บท 82: The figurative Storm
...
After a few minutes, I had gotten over being mad at Aryl, and we resumed our search for a restaurant. Since going through the Northern part of the town yielded no results, we instead moved towards the South.
However, something was strange.
"Why are they looking at us like that?", I asked Aryl in a hushed whisper.
Being in thoughts for a bit, Aryl sighed. "Not 'us'. They're looking at me. This is why I always kept my helmet on..."
'Is is because of her face?'
I wanted Aryl to elaborate. But upon seeing that she really didn't want to talk right now, I kept my mouth shut.
The more South we went, the more disgusted gazes I could feel landing on Aryl.
Before long, someone actually came out of their way to confront her.
"Hey you!"
Slowly turning her head towards the owner of the voice - a child, maybe 10 years of age, Aryl sighed as if she was expecting this from the start.
"What do you want?"
"Get out of here, filthy Halfling!", the child spoke rudely.
While Aryl was sighing yet again for having to deal with something this annoying, I had a shocked look on my face. I didn't expect such a young child to say such things to other people!
Ignoring the child, Aryl continued walking once more. However, she was soon stopped again by the same child.
"Do not come any closer! You're going to murder more people, huh? Just like your kind did with my father!"
Aryl was starting to get really agitated. As such, she tried to shove the child out of the way.
However, he nimbly dodged her shove and blocked her way again.
"This brat!", Aryl gritted her teeth in frustration. "Get out of my way, now! Or else I'll make you regret living"
The child ignored Aryl's threat and stood in his place.
"Don't say that I haven't warned you"
<[A - Authority of fear]: Death>
I- I have to run away from her! I WOULD BE KILLED IF I STAY IN THIS PLACE ANY LONGE—
'N- NO! Araceli, Get a hold of yourself!'
And with that thought, I forcibly calmed myself down.
This was the Skill that Aryl had used on Artest in the Guild before, and I was sure of it. As such, I knew that Aryl wouldn't kill me, as it was most likely a mental attack that evoked the fear of death from every living beings.
However, other people didn't have the same information I had. As such, everyone who were giving Aryl glares of disgust quickly ran away to hide.
Aryl suddenly glanced at me, as if wanting to confirm that I was there. Her eyes widened for a split second in surprise, presumably by the fact that I hadn't ran away from her. She then soon focused her gaze on the child again.
That was when I realized that her eyes weren't red anymore. Instead, they were dull gray now. However, I didn't have time to process that information, as my breathing became ragged, and my pupils contracted in fear as I felt an indescribable chill running down my spine just from Aryl briefly glancing at me.
'I- If it's just from her looking at me for no more than a split second...'
Who knows how much worse the child, who she had been glaring at for the past several seconds, had it.
Gulping a mouthful of saliva, I directed my attention towards the child once more.
He was still standing there, still blocking Aryl's path. Though, I wasn't sure if he was foolishly brave or he was just frozen in fear.
However, even I could tell that he was looking at Aryl with a hateful glare.
"K- Kill me...", he muttered.
"What?", Aryl looked at him in confusion.
"K- Kill me but p- please, don't kill mother and big brother..."
The child's face was full of resolution and determination. I was sure that he didn't even think of his own death as he said those words. Instead, he was most likely worrying about his mother and brother's safety.
Aryl seemed to have made the same observation as mine too, as her breathing became ragged and she clenched her fists so tightly that blood trickled down the knuckles of her hands.
Eventually, she decided to deactivate her Skill, returning her Eyes to their normal color. She then swiftly turned around with her body slightly trembling.
"Let's go, Celi", Aryl spoke as she desperately tried to hide her unrest. "It's a hassle dealing with people like this brat"
I briefly glanced at the child, who was now clutching his chest and sighing in relief, before catching up to Aryl.
Before long, we left the Southern part of the town, and the atmosphere became normal again.
People were still looking at Aryl, though I was certain that they were admiring her face instead of hating on her because she was a Halfling.
