Chapter 35

Chapter 35: Don’t over do it, please! part

The worst part of the trip was that even after spending so much time, effort and resources, I couldn’t get my hands on the elemental stones everyone speaks about. I can always make some more potions, though the silver flower is rare, Hiraku is already planning on sowing them, but I really wanted to see why is this town so crazy about mining. I mean, how can they even afford to go mining when there’s so many poor people who in a week or so won’t even be able to buy groceries.

Ever since we came back from the mine Rina has been bothering me non stop to bake more bread because the tavern is always full. Normally I would have rejected since I got my own business to attend, but since my skill in cooking is getting better I can’t complain.

It’s late night but the tavern is still open, this is due to the cold but also because many clients have the habit of passing out in the tables and as long as they don’t get on Rina’s bad side she doesn’t mind.

She’s just a kid but she’s so tough it scares me sometimes, but now she’s all sugar with me because I’m doing her a favour. We also had the chance to speak a lot this past days.

Turns out she’s an orphan. Her parents died when she was thirteen and since she was the only daughter she inherited everything including the tavern. She was already blossoming into a beautiful girl at the time, but since she was too young to be considered an adult they tried to overtake her tavern claiming that they would “run the business” honestly and give it back after she came of age.

One of the merchants, a man named Thomas, was specially interested in the tavern but was patient enough to wait until it went downhill due to poor management. But since Rina worked at the tavern since she was little, she already know the ropes and kept the business afloat.

When Thomas got enough backers he went to the mayor making a claim that the last will of Rina’s parents was that he kept the tavern until Rina was old enough, and that without his help Rina’s business would never flourish. This was, of course, a blatant lie, but the mayor was willing to agree only to shake Thomas off his shoulder, but Rudd intervened asking his father for a trial period.

.....

If Rina succeeded in running the tavern for a month she should keep it. Thomas agreed thinking that it would take nothing but a simple sabotage to ruin her business for a whole month.

He started sending people to cause trouble, sometimes to fight inside the tavern and break the tables and even encouraged people to drink without paying their tabs. But after a couple days Rudd’s crew started to hang around at the tavern, hindering his plans.

That’s the reason why Rudd bothers travelers, because every so often Thomas would still send people to cause a ruckus.

“Rudd is such a nice guy”

Rina nods agreeing with my statement

“Not only he protects this tavern, he has never asked for money nor discounts, not like other people I know”

Rina glares at me with eyes that could freeze a river

“I’m just getting to know you”

I shrug, only to continue kneading the dough on the kitchen table.

“So, tell me Ryu, why did you come to this town? your talent would be a lot more appreciated in the big city”

“Which one of my talents are you speaking of?”

“you didn’t strike me as the kind of person that would brag in front of a lady”

“I am certainly not, let me know when you spot a lady and you’ll see”

Rina chuckles at my joke

“By the way Rina, I’m curious about something. If there’s so many people drinking here, how come you can’t afford to pay a cook?”

“It’s all because of Thomas”

Her mood takes a 180° turn.

“so, he succeeded in sabotaging the inn at the end?”

“Kind of, you see... after the mayor Agreed on the terms and I succeeded in keeping my tavern, Thomas didn’t try anything for a while. Except for the occasional thug he sent to cause trouble, but it was nothing that Rudd couldn’t handle”

To be honest, I’m not that interested in the story at all, but being alone in a dim light room this late at night is so damn boring I would fall asleep if I didn’t have someone to talk to. Sadly Anne and Helena went to sleep early, leaving me alone with Rina.

After she came of age, Thomas changed his approach. Instead of sabotaging her business he tried to woe her. Despite the age gap, Thomas would constantly court her, always respecting the law and keeping appearances as if he was an old man in love, thus preventing Rudd to take any action.

Rina would reject him every time, and things were going great. That was until the first snow this year, It must have been at the same time I was with Anne at the cave.

Since snow came earlier this year, the trading caravan that was supposed to arrive with the goods didn’t come forcing her to buy at a higher price. What she didn’t know was that the brothel wouldn’t raise their prices so, if she was to raise her prices nobody would bother going to her place.

Even now she’s selling at a loss with the hopes of making it until spring.

Everything would have been fine if it wasn’t for a single detail. Whenever a caravan arrives it will sell whatever they brought, but since Ironwoods is the last town in the south it’s also the last town they visit and when caravans reach in here they are almost empty.

To cope with this, Ironwoods formed their own caravans, which is why there are so many merchants living here despite the fact that this is a run down small miner town. The problem is that she needed to forward half the price of the goods she asked for, and since they didn’t arrive she was forced to buy the goods already available in town at a much higher price forcing her to take a loan.

