14 Chapter 13 - Do you have no shame?

As Dave and Bob both arrived on the other side of the island, Bob finally asked a question.

"I never asked this, but who is the base commander anyways?"

"Oh, he's Vanthof. A little bit older than me, but he's corrupt. I doubt anyone in the base even likes him."

Dave answered Bob.

"We'll let's see what his personality is like."

"Oh i'm sure he's shaking in his boots right now. He's more than likely heard the news of you defeating Greybeard. Probably closed off the base just in case you came to pay him a visit."

"He can do that?"

"He's the base commander, he can close it off if he wants."

"I see. Let's let him wait a bit, for now we get the bodies of Greybeard and the others taken care of. Put them on the ship, the others… toss them in the sea. We only need the ones who are worth some money."

"AHHHHHHHH!"

"What? What?"

Bob was confused why Dave screamed out while grabbing his hair.

"I totally forgot! I was supposed to introduce you to some people, the ones you wanted to hire to man the ship!"

"Oh that, to be honest I forgot myself. But i'll be here for a while, so there's going to be plenty of time to meet them."

"I guess that's true."

Bob and Dave arrived back in front of the tavern, except all the bodies were gone. The Blood was also cleaned up.

"What happened here?"

"Only one way to find out."

Bob opened the tavern door and walked inside. As soon as he stepped in everyone inside hushed their mouths. Bob wasn't sure if it was fear or admiration for him, but he didn't mind. He walked up to the counter where the blond tavern owner was.

"Here for something to eat?"

She asked him.

"No, but I could use a drink. One for Dave as well."

"Sure no problem. You got back here pretty fast, only been gone for a little over three hours, but for a man of your strength then taking care of some bandits could be too hard."

Bob smiled.

"Thanks, people praising me always makes me feel rejuvenated, so please continue!"

She laughed.

"You're an odd one."

"I'm not sure if you mean that in a good way or a bad one."

"Does it matter?"

"No not really. Do you know what happened to all those bodies out in front? I was going to collect their bounties."

The woman nodded her head as she sat two cups down on the counter. One for Bob the other for Dave.

"Yeah, they were scaring away my customers, so I had them removed. Don't worry about the ones worth something, i'm no thief. Their corpses are in my basement, please make sure you collect them before you leave. Can't have them stinking up the place."

Dave looked around the tavern.

"There's a basement to this place?"

The woman nodded.

"Sure is, was built a long time ago. Only use it as a cellar for all the liquor though."

Dave looked surprised as he raised both his eyebrows.

"Mind if I take a look?"

"I do actually!"

The woman sounded upset causing Dave to look down. Everyone had their own personal belongings they did not want anyone else to touch. Seems like hers was her basement.

"Geez, don't look so down Dave I was only kidding. Haha, i'm not that heartless. Just be careful, the stairs are old so they might break. Be sure to watch out for the third step on your way down."

"Alright, thanks Ash!"

Dave said as he drowned his drink and left the counter.

"Oh, you have to go to the third table by the window. You'll see a latch on the ground, unlock it and the floor will open up."

Ash said to Dave who nodded his head.

"So your names Ash huh."

"Yeah, there a problem with that name?"

"Nope. It's a cool name, reminds me of this kid who wanted to be the best like no one ever was."

Hearing the name Ash instantly caused Bob to remember Ash Ketchum. Not everyday you meet someone named that.

Ash leaned in closer to Bob her eyes were filled with curiosity.

"And.. did he succeed?"

"Um… no. He failed, but he never gave up. There's always someone better out there, if you forget that then you'll become stuck in your progress."

Ash frowned.

"Pity, I was hoping he'd achieve his goal. Maybe I'd end up achieving my own."

Bob stopped drinking his beer and looked at her.

"What kind of ambition do you have?"

"That's simple, I just want to have the most popular tavern on the sea. See this tavern here has been in my family for generations, even before Gold Roger was around. You'd think something like that would make people flock here, but nope. Seems no one is interested."

"Well, what do you have to offer that makes you different from the others?"

Bob knew that if you wanted to win over the competition you needed to have something that would set yourself apart.

"A beautiful woman running it for one. Good food, and cheap drinks."

Bob laughed.

"I think you'd need more than that. How about hiring a chief to cook the food, maybe invest in some better quality alcohol as well. Also get some more beautiful women in revealing clothing. I'm sure men would flock here."

Ash seemed to take his words to heart as she nodded her head.

"I'd need to get some more money to do all that, so far I only have around 20 million beli saved up. Geez, if I would have thought of that i'd be turning in Greybeard and his crew myself. I'm sure a 100 million beli would be more than enough."

"Well you had your shot, too late now."

"Seems that way."

Bob sat around waiting, his cup was almost empty and he felt he waited long enough to go visit the base commander.

Soon Dave came back up from the basement with a large grin on his face.

He came over to Bob in a hurry.

"Bob, I think we wouldn't need to build a base anymore. Instead, Ash might be willing to let us rent out her basement to use. It's more than large enough. We'd just need to do a little bit of renovating is all."

Bob looked at Ash.

"How large is this basement of yours?"

Ash looked up at the ceiling as she thought.

"I'd say from here until you reach the port."

Bob's mouth almost dropped, that was far! If he had to estimate, i'd be around 200 or 300 meters. Why was a basement that large?

"What was it used for before?"

Ash shrugged her shoulders.

"You're asking the wrong woman. I inherited from my parents, they passed away before I was 17. I was just in the process of learning everything when the bandits murdered them. Never got around to asking that question, so I never learned the answer."

Ash answered.

"You willing to let me use your basement as my base of operations? I'm more than willing to pay you."

Ash grinned.

"Oh yeah? How about a 100 million beli?"

Bob paused… that was not something he could just agree to easily. He needed to pretend like it was hard for him to part with a 100 million. If he agreed too fast, Ash would raise the price on him.

"Idk.. a 100 million is a bit too much."

"Oh really…?"

"Yeah, but… I can make this exception for a beautiful lady such as yourself."

Ash looked surprised for a moment and fanned her hand.

"Oh please don't stop, continue your praise."

"Do you have no shame woman!?"

"Only learning from you."

Bob looked at Ash with a face full of seriousness. Ash looked at him back in the same way. Five seconds later both of them started laughing.

"Good, good. There might be potential in you!"

Bob said to Ash as he got off of the stool.

"Let's go Dave, time to meet that base commander."