Chapter 42

As we walked I could feel Knick looking at me every so often. He reached out to poke at the monkey riding on my shoulder, and the monkey tried to bite his finger. Knick deftly pulled his hand away at the last second. “So, does your new pet monkey have a name?” he finally asked as he ceased trying to touch it.

“I’m not a monkey, you stupid blood mage! I’m a DEMON damnit!” said the monkey, irritated.

Judging by Knick’s lack of reaction he couldn’t understand what the monkey was saying. “Nope, he’s as nameless as I am. Seems like he doesn’t like being called monkey though. I guess I’ll just call him Demon for now. Can always come up with an appropriate name he likes better later,” I responded. Blood mage? What’s that supposed to mean? The monkey crossed his arms and nodded while glaring at Knick.

“He’s creepy,” said Knick with a doubtful tone.

“Oh, definitely, yes,” I responded with a chuckle. “And to find him in a graveyard is potentially ominous too. I’m hoping I can find some information on his species once we get to The Mountain. I bet they’ve got some really good libraries up there, and I intend to get access to do some research at some point. In the meantime, though, he seems pretty attached to me, so we’ll bring him along with us. Not that I wouldn’t trade him for Dog in a heartbeat,” I sighed sadly. The newly christened Demon snorted in disdain but didn’t say anything.

We walked back through the gravestones much more quickly than when we’d entered, now that I wasn’t carrying Dog’s heavy corpse. As we exited the graveyard the guard gave us a solemn nod but said nothing. The darkness of full night had closed on us as we finally made it back to town.

“Where we drinking?” asked Knick.

“Hmm, I suppose I’d like to find a really nice place to tie one on tonight, since it’ll be our last night in town. I bet the best bars will be close to the count’s castle. If I were going to build a bar that catered to nobility that’s where I’d put it anyway. How’re you sitting for coin?” I asked. “I wasn’t planning on anything particularly extravagant when I left the smithy today so I only have a dozen or so gold on me.”

“Ara just tossed me one of your pouches from your last card game. After paying off that guard I’ve probably got about fifty gold and a little silver left. Even if we drink the really good stuff all night and get dinner we should be fine,” said Knick dismissively.

I nodded. “Good. I want to get very drunk tonight, and you’re buying,” I chuckled. Knick looked at me and gave a silent nod with a serious expression on his face.

We made our way through the night towards the castle blocking out the stars on the horizon. As we finally reached the street that encircled it we started looking for a likely bar. I was right, there were quite a few bars out here, and we picked one more or less at random. The Noble’s Cup, said the sign hanging above the entrance of the fine stone building. The only reason I’d picked this particular bar over the others we’d passed was because we heard slightly more noise coming from inside than the others. I wanted witnesses to my night’s debauchery.

“Nameless!” I heard a call from across the room as we entered, and looked to the corner of the room where it had come from. There appeared to be a decent sized game of liar’s folly going on with seven well dressed players holding cards around a large circular wooden table covered with drinks, cards, and coin. I saw Tom, an unlanded noble with middling air magic who was one of the regulars at Baron Tilamet’s game. I strode over to him with Knick in tow. “Would you care to join the game, my lord?” asked Tom drunkenly. “These merchants wouldn’t last a dozen hands with you in the mix!” he laughed uproariously as the men at the table rolled their eyes. Tom didn’t appear to be doing very well judging by the stacks of gold around the table in front of each player.

“Not tonight, Tom, thanks. I’m just here to get shit faced drunk. Had to put my dog down earlier today, and I find I’m a bit sad about it. Let me buy you a drink at least though, sir.” I signaled to a buxom waitress in a low cut dress nearby, and she gracefully strode over, shaking her hips, as the men drinking at tables throughout the bar ogled her. I tossed my entire pouch of coin on the tray she carried. “A round of drinks for everyone on me until my coin there runs out, gorgeous!” I said loudly to a chorus of cheers from dozens of men. I gave a series of shallow bows and winked at Tom as I made my way to the bar with Knick.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

