Arriving at Hearthfill village right after dusk, Leon shifted to walk in front as the elves stood behind him. The two guards standing at the village's gate looked at him and threw glances toward the tired elves.
"Travelers? Doesn't seem to be the case..." One of the guards approached, and Leon shook his head. "Refugees moving up north; we're here to stay the night."
After a few moments of silence, the second guard led the elves toward the village's inn so they could rest for the night, and Leon walked with the second guard after sending the girls to the inn with the elves.
While they could rest for the night, Leon knew that they should keep moving at dawn, so he tried to negotiate with the village's chief for help, and the negotiations were successful.
As shady and underhanded as it was, Leon knew that talking with the elderly chief right at this hour while he was exhausted and sleepy was his best chance at getting something. Using the elvish children and the one pregnant woman to put pressure, he managed to procure an old cart, a donkey, and a few sets of old clothes.
But as expected, it wasn't free. The chief's daughter will be going with them to Drakegate to procure rations and mining tools. Leon's job is to guard her on the way to Drakegate, a trip which she made once a week for the past years, all on her own.
Leon accepted the request formally as an adventurer, and his reward was the use of the carriage and donkey on the trip to Drakegate and the old clothes. The chief even offered to waive the cost of their stay at the village's inn.
After thanking the old man, Leon headed to the local trader and woke him up. He knew it was already pretty late, but he still needed to unload all of the excess herbs they gathered on their way here for extra coins. Even if the chief waived the cost of their stay, that wasn't the case with food, and fifteen elves eat a lot.
It wasn't much, but it should give them some respite for now. At the inn, the elves had been fed and went to sleep. For the first time in days, they could finally sleep with a roof over their heads.
Walking inside the inn, Leon found the inn's owner waiting for him with a bowl of soup and fresh bread. Well, the bread wasn't fresh. It was sourdough from this morning, but it was better than anything he had ate in the past two days.
Looking at the back of the kitchen, he noticed three massive pots of boiling water, and he knew exactly what they were for. "You've even prepared water for them."
"We got plenty of water and firewood this time of the year. I've already sent water to your room upstairs with some clean clothes and soap."
Leon's eyes opened wide. "You even got soap?" Soap was expensive, and not many people had access to it. This city should be under his father's domain, and he knew about most products that made their way here. Soap wasn't one of them.
"We get it from Drakegate. The Northern Lord Lisa had been sending us some with every shipment of ore we deliver. She said that staying clean helps prevent diseases, and that the last thing she wants is a plague near the fort city of Drakegate." The inn owner shook his head. "We do bathe and clean ourselves using oils, but soap just does a better job getting rid of the grime."
Leon smiled. "Warlord Lisa, I've heard a lot of great things about her. A commoner girl whose father got drafted into the war, so she secretly followed him to the battlefield, only to arrive at a losing massacre. Her father was killed, half of the army was decimated, and the enemy overpowered them four to one."
He looked at the ceiling. "She was just ten years old at the time, yet she charged blindingly into the battlefield, forced the losing soldiers to follow her, and pushed back against the enemy. The celebrating enemy soldiers were taken by surprise when the retreating army turned around, and what ensued was an even bigger massacre."
"We still lost that battle." The inn's owner shook his head as he was drying the dishes. "Lost, but that battle crippled the enemy's army and prevented them from attacking for another five years. So when they did come back, Lisa was fifteen years old, and she took them head-on, emerged victorious, and even retrieved the two cities we lost." Leon chuckled. "That's when she gained the title of Warlord."
After that short conversation, Leon stood. It was already pretty late, so he had to sleep and rest. "Thanks for the food. How much is the cost of everything?" After paying the owner for both dinner and the breakfast of tomorrow morning, Leon headed upstairs to the room he was directed toward.
That was the part where he felt that something was off. While the elves all got rooms on the west side of the ground floor, Leon's room was on the eastern side of the first floor, as far away from everyone else.
As Leon walked up the stairs, he could tell at a glance that all of the rooms were empty and well cleaned, since the doors were open. "What is going on?" He soon reached the room, and before he could even touch the door, he could smell the soap inside.
Those girls must be washing inside. They could also have already finished, so he decided to at least knock. "It's me, Leon. Are you done there?"
"Yeah! The door is open." Roberta replied from inside the room. "You can come in, Master." Noel added, so Leon reached toward the doorknob and pushed the door open.
What he saw made him freeze. Roberta was still naked, sitting on a chair beside the nightstand, applying olive oil to her scalp as it was still hurting from the poison. Noel only had her underwear on, and she was sitting on the bed, busy brushing her hair. The only one who had something decent on was Beatrice, who wore a robe and was helping Roberta with the oil.
"I thought you said I could come in." He threw a sharp glance at Roberta, and she moaned. "Ahh... don't look." She pretended to be ashamed as she slightly covered herself with her hands.
Leon stared at her with doubtful face and just kept looking. "Yeah... should've though about that before letting me in." He then shifted his gaze toward the bed. "And there is only one bed in this room."
Noel approached him with a smile on her face. "I checked all of the beds in this inn, and most of them had lice. This one and the beds the elves took are the only clean ones."
He looked at her with a doubtful face, and then sighed. "Doesn't matter. I'm going wash myself as well." As he looked at the large pot of boiling water that was waiting for him in the corner, both Roberta and Noel approached him.
"We'll help you. Beatrice will wash the clothes." As Noel spoke, Beatrice stood as well. "Leave those to me."