“While I am curious about your nature, I have to ask the purpose of your visit to my establishment as a formality.”

  Elanore nodded. “Well, Helena told us that we should come here if we wanted to sell off mana cores. Not only that, but I was curious what an enchanting shop in this world would have.”

  Morgana grinned. “Helena, yes, she was right. I can help you with that. How is she doing, by the way?”

  “She was doing well. I bought the outfit that you currently see on Naela from her.”

  While Morgana performed her own inspection of Naela’s outfit, it was Elanore that performed an inspection of Morgana.

  Much higher level than what I imagined from the starter town, and she’s a witch like me! I am surprised how close she comes to Naela’s status. Though, the vampire had more important things to worry about. Now that she was broke, she needed to sell off her stones. And possibly energy drinks.

  As if reading the vampire’s mind, Morgana answered the call. “It is true that I deal in mana cores. As you probably already know…” Morgana looked towards the tip of Elanore’s staff. “I can offer you a good price depending on what you have.”

  Elanore smiled and began pulling out several of the larger mana cores she’d gotten from Naela’s lair.

  “Alright, that’s enough. Even this amount will be sufficient to garner a lot of money. In fact, I don’t think I will be able to pay for these with the money in the store...Especially including the last one, unless you allow me to pay for it with an enchanting book. Though, I guess someone of your skill has no need…”

  “Wait! I definitely have a need for an enchanting book!”

  Morgana chuckled. “I understand. Yes, it seems you share my sentiments.”

  I have no idea what sentiments those could be.

  Nonetheless, Elanore smiled, showing off her pretty white fangs. “That would be an acceptable trade. Can you show me the book?”

  Morgana nodded and reached under her mahogany counter top. Elanore wasn’t sure mahogany actually existed here, and she could inspect the table. However, doing so would ruin the mystery of otherworldly tables. There was a time and place for dispelling wooden mysteries.

  The witch behind the counter placed a large and heavy worn book on the desk. It was grey and thick, looking almost like a big slab of metal. And the pages were locked by a latch. “This book covers a lot of enchanting knowledge that I learned myself.”

  “Are you sure you should be giving me something so valuable?”

  Morgana waved the vampire off. “It’s not a big deal. I wrote the book, and I have already copied it. The only thing I ask is that you come back here enough to trouble me.”

  Naela laughed. “She will trouble you even if she doesn’t come back here. My mistress is a very troublesome person, after all.”

  Elanore shrugged off her wyvern’s insult. Instead, she held out her hands eagerly to await the enchanting book. Only when the witch handed it to her did she perform her [Inspect].

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  Damn, I struck the gold of this place already! Elanore couldn’t stop herself from bouncing up and down. She held the book tightly to her chest and almost forgot about the coins completely.

  The vampire didn’t even realize that at some point in her celebration, the witch had slipped into the back of the store somewhere and returned with a gigantic bag of jiggling coins.

  “I sorted all of these into separate denominations. There are copper coins, silver coins, gold coins, and a single orichalcum coin for good measure. That last one can get you an entire estate within the city walls.”

  Elanore’s eyes widened as she grabbed the heavy bag.

  Morgana raised an eyebrow. “I knew you were strong, but to think you could even lift that…”

  “More importantly, why did you give me so many coins? Enough to buy an estate? I am glad, but it’s strange.”

  “You really have no idea how much one of those Twilight Sabre cores are worth, do you? People would kill to get their hands on one, and I honestly have no idea how you managed it. If you have the pelt, it’s also worth a lot of coin.”

  Elanore looked towards Naela, but the wyvern shrugged.

  “I don’t even remember how I obtained most of those cores, but I am familiar with a Twilight Sabre. Given that I’d never fought one before, it was likely a gift from that wizard.”

  The vampire looked stunned towards Naela. “Why would you allow me to give away something so precious in that case?”

  “It was ordained the moment you signed my contract, mistress. It’s only natural that the servant will give over her belongings. In exchange, you must take me with you and remember to feed me. Speaking of which, I am hungry for one of those energy drinks now.”

  Morgana smiled. “So the two of you were contracted together?”

  “That’s right,” Elanore said. “It kind of just happened, so don’t ask about it.”

  The vampire placed the large bag of coins inside of her inventory, but she kept the book pressed against her chest. “Do you know of a place around here that we’d be able to sleep for the night? I want to do a little more exploring around the city before we leave for the next one.”

  “You plan to travel away from here? Do you have a planned destination in mind? There are a lot of cities around here that would be way less accommodating to people that aren’t human.”

  “Seriously? Is it one of those tropes?”

  Morgana chuckled before taking another inhalation of her pipe, this time blowing it towards the ceiling. “I am afraid so. Our nobles cannot agree on how we should treat members of differing tribes. The scripture was not exactly verbatim on how it should be done.”

  “Ah, it’s one of those situations…”

  “Yes, one of the many things people don’t understand about the goddess was her enigmatic nature, so they use their own interpretations of her words.”

  Sounds like something not so different from Earth.

  The witch shrugged. “If you want a place to stay for the night, you can stay in my guest room. Either that, or I can point you to an inn.”

  Elanore looked towards the salivating wyvern who’d forgotten all about whatever previously irked her in the name of hunger. “I suppose an inn would be great.”

  “Very well, let me draw the directions for you.”

  ///

  It didn’t take long for the duo to reach the inn. Since Elanore kept getting weird stares and quieted voices talking about her, she decided to put Pot away. A question had been lingering on her mind for a while. She was fully aware she would be able to sustain herself in perpetuity with energy drinks, but she remained curious if she would still be able to eat human food.

  “Good evening, travelers!” A cheerful man’s voice reached them over the sound of the crowd.

  Elanore took that as her cue to stroll up to his station. I have been going to counters all day today. It’s like when you need to fill out forms for identification! The horror!

  Putting away her disdain for boring government activities, the vampire smiled. “I will need a room for two please.”

  The man nodded. “Two of you, then? Will you share a bed or sleep in separate beds?”

  Elanore looked towards her wyvern but got no response. Instead of any meaningful discourse, the wyvern’s face heated up again. Yeah, I guess she would want some privacy for sleeping.

  “Two beds, please,” Ella said.

  A small sigh played out behind her, but the vampire remained blissfully ignorant.

  “Alright,” the man said, marking that on his ledger. “May I have your name, please?”

  “Elanore.”

  He put her name down, and then he took his share of 10 silver coins. He assured them that the price was for both rooming and food. They’d be served at night and in the morning, and they’d have to return their key by the following evening.

  Elanore pulled the wyvern to an empty table, and the two waited for a server. She looked around the room, taking in the atmosphere of the place. For a medieval looking tavern, it was nice. The walls had their own Mammothine wallpaper, and they were decorated. A pair of tusks hung over the frame of the fireplace.

  The voice of their server caught both of their attention. “Good evening, young ladies,” the gentleman said, “are you familiar with our options?”

  Elanore shook her head, and for the first time, she saw someone else using some type of inventory. Only this was a different action. Rather than pulling from a space as she did, he pulled menus from a bag hanging on his waist.

  “I recommend the savory triceratops dumplings. Those are in abundance at this time a year.”

  I will not be uploading every day after this chapter, and I will be switching my upload schedule to Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Though, I may start making the chapters a bit longer if I can. I just don't think everyday uploads will be sustainable long term. As always, if you want to read ahead, consider supporting me on Patreon.