<~> Book 5 - Chapter 249Wheopped at the Ruby Vixen brothel, it took me a sed the pce. It did seem to still be a brothel, but it has gohrough a transformation since we've been gohe building wasly in bad shape before, but now it had been pletely retouched and repaihere were new windows i into each of the floors, including the lobby, made from opalest stained gss that would let light through without actually being clear. Various images were depicted iranslut stained gss of snizable people. Among the ones I reized were Oe, Sibyl's older self paired with her newer self, Grad her sister Lia, Raya's hree-tailed form, and even myself...

  Raya gasped. "This pce looks so pretty now! Hey! Is that me!? That looks amazing!"

  Cecilia pulled me aside while the others took in the sight of the revamped Ruby Vixen. "Once you get everyone loaded off and into the brothel, I'll go check our carriage and the uunas into a stable. How long do you pn on stayihis time?"

  "I'd love to say not long, but trouble has a way of finding us. A few days at least," I replied as I climbed down from the an's seat.

  The door to the Ruby Vixen opened and I smiled up at someone I reized the moment our bond ected. Grace had e to greet us. "Lilith! Raya! Sibyl!" The woman smiled and rushed over to hug me before moving on to Raya and Sibyl. "I was so excited when Jade told me you and your friends would be arriving today." She gnced over at the women who were ing out of the carriage. "It seems you have brought quite a few new sisters home with you. Let me go get someoo help them get settled."

  "Not all of them io work at the brothel," I hesitantly told her. "And one of them is a kid, an orphan we picked up."

  "No trouble at all! ut everyone up regardless. We are family after all," Grace said with a smile.

  The women awkwardly ehe brothel, still unfortunately wearing their previous sve clothes mixed in with what few spare outfits we were able to give them. With so few things to spread around, all of them were looking pretty underdressed. Tenna and Kino followed the group ihe wolf boy looking particurly embarrassed by the idea. Nelly kept the young Maddie close, a brothel isly a good pce to take a child but no one seemed ed about it at the moment. We'll figure out what to do with her soon enough. Ohe carriage was empty I looked up at Cecilia and tapped the carriage on the side. "We're all clear, head back here when you're done and we'll figure out what we're doi."

  "Sounds good!" Cecilia replied as she gave a feeling of aowledgment through the bond. Nikka chuffed at me and I stopped to pat her on the fnk before she turo pull the carriage away.

  "Do you have any bags with you?" Grace asked as she watched Cecilia drive off the carriage off.

  "Mimi's got it all."

  She smiled. "Yes, of course. Well! Follow me then. There are lots of things I would like to fill you in on since you have been gone."

  I followed her into the brothel. "Will Oe be joining us?"

  Grace shook her head. "Unfortunately, that will not be possible today. She has bee very busy, even busier than she was before. Still, all of it has been growing well."

  The inside of the brothel had ged signifitly. Before the interior had a pretty homey feel, but now the pce looked much higher css than it had before. All of the wood has been redohe pce has been repainted in tasteful colors, and the natural light that the stained gss windows let inside made the pce feel a lot more pleasant to hang around in. There were still fy looking benches and chairs covered in pillows everywhere but they had been repced with newer high-quality oisha and Jade, the two bobcat snow leopard hybrids, were already talking with the new succubi and making sure all of them were fortable. They had greater trol over the bond and there was no telling how much their powers have improved i three weeks. They would do a good job helping the new girls improve their trol over their new abilities.

  "This pce looks a lot han before. What happened?" I asked.

  Grace smiled and led me past the front desk. "A lot of things, there is much to fill you in on."

  "Things like the 'Ruby Vixen merary pany' that got us through the gate without any trouble?"

  Grace chuckled, "Yes, like that." She turo her sister who was sitting behind the desk. "Lia, will you make sure everyone Lilith brought in have rooms?"

  "Sure, as guests or as new hires?" Lia asked.

  "Guests for now, let us do two to a room. We will have to find out whies will choose to stay here and which may be ied in some of our other pursuits. Make sure the suite is prepared for Lilith, the same one as st time. Oh, and ihe new girls into the dining hall, they look like they might need a fresh meal."

  "No problem, sis," Lia replied.

  "Let us go talk in my office," Grace said while turning to me with a smile.

  Her energy was iious, I could tell she was in a good mood. "Sure, after you."

  I followed her into her offid sat down across from her. Things hadn't ged mu here, the room was still filled with her personal things. Her desk had been cleared and there weren't any papers on top of it this time giving it a more orderly look than I remember.

  "So, what have I missed? It looks like the building has been renovated."

  Grace smiled and nodded. "Yes, we suddenly have a lot more mohan we used to. The food shes have been mitigated by the influx of imported food from the froowns and the capital, so people have moo spend on us again. All of irls have improved in bed and no longer need regur food so our ine is up and our expenses have gone down siderably as well. Many of irls also decided to attempt new careers as adventurers and they have beey successful so far. So much so that Oe decided to form a merary pany to help with finding work and distributing it among our members."

  "Isn't that what the adventure's guild is for?" I asked.

