In Another World With JUST MONIKA 110 Interlude – Her Feelings In The Silver Moon Inn

-.

Aer had been more annoying than the usual in the past few days. Micah stared blandly down at her friend's catlike grin.

"They're not here, you know? Please leave."

"Ohohoho. You're not getting far with Mister Zah, I understand it's hard to compete with beautiful powerful young women in the prime of their lives. But now you're living alone in this inn with a dashing guardsman – a man with a pension! How so very interesting! Tell me more."

"S-shut up! It's not like that!" Micah hissed.

"He calls you Milady. Whatever you want him to do, he just runs to get it done. I mean, he's supposed to be your guard, but he's helping with anything while other guards stand outside."

"Well, it's boring to just stand around all day, he said. Cooking Playa's chicken isn't that difficult, most of the secret is in the marinade. Keeping order with the chess players isn't that much of a problem, a good skillet to the head works as well as a billy club anyway."

Some of the Ortlinde guards were acting as cooks, some were guards, while others were doing delivery. This was exactly not what they had been expecting to be doing. They were obeying some random commoner innkeeper like she was their fief lord or something.

On one hand, that was terrifyingly empowering. Micah put a finger to her lips and tried to hide her smile even as Aer giggled. On the other hand, that was also terrifying in how running against a n.o.ble's power made this necessary and Playa was somehow influential to make this happen. None of them looked the least bit put out to be treated like servants, they were pursuing their menial tasks with an odd studious intensity.

"So, Lady Micah, tell me – would you hit that?"

"I would hit you."

"How scandalous! Tell me more."

"Out."

"Dohohohohoh~."

-.

-.

Micah sighed. It was dark now, but she didn't feel sleepy. It was usually at this time she would be cleaning up the bath after the girls returned from the adventuring, and Playa would be cooking something in her kitchen. It was odd if an innkeeper was being served, but since they were business partners it was fine to share a meal.

And then they would all be sitting and eating all together. Playa was the sort of person who like variation in his dinner – always at least one large soup bowl, one stir-fry, one roast, some mashed vegetables, something spicy, and then something sweet and cold. Of course, because Yae ate a lot everything would need to be triple portions. At least now that they had that n.o.ble la.s.s it looked like she wouldn't be missing the typical n.o.ble fare.

Well there was that time Playa tried to get everyone to eat with their hands. (1)

Then he set up the breakfast menu always as some corned beef and egg. Or sausage and egg. Or pancakes and egg. Or pancakes used as a bun for ham and cheese and an egg.

{"Happiness is an egg for breakfast every day," } basically was what he was saying. Micah sighed again. So annoying.

"Milady, is there anything more I can do for you?"

Micah looked up from her repose on the counter and blinked. Then she winced. Maldon looked daaaamn fiiiine with that tight white shirt and an ap.r.o.n. Now that Aer put that thought into her brain, now she was all too aware of it. He had a lot more bulk than Playa, that was for sure. He was dutiful, patient, and capable. And also gentle and vulnerable, they had shared the trauma of Zorah Zornea Zenovivi screaming at them about their deficiencies.

Micah shook her head. "No, that's it. You can go have fun with your mates," she said. It was night, but still early enough that they could go ease off in a tavern after a day's work. The Silver Moon Inn didn't open for night tavern servings any more. Then she added crossly "Don't call me milady. That feels so… wrong. I'm just a commoner, you know?"

Maldon shrugged. "As guards, it's really not our place to be too casual. The ones we protect should always be treated with the most utmost of respect, no matter what they do."

Micah leaned on her left fist. "Even if the one you protects is doing something bad? You're not going to stop them?"

"Bad according to whom? Well there are some things like slavery, or ****, or other sins like that there against all the G.o.ds – that one we should stop or at least never partic.i.p.ate in. We have our honor too, you know?

"But there are also reasons behind why things are done are not us to judge. What if it's important for the sake of establishing a ruse? There may be information we're not privy to. There will probably be something in the contract to allow us to back off if our princ.i.p.al is doing something blatantly illegal.

We guard only the body, not the soul. If we make unnecessary trouble, what does that get us? Since when does a guard get to decide for their liege lord?"

Mican leaned her chin on both her wrists. She smiled thinly. "As a commoner, I… can accept that. The rules n.o.bles live by are different from what we commoners live by."

But that was also somewhat boring, Micah decided. He had a good appreciation for reality and could teach his children the morals that would have them survive and thrive no matter what. In some sense being reliable was also a good thing. He was a good catch even by Aer's standards.

"That's not a good thing. That's not much we can do about it. An oath usually is not meant to be a suicide pact, but it's how it can sometimes be an honor to die in the service of one's lord is what makes oaths actually worth anything. I suppose a mercenary's honor is about fulfilling the mission no matter what, maybe that will be enough."

