Tavern Beer

After realizing his blunder, Tetsuga decides to just ask a random person this time around since he forgot to when he was talking with that Derrick lad. after talking to a random citizen, they point him towards the direction of the kingdom's guild hall. he starts walking all the way there as he takes in all the sights while he walked. after walking a fair bit, he finally reaches the guild hall as he was presented with a huge building where a bunch of adventurers come in and out of the building as well as some loitering around a big bulletin board which was posted up outside in front of the building.

"here we are! let's see what they have here..." Tetsuga mutters to himself as he scans the board for a certain something. the board was filled with lots of posters. some of which were about quests. they ranged from fetch quests, extermination quests, escort quests, and etc. but what Tetsuga wanted to see was the bounty posters. but why would he be interested in such a thing? it wasn't as if he was a bounty hunter himself, let alone an adventurer. so it was a bit odd for him to be doing so. though for him, he had a good reason.

after skimming the bounty section of the board. he seemed to have not found what he was looking for. but instead of sulking about it, he jumped with joy as he expressed this revelation. "whoohoo!!! hahaha!" he exclaims. gaining the attention of all the other adventurers which he quickly addressed as he cleared his throat as soon as he got back down. ".... excuse folks. nothing to see here." he says which was enough for them to not mind him anymore as they go back to what they were doing. Tetsuga promptly left the area seeing as he's done what he wanted to do. but what was it still?

turns out, he was trying to make sure his face wasn't plastered on the quest board because he was the kind of person one could call as a "fugitive", allegedly anyways. but this little title of his wasn't given as a frame job. he did do the crime. it's the fact that a certain knight he knew blew it so much out of proportion that his likeness was now branded as a criminal with a hefty bounty on his head. but enough of the backstory. Tetsuga wanted to celebrate this fortunate opportunity of his by doing the one thing he knows.... getting hammered in a tavern.

"Helloo people!" the tavern doors swing open as Tetsuga walks in with so much bravado you'd swear you saw him sparkling as he walked through. but with his very loud entrance, it did not leave out the patrons in the establishment as they all look towards him with questioning looks. "hey! how ya doin? nice mustache! I like your hat!" he goes through, greeting everyone he passed. he was in such a good mood, he didn't care if the customers were giving him weird looks.

he reaches the counter as he sits himself down on one of the vacant seats. "hey there bartender! mind making me a drink?" he says to the bartender manning the counter. the bartender gives Tetsuga a weird look for a second seeing as he did come right in with quite the ruckus. "i don't mind making you one... but next time, try not to bust down my doors." the bartender says, and as if it was on cue. the doors behind Tetsuga fall off their hinges as they flop down to the floor with a loud smack.

"..... uhhh, sorry. i'll... pay for that." Tetsuga says. his bravado brought down a peg as he realized he might've kicked the doors a little too hard. "uh huh..." the bartender mutters as he fills a glass mug with bear before serving it over to him. "anyways. I haven't seen you around before. Are you new in town?" the bartender asks. trying to make some small talk with the new face as they down the whole mug in one go.

"Yeah. Just arrived actually." He tells the bartender as he gestures to him to fill his mug up some more. "You just arrived and your first instinct is to drink up a storm?" The bartender assumed which wasn't far off from the truth as he handed back the refilled mug. "Yup. And there ain't nothing better than this!" Tetsuga exclaims before downing the mug again.

"Jeez, you just keep downing the beer like they're nothing." The bartender was a little bit amazed at his prowess at getting hammered. "Hehe! Guess you could say I got a lot of practice in." He tells him as he hands back the mug yet again for another refill. As the bartender went to refill his mug again, it seemed like their conversation was gonna get a bit silent. So it was an ample opportunity to hear his surroundings better. One particular conversation caught his interest as he listened in.

"So you got a visual on the target?" One of the people off to the side of Tetsuga spoke. He didn't want to allude to them that he was listening In so he kept his head looking straight forward. Not making a glance at them at all. "Do you really have to talk like that? This ain't like a serious mission you know.", The other says as they return their attempt at sounding professional with a more casual tone. "Shut up!, It gets me in the mood." The former defends which only served the latter to cringe at his phrasing.

