Chapter 16

The door shut behind us, and each one of us could feel it. Our spirits had been dampened by that meal. There was a fatal flaw in our planning… we did not consider the cost of our beverages or the sales tax. In the end, what we thought would cost around 12 silver pieces cost us 15 and some copper.

“GOD! That sucked!” Hope cried. “The food wasn’t even THAT good!”

“I know...” I said. “We could have gotten way better food at the guild hall.”

“And cheaper, too,” Leah said, brushing a tear away.

I held out the remains of our treasure. “We are left with only a silver and 18 copper… that will just barely cover our rooms tonight.”

“I’m too tired for anything,” Hope groaned listlessly. “Let’s just get back to the guild and get some rest. That was far too disappointing.”

We each let out a sigh in defeat.

In the end, we did not tip well. Pride on the line or no, I don’t think we will be going back there anyway. It was a little too late, but I realized the mistake in planning our outing. We should have asked someone who lived here longer for a recommendation, instead of picking a place randomly.

We walked back to the guild hall, our bellies full but our wallets much lighter. The sun was setting, and a cool evening breeze blew against us.

“Sorry guys,” I muttered. “This was all my idea. I’m the one who dragged you into this.” Some party leader I was.

John clapped me on the back. “It’s alright. Live and learn, I guess. Next time we’ll get it right.”

“It is a shame,” Hope said. “That money could have gone towards some better armor, not to mention I still need a gun to properly utilize my class.” she sighed. “I can’t even do any crafting without resources. I’m basically still an adventurer class until I get that stuff together.”

“At least you got a cute outfit!” Leah said with a smile, always the optimist.

As we entered the guild hall we saw a small group with three familiar faces. I raised my hand as Leah ran right over to them.

“Hey, Tsarina! Chris, Alura!” Leah called as she approached. She seemed to have adjusted to our new life; her energy made me hopeful for the future as well. Maybe we really could make this world our home.

“Long time no see,” Tsarina said back. Her armor had upgraded since the last time I had seen her. She now had much thicker shoulder guards, and the armor itself was tinted red. Their weapons may have improved as well, but it was hard to trust if my memory served correct or not. Aside from that, the only difference was the lack of their 4th member, Rin.

Leah was the first to take a seat at their table, Hope then did so as well, and with the last of the chairs taken, John and I were stuck standing.

“So, what have you been up to?” Leah asked.

“Mostly grinding goblins around GreenHaven,” Tsarina answered. “You can usually find quests in the town as well. We just came back to visit our statues. And buy new gear. I see you’ve all selected your classes...” her head turned at Leah. “Beast Tamer?”

“Yes,” she chuckled. “Apparently I have a rare blessing which allows me to take this class. I have not had a chance yet, but I have a skill that allows me to tame beast-type monsters and have them become my pets. Um, or maybe sidekick or allies is a better term.” She put a finger under her chin as she thought over the terminology.

“What? That’s crazy,” Chris said. “I don’t even know what my blessing is yet. I hope I get a good one.”

“At least you’re in good company,” Tsarina said to Chris. “None of us know our blessings either.”

“Heh same,” I said. “Except for John, he just gets extra HP.”

“By the way,” Hope said, a mischievous glint in her eyes. “We saw Rin the other day… I was wondering what the story is there.”

“Well, simply put, we’ve decided to go our separate ways,” Tsarina said.

“Hmmm, that’s not the way she sees it.”

“I’m sure… so what has she said, then?”

“Said you guys flat out abandoned her in a cave without saying anything.”

Tsarina rolled her eyes. Chris chuckled and said, “No, her boyfriend almost got us killed, so we decided we were done with his training program.”

“What? You almost died?” Leah asked.

“As much as I want to blame Leon, I blame ourselves as well,” Tsarina said. “He talked us into facing a level 20 ogre when we were still only level 8. As the party leader, I should have trusted my instincts.”

“Well, we did all jump two levels after that,” said Chris. “But still, totally not worth the risk.”

“Rin almost died right in front of me,” Alura said, exhaling loudly. “That monster was beating her into the ground over and over. It was all I could do to keep up with the healing. I thought for sure I was going to lose her.”

“Yeah!” Chris pounded the table. “That asshole traumatized poor Alura!”

“Well, I’m just glad we all walked away from it,” Alura said. “But I can’t imagine why Rin believes in someone who would gamble with her life like that.”

“Probably just because he’s good looking,” Hope said. “Definite sleazeball, but kind of easy on the eyes. What do you think, Leah?”

