Chapter 367

I once again stood on the drawbridge of the Goldenhearth castle. I have a lot of history with this place, almost as much history as I have with the Ruby Vixen. I adjusted the jacket of my new suit, a piece of formal wear that should be suitable for meeting the baroness of the city. While I had met her in less suitable attire before, this time would be more official than those times, so it required more appropriate clothing.

Next to me were Bella, the twins, and Oceane, all dressed up next to me. Like me, Oceane and Torien wore suits while Bella and Morrigan both wore dresses. Though was a bit generous when it came to Oceane. Being a Lamia, it was more like a long jacket than an actual suit. Bella and Morrigan both preferred more feminine dresses, so they went with those for the meeting.

I considered for a moment why I had gravitated toward a more masculine suit when it had been something I was to wear in my past life, but something about it felt right. I had shied away from more feminine clothing during my time in this world. I think some of it was the unconscious familiarity I had with masculine clothes in my past life. I was eager to experiment with my wardrobe more, now that I felt comfortable exploring my feminine side, but right now didn’t feel like the time for that. I was here to negotiate on behalf of Traehall, and masculine or not, this suit gave me some confidence that I would need in these negotiations. We didn’t really know what to expect in this upcoming meeting, but we spent a lot of time preparing for it.

“Are you okay, Lilith?” Morrigan asked.

With a smile, I looked away from the cufflinks I had been messing with. They reminded me of my past life, though these ones looked nothing like the ones my sister had given me. I chose to wear those when I died. A part of me wondered what happened to them. Were they destroyed, or were they given to my sister, pulled from my body after the fact?

“I’ll be okay,” I reassured her. “Just some distracting memories coming up again.”

Morrigan gave me a sympathetic look and patted me on the arm. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Now’s not really the time,” I said with a sigh.

Four guards crossed the bridge where we had been told to wait. Two elves and two humans. None of them looked familiar, despite having fought with most of the city guards here in the past. I had a feeling the composition of the guards coming to meet us meant something. A clear indicator of how trusted the elves were in the city.

“We have confirmed your appointment with the Baroness and her advisors. Please follow us,” one of the humans said.

We began to cross the bridge with the four of them surrounding us. If I hadn’t been told to expect this treatment, I might have been suspicious of their positioning. Once inside the castle, we were pulled to the side and asked to leave any rings or jewelry, and we were checked for any weapons. We knew ahead of time that this would be necessary, so we had left everything that could be construed as a weapon at the Ruby Vixen. What they didn’t know was that two of us were still functional mages and were far from disarmed even without any of our gear.

Once that was taken care of, we were led down the familiar halls of the castle. After my first impression of this place, when it was crawling with demons and on the verge of turning into a dungeon, I never felt comfortable here. I was wary of all the shadows, and couldn’t look at any of the servants walking around in the eye. I’m just glad they chose to change the uniforms for them. I’ll never forget the zombies we had killed in the servants’ quarters.

We were led up to the third floor, not too far from where we had fought the ‘boss’ of the dungeon before it had fully formed in the former Baron’s office. It seems they’ve rearranged some of the rooms and all of the decorations to make it less reminiscent of the castle before it was flooded with demons by the cult of Amphores. The room we followed them to was only a few rooms from where that battle had taken place.

One of the elven guards stepped up to the door and knocked on it sharply. “Come in,” came a voice I immediately recognized.

The guards took positions around the door while the elf who had knocked opened it and held it open for the five of us. I led the way with the others following behind, and was a little shocked by the group of people I saw inside behind the large meeting table.

The first person to stand out was Tarklin Silvergrove. I hadn’t expected him to be here. Though, in retrospect, it made some amount of sense since he had been the one to take Fae back to the Northern Greens. He gave me a wink at what must have been a shocked look on my face. I haven’t seen him since we parted ways in Goldenhearth.

Sera Faelyn Morrister, or ‘Fae’ as she once asked us to call her, was instantly recognizable. She has grown a lot since I last saw her. She had gotten a lot taller and was starting to blossom into a pretty woman. She was still underage by my standards, but by world’s standards, she was capable of being a Baroness, though not without some complaints here and there. However, either because of her advisors or her own acumen, the city was doing well under her leadership since she’s been back.

Nathaniel stood next to her, the only person other than her I had actually expected to be there. The former priest gave me a kind smile and nodded at me. He was looking a bit less stressed than the last time I saw him. He seems to have taken well to his position as Sera’s advisor. Though if Tarklin was their contact with the elves, that might make things a little bit easier on me.

To my surprise, I also recognized the other elf in the room. Neali Tangleleaf. She smiled and waved to Bella, who waved back. The two of them had become friends during our stay at the elven embassy in the capital. She had helped Bella out with her nature magic while she was there. I’m pretty sure she was the only one here who was a mage from my quick scan of the room.

