PART 2/2
Eventually, we got to the town gates, and had to say our goodbyes to Ainash, going through our reminders to stay safe and stay within range of our telepathic communication in case anything went wrong. And to tell us if she was at all worried she was being followed, so we could get to her right away.
Once that was over, we reentered the city. It still somewhat messed with me to be in here, surrounded by so many people—so many potential enemies—and being forced to act normal. I had to turn my back to people, opening myself up to potential attacks, I had to watch as individuals walked past me with weapons on their sides or backs, or Magic-Types whose hands were their weapons, I had to move through tight alleyways where ambushers could corner us with no means of escape. I knew these fears were irrational, for the most part, but that didn’t stop me from at least feeling them. I just had to ignore them.
Despite my uneasiness, though, we walked to the guild lobby and entered. The bar had emptied out just barely in our time away, but the place hadn’t gotten any less rowdy. Honestly, it was probably even louder than before, with everyone inside considerably more drunk. But Erani and I just moved along the walls like usual, taking care to avoid any of the dozens of arguments threatening to escalate to fistfights at the various tables on the floor.
We made our way to the receptionist’s desk at the back, where we turned in our twenty-three Gloomspur teeth without issue for six hundred and ninety eyt. Combined with the five hundred we’d taken from the muggers, that made around twelve hundred in our possession.
“Okay, let’s get something to eat,” Erani said the moment the money was in our hands. “I feel like I’m gonna shrivel up and die of malnutrition if I don’t have a piece of bread this instant.”
“Seconded,” I sighed.
We got some relatively cheap items from the menu and sat at a table on the edge of the room. Still, despite our position away from the main action, we still had people stumbling across the floor and coming close to us, each time worrying me that they’d somehow collapse into my injured leg, giving them a damage notification about my Class.
So I kept Noxious Grasp activated constantly. At least if I was spewing smoke out of my armor, people would keep their distance, and if someone did end up brushing past me, they’d get a little ping of damage to let them know to stay away. Of course, that could cause problems of their own, but I was of the opinion that the issue of someone getting pissed at me for hitting them for a couple points of damage was much less intense than the issue of my Class info getting out. At least I could talk my way out of a confrontation; if someone bumped into my leg in the wrong way, it’d pretty much require an instant reset with Time Loop.
So with Noxious Grasp on and my Mana being slightly drained every second, the cost of keeping it on one hundred percent of the time still above my Mana/Minute, we sat. But my mind was still occupied away from that threat of danger by one thing.
“Holy shit,” I said, taking a massive bite of a loaf of bread, “it’s so good.”
Erani shoveled spoonfuls of soup into her mouth. “There’s so much flavor. Good gods, the flavor.”
“If I could have sex with this bread, I would,” I said, tearing off another chunk while I still chewed the first.
Erani choked on her broth. “What?”
“It just tastes really good, okay?”
“I mean,” she looked off at the far wall, as if deep in thought, “technically, I can think of a couple ways you could—”
“Let’s keep that statement metaphorical, okay?”
“Fine. But only if you give me a bite.”
I tore off a piece and gave it to her, which she eagerly dunked into her soup, trying to soak up as much as possible for a juicy bite. While she was busy with that, I reached over and grabbed her spoon, sneaking a bite of her own food for myself.
“So, we’re definitely getting seconds, right?” Erani asked.
“Absolutely.”
We ended up getting a third serving, too. I’d noticed that Erani had a bit of trouble with some of the foods, due to her missing hand. Especially since her remaining hand was her non-dominant one. There were more than a couple times something spilled onto the table or missed her mouth with an awkwardly-held spoon. Every time it happened, I had an urge to offer to help her eat, but I wasn’t sure if doing something like that would just make her feel worse or not.
While we were shoving that food into our mouths, a bar fight broke out a couple tables over. Some guy fucked some other guy’s wife or whatever—I wasn’t paying that much attention—and now they were trying to kill each other over it. At first, I hoped it’d settle down, but after one of the dudes got knocked over into a table, scattering some adventuring party’s beers, they got up and started preparing to wail on people, and I decided that was probably our cue to leave.
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So Erani and I got up from our seats so we could walk over to the receptionist’s desk once more and get our room. But just as I placed my chair back in its place and turned around to start walking, someone—the guy who started the fight—stumbled forward, knocking chairs and tables aside, and reaching out for anything to break his fall. He seemed to decide I was the perfect thing to crash into, reaching out to keep himself up, fingers grasping to grip onto my arm—my injured one.
Instantly, I turned to jerk my hand away from him so he couldn’t hurt me, and he ended up collapsing face-first to the ground by my leg. Groaning, he rolled over and reached up once again to use my body to help himself up to his feet, but to that I just let Noxious Grasp do its job.
“Augh!” He yanked his hand away the moment it touched my armor, and I got a notification about the few points of damage I’d done to the Level 12 man. He looked up at me. “Thanks for the flamin’ help. And what the hell was that damage?!”
