Chapter 61: The Red Eyed Crow
The elderly lady who was standing behind the counter and was dressed in a light pink dress with wrinkles showing her age was taken aback, not by the amount of money, but by something else.
She muttered, "Oh my, I never knew ogres could talk, much less barter with coins."
Sensing the unease in the old lady\'s reaction, Todd responded, "I come from a land far away where we value education for our common men and women. I do apologize for those who may have painted me in a bad light."
With shock still covering the old lady\'s face, she hunched over to adjust her short, speckled glasses in order to get a better look at the ogre. Once she was done, she couldn\'t help but utter with astonishment, "You even have a warm smile, and your eyes don\'t look crazed."
Diplomatically, Todd reassured her, "No need to apologize for your earlier comments about my people. In truth, they aren\'t really my people, even if we do share some similarities. I am my own person." After saying that, he placed his fist over his chest, signifying his individuality.
The old woman returned Todd\'s warm smile, taking the few gold coins he had placed on the table and said, "Well, I\'m glad to hear that, young man. But, oh, I\'m afraid this is too much. This is enough to cover the cost of four days."
Todd waved away her concern, saying, "That\'s fine with us. In case we need to stay a few extra days, you can hold onto it." He then accepted the room key she passed to him and gestured for Nana and Ty to follow as they headed down the hall, bidding the old woman a good night.
The old woman couldn\'t help but ponder about the arrival of this odd group of people at such late night. Nonetheless, she opened a book and immersed herself in its stories.
As they settled into their room, Ty asked Nana, "So, did Kirana set you up with those coins as well?"
Nana nodded as she replied while rolling her eyes as if stating a matter of fact, "Of course. I don\'t think they\'d just send us here without any idea of how things work here, right?"
Feeling a bit conflicted, Ty stated, "I was sent down to Planet Alexira with nothing except Elithira, and I even lost her within the first hour." He playfully sulked as they entered their room.
Pushing the door open, the room appeared pretty standard according to Ty, like something you\'d find in a normal high-level hotel.
It was furnished with a large bed and a stove, which surprised and confused both Nana and Todd since they had never seen such a metallic object before.
Todd walked up to the stove and asked, "What is this? Some type of food storage?"
After letting out a light chuckle, Ty explained, "No, it\'s a stove. I\'m also surprised to find that another world would have one, but maybe it\'s not that surprising, given how simple it is for a modern society. A world filled with magic might be able to come up with these things faster."
"You use it to cook food and other items. Did you not see any of these while I was knocked out for a month?" Ty inquired.
Shaking his head, Todd explained, "We never really watched anyone cook. Most of the time we were busy running errands for the Demon King or would spend our entire days in the training hall, at least that was for me. I went many days without seeing Nana, as she was sort of the Demon King\'s secretary," he added with a small chuckle.
Choosing to ignore the comment, Nana climbed onto the bed, expressing her fatigue and reluctance to argue with them.
Giving a hearty laugh, Todd endorsed Nana\'s decision and exclaimed, "Now that\'s a good idea!"
Saying that he jumped and flopped onto the bed, inadvertently sending Nana flying across the room.
Just when she was about to have some peace, Nana found herself to be Nana suddenly smacked into the wall, before bouncing off, tumbling onto the nearby couch and finally ending up on the ground.
"Sorry about that Nana, are you okay?" Todd called out with a forced smile on his face, having not expected that something like this might happen.
Nana responded with a small groan of discomfort.
"You suck," she muttered before climbing onto the couch.
"Ahh, how cushy is this sofa," she commented before quickly falling asleep followed by a light snore.
"Getting some sleep will do us some good; I think we will have a long day tomorrow," Ty suggested.
"You go ahead and get some sleep, Todd. I\'m going to do some research on these papers," Ty continued.
"Sure thing, buddy. I\'ll be dreaming about toothpicks," Todd agreed with a playful smile, zoning out before dozing off and starting to snore after a few moments.
After about 20 minutes of reading through the notes, Ty found an interesting tidbit of details.
It stated that when someone from this world died, their weapons would be left behind, often placed at their grave or, if the weapon was powerful enough, in a vault.
However, only the original wielder could actually use the weapon.
As a result, there were often hundreds upon hundreds of weapons that remained without any wielders, which eventually became scrap metal for armors and other equipment.
Around 400 years ago, a scholar had taken this melting of old blades a step further.
He managed to harness the elemental effects within these weapons and started binding them to armor sets. As a result, on certain rare occasions, the wielders of these forged armors could have flame resistance or could turn out to be incredibly lightweight if it was embedded with wind energy.
Flipping through more papers with Todd\'s snoring growing louder in the background, feeling his eyes getting heavy, Ty slammed the paper shut and thought to himself, "Maybe some fresh air will do good before I try to get some rest."
Thinking that, he grabbed the key and headed out while his two companions were lost in their snoring.
Walking back down the hall, Ty noticed that the clock above the innkeeper was showing 11:10 PM and gave her a light wave. "Just going to head out for a little stroll. By the way, are there any good shops around here to visit?"
The woman put her book down, before directing her attention toward Ty and nodded before recommending, "Yes, there are, about three blocks north along the dirt walkway, there is a small store that sells all kinds of assorted goods."
"However, if you do go there, can you get me some cold water?" the woman requested.
"Sure, I\'ll see what I can do," Ty responded before heading out of the inn door and waving her off.
As he stepped outside, Ty noticed a crow and upon a clear look came to a conclusion that it was the same crow from earlier which had been watching him intently.
Frustrated, he shouted at the creature, "Sir, you can stop watching me all the time. Don\'t you have anything better to do?"
A moment later the crow vanished, and a voice was heard from his back.
"It\'s always my business to keep an eye on suspicious folks who are roaming around my town!" the voice said.