Chapter 140

--- 23rd Day, Evening ---

As we were getting close to Ortas, the city visible in the distance, I realized that Azura and Marcy had been left behind, playing along the road.

“We need to wait for them,” I said, stopping our group.

“I’m in a hurry,” Cassia replied. “Thanks for exploring today. See you tomorrow,” she added before heading off.

Wondering why she was so stressed about meeting her own parents, I shifted my gaze from her to the wolf and the lioness jumping around each other. I watched them, amused, for a moment, but it didn’t take long before Marcy started running toward us. She circled me once before stopping in front of me, lifting her eyes to my face.

I felt an urge to pet her, which was strange, not only because it was Marcy, but also because she wasn’t a domestic cat, but a full-grown lioness. Restraining myself, I pulled out her clothes, wondering if that was what she had been waiting for.

After she nodded, I dropped them and turned around, giving her privacy to shift back into her human form. Even though we still had a bit of road ahead of us, Azura shifted back as well.

“Done,” Marcellina said, and when I turned around, she was already dressed, picking up her bow from Zoe.

“You did it on purpose,” I said. “You want to talk without Cassia around.”

“You don’t trust me anymore,” Marcy stated.

“Did I trust you before?” I asked.

“Kind of,” she replied with a soft smile. “But because of my babbling, you’re worried now.”

“You’ve given me some doubts,” I said.

“You know that stressing so much only shows you have something to hide,” she said with a smile.

“And you want to find out what it is?” I asked.

“I’m curious,” she snorted. “But with how much you’re stressing, you’re either paranoid or hiding something big.”

“Even if I were, could you let it be and never try to learn it?” I asked.

“Are you sure I don’t already know?” she asked with a giggle.

I stared at her, wondering if she was joking or if she really knew, and if so, what she thought she knew.

“I just don’t want to get kicked out of this team,” she added. “I really like it.”

“I’m not planning to kick you out.”

“Great. Then we both don’t have anything to worry about. I promise that even if I learn your big secret, I’ll never tell anyone.”

Staring into her light brown eyes, I didn’t detect any lie. And while I wouldn’t tell her everything, I was willing to believe her, for now.

“Okay,” I said.

“Great,” she repeated. “Thanks.”

I wasn’t sure if that settled everything, but she just headed toward Ortas, so we followed, soon passing through the gate into the city.

“Say hi to foxy for me,” Marcellina added as she headed off in a different direction than the rest of us.

“Sure,” I replied, leading the others toward our house.

“Master, I think you can trust her,” Zoe said, walking beside me and holding my hand.

“Why?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she shrugged. “Just a feeling.”

Azura hummed, drawing my attention to her.

“Do you think we can trust her too?” I asked.

Walking on my other side, holding my other hand, Azura hummed in confirmation.

“Is this some shapeshifter thing?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“And did you feel the same about Tori?”

Azura immediately hummed in denial. “She didn’t shift to play with me.”

Marcy turning into her animal form to play with Azura didn’t seem like a strong reason to trust her, but then again, their animal instincts were involved, and maybe Azura could sense something I couldn’t.

For now, Marcy was going to stay on the team, but as Mari had warned me, sooner or later she would realize that something was off about me, and likely figure out that I had mana.

Which meant I needed to find out if I could trust her. Sage’s Truth Seeking Stone came to mind, but I wasn’t sure how effective it would really be.

If I had asked Tori whether she had worked for someone before we reached Ortas, she could have denied it, and it would have been the truth, since she only started working for Sage later.

Even if I could trust Marcy now, who knew what she might do with that knowledge later?

Maybe I should get to know her better, and test her with the stone, if she’d be willing to answer a few questions. She wanted to be part of this team, so there was a chance she would agree.

Then again, I’d need to borrow the stone from Sage, and I wasn’t sure she’d be willing to lend it.

When we reached the house, we only had enough time to change clothes and eat a meal before Sage arrived, walking straight into the dining room where Zoe was still sitting in my lap. Azura had already left to spend time with her family.

“How did it go yesterday?” I asked.

“Boring,” she replied, tossing a pouch onto the table. It clinked with coins. “Let’s do another round of training before we meet with Whitney.”

“Give me five minutes,” I said, picking up the pouch and letting Zoe slide off my lap.

“A quickie before training?” Sage asked, with a smirk.

“I last longer than five minutes,” I replied, passing by her. In my room, I counted forty ryns in the pouch - not a fortune, but still a decent amount for something that wasn’t particularly hard. Just time spent talking with Whitney.

Amber was in the room, making notes again - this time looking through an old book for new potion recipes. While she was busy with work, I still stole a long kiss from her.

When I came back downstairs, Sage was waiting in the corridor.

“It wasn’t even five minutes,” she said with a grin.

I rolled my eyes, not answering her, before we left the house and the city again.

I waited until we were far enough from any other people, before I asked, “Sage, could I borrow the Truth Seeking Stone?”

“Sure,” she replied immediately, surprising me. “But in return, I want to ask Zoe a few questions.”

