Getting Help

Entering the inn, Ken called out "welcome home!" and we parted to return back to our rooms.

Placing my new ingredient jar on the table, I watched as Sazzy laid out on the bed again. She sighed and lamented her oversight.

Giving a big yawn, I decided to take some clothes to wash up and sleep. Sazzy had noted earlier in her research for Aquarius that the sun tended to set incredibly fast, and by the time we had reached the inn, the sun had already disappeared down the horizon.

After washing up, I told Sazzy I would head to bed first and lay down smoothly on those heavenly sheets. Lightening my breathing, I counted to one hundred inside my head, making sure that there were no sounds around me, before opening my eyes to the pure darkness.

Whacking my hand on the bedside table and fumbling around until I turned the night light on, I turned by head to scan over the room. Standing up, I went to the bathroom and opened the door.

Sazzy had disappeared. She had vanished into thin air.

Closing the door and returning back to my bed, I switched off the night light.

As expected, she doesn't need to sleep. Once, when I had peeked into her room in our house back on Mors, I had seen it. Folded up sheets that laid unused on the floor.

Sweeping my questions underneath the rug, I closed my eyes again. Tonight was only to confirm my suspicions. It would be better to wait until Sazzy feels like she could tell me about what she can and cannot do. It was time to sleep. Properly closing my eyes and emptying my mind, I fell into a dreamless sleep.

When I woke up, Sazzy was silently looking at her personal terminal again. The moment she saw me awake, she hopped down from her chair and ran to me to show me her personal terminal.

[We've accidentally gotten on the news again. This time, it's the newspapers doing follow up articles on you. It seems that you were spotted, a lot, yesterday and pictures taken of you and Ken have been spreading all over the internet.]

On her personal terminal, I saw very obviously secret photos of me and Ken walking around shopping street, commerce street, and even us entering and exiting the inn.

[Furthermore, thanks to Ken for mentioning the Loser's war yesterday, I found out the reason why we have so many supporters, as well as why we got so popular all of a sudden. Ever since Mors and their allies lost the war 120 years ago, there have been a small group of extremists that always go around insulting and being downright prejudiced against anyone from Mors. And because this small group is always making a mountain out of a molehill, the general public have become more sympathetic towards anyone from Mors, especially Venenum since they always are the main focus of the insults. Then when you showed up, and ignored those extremists, it made the public see you in a much better light that they originally would.]

Sazzy closed her personal terminal and jumped down from where she sat on the bed.

[Ironically, we got quite a lot of help from them. And now the general audience and your fans are awaiting the next livestream. Most people have guessed that you will be making Piscus cuisine so we might need to cover up a bit more!]

She held out what looked like a mask. Sighing, I got up and washed up, then wearing the mask Sazzy gave me we both headed down into the kitchen.

Compared to yesterday, the inn was certainly more lively, with several guests checking in right as I stepped off the stairs.

Seeing me, Ken quickly gestured for me to enter the kitchen. Obeying him, I pulled the stool near where Cotton was sitting and played with it while I waited. After a couple of minutes, Ken escaped into the kitchen as well.

"Whew, I didn't expect that we would be filled up so fast with so many people. Just in case, I asked my brothers to come back and help out. My eldest brother should be arriving at the inn by the end of today, and the second eldest is already here and helping show some other guests around."

Wiping the sweat off his forehead, Ken seemed to be slightly glowing with happiness.

"Oh right! You should repack your bags! Mother says that it might be better if you move out of the inn for the rest of your stay, for both privacy and safety reasons. Don't worry, we aren't going to force you to move to another hotel. Mother says that for the remainder of your stay you can stay at our own personal house. You need to use the kitchen right? And the house is not too far away from here! The only so called 'problem' is that it's outside the barrier, but I don't think you'll find that a problem!"

Washing his hands in the sink, Ken smiled as he planned out our next steps.

Sneaking upstairs, me and Sazzy went into a frenzy packing our bags. Well, Sazzy went into a frenzy packing my bags. Then waiting for Ken's signal that the coast was clear, we sped down the stairs and escaped the inn through the back door.

Carrying my luggage, the three of us took the shortest route out of the barrier. When I took one last glance at the inn, I could see a crowd of people forming near the edge of the barrier holding out devices that I guessed were probably cameras and looking at us enviously from the inside.

"They probably won't be dumb enough to exit the protective barrier without a local guide. Besides, I'm guessing most of them probably don't have the necessary vaccination to exit the barrier in the first place. The barrier will keep us safe from them."

Laughing heartily, I gave a sigh of relief.

Veering to the left, Ken led me through an obviously well trodden path to a very nice looking cottage. It had a similar wooden look to the cabin that was attached to the red ribbon fish farm, and there was even a very cute carving of a red ribbon fish that was affixed on top of the door.

Opening the door, Ken gave me a rough layout of the house. The kitchen occupied the biggest room on the first floor, and in the exact same place as the inn. Where the dining area and the recreation area was in the inn, was where the living room was. On the second floor, where all the personal bedrooms were, there were three bedrooms. The one on the right was the master bedroom, and had excess to the only personal toilet in this house. The other two rooms, both on the left, had to use the shared bathroom that was on the first floor.

"Back then, both my parents would hog the master bedroom, and us three brothers were forced to squeeze into one bedroom and one attic. My sister had one whole room for herself."

Reminiscing with a slightly sad smile, Ken led us to the end of the corridor on the second floor, walking straight after exiting the stairs.

"Mother says you can use the attic room. When Barbie passed on, I was shifted down from the attic into her room, so it's currently empty. You can unpack later. I got a free pass from inn duty in order to guide you on how to cook, and Mother gave us almost full reign of the kitchen! Once you put down your bags, come down to the kitchen! I'll start preparing things right now!"

Waving, Ken ran down the stairs with overflowing enthusiasm.

Gripping the wooden collapsible ladder, I climbed up alone. Then, after Sazzy made sure no one could see what she was about to do, she lifted the luggage up to me and climbed the ladder herself.

Placing the luggage aside and wiping my sweat, I looked around at the attic room. It was quite spacious, but obviously left empty for a while. Standing up, I opened the attic window and leaned out. Looking at the size of the window, it seemed that I could use this window to walk right onto the roof.

Hearing sounds coming from behind me, I turned around to see Sazzy once more taking out almost everything out of the luggage back and hanging them all in the closet.

Closing the window, I interrupted her movements and gestured that we head down. It was time to cook!