“No, wait I can explain!” Dorian shouted, but Kristina had already run off crying. Defeated he sunk down in his chair.

“What was that? I-I thought you… You are the worst!” Ruby angrily claimed. Tears ran down her cheeks. Dorian really had screwed up in any way possible.

But he didn’t care, he wasn’t some idiot who would just take the blame for everything. He had done nothing wrong, in fact he was the one who was being wronged. He stood up and walked towards the coffee machine.

“Shut the fuck up Ruby.” His voice was calm. Ruby looked at him as if to confirm that he really just told her to shut up.

“What did you just say?!” She was majorly pissed off and was ready to murder Dorian with words, but when he turned around, the expression on his face made her stop in her tracks. He looked ready to burn everything down and Ruby was genuinely afraid of him.

“I said you should shut up. I don’t know what your problem is, but if there is one thing I hate above everything else, then it’s putting the blame on someone who doesn’t deserve it. I never wanted you to stay! It’s not my fault that your imagination ran wild! I don’t want anything from you, after you told me you’d forgive me, I was done with that topic! I don’t know why you came here, but it wasn’t anything I planned for. Listen, I had planned to spend a lovely dinner with that girl who ran out, but you needed to ruin it, didn’t you? And then after ruining my chance with someone I am actually interested in, you have the audacity to tell me that I am ‘the worst’?! FUCK OFF!” Dorian was more than just furious and he showed it. Ruby felt like a small child being scolded by her parents, she had seriously messed up.

After a bit of silence during which Ruby didn’t dare to speak a word, Dorian drank the whole cup of coffee he had made for himself. He looked at her for a bit, then in a voice that seemed to suppress his anger he spoke again. “I want you gone by tomorrow. I don’t care who you are or if you want to work here or whatever. I can’t stand people who go around speaking without knowing the whole picture. Now leave and if I ever see you again you better start praying.” Somehow this calmer version of Dorian was even more terrifying and Ruby hastily got up and left the room.

Once she had left the room, Dorian sunk down to the floor. The day had been stressful enough and now he had to deal with all this. Maybe he was too hard on Ruby, but this way a lot of his problems would be solved. He had worried what Ruby would do once she realized that they actually didn’t plan to defeat the Demon Lord ever. But if she would leave out of fear that problem would be solved, adding to that, his thoughts about her being some bigshot were also not an issue anymore. And lastly, well lastly he didn’t have to be concerned about the endangerment of a minor. He wasn’t sure if his consciousness could carry such a burden, after all she wanted to put herself in extreme danger because she thought that he and Jamie were some heroes chosen by the gods.

“It might be hard, but I made the right choice… Also, now that she’s gone I might get another chance with Kristina.” He laid down in his comfortable bed and let the breeze of the open window hit him. It was a soothing feeling that helped him come to terms with his extreme actions and he slowly fell asleep without even changing his clothes.

“…What time is it? The sounds of chirping birds outside his window had woken Dorian up. How long had it been since he was forcefully thrown into this world he wondered as he yawned and stretched to properly wake up. He often thought about his past life and whether or not his parents and his older brother were doing alright.

Come to think of it… Am I considered dead? I mean the last time people saw me was during that explosion and then what? Did this self-proclaimed goddess put a decoy body in place or does everyone think my body got disintegrated? Either way, there must have been a funeral, right? I wonder how many people cried over me…

He quickly put those thoughts away as he had no way of getting an answer to his questions anyway. After last night’s fiasco he felt terrible, almost like he had a hangover but without the alcohol. At that thought he chuckled out of frustration.

After a quick and cold shower that dreadful feeling went away. Dorian ate the meal which the cooks had placed in front of his door like every day and after three cups of coffee he finally felt like he was ready for the day to start.

Usually he would now go downstairs to greet his staff and care about the business related things, however he really didn’t feel like interacting with other humans today. Thus, he walked towards his wardrobe and opened it. Inside there were a bunch of clothes, some were for casual wear, some were for official meetings and stuff and last but not least he had his clothes in which he came to this world.

He grabbed the black lab coat and quickly changed out of the clothes he wore since yesterday. Now standing in only his underwear and a lab coat, he pushed all the other clothes to the side. Dorian then proceeded to push into the back wall of the wardrobe and it opened up in a dramatic fashion. Dorian walked through the opening and stood inside a prototype elevator. He pressed the second lowest button and when the doors opened up again he was inside his laboratory.

Whenever he felt down he would always go in there to not think about his problems, needless to say he almost spend every day in this room. He specifically went ahead and developed the technology for a primitive elevator, so that he wasn’t forced to meet other people on his way down here. Dorian grabbed a chair and sat down in it, his whole body sagging down. Despite his efforts, it seemed like he wasn’t able to trick his body and suddenly everything he did to fight that endless tiredness seemed futile.

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But before he could get some more sleep, something which he definitely needed despite having just woken up, someone knocked at the door. The only ones who were allowed behind the bar were Jamie, himself and of course their youngest employee Diane. But Jamie would be out at this time of the day, organizing things for the evening as usual, thus it must have been Diane. Dorian wasn’t sure if he could handle her upbeat and outgoing personality right now, but what choice did he have?

