Chapter 9 - Stuck Between a Bar and a Place of Poverty

For god's sake.

I was lying on the ground, with the girl still in my arms. The man had pushed over a table and some chairs, sending them flying into the wall. No one else decided to help in this situation.

My clothes were beginning to get stained by the smell of alcohol.

Also, it was at this moment when I realised, the voice I was hearing

was my own voice.

It likely wasn't just me thinking to myself, however, because the morals and decisions and

that the other me was making were slightly different to my current thoughts.

It was probably the old me, with my memories still intact.

I wasn't completely sure what those specific moments where the old me communicated to the current me meant. I had a feeling it might be connected to significant memories in my past life. I did feel a weird sense of nostalgia when I saw those children kicking a ball around.

Anyways, I can think about that later, because currently, I was in quite a dire situation.

There was not much I could do. I either had to fight the man or somehow make him calm down.

Did I have anything on me that could possibly make him calm down? The last thing I wanted to do was get in trouble with the authorities here, which may or may not result in me burning in hell.

I probably could have defeated him but I wasn't sure if this man was someone important which would result in me getting in hefty trouble for fighting. He sounded like he wasn't afraid at all by the threat of the guards. If I did anything that would result in me getting kicked out, protecting the princess would become a lot harder.

The only thing I had on me was the little pouch of money.

I guess that's the only thing I could use.

"Wait! I'll give you money if you leave the girl alone!"

"Huh? How much are we talkin'?!"

Crap, how much was I going to offer, I still needed some money to survive here but if I shoot too low he might get even angrier.

"Uh, I'll give you a gold coin!"

"A gold coin, eh? Sure, deal!"

I guess that was enough.

I quickly ruffled through my pouch and pulled out a gold coin.

"Hold on a second, I saw two gold coins!"

Oh no.

"Give me both of them or else!" He threatened.

I did not very much enjoy being bossed around like this, but I didn't really have another choice. Despite how much I wanted to just beat him up there, I held it in.

I ended up pulling out both of the gold coins and handing them to the man. In the end, he walked away with a pretty satisfied look on his face.

I couldn't help but sigh.

Let him go, for now, I'll come back for him later.

I looked over to the girl who was curled up in a little ball, covering her eyes.

"Hey, brat, look what you've made me do."

She didn't respond to what I was saying.

"Kid! You better take responsibility and wash these clothes of mine, they reek of alcohol and tears now."

The second part wasn't exactly true but it was the heat of the moment.

She still wasn't responding.

I still didn't even get the room situation sorted out.

Ugh...

She wasn't going to respond to anything I said to her. I slowly made my way over and embraced her in my arms. I could feel her hugging against me as well, the texture of the fabric of her dress rubbing against me.

"It's okay, everything's fine now."

"It's not!" She replied, rather frantically, still crying.

"What's the matter?"

I pulled her away from me a little bit so I could better hear what she was saying.

"The maid's going to be mad at me because of the broken table!"

She dug her head into my chest and continued sobbing.

What a toxic workplace. It wasn't even her fault...

"It's okay, I'll help you fix it or replace it, please just calm down."

God, I was sinking even more of my money. I just wanted to get some sleep...

Eventually, she slowly stopped crying, instead, turning into brief heavy breaths.

"T-thank you, no o-one else has ever h-helped me b-before."

Really, no one else had ever helped this teenage girl before when she was being harassed...?

What was wrong with this place?

I gently pulled her off of me and tried to talk to her.

"It's okay, honestly, I'm more angry at how other people don't help you."

She looked at me, slight tears were still welling up in her eyes.

Ugh... I guess I'll sleep a bit later tonight.

I walked over to inspect the broken table, there was a massive dent in it, with splinters of wood sticking out of it.

This was not going to be able to be fixed.

The chairs sustained relatively minor damage so they could still be used. I took the furniture and placed it back into its original position.

The older maid finally decided to make an appearance, she seemed to be walking directly towards the girl. The older maid did not look happy.

I better stop her.

Before she reached the girl, I managed to cut her off and start a conversation.

"Get out of my way, that girl needs to pay for the damage she caused."

"Wait... I'll pay."

"Really now? Well, the table is going to be at least two silver and all the other damage is going to be two more silver."

That was literally the rest of the money I was given...

I pulled out the remaining four silver from my pouch and handed it to the maid.

"Hmph."

She walked back to where she was before.

I think that should've done it for fixing what just happened.

I made my way back to the girl, she was sitting on a seat now and had basically stopped crying.

"Now..."

She looked towards me awkwardly.

"I don't even know where to start..."

"I'm sorry," she said.

Ugh...

"I'm sorry, I'm really really sorry for everything."

It looked like she was going to break into tears again.

"It's fine, don't worry about it."

What was I meant to do in this situation?

I had just about given up trying to sleep in this Inn.

I guess I'll try to find somewhere else to spend the night with my last bronze coin...

I opened the front door of the Inn.

Wait.

I heard my voice again.

What the hell? What am I waiting for?

I looked over at the girl who was ambling towards me. I must be referring to her, it seems.

"Um... Can I come with you?" She asked.

What?

"Come with me?"

"Please." She insisted.

I guess it couldn't hurt.

The two of us walked outside of the inn. It was almost the middle of the night. The cold wind blew against the two of us.

Cold...

I could see that the girl was also shivering beside me.

We began walking down the road to see if there were any other inns nearby.

"Those people in the inn n-never treated me well... They would also take my money, saying that I had to take responsibility for the things I broke, even though it was other people who broke them."

It had felt like quite the toxic environment.

"What about your parents? Why do they let you work there then?"

"My parents left me here ages ago. The inn was the only place that took me in and they've treated me like a slave ever since."

Wow, this girl really had a rough life.

"I'm sorry for being mean to you when you first came in... Business had been bad recently and everyone has been taking it out on me."

"It's fine."

We walked against the blisteringly cold wind in the freezing cold weather. I could feel goosebumps all over my body. My attire wasn't prepared for this type of weather.

Suddenly, she latched around my arm, snuggling up against it.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"It's really cold, I can't help it."

It was okay I suppose.

"By the way how old are you?" She looked like a fourteen-year-old middle schooler.

"Oh, I'm seventeen."

Seventeen?!

This entire time I had been calling her 'kid' and 'brat'.

No way.

"You look so small though," I said.

"Well, I can't help it!" She responded, pouting.

We continued walking on our search for another inn.

"Oh yeah, what's your name?" I had forgotten to ask this question the entire time.

"It's Chloe."

She didn't share her last name with me.

"Well I'm Ritsu Takamiya."

"Ritsu..." She was sounding my name out.

Why were there no other inns nearby!

We had walked around for almost twenty minutes, any longer and I'm pretty sure I'd just die of hypothermia.

I saw some stables where some horses were staying.

If worse comes to worst...

"Ritsu..."

"Yeah?"

"I was really happy when you protected me," she said.

She looked at me.

"No one else had ever protected me. It made my heart feel really warm when you did... not in a romantic way!" She continued.

"Yeah, yeah, I hear you."

"Hey, Ritsu..."

"Mhm?"

"Will you protect me again if I'm in danger?"

Honestly, I wouldn't count on it.

"Maybe...?"

"Hmph!" She puffed her cheeks like a pufferfish. "That's not how you're meant to answer!"

"Sorry..."

"It's fine." She held tighter onto my arm.