"You have a purpose in this world, Ezekiel," said a familiar-sounding female voice, sounding distant and quiet.
A 10-year old Ezekiel was sitting on the floor of his bedroom. To his right, there was a physics book, opened to a page about electricity and currents, as well as the formula for Ohm's law written out. To his left, he had a voltmeter that he grabbed from downstairs, with the number 120 as the last reading on it. Electronic parts were scattered about in front of him, all hooked together in a simple series circuit. Copper wires encased in insulated protection were attached to an old car battery his father gave to him. The wires were fitted on both the positive and negative sides, and starting from the left, one copper wire went from the positive side of the battery to a small circuit resistor that would be used. The wire then made its way around to a light bulb. One wire on the negative side of the battery was attached directly to the light bulb, and the light bulb was currently lit due to the circuit functioning properly. Ezekiel was writing down notes about the circuit, and he was so absorbed in thought that he did not notice an eyeball peeking through the open crack of his bedroom door.
Ezekiel's father was peeking into the room, seeing what his curious son was doing as an experiment today. He chuckled silently to himself, seeing that his son was doing an experiment with electricity and circuit making. His wife would always say that his passion for science was genetically passed onto Ezekiel, and sometimes he thought that she might be right. Ezekiel's father entered the room, interrupting Ezekiel's train of thought. "A series circuit experiment, huh," asked Ezekiel's father. Ezekiel replied, "I wanted to learn how the flow of electricity works, and how resistance affects it." Ezekiel's father laughed and said, "Big words for a little man! I'll test you. Can you tell me why you used copper wire?" "Copper wire is very good for electricity, and you can bend it easily to shape it how you want it to," replied Ezekiel. Ezekiel's father smiled and patted him on the head, then said, "Good! Very good. If it's good for electricity, we say it's 'conductible'. If we can bend it easily, we say that it's 'malleable.'" Ezekiel's father noticed Ezekiel's open textbook and saw Ohm's law and the formula for it, and realized that Ezekiel was attempting to find the current of the circuit, but noticed he was having a little trouble. Ezekiel's father knew that kids his age wouldn't be taught algebra, so Ezekiel did not know that there is a way to rewrite the formula. Ezekiel's father decided he was smart enough to learn a basic concept of algebra: rearranging a formula to find a missing variable. Ezekiel's father asked, "Ohm's law states that you can find the voltage of a current by multiplying current and resistance. What if I told you that you could use some special magic that allowed you to move the numbers around to help you find current?" Ezekiel's eyes widened, and exclaimed, "Show me the magic!" Ezekiel's father grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil and wrote down Ohm's law: V = IR. "This is Ohm's law, directly from your textbook," said Ezekiel's father, as he motioned over to the open textbook beside Ezekiel. "You know that the V stands for voltage, the I stands for current, and the R stands for resistance." Ezekiel's father noticed that Ezekiel had a chart to find out how much resistance a resistor had based on the colors it had, as well as noticed the reading of the voltmeter. "I see that you know two of the variables, which are resistance and voltage. Let me show you how we can set up the formula to find current." Ezekiel's dad proceeded to divide the R into both sides of the formula, having it look like V/R = IR/R before removing the unnecessary R's on the right side of the equation. This resulted in an equation to find current: V/R = I. "Now you should be able to find current. Do you understand what I did? I simply moved the R over to the other side of the equation by dividing," explained Ezekiel's father. "I see. Let me try something," said Ezekiel, who proceeded to figure out that he could find resistance by rearranging the formula of V/R = I to R = V/I. "You got it, champ. You'll probably learn this trick more in school later on, but now you know how to find current," said Ezekiel's father, getting up to leave the room. Ezekiel's father looked down at Ezekiel and smiled, saying, "Try everything. Learn everything. Someday, you might be someone making things to help others." Ezekiel's mother suddenly shouted from down the hallway, "Dinner is ready!" Ezekiel's father turned towards the door but then turned back to Ezekiel. He kneeled down in front of Ezekiel and patted his head a couple of times. "You're doing good, champ. Keep doing what you're doing," said Ezekiel's father with a smile, before standing back up and leaving the room. Ezekiel stood there, smiling at what his father told him, put down his notes, and left the room. On the piece of paper that he put down was a circled number that was labeled as "the current of the circuit."
