Harem System novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Ask Me First

"Where is your rank?" Nils said again.

"Pawned," Veyra said. "It paid the note."

Liriel was holding the sack with both hands and could not seem to put it down.

"You sold the band," he said.

"Yes."

"Without asking me."

"It was mine to sell."

"It was." His voice stayed low. "And it's the second time you have decided something about my life alone, and handed me the bill."

Veyra flinched.

"I'm not buying anything," she said. "I'm paying."

"You are buying." He took a step toward her. "I sat outside your door ninety nights. You told me I was not worth a fingertip."

"I know what I said."

"Then don't spend yourself to make that go away. I won't owe you for it. I won't have it handed to me as payment."

She stood very straight, with her bare wrist held against her stomach.

"What do you want?"

"I want you to ask."

She stared at him.

Slowly, with her lip shaking, she said, "Nils. May I help the Ward pay off its note?"

"Yes."

"May I do it with my own rank?"

"Yes." His voice cracked on it. "Thank you for asking."

She nodded once, and turned her head away so he would not see her face.

Liriel carried the sack to the Mourne treasury herself at noon.

She dropped it on the treasurer's counter in front of the whole waiting room, and demanded a stamped receipt.

The treasurer counted twice.

He stamped the paper, and his hands were not steady.

By one o'clock the whole city knew that an S-rank had pawned her band to save a Hunger Ward.

By two, Ardith's women had stopped coming to the gate.

Floor two took all afternoon.

They went down the black hall again for the hound den at the far end, and this time Mourne's party was already there.

Six women in green-and-black armor stood in the water between the pillars.

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