Chapter 83 - The Visitors

"Do you want help getting off?" Sven asked as he stood by the carriage's door. "You almost fell last time."

"Nonsense," I muttered. "Away you go, I can do this by myself."

"Sure." He shrugged and walked three feet away. "Hop out, then."

I frowned at him. He clearly didn't trust me. Oh, I'll show him then. Oh yes I will. With a careful foot on the little steps that led out, I emerged from the carriage.. I had intended to put my second foot on the second step but it slipped on the brass and I tumbled down on my face. 

"Ow!" I groaned as I held my nose. Three steps away, Sven had erupted into laughter.

"Are you okay?" he gasped as he came to my aid. "I told you. You should've taken my help."

I pulled my arm free from his hand and stood up on my own. "Gee, how thoughtful of you." I dusted my dress down and noticed there was a small rip in the skirt. "Ah, lord. I've done it now. Mama's gonna kill me."

Sven laughed and paid the impatient carriage driver. As soon as he drove away into the distance, I stretched my arms above my head and sighed. Sven was already knocking on the inn's door. 

"Don't you have a key?" I asked as I came to stand beside him. 

He shook his head. "She never gave me one. And I don't need it anyways since I rarely go out. She said she'll open the door for me when I get home, so there's no need to worry."

"Oh. Okay."

We waited for a few minutes but when nobody came to answer the door, Sven knocked again. There was a sudden eruption of laughter inside and then a few unknown voices overlapped each other, seemingly having an animated conversation. 

"The visitors?" I asked, looking questionably at Sven. He nodded, looking at the door.

"Um, I think they're talking. That's why they can't hear us."

"No," I said, sighing. "It's because you knock so lightly. Here, let me do it." I pushed Sven to the side and rapped at the door as hard as I could. Our old apartment in Daegu hadn't had a doorbell, so whenever I came back from somewhere, I always had to hurt my knuckles while knocking for minutes and minutes. It always took time for someone to answer the door and let me in, because everybody hated answering the door. Even I did. There was no knowing if there were debt-collectors here for Mom or if some past boyfriends had come to confront any of my sisters. 

"Good God, you're gonna have bruises on your knuckles in the morning," Sven fretted. "Don't do that again."

I scowled but didn't say anything. A moment later, we heard a 'click' and the creak of the door on its hinges as it pulled back. 

"Buh-loody hell," Mama rasped as she peeked out at us, taking a moment to recognize our faces. "Break this door, why don't you both? Come on in." She walked back inside and left the door open for us. Sven and I shrugged at each other and went inside. 

What had I expected? I had imagined seeing a family and their kids or something of the sort, or maybe some sweet looking villagers, coming to stay with Mama at her inn (which was out of business, by the way). But unexpectedly, I was introduced to six tall, burly looking men dressed in similar black clothes. 

They all sat around the little table on crates, except for two who stood leaning against one wall. The room was eerily lit by wax candles, and the six golden-lit face turned to look at the two new arrivals.

I ducked my head, scared to look at any one of them. 

"Ah, Svenny boy, who's this little kiddiewinkle?" someone asked, his voice loud and booming. 

"She's a friend," Sven muttered frostily. 

"Ohhhhhhh," they all drew it out. "We see what's happening here!" Then they all burst out laughing. Confused, I peeked at Sven, and even in the low illumination, I could tell that he was blushing profusely. I sighed. 

I was about to clear away any unnecessary misconception, when Mama thwacked the guy who had raised the question on the head. "Behave yourselves. All of you. She's staying here for the meantime and that's that. Don't put stupid things into my kids' heads."

I felt warm thinking that Mama had called me her kid, even though I was just a strange princess who was probably a burden on her. Still, I felt immensely happy. 

Sven shuffled past me and headed upstairs, leaving me alone by the door. Slowly, I scanned each of the six faces cautiously. The guy who had spoken first had a long scar on his face that ran from his forehead, over his eyes and down to the corner of his mouth. It was red and puckered, as if it hadn't healed all the way yet. 

"Go change," Mama ordered me as she carried some plates into the kitchen. "And then come back downstairs."

