Ryuji woke very early to the sounds of rustling and creaking floorboards and discovered Karen just descending the stairs. Quietly, so as not to alert her and to avoid rousing any of the other customers he made his way to the door of her room and heard the children busy getting ready. Ryuji quietly rushed after her down the steps and caught up with her at the entrance to the kitchen.
Karen seemed to sense his presence and whipped around in a slight crouch with both hands up in a fighting stance. He threw up his hands in surrender and only then did Karen recognize him. she stood and glared at him but he could tell that there wasn’t enough light for her to see clearly by. He thought to himself about how shadowy and murky her form was like this and how clear it would be in his other forms. Karen wouldn’t be able to even see as well as him because she was a human and he was a sun-elf which gave him better vision and hearing than her.
She proved how good her vision and accuracy were a moment later by thumping the tip of his ear. “Don’t scare me like that! I almost screamed. What are you doing awake so early? I told you that you didn’t need to wake up early to help me.”
He gingerly rubbed his ear but she didn’t resist when he pulled her in for a kiss. After their passionate embrace was finished, Karen went to retrieve the wood while Ryuji concentrated on his oxyhydrogen fire spell. In a very few minutes, the fire was going rather well and with the time she had saved from making the fire, Karen was enjoying more passionate kissing and cuddling with her boyfriend and he wasn’t complaining.
They were interrupted a couple minutes later by the flustered squeal of Rin. She was standing in the doorway holding her hands to her cheeks and squirming in girly admiration. Karen pouted at her for interrupting her and Ryuji but broke their embrace anyway and retrieved the oil and lamp made for lighting the other lamps. At least there was already a fire so she wouldn’t have to use the flint and steel striker to light the lamp.
Once the water was heated to just shy of boiling, Karen lifted it and carried it to the barrel next to the privy. She reminded herself that tomorrow was the day she would have to make a second pot of water to wash down the stench of the privy. Biting her lip, she turned and considered asking Ryuji to fill the pot again. She made up her mind and asked, to which he agreed without hesitation.
While Ryuji was filling the pot the second time with the perfectly pure water, he began wondering if he could make a simple enchanted water spout for the inn. What would he need? Probably, only some carved stone and a bit of silver which he always had plenty of now. Then he wondered if anybody in the inn had the mana capacity and control to activate the enchantment. It had taken him a few tries to get good enough to cook with Dorn’s magic stove after all.
Ryuji concluded that all of that would have to wait till after the magic metering device was completed. He then set the heavy pot on the stove and marveled at how Karen did this every day. The pot was very heavy and it made him reevaluate her strength. Then there was the way she reacted to his presence this morning. Had she actually heard him? Then she turned in a fighting stance. Oh well.
Ryuji finished up his morning ablutions and made note that he needed to do laundry. He then went down and had a breakfast of some kind of grain porridge with butter and cheese with Karen. Ryuji then headed off to check in on his various properties.
Progress was being made in some small part on the various bath houses but not terribly quickly. The crews here were mostly just finishing the inspection portions of the job and had the actual work ahead of them. The work on Gato’s families’ building was proceeding at a much quicker pace. The frame of the second and third floor were completed and the old metal roof was set to the side. Ryuji learned that the roof would be cleaned, patched, and reused since it fit the building perfectly.
The sisters were hard at work either directing the workers or doing the leatherworking. The cat beastfolk men were nearby practicing their spear technique with shields. Where had they gotten those? Oh well, they were taking their jobs very seriously and a lot of the crews that were idle for the moment were watching them spar and whistling or cheering. Varon came over when he found out Ryuji was there and expressed how safe they made all the workers and families in the plaza feel. The cat-men seemed very sheepish about receiving the compliments and this made the work crews laugh. Then their bosses came out and yelled at them to get back to work before apologizing to Ryuji with grins.
After finishing up at the plaza, Ryuji went to the bakery and got handed two loaves of berry bread and a stern warning not to pay. Two loaves of deliciousness richer, Ryuji walked the short distance over to Potions and Such. When he got there though, Dorn rolled over in his bed and told him that he had given the old dwarf his cold and needed to go away for the day. Ryuji apologized while thinking how impossible that would be but left all the same.