She looked away. “Um, I don’t know, I haven’t thought about it.”

I couldn’t help wondering if she really hadn’t thought about it, or if she was blushing because she didn’t want to say. Actually, I could never see her giving a guy like him the time of day anyway. She definitely wouldn’t like someone as arrogant as him.

Tsarina grinned, “Not my type, personally.” I noticed she and Alura exchange a complicit glance that made Alura blush.

“Hey, let’s push a table up and party!” Chris said suddenly. “I’m sure they wouldn’t mind.”

“Love to,” I said. “Unfortunately, we are a bit low on treasure at the moment.”

“Ah, screw that, we’ll loan you some!” Chris said, already getting up and going over to the empty table nearest us. “That good with you, boss?”

Tsarina smirked. “I think we can afford to buy our friends some drinks.”

“Sweet! Hey John, wanna help me with this?”

“Wait,” I said, “We can’t accept that. I still need to pay you back for the silver you already loaned us.”

“That wasn’t a loan, and I’ll slap it away if you try,” Tsarina said. She smiled at me, which was an uncommon break from her stoic demeanor. “Come on, it has been a tough week. We want to celebrate. It will be more fun if you join in.”

“Still, I-“

“That’s it!” Hope said, standing up. “Zelik, if you seriously try to turn down free drinks at this point, then I’m calling a vote to remove you as party leader!”

“But we already-”

“And then! I'm going to start a petition to ban you from the city and make you live in the woods!”

“I don’t think that’s even legal.”

“And then! I’ll add on the petition that before banishing you, they take all your clothes, so you have to live in the woods naked!”

Tsarina clapped her hands. “That’s the spirit!”

Alura did her best to contain her laughter but a loud snort escaped her.

“Woo!” Chris cheered as he and John set the table down. “Waiter! A round for all seven of us, please!”

Realizing I was outnumbered, I gave it up. I would pay them back one day, though. Even if not directly with coin in hand, I would make it up to Tsarina.

The waitress, Cloe, came over, showing incredible skill at balancing the seven glasses all at once, transferring them from her tray to the table and sliding them right into our hands. “Anything else for ya'?” she asked.

“Two plates of the shish-kabobs, please,” Tsarina said. “One for each table.”

“Sure thing! Coming right up!”

For the next few hours, we all ate and drank, sharing the stories of our adventures since parting ways. Apparently their reputation in GreenHaven was growing quite well. They realized with only a three person party they couldn’t move out of the woods and start tackling dungeons or higher level monsters just yet. However, GreenHaven had daily quests that mostly involved dealing with goblin camps, and even without Rin they had become quite proficient at farming goblins.

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

“Oh man, you’re not going to believe this!” Hope said, her face red from the alcohol.

Tsarina took a sip of her drink. “Hm? What’s up?”

“So we grinded a bunch of slimes today, right!? Cleared em’ all out! Not a sh-ingle one left!” she spoke loudly, slurring her words. “Our pockets were full of those DAMN seeds! And so we traded them for money and went out to eat. And the place totally sucked! Everyone stared at us, the food was lousy and we spent all our treasure!” Her head hit the table with heavy sobs wracking her shoulders. “It was sooo disappointing!”

I watched as the rest of my party cringed and Tsarina’s party seemed a bit taken aback. Tsarina asked, “Is that true?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” I said, sighing and taking a sip of my drink.

Hope was still whining. “I wanna’ go back in time and take it all back!” She sat up, lifting her drink and pointing it at me. “It was a great idea, Zelik! But FUCK them!”

“I’m sorry, I’ll make it up to you guys one day,” I said, then felt a pat on my back.

“Don’t worry,” Chris said. “You’re a great party leader. You tried your best, MAN! CHEERS!”

I wasn’t sure if he was mocking me or if he was serious. “Thanks,” I said.

“So,” Tsarina started. “How did you find out about Leah’s beast tamer blessing?”

I was grateful to have the topic finally moved on from our horrible dining experience.

“Welllll,” Leah said, her eyes looking up. “I met the forest guardian, Yukari.”

“Forest guardian?” Tsarina asked, turning her head. “What do you mean met her? I’ve heard the name, but was under the impression Yukari is a monster.”

“Yep, technically she is, but… she’s more of a guardian,” Leah said, as she began to explain the story.