"Alright. I just need you to pipe down now Craig." Another voice came into the mix. Revealing there to be three people talking. "Oh c'mon! You guys are no fun!" Craig complains as he slouches onto his chair with his arms folded. "This isn't supposed to be fun Craig...." The second man expresses as he was the most laid back out of the three. "Okay, shoving Craig's antics aside, we do have a visual for who we're meant to capture." The third man says as he lays out a scroll which contains a picture of their intended target.

"Tch.." tetsuga clicks his tongue as he knows he isn't able to turn his head in fear of tipping them off in his eavesdropping. "What's the matter? You don't like beer anymore?" Unfortunately, the Bartender was there when he made such a noise which made them assume that he wasn't liking the service he was giving him. "Shsshhsshsshhsssshhh!....." Tetsuga immediately shushes the bartender before he tips them off himself. Tetsuga gestured with his head to the group of individuals who were off to the side of him, hoping the bartender would get the picture he was trying to paint.

"So that's what he looks like.... Didn't we see him near that sidewalk earlier?" Craig points out. Now this was getting interesting. "Oh yeah, We did didn't we. Would've been helpful if we knew this beforehand." The second man expresses his disappointment that they managed to let their target slip by instead of having this whole mission be done with. "Yeah. But there's nothing we can do now. We're just gonna have to find him this time around." The third more logical one states before rolling up the scroll back up.

After that little discussion, the three drink for a little while before heading out the tavern. Once they were.out of earshot and sight. Tetsuga sighs in relief. Finally being able to look around again as he stretches his neck as he accidentally kept it still the entire time. "Ow... Shouldn't have kept my neck so still..." He says as a couple cracks were heard as he stretched it. "I think I should probably check what that was." He says before trying to go after those mysterious individuals. That was, until a hand stopped him.

"Hold it right there buster. You ain't leaving without paying." The bartender said sternly to Tetsuga who looked back at him with a nervous smile. "E- eh? Can't you just put it on my tab?" Tetsuga asks which the bartender answers. "I only let regulars use that excuse. And last time I checked, you ain't a regular..." He says. A menacing glare now beaming from their eyes as Tetsuga leaned back in fear. "So if you can't fork up the payment... Then imma have to put you to work." The bartender says as it left Tetsuga to only respond with a fearful gulp. "Ah crap..." was the only thing he could say.

Now while he was getting put to work, someone else was doing some work themselves. Transactional work that is. "Believe me, seller! This is real genuine gold! If you're a master of all things valuable, then you can see the significance of just this scrap alone!" Derrick was over at a pawnshop trying to sell off the gold he got from the sidewalk earlier. The seller was a bit skeptical as they inspected the gold with a magnifying glass.

"Hmmm.... There's no doubt that it is... But I'm gonna give you 5 silver for it. Best I can offer for a scrap this small." The seller tells Derrick who was more than happy to accept whatever he could get as he swipes the 5 silver coins away from them. "Ha! Ha! Good enough for me!".Derrick exclaims with a big ole goofy smile plastered on his face. The seller couldn't help but sigh. Did he have to be their regular? They certainly could tell that Derrick wasn't regular at all that's for sure. But, mean description aside. He did bring him lots of stuff to sell back to people so that was somewhat a plus.

Derrick skips out of the store with a happy little grin on his face as he pockets the 5 silver coins right into his waist bag which was also accompanied by several different vials of unknown substances. Not to him of course. But would he have such things strapped to him at all times? Were they food of some sort? They were certainly consumable but are not recommended to be. But we would soon find out later as Derrick marches away over to the city exit.

Once he reaches the archway that leads to the forest outside, he walks right out. But not without the attention from the two guards who were guarding the entrance. "There he goes again..." One of them commented as they watched Derrick walk away, deeper into the forestry. "What do you think he's always doing out there?" The other questions his partner. Curious about Derricks' business outside the kingdom, in the wilderness.

"Probably the same old, same old. Now stop asking questions and stand guard." They say and scold as the former obeys and leans back into his spot. "You're saying that as if we haven't been doing that all day..." They mutter as they watch as Derricks' figure slowly disappears into the dense forestry.