Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

The moment the party walked into the nameless inn, they were greeted by a surprisingly normal interior–much closer to that of the Boartooth, the place appeared and even felt quite comfortable. A counter for drinks, a hall with wooden tables and chairs, and a lone set of stairs leading up with a closer look at a dusty chandelier halfway to the upper floor.

"Very very welcome to you all," bowing in greeting as soon as the party entered, the owner of the place–a human female not even tall enough to reach their knees, welcomed them in. As she raised her head and glanced around with a faint smile, that expression and warmth were quickly whisked away when her eyes landed on Mercedes. "And…you too, I suppose."

'What's that about?' Raven wondered but decided to keep the questions sheathed.

Glancing quickly over to the merchant, he noticed her rolling her eyes as if annoyed before folding her hands tight and just glaring back at the owner. Staring back for a bit while everyone else stood in awkward silence, the old lady shook her head and left the matter with a sigh.

"Do what you want, I'll go make dinner for our guests…" Turning her attention back to the group's supposed leader, the woman put on a smile and introduced herself. "You can call me Baba, let me know if you need anything. I'll have a meal prepared while you settle into your rooms."

With those words, she turned around to head into the kitchen that was just behind the dusty bar–however, leaning on her walking stick, every step Baba took was at least five seconds long. Seeing that, Moxy hissed through clenched teeth–feeling bad about the woman, but instead of simply standing there, she decided to step forward and help the woman.

"Let me help, I work at an inn with my father so I'm sure I can find something to do!" She said, walking up beside the old lady and even offering her a hand so she could walk faster.

Slowly looking up, Baba squinted her tired eyes to get a better look at the fox-girl yet her vision remained as blurred as ever.

"I can't pay you to work you know," However, wearing a smile Moxy denied that it was her intention to get past at all. "Well if you're willing to work for free, I won't stop you then. Come follow me to the kitchen, we have a lot of mouths to feed." Stay updated through empire

As the two began walking to the kitchen, Choux rushed after the only other fox girl of the group, and feeling like a burden so did the spirit of the dead girl. Erika was somewhat reluctant to let her go, but before she could say anything everyone else had already started heading to the upper floor.

Following behind them, the priestess simply hoped that the spirit would behave and that Moxy could figure out what was happening if she did try to help. Either way, it was time to move on and rest a little.

Upon getting up, the group was greeted yet again by something quite peculiar. A room with red carpet and curtains sticking out of a closed door. Moving closer, Mercedes, opened the place–revealing to the rest the temporary shop that she had established inside the inn.

Walking inside the first thing Raven noticed was a lack of bed and the many suits of armor scattered around the room, each held a different weapon and the ground was covered with long patterned clothes with more weapons lying neatly on top. Looking around some more, he was reminded of the maze with the translucent veils hanging from the ceiling, yet the sight of bookshelves behind them was more akin to Linkle's shop than anything.

Books, potions, weapons that looked slightly used, and everything packed inside that room to the point the very air smelled of iron, base, parchment, and ink.

"You never said you were an arms trader, did you?" Trying to remember if she ever mentioned it, Raven looked at Mercedes's back and she slowly kept walking towards a desk close to an only window.

"Hmm? Well that's true, but you never asked either, did you?" Looking back from over her shoulder, she let out a chuckle before moving around the desk and settling in a chair. Glancing around at everyone with a smile on her face, she leaned forward on the desk and said with a cackle. "The heroes of this land might come down to hunt you, and when that time comes, I want you to know that I'll be open for business."

'So that's why she's helping us? She expects a fight?' Hands folded and his eyes glaring into the merchant's chocolate gaze, Raven didn't know what to feel about the woman as she was indeed helping yet her methods seemed exploitative. It was almost as if he was looking into his past and at Linkle when they first met, exploitative and greedy–it almost made him wonder if she too had made a deal with the devil.

"For now, you're free to stay as long as you want I won't charge you any money, but remember who to come for at the first sign of trouble," with a keen smirk across her lips, Mercedes gestured the party to the door and to her command the visors on the suits of armors lifted with deep crimson eyes burning behind them.

The guards didn't attempt anything aggressive yet it did alert the natural defensive instincts of the party. However, being guided by them to the door and even shown around to their rooms–which were much more normal than the merchant's - their caution subsided not too long after the suits began moving.

Leaving everyone alone once they were inside their room, the suits returned to their master with a curious giggle of fairies coming from within. Ignoring that for the moment, Raven sat down at the edge of his bed pondering exactly what their next move would be.

Only a day had passed for them but a week or so had breezed through for the rest of the world. Athenia had made it so and while she was quite happy with the results, the other gods weren't going to just let her do whatever she wished anymore. That included an assault on her chosen by their own chosen heroes. Some of whom would soon arrive once the news of Raven and his party getting to their city's shore falls into their ears.

'I suppose the question is if we should go up that mountain and confront them ourselves first or stay here and wait for them to bring the fight to us?' Ideally at this point, Raven would've preferred not to fight, but for that, he needed information that simply couldn't be gathered by staying down in the caverns.

But that is when he was reminded of someone–someone who could gather that intel for him without his party having to move an inch.

'Monty, I should pay him a visit. Not to mention Tanya, Tia, and Robin, I should meet with them too–' A sudden knock on the door pulled Raven out of his thoughts, and looking at the door slowly opening and the elves and the priestess, as well as Maria and Regalia, pouring in, he was left further confused by their arrival.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"We need to talk," said Mel, and the others agreed with a nod.

And whatever it was that they wanted to talk about, had to wait until their clothes came off.