Chapter 10: Starting Out
Ryo opened his eyes to the morning sun flooding into his room, and the sound of the city people bustling about in the street as the day was starting and Orario was waking up. Down the hall, he could hear other doors being opened as people came out of their own rooms and headed downstairs for breakfast.
Sitting up, he stretched his arms and his back as both gave off of satisfied cracks and pops while he rolled his head about and looked to the fireplace. The flames had gone out long ago and nothing but grey ash remained there now. Looking down at his body, he found himself still adorning the black tattoos and his vision had more degree to it than was normal.
Analysing himself, he found his cursed energy flowing at a fixed rhythm where it didn't just flood out of him but lessened the effort he needed to control and hide it. Having such large reserves of CE as he did was certainly a great thing to have but you had to put in a lot of effort to suppress it if you wanted to be covert for a little. Even if normal people could not perceive it, their raw instincts could be affected by the presence of CE. He would not be surprised if the people occupying the rooms near his had been having nightmares all night.
Drawing his power back into himself, the tattoos faded and the extra pair of eyes disappeared as he got up and clothed himself. He knocked the window open a little bit to let in some ventilation and pulled off his cloak from the door before swinging it on and opening his door. He stepped out into the hallway, only to be greeted by a cute faced brunette smiling up at him a little rosy cheeked, and a platter held behind her back.
"Good morning~" Martha said cheerily. "I was wondering when you'd be up. Everyone else has gone downstairs to eat."
"I was not aware of being under a sleep curfew." Ryo said plainly as he closed the door behind him.
"You not going to lock your door?" Martha tilted her head as she looked at the knob.
"Why should I?" He asked. "I carry nothing of value nor would the lock stop you from going inside to clean it."
"We don't go in if you don't want it cleaned everyday." She straightened her back. "That the way you want it?"
"I couldn't care either way." He said as he put his hands in his cloak. "Any reason you're lurking outside my door this morning?"
"Oh yeah. Mom saw you didn't come down for breakfast." Martha shrugged. "She keeps an eye out for these little things, especially when someone new comes to stay. Says it's good business mindset and all."
"Means she takes good care of her business." He said. "You have much to learn from her."
"Yeah, I know." She sighed. "Anyway, the fire's still burning. Mom's got eggs on if you want some. Or if you want to just eat out, I could show you around some other nice establishments. Maybe even try out the food stands?" She asked suggestively.
"...I think I'll just eat in." He said as he walked past her towards the stairs.
"Okie Dokie!" She saluted as she began following him.
...
Ryo was somewhat surprised to see the dining area quite packed with people, talking in a quieter volume amongst each other while drinking from cups and tankards. There was a heavy smell of salt and bacon in the air, which was coming from the direction of a doorway with a small curtain pulled over it, from which he could hear the noises of pots and pans rattling.
Mosa was standing at the food counter, handing over plates of food to hungry inn-goers before she caught sight of Martha and the boy that her daughter had brought in the day before. She smiled gently and lifted a hand in greeting to him to which he replied in kind. Ryo was not the nicest person around, but he did have standards...and manners. Came with being raised in 'high society' so to speak.
His adoptive grandfather did after all have the most peculiar friends.
He caught sight of people who were clearly dressed like adventurers, if some of the light weaponry on them didn't give it away, also dining in the hall, and they were contributing to some of the higher volume. Something he noticed about them was how much of the bacon strips they were consuming.
"Is your inn open for dining to people who aren't staying here as well?" He asked the girl behind him.
"Yep." She said. "Mom's food is really popular around here. We figured we'd make more profit if we let other people eat here too instead of just the people who stay in our rooms. They do like her bacon most specifically."
"Good sourcing I suppose." He muttered.
"You got it." Martha put a finger to her lips. "Sorry, trade secret. Can't tell ya."
"Wasn't interested." He said. "I don't particularly care for pork."
"Why?"
"Poor man's meat." Ryo answered.
He sat down at an empty table she'd directed him to. This was a table in a corner made clearly for just one person to eat on. Martha did have good acumen after all.
"Excuse me?" She asked with a confused look.
