Ezekiel, upon spotting the Fallen Goddess Mia, suddenly walked up to her table and asked, "What are you doing here?" Mia then looked up, startled by someone asking her that. When she realized that it was Ezekiel who asked her the question, she immediately got up from the table in surprise and asked, "S-Sidekick! W-W-What are YOU doing here?! Y-Your presence is a disgrace in front of the Fallen Goddess Mia!" Ezekiel sighed, saying, "Again, I'm not a sidekick, dammit! I work and live here!" Mia, still surprised, was about to cast a spell to attack Ezekiel until Ezekiel stopped her, saying, "Not in here, okay? When you come here, I'll consider you a customer, and you can consider me an employee of The Crimson Tankard Inn. Feel free to attack me anywhere else but here. Can we agree on a truce like that?" Mia looked around, seeing that the customers around them had their eyes on both of them causing a scene. Due to this, Mia seemed to calm down a little bit but was still wary of Ezekiel. Mia then said, "I-I suppose the Fallen Goddess will accept these terms! Be grateful that I don't smite you where you stand!" Can she even do that? I don't think she can, thought Ezekiel. Mia took a seat at the table and said, "S-Slave! Bring me your finest steak! I hear this place has steaks that are fitting for a goddess like me!" Ezekiel decided to humor her, saying, "If you say so, Fallen Goddess." Ezekiel then began cooking up his normal Lad Steak, but then made it into a kid's version of it, since to Ezekiel, she didn't seem like the type to eat very much. Ezekiel then brought out the steak, saying, "Here you are, Fallen Goddess. One mini Lad Steak made by me." Mia then looked at Ezekiel with intense suspicion, asking, "You didn't poison it, did you? Or spit in it? Or anything like that?" Ezekiel said, "Hell no. We might be enemies, but I'd never disgrace my own cooking like that." Mia still didn't look satisfied with Ezekiel's answer, and Ezekiel sighed, saying, "Do you want me to take a bite of it to prove nothing is in it?" Mia exclaimed, "N-No! I don't want your slave germs on my steak!" Mia then looked at her steak, still hesitant to eat it. However, she ultimately decided to dig into the steak. One bite of the steak, and her eyes lit up with joy at the flavor of the steak. Ezekiel smiled to himself, and Mia said, "I-I hate to say it, but the Fallen Goddess must praise you for making such a steak! Even if we are enemies, I acknowledge your cooking skills!" Ezekiel laughed, saying, "It's an honor, Fallen Goddess. You know, you're actually pretty nice when you want to be." Mia's face then changed to something more innocent-looking as she said, "I-I'm not nice! I'm the evilest person I know! I'm even a black magic user for that matter!" Ezekiel smiled to himself, saying, "If you say so, Fallen Goddess." Ezekiel then asked a question that he'd been wondering about for a little bit now, asking, "Are you really a goddess, Mia?" Mia looked at Ezekiel, saying, "Of course! I'm a Fallen Goddess! I got kicked out of the Heavens and now I wander around here for eternity!" Ezekiel then said, "Are you sure you're not another mortal human like me?" Mia then exclaimed, "Insolent human! How dare you compare the immortal Fallen Goddess Mia to some scummy human like you!?" Ezekiel threw up his hands in defense, saying, "Sorry if I offended you, but I just had to ask." Mia then said, "Hmph! Why do I even bother wasting my time talking to someone like you, who is an enemy and another mortal human?" With that, Mia quickly ate her steak and said, "Our battle still isn't over! Y-Your steak might be good, but that doesn't mean we're friends!" Mia then left her payment on the table and stormed out of The Crimson Tankard Inn. Someone was laughing loudly behind Ezekiel, and he saw Whiskey laughing once he turned around. Whiskey then said, "Lad, you bring in the most interesting customers!" Ezekiel sighed, hating that Whiskey was telling the truth about that.
