When the song wrapped up, Arthur tossed a few coins in the busker’s instrument cases before they left. It was well worth it, doing a solid hour of breakfast-related material was an impressive feat in its own right.
Afterwards, it wasn’t that long of a walk back to the inn. The stars had come out and even though there were more than a few lights on, they were a beautiful backdrop to travel to.
“So you really think this will be our only date? We have weeks here,” Arthur asked.
“Weeks go faster than you think. You are going to be busy, Arthur. You’re important,” Mizu said, still a bit fuzzy from the song.
“Maybe. But not that important. I’ll make time.” Arthur did some quick math in his head. He had tea shops to visit and he imagined there would be some meetings and dinners he didn’t know about yet, but even if he was busier than he expected, that would still leave some time. “What do you say to a minimum of three more dates, just like this one.”
“Sure. Although I’ll be busy, too. Sometimes I’ll have to be at the wells at night,” Mizu said.
“Because…” Arthur searched his limited mental library of how welling worked and came up blank. “I give up. Because why?”
“There are some runes that can only be drawn by moonlight.”
“They need lunar power?”
“It’s more that the sun messes them up. There are some really delicate majicka gathering formations that just won’t tolerate anything but perfect conditions.”
“Well, we’ll work it out. And if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen, but how often will we actually be in the capital?” Arthur asked.
“Every four years,” Mizu answered. “Once you do a good job, you’ll be stuck with it.”
They were drawing up to the hotel now, and Arthur drew the door open for Mizu to walk through as made it to the front of the building.
“But I might do a bad job,” Arthur offered.
“Oh, Arthur, you? Do a bad job? You might do a job you aren’t happy with, but nobody ever saw Arthur do a bad job at anything except axe throwing.” Mizu yawned, then stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. “I’m tired and I have to get up early to see the main well. I’ll be there all day. Good luck on your first day at the expo. I’ll be rooting for you.”
Arthur hugged her, kissed the top of her head, then followed her towards the rooms. He was more tired than he had thought he would be after the day’s travel and seeing the small part of the capital he had managed to cover. He wondered if there was a person who had been around the capital enough to eat at most of the restaurants and visit most of the businesses and houses. Arthur refused to believe anyone could see all of it, even if they had unlimited time to try. It was changing too fast for that.
—
The next morning, Arthur considered the fact that he didn’t really need to take another shower. He had two yesterday, followed by some light exercise in perfectly clean clothes. And he wasn’t dirty or smelly in the least. He could just comb his hair, get into his clothes, and go on with his day.
And yet, he knew the water in the shower would be hot and relaxing. Arthur figured that couldn’t hurt, given that he was heading into a big day doing unfamiliar, scary things. He’d have to cut himself off there though, with no more showers allowed until tomorrow. If he didn’t, he could see this being the first step into a long shower-spiral, one that ended in a life where he never actually left the comfort of hot water and high-quality soaps anymore.
And what are showers, Arthur thought, if not a gateway drug for baths.
This time, at least, Arthur kept things short and sweet. Within ten minutes, he was clean, clothed, and heading towards the inn’s common area. Nobody he knew was down there, which didn’t surprise him too much. Mizu might be either sleeping in or out at a well already. Neither Karbo nor Itela struck him as early risers if they didn’t have a specific reason for that. Ella, Minos, Milo, and Lily could have been downstairs but pretty much all of them were a coin-flip on either having something else to do, wanting to sleep in, and getting to work early.
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
“Oh! Hey there.” The elephant innkeeper caught Arthur’s attention, then motioned towards the tables near the kitchen. “Breakfast is on if you’re looking for that. Just simple stuff, but lots of it.”
“That would be great, thanks.” Arthur glanced around the room to make sure nobody else was there who might make fun of him for it later, then set out to make things right. “By the way, I feel bad. I never got your name before, and I’ve just been saying ‘my hotelier’ when you came up in conversation.”
“Ha! Well, don’t look so embarrassed about it. I’d guess about half the people staying here don’t know my name. It’s not the kind of thing I get upset about. Some people forget. Other people don’t want to know in the first place. They avoid knowing, I think. Whether they are aware of that or not.”