I was glad for the run-in with Yukari. Otherwise, our stories would have paled in comparison to the adventures Tsarina’s party had already been on. As Leah told them about our encounter with Yukari, everyone leaned in, their eyes widening in awe. Even Tsarina looked impressed.

“Wow, Leah,” Alura said, her voice filled with admiration. “You stood face to face with something that big?”

“Heh yeah, I sure did.” She rubbed the back of her head, big mug of beer held off the table in her other hand.

“Sounds intense,” Chris said.

“I guess, but I wasn’t scared,” Leah explained. “I don’t know, it’s not that I was confident it would end well, its more… hmm...” her eyes looked up. “I actually don’t know how to explain it. I just felt I had an understanding with Yukari. She understood that I did not want to hurt any of her pups, and I think she understood that if she let me go, I wouldn’t come back and hurt them later.”

“I wonder if other low-level wielders have gotten caught by Yukari before,” Tsarina pondered. “I’m glad it ended well, but it also seems like bad luck. It must not be a common occurrence if nobody warned us about it.”

“As a matter of fact,” a voice spoke up behind us, and none of us were happy to see it was Leon; Rin tagged along behind him. “It is extraordinarily rare to find Yukari on accident. I bet Leah here attracted her.”

“Oh, I see,” Leah said, lifting her drink and taking a sip as an excuse not to look at him.

“I hunted Yukari once,” Leon said, his casual tone seeming like more of a brag, trying to make it sound like no big deal. “Took her down with my old party. We were probably level 40 or so at the time.”

“You defeated her?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, she comes back after a month or so whenever she dies,” Leon explained. “That’s the way it is with all mythic monsters.”

“Is there something we can help you with?” Tsarina asked, resting her chin over two folded hands, keeping a set of uninviting eyes fixed on him.

“Oh, come on now,” Leon said, showing two open palms. “What’s with the bad energy at this table anyway?”

“You know fully well why,” Tsarina answered.

He smirked. “You know, nobody stopped you from walking away from that fight. If the tank walked off, then obviously the rest of the party would have to follow. So don’t blame it all on me just because you don’t like how it turned out.”

“That is a fair point,” Tsarina said. “And a lesson I plan to keep with me. Be that as it may, we are having a bit of a gathering here, so if you don’t mind...” Her eyes moved over to Rin. “Rin, you are welcome, of course. But not him.”

“I’ll pass,” Rin said. “But I came over to give you something.”

Rin walked around the table to where Tsarina was sitting. For just a second, I thought she was reaching for the dagger at her waist. Instead, she unlatched a coin pouch from her belt and dropped it on the table in front of Tsarina, where it landed heavily against the wood.

“And what is this?” Tsarina asked.

Rin’s hand reached to her waist again. I tensed, noticing Chris and Alura both begin to stand as Rin’s hand wrapped around her dagger and unsheathed it. Tsarina just stared her in the eyes as Rin showed it to her.

“This is from the ogre’s chest,” Rin explained. “It’s worth one and a half gold, so this is your party’s cut of the value. I think 90 silver is fair since you kept the sword and the quest money. I wanted to keep the dagger, so I figured I should pay you for the rest.”

“How?” Tsarina asked, though I felt she already knew the answer. “How did you get that much money to give to me?”

Rin shrugged. “Leon gave it to me. I’ll pay him back later.”

“So you owe him a debt?” Tsarina asked. She picked up the coin bag and held it out to her. “Take these back, then.”

Rin clicked her teeth and returned the dagger to its sheath. “I don’t want to owe you anything, so keep it.”

“But you’re comfortable owing him something instead?”

Rin sighed. “Tsarina… just shut up already.” She turned around, but Tsarina stood and followed her. Or, so it seemed. Tsarina actually walked right up to Leon and pushed the coin bag into his chest, forcing him to take it.

“I’m paying back Rin’s debt to you. These are yours to keep,” Tsarina said.

“You make me sound like some back-alley loan shark or something,” Leon chuckled. “Really though, cut it out.” His expression became much sharper. “I’ve been part of this guild for ten years; you’ve been here for a week. You’re coming into MY house and disrespecting me. So you better watch it!” His hand shot forward, pushing Tsarina back into the table, but John was there to catch her.

There was silence hanging in the air, even the other tables stopped and looked our way. Then, Tsarina suddenly whipped her sword out of its sheath, and we all stood in unison with her, holding up our weapons.

Leon laughed, flicking his wrist as his black lance appeared in his grasp. “Oh, are you kidding me?” he laughed. “You newbs got no idea what you’re doing right now, do you?”

