The charm spell can’t be broken, or at least its remains as it was already deactivated! Cain looked at Gracie wondering what was truly going on.
As she was ordered, Gracie told her backstory.
She was born in a small hamlet to a poor farmer’s household, their life was as far from easy as it gets. Each year some of the children died in the winter cold, starvation, or wild beast attacks, her sister was torn apart by wolves as she was chasing cows!
Her parents weren’t the nicest of people at all, quickly snapping at the smallest of complaints. Hungry? No! Sad? What is that?! Wanna play? Someone gotta take care of chopping the firewood!
They weren’t necessarily bad, but they had more children than they could care for. Gracie had nine other siblings, that wasn’t something they are capable of taking care of.
Gracie endured it for her whole childhood, until one day something snapped in her head. She stopped caring, about complimentary things. Only focusing on her work, losing the happiness of children to the seriousness of an adult.
Even after that, she was still expressive, she could get happy or sad, speak her mind and put herself in the picture. Even her parent started acknowledging her, everything seemed to take a turn for the better for her!
That happiness didn’t last long, because soon after, that thing attacked. he kidnapped as many girls he could! Gracie was one of them, she wasn’t able to run away.
As she spent years imprisoned by him, she turned the way she is now! Shutting all of her emotions so she can cope with her life!
That lifestyle continued until the fiend hibernated for a year, Gracie was rescued at that time when she was out gathering food. An adventuring group found the incubus hideout and took the chance of rescuing all the captured girls, they didn’t dare attack the sleeping fiend as he was more than they could handle!
After being dropped at the guild alongside the other girls, they had to find a way to survive. Those who lost their will to live joined the church to get support, those who had grudges against the fiend joined adventuring parties as porters in hope that one day they will see him die!
Gracie on the other hand was picked by Lisa to work as a maid at the lord’s mansion, saying she has potential.
Being a maid was a lucrative job, on top of the high pay, free lodging, meals, and clothes. Those who managed to gain their master’s favor might have access to his power!
A prime example of that is Lisa, who has managed to reach the top just by staying close to William and his wife! Gracie didn’t care about the last part, she only cared about surviving.
That lasted until she was redirected to work at Cain’s house.
‘A mental trauma? That explains some but not everything!’ Cain decided that for the time being, he will look into that incubus matter.
“Keep working as normal, we will find a solution to that matter soon!” Cain said, Gracie gave him a weird look.
“Order refused, I only listen to Sofia!” She replied with an empty face. Cain could feel a nerve snapping in his head, is she is doing it on purpose?!
“Do what Cain said, you don’t have to worry about entering our rooms from now on!” Sofia said.
“True, I was used to having maids help me all day. Glad I won’t have to wear my clothes alone!” Alice said, Cain looked at her with a suspicious look, she is the spoiled daughter of a city lord after all!
Now that everything was stilled, there was still some time until dawn so they decided to take a nap. Gracie stood at the door but Cain said she is free to leave.
…
Morning has come, after having a quick dinner Cain was excited to go to the guild. The armor made of the Cobra’s skin should be ready by that day!
After they left, Gracie was the talk of the maids. Being allowed into places other maids aren’t, things that might get others into trouble don’t apply to her. To them, it was just as if she got promoted on the first day.
In the guild, Mary greeted Cain and his party, she didn’t know that they were involved in the lord’s incident and was about to tell them that the persecution order was lifted!
“Cain, I have good news!” She called waving her hand.
“The Lord has lifted the persecution order, It seems that the guild master managed to convince him!” She was smiling in happiness.
“I know, I already got notified by the guards!” Cain replied with a smile.
“More than that, I heard that you have something for us!” Sofia asked, she was excited about the new items made from the Crimson cobra!
She was awaiting the new modified shoes for her and Selena, they were destroying theirs every time they fought! Cain did put in the order for her as well after she fought Yamauba.
Mary smiled with a wide scary grin, “They brought even more than that, as soon as they heard the dragon’s fang was a part of the slaying, they did some extra work!” Quickly leading them to the storage room.
