32. Village

The village was nameless on the map. According to the map, it was located close to Drittio’s sidegates. It was in a completely different direction compared to the town’s main gates, where Claudia was originally supposed to go. Thus Waldina wasn’t afraid of running into their pursuers, though she used fakenames for each of them. After all, better safe than sorry. She was especially worried about the group of adventurers, Jaspis, they met days prior.

The village was a small farming village, surrounded by large fields of corps There were approximately twenty buildings, where people actually lived in and other buildings about ten. The villagers were about to wrap up their fieldwork when Waldina and company got there.

“Good evening, travelers,” one gentleman, dressed in working clothes, called out to Waldina and Diaz. Kiandra was once again hiding behind Waldina’s hair.

“Good evening, may I ask, if you have any quarters we could stay for the night?” Waldina went straight to point and dismounted from her horse.

“I suppose that works. Though I have to inquire as to what a ninja and a countryboy are doing in our small village?" The man didn’t bother hiding his curiosity and Waldina had to think about her reply for a bit.

“David wanted to see the world outside his village. And I was passing through there, on my journey to where the wind leads. So he joined me on my travels,” Waldina explained with a natural smile on her lips. The man frowned, not quite buying the story: “A ninja journeying through the world? Never heard of that one. Did you get bored of your ninja village or what?” The words were a bit harsh, but the man didn’t emit hostility. Perhaps he simply didn’t understand Waldina’s reasoning.

“That happens,” she laughed dryly. “So where can I leave our horses for the night?”

The man signaled them to follow him as he walked towards a small stable. As they walked past other villagers stopped to see the group with interest. Waldina gave them small polite smiles, though she didn’t give them more attention. The villagers were a curious bunch but by no means malicious towards them. Knowing that she relaxed her shoulders.

“Our guest stable is available for the night. It costs five bronze coins per horse,” the man explained after reaching the stable. Behind the stable’s corner stepped a young man, working the stables, who’d heard them talking. He greeted them politely, took the money Waldina gave him and took the horses to the stable. Before that Waldina grabbed everything valuable on the horses’, just in case.

“We don’t have a proper hotel here but Maaret’s tavern has a couple of rooms for the tired ones,” the man continued introducing the basics of the village for them, whilst pointing to the other side of the village.

“Thank you,” Waldina thanked him before heading towards the tavern. Claudia walked right beside her with relaxed steps. Neither of them said anything.

Soon they could spot a sign for Maaret’s tavern. In front of it was a small catering area for those wanting to enjoy the fresh air with drinks and food. There were in fact a couple of villagers resting after a long work day. Their curious gazes locked onto the visitors right away. It was clear that the village didn’t receive many visitors. And no wonder, as it was located so close to Drittio. Most travelers would head there instead of staying in a small village.

The tavern had mostly wooden furniture, such as roundtables and chairs around them. Opposite the door there was a long counter resembling a bar table. Behind the counter stood a sturdy-looking woman. She was wearing a red dress and a white apron. She smiled cheerfully.

“Welcome to Maaret’s tavern,” the woman called out with a strong voice as she noticed Waldina and Claudia.

“Hi,” Waldina began after getting closer to the counter. “I heard you could possibly offer a place to sleep. Is that correct?”

“Come on in then,” the woman, Maaret, swung her hand once, invitingly, asking them to follow her. Maaret, wearing a red dress, led them to the back of the building, from a door next to the counter. There they walked along a narrow corridor before reaching two doors. She opened one of them and asked their opinion of it. In the middle of it there was an old bed and at the side a wooden chair. There was nothing else in the room, as it would have become too packed otherwise.

“The other room is similar. Do you take it?” Maaret chattered with a smiley tone.

“This is good,” Waldina nodded, ignoring Claudia’s dissatisfaction. “I’d like to pay now, if possible. How much?”

“Your companion doesn’t seem too pleased about this,” Maaret interrupted, pointing at Claudia’s expression. Waldina glanced at Claudia, rolled her eyes before turning back to Maaret: “He’ll be more than happy with it. He’s used to sleeping in all sorts of places during our travels so compared to that this is luxury.”

“Well then. It’s twelve bronze coins per person,” Maaret nodded, returning to business mode. Waldina gave her the coins and thanked her luck that the money she received from Lidia had tons of bronze and silver coins. Her bracelet only gave her golden ones and it could cause some confusion in situations like these.

“Do enjoy your dinner at my tavern. We’ve got alcohol and delicious food. My daughter cooks here nowadays,” Maaret winked at them at the end of her words and Waldina couldn’t help but laugh. Maaret was exactly the sort of easygoing smiley tavern owner she had seen through fiction. Though, she still hadn’t quite made up her mind whether this was more fiction or reality.

The trio went to their rooms quickly. Then they head towards the tavern’s bathing section. In the middle of the room was a hole that served as a floor drain. At the edge were a few empty buckets and a larger barrel. The barrels were full of water, but the trio did not use it. Kiandra’s water magic was more than enough for them so they didn’t want to waste the tavern’s precious water. Waldina wasn’t sure how good the water situation was in the village, but she didn’t see a reason to not play it safe.

In the world of Adventurous Online, soap was a luxury good. Small towns didn’t offer it, if occasional traveling merchants didn’t happen to sell it. Thus showering happened with only water. Waldina was more than capable of living with this fact but she was really looking forward to buying sopa. Her hair was usually so much softer after washing it with soap. Besides she hadn’t had such long hair for years now so she really wanted to take good care of it.