"Cheap meat and plenty in abundance to provide." He answered. "Doesn't need much for the upkeep either, since you can literally feed them lumps of dogsh*t and the dumb animals will think it's a meal. I've been to these places so I know what I'm talking about. Plus it's addictive and doesn't take much to prepare for consumption unless you're dealing with actual high quality cuts of pork due to specific and special breeding. I'd take a cut of beef any day between the two."
"Huh, that's not something a lot of people know about." Martha said in surprise. "Have you worked in the industry before?"
"Not as a farmer." He said. "Anyway, I'm here to eat. So let me eat." He picked up a small menu sheet from the table. There was only just writing on it with a price next to each option but nothing else of detail. Not that he expected it, being a medieval fantasy world after all.
"You could pick anything." Martha said. "Mom's a great cook no matter what she makes. I bet you she could change your opinion on pork, no sweat."
"Alright then." He accepted the challenge as he dropped the paper back on the table. "I'll have whatever you recommend Martha."
"You got it." She said, not even showing any signs of hesitation as she walked away to fulfil his 'order'.
He watched as she went up to her mother and conversed for a few moments. Mosa looked his way for a moment before nodding to Martha and gesturing for the girl to take her place at the counter which he now noticed from how Martha leaned down and pulled out a bottle from underneath to refill some guy's drink also served as a bar. Mosa disappeared through the curtain and into the kitchen presumably to handle whatever Martha had suggested herself, which meant it had to be something bigger than the norm.
And given how much pride Mosa seemed to put into her inn, whatever she turned out of the kitchen with her own hands had to be something good...not that he didn't know that already. He'd already seen from another's perspective how well the woman did with her food, if her personality was indeed the same in this world as it was in her original.
He watched Martha as the little girl displayed no issue or nervousness with dealing with all the burly men that would walk up to the counter and bark orders or demand their cups refilled. She handled it all with grace and diligence, keeping on top of everything even down to remembering someone's name when they ordered a mix or something of the sort. Whatever reluctance the girl showed in taking over the business, it was clear that she was a good worker.
He would do well with a girl like her in his own establishment when it was up and running. Though still a work in progress, he'd had no doubt that before the month was over, he would be turning out his own creations from the kitchen. With Uraume among other pawns of his and his work experience at pulling other helping hands into the broth, he would have business booming from the get-go.
That is, if he would get approval from the city's government to provide monster meat to the people. And if they did not approve on the initial point...well, you could protect your body as much as you liked but your soul was another thing. And if you couldn't counter a cursed spirit because you didn't know cursed sorcery yourself, well you're pretty much done for.
Ryo folded his arms as he began going over his plans one by one in his head. The first step would be to acquire the place he had in mind for his restaurant. It was run down in an area where there was not much commercial flow but he did know that it was still full of people. If his business did well, it could be a spark in more money flowing there which would also give him leverage over the district and perhaps even a favour or two from higher authority.
The second step was to find a way to go into the Dungeon without the need for a Falna. He was hoping that being an offensive, combat class Spirit was reason enough to go in by himself since Spirits were only a step down from gods to the mortals. Even Elves, arrogant as they were due to their natural magical prowess, held great respect and reverence even if reluctant for spirits.
But if no system did exist where he could bypass the need for a Blessing, then there was only one other option left to him which he didn't like one bit.
The next step, if the previous one did work would be to enter the Dungeon to begin sourcing ingredients. After all, to his knowledge, it was not just monsters that was to be found in there. There were also fruits and other vegetation to experiment with...though perhaps that was something to experiment with at a later date.
He was distracted by the arrival of his food. Martha came forwards with a larger plate than normal and placed it down on him. His eyes feasted upon a couple of omelettes and sausages, with strips of bacon and cooked tomatoes and mushrooms. One the side were about three fried potato croquettes. Martha then placed besides it a small bread basket of some dark slices of bread. The girl put her hands on her hips and smiled down at him proudly.
"Mom likes to call this a worker's breakfast." She said as she pointed to a small sign board hanging above the counter. "Breakfast specials. You'll be guaranteed to love it. Enjoy."
'It's literally just a Full English without the beans...some would consider that a heresy.' He thought to himself.
