"Please Lord Alaric! I beg you not to destroy anything! Business has been really slow, I can't afford to lose anything else! Please!" The bar owner bowed his head, begging for his life.
Hearing the voice of the man, the attention of everyone in the pub was drawn towards Alaric.
_"No way, is he bothering the big boss again?!"_
_"I knew we should have closed it up today."_
_"Just leave already... Gaaah!"_
Alaric gave a side eye, just enough that he was able to read the expression on everyone's face.
"As much as I appreciate your kind gesture, I'm not here to destroy your business, it's quite the opposite actually..." He spoke.
The man slowly raised his head, "It's not?"
"Yes, do overlook my sudden change in character. I had a bad dream last night, a terrifying one at that. I saw angels appear before me and beat me to a bloody pulp for the evil things I've been doing. I come here with the intention of righting my wrongs."
'He had a dream?' the man whispered to himself, taking a second to look at Ava who seemed like she was desperately trying to calm herself down despite the shock on her face.
She had been with Alaric for as long as anyone can remember, and not one in all those years has he mentioned ever having a dream. She knew he was up to something, though she had no idea what.
"I can understand why you are still wary of me, it hurts me to see you like this." Alaric covered the side of his face with his hand, "I had hoped you'd give me a chance to prove myself to you. At the end of the day, I am still your lord, and a master should always lead in character."
The man could barely say anything, it all seemed to be happening too fast.
"After long consideration and self reflection, I have made the decision to pay back every ounce of money I owe-"
Not even a single second passed and the man had already reached for his pocket and pulled out a bill before placing it in front of Alaric.
[Wow, he was prepared.]
The man smiled at Alaric, "Here is the bill for the past years, thank you so much for this. I can finally fix my business and get more goods!"
Still maintaining his position, Alaric stole a glance at the bill, his eyes widened once he saw the numbers.
"A-are you sure this is all?" He asked the man while trying to keep his composure.
"Yes Lord Alaric, this is from the moment I opened the pub till date." The man responded with a smile.
'That's a lot of money, even if I was getting paid 30,000 eres per month, it would still take more than 10 years to completely pay off. Why the hell does this guy even have this bill to begin with?'
Alaric cleared his throat, "I admit that's a lot of money I owe, silly me, how could I have met it pile up this much." He smiled a bit.
The man smiled back even more brighter, "Things happen my lord, every one makes mistakes hahaha".
"Indeed they do."
Alaric stood up from the chair and veered around, before he could take one step, Ava grabbed him by the arm.
(Where do you think you're going Lord Alaric? You already promised to settle the bills, do not tell me you are running.)
Ava's lips never parted, neither was she using any type of telepathy, and yet, in their silence both of them could understand one another.
Alaric shifted his gaze to the side-
(Are you blind? Did you not see the long list of bills? There's no way I can pay something like that, we'll make an apology cake for the man and call it even.)
Ava tightened her grip on his shoulder -
(You are going to disappoint the Baroness.)
(She can get a cake too.)
"Urghh, having to drink warm wine feels so wrong, honestly, I might puke at this one day."
One of the customers complained, seated at the side of the pub with a wooden cup filled with red wine in his grasp.
Instantly, Alaric picked up on it.
"I heard it's because it takes time passing a different route, so the wine loses all the ice magic purities before it can get here. The wines were not all that cold, but at least they were warm." Complained another.
In that moment, Alaric felt an idea pop up in his head.
He immediately sat back down on the chair, his hand on the table as he uttered, "Hey, give me one cup of wine".
"R...ight away." The man responded, serving Alaric as a customer rather than a debtor since he now believed the young lord would pay back every penny he owed him.
It didn't take long for the wine to appear in front of Alaric.
He grabbed the wooden handle and gently slipped a bit of the wine.
_baam_
He placed it back on the table.
"Tell me, why exactly is the wine tasting like you decided to warm it to get rid of all the bacteria?" Asked Alaric, a look of judgement on his face.
"Is it that noticeable?!" The man shouted with a hush tone.
"I'm pretty sure everyone already noticed it." Alaric responded, 'Though I doubt they'd talk, no one wants to hurt the big boss of the village'.
"There's really nothing I can do about it. Getting wine to the Montclair estate is quite difficult due to the monster blocking the main path. And I lack the resources to keep the wine chill for the customers to enjoy. I've noticed a few of them have stopped asking for wines, it's quite...sad." the old man explained with a sad look.
"Why exactly don't you have resources? Isn't that the first thing you should have considered before even thinking of having the product?" Alaric pointed a bit.
"Lord Alaric, you were the one that destroyed it" Ava chimed in, looking almost disgusted.
"I did?"
The man nodded his head.
"Well it doesn't matter." Alaric leaned closer to the man, "But what if I told you I have a way to make you get chilled win, 24/7, with 0 fees from you."
"You can do that?!" The man exclaimed.