Reincarnated as a mana core

There was an eating area to the left and a small sitting area to the right on the bottom floor. In the sitting area little cuddly toy sheeps were sitting everywhere and the couches and pillows had covers with anime style sheep-kin on them. There were posters in the same anime style on the walls, but they weren’t too ecchi, so Argul guessed it was okay.

Mia got a view of the room and immediately pressed herself inside. “Wow, that’s so cool!”

She ran towards the couches and threw herself on them, hugging one of the pillows. Argul had to smile at the sight and entered the inn herself. Going by Mia’s reaction, going to another inn wouldn’t make her that happy.

A young woman entered through a door in the back of the eating part of the large hall. She had two large curved horns and where her hair had been was white wool now. The same wool also grew around her neckline, her lower arms and her lower body. As far as Argul could tell she also had hooves instead of feet.

The sheep-kin waved at them and came towards the group. “Hello~, welcome to the wooly sheep!”

Argul didn’t know why she had ended up in the position of the group leader today, but it was exhausting. She waved back awkwardly. “Hello.”

The girl reached them and started to curiously inspect Alyra. “Wow, look at you. Such nice looking fur.” Argul would have thought she would be scared by Alyra, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

Alyra puffed out her chest a bit. “Of course I have nice fur, I am not the daughter of the silver witch for nothing!”

The sheep girl got excited and turned towards Argul. “Don’t tell me you are…”

Argul sighed and ignored the endless blabbering of the overly excited woman. After a moment it became too much for her and she held up her hand. “Alright, that’s enough. Yes, I am what people seem to call the silver witch. My name is Argul by the way and no the rumors are only rumors.”

The woman seemed to realize what she had been doing and cleared her throat. “Right, sorry for that, I just get excited really fast. My name is Luna and I am the innkeeper of the wooly sheep. The rumors about you are really popular right now.” 

Now she even was popular, could it get any worse for Argul?

This time Arthur spoke up. “We are looking for rooms to stay in for maybe a week. We need two rooms, one for me and one for the rest.” Finally someone else was doing this for Argul.

Luna nodded. “I have some free rooms left, so that shouldn’t be a problem. A room is five small bullets a day without food. Water to wash you can get at the well in the backyard. If you want to have warm water you will have to pay extra. Electricity hasn’t worked for multiple weeks, so a lot of things don’t work.”

Argul conjured some water in her hands. “Water and a hot bath shouldn’t be a problem for us.”

Luna looked at her with wide eyes. “That’s so cool! Is that magic? How are you doing it?”

Argul banished the water again. “Well-”

Arthur interrupted her with a handwave. “I’m sorry, but you can do your teacher thing later.”

Argul pouted a bit, but didn’t complain. She paid Luna up front for a week including dinner and breakfast, which left them with only 10 large bullets.

Luna showed them to their rooms upstairs. The woman was really nice, but had a bit too much energy in Argul’s opinion.

Arthur got a small room with a single bed and a bathroom. The room of Argul on the other hand had a lot of space and a large double bed. There were wool carpets and sheep-girl posters everywhere too.

Argul looked at her blanket and had to ask. “Where did you get all the sheep stuff?”

Mia put down Aina on the bed and Luna scratched herself behind her horn. “Well, this inn had been like that even before the incident and had also been mine before. I am a bit of a manga fan and have decorated the rooms like this over time.”

Alyra whistled at that. “To get teleported together with your inn, you sure are lucky.”

Luna’s mood fell a bit at that. “I am not sure about that. My inn survived on regular customers and none of them ended up here. Now only the people with kids come now and then. I can barely get by.”

Mia came over and took Luna’s hand and smiled at her. “I like it and I know that auntie does too. So you have us now!”

Luna smiled at Mia. “Right you are! Things are going to get better!”

She turned around and ran out of the room. “I am going to make some dinner!”

They just rested until dinner was ready and then went downstairs. Luna had prepared a hearty soup with the vegetables from the fields for them.

During the dinner Argul explained how to conjure water to Luna, who didn’t understand much of it because she didn’t know how to manipulate mana, but nonetheless listened. Nobody else came for dinner and Luna told them that it was like this most of the days.

After dinner Mia tried to teach Argul how to crochet, but Argul didn’t really manage to do anything. While they were doing that Luna was talking with Alyra and Arthur.

When Mia got tired Argul gave them a warm bath and they cleaned themselves the normal way for the first time in a month. Mia nearly fell asleep inside the bath tube and Argul had to do most of the drying for her.

The next day they went out to discover the city. Most of the people lived in the eastern parts and there were only a few shops inside of Newport. Most of the shopping windows had been destroyed and nobody wanted to sell their stuff there, which was likely the reason for the market.

The desolate parts of the city looked even worse. It was difficult to find a window that was not broken and the glass shards were still laying around. Trash littered the streets and the smell was disgusting to put it bluntly.

They also looked into the houses, but it didn’t look any better there. Most of the things had been looted and the things left behind were in bad shape or things that nobody needed like massage balls.

They exited the house they had been in and Argul noticed a group of fifteen mana signatures walking towards them in a sidestreet. These likely weren’t other scavengers and Argul could already see where this would lead.

A group of twenty men, a few of them not wearing more than rags, rounded the corner. They had a lot of knives on them and without a doubt there were more that they didn’t display openly.

Argul positioned herself before Mia with Alyra to her left and Arthur to her right. Mia squeezed Argul’s hand. “Are those bad people?”

Argul squeezed back and answered in a reassuring tone. “Likely, but nothing will happen to us.”

They were in her opinion also stupid people because they chose to pick a 2m tall fox as their victim.

The dudes slowly surrounded them in a half circle and a slim one stepped forwards. “Well well well, what do we have here?”

Arthur looked at them and sighed. “A bunch of stupid fools.”

The guy turned towards him, playing with a curved long knife in his hand. “You should choose your words carefully, boy. Otherwise…” He made a gesture as if he was slitting someone's throat open.

Arthur just shrugged. “I will be careful once I have to fear for my own life and not that of my robbers.”

A few of the other men laughed at that. “Look at how strong the little man is trying to look.”

The slim guy pointed his knife at Arthur with a disgusting smile on his face. “Your girl will surely appreciate your heroism while we teach her a thing or two and make her our little slave.”

Argul was really annoyed and disgusted by the whole situation. That there would be some illegal activity in this part of the city was somewhat logical, but she had thought Alyra would be enough to keep them away.

Arthur looked at the bandits with pity. “I never had a chance with her. She is on a completely different level than me in more than just looks.”

He waved them away. “As a former drug dealer, let me give you a good tip. You should run away right now.”

The slim guy only laughed and then pointed at them. “Hah, you are a funny one. Guys, you know the deal. I don’t care about the guy and the fox, but get me the woman and child without any wounds or you won't get a chance with either of them.”

The group of bandits laughed and then charged at them with greedy and cruel expressions.