In response to her question, Ryuji told Karen the same thing he told Teresa but near the end, he changed it up a bit. “So I was thinking about calling myself Ryuji because this bird was screaming that when I woke up and it sounded like it was calling my name to wake me but that’s kind of silly. You can both just call me whatever you want to, I won’t know if it’s right or wrong so I suppose I really don’t mind either way.”
Suddenly she was hugging him and seemed to be crying. He began to feel really guilty and considered telling her the truth but she picked her head up and looked him in the eye before he had a chance. “I don’t know a lot about sun elf names but I think that Ryuji suits you well. I really don’t care what anybody else thinks, I think it’s a wonderful name! But if you actually don’t like it then I can talk to Teresa and we can try to find out what a normal name would be. Wait, have you tried finding out about your past?”
He just shook his head no. he was left fairly stunned by her concern for him and a bit embarrassed by the fact that such a pretty girl was so worried about him. It was such a shock that at first, he didn’t even register the fact that she was now sitting in his lap while talking to him. When he realized he turned his face to the side in embarrassment and that’s when he noticed the other people in the dining room looking at them, particularly the men.
All of the other people including the women wore one of two kinds of faces. Either they were glaring at the two or they had grins on their faces. The women all seemed to be fixated on Karen and they almost all wore scowls while the men were fairly evenly split between scowls and grins. As he did a quick glance, he even saw one of the guys who was giving him a grin from across the room suddenly gave him a thumbs up and winked. Ryuji had to blush at that.
Karen must have noticed because she suddenly jumped up and stuttered out an apology. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to erm…” after trailing off she grabbed the tray off the table and rushed back to the kitchen. As Ryuji looked around the dining hall most of the other patrons had averted their gaze but he caught one person still smirking at him, Teresa.
Ryuji felt a bit awkward after that and ate his meal with his head down. Even though he couldn’t work up the courage to tell anyone he thought to himself how good the food was even if it was a bit strange. It wasn’t at all like the foods he was used to eating for breakfast. From Ryuji’s perspective, he had just had a normal Japanese-style breakfast prepared by his mom only the morning before. He thought about the differences as he ate, like how the meal his mom made was five small dishes or the fact that none of them included his favorite, bread. Another really strange thing he realized he would probably have to get used to was that there was no rice, it probably didn’t even exist here.
He finished up his meal and quietly set his dishes on the end of the front counter where all the other patrons were stacking their own. He then left the inn in a bit of a hurry for a couple of reasons. The main reason was that he was excited to try his hand at becoming an adventurer and going on adventures, mercenary he corrected himself. The other reason was out of embarrassment and that one was the reason he was in such a hurry to leave.
Once he arrived at the market plaza, he had visited twice yesterday he began looking around at the rooftops. He spotted the tall jutting roof that had been pointed out to him the previous day almost immediately. From the angle he was seeing it he decided that it couldn’t be but a couple streets over at most so he set off.
Already, a few people were wandering around the market shopping. As he was passing by he spotted Lizbet setting up her stall for the day. She was placing the last of the baskets of bread on top of the others. He decided to go by and tease her with a bit more flattery before going to the mercenary’s guild.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
As Ryuji walked up with a smile he started in on his flattery. After all, he did owe her for helping him yesterday. “Good morning young lady, and how are you doing today?”
Lizbet who seemed to be lost in thought and staring off rather than finishing her preparations visibly jumped from being so startled. “Oh, it’s the young golden-tongued elf. The one who lied to me about an order and paid for it himself. What would bring you ta do that youngin? I just can’t figure it out and it’s been driving me crazy!”
Ryuji chuckled before answering. “I didn’t have a real reason, I just wanted to help out. I do that from time to time. Remind me later on and I’ll buy bread for the homeless and orphans too.”
Thinking that she was being mocked Lizbet’s face clouded over in anger. “Oh, will ye now? And just how much will ye buy for them then?”
Ryuji, missing the look on her face as he was turning to leave, answered in a light and jovial tone that was somehow disarming enough to convince her of his sincerity. “Oh, not much. Probably only about as much as I bought for the inn. See you later, then, and thank you for helping me yesterday.” He waved behind him without turning as he walked towards the next street.
Ryuji wasn’t in a particular hurry but he was excited to get there. He turned the street corner and as he walked a bit farther down the lane with his boots partly sinking in the mud, he began to notice a flow of people. They were all turning at the next street over. He looked at the rooftop and confirmed his suspicion. That was going to be the street that the mercenary’s guild was on. Then that would make all of the people he was seeing around him headed in the same direction either mercenaries or people posting jobs.
When he looked closer at them, he noticed that a lot of the people were turning the corner ahead from both directions. They were a collection that looked like they were going to some comic convention as he saw advertised on TV.
Everywhere Ryuji looked there were people carrying weapons and dressed in armor. There were also a bunch of people who, much like himself, were dressed in nice clothing. Those must be the people here to have a job handled. He also saw a couple of people, one guy, and one girl, dressed in similar uniforms that he assumed must be guild employees.
Once he turned the corner, he got his first good look at the building and something occurred to him. The guildhall looked like a Christian church from back home in his town. Ryuji never went into the church but he saw it many times in passing and that was the general look this building had. It had a tall, steeply angled roof with a small tower at the front that had a bell in it. It was also made of stone just like that church. The only thing that it was missing was the tall picture glass windows and the cross on top of the bell tower. This building had what looked to be arrow slits instead giving it a much more intimidating feel.
As Ryuji got closer, he could see that the place had two massive wooden doors that were currently wide open to allow for the traffic coming and going from the building. The doors were under a slight overhang and as Ryuji passed under it, he spotted another feature. The overhang had covered holes leading up, those were called murder holes. People defending this building could pour hot oil from them or shoot bows through them. This place was an old fortress that had been converted at some point in the past as evidenced by the difference in the stonework of the building and its design.
Once he stepped through the front doors Ryuji was accosted by the smell of alcohol, sweat, and body odor. The inside of the building was very hot despite the doors being wide open because of all the people going in. another thing that struck him was the ambient level of noise within the building. It had to be hard for the staff to hear each other and also the people that they were trying to help in all that noise.
As Ryuji walked further into the building his eyes adjusted better to the lower level of light. Slowly a few things became clear as his eyes adjusted. First, he could now identify the source of the alcohol smell because there was an entire wing of the guildhall that was devoted to a tavern for the mercenaries. It made a bit of sense for several reasons. The main reason was that it would be good stress relief to tired mercenaries who just finished a mission but also it made a good meeting place for both parties and for clients. Then there was the fact that the guild could use the tavern to reclaim some of the money they paid out for missions if they provided the entertainment that those same people were going to spend it on anyway.