Chapter 52 - Following the White Rat

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After the lunch at Lord Lamar’s place, we decided to tour the city some more. After all, having a vacation was the whole reason I was in a mortal body to begin with, and a sprawling medieval-like city on the sea full of delicacies was pretty high there with the top spots one could visit.

We made our way to the center square we had traversed on the first day, looking at the various shops and stalls that dotted the streets. Holiés was pretty uninterested about most of the wares the city had to offer, though he did stop at one point to browse the goods of a leatherworker that had set shop just outside of the square.

The shop obviously didn't dab as a tanner, as, while the smell of worked leather permeated its walls, the foul smell characteristic of tanning wasn't present.

After browsing for a while, he ended up buying a thick and sturdy protection for his forearm that felt harder than steel. He had been worried he would hurt himself badly with the bow I was planning to give him for a while, so he was more than happy about his finding.

As for Akiko, while she had opened up a bit to the two of us, she didn't seem at ease with stranger and, in the large crowd of the city, she limited herself at glancing here and there, never approaching a shop on her own.

No matter how many times I told her it was fine for her to get something for herself, she always replied that I shouldn't spend even more money on her.

As for me, I was jumping at every shop that caught my eye. By the time we got to the street that went towards the sea from the central square, I had already added to my storage a spinning top that had its top colored to look like an island in the middle of the sea, a carved knife made of some kind of whale or monster bone with a sheath decorated with mother of pearl, a few bottles of a sauce made by fermenting fish with salt and herbs, a few bottles of a liquor made by letting a mix of citrus fruits peels infuse in distilled vilam that reminded me a bit of Grand Marnier, and a straw hat.

I was still wearing my formal dress, so the old man who had set up stall to sell his simple hemp sacks, straw hats, and wicker baskets was a bit flustered when I asked him the hat. He tried to convince me for a while that his wears weren't worthy to be sold to me at first. When he saw that I wasn't going to leave the simple hat behind, he instead tried to give it to me for free, and I actually had to do some weird form of backwards haggling to convince the man to take at least a few coppers for it.

Nothing else really caught my eye as we traversed the wide street we had walked through a few times already during our short stay, until, almost at the end of the street, I saw a burly man with dark skin shouting at the crowd to attract customers.

Curious, I moved through the crowd and got closer. When his short stall that had been until then hidden by the sea of people was finally visible, I took Holiés and Akiko by their hands and run up to him fast like the wind.

Seeing me approach, the man turned his attention to me. “Milady, would you like an iced treat?” he asked, with a big toothy smile.

(It's fucking ice-cream!)

“I would love to.”

“Very well, shall I make it three then?”

“Yes,” I answered, without even looking at Holiés or Akiko.

“Very well then.” He proceeded to scoop a very generous portion of yellow ice-cream from the only container of the stall and dump it in a small wooden bowl. He then did the same three more times. With the bowls ready, he took a bottle of the same liquor I had bought previously and poured some in each bowl over the ice-cream. Finally, he put a wide wooden stick, similar to a popsicle stick, though a bit more irregular, in each bowl.

“That would be three silvers, milady. If you bring me back the bowls by the end of the day, i will give you back fifty coppers each.”

“Holy fu-” Holiés tried to say, before I planted an elbow in his side.

Smiling, I gave the coins to the man and took the bowls. “Thank you, mister.”

“Thank you for your patronage, milady,” he said, still grinning.

I gave the Holiés and Akiko their bowls and started walking again towards the sea. I took a scoop of from the bowl. The ice-cream itself tasted vaguely of custard and blended well with the sweet orangey liqueur.

When we were a few meters away from the stall Holiés said, “are you crazy?! That's way too much for some yellow goo.”

“I'll eat yours too if you don't want it.”

“Feel free to, it doesn't look that appetizing, honestly. It looks like a mix between a slime and goblin snot,” he said, looking at the bowl in his hands as if it actually was what he had just described.

“Try it, it's an order.”

With disgust on his face, he took the stick and scooped up a bit of the cold treat and put it in its mouth. His expression soon changed from disgust to surprise. “Ok, this shit is pretty damn tasty.”

“Thol wu,” I said, with the stick in my mouth.

“Still not worth three damn silvers though.”

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I just shrugged and kept eating as I walked. During our exchange, Akiko had taken to eating the ice-cream with reverence in her eyes, savoring every small scoop and treating the bowl like some sort of holy relic.

We had almost reached the promenade in front of the sea when someone bumped into me, making my bowl fly off. I tried catching it, but it was futile. The bowl fell opening down in the middle of the street.

I looked up and saw a boy running away, chased by a few guards.

“Ehm… Fortuna…” Holiés said beside me.

I used my magic to switch from my dress to a pair of pants, comfortable leather shoes and a simple white shirt. It was the usual attire I wore under my armor, and the only type of clothes I had attuned to the spell.

