"I was thinking," Vespera said. "You said only married people in your old life shared their last name?"
"When they wanted to, yeah," I replied.
"I wonder if it's the same here."
Elyra giggled. "Heh, makes me wonder if maybe this means that we are married?"
She was still drunk on the earlier activities, sprawled on the bed, which we had just cleaned with magic. It did cost some mana to clean both it and us, but it wasn't like we were going to use our whole mana pools to do anything else today other than just a single activation of [Matter Reclamation].
"Does it matter?" I asked idly.
"It does!" she quipped.
"Does it?"
She looked at me. "It does, Sol."
I pretended to think about it. "Does it really?"
She pouted. "You are bullying me. It is no fair."
"Very fair," Vespera chimed in. "It's high time you get bullied too!"
"What about—"
"Nu-huh," the demon interrupted her. "Naughty activities don't count."
"Oh…" she said, trailing off before her face brightened again. "Still, I would love to be married to you two…"
Vespera laughed, scoffing. "Wow. Are you the same angel I spent an eternity in prison with?"
Elyra shrugged. "Are you the same demon? You haven't snapped at Sol in hours!"
"That's different," she snapped. "Anyway… you are not wrong. Our bond does feel special."
"More special than marriage?" she asked, eyes shining with little stars. "I can live with that. Yes. It is deeper than simple marriage. Our very lives are entwined."
"Well," Vespera began, a twinkle in her eyes. "I still feel like there's something missing here."
I perked up. "Oh?"
"What would that be?" Elyra asked.
Red eyes looked at me. "I want a nickname."
I chuckled. "Do you now?"
"Yes! Elyra has little angel and cat. Angel-cat!"
"You can be a little demon and a cat too," I offered.
She shook her head. "Denied. First off, who are you calling little?"
Elyra rolled her eyes. "Again with this?"
"Yes!" the demon said, turning towards her. Squaring up, she made a show of measuring her height against the angel's. "See? One whole extra centimeter. I'm not little!!"
"Alright," I said placatingly. "Not little, but why not cat? Demon-cat?"
"Cause she a cat already," she stated.
I was having more fun that I thought being intentionally obtuse. I knew they could feel it. "But…" I said, drawing out the words. "We established that you also are a cat."
Amusement trickled through the bond from Elyra, and Vespera glared at her and then me. "Don't care. Demon-cat is cheap! Think about a better one."
"Nothing comes to mind," I said. "Why don't you propose one?"
Her glare intensified. "Nope. You do it. And it better be good."
◈◈◈
After fooling around in bed some more, we went down into the guild proper to pay some of our debts. Even though I only paid back two silvers—the daily interest plus a little extra to repay the actual debt—Bib was surprised that we had scrounged up that much money that quickly. His reaction told me that I had done the right thing paying off only a portion of the debt, and Ted's words echoed in my mind. Always be paranoid.
In a way, it really was like being back to the old hauler times. The crucial difference, I was coming to learn, was that there was no alone time in the hauler to decompress. It also meant, of course, was that I was not forced to spend days and months alone anymore.
I had to pretend while outside in public, but even keeping outward appearances was easier than being actually alone when the empathic bond reminded me at all times that the girls were right there with me.
I could feel their warm presence and support as I navigated the city with them trailing just behind me, until I finally found what I was looking for.
A restaurant. Specifically, one that advertised its privacy booths where one could eat without being out in the open. I figured they'd have these sorts of things in Perseverance's End, and I was right. It cost an exorbitant amount to even just get in and eat the basic menu—two silver—but the booths came with soundproofing enchantments that to me more than made up for their price.
What could have been a depressing meal in solitude, forced to stare at the girls but unable to laugh and talk, instead turned out to be a very pleasant experience.
Was it a waste of money? Probably. I could feel that the girls were worried as we made our way back to the construction site. The ten silver we were going to make, if not more, could sound like a lot but it really wasn't. We took a look at the price of cores and gear around here and… well…
Advancing through levels without having to sacrifice most of the gains was a very expensive endeavor. I still thought that going to the restaurant was worth it, though. I wanted to enjoy this new life, and I wanted for my little angel and (don't call her little) demon to do so too. I wasn't going to sacrifice these little moments just to save some coin.
This didn't mean that we were going to splurge. Elyra wasn't going to let us.
