Chapter 78 - An Empty Bed

Hours later as the last rays of the sun disappeared, Erick and I walked back into the inn.

"I can’t believe you actually went shopping," Erick said. "Or that you didn’t keel over and die from spending money on anything that wasn’t absolutely essential to life, or expanding your business."

I couldn’t help but give the man a menacing glare.

"You act as if I’m some kind of... penny-pincher," I said, still glaring at the smiling man next to me.

"You aren’t?" Erick asked, his smile spreading even wider.

At that time I was seriously starting to reconsider my more informal relationship with my employees, I was even starting to wonder if maybe I should start treating them more like the employees they were, than my friends.

"I’m not," I said, shaking my head. "But I can always become one, but that would mean that I would need to start cutting down on business expenses as well, starting with salaries."

I couldn’t help but smile at the shock that immediately appeared on Erick’s expression.

"You wouldn’t."

"I just might," I smiled as we made our way through the inn. I had decided that we would spend the night in Stellor after all.

If I wanted to implement my plan, I needed to, how should I say... act a bit more ’rich’.

Which meant that I would have to hire a carriage and driver to take Erick and me to our destination, and that would have to happen the next day.

I booked our two rooms, which I had the innkeeper deduct from the money he already owed me— this at least made it not feel as bad to pay those ridiculous room fees.

"So what’s the plan?" Erick asked as we made our way up the stairs.

"It’s simple, we’re going to take the one thing from him that it seems he has grown addicted to," I smiled.

"And that is?" Erick asked.

"His position of power." I answered, stepping into my room. "Now go get some sleep, we’re going to hit the road early tomorrow morning."

I closed the door, not even giving Erick the chance to ask any more questions. A man’s got to keep some suspense up after all.

Well, it was that and the fact that I only had a rough outline of an idea, not a concrete plan like I made Erick believe I had.

I believed the best plans came when you had only a rough idea of a direction you wanted to go, and then simply winged the rest.

I unbuckled my brand new sword and scabbard from around my waist and leaned it against the wall next to my bed.

I had spent a significant amount of coin on our shopping spree that afternoon, like I said I needed to look rich after all, so I bought some new clothes, and a fancy looking sword and scabbard just to complete the look.

At least I now finally had a sword of my own— I had kind of refused to spend the money to buy one up until that point.

After hanging my coat, I looked at my bed for the night for a moment, and felt the chill in the air seep through to my bones.

I was really missing my wives at that point.

That night would be the first night in a long time that I would be sleeping in an empty bed again, and the sheer emptiness of it seemed... suffocating.

It was hours before I finally fell asleep.

It seemed that I had become a bit spoiled in this world at that point. In my previous life it had been just... normal to end every night completely alone, and yet here, the sudden loneliness was terrible.

The last thought I had before drifting off was my wish for a cellphone, or any way to communicate over long distances.

After a night of rolling around in an empty, cold bed, the morning finally came, and as soon as the sky started to turn a shade lighter, I was banging on Erick’s door.

"Erick!" I yelled. "Get the hell out here, we need to hit the road!"

I just kept banging away at his door, not caring about the yells coming from other rooms, or the people who came barging out of their rooms in various forms of dress, or undress, to yell at me.

I had had a terrible night, so I thought it only fair that I share that with everyone on our floor.

Finally, a sleepy Erick opened the door.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Erick asked, rubbing his eyes. "It’s not even dawn yet."

"We need to get moving," I said, turning and walking toward the stairs. "Meet me in the diner."

I didn’t even look back to see if he had actually listened to a word I said.

I descended the stairs to the ground floor of the inn, walking into a completely empty diner. And by that I mean there weren’t even any servers yet, but I could hear the cooks starting to move around in the kitchen already, preparing for the breakfast rush in a couple of hours.

Luckily for me, most of the employees in the Forest Flute already knew me, and obviously liked me quite a bit, being the likeable person I was.

"Morning," I said as I pushed into the kitchen.

Behind the big kitchen counter stood a man that looked like he was doing more tasting than actual cooking.

But that actually made me slightly at ease, I remembered a TV series I once saw back on Earth where a man, also a cook, had confidently said that you should never trust a lean cook, and I couldn’t help but smile at that memory.

"Morning sir," The man smiled at me. "Can I get you some breakfast? My first batch of bread fresh out of the oven."

"That would be amazing," I smiled at the man, just as Erick stepped in behind me. "Make that two breakfasts please."

"You couldn’t have waited just another hour?" Erick asked me.

"No," I said, not even looking at him, as the fat man placed our breakfast in front of us on the kitchen counter.

I could practically feel Erick’s stare on me, but I refused to look back at him, simply picking up my utensils and starting to eat.

Just as I was about to take my first bite though, Erick burst into laughter, which made me finally turn my gaze to him.

"You couldn’t sleep, could you?" Erick asked.

"I slept perfectly fine," I answered, finally taking my first bite.

"No you didn’t," Erick said, picking up his utensils as well. "You couldn’t sleep in an empty bed... you miss your wives." He finished with a mouth full of food, pointing his empty fork at me.

"Just... shut up and eat your food," I answered. "Our carriage should be waiting for us at the gate already, I told them I wanted to leave at dawn."

"You know we’re going to be gone for quite a long time right?" Erick continued. "You’re going to have to get used to it."

I swear at that moment I was really considering homicide, I don’t know why he had to just keep rubbing it in like that.

"I know," I said, my fork creaking in my hand.