Dawn of the Last Dragon Rider - Chapter 024 - Kaen's Future and Hess's Past (Patreon)

“That’s not possible!” someone shouted

“That has to be a lie!”

Some boos came across the room, and Beatrice never flinched an inch.  She held Kaen’s head against her chest and gently stroked his hair with her other hand, pressing him deeper into her heaving bosom.

She held her hand up again, and the bartender quieted everyone down once more.

“You might not believe me or this young man who soon plans on being an adventurer, but would you believe the gold token-carrying adventurer he travels with?!” Beatrice shouted as she pointed to where Hess was standing.

Chairs creaked and scraped across the floors as everyone turned to look at Hess.

“He is a gold adventurer,” someone shouted as they pointed at Hess.

“Could he be telling the truth?”

“That seems impossible! Three orcs!”

Murmuring and conversations were scattered across the room for another moment.

“Enough with your whining and complaining!” Beatrice shouted above the noise.  “Now for the real fun!  Tomorrow young Kaen will take the test!  In two days, we will find out if he is telling the truth and what rank he will be!  So in a few minutes, Eltina will take down your wagers and bets at the bar!  Bet on if you think he will pass!  Bet on what rank you think he will end up with!  Bet on how many women he sleeps with before then!”

With that last comment, a roar of laughter and feet banging on the floors echoed across the room.

Beatrice motioned for the other women who were standing by her, and they all gathered around Kaen.  He tried to turn and smile as he stood in the middle of five very curvy women giggling and laughing.

“Kaen, on behalf of the Fluffy Ingot, we wish you the best of luck tomorrow and the next day on your test.  If there is anything we can do to help you, just let us know!”

When Beatrice had finished talking, all the women came together and smothered his face with their plus-sized breasts.  For what felt like heaven and not near enough time, Kaen was turned around, finding his face pressed against more skin than he had ever remembered experiencing in his life.  Had he died here at this moment, he believed he could have done so happily.

After a good while, or at least thirty seconds, the women all broke apart laughing and adjusted their tops to make sure everything was still covered up.

The patrons of the inn were laughing and cheering.  Some stood up and walked over to congratulate Kaen with a handshake or a slap on the back.  Kaen was still a bit woozy from his experience with the servers, who had all moved off to take care of their patrons except Beatrice.

“I need you to come with me for just a moment,” she whispered as she tugged the still-dazed Kaen toward the bar.

Kaen stumbled behind her as if in a trance.  He had just woken up from a dream most boys would never expect to come true.

“Kaen, was it?”

The bartender, Eltina, snapped her fingers a few times and broke Kaen from the dazed look he had on his face.

“Sorry, what did you ask?” Kaen replied as he stared at the dwarf.

“I’d say my eyes were up here, boy, but really they aren’t,” the bartender joked as she stroked her beard and gazed up at Kaen.

Kaen took in the female dwarf and tried not to stare as she stroked her blond beard that  connected to her blond hair via two amazing sideburns.  It was difficult to think of her as a her with a beard like that.

“Now, Kaen, I need you to tell me the truth,” Eltina said as she pointed a stubby finger at him.  “Did you really kill twenty goblins and three orcs?”

Kaen smiled and nodded.

“II did.  It was actually more than twenty, but the number was easier for us, Hess, my gold adventurer friend, says.  The three orcs were across two days.”

Eltina’s eyes went wide, and she grabbed a chair and stood on top of it, bobbing and weaving as she tried to see Hess.

Her eyes went wide, and she slammed her fist into her hands.

“Mother goat lovin, goblin humpin, no good bastard of an orc bitch!”

The words coming from Eltina’s mouth and her temperament gave Kaen and Beatrice a bit of concern as they backed away from the filthy-mouthed dwarf.

Eltina raised her fingers to her mouth and let out an ear-piercing whistle that silenced everyone in the inn.

“HESS BRUMLIN, GET YOUR SORRY EXCUSE FOR A GOD DAMN ADVENTURER OVER TO THIS BAR NOW!”

The entire inn turned and looked at Hess, who adjusted his shirt and casually walked across the silent inn toward the bar as if he were walking through the woods.  He took his time and smiled and nodded at each patron in the place as he passed them.  No one made a sound except for the occasional chair scraping across the floor to move out of Hess’s path to the bar.

“Hello, Eltina. It has been a while, hasn’t it?” Hess asked with a smile and a playful wink.

“Hello?!  HELLO?! Who the hell do you think you are coming in here after seven years without a single letter or anything?!  You must have balls of iron and shit for brains to think that Sulenda isn’t going to hang you upside down and strip the skin from your sorry hide!”

More people in the inn slowly backed away and moved closer to the exit.

“Eltina!” Beatrice hissed. “You are scaring all the customer’s away.  No matter what that man has done, Sulenda may do the same to you if you chase anyone off!”

Eltina turned and looked at Beatrice and then grunted.

