[@Click This], [@Crusader Lord], [@Hammerman], [@Qia]
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[center][h2]Some Forest...[/h2][/center]

As a broad barrage of verbal replies came her way, Laynea just stood around and listened as the other girls explained themselves. She nodded understandingly when [b][u]Sayu[/u][/b] and [b][u]Aria[/u][/b] explained that they were travellers and had just found their strange garments in a dungeon, and that they most certainly weren't wealthy. However, the dark-haired girl tilted her head and looked a bit puzzled when [b][u]Cecilia[/u][/b] chimed in with a ... Less than convincing droll to her voice... Which wasn't really noticeable, since their mystery goddess had given them the ability to speak the language of this world, and as such, any preconception of british accents being snooty would be non-applicable, as the girl wasn't technically speaking british-english anyway... But regardless!

"Uh... Huh... I see." Was the only response the girl could muster up after listening to the quickly-made-up-and-obviously-not-questionable-story of the young ladies before her.

When [b][u]Cecilia[/u][/b] made her slightly snide comment about not apologizing for killing the ratlings, Laynea merely shook her head.

"No, I'm not saying you shouldn't have defended yourselves. Nobodies asking for an apology here, miss. But your friend could've killed ... That on-" She pointed to the one that now had a pair of stone dice lodged in its brain. "-in a less messy way. A quick stab with a knife or that sword of yours woulda done it." She explained.

Apparenlty she wasn't upsdt about having lost her prey to other hunters, but rather was just in a state of business-like abhorence at the wasteful treatment of valuable commodities... or somehting along those lines. But, then the discord began, and not in the way of electronic communications. After [b][@Sayu][/b] had offered their new [i]friend[/i] the mana gems and tails of the ratlings in exchange for guidance, laynea's eyes lit up and she got a big, goofy and happy smile on her face. [b][u]Aria[/u][/b] seemed to be alright with the proposal as well, which made the girl even happier! Then [u][b]Cecilia[/b][/u] completely shot the idea down and instead opted for the 'let's divvy it up the goods'-approach. And [b][u]Charlotte[/u][/b] seemed to be flip-flopping and wishy-washy on the whole matter, not really seeming to have an opinion of her own.

"Ah, well... You did kill them, so I suppose the mana gems are yours. Bu, wait... You said you guys were penniless? Do you mean that like, you don't have [i]any[/i] money?" A slightly concerned look spread on Laynea's face and she looked at each of the girls. "Because, you know you'll have to pay the gate-toll before entering the city, right? I'm not sure how it works where you girls are from, but here you either need to be an adventurer, a registered citizen, a merchant or from nobility if you want to get into any big towns without paying." She paused, shuffled a bit of dirt with one foot before adding. "And you can't exchange the mana gems for money unless you actually get into the city and visit the trade post..."

So, a bunch of new relevant information had just been delivered. The girls were near a city, that they couldn't get into. They had a valuable resource that could be traded for money, but they couldn't actually trade it for money.

"Anyway, I'll at least help you harvest the materials from these guys before anything else, okay?" Laynea then said, with a smile as casual as if she was talking about picking apples.

After which she produced a very hefty-looking kniefe from her waist-belt. Had that always been there? Well, no matter, the point was, she nnow had both a sword [b]and[/b] a knife! Luckily, the young girl didn't seem to have any ill intentions or evil, mastermind-like plots to take the group by surprise and skin them all alive - quite litteraly. Instead, she walked on over to the ratling that [b][u]Charlotte[/u][/b] had just most recently mangled. Kneeling down, the black-haired teen rolled the creature over on its side and began making a practiced incision along the back of its skull... or, well, what was left of it. After a moment, she let out a happy, but surprised, noise.

"Oh! It didn't break! Look!" After having dug around some in the creature's skull (ew, gross) she produced a very small, pea-sized sphere, with a violet-purple hue. It almost looked like a semi-opaque glass bead... And then she grabbed the ratling by its tail, hoisted it up, and slashed off its tail from the root, causing the corpse to unceremonuously drop on the ground with a thud.

"Here, you wanted to hold onto it, right?" Laynea said as she approached and handed both the tiny pebble-gem and the... tail... to [b][u]Cecilia[/u][/b] with a friendly smile. "I'll go get the other two for you as well. Be right back~" She said, before doing the classic anime-girl jaunty-run over to the charred corpse of the other ratling - repeating the process from before - and then moved on to the one that [b][u]Aria[/u][/b] had exploded with the power of the moon and the stars.

Luckily, it seemed none of the materials had been damaged. Well, apart from the one [b][u]Charlotte[/u][/b] had lit on fire. Its tail was a bit... Crispier... Than the others, but still intact nonetheless! But, with the harvesting of monster-parts done, Laynea wiped her forehead with the side of her arm.

"Anyway, sorry. But you can't really [i]split[/i] these with me. I took a quest to hunt a specific number of the little rascals, after all. But if you want to head back to Krosana with me regardless, just head on out of the forest that-a-way!" She pointed in a direction. "I'll swing by and pick you up once I'm done hunting the last little vermin I need to fill my quota, alright? Bye for now, ladies~!"

And with that, before any of the other girls had a chance to protest, make a request or even reply, Laynea was off. Running at remarkable speed, seemingly heading deeper into the forest. Apparently the idea to [i]share[/i] the loot had led to them, for the moment, losing their only source of information and explanations on this world and its customs. It paid to be cautious and careful, of course, but some things were more valuable than others. Still, it didn't seem like the young adventurer was going to leave them high-and-dry, and if they really wanted to, she was at least willing to bring them back to the city she was from - so long as they made their way out of the woods in the general direction she'd indicated.

But for now, the girls were alone with each other once more. In the clearing. With three carved-up ratmen corpses, and a handful of large-ass rat tails and little marble-sized stones.

... And the birds just kept on chirping.