To make matters worse, the food merchant asked her to put herself as guarantee because no one would be crazy enough to run the tavern that Thomas is so hell bent on getting. But that too was one of his schemes, because as soon as she agreed on this Thomas bought her 3 gold coin debt to the merchant at double the price.

“Now everything makes sense. You were forced to spend money you didn’t have to keep the tavern running, got into debt, the evil merchant Thomas bought your debt and now you’re indebted to him. If you don’t pay 3 gold coins after winter you’ll be his slave. Also, the missing caravan also explains why everyone was so interested in our food products”

“that’s pretty accurate”

Rina nods

“but it still doesn’t explain why can’t you afford to pay a decent cook. Claire’s cooking is so bad I’m amazed people don’t drop dead on the spot”

“Quit joking Ryu, my life is on the line here!”

“Then, why don’t you sell the tavern?”

“Because it’s the last memento I have from my parents! this place is everything I have”

“I have a solution”

“you do!?”

“Sure, I can lend you the money”

“But I would be left on the same situation I’m in right now, only to a different person”

“But this way you’ll be able to use your tavern as a guarantee, saving you from slavery”

“I won’t use the tavern as guarantee, it would be the same as selling it for measly three gold coins, because I won’t have enough money after winter”

“Then it’s settled, you’ll end up as his plaything and the tavern will be his anyway”

Even though Rina looked just fine a couple seconds ago, my words made her burst into a pitiful cry and she came close to me looking for comfort. I didn’t mean to make her cry and the only thing I do is pat her on the back as she sobs and fills my shirt with snot.

“I’m sorry Rina, but I’m not going to sugar coat it either. Like you said, buying the tavern from you would be a liability and to be honest, you’re cute but I doubt you’re worth 3 gold coins. There are slaves as cheap as a silver coin on the market.”

“then why do you want to loan me the money? if you were sincere I wouldn’t hesitate to take your offer, if you said you wanted me as a slave I wouldn’t doubt your motives”

“Don’t flatter yourself, I’m not interested in you at all. Not even if you were on discount. I like this place and if I was the owner I’d be making a killing out of it, instead of spare change”

“You don’t know the first thing about keeping an Inn, let alone tend to clients. what makes you think you would do a better job than me?”

“For starters, you consider things like hiring professionals to be an unnecessary spending, you don’t have a secure supply route and you’re too afraid to make changes”

“oh! so you weren’t joking!?”

Rina gasped

“Not in the slightest. I’ll tell you what, I’ll forward you 3 gold coins so you pay your debt tomorrow morning and you’ll let me run things in the tavern until winter. If I make a better job than you I keep the tavern, if I don’t you don’t have to pay me back. This it would be me under the pressure to make things work, and worst case scenario you’ll see your beloved tavern flourish in the first seat”

“Sounds interesting, but how can we decide if you made a better job than me?”

I must say I’m surprised she’s so calm.

“We’ll make the numbers speak for themselves”

“what do you mean?”

“it’s simple, you tell me how much money you have at your disposal and I’ll make due with that. That will be my budget, of course it will be my own money”

“This sounds too good to be true... but you don’t expect me to sit on my ass while you work the tavern right?”

“You are not allowed to sit on mine though”

“I’m serious. I’ll help you, this way if you fail there will be no hard feelings”

Rina says as she rushes for a handshake. I know the terms are too tilted to her advantage, but still seeing her agree so quickly makes me hesitate for a second.

“it’s a deal Ryu! you can’t go back on your word now!”

After that I go to sleep without being able to shake off the unsettling feeling I’ve been played with.

Is it possible that what I thought was my plan to take over the tavern, was actually Rina playing me like a fiddle?

The next morning I wake up early as usual and start baking some bread. Rina is already up and greets me cheerfully. She looks refreshed as if it was the first night sleep she had in years.

When Anne and Helena join me for a quick breakfast and I put them up to date.

“You idiot!”

Anne attempts to slap me but she stops at the last moment

“If you weren’t so weak I would hit you Ryu, why are you so stupid?”

“Calm down Anne, don’t make a scene”

Helena scratches her cheek

“Why are you acting up like that Anne? you promised me you’d never treat me like this again, or you forgot what happened back at the cave already?”

“How can you say that when you’re flirting with other girls and end up falling in honeytraps”

“what do you mean?”

.....

