacation homes in Feasumar; all three of them. When that wasn't enough, the slaves were sold. When that wasn't enough, they sold the contracts of the resident indentured servants. And after that, they cut the mansion’s staff by half to keep costs ‘down’.

At the rate they were going, it seemed like the family home itself was going to be sold to keep their spending habits unchanged.

So imagine Arche’s shock when she came back from school one day to find most of the staff rehired and a handful of slaves repurchased.

When her parents waved off that everything would be better now, she knew they had done something horrible. At first she thought they hired teams of workers to extort the taxes they were so used to collecting from their former lands; panicking as she imagined what the imperial knights would do to all of them, she and her sisters included, when they found out.

In hindsight, maybe it would have been better for them to have hired those worker teams. At least then her parents would have faced the headsmen when the knights discovered and put a stop to them, thereby losing any hold over Arche and her sisters in a handful of chops. It would have left the three of them destitute and on the streets, but at least they’d be free.

Sadly what her parents did was far worse than mere extortion. They had begun taking loans from Eight Finger’s money lenders.

And when you got indebted to them, it was remarkably hard to get out of their shadow.

Should a debtor be incapable of paying back the ridiculous interest rates the criminal group charged, they would simply take things from their clients until the value was ‘made up’. Entirely at the discretion of each money lender of course.

The most profitable items seized in these foreclosures were slaves; normally family members of the debtors in question.

Even before Arche’s short time as a worker, she knew all too well how much pretty girls went for at the Eight Finger’s brothels.

Especially the cute and young girls…..

Arche was under no illusion of how the Eight Fingers would allow her parents to ‘even out’ their balance.

But the Eight Fingers Lender was right, her parents are fools. Stupid, irresponsible fools, who will either die in a gutter or with collars around their necks. The two of them will spend and spend until they are so indebted that even being enslaved will not clear it up. They had long made their decision to reject reality and live in the fantasy that they’re still nobility.

She didn't clear off their debts for their sake. It’s always been for her little sisters; Ureirika and Kuuderika. The whole reason Arche dropped out of the academy at fifteen was to earn enough money to build a life for the three of them away from their parents self destructive behavior.

But it isn't as simple as taking them out of the family home to a home she owned. The twins needed clothes, food, an education, supervision when Arche was out earning money until they were old enough to look after themselves. In short, they needed a stable home life; and she could not provide that when most of her earnings from jobs went to paying off her parents' ludicrous debt to keep them from thinking that any potential Eight Fingers offer was tempting.

So for the time being, it was safer for them to remain at home, as distasteful as it might be.

As yet another couple of minutes ticked by, Arche grew bored. Bored enough to test a hunch she had. A random thought that had occurred to her half an hour ago that almost seemed too random to be true.

‘Well, nothing better to do,’ Arche shrugged her shoulders.

Activating her talent, [All Seeing-Eyes], she turned her gaze to the maid; and was surprised with what she saw.

‘What do you know,’ Arche mused to herself while noting a telltale magical aura of the maid. ‘A magic caster. Going by the aura, I’d say she’s capable of first tier magic.’

Most people believe that [All Seeing-Eyes] tells the user the tier of magic a person is capable of. That is incorrect. It only tells the user how much magic power something has. Normally, larger magical power does correlate to a higher tier caster, but not always. Arche remembers one of her professors at the Academy cast tier three spells yet had her eyes told her that his magical power was more akin to a tier two caster. Sure he was out of mana after a single tier three spell, but that's besides the point.

For all Arche knows, the girl was actually a tier two caster with the mana of a tier one magic caster.

Course, a bigger question arose for Arche: was the girl was a caster before becoming a maid, or was she a maid trained in magic.

On one hand, it was a little odd for a magic caster to be a maid. The first tier was the most accessible of tiers, and if one had the money to facilitate it, it would not be unreasonable to train someone in the very basics of tier magic. But even at the first tier, the time and training required would be a bit counter productive for most house staff. What was the point in training a maid to be a mage when you can just hire a mage?