Ezekiel slowly opened his eyes, unsure of how long he had slept for. He was unsure of the time that it was, so he looked out the window and noticed that it was still dark outside, assuming it was fairly early in the morning. If he had to estimate, he believed it was around 5:00 or 6:00 AM. It would be nice if I had a clock right now. It also would be nice if I had a light bulb to flip on so I could actually see in this room as well, thought Ezekiel, as he stumbled around in the darkness. He suddenly recalled the strange dream that he had. He remembered that moment in time, although it was years ago since he performed that circuit experiment. Thinking about the dream even more, there were two sentences that he remembered clearly: the strange voice saying, "You have a purpose in this world, Ezekiel," and what his father had told him, "Try everything. Learn everything. Someday, you might be someone making things to help others." As if a light bulb had actually flipped on inside his head, Ezekiel made a connection that he hadn't thought of before. I retained all my knowledge of the previous world. I'm living in a strange new world that is not as developed as my world is. Even the old man didn't know what I meant by a medium-well steak, thought Ezekiel. Ezekiel quietly asked himself, "Is my purpose to use my knowledge to do something in this world?" Ezekiel quietly stood in place, pondering this question for a minute. After thinking it over, he decided that this would be his starting point to find his true purpose for being here: advancing society through scientific means. He was unable to make a mark on the world in his old life, so this new life that he was granted will not go to waste. Feeling determined, he opened up his "Book of Knowledge," as he decided to give the book a proper title to reference it by, to learn about this new world more in-depth. He did not have ample time to study this world properly, but he now felt like he had plenty of time.
Ezekiel decided to look through his book and make a list of similarities and differences between the raw materials of this world and his old world. By doing this, he could figure out if there is anything missing that he would need in order to build something, as well as use possible substitutes from this world if anything from his world is missing. He already knew that copper, silver, and gold were the same as his old world due to the coins he had received yesterday, so he was looking for any similarities like that. After making his list, he thought about what all he could make. I could make a clock, but it would have to be a big clock, and I'd have to get the materials to make it. A light bulb might be doable, but that might take a while in order to get the materials for it, and what about powering it? The bulb could be powered by electricity made from magic, but I want a source of power that doesn't rely on mana, thought Ezekiel. He sighed to himself, realizing just how much work it would actually be to achieve this goal. However, Ezekiel, feeling pretty good that he at least had a long-term goal in mind, realized the sun was coming up. He noticed that there was a strange smell in his room since he woke up, but soon realized that the smell was coming from him. Good God, I smell like ass, thought Ezekiel, wondering when the last time he smelled this bad was. He figured that it might be for the best to go take a bath before his first day of work began.
Ezekiel remembered a sign above the front desk that read, "Public bath open behind the inn," so he decided to go give it a look. Ezekiel walked out to the back of the inn, and sure enough, there was a small public bath shack behind the inn. Ezekiel walked in and saw that there were two doors labeled as "Men" and "Women." It's a separated bath, thought Ezekiel. On Ezekiel's left, there was a man sleeping with his head on a table. A sign behind him read, "Public bath usage: 2 copper coins." Ezekiel gently set 2 copper coins on the table, being careful not to wake the sleeping man. He then grabbed a long and large piece of cloth that Ezekiel assumed to be this world's version of a towel, and went through the door labeled "Men." Ezekiel realized that the bath was actually a natural hot spring, and lucky for him, he had it all to himself. A large wooden wall divided the spring in half, in which one half was for men and the other half was for women. Ezekiel got in without a second thought, and the warmth of the bath helped him to instantly relax. Ezekiel also noticed that no soap was provided, although they could possibly sell soap in shops. Soap could be something that I might have to make, and it would be very beneficial, thought Ezekiel. After spending about 5 quick minutes in the hot spring, Ezekiel hopped out, dried himself off with the large cloth, and felt much better in terms of cleanliness, as well as get rid of any fatigue he felt before. Ezekiel put on his clothes, dropped the wet cloth in a barrel of other wet towels, and walked back to the inn.
