"..."
"..."
"I thought you said…"
"I know what I said!" the waiter interrupted. He was the only one that was not wearing a theater mask and instead had it tied to his waist.
"Then…"
"Do you understand how long you have been sitting there for?"
"Uhhh…" I pondered for a moment. "I don't know, 10 min…"
"An hour!"
The waiter's face was red from irritants.
"Good sir, I tried bringing you food 3 times! And each time it was the same! I would go, 'sir, your food is ready,' and yet each time it was like I wasn't even there as you continued doing noob magic tricks to impress a bigger noob."
"Okay, that's fair, but…"
"Shut up, I've had enough of your annoying ass talking. It just goes on and on and on! You 2 really are… you know what, I'm not going to fan it, I have a bounty to collect. We all do! Yeah, you know why we all quit Riki's theater? Because to be honest, it was the best time of all our fucking lives!"
The crowd of theater mask figures all nodded in agreement.
"But you know why we couldn't fucking continue? You know why?"
"Uhhh… the political climate?"
"The political… what the fuck does that even mean? No, that's not why, it's because this guy RIki is actually poor as fuck!"
"Oh I mean… but if you're passionate…"
"Passion my ass, these fucking theater masks as well as our travelling cost money you privileged twats. And you know, to be honest… to be perfectly honest."
He stared at both me and the Princess as we darted our eyes back and forth whistling innocently.
"To be perfectly honest! I didn't even care when Riki told me we were planning on finding a way to team up and capture the two of you. Yeah! Honestly, it was getting so expensive to continue with this traveling theater, I was thinking of quitting it entirely. I didn't really want to get involved with you at all actually! I'm just some guy named Mack who wanted to do something exciting, that's why I joined the theater. But no one told me I still had to fucking work while never getting paid! What the fuck kind of stupid ass rules is this? But yeah, honestly that's whatever. That philosophy Riki said, you know about how a man in love is the most dangerous? Yeah, too bad love doesn't triumph physics, you're outnumbered. And not only that, we of the theater, train acrobatically, while we all heard about how slow you ran out of the original Kauki Inn. Don't even try, your probability of escape is 0."
As I processed these words, I slipped something into the Princess's robe pocket.
"Well… Hu Shuiluo…" the waiter said as the band of masked figures gathered closer to us. "give up?"
I looked at everyone and blinked with a deadpan expression.
"Okay, first I would like to say, didn't you just say you no longer worked for Riki and you weren't a part of a theater anymore?"
"We don't, the theater part is disbanded. Now we're just some people that travel together and wear cool masks."
"Isn't that just a cult then?
The masked figures thought about this statement for a second, looking at each other, as they began whispering among themselves.
"Yeah… he's kind of right."
"What, nah… we're entertainers."
"Who are we entertaining though? We haven't had an actual show in months."
"Yeah, we kind of are really just a cult at this point."
"Yeah, but are you really going to give up wearing these cool masks?"
"Oh, true."
"True."
"True."
"Silence!" Mack said, "we can put on shows again once we get the bounty money for the princess!"
He turned to me again.
"Nice try, but we, the people of the theater, stick together. Give up yet?"
I looked around seeing that we were surrounded. I looked over at the Princess who was looking extremely scared at this point. Well, there really was only one option left then on what to do.
"Yeah," I sighed, "Alright I give up, you can have the Princess."
"What, Hu, but…"
I covered her mouth.
"The only thing I ask," I said to Mack, "is that you return the Princess back home safely. Of course, I would ask you to clear my name as well but… that's up to you. I understand very much the importance of money in this world and you may need to tell your story in a way where it does not appear like you all were the ones that captured the Princess in the first place."
"Well, okay that's…" he sighed as the other masked figures also lowered their heads a bit.
"We'll do our best, but no guarantees. Seize the Princess!"
As he said that, a couple of the masked figures went up and restrained the Princess.
"What do we do with Hu?"
"Hmm…"
He looked at me, who stared back at him trying to remain as neutral as possible.
"We'll just let him go, we don't need him to collect the bounty anyway."
"Are you sure that's a good idea Mack? I mean… don't we…"
"I know what I said!" Mack replied, "I know very well our motto of what sort of man is the most dangerous. Even so…"
He looked at me softly, "he's a respectable man, so I feel it alright we spare his life at the least. Even so…"
His eyes hardened again.
"Even so Hu Shuilou, if you dare come across our paths again while we take the Princess home…"
He took out a knife from his pocket.
"This is just a prop knife but…"
He stabbed me with the wooden prop knife.
"Oww… that kind of hurt."
"Exactly, and since we all have one, if we all stab you at once, it won't kill you, but you will feel severe pain for at least 2 hours based on our calculations."
"Where did you come up with those calculations?"
He laughed.
"Let's just say we already know from past experiences."
"What?"
"Don't worry about it, Hu. It has nothing to do with you. What you should be worried about is after you get stabbed and are in pain for 2 hours, we'll be able to tie you up and send you to the King where he will jail you for life or behead you when we blame you for stealing the Princess. I'm going to bet on being jailed for life though since the Princess's cuteness factor, if she begs hard enough, will probably be enough to allow your life to be spared."
We looked over at the Princess, who indeed was giving her best cute pouting face looking as sad as possible.
"In the face of such powers, I must put on my full resistance armor."
He reached for his mask putting it on.
"Ahhh much better, anyways…"
He turned to the crowd, now blending in with everyone else.
"Men and women of the theater, seize the cute angel and release her slave!"
"Hey what the, let go!" the Princess shouted as 2 of the masked figures began restraining her, "Hu help! Do something!"
