Flintlock Reinhart

That was badass.

Pippa clapped, her mouth agape. However, not everyone seemed to share her enthusiasm. A pot-bellied man stood up from his table.

“You’re a real dumbass for picking a fight with our crew.”

Others rose from their seats, blades drawn. Elora, likewise, was already on her feet. She was smiling with her battle axes ready in hand.

A man at a nearby table laughed. “Bar fight! Hahaha~”

One man charged me. I grabbed a glass bottle from behind the counter and hurled it at him. It hit him right on the head, shattering as he fell backwards.

In retaliation, another pirate snatched a bottle and hurled it at me. It barely missed as I rolled back over the counter.

The bartenders had already ducked behind the counter. They looked at me with an exhausted expression. I guess bar fights weren't rare here. Still, I didn’t want to cause any further problems for them, so I hopped back over the counter to join in on the madness.

Elora was busy fighting off six men by herself. One of the men jumped at her, which she responded to by kicking him, sending him crashing into a table. Túta was reluctantly fighting one, dodging out of the way of a strike. Pippa, on the other hand, was under the table, drinking her glass of milk. The rest of the bar had mostly resorted to smashing glass bottles over each other in a rather chaotic mess.

I didn’t have much time to process all of this, as the pot-bellied man from earlier lunged forward and swung his blade at me. The tip of his blade scratched my shoulder. I could feel the stinging of the cut.

I recoiled back. Pain flared in my shoulder, but I kept my grip on the blade.

Viola, who was still sitting on the barstool next to me, sighed.

“Mr. Gentleman, as much as I appreciate you standing up for me, I did not need help dealing with them. I’m not just some damsel in distress.”

She flicked her hand, and instantly, the entire bar ceased moving. Elora was frozen in the air with her axe inches away from the head of one of the men she was fighting.

Viola was wearing black gloves. From each fingertip, silver wires extended, wrapping tightly around the necks, arms, legs, and torsos of every person in the bar. If anyone resisted, it would cut into them. The only people other than Viola who didn’t have wires around them were Pippa, who had just finished her glass of milk and the bartenders who finally got up from behind the bar.

Without warning, a loud bang echoed across the tavern, and everyone fell silent.

“Alright, I’ve seen enough.” A male's voice rang out, shattering the silence.

A scruffy-looking man with brown hair tied back entered from the room behind the counter. He had bags under his eyes, and in his hand was a flintlock pistol.

“I’m Reinhart, the owner of this tavern. I’d like for you to take all your killing out of the bar. We don’t want the place full of bodies. It’s bad for business. Also, it’s a pain for us to clean up.”

Viola lowered her hand, and the wires that had been restraining all the others loosened. As soon as the wires loosened, one of the men lunged towards Reinhart.

“Like we’d listen to you old…”

The man froze and fell to the ground with a bullet hole in the middle of his head. I hadn’t even seen Reinhart draw his pistol. I expected the rest to respond to the death of their colleague. The pot-bellied man looked at Reinhart.

“I’m sorry for his outburst. We won’t cause you any more trouble. We’ll take our leave.”

They walked out of the bar without a fuss.

“Boss! Now we have to clean up that body.” One of the tavern workers complained, grabbing the man by the collar.

The man scratched his head.

“Just toss him out the front and mop up the remains.”

“Why do we have to do it?”

“Because I pay you.”

“Aye boss,” the workers responded through gritted teeth.

He let out another sigh and turned to me. “And you, I appreciate you setting some new rules around respect. I was also thinking of implementing some. But killing people in here is strictly forbidden.”

“Boss! You say that, but the only person who killed anyone here was you.” Another tavern worker complained.

The man looked around at the tavern and sighed. “I wish you lot hadn’t done all that. I already have financial problems. It’s a pain in the arse for me to pay to fix all this. I think I’m going to go to the back and drink some more.”

“I’m sorry.” I apologised.

He sighed.

“Viola, you should know better.”

“Sorry.” She lowered her head.

“And you kid, you said your name was Lark, right?”

“That’s correct.”

“You’re going to have a target on your back now. You should be more careful with the fights you pick. Ivan is the second most wanted man on the island.”

“Who’s the most wanted?” Elora asked, looking like she wanted to try a round with them.

The man let out an exhausted sigh.

“That would be me.”

Elora began to mumble something.

“Reinhart… Flintlock Reinhart? No, it couldn’t be… could it?”

The man perked up at her mumblings.

“Oh, so you’ve heard of me.”

“Only that you are one of the most powerful people in the world.” She began to salivate. “I would love to fight you one-on-one.”

He looked extremely tired as he put his hands in his pockets.

“Sorry, but I don’t fight people unless I need to now. Besides, if you pick fights with everyone, you’ll eventually run into some pretty dangerous people. You should be careful.”

“You don’t worry about us. We already have several enemies far worse than them,” I replied.

“I see.” He didn’t say anything else but pulled out a cigar from his pocket and lit it with a match. We sat in silence for several minutes before he spoke again. “Well, if you have a bunch of enemies, you should probably have a safe spot to sleep tonight. There are some lodgings above here. You can stay for a gold each.”

“That’s a little steep, isn’t it?” Túta tried to barter.

“One, I offer the best security in town. No one will mess with you if you are staying here. Second…” He looked around. “Someone has to pay for the damages.”

“That’s fine,” I replied. I honestly didn’t care as long as my crew had a safe spot to sleep.

“Great.” He tossed me a key with the number 211 on it. “That’s your room number. Head up those stairs to find your room.”

He used his thumb to signal over his shoulder at a stairway leading up.

“What about payment?” I asked.

“I’ll collect that when you leave, so don’t you dare think of skipping out.” He turned to Viola. “Are you still going to stick around another night?”

“I’ve got nowhere else to go,” she replied.

Without hesitation, I spoke up. “If you have nowhere else to go, how about you join us then?” I extended my hand out to her. “You can perform as much as you want on my ship.”

▪──── X ────▪

End of chapter 20