"That is to be expected, he wanted to get a feel of the town and see if anything was out of place. He noticed how odd the former Landless are, but he had no clue what they were. He seems to have very little knowledge of this world." Cypius explained. "You could have explained the lands to 6 yourself, better than I. This is not your first interaction with an adventurer."
"I wanted to see how he responded under duress."
"And?" Cypius inquired.
"He is calm. He hardly changed no matter the words I said, even when we began arguing. He merely got excited." Karkum stated. "Akin to a child being shown a magic trick."
"I sensed that same type of excitement when I showed him Alkore."
Karkum nodded.
"He is very eager. It is hard to determine what exactly he is eager for." Karkum said.
"And did you have to hit him? I know you can handle yourself, but we know little about him. He could have abilities we aren't aware of."
Karkum shook his head.
"At that time, I could already tell he would not retaliate. He did not truly care for our argument, and did not even defend himself. He merely continued arguing, despite his body language clearly showing that he was not in the least bit upset."
"That does not explain your reasoning behind it."
"His combat senses are good, but his physical strength is weak. He was easily able to react to my blows, though he did not dodge, but his speed was slow and his body cannot withstand much damage. I suspect he could handle one or two of the Landless we took in, but I believe some of our teenagers could put up a good fight against him. He seems to be well trained, however. They might be able to fight him, but I doubt even Plono could beat him."
"With Alkore?"
"Without." Karkum said while shaking his head. "Unless he has some special ability of his own, or some way to defend, Plono can beat him with Alkore."
"And what of you or I?" Cypius asked, wondering if they could best 6 without the use of Alkore.
"From what I can tell, our physical abilities entirely outclass him. With the exception of surprise attacks, he shouldn't pose a threat. He lacks the physical strength to cause physical harm to us." Karkum said. "He carries a knife on his person. It looks ornamental, but I've yet to see the blade itself."
"Does he always have it?"
"Yes. Even in his sleep. It remains in his hand." Karkum's voice faltered ever so slightly as he said this, bewildered at the extent to which 6 went through to keep his knife nearby at all times.
"Ah, to be quite honest, I expected nothing lesser of our new friend."
"Mm." Karkum grunted.
"As I've told you before, you can't just grunt in response to everything. It leaves me with no idea of what it is you are attempting to express." Cypius said with annoyance.
"I am aware."
"Tsk. 6 has rubbed off on you already."
"Mm."
Karkum turned around to open the door, reaching out to grab the door knob.
"6 needs new clothes. And a bath, please. Insult him all you like, just get the man clean please." Cypius said.
Unlike 6's gentle closing of the door, Karkum slammed the door behind him, ignoring the words Cypius said.
Had Cypius not known exactly who Karkum is, he would've sword it was some kind of pettiness towards 6 slamming his hands on the table in the inn. Instead, he just shrugged, deciding he wasn't in a position to worry about him.
"Seriously…you aren't even an innkeeper." Cypius muttered under his breath in the empty room.
Resuming the demeanor he possessed when speaking to and about 6 this morning, Karkum walked away from the house after slamming the door.
Looking once more like the slightly stern, yet somewhat playful and kind, middle aged man, as opposed to a mostly soulless robot, he began walking towards 'his' inn.
He needed to pick up the ingredients for lunch and dinner before he returned, else his excuse for 6 wouldn't hold up. He went to the butcher hut, which was once owned by a lovely couple, Amy and Carisi, that was now more of a staffed shop run by the Landless.
It saddened him, or it saddened the man he was pretending to be, to think of the now gone couple, and even more so to think that their shop was now basically a governmentally owned facility.
It had to be done, however, else the people of Folrost would starve. The couple would give their blessings, as everything is for Folrost. At least that was how the real Karkum felt. He believed the loss of any person of Folrost was a tragedy, but that it would do no good to dwell on it. Better to move on and succeed for their sake.
He always left grieving to those who needed it.
He picked up the prepared ingredients, including the list of how to prepare them, from the two Landless cutting the meat. As the innkeeper, he showed a slight annoyance at the slow nature of the Landless, but as himself, he only felt gratitude.
