Kitsune in the Shadows

Chapter 111 – Collected and Counted

I did not sleep well that night, maybe not even at all; it was hard to remember. Rather than my dreams being filled with all the ideas I had during the day, like I had expected, those ideas instead just continued swirling around my mind, keeping me awake long into the night despite my internal protest.

Due to that, the whole morning was just consumed with this heavy feeling of tiredness that I just couldn’t quite shake off. Somehow, it was all only made worse as I saw Cattleya walk down the stairs to join us for breakfast, wearing the skirt I had adjusted yesterday. For some reason, it had never occurred to me that she’d actually wear it.

Though there wasn’t much time to be embarrassed about it, as my eyes gradually drifted upward and I was forced to confront the blouse she was wearing, it wasn’t that there was anything wrong with it in terms of the overall appearance of the outfit; it was just the sizing… again. With a skirt that now actually fit her, the oversized nature of the rest of her clothing was only made more apparent. The puffy look it gave might have worked, but with the way it was, it could only be called excessive.

There were some words exchanged over breakfast, but in all honesty, I wasn’t quite aware enough to take any of it in as I mindlessly guided food to my mouth and swallowed.

It was only once we had made our way to Volpe Rossa that I finally felt myself wake up properly. We had already been taken into Elena’s office and were waiting for her to return from… whatever she was doing; I missed that part.

“Kierra,” Cattleya suddenly said, startling me a little, “I-… You…”

Before she could stumble over any more of her words, Ava moved closer and whispered something into her ear.

“I know that!” Cattleya shouted as she hastily covered her ear.

Ava chuckled in response, “Well, go on then.”

“…” Cattleya turned to face me again, “I just wanted to say thank you… I… liked what you did with this skirt. It has made my experience a little more bearable.”

“Mm,” I hummed back, unsure of how exactly I was expected to respond to her comment.

“And?” Ava playfully poked at Cattleya’s cheek.

“And I was wanting to ask you about perhaps…” She seemed to struggle to get more words out, “I was wondering if it would be possible for you to adjust the rest of the clothes Ava has provided for me…. If I must wear this attire, then I would rather it fit properly… Of course, I am not asking for this to be done without compensation.”

“…”

Cattleya’s request confused me, to put it lightly. First of all, if all she wanted to do was get some clothes adjusted, there wasn’t really any reason for her to have to ask me. Just walking up and down the streets, I’ve seen more than a handful of places that could do it for her. It wasn’t even that she was asking me to do it for free, so that couldn’t have been the reason. Then past that, if she really didn’t want to wear those clothes because they didn’t fit, I’m sure she’d be able to just go out and buy some that do with all the money she carried around. All in all, it just didn’t make sense… but…

…

“I can try,” I still decided to agree in the end.

Maybe if I just resize the rest of her clothes, my mind will finally calm down.

Then there wouldn’t be anything to bother me…

That has to be it.

At that moment, the heavy doors to the office swung open and Elenia waltzed in, the clattering of her jewellery echoing in my mind.

“I was really hoping the three of you would have come to visit me yesterday after our little exchange,” She said as she sat gracefully down opposite us.

“We-” Ava tried to speak up first.

“There’s no need to worry,” Elenia interrupted, “I said you could have come as soon as yesterday, I never said that’s when you had to be here…. Though I would have appreciated the distraction,” She folded one leg over the other as she leaned forward ever so slightly with a glint in her eye, “Now, let’s see what you managed to pull together for me.”

Ava promptly reached down and pulled out a basket filled with all the various plants that we had collected over the last two days.

Wait? Weren’t those all with Umbra?

The only possible explanation was that Umbra had pulled them all out at Ava’s request while I was still half asleep. But considering Umbra’s behaviour yesterday, that felt a little unexpected.

While I was still lost in thought, Ava started taking the plants out of the basket, “We thankfully managed to find everything on the list.”

“That’s not for you to decide, is it?” Elenia said as she started picking up the plants one by one, looking them over carefully, “Hmm? It seems there’s been some magic at play here?”

“You can tell?” Cattleya blurted out immediately, a hint of shock in her voice, “That easily?”

“I’d have to be at least that competent if I were going to run a guild of this size,” She responded without missing a beat, “I just noticed that a few of these were virtually identical and took a guess. It just seems that I was right this time.”

