Into the Depths
Standing in front of the tent, I found myself relieved to find that both girls were alright. The young girl had her head buried in Luna's chest as she wept and shivered. Luna looked up and made eye contact with me. "She was alarmed that she had failed her task and thought the slave collar was going to activate. I introduced myself and told her we had freed her."
I nodded. Leaving the girl to collect herself in Luna's arms as I made the fire. Once I had the campfire started, I pulled a seat from my Storage and set it down on the opposite side of the fire from the tent. I pulled the ingredients for soup out and got to work prepping them. I brought out mushrooms, cabbage, onions, potatoes, carrots, beans, and some wolf meat. Unsure if the rabbit people ate meat, I pulled open my System guide to read the article on rabbit people. They are apparently omnivorous. Luna had already washed and paired these ingredients, so they were all ready to go. I set up a cauldron over the fire and placed the prepared food inside along with a selection of spices before topping it off with soup stock.
As the soup boiled and I stirred the pot, I looked over to the girl with my System. I looked through her status to confirm a few things. Her name was Grace, and she was, of course, a rabbitperson. Looking for her age, she was seventeen years old. I had figured her for younger, but as per her status as malnourished, she must not have been able to grow as expected.
She was only level 2, so she must not have been given many opportunities to level. I wonder at what age she was enslaved. Also, strangely her class was a non-combat one: Maid. Her skills were all as one would expect in Housekeeping, Laundry, Cooking, Etc… Thankfully, her status showed that she still had her maidenhood, so perhaps the men who owned her had their distaste for 'non-humans' overpower their base desires of the flesh.
As the soup finished stewing, I used some simple wind magic to brush a breeze across the top of the pot into the tent. The tantalizing scent of freshly cooked food had my desired effect. Grace brought her head away from Luna's bosom. Her eyes, stained red from crying so much, refocused as she looked towards the fire. Her nose twitched side to side as she smelled the food. "Hungry?" Luna asked her. "Can I?" Grace asked, expectation and hesitation plain on her face. Luna turned to look at me. Following her gaze, the bunny girl looked over to me.
"This is John, and he saved me from captivity as well. So everything around us is his. If you want to be sure it is fine, ask him." Luna stood the girl up out of the tent and led her over to me. "M-my name is Grace. Thank you for saving me, milord. Do you really not mind if I have a bit of food…" Her gaze was directed at her feet. She seemed to struggle with making eye contact with me. I could understand as she most likely had been treated poorly by human men for a long time.
I stood and moved to be in front of her. As I raised my hand towards her face, she braced herself but did not move away. Then, raising her chin with my right hand, I looked her straight in the eyes. "You are free. You are welcome to food. We shall protect you until we can find somewhere safe for you to stay."
"B-but I don't have any money or way to pay you… besides, I guess…." She looked down at her body. I raised her chin a second time as I realized she needed a push to accept the help. "I did not do this in expectation for repayment, and you should not treat yourself as a commodity like that. I did this because I am selfish and feel that the world should reflect my ideals. If you feel like repaying me, there are several questions I would like to ask you."
Her eyes sparkled at my answer while she enthusiastically nodded. "Ask me anything." Her fists were balled up in front of her as she amped herself up to help with my questions.
"Open your hands," I commanded. Grace tilted her head and obeyed. I placed a wooden bowl full of soup into her hands before indicating for her to sit on the bench. Her eyes locked to the soup and her stomach unleashed a ravenous growl. I handed her a spoon and placed a flagon of fruit water next to her. Grace quickly lost herself enjoying the food as I used the distraction to take care of a few things. I pulled out a bit more furniture, a wooden bathing tub full of water and several bags of supplies, including food, towels and cloth.
I also swiftly set up some essential physical traps around the area with another of my new skills. I then returned to Luna's side and told her where I had placed the traps. Finishing her first bowl of soup, Grace looked up towards me, a beautiful smile on her face. I doled out soup and fresh bread for myself and Luna as I explained to Grace that I wanted her to wait an hour before having any more food, to make sure she doesn't hurt her stomach. Nodding in my direction, she seemed distracted and surprised as Luna handed back the first bowl of soup she had already finished for me to refill. I complied with my faithful lover's desire for more food before sitting and taking a few bites of my own food.
"Now," I addressed the girl in front of me as she had been focused on my companion's superhuman consumption. "Tell me who your owners' were that had you out here and what they are doing out here at the ruins. I am on a quest from the Adventurer's Guild looking for a dwarf girl, and I believe she is in the ruins."
"A dwarf girl?" Grace affirmed as her eyebrows shot up.
She proceeded to tell me that a group of outlaw mercenaries who lived outside the city had bought her a dozen years ago. They lived in cabin-like barracks in the woods and would only visit the city a few members at a time to visit the brothels, market and the underground mercenary guild for work. They had taken an extremely well-paying job from some Count in the city who was rumoured to have a deep fascination with non-human women. He had heard that Cecelia was leaving the protection of the city guard, and he had enlisted the bandits to capture her for him. They had just left into the cavernous ruins a few hours before we had shown up. I was not too worried that they would have found Miss Stoutdraft yet. Based on the information that I had gotten from her brother and Io, there were two reasons I was relaxed. First, according to her brother, she was going to the lowest levels. And second, I had learned from the maps Io showed me that it could take multiple days to get to the bottom when fighting through the monsters and defeating traps.
"Luna, I need you to stay here and watch over Grace while I go into the ruin."
"Of course, I will protect her," Luna said, remembering my promise from before that we would take care of Grace until we found her a home. "Good, I prepared everything you will need. There is a bath that I already filled with water. Plus, in the bags, I put a water stone and a fire stone so you can change the water however many times you two need. Plus, I made sure you have plenty of cloth and tailoring supplies so that you can make her some new clothes for once she is all cleaned up. And here are a few elixirs to get her to drink before her next bowl of soup. They will make sure she gets healthier faster."
Gripping me in a tight embrace, Luna gave me a passionate kiss before wishing me good luck.
"Hurry up and save the other girl so we can go back to the city and let her brother know she is safe. But, be careful, my love."
With those words of encouragement, I left the girls and jogged to the cave entrance. It stood at the foot of the valley we were in and resembled a mine entrance. The ruin-like quality did not become apparent until I made it a few hundred metres into the cave. Along the back wall were intricately carved sandstone blocks, in the centre of which stood a brass-coloured double door that was left ajar.
I slipped through the doorway to find myself immediately at my first choice. To my left stood a natural-looking cave tunnel meandering downward, and to my right was an open cavern that had a small settlement of ruined buildings that looked to be shaped by the same hands that made the doorway behind me.
Seeing no signs here of which way Cecelia of the brigands had gone, I activated the Trickster skill: Lucky Coin Toss, and left it to fate. Heads. It looks like I am going to the right.