Ch#91
* * *
Tie was playing tag in the yard of a gingerbread house towering high into the sky.
"Tomato! Now you're it!"
Shouting that, she dashed to the front porch, and the talking tomato began counting.
Tie hurriedly hid in the bushes and held her breath.
Peeking out, an ecstatic sight unfolded all around her.
A talking train locomotive, a unicorn flying through the sky wearing cotton candy earrings.
"Thre-ee, four, five……."
As she listened to the tomato's voice, thinking how nice it would be if time stopped like this.
"……Hey. Tie?"
A distant voice came from somewhere.
Tie furrowed her brow.
"Tie, wake up."
Basto?
The moment she thought that, she felt herself being sucked in, and her eyelids grew heavy.
"Uuung……."
Tie pouted her lips and opened her eyes.
Basto was gently rocking Tie, who was piggybacked on his back with a soft touch.
"We're almost there, so sleep at the inn."
"Where is this……?"
Asking in a half-asleep daze, Raoul, standing beside them, answered.
"It's a place called Kaldbain-Ridge."
There was truly a huge banner fluttering that read <Welcome to Kaldbain-Ridge!> where Raoul pointed.
"It's the only village around suitable for staying, so. Are you feeling better?"
Tie wobbily raised one hand to touch her forehead.
It had been burning hot until in the carriage, but now Tie's forehead wasn't particularly hot.
The uncontrollable coughing had subsided too.
Tie nodded vigorously.
"Neeeng. All better now."
Raoul smiled as if relieved.
At that moment, Enzo carefully draped a blanket over Tie's back and said.
"We decided to rest here for a few days. Veil and Nordics are looking for an inn right now."
Turning her gaze forward again.
Sure enough, two people could be seen peering around from afar.
Having spotted something, Veil spoke first.
"Old man, isn't that it? Meren's House. Looks like an inn name just from a glance?"
"Look at the small letters too. It says general store."
"……You're right."
Veil awkwardly turned his head away with a bored expression.
A wide circular plaza.
Worn buildings encircling it.
However, no inn signage was visible among the faded signs.
"Grocery store seems to be over there. What's that, a restaurant? Why's the butcher next to it got an empty display?"
Moreover, the village grew stranger the more they looked.
"Fruit shop too."
Nordics muttered while looking at the fruit shop with an equally empty display.
Lights-out tailor's shop. Grocery store without goods.
Veil narrowed his brow.
"……Doesn't seem like no one's inside."
Clear signs of people could be felt in some buildings.
"Why act like they're not there when they are? The banner welcomes travelers."
With a displeased expression, he reached for the weapon at his waist in case of trouble.
"Old man, over there."
Basto, standing behind, called Nordics.
Turning his head, a small building at the plaza entrance they'd overlooked came into view.
<Inn>
Veil exchanged glances with Nordics and headed there first.
It looked shabby, but they planned to check inside anyway.
However, inside the inn they soon entered.
Everyone couldn't help but frown.
"……What the hell is this?"
A counter half-turned to sawdust as if gnawed by rats.
Ceiling webbed with spider silk, walls reeking of mold.
The inn was small and shabby beyond belief, more like a long-abandoned shed.
Veil, unable to continue, muttered.
"……This won't do. We've got a sick kid."
As everyone turned to leave the inn again.
"This place only."
Someone quietly appeared from the kitchen connected to the counter.
At the kitchen entrance stood a hunched, emaciated old woman in a gray dress.
Basto hesitated at her eerie, dark atmosphere and asked.
"……What do you mean only."
"Only inn in Kaldbain-Ridge is ours."
The members exchanged lost glances.
Basto pondered briefly before speaking again.
"Then what's the lodging rate."
If it was the only inn in the village, better to stay even if facilities were rundown.
'Astie's sick.'
Tie had already spent the past two days in the carriage.
Fine if healthy, but didn't want to sleep outside again with the child still recovering from a cold.
The members, who had barely slept in shifts in the luggage compartment since leaving the Weapon District, were an issue too.
"100 gold."
But at the amount soon quoted, Basto rarely gaped.
"100 gold?"
"Yes."
"So expensiiive……."
Tie, piggybacked behind, soon whined.
100 gold was 1 million won.
Even Tie, unaware of local prices, knew it was an enormous sum.
"Not even the Capital, why so expensive?"
Basto first exchanged glances with the members.
Then Nordics stepped forward.
"What nonsense is that price?"
He rarely showed a slightly angry expression.
"Underestimating us travelers? There's a limit to price gouging."
At Nordics's protest, the innkeeper's cloudy eyes slowly moved.
She scanned the members with meaningful eyes before speaking again.
"50 gold."
Raoul coughed, choking.
The price halved right at the start of haggling.
It openly proved the old woman had tried to overcharge Agavert.
'No. Maybe not even hiding it.'
Angry Basto lowered his voice.
"You picked the wrong opponents."
He unhesitatingly stared at the members behind.
"Let's go. No thought of paying that much to stay here."
"30 gold."
But soon the innkeeper lowered the price again as if waiting.
She stared piercingly at the members with an unchanging face.
As Basto sighed in exasperation and cold silence filled the inn.
"20 gold."
Quiet Veil tossed out casually.
The old woman's cloudy eyes turned to Veil.
Veil smiled nonchalantly.
"What, 20 gold too much?"
A slight waver crossed the unmoving old woman's face.
Veil leisurely pulled another coin from his pocket.
"Then how about 30 gold for two rooms? If not, we're out."
This time the old woman's face openly crumpled.
But Veil just added leisurely.
"100 gold for this crumbling dump. I know the rates."
"……."
"No? Fine. Slept on dirt floors fine before, one night easy."
Deep silence descended on the inn again.
As Veil shrugged at the wordless old woman.
Just before he turned.
The innkeeper let out a short groan and finally spoke in a barely audible voice.
"……Rooms on the second floor."
* * *
"Wowww!"
No sooner had the door opened than Tie dashed to the bed.
After long carriage life, beds always became missed like this.
"Pretty flowery blanket—"
Of course, Basto snatched Tie up mid-air just before landing on the bed.
Basto sighed, sat Tie on a chair, and opened the window.
Then shook the blanket on the bed with all his might.
Tie, watching curiously, gaped.
"Wow, why are clouds coming out of the blanket……?"
