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<h2 style="text-align: center">DAYTIME</h2>
Well, contrary to my belief that 110 bucks did keep me out of trouble for a day. I had a good breakfast, even the dessert. Then plonked 50 bucks in gold in front of Hanna and Sabrina, which gave me their unconditional love and affection for that day and 3 bottles of Whiskey. I proudly admit I remember very little of that night. It might be my imagination but shortly before the full blackout, Hanna says
Unholy noise woke me up that morning I stumbled for my gun trying to remember how to conjure something in my left hand...Then I fell out of bed, Church bells were declaring noon and, I in my infinite wisdom, left the window open. The commotion woke the girls up too
I looked into her bright blue eyes from the floor. Maybe it was light coming from the window, maybe it was something in her gaze, but she looked so innocent at that moment. I nodded. She still didn''t move
Fortunately, it lasted just about five minutes. When I opened my eyes I felt like new, the only problem was that now I looked like a piece of shit. First I drained half of the jug of stale yesterday''s water, then used the shirt I used yesterday and the remains of equally stale water from the bucket used for toiletries to wash myself up. Fortunately, it had a third left, and with my private soap, I managed to look at at least half human after a clothes change. I left a wet shirt in the bucket, no way in hell I''m wearing that again. Unfortunately for shaving, I''ll have to look elsewhere, just then I realized that suddenly I started to worry about my appearance, like a future corpse preparing himself for a funeral in advance. I grimaced and shook the thought from my head, slipping the dagger into his custom holster in my left boot then picking up my holster belt and tying it around my waist. Helen is snuggly on the right and shortsword on the left, while not magical like the dagger, or special like Helen even my blade was customized. An odd mixture of Gladius with a handbasket hilt with protruding nails to serve as the spiked knuckleduster in a pinch.
Well, at least no one could accuse me of not being versatile. About a palm away from the sword there was another deerskin pouch fastened to an empty bullet space. I carefully untied it and emptied the contents in my palm, 18 bullets I enchanted a week ago. Plenty, I''d thought, in normal circumstances, 2 elemental loads of Fire and Electricity and one load of pure Aether. Some would consider it overkill even. Now, however, I wasn''t so sure. Helen was loaded with six mundane bullets and I had 10 more on the belt. Itch to enchant at least one more load was strong. I resisted it though. As mentioned, I was versatile, not really a powerhouse. I always considered Arts a nice bonus, but if I had to fight I preferred trickery. Actually running away was my favorite battle move. I returned the bullets to the pouch and retied it. I''ll drop by Khyon after the shave and spend some more gold on some goodies. Coins don''t serve much to a dead man, although I met Houngan or two who would disagree.
I picked up my hat from the rack and exited the room, slowly walking toward the stairs and there it was again...wrongness. Although this time it was not my supernatural gifts that warned me. It was around 1 PM, maybe a quarter less, the place should be bustling with people who came on lunch or an early drink or six, but it was so quiet down there I could hear flies buzzing around poorly cleaned tables. Itch to return and drop down a water drain was strong, but Paddies Hotel was one place I was remotely welcome, and now when I pushed my tendrils down whoever it was down there. He was angry enough to do something to Paddy or the girls, believing they somehow tipped me off. This meant he was also stupid and I have no inclination to repeat my conviction about the power of sheer dumb-dumb I placed the hat on the head and as quietly as possible cocked Helen hoping the sound of my boots on the floorboards to quiet the sound. The angry presence was behind the stairs, slightly to the right. Beside him I felt only Paddy behind the bar, everyone else was buzzing with fear like a beehive in the back of the kitchen. I must admit, despite my apprehension, I felt a bit of curiosity. As far as I knew I did nothing to piss someone off this much since I returned almost a month ago. If anything, I liven up the economy quite a bit. Losing or spending almost 2 thousand dollars, I doubt the last few visitors together managed that.
I started down the stairs trying to seem relaxed with my thumbs behind the belt, hiding with the remainder of my palm that the revolver was already cocked. I first saw shoes with silver spurs, strangely familiar but they didn''t bring a face I was down on the first landing now seeing a rotund figure in a black suit with a shoelace bowtie, but still no face. Though I saw a double-barrel shotgun pointed at my back. Large sonovabitch, for bears or buffaloes. That thing didn''t kill anything smaller than a Human before. I felt the hair on the back of my head stand up and I almost involuntary stopped. Both barrels were cocked, that thing couldn''t shoot magic ammo but it did not need to. It would rip me in half if I allowed it to shoot. Once he realized I saw him he gripped his weapon tighter and I tried to remember to say goodbye to someone before it went off, planning as the last gambit to jump over the handrail and duck behind the counter. Then he spoke and I remember that dumbasses aren''t always 100% bad. They like to gloat when they think they have all the cards.
Shock, anger, shame, disbelief. And with every, his face got redder and redder until his head looked more like a tomato. He rattled something in German that I didn''t understand before returning back to English.
That somehow angered him more.
The explosion was something to behold, the damn shotgun was big as it is, but Manfred used some special slugs with an impressive kick, and even Paddy, who expected something similar, barely ducked behind his bar to avoid flying pieces of metal. I descended the remainder of the stairs and tried to shake off copious amounts of smoke this kicked off. When it finally cleared enough to see Manfred again it was one of the grizzlier wounds I saw in a while. Both of his hands were missing almost to the elbows, and his nose and half of his cheeks were gone, somehow one hammer remained intact firmly lodged in Manfred''s eye, and his entire torso was covered with lacerations of various sizes. And he was squealing the entire time. Half in German, half in English When he saw me he yelled,
Both of us knew that was a monumental lie. Paddy even after all of this will be among the three richest people in the town. But we played the game. I smiled
My reply made him stop wiping
Wellington was small, Hell that was the reason most...dubiously reputable people came here. No Sheriff, no jail, as the law goes it depended on Marshals to swing by from time to time while crossing to one of the larger cities and do their job, but most time...issues were solved
As far as I was concerned then, were just different sides of the same coin. One will use you as the blood bag, or turn you. Simple enough. Nothing like that with Lamias, they would drink your life force, without even touching you. Until you are just dead. No wounds or something, just dead. Also no lucky “turning” break. Lamias actually gave birth, VERY rarely, I''m not a pro but smarter than me hypothesized part of the life force they took would store in a special organ of which they had control (so no stupid allowed), and eventually they would get
That''s why Anne was so pissed, killing 3 Lamias could easily be 1000 years of wasted time. I did wonder how old was she, and the possibility that one of the three was her daughter. Also, the reason I figured it was best was just to book it to the stables and fucking leave. Yet I did neither. After my lengthy stay outside I sighed and decided maybe while I still have above 40 gold to visit Khyon first. Vageully registering the workforce behind me beginning to clean the muck up. Then I was greeted almost cheerfully.
Vulture was an Elf, but they keep themselves more separated than Humans do, and as acceptance goes his kind was at the lowest rung, I saw cities where they kill them on sight. I admit I had no idea what his name was, like all Elves it was complicated, but Vultures kind of placed some extra effort into it. They arrived at the same time as other Elves and Dwarves, they even came from below as Dwarves, but finding people that hate them more than the two mentioned above would be hard. He was always cool to me, so I did not really care. I shrugged
I returned the half grin
I never considered him a friend, we drank a few times together talking nonsense. But I never considered how that looked from his side, by his nick alone it was obvious he was ostracized. For him, I might be the closest thing he had to a friend, it did not feel pleasant to think about it like that. I, for the second time today, shook the line of thought from my mind and moved. Before meeting Vulture I was certain I''ll go to Khyon first but my legs somehow automatically took me to
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