Ezekiel found it a little annoying that there was no backdoor that would lead directly to the public bath, and he considered asking Whiskey to install a door that would make that possible. He rounded the corner to where the front door of the inn was and found himself almost running into a small girl in blue robes, blue hair, and brown eyes. Ezekiel was a little surprised, so he instinctively stepped back a bit, while the girl yelped quietly in surprise. "Hello," said Ezekiel with a smile, attempting to ease the situation. The girl blushed extremely bright red and looked down at her feet. Ezekiel was a little confused and apologized for almost running into her. The girl appeared to be blushing even more than before. "I-I-It's okay..." said the girl, in an extremely quiet voice. Ezekiel thought she looked pretty familiar, then it hit Ezekiel, so he said "Oh, you're the girl that I saw yesterday at the magic shop!" The girl just nodded nervously in reply. Ezekiel asked, "What's your name?" The girl, after a brief moment, nervously replied in a quiet tone, "M-M-My name is A-Aqua." Aqua, huh? With the blue clothing and blue hair, that name actually kind of makes sense, thought Ezekiel. Aqua looked up at Ezekiel but immediately looked back down at her feet, still blushing brightly. Ezekiel looked down, and realized that there was a brown sack at her feet, and poking out of the top of the bag was the new shoes that he bought. With a smile, Ezekiel asked, "Are those my clothes?" Aqua nervously replied, "Y-Y-Yes." Ezekiel laughed and said, "I completely forgot that I didn't take them home with me yesterday! How did you find them?" Aqua blushed even more, saying quietly, "A-After you left the s-shop yesterday, my m-m-master wanted to give y-you a healing potion as a g-gift. S-S-So I ran after y-you, b-but I couldn't f-find you, but I-I saw y-your clothes in a bag since y-you had it in the shop, and I-I, uh, uh... h-held onto them s-so I could give them back. L-Let me give y-you the healing potion n-now!" Without looking up, Aqua quickly retrieved the healing potion, but she was so nervous, she pulled out the potion a bit too fast and started fumbling with it. Ezekiel reacted on instinct, quickly moving forward to catch the potion from falling. Ezekiel's hands met with Aqua's hands due to both of them now grabbing the potion. Ezekiel sighed in relief, while Aqua, immensely focused on the fact that she was touching Ezekiel, was now blushing redder than a tomato as her nervousness shot through the roof. Ezekiel looked at her with a kind smile, saying, "You should be more careful!" Aqua, still blushing bright red, looked at Ezekiel with admiration. The moment was interrupted was Whiskey stepping outside to change the sign hanging on the door from "Closed" to "Open." He saw Ezekiel and Aqua standing there, both of them holding onto the potion, then laughed like he was an evil villain that would spend forever telling you his plan and then wondering why his plans were foiled by the hero. Then, Whiskey smirked and said, "Listen, lad, you got work here soon. Make your love fest quick then get inside!" Ezekiel just laughed, saying, "Aye, boss! I'll be inside in a bit!" Ezekiel suddenly felt Aqua's hands slip away from the potion, looking very timid and blushing bright red still. Aqua, surprised at Whiskey's comment, began talking to herself in a whisper, saying, "L-L-Love fest?" Ezekiel, who didn't hear her well and thinking she was talking to him, asked, "What did you say?" Aqua was now surprised, thinking that Ezekiel couldn't hear her, so in order to hide what she said, she quickly said, "N-N-Nothing!" Ezekiel had one last question before finally heading inside. "Oh, Aqua, how did you know where I was working at?" Aqua nervously replied, "I-I, uh, I was here y-yesterday at the same time y-you were, and h-happened to o-overhear your conversation with Whiskey..." Her voice trailed off. Ezekiel, with a smile, simply said, "I see! Well, today is my first day, and I'll be a cook, so if you want something made by me, feel free to drop by at anytime today! Oh, also, my name is Ezekiel Clark." Aqua looked at Ezekiel with admiration, and gave Ezekiel a big smile while still blushing, saying, "O-Okay! I-I'll drop by, E-Ezekiel!" With that, Aqua hurried off. Aqua seems nice, but she sure could loosen up a bit. I'm not that scary, am I, thought Ezekiel. He put away his new healing potion, grabbed his bag of clothes with his hands, and headed on inside to begin his first day as a cook.
