I barge into The Swan’s Tavern. The smells of dropped food, mud, and the stench of horseshit pollutes the air. The smell is almost overpowering, but I don’t care. I need a drink after dealing with Volas’ extreme ignorance.

The place is cramped, populated with the locals and uniformed soldiers.

By the Gods, from here I can see that their collars are untidy and their buttons undone. Clearly, they don’t care about their duty or their self-respect.

They chat, bicker, argue, and complain about their lives or some trivial bullshit. I do not care; it doesn’t involve me or my problems.

I head to the tavern owner, a large man with a long dirty neck beard. ‘Give me your finest ale.’

He places a cup down, filling it from a wooden jug from under the counter.

I take a sip of the sour and bitter ale. If this is their best, I can’t imagine what their worst will be.

‘Hey gorgeous,’ a drunken man addresses me, his breath reeking of alcohol and dried fish.

‘Mind if you sit on my lap?’ He slurs.

‘Get lost. I don’t have time to entertain you!’

‘A lady shouldn’t speak like that!’ Another man walks up behind me. I reach for my pocket to grab onto my concealed knife. I don’t like where this is going.

‘Your mother should teach you some manners. You shouldn’t be rude to the fine men from around here,‘ the drunken man says to me.

The creep behind me grins, licking his lips. ‘We do like a kitty that scratches.’

I pull out my dagger to gut the pig, but a hand grabs it before I can take it out.

‘Are these men hassling you, love?’ Huson smiles at me.

He looks back at the men as he leans back onto the counter. ‘Okay, folks. I am going to ask politely for you to leave me and my maiden alone.’

‘Or what? You dirty chink!’ The drunken man retort.

Huson whistles to his Outriders in the tavern. They hop out of their seats, their hands on their weapons.

‘Or, I take your bodies to the cemetery,’ Huson smugly replies.

The drunken men look at each other to see if it is worth it.

‘Fuck you, collie. We’ll get you next time.’ The men storm out of the tavern, mumbling to themselves in frustration and embarrassment.

‘You know I can handle myself,’ I jokingly say to him while I take a sip of my ale.

‘I can’t let you have all the fun here. And I don’t think stabbing them would work.’ He smiles. ‘So what made you came here? Escaping the Commander?’

I look away from him, denying anything that could remotely involve Volas. He is my best friend, I just worry about is ignorance.

‘Oh,’ Huson shrugs, reading my body language as if he was reading my mind. ‘I didn’t know you two had some sort of history.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘You two dated at some point. Didn’t think he’d be your type.’

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

I spit out my ale while I blush uncontrollably.

Huson laughs and oinks like a pig as he watches me lose my cool.

‘We are just friends! We never dated, and never will we!’ I exclaim.

‘Okay, okay,’ he raises his arms. ‘No need to cut my throat over it. But in all honesty, you came here because of him?’

‘It’s not like I came here just to drink some cheap ale.’

‘Fair enough. I just came here to get some pretty boys, but you keep taking them away from me,’ he jokes.

I chuckle, ‘So, what is your opinion of Volas?’

‘Regali?’ He replies in confusion. ‘He is the same as the other Cinaris Commanders.’

‘How so?’

‘You know, he undermines his colonist soldiers because we are inferior to the mainland ones.’ He comically waves his hand around as to illustrate how mundane it is. ‘Blah blah blah, and so on and so forth. Nothing me and my men haven’t gone through before.’

‘I am sorry if he comes off like that. We all grew up in that sort of environment.’

‘But you don’t act like him, or like the other Cinari.’

‘That is because I met dickheads like you.’ I softly punch his arm. ‘Still, Volas is an outstanding leader and a brilliant tactician. Even with his current views, he won’t just cast you aside.’

Huson rolls his eyes. ‘Psst, don’t give me that crap. He’s more likely shit the bed and blame it on me than to send me and my men on missions. We can fight, we even want to fight for the Empire. But people like him believe we can’t show our support.’

I sigh. ‘I know what you mean, but for him we… We can only see. Let’s just hope the war doesn’t escalate.’

He shrugs. ‘Let’s hope not. But tell me, what brought you into the army?’

I smile. ‘I want to save up enough money to buy a plot of land. Start up my own public garden and something like that.’

‘A green thumb, aye. Didn’t think that would be your thing.’

‘A girl needs to have an exit plan after serving. What about you? Got any reason to join?’

Huson laughs to himself. ‘Believe it or not, I was a part of the fencing championships. However, sadly it didn’t work out for me. So I joined the army instead.’

I raise a brow. ‘A fencer? To be one, you must have some wealth behind you.’

‘Not in Thesia, you could go through a program to become a professional fencer as a peasant. Sadly, I wasn’t as good as the rest of the competitors.’

‘I’m sorry to hear that.’

Huson nudges my shoulder. ‘Don’t be, I’m happy being in the army. But for now, I need to find some man to have fun with.‘

‘Wait!’ I stop him before he walks off to his friends. ‘Just be nice to Volas for me tomorrow. He is an asshole, but he isn’t all that bad.’

Huson smiles. ‘Okay Hannah, I won’t beat up your boyfriend.’

‘Fuck you!’ I chuckle, flipping him off as I go back to drinking my cheap ale.