Blankly staring at the ground while walking behind Aryl, I fell into thoughts.
'What could have made her react that way...?'
I could tell that her emotions were genuine this time unlike when she tricked the stall owner. Not because of the fact that I could tell her fake emotions from her real ones, but because... there was no benefits in her acting that way.
However, I couldn't dwell on that thought for long, as I heard Aryl speaking.
"Well, at least we managed to find a restaurant..."
Instead of looking at the restaurant though, I checked Aryl's face for her expressions.
It seemed that she had mostly gotten over... whatever that was. However, there were still traces of anger and guilt in her eyes.
"What are you looking at me for?"
At Aryl's question, I averted my eyes away from her and finally looked at the restaurant we were going to eat at.
It looked like any other restaurants. To point out one difference though, its logo was of a Green dragon wearing a chef hat and giving a thumbs up.
'What a weird design choice...'
And with that thought, I walked into the restaurant with her.
...
After we settled down at a table, a waiter immediately walked up to us. Giving us the menus, he stood by our side to wait for our orders.
Skimming through the menu, Aryl immediately ordered. "Wyvern's meat, rare"
Nodding in affirmation, the waiter then directed his gaze towards me.
Unlike Aryl though, I was scanning the menu carefully. After a while, I finally decided on what I would eat.
"Umm... I'd like Barqast's specials please"
The waiter nodded and walked into the kitchen.
"That's a weird meal name", Aryl suddenly spoke up.
She then looked through the menu to look for Barqast's specials.
"A dish made by Green dragon Barqast...", she muttered the content out loud. "...This unique dish lets you experience the kind of meal... the Dragons of old... had...?"
Her eyes then widened in horror as she quickly turned her head up to meet my gaze, urgency apparent in her tone.
"Celi! Cancel your order now! It's not too late!"
I was about to heed to Aryl's words and cancel my order. However, I suddenly recalled that she was the kind of person who would guilt trip a merchant into giving her stuff for free.
As such, I crossed my arms defiantly as I glared at her.
"No."
"L- Look, Celi, you don't understand! Cancel i—"
"No.", I repeated my answer. "You're just being stingy with money that isn't even yours! Let me have a good meal!"
Aryl tried to reason with me for a few more minutes, but I quickly shot her down every time.
Frustrated, Aryl heaved a tired sigh and looked straight in my eyes. "Fine then, don't say that I haven't warned you"
She then lets out a small mutter. "Though... it would be funny if she actually died from food poisoning"
"What do you mean—"
Before I could question her weird words, the waiter had already brought food to our table.
Aryl ignored me and lifted the lid up from her tray, revealing a pair of Wyvern's hind legs which looked and smelled absolutely delicious.
Excited, I also lifted the lid up from my tray. However, I soon stared at my dish in horror.
"Wh- What is this!?"
Aryl smirked at my reaction. "Told you"
I ignored her smug face and gulped a mouthful of saliva as I stared at the 'meal' in front of me.
No, to call it a meal was utterly insulting. After all, what was on my tray as... a skinned Dire wolf.
Literally, it was just that. It wasn't roasted, fried, nor were its intestine removed. It was literally just a skinned Dire wolf on top of a tray. And I could have sworn I saw something, presumably parasites, wiggling under its skin.
Disgusted, I tried to call the waiter over to get a refund. However, I was quickly stopped by Aryl, who seemingly guessed what I was going to do.
"Don't you dare do it!"
"Why?", I looked at her in confusion.
"He's a minimum-wage worker! Don't bother him with useless things"
"But it's not useless!", I frowned at her. "Don't you see this 'thing'? It's disgusting!"
"It may be disgusting, but you ordered it. Don't waste your food"
"I'm getting a refund no matter what! It's the restaurant's fault for not including the description of the food in the menu!"
Aryl sneered at my words. "Celi, you were aware that this is 'the meal that the dragons of old ate', right?"
"Yes...?"