“FREE DRINKS FOR ALL! COURTESTY OF ADVENTURER HESS!” Etina suddenly shouted with a smile that magically appeared on her face.

Silence hung for a few seconds, and then a loud roar of shouting and cheering replaced the awkward silence that had gripped the entire room.

Eltina hopped off the chair and strode up to Hess, glaring up at him.

“You and your lackey need to come with me!  No more food or drink till Selunda says you can have some.”

Poking Hess in the stomach with as much force as she could muster, Eltina growled and yanked on her beard with one of her hands.

“And you will be paying for all those drinks, or I will get it from you another way!”

Kaen stood in awe as he watched Hess laugh and nod. Clearly, he was not worried about the fury of this dwarf or this Selunda woman she had mentioned a few times.

“Beatrice!” Eltina snapped as she turned on her stubby feet.  “Since you are so fond of that young one, get him back to the office and start working on odds for the rank he will possibly be.”

Grunting, Eltina motioned with her thumb at Hess.

“He will know what you need to know.  For now, I need to go serve all the alcohol this giant idiot is paying for.”

Eltina moved back behind the bar, and when she popped up above it, she was all smiles and laughter.  Her mood could have curdled milk a minute ago was gone, replaced with something so sweet bees might carry her off to their hive.

“What the heck was that?” Kaen asked as he turned on Hess the moment the door to the office they had entered was shut.

Hess ignored Kaen and started inspecting the office.  On the wall was a massive map of the kingdom, printed on some old paper and attached to a huge frame.  It took up most of the wall on one side of the room.

Shelves with rolled-up packs of papers, books with more dust on them than the ground outside, and random odds and ends were stuffed everywhere.  It looked like no one had touched most of the stuff scattered across the room.  Two wooden chairs were near a spotless desk.  Compared to the rest of the room, it did not seem to belong.  Stacks of paper were neatly stacked and bound together in tight bundles.  A small quill and ink set was next to a stack of blank paper.  There was no dust on the desk, and a tiny light globe sat on it, turned off but ready to be used.

“She hasn’t changed a bit,” Hess said with a sigh.

Kaen noticed on the back of the door a chalkboard with multiple rows and columns with some sort of scratch and numbers written all over.

“That right there is where the real money is made,” Hess stated as he pointed at the chalkboard as moved to stand next to it.  “Looks like these are the real odds and points one should know if they are betting on anything.”

Beatrice coughed and motioned for Hess and Dirk to sit down in the chairs.  She moved to the desk, carefully pulled out a thick, well-padded chair, and carefully sat in it.

“She lets you sit in it?” Hess asked as he smiled at her.

“Miss Sulenda will not mind since I will be doing the work of the inn,” she stated, but the way she shifted in the chair did not convey she believed that statement herself.

“It’s your funeral,” Hess joked as he leaned back in the chair.  “Pull out the paper and pen, and let’s get this done.”

Beatrice nodded, took a paper sheet, and fetched a pen from the drawer.  The magicians who had created these tools had become rich.  They held the ink inside and would allow anyone to write with ease.  When the ink ran dry, a simple spell could be cast, and they would refill from an ink jar.  No more messy drips everywhere or having to fetch quality quills.

Drawing columns and rows on the sheet, Beatrice started writing out ranks and then, when finished, smiled at Hess.

“So tell me what rank you think he will be in two days.”

Beatrice had gone outside with a new sheet of paper with different odds written on it.  She had copied the original sheet onto the chalkboard on the back of the door.

Kaen had sat there the entire time, almost silent, unless one of them asked him a question.  People were going to bet on what rank he would start at! When Hess mentioned he might not even be made to take the test or score a perfect score, Beatrice had brightened up and adjusted her top more times than Kaen thought a woman would need to in a lifetime.

“So why are we here?” Kaen asked as the door shut.  “Obviously, you and this Sueluenda woman do not get along.”

“Her name is Sulenda, and that is not entirely true.  We might get along, and you will help me get back in her good graces.”

Hess stood up and moved to stand in front of the map.  He ran his finger along a few roads and counted some things in his head.

“How will I help you get back in her good graces?” Kaen asked as stood and joined Hess next to the map.

Hess finished whatever he was calculating as he ran his finger along some roads outside the gap of Ebonmount.

“We will earn a percentage of whatever money they make on the bets people put on you.  Every inn on this side of town will hear about you and what you have supposedly done, and Sulenda will bankroll the wagers.”

Hess paused and turned and pointed at the chalkboard.

“This town has seen more gold won and lost on adventurers' tests and placements than some kings will see in a lifetime.  You, Kaen, may break the record by the time your results are decided.”

Kaen stood there, totally confused.  Why would anyone risk money guessing how someone will do on this test?  Until Pammon came into his life, he would not have bet on himself to pass the test.

Link to chapter 25

https://www.patreon.com/posts/dawn-of-last-025-86983498