I am but a Bartender, Tending to the Bar

I am but a bartender, tending to the bar.

And I honestly didn’t expect it to be so entertaining.

A little over a season had passed since Brennan, the bartender at the Adventurer’s Guild, gave me a job. And what a hectic season it was. I started off cleaning dishes in the kitchen, passing the time by thinking random thoughts. But after a week, he found out I was multitasking, not that I was trying to hide it or anything. And, with a bit of begging on his part, lo and behold, I became a bartender.
Of course, making a cloud – who could barely speak and move – serve others went as one might expect: absolutely terribly for the first twenty or so days. Shattered tableware, incorrect orders, wild misunderstandings – I was basically learning everything on the job. Brennan did step in every once in a while to help, carefully observing my every move, but most of the time, he was just drinking! The only reason I wasn’t fired was because most of the patrons found me to be a clumsy but beautiful foreign woman. Why that had any impact on my job status, I would never understand.

“Hey Melora! Another old fashioned here!”

“Coming up!” Using a bit of magic, I grab the necessary ingredients from the cabinet below and whiskey off the shelf before stirring it into the cup. Any leftover waste floats its way into the trash while I finish off the drink with an orange peel and a cherry. It didn’t look good, but for a bar in a guild hall, anything tasted like ambrosia.

“Here you are,” I slid the cocktail down the table, which the man decked out in iron armor caught and chugged like there was no tomorrow. It seemed like I had to prepare another one. Regardless, it was things like this and Lisa, the receptionist, teaching me about everyday essentials in town that helped me become more human, if only barely.

The green leaves of Summer had begun to fade, replaced by the red, yellow, and orange of Autumn. The crops from the fields were reaching their peak, marking the beginning of the Harvest Festival. Then, I would need to get ready for winter, which was apparently very cold and snowy here. Lisa said she would help out, so I wasn’t too worried on that front.

Brennan mentioned that the number of patrons would increase too as most adventurers tended to avoid quests in the winter. That was normally a bad thing, but given how nothing ever happened in Vazio, it didn’t really matter. Though, that only left me with another season before my novice skills were put to the test. It wasn’t like I really needed this job, since I could always become an adventurer, but it’s grown on me.

“Melora! A martini!”

“Manhattan here!”

“Another old fashioned!”

With a snap of the fingers, the drinks made themselves as my mind drifted to all the work I had left to do today. There were way too many steps to maintain a human body, or at least pretend to. Washing off, eating, sleeping, putting on makeup – it felt like an endless battle. I wish I could skip them, but since I was rooming with Lisa, my front had to be–

Creak…

Step. Step. Step. Step.

All of a sudden, the guild went silent. It wasn’t the first time someone had passed through the double doors. In fact, it happened every few minutes. At most, the entrants received the occasional stink eye from the others sizing them up. But not this time. While their bodies froze in place, everyone kept their eyes on the floor. I was one of the only three who kept their eyes forward.

We had all heard the rumors from the forest capital about the White Tide from the Shattered Moon a little over five years ago. In fact, I was there, enjoying a feast. According to the adventurers, the cause behind the moon remained unknown, but the defense of the White Tide was infamous. While the other mercenaries and guards could barely keep the walls from falling, there was one person who, for three days and three nights, defeated hundreds of thousands of beasts pouring from the nearby dungeon. If the rest of the beasts didn’t “mysteriously” drop dead on that third day, he would have easily killed them all.

His appearance was veiled in uncertainty, not because he hid it, but because it was well known. To most people, he looked like an average person. His dark purple hair was easily mistaken for black while his choice of clothing would only elicit a raised eyebrow. However, with that weapon slung over his shoulder, he was unmistakable. Plus, I knew the man, if only for a brief moment. Not that weird woman-beast hybrid dressed in a maid’s outfit following him though.

The man surveyed the hall for a moment before our eyes met once again. He smiled, as if finding something amusing, before sauntering over. Well, that’s just great. I had no desire to meet or talk with him. After all, he’s one of the few people that could actually kill me. However, I didn’t want to abandon my job either.

Agh, whatever. Brennan’s also keeping an eye on him, so it should be fine. Probably.

Setting the chair he held on the ground, the man took a seat, motioning for the woman-beast to do so as well. “Absinthe, if you wouldn’t mind. And a… gin? Bourbon? Whiskey?”

“Whatever works,” the woman answered emotionlessly.

“Vodka then.” Welp, wasn’t he a strange person. Or was it sarcastic? One of the two. I quietly nodded before grabbing the drinks off the shelf and pouring them, making sure not to use any mana.

After taking a sip of his drink, the man pushed a coin towards me. “I was hoping you could answer a question of mine.” From what I understood, people sometimes paid bartenders for information. Though, there were two problems with that. First, I had no idea what he wanted to know. Second, I hadn’t seen this type of coin before. It looked similar to a silver, but it had a different sheen to it.

“Brennan?”

“...it’s platinum. A large one at that,” he scowled. If I recall, that could easily buy out this entire town. What in the world did he want to know?

“Your question then?”

“Ah right. You see, I’m here due to a quest to investigate the wasteland. You see…” I could feel a chill crawl down my spine. “...apparently, there were reports of water found there.”

…crap.