He looked… so sad. There was always a desperate intensity to everything he was doing.

She closed her eyes and felt her heart. She had no time for any romantic entanglements. Her heart was thumping slightly, but she felt nowhere near the out of control bliss that said someone was truly in love.

"All right, you have the key. Lock up when you're done, then."

"Is it really all right?" Maldon asked.

"Nothing's gonna happen. Reflet's boring most of the time. It's not like it's the first time I'm home alone. Go on, have fun, don't bother me no more."

"If you say so, milady." Maldon bowed and left.

Left alone and in silence, Micah looked around her inn. It looked mostly the same, but it felt very different since – oh, has it really been only a couple of months?! That chess corner over there, and the signboard showing ranks. The smell of grease lingering in the air. The stone floor was a little duller, the tables and chairs a little more battered. The indoors light was stronger, no longer just tallow and chandeliers, because Playa splurged on buying a magic lamp to replace the middle chandelier.

Her Silver Moon Inn felt like a harp, with one last pluck a ringing note still softly echoed in the air. Even thought all was silent and lonesome there was a sense of liveliness that had been missing since her mother died five years ago.

[Boom.]

Her heart hammered. A nerve pulsed on her forehead. She clenched her fists.

The back door opened and immediately she yelled out "Dang it, what did I tell you about doing this when people are supposed to be at peace?!"

Playa had some days ago offered to dig a hole and drag in some heavy stones and build a heavy brick outhouse just to m.u.f.fle the noise of his [Boom Tube] transit and Micah had refused. Because it was *still her d.a.m.n yard*, and the solution is to have him do all that noise *outside the town* and just walk in through the front door *like a normal person*.

Like seriously. Someone should teach that boy some patience. It would be good for him.

Playa walked in, and unlike the bombastically arrogant stride she was used to seeing, he looked kinda rushed and worried. "Micah!" he cried out and made his way over to sit facing her on the bar counter.

"W-what? Something wrong? You're back early, I thought you'd be gone for the rest of the month."

Playa beamed and took some deep breaths. It looked like he'd really been rushing to get back home. "Oh we're still leaving tomorrow. I just had to rush and get you some things. I can finally make magical artifacts now!"

"That's… good?" He looked halfway between excited and worried. Honestly at that point she was half expecting him to pontificate about new, labor-saving magical tools for his franchise. He'd been moaning about the slow ovens and unreliable temperature of wood-fired stoves for so long. Also, about getting a soft ice cream maker. Also, better night lights. Also, a washing machine. At least with ice magic it was easy to always give people unlimited free ice water.

He b.i.t.c.hed and moaned a lot, basically. How annoying.

"Do you remember the heat shield necklace I gave you?"

Micah blinked and touched her chest over her ap.r.o.n. She blushed slightly. Jewelry was lavish enough, but a magic item? That was… that was almost inappropriate levels of gifting.

She exhaled and just looked at him thinly. But she was not going to feel all fl.u.s.tered about that because it was clear at this point that Playa had no G.o.d-given good sense whatsoever.

"Have you eaten yet?"

"Actually… no. I was busy." Though he was wearing a mask, Micah could tell from his sunken cheeks that he was tired and hungry.

"I haven't eaten yet either. There's no dang chicken left, Mister Playa. I'm not going to cook a full six course meal just for you, we've got some pork roasts and potato stew left."

"Ooh. Lechon would be fine too, thank you."

Micah left and brought in the leftover food. They ate together over the bar counter. It had only been a couple of days since Playa and the others needed to leave for the capital. Normally they would only be halfway there by carriage.

As he ate, Micah stared at him. Now that he no longer needed to wear the thing on his face, she could see most of his face. It wasn't as pale as she expected, but his hair was black with somewhat reddish highlights. His chin and cheeks were sharp and his nose was tall and aquiline. A (Roman) High Regulus nose, as some might say. Playa had absurdly pouty lips that actually made Micah feel insecure about her own womanly lips.

"It sure is nice to be an adventurer, huh?" she mused idly. "You're all just going around visiting new places all the time."

"Not really, adventurers without a convenient transportation magic would suffer the tedium of travel much like any merchant. Camping outdoors is all sorts of a pain in the a.s.s. Pa.s.sive income is still the best. Property ownership is just great."

Micah sniffed. She was basically the only one willing to listen to Playa make litanies about business. Well there was Aer, but basically she was just letting things enter one ear and out the other while keeping a rapt expression. As someone who had to run an inn mostly by herself, she was very familiar with the need to cut costs and increase revenue. As a business owner she was usually too busy to think about investing outside.