Since there was about an hour before they officially opened for the morning, Whiskey was interested in seeing what Ezekiel could do with two chunks of steak meat that were already oiled and seasoned. "Can you show me what you were describing when you said those strange steak terms," asked a very curious Whiskey. Ezekiel nodded and proceeded to inspect the fire-fueled brick ovens. On the inside, it appeared to work in a similar fashion as a normal oven, with fire surrounding the area where you place the food that would be cooked. The oven that Ezekiel was inspecting was already getting quite hot, and just by feeling and previous experience in his own world working with these kinds of ovens, Ezekiel estimated that the oven's temperature was between 400 and 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Doing some quick calculations in his head using what his father had taught him to make steaks on a grill, he came up with the times that he needed in order to cook it in an oven like this one. For a medium-rare steak, I should probably cook both sides for about 2 minutes and 30 seconds. For a medium-well steak, I should probably cook both sides for about 5 minutes, thought Ezekiel. While Ezekiel was inspecting the ovens, Whiskey laid out multiple hourglasses with labels to show how much time they represent. Ezekiel realized this and decided that the only ones he would really need would be the 30 second and 1-minute hourglasses. Ezekiel looked around, and to his surprise, noticed that peels existed in this world. A peel is a tool that cooks use to move items into and out of an oven safely. A peel has a wooden handle and a flat iron board as if the head of a shovel was flattened out. He used this tool to put the uncooked meat into the oven and began the hourglasses for the first steak, which would be cooked as medium-rare. After the hourglasses were finished, Ezekiel used the peel to flip the steak over to the other side and began the hourglasses once again. After the hourglasses were finished, Ezekiel used the peel to pull the medium-rare steak out of the oven. In order to check his work, Ezekiel quickly washed his hands with water, asking Whiskey, "Do we have any soap?" Whiskey glanced at him with confusion, saying, "Soap? Lad, what's 'soap?' What the hell kind of name is soap?" Ezekiel smirked at the Modern Warfare reference, knowing that Whiskey would never realize it, but then sighed upon realizing that he might actually have to invent soap or else this establishment might never pass a health inspection. After rinsing his hands with water, Ezekiel recalled a special trick his father had taught him, called "the Hand Trick." For a medium-rare steak, Ezekiel connected the tips of his thumb and middle finger on his left hand and used his right hand's thumb to press on the area below his left hand's thumb. It feels a bit tender, but that's what we want, thought Ezekiel. He memorized how his hand felt, and pressed down on the steak to see if it had the same tenderness as his hand did. To Ezekiel's surprise, it did, meaning that the steak was cooked just how Ezekiel wanted it to be. Ezekiel then put the steak onto a wooden plate and gave it to Whiskey to test. Ezekiel then immediately put the other steak that would become a medium-well steak into the oven and began the hourglasses. As Ezekiel began making the next steak, Whiskey silently judged the medium-rare steak before him. The color of the steak on the outside seems fine, although it does seem to have a bit of a lighter color than normal, thought Whiskey. Whiskey then proceeded to cut into the steak, as if he was performing surgery, but instead of cutting in care for the patient, it seemed he would much rather eat the patient. It's much easier to cut through than the steaks we make, but the inside seems a bit undercooked, thought Whiskey, as he slowly opened the steak to see the color pink was quite visible inside of it. "Medium-rare steaks are supposed to look like that on the inside," said Ezekiel, as if he could read Whiskey's mind. Whiskey simply nodded in acknowledgment and cut the steak into smaller pieces. Whiskey then took a bite, not expecting much. To Whiskey's surprise, it was amazingly easier to chew, still kept its original taste, had a better texture to it, and felt juicier. Goddamn, this shit is good. I think I'll add it as a new kind of steak on the menu, thought Whiskey, with a smile on his face that suggested that the food he was eating could perhaps be a present from the gods themselves. Whiskey then proceeded to eat the rest of the steak. Once Whiskey finished eating the medium-rare steak, Ezekiel was just pulling the medium-well steak out of the oven and tested the steak using the hand trick again. However, as this was a medium-well steak, he checked the tenderness of his hand by using the in-between of how his hand felt by connecting the tips of his thumb and ring finger together, then how his hand felt by connecting the tips of his thumb and pinky finger together. The ring finger shows the toughness for medium steaks while the pinky finger shows the toughness for well-done steaks, so the feeling in-between these two would mean that the steak is medium-well, thought Ezekiel. Ezekiel tested the steak's tenderness, and to him, it felt like it was cooked right, so he went ahead and put it on Whiskey's plate, and an eager Whiskey began judging it. This looks much closer to the steaks we make in terms of color. The outer color seems fine, and there's a very small hint of pink on the inside, thought Whiskey, as he proceeded the cut the steak. Whiskey took a bit of the medium-well steak, and he seemed pleasantly enjoyed with it based on his happy grin chewing, at least that's what Ezekiel thought. Whiskey then said, "Lad, you got some skills if you can make these steaks much better! Also, that hand thing that you were doing, what is it?" Ezekiel just grinned and said, "It's a trick to tell whether or not a steak is cooked the way you want it to be cooked. I can teach you sometime." Whiskey then said, "That will be a helpful trick, lad! Also, I think I'll add these steaks to the menu today! I'll think I'll call them... the Lad Steak and the Tough Lad Steak!" Whiskey chuckled to himself and walked away to add it to the menu. Ezekiel seemed satisfied with his work, and he decided to give himself a small break before the actual work began.
