Chapter 72: Chapter 56 – Sin vs Piety

Edina continued to swap gazes between Kanae and Arenade, unbeknownst to the latter what had transpired while they were out.

"Uhhh. This is awkward," the squirreling said.

"What is it? What's with you two?" Arenade asked.

Kanae ran through a hundred different scenarios on how to bring it up to Arenade. After all, the candidate that she was helping was the same one they were asked to look into and sabotage.

But wait. Wasn't this a good thing? Having Arenade be an insider to track Bishop Rudo's movements and dealings, they might find something out.

"Arenade, you're a genius!" Kanae crushed the flyer, grabbing Arenade's hand in both of his.

"I am? W-Well, of course!" The priest proudly lifted her head. "Took you long enough to notice. Getting on the church's good side—"

"No, what I'm trying to say is, we just came back from teaming up with Renya to help Mallory Clayton, the other candidate for mayor of Lograin. With you pretending to be in Rudo's services, that makes it easier for us to investigate him!" he explained.

As those words left his mouth, Arenade's demeanor clouded over with a shadow. Her smile of hope from renewed faith vanished instantly. The hand which extended to them a flyer snapped back to her side.

Arenade, however, faced Kanae with conviction.

"You're joking, right? You guys understand that there's no way in three hells some schmuck running casinos can't possibly run a city. Bishop Rudo wants to bring everyone, sinners and all, back to the embrace of the Supreme One. He wants to help people! You know this city's crawling with the poor and homeless. There are people worse off than in Orturic!"

"I'm sure Mallory can help Lograin, too. But Renya is sure that there's something shady going on with Bishop Rudo," Kanae said.

Arenade snapped away from his grip, hurt and betrayal written all over her face. When Kanae saw that, it was like getting struck by lightning.

"Who do we have here, Sister Arenade? Friends of yours who are perhaps also devotees of the Supreme One, eager to wake up to a better Lograin?"

Walking up from behind Arenade was Bishop Rudo. The light-skinned elf had slicked-back blonde hair draped down his shoulders. He was dressed in white robes with golden trim, embroidered with a single eye on his chest. The crooked smile on his face was deliberate and not warm like Bishop Rudolff from the Church of Many.

Receiving no answer from Arenade, the bishop turned to them and bowed slightly.

"Ho, brave adventurers! I hope I can count on your vote in the coming weeks. Together, we shall remove the cysts from our beautiful city and pave over them with a grand cathedral befitting the Supreme One. I can hear the church bells already, the murmur of parishioners filling the pews—"

"Sorry, that's probably my stomach! I haven't eaten all week," Will said as he rubbed his empty stomach.

Bishop Rudo grimaced, pulling out a handkerchief to put up to his nose. "I think we have campaigned here long enough. It is time to move on. There are others who seek the Supreme One's guidance, and we must be there to lend our hand. Come brothers and sisters, let us be off!"

The entourage of priests who were handing out flyers followed him out, and Arenade headed out of the hall with him. Kanae chased after her, and she stopped at the door to face him.

"Don't try to stop me, Kanae. It's obvious that we're too different to stick together. Setting my sights on defeating Charron might have been too ambitious. If I'm stuck in this world, fine. At least I can try to do some good this time around," Arenade said.

"But what about us? What about our party?" Kanae asked, taking a step closer to her. He heard the footsteps of Edina and Will coming up from behind him, both anxious to hear her answer.

"I…" Arenade clutched the side of her arm and glanced down at the floor. "Maybe it's about time I leave. You found your paladin boyfriend again, so there's your holy power. Don't worry, your secret will stay safe with me."

As Arenade turned to leave, Kanae was suddenly very afraid that he might never see her again. That if she walked out that door, the Arenade he knew wouldn't be the same ever again.

Kanae snatched her hand.

"Wait! I don't want you to go after all. If you don't stay… I'll…"

"Do what you have to do. It's in your nature, right?"  Arenade gave him that chance, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Without so much as a goodbye or a look his way, she broke away from him a second time and finally exited the adventurer's hall.

A second later, she was replaced by another adventurer entering the hall. The man looked Kanae awkwardly up and down, then shuffled to the side to get past him.

"You didn't want to charm her?" Edina asked, ears drooping from seeing Arenade leave.

"I feel like I'd only make things worse if I did…"

"Maybe this isn't the best time to ask, but… can I have something to eat?" Will asked.

Kanae and Edina sighed at the replacement.

With the evening winding down, Kanae lost both of his appetites. Arenade's absence left a hole in his and Edina's hearts. It didn't help that in her place, they had a debt-ridden, sex-addicted, low-level paladin in the group, who was currently scarfing down his first hot meal in weeks.

"Thank you two so much… I probably would have been beaten up to death if you hadn't come when you did," Will said after finishing his third plate of food.

"Alright, bozo. We got the gist of what happened to you, but how'd a pally with everything going for him screw up bad enough to lose all his equipment and gold?" Edina asked.

Will stole a glance Kanae's way, then shame welled up and so he stared down at the empty plate instead.

"I was actually doing fine for the first month here… doing quests, making gold, spending that gold at brothels. I ran down my coffer savings and started living from quest bounty to quest bounty. Things took a turn when I partied with a group to slay giant slimes. We were having trouble, but luckily a second party saw us struggling and dropped in to help. However… they asked for an unreasonable compensation: the entire reward bounty from the quest. They were much higher level than us, so we couldn't refuse. After we turned in the quest, we were asked to meet them elsewhere in town. That was a mistake, because they mugged us for our gold."

"What?!" Kanae and Edina cried.

"You reported to the adventurer's hall, right?" Kanae shot to his feet and slammed his hands on the table.