"Finally, I thought it would never reach my hands. Thank you, thank you, I can pick everything else up myself." Karkum said, shooing away the hands attempting to help him gather his ingredients into the basket.
He lifted the basket up, placing it against his hip and carrying it out of the doorway he left open when he entered.
"Have a good day, thank you again," he said, as he shut the door behind him with his hip.
He refrained from slamming as he did with Cypius'. It would be too out of character for the man he was playing.
When he was several steps away from the door, he finally heard a faint, very delayed, 'you're welcome' from inside the butcher's hut.
He let out a breath of exasperation toward the delayed response.
He continued walking toward his inn now, his excuse for leaving finally completed.
As he passed one of the villagers houses, he noticed, very faintly, a slight shadow that was out of place. It wasn't moving, but he couldn't see what was casting the shadow. It was just out of his sight.
He cocked his head to the side. The Landless certainly wouldn't have moved things around needlessly, as they all had their own tasks currently and didn't possess the ability to slack off, although the speed of their work practically was slacking off on it's own.
Approaching the side of the building he noticed the shadow being cast from, he noticed what was casting the shadow.
In front of him, on the side of the house, was the problem child of the village. It was also the only child he would coddle, either as the innkeeper or as himself.
The child was leaning against the wall, his face contorted with anger. No surprise could be found on Karkum's face, however, as this was the normal expression on the child's face recently.
He stared at him, waiting to see if the child would say anything, but as he saw the anger on the child's face intensifying, he turned on his heels and began walking away.
The child only spoke recently to scream at people, and Karkum had no desire to be the recipient of that, no matter how much he cared for or felt pity for her.
The inn arrived in front of him shortly, with no further interruptions. In the dining room, 6 sat at the table, looking excitedly at Karkum entering the room.
"What makes you think you'll be getting any of this after your behavior this morning?" Karkum barked at 6.
"Money?" He responded.
His direct response left Karkum's mouth slightly ajar.
"No, not money. I will only accept an apology, both before AND after the meal. And you will have good manners. And do -not- slam your hands on my table ever again." Karkum finally said.
"Sorry! What's for lunch?" 6 said without shame.
Karkum brought his free hand to his temple as he tried to relieve the headache dealing with 6 gave him. He walked to the kitchen counter and placed his basket down upon the countertop.
"A salad. For me, with a special salad oil from one of the villagers stashes, and for you, with plain salad oil."
"Awhhh don't be like that. What if I give a full, pretty as pink apology?"
"Perhaps tomorrow, but today, you suffer." Karkum said.
6 made a pouty face for a moment before it vanished as if he never cared to begin with.
"Want any help?" 6 said. The only way he could've seemed more like a child speaking to a business parent was if he was swinging his legs off the side of the bench he was sitting on.
"From you? I'd rather not, you may not have ever washed those hands before."
"'Have manners, 6.' 'Be polite, 6.' Well I say lead by example, Karkum." 6 said with a broad smile on his face.
Karkum tsked in response as he began preparing lunch for the two of them.
He sliced the larger vegetables, several of which shared the general size of cucumbers yet had strange shapes, textures, and colors, and mixed them together with the base of the salad, which was a type of green leafy vegetable that was oddly juicy. He drizzled oil from two separate bottles onto the two bowls in front of him, one of which was notably nicer looking.
For a salad, the aromas that were wafting over to 6 were surprisingly good. The salads he knew of on Earth were bland most of the time, and even the 'good' salads were still mediocre to him.
The colorful salad, dotted with blue, green, red, and yellow vegetables, was eaten swiftly by 6.
He did his best, especially after a few harrumphs from Karkum, to maintain good mannerisms, but he was so intently focused on the salad that he repeatedly forgot.
After a few tries, Karkum simply gave up attempting to correct him, considering him a lost cause.
After their meal, the two separated, with Karkum going into his room and 6 walking out of the inn again.
As he sat outside of the door facing away from it, 6 turned his head over his shoulder, glancing back at the inn as if he could see through the door, gazing at where Karkum would be.
He finally allowed himself to take deep breaths, exhausted from attempting to beat Karkum back to the inn after he was nearly caught following him.