  "Yes and no. There is a lot of overp, and some of the girls have been w in the adventurer's guild as well, but we were able to get a substantial foothold sihe adventurer's guild took so long to reestablish themselves here. There is also a lot of work that adventurers don't like to take, like guarding the farmers, clearing roads, and other muasks like that. Most of the adventurers are still focused on the hunting jht now. The hardest part was getting people to take irls seriously at first since all of our members look young and pretty, but we've gained a reliable and respectable reputation sihen and things have improved a lot. The transformation and the ability to rearraheir stat distributions with the ge, along with everyone's unique abilities, have given everyone a lot more options. The boween the girls also makes it easier for them to trust each other when figuring out the best way to distribute their stats and specialize. I am happy to say that your focus on family has spread among the girls and now everyone views each other as sisters. That has made everyone bee even closer than they had been before."

  "I'm happy to hear that but... is it a good idea for so many of them to be pivoting like this?" I asked.

  Grace smiled. "o worry. Oe and the ones who work with her on mission assigs have been very careful to make sure that everyone is up for the tasks they are assighere are risks of course, but we have not lost a. Oe starting a merary pany may seem like a straep, but we are mostly just w to give our sisters who want that kind of life a way to do it as safely as possible. Oddly enough, by tying them more to sex, you have givehe option to do more than just sleeping with johns to improve their lives."

  I chuckled. "That does seem ironic." I paused for a beat before deg to ge the subject, "How have you been? Has everything been good with Lia?"

  "She has been good! She has been mostly w the desk and I have been teag her how to bahe ledgers. She also takes a few ts from time to time... Truthfully it has been a little weird to see her do that, but she o get it from somewhere. She spends time with some of the other succubi but seeing her ied in men all of a sudden has been a bit strange."

  I frowned. "Do you think it's a result of the transformation?"

  She shrugged and sighed. "I am unsure. Perhaps she has always had some i in men and just never expressed it, or maybe she is just trying out hings because the brothel has bee... even more sexually adventurous as of te. Wheire pce is full of women who shapeshift, the differeween the sexes feels a lot more... trivial. But she seems happy and I have not noticed any other odd ges, other than how much happier she is. No longer being bedridden is enough to expin that though."

  "And you? How have you been?" I asked.

  She smiled. "I have been good. Since Oe has been busy with other things tely, I've taken over a lot of the responsibilities here. The two of us still regurly talk and she asks my advi her other endeavors of course, but my day to day has been managing the brothel. Though, even that has bee quite a bit easier since everyoransformation. The bond by itself has resolved a lot of the fri between the girls and now that sex has bee synonymous with eating for us, a lot of the girls are less focused on the money." She ughed. "Actually, the hardest part after everything has ged is coordinating the ones who are off doing other things. Many of the girls who work in the merary pany are still doing one or two shifts a week here, so there is a lot of scheduling to at for. Still, as you see, everything has been going well... I feel like all of the pressure that was on my shoulders is gone now. Now that Lia is safe I have been... just enjoying life more."

  "That's great to hear Grace," I said with a smile.

  "Now enough about me, what about you? How was your trip to the capital? With the number of people yht back, it couldn't have been simple. I'm gd everyone has returo us in one piece, I had been a little ed for Raya and Sibyl but they seem to be doing well."

  I nodded. "Yeah, it's quite the story."

  I spent the bell telling her everything that happened in the capital. I even delved a bit more into my personal background and revealed some of the stuff I hadn't told her before. She quietly listened and asked a few questions here and there until I had finished reting the story.

  She shook her head. "I still ot believe the terrible things they must have doo those girls yht here."

  "Yeah, that's why I was hoping you would help them. Most of them aren't going to e with me, the carriage was already overfilled and most of them weren't ied in going to the frontier with us either. The only ohat are going to e with us for sure are Kal'daeryn and Nelly. Oh and I suppose Quinn, but he wasn't among the ones we found in the cells with Kal'daeryn," I said.

  "I will help all of them figure out what they want to do. The ones who would not mind w at the brothel do that, and the merary pany should be a good first step for the ones who want to fight. Those two hyena sisters in particur I see taking us up on that offer based on the emotions I felt from them through the bond." Her expression turned a bit more somber. "Those girls yht who are catatonic will be a challeo work with, but I've seen people like that before. I have a friend who works at the churorkinnen who may be able to help. You leave them in my care, I'll do my best to get them bato a healthy state, as long as it takes."

  "Thank you, Grace, that would be a huge help."

  She smiled. "o thank me, Lilith. Whether you like it or not, I will always be in your debt. Anything I ever do to help you, I will. But... if I may ask something iurn, I would love to spend anht with you before you leave Goldeh again. Perhaps something a bit mehis time..."

  I ughed and reached forward to grab her hand. "Sure, I promise."

  Saine

  Hello! We're at the start of Book 5! inally the previous chapter was going to be the first chapter of this book but I thought that a lot of what happened in that chapter was resolution of the previous events so I thought it made more seo start the book here instead. Plus it left on a fun cliffhahe characters in Goldeh are some of my favorite characters to write about so it'll be fun having them be present again for a while. There are some pretty fun things ing up really soon, I hope you're excited! Thanks for reading!

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