"…." The shopkeeper was momentarily stunned as he received Maya's intense gaze but quickly smiled as he grew excited.
"Why of course young lady first off, the fire lizard sake is best served hot, to get the most flavour. It's spicy yet also sweet, a solid C-rank sake from the southern continent." The shopkeeper spoke with such enthusiasm it looked as though he grew ten years younger.
"The moon doe sake is the most expensive C-rank, and it was brewed on the western continent by the wood elves, it has a very mellow and silky taste that soothes one's every fibre, a very good sake however I strongly recommend the snow rice sake priced at 50 silvers mainly due to our location. This bottle has travelled the least as it was brewed right here in the Northrend empire, it has, like the fire lizard sake a spicy taste that warms up your entire body, but the taste is much, much richer, and it is ideal for drinking in cold climates."
"It is by far one of my favourite sakes, and out of all three it is the highest quality." The shop keeper spoke with such confidence and assurance. The moon doe sake was more expensive due to the transporting costs from the western continent whereas the snow rice sake could be easily brought over by the local merchants. Resulting in more money being for the sake itself than simply getting it to the store.
Usually if you're a merchant you'd advertise the most expensive one if possible, so as to generate more profit but this shop keeper obviously didn't place profit as his primary goal here. He gave his honest opinion as a lover of alcohol not a merchant.
Maya's eyes lit up as the shopkeeper spoke, her gaze was drawn toward the bottle on the right. The snow rice sake, she trusted the shopkeepers words and made her decision.
"We'll take the snow rice sake please." Maya lightly slammed her hand on the table, her eyes glued to the bottle.
Frost sighed lightly before smiling 'as long as she's happy.' He pulled out his coin purse and withdrew a gold coin.
"We'd like a bottle of the snow rice sake please." He presented the gold coin to the shopkeeper who was all smiles.
"Understood thank you for your purchase dear customer." The shopkeeper laughed before wrapping up the bottle of sake in protective paper and exchanging it for the gold coin.
"That's 50 slivers change." He handed Frost 50 silvers back as he put the gold coin into his cash drawer.
"Thank you, sir."
"Thanks shopkeeper, we'll be back again soon, we can talk more about alcohol then." Maya waved goodbye as they walked out the shop happy with their purchase.
"What a lovely young couple." The shopkeeper was still smiling as he watched them walk out and pass his window.
As they left the store, night was drawing closer, and Frost started to feel peckish.
"Let's head back to the inn to get something to eat before calling it a day." They'd most likely be busy tomorrow so Frost felt it was fine to rest early.
"Yesssss" Maya responded happily as she cradled the sake bottle in her arms as if it was the most precious thing the world. They couldn't really go on proper shop anyway as most of the stores were closing.
"Ah Frost, Maya welcome back, are you ready for dinner?" Kathy greeted them as they walked through the inn's doors, the place was still incredibly busy with waitresses dashing to and fro.
"Yeah, we'll have dinner before heading upstairs to call it a night."
"Sounds good, find a space and a waitress will be right with you." Kathy couldn't stay long as she was needed back in the kitchen.
As they tried to find a seat amongst the chaos, they could hear someone shouting.
"Fr…..st…..Frost!, Maya!" eventually they could hear a young man's voice shouting their names. They turned around to see Kato the gatekeeper smiling and tapping the seats next to him.
"I saved you a space." He laughed and beckoned for them to come over. Earlier to celebrate their first successful quest Kato promised them a drink.
Frost and Maya made their way over and sat next to Kato.
"Hey Kato," Maya greeted him first causing him to slightly blush, he was a young man and Maya was incredibly attractive even though Frost was with her he couldn't help but feel attracted.
"Hey Maya, hey Frost, how was the guild?"
Frost and Maya looked at one another before sighing.
"Hectic but profitable." Frost simplified their visit to three words leaving Kato confused but he didn't pry.
"Guess I still owe you those drinks then?"
"Yes, yes yes" Maya spoke quickly and placed her hands on the table as she stood, she wasn't going to let Kato squeal out of his offer.
Frost laughed out loud in response as did Kato.
A waitress then came over with the menu, it was larger than the lunch menu. There was an extra couple pages dedicated to alcohol.
"If you've paid for meals with your lodgings you can choose from the set choices on the fourth page or you can order a regular meal and pay the excess." The waitress was different from earlier, much more stoic. Frost turned to page 4 where the set meals were, the choice was certainly limited but it wasn't that bad, each meal came with a drink of your choice including the house beer.
"Is there any drinks I can get you while you choose your meal?"
"I'll take a mug of the house ale, you two?" Kato responded first before looking at Frost, Maya was quickly scanning through the drink selection.
"I'll have an ale as well please." Frost decided to have the same as Kato, he lacked experience with food and drink so anything would be new to him, he wasn't too fussed about the particulars.
"And for the young miss." The waitress wrote down their orders before turning to Maya.
"I'll take a glass of ice heart wine." She responded with conviction, slamming shut the menu and smiling towards Kato.
"Ugh!" Kato's face quickly drained of colour, he knew how expensive that wine was, 1 silver the same price of a high-quality main meal. He looked at Maya as if she was the devil, he was a gatekeeper although his salary wasn't bad, and he could splash out occasionally, 1 silver for a single glass was a bit more than he was expecting to pay. The house ale only cost 8 coppers.