"I cannot at this moment, Riko," I said as they began taking her away as they walked in a crowd. I had lived long enough to know that heroics could only be a substitute for true trust for so long. Not that I by myself could ever hope to physically fight around 50 people with prop knives either. Plus, I had given her everything she needed to find me again in her pocket.
"Your safety, at the end of the day Princess, is still what's most important to me. Do you understand?"
"But…"
She was a good distance away now but I could still hear her voice as we shouted at each other.
"We'll be separated!"
"Only for now," I said smiling, "I'll find you again."
"But I want to go on more adventures, now!"
"Patience Riko, for you must learn to trust that you will and can find me again."
She was well in the distance now. The last thing I could hear faintly were the words she said to her capturers.
"Wait, so if he's jailed for life, can I place him in a personal jail cell so that we can act out one of my favorite books, 50 drops of gray?"
I pretended I didn't hear that last part as I let out a long sigh. It wasn't helping things that the turn of events along with the passage of time meant I had turned sober at the moment. For some reason, I wasn't in the mood for an edible though.
I just sat there for a minute. Pondering everything, feeling a little sorry for myself and the princess. I mean, we couldn't have possibly expected to run into the people of the theater when we traveled to Kauki. Such unfortunate circumstances, oh what to do, what to do…
I sighed as the moment passed. To be honest… I actually just wanted to rest for a minute because I already knew what I was going to do. The first step of what to do at least.
"Alright, if I remember correctly…"
I reached into my backpack to pull out the map of the market from earlier, for now was indeed the time when I needed to get to a place efficiently.
"Let's see…"
I got up after pinpointing exactly what I was looking for. Did I say I wasn't in the mood for candies? That still remained true, but that didn't mean I wasn't in the mood for Kush. Although it is not something I openly encourage people to do often, as smoking does cause some lung damage, less than cigars but I digress… there were times when edible highs simply weren't good enough. Times of extraordinary circumstances as I located exactly where the nearest Kush dealer in the marketplace was.
Now, I know what you all may be thinking. Isn't this irresponsible? After all, my companion is currently being held captive and is about to return to a life where surely the king will increase security 10 fold when she is returned making it almost impossible to see her again unless I wished to be jailed for life.
And to that, I simply say, one must during times of great stress, remember the difference between something that is important, and something that is urgent. Urgent things are those which have a time limit and must be done in a hurry. Obviously, the princess and being with her is important, but is it necessarily urgent at this time? No. How do I know this? Because if you have ever been a part of a large group of people that travel similarly to a mob, then you will realize there are advantages and disadvantages to doing so.
The advantage of course, is the social comfort and physical safety guarantee that a large crowd brings you. A togetherness in its structure, a sort of unity, beyond one's individuality. You're also less likely to get robbed. And you may even get to wear really cool masks.
The disadvantage, however, is that large crowds tend to be extremely slow. And based on my calculations, it will likely take 3 times longer compared to traveling by myself for that many people to make it back across the sea depending on how long it takes for them to find tickets. And after that it would take 5 times as long for them to traverse the hills compared to traveling alone to get back to the Riguo kingdom as I assume they can't afford a carriage to take that many people.
Based on my calculations then, it is important that I did not panic, because, although planning for how to reunite with the Princess before she was destined to her unhappy fate was important, it wasn't urgent. It needed a thorough planning of things with many factors to consider. Even if I were to rescue the Princess, where do we go next? Going back into the Kauki lands was probably not the best of ideas as these people of the theater do not seem to be going away anytime soon. Maybe to New Xenove, home of many sheep. I would always get a good amount of quality wool products for resale whenever I went there.
It had been the last thing on my mind but I suddenly did remember that I had silver still left in a pawn shop.
"Hmm…"
At that moment, I was feeling glad that I lent it to the pawn shop for the same amount that I bought the bar for. If anything, at least I would not be going bankrupt anytime soon. Still… was it worth the risk to try to bring the silver as well when I am in the middle of a rescue mission? Or perhaps I could simply pawn the silver bar at various pawn shops along the way for one night each. Maybe I can also go for a quick sale at the port which we had come from. Sure I would not get as much as if I sold it in Riguo, but the best dollar is the guaranteed one.
It would still be a risk though, given that the number one priority was to rescue the princess. Even if it wasn't an urgent one, it was still the most important one. That said…
I found the nearest green leaf symbol and began walking towards it.
I thought about this more carefully as well as the balance of teamwork. I mean, I'm not really there to rescue anyone, the Princess can rescue herself. Plus… knowing the Princess… I feel like rescuing her would unleash her masochist side and I would likely have to face greater consequences from my insistence on being the savior. No no… companionship in the face of freedom was always a team effort. Still though… I needed some sort of plan, didn't I?
I made the final turn into the weed shop as I tried to think of a plan.
"Plan plan plan hmm…"
No matter how hard I tried though no plan was naturally forming in my head. I was trying my best to be as objective as possible but being with the Princess must have spread her bookworm side onto me as the only images I had were dramatic scenes from books that I had read, or that she had described to me. Especially the ones she really loved and would go into detail about. As fun as those things would be though, that didn't mean they were practical. This was the real 3D world now, not just a story. So perhaps I needed to at least make a plan that is somewhat practical and executable. How would I even communicate the plan to the Princess though?
"I don't know…" I said out loud finally as I entered the Kush shop.
"That said…"
"It's always better if you make a plan on Kush Hu, isn't it?"
I froze as I heard a familiar voice come from the counter of the shop selling Kush. As I looked up… there he was indeed…face unmasked… the man that had begun all our troubles when the Princess and I first arrived on this island.
"Ri… Riki?"