Another interesting customer had also entered The Crimson Tankard Inn right after Mia left, and it was none other than Bear, who seemed to be in a slightly better mood than he was earlier today. Bear noticed Ezekiel and said, "Little bro, I fixed up my axe!" Ezekiel then went over to where Bear was, and they both took a seat at an open table. Bear then set his axe on the table and said, "Well, what do you think?" Upon closer inspection, Ezekiel saw that the axe handle was in the shape of a fireman's axe handle, still looking rather rustic and rugged. However, besides that, Ezekiel couldn't really see anything new with it. Ezekiel said, "It looks good, but is there anything special about it now?" Bear smirked, saying, "Funny you ask, little bro. There IS something special about it! Take a look at the bottom of it." Ezekiel then looked at the bottom of the axe, now realizing that there was a strange scaly circle at the bottom of the axe. Bear proudly said, "I inserted a metal rod inside of the axe handle! Now if some fucker like Tokuda tries to cut my axe handle in half like he did earlier today, the metal rod will stop it! But that's not all!" Bear, with a smile, said, "I had Murdan attach Suko's dragon scales to make the rod even harder! Now no matter how hard someone swings, they'll never be able to cut through the axe handle!" Ezekiel nodded, not sure if he should be impressed with the fact that Bear did this on his own or be worried that Bear is turning his grudge against Tokuda into something like this. Ezekiel then asked, "How the hell did you get Suko to offer up some of his scales, though?" Bear then said, "Would you like to hear the story, little bro?" Ezekiel shrugged, saying, "Sure, why not? I've got time to kill." Bear then told his story.
After Ezekiel, Rina, Aqua, and Tokuda left to help Murdan with his problem, Bear was at his house, thinking of a way to improve his axe handle. That son of a bitch easily cut through my axe handle, so how do I prevent that from happening again, thought Bear, who was irritated by the fact that Tokuda put him in this position in the first place. Bear then looked at his axe head, which was made of metal. Suddenly, Bear had an idea, which led him to the blacksmithing camp to look for Murdan. Once Bear found Murdan, he asked, "Hey, old man, think you could make me a thin metal rod that can fit in my new axe handle?" Murdan looked very worn out, as he used up a lot of his energy to make the katana. Murdan then said, "Youngin', I'm so damn tired that I can't even lift the lightest of my hammers right now. Ask someone else to do it for ya." Bear then said, "I came to you since I know that you'd do the best job. Don't leave me hanging like this, old man." Murdan sighed, thought about it for a moment, then said, "Fine, but you owe me for this later, youngin'. Give me about 30 minutes to make yer metal rod." Bear smiled, then said, "I knew I could count on you, Murdan!" Soon, Murdan made the metal rod and gave it to Bear. Bear liked the metal rod, but he wanted to be absolutely sure that it was strong enough so Tokuda wouldn't ever be able to slice through it. Bear thought about it, but he wasn't as good as Ezekiel was with coming up with science stuff to make it stronger. However, he then remembered a certain someone that could harden themselves using dragon scales.
Bear set out to find Suko, and his suspicions of his whereabouts were confirmed, as Suko was walking around, hitting on any girl he could find. Bear pulled Suko to the side, and Suko exclaimed, "Bear, what the hell are you doing! I'm trying to snag myself a cutie right now!" Bear then said, "Listen, I need you for more important things than trying to find yourself a girl! Bros before hoes, dammit!" Suko scoffed, saying, "And what could be so important that you had to interrupt my session of hitting on some fine babes?" Bear responded, "I need to borrow some of your scales." Suko looked confused, saying, "What scales?" Bear then said, "You know, when you harden yourself, you change into dragon scales, right? Mind if I take a few of them for something I'm working on?" Suko then said, "I don't think you understand how it works. If you take my dragon scales, it's like literally peeling my skin." Bear then said, "It can't be that bad, can it?" Suko then said, "I tried to sell my own dragon scales to make a quick profit, and I pried off my own scales and that hurt like a bitch." Bear then said, "Ah, so you've done this before? Then help a brother out!" Suko then said, "What's in it for me?" Bear thought for a moment, thinking of what Suko would like, then landed on his answer and said, "I'll set up a date with you and someone of your choosing." Suko's nose then began to bleed, and a perverted smile came across his face. Suko then said, "Oh ho, I like it. If that's the case, then I want to go on a date with Zoey! I've always wanted to try being with a catgirl!" Bear winded up his fist and punched Suko, saying, "Nope. She's off-limits to a perverted motherfucker like you." Suko, who collapsed on the ground momentarily, said, "No Zoey, no deal!" Bear sighed then said, "Fine. What about that blonde elf girl, Rina? I know that she's your type." Suko, still face down on the ground, was suddenly surrounded by a pool of his own blood since his nose began bleeding in extreme amounts, exclaimed, "DEAL! Do that for me, and you'll be my favorite person for life! Except for Rina of course. She's number one to me. My ideal waifu, and if you ever talk shit about my waifu, I'll fucking kill you." Bear held up his hands, saying, "Alright, we got a deal then." Suko then got up off the ground and shook hands with Bear, sealing the deal.
