84 The Newcomer - Part 2
With Ameril having finished telling her story and all that she had been up to, living in the prison that was her own home, she eagerly awaited Lyrika and Philly to talk about themselves. While she did want to know who these two very attractive girls were that were travelling with Olivia, for non-selfish reasons, of course, she just wanted to get to know them. Having been stuck in her home and unable to do much, including making friends, a part of her hoped that she could actually achieve such friendship with these two girls that were close to her age.
As she waited, Philly decided to speak up first. She told Ameril her full name, where she originally was from, and how she was a researcher. It did get a little awkward when it came to what her research project was now.
"Your researching…Olivia?"
"Of course. In all my time at the Institute, Olivia is the first subject I have found that is truly worth researching. I will still continue my research into beast-kin culture, as that is what I said my trip would be to learn about and will need to provide a paper on when I return. But Olivia is just an oddity in this world. A half-Orc half-Goblin is strange on its own, but then with her being nothing like Orcs and Goblins at all, even going out of her way to help people. She is truly unique and who she is and what she does needs to be documented. I also hope that in our travels even more shocking revelations about her will come to light."
It was quite a strange thing to hear someone right next to you talk about how odd and unique you were. A part of Olivia felt insulted at being called an 'oddity', but at the same time, being seen as a unique wonder, she added the wonder herself, felt nice.
"I see where you are coming from. But I can't imagine Olivia is fine with-"
"I've gotten used to it."
And she had. Philly had been with them a short while, and by now, she had written all about her exploits. The impressive thing was that Olivia had managed to deal with the fact that she had also documented her exploits of a more…sexual nature as well. With her managing to get past and no longer be phased by that, she didn't think there was anything else she could write about that would actually affect her.
So, putting up with it was hardly a chore now.
"What about you, Lyrika?"
At Lyrika's turn, she spoke about how they met. It had shocked Ameril a little at first when she spoke of their fight under the dead of night, but as she talked more about what had happened to her, and how she ended up in that situation, Ameril quickly understood and felt sympathy for her.
Lyrika then went on to talk about all they had done since the meeting, with them hunting for food, or more like trapping, travelling to the beast-kin villages, the bandit trouble, the Zentora ambush and finishing off with the lovely fiasco at Teagan's village.
09:08
She then told her about her goal of going after the chief and what he had been doing.
"That is awful." she then turned to Olivia, "And so you've helping to try and stop him as well I take it."
It was possible that their travelling together was only a temporary thing, and that whatever had kept them together would end at some point before Lyrika had managed to complete her task. This is why Ameril thought to confirm the situation.
She didn't ask with Philly, as it was already answered by her plan to research Olivia.
"Of course. After hearing what he had done, I can't just let it continue." Olivia quickly responded as if it was only natural. She couldn't see how someone could learn about all the man was doing and just walk away from it.
"That's so like you," Ameril said with an appreciative air, something that Lyrika noticed, given the slight frown on her face. "I-I'm not a fighter, by any means, but if you need it, I'll help in any way that I can. We'll be travelling together and like you said, it doesn't feel right to just let something like that continue."
"Wait. You're going to travel with us." Lyrika asked with a quizzical expression.
"…yes, of course. Do you, not…want me here?"
Olivia looked over at Lyrika a little surprised by her response. Sure, they hadn't talked about Ameril joining them on their travels, having been so focused on just rescuing her. A part of her thought it was just implied though. She had spoken about how they had travelled before, albeit very temporarily and it seemed obvious to her that they would do it again. But while it seemed like Lyrika thought it would only end up being temporary again, what was more surprising was that it seemed like Lyrika had a problem with it as well.
"No. No, it's nothing like that. I mean – it's just that you're a noble. You already said you're not a fighter, and well, everywhere we go there seems to be some sort of battle that happens. I wouldn't have thought you would want to have to deal with that. Couldn't you just use your status and coin to start your new life in another town?"
No one seemed to realise that Lyrika had forgotten that Philly had no knowledge of how to fight either. But if anything she was a little bit different compared to the Noble that hardly ever left the town she lived in. Plus, Philly was adept with potions, where as seen, some were very capable of dealing with villains.
"I understand what you are saying, but there is a simple solution to me not knowing how to fight though. I'll just learn how. And on the topic of settling down in another town, that, as you say would be easy to do, but…there are some other things I want to do before that." Ameril replied as she looked over at Olivia. Again, this was something that Lyrika very clearly saw, and given the slight eye twitch was something she didn't quite like.
"Does that include being part of Olivia's harem?"
"Urrgk," *cough* *cough*
Olivia choked on the air she breathed in as she heard Philly's statement.
Lyrika pulled her vision away from the new member and ended up just staring down at the ground as she rubbed her brow.
Ameril on the other hand, ended up doing a double take not sure she understood what Philly had said. It was so sudden and such a blunt and surprising thing to say, that it would throw many for a loop.
If anything, Olivia and Lyrika should have expected something like this to happen, given the few times it had before. But, Philly being Philly, you couldn't predict when she would bring something like this up.
"Philly, *cough* why do you keep saying things like that?" Olivia asked, just trying to understand what was going through her mind. How she could just ask someone she had just met a question like that she did not know.
"What was wrong with what I said? It was a simple question."
"No, it's no a-" Olivia ended with a sigh before she turned to Ameril. "Just don't listen to her. I don't have a-"
"You have a harem?" Ameril asked at the same time cutting her off.
Silence captured the group as no one knew what to say, and they all realised they should think before they spoke about something like this. Well, almost all of them realised this.
"Orcs and Goblins have harems. So does Olivia." Philly responded.
"I don't have a harem."
"Okay. If you want to be technical. You are in the process of forming a harem. Happy?"
"What no, I- this- *sigh*" At that, Olivia gave up and threw her hands into the air.
"…"
"…"
"To be forming a 'harem', that must mean at least some people are already part of it. Right?" Ameril cautiously said, looking a little worried as she did.
The question instantly caught Olivia's attention and she knew she had to respond and shut this all down. Anything further would end up giving Ameril a bad impression of her.
"Like I said there is no ha-"
"I'm with her…"
Olivia and Ameril both turned towards the voice that had cropped up, obviously finding it to be Lyrika who stood there with her head held high.
"I'm with Olivia. But… as she said…it's not a harem."
Olivia could only stare at Lyrika with a quizzical look on her face. Sure, it's not like they were going to hide what they had been doing, but they hadn't had a serious talk about what they actually 'were' to each other. So, she couldn't help but wonder why she had said that, and almost with a proud look on her face.
What Olivia didn't see, was who that look was directed at. If she had broken out of her thoughts, she would have seen how Lyrika had been looking right at Ameril as she said that.
A look that was returned by an annoyed frown and narrowed eyes.
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