"Then it's your fault. Seriously, did you expect the Wild Dragons to chop the Wolf up and cook it properly like civilized people?"
'Now that she mentions it...'
Aryl was right. It was somewhat my fault for not expecting this kind of stuff when I ordered the meal. Thus, I had no choice but to reluctantly accept her words.
However, I wasn't about to eat this disgusting this as it was.
<[Flame]>
With a snap of my finger, small flames appeared below the Wolf. I was trying to roast it right here to make it actually taste good... or at least to avoid getting food poisoning.
Not even a few seconds had passed, and I was stopped by not Aryl, but by the same waiter that took my order before.
"Esteemed customer! Stop this right now!"
I extinguished the flames and crossed my arms as I glared at him.
Unaware of what my glare meant, he cleared his throat before speaking up again.
"That's the wrong way to eat this splendid dish!"
"Splendid?", I looked at him confusedly.
"Yes, splendid.", he nodded his head. "The meat needed to be eaten raw to experience the exquisite and fleshy taste - the same taste that dragons of old enjoyed!"
"..."
"Oh, and don't be afraid to enjoy the Wolf's intestines to your heart's content. We made sure that there are no feces left in its system"
Looking at the waiter's honest expressions and Aryl's smug grin, I sighed before using [Flame] again. However, this time I manifested the flames inside of the Wolf so that I wouldn't get caught.
...
After a while, I finished my meal.
"It's not as bad as I thought it was going to be..."
"Really?", Aryl looked at me with surprise.
"Yes... surprisingly, they added some seasoning inside the Wolf... and it's just like any normal meat if I roasted it and removed all the parasites"
"I see..."
After a few more moments of silence, I stood up and walked towards the waiter.
"Excuse me, I'd like to pay f—"
However, before I could finish my sentence, Aryl suddenly stood up, used her hand to cover the barrier around my mouth and gestured for me to sit down again.
"Why did you stop me?"
In response, she merely gave me a mysterious smile.
"Just wait for a bit"
...
2 hours had passed.
During which time, Aryl ordered one more meal to eat so that the restaurant wouldn't kick us out.
In contrast to Aryl, who was apparently waiting for something, I was quickly running out of patience.
"Aryl, what are we even doing here? It's almost night already, shouldn't we go look for an inn or somethin—"
BAM—!
Before I could finish my sentence, the door of the restaurant was suddenly swung open.
Emerging from the door was 3 men, all about 25 years of age. To point out one thing from them though, was that they looked like your stereotypical neighborhood thug.
'They would fit well with Aryl...', I thought.
It was then that the men noticed Aryl and me... well, mostly Aryl. And of course, they started walking towards us with grins on their face.
I had expected Aryl to have an annoyed look on her face, but strangely, she had a face full of excitement right now.
'Why do I feel like she's looking forward to this...?'
Before long, the men had already reached our table.
Slamming his hand on the table, the man with brown hair and blue eyes spoke with a smile directed at Aryl. "Would you like to go to my house tonight and have some fun?"
-Way to go, Reiner!
-That's right! Real men like us shouldn't use flowery words!
As soon as the man named Reiner finished his sentence, his friends cheered for him.
It should be noted that however you looked at Aryl, she looked no older than 17. And Reiner was 25 at the very least. That meant—
"Pedophiles...", Aryl muttered.
Not being able to hear Aryl's small mutter, Reiner looked at her confusedly. "What did you say?"
Ignoring his question, Aryl's smile grew wider as she slowly stood up from her seat and cracked her knuckles. "Look, Celi, this is why I told you to wait"
BAM—!
She punched Reiner's face, making him drop to the floor.
Seeing this, Reiner's friends rushed to attack Aryl. However—
BAM—! THUD—!
—They were knocked out of commission with a leg sweep and a punch respectively.
Looking at the 3 men who were lying on the floor and glaring at her, Aryl infused a tiny bit of Mana into her Eyes.
<[A - Authority of fear]: Dread>
As her Eyes turned dull gray, the men desperately scrambled away in fear.