I scooted a chair over he could use to pull himself up. “Just an aura my armor gives out. Can’t control it. I’d advise you not to try touching me next time.”
“Flamin’...stupid armor,” he grumbled as he climbed to his feet. I could tell he was extremely drunk from the way he talked—though the fact that he started an entire bar fight told me that already.
Some guy—the guy this man was fighting, I realized—stomped toward us, fist raised and ready to pummel down on the drowsy man only standing because of the chair he leaned on. “Tyrus, I swear to the gods, I am going to end you!”
“Hey, man.” I held out a hand to stop the approaching man. “Just leave him be for now. His Health’s probably low, right? If you’re gonna make yourself into a murderer, you better have a damn good reason for it. I suspect this isn’t that.”
Someone else reached out and tugged him away, adding a little bit of calm to the still-busy tavern floor.
After a cough that made me worry he’d puke on me, the man who’d collapsed in the first place—Tyrus, his name seemed to be—looked over at me with a scowl. “You, you can’t act like you didn’t just totally let me fall without helping me, man. Flamin’ pushing me to the ground and then hitting me for even more damage, then actin’ like you didn’t do nothin’ wrong. Burn in hell, man.”
“I didn’t push you. And my arm is injured. If I let you break your fall with it, it’d be very bad for me. Much worse than a little tumble onto the ground. I’m sorry.”
“Whatever, man. Using your flamin’ magic on me…that’s, like…assault.”
“It’s self-defense. You were about to hurt me. I dealt some damage to you to ensure you wouldn’t. If you’re trying to touch me without my permission, I’m going to get you to stop. That’s just how these things work.”
He snorted, and walked off, and I barely caught him muttering, “Flamin’ evil, spiked armor creep.”
I sighed, and Erani looked over at me. “I know that defense technically works here, but it won’t always work.”
“Yeah, I know,” I said. “If someone else bumps into me, it’s fine, but if I’m the one who accidentally stumbles into someone else with Noxious Grasp on, then I’m definitely the one in the wrong. I just need to be careful.”
“Well, sure, but it’s also a problem if the person bumping into you is Unclassed. I guess it kind of depends on what the exact laws are here, but if they’re anything close to the laws in the kingdom, they’re definitely not going to tolerate any sort of ‘self defense’ against someone Unclassed, unless they’re literally coming at you with a knife or something.”
“Yeah, I guess. Probably fine to use in here, since I doubt there are many Unclassed people walking around in an adventurer’s guild lobby—and the ones who are definitely aren’t going to be walking around grabbing onto the Classers—but yeah. Not a good solution while out on the streets.”
“Anyway, we should probably just get out of here. I doubt that fight’s going to stay resolved for long.”
I nodded. In fact, I could already hear that drunkard shouting at random patrons to ‘stop looking at me like that,’ so there was bound to be more trouble soon. We walked over to the receptionist’s desk, gave her the required six hundred eyt for a room. That left us with a bit more than three hundred after the meals, plus a key to our new room. With that, she pointed us to the staircase up to our rooms, and we headed off through the tight doorway and up the even narrower staircase. After walking up to the second floor, we found a few hallways lined with doors, found the one with our number, and walked in.
Once we were in, I breathed a sigh of relief. There were still muffled sounds of the brawl that a few people were seemingly trying to calm down below us, but for now, we were safe. A room all to ourselves. It was small, admittedly. Barely enough room for a bed, a table, and space to walk to them. But it was more private space than we’d had for the past while.
I walked right over and flopped down on the bed, feeling its hard cushioning barely give way under my impact. Still, compared to what I was used to, it was like lying in the lap of luxury itself. Erani sat next to me. I couldn’t help but notice the fact that this was the first time we’d been in a bedroom together at night, sharing a bed, but I also understood that we were both way, way too tired for that. Still, the circumstances got my heart beating in a certain way.
Erani took a deep breath, and slowly leaned herself back, so we were both lying sideways on the mattress.
“Good gods,” I said. “This feels nice. Food, a room…It’s been way too long.”
“Mhm,” Erani said sleepily.
“So I guess tomorrow is going to be figuring out how to get Ainash in here, and then we go and try to find a longer-term job to make some better money?”
“Mhm.”
“Sounds like a plan.” We lay there in silence for a while, before I looked over at her, and saw her eyes closed, mouth hanging open and just barely snoring. I laughed. “Cute.”
So, trying not to wake her, I moved her so she was lying fully in the bed and under the covers, and slipped in beside her. The bed was small—obviously intended to fit one person, not two—but I was able to make it work by shifting us so she was pretty much lying fully on top of me.
And not long after I settled in bed next to Erani, I felt the drowsiness forcing my own eyes closed, as well. So before I drifted off, I looked down and kissed her on the top of her head. “Night. Let’s hope we get some good news tomorrow.”
And then I closed my eyes.