Gratefully, I complied and winded my way past the men dressed in black. As I reached the stairs, I noticed from the corner of my eye that one of the men standing against the wall was staring at me, and quite intently at that. His lower half of the face was covered by a piece of cloth that extended from the turtleneck type shirt he wore. It looked exactly like a cosplay of that anime character in Naruto, but without the white spiky hair and one eye covered.

Self consciously, I walked past him , feeling the burden of his eyes boring holes into my back. As soon as I was on the steps, I made a run for my room. Behind me, the laughter started again as I just about closed the door to my room.

"God, that was awkward," I muttered as I slipped out of Mama's (ruined) wedding dress and slipped back into the long white tunic, clinched at the waist with a belt. I pulled out all the pins in my hair and let them flow down to ease the agony of the scalp. I folded up the dress and hid it under my bed sheet before heading down again. 

"Look who's back!" the man with the scar on his face called as I descended the stairs. "What's your name, kiddiewinkle?"

"Ashli," I murmured, distracted by the masked man again. I avoided meeting anybody's gaze and hurried off to the kitchen where Mama was putting a pot on the stove. 

"Good. You're here" she sighed and wiped off the sweat from her forehead when I came in. "Get the cups out of the cupboard and rinse them, will you. We need to serve a lotta tea today."

I nodded and got to work while the men still talked and laughed outside. "Who are they?" I asked as I pulled matching cups out of the cupboard.

"That guy with the scarred face used to be an old customer whenever he visited the area. Despite all the other inns in the area, he always insisted on staying here, at my little place. Made me swell with pride, y'know?" she chuckled as she watched the milk boil. "Though I did find it strange of him to come over uncalled for. And with all his fellas, too. Gosh, we've only got rations for three people in the house, but we gotta make it work."

I listened to Mama rant as I arranged all the cups neatly in a tray and then stared at the counter, no thoughts running through my mind. I felt... blank. 

"...li. ASHLI!"

I jerked awake from my daze. "Huh?"

"The tray." Mama sighed. I looked down at the tray before me and all the cups were already filled with piping hot tea. Had she poured the tea in without me noticing? "Bring the tray out."

Carefully, I picked the tray up and without even spilling a single drop, I took it outside and put it on the table. 

"Hey, thanks!" Scar-Face said. 

"Mm," I mumbled as I backed away against a wall, opposite to the wall where the two men stood, leaning. 

Mama smacked Scar-face on the head again as she brought in a plate of biscuits. "At least introduce yourselves."

"Oh, right." Scar-Face muttered, not even flinching at the smack. Beaming, he turned to me. "Hi, my name's Sidmund Warin and these are my pals- Ben, Lloyd, Klyn, Hector and Alan." He pointed at each face before reciting the names. So the masked man was called Klyn. Huh, what a familiar name. I wonder where I heard it from.

"Hm," Mama seemed to approve. Then she sat down on a crate. "So why are you all here again?"

Sidmund scratched his head. "Uhh... we had a job out here. Anyways, these cookies are delicious, Ma. Did you bake them yourself?"

"No."

"Oh."

Several other topics came up in the conversation passing between the men and Mama, but the whole time, Klyn didn't speak a word. That's when I remembered. Sidmund… Sid… Klyn... 

…

….

No way. 

Now heckin' way.

My sudden gasp made everyone turn to me and the laughter died out.

"You alright?" Mama asked, frowning. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

I might very well have. This… These people! What were they doing here!? God, please prove me wrong, please, please, please. 

How do I tell Mama? How do I warn her?

We've assassins in the inn. 

And they had freaking hand cannons. (I have no idea what hand cannons are, but the word 'cannons' is enough for me to understand that they're dangerous.)

Scar-Face- Sid- looked at me. They all looked at me. From my expression, I'm sure they all knew something was wrong with me. 

"I-I-I'll be upstairs, then," I stuttered as I hobbled past the table and hurried upstairs without any further explanation. Mama called me back but I didn't reply. I shut the door to my room and flopped down on my bed. 

"Crap..." 

Oh God, why do you always put me in such difficult situations?