Chapter 1671 Crazy Curl and the Clarity of Madness

--- Lily ---

The trip to the mining company’s headquarters was swift an easy. Once there, it was a simple matter of dropping the goods off because the owner happened to be in the lobby at the time they arrived. Now all that was left was going to the tavern to figure out what Curl knew about the crystal.

Still, Lily couldn’t help but wonder… what the heck Dav was doing. Drl coming along made sense, he was clearly along for the ride at this point but Dav was meant to be a guard. Nobody had said anything the whole way to the mining company… but he was still following now they were going to the tavern. Kat didn’t seem to have an issue with it but Lily needed to know. "Um… Dav… why did you end up following us? I mean… we had directions…"

"Hmm?" intoned Dav.

"He’s foolishly trying to skip out on work," said Drl.

"Hey, I’m doing my duty as a gate guard and showing travellers around the district. It is actually part of my official duties though normally we’re just restricted to showing the merchants around and technically you guys aren’t merchants. Still, I think it’s close enough to count…" answered Dav with a shrug.

Drl chuckled, "Should I tell him or do one of you want to burst his bubble?"

Lily looked around confused, Kat didn’t seem to have the answer either… but Kamiko looked thoughtful and Meg looked smug. And while that was Meg’s default she soon spoke up answering for everyone. "Poor Dav is too focused on avoiding ’work’ that he forgot that he doesn’t actually do anything except sit around at work so he’s actually putting in more effort,"

Dav stumbled in place and needed Dav to catch him to avoid face planting into the floor. "Did you actually not realise?’ asked Kamiko.

"I… hmm… no I guess I didn’t? Your friend is right I was too focused on finding an excuse not to do work that I guess I forgot for a moment how much effort I put into finding a job that required basically none," mumbled Drl. He paused for a moment as he considered this. "Aw well, I can probably get a drink at the tavern to even things out. Need to bring some back for Crtsyl to make up for leaving her behind but I can live with that,"

"Is it ok for you to be drinking on the job?" asked Lily.

"Why wouldn’t it be?" returned Drl.

Lily was the one to nearly stumble this time. Completely unprepared for the… sheer confusion and lack of remorse in the statement. *I don’t even know how to begin addressing that if he doesn’t see the obvious problem…* But a glance over showed Dav was similarly confused.

[I think when he says ’get a drink’ he means actually ’get a drink’ and not ’consume alcohol’]

I would’ve thought the translation ability would’ve been more clear about it then.

Stay tuned with empire

[Eh… it’s normally pretty good about things but what’s it going to do? He meant exactly what he said, or at least what I suspect he said. Sure ’get a drink at the tavern’ has additional implications but it’s not like the words don’t quite line up or they’re trying to force extra meaning into something.]

Still weird.

"I guess ’getting a drink’ just has extra connotations where I’m from," said Lily with a shrug seeing as the pair were still confused.

"How?" asked Drl. "I mean… a drinks a drink,"

"Well, it’s not always a problem but because you specifically mentioned the tavern it felt like alcohol had to be involved," admitted Lily.

"I’d never do that," stated Dav firmly. "The current guard captain has a… a THING about alcohol. Think they had a cousin who drank themselves to death rather literally so they’re a real hard ass about no drinking on duty… or too soon after duty. Or on certain days where you might be called in anyway,"

"Huh… didn’t realise scarface was that much of a tightass about it…" mumbled Drl.

Dav shrugged, "It is what it is. I started looking into this job before I got involved with drink so it wasn’t something I felt like I was missing out on. I’ve tried it a bit since and I’m just not a fan of the burning sensation. Plus it doesn’t really relax me like I’ve been told it’s supposed to so…" Dav shrugged again.

The conversation was brought to a close when they arrived at the tavern. Lily was… honestly expecting something a lot worse then what she was seeing. It was a saloon style tavern with what looked like a bunch of holes in the wood and the doors barely hanging on… but if you looked closely all of the ’holes’ in the walls were only as deep as the first layer and had a bit of paint on the second layer to make it seem like you could see into the tavern itself through them.

The sign was tilted and looked to be barely hanging on but as the angle changed you could see that it was actually nailed into two of the support beams despite the lean on it. ’The Rickety Tavern’ was certainly trying to play up its name… but kept itself really well put together despite that.

Even as they headed inside the place was well lit and there were no odd stains left around. Oh sure the counter had a bunch of gashes in it that looked like someone had taken a machete to it in a fit of anger but a second glance showed you that it was all filled in with resin. The tables all had different legs on them to give them a mismatch atmosphere but none of them were leaning at all.

Despite not being all that late there were already a few people around the place. A game of cards was going on over at the back table. The bartender was serving three people up at the bar and there was one guy sitting over in the corner all by himself twitching and looking around at everyone suspiciously… and they were heading right towards him.

"Hey Curl," said Dav softly. "Got some… friends here that want to talk to you about something if you’re up for it?"

"The waking world is always calling if you often find yourself asleep but is anyone ever truly ready to leave the warm embrace of the sheets?" ’asked’ Curl.

Dav nodded along as if this was completely normal. "I reckon a few of them are Curl. So you’re good to see these people?"

"Is a brave man truly brave if he feels no fear?" ’asked’ Curl.

Dav nodded and then turned to the group. "Welp that’s probably about as good as we’re going to get. Just… I’m gonna go to the bar, get some drinks and then leave. Try not to do anything too… look Curl is a lot stronger then he seems and some people think it’s the insanity that makes him strong so…"

Dav didn’t know what else to say so he just turned and left at that point leaving the sentence hanging. Drl chuckled while shaking his head and muttering "That’s about right indeed…"

Meanwhile Meg stepped forward and said, "I’ve heard you know something about a crystal,"

"I have indeed seen many a gemstone in my time as well as the many facets of myself revealed while gazing into their depths. Alas, am I really the one that has come back or am I a mirror of another me?" ’asked’ Curl.

"This one in particular," stated Meg as if Curl had given a perfectly normal response.

When the image lit up from the projector Curl hissed and pulled back. "Foul thing your false idol is. Foolish merchant was spilling lackadaisical truths about the idol, so Curl took it upon himself to try and clean the false idol. Sadly, the merchant managed to hire out some musicians that were bad at their job and now the tainted song plays far away in the dark!"

Meg nodded a few times and asked, "New guy in town didn’t get his money’s worth from the ’adventurers’ he hired?"

"Exactly! Curl was not surprised that such a blind man would be lulled in by the false music of the snakes but they are very pretty snakes at times. Curl understand the temptation but alas! He cannot be swayed by such disharmonious tunes!"

"Can you perhaps describe to me the stage upon which the musicians like to rest between performances?" asked Meg… meanwhile Lily…

*I am SO lost.*n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

[No… I think I’m following. A merchant was bragging about having a fancy crystal. Curl either… sensed or noticed once he stole it that the thing wasn’t a crystal and that it was corrupted by demonic energy… somehow. Before he could work out what to do with it the merchant hired some BAND-its to get it back and as far as Curl knows they still have it.]

*Wait… you got that from whatever nonsense Curl was saying?*

[Yeah. I mean… he does sound crazy but I’m guessing he can notice things he’s not meant to and that’s how he knew it was a problem. Not sure why he can’t talk normally… but perhaps to his mind we all sound crazy instead?]

*Really not sure what to think of that… especially because it seems like he does really know where the drake crystal is.*