“Fortuna. No.”

I took my mace out of my storage and gave it a few swings. I then took a deep breath, and, to be sure not to lose him, I [looked] at the young man.

Name: Timothy

Race: Human

Lvl: 19

Job: Thief

HP: 1098

MP: 240

SP: 1976

STR: 98

DEF: 87

AGI: 161

INT: 65

WIS: 68

SKILLS

Sword Mastery lvl 1

Hand to Hand Combat lvl 2

Dagger Mastery lvl 2

Sneak lvl 3

TITLES

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Target confirmed, I started running towards the now far away rascal shouting, “I'm going to smash your head you fucking piece of shit!”

Seeing what looked like the archdemon of legends running with a mace in her hand while screaming, the crowd of people parted ways to let me pass, with a few outright running away.

I soon reached the guards, who were already slowing down, their stamina drained by the weight of their armor and the heat of early dis.

Speeding past them, I kept following the boy. He looked back and, seeing me rushing towards him, he put even more effort in his escape and dashed into an alley. The boy himself looked to be no older than fifteen, but by his levels enhanced his speed, making it that more difficult to shorten the advantage he had on me on the streets.

I followed him in the narrow alleys one after the other, but I soon lost him in the unknown maze of buildings.

I stopped, took a deep breath, and closed my eyes. It took a few seconds of deep concentration, but I soon found him standing in front of a half-hidden wooden door on the street on the other side of the building at my right.

Aiding myself with a bit of wind magic, I ran around the building in only a few seconds, arriving just in time to see the door open in front of the boy.

With a roundhouse kick, I hit him right on the head, showing him inside the door and making him fall face-first on the floor. I jumped in after him, stroke the floor with my mace right next to his face and said, “any last words?”

“That's what we should ask,” said an unknown voice.

I looked up and saw a few dozens weapons between swords, maces, daggers, bows, and crossbows pointed at me. The man who talked looked to be in his late fifties, with well groomed hair and a short beard, both starting to turn white from age. He was standing behind what looked like a normal bar counter made of wood and was the only one unarmed.

He looked at me for a second before saying, “oh, I'm sorry, i didn't realize-”

“Hero Fortuna!” came a voice that i had come to know very well during my short stay in Dulsalies.

True to my suspicions, a short woman made her way through the armed goons, who now looked a lot less sure about the course of action they were supposed to take.

“Madam Valerie?” I asked with no little surprise.

“What are you idiots doing?!” she shouted at the people who still had their weapons drawn. “If you harm Hero Fortuna here you might as well say goodbye to Dulsalies as a whole, trust me.”

I blinked a few times when she said that, as the people in the tavern, who were just as confused, put away their weapons. In the meantime, the man behind the counter had started to clean a mug without a care in the world.

“Now, Hero Fortuna, could we know why you are trying to kill our little Timmy?”

“First of all, I was actually just trying to scare the shit out of him.” She nodded as i said that. “As for why, he kind of made my ice-cream fall.”

“Your… ice-cream?”

“Yes, you know, that frozen treat made with milk that a guy sells from a stall, served in a bowl. He even poured some liquor on it,” I said, gesturing all the time to aid my description.

“I see…” she said, not completely convinced.

“I think she's talking of the stuff that Gimmy sells, Valerie,” the man behind the counter said. “He usually comes here for dinner at the end of the day. Why don't you stay with us for a while, i'm sure he'll have some to give you left from the day.” He then pointed at the boy. “Your dinner will be on Timmy's tab of course.”

“Oh well, no harm done then.” I lifted Timmy on his feet, gave him a quick heal and a pat on the back that made it stumble forward. He stared daggers at me, but made its way to a table far away from the entrance without saying a word.

Now that the crisis was averted, I could finally take in the tavern I was in, because, once the swords and crossbows were put away, the establishment looked like nothing more than a normal tavern. People were drinking and sometimes snacking at the tables. A few were even playing some sort of game. The counter was just a normal counter, with a door behind it that probably lead to the kitchen. What betrayed the place was the almost complete lack of windows, as only two holes barely large enough to fit an arm through let air and light in, and the fact that candles and oil lamps lit every corner of the room, hinting at a slightly richer establishment than one would assume at first.

“Come sit with me, Fortuna,” Valerie said, with a bit more familiarity than usual.

I put my mace away in my storage and followed her at a table that was next to the counter and close to the wall, a bit separated from the others.

“So… What even is this place?” I asked her.

“A tavern,” she said as a matter of fact.

“Valerie, don't play with our hero,” the man who was behind the counter said, taking a seat at the table. I glanced at the counter, seeing that another man had taken his place.

He extended a hand towards me and said, “it is a pleasure to finally meet you, Hero Fortuna. My name is Indexii.”