Chapter 111 - Straight To The Inn, Or Not
It was a little past midday. I was hungry.
Time for more meat!
I made my way back to the stores. My body was moving without much effort and the pain was almost gone, but the armor was making little metallic sounds when I moved. Maybe some parts of it were made of metal? I couldn\'t see any though.
I tried food from three different stores but none of their food even compared to the food I had this morning. Without further ado, I headed to the place I\'d eaten this morning and saw that the owner was in the middle of packing up.
"Hey old man, wait!"
"Oh it\'s you! Wow! You really look the part now!"
I can\'t blame you. I know I look amazing!
With my chest puffed high, I chatted with him while he made skewered meat.
"The shop you suggested was really something. Thank you for that advice too."
"You almost fell huh?" This geezer was felt similar to the old man. But at least this one had some sense of humor, albeit in a very weird sense.
All of a sudden the mood spiraled downwards. "Let\'s… not go there." My face twitched a little but I controlled it right away.
"I was about to head home. Age really is something ya know." He chuckled.
"Good thing I caught you at the last moment. You wouldn\'t believe how hungry I was. I tried some stalls but in the end, your ones were the best!" I held nothing back. He was good and I wanted him to know it.
"Ha ha. I\'m glad you like them… the wife also used to like them…" He let out a chuckle with a tint of regret, and a sigh.
I shouldn\'t have pried but my curiosity took the best of me. "Used to?"
"She passed away last year…" He looked at the ground and my heart sank a little.
I should have known.
Just how dumb can I be?
"I\'m sorry," I said.
We chatted for a little while. He seemed a little down but as we continued talking he gradually became all lively again. After I finished the meal, I asked him about good item shops and he pointed me toward a shop close by. I thanked him again and went to the shop.
Just like before this one was also very crowded. I bought a single potion and some herbs. After that, the search for the inn began. In this town potions weren\'t all that super expensive but high potion or panora water were not even here for some reason.
I was about to search for the inn when my memory jogged. I\'d forgotten something important. Something very important.
What about soap!
I didn\'t even know if this world had soaps or not. But there was only one way to find out.
On my long journey of \'searching for the inn\', I stumbled across a platform and saw a girl robbing thugs in the alleyway. And I just happened to know the girl. Her name started with a B and I had better things to worry about. So I ran the other way.
"Pay up honey. I did say there\'s no escape didn\'t I?" I heard some weird noises coming out of the alleyway so I put my fingers in my ears and started to hum my way out of it.
I was too tired to move about but I had to.
If I remember correctly the old man said we would meet up in the Silverfang inn.
"Silverfang, Silverfang… where are you?" I mumbled
After a long search, I finally found the inn. Let\'s not get into how long and how many people I had to ask for, for me to get here.
Turned out, it was close to the entrance of the town after all. I laughed at my own idiocy and went inside. The inside was pretty and only two men were here along with a single waitress and one lady behind the counter. Both of them were quite the lookers but I suppose that was a given since their work demanded it. The two men were busy munching on their brunch.
"Excuse me; I\'m looking for a room to stay the night. I think my comrades will come soon if they haven\'t already," I said.
"Let me check…. I\'m sorry but all the rooms have already been reserved. Just a while ago a gentleman booked four rooms…" The girl behind the counter gave me a solid PR grin. I didn\'t like it one bit.
Damn it!
Wait, four…?
It made me think about it. Brenda said something about meeting me at the inn and the old man convinced me of Jowy. I didn\'t like where this was going. "That gentleman couldn\'t have been an old geezer who looked sturdier than he is right?"
"I don\'t know about that but he was quite quirky…"
I sighed. "Actually I\'m one of his comrades…"
"Your name would be?"
"Daarc Green…"
She looked at me for a second and her smile faltered a little but she controlled it anyway. I wished she\'d just stick to her job rather than looking at me with such pity. "Let me check. Can I see your ID?"
I searched for my things and it was probably was lost with my old things. "Sorry I might have lost it."
"I see. In that case, you should renew it at the church or you could wait here until one of your friends get here."
Damn! Not again!
Somehow these things always happened to me. Even back on earth, it used to happen all the time. I\'d always forget important stuff and regret it halfway.
And why was this world so infatuated with IDs anyway?
"Oh, Daarc." It was Jowy. The only person I didn\'t want to see yet was glad to.
"Hey."
"Anything wrong?" He asked, acting all innocent.
"I don\'t have any ID, so-"
Jowy talked it out with the girl. "Oh, this is our fourth friend." He understood things fast, too fast.
The girl gave Jowy a suspicious look and turned to me. "Alright…. Please go and rest in the fourth room by the window on the second floor." She seemed a little weirded out by the whole incident. She tried to hide the awkwardness but some of it leaked anyway.
"Okay," I replied.
It was a weird turn of events.
I guess personal identification is necessary no matter where you go.
I went up and looked inside the room. But before, I had something else to do.
"Thanks." It wasn\'t like I trusted him or anything, but I couldn\'t deny his help. I wasn\'t some jerk like that.
He didn\'t say anything and just smiled.
The room smelled like, something with fur had been living inside for a century, but there weren\'t any traces of fur whatsoever. The culprit must have been pretty good at hiding the evidence. I would have complained but since I was on the verge of falling over, I stayed quiet and jumped right on the bed, after properly removing my armor that it. The bed was fluffy and smelled bad.. But I fell asleep without even noticing much of it.