Multiple boxes were waiting for them, more than Cain expected!
4 Large leather bags
8 Small bags
Two Fang daggers
A set of wizard items for Sofia included the robe, the hat, the shoes and gloves, and even a grimoire, Sadly no staff.
For Selena, it was a set of flexible scale armor, finely tuned to match her. The set was a bit heavy but still manageable with her high strength!
A special set of cleric outfits was sent by the lord’s house for Alice, seeing the box with that address made Mary question who Alice was.
Cain received a set of leather armor, the set was black, having multiple small pockets and dagger slots, a hood, and a face cover that extend from the collar up. It looked similar to Daraku’s set. Cain could only guess if it was a coincidence or did he have a hand in it!
The girls headed to the changing room to put on their new pieces of equipment, Alice and Sofia first and Selena last. It was Cain’s suggestion due to how high Sofia’s charisma is, he feared she might awaken something in Selena!
Unlike the girls, Cain just found a hidden place in the storage room and changed there.
Mary who was standing at the door was sweating as she couldn’t take the thought of ‘Cain changing just behind the boxes in front of her’ from her mind!
The team quickly finished, Cain was looking more and more like a rogue, jet black armor with his head and face covered up, only his eyes are showing! Cain was the one to take the two Fang daggers.
“Nice, The boots are soft so they won’t make noise! The armor is flexible as well.” Cain said, taking the two daggers out! With three weapons he could use three different enchantments at the same time! That was a major power-up!
Sofia’s deep brown wizard robe fitted her well, the big hat did have a string so it won’t fall! The gloves and boots were able to transmit magic so she won’t burn them! The grimoire was just an empty book with a cover made from the Cobra’s hide, New mages like to use it as they can write down their spells which makes them easily accessible rather than having to buy a spellbook each time they forget a spell.
Selena’s armor was made from the Cobra’s hard scales, lined together to keep flexibility in mind. The underside of her boots had five holes that are covered with small scales, Selena could extend her claws from it!
Alice didn’t have anything fancy, All she got was a white dress and a set of chainmail armor so she can wear it underneath her clothes.
They have started to look nothing like a low-level party. It was time to go back to the guild and quickly register Alice.
“Sorry, she is already registered!” Mary said after checking her register, Alice’s name was there and she was surprised to know her family name.
‘Now it makes sense!’ Mary thought.
“It seems that by an order from the city lord and the guild master, she was already registered without the need of passing the regular procedures!”
William expected that she might have problems with the appraisal as she was a devil so he must have done this!
‘Where is the guild master anyway? Why didn’t he show up in Jack’s fight?’ Cain had his questions, The guild master could have intervened and ended the fight without much damage, there was no way he didn’t feel it!
“I have other news!” Mary declared, putting a paper on the desk. “You’re party has been promoted to C-rank by direct order from the guild master. Please choose a name right now!”
This was surprisingly happy news, Cain couldn’t believe it happened! Sofia was covering her mouth in shock while Selena’s tail seemed to wiggle left and right! Alice didn’t show much of a reaction, just a smug smile.
This had meant one thing, All of the party members are promoted directly to C-rank! Cain, Selena, Sofia, and Alice are all C-rank adventurers!
Being excited, the four of them discussed the matter of their party name.
“The pride-nya! A good name!” Selena said, giving her suggestion.
“The rising stars!” Sofia gave her suggestion.
“Cain’s party, you were already using this name!” Alice suggested.
The conversation didn’t last long before they decided on a name, to make it look like a normal name they decided to follow on dragon’s fang example and name their party Cobra’s fang.
The Crimson cobra was the first monster they barely managed to kill, naming their party after it seemed reasonable. They could still change the name in the future when they rank up to B-rank so it wasn’t a permanent thing!
After fully registering, Cain took a look at the quest wall, there was something still there that he wanted to check now that they have a healer!
[Quest: Slay a Basilisk]