The wooden door that led to the Golden Goose’s dining hall, made a creaking sound, as it was pushed open by the elf in white robes.
On the inside, the dark oak building was poorly illuminated, although it appeared to be deliberate in order to create a nice atmosphere that went well with the loud chatter that came from the customers who sat around the circular wooden tables that populated the candle-lit room.
"Welcome!" A waitress shouted from the far end of the room.
Apparently, it wasn't that common for people to visit the inn, unless they already counted among the regulars of the Golden Goose. Ash knew that, because when the waitress welcomed him all eyes turned to him and his dark companion.
It had been a long time since he had felt like that. All eyes were on him; staring, peeking, gazing, and evaluating his appearance. The pressure that rested on his being whenever uncanny gazes swept across his elven body.
He didn't know whether or not the followers of the Light God, Icarus, were present in this part of town, so Ash assumed that the best course of action was to keep his hood on. The young elf wasn't sure if murdering elves were banned by law, or even looked down on in the first place.
Trying his best to ignore the stares, which seemed to come from all around the room. He found a vacant table, sat down with Zennereth, before raising his hand as to indicate that he was ready to order something.
"Just a minute!" The waitress from before shouted, while trying her best to move through the masses of adventurers; some of which gave her bottom a quick squeeze as she went past them.
Ash couldn't understand, much less appreciate men who couldn't contain their desires for even a brief moment. Seeing such behavior reminded him of his time as a slave, where he had been abused in more ways than one. A shiver went down his spine when he recalled some of the things he had been forced to suffer through, and along with that, his disdain for the men around him rose, even if only a little bit.
"Sorry for the trouble! What'd ya like to order?" The blonde waitress asked, after finally having reached the table by which Ash and Zennereth were sitting.
"Oh, it's quite alright. I would be infinitely grateful if you could bring me a pint of beer." The young elf said.
"That'll be one silver." She replied, as she expectantly stuck out her hand.
Ash scoured his pouch for something worth less than a gold coin, but alas, he had no such thing.
"I only have this." He said, placing a single, cold gold coin in the blonde girl's warm, outstretched hand.
The waitress's eyes grew wide when she saw the substantial amount of money that had been placed between her fingers. Ash hadn't been aware of the fact that gold was considered obscenely valuable.
Ash glanced around the room, and saw that the gazes that had been fixated on him were glued to the golden coin in the waitress's hand. Their greedy eyes were switching between the coin, the waitress, and the young elf's purse. Priests were supposed to be high-ranking figures, but like always it would appear that money spoke louder than reason.
'I've been keeping this shit on for no reason?' The young elf thought to himself, whilst sighing internally.
He felt stupid for waving around such a large sum of money, but he supposed that it wouldn't be that big of a problem. There was likely no-one strong enough to pose even a moderate threat to him, so if anything the money would only serve as a means to establish his position as a rich man who you shouldn't mess with.
"I'll bring your change immediately!"
"Ah, wait... Don't, actually. Just let me get whatever I want while I'm here. Keep whatever is left afterwards."
Unsure of how to respond, she bowed her head slightly before going back to her work. Her spirit seemed higher than before, leaving Ash with a feeling he hadn't felt for a long time. One he had practically forgotten that he had the emotional capacity to feel in the first place. For the first time in what seemed like forever, the elf felt good about himself.
Now Ash was in higher spirits too, but there was something he knew he had to do before anything else. The young elf reached for something in his inner pocket, and when he retracted his hand, it was clutching a piece of parchment. One which the elf hadn't looked at since dying.
Initially, the elf had thought that the parchment, the summary of his being, was lost in the forest where he had died. But like many other gifts he had gotten from Evitagen, the small, yellowed, and stained piece of parchment was apparently not bound by petty laws such as those of logic.
The young elf unfolded the maltreated parchment.
⌈Name: Ash Tsuga - Level 119⌋ ⟨No Class⟩
Strength: 364⇓
Agility: 209⇓
Intelligence: 502⇑
Magic Affinity: 3847⇑
Skills: Negative Energy ⌈Lvl 8⇑⌋ , Martial Arts⌈Lvl 4⌋, Knife Fighting⌈Lvl 5⇑⌋, Analysis⌈Lvl 3⇑⌋
Spells: Negative Burst, Negative Surge, Negative Blade, Negative Bolt, Negative Lightning Bolt, Negative Influx, Negative Siphon, Negative Hellfire.
Thinking that starting to jump up and down in glee over the massive increase to his stats, the young elf decided to pull his hood further down. With his face covered, Ash was able to smile as wide as he wanted to, which was quite terrifyingly wide.
"Master... You're bleeding again..." Zennereth said.
Ash couldn't see it, but he could feel the blood trickling down his face from the corners of his mouth. Frankly, anyone would be worried to see a man bleed from his face, so the young elf couldn't blame his servant for worrying about him. He didn't stop smiling, though. He continued to smile, wider and wider, until he could hear the waitress coming back.
The young elf hurriedly wiped his face with his right hand. Too late, he remembered that he was wearing the whitest of fabric on which even slight impurities were abundantly clear.