Cold sweat runs through my forehead

“You told us before you wanted to use this tavern as our headquarters, and that was fine. We don’t actually need to own it in order for us to use it, you could’ve just kept working in here as a cook and everything would’ve been fine. Now you put almost our entire funds on this bet with a high risk and low reward. Even if you managed to get the tavern, it’s not even worth it because of the merchant who wants it. I bet you were staring at her breasts the whole time and you didn’t realize she said she wanted to ‘help’ when in reality she meant to sabotage this place”

“Why would she do that? its her tavern and she said she loves it dearly”

“How can you be so smart sometimes and then do something so stupid? this time I mean no offense”

Anne’s harsh reprimand makes me long for Helena’s sweet comfort, but when I look at her things go different than I expected.

“I’m hurt Ryu. You distrusted us for so long, yet the minute you met a pretty girl you loose your mind. I didn’t take you for a playboy”

“You’re missing the point Helena, this has nothing to do with Rina, its about an opportunity we can’t let go”

“Ok, I believe you, but let me understand, what’s so valuable about this place? it’s in bad condition and fixing it would be more expensive than just building it from scratch”

“what!? are you serious? you can’t possibly believe him, he drools every time he stares at Rina’s huge...”

A shadow casts on Anne interrupting her rant

“She’s right behind me, isn’t she?”

“No, it’s just a miner”

“breasts!”

she finishes the sentence she was about to say before, only to find that it was in fact Rina standing behind her.

“Excuse me miss milky skin, I beg your forgiveness for being the way I am! I didn’t choose to be like this, and if anything it’s only brought me trouble nonstop since the day I developed”

Anne sinks into her chair as if she had just hit an Iceberg

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean that”

“Ryu, we need to go to the mayor’s office now”

“why is that?”

“To make our deal official we need a witness, and who better than the mayor”

After asking both Anne and Helena to take care of the business, we head to the mayor’s office. There’s people already waiting for us at the entrance and they lead the way to the mayor’s study.

“Good day mister Ryu, Rina told me you need me to bear witness to your deal”

“It’s nice being able to finally meet you mister Ironwoods”

The mayor nods and shakes my hand firmly. His grip was so tight it actually hurt me, I lost 2 health points. I guess he not only has the looks of a soldier, but the strength too. I do my best to hide my pain but it seems he noticed, yet he didn’t apologize.

“Is everything ready?”

Rina says eager to get it done with.

“Not yet miss Rina, mister Thomas hasn’t arrived yet”

“What!? but he doesn’t concern him at all”

“On the contrary Rina my love, I’m here not only to collect what’s rightfully mine but also to make sure you don’t get cheated”

An old man who I can only describe as the incarnation of a pigman, with a bloated belly and a scarce beard, comes from behind and tries to put his hand on Rina’s shoulder, but Rina’s reflexes were on spot and she dodged as if her life depended on it.

“I don’t believe we’ve met mister...”

“Ryu, I’ve heard a lot about you mister Thomas”

“Good things I hope”

“Of course, who would dare bad mouthing an outstanding citizen like mister Thomas?”

I say staring at Rina.

*cough cough

The mayor interrupts the awkward moment.

“According to Miss Rina you made a bet, please read this document and tell me if everything is correct”

The maid who led us in here hands me a piece of paper with everything about the bet already written on it.

“Everything seems fine”

The maid then hands a copy to Rina and Thomas respectively and they both agree on the terms, after that she leads them into another room leaving me alone with the mayor.

“I hope you don’t mind my intrusion Mister Ryu, but Since I’ve been asked to act as a witness of this deal made in good faith I need to make sure you’re not being extorted or blackmailed into this deal. Why would you agree on such terms?”

“What do you mean Mister Ironwoods?”

“Don’t get me wrong, but I don’t see what everyone sees about the tavern. It’s in a nice spot, but even if you invest on it you won’t make much out of it. Most people eat on their houses, there are no travelers during winter and even when we have people around they prefer to stay at the brothel”

“If i win the bet, I’ll get a tavern for free”

“not really...”

The mayor says awkwardly. I’m not liking the direction in which this conversation is headed

“What you just agreed to is to buy Rina’s debt, whether you win or lose you already spent your money. Should you win, Rina will be indebted to you and if you loose you won’t get anything out of it... the thing is, the whole tavern with everything inside is worth less than 2 gold coins”

“Really? I heard from Hiraku that you ask for a gold coin for a plot of land”

“well, yes, but he got as much land as he can claim, workers and security, even the building materials. A single gold coin is more than the tavern earns in a whole year”

“Well... if that’s the case I”

“I’m sorry mister Ryu, you already agreed on the terms, I just needed to make sure there wasn’t any foul play and your face tells me everything I needed to know”

What have I done!?