“That’s odd.” Arthur tried to get into some mindset that involved not caring who his host was, and couldn’t. “Why? Is it some sort of class thing?”
“Oh, kind of. But not like you are thinking. It would take a minute to explain.”
“Well, I’m told there’s breakfast.” Arthur waved at the kitchen. “Join me?”
“You know what? Sure.” The elephant scribbled a note on a piece of paper, folded it, and left his newly created I’m eating, wait ten minutes sign on the countertop as he followed Arthur to the table. He even took the initiative of ordering for both of them. “Two breakfasts, Rull. Everything. And juice.”
The cook nodded, portioned out some eggs, meat and bread from his growing piles of pre-prepared food, and brought it over to the table, nodding as he dropped it off and went back to cooking.
“Rull’s pretty good. He handles two other hotels. Another breakfast and a lunch. I figure he feeds at least a hundred people a day, all by himself.”
“Is that a thing for some classes? Just a numbers game?” Arthur’s class wanted him to make a lot of drinks, but that was secondary to making the correct drinks that the moment called for. But for someone whose job was fueling up as many people as possible for the day ahead en masse, those priorities were probably flipped.
“Not just a numbers game, He does good work, as you’ll see in a second. But yeah. I’ve talked to him about it before. He wants to add a couple of dinner shifts if he can get them, to help him level faster.”
“To help me level at all!” Rull yelled from the grill. “I’m bottlenecked.”
“There you have it.” The elephant dug into his food, taking a few big bites and a drink of juice before continuing on. Arthur ate a bit too. It was good, if simple in the way all hotel breakfasts were. “Anyway, you were asking a question.”
“Yeah. You were saying that people don’t want to know who their hosts are,” Arthur said.
“Sort of.” The elephant chewed a bite of eggs. “They don’t want to know my name. A lot of the time, they want to know a lot about me. How I run the hotel. If I do the laundry myself. How I feel about whatever’s going on in the city. But they don’t want to know my name, or about anything that happens to me outside of this place. It’s not mean.”
“It sounds mean.” Arthur drank some juice. “Or at least inconsiderate.”
“I thought so too, once. When I was younger.” The elephant set his fork down for a moment. “Now that I’m older, I think it’s about the experience. It’s people going to a new place, and how they think about the new place is wrapped up in the hotel they are staying at. And how they think about me is wrapped up in their impressions of the hotel. In some ways, I’m like a part of the building to them. Its face, I suppose.”
“And not knowing your name helps them think of it that way?” Arthur asked.
“Something like that.” The elephant glanced out at his empty counter and started eating a bit faster. “It’s like if they knew who I was, I’d be a person, and not something that’s making their trip better. Of course, I don’t believe they think that out loud, to themselves. It’s just something that’s working in the background.”
“Huh.” Arthur shook his head. “It’s almost the first thing new customers ask me, at my shop. If they don’t already know.”
“Different setting, different rules. Small restaurants and tea shops have a different shape in people’s minds. I think so at least. I’m not exactly a philosopher.”
“Could have fooled me.”
The elephant stood, leaving the last quarter of his breakfast uneaten, and gave Arthur a slight bow. “I wear many hats. But the main one is manning that counter, so I need to get back. Thanks for inviting me to eat, by the way. That almost never happens.”
“No problem.” Arthur pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil from his bag. “By the way, could you give me directions to the expo? I have no idea where I’m going and none of my friends are down yet.”
“Sure. Keep the paper though. I have some maps up at the counter. You can just take one of those.”
The elephant was almost out of the room when Arthur realized the big mistake he was making. He almost yelled to get the elephant’s attention again.
“I can’t believe I forgot.” Arthur stood up. “Your name. You never told me.”
“Ha! I had a bet with myself that you’d forget. You won this one. It’s Ulan,” the elephant said.
“Ulan. Got it. And nice to meet you. As a person, I mean.”
“Same, Arthur. Enjoy your breakfast.”