The five adventurers entered the tavern and were seated at a rickety wooden table where they could hardly fit.
Unlike the warm, homely feel of Alibert’s tavern, this place was far from comfortable.
The place was dark and dank, with an air that stunk of cheap beer and stale tobacco, and the floor was blackened and grimy due to years of neglect.
They even saw a rat scurry shamelessly through the floor and grab a piece of moldy bread from the floor before disappearing into a hole.
Despite it all, having a roof over their heads, no matter how leaky, beat spending the night out in the open.
The group didn’t say a single word for a while, still processing what just happened.
Frustrations were thick and Yugo, who was usually bright with hope, just stared aimlessly at the ceiling.
His expectations were let down by a grim reality.
The map, the key to finding his true family, was now so close yet so far.
All because of Ruel and his long-lost grudges he didn’t know or care about.
It was really not a good day.
The silence finally broke when a bored-looking waiter approached the table.
“Good afternoon.
What can I get you?”
Before anyone could react, Ruel quickly raised his hand and answered the waiter.
“One beer for me, please, and a juice for all the others.”
“Hey,” Percedal protested, “in case you haven’t noticed, I am old enough to drink.”
“Oh yeah?” Ruel raised an eyebrow.
“Tell me then, Dally, how old are you?”
The Iop went blank and immediately started counting on his fingers, but before long he lost track and had to start again.
After a few futile attempts, he looked back with a dumbfounded look on his face.
“Uhhh…
more than five, for sure.”
Eva leaned toward Amalia, barely concealing a laugh.
Even Ruel cracked a mocking smile before replying in a theatrically serious voice.
“Well, case closed.
As the responsible adult here, I declare it would be reckless to allow a possible minor to drink alcohol.
If you want one that badly, you’ll have to pay for it yourself.”
Percedal crossed his arms.
If only master had taught me to count, he thought, that grumpy old man wouldn’t treat me like a kid.
The drinks arrived shortly after.
A foamy mug for Ruel and four glasses of watered-down juice that didn’t even try to look fresh.
Even with refreshments, the group still remained downcast.
Even as Ruel tried to strike up a conversation about any topic, be it the weather, old adventures, the types of wood used in run-down taverns, every single one of his attempts fell flat.
Yugo didn’t say a word.
Instead, his gaze wandered around the place until he spotted a billboard where dozens of tattered papers and bounty posters hung from rusty nails.
Most showed the faces of bandits, swindlers, and other small-time crooks.
One showed, to his utter lack of surprise, Ruel’s face alongside a note that read: “Wanted for multiple unpaid debts.
Symbolic reward.” Yugo rolled his eyes.
Not exactly shocking.
But when his gaze shifted to the next poster…
something sparked inside him.
His eyes widened and not even the dim light could disguise the flash on his face.
An idea had come to his mind.
“Hey,” Yugo shouted.
“I’ve got an idea for how to get the map!”
The boy’s loud voice immediately caught the group’s attention along with the stares of many of the tavern’s patrons.
Before he could say it out loud, Ruel placed a hand on his shoulder and signaled him to lower his voice.
“Lower your voice, kid,” the old Enutrof whispered as he eyed their surroundings.
“We don’t want to attract attention in a place like this.
Especially considering we have a crazy evil wizard on our trail.”
Yugo nodded and, once the other patrons lost interest in them, he pointed at one of the posters behind the bar.
“Check out that poster.”
Once the group had a closer look, they saw that the poster featured a sinister-looking figure wearing a mask that resembled a crow.
They didn’t even need to read the name to figure out it was the infamous Black Crow, that notorious bandit the guard at the gate had told them all about.
“They’re offering good money for whoever captures that bandit,” Yugo continued full of excitement.
“We’re adventurers, right?
And we’re broke.
We could catch him, claim the reward, buy our map…
and also help out the town along the way.
That way, everyone can win.
Except the Black Crow, of course.
But he’s a bad guy, so it doesn’t matter.”
Percedal was first to react.
The knight immediately straightened up and his eyes blazing with determination as if he were already fighting the bandit.
“I like the way you think, kid.
Count me in!
Let’s bring that evildoer to justice and save the town!
”
Once Ruel saw the reward, his expression changed to a mix of surprise and barely concealed greed.
“Twenty thousand kamas?” he whispered in surprise as he rubbed his eyes.
“I have to be dreaming… No, it’s real!” He looked at Yugo with a smile on his face and ruffled his hair.
“You’ve got a good head for business, kid.”
“Call it… adventurer’s instinct,” Yugo replied, his chest puffing with pride.
The table came to life once more.
The awkward silence was replaced by a storm of ideas on how to find and defeat the bandit.
Strategies, theories and plans chaotically tumbled over each other as they tried to figure out their next move.
