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“I figured it could help free up some of your time if you’ve got something to back you up,” Arwin said with a slightly embarrassed shrug. “Just make sure you give it enough food so it doesn’t end up stabbing you when it gets hungry. It’s—”

“Cursed,” Lillia finished, not so much as missing a beat. She examined the blade with a twinkle in her eye. “Wow. This is beautiful. I’ve never something like this before. I mean, I’ve had swords, but… those were for killing. Not like this.”

Arwin blinked. “You can read it? The status is supposed to be hidden from everyone other than people with really strong identification skills. Is it because you own the knife now?”

A grin played across Lillia’s lips. “Oh. Oops. Sorry. It’s probably still meant to be hidden, but everything that enters my Hearth — the Devil’s Den, that is — is partially in my domain. As of a level-up I got pretty recently, I can make information on items that should be concealed. It doesn’t work on people yet, though.”

“Convenient,” Arwin said.

Lillia nodded. She re-wrapped the knife and carefully set the bundle on a table before stepping closer to Arwin and wrapping her arms around him.

“Thank you, Arwin. This was really thoughtful of you. I love it,” Lilla said, pressing the side of her head up against his. She paused for a moment, then pulled back slightly so they could see each other again. "But… uh, how do I feed a knife? The description says it needs to be fed."

“I suppose I’ll find out, then.” Lillia shook her head and released Arwin with a grin. She picked the knife back out of the bundle and held it up to the dim light of the lantern, watching the orange glow reflect off its blade. “This is beautiful. I didn’t realize you’d gotten so good at making Cursed items already. Was it difficult?”

“The wyrmling didn’t put up much of a fight,” Arwin said. “It wasn’t too bad. I just had to punch the life out of a corpse for a little while. Much less difficult than a grown Wyrm.”

Lillia blinked. “A grown Wyrm?”

“Oh, right. Take a look at this,” Arwin said, fighting to hide his own grin as he summoned the Wyrm’s Revenge into his hand. The shield snapped into existence and Lillia drew in a sharp breath of surprise.

Her eyes danced in the air as she read over the weapon’s description. She let out a slow whistle and ran a hand gently down the surface of the large metal piece. “This is… something else. When did you get so good at fine details?”

“The Infernal Armory helped a lot,” Arwin said. “I really want to see what would happen if all three of us worked together on something, but we should hold off for a little longer. I don’t know if I fully trust the armory yet.”

“You think it’s trying to betray us?”

“Nothing like that.” Arwin shook his head. “It’s just a little… motivated. It’s got desires that might not align entirely with mine and I don’t know if I trust it to play nice when working with other people. Not yet. Hopefully soon. It trapped Esmerelda in the main room today.”

“The old lady?” Lillia blinked and tilted her head to the side. “Why?”

“She somehow had a way to sense that I’m making Cursed items. Turns out, she was selling them herself. She was trying to figure out who was infringing on her territory.”

“She was selling Cursed items? Seriously? The old lady?” Lillia exclaimed. Then she paused. A small frown crawled across her features and she scratched at her chin. “Actually, now that you mention it, Esmerelda was pretty insistent that I buy a jar of pickles that would ward off bad customers. I thought they just… smelled really bad or something.”

“Smelled bad? A jar of pickles would be sealed. They wouldn’t smell.”

“Look, you didn’t figure it out until Esmerelda straight up told you,” Lillia grumbled, prodding Arwin in the chest. “And you’re the one that invited her here. Is she going to be a threat?”

Arwin had to think for several seconds about that question. Eventually, he shook his head. “No. I don’t think so. Not yet, at least. Cursed items aren’t inherently evil. They just come with some really nasty drawbacks. Esmerelda is definitely shady, but she hasn’t tried to hurt any of us yet.”

“Then we’ll keep an eye on her for now,” Lillia said. “Madiv spends a lot of time with her anyway, so that shouldn’t be too difficult. I’ll just let him know to be on the lookout for anything even more suspicious than normal.”

Arwin ran a hand through his hair and glanced toward the entrance of the Devil’s Den. He let out a small sigh and shook his head. “Given the times we’re living in right now, that might just be a good state to be in as a default. Rodrick told me about Twelve. Between him and the Ardent Guild, we’ve got our hands full of potentially suspicious characters.”

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“At least the Ardent Guild isn’t actively trying to kill us like the Hounds were,” Lillia said. “We can prepare to deal with them if they ever make another direct move, but if they don’t, we can focus on just finding a way to deal with Twelve.”

They both fell silent for a few seconds. Arwin hadn’t met Twelve himself. He didn’t know how strong the assassin was or anything about his guild. It didn’t matter. The man’s connection to Jessen, no matter how tenuous it may have been, was enough to give Arwin a pretty good understanding of the type of person they were up against. He definitely wasn’t about to give up the Dungeon Heart to Twelve.

“Hopefully Rodrick turns up something useful,” Arwin said. “Did you get a good feeling for how strong Twelve actually was when he visited?”

“Strong,” Lillia said, her features darkening. “It can be a bit hard to tell, but he wasn’t going out of his way to hide his strength. I think he’s more powerful than Jessen by the way he carried himself. It’s hard to say by how much until we have more context as to who he is. We can’t give up the Dungeon Heart, though.”