Of course, maybe that’s the point. Who would ever expect a maid to cast spells? Would be a nasty surprise for any would-be bandit or highwayman who thinks they’ve found an easy target. And it wasn't like it could be unthinkable for a magic caster to work as a maid to pay off their tuition or educational fees. Arche knew from overhearing her classmates lament at the fees the Imperial Magic Academy demanded for tuition.

Seeing this, Arche wondered what tier Lilly was capable of. The girl was a self professed mage after all. Sure, it could just be an act, and she has her maid perform the spells Lilly says she ‘casts’. But Arche found that unlikely. Lilly seemed a bit too open to lie about something like that.

So that left the question, what was she capable of?

She might just be capable of first tier magic, just like her maid, but Arche doubted that. Going by her attire and background, Arche was willing to bet that Lilly was at least capable of second tier magic. Maybe she was even third tier magic like she was.

Arche doubted it. Sure she was older than Arche by maybe a year or two, but-

“Sorry for keeping you waiting,” Arche heard Lilly call out.

The foreigner walked out of the store. Finally. A sheepish smile on her face.

“Sorry about that,” Lilly repeated. “I got lost in thought. Felt like I was having this whole conversation with myself.”

‘Speaking of which,’ Arche’s curiosity reared its head. ‘Just a quick look won’t hurt.’

“It’s fine, you weren't in there that-” Arche stopped short as she felt her eyes burn. She hissed in a mixture of pain and discomfort. Her eyelids slammed shut, she cut her talent off, and she reflexively covered her eyes with a gloved hand.

“Arche! Hey, are you okay?” Arche felt a hand on her shoulder.

“I’m fine, Lilly,” Arche tried to assuage the foreign girl’s concern. Slowly opening her eyes again, she blinked a handful of times as she adjusted to the light. Arche met Lilly’s worried gaze, still feeling slight irritation in her eyes. “Just got something in my eyes. I’m, fine now.”

“You sure? Do you need anything?” Lilly offered. “I have a few potions that could help you if you’re-”

“No. Thank you, but no. I’m fine. Really.” Arche thanked Lilly for the offer.

The girl didn't seem convinced, but dropped the subject.

“Right then,” Lilly while still a tad suspicious changed the topic. ”So, quick question.”

“Yes?” Arche kept blinking to get her eyes back to normal.

“You see, the thing is,” Lilly looked for the right words. “I recently bought a home here and it turns out that I need to wait a few days for it to be ready to move into.”

‘You just bought a house?’ Arche questioned the girl to herself.

“So I was wondering if you knew of any Inn or hotel that I could stay at for a couple of nights.”

Arche had to bite her tongue when the urge to invite her to the Frut estate popped into her head. She had little doubt that her parents would welcome the traveling noble girl with open arms. But they would no doubt either waste money in some vain attempt to show off their ‘wealth’ to her, or they would beg her to give them money to waste.

No. Arche had a better place in mind.

“Actually, I do know a place,” Arche told the girl. One last blink of her eyes and her normal sight returned to her. “It's a small place, a little out of the way, but I can vouch that it's comfortable enough.”

The girl smiled at that, “excellent. Lead the way.”

With a nod, Arche took the leading position and led her to the Sleeping Apple.

However, as they walked on the calm street and had another pleasant conversation, another thought ate away in the back of her mind.

‘What the hell was that?’ Arche swore to herself. When she looked at Lilly with her talent it felt like seeing sunlight for the first time after being stuck in darkness for hours. Her eyes had dilated at the intense light and strained to look upon it. Even now, her eyes still had a slight burning sensation that made her tear up a little.

It actually reminded Arche of Master Fluder.

In her first year at the Academy, Arche had seen Fluder and his apprentices walking across the Academy grounds. She had been tracking her own magical growth by looking at herself with her talent in the mirror and she was curious how she compared to the legendary mage himself. A very stupid idea on her part, because when she looked at them with her talent, her eyes burned so much that she felt tears flowing out.