For the first time in hours, they felt in control of their own destiny.
Now, they had a new goal to fulfill.
There was still one person at the table who did not share that enthusiasm.
Eva stayed silent, her eyes scanning the tavern like a hawk.
And, from her experience, she knew better than to ignore her instincts.
And then, she saw him.
A man wearing a dark hood was sitting alone at a nearby table, smoking a cigar that spread dense, bitter smoke around him.
While she couldn’t see his eyes, she could tell he was watching their every move.
Eva’s body tensed and her hand instinctively went to her bow, but she quickly stopped herself before attacking.
She couldn’t act without proof.
She needed to get closer and find out more about this stranger.
“Excuse me,” she said abruptly and stood up, her face an attempt at a smile that seemed too forced.
“I’m going to…
the bathroom for a second.
I’ll be back in a bit.”
Her tone tried to sound relaxed, but her rigid posture told the opposite story.
Amalia, who’d known her for years, immediately felt suspicious at her behavior.
While she said nothing, her message couldn’t be clearer.
I know you’re hiding something.
Eva moved away from the table slowly but firmly, trying her best to seem normal, and pretending to head toward the back of the room.
As she walked, she took a slight detour and approached the hooded man, breathing in the rank cigar smoke.
The stranger didn’t react, seeming oblivious to what was going on around him… or far too aware.
And then, when she got too close, the trap was sprung.
Eva didn’t even have time to react.
In a blink, she felt a kick at her leg and fell on the tavern floor.
The minute she turned around, she saw that the hooded stranger was staring at her right in the eye.
An icy chill ran down her spine when she saw his face.
A ghost from her past had returned.
“Are you alright, young lady?” the man asked in a smooth voice as he extended his hand with unsettling courtesy.
“I’m surprised someone with your reflexes would trip like that.”
Eva didn’t waste a second.
She immediately drew her bow and aimed an enchanted arrow straight at his face, her lips twisting with barely contained rage.
“What the hell are you doing here?
Do you have no shame after everything you did?”
The man didn’t even flinch.
Slowly and steadily, he drew a pistol and aimed it at her face.
“I wouldn’t do that, Evie,” he warned in a soft, mocking tone.
“It’s been so many years since we last met, and this is how you greet me?
A ‘hello’ or ‘how are you doing?’ would be proper etiquette.”
After speaking, he brought the cigar to his lips and took a deep drag, exhaling smoke without a care in the world.
Every move he made dripped with confidence as if he had total control of the situation.
And, the more he did that, the angrier he made Eva.
“Don’t you ever call me that…” she spat.
“Remi.”
The name made the hooded figure go still.
After a moment of silence, the stranger pulled back his hood and revealed his face.
Eva held her breath in shock.
There he was.
The face she hated so much.
Light blue skin.
Pointed ears.
Black, calculating eyes.
He now wore a black face-mask and had a goatee on his chin, but he was still the Sram she remembered from all those years ago.
Suddenly, Remi’s tone shifted and began to sound surprisingly warm.
“I think we got off on the wrong foot, you know?” he said as he made his pistol spin in his hand.
“How about we lower our weapons and talk like adults?”
Eva didn’t drop her guard, but this wasn’t the right place or time to start a fight.
Without taking her eyes off Remi, she picked herself up and took a few steps back, her bow still ready to fire.
“You know perfectly well what happened between us,” she replied in a voice steeped in bitterness.
“I’ll ask again.
What are you doing here?”
Remi raised his hands with an innocent gesture.
“Just business matters,” he said.
“I have a bounty to collect and this town might give me the leads I’m looking for.”
“If you’re thinking about the Black Crow, forget it,” Eva said firmly.
“He’s mine.”
The Sram shrugged.
“You can try to get him, but don’t blame me if I catch him first.”
He took a step toward her.
Then another.
Eva slowly backed away bow in hand until her back hit the wall.
“Evie, Evie, Evie…” he whispered in a condescending tone.
“Why do you have to be so aggressive?”
“You used me!” she screamed, her cracking voice full of rage and pain.
“I really believed all your promises, you know?
I wanted to leave that miserable place and go off to see the world with you.
And what did you do?
You used me as a means to steal my family and left me behind to deal with the consequences.
You’re nothing but a rat!
A slimy, thieving, lying and filthy rat!”
That final scream didn’t go unnoticed.
In an instant, Percedal rose to his feet and the moment he saw Eva was danger, he unsheathed Rubilax and made his blade ignite with flames.
“Get away from her, you fiend!” he roared.
“I don’t know what you’re up to, but if you so much as touch a hair on her head, I will make you pay with your life!”
Remi slowly turned his head toward the Iop and, after having a good look at him, he let out a mocking laugh.
