Chapter 13

Kryll could eat at the inn every day, but never in peace.

The large common room where food was served was full of people sitting in small groups at the rough wooden tables, talking excitedly about their plans as they shoveled in the grayish-green stew.

All the fortune seekers with little money and big dreams who had traveled to Minthral to seek their fortune there, seemed to use the 'The Wild Rooster' as their first port of call. Madame Bootham's soft heart for young adventurers seemed to be well known throughout the town and kept bringing new guests to the inn.

As run-down as the inn was, the influx of young adventurers was also necessary for her, as wealthier guests would not settle there.

It was a win-win situation for everyone involved.

The fortune seekers had a comparatively cheap place to stay where they could socialize with their peers and Madame Bootham didn't have to renovate her inn and could surround herself with enthusiastic and easy-to-handle guests. For the mostly young adventurers with low expectations, her standard was perfectly adequate, with only the occasional sigh when it came to the food. To save on staff, she cooked herself. Hospitality was one of her strengths, but unfortunately cooking was not.

Kryll looked into his soup bowl, which was still half full of the thick substance.

It won't do me any harm and full is full, he told himself as he had done so many times before.

A few days had passed since his visit to the guild and he still hadn't come up with a plan C after the town hall and the Mages' Guild had turned out to be a failure in the search for a suitable business premises for Lord Mitten.

With each passing day his otherwise stubborn optimism waned and the dreaded meeting with the mighty cat was breathing down his neck.

A few weeks, he said, Kryll remembered. But what exactly did that mean? Two weeks, three weeks, six weeks?

Couldn't you have asked more precisely back then, you fool?! he scolded himself as he had done many times before.

At least then I would know when my last hour had come and I could prepare myself mentally for it! he thought dejectedly. As well as you could prepare yourself for meeting a powerful monster whose mission you hadn't fulfilled and whose money you had spent anyway.

Now, however, the threat hovered ominously over him and he lived in the uncertainty of not knowing when it would catch him and the certainty that it would do so sooner or later.

In a few weeks' time. Kryll sighed heavily.

"What are those heavy sighs I hear in my house?"

Madame Bootham sat down opposite him at the table and looked at him. Some of her hair had come loose from her bun, trying in vain to tame her gray hair.

"That doesn't sound like an aspiring adventurer who's about to conquer the world!" She winked at him.

Kryll slowly raised his head and briefly considered whether he should tell her his woes - after all, Lord Mitten had asked for restraint.

Madame Bootham looked at him with kind hazel eyes and Kryll realized that, far away from home and his loved ones, he needed someone to pour his heart out to - now.

He sighed again.

"Madame Bootham, I'm done for."

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There, it was spoken out loud for the first time. The vague feeling that had been growing stronger and stronger in him over the last few days had been put into words. His throat tightened and he had to be careful that his voice didn't start to tremble.

"Done for?" Madame Bootham asked.

Kryll opened his heart, which had been threatening to burst moments before.

"I didn't just come to Minthral to find my own happiness, but on behalf of a very powerful person. The offer at the time seemed to me to be a unique opportunity to gain a foothold in the world of the powerful and influential, and I accepted it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? I took a chance and it looks like I'm not going to win, I'm going to lose."

He swallowed hard.

Madame looked at him for a long time. After a while of silence, she opened her mouth.

"I'm really sorry to hear that. Every adventurer should be allowed to successfully complete their first challenge, if it were up to me."

"And yet I wonder," she continued, "what a young man as - excuse me - insignificant as you can be responsible for?"

Kryll looked at her in confusion. Was she trying to comfort him or insult him?

"What I'm actually trying to say —," continued Madame Bootham, who had apparently also noticed how misleading her sentence could be,

"you know, I'm quite old now and I've realized over time that nothing is as bad as it seems. For you youngsters, the world always seems to end so quickly, but - surprise! - it will still exist tomorrow. My point is: your employer won't kill you and as long as you're not dead, you still have another chance. And in five years' time, you'll look back on your troubled present and smile, shaking your head."

Kryll honestly wasn't sure if he would be alive in 5 years to look back on his troubled self today. Lord Mitten didn't eat people out of hunger yes, but how did he actually deal with their failure?

You should have asked that before you accepted the mission, you risk-loving idiot! the voice of reason made itself heard in him.

Kryll resolved to listen to her more often in future, even if she wasn't exactly nice to him. After all, criticism could also be packaged in a friendlier way.

But she was right, so right.

He sighed. He had plunged into this adventure without clarifying the conditions and would now have to pay the bill. Hopefully it wasn't too high.

"Why are you sighing so heavily again? Come and share, talking helps!" the innkeeper encouraged him.

Kryll briefly considered what he could say without getting himself into even deeper trouble.

"My employer wants to open a store in Minthral and has sent me ahead to look for suitable business premises," he began slowly. "But so far I've been turned away at every place that could give me information. I don't seem to look too solvent," he remarked mockingly.

Madame Bootham furrowed her brow.

"Do I understand that correctly? Your employer has sent you to Minthral alone, ...without any other help. Without letters of recommendation and without any proper equipment to make you look halfway respectable, to look for a commercial building to buy?" she asked slowly.

For some unknown reason, Kryll suddenly felt the need to defend Lord Mitten.

"He gave me a few silver coins, and after all, I have to prove myself first," he replied.

"Mmm." Madame Bootham looked at him for a long time.

"I'm afraid I can't help you," she said finally.

"Oh."

Disappointment spread through Kryll and he realized that a small irrational part of him had hoped that she could present him with a solution.

"The prestigious buildings around the marketplace and down the main street are run by the city, rich businessmen and the guilds. You won't gain entry into those circles, not the way you're currently set up - with no connections, no status and no funds. I'm sorry to have to tell you that."

She ruthlessly summarized what Kryll had begun to suspect over the last few days.

He suddenly listened up.

She had been talking about the buildings around the market square and the main street.

"What about the buildings in the rows behind?" he asked, trying not to let the small flame of hope that had arisen in him flare up too quickly. After all, Lord Mitten had not expressed any explicit wishes regarding the location. And in view of the desired anonymity, it was perhaps even quite right for him not to operate in the city center.

Kryll looked insistently at Madame Bootham. Perhaps she would be able to present him with a solution after all.

"The buildings in the rows behind, like third and fourth row? There's hardly any public traffic there, I assumed that—," she paused.

"But who am I, living in a little lost alleyway myself, to tell you which location is worthwhile," she said and winked at him.

"Most of the buildings in the other rows belong to the ordinary townspeople. If you're really interested, I can put you in touch with a friend of mine who brokers houses and apartments for a living."

Kryll's heart beat excitedly in his chest and the flame of hope flared up inside him.

"I'd be very grateful for that!" he said happily, beaming at her.

It's good that Madame prepares the meals herself and keeps an eye on the people, he thought with a grateful heart.