Chương 337: Chapter 336 - You Stammer a lot

Warm water ran continuously over the thick ceramic plates. Rebecca stood perfectly still at the deep wooden sink. She moved her bare hands in a slow, deliberate circular motion. She scrubbed the leftover grease from the smooth surface of the dishes. A soft, melodic hum vibrated quietly in the back of her throat. The tavern was completely empty of patrons. No paying customers sat at the heavy oak tables scattered across the main floor. The silence of the afternoon felt heavy in the large room.

Dust motes drifted lazily through the shafts of sunlight piercing the front windows. Jane lay flat on her back on the corner sofa. She wore her full black and white maid outfit. The stiff fabric bunched uncomfortably around her waist. One leg dangled lazily off the edge of the padded cushion. She stared blankly at the wooden ceiling beams. She did not offer any physical assistance with the daily chores. Rebecca finished washing a large plate.

She placed the clean ceramic onto the metal drying rack with a soft clink. She turned her head slightly to the side. She looked directly at Jane. A quiet, perfectly pleasant smile rested heavily on Rebecca's face.

"Why are you not working," Rebecca asked. Her voice was calm and smooth. Jane did not bother to sit up. She let out a long, dramatic sigh that echoed loudly in the empty room.

"I do not want to," Jane replied bluntly. She closed her eyes to signal the end of the conversation. Rebecca picked up a damp cloth from the edge of the wash basin. She walked slowly over to the nearest dining table. She began to wipe the smooth wood surface. Her quiet smile did not fade at all. She took her absolute time. She made sure every single physical motion was highly visible and deliberate.

"That is a very honest answer," Rebecca said softly.

"It is also exactly what I expect from someone in your specific position." Jane opened her eyes quickly. She shifted her body weight on the sofa cushion. She looked over at Rebecca with narrowed, highly defensive eyes.

"What does that mean," Jane asked. Her voice carried a sharp edge of sudden irritation. Rebecca wiped a small spot of dried ale near the exact center of the table. She did not look up from her manual task.

"It means you have reached the absolute ceiling of your potential," Rebecca stated in a gentle, conversational tone.

"You wear a maid outfit because you lack the mental capacity and the physical skills for anything else in this world. You lie on the sofa because you lack the basic internal drive to improve your station in life. You exist merely to occupy space until someone finally asks you to leave." Jane sat up quickly. Her heavy boots hit the floorboards with a loud thud. Her face flushed bright red with sudden, intense anger.

"You think you are better than me," Jane snapped loudly.

"You just clean tables too." Rebecca finally looked up. She met Jane's angry stare directly. The smile on Rebecca's face remained perfectly intact. It was a terrifyingly polite expression. It held absolutely no malice, which made the spoken words hurt infinitely more.

"I do not think anything," Rebecca answered simply.

"I simply observe the reality of our current situation. You have absolutely no money to your name. You have no distinct talent to offer society. Your entire survival depends entirely on my continued charity and patience. If I decide to stop giving you daily food and shelter right now, you will starve in the dirty streets by the end of this very week. You are a completely dependent creature with absolutely no future prospects." Jane felt a hot spike of rage burn in her chest.

She clenched both of her hands into tight, shaking fists. She stood up entirely from the comfortable sofa. She wanted to yell loudly at the tavern owner. She wanted to step forward and strike Rebecca directly across the face. She took one aggressive step forward across the wooden floor. Rebecca did not flinch. She did not step back. She just stood there by the clean table. She maintained that quiet, gentle smile. She looked at Jane with a deep, profound sense of pity.

It was a specific look reserved entirely for a helpless, injured animal. Jane looked closely at that smile. A cold, heavy wave of total defeat crashed violently over her body. Her mind processed the brutal logic of the statements. She realized that every single word Rebecca just said was undeniably true. Jane lost all hope in herself in that exact second. The burning anger evaporated instantly, leaving only a hollow, cold emptiness behind. Her shoulders slumped heavily forward. She released her clenched fists.

She looked down at the scuffed floorboards. She had absolutely no counterargument to offer. Her ego was fundamentally destroyed. Rebecca turned her attention back to the wooden table. She ignored Jane's defeated physical posture completely. She picked up a small stack of rough parchment paper. The papers were formal resumes left by potential workers seeking employment at the tavern. Rebecca reviewed the top sheet of paper.

"A young man," Rebecca read aloud to the empty room.

