Everything fun has to come to an end.
And this bed-based breakfast was no different.
Surprisingly, even though I prepared a lot more food than I thought we would eat, all the toasts ended up disappearing.
Selia followed my order of flavors only in the beginning. Yet, pretty much as soon as she finished up her third honey-glazed toast, her hand reached out for the cheesy one. Then, after giving it a quick dip in the sauce, she stuffed her mouth with it while giving me a smile wide enough even for her eyes to curve up.
Honestly, though, I couldn't really care less.
While for me it just felt better to segregate the tastes and enjoy the flavors one by one, giving each both time and space to fully develop on my tongue, if Selia wanted to mix stuff, then who was I to tell her not to?
And to be perfectly fair, watching how she devoured the food I prepared gave me this nice, fuzzy feeling down at the bottom of my stomach.
'I wonder what should I make her eat next?'
By now, I could feel my mindset slipping, changing, evolving under my specific circumstances.
I still had all the plans to get rich off charcoal. But now? After seeing how happy Selia was eating the toasts before enjoying her morning coffee?
Now, I would much rather seek ways to create an efficient, charcoal-based stove that the locals would go crazy for.
All I had to do was provide convenience and a long-term cost-effective solution to their problems.
'Thinking about it…' I sank deep in my thoughts as Selia finished dressing up and was now waiting for me at the room's door. 'If we manage to keep the charcoal prices down, people would be happier to buy stuff that uses charcoal.'
For a second, an image of a steam engine appeared before my eyes.
I just couldn't help it. Bringing civilization to a technologically backward world was one of the men's dreams!
But…
Would the locals really appreciate the opportunities it offered?
Would it really be all that useful in a world that was about to get busy with what could easily become a huge war?
I shook my head right as we went down the stairs and left the inn, heading out into the town.
We didn't really have any purpose.
All that had to be taken care of was in the hands of people perfectly well capable of managing it.
Right now, I've reached the stage where I simply had to allow time to pass for certain processes to take place.
And so, rather than rushing to complete yet another prerequisite to my grand plan, I decided to just enjoy this little outing. Turning it into an opportunity to warm up our joints and burn some calories after the small feast we just enjoyed.
And soon, I came to regret this choice for the most ridiculous of reasons.
Because when Selia wrapped her arms around mine and rested her head against my shoulder?
On one hand, I wanted to burn the entire world to scratch just to make room for all the happiness that filled my soul.
On the other hand, though…
The stares of the people around me were quite damn heavy.
'I guess that was only to be expected in a town where everyone adores if not outright deifies her,' I thought, breathing out a sigh as I tried not to let this part of the reality bother me too much.
Thankfully, as big of a change as it was for those seeing the two of us together for the very first time, we didn't really bother hiding from the very beginning. As such, by the time we left the local street and moved deeper into the town, people pretty much stopped paying any attention to us.
Within the crowd, we became yet another couple walking around, too busy with their own lives to bother with the lives of others.
'That feels like one thing I disliked about the modern world,' I heaved an internal sigh.
In modern times, with an abundance never before known in human history, people grew extremely disconnected from the real world.
One's standing in social media became a much higher symbol of status than their achievements or actual, social weight.
And worst of all, this great social media trend only ended up making people all the more isolated.
It was a funny thing, really, for the apps designed to connect people to turn into the greatest tools of human isolation. Isolation that was starting to show its fangs right around my time to turn from a child into an adult, forcing me to live in the world where people were more interested in the next update to whatever topic they were following than they were interested in interacting with the other person.
A trend that quickly made some people forget that their internet anonymity didn't spread into their everyday lives.
Or, as one of the great fighters of the last age spoke, the world became a lot worse of a place when filled with entire generations of people who never got slapped in the face for talking smack to others.
Now, seeing the life around, I could see both pros and cons to this simpler, truer form of life.
Sure, the people in the city were all busy, all rushing to complete their tasks, all focused on the task of reaching tomorrow in a situation no worse than they woke up with.
But that didn't mean those people wouldn't fall into social media decadency if given a choice.
