It was a bit of a slow morning once the sun finally came up again, with both Ava and I sleeping in a little longer than usual. It wasn’t by much, all things considered, but it was enough to make everything feel just a little out of place.
Ava was the first to actually get up out of bed and was already dressed before I had finished my morning greetings with Ovia, while still being wrapped up tightly in the covers. Despite that, she waited patiently for me to finish up before throwing some clothes my way. I got changed quickly after that… well, saying it was quick might not have been entirely accurate, but it definitely felt quick in the moment.
Once I was both fully dressed and fully awake, Ava plopped herself down on her bed opposite me.
“So, what are the plans for today?” She asked casually as she stretched her wings as much as she could inside our room.
“I… don’t know…” I admitted, stretching my tail slightly in response to watching Ava.
It just felt like I had already done the one thing I was really wanting to do by buying that outfit for Ovia. Even though I really wanted to go again, it was too soon to just go the very next day. The store probably wouldn’t have even cycled its inventory yet, so all I’d see would be the same things as yesterday that didn’t grab my eye.
“Hmm…” She looked up at the ceiling for a moment before slowly lowering her head again, “I did joke a little about our coin being stretched a little thin yesterday… but it’s true that even with Cattleya paying for her own room, we will eventually need to do something about it. Mom gave us quite a bit to start off with, and that escort did have reasonable pay, but if all we ever do is spend, it’ll run out eventually.”
“Mm,” I hummed in response, not really sure what would be the right thing to say in the moment.
“It might be an idea to take some time to look around for something today, even if it’s small. It’d be good to get even a little coin in before we’ve completely run dry, y’know? It wouldn’t do us any good to only start looking once we’ve been kicked out of the inn.”
“… Okay,” I eventually replied, not able to rebut anything she said.
Honestly, money had hardly crossed my mind during our time here. I knew that Umbra had some hidden in my shadow, just in case it was needed, and Ava also carried around a pouch for our general use. But I never actually had any on me at any time, so it must have just escaped me.
“Off the top of my head… We could try to get some work at one of the stores around here… though that might be an issue for you. I doubt they’d be happy having someone working with customers while hiding their face. Doesn’t look the best,” She said as she stood up and dusted herself off, “We could try the adventurers guild like Mom always did, though since we don’t really have a name and aren’t registered as adventurers, we’d probably either get next to no pay, or be left with whatever dangerous work no one has taken up… Neither really sounds ideal, right?”
“I-”
“Oh, we could also go to Elenia,” Ava interrupted me before I could say anything, “Since she owns such a large merchant guild, there must be some menial work she has around that we could with. And, to be a little blunt, of anyone here, she’d understand your situation the best… It would also do good for us to thank her for yester-” seaʀᴄh thё NovelZone.fun website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
At that moment, Ava stopped, as if her own words had just reminded her of something.
“We… should probably check on Cattleya, shouldn’t we?” She asked, “I’m sure she’s fine and all, but well… I want to make sure…”
“… That’s probably a good idea,” I admitted as I thought back to what Cattleya looked like when we ran into her yesterday.
“Yeah… I also think it’s probably for the best. We can just go knock on her door before we head down, and if she doesn’t answer, then I’ll just go down and ask for a spare key.”
We didn’t waste any more time after that, putting on our cloaks and heading out into the hallway before promptly giving a firm knock on the door opposite our own and… there was no response at all, not even a barely audible murmur. Immediately, Ava told me to stand and wait in front of the door just in case she opened it while Ava went down to ask Daleia for a spare key.
However, she came back up surprisingly quickly, especially considering what she went to ask for… but knowing a little about Daleia, it made some sense. Ava pushed the key into the lock and turned it, opening the door slowly. In doing so, she was standing in front of me, almost completely blocking my view, but once I did have a clear line of sight, what I saw was… Cattleya passed out, face-first on the bed.
“…” Both Ava and I just looked on in silence.
There was virtually no noise aside from Cattleya’s breathing, and even that was muffled by her pillow.
“I guess she really was sleeping rough before today,” Ava whispered to me, “Can you ask Umbra to bring out what I bought yesterday for me? I’ll go… try to wake her up.”
