In Another World With JUST MONIKA 58 Dare To Offend

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"Who the h.e.l.l am I? Who the h.e.l.l are you?!" the man roared back.

"Who the h.e.l.l am I? I asked first! Who the h.e.l.l are you?!"

"Who the h.e.l.l am I? I own this place! Who the h.e.l.l are you?!"

"What is tarnation is all this noise now?!" Micah emerged from the kitchen door. She saw two men pointing their fingers at each other like fencing swords over the bar counter. She sighed. "I see you're back. Mister Playa, Elze, Linze. You're back early!"

"You know this annoying guy, Micah?"

"You know this annoying old guy, Micah?"

"Who's annoying?!" he screamed at me again.

Micah sighed, went over and chopped at the air between us. "This is my dad, Dolan. I guess it's understandable that you don't know. He was out traveling to restock our inventory of spices and preserved meats."

All the way to Mismede, even! We didn't even know he existed for the two weeks we've been staying in the Silver Moon Inn. We all actually just thought that, like Aer, her parents were dead in the war and didn't dare to bring up a sensitive topic.

"And dad, stop picking fights with paying customers. This is Playa, and Elze, and Linze, they're staying here. They already paid up to the rest of the month in advance."

Dolan scowled and crossed his beefy arms. "We don't need this kinda guy here. Give them back their mo-"

"NO. No refunds. You know the policy. This is why mom left the Inn to me, dad. Just because trading spices is how we keep afloat doesn't mean making a profit in the inn isn't something a worth doing in itself!"

Dolan grumbled and crossed his arms, and was just a bit short of pouting after being scolded.

I looked up sharply as a thought occurred to me. "Wait… so if he wasn't here all that time. Then that means… all that time I thought you had a cook, instead YOU were taking care of ALL the cooking. I thought it was just breakfast you were doing because the cook would come in later in the day. But you were always serving like, three recipes in every meal. And all the cleaning, and even the was.h.i.+ng… for all of us, all on your own?!"

Micah looked relaxed and not really very enthused to excel, but when it comes down to it she had a very strong work ethic.

She squinted at me. "What's with that look on your face?"

Although no one could see my wide awestruck eyes, my neck was starting to bend in an odd angle like a confused ostrich. The rest of my body followed suit.

"Yes, what is with that look?!" Dolan growled, his already scowl-lined forehead pinching down again.

Monika put a hand to her chin and murmured admiringly /"… in all honesty, I don't find anything objectionable about the Micah Route."/

I turned towards Dolan and said in a much more respectful tone, "Ah. I see. In that case, Mister Dolan, I have a proposition for you."

He scowled at me, looked at his daughter, and then back to me. He barked out "NO."

"I mean a business proposition. How do you feel about… chickens?"

Dolan blinked. "What."

Elze grabbed at my shoulder and pulled me back. "Playa, come on. We're been traveling for so long and we're tired. Play around with your money-making schemes later. We've got one last thing to do before we can rest."

Fiiine.

And then there was a loud b.e.s.t.i.a.l growling sound.

As one we turned around. Yae lifted a hand to her mouth and looked away, hiding her body with the wide trailing sleeve of her pink kimono.

Grrrrooooowwwl. Again went her stomach.

She blushed.

"All righty then," I turned sharply around towards Micah again. "Micah, I bring you a new resident to this inn! What have we got in terms of… provisions?"

"We have hams! All sorts of hams!" she proudly declared in response, while opening out her arms.

I nodded slowly. "Stupendous."

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After Yae wrote her name into the inn's registry, and we all paid in advance for the next month (which delighted Micah and only grudgingly acknowledged by her father), we sat down to eat. Micah quickly cut us up some hams, breads, and cheese. Served with a large loaf of brown bread, olive oil, and some clear broth to whet our tongues from the salty dryness. This world had already invented sandwiches.

Though not hamburgers. And even then, I supposed, it wouldn't matter. A franchise was a matter of branding and atmosphere.

Nom. Nom.

Yae was not shy about asking for seconds. And thirds. And fifths. Micah and Dolan didn't know what to say. Even Monika had to stare. Where was all that food going? Could there possibly be some sort of internal magic with direct food matter to extradimensional energy conversion?!!!

No. No there was not.

In the end only Yae needed to have food expenses added to her bill, instead of the usual meals included for two copper. None of us could say anything about that either.

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I slammed open the double doors. "ZANAC ZENFIELD!" I shouted as I strode into his shop. "I HAVE RETURNED!"

Zanac was attending to a well-dressed lady, and yelped at the bang and the sudden shout. He dived and rolled, protecting the falling gown with his body. Not even a bit of it touched the ground.

The lady, with her curled and coiffured light brown hair turned towards us and then her face twisted into a disdainful sneer. "Plebians. How rude."

I stepped inside and announced "We have completed our mission!"

"Adventurers? Miscreants! What are they doing here?" She turned towards Zanac, who was slowly getting back up to his feet. "Send them away, Zanac."

"Um… I actually did send for…"

"What does that matter? Hirelings should know their place! If you do not stand up to this impudence, commoners will think they can take advantage of you. You have to be firm with these sort of people! Do not disappoint me, Zanac…!"

Then she turned towards the door and glanced at each of us. I was up front, of course, with my white-gloved right hand still outstretched in a dramatic pose. Elze and Linze followed, with Elze carrying what looked like two thick poles of purple cloth over her shoulders. Yae was only barely visible behind them.

Her lips curled up even higher in contempt. "Louts! Have you decency? Have you any idea who you offend with your disgraceful behavior?"

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