Ryuji was awakened well before dawn to a bleary-eyed Karen looking around confused before her beautiful black eyes settled on his own eyes and she leaned in and kissed him long and deeply while brushing her golden hair out of her eyes. Then she got out of his bed and put her boots on in the chair. After that, she leaned over him in the pale light of the moon streaming through his window and whispered into his ear. “Go back to sleep, my dear elven lord. It’s far too early for you to be awake! I’ve got to go get my little brother up and get him to work now so go back to bed.”
Ryuji almost drifted off to sleep before her words hit him and he sprang wide awake. “What? You have a brother? You didn’t tell me you had family! I mean, I assumed that you had family but just maybe not in this town or something. Can I meet him?”
Karen blinked several times in surprise before covering her mouth and giggling. “I suppose. They have been interested to meet you but I didn’t want to bother you. If you meet my little brother and my little sisters, you’ll have to put up with them asking an endless string of questions. Are you sure?”
In answer to her question, Ryuji jumped out of bed and began putting his shoes on. “So why haven’t you told me about your family? I mean, I would tell you if I knew anything about my family. All I have is that I had a dad who worked all the time, a mom that was always sick, and an older sister who taught me a lot of things. I can’t remember their names or where we lived though.”
Karen looked a little bashful but finally relented. “I didn’t want you to feel like you would be stuck with all of my siblings if you got involved with me. I didn’t want you to feel like you had to support my family. I don’t ever want to be a burden to you.”
Ryuji stepped in and wrapped his arm around Karen’s waist pulling her close and kissing her deeply before leaning back a little to look her in the eyes. “I don’t ever want you to worry about troubling me financially. I may have talent with magic but I have a GIFT with money. Okay?”
Karen seemed to be thinking this statement over but Ryuji just pulled out a small gold as he put his sword belt on. The key and infinite coin pouch already resecured to it. When he handed the coin to her, Karen looked at him with confusion for a second before realization hit her and she immediately tried to give it back. “I have business deals all over town and I have several that are now making a great deal of money. I won’t miss a gold coin, I promise. Now, I believe you told me you didn’t have any soap. What else is there that you and your siblings don’t have? I suppose this is insensitive but, your parents and family, are they all gone, or is there some other situation you didn’t want to bother me with?”
Karen was just opening the door but stopped and looked over her shoulder at him for a second before dropping her head and shaking it. “No, we’re all orphans now. My mother died giving birth to my youngest sister and my father was killed protecting a caravan of traders from bandits a couple years later. I don’t think either of my parents had any brothers or sisters and nobody ever came forward to help us when it happened so I doubt it. I’ve been the only one keeping my family alive for a long time. I really should return your money but we really do need it so I will take the gift and if you want something in return I will give it, gladly. I don’t have much but I’ll give you whatever I can.”
Ryuji felt bad for steering the conversation in such a depressing direction so he pushed her gently out the door to change the mood. “Good! Then I will ask you to give me your cooperation in supporting a certain family of orphans. Right now, I would like you to give me an introduction. I may count on you for other minor tasks later as well.”
Karen pulled out a key she had around her neck and walked to the next room down on the opposite side of the hall. She opened the door slowly and peeked in. It was still dark out so he assumed that Karen was the one who usually lit all the lamps. She stepped inside and Ryuji could make out her hand gesturing for him to follow her. Once he got to the door, he could see that, unlike his room, there was almost no space in this one. There were two beds pushed next to one another and asleep under the covers were three children that Ryuji could barely make out.
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Ryuji looked to Karen and she had a warm smile on her face as she watched the three sleeping forms. Ryuji looked around the rest of the room but it was too dark to make anything but vague shapes out but he was curious about the human shape in the far corner. Just to be cautious, Ryuji had his hand on the handle of his dagger since it would be easier to pull out and use in a tight space. Karen kneeled on the floor and pulled out something from under the bed and when it scraped over the floor the children stirred and a high-pitched female-sounding voice whispered out. “Sis, is that you? Where were you last night? Sachi kept asking all night and didn’t want to go to sleep until you got back.”
Karen used some kind of striker and sparks showered over the wick of a small lamp. She had to do that three times before the lamp lit and as she held it up, bathing the room in light, she spoke while Ryuji got his first look at both the surroundings and the three children in the beds. “Sorry Rin, I should have come here and tucked her in myself. This is Ryuji. I hate to ask but I need you to go get the oil and refill all the lamps now.”
The young girl sitting up staring at Ryuji had dark brown eyes and dirty blonde hair but otherwise, she looked almost just like Karen. When she first got a look at Ryuji she had been captivated but once her sister asked her to immediately get to work, she had a dejected look on her pretty features. “But Sis, that’s not fair! Can’t I just…”
Karen cut her off ruffling her hair. “I promise that you’ll get a chance to talk to him when you’re done. Besides, I need you to wake Dorn Firefist! He just happens to be Ryuji’s Master… and he’s downstairs right now!”
Ryuji had to interject at that. “I wouldn’t do that. You should know a little something. He sleeps fairly late and if he’s disturbed before he’s ready to wake up, he’s liable to throw a fireball at you! It’s so bad, he has to have an enchantment on his entire shop to keep him from blowing it up in his sleep!”
Ryuji grinned at the girl, who was about ten, as her eyes went wide in wonder and Karen shot him a smirk. “What? It’s true! I have to fill the enchantment with mana every few days. But I’ll tell you what, I know someone who probably is awake about now. When you finish the oil and your other chores, We’ll go see Lizbet at the bakery and see what this will buy. *Ryuji pulled out a small silver from his pouch and held it up to Rin’s amazement.* But only once you’re done.”
The girl was out of bed and stripping her clothes in seconds. Karen blushed and scrambled to try to cover her with a shirt as she changed into her clothes for the day. Ryuji sniggered and turned away slightly from the immodest girl but noted with distaste that the clothes she was reaching for in the chest under the bed had patches all over them. Time to spend some more coinage and get the kiddos some decent clothing. Then he shuddered and reminded himself that he had to deal with his own problem first and then he could worry about the rest of the town.
Karen woke her, maybe 13-year-old, brother Ken up and he was just as full of questions as she had said. While he was rapid-firing questions off the youngest of the siblings, Sachi who looked to be about six or seven, awoke and hid barely peeking out of the covers at him. when he introduced himself, she did a 180 and was just as full of questions as her brother.
Ryuji asked Karen where Ken worked and found out it was at the ready laborer’s guild. The ready labor guild was a place that specialized in non-dangerous odd job work. The members of the guild might be doing any number of tasks from one day to the next. The only commonality in the tasks was that they never put the persons taking the quest in harms way. The mercenary’s guild filled that role.
Ryuji answered what questions he could as he began looking around the room at the spartan living space. The largest portion of the room was taken up by the two beds next to each other. There was only a meter of space between the bed and the wall and in that space was a chest on a very short dresser with only two drawers that were side by side. There were also things, like the chest with the lamp, stuffed under the beds. There was only one thing in the room that looked totally out of place. It was an armor stand with a nice set of leather armor on it and a full spear in the corner. He realized that he needed to get a stand like that for his own armor and wondered if the furniture store could make one. Ryuji guessed that it and the armor on it, probably belonged to their father before he was killed as he was sure that some of the other things in the room had. He shivered at the grim line of thought and was reminded how tough life was here but that wasn’t why he was here in Karen’s room...