Eritance - Chapter 29

Bumping into the innkeeper seemed like a great fortune. It didn’t solve my problem of becoming more independent, but it did keep us from becoming beggars or becoming conscripts in the army. On the other hand, once I found a way to strengthen my body, and hold more power, it would be more feasible to start selling enhanced armors and swords to people. Of course, I would have to find shops that were in the business of buying such items.

That is one of the biggest reasons I needed to get to a bigger city. While Rhine was a big sized village, it didn’t have the resources a city would have. Its annual income might have only been 10,000-30,000 gold coins per year. One of the nearby cities probably made around 500,000 to 1,000,000 gold coins per year, or maybe even more. I wasn’t very good at estimating wealth that was beyond my ability to dream of.

Right now, though, we would have options. We agreed to the innkeeper’s terms and headed over to the Blue Sparrow with him. We found out that his name was Hans.

Hans showed us to our quarters. Simon and I would be sharing a room, and Ciara was given her own small room. These rooms were not nearly as nice as the ones we had stayed in previously, but they were still neat and well-kept.

“Now that you’ve been settled in, we will see what kind of tasks you all can do” Hans said. “Hmm” he said thoughtfully with his hand on his chin. “The young lady is quite beautiful. we’ll put you on the floor as a serving girl”. “Uhserving. girl?” Ciara asked with a strange expression.

Ciara had never served anyone in her life, living in a mansion full of servants and guards, she was accustomed to being the one whom was served. This would be a tough job for her. “Yes, your job will be to pour drinks and bring food to the patrons. Remember though, you must be friendly, we make most of our money by selling drinks. Don’t be a friend to laugh a little with them” Hans told her.

“Now, as for you two” he said while looking at us. “What kind of skills do you have?” he asked. Simon was the first one to speak up. “I was trained as a guard all my life, and I often served as the cook. I think that I would be able to help out with anything in the kitchen” he said proudly. “Oh? That’s perfect, we always need help preparing dishes, the complex ones need an especially long amount of time” Hans said. “Finally, what about you, young man?” he asked me.

“WellI don’t really have any skills. I don’t have any education, I don’t know how to cook. I spent my days as a field worker and when I didn’t have to work in the fields I spent my time hunting and scavenging through the forest”.

“Hmm.” Hans said again with his hand on his chin. He stood there for a long while, apparently deep in thought. He then listed off a series of plants and animals and asked me if I knew how to recognize and hunt them. “Sure” I told him. These were very common things that could be found in the forest, if you knew what you were doing. “Excellent” Hans said with a clap of his hands. “It is all settled then, Ciara will serve the patrons, Simon will help in the kitchen, and Orin will hunt for the meat and ingredients that we need to cook with each day. You will all be expected to work six days a week but will have one free day to rest and do whatever you’d like. Tomorrow you will start”.

With that, Hans left us to our business. We all decided just to go to our rooms and rest. After all, it hadn’t been that long since the events of Hallen. There were still many things that we all had to think about and settle in our minds as to what we would do. Now that we finally weren’t in danger of being attacked by orcs and goblins, we could relax a bit before starting our new lives. After sitting in the room and chatting with Simon for about an hour I realized that I needed to go out to find some supplies. If I were going to hunt I would need a bow, a satchel for collecting plants, and some other things to set up traps.

I asked Simon if he wanted to come with me, but he told me he would rather just stay in for the rest of the day. I went to Ciara’s room and knocked to see if she wanted to come with me to the market. She answered the door, but before I could ask her, I noticed her eyes were red and puffy. It seems that she been crying before I knocked. “Oh sorry . I just wanted to see if you wanted to go to the market. I didn’t know if you needed anything . but I can see that right now is a bad time sorry.” I said, and I turned quickly to leave.

Before I could turn though, she grabbed my sleeve, and said “wait. I’ll go”. “Oh okay, great” I replied somewhat awkwardly to her. After taking a moment to go splash her face with water, she returned, and we went to the market. We soon came upon a small shop that specialized in hunting gear, so it was quite easy to find all the things that I would be needing for this new job. Buying all the things I needed cost me one gold coin, an acceptable price for things that I could take with me in the future and use for different endeavors.

As we were heading back, Ciara stopped. I looked at her somewhat curiously and she hesitantly said, “Orinwhat did the orc chieftain mean when he said to give him back his relic?”.