Alice leaned over the veranda that oversaw the town of Seledo, taking a long deep breath and trying to not look as frustrated as she felt. The invitation of the local Lord to “celebrate” had been exactly what everyone suspected would be: an overt attempt to get into the pants of one of the women from the group.

It had been a very tiring night involving more alcohol than Alice would’ve found agreeable. The morning had come with new challenges of its own.

“It’s like a cheap buffet getting called high cuisine in there.”

The voice startled Alice. She glanced over her shoulder at Natalie. The woman was, as far as Alice was concerned, the closest thing to a friend from her group. She’d been one of the chaperons to come with the group, the mother of one of the students that had not survived.

“Tell me about it.” Alice muttered with a heavy sigh. “Is he still trying to talk about the golden boar?”

“I still can’t believe he’s doing that in front of his son. Poor kid looks like he’s getting stabbed.”

Alice’s lips curled into a grimace. “Whoever the mother is, she must be rolling in her grave.”

“One of the maids.”

“What?”

“The guy never married, the son’s from one of the maids. Bastard child made legitimate.” Natalie shook her head. “And don’t ask me how I found that out. This place runs on gossip.”

“Oh, that explains the kid.” Alice sighed heavily. “Looking for a more ‘legitimate’ heir, it seems.”

Natalie didn’t respond to that, her gaze turning distant, lips pursing into a slight scowl. Alice could only guess of what her friend would think of someone tossing their son aside when she’d lost her own.

“Want to take a walk?” Natalie broke the silence, her head made a motion to the town. “This place doesn’t feel like some tiny village, been wanting to take a look around.”

“Anything that gets me out of this box.”

Though they agreed, leaving was still going to be a pain, and they both knew it. Once they’d navigated their way through the ‘not-a-bunker’ mansion, four knights popped up, seemingly out of nowhere, to begin quietly walking behind them. Alice had spotted Helga circling them up above and felt like she was some sort of ambassador.

“Could you all just keep it discreet or something?” Natalie spoke up at the knights. “I know it’s your job to keep us safe and all that, but we’re trying to avoid drawing attention.”

“We’re human women. That’s going to happen no matter where we go. And it’s going to get worse, I’m betting.” Alice patted her companion’s shoulder, turning to focus on the armored maidens. “Just maybe not something that goes clanking around?”

“If you give us a minute, ma’am, we can change out of our armor.”

“That would be appreciated.”

They nodded and hurried off, leaving Natalie to give Alice an odd look.

“What?”

“And where did you learn to speak like that?”

“Helga.” The former psychology teacher sighed, pointing at the sky. “I swear she practices making puppy eyes.”

“I thought you’d have an easier time overcoming it. You being a teacher and all that.” Natalie chuckled.

“She’s a golden retriever with wings. No one can escape that.”

They both glanced at the knights as they’d returned. This time they were all wearing dresses, a rather odd sight considering they still had swords, maces, and shields. The leader of the group made only a small salute to indicate they were ready. And thus, with a weary sigh, they set off.

Seledo was a larger place than Astunes. Not by a considerable margin, but enough so that both Alice and Natalie had been able to easily pick up on how the town was a bit less homogeneous in terms of its population. The hospital… or “medicen” was a larger, newer building smack in the middle of the houses closest to the Lord’s manor, with the construction quality slowly deteriorating the further away they went.

Stone turned to wood, and with it the houses had started to stick closer together to one another.

And as they walked, their presence had not gone unnoticed. Maidens with black or green collars would start to emerge from their homes. Some would only peek, but others would look as if ready to approach them up and until their eyes landed on the four ‘not-obvious’ escorts trailing behind them.

Within minutes, Helga had drifted down from her flight, quietly landing next to both of them. She didn’t speak, only giving Alice a cordial bow before taking point in front of the group. The knights grumbled at that, but didn’t make a move or say anything. The group, as a whole quite tense with very pointed stares, met the eyes of anyone who stepped close to either Alice or Natalie.

“My Ladies.”

A small voice spoke up, an older woman with a black collar. Next to her was a little girl with a white collar. The two had moved to stand next to the group, the woman bowing as the younger girl looked at the ground with a grimace.

“I am owned by elder Vincent. I beg of you, my Ladies, our daughter, she-.”

Helga took one look at Alice’s tightened expression and put herself between her and the woman. “Please, move along.” She spoke with a soft voice, her wings spreading to block the mother and daughter from Alice’s view.

“My Ladies!”

Alice glanced at Natalie. The woman’s face was a mask that’d turned itself down to the ground, lips tight and shoulders tense. Her hands had tightened into fists as they walked in silence. They continued marching on, continuing all the way to the edges of the town. They were left standing in front of the farms that surrounded Seledo. Only then had she broken the uncomfortable silence.