We took a seat on a couple of stools, and I found myself face to face with another beautiful woman showing a lot of cleavage. She was cleaning a fine glass mug with a spotless rag as she eyed us curiously. “Barkeep. Your job tonight is to get me as drunk as possible.” I pointed my thumb to the side to indicate Knick. “He’s paying.” Knick tossed a gold coin on the bar, the barkeep snatched it up, deposited it in her ample cleavage, and poured us each a drink. “To Dog,” I said solemnly, raising up my glass. Knick matched my gesture and we downed our drinks after I gave it a brief sniff. It burned going down. Pretty strong stuff compared to most of the booze I’d run across in this world. I was never much for drinking in my past life so I was hard pressed to compare it to anything I’d had before. It was, simply put, spicy and left my tongue with a unique aftertaste that wasn’t at all unpleasant. “A beer for our next glass if you please, beautiful barkeep. Preferably from as far south down The Mountain Road as possible.” The woman nodded and replaced our small tumblers with larger glass mugs filled with golden beer. I took a sniff and followed it with a deep sip as Knick quietly negotiated the prices with the barkeep and slid over a handful of gold for our upcoming drinks, asking her to tell him when that ran out. Damn, not as good as Springfields’ beer but still pretty good. Demon had dropped to the bartop and was sniffing at my glass. “You want some, Demon?” I asked.

“Yeah, that beer smells good,” he said with a creepy overly toothy grin showing longer canines than I would have expected.

“A small tumbler of beer for my diminutive companion as well if you please, barkeep.” I said with my most noble tone.

The barkeep snorted with a small smile, but pulled out a tumbler and filled it from a barrel under the bar, setting it in front of Demon. “On the house,” she chuckled, amused, as she watched him begin licking at the contents.

We had a handful or so of the glass mugs full of beer over the next hour as I glanced around every so often. That damned dark blue tendril of air magic was still hanging over me. I had assumed the count would have to go to sleep at some point and wouldn’t want to continue listening in on me. It’s getting pretty late though and I didn’t actually want to get wasted before I went out to kill him. Hmm, I wonder if he’s just holding it open while he sleeps. I have no idea if it could be done, but how would I get him to drop it. Hmm, well I suppose he’d find it annoying if I was particularly loud. In that case…

I stood up as Knick looked askance at me. “I’m going to sing!” I said stentoriously, trying to sound more drunk than I was, as I staggered away from my stool. The bar had a small stage that was probably used by traveling minstrels, but as there were none in attendance tonight... I laboriously climbed awkwardly onto the empty stage and stood above everyone in the bar as they looked up at me curiously. “This song is for my poor, dearly departed, Dog that I was forced to put down today!” I launched into a loud drunken rendition of Amazing Grace. Somehow I remembered the entire first two verses but eventually stumbled to a stop as I started the third and forgot how it went. “And I forget how the rest goes!” I took a deep bow, and the bar roared with applause. Huh, I hadn’t thought it was that good, but judging by the reaction of the bar’s patrons I may have a better voice than I’d thought. Might have to look into teaching myself an instrument or something. I'd played a little guitar in my last life, but it’d been awhile even before I died. I hopped off the stage and faked a stumble before making my way back to my seat as the men around the bar continued clapping and asking for another song.

Maybe later, but as their applause had erupted I’d noticed the deep blue air magic tendril twitch and then snap backwards out of the bar. Time to kill. I made my way back to the bar and sat back down between Knick and Tom, who had wandered over to the bar while I was singing. Tom appeared to be nursing a bloody finger and was glaring at Demon.

“That’s what you get for trying to touch a demon, little air mage,” cackled Demon. I reached out and touched a finger to Tom’s hand running a little healing magic through it. Tom looked at his suddenly healed finger and smiled widely.

“Why thank you kindly, my lord!” He turned to the bartender. “A drink of the good stuff for Lord Nameless of Tiga as thanks for the healing magic and for the song!” he said drunkenly. The barkeep quickly poured me a small tumbler of some dark amber liquid. Her eyes shone in the tavern’s lanterns, and she looked at me as if seeing me for the first time.

I held up my glass, “To Dog,” I said.

“To Dog,” said Knick and Tom as they held up their respective drinks.

“TO DOG!” thundered the bar’s patrons behind me, startling me thoroughly. Having finally stopped their applause they’d apparently, unbeknownst to me, decided to join my toast, and we all collectively downed our drinks.

I faked a small retch and held my fist to my mouth briefly. “Knick, I’m going outside for a bit to find a pleasant place to vomit and possibly to take a piss while I’m about it. I’ll be back in a flash, why don’t you try to secure us a table while you wait, and we’ll get some food when I get back. I expect I’ll be hungry.” Demon hopped onto my shoulder as I laughed, stumbled to my feet, and made my way towards the door, nodding gracious drunken acknowledgement to the various patrons that praised my singing as I made my way through the full tables and out the door