10

"Do you like my new armor?" I said to Bella as she approached Teresa and me. We had just walked out of the armorer's shop.

The armor I chose was a basic, medium, leather armor set. It was an ugly, brown color, but since it was affordable that didn't bother me.

"I don't think it's possible for me to care less right now," she said with a bored look on her face.

"Oh, that's fine, I wasn't really looking for any approval or anything," I said, trying to hide how badly her words had crushed me.

"Okay love, this is our next stop," Teresa said, as we stopped in front of a weapon smith.

The moment we walked into the shop a massive, two-handed sword caught my eye. I walked over to it with lust in my eyes.

"Oh yeah, you're coming home with me," I said as visions of me slaying monsters with the sword began playing in my mind.

"Please buy yourself a sword that large. I need you to carry a sword that large around with you," Bella said. I could see her fighting back a laugh.

Oh my god, Teresa was right. I thought to myself as I walked away from the sword and all my dreams.

"Oh, come back and get it, you'll look so cool," Bella said before she actually did double over laughing.

I walked away from her and scanned the rest of the swords in the shops. Some of them were extremely nice but they cost hundreds of gold. I only had 85 gold left after spending the 15 on my armor. So those were out of the question. I did find a selection of affordable swords. Each one was wrong for a different reason according to Teresa.

"What about this one?" I asked while holding a longsword.

"The blade is broken, it's useless," she said without looking at it.

I studied the blade closely and found a tiny chip near the bottom.

"There's no way that tiny flaw is a real problem," I said defensively.

"I could snap it like a twig to show you, but then of course you have to buy it. Or you could just take my word for it," she said.

"Okay, I'll listen. This is just getting frustrating, I want a real sword," I said.

"You know love, lately you've become so much more passionate about life. I like this version of you," she said, like it while inspecting a broadsword.

I hadn't thought about that. It did sound true though, the only thing I used to have to look forward to was my daily proposition from Teresa. Now I was literally a different person. I wanted things that never made sense to want before.

"I'm glad you do. I'm never going back to the old me," I said.

"Can we just buy one of these crappy excuses for weapons and get out of here? I haven't been this nervous about something accidentally poking me, since that time I went into the wrong bathhouse," Bella said.

"Actually, we can leave, this selection is a letdown. There's a private sword maker that may be able to sell us a quality sword," Teresa said.

We followed her through the market district. We were approaching the upscale section that people like me never visit.

"Umm, Teresa, where exactly are we going?" I asked as I looked around.

"I said he is a private sword maker. He makes weapons for the royal army mostly, but he owes me a favor so I'm hoping to cash that in now," she said as we walked.

"Teresa my love cup is that you?" A male's voice called from somewhere near us.

We stopped and searched for the person the voice belonged to. Teresa drew her sword.

"Oh please, put that away snuggle muffin. Our love will protect us from any harm," Delmar said and stepped out of an alleyway.

"What the hell is that thing?" Bella said before her staff materialized in her hand.

Delmar looked horrible. He had lost a lot of weight. His hair was caked in what I hoped was mud, and his clothes were dirty and tattered.

"Delmar is that you?" I asked. I couldn't believe he was the guy that was in the tavern that night.

"Of course, it's me. I usually keep a low profile these days, but when I heard cuddle bear's voice, I had to talk to her," he said.

"Listen, I don't know who the hell you are but if you call me one more pet name, I swear I'll cut off your head and spit in your neck." Teresa said with her sword pointed at him.

"Oh, Teresa I'll stop with the names, but why are you pretending you don't remember me?" Delmar said with his hands raised in surrender.

"Wait, I've met you before?" Teresa said with her brow furrowed.

"Wait, that thing is a person?" Bella said with her mouth agape.

"Yeah, he was a decorated hero in this kingdom. It seems like he's fallen on hard times," I said, feeling bad for him.

"Not hard times, I mean sure I had to leave the extraordinary house the king gave me once I couldn't go on quests anymore. And sure, I have to fight off rodents and desperate people for every scrap of food I find. And yeah, my bed is really a bunch of bird nests that I gathered and smushed together into one giant super nest. But I wouldn't say times are hard for me," he said while scratching his head.

"All of that happened because of what Teresa did to you?" I asked, I was really feeling horrible for him.

"Teresa freed me from the cycle. Wake up, slay something, earn an insane amount of gold, take home some gorgeous, make her climax so hard she speaks a language only the gods understand, sleep, and repeat the next day. That was so dull, now I get to spend all of my waking moments thinking only of Teresa," he said with dreamy eyes.

"Sir I don't know who you are but throwing yourself at me like this is embarrassing. Also, you're disgusting, I could never love a creature like you," Teresa said and walked away.

Delmar dropped to his knees. The look on his face was nothing short of devastation. I wanted to do something to cheer him up, but I honestly didn't know where to start. I ran ahead to catch up with Teresa.

"She called it a creature, so that means it wasn't human right?" Bella said as she ran behind me.

We made it to the sword maker's shop. There were two ornamented swords displayed in the window. One of them had diamonds and rubies in the grip. The other one had sapphires and emeralds in its grip.

"There's no way we can afford anything this guy is selling," I said.

"Well, no but again I'm calling in a favor. I would never try to buy one of these swords," Teresa said.

"Well, you're gonna need a reliable weapon. If we're gonna get justice for Laura and Elias, it appears there was a lot of work put into hiding what happened to them.

"You wouldn't happen to be talking about Laura Delmoore and her husband Elias, would you?" an old woman with a walking stick said from next to us.