Chapter 209 Something to Munch On

With Vasil’s help I scribbled down a list of items we would need. Mostly runestones, because I really wanted to craft more of Bies’ runewords. Besides those, Desecrate would be extremely good if I ever had to fight large groups, and now that I had [Stunt Double], Hiellal’s Bargain also became a million times better—if that worked with my clone, which I assumed it would. Having my clone explode into a pillar of fire and wind on dying seemed like it would be very powerful. I only had to figure out a way to kill something that couldn’t be interacted with physically, but I was sure a solution would come to me when needed.

I’d also requested some healing and mana potions of the highest quality he could get his hands on, since the fight with the pwomiennorogi had taught me that regular healing potions weren’t doing it for me anymore, I needed something stronger. Shooting myself in hopes of triggering [Greater Healing Nova] wasn’t the best way of healing myself because it was pretty risky and quite frankly, it hurt.

I resolved not to try and delve deeper into Melchior’s organization yet. I thought about using another disguise to infiltrate it and weed out the mole or moles like that, but I wasn’t sure if that was the best way to go about it. Perhaps it was better to just let them do whatever it was they were doing to avoid raising any suspicions. I didn’t want anything to jeopardize my plans for the tournament. I’d discuss the best course of action with the rest before deciding. I also made sure to transform back into Aurelia before leaving The Front End.

We still had plenty of time before the tournament started, and Opole wasn’t that far from Prudnik. I decided to stay here for a while and see if I could level up Kasia and myself while Melchior gathered the stuff from our shopping list. Maybe I’d even luck into some useful offerings to upgrade our skills with while doing so.

I also wanted to contact whoever the local Banda Masvih representative was in case they had updates on the tournament, and I also wanted to check if they might have any interesting jobs that might allow us to level up. They might even like me more if I helped them out. Two birds, one stone.

Melchior had informed me that they operated out of the local brothel, so that would be our next stop. Apparently the lady to talk to was called “Nos” and was recognizable by her large nose. He didn’t tell me much else, though I got the feeling he regularly did business with them.

Only when we stood in front of the door of the brothel did I realize we hadn’t eaten anything yet.

“You think they have food here?” I asked.

Kasia shrugged. “We can ask.”

“I’m sure they have plenty to eat,” Vitek said, laughing.

Inside we were greeted by a tall lady with long, wavy hair so blonde it was almost white. Her eyes were a piercing blue, her lips bright red.

“How can I help you?” she asked with a smile.

“Can we get something to eat?” I asked.

“Of course, we have something for everyone’s tastes. We pride ourselves in our variety of options.”

“Great!”

She led us into a dimly lit, smoky room and clapped her hands. An assortment of scantily clad men and women appeared from behind a curtain and lined up in a neat row. Most of them were humans, but I spotted a lady that looked suspiciously like a rusalka and two somethings that I wasn’t sure what they were.

One of them looked like what I could only describe as a swamp hag. She had greenish skin and her hair was a damn mess. Her arms and legs were excessively hairy, but what stood out most were her long, ridiculously saggy breasts. They were so long she could probably use them as weapons. She probably used them as weapons. Why were they so long?

The other looked like she was about my age and was gorgeous, but looked slightly pale. She smiled and gave me a wink, then turned to show me her back. To my complete horror, she had no skin on her back and I could see her spine and internal organs.

“Whoa,” I said, taking a step back. I glanced at Kasia who looked mortified and was staring at the… whatever it was.

I turned to Vitek, who was laughing at our reactions.

“That’s a navka,” he said like it explained anything.

The navka put her elegant hand over her mouth and giggled.

“But why?” I asked.

“Ah.” He scratched his beard. “They say this can happen if your sins were not washed when you were a baby. They put the baby in a body of water and then pour some more water over its head to wash away its sins.”

“That just sounds like a bath to me. Are you saying she’s never had a bath? She looks pretty clean, besides the whole open back thing. That doesn’t look too good. Looks pretty painful, actually.”

Vitek laughed. “No, that’s not what I’m saying. Saints or priests usually do this, to welcome the child as a child of Stvora. It’s to prevent things like this from happening, among other things.”

“And you believe this?”

“No. But it’s what they say.”

I thought about asking her what happened, but I didn’t want to be rude. Since she was still able to giggle, she probably wasn’t too bothered by it, even though it looked very uncomfortable. She could get an infection!

The tall lady who guided us inside cleared her throat. “Which one of these has your preference?”

“Uh,” I said, turning to Kasia, who was frowning. “I thought she said they had food here. Do they want us to… eat them? Is that why that girl’s back is missing?”

Vitek burst out laughing. He was laughing so loudly it startled me. He tried to say something, but I couldn’t understand what he was trying to say because he was laughing the whole time.

After a bit he calmed down and wiped the tears from his eyes. “They don’t want you to eat them. Not like that. They want you to eat them.”

“Oh.” I immediately understood what he meant and felt pretty silly—we were in a brothel after all. But what should I have said then? Do you have any snacks here? Do you have something to munch on? That would have sounded even worse and probably would have produced the same result.

I rubbed the back of my neck. “Maybe this was not the best place to look for some food.”

“Or the best place,” Vitek said, grinning. “Depending on your appetite.”

I sighed and shook my head. “I’m sorry, miss, but this is not the kind of food I had in mind. We’re hungry. For actual food.”

“Oh,” she said. “We serve snacks. They are provided with every purchase.” She nodded at the row of scantily clads.

“Yeah. No. I think we will find some food in a different establishment. You could help us with something else though.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Hmm?”

“I’m looking for someone named Nos. I heard this is her place.”

She gave me a friendly smile. “There is no one named Nos here, nor is this establishment owned by someone named Nos.”

“Sure. You can tell her Mayor Aurelia is here to see her. I’m a friend of Palets, and I could be a friend of hers as well. You can check if you want. I’ll wait.”

The woman hesitated then gave a nod. “Fine. One moment. Wait here.”

After some time—which was made rather uncomfortable by the navka, who kept staring at me—the tall woman returned. Behind her followed what surely had to be Nos, considering her gargantuan nose. The thing looked like a battering ram! The way Nos regarded us, she appeared to be one wrong move away from being in a bad mood. She walked up to me, nose straight ahead.

“Palets sent you?” Nos asked me with a voice that sounded surprisingly normal. I was expecting something nasally, you know, considering.

“Uh. No. We share a hobby. And we have a business agreement.”

“What does that have to do with—”

The navka giggled and Nos’s head snapped to her, swinging her nose all over the place.

I ducked out of instinct and covered my head with my arms. “Shit!”

This caused Nos to turn back to me with a scowl. “Why did you do that?”

Obviously I couldn’t mention it was because I didn’t want to get knocked out by her massive nose. That would possibly sour our budding relationship. The navka had clearly put her in a bad mood with her giggling, and now I was about to be punished for her lack of self control. It was unfair, as life always was, but I was certain I could salvage this situation. I just had to say something smooth that would show her I was on her side and that I hadn’t noticed her nose at all. But her nose was staring at me like it was trying to look inside my soul, which made it hard to think of something clever to say on the spot.

“I—Not because of your nose,” I said.

Kasia snorted.

I clapped my hand to my face. “Fuck me.”

The navka giggled again.