Isekai For Hire Chapter 26: The Morning After

Read chapter 26 of Isekai For Hire by wk_rust on NovelPedia.

The Morning After Lorena woke in an unfamiliar place. Her heart raced, already standing and going for her daggers. It’s okay. We’re in the safe house. I don’t remember falling asleep. I think everyone was exhausted after the excitement of last night. Her eyes fell on Harkyn, asleep, face buried in a book. He seems okay. Yeah, I guess. Images of last night came in flashes, Weaver’s white knuckles on Harkyn’s neck. The rage in his eyes when she couldn’t pick the vault door. The blotches of blood on Naith’s ribs. She rubbed a hand down her face. She had barely slept. Every time she closed her eyes she saw Harkyn’s face turning blue and heard Weaver’s roar. I’m sorry. This isn’t exactly what I expected from this crew. We need this, right? To get to Bale, and Everfrost? Lorena closed her eyes and exhaled. Those goals seemed so far away, despite all the progress she’d made over the past few days. Yes. Then it’s okay. Ren let out a sharp breath. Go check on Naith. Lorena walked over to the far corner of the room where Naith was sat on the floor, tending to her snake. Naith gave her a curt nod and Lorena joined her, crouching down next to the snake. “So, yesterday was pretty exciting, huh?” Naith shrugged. “Pretty standard.” ‘Pretty standard’, she’s so cool. Ren said, enamored by the woman. A beat of awkward silence passed and Lorena grasped at something to say. She was always bad at small talk. Ask her if she’s okay. “I meant to ask, are you okay?” She gestured to Naith’s ribs. Naith cocked her head to one side, but her hand pressed to where the blotches of blood had bloomed during the heist. “When you were controlling the snake I noticed that you started bleeding.” Recognition dawned on Naith and she nodded. “I’m fine. Little Noodle cut herself on something in the pipe.” Ren gasped. Noodle? That is so cute I want to dieeeee. Her words rushed out in a single breath. Lorena couldn’t help but smile at Ren’s reaction, and the adorable snake. She hadn’t pegged Naith for one to give her pets names, let alone adorable ones like Noodle. Introduce Noodle to Rocky. I think they’d be friends. Let’s take things slow, I wouldn’t want to have Rocky get his heart broken. Hmm. Good point. “Does that mean that any damage your pet takes, you also take?” Naith rocked her hand back and forth. “It’s complicated. But when I’m channeling, yes.” Glad I went with Rogue. Oh come on, think of all the adorable names we could give our pets. I think you need to start naming more of your things. I’ll get right on that, once we have a moment of not being in mortal danger. Okay good. First order of business: Rendclaw’s Vengeance. That’s a terrible name. What’s wrong with that? Also the System named it, not me. Ren let out a dramatic sigh. How is it Rendclaw’s vengeance if we’re the one using his fang to hurt people? If we got hurt from using it, sure, but that doesn’t happen. The curse just hurts our targets more. That’s actually a pretty good point. Duh. Lorena reached her hand out to pet Noodle then paused and looked at Naith for permission. She raised her chin in approval and Lorena patted the snake’s head, the cool scales feeling smooth beneath her palm. “Is Noodle okay?” “She’s fine. She’s a fighter,” Naith said with a soft smile as she gently swirled the snake’s tail with her finger. Warmth spread through Lorena as she watched Naith play with the snake. A shadow fell over them. “Oy.” Weaver towered over her and Naith, eyes red, face puffy. Lorena’s eyes darted around the room for his hammer, finding it where he had flung it the night before, still firmly planted in the brick wall. She could probably beat him to it if she activated Sprint. But could she lift it? “We good?” he asked Naith, cutting off Lorena’s train of thought. Naith looked him in the eye and nodded, a softness to her expression that surprised Lorena. “Good,” Weaver said and then turned to Lorena. “Good work yesterday, but you need to get your level up. Having lock picking would be real useful.