Honestly, it was a bit of a pain to spend the empires on food like this, but to Lucrece it felt quite appropriate considering it all: They had survived their trek through the woods and reached civilization without any missing limbs! It was more than enough reason to let go of the pragmatism for a moment and celebrate life… or at least the blonde tried her best to convince herself of it. In reality, she would have been more than happy eating leftovers or living off stolen game if it would save her the coin.

Sure, the plates full to the brim with hearty beef and potatoes smelled like life itself returning to her tired body, but Lucrece knew she would regret these choices in the future, way after the fact, claiming that she could have perfectly survived without drink and food, even if she deep down knew this wasn’t true.

Gabrielle, in the meantime, had much less trouble devouring her food, letting out deep sighs and happy little noises with each spoonful she took. She was never as expressive as when she was eating, loudly clanking her spoon against the wooden plate and suckling the marrow off from the few bones the cook actually threw at them.

“Har! Someone was really starving here, it seems!” The bartender couldn’t help but laugh, watching the witch slurping down her food with no manners or shame. “Now this is a sight to behold! Have you been too hard at work lately, sellsword?”

Gabi looked up from her plate, blinking softly.

“How did you know I was a sellsword, sir?”

“Har har har! It’s in your face, girly! That and the sword on your back! You don’t look like a soldier and I don’t recognize your face from the guard, so it was either that or a new reclute. I tried my luck!”

“You are very perceptive, sir.”

“Oh, I guess so! One has to develop an eye for these things when doing what I do, you know missy?” Ah, praise! The man lived for it. “So, do you two come together? You are new, are you looking for jobs around here?”

“We are actually just passing by, I wanted to show Gabrielle this beauty of a city.” Lucrece was not a stranger to buttering people up, and she could see in the many family shields in the tavern that the man was quite a proud citizen. “One can’t go without visiting Rennos or its parks.”

“A lady of culture I see. It’s rare to see an educated one wielding a sword, most cling to cushy jobs with the church.” The bartender may have been at least somewhat aware of the girl playing with him, but he simply enjoyed friendly banter a bit too much to let it pass. “Are you, by any chance, looking for a place to stay during the night? We have rooms here.”

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“That sounds nic—” Gabrielle tried to say before being quickly shut down by Lucrece.

“Oh we probably won’t be staying that long! Besides, we wouldn’t want to underpay quality service”

“If money is your issue, I may have a good alternative for two sellswords, if you would accept payment in service.”

Lucrece meditated on it carefully, rubbing under her chin. She heavily disliked being paid in service, for people tended to use that as an excuse to heavily underpay for hard tasks, but the temptation of finally sleeping on a cushy bed was quite strong. Ahhh, she simply couldn’t decide! Fortunately, Gabrielle decided for her on this occasion.

“What needs to be done?” Gabi asked, naively asking for more details.

“You see, don’t tell this to anyone”, the tavern owner leaned a bit closer to whisper, “but there is a bit of a rat problem going on in the city. Gigantic buggers have started to roam the night and I hear them trying to enter our warehouse.”

“So you need us to hunt the rats?”

“Exactly! They will eventually break in and we don’t have the money to fix walls anytime soon!”

“But you just got paid a lot of money by the customers, can’t you use that?”

“Oh sweet child..” The man’s eyes filled with pity, as he shook his head slowly. Poor child has no idea about capitalism and profit. “It is not as easy as that… but, nonetheless, I need a guard tonight to make sure nothing enters my warehouse. Could I count on you for just a night?”

Lucrece let out a deep sigh. At this point of the conversation, rejecting the work offer would certainly get them a bad rep with the man. They were locked into the job already, even if Gabrielle didn’t even realize that yet.

“Sure.” The redhead answered. “We will kill rats.”

“Oh excellent! You are welcome to go and do your sightseeing though, I only require your services at night!”

“Bloody saints…” Luci grumbled under her breath, but then just shook her head. It wasn’t a terrible deal, even though she was sure they had been scammed. “Oh well, I guess that includes the payment for this meal, right sir?”

“Ahahahaha, oh my girl! You push a hard bargain!”

There was more laughter, but there was no confirmation. So Lucrece simply paid the two silver empires she owed the man, and cursed a bit more under her breath. Bloody scum.

After their meal was done with, and Gabrielle had sent her compliments to the lady in the kitchen, Luci would take the girl by the arm and pull her out of the increasingly loud tavern, just as the bard had decided to start singing about lost love and stolen princesses. People really eat up those sorts of stories, so at least the woman was going to eat well that night.

“Ugh, I should had been a bard, Gabi.” The blonde girl complained as they went back to walk on the busy streets. “They really know how to live the easy life. Just playing them lutes, empires raining on them…”

“Why weren’t you a bard then, Luci?” Gabi tilted her head softly to the side.

“Because I sing about as well as a pig giving birth!” The lancer cackled. “Besides, people expect bards to be all handsome and such, no way I’d make it with only one eye.”

“Singing is easy, and you could always cover your eye.”

“Do you have any idea how costly eyepatches are!?”

“I was thinking more of a mask. Something dramatic.”

Lucrece stopped walking for a second. Now that was an interesting idea, something to work her brand! A mask! Maybe something only covering her eye? Oh, but the materials would be so expensive.

“I didn’t take you as an artist, Gabi. That’s quite creative of you.”

“Saint Khemorath was a jester, and everyone loved his mask. It’s everyone’s favorite drawing in the Book of Prologues.”

“What, really?” Luci had never been a religious girl, so of course this came as a double surprise. “Huh. I didn’t know jesters could be saints.”

“Anyone can be a Saint, Luci. They just need to follow the road, the way of the Church.”

The lancer couldn’t suppress a chortle at that. “Oh, sure. The way of the Church. I bet that is easy for some, right?”

“No. It is always terribly hard and harrowing.”

“Oh.” Lucrece blinked. “...You really have no hairs on your tongue, huh?”

“I have none. That would be disgusting. Do you have them?”

“What? No! It’s just an expressi— oh, forget it…”

Luci finally sighed, slowly shaking her head. No matter how much she tried, sometimes she couldn’t read Gabrielle at all.