The two of them then immediately headed to the blacksmithing camp and found Murdan taking a nap. Bear then shouted, "Wake the fuck up, old man!" Murdan, startled, fell out of his small bed, shouting, "What the fuck do ya want, youngin'!? It better be worth waking me up from my goddamn nap!" Bear then asked, "Can you attach dragon scales onto the metal rod you made for me earlier?" Murdan scratched his head and said, "I suppose I could. Do you have the dragon scales with you?" Bear then said, "We're gonna pry them off of this guy!" Bear pointed at Suko, who nervously gulped. Bear grinned and said, "Listen, man, it's for the date with Rina!" Suko's nervousness disappeared and he was instead ready to go, exclaiming, "Let's do this!" After Suko hardened his arm, Murdan, using various tools, proceeded to take off scales from Suko. Lots of screaming in pain later, Murdan finally collected the necessary amount of scales to cover the rod in. Murdan, using the stickiness of the membrane underneath the dragon scales, put the dragon scales all over the rod and heated it up a little bit to make the membrane of the dragon scales harden and stick to the rod. When finished, Murdan handed him the dragon scale rod. Bear inspected it, and it was well-made. Bear then said, "Hey, Suko, I'm actually gonna add this into my axe handle. In a way, I'd like to think of it as a token of our friendship and our special bond." Suko, who was holding his arm in pain, said, "Sure, sure. Do what you want with it. As long as you can convince Rina to go on a date with me, all is well." Bear smiled and said, "I got you, brother! Don't even worry!" With that, Bear then headed back to his place, dragon scale rod in hand.
Bear finished off his story, saying, "And I built my axe handle with the dragon scale rod inside of it, which leads us to where we are now." Ezekiel nodded, impressed that Bear thought of that himself. Ezekiel said, "That's pretty good!" Bear then grabbed his axe and stood up from the table, saying, "Well, that's all I really wanted to show you. I gotta go keep my end of my promise that I made with Suko and convince Rina to go on a date with him. By the way, have you seen her around at all?" Ezekiel thought for a moment before saying, "I haven't, but I know that she rented out a room here that should be close to mine. Maybe check upstairs for her?" Bear said, "I'll check up there then. If she isn't and you find her somewhere, let me know." Ezekiel nodded, and Bear went to go find Rina on the second floor of The Crimson Tankard Inn.
Once upstairs, Bear then took a chance and knocked on the door that was next to Ezekiel's. After a moment, the door slightly opened, and Rina poked her head out of the door a little bit. Bear sighed, relieved that he guessed right. Rina asked, "Bear? What do you want?" Bear then said, "Listen, I need you to go on a date with Suko." Rina looked dumbfounded, asking, "What did you say?" Bear then said, "I kind of promised Suko I would if he helped me out with my axe. I'll even pay you to do it! It's just one date! Please!" Rina then slammed the door, shouting, "No!" Bear then pounded on the door, saying, "Name your price! What do you want?!" Rina then shouted, "Go away, Bear!" Bear stopped pounding on the door and scratched his head, realizing that keeping his end of the promise would be rather hard to do. Bear then said, "Can I at least come inside to negotiate?" Bear didn't get a response for what felt like a while until the door slowly opened, with Rina's full-body now in view. Rina looked at Bear and said, "Fine." Bear then happily made his way inside Rina's room and took a seat on the floor. Rina took a seat on her bed and said, "If you really want me to go on a date with Suko, then you need to trust me." Bear raised his eyebrow, asking, "What do you mean?" Rina then said, "I know that some of you don't exactly trust me after what I did, and I don't blame any of you for it. But please, trust me. I'm loyal to you all and would never betray your trust. So, please trust me, and try to convince the others if you can." Bear asked, "That's it? Just trust you?" Rina nodded in reply. Bear smiled, stood up, and extended his hand, saying, "We got ourselves a deal then!"
Rina shook his hand, and Bear was about to leave until he remembered to ask Rina about something. Bear said, "I honestly had no idea that the elves were also affected by the Humanity War." Rina looked a little grim, saying, "No one knew, except for the humans and the elves, of course. Demi-humans weren't the only ones badly affected by that war." Bear then sat back down on the floor, saying, "It's tough times for our races nowadays. Sure, not all humans are bad, but why does something like this even exist in the first place?" Bear then found himself thinking back on what Ezekiel had told him a while ago: Well, I personally believe slavery just isn't right. It's honestly pretty stupid. I just don't see the point of enslaving someone when you could just as easily work together to do something, but some people are just too stubborn about being 'the top race' to see that. Bear then smiled to himself, saying, "Does being the 'top race' really matter that much? Is that all it is? Just humans attempting to prove their dominance?" Rina sighed, saying, "It's quite possible. I'm not surprised that they moved from the demi-humans to the elves in the manner that they did." Rina then looked at Bear, saying, "In full honesty, I'm worried about the future of all races. Who knows what will happen?" Bear then looked at Rina and said, "Well, if humans do come to attack you, you've got at least one demi-human to watch your back. If you can't trust anyone else, you can damn sure trust someone who's fallen about as hard as you have." Bear then smiled brightly, saying, "You've also got other friends that'll help you out, despite them being human. They may not all trust you at the moment, but they may come around once they see you have their backs." Bear then got up, and before he left the room, he said, "Not all humans are bad, Rina. I learned that the hard way, and I'm grateful to have ended up where I am now. But if you still can't come to trust humans in the way that I have, just know that you've got a demi-human's shoulder to lean on." Bear then closed the door, leaving Rina to ponder what Bear had said.
