Warring Eras of Eartha: Ironhearts

Chapter 3: An Honourable Mention

Advanced payment, such a thing only possible thanks to this ring I'm wearing, a plain gold ornament with a top graced with the same crossing swords like the one earlier. This is already more than what the less than fortunate fighters that volunteered to this expedition would get, bear in mind that this isn't my full payment and yet its already enough to pay my debts to that inn.

It still sucks that somehow I ended up as a leader in this expedition, it is not much improved by the increase in pay and my successful negotiation in reducing my responsibility to leading the entire force to just a tactical unit of twenty.

Apparently, there is sophistication in leading that most of his regulars aren't keen on, which could mean a lot of things as I told him, and he ominously responded that he might mean many of those things.

I just let out a sigh before taking the stairs down. At least I got a good nights rest, that's something I can also be thankful for.

The first thing that I notice downstairs is the drunkard girl from last night with a mop and a bucket containing what looks like somebody's upchucked internal organs.

"Not my job to clean up your mess, so stop whining and be done with it." A man she was speaking to says, obviously as a response to what ever she said to him prior to me arriving here.

"Well its not my job either but I'm doing it anyway, right? So why should you be different?" The no-longer drunk girl yells, pointing the wet head of the mop she's using.

"For one," He begins, maneuvering quickly out of the way of the liquid projectiles, "that pool of piss did not come from me."

"I did not piss myself!"

"Take a good look at that, and swear to the Father of All and tell me that it doesn't look like one."

Sounds like good buddies.

Switching my attention back to the goal of mine, I made my way to the counter where Cherisha is waiting again.

"Here's my ransom," I said as I set the pouch of fortunes on the counter.

She loosens the thread closing the pouch before counting its content, stacking gold, silver, and copper separately up to ten.

"I hope you spend some of your fortunes here after you're finished slaying those things." She tells me while still counting.

"But of course. Maybe I'll even bring you a souvenir." I responded with a toothy grin.

"With your current occupation being known to me, I humbly refuse." She chuckles after being satisfied with the amount of coin on her counter.

"Regarding my occupation, can I have my stuff back now?" I said after sneaking a peek at the pack behind her, "Why do I even have to deposit it here in the first place? I would've left that in my room anyway since I'm fine enough in the head to know how suspicious I would look leaving with that."

"You look dextrous enough to climb buildings, my dear. Plus, prettier gents have gotten away from me before so for the sake of my business remaining sustainable, I oughtta be dastardly cautious than naively faithful to the decency of passing men." She explains, grunting as she passes me my stuff with one hand.

"Well, I for one would rather not infuriate you by such an unbecoming act," I said afted receiving my heavy belongings, "since I can wager my life that you can rough up a bull without breaking a sweat!"

"Pah! What are you sugarcoating me for? You already paid me!" She guffaws.

"I mean, the fortunes are still on the counter so..."

"Not a chance." She says as she began sweeping my payment probably in a chest that is obstructed by the counter.

"Worth the try." I shrugged with a smirk, "Anyways, I'll be dressing up for the big dance. Guess I'll see ya later if I don't suffer a terrible fate."

I leave as she continues depositing the fortunes into whatever container she deemed fit to secure it.

I pass by the two still bickering over the girl's task, with the said girl not even halfway done with her chore. That was something that hasn't gone unnoticed to the owner of this inn, who now bellows for her to shut up and just finish it.

Making a beeline for the stairs, I was originally planning to just leave her be, but the girl blocked my path with arms spread yelling, "Stop!"

"Oh my lifetimes, what is it now?" I asked apprehensively, if she wants to enlist my help with her chore then I'd flat out refuse.

"What mahicka do you have!?" She inquires in an excited manner, a sentiment I do not get, for it is not like mahickais are an endangered species or anything.

"Hey, Faer! Stop bothering every man which have an unnatural bair colour, will you?!" The other guy came yelling.

"Huh!? But you said--" She began, her face riddled with confusion.

The other guy cuts her off, "Yes, I remember what I said! But his a redhead, they're common enough to have a name, so I do not know what you are bothering him for."

