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Return of the Fallen Volume 2 Chapter 54

Author: Blue_Rat

ch54

Before they could explore this little town first they needed to find themselves some lodgings. Seeing as how this town with a population of roughly 4 or 5 thousand was currently being flooded with a constant flow of people, Kazuki wanted to make sure they could finally sleep under a roof.

It was a good thing he thought of this because it turned out that there were actually only two inns within this entire town.

Looking at the sign that hung from above, it read.

——————————[Half Hog Inn]——————————

Walking inside, Kazuki’s large group sat down, taking up two tables entirely.

A young woman approached them wearing an apron and had a small note pad and pen that floated next to her. Mei grew excited seeing new magic and tried to reach out and touch it. The woman turned to her and Mei shrank back thinking she had done something wrong but the woman only smiled at her before introducing herself to the group.

“Hello, my name is Betra and welcome to the Half Hog Inn. Now, will you be wanting food, bed or both?”

Before Kazuki could Answer Asuna spoke a little too loudly.

“Do you have baths here!?”

All eyes turned to her and a slight blush flooded her cheeks.

“What, why is everyone staring? Is it too much to want to have a hot soak every once in a blue moon?”

No one said anything as they were in agreement with her.

Betra laughed a little.

“Hahaha, it seems you all have had a bit of a journey huh. No need to worry, miss, we have a fairly large bath for both men and women. You can soak your worries away and let yourself melt in relaxation. As long as you rent a room for a day the bath is yours. So what will it be?”

Asuna and Kimi shared a smile and began cheering in the background. Even Nunully’s eyes seem to light up behind her mask.

Danny couldn’t help but roll his eyes at their childish behavior.

Kazuki looked around and could see that there were plenty of guests filling up this dining area and he wondered if there were enough rooms available.

“Um, do you have enough rooms to accommodate all of us? It seems like this place is pretty full.”

Betra pointed behind her at the other people sitting around drinking and eating.

“Them.”

She waved her hand back and forth.

“No no no, most of them are just here for a meal and can’t afford to stay here.”

Danny picked up a shabby looking menu and asked curiously.

“Hmm, no offense but this place doesn’t seem too fancy. Are your prices really that stiff?”

Betra didn’t mind and answered honestly.

“It’s not that we’re expensive, rather they are mostly broke. They can barely afford a meal and nearly all of them are looking for work and just stopping in for a quick bite before they hit the grind once more. This amount of people, if you were to look around town, the number is almost 10 times that, that are desperate for funds.”

Kazuki and the others looked around. This inn was fairly large and the dining area was no exception. Sitting down in their surroundings was nearly 100 people. Adding the people around town, if this woman was to be believed that meant 1000 people or more had no work. Population wise, this didn’t make any sense.

Danny asked.

“How can that be. This town only has about 4 thousand people or so. How can 25% of them not have a job? How can this town possibly sustain itself?”

Betra looked at Kazuki’s group weirdly for a moment.

“You mean you really don’t know? Just where have you folks been these past 2 months?”

Danny went quiet when asked that as did Asuna and Kimi. Kazuki cleared his throat.

*Ahem*

“We were training in the forest this whole time. Please, could you explain what you mean? What’s happened in the last two months to cause the people here to be out of work?”

Betra came to a realization and slapped her forehead.

“Ah, I didn’t realize you all were adventurers. Now it makes sense. your ragged appearance and damaged weapons. So you were training this whole time.”

Kazuki nodded along.

Betra got a little closer and whispered to everyone with a darkened expression.

“I don’t want the other guest to hear because it’s still a sensitive topic but just over 6 weeks ago the large city to the west, Sekou, fell.”

An alarm suddenly went off in everyone’s heads.

Kazuki began to think.

(That’s the city closest to the Mirian swamps. Don’t tell me, Garn, he didn’t save it.)

Betra could see the worry on everyone’s faces as she explained.

“Apparently something major happened in the Mirian swamps. Several Sky Beasts began to battle it out. Their fights literally changed the landscape there and a beast horde of several million flooded out from there. With no food in their surroundings, they aimed towards a place full of food, Sekou. Except the food they sought was human.”

Everyone felt confusion, even with so many beasts, as long as Garn showed up, he should have been able to demolish them with a wave or two of his hand.

Asuna was filled with worry for the people of Sekou.

“How did this happen, where was Master Garn?”

Betra shook her head.

“Apparently around the same time, something happened in the capital. The King died somehow and Hero Garn became the new King. It was said that Garn had fought hard against two Sky Beasts and sustained some type of injury and because of that, the beast horde was actually a planned attack instead of a causality of battles in the swamps. No one really knows what for sure happened but Sekou was overrun and tens of thousands died.”

Asuna and the others felt saddened by this news but also felt a bit of relief. The city of Sekou had a population of over 3 million. The fact that only tens of thousands died could be counted almost as a miracle.

Danny began to put things into place.