Frost noticed pain in his face and glared at Maya, he knew she must have picked an expensive drink. He sighed before slipping a silver coin under the table towards Kato. One silver was easily within his budget, so he didn't mind paying. However, Kato was stubborn he refused to take Frost's silver coin, shaking his head he looked at him with determination.
"I said I would treat you, so I'll treat you, I'm a man of my word." Kato felt a weight being lifted of his chest as he spoke.
'It's only a silver coin it's not the end of the world.' He wasn't that bothered about spending a silver coin, it was the fact that it was being spent on a single cup of wine. But he was a man of his word, he nodded to the slightly stunned waitress saying it was alright.
The waitress gave Kato an internal thumbs up as she walked away with the order.
"Thanks Kato you're really cool." Maya smiled sweetly at Kato making the expense seem worth it, her smile really was charming. Frost gave him a curt nod for his actions. Kato didn't feel as downhearted after that, he also managed to leave a good impression on the cute waitress, so it wasn't all bad.
With the drinks now ordered they could get to choosing their meals. Frost and Maya turned to page four where the set meals included with lodging were listed.
1. Artic boar burger with fries.
2. Chicken (or vegetable) omelette with winter salad.
3. Grilled salmon with rice and veg.
4. House curry with rice.
There were four options to choose from and all sounded rather delicious.
"I had the artic boar burger for lunch, so I'll get the house curry." Since everything was new to him it didn't really matter what he chose.
"I'll go for the grilled salmon then." Maya decided fairly quickly as well.
'Salmon huh I wonder if it's the same type as the one in the winter highlands room.' Frost remembered the few species of fish that came with the dungeon environment.
'I'll have to ask Maya for a taste.' He subconsciously licked his lips. He had no reservations about eating the free creatures that came with the dungeon, only the monsters he summoned directly made him feel a bond.
"They're both good trust me, my sister's recipes are amazing, everything she cooks tastes divine… my brother's a lucky man." Kato grew a little depressed and lonely. He broke up with his girlfriend 3 months ago, well breaking up is putting it lightly, she cheated on him. He'd been feeling rather down since then, coming to his brother and sister in law's inn helped ease the pain, as did the alcohol. His gaze wondered over a few of the waitresses but was instantly reminded of the betrayal. His gaze then wondered toward Maya and Frost.
"Tsk" he clicked his tongue in annoyance.
'Everyone's got someone but me.'
The drinks arrived quickly, the house ale ordered by Frost and Kato were in standard wooden mugs like the fruit juice whereas the frost heart wine was served in a beautiful crystal glass allowing you to see the beautiful ruby red liquid sitting within in. While Frost and Maya were admiring the wine, Kato started to quickly down his ale, trying to drown his sorrows.
Maya licked her lips as she steadied herself, there was proper protocol when drinking fine wine. She swirled it in the glass gently and sniffed the sweet aroma before taking a small sip.
Her face flushed red as the wine passed over her tongue, it was cold, very cold, and sweet. She broke into a pleased expression as she swallowed her first sip. Frost's heart started to beat widely at her actions, her movements were beautiful and full of elegance, he found her to be incredibly sexy, developing as slight blush to match her.
"Ah good wine, thanks Kato." Maya smiled and gave her genuine thanks to Kato for buying her such a good wine, but he was too busy downing his ale to notice. She turned then to her young master Frost.
"Eh young master why's your face red?"
"….No reason." He turned away from Maya copying Kato in glugging down the ale. The waitress who witnessed the entire thing from the side lines struggled to contain her urge to laugh.
"Hav….have you decided what you'd like to eat?" Her lips twitched as she spoke.
"I'll have my usual barbeque ribs and another ale please." Kato knocked his empty mug on the table, his face was already slightly pink from the alcohol, he wasn't a very good drinker.
"I'll try the house curry please." Frost wiped away the foam accumulated on his lip from the ale.
"How spicy, mild? medium? hot? Extra hot?"
'Oh, it's a spicy dish.'
"I'll go for medium then." Frost wasn't sure how he'd be with spicy so he ordered the regular level, if he got mild, he wouldn't understand what spicy tasted like.
"And I'll have the grilled salmon please miss waitress." Maya asked full of smiles as she took small sips of her wine, afraid to waste even the smallest drop.
"Ok got it, your meal should be with you shortly." The waitress took away their menus but didn't forget to send Kato a flirtatious wink before heading back to the kitchen. Kato's eyes opened wide in surprise and his throat felt dry before blushing.
Maya and Frost sniggered in response, further increasing Kato's blush.
The rest of the evening passed very pleasantly, the three of them talked and talked about everyday things, cementing a newfound friendship. Frost greatly enjoyed his curry but found the spiciness a bit much he praised himself for getting the medium level and not the hot.
By the end of their meals Kato was significantly drunk after downing six cups of ale and needed a hand getting home, luckily their waitress offered to help, allowing Kato to lean against her as she took him home. Frost initially wanted to refuse as it seemed as though the woman was taking advantage of Kato's drunk state but when he went to make a move, he received a death glare from Kato roughly translating as, 'you take one more step or say a single word and you're dead'. He backed off immediately, Kato was clearly still able to think straight.
With Kato being taken care of, Frost and Maya headed up to their room to call it a night.