บท 62: Ration your food wisely, please! part 3
"That's terrible! how can you forget something like that!"
Rina yelled, making Ryu flinch.
"Calm down Rina, its not that big of a deal is it?"
Helena said as she put herself in between the couple.
"It is a big deal! Whenever someone dies in the mine or at the mountains, it's almost impossible to take their corpse back. Instead, we bring back the main weapon to hold a funeral and since it's the most expensive and useful gear people would always bring them back. The person who picks the weapon needs to go inform the family of the deceased and in exchange for that courtesy the family allows the person who brought back the weapon to keep it. Now, what do you think happens when someone dies and no one brings back the weapon nor comes to visit?"
They've never seen Rina so mad, not even when people tried to hit on her, Ryu was about to reply but he didn't get a choice as she kept scolding him.
"If no one brings back the weapon they can't hold a funeral. And that's a big deal, a really big deal actually, that must be the reason why her in laws were able to kick her out of her own house. Her husband's crew was wiped so no one came to her house to inform her that he died, even worse, you picked up the sword which meant that you took the responsibility of doing it. Since you didn't show, her family must have claimed that she was abandoned by her husband, leaving her helpless and her sons disowned. How could you do something like that!? We bring back people's weapons even if we didn't like the person, even if we despised them. Heck, that's considered even worse than killing a man!"
"That's exactly what happened"
Nikolai's widow said, still lying in the ground with a tired expression.
"I don't have any excuses, Rudd told me I had to go pay my respects to the family and I didn't think much of it"
Ryu was visibly ashamed.
"Do you know how much I hated you? I cursed you everyday and my only wish was that you fell on your sword and died. Every single day I prayed for that. I thought you were an evil man who did everything on purpose, I know my Nikolai wasn't an honorable man and he may have deserved what happened to him, but what you did brought shame and dishonor to me and my sons needlessly. You had to be an evil man, there was no other explanation"
She cried desperately, Helena tried to keep her from standing up but she was determined to tell everything to Ryu face to face.
"And now, when I finally meet you, it turned out that you were a kind young man who just didn't know our customs. Now I don't even have someone to hate and blame for everything that happened to me"
"Is there any way I can undo this?"
Ryu asked Rina Since the widow was busy wiping her tears.
"Not really, I mean, even if you showed up now, they would hold their claim that Nikolai abandoned her wife and then died for any other reason. It doesn't matter anyway, because if they managed to kick her out of her house it means that they disowned Nikolai's sons legally and there's no turning back"
"It's not all your fault mister Ryu, you didn't know, but my in laws knew perfectly fine what they were doing. It's not uncommon that widows get kicked from their husband's house by greedy familiars, that's why there's a refuge for widows after all. But I always thought Nikolai's family loved me and my sons' they never showed signs they were capable of doing something so cruel"
"If you really wanted to help them, the only choice would be to marry her and adopt her children as your own"
Rina said reluctantly.
"I wouldn't dream of something like that. Now that I know the kind of people my Nikolai's family are I wouldn't come back even if I could, the only thing I want is to be able to raise my sons properly"
She said staring awkwardly at the chest filled with coins.
"I need to meditate on this, in the meantime you may stay in her with your sons if you want. Dylan, you don't mind lending them your room, right?"
Dylan wanted to keep his room, but suddenly a thought struck him. If he had to give up his room he would need to share room with Eiri and Kairi, since all the other rooms were occupied.
"Of course boss, you know me, I'm always happy to help"
He said with a huge smile that confused Ryu, still he appreciated his good will and smiled back.
"That's great Dylan, I knew you were a good guy, gather your stuff, I'll place some skins in the warehouse"
Dylan was disheartened by this, but he managed to hide his disappointment from everyone thanks to Ryu's compliment.
"Before you go to rest, madame, may I know your name?"
"I'm Ksenia and these are my sons, Viktor and Pavel"
She said bowing politely, leaving Rina pleasantly surprised by this woman's character.
"If I was her I would hate your guts and find a way to take my revenge, I can't believe how nice she is. She cared more about her relationship with her former family than she cared about the money, you need to figure out a way to help her Ryu"
She said after Ksenia went upstairs with her children.
"I know, but my hands are tied for now"
"What do you mean? you can give her today's earnings"
Rina insisted.
"We depleted our food reserves and worked hard the entire day, yet all we got in return were about six silver coins. It looks like a lot of money because it's in copper coins, but if we give it to her she will only last a couple weeks"
"Give a man a fish and he will be hungry soon, teach him to fish and he will never be hungry again"
Helena sighed, but that gave Ryu an idea. If he taught her how to distill, he would be able to get enough resources to keep experimenting with extracts, and since he doesn't level transmutation anymore by distilling it would be pointless for him to do such menial task.
The first day after the freeze was always the busiest for the tavern, but despite having more people working it was still too much to handle and everyone was spent already. The only reason everyone staid downstairs was because they were waiting for Anne to come back.
A couple hours passed, it was already dark and they were starting to worry, when the door opened. A shivering, pale Anne with blue lips walked in empty handed.
"I'm sorry, I really am. I couldn't find anything, not even a rabbit"
She said trying to hold back her tears. Helena came rushing to hold her in her arms, while checking her condition.
"How is she?"
Dylan asked worried sick.
"She's passed out, but she's in good health"
Helena replied making everyone sigh in relief at the same time.
Helena took Anne to her room and undressed her since her clothes were cold and wet. Anne's slender figure amazed Helena and she felt a bit envious. Despite Helena being a very well endowed woman, she had a healthy amount of fat making her feel a bit insecure. Especially after seeing that Anne's body had the fat in all the right places, her feminine attributes were just a bit less than hers' but highlighted her beauty with her thin and elegant figure.
When Anne's body started to recover some of her warmth after Helena covered her with blankets, she slowly opened her eyes.
"Helena, I'm worthless, I've been idle most of the time since I'm only good at hunting and I failed, I'm such a failure"
"Don't say that, It's not your fault"
"I just wanted Ryu to notice me, to see that I work hard"
"There's no need to worry about that, I'm sure he knows"
"Then why is he with Rina? he just met her, she's nothing to him. We've been with him longer, yet he doesn't even look at me anymore. All he cares about is Rina"
Anne felt weak and tears ran through her cheek. She vented all her frustrations on Helena, who listened patiently to everything she had to say.
"I too feel bad about it, but there's nothing we can do. He's doing fine with her and we should be happy for him"
"I know this, but it pains me to see them getting closer everyday, I can't stand it. I think we should go somewhere else"
"Are you being serious? what could we possibly do?"
"I don't know, maybe we can go to Hiraku's or go to the next town. All I know is I don't want to be here anymore"
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