The thing about inns, you see…is that they tend to have cooks.
So, once you take into account the current residents of this place –
Poltrick Gregson, Old Man Dom, Bella Garlove, the woody girl Fera, the man with her, and Trev with his brother.
You might notice that not a single one of them fits the description or definition of a cook. Why do I think that? Probably because if one of them did fit that idea, then they might have actually gotten off their asses and into the kitchen to make some food for themselves.
Instead, I was the one who had been bullied into that place once more, as most of them gathered in the Bar and Restaurant to wait. And sure, maybe a smart person would say that I didn’t really need to bother with them, and could just leave. To that, I’d say…nice of you to be the bigger person and not be petty. I personally find myself incapable.
For lunch, I had decided upon some sort of meat. That was until I remembered that the Cold Storage was inaccessible, and cooking any sort of meat was nigh impossible until that got fixed. Once I explained that to Gregson, who had been watching every single one of my moves, he grumbled and went up to relay the information.
About five minutes after that, I heard the loud, bold voice of Old Man Dom crackling through the air like lightning.
“If you ain’t got meat, I ain’t coming down! Keep it to yourself, ye cheap bastards!”
So, that was a nice surprise, I guess. One less person to cook for!
I switched my menu to be as inclusive of as many flavor profiles as possible, with the ingredients I had. There was just something about eating only one sort of flavor in any food that made it unappetizing to me. If something was spicy, it needed to contain hints of sweetness. And if something was too savory, it needed something sour to cut through the richness.
The first thing in my view was some kind of root vegetable. It smelled like potatoes, cooked like potatoes, and even tasted like potatoes. So, as far as I was concerned, they were just weirdly shaded purple potatoes. Anyway, those went into some water to boil while I prepared some rice. That seemed to be readily available in the Pantry, so of course I was going to fill them up on it.
Potatoes and rice together were the best way to shut up a bunch of hungry people as quickly as possible.
I could make a gravy or some sort of curry, but that felt too boring, so I decided upon a light coating instead. The place did seem to have its own version of soy sauce and various other ingredients I recognized, so it wasn’t too much of a hassle to cook.
After cooking the rice, I kept it aside to cool while I crushed the potatoes into small disks. Those were then sautéed with salt, pepper, and garlic to add some flavor to the crisp-like texture. With those ready, I used the soy sauce substitute ingredient to make some vegetable fried rice with whatever looked good enough to throw in there.
That, all by itself, would probably keep them happy. The plates were ready, and so were the rice and potatoes. But I really, really couldn’t help myself. All of that fat and so many carbs on the plate…with no actual spice. It was almost a crime.
Garlic was available, and the chilis I had found before were still here, too. It would be a bit rudimentary, but it was better than nothing. I threw the green chilis into some hot oil and flash-fried them to get a flaky exterior. That ensured that, when cut, they left some crunchy bits behind naturally. Then…take the oil, chop the garlic, and then mix it all together.
Basic, but good enough. Some green chili oil to go with the rice and potatoes. This dish, as I presented it, I named – The Lazy Adventurer. For the ones who desperately needed some energy but had no energy to cook.
One look at the satisfied faces of the ones who started eating, and I finally left them alone. With one plate for myself, I retired into the Innkeeper’s Room to begin my research into this place’s conveniently missing staff.
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The Secret Room came to the rescue once more.
Not that it had been much help when it got us the key to the main door the first time around. This time, though, it did get the work done. I just had to put in some effort into figuring out how.
After quickly scarfing down the admittedly quite good lunch, I stepped into the Secret Room to see if I could find some information on the employees. To do that, though, I needed to first confirm that the eastern shelf contained data on more than just the guests of the Northflame Inn.
To do that, I did what any sane person would do. I banged on the shelf until random books fell out, picked them up, and then sat on one of the chairs to check them out. One by one, I made my way through the pages, glancing over all of the poor people whose personal information had been collected in these pages.
This would be a PR disaster if this had not been a fantasy world. Hell, maybe it was a disaster in this world as well. I had no way of knowing.
“Bingo.”
Yes, I very embarrassingly did declare a bingo the moment I found a single member of the Northflame’s staff in the books. Incospiciously listed between regular guests, it looked like their name had just been alphabetically arranged. That would be a pain in the ass, but at least I had also gathered a second bit of information while going through them.