After about 5 minutes of resting, the other two cooks joined Ezekiel in the kitchen and gave him a tour of everything so that he knew where everything was. During this, Ezekiel noticed that the maids were quickly wiping down the tables. Ezekiel was about to look away when he spotted a familiar pair of cat ears in a maid outfit wiping down a table near him. Realizing it was Zoey, the girl that he had saved yesterday, Ezekiel called her name to get her attention, shouting "Zoey!" Zoey stopped cleaning the table, looked around in confusion, then saw Ezekiel in the kitchen. Zoey gave Ezekiel a bright smile and waved at him, to which Ezekiel returned the smile and wave. Zoey then said, "Let's talk after work, okay," to which Ezekiel replied with, "Sounds good to me!" Both of them then went back to their normal duties, and the first day of work officially began for Ezekiel.
Ezekiel's first day of work was a rather normal one for him, which is what he expected. Not many customers came by in the morning, so Ezekiel had a bit of time here and there to read his Book of Knowledge. By noon, the pace started to pick up, and many customers did notice the new Lad Steaks on the menu and decided to try it. Many customers were satisfied with the new texture the steaks gave, as well as how the Lad Steaks seemed to have more juiciness in them than the normal steaks, so word of it spread quite quickly. By dinnertime, there was a massive rush of customers ordering the new Lad Steaks purely based on recommendations they heard from people speaking about how good the steaks were. Aqua, also keeping her promise, stopped by, nervously ordering the new Lad Steak since she found out from Whiskey that Ezekiel was actually the one making them. Ezekiel asked Whiskey if he could pay for Aqua's steak while he was making it, and Whiskey, who gave Ezekiel a quick grin, then, with a mocking voice, said, "What a gentlemen you are, lad." Whiskey then gave Ezekiel a genuine grin, saying, "I'll tell her it's on the house." Ezekiel smiled at that. Ezekiel watched Aqua eat the steak in silence, and he was overjoyed when Aqua's expression became a very cute one, showing an expression of pure delight from eating the steak he made.
