Chapter 15:

A Good Side Tracking

No Grace For Beasts

“An angel came down and told me-” Sato imitated, throwing open a curtain, “-Sato, hero of this world, I will fix your injuries.”

“So you can walk with your own two feet instead of being a leech~” Luna added, jumping from the cart.

“No.” Sato turned to her,

Oron scoffed at the two of them and gave a small bow to Prix. “Thank you, madam.”

“You're welcome.” Prix huffed, wiping sweat off her forehead,

“Time to go eat,” Sato said, walking toward the closest tavern. As everyone started moving in that direction, Oron hissed over to Prix,

“That’s the beastfolk tavern, ma’am; it’s rougher,” Oron added, concerned. Idalec paused along with Miki and Sunya.

“Thank you for the advice,” Prix said before jogging to stop Sato, who was nearly at the door.

“Oh, you almost forgot our tents again,” Idalec mentioned, grabbing his own tent; Sunya grabbed both Prix’s and Sato’s.

“Should we follow them?” Sunya asked as Luna, Sato, and Prix had vanished into the tavern.

“Why not?” Idalec answered casually as he went in.

Inside the tavern were six beast folk, a bartender, two sitting at the bar, and three rabbit folk sitting together at a table off to the right playing cards; all of them looked distastefully at Sato, who popped himself right in the middle of the room at a table for four. Luna sat at a different table at the left edge of the tavern.

“Another two.” “These people.”

Idalec walked over to Prix, who was whispering, telling Sato to leave. “But I’m already seated?” Sato complained as Idalec sat opposite him.

“We should go,” Idalec whispered over to Sato

“Take a seat, Prix. Sunya and Miki, grab yourself a chair.” Sato joked, swinging his hand around,

Miki and Sunya nodded, each pulling up a chair,

The bartender had gotten out from behind the bar and approached Luna, who whispered something before the bartender left her table, going back to the bar,

“Is he not going to come?” Sato asked as the fox bartender paid the five of them no mind,

“Sato, it's disrespectful to act like this.” Prix said, still not sitting down, “This is their tavern; let's go to the one next door.”

“Ahh. It’s like a Japanese-only restaurant.” Sato tapped his temple, standing up, Prix breathing a sigh of relief, “SUP, what’cha yeah playing friends?” Sato walked over to the group of three rabbits who looked to be playing cards; Prix breathed that relief back in.

“...” The rabbits all paused; their black, beady eyes didn’t move, but they watched Sato approach,

“Do you play like-” Sato said, taking a seat before just blanking, "What do you even play?”

Prix rushed over, “Sorry, he’s not right in the head.” Prix grabbed Sato’s arm to get him to stand up,

“I’m in perfect health, actually. One betting game- come on! It’s going to be easy money for you.” Sato said pleadingly, who looked at each other. In a quick chirp, they spoke to each other in their own language,

‘Thirty years of studying demonic languages just to end up in a world where nobody speaks even one of them.’ Idalec huffed loudly, looking over,

“Fine. We’ll play twenty-one for a silver. Once and then you leave.” One of the rabbits said bitterly as he started shuffling the deck,

“Ten silver,” Sato said,

“One,” the rabbit shuffling said again, annoyed,

“Sure. But just so you know, you're leaving nine silver on the table.” Sato egged them on, which they were not having.

Luna’s food was delivered to her before the fox bartender approached Idalec, Miki, and Sunya. “Are you with them?” he asked Sunya, who quickly turned,

“Yes, I’ll be leaving soon,” she fired off apologetically, to which he nodded before off,

Idalec stood up and walked over to the table where Sato had put one silver coin on the table,

“You can either hit or pass. We alternate turns; whoever gets the closest to twenty-one without going over wins,” the rabbit said,

“That’s not how you play twenty-one,” Sato complained,

“That’s how we play it,” the rabbit snapped back,

“Fine, fine,” Sato said before his first card got flipped over. Ace of diamonds,

“Aces are either one of eleven.” The rabbit gritted his teeth as he flipped over a king of clubs. “Hit or pass?”