"He has strong physical references for lifting heavy storage barrels." She looked at the small charcoal portrait attached to the top corner of the page. The man had a highly undesirable face. His nose was severely crooked. His eyes were positioned entirely too far apart. He looked quite unintelligent based on the drawing. Jane walked slowly toward the table. She desperately wanted to reenter the conversation and regain a tiny fraction of her lost dignity.

"It is not the quality of the face that matters for manual labor," Jane chimed in quietly.

"It is the worker and the actual merit they bring to the establishment." Rebecca completely ignored Jane. She did not even acknowledge the spoken words with a nod or a passing glance. She simply acted as if Jane did not exist in the room. Rebecca moved the young man's resume directly to the rejection pile on the left side of the table. Rebecca looked at the second piece of paper.

"A woman from the inner district," Rebecca noted.

"She has five years of direct experience managing luxury inns." Rebecca sighed softly. She knew a woman with those exact high qualifications would demand an extremely high weekly salary. The current tavern budget could not support such a lavish operational expense. It was fundamentally impossible to maintain that level of pay. She moved the paper to the rejection pile. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Rebecca looked at the final paper in the stack.

Her pleasant smile vanished instantly. A look of pure, unadulterated frustration crossed her facial features. She recognized the written name immediately. It was the traveling bard. The exact same man who constantly caused endless noise and disruption out in the town plaza. Rebecca grabbed the paper tightly. She crumpled the resume violently in her fist. The sound of crushing parchment echoed loudly in the quiet tavern.

She threw the ruined ball of paper directly into the wooden trash bin located under the main counter. Just as the paper hit the bottom of the bin, the heavy wooden door of the tavern swung open violently. The metal hinges squeaked loudly against the sudden applied force. A young man stepped quickly into the room. He wore a crisp white shirt and dark leather pants. Thick golden chains wrapped securely around his neck and dropped down his shoulders like a heavy metallic scarf.

A dense, swirling gray fog completely obscured his entire head and face. Rebecca beamed immediately at the sight of him. Her previous frustration vanished without a single trace. A genuine, bright expression illuminated her features.

"Hello," Rebecca called out warmly.

"Hello to my lovely innkeeper." Jane had retreated to a sitting position on a small wooden stool near the front entrance. She crossed her arms tightly over her chest and scowled heavily at the new arrival. She recognized the thick fog immediately.

"Oh look," Jane muttered with deep, bitter contempt.

"It is the serial pervert." Lucid stopped walking. He turned his head slightly toward Jane. He opened his mouth to speak a response to the direct insult. Before Lucid could form a single syllable, a massive dark silhouette burst through the open doorway right past him. The physical force of the entry knocked the heavy door back against the interior wall with a loud bang. The sudden impact hit Lucid hard on his left shoulder. He lost his balance completely. He stumbled backward rapidly.

He fell hard onto the wooden planks of the outside porch. Ayame stepped fully into the tavern. The dark-haired female oni moved with terrifying, unnatural speed. She brandished a long, wicked blade forged entirely from hardened red blood. The weapon glowed with a dark, sinister light in the dim tavern interior. She scanned the room for immediate threats. Frederick and Valen walked slowly onto the porch. They stood directly over Lucid's fallen body. They remained completely quiet and still.

Frederick looked inside the tavern. He saw Ayame holding the blood blade ready for immediate combat. The tall proto-knight shook his head firmly. He gave a strict, silent gesture of dismissal to stop her from attacking the tavern staff. Ayame stared at Jane for a long, heavy moment. Jane froze in absolute terror on her stool. Ayame slowly lowered her arm. She let the blood blade dissolve completely back into her own skin.

Much later that evening, the entire group sat together around the largest oak table in the center of the tavern. A hearty, steaming meal covered the wide wooden surface. The rich smell of roasted meat, thick brown gravy, and boiled root vegetables filled the air. Frederick sat with perfect military posture at the end of the table. He ate his food quietly and methodically. He cut every piece of meat into exact even squares before placing them in his mouth. He did not waste any physical motion.

Valen sat next to him on the long bench. The yellow-haired man devoured everything in sight. He chewed loudly with his mouth open. He reached across the table to grab multiple extra servings of fresh bread. He stuffed the bread directly into the hot stew to soak up the liquid. Ayame sat perfectly still on the opposite bench. She did not touch the cooked food placed in front of her. Her unique physiology required the exclusive consumption of raw red flesh.