Soon, the massive crowds died down, and it was around the time when the place was only filled with drunks who wanted to drink the night away. Ezekiel was pretty exhausted, setting one of the last Lad Steaks of the night on the counter so one of the maids could come to grab it and serve it. Ezekiel decided to sit down and give his legs a break. Ezekiel was wiping off sweat from himself when Whiskey came back in the kitchen with a grin on his face. "There's a customer that would like to speak with you." Ezekiel walked out of the kitchen and followed behind Whiskey, wondering if it was Aqua that asked for him. To his surprise, he was lead to a table that seated one giant man with a large, rustic hand-carved wooden-handled axe on his back. The giant man was slowly finishing his Lad Steak when Whiskey and Ezekiel approached him. Whiskey then introduced Ezekiel to the giant man by saying, "This is the chef that made the Lad Steaks." The giant man silently put down his fork and knife, stood up from the table, and turned to look down at Ezekiel. Ezekiel was only about 5 foot 9 inches tall, but he had to literally look up due to how big this man was. At first glance, the giant man was quite built, but it was a strange mix of body fat and muscles. You couldn't say he was chiseled, but one could tell straight away that he was a strong man. The giant man also gave off an intimidating aura that made Ezekiel a little uncomfortable. The giant man didn't respond for a little bit, and he simply looked down at Ezekiel, until an audible "GULP" could be heard, and Ezekiel realized the large man was swallowing the Lad Steak. The giant man asked in a deep voice, "So you're the one who made the Lad Steaks?" Ezekiel nervously replied, "Y-Yes, I am. Hopefully, it was to your liking." The giant man stood still for a moment, looking down at Ezekiel, then out of nowhere, the giant man laughed, which shocked Ezekiel, who thought that this giant man seemed to be acting completely different than how he presents himself. The intimidating aura from before seemed to be cast aside, and Ezekiel felt a little more relaxed. The giant man exclaimed, "GODDAMN, THAT WAS SOME GOOD FUCKING STEAK, MAN!" The giant man proceeded to laugh, and Ezekiel couldn't help but laugh as well. Whiskey then whispered to Ezekiel, "Well, lad, I'll leave you to it," and walked back to the kitchen. The giant man slowly finished laughing, then said, "I'm sorry to pull you out of work for the moment, but I had to thank the cook that made these badass steaks. Best I've had in a while! They aren't too tough, they're really juicy, they're fucking perfect!" Ezekiel blushed a tad bit in embarrassment since many people now had their eyes on him, and some were even clapping in approval of the giant man's comment. The giant man then said, "I'm pretty sure Whiskey won't get too mad if I keep you for a bit. Take a seat, man!" Ezekiel hesitated, to which the giant man said, "If Whiskey gets mad at you, I'll tell him I made you sit down with me and that it's my fault. Besides, you must be really tired from working all damn day, so don't worry about it!" Ezekiel then sat across the table from him, getting a better view of the surprisingly nice giant man. Ezekiel noticed that the giant man was wearing a dark brown hat that resembled a beanie that was a color that matched his brown eyes, and had on a thick, long-sleeved green shirt, with a white undershirt to go with it. Ezekiel then noticed the man had quite the nice, bushy brown beard, almost like a lumberjack's beard would look like. Ezekiel also noticed that there were a pair of light brown leather gloves next to the giant man's unfinished steak. "Where are my manners! I'm sorry, I got so excited to meet the badass cook of the badass Lad Steaks that I forgot to introduce myself," said the giant man. "My name is Manukena Kuma, but many just call me Bear. You can also call me your older brother if you want to since I've always wanted a younger brother," said Bear, poking fun at Ezekiel a bit. "Bear is fine," said Ezekiel, who laughed the joke off. "I'm Ezekiel Clark, badass chef of the badass Lad Steaks," said Ezekiel, proudly introducing himself. "So my badass chef of a younger brother is named Ezekiel, huh," questioned Bear. Ezekiel simply said, "I'm not sure about the younger brother part, but the other portion is right." Bear leaned back in his chair, nonchalantly saying, "Whatever you say, little bro." Bear saw Ezekiel eyeing his axe, so he grabbed the axe off of his back and set it down on the table in front of him. "Nice, right," asked Bear. Ezekiel nodded in reply. "I'm a lumberjack, so if I'm gonna be chopping down trees, I may as well do it with this sexy monster of an axe. Built the handle myself, actually" explained Bear, in a very proud manner. Ezekiel continued to admire the axe, and Bear, just out of nowhere, said, "All jokes aside, I have another reason as to why I called you out here. Thanks for what you did for Zoey, Ezekiel." Ezekiel remembered what happened last night but wasn't sure how Bear knew about it. "You see, little bro, Zoey is like a little sister to me. She told me what happened when she got home later than I had expected," said Bear. Bear paused for a moment, then he continued, saying, "I wasn't there to protect her when she needed it, but you were. So, thank you for looking out for her when I wasn't around." Ezekiel looked right at Bear and could tell that he was being sincere about it as well. Bear lowered his voice and leaned closer to Ezekiel, saying, "We demi-humans have to stick together, especially in these times after the Humanity War." The Humanity War? First time I heard about that, thought Ezekiel.
