A night on the town

Back at the church, Lucille and Flora were already there waiting for us. The wagon was already unloaded and Hershel was allowed to stay in the church’s stable for the duration of our stay.

“So what did the two of you get off to?” I asked.

“Flora and I went to go inspect the inn we are to stay at. It appears to be of a higher quality than the inn back at Regnus,” said Lucille.

“We also found a pretty good place to go for dinner!” exclaimed Flora, slightly drooling in anticipation. “How about you two? Find anything at that magic shop?”

“Behold!” declared Sofia, holding her arm in the air, showing off the bracelet.

“Pretty,” said Flora, admiring the jewelry.

“It isn’t just some simple accessory! This is the legendary Flame Bangle!” Sofia announced. No reaction from the other two. I wasn’t alone in being clueless. “Ugh, cmooonnn. It’s a super powerful enchanted artifact that boosts my fire magic by a lot.”

“I see. It seems the outing was fruitful after all,” Lucille observed. “Shall we head on to the restaurant?”

“Yeah,” I said. “What’s the place called?”

“The River’s Bounty!” Flora said excitedly.

“So probably some sorta fish place,” I deduced.

“Oh, just you wait!” said Flora, eagerly leading the way. The restaurant was off in a corner of the town, next to the riverbed. There was a small dock behind the shop, and a pair of employees were actively fishing up ingredients. The restaurant itself had a sign carved out of wood and hand painted hung above the door.

Inside, a waiter showed us to a table, off near the back next to a window we could see the river and fishermen through. The waiter placed four menus on the table before heading off. It was a surreal experience seeing how similar it was to restaurants back on earth. Peering over the menu, I had no clue what anything was. I could read the language, but the different types of fish all had completely unrecognizable names.

‘Regnican Whapper, 3 Copper’, ‘Valefish, 6 copper’, ‘Detoxified Horntail Fish, 1 silver’, ‘Yellow Finned Hammerfish, 7 copper’, ‘Gerald, currently unavailable’. Such strange names. I had absolutely no clue what to choose.

“So, uh, what are you all getting?” I asked.

“Naturally the Valefish,” said Flora. “It’s a local delicacy.”

“Can’t go wrong with a Whapper,” said Lucille.

“The hammerfish. It’s tricky to cook, but when done well, it’s one of the best out there,” said Sofia.

“What are you having, Flynn?” Asked Flora.

“Uh, guess I’ll go with the whapper,” I said, choosing the least expensive menu item. The waiter returned and we gave him our order before he headed off again.

“It’s been one heck of a week, hasn’t it,” sighed Sofia.

“That’s true,” I said, reflecting on the past week’s hardships. From goblins to bandits to huge monsters, we’d been through a lot. Lucille was still injured, a fact we’d have to rectify once this Alice girl joined us.

“You know, I’m kinda glad that I couldn’t afford mercenaries,” said Flora. “I got to meet you guys after all, so everything worked out in the end.”

“I am glad as well,” said Lucille. “I feel as though we have become fast friends.”

“T-thanks, Lucy,” said Flora, holding back tears. After some more small talk, the waiter brought us our food. The Regnican Whapper was a quite small fish, looking mostly the same as the ones from earth. The same couldn’t be said for the Valefish and Hammerfish.

The Valefish was an absolute monster of a fish. Even dead and prepared as food, it still had large spinal spikes jutting out. The damn thing’s head was cut off and sat cooked at the edge of the plate!

The Hammerfish was strange as well. Its skin was a golden brown from being cooked, but aside from that, the fish was mostly still intact! The head looked like a claw hammer, the back of its head jutting out into two separate sections. I ate my normal fish in silence.

While not as good as the cooking from Sofia (I was really spoiled by her), the fish still tasted considerably better than any I’d had on Earth. Looking over at the others, Flora had cut the Valefish into sections at each spine spike and was currently chewing on the eyeless head. The other two had no reaction to that, so apparently this was completely normal here. Gross.

Lucille had finished eating as well, and Sofia was finishing up, having expertly cut the odd looking fish to manageable pieces. The waiter came by with our tab.

“You can pay up front,” he said cheerfully, walking off. “Have a good rest of the night.”

“That was really good,” said Flora, finishing the demonic looking Valefish. Her and Lucille looked at me expectantly.

“Hey, can you guys cover this one for me?” I asked, out of money until tomorrow.

“Huh?” asked Lucille, surprised. “W-why?”

“We kinda spent all our money on the Flame Bangle,” Sofia admitted.

“Oh shit,” Flora cursed. “We left our stuff in the inn rooms already. That includes our money...”

“So, it’s come to this,” I said darkly. This was a situation I had only done once before in my life. The age old crime. “The Dine and Dash.”

“Wha? You’d just leave without paying?” Lucille asked, aghast.

“I pray for your safety. Shade,” I said, fading into the background, completely unnoticed by the other restaurant goers.

“That’s so unfair!” Sofia complained.

“W-what do we do?” Asked Flora, confused.

“We must be honest. If we do so, they may let us off with only doing the dishes,” said Lucille, ever the moral compass of the group.

“Take me with you!” called Sofia.