She simply let her bowl of hot stew sit there and cool down completely. She stared blankly at the wooden wall behind Frederick. Rebecca did not eat. She stood right next to the table, leaning heavily over the wooden surface. She placed both of her elbows on the table and rested her chin on her hands. She fixated her entire attention completely on Lucid. She ignored the heavily armed, dangerous warriors sitting right next to him. She maintained a wide, quiet smile.

She stared directly into the swirling gray fog covering his face.

"You know," Rebecca started softly. Her voice carried a heavy, deliberate insinuation.

"Running a large tavern like this takes a massive amount of hard work. It gets very lonely here at night when the doors lock. A strong young man like you could be very useful around here." Lucid paused with his wooden spoon halfway to his face. He did not know how to respond to the direct implication.

'She is being overly forward,' Lucid thought to himself.

'This is entirely uncomfortable.'

"You could stay here permanently," Rebecca continued smoothly.

"You could work directly for me. Or rather, you could work with me. Closely. We could share all the daily responsibilities of the business." The atmosphere at the table shifted immediately. The air grew thick and heavy. Valen stopped chewing his bread. He swallowed hard. He looked back and forth between Rebecca and Lucid with wide, surprised eyes. The sudden romantic tension was completely unexpected. Frederick stopped cutting his meat. The tall warrior shifted uncomfortably in his wooden chair.

He cleared his throat quietly in an attempt to break the mood, but Rebecca completely ignored the noise. Ayame slowly turned her head. The female oni narrowed her dark eyes and glared directly at Rebecca. The murderous intent in the room spiked dramatically. The oni did not like the tavern owner speaking to Lucid in such a familiar manner. Rebecca did not seem to notice or care about the rising hostility from the deadly warrior. She just kept smiling warmly at Lucid.

Lucid quickly brought the spoon to his mouth to avoid answering the inappropriate offer. He finished his large wooden bowl of mushroom stew rapidly. He let out a long, content sigh to break the awkward silence. He set his wooden spoon down heavily on the table. He looked directly at Rebecca.

"This is really great food," Lucid complimented her honestly, trying desperately to change the subject.

"Why did you not make something exactly like this before during my last visit." Rebecca slowly stood up straight. She placed her hands on her hips. She looked down at the empty wooden bowl.

"Well," Rebecca started to explain softly.

"I was actually about to go to the market and get the proper fresh ingredients earlier this week. I had a whole list prepared. Until that happened." Lucid paused. He remembered exactly what 'that' specific event was. It was the highly chaotic incident involving the strange man with the hat who had violently destroyed a large portion of the local market stalls. The destruction had halted all trade in the town for several days. Lucid shook his fog-covered head slowly side to side in deep regret.

Jane stepped aggressively up to the table. She slammed a large clay cup of cold water down directly next to Lucid's right hand. The physical impact was incredibly loud. Cold water splashed over the rim and soaked rapidly into the dry wood of the table. Jane scowled deeply at him. Her face twisted into a mask of pure jealousy and anger.

"Eat up," Jane told him in a highly aggressive tone.

"Have your fill while you can. She only makes food like this for a future suitor." Jane let out a loud, mocking sound from the back of her throat.

"Tsk," Jane clicked her tongue sharply. Lucid did not react with immediate anger. He simply turned his head and looked directly at her. The swirling gray fog hid his exact facial expression, but his physical posture conveyed absolute calm. He drummed his fingers lightly on the wet table.

"Hmm," Lucid said aloud in a thoughtful, deliberate tone.

"Maybe I should file a formal written report toward the regional governor regarding the aggressive hospitality of this establishment. I am highly confident the governor would be very interested to hear how traveling guests are treated here." Jane froze instantly in place. The color drained completely from her face, leaving her pale white. She knew exactly how much raw political influence the local governor wielded over the town. She also knew Lucid had direct personal ties to that specific political power.

Absolute panic seized her entire body. Her mind raced with terrible consequences. Jane shook both of her hands frantically in front of her chest in a placating gesture. She leaned forward quickly and covered her own mouth with her right hand.

"No," Jane stammered quickly. Her voice shook with real, palpable fear.

"I mean no, no. Do not do that. It is just a minor misunderstanding. I did not mean anything by it." Rebecca looked coldly at Jane. The warm, inviting smile vanished entirely from her face. She stared at the terrified maid with absolute authority.

"Spare it," Rebecca commanded sharply, cutting Jane off completely before she could speak another word.