We tensed, the bar coming alive with chatter, and I could imagine the other guild members making wagers on the outcome of this exchange. Then, a voice cut through all of the commotion.

“HEY!” Cloe yelled, running right into the middle of all of us. “Put your weapons away, or I’m calling the guard! Fighting outside of the dueling area is strictly prohibited, and you will all be banned from the guild!”

“Hey, hey, come on Cloe,” Leon said. “They are the ones who started with me!”

“I don’t care,” she said. “Put your weapons away NOW!”

Tsarina was the first to sheath her sword, and the rest of us followed. Leon continued leaning on his lance as if it were an oversized walking stick, the blade high above his head. I could imagine it chopping down on one of us like a guillotine. Then, a smug smile burned over his face. “You know, if you guys really want to play this out...” He turned to the room, stretching his arms out as he made an announcement: “What do you all think!? How about a 7 on 1 duel?!”

There was a sudden burst of cheering. The bar alive with excitement at the suggestion.

Leon grinned, rotating his eyes back to the guild master’s daughter. “That alright with you, Cloe?”

“Father won’t approve of you beating up a pack of newbs,” she said.

“We won’t use the guild’s arena, then,” he said with a shrug.

“If it is outside the guild hall, then I have no say. You know that.”

“Well then, that’s just fine,” he jumped up onto a chair, lance still in hand, raising his arms as he turned to us. “So, how about it? You all going to finish what you started or not? There's another arena just a fifteen-minute walk from here!”

Cloe whispered to us. “Don’t do it. This crowd goes marching to the other arena, half the city will come to watch the show. Don’t put yourselves through that.” With those words of advice, she disappeared back behind the bar.

“So, how about it?” he asked, both hands on the lance as he leaned on it from atop the chair. “You going to leave the crowd in suspense or give us an answer?”

“This is between me and you,” Tsarina said. “I’ll happily duel you myself.”

He sighed. “Come on, that’s no fun, that’s not even worth the walk. I’ll take you down with my opening move. You’re way too low-level.”

“That’s my offer,” Tsarina said.

“How about this,” Rin spoke up, coming back to Leon’s side. “I’ll duel Tsarina.”

The crowd hushed, perhaps more serious wagers were now being considered. Rin was a higher level than Tsarina, and they both had good gear, but an assassin’s daggers would be a disadvantage against a heavily armored knight.

“Rin, you ought to know me well enough to know I have no interest in such a thing,” Tsarina said.

“No, I think it is the perfect way to settle our score. You disrespected me, and you disrespected my teacher. So, that means I owe you a different kind of debt.”

“Tsarina, don’t do it,” I heard Alura whisper. “It’s not worth it.”

“You know what?” Tsarina said. “It’s late, and I think we’ve all had a bit too much to drink. I’m leaving for now.” I could hear the disappointed sighs echo through the guild as Tsarina turned away.

“Wait!” Leon said, holding the coin bag out. “I’ll place a wager on the duel. This is the 90 silver I leant Rin to give to you. I’ll bet you double this amount on the outcome!”

The bar once again erupted in excited chatter. With a quick glance, I could see hands being shaken on other side wagers.

“Why would I agree to such a thing?” Tsarina asked.

“It’s simple. This makes it a no-lose situation for everyone involved. Rin doesn’t want to owe you anything, and you want her debt paid. If you win, then you clear Rin’s debt and you get this coin bag she originally wanted to give you. If you lose, however...” his lips parted, showing a devilish smile. “If you lose, then you owe me a gold and 80 silver.”

Tsarina froze, staring him down. I could hear Alura whispering to her, though I couldn’t make the words out as the guild was so alive with excitement.

“No, Alura, it’s alright,” Tsarina said, and stepped forward, Alura’s fingers slipping off of her arm. “Fine, I accept your challenge. I’ll bet you 1 gold and eighty silver that I can beat Rin in a duel.”

Rin smiled and stepped forward as she held her hand out to Tsarina. “Then, its a deal. By the way, so you don’t say I tricked you, I’ll go ahead and let you know.” I saw the shadow come over Rin’s eyes, and I felt like I was looking into the face of a demon. “I’ve discovered my blessing, but I won’t tell you what it is.”

“Is that so?” Tsarina asked, staring her down.

“Yep, so feel free to back out. Otherwise, I don’t want to hear any complaints.”

Tsarina narrowed her eyes, but then shook Rin’s hand. “Fine, you’ve got a deal.”