But nonetheless, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a couple of coins which he dropped into Martha's hands. Meals were after all paid for separately from the room. Martha looked down and counted it, and found that it was the exact price put up on the sign. She then looked over at it to see that the writing on the sign from here was far too small for her to read. So she stared back at Ryo with a raised brow.
"What?" He asked.
"I didn't tell you how much it cost. So how did you know how much to give me?"
"Read it from the sign."
"But it's way too small!"
"Still saw it." He said nonchalantly.
"Huh." Martha tilted her head again. "You must have really good eyesight. That'll be good if you want to be an adventurer."
"Duly noted." He then tapped the table. "A drink would be appreciated to wash all this grease down."
"Sure." She beamed. "We have standard beer, but if you're looking for something a bit more on the pricey side, we have wine and mead."
"...Don't suppose you have any tea?" He asked. 'Might as well make this meal somewhat more authentic.'
"I'll have a look in the larder." She said as she began to skip away. "Be right back."
He watched as she walked away from him and his eyes dragged themselves all over her form as she walked. His eyes momentarily flashed from blood red to an impossibly blue set of eyes that appeared as if two pieces of the clearest, brightest sky was cut away and stuck onto his eyeballs. But as quick as they appeared, they vanished, leaving him with his regular eyes once more.
"Such clothing." He muttered as his eyes fixated on the inn-keeper's daughter. "She really is mature for her age."
Breakfast from then on was not as eventful as Martha did not come around to bother him any more. With his hearing, he heard her mother giving her a tiringly long sounding list of chores for her to do alongside whatever other employees the portly woman had. But Martha accepted them without hesitation and began work right away.
If nothing else to like about the enthusiastic girl, she was clearly a hard worker. Yes, he would do very well with someone like her in his future endeavours.
The food was not bad either. Clearly made with care, and though the sausage was not as seasoned as he would have liked and the whole thing was a bit on the salty side, he did enjoy his first served meal in this city.
---
Ryo looked up from the map at the main building of the Guild, the place that generally catered to adventurers for its most part but also housed significant members of government within as well. This famous complex frequented by adventurers of the city was known as the Pantheon. A highly arrogant name in his opinion but then again, when you ran a business in the heart of the world where even gods would have to cow to your authority so that the city remained functional, he guessed that one would have legitimate reason to be arrogant.
It did not mean he had to like this damn place, not with all the ingrates loitering about everywhere outside waiting to go in. Humans stank anyway, but a bunch of mortals like these just made the place reek of obstinance and overall ruggedness and indecency.
With his hood up, Ryo began to approach the building but was jostled in the shoulder by an axe-wielding dogman adventurer who kissed his teeth and leered in his direction with a sneer.
"Oi! Watch it you-" The adventurer was cut off as Ryo's eyes fixated on him, and the beastman's blood turned to ice. For all Ryo looked like a normal boy, the dogman suddenly felt like he was just staring into the jaw of death for the brief moment their eyes met. His marrow began to curdle with the sheer dread he was feeling just by keeping eye-contact with Ryo.
Much of that feeling was alleviated when Ryo blinked and the dogman came back to reality, a level 3 with his knees shaking and his chest heaving with breath as he tried to get some warmth back into his body. The adventurer put a hand over his heart to calm himself, wondering just how long he'd been standing there petrified as he'd felt for a moment like his soul had nearly gone to the afterlife.
"I-I'm sorry sir." The dogman stuttered as his flappy ears drew back in his still present terror. "It was my mistake."
Ryo held his eyes for a moment before carrying on, keeping eye contact with him before he was too far away for his head to turn any more and keep that contact. The dogman let out a sigh of relief when Ryo entered the guild through the flap doors before he looked down at his trembling hands.
What the hell had that been? He, a level 3 and seasoned adventurer who had been made to look down the gullets of monsters who had almost devoured him in those moments, was suddenly so shaken like he'd just been face to face with something worse than those things a thousand times over...or perhaps even more so. A complete stranger whose face he suddenly realised he could not remember properly.
The sheer malevolence he'd felt emanating from Ryo when they'd made eye contact had been enough to freeze him on the spot and fixate on nothing but the eyes coloured blood red, so much so that he hadn't taken in the rest of Ryo's features. He wasn't given much time to think about that though as suddenly his ears felt like they were on fire, and the familiar weight of his long flappy ears which he'd inherited from his mother was suddenly relieved of him.
