At the Masaka Inn, the young receptionist was cleaning the counter of the front desk, humming to herself a little tune. The doors of the inn then opened to reveal a group of four entering the building. When the young receptionist heard the doors open, she greeted them with practiced politeness and professionalism.
"Wel….come?"
Or at least, that's what she tried to do. But when she saw the state of the four individuals, she couldn't stop the concern from crossing her voice.
The group in question were the recent conquerors of the Great Reisen Labyrinth: Hajime Nagumo, Yue, Shea Haulia, and Sargon Kaze. Though their current state didn't scream victorious.
"What happened to you four," asked the receptionist.
Hajime sighed, "It's a long story. One that I'd rather not get into," he said as he thought back to what happened before they came to the Inn.
[Flashback]
"Alright, that's more like it!"
Hajime looked pleased as he saw the mountain of treasure behind a door that he "convinced" Miledi to give up. Speaking of Miledi,
"You're so cruel, you thief!"
She was slumped over on all fours, dismayed at Hajime's lack of concern and empathy for her. Hajime, still grinning, held out his right hand which had his Treasure Trove ring and transported all of the treasure within its dimensional space.
"Hehehe, I wonder what type of weapon I can make with all of this."
Meanwhile, the other 3 in the room, Shea, Yue, and Sargon, looked at Hajime with mixed reactions. Shea smiled wryly, Sargon shook his head, and Yue had an amused smile on her face.
After a moment, Miledi looked up with a tear down her face, "Are you done yet?"
Hajime finally acknowledged Miledi and answered, "Yeah. I think we're good."
Miledi then got up on her feet, "Good." Then she pulled on a rope next to her, "Then get the hell out of here."
After she said that, water suddenly flowed into the room and swept the four off their feet.
"What the hell," yelled Hajime.
As Miledi clung to the rope, she made one final comment, "When you don't want something, you flush it out!"
Before the group could be fully flushed out of the room, Hajime had to make his thoughts about her actions known.
"Screw you, you bastard! I'll remember this!"
The last we saw of Hajime was his prosthetic hand flipping Miledi off while he and the rest of the group were pulled down by the flood current.
…
The conquering group of four, after being tossed out into nearby water, attempted to recollect their bearings. They immediately made it their goal to at least swim to the surface.
As they made their way to what they presumed was the surface, a peculiar fish was noticed by Shea, who looked towards its direction. An action she'd soon regret as the fish turned to her, with its human face and said,
{'What are you looking at?'}
Immediately afterward, Shea gasped and fainted. Whether it was due to the fish's human face, its capability of human speech, or both is unknown. Since Shea was towards the back of the group, they almost didn't notice that she had fainted, until Sargon looked back to make sure she was following.
When he saw that she wasn't and was in fact, floating aimlessly, his eyes widened, 'Shea!'
He immediately swam towards her, wrapped her arm around his shoulder, and hurriedly swam upwards once more, 'Come on Shea, don't die on me this quickly!'
Hajime and Yue eventually surfaced and gasped for air. As they panted after hitting their second wind, Hajime growled in annoyance.
"Damn her! That Miledi actually freaking flushed us out. If we ever see each other again, she's going to wish she was dead!"
Yue nodded while her face darkened at the audacity. But then her face twisted in confusion as she looked around, then morphed into slow concern and worry.
"Where's Sargon? Where's Shea?"
Her question snapped Hajime out of his revenge plot as he too looked around, only to find no one but themselves at the surface. He then looked down at the water 'Could they have?'
But before he could dive back in the water to check, Sargon popped out of the water, carrying Shea with him.
"Sargon," Hajime shouted.
But Sargon didn't pay him any heed as he looked around trying to find some land. Luckily, there was land only a little ways away from where he currently was, which was exactly where he swam towards. Hajime and Yue looked at each other in concern before also swimming towards the same direction Sargon was heading.
After Sargon made it to the shore, he carried Shea for a little bit away from the water before setting her down on her back.
"Shea, wake up! This is no place for you to die," he said urgently as he immediately began CPR.
Yue and Hajime also got out of the water shortly after Sargon did.
When they saw what Sargon was doing, Hajime faced morphed into concern and positioned himself near Sargon, yet not close enough to get in his way.
Yue was also concerned with what was happening, though thanks to not knowing what CPR is, she was also confused on what Sargon was actually doing to Shea, and was shocked when he seemingly kissed her.
After a little while of Sargon doing CPR, Shea coughed up a little water while turning to her side, which made everyone sigh in relief. Hajime smiled after sighing, Yue placed her hand over her chest and also smiled warmly and relieved, and Sargon made sure that she was kept company.
"There we go, nice and easy," Sargon said comfortingly.
Shea, after getting her breathing somewhat steady, wearily looked at Sargon.
"Sargon," Shea asked weakly.
Said person in question nodded his head while smiling, "Yes Shea, it's me. You gave us all quite the scare, you know."
Hearing Sargon say that, Hajime then remembered, "Speaking of that, what exactly happened that nearly made you drown?"
Shea, with the help of Sargon, sat up while shaking a little, "There was this fish….that had a human face….and when I saw it, it talked, which startled me," she said truthfully.
Everyone else, however, looked at her in confusion, 'A talking fish with a human face,' was the thought process.
"Well I mean, this is a fantasy world, so I guess it shouldn't be completely out of the blue, but then again, I haven't heard anything about a talking fish with a human face," said Hajime not entirely believing her story.
Yue followed up with, "Me neither," while shaking her head.
Sargon frowned at the information, trying to judge whether or not she was hallucinating or if this was really something that could've happened, though before he could finish those thoughts, Hajime reminded them of their current situation.
"But as much as I would love to figure out Shea's meaning, we should probably secure some lodging, have an actual bath, a change of clothes, and all that stuff."
After Hajime said that, they regained awareness of their predicament, and nodded in agreement. Staying in soggy, wet clothes for long doesn't bode well.
"Can you stand," Sargon asked Shea.
In response, she proceeded to rise slowly and stood on her feet, which prompted him to also getting up from his kneeling position.
"Wait, are we anywhere close to places where we can stay," Shea asked in sudden worry.
This caused the others to look at each other, also knowing that they are currently lost.
"I shall find out," said Sargon as his shadow moved and glowed.
Afterward, 2 things shot out of his shadow, which looked like formless dark matter. Said matter however, quickly shifted and morphed, popping into 2 bird-like creatures. Said creatures took off into the sky and flew in certain directions.
"I'm currently scouting for nearby villages or inns. Shouldn't take too lo–" Sagon couldn't finish his sentence as one of his bird scouts had already found something, which made him smirk and chuckle a little.
"Well, what do you know, we're close to the Brook village. We should be able to secure our lodging there."
Hajime smirked, "Sweet, lead the way then, Sargon."
[Flashback End]
'We are so lucky that he managed to find this place, otherwise we may have had to camp outside with wet clothes and nowhere to stay,' thought Hajime wryly.
The receptionist, looking at how they all were, simply nodded and didn't ask any further questions about it, instead asking,
"What will it be?"
Hajime mentally thanked her for not prying, "2 rooms for 2, please, along with a bath."
The young receptionist nodded, "I'll go prepare it in a bit, though I must ask how long you plan to stay. 15 minutes requires 15 Luta."
Hajime pondered for a moment, looked back at the other 3, and then answered,
"2 hours."
The receptionist blinked, caught off-guard by the time request, but then shook her head.
"Alright, I'll go prepare the bath right away," she said before turning around to do as she said. "Oh, please provide the proper amount at the front desk, I'll come collect it after the bath is done being set up."
Hajime simply nodded, "Got it, thanks."