Another notable person in the room was Matilda, the deerkin who had been coerced into opening the gate for the demon cultists. She wore a maid uniform and stood in the corner with her arms folded in front of her, waiting for an order. She was clearly acting as a servant and not as someone we would be interacting with. An obvious steel collar was around her neck, marking her as a crime slave. We had decided that Sera should decide her fate rather than us at the time, and it appears that she decided to keep her as a crime slave rather than execute her. It wasn’t really my business, but the woman stood out to me. She looked a lot like Bella, but with a darker coat of fur. She seemed a lot healthier than the last time I had seen her. She was no longer gaunt after being starved when she was abandoned in the castle by the cultists.

There was another human that I didn’t know, but I recognized him by his appearance. Markus Tolin, the new captain of the guard after Jasper died. He looked muscular, clearly some kind of warrior, but was on the older side with grey hair and a grey beard. The man was handsome, giving him a bit of a silver fox look, but it was a gruff kind of handsome rather than the refined kind. He nodded to me in greeting, his eyes trailing over everyone entering behind me with the kind of wariness you would expect from an experienced guard.

Sera smiled at me warmly. “Lilith, it’s good to see you again. I didn’t expect our next meeting to be one like this. It seems you’ve come a long way from the random adventurers I met back then. It was quite the surprise when I heard that you were visiting me, not looking for work or something similar, but because you were representing Traehall.” She scanned our group curiously. “Ah, I wanted to ask if Silva is still with you…”

I returned her smile. “It’s good to see you too. Silva is… ah, working with a friend of mine… I actually haven’t seen her for a few months, but she was also doing well based on the last letter I received from her not long ago.”

“It’s good to hear that she still belongs to you. I would have been sad if you sold her off, as I had. Despite her crimes, she’s a good person. I wish I had been able to see that when she still belonged to me,” Sera said.

I had to suppress my frown, not feeling comfortable with the way she was talking about owning people. Crime slaves were a grey area that I decided to overlook when compared to slavery as a whole, but it still turned my stomach. Silva had been a crime slave, , so I probably shouldn’t reveal that Silva has been running around free since she killed the king. I would never put another collar around her neck, but I probably shouldn’t advertise that fact.

“I agree, but unfortunately, she wasn’t able to follow me to the city. She’s working on something important right now anyway,” I replied evenly.

Sera dipped her head in understanding. “Now…” Sera’s gaze flicked to Oceane for a moment before returning to meet my gaze. “I’m a little interested in why you wanted to call a meeting with me my advisors. If you had just come to visit, I would be happy to chat away about how all of you have been since we last met, but since you are here representing Traehall, we should get to business. I curious how you happen to know Madame Oceane, though. I was surprised to hear that she was the one who reached out to set up this meeting on your behalf.”

I smiled. “Oceane is my good friend. Like a sister to me, though I only met her shortly after you.”

Sera hummed. “I’ll just assume you know her through her mercenary business and not because of her trade. Even if that’s wrong, I’d rather not know the details… How does she fit in with Traehall’s business?”

Oceane slithered forward and answered in my place. “As Lilith Baphomet said, I am her good friend. I also have a sister branch of my mercenary company in Traehall, so her proposal would affect me directly as well. I am just here to make things go as smoothly as possible for both parties.”

The baroness crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. “I still don’t really trust you, . I don’t know how you managed to win over Nathaniel, but I won’t be so easily swayed. You’ve been helpful with security around Goldenhearth, and for that I’m grateful, but coming out of nowhere and building an army of is so strange that I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen the proof of it myself. To hear that you’re friends with Lilith just puts me on edge, because it makes me worry whether or not you have some kind of hold over her.”

Oceane let out a genuine laugh. “Sorry… to suggest that the one with a hold on is rather amusing. The truth is the exact opposite. I owe everything to Lilith, personally and professionally. Setting up a meeting like this for her is the I can do. I’m not here to take advantage of the situation. Though the foreknowledge of any deals made here benefit me, I’m merely here to help my good friend.”

“Sure you are,” Sera said flatly. She turned to me. “So, what is here to propose? I wish I could divert more exports in that direction, but the civil war has strained our supply lines. Is there something specific your city desperately needs?”

“There’s something that my city wants from , not just from Goldenhearth, but before we talk about that… we should talk about what we would be offering first.”

I held out my hand and summoned a light magic construct in my palm, paired with an auditory illusion to help really sell what we were offering. My false bird let out a whistle and flapped its wings as Sera’s half of the room looked at it in undisguised shock. This wasn’t a simple low-power spell I was showing off, it was an advanced compound spell, cast without much effort. Something most people would find difficult to cast the aid of the system, to prove that what we were offering is significant.

“We’ve relearned how to cast magic, and Morrigan here is willing to teach your soldiers to cast spells again, ” I said with a grin.

Saine

Hello! We’re finally leading into the politics section of the book! These guys have lots of convincing to do, but it’s undeniable that showing off their magic is a very impressive display! For anyone who doesn’t remember, Sera Faelyn Morrister, the current baroness of Goldenhearth, is the girl that Silva was protecting when the group first ran into her. When they reached Goldenhearth, Tarklin Silvergrove took her to be protected by the elves. I know it was a long time ago for some readers, so I wanted to point that out just in case there’s any confusion. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, thanks for reading!

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