Ryuji awoke early to the sound of birds chirping on his window sill. As he rolled groggily out of bed, he recalled the last traces of the nightmare he had been having. It was something about his friends dying again and he shuddered only in part because of the early morning chill in the air.
He went to the privy and got a pail of steaming hot water and a linen towel on the way out. It was rare for him to be up this early and he figured that was the reason that he spotted another patron on their way to the privy and heard a third on their way down the stairs. It was usually deserted by the time he awoke in the morning.
The other patrons of the inn paid him no mind as he made his way back to his room. He however looked after them with a slight bit of interest. One was a tall thin dark-skinned elven guy wearing some sort of thin leather vest over a pair of cloth pants and shirt in a matching rust-red color. The other one that had just gone into the privy was a tiny woman that stood only about half his height and had green shirt only a few shades darker than her hair. Ryuji wondered momentarily if this was due to a dye, a spell, or simply her natural hair color.
Closing the door to his room he left all consideration of the other patrons behind and began thinking of the day ahead. He wanted to go to the river and bathe before he went to Potions and Such, Dorn’s magic shop. Accordingly, he packed all the books in the sheet of waxed parchment in the bottom of his huge satchel and topped it with his soap, towel, change of clothes, and lastly, his strange bathing cloak.
Thus prepared, he dashed down stairs to the common room of the inn. At the bottom, he found the room deserted. He walked over to the counter and hearing his approach, Karen poked her head out of the kitchen to the right of the common room.
As soon as she saw Ryuji, Karen’s face brightened and she rushed out still wiping her hands on her apron. “Good Morning! I didn’t expect to see you for a little bit. We have some yogurt but Teresa delivered something special for you just a few minutes earlier. She said to tell you that she was sorry that it took her a couple days to make a recipe that would work with fruit in it.”
“She found some place to get her hands on Seckel berries and she made a couple loaves of the most wonderful smelling bread with them! I don’t suppose you might be interested in sharing? I’m sure they were expensive but...” She clasped her hands behind her back and swung her top back and forth while tipping her face down and looking up at him through her long lashes. This was the single most flirtatious pose that Ryuji had ever seen outside of an anime.
Ryuji thought “Yeah, Two can play at that!” and leaned over her getting within an inch or so before speaking in a charming but pompous-sounding voice. “I don’t know. I suppose that depends what’s in it for me.” Then he leaned in the rest of the way and kissed her forehead.
Karen flinched back as if shocked and exclaimed. “Hey!”
As he was backing away, sure that he had gone too far or too fast she surprised him even more. She threw her arms around his neck and pulled him back down into a full French kiss for a couple seconds. At first, he was tense but then he relaxed into it and put his arms around her back as he savored the sensation.
A second later, Karen backed away without letting go and looked up at him with a flushed but playful manner. “At least do it right.” She breathed into his ear. And he started to lean in for another kiss.
A throat clearing behind Karen made them both jump and disentangle from one another before going red in the face. Unsurprisingly, it was Teresa wearing a huge grin on her craggy, button-nosed face. “I don mind you two gettin romantic but my good elf lord, I need the services of my serving girl right now. Best you go sit back at the bar and wait for her to finish her current task then she can take a quick break for breakfast.”
True to her word, Teresa let Karen go a few minutes later after what was obviously the last of the dishes being washed. Teresa pulled Karen aside while she dried her hands on the linen meant for it this time. “Listen, girl, I think you got yourself a fine fella but you should still be careful. The whole memory thing don’t sound right to me, never has. I think he’s a hidin’ something from us but that’s not my business. If you decide to get wrapped up in this guy’s affairs, just be on the lookout for somethin hidden.”
“I don’t wanna think that this guy’s the type to dazzle with a bit of coin just to steal a night in bed but it don’t hurt to be cautious. I know you can take care of yourself so I won’t slice it thick. Just remember, politics ain’t somethin you or me’s got the skills to fight and he’s surin a noble, mark my words. Now off with you and enjoy your man, least for now if not longer.” Karen wanted to refute Teresa’s words, to say that she was wrong about him but she knew that the older woman had a good eye for these kinds of things. When she looked at it from a rational point of view, she even had to agree but she just couldn’t convince her heart that Ryuji was bad for her. She knew that she had fallen hard for him but she still couldn’t convince herself that it was a tryst, that he was the type to treat her that way.