Both Ezekiel and Bear didn't realize just how loud Bear was talking. Despite Bear lowering his voice, he was still loud enough to be overheard. Neither of them noticed that people were giving them dirty looks, either. Ezekiel started to ask what the Humanity War was but was suddenly interrupted by two drunks who walked up behind Bear. "Big fella, y-you said you're a d-demi-human, right," stammered drunk number one, with a stupid grin on his face. "That must be why my ale tastes like shit. Here, you can have it," said drunk number two, very slowly, who poured the ale onto Bear's head. Bear, in this situation, was surprisingly calm, as he took off his wet beanie and wrung the ale out of it. A large amount of brown hair came flooding out of the top of Bear's head as he took off his beanie, and sure enough, Bear had bear ears that were hidden by the beanie he was wearing, and the two drunks laughed at the sight of them. "I-Is that why they call you B-Bear? Because you have bear e-ears," asked drunk number one. Drunk number two suddenly got in close, put his arm around Bear, and slowly said, "Listen, bear freak, could you do all of us a favor and leave this place? I can guarantee that I'm not the only one with bad-tasting alcohol right now." Ezekiel, at this point, was pissed at the way that Bear was being treated by those drunk fuckers. Bear just laughed, not replying to them. Drunk number one angrily asks, "What's funny, b-bear bitch? You laughing at the t-thought of me kicking your ass?" Whiskey, out of nowhere, ran up on the two drunks, grabbed both of them by the collar of their shirts, and shouted at them with a very audible Irish accent, "Not in my fuckin' bar, you cunts! You take that shit outside!" Drunk number two sarcastically asks, "So you're a demi-lover huh? Despite you being a human?" Whiskey angrily replied, "All races are welcome, even you pieces of fuckin' trash are welcome here if you don't start shit." Both drunks are silent for a bit, until drunk number one says, "Aye, bear bitch, l-let's take this outside." Ezekiel, ready to explode, gets a warning look from Bear. Bear smiles, reassuring Ezekiel, who slowly but surely calms down. Bear gets up from the table, towering over the two drunks, axe in hand, saying, "I accept your challenge, but don't blame me when I kick both of your asses." Bear then walked out the door of The Crimson Tankard Inn, while Whiskey dragged both of the drunks to the door, then tossed them outside. Ezekiel followed Whiskey outside and was met with a very funny scene. Whiskey was slapping the hell out of both of them with raw meat, angrily shouting, "You want fuckin' beef, you cunts? Take this raw beef home since you wanted to start fuckin' beef in my fuckin' inn. Beat your fuckin' meat before you cook it, too, ya fuckin' pricks." With that, Whiskey took a deep breath, put a smile on his face, and went back inside to apologize to the other customers.
Outside, Ezekiel noticed a sign right in front of The Crimson Tankard Inn that read, "ALL RACES WELCOME." Unfortunately, not everyone is as welcoming of all races, thought Ezekiel, who then gave off a disappointed sigh. Ezekiel looked up to see that Bear was stretching, and the drunks were standing still, but just a little wobbly. Drunk number one asked, "Y-You done stretching, bear bitch?" Bear asked, "Can you give me one more minute?" The two drunks were visibly angered by this, and they both looked at each other, then nodded. Suddenly, the two drunks rushed Bear. Bear just sighed, said, "If that's how you wanna play today's game," and quickly stood up. Bear tossed his axe up in the air, and drunk number one, who was as stupid as he looked, was distracted by the axe. Drunk number two kept charging, and Bear threw a fast and powerful right hook into drunk number two's face. A loud boom was heard when Bear's fist made contact with drunk number two's face. Drunk number two was knocked flat, but after a brief moment, got right back up. Drunk number one hadn't realized what happened, and before drunk number one could look down fully, Bear, in the blink of an eye, was already over where drunk number one was. Drunk number one's eyes went wide, and Bear gave him a swift uppercut, one so powerful that the momentum of his punch propelled Bear upwards. A loud crack could be heard from the punch colliding with drunk number one's jaw. Drunk number one was sent flying a few feet into the air and crashed into the ground quite a bit away. Bear caught his axe out of the air, landed back on the ground, then quickly flipped it to where he was now holding the head of the axe and using the handle as a weapon. He shoved the handle of the axe with enormous power behind it