"Here you go, sir." The blonde waitress said, placing the beer-filled mug on the table.
Ash grabbed the almost overflowing mug with his left hand. There was no merit in putting his black blood, his demon blood, on display for all to see.
"Thank you, miss." The former slave said, hoping that the otherwise beautiful girl would take her leave before seeing anything she wasn't supposed to.
The girl, who had been leaning over the table, stood up straight. For a minute, Ash thought that he had been lucky, but he should have known that he never were. She walked around the table and placed her hand on the young elf's shoulder, proceeding to lean in so that she covered his entire field of vision.
'Fuck.'
"So, where are you from? It's not often we get guests with your kind of money." The blonde girl asked.
Ash grabbed a hold of his mug, took a swig and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, before answering.
"I'm from Elcrada. I used to be an adventurer there. I rather enjoyed being that, an adventurer, but unfortunately the town was attacked by a horde of the dead. When we finally succeeded in repelling the enemy, I decided that that line of work wasn't for me anymore."
"You were an adventurer? I can't say I expected that... Are you back for the victory feast? All the other priests and adventurers are supposed to be back for the celebrations. Not to brag, or anything, but we here at the Golden Goose have been tasked with making and serving some of the food."
The young elf's attention was suddenly fixated on the words of the waitress. Had he misheard, or had he just heard her say the adventurers would come to the capital for celebrations?
Ash, who had been feigning interest in the words of the blonde girl, was suddenly very interested in what she had to say. Trying his best not to look too surprised at her words, the former slave responded.
"I left as soon as the battle ended. I had had too much, so I didn't stay to hear about any potential feasts. Tell me more, please" He said, before quaffing some more ale.
The waitress lifted her index finger, as to indicate that she would need just a moment. She merrily went to grab a chair. As soon as she had sat down by the two hooded men's table, the blonde girl continued.
"You see, the celebrations are for both the priests and the adventurers who fought bravely against the army that had laid siege to Elcrada. The adventurers are mostly celebrating the victory, but the priests are celebrating the election of a new high-priest. I heard some people called 'The Heroes of Elcrada' are coming too. As far as I've heard, they're here to be promoted to Gold Rank."
Strained leather could be heard coming from Zennereth's gloves. He was probably reminiscing over the events of the battle, which he had lost.
"You sure know a lot. Could you perhaps tell me about these 'heroes'?" Ash asked, trying his best to remain calm.
Even though his wounds had been healed, his bones repaired, and his pain lessened, the young elf still felt cold, hard steel penetrate his abdomen. He felt poison course through his veins. He was experiencing the feeling of dying over and over again, but it didn't show on his smiling face.
"Of course! They're called heroes, because they killed the most enemies at the battle. Word has it they slew over a hundred skeletons, although I don't believe you should listen to every rumor that comes along. Exaggerations have their way of becoming more common, in times of war. Anyway, like I said, out of all the adventurers, they contributed the most. One of them got badly injured when fighting the enemy commander's guards, but fortunately, he survived!" The waitress excitedly recounted.
The young elf smiled convincingly.
"Thank you for informing me... What was your name again?"
"Gina."
"Thank you, Gina. I'll be taking my leave now." Ash said, as he rose to his feet.
The lich that sat beside him followed suit. Neither of the two showed any discomfort, but they both knew each other's pasts well enough to know that neither of them felt well. Zennereth had suffered defeat at the hands of a bishop and his pet, and Ash had been betrayed by people he trusted.
"Please come again sometime!" Gina merrily managed to shout after the two hooded men, before the door closed behind them.
A lot of time passed. The young elf and the lich simply stood outside the Golden Goose. Neither of them felt well, but their current situation wasn't necessarily a bad one. Ash turned to his servant, who appeared to have been waiting for his master to tell him to do something. Anything.
"Zennereth... I'd like you to do something for me." The former slave said. His voice was trembling with a great mix of emotions.
One might have been able to decode his state of mind, if they had been able to see his face, which remained covered by the white hood of his priest-robes.
"Anything... Master..." Came the whispering reply.
Ash removed his hood, making his face visible.
Tears were mixing with the black blood, which was still flowing down his face. He wasn't smiling, nor was he angry. He remained expressionless, but his eyes were swollen and wet. He carried all the signs of a broken man, but for some reason, his face remained completely and utterly emotionless.
"Not here. Let's go back inside and get ourselves a room. I'd like to put on a bit of a performance for our returning heroes." Ash said, practically spitting out the last word as if it was rotting clot of dead flesh.
The young elf turned to open the door to the in, once again, but Zennereth grabbed his shoulder before he could open it.
"Put on your hood... Master... We don't want any... Trouble with the masses..."
"What would I do without you?" Ash half-jokingly asked his always diligent servant, who watched closely as his master pulled his hood down before re-entering the inn.
Ash's face was contorting into a hateful grimace of malice and ill-will, as he approached the inn's front desk.
'The people may think you're a hero now, Robinia. But I'm going to show them your true colours. I'm going to show them your twisted sense of justice, your cowardice, your backstabbing nature, your fanaticism, and in time, your innards. I'm coming for you, Hero of Elcrada.'