Seek out the rebels

In the end, I decide to vote in favor of joining the rebels and raise my hand. That’s 6 in favor and 5 against.

“Alright. Looks like we are off to join the rebels.” Kiara says. She then turns to Livia and asks “How long would a trip to Avernus take?”

“A couple weeks. Two if we’re lucky. More likely three.” Livia answers.

“We are going to have to prepare.” Shalia speaks up. “I think it would be good if we get a cart and horse. Walking all day long for three weeks is going to be torture for our feet.”

“Yeah, we’ll have to get a horse too. And food.” Ryul agrees with his girl.

When I feel I’ve heard enough, I stand up and start “I guess we better split into teams for that. Lilith, you know demon cities better than us. You are most likely to figure out where we can buy a cart. You can take Lilith with you. Leona and Merlara, you two can try and find a horse. To get those it will cost us some money. We need to look around and see if there are any jobs we can do. Sophie and Ari are team 1. Ryul and Shalia is team 2. Kiara, Amelia and I are team 3. Our tasks are to either make some money, or figure out how to make money.”

“Alright. Let’s head out and meet back here at nightfall.” Livia nods. “I’ll make sure we’ll have a place to sleep at.”

The lot of us then leave Nami’s room. Upon exiting the inn, we separate into our groups and get to work.

As I am walking through this demon city searching for a way to make money, I can’t help but hold my hand on the hilt of my sword. These people all support Ziges, Nami told us. They are in favor of him invading the other kingdoms. I get that food may be scarce here, but there has to be a way other than war to solve it.

Keeping my hand so close to my sword makes me think back to when I had it repaired. That gives me an idea. Even here in the demon kingdom, adventurers needs weapons and armor. Which means they need crafters. And crafters need materials. I share my idea to visit the crafters corner with Kiara and Amelia and both agree it is a good idea. After a while, we find a street with many shops. Smith’s, carpenters, jewelers, anything you can think of.

“Good afternoon, sir.” A female demon with dog ears calls out to me. “Are you looking for a gift for your friends? We’ve got a lot of wonderful carvings for you to choose from.”

“Sorry, I am not shopping for gifts today.” I say with a smile as I walk up to the woman. “Rather I am looking for a way to make some money. Do you perchance need some materials I can fetch for you?”

“Oh no, we are quite well stocked.” The woman replies. “But maybe my neighbor has something for you.”

The woman turns to her left and starts shouting at the stall in front of the next building. “Hey, Dirgi? You need some materials for your smith?”

From the other stall, a demon woman half our size calls back at us. “We got new iron ore just yesterday. But I heard the fletcher needs new feathers.”

“Right then. Let me give you directions to the fletcher.” The woman says. “Make sure to tell him I said hello, alright?”

We follow the woman’s instructions and enter the fletcher’s shop. Inside, we find a bunch of tiny demons with butterfly wings, each as tall as half an arm’s length, working together. These must be the imps I’ve heard Livia talking about. One of them was chiseling at a small rock, crafting it into an arrowhead. Another two were crafting an arrow shaft by dragging a plane back and forth while repeatedly saying “heave, ho, heave, ho, …”. Yet another one carried a finished arrow shaft to an imp that was hoarding a pile of feathers and finally there was an imp attaching the arrowheads to the shafts.

“Wow. You guys sure got quite the operation going on here.” I say, expecting to get their attention. I sure got their attention alright. But not in the way I was expecting.

The imp hoarding the feathers threw himself in front of the pile and yelled “My feathers! Get your own!”

The one attaching the arrowheads dropped one and started crying.

The guy chiseling the arrowheads threw his chisel and hammer to the ground and yelled “That’s it! I can’t work with these distractions!”

While the two making the arrow shafts cheered and yelled “Break time!”

Amelia quickly gave me a thump on the shoulder and asked “What did you do?” Leaving me to reply, “Nothing, all I did was say hello.”

Suddenly, an older imp flies up from somewhere and starts calming everybody down. After the younger imps got back to work, the old one comes flying in front of my face and introduces himself.

“Greetings, you lot. I am the fletcher, these are my children, and you better have a damn good reason for sabotaging my business.”

“Right, well. Mister fletcher.” I start as I place my hands together. “My friends and I are in search for a job. Some task we can do to make some money. And we heard from some fellow vendors that you might perchance be in need of new feathers.”

As soon as I speak the word ‘feathers’ the imp hoarding the pile becomes protective again and yells, “Mine!”

“Shut up!” The dad yells back. “And who might have said that, boy?” He asks me.

“The woman at the carpenter.” I say. “Dirgi’s neighbor.”

“Oh. That lovely woman.” The fletcher smiles heartily, making me think we’re on good terms now. But then he scowls and says “That bitch owes me money.”

Kiara, seemingly getting tired of our conversation steps in and asks, “Listen. Do you need to restock on feathers, yes or no.”

The fletchers starts stroking his chin while flying from left to right. “Hmmm, yeees. My youngest son does get triggered when we are running low. I could stand to have a few more. But! Do you even know what kind of feathers are most useful?”

“Aren’t any feathers useful?” Amelia asks.

“Nay, foolish succubus.” The fletcher responds, flying close to Amelia’s face now. “It are the wing feathers. That is where the best feathers are. As a matter of fact, kill me some birds and bring them here. Then I can show you how to pluck them properly. Now begone.” And off he flies, back into his shop.

After the fletcher flew away, the three of us walk out of the store and behind me I can hear Amelia asking Kiara “Did that fletcher just call me a slut?”

Kiara shrugs and answers, “I’d be more offended at the part where he calls me foolish.”