"How much for a room and a meal?" I asked the woman standing behind the counter.
The large woman with slightly tanned skin, brown hair tied up in a bun, hazel eyes, and a round belly looked back at me surprised. After staring at me for a few seconds in shock, I got annoyed and knocked on the counter to snap her out of her daze.
"Uhm. Yes. That's right... how about 10 copper pieces? Seven for the room tonight and three for the meal. I can only take Soma coinage though." She said a bit awkwardly.
I raised my eyebrow before slowly dropping a single silver coin on the table. "I'll stay for ten days," I replied before taking a seat at a nearby table but not before setting my bag on the chair next to me. I kinda melted into it until the woman came by to take my order after retreating into the back room to put on an apron. Upon seeing her approach me, I straightened up.
"What will you have?" She asked, a bit more relaxed than before but still stealing glances at me from time to time.
"I'll have any soups you've got as long as it's warm and some meat. I don't care if I have to pay extra." I replied to her.
"I've got bulldear steak or wingboar chops" She replied, already memorizing my order.
"Wingboar? Never heard of it but it sounds amazing. I'll have that." I answered.
The woman smiled before nodding and walking away to get my food. I laid back in my chair again and began to eavesdrop on the few people who had come here for late lunch. It was already mid-noon today so it was early enough to not have to worry about crowds of people coming for dinner if what the merchants from the other side of the dining area are to be believed.
I continued to focus my senses as I sat there, eventually closing my eyes to make myself seem more tired than like I'm eavesdropping. Just as I was beginning to pick up on a certain conversation that seemed to be coming from the back of the hall, I was suddenly startled wide awake at the introduction of a semi-mechanical voice potting up inside my head.
I nearly jumped at the noise, but knowing that this can come in handy for later I simply didn't let it bother me. Thankfully, for humans, it is very difficult to hear the Voice of the World, as it only really announced publically things like Harvest Festivals or Unique/Ultimate skill acquisition, or changes to the rules of the world, which meant unless there was someone of my level directly next to me, I'm pretty sure no one would notice.
Just as I was beginning to calm down and listen in more, a large plate of food was dropped onto my table. "Here's your food." The woman said with a wide smile.
"Thank you," I replied, dropping a few extra coppers in her hand as a tip before digging into the feast.
I definitely didn't forget about eavesdropping the moment food was placed in front of me because I was hungry from not eating since I left the village. Definitely not.
"I'm telling you, they'll be here! We can't allow those girls to get away!" I heard a muffled shout coming from the back room. There were only about four other people dining at the inn at the moment, but even then, those who were there were a bit rowdy, so it seems like the shout went unheard by all but those specifically listening for it, i.e me.
As I devoured my food I continued to listen to the shady people talk about how there was going to be a shipment coming in soon of slaves to be sold to the Super Magic Empire for use in 'experiments'. I shuttered at the thought before finishing my meal and making my way to my room. I could no longer hear anything from there, but I already overheard where the deal was going to go down. It seemed like the people would be meeting at a certain bar in the slums later that night.
Of course, I wasn't going to let a bunch of slavers run rampant, so I decided to bust them when the time came. I waited for night to fall before walking out of the inn, saying something to the inn lady who wanted to know where I was going about seeing a brothel to get her off my back, which caused the night crowd to burst into laughter. I also had to escape from an angry inn lady who chased me around with a ladle trying to 'teach me a lesson'.
After a while of that little skit, I finally lost her and made my way through the city toward the slums area. It wasn't hard to find directions. I simply paid for a few bums drinks who were hanging outside of taverns in exchange for the way to go. In no time at all, I was able to find my way to the abandoned bar in the slums.
A little bit of |Form Hide| Arts and {Silent Steps} Magic made me all but invisible to the naked eye and to anyone who wasn't actively looking for me through some kind of tracking magic. I waited around for a few hours for the group I saw earlier to show up. I was about to give up after an hour past midnight had passed but I'm glad I did it, because I saw the same group, still wearing their rags, cloaks, and bandages to cover up their identities, sneak into the back door of the bar.
I smirked and unsheathed my sword before rushing into action. I bust down the front door of the place, catching them all completely by surprise and sending one of them, who I assume was on lookout for the front door, barreling into the center of the room, knocked unconscious.
"Alright, scumbags! Time to talk." I said cracking my knuckles to intimidate them.
"Shit! We've been had!" One of them shouted as the other three unsheathed their blades.
They were beaten up and slightly rusted, as one would expect from criminal scum. I picked up the sword I had taken from the spot I had sheathed it in the ground and, in one fluid movement, sent an |Aura Blade| at the remaining three. I had purposefully pulled my punches and made sure there wasn't much cutting force applied to the swing since I didn't know who would have the information I wanted, so I didn't want to kill them.
I followed up my |Aura Blade| with a charge toward them, only to be stopped as I noticed that my strike had hit all three of them and sent them flying in all directions, defeated.
"Huh? That's it? I thought a bunch of slavers would be stronger." I said out loud to myself.
"There not slavers..." I heard an ominous and familiar voice coming from behind me.
I slowly turned around, seeing a large woman with slightly tanned skin, brown hair tied in a bun, hazel eyes, and a round belly wearing an apron on holding a ladle while being surrounded by an intense aura. I could have sworn I saw fire in their eyes too.
"I-inn keeper lady...?" I asked, backing up a bit from the clearly furious woman.
"Their the Liberators!" She shouted, konking me over the head with the iron spoon.
"Owwww!!!" I yelped.