Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Walking into Dandy's shop, Mercedes instantly recognized the dark elf from before. Squinting her eyes while Mono's clone, as well as the monster girls, made their way in, she stared at the owner, who was walking over to a table with two other women sitting across from each other. Placing a hand on the crying mother, the elf spoke words of consolation, and the other girl did the same.

Her mouth covered with one hand, Holly tried to mask her cries, but even so, her voice bled through the gap within her fingers.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but I can't exactly come back later," breaking her silence, Mercedes turned her head to the counter and began walking towards it, "I need some ingredient for an antidote that we're running low on–people's lives depend on it and the last thing I want for the delay to be blamed on me."

Slowly turning her head to the merchant, Dandy squinted her gaze, feeling a bit annoyed. But being no stranger to the fact that most of the city was poisoned, she shook her anger away and walked over behind the counter. However, instead of matching the merchant's gaze, her attention shifted to the monster girls standing behind her.

Mino, Maine, and a giantess whose single eye, much larger than the shop's door, was peering inside. Not exactly fond of monster girls at the moment, thanks to her encounter with Frazer's party, she grimaced.

"What do you want?" She asked, her eyes shifting between Mercedes and the Twin.

"I got a list from the witch, wait a sec…" Reaching into the air, a tiny red hand crawled out of a portal and handed Mercedes the list that she'd stashed away. Taking it in her hand, she passed it across the table and leaned forward. "Did you find the guy you were looking for by the way?"

"I did," glancing down at the note, Dandy began reading through it in her head, "I wish I hadn't, but it's done now, so whatever, I guess."

"Hmm?" Turning her head to the weeping mother, Mercedes tried to assess the situation. A trickster of her past self was bleeding through this new facade, and being pact-bound with a devil, she felt a draw toward the woman's misery. "Who is that, by the way?"

Following the merchant's gaze with her question, Dandy looked back at her with a light furrow in her eyebrows.

"Are you here to meddle to get the ingredients?"

"I mean, I know someone who'd be more than willing to help her, but let her continue crying, I guess, if that's what you want."

Staring at one another, neither of the girls backed even an inch. Mercedes wanted to pry some more while Dandy was already tired from dealing with weirdos for the entire day. And so, shifting her attention to the Twin, she tried to match her gaze and asked.

"You seem like less of a hassle, come with me. I will need someone to carry the ingredients from the basement." Nodding back, the clone approached the elf before following in her footsteps through a back door.

In her absence, Mercedes watched the mother and daughter sitting at the table, grieving in their own ways as if they'd lost a family member. Seeing their emotions manifest around them in a thick aura thanks to her patron's boon, Mercedes knew that she could possibly get something out of their misery, but was that really such a good idea?

A single glance at Mino and Maine, who'd been glaring at her, gave her the answer. They were watching her as close as possible, and even the massive eye of the Arachne was focused right on her.

"I'll talk to them, you stay there," Maine said, breaking eye contact with the merchant.

"What are you gonna do?" Mercedes whispered, but was simply ignored for the moment.

Turning her tail into human form, Maine stood before the mother and daughter with her sharp eyes, leering at them. The two instantly noticed her, and having heard and seen everything that they'd been talking about, they didn't wanna look at another monster girl–especially since that's what they believed to be the reason why Frazer turned out the way that he did.

"The man the elf was trying to find before, is he someone that you two know?" Folding her hand forward, Maine pulled up the only empty chair and sat on it. "We're here to save your city, and he only got hurt because he was trying to get in our way–now you tell me, how does that make sense? Trying to get into a fight with the people who are there to help you."

"I…" Slowly turning her head towards the monster girl, Holly heaved a sigh. "I don't care about all that, not anymore–not after what he said to me today."

"Mom, don't talk about this with her." Placing a hand on her mother's shoulder, Jess tried to control the situation.

But with a sympathetic look in her eyes, Maine kept pushing for the truth.

"Sounds like you loved him. My mother was the same, but she betrayed me as well at one point," leaning forward on the table, Maine watched as Holly's gaze turned back to her with a tinge of numbness, "But when it came time to help me when I needed it the most, she did. She didn't have to, I hated her already, but then she did, and saved my life even though it cost her, hers."

Placing a hand over Holly's hand, Maine gave it the gentlest of squeeze. Looking deep into the woman's eyes, she felt her sorrow in a similar way as she had long ago after her mother's passing. She never truly got it until finally she donned her name.

"He's your blood, isn't he? That's why it hurts so much, that betrayal. But what can a mother do but forgive? Even if her offspring don't deserve it, maybe not for him but for the sake of your sanity." Lowering her gaze to Holly's curled fingers, Maine began uncurling them with her hand. "Let that rope go before it takes more than your hand."

Quiet descended on the room as Holly allowed that feeling to pass. And just as this monster had explained, a weight lifted off her shoulders, but not because she'd truly forgiven Frazer, but because she no longer cared for what he did or what happened to that man.

"Your mom," breaking the silence, Jess leaned in. "How was she?"

A smile broke on the lamia's lips. Moving her hand away from Holly, Maine leaned back in her chair and let out a hushed laugh.

"Horrible to everyone, a true monster, but she loved me still…" Those words rang in the duo's ears. Making them ponder whether they'd given up on their family, far too easily. But with the Twin and Dandy walking back into the front of the shop, it was for the lamia to leave, and thus they had to find their own answers.