However, Aryl blocked their path with an evil smile on her face.
"P- Please spare us!", Reiner said as he kneeled before Aryl.
"Okay", Aryl replied almost immediately.
Overjoyed, the 3 men quickly rushed toward the exit. However, Aryl blocked their path again.
"I- I thought you said that you would let us go!"
"I never said that I would do it for free"
"Y- You mean...!"
"Yes", Aryl smiled as she leaned forward and extended her right hand out with her palm up. "Your wallets. Now!"
The men immediately took out their wallets, put them on Aryl's hand and bolted out of the restaurant.
Seeing that they had left, Aryl called the waiter over and paid for the meals, including mine.
However, she refused to pay him with Silvers. Instead, all she handed the waiter was Bronzes.
'Weird...', I thought, but I quickly shook such thoughts away.
Now standing in the street, I sighed as I looked at the back of Aryl's head. I couldn't even feel bad for the 3 men, as they were definitely the kind that would take advantage of young girls. If Aryl wasn't, well, Aryl, who knows what would have happened?
Despite that, I couldn't help but to mutter in frustration.
"She's really stingy to a fault..."
...
Luckily for us, we were still able to find an inn despite having spent the whole day looking for a place to eat at.
As I was about to enter my room though, Aryl suddenly stopped me and handed me a bag full of Silver and Gold coins.
"What?", I looked at her, baffled that the stingy Aryl would give me this much money.
Seemingly aware of what I was thinking, Aryl hurriedly spoke up. "It's not like that. This is your training"
"Training?"
"Yes. I've noticed today that you... ran out of patience fairly quickly—"
'No, I think it's more like that you were dead-set on spending as little money as possible'
Of course, I didn't dare to voice my thoughts out loud.
Unaware of my thoughts, Aryl continued. "—So, this training will help with it. You must rub all of these coins, and by morning, they all must be..."
She then gulped a mouthful of saliva as her eyes briefly shone in excitement. "...Shiny"
And with those words, she turned around and immediately walked into her room.
...
I spent the whole night rubbing the coins until they were shiny.
And just like Aryl said, this was a test of patience.
I couldn't count how many times I had to desperately hold in the urge to march into her room and throw the whole bag of coins to her face. However, I still endured through it.
'It's still the training that Aryl gave me...'
After all, I was her apprentice. And although her trainings were unorthodox at best, and downright torturous at worst, I couldn't really deny their effectiveness.
"Haaah... who knew just merely rubbing coins can be so tiring?"
With a sigh of relief, I threw the last coin into the bag and plopped onto my bed to sleep. However—
Clank—!
—The door to my room was swung open, revealing Aryl.
Scanning the room with those molten-red eyes of hers, Aryl shouted. "Wake up Celi, it's noon already!"
Seeing that I was still refusing to get up, Aryl got closer to me and spoke. "You're still sleeping? For someone who always annoyed me in the past week by waking me up early to sleep in like that... I guess you're really tired, huh?"
Glaring at her in frustration, I scowled. "And whose fault is that?"
Aryl looked at me in confusion, not knowing what I meant.
Still glaring at her, I threw the bag of coin towards her, which she quickly caught.
"You...", she looked at me in disbelief. "...You actually did it?"
"Huh?"
'Wasn't this my training?'
"Pffffft!", Aryl suddenly laughed at my face. "HAHAHAHAH! I was just trying to get back at you for hitting me yesterday! Who knew that you're more stupid than I thought!?"
I looked at her with a deep frown as I reached for my shovel. However, upon noticing that I was just grasping empty air instead of the shovel's handle, I realized that I didn't have it on me right now. As such, I could only grit my teeth and endure through this.
Aryl then took a peek inside the bag, only to widen her eyes in excitement.
"Shiny!"
She then held the bag against her chest like it was the most precious thing in the world.
Seeing that I was sulking at her, Aryl calmed down and spoke up again. "Well... since I kind of feel bad for making you do this, I'll... compensate you"
"And how are you going to do that?"