One of the books had been empty, and it had come from the lower left side of the shelf. The binding on it, however, had been just as old as the other books. At the same time, the ink on the books that did have notes got newer as you moved to the left.
The shelf had been stocked with the book at the same time, but those books had been filled slowly over time. The writer had moved from right to left, and I was guessing top to bottom. Either way, it was time to find out.
One by one, painstakingly this time around, I narrowed down the last book which had been updated, and pulled it out.
The weathered binding might have confused anybody on first glance, but the fairly fresh ink on the inside told a different story entirely. A slightly scary story, in fact. The book had been updated very recently. The ink had not weathered at all, and some of the smudges on the paper were even just a little wet. It had been updated today.
And the entry on the first page said it all.
Poltrick Gregson, dwarf. I felt my stomach churn the moment I laid my eyes on it. Instinctively, I couldn’t help but look around as the hairs on my arm stood up, sending a chill down my spine. They were here. Whoever had been writing these was still in here, and they had access to the Secret Room.
Flipping through the pages, I found the others as well. Everyone except me had an entry. Dom. Bella. Trev. Fera. I did not check them because that felt a bit too creepy, but they were all there.
Among all of them, however, were also the two people that I had been looking for. Only two, but it still made me happy to see their names and designations.
Earnest Blest, Head Chef, and Carol Dalesia, Chief of Staff Operations.
Once I noticed their location, I ran.
I did not know if it was my impatience to get the chef out, or if just the knowing their current location filled my heart with unease. Either way, it fueled me enough to rush out of the Secret Room, and into the main Ground Floor corridor.
“Oh, hello, innkeeper!” Bella chirped. “The food was amazing!”
Past her and the rest of the people slowly walking out of the Bar and Restaurant with their full bellies, I moved up the main stairs and to the First Floor. My stomach hurt from the sudden burst of movement, but I still went straight for the spiral staircase.
On the way, I wondered if the mold in the Garden had grown just a little since the morning, or if it was just me. But since I did not have the time to look at that, I kept running. Up the stairs, to the Second Floor, and through the winding corridor that brought me to the stairs to the Third Floor. There, looking at the wall of mold staring back at me, I felt even more despair at the situation.
“Uh…hello!?” I screamed, “Can you hear me? Hello!?”
They were up there. Both of them were supposed to be up there, but so was the mold. The monsters had come from there just last night. What if they had been taken, too? Just like…like…
Old Man Dom had spoken. He had been alive. Not taken, but alive. What did taken mean, anyway? I shook my head. There was no time for that. I turned and saw Bella standing right in front of me.
“What happened? Is everything alright?”
I ignored her with a nod. She didn’t need to know. The elf had been affected enough by seeing the view outside the inn. Any more information about what was going on upstairs would only make her worse. But before any of that, I still needed to find out what had even happened to them. I needed to find a way to contact them…
Running back to where I had come from, I reached the shaft in seconds. Even with my chest heaving with the activity, and a sharp pain ripping through my abdomen, I ignored it all. Instead, pulling together the last bit of my strength, I stepped into the shaft and shouted upwards.
“Helloooooo! Is anyone up there?!”
For the longest time, silence. No voice came back. I asked once more, and yet nothing happened. They had died. There was no other way to explain what had happened. If both of them had been on the Third Floor, and that floor had been consumed by the mold, then they would have died. Killed by those mold monsters, maybe.
My heart dropped. Stepping back as my body started to give in and accept all the pain that came with an overexertion of the heart, my vision started to blur. Every muscle in my torso pulled at once, and wincing was the most I could manage.
“…yes…”
A soft voice. The softest voice possible. It made it through and down the shaft.
“…who…help…”
A second voice. A bit more audible, but still not quite there. A male one, this time.
It was them. The Head Chef and the Chief of Staff Operations were up there, even now. They had not been taken by the mold. They had survived.
But it would only be a matter of time. The questions could come afterwards. For now, I needed to figure out how to get them out of there. Not even to get a chef and get myself free, but because they were stuck up there. They couldn’t escape, even if they tried. The mold was far too rigid and strong to break through conventional means.
Conventional means.
As much as I hated it, I had no option left. The ones stuck above had no option left either.
I looked at Bella.
_____________
The Bar and Restaurant of the Northflame Inn