“What kind of questions?” I asked.

“Can succubi drain mana or life **** from women?”

Zoe looked at me questioningly. Seeing no reason to not answer that, I nodded.

“No,” Zoe said, looking at Sage.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“One hundred percent? It’s completely impossible? Not even the oldest, strongest succubi can do it?”

“We can only drain it from men,” Zoe said. “If they could do it from women, they would’ve gotten rid of men in Liraveth a long time ago.”

“How long can a succubus survive without draining a man?” Sage asked.

Zoe glanced at me again, and when I didn’t protest, she answered, “For me, around three days before I’m empty. I don’t know if… normal succubi are the same.”

“And vampires? How long can they go without blood?”

“Longer,” Zoe replied. “Much longer. They don’t immediately die like we do. They get weaker and sicker, and it takes longer before they die.”

“When a succubus is low on mana, do they become more aroused and ****?” Sage asked. “Willing to sleep with any man?”

“Yeah,” Zoe murmured, a faint blush appearing on her cheeks. I was sure she was remembering the first day we met - when she struggled not to throw herself at me, afraid she might kill me.

“If you were low on mana, and Tobias wasn’t around, would you sleep with another man?” Sage asked.

“No!” Zoe answered firmly.

“So succubi can control themselves,” Sage said.

“I can,” Zoe replied. “But I’m different.”

“Special?” Sage asked.

“You could say that.”

“So a succubus low on mana would do anything to sleep with a man?” Sage continued.

“Otherwise they’ll die,” Zoe replied.

“Right, but let’s say I want something from a succubus,” Sage said. “What works better - a knife to their throat, or starving them and promising them a man if they cooperate?”

“Starving them makes it harder to think,” Zoe said. “It clouds their mind.”

Sage nodded, falling silent as she considered that.

“Do you have a succubus you’re forcing to do something?” I asked, wondering if something had happened during her mission yesterday.

“No,” Sage replied. “Just learning more about succubi. You don’t often get one willing to answer questions like this.”

“Any more questions?” I asked.

“Not right now. I’ll give you the stone after we talk to Whitney,” she said, then looked at me. “How did the training go?”

“What training?”

“The one I told you to do. The exercises.”

“Oh… I didn’t have time.”

“How many times did you have sex in the last two days?”

“Okay, maybe I could’ve found some time, but I was busy with other things.”

Sage snorted, clearly annoyed. “Why the fuck am I wasting my time with these trainings if you’re not going to put in the effort? Do you just want to waste my time? Is that your fucking goal?” She stopped and turned toward me, stepping closer, anger burning in her eyes.

“No,” I said. “I’ve got a lot going on. But I’ll make time to practice.”

“So I’m supposed to just beat your ass again today? Or did you learn anything from last time?” she asked.

“Test me,” I replied, despite not being sure if I had actually learned anything.

Either way, there was no surprise when Sage kicked my ass again. Especially since she was clearly annoyed that I hadn’t trained between our sessions - which was my fault, and I understood that very well by the time she was done with me. My whole body ached from the repeated hits as she pointed out my mistakes with her fists and kicks.

Sitting on the ground, panting, I tried to catch my breath when Sage stopped in front of me and asked, “Have you had enough?”

“For today? Yeah.”

“I told you. I can train you, but it’s not going to be easy. And I’m not going to turn you into a good fighter if you don’t want to sweat. If you just want to waste my time, we can stop and you can train with someone else.”

“I’ll practice. You’re not wasting your time,” I replied.

Sage only sighed before turning to Zoe. “Did you practice, or were you busy with him?”

“Umm…” Zoe murmured, flustered.

“You’re lucky you’re cute,” Sage said. “At least practice now,” she added, glancing back at me.

As I started working on one of her exercises bouncing the stone with my mana, Sage began training with Zoe again. Even though Zoe was just as guilty as I was for not practicing, Sage wasn’t nearly as harsh with her. She slowed things down, carefully guiding her through the movements, focusing especially on Zoe’s tail again and how she should use it in a fight.

By the time Sage was done with Zoe, I was exhausted, both physically and mentally, from trying to control my mana. And the practice didn’t really go that well, I was able to bounce the stone just a few times at most before I would use too much or too low mana, or bounce it in the wrong direction.

I was repeating it time after time, until Zoe sat down beside me, catching her breath, while Sage looked like she hadn’t even warmed up.

“Take five minutes,” Sage said. “Then we’re going to talk to the bloodsucker.” With that, she walked off, who knew where or why.

Zoe leaned against me as we rested after training. I wasn’t sure how much I would actually learn if Sage focused mostly on beating me during our sessions, but on the other hand, I felt like if I could learn to block even half of her attacks, I’d become a master at defense.

And I really should start doing the exercises she gave me. Not just to avoid pissing her off again, but because that was the whole point of training with her, and I actually wanted to get stronger.

And she was the best teacher I could have, so I should take advantage of it as it lasted, because I was sure that her patience would eventually run out.