Intuitions of War
Chapter 7: Bystander of War
"Hello, do you by any chance need help around here?" Harper asked the man behind the counter of the bar, who seemed to be looking down on him. The man chuckled, and gestured for Harper to come behind the bar as well.
Harper just shrugged and jumped over the bar, and that was when the man held his arm and pulled him to a room in the back. Harper just obediently followed, not knowing what to expect of the situation.
However, it wasn't anything big at all. He was taken to what seemed to be the owner's room, with a woman sitting behind a desk that seemed to have an infinite amount of paper on it. She looked at Harper, and a look of disappointment immediately covered her face.
She then looked up to the man who was holding Harper by the arm, and frowned at him.
"Why would you even consider recommending a brat to work here? After that last incident, you should know they're not quite trustworthy." She spoke with the man in a polite, yet tense tone. She was clearly the one with the authority when it came to this bar.
"You say that, but that last kid… you know what happened, it wasn't his fault." the man replied, a non-changing look on his face. He seemed just as emotionless and lazy as Harper, maybe even more so. However, the tone and concern that rode his voice when it left his mouth seemed to suggest otherwise.
"You can say it wasn't his fault as much as you want, but in the end, he agreed to go along with us, and he… he brought it upon himself." the woman, though sounding like quite the annoying person, was actually pretty caring herself. Whatever they were talking about, Harper could tell that the only reason they were arguing was for his safety.
'I might end up being dragged into something bigger than I want to end up in… but I need a job, and I'm too lazy to walk down the streets and try to find another place that might take me in, so…' Harper didn't care about it, as long as he could work and get some things done.
With that thought in mind, he spoke up.
"Um, I don't know what either of you are talking about, and it sounds awfully true that the last kid that worked here ended up losing his life, but I kinda need a job, so if you take me in, I'll try my damned hardest to stay here." Harper spoke out-loud his true intents. If they didn't accept him for that, then he'd just have to walk out of here and try to find another place.
"You heard the boy, even if push comes to shove, he's ready to stay." the man holding Harper by the arm let go of his arm, and actually even smiled a little, though it immediately disappeared the second that Harper tried to take a good look at it.
"... fine, just make sure that things don't end up that way next time we pull one of those, or else you'll be gone with the kid as well." The women reluctantly agreed, and sighed.
Now that Harper took a closer look at her, she was pretty stunning. A pretty good looking face, curvaceous body that most men would fawn over, and a hair color that was extremely vibrant, looking like a mix of a scarlet and brown.
'Wyatt would've killed to work with her…' Wyatt, as Harper remembered, was a pretty pervacious kid, though he always tried to work hard to help others. If he could work hard while also being around such a beauty, he'd probably be fulfilled with his life.
"Too bad he's gone…" Harper muttered out loud, attracting the two others in the room to lay their eyes on him. He noticed that he had garnered some attention, and immediately apologized for the comment.
'The brat acts just like John, lazy and disemotional.' the woman summed up Harper quite nicely, and then sighed once again, while taking a seat.
"Get him to work immediately, make him do anything that we need John." The woman waved at them with her hands, which probably meant that she wanted them gone. John did the unexpected to Harper, which was to get on one knee and bow to the woman, before standing up again and taking Harper by the arm.
"What was that all about?" Harper questioned. Even though he was lazy, he wasn't so lazy that he'd want to end up dead like the last kid who came here, or at least that was what he believed.
"Don't worry about it, just be happy that you got the job. Now then, start off with taking orders from people who walk in and sit at tables, and during your free time, I want you mopping the ground." John said all this as he brought out a mop from beneath the counter, and shoved it into Harper's hands.
Harper threw the mop against one of the walls, and jumped over the counter, ready to serve some people.
--- sequence 2 ---
*Three weeks later*
"In just a week from now, my lord, we're going to have to invade London from the North." one of the servants of the king said, raising tensions within the castle. However, the king himself just looked out a window, staring up into the sky.