Scratching the back of her head, Aryl sighed. "One"
"One?"
"One thing", she held up a finger. "I'll buy one thing for you. And only one. Its value can't exceed 5 Platinums"
...
I spent the whole afternoon going through the market with Aryl following behind me, trying to find something to buy. And when I say 'the whole afternoon', I meant it.
"Urghhh!", Aryl groaned in frustration. "It's going to be night soon, choose something already!"
In response though, I ignored her and continued looking through the market.
Glaring at me, she scowled. "I bet you're taking revenge on me for making you sit in the restaurant for 2 hours yesterday..."
"Maybe I am", I gave her a mysterious smile, which annoyed her even more.
To be honest, annoying her was just part of why I was taking so long. The main reason was that I didn't know what to buy.
I had considered buying new weapons, but I couldn't get rid of my crossbow since it was a gift from my... father. And the shovel Aryl bought me was of high quality and still in good condition, so I would just be wasting this chance if I had gone to a weapon shop.
It was then that I suddenly noticed an old man sitting on a mat. He would have looked like any other merchants in the market if it wasn't for a particular item that was displayed on the dusty mat right in front of him.
"A- Aryl, wait here for a bit, I'll be back!"
Leaving Aryl behind, I rushed towards the store and picked the item up under the watchful gaze of the old man.
Scanning the item, I stuttered nervously as I looked at the man. "M- Mister, is this for sale?"
"Oh, you got good taste", the man nodded thoughtfully. "And to answer your question: Yes, it's for sale. 50 Gold"
"THAT EXPENSIVE!?", I shouted in disbelief.
The old man didn't seem to bothered by me screaming and continued. "Of course it's expensive. It's the limited edition..."
He then lowered his voice to a hushed whisper. "...And it's even signed by the maker herself"
'"!", I widened my eyes in absolute shock.
Although I could probably ask Aryl to get me this same item if we ever went to the Capital, I couldn't bet on her erratic travel schedule. Thus, I placed the item back down on the mat and hurriedly spoke. "I- I'll buy this! I'll be back in a second after getting the money!"
I then rushed towards Aryl to ask for the money.
Overjoyed that I had finally found something to buy, she handed me 50 Golds immediately, though I could still see the reluctance and sadness in her eyes as she watched me putting the Golds in my pocket.
Deliberately ignoring such things, I ran back to the old man and purchased the item.
"Thanks for your patronage!"
...
Holding the item close to my chest as if it was the most precious thing in the world, I walked back to Aryl again.
Of course, Aryl was curious about what I had bought. "Celi, what did you buy?"
In response, I held the item up to her face with a smug grin.
"Heh, I bet that you're jealous of me right now!"
I had fully expected her to look at me with a sour expression, frustrated that the item was in my possession and not hers.
Unexpectedly, she stared at the item in absolute horror!
After a while, she forcibly calmed herself down. However, she had a blank look on her face as she spoke to me in a trembling voice. "C- Celi... you used the chance to buy anything worth under 5 Platinums on this... this... thing...?"
"Yep!", I answered almost instantly.
Hearing my answer, Aryl looked down at the ground with a defeated expression as if she was absolutely regretting her life choices, before she blankly walked through the marketplace again.
"Huh?", I looked Aryl's back confusedly. "Why is she reacting like that? It's the limited edition of 'The love story between the golden-eyed Hero and his asshole of a rival', and it's signed by the Imperial princess herself too! And it can't be because of the price either... all I took from her was merely 1/10 of 5 Platinums..."
After a while, I smacked my own forehead as I realized something.
"Of course! How stupid of me! This probably reminded her of the princess... I guess even Aryl can miss someone..."
And with that thought, I put the book inside my backpack and hurriedly chased after Aryl.
...
As soon as I reached Aryl though, she suddenly snapped her head towards me and spoke in a low voice.
"We're being followed. Don't panic"
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