Tetra and Petra had been in Nüjaven for a few weeks now, and they were starting to get used to the big city. It was a lot bigger and louder than their quiet little town in the werebeast reservation, and some nights they questioned their choice to come here.
They had left everything they knew to follow the mysterious Loki, and her party, but so far it was nothing like they had imagined. They trained with lady Fenris and lady Thor, with just the experience gained from such legendary beings enough to level then up, though not by much. Loki did continue to mentor them, but they learned primarily from Fen, becoming her assistants and shadowing her work.
"I am a maid, but I am more than that," Fen had told them, "if you are to help me in serving Lokkun, then you must understand the full range of my duties."
"We are ready to learn," they had told her, their eyes bright.
"Not yet you're not," Fen said, "but you soon will be."
Fen had gotten them two uniforms of a similar make to hers, apparently made specifically for them by Loki. Their new uniforms were tailor-made to their exact measurements, were as durable and protective as armor, and could self-repair. They were unique 5th-grade items, worth as much as a small mansion.
"Isn't it a little...?" Petra asked, gesturing to the slits at the sides of the skirt that left her legs exposed up to the thighs.
"A little what?" Fen demanded, with arms folded beneath her bust, propping up her cleavage.
"Ah, n-nothing," she corrected herself, "I love it."
"To be of Asgard means to be absolutely confident in your own skin, no matter what you wear," Fen lectured them. "The more you grow in power, the more that uniform will fit you."
"Yes, ma'am."
* * *
They were currently on an errand from Fen, fetching groceries from the local market.
"When we left home, did you ever think this is what we would be doing?" Petra asked
"Yes," Tetra admitted, "they seemed very adamant that we weren't needed, so I figured we'd be doing stuff similar to this."
"Well you should've warned me," Petra chuckled.
"I did, you said it wasn't a big deal." Yryra said,
As they walked down the street towards the market, they were greeted by some of the locals, while a few people around the area still watched them suspiciously for being werebeasts, most had seemingly warmed up to them. Apparently, many high ranking nobles were known to employ maids from other races.
As Petra haggled about the price of ham with the butcher, while Tetra conversed with the butchers wife, the twins were unaware that they were constantly being watched.
After a couple of hours making a circuit through the market, the twins had their baskets full of all the necessary provisions they were sent to get.
"Why do they always overcharge for everything?" Tetra complained
"Big city prices I guess," Petra shrugged, "speaking of which, our purse is running low."
"What? How?" Tetra demanded, "there was about 2,000 worth of gold coins in there?"
"Living in a villa is expensive apparently," Petra said, "plus we eat a lot, like frighteningly more than we used to."
"I noticed that too," her sister commented, patting her flat belly, "Lady Fen said it's normal since we've been leveling up really fast, we should be close to breaking out of the Awakened tier."
"Good, maybe then we'll get some useful skills?" Petra huffed
They turned down an alley, still chatting about nothing, when they came across a small group of men.
"Well, well, well," the one in the middle said, a rocky smirk on his face, "look what we have here?"
"Do we know you?" Petra asked
"No, but we know you," he said smugly, "I was there at the city-lord's manor when the soldiers brought you and your odd group in."
"Oh, so you work for the city-lord then?" Tetra guessed.
The young man looked offended, "I am Lance El Drakken," he said introducing himself like it was meant to impress them.
"Okay, well I'm Petra, and this is my sister, Tetra," Petra said, deadpanned
"My father is the right hand of the city-lord herself," he emphasised,
"You say that," Tetra said, "but it still doesn't explain why you stopped us."
"That lord of yours, the one in the green," he said, stepping closer, "what is she?"
"None of your business," Petra retorted,
"I heard she conquered the city vault and refused to share in its spoils." Lance said,
"As is her right," Petea defended, "she conquered it all on her own, without any support."
"She got lucky," one of his entourage sneered, "she had that monster the city-lord kept imprisoned, the Storm Bringer, with her. She probably had that thing do all the work for her."
"If that doesn't sound like support I don't know what is?" Lance said
"We're not going to stand here and entertain this... whatever this is," Petra scoffed,
"How dare a pair of beastmen servants try to leave my noble presence without my permission." Lance sneered
"We don't work for you," Tetra reminded him
"That doesn't matter, you're coming with me." He said as he pulled out two hoops from his coat and threw them at the twins.
"Bind." He commanded, and the hoops glowed brightly and expanded, before encircling both twins.
"What the hells?" Petra demanded
"This is the rare 7th-grade item, binding rings." He boasted, "you can struggle all you want, but weak servants like you couldn't never hope to–"
He was interrupted when the golden rings thar held telhem suddenly burst apart. Luckily their uniforms could disable any form of restrain that was of a lower grade, plus the two of them could probably just break free with their raw strength.
"Huh," Tetra commented, looking at the sleeves of her uniform, at the fading circuits that seemed embedded within the fabric, "Worth a small mansion indeed."
"H-how did you do that?" Lance demanded
"Guess we're not as weak as you thought?" Petra said, "now we're going to leave, and if you ever try to mess with us again, you'll wish you could die after what we do to you."
To emphasise the threat, Petra runs her claws across the wall, carving deep gouges into it.
A wet spot appears on Lance's pants, then he and his lackeys all take off running.
Once the twins are alone once again, Tetra turns to her sister, "don't you think the threat was a little bit too much?"
"Nope," Petra said, "it worked just as it was meant to. Now let's get these groceries back to the villa."