I didn’t really need to do anything, however, as Umbra immediately poked their head out with a large bag already in their jaws. It was actually a bit of a surprising sight to behold. Umbra still looked to be the size of a baby, yet they were effortlessly carrying this large bag out of my shadow as if it were the most normal thing in the world to do.
I took the bag from Umbra and gave them the cursory chin scratches they deserved as Ava cautiously approached the sleeping Cattleya, sitting down on the side of her bed.
She started off by gently shaking Cattleya’s shoulder, but there was no reaction from her. She then moved up a level and lifted the covers off of her, but again, there was no reaction.
She must have been more tired than I expected.
Though… I guess it makes sense.
Ava even tried blowing into Cattleya’s ear, which, speaking from my own experience, is normally quite the surefire option, but all it did was get Cattleya to wriggle away slightly. It quickly got to a point where I had to hold in my laughter… though even if I let it out, I doubt it would have woken her up.
“Kierra… why don’t you head downstairs and get us a table for breakfast?” Ava asked, speaking unusually slowly, “I’m sure the two of us will be down very shortly.”
“Alright,” I said while still stifling a laugh before pushing the bag Ava had asked for further into the room and slipping away to head downstairs.
Fortunately, as we had slept in a little, almost every table downstairs was available, with only a few occupied by at most two people. There was some conversation going on, but it was nothing more than small talk, though I must admit, it got on my nerves just how well I could hear them as I sat down at a free table in silence.
As soon as Daleia noticed me, she came over to greet me, asking about Ava and Cattleya briefly before asking if she should put together breakfast for three or just for one. Assuming that Ava would be able to wake Cattleya up soon, I asked her to put together all three plates.
Yet after that, I waited, and waited. The food came out and was set down on the table, yet still I waited for them to come down, left staring at the food laid in front of me.
…
…
The food was going to get cold if I left it much longer… so I decided to just eat by myself, if only so that Daleia’s cooking didn’t go to waste. But right as my fork touched one of the sausages on my plate, Ava and a very dishevelled Cattleya stumbled their way down the stairs.
Ava looked just like she did when I last saw her, but Cattleya looked very different. She came down wearing a horribly oversized shirt, which was clumsily tucked into this equally large baggy brown skirt, the only saving grace being that it wasn’t long enough to get under her feet and trip her up.
Ava guided Cattleya over to the table, sitting her down in front of one of the plates before taking a seat herself. Both of them looked exhausted, even though the day had barely started.
“Look, I’m sorry it’s not the best fit,” Ava said, clearly continuing a conversation from before they came down, “I just went out of my way and grabbed something for you to wear so you didn’t stand out so much when you’re with us.”
Oh, so she was buying clothes for Cattleya yesterday? Not herself?
“… But this is not even close to my size,” Cattleya responded, though her eyes were transfixed on the food in front of her.
“Look, I just had to guess. And it’s much better that it’s too big rather than too small,” With that, Ava took her first bite of the food.
“I… guess that is true,” Cattleya said, spearing a sausage on her fork before bringing it up to her mouth.
I did the same, silently eating through my breakfast while being left to wonder just what Ava had to do to finally get Cattleya to wake up.
From then on, breakfast was actually rather uneventful; all those who were eating when I first came down each took their turn to leave, and along with them, whatever little noise there was also disappeared. In other words, it didn’t take long before we had all eaten our fill.
“Kierra, I think I’m going to take Cattleya with us today,” Ava said as she set her plate down.
“Why?” Both Cattleya and I asked in unison.
“Just take one look at her. I really don’t want to leave her roaming around the place, so it’d be easier just to take her with us.”
“… Mhm,” Once again, I couldn’t come up with a good argument against what Ava was saying.
Cattleya tried to speak up, “But what about-?”
“Good. Now that that’s been decided on,” Ava stood up, giving a cloak to Cattleya, “Let’s get going. Who knows how busy Elenia will be once we eventually get there.”
“Elenia?…” Despite Cattleya’s earlier brief protest, she quickly put on the cloak and followed behind Ava before I had even gotten up myself.
…
Just what did Ava do?
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