Shapeless Hero

37 - Closing The Day II

Thick juices spill out from the freshly cut steak and mingle with the demi-glace on my plate. I pierce one of the meat slices with my fork, before adding a chunk of otherworldly potato to it. Both together, they soon dance a savory waltz to the rythm of my chews.

"Woah, I don't think my cooking's that good.", Kella says, more concerned than delighted. "Are you sure, you don't want any coin for a job well done, cleaver boy?"

"Don't need it. Your cooking's splendid, I swear. I should be the one paying you.", I answer. This is my first proper meal coming to this world. The fact that being a shapeshifter doesn't stifle my enjoyment of Tyllat's food and drink moved me to actual tears.

The guild master scoffs. "Careful with the smooth talk, I might fall for you!" She whips her tail, not hitting Rev for once.

The aforementioned elf makes an earnest effort to sort out the paperwork, while Kella and I hold light conversation. He looks more stressed than usual. The lack of rest must be getting to him. I hope, I can lift his burden starting tomorrow.

My body dissolves the food like a slime, once swallowed, the meal's comfortable warmth spreading throughout me. Only then, do I notice the twelve spots in my chest that feel odd: The sling projectiles, I was shot with.  I let the projectiles shift inside me towards the next best pocket by applying, what I used to move my shifter core. After a few more eaten slices of steak, all twelve bullets make it to an inside pocket of my jacket.

"Ah, I almost forgot.", I start, as if only now remembering. "I think you might want to take a look at those." I get the pieces of ammunition out of my pocket and present them to Kella.

Realization finally shows on her face after two heartbeats. "Rev! Drop what you're doing and get here! And bring your magic-dust-stuff-thingy!", she shouts.

Barely a minute later, Rev joins me at the table with a set of tools, including the chest of magic identification powders. I was shot with ammunition containing divine magic, as it turns out.

"How did you acquire them in such a pristine condition?", Rev asks me, as he holds up one of the twelve pieces, brows furrowed. "Usually, the impact force makes them shatter, right?"

I shrug. "Your guess is as good as mine. I just collected them."

He raises a brow. "...just like that?"

I nod and keep chewing.

Rev massages his nose bridge. The poor guy has to work overtime because of me. I should help him tomorrow as much as I can, once I turned back to my "weird noble lady"-persona. The elf crosses his arms and watches me, as I chew on another fork's worth of Kella's good cooking.

"Why do you think, they used divine-attribute ammunition against you?", he asks, after a brief silence, a bit too attentive for my liking.

I stop eating and return his gaze. "No idea. If anything, they should've kept using their fireball-ammunition or whatever that was."

"So the divine-attribute doesn't trigger on you, but fire would have burned you?"

I swallow the last slice of steak from my plate. "Aye, they tried it with their first shot. It really hurt."

Rev closes his eyes and starts to count down on his fingers as a byproduct of his thoughts. Fearing I might sabotage his important deductions, I stay silent for a while and just watch him count down slowly from three to one finger. He opens his eyes and I receive a soul-piercing stare from him. No words.

"Are you ok?", I try to ask. His skin is paper-white by now.

"E-Excuse me.", he says, then practically escapes towards the storage room of the guild. He shelved away Clint's treasures there. Maybe he needs to check it for further clues? I decide to let Rev do his investigation and thank Kella for the meal.

I tip my tricorn on the way out. The guild master responds with a wave of a hand. Time to leave the guild through the front and return as the noble lady through a window.

#

"Welcome back to the living!", Kella greets the captive, walking towards the table, he's tied to. Her fist slams down right next to the hooded man's ear. He jerks in response to the loud impact on the surface. The smell of charred wood starts spreading.

The captive releases his body tension after a few heartbeats. "So you know that monster?"

"I let monsters like you breath too, Lairi.", Kella responds and pulls back the captive's hood. The frowning face of a light-skinned elf looks back at her. Strains of his red hair attached themselves to his sweaty forehead.

"Please, what makes me a monster?" The expression on his perfect doll face stays neutral.

"How about your 'debt assistance'." She throws one of the sling projectiles with force at Lairi's face.

"You're breaking laws.", he responds, despite his painful expression.

"What laws exactly? The laws of Tyllat are on my side in this case—or have you forgotten, why your scheming had no consequences until now?"

Lairi's eyes widen after a few seconds of consideration. "Wait, he was already...?"

Kella smirks. "...under my employment, exactly. I made the conditions so attractive, he signed the paper immediately. It's you against the guild, buddy."

Turning pale, he whispers through his teeth: "You sent him out during his shift without a uniform on purpose, didn't you?"

"And you asked him to bring his treasures, so he would be forced to step outside of my guild hall, didn't you? Guess we both made a 'mistake' here."

Lairi clicks his tongue.

"Ready to talk, honey?", she asks, unperturbed by his death glare.

"You'll get nothing out of me.", he responds, the determination in his face obvious.

"Don't worry, I won't ask for the noble's name, who craves the lynx-kin oh so much.", she says, then leans closer to his face and continues in a low growl. "I want to know everything about the hunter, who brought your ass back to me. I have a lot of mercy to show, if you start singing."

Lairi's face relaxes a little bit. "How much mercy are we talking about?"

Kella puts a smile on. "How many verses are in your song?"