"They say that true wealth isn't having gold, but owning land, you know?"

Playa stopped and looked as if he was remembering something. "Only if it is productive land. Just farmland isn't enough to build true wealth and power. Even that can be taken away. The wannbe rich count their wealth in the luxuries they display, the comfortably rich in the properties they own, the old money rich in strategic land utilization – mines, fortresses and such. But the greatest proof of wealth is proximity to the center of power."

"Ehh? What does that mean?"

"It means if the King owes you an unlimited favor, you are truly powerful and wealthy. You don't have to prove s.h.i.te to anybody."

Micah's eyes narrowed to suspicious slits. "I just remembered that a high n.o.ble came all the way here to pick a fight with you, and you don't even care. You're sitting there like whatever happened wasn't any bother at all. What… what are you, anyway? Why are you so obsessed with becoming rich?"

"Well mostly because currency is a fungible good that I can dispose of to make the lives of those around me better, safer, more productive. Wealth may not be power – but it can transformer into different types of power. Time. Knowledge. Influence. And if you have to move around, apart from magic power, it's the only thing you can take with you."

Micah shrugged. "Well I'm fine just staying here. Mo' money, mo' problems. What's got you in such a tizzy?"

After their dinner, Playa put down a silver necklace with a pair of blue magic stone surrounded by silver lace, forming a b.u.t.terfy shape. Then a bra.s.s-and-ruby open hinge bracelet with a strange fragile-looking bulb at end. Then six blue disks with a blue gem at the middle.

"This bracelet isn't just a heat shield. It's a full-on magic defensive air shield. It's voice-activated. The first command is [Shield Me!], which will create an [Air Shield] strong enough to push away blades and arrows. If you're being grabbed, it will also force away everything around you as it snaps into place. The command to turn it off is [Peace Out!]."

Micah paused at inspect the pretty little bauble and gave Playa a dubious look. "Seriously?"

"Seriously."

That made the necklace a whole lot less charming. It still looked absurdly expensive, and now knowing that it was a magic tool that contained battle magic? People would kill for that. That would just make her even more unsafe, what was wrong with his brain?

Playa continued blithely on "And this bracelet is basically just an alarm bracelet. If this bulb here breaks for any reason, we will know *instantly*. And we'll drop a [Boom Tube] over here and wreck whatever is stupid enough to be threatening you."

Micah began rubbing at the bridge of her nose. "Aren't you being kinda too paranoid? First you gave me guards, and now all this…?" She looked up and gave him a very unamused look. "This is so unnecessary, you know? We've lived twenty years here in Reflet with nothing much happening. Okay, so sometimes adventurers get a little bit rowdy… but it doesn't take long to get other adventurers to put a stop to that."

Playa just shrugged. "Sorry. I just get worried. I can lose money, it's enough enough to make more. But I can't lose any more people… I just can't." He licked his lips and smiled sadly. "Please. Just do this for me."

Micah's lips twisted up in a humorless chuckle. "Do you even know what you're doing?"

"Um. Yes? I think so? So we took a crash course in artifact creation, but there should not be any dangers or side effects. Worst thing that could happen is that the magic enchantment just fails to activate. You wouldn't be in any danger, these things should be quite safe."

Micah just rolled her eyes and sighed sadly at his response. Obviously not, he had no idea.

He pointed towards the disks. "These are [Air Shield] support disks, they're meant to be attached to shields, even. They're triggered by impact. Could I ask you to give them to the guards? Let them test things out. I suppose if you lay them flat on the ground they could bounce things up pretty far too. When I get back, I'll make you an air bed. Well technically an air mattress."

Micah just stared at him. Waiting.

"What?" Playa asked after a while.

"Really that's just it, huh? You're going to make me an air bed because… it would be interesting for you."

"Yeah. I mean, the ultimate in comfort! Hotels are franchises too you know."

Micah stared at his silly little grin. She snickered and shook her head. "Mister Playa… please. What do you want from me?"

Playa looked like he was thinking it over seriously for a while. Then he said "Not much. Nothing for now, really. We can deal with building the restaurant extension when I get back. I might not have much time for that though, the political situation is kinda… dangerous."

"… That's it? That's all you want?" Micah gestured towards the unG.o.dly expensive trinkets on the counter. "You're giving me all these things just because you're afraid I'll get hurt? You come in here, and you send all these guards to bother me, just so you don't lose your manager?! That's all you really want?"

"Um. Yes?"

Aer must never know. If she learned about this, steam would come out of her ears in frustration or she would become unspeakably smug and unbearable.

Unlike Maldon, Playa was not attentive to her needs at all. He would flirt with Aer in return, and then try to hide from her friend when that obviously backfires because he didn't have the nerve to go as far as a perverted young woman in her teasing. He would go off to adventures and then come back and have more silly ideas to unpack. Then he'd give her stupidly overpriced gifts and souvenirs as if that made up for the headaches he caused.