“…” Cattleya didn’t respond after that, instead sinking into the chair a little.

“It’s no issue for me, so there is no need to be concerned at all; although… I must admit it does tempt me a little to draft up a contract right this minute. Though I’ll hold myself back for the time being out of courtesy.”

Elenia went through each of the plants in the same way, dividing them up into those that she would accept and those that she wouldn’t, each time giving a detailed reason… even if it was a little disheartening to hear.

However, her reasons were rather interesting to listen to, especially when comparing them to the explanations Cattleya was giving before. A lot of the time, instead of there being issues to do with the health of the plant, or it’s potential efficacy, a lot of her concerns were instead to do with appearance or smell, explaining that it would be more difficult to sell if a customer’s initial reaction is to find it in any way unappealing. Something about being unable to shake a customer’s first impression without a lot of additional effort.

“On the whole, I’d say you did a very good job,” She said as she sorted the last of the herbs.

“It’s hard to agree with how many you put aside…” Ava said, sounding a little disheartened.

A slight smirk then crept across Elenia’s face, “You three really are fun to tease. You need to come here more often,” As she spoke, she put all the plants from both piles together, “I’ll be buying them all from you.”

“What?” I immediately questioned.

“You can think of it as a learning experience. If you take on any more requests like this in the future, you’ll have a better idea of what to look for. But all of these were just for me personally, and I don’t really mind if they look a little unusual; it’s just a little extra character at the end of the day. It’s not like you brought me a poisonous plant that looks like one of the herbs I asked for. It’s all usable.”

She then started setting out coins on the table, a few coppers and many more silver. Ava took the liberty of counting them up and comparing them to the list we were given before placing them into the pouch at her hip.

“Do you really need to be so careful with me?” Elenia asked as she watched on.

“Who knows?” Ava replied in kind, getting another chuckle out of Elenia.

“That’s the right attitude to have. You might not have a client quite as forthcoming as I am.” Elenia finally leaned back against the chair, immediately dissipating some of the pressure that had been building in the room.

She then pulled out a single sheet of paper and checked something off before focusing back on us.

“Now, this is just a small thing, but it was brought to my attention a few moments before you came in,” She said, “We’ve had one or two travelling merchants come into town recently who told us that the forest was making them feel uneasy. They couldn’t give a reason why, so I was just wondering if you ran into anything out there?”

I did feel something… but it wasn’t just unease.

“I-” I tried to speak.

“No, nothing at all,” Ava spoke over me, “It was quite the enjoyable outing if anything. Even the weather held up well.”

“…” I didn’t try to repeat myself.

Maybe it really was just my imagination.

Ovia and Aria didn’t notice anything either.

“That’s what I thought… I just need to follow these things up in case it’s related to our bigger issue at the moment,” Elenia then sighed, “First there was a sea monster and now this… But I really have to say this: a sea monster in the port? The water isn’t even deep enough to fit anything close to that size without anyone noticing. It’s like none of this makes sense to me any more.”

…

“… I saw it too…” I eventually managed to say, “From the lighthouse.”

…

Elenia just let out another, much longer sigh, “What am I supposed to do about all this? Clearly, something was seen, even if it doesn’t make any sense whatsoever… and that’s not even getting onto the question that actually matters with all this. Who or what is even doing this? We’ve looked into patterns and scoured black markets around this island, yet we just can’t put together a motive, I-… I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be saying any of this to you three. It’s just… been the only thing on my mind these days.”

“Of course,” Ava said, “I’m sure you have an awful lot on your shoulders.”

“If only you knew the half of it!” For some reason, Elenia continued to speak despite what she said moments before, “In truth, it would hardly hurt us to just stop exporting here, it’s only one island in the grand scheme of things. The only special thing is that it’s a little bigger than the rest. But that’s from the perspective of the guild, if we left, there’d be plenty here out of a job, let alone the potential strain put on the local farmers to provide in the absence of imported food… Sometimes I wonder why I decided to start this thing.”

“…” None of us dared to respond.

“Anyway, that’s nothing for you to worry your little heads about. If you need some extra pocket change, I don’t mind giving you more requests. It gives me something to look forward to in this mess of a situation.”

…

I… feel like I’m supposed to do something here… but what?