“That isn’t happening,” Arwin agreed. “Well, we’ve got several days until he comes back. Did you pick up on anything we could maybe use to our advantage if things do end up going poorly?”

Lillia crossed her arms across her chest and leaned against the doorframe. She thought in silence for several seconds before her head tilted to the side. “This could be a complete mis-read, but he seemed… fairly honest. Strong enough to be completely forthright with what he wanted. I wouldn’t go as far to say he’s honorable by any stretch of the imagination, but he may be someone who would follow his word.”

“Could we beat him in some sort of game to keep the heart for ourselves?” Arwin mused.

“That would involve revealing we have the heart.”

“Probably not ideal. We’d have to make sure he’s actually the type of person that would stick invariably to his word. That is how Jessen was, so if they had some sort of relation, it could be possible.”

“It might not be the best plan, but it’s worth keeping in mind, at least until Rodrick finds something else we can use.” Lillia said looked at the cursed knife Arwin had made her again and gave him a one-shouldered shrug. “Until then, I don’t know if there’s a point fretting about it. We’d be better off using our time to grow as much as we can. I want to test this out and the rest of my dinner preparations are the perfect opportunity to do just that.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Arwin said. “Need help?”

“Already have it,” Lillia said with a grin. “Later, maybe. But today, I want to see just what this is capable of.”

“Suit yourself. I’ll look forward to it, then. I’m starving — and I think my magical energy is about to start consuming itself. I used a lot of power working today.” Arwin dismissed his shield with [Arsenal], not wanting someone to stumble into the inn while they spoke and spot it. “You better hide that knife as well. I want to get attention selling some more magical items, but I do not want people figuring out I can make Cursed things. Especially not Wallace. That would go poorly.”

Lillia covered the knife again and grimaced. “Good point. I’ll be careful. Nobody is allowed in the kitchen anyway, but maybe I should get a lock for the door. I’ll let Ridley know.”

“Sounds like a good idea. Until dinner, then. I’ll look forward to it.”

Lillia flashed Arwin a toothy grin. “I know.”

She slipped back into the kitchen and pulled the door shut behind her. Arwin chuckled and shook his head. He stretched his arms over his head and lowered himself into a chair to wait for dinner. His muscles were sore from working all day, so a break was more than welcome.

***

Dinner was as great as it always was.

The majority of the Menagerie gathered in the Devils Den as the evening bordered on the cusp of night. Everyone other than Rodrick arrived and took their seats by the counter, squeezing in as Lillia distributed a meal of stir-fried vegetables and meat.

Nobody had any idea what half the ingredients were. None of them asked. There was only a short pause before they ate as they tried to figure out where Rodrick was. Anna had assured everyone that he’d be showing up soon enough and that they had no need to wait for him — and with the smell of Lillia’s cooking luring them, nobody was difficult to convince.

Arwin didn’t get the feeling his knife had actually made any of Lillia’s cooking taste better, but judging by the satisfied grin and the small nod she gave him when he locked eyes with her, his gift had proved useful.

They were all halfway through finishing dinner when the door opened behind them. Arwin looked over his shoulder as Rodrick strode into the Devil’s Den. He wore a fine silk shirt and had a balled up bundle of cloth tucked under one arm.

Reya let out a series of muffled words through a mouthful of food. Olive elbowed her in the side and Reya swallowed before repeating, “What took you so long?”

“I was paying the Ardent Guild a visit,” Rodrick replied. “I’d planned to be back earlier, but I was unfortunately spotted. Had to lead a small troupe on a wild goose chase for a while. I lost them, though.”

“Has anyone ever told you it’s somewhat odd that you learned how to do so much just from reading a bunch of books?” Olive asked.

“Knowledge is power,” Madiv said.

“So are powerful items,” Esmerelda added. “Except you can’t buy knowledge. Now, if you wanted to buy something that gives you power, I could—”

“Pass,” Olive said.

“They weren’t normal books,” Rodrick replied primly, and his tone booked no opportunity to press with further questions. “What matters is that I’ve dug up a little information on Twelve.”

“Anything useful?” Lillia asked, heading into the kitchen and returning with another plate of food. She set it down on the counter and nodded to an empty chair.

Rodrick took the chair and gave Lillia an appreciative nod as she set his meal down before him.

“Everything is useful, but yes. Mostly just rumors right now, but it’s a lead that I can capitalize on tomorrow.” Rodrick picked his fork up and speared a piece of meat. “I listened in to Tironal — the Ardent’s Guildmaster — speaking to their spymaster. There was a guild mentioned that I believe Twelve came from. I’ve never heard of it, though.”

“What was it?” Reya asked. “Maybe I have. There are a lot of guilds in Milten, and I grew up here. I know most of them by name.”

“Yeah, because you got kicked out of them,” Olive said through a snicker.

“The Setting Sun,” Rodrick said. “I don’t think they’re from Milten, but it can’t hurt. Does the name ring any bells?”

Arwin froze, and Lillia did the same.

The name may have just been a coincidence, but it was a bit much to be mere chance.

The Setting Sun… could they have something to do with the Achievement that appeared when I was dying? Is Twelve somehow connected to the conspiracy with the Adventurer’s Guild?