The water Kiandra cast was the purest of pure form of water, clean of any dirt. It helped a little bit with the lack of soap. Waldina wanted to believe that this kind of water would take good care of her long hair. Taking care of her hair was almost like taking care of her identity as a ninja. As Cyril. After all this appearance was so different to her past looks that it almost worked as a basis for roleplaying. It made her braver. At least she wanted to believe so.

Claudia stepped to the shower room as her actual self, and not in her disguise. Her disguise artefact was still hanging on her neck but it just wasn’t activated. Waldina let her gaze focus on Claudia’s silky light skin for a moment. The lady’s body really showed she’d been living the life of a noble: she didn’t have many scratches or calluses that came from working nor had her skin seen much sun. It was actually pretty much of a miracle how she hadn’t yet gotten sunburnt during their journey. Perhaps the artefact gave her more protection than initially thought.

“Diaz…” Waldina began with a scolding tone in her voice. Claudia blushed but shook her head in protest. Waldina let out a sigh.

“In a couple of weeks you won’t have other choices,” Waldina reminded her, being extra careful not to say anything outsiders could use against them. You never know when someone’s listening, after all, and who they’d blabber about it.

“...” Claudia reached for her necklace and took a look at it, all shy. Then she gave up and turned into Diaz.

“Clothes as well,” Waldina noted as Claudia had turned to a fully clothed version of Diaz.

“Do I have to?” Claudia began but Kiandra had already flown to her and was dragging the shirt off of her. Shyly and forced by Kiandra, Claudia pulled off her clothes and walked over to the water basin. Her gaze was tightly fixed in anything that wasn’t her - his - naked body. Waldina felt sympathetic to her friend yet she didn’t want to offer her the easy way out. After all, she herself had decided to get disguised as a man and not as another woman.

“You’ll get used to it,” Waldina stated after finishing cleaning her hair. Claudia’s eyes were now closed as she was washing her body - that of Diaz’s. She was about to die from embarrassment, but finally she reached a decent result and proceeded to quickly dry herself.

Kiandra also washed their clothes while they bathed. She was able to dry them as well, by draining the water out of them. Thus they were now freshly cleaned and ready for use. After they changed clothes Waldina patted Claudia’s shoulder partly to cheer her up, partly to encourage her.

“You did well,” Waldina praised as they walked towards the tavern’s main space.

The tavern was now full of people. The trio managed to find an empty table around the center of the tavern. The surrounding tables were all full of people who turned to look at them with interest in their eyes. Waldina did her best to avoid all the interested gazes as they made her a tad bit uncomfortable.

They ordered some dinner. Kiandra stayed hidden most of the time behind Waldina’s hair. From time to time one of the villagers would come up to them and chat about all sorts of things, out of curiosity of course. Waldina participated in the conversation in a polite manner while asking about the current events around here. She was mainly interested in hearing whether the earl of Cliffertown had been by here. Though she couldn’t just go and ask that outloud, as she didn’t want to attract any unwanted attention to herself and her companions.

“It’s so rare to see this many travelers around these areas. Most of them just use the main road and don’t bother with these small villages,” one of the villager men thought out loud, holding a large beer in his hand. The words instantly catched Waldina’s interest.

“Is that so? When was the last time you got visitors?” she inquired though managing to keep her curious voice steady and neutral.

“I think it was just earlier this week,” another villager stated taking part in the conversation. For a while the villagers chattered slightly arguing about when they last had had visitors in the village. Waldina frowned though otherwise her expression remained neural. She had a hunch, the visitors might have been the ones looking for Claudia.

“I think they called themselves Jaspis or something,” one of the villager ladies said. “Though they were in a rush and didn’t stay the night here.”

“Oh, were they just traveling through then?” Waldina pretended to be surprised though she could already imagine the reason why. Jaspis had been in a hurry when they met, after all.

“Yes. You know, they were completing a certain quest, as adventurers always do,” the man who spoke first laughed out loud and others followed with agreement. At least Waldina was now certain she’d have to be careful for Jaspis in all their future stops. They were clearly checking the roads most people didn’t use meaning their paths could surely collide yet again.

After the dinner Waldina, Claudia and Kiandra went back to their rooms. Maaret had reserved two rooms for them, though Waldina managed to convince Claudia to join them in her and Kiandra’s room. Waldina wasn't able to explain the reasons behind her actions, but she just had a bad feeling, call it intuition or whatever. She didn’t dare leave Claudia out of her sight.

“Waldina, what do you think, are we safe?” Kiandra began with the quietest of voices. Waldina shook her head tightly.

“The villagers themselves are kind and not hostile but… I’ve got a bad feeling of something,” Waldina replied with a voice nearly as quiet as the fairy’s. Claudia’s expression was full of worry and fear.

“Should we leave someone for night guard duty, all throughout the night?” Kiandra suggested whilst hiding her yawn. “As in taking turns staying up.” She added glancing meaningfully at Waldina. The ninja needed sleep but would surely sacrifice it for the others. That much Kiandra knew for sure.

“That could be for the best,” Waldina nodded and tried to signal to Kiandra she’d gotten the message loud and clear.

“I could start,” Claudia whispered and sat down at the wooden bench. After a moment’s arguing Waldina and Kiandra went to sleep.