To his horror, his ears began falling apart piece by piece, like someone had taken sharp scissors and cut them into ribbons. The fell to the ground in a mess of sliced cartilage as blood began to run down from his head where his ears had been. Even worse, his tail which had been given a battering over the years of adventuring fell off from his backside, completely severed at the root and his body swayed from the loss of balance that his tail provided him. He could do nothing but collapse to the ground and clutch at his lost appendages while rasping in horror and confusion at what had happened, drawing the eyes of the passer-by's as they looked to see what was bothering him.
But the terror he'd felt from before returned ten times over with the loss of his ears and his tail and he began hyperventilating to the point he just fainted there while his blood began to pool and people started to panic while also scratch their heads at what had just happened.
...
Ryo entered through the flapping doors to be greeted by wide counters at which stood receptionists tending to adventurers. On one side of the space was a drop off point where he knew adventurers traded cores and drop items for money and off at the other end were little seating areas for discussions. As he walked by the counters, looking for someone who could serve him, a particular receptionist perked up.
Brown-haired with pointy ears, she fixed her green eyes through her glasses upon the tall white-haired individual who let down his hood as he passed by her counter and she reached out to him.
"Hey! It's you! Aren't you a bit taller than you were yesterday?" She asked.
She was about to follow up with something as she leaned forwards to converse with who she thought was someone she'd met the day before when Ryo looked at her. All of a sudden she realized she had been wrong about his identity. Though the hair colour and hair style was the same, the face it contained was vastly different even if similar to Mr Cranel's.
Whereas Bell's face was boyish and soft in nature with a slight wimpish yet kind aura around it, this person's face was sharp and masculine, and the eyes cold and calculating with a dangerous glint on them. Unlike Bell, no nervous smile adorned this face nor any apparent emotion. In a room full of feelings, this person was a cold spot, or a blind spot, a black patch on a canvas of colourful emotions. Nothing about this man spoke of kindness or a relative feeling of humanity.
The receptionist, Eina Tulle, suddenly felt like her outburst had made her step on a wolf's tail...a large white wolf with a predatory gait and a bloodthirsty gaze.
"What do you want?" His harsh voice reached her and snapped her out of her clammy trance.
Might I mention his voice was like that of Ray Chase's. A simple Idle Transfiguration upon his voice box had gotten the job done and Eina could have sworn she was hearing echoes of a second tone to his voice, like his voice was being spoken from two mouths at once and overlapping one another to create an echo where a normal person's voice shouldn't.
"N-nothing sir." Eina Tulle, the half elf receptionist of the guild's main branch replied. "I thought you were someone else."
"What? You can't tell the difference between someone who is 6'3 and a 5'4 wimpy little skeleton of a brat who cries from just tripping over thin air?" Ryo said. "And saying 'Hey' to someone to catch their attention? How absolutely mannerless! Is it the mixed blood that gives you cognitive deficiency or are are you the only half-breed that is rude?"
"Excuse me!" Her gaze became stony. "Now that sir, is uncalled for! How dare-"
His eyes became sharper in warning for her not to continue that sentence and argue with him. Her indignance vanished instantly, replaced with apprehensiveness and fear as she suddenly felt like a knife was being held to her throat and one more word would have her blood spilling onto the counter-top.
Little did she know that that was the closest to what was actually going on at the moment. Unlike other people, Ryo just didn't need a knife.
"My apologies sir." She said as she coughed to clear the tense air. "I didn't mean to be rude. I just thought you were someone I knew."
"Well you thought wrong." He said before he looked and saw that the other receptionists were occupied. "Seeing as you look like you have nothing to do, perhaps you can make up for it by serving me then." He said with a tone that did not make his words sound like a suggestion but rather an order.
The irrational fear that brewed inside her all of a sudden forced her to obey.
"Of course sir. How may I help you?" She asked.
"I'm here to get a citizenship and I also want to speak with someone of higher standing in your guild. I am looking to start a business as well as buy a property that I have my eyes on. Is there someone I can see for this?"
"Yes sir. I believe the guild section leader should be able to help with that." She said as she guided him to a stairway. "Let me take you to see him."
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