"Does that kind of red look normal to you!? It might as well be strands of blood! And his eyes are red as well!" The girl argues while pointing at me.

"Even then I do not see any reason for you to be bothering him with your petty curiosity." He replies while looking at me apologetically.

Miss snow-white skin regained his attention before I could convey in any way that the situation isn't totally a bother.

"Your the one to talk! Midagard is surely a strange place where a bookish lank like you get to ridicule me for my 'petty curiosity'!" She fires back, stabbing the mop into the floor causing a small explosion of sickening liquid around it.

"Maybe if you read even a snippet of a scroll then you wouldn't be needing to harass people in order to procure knowledge, of course, it is not like you'd be better off after you do that since you forget about it too soon anyway."

She opens her mouth to let out a retort but closes it before she could say anything, her face contorts in a way that says her brain is currently analyzing a lot of things and processing some sort of mind-blowing insult.

But the best she could think of was to stick her tongue out like an absolute child.

The other guy just rolled his eyes as he shakes his head, waving a dismissive hand at her.

"Yes, I'm a mahickai." I finally answered upon seeing an opportunity in the awkward silence that ensued, "I'm a meckanite."

"See!? Because of my 'petty curiosity', I found another meckanite!" She says to the guy.

"Hey!" Cherisha arrives with an angry look, "You were supposed to be cleaning you white sow! Not pestering my other customer or yabbering around with one of your friends, and worse yet, dirtying the place even more!"

She is not wrong, the place seems a bit more revolting due to the white lady's 'mops-manship'.

"This is not a warrior's work! Just have one of your bar servants do it for you, or buy a slave!" Lady white throws the mop to the side.

"Faer! How many times do I have to tell you? They do not practice s*****y anymore." Her companion tells her along with a slap to the head.

"Ow! Was that really necessary, Skully?" The white lady, Faer, pouts as she massages her head.

"Its Skjoldaugr, dimwit! Or do I have to give your head a better shaking to wisen you to things that should be common sense!"

"If you two degenerates are going to fight then take it outside! You, girl, already made my place a mess, and you boy, made her talk more than work!" Cherisha gets between them before they could butt heads.

"I should get going, I'm needed elsewhere." And besides, this look like the kind of trouble I hate getting involved in.

"What do you mean? The muster for the mistics wouldn't begin until sunrise, right?" Faer wonders, even Cherisha herself seems interested so white lady didn't receive a thrashing for delaying her work again.

"For us warriors, aye, but he seems to have been part of the command structure so he has to convene with his fellows in command, right?" Skjoldaugr says.

"Yep. But how did you know I'm part of the..." My eyes drifted to Cherisha who just shrugs at me with a small smile, "Nevermind that, then. I'll be getting into proper attire, see you two in the battlefield."

"Will you not help me clean up?"

"Yes."

"Wha-? Its because of you that this happened you know!?" Both Skjoldaugr and Cherisha looks at her as if that was the stupidest thing to come out of her mouth as of yet.

"What could you possibly mean? I do not see anything in that gunk that belongs to me. Not like I would know what it looks like, since I have never swallowed anything that ever came out the same end it entered."

"But you lost the game!"

"I lost so I paid the tab. You vomited so you clean."

"B-?"

"Open your mouth again and I'll have you clean without a mop." Cherisha interrrupts her, pinching her nose bridge.

Faer can do nothing but grumble with a flushed face.

"And you, Skjoldaugr was it? Why do you insist to watch her without helping?" Cherisha asks the him.

"I'm not inclined to lessen her punishment, yet I fear the c*****e she unleashes everytime I'm not around." Skjoldaugr sighs.

Faer looks like she has something to say when Cherisha stares at her with piercing eyes, which was enough to get her to finally start doing her chore with tears in her icy blue eyes.

It was at this moment that I take my leave.

"Besides, I made a promise, even though I kind of regret it now." He adds, stopping me in my tracks, if only for a blink of a moment.

A promise, huh?