Finally, we arrived at the construction site for the second trasmutation of the day. Ted was, like he said, alone and waiting for us. He wasted no time in pleasantries, directing us to where massive piles of stuff had been prepared by the other guild workers and staring at us impatiently, hands on his hips.
"Well, are you going to do it? I want to see what changed with the level-up, lad."
Shrugging, I approached the closest pile and began to activate the skill. It felt completely normal, with no indication that the level-up had changed anything, so I went ahead and let the process unfold. As the light brightened, I felt Vespera take a step forward and grab my hand, no doubt trying to get a feeling for the mana flowing out of me and into the skill through the bond we shared.
I didn't see the look of concentration on her face, nor did I notice the moment it turned from concentration to actual effort. I was too focused on the bright light before me which, after becoming a blinding white like it always did, had veered off into rainbow. Another hand joined Vespera's—my little cat-angel.
Then I felt the tug on mana that wasn't mine. The sudden flood took my by surprise, and I wasn't able to do anything but watch. The light grew, enveloping all the piles that had been prepared for us, and then popped. The sudden darkness left afterimages in our eyes. I blinked a few times, feeling the wetness of tears that made me wonder just how bad the girls must have had it, with lower body stats.
My musings were cut short, however, by Ted's voice.
"By all the rivers of lava in the beneath, pig iron and fool's gold!" the dwarf exclaimed.
I could finally see what had him all worked up. The skill had taken all of our mana, not just mine. Vespera was scratching the back of her head, looking anywhere except at the dwarf, a sheepish expression on her face. Elyra was glaring daggers at her, wings flared out wide and halo glowing with menacing magic despite her empty mana pool.
"Whoops," the demon said under our collective glare. Only Ted wasn't looking at her, too busy fussing over the materials.
"Troublemaker," Elyra muttered. "Did you really have to experiment now of all times?"
The demon made some rather funny faces, trying to think some bullshit to say. "Well, at least our mana pool wasn't completely full."
Right, we had used some mana to clean the beds and ourselves. What she said still did nothing to mollify our little enraged angel, who only glared at her harder. I found her very cute, but intelligently chose not to say anything and walked over to where Ted was still going over all the transmuted stuff. I could see that it was not only a lot of stuff, but it looked to be even higher quality than before.
"Lad," he rumbled. "You always find a way to stand out, don't ya?"
"For once—" I began, but he stopped me.
"I don't want to hear your stupid excuse. Let me just…" he grimaced. "I can't be mad at ya after seeing this."
I grinned. I had him.
"But, I can't pay you for all this stuff and I can't place it all on the market at the same time either! What a mess. I'm going to need to move it to a rented warehouse and store it for a while, slowly distributing it around or using it…"
He trailed off, mumbling to himself. After a while, he made his decision and stared down at me. How he managed while being a third my height I didn't know, but it worked.
"I'm not giving you 50% rate for this stuff. You need to learn not to make a mess every single damn time, lad. I'm paying you 15 silver now, then 30 a day for a week as I slowly deal with all this stuff. Take it or leave it."
I laughed, knowing that he wasn't ripping me off too hard. I looked at the girls, finding Vespera's smile a bit too predatory. He wasn't ripping us off, right? No, actually, she was not thinking of ripping him off, was she?
"18 silver," she said coolly. "Take it or leave it."
Ted quirked an eyebrow at the demon. "You know, normally they wouldn't let a slave—"
She was ready for it. "But this is not a normal situation, is it?"
He met her grin with a stare. "17, no more haggling."
We shook. First he shook hands with Vespera, looking at her with begrudging respect. He talked big, but I noticed that he had no qualms shaking hands with a supposed slave. My opinion of him went up. Then he shook hands with me, but before our hands unclasped he pulled me down with surprising strength.
"And, of course lad," he whispered conspiratorially. "You are going to be the one moving all this stuff to my warehouse, right? You can't ask a sack of old bones like me to do grunt work, can you?"
I laughed, knowing that he had me. With a nod, I began hauling the huge beams of compressed wood towards the cart he had prepared, and together we set off to go to his warehouse. He chatted with Elyra and Vespera while I pulled, summoning a dome of silence around them. Unfortunately, it did not extend to me, and I was left out.
I'm sure it wasn't intentional. Like, a hundred percent sure it was just an accident. A happy little accident. Through the bond, I could feel the amusement of the girls at seeing my face. I let them have their win. Of course, I knew exactly how to get my revenge. On Vespera, at least. I had just the right nickname for her.