Zakia looks too rich, even though a no do gooder, this is solely my fault, I was too careless, I should have been more cautious and realized earlier, I should have have worn some rags as a disguise, I'm too inexperienced!! Maybe thats why all those people kept interacting with me, they thought I was someone of high status, good thing that young lord from the ship gave me a lot of gold coins and did not find trouble with me, I can atleast keep up this facade. Oliphant thought inwardly. He then replied. "Mam, I think we should first discuss the prices as I sit down to have a nice meal first how about that?"
"Oh silly me I made a guest stand at the door for too long, this way please. " the waitress said as she gestured wih her hand and led Oliphant to an empty table on the first floor of the inn by a window. Oliphant sat down as a menu was handed to him by the waitress.
Oliphant looked through it and chose a meal with beer included worth two gold coins he had no more than one hundred gold coins left from the young lord on the ship who bought his mud swordfish swords and he spent a bulk of them on the ship for crossing over the river with the enchanted ship, so funds were tight, even though he was suddenly unintentionally acting rich and spending two gold coins on a meal.
Oliphant pointed at the meal on the menu and handed the menu over to the waitress, she did not leave immediately, Oliphant thought inwardly. Why are you still here for? Are you expecting a tip from me? You can forget about it girl, this old man is too poor so go get my meal. Oliphant then said with a straight face. "Thank you that will be all for now."
The waitress was reluctant to leave but left in the end and did not voice out her thoughts. I should eat and get a room as soon as possible and try to practice the enchantment I saw on the ship. I could even ask that waitress if they can sell information about this place and get a sense of the layout of it I don't want to find myself losing my way this place is too big. Oliphant thought as he waited for his meal.
In a room of unknown location within the inn, the waitress that was serving Oliphant was inside this room as she sat on a chair, in front of her was an intricately designed table with a lot of documents, blueprints, papers stacked together and ink bottles keeping her company as she waited for someone, this room was full of rows of books on high shelves and paintings on walls and some not being yet hung up in the room, but stacked together in a corner , on some paintings floods were depicted, others showed thunderstorms and others tsunamis and hurricanes. A thin man who looked to be in his thirties, with a skin of a red shade and fish scales thinly showing on his skin as it hit light was on a ladder taking out a book from a high shelf.
"What brings you here, shouldn't you be out there serving customers?" the red scaled man said as he got down from the ladder and approached the other end of the desk and sat down on his chair holding the book he picked and then faced the waitress.
The waitress spoke in a serious tone." I wouldn't be here if it wasn't important. "
" What is it? "the man asked.
" You said we should keep a lookout for any new visitors in this domain, so I thought I should tell you since we have a visitor who fits the description you gave us." the waitress said.
" Oh... " the red scale man shifted his gaze from the woman and stared at empty air as if he could see through walls. In his vision he could see a neatly dressed young man with curly hair and a slightly thick mouth and a sharp gaze looking out the window his mind seeming adrift. After seeing this the man retracted his gaze and looked at the waitress.
"Mhm, he does meet the criteria but that's not him, but he does exude a certain prescence I can't quit quiet put my finger on, for now don't do anything to him just keep a close eye on him, he is not simple." the man said as he started paging through the book he was holding.
" By your will boss. " the waitress then stood up and gave a bow and left.
By this time Oliphant's meal was ready and the waitress immediately took it to him with a few other waitresses as it was a lot of dishes. ," Your meal sir, the waitress said with a smile.
Oliphant allowed them to put his meal on the table as the left one by one and only the original waitress who served him the first time was left. He took a piece of fried meat from one of the dishes and put it in his mouth and downed it with the jug of beer served, after this he looked at the waitress and spoke.
"I would like a medium quality room, but with no assistant in its place I would like the room to have an extra room with no access to anyone except me, Oh, and I would like some information about the general happenings in this part of town for the past few weeks and general area of the landscape of this place, it doesn't have to be detailed, a rough outline would be fine, can you do that? "
" Of course, as long as you pay the corresponding price for it." the waitress stated.
" And how much is that? "Oliphant asked wryly.
" I'll request a price of fifteen gold coins. " the waitress replied quickly.
" Okay, fine with me. " Oliphant said as he took out seventeen gold coins from his bag, and handed them to the waitress, after doing all of this he picked up the beer jug and stood up, then he spoke again." Well then can you take me to my room I need to rest it's been a long journey, and please send the rest of the food to my room I'll finish it up from there."
"Of course." the waitress said is she led the way up the floors of the inn that had a tower like structure, from the first to the third, Oliphant was slowly following right after the waitress. When they reached this floor, four doors were on each side of the hallway, the waitress led Oliphant to the room at the far end of the hall on the left side, the waitress opened the door for Oliphant and showed with her hand for him to go in. Oliphant nodded and went inside, as he passed by the waitress, she suddenly felt bloodlust and felt suffocated as if she was in the presence of of someone who had killed countless people in their life and now they were about to end hers. Shivers ran down her spine as this bloodlust disappeared just as it appeared , she staggered a few steps back and Oliphant noticed it and asked with concern. "Are you okay?"
The waitress stepped back even more and replied in a slightly trembling voice. "I'm fine, just a slip, up if you need anything ring the bell in your room and someone will come and assist you, I'll be taking my leave now." she said as she turned around and left quickly vanishing down the staircase to the lower floors in a hurried pace.
" What was that about? That was weird just now, why did she look scared all of a sudden?, Oh I didn't even ask for her name, maybe she's sad about that, well I'll ask when I meet her again." Oliphant pondered as he threw this incident at the back of his mind and entered the room.