right into the stomach of drunk number two. Drunk number two then collapsed on the ground with the breath knocked out of him. Drunk number one was back on his feet, staggering quite a bit, and tried to rush Bear once again by quickly throwing a jab at him. Bear countered against this by dodging the jab that was thrown at him, and with amazing speed for someone as big as Bear was, quickly crouched down and swiped drunk number one's legs out from underneath him, causing drunk number one to fall to the ground, land on his face, and was knocked out by the impact of the ground. Both drunks were now defeated, as they were laid out on the ground, unable to continue fighting. Ezekiel watched all of this unfold, wondering how Bear, a huge person, could move with such speed. Ezekiel silently made a note to himself to never piss off Bear. Bear just sighed, saying, "Well, that's that, I guess," as he reattached the axe to his back. Ezekiel just stood there in awe of how easily Bear defeated them. Then again, they were drunk, thought Ezekiel. Regardless, the way he fought was impressive, like he had been in many fights before and knew how to use his size to his advantage, to an extent at least. Bear noticed Ezekiel watching him, and just chuckled, saying, "You know your older brother Bear would never lose to these drunks!" Ezekiel just laughed. "Well, I think I've kept you long enough. You seem like a good kid, Ezekiel, especially if you feel the need to stand up for a demi-human such as myself." Bear turned away from Ezekiel and began walking away. "I don't wanna cause too much trouble for ya, so I'll be on my way. I'll see you tomorrow, little bro," said Bear, and he walked off into the night, his outline soon disappearing from view. What a crazy first day at work, thought Ezekiel, as he headed back inside to finish up working.
After about another hour of working, Whiskey decided to close up shop early due to the incident with Bear and the two drunks today. Whiskey gave all the employees their money for the day, as well as tips that were shared among everyone equally. Ezekiel was happy with the fact that he was now getting paid fairly good money, so hopefully, he didn't have to worry too much about it. Out of nowhere, someone asked, "What's up, Ezekiel?" Startled, Ezekiel jumped a bit, but then realized it was just Zoey. Upon closer inspection, Zoey was still wearing her maid outfit, but to his surprise, he found himself thinking that she looked pretty good in a maid outfit. Snapping out of his fantasy, he suddenly said, "Don't sneak up on me like that!" Zoey just chuckled, then said, "So I see you met Bear." Ezekiel laughed and said, "Yeah, he's an odd one, but I can tell he's a good person." Zoey responded, "That's for sure." Zoey, after a moment of silence, said, "Listen, Ezekiel. I feel like a simple 'thank you' isn't enough to express my gratitude for what you did for me last night. To properly thank you, would you want to walk around the town with me? I know that you're still new to the town, so it would be a good way to get a feel for it. We could also look at the shops tomorrow!" To this, Ezekiel simply asked, "Don't we have to work tomorrow?" Zoey just smiled and said, "Whiskey doesn't hold us to a schedule as other employers do. He sees it like this: if you want money, you're gonna work. Days you don't work are up to you, as long as you make sure there are enough workers to cover for you." That's actually kind of nice, thought Ezekiel, praising the higher beings for making Whiskey the opposite of a slave driver. "Well then, if that's the case, I should be good to go tomorrow! What time?" Zoey thought about it for a minute, then said, "Can you meet me in front of The Crimson Tankard Inn tomorrow morning?" Ezekiel replied, "Yeah, that works," to which Zoey exclaimed, "Great! See you tomorrow then!" With a smile, Zoey hurried off, and Ezekiel decided to go clean himself up.
After getting a bath at the public bath shack, Ezekiel headed back upstairs to where his room was. The front desk girl saw him coming up, and while slightly blushing, greeted him with a simple, "Hi!" Ezekiel returned the greeting with a smile and a quick wave, which made the front desk girl blush even more. Ezekiel then got to his door, unlocked the door, and went inside. He instantly went to his bed and pulled out the Book of Knowledge, wondering what he should look at next. He then recalled the Humanity War and decided to flip to that page. However, he was more tired than he thought. As he began reading the first sentence, his eyes already felt heavy, and he slowly dozed off with his book on top of his face.137Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9V5b8oZr5H