“Hit me up, I’m feeling a queen,” Sato says, rubbing his hands, getting an eight of diamonds. “Ok, ok, playable.”

“Hit,” the rabbit says mechanically, king of spades.

“Hit me,” Sato says.

Queen of spades, “Ahhhh!” Sato rolls his head as one of the rabbits giggles a little; the bartender and the two beast folk at the bar turned their heads to look over,

“Come on, you lost, Sato,” Prix says, motioning to his card,

“I’m at nineteen; it’s so winnable.” Sato rubs his hands together,

“I pass,” the rabbit says. “Do you want me to burn a card for you?”

“Yeah,” Sato says. Five of clubs, “That could have been bad- two of hearts incoming.” Sato says, leaning over the table, “Hit.” The rabbit turned over a king of hearts,

“F*******,” Sato screamed out at the top of his lungs. The rabbit flipped the next card in the deck out of curiosity. Ace of hearts. “Rigged,” Sato said, flicking the silver coin over to the rabbit. “Run it back,” Sato said, circling his fingers, as the same rabbit who was laughing before giggled again,

“What’s the next card?” he joked. The dealer flipped it over: Ace of spades.

Without another word, Sato left.

“That was quite the game.” The two other rabbits laughed,

The dealer collected up the cards, looking at the door as he started shuffling the cards,

“We’re sorry.” Prix apologised before walking over to Idalec, Sunya, and Miki. “We should go.” She threw a glance at Luna, who was stuffing her face. She thought against it, simply leaving.

The four of them walked into the other tavern, which stood a dozen paces away.

“I’m telling you I got an ace of diamonds-” Sato was loudly complaining to a table of four people, “- eight diamonds, you know how it is, a soft 19.”

“Yeah?” A guy says,

“Then I got the queen of spades! The rabbit burned five of the clubs, right, and I hit a damn king of hearts!"

“Unlucky.”

“You know what the next card was? Ace of hearts! And after that, Ace of spades.” Sato said dramatically,

“Uh-huh.”

“We’ll get them next time,” Sato said, turning to Prix.

“Let’s just eat and go to sleep,” Prix suggested,

“Fine.” Sato mopped, walking away to go and eat with Prix, Sunya, Miki, and Idalec.

They ordered without difficulty and waited,

“LET’S GOOO!” someone jumped up, clapping in the corner of the room,

“I wonder what they're doing over there?” Sato said, almost floating over. Prix grabbed Sato’s arm in time, firmly sitting him down.

“PAY UP!” the man shouted a moment later, turning everyone’s attention their way,

“Listen, Sylvester, I can give you-” a man who was being yelled at pulled out a slave deed,

“I DON’T CARE, GIVE ME MY GOLD COIN!” Sylvester yelled,

“She’s worth two gold-”

“I DON’T CARE. ONE GOLD COIN.” The man slammed the table with his fist,

“I’ll give you the money in a coup-”

“RIGHT NOW,” Sylvester demanded.

Sato looked hypnotized by that deed. “Idalec, analyze: is that a slave girl contract?”

“Sato.” Prix hissed, as Idalec squinted across the room,

'Lying is immoral, but why does it feel like the right thing to do in this case? I would have lied here and said that deed isn’t a slave contract, but-’ Idalec looked down at the table thoughtfully,

“So? Is it?” Sato asked excitedly,

“It is, master~” Sunya answered.

“Thank you, Sunya,” Sato said quietly, standing up,

“I can negotiate on your behalf,” Idalec whispered, also standing up.

“Fine, Sylvester!" the man Sylvester had been arguing with stood up, holding out the slave deed above his head,

“Would anyone be interested in lending me a gold coin? I’ll put up this slave deed as collateral-”

“Who’s the deed tied to?” Idalec asked softly, walking over,

“Who are you?” Sylvester asked, his voice hoarse,

“Mr. Yeve.” Idalec mouthed softly,

“Uhmm-” Sylvester scratched his forehead, “-I swear I heard the name before. Whatever, can you buy it off Evan for one gold?”

“Evan is…” Idalec nodded at the man who was proposing the loan,

“Yeah, it's him.” Sylvester pointed accusatorially at him,