"Welcome, yes i do still have an empty room for you, how long you'd like to stay, miss?" The inn's owner said as he placed the now clean wooden mug into the shelf behind him.
"How much per night?" Syla asked for the inn's price.
"4 copper per night, meal once a day and water included, though if you want a beer, then you'd have to pay." The old man replied calmly.
"She's beautiful isn't she? Is she an adventurer?" A man voice was heard, whispering to one another.
"Was there always a demihuman that beautiful living here?" Another voice also whispered, it all went through Syla's ears as her hearings was way better than humans.
One whisper after another kept being heard by Syla, the more she heard their whispers, the more ridiculous it becomes.
"3 days please." Syla said as she pull out 1 silver and 2 copper coins from her satchel.
"Sure, here's your room key, it's upstairs, number 6." The old man said, he gave the key to Syla and watched her walking upstair almost immediately.
After Syla was gone from his vision, the inn owner's suddenly made a statement to everyone in the room.
"None of you will lay a hand on her, got it?" He said, his tone was almost threatening.
As soon as the inn owner said that, his customers was frozen as if they were in fear, even the one that packs a lot of muscle and big body couldn't fight back.
"Alright alright, we got it Garven." Said one of the customer, his face looked a bit disappointed, but he quickly moved on.
"Why though? It's unusual for you to personally telling us that?" Another one, this time the question came from an adventurer that had rough face and scars all over his hands.
"Yeah, we won't do anything to her even if you didn't say anything, what do you think we are? some brainless maniac?" His friend that was beside him added to the question.
Everyone in the inn laughed at the joke, although it wasn't for long as soon after, the inn owner Garven let out a sigh and said.
"Im telling you just incase if there's truly a brainless idiot here, that demihuman girl is way stronger than you think, although she was hiding it, her palms was full of scars, the kind that you usually see from someone who has trained with a sword for atleast a decade– I don't know how strong she is, but im sure that she's stronger than all of you—
"Im saying this, because if even one of you died, then my profit would decrease."
Everyone was shocked to hear what Garven had just said, they couldn't believe it that a beautiful girl like Syla was hiding her power. Although it seems unbelievable, no one in the inn retaliated or argued back, it's as if they just accepted Garven's words without checking for proof.
'Garven is a retired adventurer who once reached the Rank B threshold, he became an adventurer for almost 40 years before he was hit with complication from his old age, although he might be old, his skill and experiences is still living inside his body, if he said that a person is strong, then that person IS strong.. We've been coming to his inn regularly for the past 3 years and the only time he did this was almost 2 years ago..'
A few more seconds passed in silence, everyone seems to be in deep thoughts, however it wasn't long before one of them moved on and continued their meal, when the rest of the customers realized it, they went back to their normal behaviour, shrugging off Syla as just another girl that is staying in the inn.
.
.
At night, 1:00AM—
In a certain house at the west side of Direwell, a window was closed, revealing nothing to the outside as the candle inside was lit, shining the room with yellow light.
Amidst the yellow hue that covered the room, a shadow loomed across the floor with a decorated carpet, the shadow seemed to be coming from a man as soon after, a creaking noise can be heard from the room, the noise came from a trap door that was opened, a staircase appeared beneath the door that leads to the underground.
"We've completed the construction." A voice said, it sounded like a young man in his 20's.
Then, another voice was heard, this time it sounded deep and coarse.
"Everything?"
"Yes." The young man replied.
"Alright, perfect." The deep voiced man praised the young man's effort and the two of them walked through the staircase, entering the basement.
The staircase ended after just a minute of walking, the two figures then arrived at another door, and when they opened it, they were met with a spacious room.
Woosh!
A sudden breeze of wind seems to escape out of the room as the cold sensation was felt by the two figures that stood infront of the door. When the two of them walked inside, they heard a quiet groan coming from the side of the room.
"You've already ordered them to start?" The deep voiced man said.
"Yes, since we've completed the construction, i don't see any more reason to wait, the sooner it is, the better." The young man replied, at this point it was obvious that he was some sort of a subordinate to this man who has a deep voice.
"Hmm, you're right, then we should scout starting tomorrow, you can leave."
"Understood." The young man then obeyed the order, he walked out of the room and went up using the staircase.
As the man who seems to be the leader was left alone, his eyes gazed upon the source of the quiet groan that had been bothering him this whole time, he walked closer to the side and then crouched at a black shadow infront of him, due to the lack of light in the room, it was hard to make out what the black shadow was. However the man soon revealed that the black shadow wasn't just something for decoration.
Whirr!
The man used fire magic to summon a flame on his hand, the fire created a light that was bright enough to shine the black shadow, and upon closer look, it turns out the black shadow was another human, particularly a man with strong physique, he had been tied up with chains and beaten badly with bruises and swelling in many parts of his body.
"Now now, just stay quiet will you, i will guarantee that you will have a much better life than living in this backwater town– You don't know how much i despise insects like you." The man said, his voice carried a lot of hatred and anger.
He almost burned the man that was tied up using the fire magic, however he restrained from doing so and left the man alone, when he was about to leave the room, he spares some time to lit a torch that was being hung on the wall.
"Well then, i hope you will worth a lot of money, or else i'll be forced to dispose you for good." The man said before walking up the staircase, closing the door behind him.
As the torch lights up the room, it was revealed that the man that was tied up, isn't the only one that was there, on the other side of the room, another person was tied up using the same chains, except it was now a woman, an innocent demihuman girl, her clothes was ripped apart and the amount of bruises was similar to the man that was tied on the other side.
The two of them was trapped, possibly kidnapped, with nowhere to go and nowhere to escape, since there's no sign of malnutrition, it could either be that the man from before had fed them, or they were caught recently, the tied up man continued to groan, as if begging for help to anything, anyone that might hear, but of course, no one came..