“Come in.” He said unenthusiastically and instantly the door burst open. Diane entered without a second of hesitation and came straight at him.

She had long black hair, reminding him of a past crush of him. Maybe that was the reason he hired her in the first place, because it certainly wasn’t for her intelligence. It’s not like he thought of her as a dumb pretty type of girl, but she definitely had other ‘assets’ than her intellect which made him choose her of all the candidates that had applied for the job. Sure one of them was her body, which was downright amazing, however aside from that she knew everything about everyone at all times. Or at least it felt like it, whenever someone was gossiping she already knew about it beforehand. Under other circumstances this might have been annoying, but in a town like this information was key for a lot of things, thus he saw her as a valuable tool. And of course her looks lured in customers… But the other thing was important too.

After they had hired her they gained a lot of traction, even more than they initially thought. This had three reasons, first her beauty, that one was obvious. Second the fact that she was constantly talking about her job to everyone, which was basically free advertising and lastly something Dorian hadn’t known about when he gave her this job. She was a well-known singer star in this nation, in fact she had even performed for the royal family. To this day Dorian had no idea how to feel about this, but once he got hold of this information he instantly pulled her out of the spotlight.

Nowadays she only works during the day where only few people visited them, or on rare occasions at night, but then she wasn’t a barkeeper but a performer on stage. He did this to prevent her from saying anything negative about his and Jamie’s establishment they worked so hard for.

Still, while she was a risk as an employee, as a friend she was a blessing. Something about her ‘the glass is half full’ attitude was soothing for Dorian, thus she was, aside from Jamie, the only one allowed to go into his room even when he specifically asked for solitude. In fact it helped him relax so much so, that every few days the two of them got together for a few hours to just talk about things. Mostly it was just Dorian complaining and Diane talking about the newest gossip around town but it worked like a free therapy session for him.

Why was she in this town if she was such an angel? Well she tended to get a bit violent when it came to her friends. He had only seen this side of her once during the ‘incident’ and it was truly terrifying. Diane was a person you can’t trigger, no matter what you do, however if you dare touch any of her friends, then the best you can do is pray.

She stopped right in front of the sulking Dorian and began explaining the reason she came to him. “Mister Wright, Miss Belle left a message in form of a letter for you earlier.” During work hours she was supposed to call him Mister Wright so that the other staff members won’t feel discriminated. Her voice was cheerful, despite the message obviously being a bad one, after all Miss Belle was none other than his date last night, Kristina.

Dorian sighed. “Urgh, fine let me hear it. Let’s just get this over with.” He already knew what was coming next, but having a confirmation would probably help him get over her sooner.

Diane played a bit with her hair which was woven to a braid today, then after that brief bit of hesitation she reached into the pocked of the Taverns work uniform she wore, pulling out a small handwritten letter. She cleared her throat and began reading out loud.

“Dear Dorian,

I was really excited when I got your invitation yesterday because I thought that you had felt the same spark that I did when we were being held captive by that troublesome machine. That is why I was all the more disappointed to see that apparently said invitation wasn’t meant for me in the first place. And looking at the elegance and beauty of the girl it was actually directed at, I felt like I had no chance of competing.”

Figures, she misunderstood the situation and now she doesn’t to see me anymore…

“I was ready to give up on us as an item completely, however that was when the same girl which I had previously saw together with you approached me.”

Huh…? What did she just say?

“She explained the situation to me and told me how sorry she felt about the whole incident. Honestly I didn’t believe her at first, but when she kept insisting on it with those sweet puppy eyes, I finally gave up. It looks like you have a good eye for women, don’t you Dorian? Either way, she told me that I should invite you to another date, this time located inside the flower patch right outside of town. It looks like the two of you need to discuss some things, don’t you? Well I will wait for you if I must, but not too long… I await your arrival in four hours, if you won’t be there in time, I shall accept your rejection, knowing that I at least tried.

I hope to see you soon, xxx Kristina.

That’s the end of the letter. Isn’t that great Mister Wright? I immediately read it once she gave it to me, sorry for that, but this is good news isn’t it?” Diane asked with an innocent smile on her face.

“Say, when exactly did she give you that letter?” Dorian’s voice sounded a bit scary, but Diane hadn’t noticed it.

“Hmmm, I think about three and a half hours ago? I honestly didn’t look at the time, silly me!”

“I see, so you want me to kill you, I never would have expected such suicidal behaviour from you Diane…” His voice was ice cold, but given the situation his rage was understandable.

“Eh?! But you were the one who insisted that no one should ever wake you up when you sleep, after all it’s such a rare event! This isn’t my fault!” She explained, slowly backing away showing a bit of fear.

Shit! Well she’s right, it’s not her fault… Honestly since yesterday I have been getting way too aggressive way too easily.

“Sorry, you are right… Fuck, what am I doing?! I have no time to talk with you!! Thanks for the info though, we’ll talk later Diane!” Dorian rushed out the room, leaving Diane, still in a bit of a shocked state behind .

Diane shouted after Dorian as she waved him goodbye. “No problem Boss! Can’t wait to talk about all the gossip with you again! Byeeee!!!”