{3 days before the breakdown.}
"Did you get your stuff together?" I asked while putting my new shirt on top of my new chainmail.
"No just wait a minute."
"I clearly told you to get it all together last night." I nagged her.
"And I just told you to wait… I'm almost- ah" Vivi closed the lock on her backpack. "Here we go. Done." She swung the ginormous luggage until it laid comfortably against her back.
"Good. Let's go then." I put my short sword in my belt, opened the door and turned around waiting for her.
As she looked around the room one last time, her face turned into a quintessential 'Shit, I forgot something.'
"El, you can go ahead. I'll be down in a second." She hurriedly looked outside the window.
"Why, I don't want to wait for you." What was the point of waiting for this long if we were going to split up anyway?
"I have to do some lady stuff. You head to the gate, I'll catch up in a bit." She closed one of her eyes to somehow display remorse. It just made her look goofy. "What are you in a hurry for, it's not like we'll miss a carriage or something."
"I don't want to waste sunlight is it that hard to understand?"
"Just wait okay? No, actually leave. Or you'll have to see me naked again. Or wait, was last time not enough for you? Do you perhaps want to-"
"Shut up."
Despite all the times, I called her ugly, normal people would consider her drop-dead gorgeous. Sure, she was a little large and built, but her face and figure were a solid ten. In fact, her muscular midrib was probably slimmer than most female waists.
I was just not interested, and her little antics didn't help.
"Pch." I clicked my tongue before closing the door behind me.
I was the first one to leave, and Vivi stayed behind.
Honestly, if it wasn't for the degeneracy attached to this inn, I would've used 'Natural Predator' to see what she was doing.
She was clearly lying about doing lady business unless the lady business she wanted to do was with the window open. That little discrepancy made me suspicious.
'Oh, well. I'll cross the bridge when it comes.'
I went down the stairs and the sound of the noisy hall greeted me again. It only took two days to get used to this sort of chaos. Three if you count today.
Today was the last day I would have to spend in Rottheim. Today was the last day I would have to deal with this commotion.
Even back in town, I doubt that I would be able to frequent public spaces like my family's eaterie. I would probably spend all my time on my field, tilling away aimlessly in seclusion.
That wasn't all bad though.
Very soon, I would be with my family again. Sure I would have to hide just in case some clergy come by. But this was good enough. The entire peril was coming to an end.
There was some optimism in my steps now.
The front desk was empty so I put the keys in the drawer before heading out. The smell of smoke from all the smokers in the inn left my lungs as I breathed in the fresh air of the outside world. I looked around to see the city's bustle, as the door closed behind me with a ting.
It was bright. And hot. The rainy gloomy days had quickly come to an end. The city was peaceful.
The gates to the city were to my right on the slope that led down. If I were to use 'natural predator' stealing a look at the city gate wasn't all too far off.
I leaned against the stone wall.
I activated and deactivated my skill a couple of times to ease myself of the boredom.
'She sure is taking her time. Whatever.' I waited for five whole minutes before heading down the path, but just as I did-
"Please stop." A quaint voice got picked up by my sharp senses. It wasn't directed at me.
"Missy you shouldn't be doing this. We earned you fair and square." A snarky, unnecessarily happy voice.
"Please. I don't know what my Father told you but please stop!" The voice got shriller and more scared. At this point, I recognised who it was.
I stopped right in front of the alley next to the inn.
4 men. 1 girl.
3 of the men were grabbing her clothes. As she was trying to peel their hands off.
"Stop it you bitch!" The only free man slapped her face making her head hit the ground. "First it was your stupid fuck of a dad who stopped giving us the wage. And now it's you not even letting us use you properly. Do you know how much torture we had to get from the boss because of that?!"
"B-but I- I already paid it back by work. You shouldn't be doing this." The attendant girl tried to get up again with a stream of blood trickling down her head.
Work? Was she talking about the scars on her hands? The cigar burns? The bruises? Her overly frightened behaviour.
"You don't learn, do you? Oh well, it doesn't matter anyway. We don't need your permission." The man grabbed her hair, held her face up and from his pocket pulled out a paper. He whipped it against her face and a flurry of white powder came out like a blizzard.
In one swift motion as if he had done it hundreds of times.
The girl who got hit coughed and started rubbing her eyes incessantly.
"Natural Predator." My senses shot up even further.
A fresh smell that irritated my eyes. Chloroform? Yup, that was definitely it. Chloroform shouldn't knock her out on the spot, but at least for now, it would make her drowsy.
"Your old man might not know how to do business, but he did a great job raising a girl like you ." The men grabbed her clothes and started tearing them apart. "I bet you would fetch a fair price in the market but I don't want to give you up. Maybe if you're good I'll buy you myself!"
This city wasn't as nice as I thought it to be when I came here a week ago. It was ugly and tragic.
They kept pulling at her clothes, while she- half-conscious, continued to resist.
The story started to write itself in front of me and I did nothing. I mean why would I? Why should I get involved?
There were already a few too many problems I faced. Why should I add this on top of that? The boss person they mentioned seemed to be pretty high up. Getting involved would only get me into deeper hell and put my family in danger.
Danger?
'El, I'm going out.' My sister once told me. I was 15. She was 17. It was late at night- so late that the only thing open were the pubs and the red light. We were poor and things looked grim. 'Make sure Mom doesn't find out, okay? We'll be able to move to a better place very soon.'
The older sister I had so admired was holding such a prim and conflicted smile that day.
Of course, I didn't let her. It took everything I had to break her resolve that day. The amount of conviction she had to sell her body for the next day's food. We cried ourselves to sleep that night.
The men in front of me started to take off their belts. The girl on the ground was dishevelled and almost knocked out. There were bruises under her clothes.
I had no reason to help her out. Everything I would do would only inconvenience me.
I had no moral obligation to help her out.
But she was barely 15. Turning a blind eye to this? No, at that moment something snapped inside me. The men in front of me turned into beings lower than animals. Disgusting.
I really didn't want to help her out. I didn't but-
"Fuck this shit.
Hardening."