Chương 456: 450. A New Beginning - VI

~ Hyola ~ Hyola was still pacing outside the alehouse. The two girls she had come with had already gone in. One of them had wanted a drink, while the other said she was hungry and wanted something different to eat tonight. This was the only place in the village where you could buy a filling meal which was ready to eat, so neither of them needed much convincing to go inside. Hyola barely noticed when they left her there after asking her twice if she wanted to come and not getting any reply.

But Hyola was too busy glaring through the doorway and waiting for Calubo to come out. She didn't want to go inside because she didn't want to embarrass that idiot in front of his buddies, knowing she wouldn't be able to control her temper when she saw him drinking happily with his friends and leaving her alone today. Today was supposed to be special, dammit! Her fist clenched again as she turned and paced back the other way.

How dare that idiot go drinking with his friends on the very same day they had finally gotten their first wages in coins? They could have spent this evening together! They should have spent it together! She had seen couples and families walking through the market already, buying little treats, talking, laughing, and just enjoying the evening. Calubo should have been beside her doing the same thing and making her laugh. Instead he had gone drinking.

He wasn't even supposed to be much of a drinker, from what she knew about him... And yet he had to choose today to go and get drunk with his friends! She scowled harder. Then she saw Savomi stepping out of the alehouse, and that only annoyed her more. Look at the lucky girl, walking around with Tesyb. At least these two finally got enough sense to spend the evening together, instead of looking at each other from a distance like they did recently. Savomi came over with a small smile.

"Hey! Why are you standin' outside? Come on, let's have a drink!" Hyola hesitated.

"Don't tempt me today, girl. If I go inside, I'll get into a fight with that idiot..." Savomi's smile did not change.

"Don't worry. We won't let that happen." Hyola narrowed her eyes at once.

"What do you mean we won't let that happen? Who else is with you?" Savomi's expression changed for a moment, but she quickly covered it and smiled again.

"Oh.. I, uh... I mean I won't let that happen!" Hyola kept looking at her, still suspicious, but after a while she let it go.

"Fine... I'll come with you..." She decided that she might as well go inside and see what Calubo was up to and how drunk he already was. She would have to control her temper to prevent creating a scene, but that idiot would still get an earful for sure for ignoring her like this today! Savomi led her inside. The warm air of the indoors hit her at once after standing outside. It smelled of ale, cooked food, old wood, and too many people.

She looked around for the familiar mop of black hair and realized that it wasn't going to be easy to find anyone here. The place was crowded. Guards, villagers, maids, servants, all packed into the small hall, talking loudly, drinking, eating, and standing shoulder to shoulder near the bar and the tables. Candles burned in a few places, giving the room an uneven and flickering yellow light, making the room feel even more packed. For a brief moment, seeing everyone like that made her feel good.

It was a lively evening. People were happy. The village felt much happier and stronger than it had less than a year ago. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Then the feeling passed, and the bitterness came back. She should have been sitting here with Calubo, sharing a meal and a drink like everyone else. Instead she was standing in the middle of the crowd, seething at him, while he hid somewhere like a drunken moron...

Hyola also noticed many guards in the hall glancing at her with barely hidden grins, which was weird, but she ignored them, realizing they were probably already wasted. Savomi slowly led her to an empty barstool and told her to sit, but for some reason she kept looking around the hall instead of paying attention to what Hyola said. That was weird... She was the one who told Hyola to come inside and now she was ignoring her? Why was a barstool empty in this kind of crowd anyway? That only made Hyola more suspicious.

She scanned the room herself. There were a lot of guards inside, more than she had expected, and several villagers too she recognized. She looked from face to face but could not see Calubo anywhere. Maybe he had stepped out to take a leak or something? Maybe he had seen her already and was hiding in some back room? Maybe he had gone upstairs... It did not matter. Let him come back. She would deal with him then. Her fist tightened again, when she heard an inner door open.

The sound was loud enough to cut through the talk around them. She turned her head toward it. At first she only saw Tesyb coming out, his bulk easily hiding anyone else coming out of the room. She was about to look away when Calubo stepped out from behind him. That was enough... Her anger flared up again at once, sharp and hot. She pushed herself off the stool and stood up. Before she went to give Calubo a piece of her mind, she noticed that Savomi was grinning for some reason, but it didn't make any sense to her.

Why would she be grinning right now? Putting her odd behavior to the back of her mind, Hyola started marching straight toward Calubo, weaving between the full tables. As she did, she began noticing something else which was strange. The guards around them were watching her. Not just watching, but grinning. Some of them were looking at her. Some at Calubo. Some at both of them. What was wrong with them? Were they waiting for her to make a scene here?

She knew that she had a temper but was she that bad that they expected her to blow up right in this crowd? Damn them! However, Calubo stopped near the empty center of the hall instead of coming toward her. Tesyb stopped as well and moved to a couple of steps beside him. Wait, since when there was such an empty center in the alehouse? Shouldn't there be another table there for people who didn't have seats? Hyola could not think of any reason for that or why those two had stopped there.

Calubo looked nervous, though, and that gave her a little satisfaction. Good! He should look nervous after making her spend the evening alone like this, stewing in her own anger. She kept marching toward him, ready to tell him exactly what she thought of him. As she reached closer, her mind stopped thinking about anything else other than her rage which kept increasing with every step she took. She didn't care that people were watching. She didn't care that they were standing in the middle of a packed alehouse.

All she knew was that she was angry enough to pick a fight with an adzee, and that Calubo deserved exactly what was coming to him! Then, just as she reached him, Calubo suddenly dropped to one knee. For a second she only felt confusion mixed with anger. Had he already drunk so much that he could not even stand up properly? Then she saw him reach into his pocket. When he brought his hand out, something caught the candlelight. It was a ring. A real ring. Shiny. With a small gemstone set in it.

Her mind stumbled and stopped. All at once, the anger drained out of her so fast that it left her feeling unsteady on her feet. It wasn't difficult to add two and two together. It was a ring —just like the one she had been hinting that idiot to for weeks. Calubo was on one knee in front of her, looking more nervous than she had ever seen him. And just like that, she understood... The hall, the noise, the crowd, all of it seemed to blur at the edges.

She stared at the ring and then at Calubo, and for a moment she could not think at all. Her eyes had already started stinging before she realized she was going to cry. Dammit! She didn't want to cry in front of so many people! Calubo looked up at her and smiled.

"I know I'm not the most sensitive or caring man around," he said.

"And I know I made you wait far too long. But no more. Will you marry me Hyola?" Hyola's hand flew up to her mouth. Tears started flowing out of her eyes before she could stop it. She did not even know what she was trying to say. All the anger, all the waiting, all the times she had glared at him because she thought he was being an idiot— none of it mattered now.

Somewhere in the back of her mind she noticed Calubo growing more nervous because she hadn't answered yet, but some small, sharp part of her thought that maybe he deserved to sweat for another moment.