Fractured God

Two men stood together in an empty room. One towered over the other but based on his posture and demeanour, the larger didn't seem to be in charge.

“This has been quite the process, boy.” The shorter man remarked.

“You're telling me. You know how hard it was to plant that letter?”

“Yes, it must have been quite the ordeal. Did you see any riches among their possessions?”

“Not really. The bastard must have hidden them somewhere. Either that or we really did wring him dry.”

“What a shame.”

“So you got the body ready?” The other man asked as he trailed his finger against a dusty table.

“Give me a few more minutes to prepare. It was quite hard to work on it with the anxiety that took over this place. I just need to give a few more bones the appropriate amount of damage.” He remarked as he tapped the leg of the body he was working on with a small hammer.

“Does it really matter? All bodies look the same burnt.”

The shorter man shook his head in disappointment. “That wishy-washy attitude would end up being our undoing, especially around that woman. Why do you think I've withheld the body from her for further scrutiny? I can only hope the embers of this fire reduce it to cinders.”

“Yeah, yeah, old man, I get ya. But isn't having my men watching her house plus that woman you hired, sure enough, insurance to escape cleanly?”

“We can never be too careful. After all, we don't want her to suspect our survival after all of this. Even if we do escape it'd be meaningless if she finds out the truth.”

The taller man nodded his head in agreement.

“By the way, I want you to walk around town. Let yourself be seen by low-ranking adventurers and common folk. That way, it won't seem out of the blue when they question people about suspicious figures.”

“...if you say so, just finish up by the time I come back.”

“You can't rush good workmanship boy.”

The night was dark and the taller man slipped outside of the room through a door that appeared to lead outside.

The women soon exited the mansion.

They were walking through the forest and a discussion soon emerged.

“We’re going to town, right?” Tina asked.

“Eh? Why not a local village? It'd probably have a more intimate feel.” Bailey answered.

“Oh come on, if we wanted it to be intimate we could have just stayed home. Ugh, speaking of home, is Elizabeth okay with us staying at her place for the future?” Lily asked.

Tina turned to her with an eye raised. “What do you mean about that? Of course, we're gonna leave, you can't expect us to stay there forever. Besides, you two should be decent enough that we can make somewhat of a living if we moved parishes.”

“Come on, Pinky can't we just lean on Elizabeth's shoulder and work under he-”

“No.” She quickly responded. “You don't expect to work under my rival.”

“Oh for the love of-”

“Uh, can this wait? We're gonna enjoy ourselves tonight, right?” Bailey asked.

“Tsk.”

“Tsk.”

The two women mouthed, annoyed.

“What did I do?” she asked.

“So we're going into town right?” Lily asked.

“Of course we are, I'm not going to some backwater to be ogled at by some losers who can't even use magic.”

Bailey only sighed as they walked away ignoring her.

The girls soon reached town.

“Where to first?” Bailey asked.

“The pub obviously!” Lily answered, wrapping her arm around her neck.

“Ugh, I guess we did say we'd go drinking,” Tina remarked.

“What's with the reaction, Tina? You should learn to enjoy life more, it's too short to be turning your nose to booze.”

The group began walking to their destination.

“Pft, I'm sorry but most of the people I know who love drinking aren't the most respectable. You included.”

“Watch yourself Pinky, you can disrespect me all you want but don't you dare talk shit about Vanessa.”

“Whatever.”

The group continued their walking but Lily stopped them. “We're here.”

The pair looked forward and Bailey sighed. It was a white stone building with a frosted glass door. It had a wooden menu on the left side, half of which consisted of various spirits the pair hadn't heard of.

“H-here?” She asked.

“Is it a problem?” Tina asked, not well versed in pubs.

“Is it? I'm not sure we'll be able to go inside without selling off all we're worth.” The chestnut-haired woman answered with a serious expression.

“It's fine Bailey, Elizabeth gave me some spending money.”

“But-”

Lily pulled a heavy-looking sack filled to the brim with gold. She pulled out a coin and it was labelled with a 50 on the side with the head of some beast on the other side.

“A bag of fifties that big!?” Bailey exclaimed before covering her mouth.

“Yeah, apparently she said her master would be coming back soon enough, so she could afford to give us the rest of her spending money.”

Tina grabbed the bag from Lily and took a closer look.

“Hmm, for a princess I'd expect more.”

“It's enough to have a good time and that's all that matters. Also stop saying that so casually, I feel a chill up my spine whenever you mention it.”

“I don't know why you guys think she's a princess. She could be a duchess or something.” Bailey interjected.

“They might as well all be the same things. They're rich and they have connections.” Lily remarked.

The girls entered the building and were surprised to find they had their own room. It was quite spacious at that, it was about half the size of the Branch building's reception area.