Arche learned very quickly that she cannot simply look at Master Fluder directly. She had to prepare herself. Look to his feet or keep him in the periphery of her vision for a minute or so before looking directly at him. She had to let her eyes get accustomed to the bright ‘aura’ she saw. It would still strain her eyes even after that to look at him, but it was nowhere near as bad as simply using her ability without preparing herself.

But he was a man with centuries of knowledge and experience; it was expected that his magical power would be massive and dizzying to behold.

But a girl roughly her own age?

Something was not quite right.

----
----

“I told you to keep it coming barkeep! The good stuff!”

“I’m not letting you drink yourself to death Imina. Especially not in my inn.”

“Drink myself to death! How? This is only the tenth one you've given me! Now pour!”

“Stop banging that- Hey! Can one of you help me with her!”

Hekkeran sighed as the scene unfolded in front of him. He liked to think of himself as a brave man. You could pay him to do just about anything: clear out a den of manticores, go on ogre hunts, chase down black dust dealers, tangle with the Six Arms themselves, even fight in the annual war if the Emperor decided to use workers as a stopgap measure to fill in the gapes for his own regular forces.

Saying all that, Hekkeran would sooner charge a night lich on his own then get between Imina and her booze. When she really got into the swing of her drinking, it was a coin flip to see if she was going to be a happy drunk or an irritated one. If she was a happy drunk, she could be safely carried up to their bedroom for her to sleep off her drunkenness. Get a soft pillow under her head, and she’ll be out in a matter of minutes.

But when she’s an irritated drunk...

The half elf hurriedly slammed her empty tankard onto the counter over and over again. Red faced from her drink, the girl had given up on talking and seemed to communicate solely through the knocks of her tankard at the countertop. Her frown grew, as did the speed of her hammering, as the barkeep ignored her request.

His eyes twitched with each impact, knowing full well he was the one who was going to foot the repair bill for the dents in the countertop.

When she was on a job, Imina was everything a team could ask for. Dutiful. Hardworking. Honest. Efficient. Cooperative. She also knew how to keep comments to herself in the presence of their clients; a trait many workers fail to grasp. Her skill with the bow was equal to any mithral ranked adventurer. Hekkeran would never have anyone else covering Foresight at range.

However, after a hard job, Imina tends to want to unwind from the rigors of combat. For her, that means drinking copious amounts of alcohol. And she can drink a lot of it. She has, on more than one occasion, drank him under the table. True, she usually hits the ground a few minutes later of her own accord, but the fact that someone with her body type can outdrink people larger than her is still impressive.

It might just be as impressive as the bill he knows the barkeep is going to give him for damages if she keeps hammering away at the counter.

Before he could get up to calm her down, Roberdyck was already on the move.

“Imina be reasonable,” the cleric tried to console her, laying his hand on her back. “Don’t you think you’ve had enough for now? How about we get you some water if you're still thirsty?”

“Roberdyck! Please! You have to help me,” the woman leaned close to the cleric to ‘whisper’ to him. “The barkeep isn't letting me have anymore booze. Can you order some tankards for yourself and give them to me? I’ll pay you back.”

“How about you take a little break from drinking for now?” Roberdyck looked sheepishly at the bartender. He tried to gently pull Imina’s empty tankard away, but despite her drunkenness (or because of it) she held firm. “Too much of anything is bad for you. Maybe later you can have some more to drink.”

“No Roberdyck, you don’t understand. He won't let me have anything.” She tried to slam her tankard down again, but thanks to the cleric’s grip it didn't come down. “You don’t have to drink it! I’ll have it all-”

The front door opened and illuminated the room with the orange glow of the setting sun cutting the little exchange in front of him short.

Hekkeran watched as Arche walked in with two other girls following her; a blonde in a white dress, blue cape and hat, followed by a brown haired girl in a maid dress. Arche left to pay off her parent’s debt, but came back with a noble and her maid.

‘New job so soon?’ Hekkeran thought. He knew Arche was eager to work to help pay off those ungrateful parasites she called parents, but they needed at least a day’s rest after a long week.

“Mr. Bartholomew,” Arche called out to the barkeep then gestured to the blonde.

