Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Tan–the young racoon demi-human, busy with his daily life around the mansion had finally come to know some good news. The basement's construction was near about done and the viscera they'd recovered was also burnt and then the ashes were buried in the ground. Keeping notes about everything as pristine as his suit, the racoon boy sniffed his way to the garden in search of his new masters.

'Hmm…' However, as he stepped outside the mansion's gate, he scanned the garden for Raven–the leader of the hero's group, but just couldn't find him anywhere. Maria and Asmodia were both busy with training and the monster girls were far too scary for him to even attempt a question.

Instead, wandering over to an opening in the garden that had now been turned into a spot for glamping since nobody wanted to sleep inside the mansion just yet.

"Can I come in?" Knocking at the zipped tent with a faint shadow of a person inside, Tan assumed it to be either Mel, Amedith or Liliyana–the only other who could comprehend his report and later relay it to their leader.

"Wait a second, I'm getting changed!" The voice was Mel's, and just as she'd requested, Tan turned around to face away from the tent to give the elf some time to get herself changed without being leered at from the outside.

His eyes, however, knew no rest. Instead of simply darting around not entirely focused on anything, Tan stared at the ex-queen struggling to draw even an ounce of magic. At times she did better while the other, she seemed utterly hopeless, but something in her eyes still told him that she wasn't ready to give up just yet.

Her conniving nature, her greed, and even her desire to do anything and everything to get what she wanted–none of it had stripped from her, which only made her seem more ferocious.

'She seems focused. I hope she doesn't burn up from holding herself back too much though…' Worrying that he might have to arrange a healer to remain present in the mansion at all times, Tan brought up his notepad and wrote it down amongst one of the many tasks that he had to do later. 'Miss Brenna and Miss Aerin sell herbs, maybe I should ask them to sell us some for a stockpile of medicine?'

Looking around once more, he hoped to find Erika. But once again he couldn't find her anywhere.

'The priestess and Miss Liliyana are both healers too, but they're not always present so we might really need another person.' Glancing over to the monster girls–the only ones he hadn't looked through as of yet, Tan couldn't help but wonder if one of them could fill the shoes of a healer. 'Hmm, nope.

Doesn't seem like any of them can heal, and the priestess is usually off to the church so we will need another person.'

Hearing the tent's zipper being opened behind him, Tan put his thoughts away and stepped further away from the entrance. Turning around, he found Mel in a slightly dreamy state even though she was wearing her adventuring clothes.

"You needed something?" She asked, barely holding a yawn.

"I just wanted to know where Master Raven is, do you know Madam Melicia?" Hearing herself being addressed so formally, Mel's eyes squinted with a hint of disgust. But quickly shaking her head, she looked the racoon boy up and down before responding to his questions.

"Yeah, Raven is off to Tanya's house to check up on her. I think everyone but me is gone, no?" Looking around the garden, Mel tried to find someone from their original group but with Erika off to the church, Aria to her training and Raven to Tanya's house, she couldn't find anyone. "Shit…did Amedith already leave with Liliyana?"

However, seemingly more concerned about the lovers being gone, she looked down at Tan and grabbed him by the shoulders in a hysterical manner.

"When did they leave!?" She asked, shaking him violently.

"W-where?! Wha-what do you m-mean!?" Having no clue what she was talking about, Tan brushed Mel's hands off his body and hopped a few steps away from her. Visibly terrified as a vision of him being handled even rougher flashed before him, the racoon boy hid behind one of the gazebo's poles and yelled back at the elf. "I-I don't know where they went!"

"Fuck! I wanted to go to the farmhouse for a few days too…" On the verge of tears for having missed her ride to Rose's house while Raven handles his other dates, Mel dropped her shoulder with disappointment before turning her head to look back at the terrified Tan. "Can you arrange a carriage for me to go to Rose's house?

Those two are gonna stay there for a while, and I don't wanna sleep with crickets until the mansion's renovation is over."

"F-fine! J-just promise not to touch me!" His eyes squinted in anger, the boy growled at the fair elf. He was afraid yet his feral nature made him stand his ground while the trauma of his past and his humanity made him want to run away as fast as possible.

"What…" For a moment, Mel was left confused. She didn't realize what she'd done, but as her mind slowly caught up to it, her eyes widened with shock and she quickly decided to apologize. "Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't–"

"I'll just get the carriage!" More than slightly upset, Tan folded his hand with the notepad hugged tight. Squeezing his arms as he turned around, he hugged him while making his way to get a carriage ready. "Please don't touch me again…"

His words of parting stung Mel like a hornet's sting. She knew she'd messed up, especially since Raven had already advised not just her but everyone from the party to treat the boy gently. Same went for the rest of the staff, although since they enjoyed having sex with Raven, Mel figured that they weren't as broken as the racoon-boy butler.

'I messed up again…' She thought, already trying to think of ways to make up for what she'd done. But her atonement had to wait as the carriage that she'd requested arrived before she could stumble on an answer.

Feeling horrible about what happened, Mel nearly cried inside the carriage. But given that there was still some time before her date with Raven, she swore to make amends with Tan or else she could neither enjoy the date nor feel comfortable returning to the mansion.