“So then millions of people suddenly lost their home overnight and were displaced. All they could do was look for a new home. To think though that they’ve traveled this far. The Mirian swamps are over 4,000 miles away.”

Betra shook her head and corrected Danny.

“None of these people are from Sekou, instead they were forced out by the Sekou inhabitants.”

Betra could tell that they were slightly confused and added.

“You see, Sekou was one of the most prosperous cities in all of Treia and had many who were skilled in crafting, day laborers and so on. Any job you could think of, the people of Sekou had hundreds of thousands who were excellent in their field of work. Because of that, when they arrived in a new village town or city, they would often outclass those around them at work. Take into the fact that these people had no homes and were desperate to feed themselves and their families and they began working for half the price, sometimes even lower. This caused a shift and imbalance throughout all of Treia. Suddenly those from Sekou took all the nearby jobs and those that previously had work, had to leave in search of a job. So more and more people had to leave from these places and since then everything has kind of moved eastward. People from one city or town were replaced with better workers and those who were replaced moved on and on until you have a town like mine, overrun with…well…them.”

Everything Betra had said was a lot to take in but Kazuki found something interesting in what she said.

(If Garn really sustained an injury that he couldn’t heal easily, this would make sense as to why he didn’t save Sekou. Knowing the hatred he has for monsters and beasts, there’s no way he would give up an opportunity to slay millions of them while the big dogs were scrapping in the Mirrian swamps. As a matter of fact, the Sky Beasts fighting each other would have been the absolute perfect time to take out the beast horde headed for Sekou and yet he didn’t. This basically proves that he’s injured. The question is, does this actually help us or not. Even with him being injured, he could still send people after us but will he do it?)

Kazuki couldn’t come to a proper conclusion either way and pushed the thought aside.

With the mood now sour, Betra needed a way to lighten it up. As an owner of this establishment, she felt she should help lighten the mood somewhat. Thinking for a moment, she spotted Mei, still staring at her floating notepad and pen. Smiling at Mei she rubbed her head gently.

“Such a cute child, are you interested?”

Mei had no clue what Betra and the others were talking about earlier and everything had gone over her head. She was lost in thought staring at the floating paper and when she heard herself being mentioned she nodded bashfully, causing Betra’s smile to become even brighter. Ripping a piece of paper out, the woman flicked it over where it hovered in front of Mei. Mei stared at it curiously and the woman said.

“Young miss, what’s your favorite animal?”

Everyone looked over curiously and Mei shifted her eyes toward her mother and Kazuki. The two gave a nod and Mei got excited. Her arms stretched out wide as she explained.

“A big big big bird. One that is fast and flies higher than a mountain.”

An earring on Betra’s ear glowed with a small green light before her pen started to scribble something down on the paper in front of Mei.

“Oh, so you like birds huh? Tell me, what color are its feathers?”

Mei didn’t know what was going on but she explained as instructed.

“It’s feathers are the most beautiful. They are black as night and really powerful too.”

“Hmm, what about its eyes?”

Mei put a finger to her chin and thought.

“Hmm, it doesn’t have eyes.”

The pen in front of her stopped scribbling for a moment.

“What, no eyes, you gotta give it eyes.”

Mei again looked at her mother and Kazuki and the two encouraged her with a look.

She began to think before she just blurted out the first thought that came to mind.

“Ah, they’re really really red. Just like the fluffy candy, Ryuta bought me and mama.”

Betra’s pen began to scribble once more as she nodded along. For some reason, Kazuki felt like someone was staring daggers at him. With a quick glance, he could see Asuna glaring at him. Not only her though, even though Nunully was wearing her mask, two eyes also pierced through and hit Kazuki from the side. Kazuki rolled his eyes without either of them noticing.

As Mei continued to explain, she grew more and more excited as she watched the pen dance atop the paper. A moment later the pen stopped and the piece of paper floated closer to Mei and landed in her hands. Mei’s eyes went wide and nearly glossed over as she stared at the picture in front of her.

“Since the young miss is so cute, that’s for you to keep.”

Tsura leaned over and took a look as well. She was amazed at what she saw. Betra had drawn a black phoenix with crimson eyes flying high in the sky. Below the mighty bird were several mountains and a long flowing river. The bird was so lifelike, that both Mei and Tsura thought the picture would come alive at any moment. Tsura quickly bowed her head and forced Mei to bow as well.

“Your talent is amazing, such art must be expensive. How can we accept such a thing?”

Betra chuckled lightly.

“Haha me talented, thank you for the compliment but it was nothing. As for the cost, this paper is pretty cheap. I got it from Sid’s place down the road for a few coppers. Little girl, you keep that OK, it would make me really happy.”

Mei hugged the paper tightly to her chest and nodded repeatedly.

“I…I’ll treasure it always.”

Betra laughed once more before she turned back to the rest of the group with a smile.

“Hahaha, now about those rooms you were wanting.”