The man raised an eyebrow and walked over to the pair; taking note of the girl’s wealth.

“You need a room for the night Ma'am?”

“Two nights actually,” the noble girl gestured for her maid to come to her. “What’s the cost of your most expensive room?”

“Best room is fifty silvers per night,” he told her. “Free breakfast and dinner included. Any extra food or drink is half off.

“Mya, give the man a gold; since I shall be staying here two nights,” she informed her maid.

Dutifully, the girl opened up a coin purse and placed a single coin in the man’s hand.

The innkeep didn’t immediately take it though. He scrutinized it for a moment, holding it up to his eyes. Unsatisfied, he bit into the coin. Whatever he found must have shocked him, since his eyes went wide as he looked at the coin again before looking at the girl before him.

“Is there a problem?” the noble girl asked.

“No,” he said a little too quickly. “None Ma’am, here,” he rushed behind the counter and dropped a key into her outstretched hand. “Just follow the stairs up to the top, only room on the floor.”

“Thank you,” the girl smiled and gave the key to her maid. “Now I don’t mean to impose myself so quickly, but I am interested in that dinner you mentioned. A good cut of meat if you have it.”

“Y-Yes Ma’am. I’ll tell the girls in the kitchen to get it ready for you,” Bartholomew rushed to the kitchen.

As the girl sighed, Hekkeran finally approached the trio. “So, are you going to introduce your new friends to us, Arche?”

“Oh,” Arche finally noticed him. “Sorry Hekkeran”, she gestured to the noble girl, “this is Lilly,” then to the maid. “And that is Mya.”

“Greetings,” Lilly greeted him, gloved hand extended. “Lilly, traveling mage extraordinaire.”

“Pleasure,” Hekkeran shook it. “As Arche said, I’m Hekkeran Termite; leader of team Foresight.”

Lilly blinked, recognition clear in her eyes.

“The worker team,” she asked.

“Seems our reputation precedes us,” he gave her a good natured chuckle. “Yeah, we’re the one and only team Foresight.” He looked to the still arguing pair. “Big guy over there is Roberdyck, while the sad drunk is Imina.”

“That's a very effeminate name for a man,” the maid commented.

‘Wait effeminate,’ Hekkeran looked at the pair, then back to the maid to track where her eyes were looking. ‘Please tell me she’s thinking exactly what I think she is.’

“Hey! Roberdyck isn't effeminate,” Imina challenged the maid and 'defended' her friend, red faced and still buzzing with liquid courage.

“I was referring to your name Mr. Imina,” the maid clarified even as Lilly tried to quiet her down with sharp whispers to stop. “Then again, I am not well versed in elven names. It may be a perfectly normal male name.”

With her androgynous form and lack of curves, it was easy to dismiss Imina as a male from a distance. With elven men already holding a reputation for being overly effeminate in appearance, it was inevitable that Imina would be the subject of such a ‘mistake’; no matter how much Imina claimed that her femininity was obvious.

In short: the maid had made the very same mistake Hekkeran had made when he first met Imina.

The reaction was immediate.

“Excuse me,” Imina called out, rising from her stupor pushing poor Roberdyck to the side. “Fucking what!?”

Hekkeran couldn’t keep a straight face anymore. Maybe it was his own drinks finally affecting him. Maybe he was just an immature man child, but that maid’s dead serious tone just set him off.

He laughed, clutching his belly and putting his hand on the bar counter to keep balance. Arche covered her mouth, to hide her shock or amusement was unclear. Roberdyck was busy holding the drunk half elf from charging across the room to strangle the maid.

The young noble girl looked embarrassed on behalf of her socially inept maid. She sang Imina’s praises in an attempt to calm the drunk girl. It worked to an extent, since when Roberdyck released Imina the she-elf didn't immediately charge Mya. She still sent the mousy looking maid a half lidden angry scowl, but no violence actually happened.

The girl in question was still not sure what the ‘issue’ was.

That only made Hekkeran laugh harder.

But one thing Hekkeran knew for sure, from the glare Imina sent him, was that he was not going to be sleeping in their bed tonight.