“That mother was offering us her daughter, wasn’t she?”

“It’s…” Alice took a deep breath, hands tightening against one another. “Yeah.” She glanced at the knights. “That kind of thing is normal, isn’t it?”

“Life in service of a Lady will be a better future.” The red-head stated with little hesitation. “If you want to get the girl and the father cares for her, he is likely to only ask for a token price. Would you wish to acquire her? The Earl made sure you would be well funded for the trip, though under such circumstance, I would suggest a green-collar maiden, they-.”

“Stop.” Alice shook her head, looking at Natalie as the woman’s fists had clenched tightly enough her knuckles had turned white. “Just… give us some privacy.”

“Certainly.”

The knights didn’t leave, only spreading out and giving them a more comfortable distance. Natalie’s eyes were locked on something distant, lips curling as she turned to Alice. “How can you be so calm?”

The former teacher gave a sad smile. “While you were with the Baroness, I… had talks with some of the maidens in the village. Kyly wasn’t kind in her descriptions of how bad things can be.”

“And did she tell you what the core of the problem is?”

“In her ever wise words, ‘not enough humans, not enough gold’.” Alice replied. “Maidens need humans to bond to. Your average human can bond about ten, while a noble can bond about a hundred or two. But the maiden to human population is five to one and humans tend to only keep two to three maidens.”

“You’re shitting me.” Natalie glared. “The blood purity thing actually matters?”

“Elders help, a lot, apparently.” Alice continued. “They bond feralborns, and whatever other maiden hasn’t found an owner.” Her tone was neutral, as if she’d read them from a book. “Community helps the elders, while the younger men go about with a couple of wives in hopes of building something up for themselves. Or they get lucky and inherit the stuff gramps had set up, which is unlikely unless you’re a human woman or the firstborn male.”

“And here I wasted my time spending time with the Baroness and being told how to drink tea properly.” Natalie eyed Alice as the teacher grimaced.

“It’s… I just figured I wanted to learn about the culture. Look at the source.”

“The source?”

“The causes.” Now it was Alice’s turn to sigh. “People don’t just do things just because, not all the time at least, a lot of the stuff we take for granted about how society works has a source somewhere.” She gestured at the town behind them. “They talk about respecting the elders as if it’s just a given, but if you scratch the surface, you start seeing things. Like, feralborn maidens come from a world where everyone dies early because it’s just that dangerous. So they’re naturally going to feel respectful towards people who’ve managed to thrive and reach an older age. And tamed society will go out of its way to protect them because that old man in the corner has a dozen maidens that would go feral if he kicks the bucket.” She gesticulated with her arms, expanding to point to the world around herself. “Those kinds of things combine and it becomes clear why the Kingdom itself has sunk no small amount of gold into ensuring old people can live comfortably without needing to work. In exchange for them to teach the younger generation.”

Natalie nodded along, frowning. “And the cause for mothers to sell their daughters is because there aren’t enough humans or gold?”

“Simply put? Yeah. If you’re feralborn, you have nothing. And if you have a maiden daughter, she’s not going to inherit anything.” Alice nodded. “Chances are you-” Her words cut off as her focus turned to someone walking in the town.

A freckled young man with messy black hair.

“What is it?”

Natalie followed Alice’s gaze to the town.

Alice wasn’t sure why the young man had caught her attention. Her eyes lingered on the young man and the blond elf walking next to him, both talking amicably. “Just one minute.”

Something in her gut clenched as she felt she needed to talk to him. But the two had vanished before she could catch up, gone between the streets of the town and lost in the crowd.

Alice had moved quickly, her gaze focused on the dark-haired young man and the blond maiden walking next to him. It had been only a moment, a split second, where the former teacher had seen their faces, and now there was a gripping feeling inside her chest that she had to talk to him. Behind her trailed the knights and Natalie. Alice ignored their questions as she took a turn at the first intersection, trying to catch up as the duo had vanished in the crowd. She froze the moment she’d lost sight of them.

“What’s wrong?” Natalie asked when she caught up.

“Do you need help, ma’am?”

Helga’s question gave Alice pause for half a second. She weighed whether sending the Valkyrie to scout ahead was something she actually wanted to do. The thought was quickly discarded. She shook her head. “No, it’s just… I thought I saw someone I knew.” She waved it off, her eyes lingering on the street. “Yeah, just probably my imagination.”

“I’d say.” Natalie laughed, but it was a tense sound.

With a slight nod, Alice glanced back up the hill at the manor. “Let’s head back.”