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Left without anything else to do, Ryuji went back to the inn and dropped off his bread then went to the mercenary’s guild. He took the large satchel and the rest of the first loaf of bread sliced up. Once there he distributed some of the slices between the guild employees and a few of the mercenaries while promoting the bakery. A few of the mercenaries from the second floor came down to get a sample and then rushed off to buy their own. The price was prohibitive to a few but not most.
It was to the sight of Ryuji surrounded by a throng of Mercenaries that Mia and Kya entered the guild hall. Their first thought was that their benefactor was being accosted but then they heard the jovial tone and relaxed. When the duo approached, a path parted for them. They were so bemused by the people to either side of them that they were taken off guard by the large slices of rich-smelling berry bread thrust in front of them.
Both women accepted the proffered baked goods with a smile and a word of thanks. As each of them bit into the still-warm bread, their brows shot up and they raised wide eyes to a grinning Ryuji. There were chuckles and words of encouragement all around as well as a couple bemoaning the fact that the sample they had received wasn’t half as big as what the two women got. The grumblers got told off in short order by their peers and a few pointed out that they weren’t nearly as pretty.
As Mia and Kya both turned shades of red Ryuji’s grin only grew. “Good, isn’t it? Wait till you try the nut bread! My baker friend is now having to prepare an even eight of those, every morning, besides what she sets aside for me every other day. I buy two loaves at a time. The success of that is part of the reason that I have plenty of money if I need it.”
“Speaking of money, are you ready to go spend some of mine to get you each a new set of armor? I’m guessing that a light leather armor would be your preference?” At the nods of both women, Ryuji began leading his trio towards the armorer. Behind him, there were whispers of sentiments like; We never stood a chance! and Why do nobles become mercenaries when they’re already rich? Not fair!
About fifteen minutes later at the Old Sleeping Tree Inn, a man came bursting through the swinging double doors and began looking around. Teresa looked around and saw the man who she recognized as one of the fairly regular customers. She was headed over to him, thinking about how he hadn’t been eating at the inn for a couple eightdays when he spoke up loudly. “Karen! Hey Karen? I got news I think you’ll want to hear about! Hey, Karen, where are you?”
Karen came down the stairs and began looking about. The moment the man spotted her, he rushed up to her. “Hey, Karen! Your elf boy is running around on you! I just saw him in town with two women and they were both real lookers. Shame that you bought into his act and fell for his lies and charms, isn’t it? If you hurry, you might be able to catch them at the west market. That’s where I saw them but I can’t say where they might be if you wait!”
Karen looked to Teresa with pleading eyes and the older woman could feel the hurt and desperation in her gaze. “Well, get yerself going then. It’s not that busy right now and I know you won’t be any good worried.”
Karen didn’t wait a second longer and was out the doors in seconds. The lean young man looked at the still-swinging double doors with a smirk. He had always hated that damn elf, ever since he showed up, and then he started kissing Karen right in front of him and everybody else too. It was too much to take! Couldn’t she tell that he was just messing with her? Why couldn’t she just see that she belonged with him and not that stupid elf?
The man was about to leave and see if he could go catch some of the show with a grin on his face when a grizzled old hand clamped down on his shoulder. The wizened and craggy face of the old owner of the inn was right next to his ear as she spoke to him in a low whisper that would have frozen the blood of a dragon. “That was quite the stunt you pulled there. Coming into my inn and causing trouble, not only for one of my best-paying customers, not even just my serving girl, but for my friends and my adoptive daughter and possibly her future husband. And now, you want to just walk out of here like it was a job well done? I think we need to talk about how you plan to repay me if things do turn out the way you were hoping, don’t you?” Her hand tightened like a vise with her last two words.
Karen came skidding around the corner of the final store between herself and the street of the west market. There were a few sets of eyes on her but she had no time for them. Her only interest was seeing her… what was she to him? Her eyes hardened in determination. She would have to ask him that directly when she found him.
Ryuji had just made it to the armorer’s shop. They had discussed it on the way and both women decided that they would get a set of leather armor. They both still felt a little conscious of the fact that a handsome guy was buying something expensive for them but it was mostly for practical reasons. Both Miyako and Kyarako were agility-type fighters and being weighed down by a heavy suit of metal didn’t sound appealing to either woman. Once they got to the shop and began to forget their anxieties, Both women launched into a flurry of activity and questions and Ryuji had to groan. He wondered idly; why did I sign up for this again?