The next evening, I was enjoying an ale at the Evening Bell. It was a downtrodden tavern with a miserable selection of drinks, but it did have one thing going for it: a clear view of the dungeon gate. The Adventurers Guild also had a good view, but after the recent trouble, I didn’t want to stick out any further.
I was waiting for the princess knight to emerge from the dungeon. Not to greet her with a loving embrace and kiss—although I wasn’t opposed to it. I had a different goal in mind, and she was planning to be out right around this time.
Just as my second cup was emptying, the gate to the dungeon cracked open, and Her Highness’s party emerged. None of the members were missing. They squinted up at the first sun they’d seen in three days and rejoiced in another safe return to the surface.
Ordinarily, they would report to the guild, announce their return, then part ways. Each of them acted on their own after that, but today was slightly different. A child of about ten years ran up to them and handed a letter to the person standing next to the princess knight. He took it with surprise and opened it, careful not to draw too much attention or allow anyone else to see the contents. His face froze—then he folded the letter and stuffed it away, looking pale. The letter had come as a shock.
I knew what it said. Because I was the one who wrote it.
It was a simple statement if spoken aloud, but it was much more difficult to put into written words. Maybe I needed a few more writing lessons.
Although I’d gotten his name from Neil, it could have been a lie born of desperation. I’d gone to great lengths to get confirmation here, and the single glimpse of despair on his face when he saw the letter was all the evidence I needed. He’d plunged from relief to horror in barely a moment.
After sharing a few words with Arwin, he slowly stepped away from the rest of the party. He would be planning his next move, I was certain. But now that I had my evidence, it was time for me to prepare, too. I stood up, but something bumped into my back.
“Hey, that hurt,” grumbled a red-faced drunk carrying a flagon in his hand. He wore brown leather armor, a longsword, and the emblem of the Adventurers Guild.
I tried to apologize and squeeze past him, but the drunk grabbed my shirt.
“Let me see you for a sec, pretty boy. I got a question to ask you,” he said. So this was not a random accident but a deliberate choice on his part to bump into me. He was aware that I was the princess knight’s paramour.
“Save yourself the trouble,” I warned him, out of the sheer goodness of my heart. “You wouldn’t be a good match for Her Highness. And it’s still early. Maybe you should switch to water and sober up a little.”
“Don’t give me that shit,” the drunk growled, and he dragged me outside with him.
He took me to the alley behind the tavern; it was just barely wide enough for two men to stand side by side. The sunlight from the west stabbed down like a red-hot blade, and I was face-to-face with the drunk with the heat pouring onto my back.
“Listen, if I’ve upset you, I apologize. But you’re going into the dungeon, aren’t you? Wouldn’t it be such a waste to get hurt just before you go in?”
“Hurt? Ha! ‘Hurt,’ he says.” The drunk cackled. He put a hand on my head and forced it downward. “And how am I gonna get hurt dealin’ with a coward, huh? The only thing you got goin’ for ya is how big you are.”
It seemed he had taken my attempt to smooth things over as a sign that I was intimidated. He rubbed my face against the wall.
“Listen to me, boy. Just let me have a round with that woman. She likes it freaky, don’t she? I heard she hung around Glowfly Lane a while back. The only people who bother doin’ that are buyers and sellers.”
“I see.”
With my free hand, I grabbed the drunk’s neck.
“You went one step too far.”
There was a dull crunch.
His neck was suddenly heavy in my hand; the strength had gone out of his core. I let go, and the drunk slumped to his knees, then fell to the ground. His neck was broken, of course, but the problem was that there was a handprint shape dented into the muscle around his neck. Once I was sure he was dead, I quickly left the scene. Another job for Bradley. This was getting costly.
Evening light bloomed the moment I left the alley, shining into my eyes. I clicked my tongue at the baleful sun and hurried back home in order to return before Her Highness did.
It wasn’t hard to beat Arwin back, because she had to report to the guild first. What was important was to prepare the place to welcome her.
I’d already prepped dinner; the only thing left was to freshen it back up over the fire. I’d put together a spinach and herb salad, a spiced mushroom soup, braised chicken, and a twenty-five-year-old wine from the Lambert region. I couldn’t make anything elaborate, but a long history of camping going back to my mercenary days gave me a knack for whipping up dishes based on whatever was on hand. As long as you chopped up some meat and vegetables and tossed them in a pot with salt and pepper, anything would taste pretty good. If I wanted, I could even bake bread, but the house had no stone oven, so I bought our bread at a local bakery instead.