They weren't a better breed of people or something.
'They are not running around just to enjoy themselves. They are all so busy because they need to work really damn hard to survive.'
With that perspective, it was hard for me to stay true to my dislike of the modern trends.
As wrong and dangerous as they could be, they were a symptom of a rich, prosperous society where people had the time to waste on leisure!
"Or maybe it's all a lot simpler?" I muttered as I looked up to the sky, as if the heavens could hold the answer to my past grievances with society. "Maybe I simply lived in the times of decadent fall?"
Now that my mind was free of constant urgent pursuits for better standing or rushed plans to improve my situation, I couldn't help but reminisce about my past. About the historical mistakes made that led society down this erroneous path I knew.
About all the lessons that my old world held.
And to my side, doing nothing but gently hugging herself into my arm, stood Selia.
She didn't give me weird looks as I rambled away, nor did she tug on my arm to stop me from speaking to myself.
She just… stood by my side, offering me the same comfort, same abandon of worry and concern that I've only ever experienced before when falling asleep.
'Is this what it means to be relaxed?' I thought, taking in a deep breath, holding it in for a while and then slowly exhaling out.
"If that's what it means to be with you, then you have no idea just how down to it I am," I spoke again, even though I knew Selia lacked the necessary context of my earlier thoughts to understand what I meant.
And by the looks of it, she didn't care either. She simply brushed her cheek against the side of my shoulder and then continued to walk by my side, only stopping when we suddenly noticed quite the huge crowd gathering in front, at a crossing of the town's two main streets.
"Gather around, everyone!" A middle-aged man stood on a wooden barrel, with two men standing to the side and holding the barrel in place. "I'm here today to gather fifty more people for the registrar!"
The man flaunted a huge, mostly empty writing scroll already adorned with a fancy-looking red seal and a silver medallion hanging down from it.
"We accept adventurers of rank B and above!" the man continued to shout, trying to compete with the growing murmurs in the crowd.
And pretty much the next moment, the whole crowd turned bonkers.
"ME! I WANT TO JOIN!"
"I WANT TO DO MY PART TOO!"
"SIGN ME IN, BOSS!"
In a town populated mostly by high-ranking adventurers, even a random crowd gathered on the street like that was bound to consist mostly of people that already passed the requirements the man had. And judging by their more than just enthusiastic reaction, this registrar thingy appeared to be quite the nice opportunity.
"Tsk…" To my side, I felt Selia tense up over my arm. She then clicked her tongue and spat to the side. "Damn leeches," she muttered through her teeth, staring daggers at the men who happily rushed forward to secure their chances of getting their names on the man's list.
"What is this thing?" I asked in a lowered voice, hoping everyone would be too busy with the ongoing event to pay me any mind.
"The hounds are here to recruit rats to do their bidding," caring not for my worries, Selia replied in a full voice, somehow pitched in a very specific way that made her words spread through the air and cut through all the chatter.
"Any chance for you to be any more specific?" I requested, putting on a helpless look on my face as I scratched the back of it.
My mind raced.
How the hell was I supposed to react? Or worse yet, how was I to get us out of this rather uncomfortable situation?!
With Selia's voice attracting quite the stares, it was only a matter of time before someone would try something as funny as it would be stupid!
And yet, even as seconds passed…
People mostly lowered their faces and turned away, but didn't stop trying to sign up for the job.
Rather than lashing out back at us… they lowered their heads like scolded students and merely tried to hide their shame as they did whatever it was that Selia disliked so damn much?
"They are all war profiteers," Selia closed her arms over her chest and squinted her eyes as she explained. "They gather up then set off for the lands just behind where the conflict takes place," Selia explained before spitting down again. "So that in case someone managed to avoid harm from the passing armies, they would lose everything to robbers like them!"
I squinted my eyes in confusion.
What Selia said sounded really damn bad.
But… How was something like this supposed to be legal?
Or was this an instance of a state-promoted looting?
My face darkened.
'It looks like the war reached here even faster than I thought it would.'