Bear then headed downstairs and saw that Ezekiel was still there, sitting at the same table. Suddenly, a drunk Suko appeared at The Crimson Tankard Inn and took a seat next to Ezekiel. As he sat down, Suko spotted Bear and started to say, "Hey, Bear, were you able to set up that da-" until Bear quickly ran up to him and covered Suko's mouth and said, "Hey, little bro. Do you mind if I talk to Suko in private? I gotta sort out some stuff with him really quickly." Ezekiel was confused, but he said, "Alright, I guess," and headed back into the kitchen. Bear then uncovered Suko's mouth, and Suko exclaimed, "The fuck was that for?!" Bear then said, "Keep your voice down, dumbass! In short, she agreed to go on a date with you." Suko then asked, "Wait, she agreed?" Bear then said, "Yeah, she wants me to try to convince the others to trust her, although she may have to show that she can be trustworthy." Suko then said, "Oh, I see. I trusted her from the start, so all is well." Bear then said, "So for now, keep your mouth shut about that, and I'll take you to Rina so we can figure this whole thing out." A few minutes later, Ezekiel came back to the table, and Bear and Suko made a beeline for the second floor of The Crimson Tankard Inn.
Once on the second floor, Bear then knocked on the door to Rina's room, and Rina slowly opened the door. Bear then pushed Suko into the room and said, "Now, you two, figure out what you want to do." Suko started sniffing around and going through Rina's drawers containing clothing and underwear. Suko's nose started to bleed as he said, "It like a paradise in here. I've never been in a girl's room before." Rina felt extremely uncomfortable around Suko, but Bear kept his end of the bargain, so now it was time to keep hers. Rina then asked, "So, uh, Suko? When and where do you want to do the date?" Suko then said, "Tonight, I can just come to your room, and I know a way or two we can have fun in here-" but Bear immediately punched Suko, saying, "That's off-limits. Do something normal, dammit!" Suko held his head in the spot that Bear punched, saying, "But that's pretty normal for a guy and girl who are gonna be alone together, right?!" Bear then said, "You horny asshole, think about her feelings! You think she's just gonna fuck around with someone she hasn't even gotten to fully know yet?" Suko held up his hands and said, "Fine, fine, we'll do something NORMAL since you won't let us have fun the way I want to. How about grabbing some food somewhere? I'll pay, of course." Rina then said, "T-That's fine. Where are we eating, though?" Suko then said, "While I've been, uh, scouting for booty in the town, I ran across some rather nice places. There's one place that sells high-grade meats, a place that has imported sweets from other countries, and-" Rina immediately said, "The sweets place. Let's go there!" Rina never truly had the opportunity to try human sweets, so she decided this would be her opportunity to try some out. Suko chuckled, saying, "Alright! We'll go there for tomorrow's lunch then! Meet me outside of The Crimson Tankard Inn!" Rina nodded, and with that out of the way, Bear and Suko left, leaving Rina to contemplate what she had really gotten herself into.
Outside in the hallway, Suko started breathing heavily, saying, "It doesn't smell like Heaven out here. I need to go back to her room!" Bear quickly grabbed Suko before he could make a dash to Rina's door, saying, "Listen, man, take this date seriously. You've finally got your chance with the elf of your dreams, so don't you fuck it up." Suko then realized that Bear had a point, and Suko calmed himself down. Bear then let go of Suko, and Suko said, "Alrighty then, guess I better go get ready for tomorrow then!" Bear and Suko then left The Crimson Tankard Inn.
Ezekiel, done with his sift for the night, closed The Crimson Tankard Inn, realizing just how late it was. Ezekiel was truly exhausted from the events that occurred. A lot of things happened today, many of them unexpected, so once Ezekiel got back to his room, he immediately fell asleep.113Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgXKBzKty9K
