Chapter 9 Nora's Tale

After that shameful bath, Matheus called us again for a meeting. He introduced us to the seven bandits. With the sword we gave them, they can equip all the people here with some weapon, thus making us look like real bandits. We still keep two swords, of course.

"Lily, Let's spar! We need to know your true ability before the fight!" Nora said while giving me sheathed sword for the spar.

"Nora… you are much more powerful than me. I mean, you are level 17… I am just level 7."

"Don't worry about it. Judging by level alone, you are the fifth strongest in the group! The first is the boss, then me, then Patrick, then bob, then you. Let us begin!"

Nora runs in a zigzag pattern to us.

"Lily. Watch to your left." I said while projecting a gesture telepathically. We managed to block the sword, but it was a close call. She was swift.

"Wow, I always thought you were something since you managed to obtain goblin's swords. Even I would not be able to easily defeat 2 packs of goblins that use swords, you know."

She then ran back to gain some distance. She came again at another angle. We blocked her again, but I noticed her cat's tail holding a sheathed dagger. I swung myself to stop it. Lily was disoriented and showed her back, but that was the perfect moment for me to attack. Nora blocked all of the attacks with her speed. And even though Lily managed to chain an attack after me, she was still defeated after Nora swept her legs, making her fall down.

"And that's it! She is now the third! She is stronger than Patrick. Right boss?" Nora said.

"I have never seen other beastm… I mean, demihumans fight with their tails. But it seems your tail really brings a lot of advantages in battle. I do think she is stronger than Patrick. She is a bit too strong for level seven. She is almost as strong as you. I am surprised." Matheus nodded. "Welcome to our group."

With that, cheers ran through the small base camp. Lily felt a great joy seeing people's applause directed at her. It is as if a slight sense of pride and honor began to bud in the wasteland of her heart. She has been a slave since birth. She was never complimented in her entire life. This is her first, and she accepts it with inexplicable joy.

As we slept in the women's camp, I noticed Nora step out stealthily outside. I moved my tail outside the tent since I got curious, but Lily noticed my movements and woke up. She asked me what had happened and decided to follow Nora as well.

Nora just stared at the moon while lying on the tree branch.

"Hello. Can't sleep?" she hopped down and greeted us with a smile. Nora seemed more hyper than usual when meeting us.

"Let's talk!" She said while snuggling Lily. "You know, I Always wanted to talk to fellow tailfolk!! I am also curious about a lot of your abilities. You are level 7, but your technical ability is soo high. You must have practiced a lot…."

"You see, I was a slave of an adventurer. The adventurer often abused me by ordering me to be on the frontline. But he died on a mission in the middle of the forest by an ambush. I was desperate to return back to the city. Only to be captured by the gate guards and sold to the slave merchants. Then some nobles bought me as a plaything, but he died when there was a rebellion in his lands. I ran away until I met Matheus." Nora said. She looked sad as she reminisced her story. Is the adventurer her lover? Let's not ask. It would be wrong to disrespect her privacy, even though she seemed so clingy and open.

"I already knew Matheus from the time when John was still my master. He then took me and pretended to be my master. You see, this collar is inactive. It was from my previous master. Adventurer John. I thought he was a bad master. He shouted a lot at me and hurled abusive language… but only after losing him then I realize that he was a lot better than other humans…." She said while molesting… I mean rubbing the choker she had on her palm. Her hand gesture still reminded me of what we had done before.

As a modern person, it is hard for me to sympathize with this John. Just because he is less abusive than the other doesn't mean what he does isn't abusive. But I could see that Lily hugged her tightly. Her feeling of affection for her is through the roof! She even asked me to wrap her with my tail!

"Okay, that's my story! After that, I follow Matheus, and he makes a pact with some landlord. And then we are here! In the corner of the enemy nation!" Nora said while wagging her tail and hugging Lily.

"So, what about yours! From your sword skills, I am sure you were hired as a mercenary and stood in the frontline like me, right? Then the selfish lord deals the killing blow, so your level stays low. Am I right?" She asked Lily as if she had found her lifelong soulmate.

Her tail wiggled as it seemed to wrap around me. It was disgusting! It was like worms crawled up my spine. I need to get out of here. But Lily was smiling as she started to talk about her story.

I know Nora is friendly. And it is also suitable for girls to bond and share skinship like this. Especially Lily. She seemed to bond well with Nora, who shared a similar experience as her.

"Ahh, I just need to give up." I whispered in my mind as I let her tail molest my body. I didn't protest with Lily since she seemed to enjoy talking with Nora. She spoke about Luigi and Silvester. Then about count Albert, then about sword matches. She even talked about me.

"I see. I also named my tail Nana when I was a kid. I play catch with it and sleep together while the tail strokes my neck. It was a good feeling." She smiled. "But you certainly have quite an imagination for it to become a real person to talk to. Is your life in that mansion really that terrible?"

Nora doesn't seem to believe that I actually have a consciousness of my own. I even had a different status than Lily. If I don't have a memory from Earth, I might even wonder whether I actually exist or not.

"I see…" Matheus suddenly came out of the tent. We yelped at his sudden entrance.

"So, sword practice, huh? But you are certainly something if you can block Silvester's sword even if you go unconscious. I heard he accidentally killed a trainee knight using a twig once he got his blessing two years ago."

"Whoa. Accidentally killed? How did you accidentally 'kill' someone? You kept repeating we must not kill no matter what multiple times during our raid, and he can do it as much as he likes, even against humans?" Nora spoke out loud in amazement. Yeah, that's nobles for you.

"That's a blessing. People with blessings are a cut above the rest. Listen, if we happen upon Silvester, run. Leave anything and just run. Well, even if we all run in different directions, I believe he can still chase and kill all of us. "Matheus smirked and left. "Thank you, that's a piece of useful information. So…. red light, huh? I wonder which god gives that light… we can narrow it down a lot. I need to ask someone from over there."

"Boss! You don't need to sneak on us like that!!" Nora hissed in anger

"What can I do about it? You guys were talking so loud that I almost wanted to reprimand you for being noisy!" Matheus shrugged. He then went back into the tent. "Sleep! We have a carriage to rob tomorrow. We need to find more prey before we can pay that damn noble to give us some land!"

We went back into our tent after that. Lily and Nora hold their hands tightly even when asleep. They grew so close in just one night.