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As Karen came out of the kitchen with the still warm loaves of berry bread, a bowl of butter between them, and a couple mugs of mild sprout cider in her other hand, she was still thinking over Teresa’s words. She sat the drinks down and as she was settling the tray between them, she looked into his eyes. In that instant, she came to a decision. If he was leading her around in circles, she would enjoy the walk while it lasted! If it proved to be more, as she very much felt it was, she would very much like to see what life could be like with this most charming elf lord.
The loaves were rather larger than either realized or more like, they were denser than either realized. The dough that Lizbet had come up with to hold the “Seckel?” berries was something like a bagel dough. Ryuji began thinking of the various things that this kind of dough might be good as. The berries were small and red like Goji berries but with a taste more like an apple candy. The slices of this berry bread were really good with the butter melted on them and were very filling. They were so filling in fact that there was a whole second loaf they hadn’t touched as well as a little bit of the first loaf and they were both full.
Ryuji suggested having Teresa have her fill of the bread and then serving the remainder as breakfast in the inn. This got him incredulous looks from Teresa and Karen alike. Teresa explained that the berries in the bread were rather on the expensive side owing to the difficulty of finding them. She went on to say that she thought it was a little early for them yet. Ryuji told them that was the secret of baking, they could be a little green and the baking would make them more palatable.
In the end, Teresa said that she had room in the small cellar to keep the bread and though she had the rest of the first loaf at his insistence, she wasn’t willing to share the personally baked item with the rest of the customers. She said that to do so would be wrong to not just him but to Lizbet who had baked this new type of bread to show gratitude to him.
He left the inn and headed to the river to bathe. There were the usual assortment of people there but unlike the last couple times, he was earlier this time and there were several people bathing at the edge of the river. He was surprised that the beastfolk weren’t the only ones nude but also a number of gnomes and halflings and even a lone elf woman.
Ryuji felt quite awkward bathing in public with members of the opposite gender. He was able to reason his way past it, reminding himself that he had been to the public baths plenty of times. He further reminded himself that he used to bathe with Haruko, his older sister, and mother when he was little. Besides, he was just here to wash his hair. He had already washed his body off this morning with the basin of hot water.
It was a lot harder to use the basin to wash his long hair. That was a problem he was just figuring out. In his old life, he had always had short hair and as such, he had never had much trouble taking care of it but here, he was a sun-elf with shoulder-length blonde hair. The longer hair was harder to take care of but the way Karen played with his hair sometimes told him she liked it. That was more than enough reason to put up with the extra care it took.
These thoughts were interrupted by the giggles and splashing of children playing downstream a little. Every time he came to the river, he would bring his soap, and the children there always liked to play in the bubbles left behind. He noted with some relief that the little cat beastfolk girl that he had saved from drowning before was also there with her elderly guardian, probably a grandmother.
The little girl was nude like the other bathing children but was clinging to her grandmother instead of playing in the water like she had before. The older woman was there washing her laundry but when she noticed his gaze she smiled and got the little girl’s attention.
When he was pointed out to the little girl she brightened and came running over. She came skidding to a halt a meter from him and started playing with the end of her furry black tail nervously. Ryuji sat up wringing the water from his hair and drying it with a towel as he sat waiting for her to say what she obviously wanted to say to him. It took the shy little girl a minute but she finally squeezed out the words “thank you, sir, for saving me from the river!”
Ryuji reached out and patted her head and she squealed happily. Then he had the idea to try scratching behind her ears and he was rather amazed to hear her begin purring. He noticed the grandmother watching him and smiled to her. Then before anybody started to question his morals, he tapped the girl on the head to get her out of her blissful daze and pointed to her grandmother, telling her to hurry back. The old woman only then smiled at him and got to her feet before bowing deeply.
Ryuji felt a bit awkward but he bowed back slightly and turned to leave. It was then that he noticed all the women staring at him. the gaze of a bunch of nude women unnerved him but as he looked closer, he was relieved to see their gaze fixed mostly on his bar of soap. He then had a great idea.
He waved the bar of soap in front of his face to get their attention. This left him blushing hard since he was now staring straight at several of the less reserved women in their complete nudity. However, he just held up the bar of soap and looking pointedly at them sat it down next to the top of the stairs leading down into the water. He left it on the linen he had used to wash his hair. When he straightened up several of the women were coming his way and he decided to wave and beat a hasty retreat before they decided to thank him, he didn’t think he could stand being that close to all of those nude women even if most did have a towel covering for modesty.