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"I did… but the thieves' names and sigils never came up in the hall's registrar. Sellica was kind and patient with me, going as far as contacting the city guards for help. Unfortunately, they came to the conclusion that those thugs must be rogue adventurers. There was nothing the city nor the hall could do about it other than to warn about future incidents," he explained.

"Are rogue adventurers common?" Kanae asked.

"Yep." Edina nodded. "Most people with sigils are incentivized to register with the adventurer's hall. But that doesn't change that there's people out there born with a sigil and want nothing to do with it. So they go off to do their own thing. Then there are assholes out there like the ones that robbed poor Will."

The paladin continued. "Things would have been fine, but I got desperate. Seeing my former party members in destitution made me want to help them. I pawned off my armor to pay for some of our expenses. I only need my sword after all. However, they soon left me, too. Then I pawned my sword, and I fell into debt while unable to complete any quests… which led me to my pathetic state."

"Wait a damn second— don't gloss over the most important part. How'd you get into debt? With who?" the squirreling pressed him.

By Will's squirming, this was a touchy and sore subject. Clearly ashamed of himself, he sighed and relented to confess to them of his sin.

"I met someone on the streets who was willing to front me gold as a loan. All I needed to do was keep track of who comes in and out of this casino… some color harpy?" Will scratched his head, searching his memory.

Kanae and Edina traded knowing glances.

"The Red Harpy," Kanae said.

"That's it! I must not be a very good spy because a couple of harpy bouncers realized what I was doing and sent me running. By that time, I'd already spent the gold, so those guys you saw earlier have been hounding me for weeks."

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Edina whispered.

"Yeah…They were probably looking for someone important, like Renya or Mallory," Kanae quietly said.

Damn it. If Kanae had known sooner, he would have questioned those thugs. They were probably long gone now.

Well, there was nothing they could do now. 

"Come on. There's an armorer down the east wing," Kanae said, urging the others up.

"What are we going down there for?" Will asked.

"If you're sticking with us for a while, then you're going to need some gear. The last thing I want is for you to look like a bum that's following us around. I had enough of that when starting out with Arenade…"

After paying the bill, they headed to the east wing of the adventurer's hall. It was like a narrow street bazaar with stores lining the length of the strip. They weren't stores one could walk into, but small shops only large enough for merchants to display their goods or craftsmen conducting their crafts. 

"What can I do fer ya?" the armorer asked as they walked up to his shop. He leaned forward with his thick arms on the counter, then wrinkled his nose at Will.

"We're trying to fit this guy." Edina thumbed at Will. "Don't worry, there's a half-decent paladin under all that filth and pathetic exterior."

Will moped off to the side from Edina's insult.

They paid a few hundred gold for a full suit scaled leather brigandine. The tunic extended all the way down to Will's knees, and was also fitted with light gambeson underneath. Thankfully, the armorer also had a cheap shortsword and iron buckler that was sold to him earlier in the day, so they purchased it at a slightly higher price. Wearing it all, Will was able to regain some semblance of a respectable adventurer.

Since Will was going to be joining them for the time being, Kanae and Edina welcomed him to their room. The warm bath was the last straw for him. He broke out into tears, apologizing for his pathetic state and promising to do better. Eventually, he wore himself out thanking them and fell asleep in his bedroom.

Kanae retired to his room and couldn't stop thinking about Arenade. With the dark around him, it was like back home all over again. Alone, with nothing but his own thoughts. He missed Arenade. He missed her touch, the warmth of her body, and the companionship that came with just… being with her. If this was really the end between them…

His door suddenly creaked open and Edina poked her head in.

"E-Edina?"

"I can hear you sniffling from the other room," Edina said, stepping in and shutting the door behind her.

"I-I didn't realize." Kanae brushed a hand to his eyes and realized he had been tearing up.

To his surprise, the squirreling crawled into bed next to him.

"Wouldn't admit it to that priest's face, but I'm sad she's gone, too. We can honestly find better party members, but she knows when to come in clutch." Edina smirked.

"Yeah…" Kanae sighed, then became incredibly conscious of having Edina in his bed. "A-Are you… going to stay in here?"

"Hehe. I know you've been holding back with me for some time now, and I gotta say… I'm kinda jealous whenever you and Arenade hook up. You need to get your rocks off, don't you?" she asked.

Only now did Kanae notice, as his eyes adjusted to the dark, Edina was stark naked. The bedsheet was all that outlined her bare body. His heart started beating faster as his eyes traveled down the squirreling's petite form. Her breasts might be small, modest mounds, but her nipples were hard and enticingly perky.

"Are you sure?" Kanae asked, scooting close enough to Edina to feel her warmth and moist breath. He saw that she was slightly red in the face, lips quivering, but not out of fear or hesitation. It was excitement.

"We're down an Arenade and gotta make up for a low level paladin. I saw how much stronger Arenade got with your Bond skill. To be honest… I want to see how strong my summons get with Bond, too. If I gotta get fucked by a succubus, I say it's better than being forced to by Bardell's crew," Edina said.

Kanae was beginning to lose his common sense, drawn in by Edina's lesser seen sultry side. Of course, she had her own fair of sexual encounters before.

As he swallowed hard and leaned in to try and taste the squirreling's lips, she placed a finger between them. Edina sat up and pushed Kanae onto his back, then climbed up to straddle his waist on top of him. The bedsheet fell away from her body, revealing a body more slender and smaller than his own, with the fluffy tail curled up behind her. Even more inviting was the pink slit between her legs, glistening wet under the dim glow cast in by the moonlight.

"I remember you telling us that you got a dick this morning. Come on, succubus. Show me whatcha got." Edina grinned.

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