He was infringing too much on her rights as the innkeeper and owner of this here inn! Just because he paid three months in advance gave him no rights to knock down any walls and rework her plumbing!

Playa bought a newer boiler for the baths. Because he was *not* allowed to knock down any walls, piping had to go through a window out to the back yard which they had to plaster over.

Playa bought new fixtures and decorations. Where he found those long plate gla.s.s mirrors she didn't know.

Playa was using her kitchen for his food delivery service instead of renting his own place.

Weird people would just kick open the door and come in, making demands.

Her father was bringing in new chess players all the time, and with all that betting her inn was becoming a house of sin. And still they expected her to keep track of rankings and set up betting odds. She could do it, but she was never happy about it.

Like {"… wow you're a much better bookie than you are an innkeeper"} shut up Playa.

Micah actually had to close her inn for any room renters. Granted, she was making enough money to equal fully-booked rooms anyway. There was too much to do every day.

That was part of why she refused to hire out any more workers except for working in the kitchen during the day. She couldn't trust anyone else to keep the secrets of those who lived inside the Silver Moon Inn.

She was putting up entirely too much of his s.h.i.te. For what?

"All right. Fair talk. Mister Playa, are you trying to woo me?"

Playa tilted his head to the side. "Um. No?"

Micah snorted and crossed her arms. "You should really be more careful what you say and what gifts you give to girls." She blinked several times quickly. "That's... annoying."

"Ehehe. Right. Fair enough. Then his demeanor turned serious again. "But I'm not budging on this. Take care of yourself, Micah."

The innkeeper sighed. "All right. I'll thank you for this. Would you like to stay here for the night or are you going to annoy the neighbors again when you go back to the capital?"

"Just let me dig a hole already, Micah!"

"Noooo."

-.

-.

So Micah finally persuaded Playa to leave through the front door like a normal person.

"Wait up!" she said, stopping him by grabbing his sleeves. She looked him over up and down, and then adjusted his collar. She smoothed out the creases on her cape and stepped back, judging if he looked presentable.

"Is there anything you need? Anything you want me to bring?"

"Nah, I'm fine. But lower yourself a little," she beckoned, as if wanting to whisper to Playa's ears. Playa bent down and Micah grabbed at his lapels.

Then she gave big a wet smooch onto his left cheek. Mwah! Then she pushed off.

Playa staggered back, and touched a finger to the left side of his face. The kiss seemed to burn against his skin. "W-what was that for?"

She stepped back, waved and grinned. "Have a safe trip!"

"Umm. I'm not your father, you know? Be careful what you're implying to a man when you do things like that."

Micah's wide, tomboyish grin only broadened. "Heh. Just go away already and have fun out there. Don't worry about anything here, I've managed so far before on my own, and I'll be fine dealing with things while you're away with your girls."

Playa grimaced. He nodded and all but physically flung himself out the door.

-.

-.

/"She'll be fine, Player. Relaaax."/

"Noooo Monika please stop raising flags."

/"I see why you're a man obsessed with freedom. You get SUPER ATTACHED so quickly,"/ Monika mused. /"I suppose it makes sense, you kept me around long after my memes faded into the dank of the Internet."/

Playa grimaced. "It's not enough. It's never enough. We need stronger magic to protect the people we care about."

[Whoever holds this Smartphone, if they be worthy, shall possess the Power of NOKIA 3310!] (2)

-.

-.

Halfway just before activating the [Boom Tube], Playa paused and belatedly came to the realization "s.h.i.te, my asking to dig a hole at all was an innuendo. She offered me to stay overnight!"

/"... Micah truly deserves a much more sensible man than you, Player."/

"Monika, I thought you were a relationship advisor. Why didn't you speak up about this? I feel like such an a.s.shole now."

Monika shrugged. Linze and Elze and the pressures of a war on the horizon. Was it the time to be distracted by more homely concerns?

/"Relationships are a two-way street, Player. One can't just deserve it by wanting. One of either side must at least have the courage to risk their heart. There's so many double standards in society, but as women sometimes we can't just rely on being pursued. We all need open communication because..."/

-.

-.

Maldon came back to an empty inn. That was normal. He figured that Micah was already in her room readying to sleep.

-.

-.

Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam.

Aer opened the door. She found her friend standing there with puffy eyes.

"Men... are dumb," said Micah.

"And you are enlightened," said Aer, as she pulled her friend inside her shop and into a hug.

-.

-.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

-.

-.

AN:

(1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXhtt2SdwVU

(2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D2Kqs5tEOI