After a night of ‘sleep’ that was actually more a reflexion about how to better use his powers, Kyle opened the inn chamber’s windows that doubled as shutters and rubbed his chin. He had stayed to long in the same position, which made his lower face a redder shade than the rest of his skin.
He climbed down the stairs and went to the innkeeper to ask for some light breakfast. The pentacle that held him prisoner for twelve whole years prevented him from needing sleep, eat nor drink but Kyle enjoyed eating sometimes and he had to keep the appearances. In fact, only the monsters, beasts dedicated to destroy all humanoid civilization were normally exempted from these lowly needs.
A new light, one of appreciation was shining in the eyes of Ellie. He liked the way the young man was looking bored of everything while, in fact, he paid attention to every event that happened around him. The innkeeper took his order, two boiled eggs with bacon, before going to the inn’s kitchen to ask the cooker to prepare the plate. Incidentally, the chef was a strong woman in her mid 30s, and was Ellie’s wife. The inn’s poster girl was also their sole and cherished daughter and the three of them rand this tavern since a few years and the business has always been flourishing.
Ellie spoke to his wife. “Remember the costumer from yesterday that paid for seven nights dear?” His wife nodded, her red hair swaying gently in the process. “Can you prepare him a plate with two boiled eggs and bacon?”
“Of course. But, you seem a bit different when talking to him, is he special?”
“Remember the days we were adventuring, when you were covering me with your mighty magic while I was fighting in the frontline? Since then, nobody showed more strength in his hand than me while we shook hands. Well, he squeezed my hand just enough to make me understand that he wasn’t the kind to let himself being trampled on.” Feeling that there was something more, his wife stared silently at him. “What makes me feel that he is special isn’t just his great grip. He isn’t boisterous like most of those somewhat strong adventurers. It’s getting rarer and rarer these times.”
“I see, well I will take extra care while cooking his breakfast.”
“Thank you.” He smiled before going back to the bar, he had customers to attend.
After Kyle finished eating the surprisingly good food that Ellie served him, he promptly left the inn. Yukina and himself had precise plans for today. More precisely, they were going out looking out for clues about where was the black market. They both knew it was going to be a difficult task but they had to do it. After all, the black market wasn’t black for nothing.
It was now around 9 am and the streets were busy, the air hot and the citizens busy. It looked like the actual fashion inclined toward flashy colours and frills, waking his rather stark attire stick out like a sore thumb. He wore his usual mantle that hid his torso and his arms and large pants reinforced with something that looked like dark steel. His scared face made more than one child admirative and an equal number of mothers anxious.
Kyle was straining his senses and Yukina her mind, trying to catch any potentially interesting chat or suspicious demeanor. But all they saw was families negotiating with merchants, children playing hide and seek and running through the streets and guards dutifully patrolling the clean streets.
They wandered around until the bell announcing midday rang two times then came back to the inn. Kyle took again a light lunch while chatting a bit with the innkeeper and his daughter. Since most of the customers were adventurers, the noon was rather calm, which allowed them to chit-chat with the few customers present.
Kyle, and indirectly Yukina, learnt a few things concerning the town. The reason why everyone was wearing fancy clothes was in anticipation of the soon to come summer festival. It also explained the rather lighthearted mood that was hanging in the streets.
After this fairly enjoyable meal, Ellie and his daughter saw Kyle out. Once the later left the inn, she opened her mouth, perplexed. “Daddy, don’t you think too that Kyle-san is rather strange?”
Her father had to agree with her and, while he was going to answer his daughter, his wife got out of the kitchen and butted in the conversation. “Indeed, he is as ignorant as a child but has the imposing aura of someone that have seen much.”
“Well, we aren’t really in place to put our nose in his personal affairs.”
“You say that but, in fact, you are the most interested in him my dear.” His wife teased him.
“Is that true daddy?”
“I think he is a strong-willed man. Much more than the majority of the people I know. And I respect him for that. Willpower doesn’t come freely and the more you have, the more you had endured to get it.”
They resumed their work, wiping lightly the now empty seats of their pride, the warm and welcoming Sleeping Giant, not noticing the menacing stares.
“Sigh, I feel like we are wasting our time. Right?” Yukina was well forced to recognize that their research results were as empty as it was possible. If they had written what they found on a sheet of paper, the sheet would be even whiter now than before they would have started.
This afternoon, they tried to look at the adventurers guild, hoping to find out some interesting piece of information. But all for naught. As the guard from yesterday said, Kyle’s fame preceded him in his journey and every adventurer tensed up with a mix of admiration and anxiety when he came in the exceptionally large building. In the end, they wasted their afternoon and Kyle lost some points in his sanity gauge, driving dangerously near his breakpoint.
Feeling that it was time to leave, Yukina gave the signal and Kyle gladly followed her proposition.
He walked quickly through the few streets that separated his inn from the adventurers guild. Seeing his dark mood, the passersby stepped aside from his path, they felt that it wasn’t the time to bother with politeness. Even the children that looked attracted to the cool side of Kyle before kept hiding behind their parents or stopped playing whatever game they were doing.
When he was walking down the last street before the Sleeping Giant, his acute hearing perceived small strangled cries of distress coming from his sleeping place. Yukina, having caught up on the situation, urged Kyle to speed up, what he did gladly.
The inn’s door burst open when Kyle kicked it without a care, surprising a bunch of unwanted people.
A dozen of men were pinning down a raging Ellie while his wife was unconscious in the arms on an eleventh guy. Their daughter was squirming on the ground, pinned similarly as his father by three guys. It was her screams that alerted Kyle and Yukina.
Noticing the intruder, the gang turned their heads toward him like a single being. One guy that was standing in the middle of the room full of wreckages of chairs and tables stepped out of his buddies.
“Well, look what we got th…”
A clawed dark hand, as hard as steel, cut his speech by impacting him in the nose. The later broke, soon followed by an even more sinister sound coming from his skull.
Standing by the now empty frame, a figure fuming with anger was slowly stretching a black hand covered in blood toward the bunch of stunned thiefs.
