"Yum! It was delicious! Aaah!" Yoichi rejoiced, capturing the attention of other custors sitting at the counter. The young tar acted as if he hadn't eaten in years and, even the drunk people in that place were impressed by his strange behaviour.
"Wow. Are you done yet?" Enatsu chuckled, who should have been the hungrier of the two. Looking into his coloured ceramic bowl, half ran was still there.
Kenji screaked, resting its two front legs on its tar's legs, explicitly asking him to eat sothing.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, bud! This ran was so tasty that I forgot to leave you a piece!" Yoichi answered, lowering his gaze to the Nekage. "Excuse , Kenzo... could I have another piece of at for my demon?"
"Of course, there's no problem!" Kenzo responded, happy to please his custor.
After feeding Kenji and Sora with ran-flavoured at, Yoichi and Enatsu grabbed the two small black ceramic glasses resting in front of them. They turned face to face, ready for a toast.
"Cheers to our new trip, man! May Goldhaven bring us luck!" Yoichi smiled, knowing that Enatsu was not yet convinced to beco a tar.
"To Goldhaven! Oh, and to the Sleeping Owl!" Enatsu cheered, banging his glass against Yoichi's.
*ding* The two glasses touched each other, and drops of sakè fell on the floor.
A mont later, both companions drank the typical liquor down the hatch, slamming the empty cups down on the bar.
Suddenly, as if by magic, sothing happened in Yoichi's mind. When the taste of the sakè spread into his palate and descended into his throat, the young tar unlocked a mory of his previous life.
The sensations arising from alcohol and that sour, full-bodied flavour restored processes in his mind, and blurry images began to appear before his eyes.
Withdrawing from reality for a few monts, Yoichi experienced a chaotic sequence of broken mories, each of which had as protagonist his hand clutching one of those ceramic cups.
One toast after another, his hands had touched hundreds, thousands of glasses of sakè. Just then, in his new reality, the sa hands began to tremble.
What are these mories? Those hands... they were mine? Who were all those people? He pondered as the beats of his heart accelerated.
"Hey, Yoichi. Are you feeling all right, man?" Enatsu asked, noting that his eyes were lost in the void.
It's not possible. It's as if these images belonged to another life, a previous life. That was ! I really wasted all that ti on... on... drinking?! Yoichi continued to think frantically. When Enatsu's hand touched his arm, mories suddenly faded.
His eyelids began to blink again, hydrating his dry eyes. The tavern floor was slowly focused, and his gaze rose, crossing that of Enatsu.
"All right? Maybe this sakè was too strong for you," Enatsu comnted, maintaining eye contact.
"No, no. In fact, it was yummy! Don't worry, I'm fine. Thank you for asking," Yoichi replied, without adding any more details, knowing that anyone in that room could hear him.
After that strange episode, the two adventurers thanked the innkeeper and his beautiful daughters and prepared to foot the bill.
"Er... I told you before I didn't have any money, did I? I swear I'll give them back to you very soon," Enatsu whispered in Yoichi's ear, then returned to smile at the innkeeper as if nothing had happened.
"Two silver coins. These sakes are on the house!" Kenzo exclaid, with his usual smile printed on his face.
Yoichi grabbed his leather pouch and opened it, grabbing a gold coin. If such a large al costs only two silver coins, it ans that three gold coins are a lot of money! He realized, surprised.
"Hey, you! Don't you dare pay!" a male voiceover bood, coming from their backs.
Taken by surprise, Yoichi and Enatsu turned around. A tall, skinny man, walking on a stick, approached the bar. A long leather coat and heavy boots with iron tips gave him a veteran look.
"You're Yoichi, right?" he asked, looking at the young tar. Yellowish dical bandages were wrapped around his neck to the chin.
Yochi confird with his head, not considering it necessary to respond to that strange, not-so-friendly-looking subject.
"I've been waiting for soone to kick the ass of that Kato piece of shit for a long ti, and here you are, popped out of nowhere! Haha!" the man joked aloud, suddenly changing his expression and beginning to laugh. "Let buy your lunch for you and your friend. It's the least I can do to pay you back for the show you offered !" he continued.
His shoulder-length hair was covered in a quirky leather hat, similar to that of a cowboy, but with a pointed visor at the forward end.
"Um... okay. I don't think there's a problem, thank you," Yoichi stated, squeezing out a friendly smile.
"Nice! Put it on my tab, Kenzo!" the stranger replied, making a gesture with his hand not resting on the stick that allowed him to stand.
"Are you fine? Um..." Yoichi inquired, implicitly asking that man for his na.
"How rude, I swooped here without even showing up! Hyobe, my na is Hyobe," he affird, shaking hands with both Yoichi and Enatsu. The rchant looked down on that strange man, confused.
"What are those wounds? I suppose you weren't born crippled," Yoichi spoke, interested in knowing the answer.
The man in the bizarre hat was about fifty years old, but his movents were similar to those of an older man. Yoichi only needed one glance to realize that the wounds on his body were compromising.
"Co, follow to the table. Do you want anything else to drink?" Hyobe added, beginning to limp to one side of the room.
"No, we are fine" Enatsu answered, taking his friend's place and following the mysterious man, letting himself be guided by curiosity.
If this guy was a thug, Kenzo would have warned us. Kenji didn't have any reaction, too, so I don't think he has bad intentions. Yoichi thought while the rest of the Sleepy Owl clientele continued to act carefree.
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