I’m shaking in my boots,” he replied with dripping sarcasm.
“Is this your new boyfriend, Evie?
Wow, I can’t believe your standards have fallen so much.”
Eva, blind with fury, ran at Remi and tried to slap him in the face.
Unfortunately, the bounty hunter was much faster.
In an instant, he caught her wrist mid-air, mere inches from his face.
“Too slow,” he whispered.
She tried to struggle, but his grip was hard as iron.
“Why do you make me do this?”
“Let go of me, you pig!” Eva spat.
“Enough!” Percedal raised his sword, ready to attack.
“Let her go or I swear I’ll stick my sword down that filthy mouth of yours.”
A tense silence filled the tavern as both men stared at each other straight in the eye, neither ready to budge.
After a few seconds that stretched out forever, Remi, for the first time, hesitated.
He let Eva go.
The Cra immediately dashed towards Percedal’s side almost by instinct, hoping deep down she could count on his protection.
The Sram, on the other hand, just smoothed the wrinkles from his black leather jacket as if the whole thing had been nothing more than an awkward conversation.
“I have no intention of fighting you,” he said.
“I only ask one thing.
Don’t get in my way.
It would be a shame if we ended up as enemies.”
After these words, he turned around and began to calmly walk away.
“See you around, Evie.”
“Go with Rushu, scum,” Eva fired back.
As quietly as he arrived, Remi vanished among the tables as if he’d never been there.
But Eva knew he was still close.
She could feel it.
His presence was like a splinter lodged in her skin, impossible to ignore and bothering her at every step.
Ruel scratched his beard, watching the whole spectacle with the faintest idea of what was going on.
Finally, when the Sram disappeared, he leaned toward Eva in the hopes of getting some clarity.
“So…” he said in a low but firm voice.
“Is somebody going to tell me what just happened?”
Percedal, as usual, was first to break the silence.
“A black-clad rogue was harassing Eva,” he announced in a heroic tone.
“But in an act of noble valor, I pulled out my blade and scared off that rascal, who fled without even putting up a fight.”
“Yeah, it was mostly like that,” Eva said, letting out a sigh of relief.
For once, her voice seemed surprisingly grateful.
“I hadn’t mentioned this before, but…
thanks, Dally.”
“Don’t mention it, fair lady,” Percedal replied with an exaggerated bow.
“A true knight is always ready to defend those in need from the forces of evil.”
For an instant, fleeting as a breath, Eva’s face seemed to blush.
He might be a fool and sometimes unbearable, but he showed up exactly when she needed him and saved her from a situation she never wanted to relive.
Even though it was hard to admit, in this moment she felt genuinely grateful.
With all his flaws, he was a genuinely good person.
Ruel kept watching her closely, still watching the tension that lingered in her eyes.
“I have a feeling,” he said, “that scoundrel wasn’t just some random stranger.
If we’re going to cross paths with him again, it would be useful for you to share what you know about him.”
“If we’re lucky, we’ll never see him again,” she replied after a few seconds, unable to hide the shame in her voice.
“The only thing you need to know is this.
Never, ever trust a word he says.
He’s nothing more than a thief and a liar.”
Ruel nodded slowly.
While he sensed there was more beneath the surface, he knew it would likely touch on elements of Eva’s past she would not want to talk about.
And, although he didn’t like loose ends, he decided to respect her wishes…
for now.
“Understood.
Thanks for the heads-up.”
The group headed back toward the table in silence.
Amalia, however, hung back.
She didn’t need a word to know her friend needed something more than space.
The Sadida princess drew close and, without a word, gave Eva a firm and warm hug and whispered in her ear.
“Don’t tell me…
it was him, wasn’t it?”
Eva closed her eyes.
She had lost any will to pretend.
“Unfortunately, yes.”
Amalia swallowed hard and tightened her grip on Eva’s shoulders.
“What awful luck…
I just want you to know one thing,” her voice became full of encouragement.
“This time, you’re not alone.”
Eva didn’t respond with words.
She just nodded, and a thin smile crossed her face.
Now, at least, she had good friends to count on and an important mission to fulfill.
Nevertheless, she knew that, someday or somewhere, they would cross paths once more.
And, when that happened, all she could hope for is to be strong enough to not fall for his lies once more.
For her sake… and theirs.
And now, to begin the new arc, a seemingly normal mission becomes a challenging one once the pasts of multiple characters catch up with them.
As you’ve seen, I’ve greatly expanded on the pasts of both Ruel and Eva and introduced certain characters much earlier, so I’m interested to hear your opinions about these changes and what they might mean for the arc.
While it’s inspired initially on the Black Crow episode, it will have more complex battles, character development and challenges that push the group’s bonds to the brink, so stay tuned.
See you next chapter!