"What are we going to do? Even if we don't want to be destroyed by the Germans, we don't have the power to really help this raid on London. The Germans know that, which is why they're making us go in first, isn't it?" one of the other servants spoke up, and the king paid attention this time.
"You are correct mr. Satchel, we simply don't have the power, or at least the military doesn't." The king said, in a defiant voice.
'At least the military doesn't?...' Most of the servants didn't understand the words, but one of them seemed to get it, and he began to pale.
"You don't mean…?!" the servant began, but the king gestured for him to quiet down.
"Yes, we have to. It's either that, or just have our country destroyed." the king replied, giving the servant a confirmation.
"What is it?" One of the other servants piped up, confused at the situation.
"Simply, we send out some of the people of Scotland to fight along with the actual soldiers." the king answered, with a final sounding voice, which probably meant that there was no space for arguing with him.
However, all the servants really did want to argue, after realizing the gist of the situation. Their faces paled, and the sweat of their faces hitting the ground. They felt dizzy, as if they had been drinking for hours on end.
*THUMP*
All the servants whirled around, to see what made the sound. They didn't see anything standing there though, but instead something lying there. One of the female servants had hit the ground after hearing the kings announcement.
"By tomorrow, I want the news spread out throughout all of Scotland, that any men who are not sent out to fight along with the soldiers shall be executed." The king said, and with that announcement, stood up from his throne and began to walk to his bedroom.
What everyone else didn't see, however, was that the king was secretly sweating and tears were beginning to form at his eyes, which was why he was escaping to his bedroom. He pushed open the grand door that led into his room, and slammed it shut behind him.
He slumped onto the bed that belonged to him, and shoved his face into his hands. Then, a scene that could easily make everyone in Scotland nervous happened.
The king began to cry, with no limits on the amount of tears that was coming out of his eyes.
"I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…"
--- sequence 3 ---
*The day after…*
Harper was trying his best, or what he considered his best, to serve the customers while also mopping the ground, while also keeping the counter clean.
'How the hell am I supposed to keep up with all of this?' Harper was just as confused as John, who was standing behind the counter and watching Harper bounce all over the place.
'Why would she give the brat all this work? Even throughout all my time working here, all she's had me do is stand here and prepare the food and drinks, but a newcomer is doing much more than me, and getting paid much, much less…' John also felt bad for the kid, but he kinda felt like staying here since he was making something out of this job, so he didn't speak up about it.
*DUNG*
The entrance to the bar got kicked open, and everybody looked to the entrance, including Harper and John. However, they did not see what they expected to see.
'Out of everyone that could barge in… it's a Scottish soldier.' Harper gritted his teeth, the nervousness jumping within his body.
'Are they here for me? Do they know I'm a survivor of Newgate? What's going on?!' He was terrified, he didn't want anything to happen to him, his new life had just begun.
"Everyone here, listen up!" the Scottish soldier yelled out-loud, making sure that all the attention within the bar was on him.
"Every man, kid, or anything related to being a male that is in Scotland will be required to go to the Southern entrance of Glasgow, where an announcement will be made by the rightful king of Scotland himself, and then we shall march into London!" The soldier announced, and just like that, he left the bar.
Everyone within the bar just kept staring at the entrance of the bar, confused as to what the hell just happened.
"You… you bloody devil of a nation, Scotland! How could this happen to us?!" One of the men who was sitting at one of the tables stood up and slammed the table, while yelling out this very sentence.
One by one, the men within the bar began to understand what was going on, and were getting pissed off. Even John, who seemed so disemotional and distant, seemed to have a look of anger growing on his face.
"Damn it all to hell." Left John's mouth, as he began slamming his hands on the counter.
'No matter where I go… I'm used, I'm hunted, and I can barely find people who accept me…' Harper thought, while gritting his teeth very strongly. He was in disbelief at the situation that was in his hands right now.
"Screw it" he said, and walked out of the bar while not caring anymore.