I wore everything that I own that will be essential for the upcoming battle. The main component of my defensive gear is the shirt of maille I wear over my red padded jack, despite being a really common armour mine happens to be the longer one with a rider's split and long sleeves. A leather belt is fastened around my waist in order to distribute the weight, the belt would've also been a good place to have a scabbard, but even if bearing a weapon is allowed in this city as a meckanite I would have little use for it.

While wearing a knee-high riding boots is already a great protection compared to even the standards of rich, full-time warriors common in this island, I decided to use thick layers of spare cloths I have to function like makeshift greaves, fastening it thightly with leather straps.

A helm with cheekguards and a plume will provide protection for my head when battle commences, but for now I will just be carrying it by my side.

"Hey! Not a bad set you have there." Faer comments when she notices me going down the stairs.

Maybe they worked something out while I was upstairs since Cherisha isn't carrying out her earlier threats, despite that Skjoldaugr still reminds her to not stop mopping.

"Well your's is nothing to scoff at either, look at you 'sweeping' your slimey foes aside in that panoply!" I told her.

"Wha-!" Was the only thing she could say to me before her attention was turned to her sniggering companion.

"I suggest you 'mop up' the last pockets of residues before the call to muster, it might not be happening soon but with the swiftness of your progress, or lack thereof, it wouldn't be out of the realms of possibility that you would miss out on the battle ahead."

"Just do as he says, Faer." Skjoldaugr says to her with his back turned and his shoulders shaking.

Faer, instead of responding with words, just grabs the guy from behind.

"Who's laughing now!?" She yells, spooking Skjoldaugr by shifting her weight a bit to feel like she's about to slam him down.

"Faer! Put me down before we get into-" Were his words before he got cut off by having his world get flip over.

It was only partially Faer's fault that his ass is now awkwardly up in the air facing the ceiling, of course you could argue that her slipping on the putrid gunk that she was supposed to be cleaning is her fault as well. It doesn't change the situation they are in, however, as not only did she plant her friend's head into the floor but she also clipped the side of a table, which in turn flipped and clipped a tray Chasandra was using to bring a bowl of hot porridge to a customer.

The said bowl 'bawled' over and spilled its content into Chasandra's arm, the tray drops to the floor and she immediately cries out in pain, she soon covered her mouth and look towards the door behind the counter.

I began to find my way out as things continue to get worse. First Cherisha peeks into the room from the door behind the counter upon hearing her child's cry, then she rushes out of it with a knife in her hand that she may or may not be aware of, and then Faer also got up arms up and ready to fight after noticing her being armed.

"Back off, lady. It was an accident." She says, not the first words that should be used if one wants things to end diplomatically.

Skjoldaugr is still passed out with his buttocks staring at the ceiling and his head planted into the floor, I have seen things more outlandish than her accidental execution of a suplex that managed to do that but I can't say I'm not bewildered by it.

Cherisha cares little for Faer right now, she is entirely focused on relieving her child of the pain.

By the time I was out of the door there were the crying stopped and was replaced by shouting between the white drunkard and the inn owner.

When I was a few steps away from the inn's front I heard woods exploding behind me followed by a thud, I quashed my curiousity and continued to walk away even when another thud and more shouting followed.

I got strange looks from bystanders as I walk by, being clad in my armour and all in a place where weapon-bearing are reserved for the authority and the nobles. Strange looks is the only thing they can give me, after all, I'm not doing anything not permitted by the law.

The direction I was provided by the guildmaster brought me outside the walls of the city where a few characters bearing weapons fit the description of the people I was supposed to meet.

They gave me looks of suspicion as I approached, I flashes them the contract parchment signed by their guildmaster to ease their grip on their weapons, which succeeded in only that.

"So, which one are you? The not prodigal son or that lucky foreigner?" Asks the one with a rotund belly but quite the bulky set of arms.

The guy next to him, a wispy fellow especially compared to him, yanks at the big guy's braided beard.

"If it was the former, do you want him to throw the kind of tantrum on ya that gets you killed?" He says right as the big guy swatted his hand away.

"Stop trying to steal a real man's bears and just grow your own, Wightgar!" The big guy says, combing through his beard and straightening the braid.

"It isn't befitting for a man as big and hairy like you to maunder like this, Daffyd." He rebukes, turning his head sideways and starts scratching his face away from Daffyd's sight.

"Oh, so I have to possess a baby's face like yours to be entitled to throw a fit?" Daffyd catches a braided strand of Wightgar's hair and tugs at it a couple of time.

"Just ignore these two." A man that looks to be in that age where the brightness of most men start to dim.

He says that just as the smaller one shoves Daffyd with all his might, the big guy just dove under his outstretched arms and hoists him up in the air.

I thought of telling them about a recent incident that looks akin to this one and the terrible conclusion of it, but I decided to take the advice of the maturing man.

"Just in case you didn't catch their names, the healthy chap is Daffyd Prowell," he tells me that just as the man tosses the small man into the air no different than doing the same action with a child and catches him in the same fashion, "baby-face here is Wightgar of Fletcher, and I am Berwulf of Breighton, this very lovely trade hub about to be reminded that the bleeding shadist still exist." he gestures grandiously at the city walls.

Guess 'shadist' is one unique way to call mistics around here.

"Don't read in too much into his fuming, foreigner." The last guy of the four says while gently tapping the Berwulf guy's shoulder.

"This gentleman is Leofgiest Killer, no, he did not Leofgiest, but you know he must have killed someone special to be called 'Leofgiest Killer', not special enough to be called 'the Killer' though." Berwulf says, patting Leofgiest in the chest.

"And I'm-"

"Asheon Skybred, yeah yeah, I know. Mistah Farsight told us about ya in a rather giddy tone, guess folks in Ibarra are a better breed of men, eh?" He interjects rolling his eyes, I'd be lying if I said it didn't rub me the wrong way, but I decided to give him another chance and just respond with a small smile.

On hindsight I shouldn't have stared him in the eyes while doing so, because by the time I was aware of it he was already retreated a skip or two after losing a bit of colour in his face.

Leofgiest just looks at him with furrowed brows, then looks at with his head slightly tipped to the side. It only lasted for a couple of blinks before his face was back to its usual smiling face.

"As I said, don't mind his attitude, youths his age has a weak grip on their emotions." He gave the said youth a stern glare.

"Its fine, I myself am lying if I say I do not lose my patience sometimes." I say while giving Berwulf a stern look of my own.

"You two creeps can ogle at me all day, or we can discuss what we will do with the gathering of gaunts situation." He says while holding both his hands as if he is holding us back.

"Hey its giving that 'Berwulf!' look time? How come nobody invited us?" Daffyd arrives and starts giving him the stare as well.

"Oh come on." Berwulf mutters right as Daffyd smacks Wightgar across the head presumably for not joining the charade.

"We're waiting for another nobleblood, remember? Bleeding me, he can almost be considered 'the' nobleblood of this isle." Leofgiest says.

"Your part of the isle, not ours." Daffyd chuckles.

"Yes, how unfortunate that he weren't born into one of your 'kings' in those small patches of barren lands you call 'kingdoms'." Leofgeist rebukes him.

"Ouch. I felt a gut explode because of that one." Wightgar grabs his gut in mock pain.

"How about we quit the childish prattles and get on with the subject of the meeting?" Bernwulf says while flattening a patch of grass under his boot.

"How many times do I have to repeat myself...?" Leofgeist begins before noticing the young lad jerking his chin at something behind him.

Two figures are nearing our position, both clad in the typical hauberk but the other possess a purple cloak that is currently following the direction of a gust of wind, which would have been cool under most circumstances, but not when it wraps around your face under the whim of the wind.

Fighting back the urge to burst out laughing, my companions bowed their heads and took to one knee, I did the same. When in other places live like they do in other places, as they say.

"Your Highness, we've been expecting you." Leofgiest said, and that was the moment it occurred to me.

Just to be sure, I took a quick glance at the character that just arrived, the one with the purple cloak is indeed who I think it is.

"Hey Cessha, remember when you said something along the lines of 'nothing really special happened here'?" I said in my head hoping that Cessha is listening right now, "So I guess the presence of the future prince of Albiana, you know, the one if dead would mean there will be a three-way war for this land? Guess that wasn't worth an honourable mention, huh?"