Chapter 401: Butterfly Effect: The Thieves make a life changing decision
“That…was arguably the worst night of my life,” Victor groaned aloud.
“Agreed,” Simos agreed.
“Ditto,” Graff nodded.
After shit had gone absolutely sideways at the warehouse district, what with the appearance of actual demons, their buyer going insane from losing a mask and fucking off without paying them the other half of the money they were owed, watching first hand as one of the top powers of the underworld getting their asses absolutely handed to them by the aforementioned demons, and then having to escape all of that in the middle of the night, Simos, Victor and Graff were all dead fucking tired.
The general sentiment of the group was the desire for either a stiff drink, a soft bed or a warm bosom, maybe all three at once, but then one of them an unexpected suggestion that sounded even better than all three of those things.
“Hey…this is gonna sound inappropriate…but do we think we can go get food? I just realized we haven’t eaten anything since lunch,” Simos asked his compatriots.
“That’s…”
Victor was all set to tell him off for suggesting such a thing…but changed his tune when he actually thought about.
“Actually, yeah. Food sounds good,” Victor nodded, “Don’t know about any place around here that’s open though.”
“What about that place ahead of us?,” Graff pointed out, “The one with the funky cup on the sign?”
“Huh?”
Like any good city worth its salt, Pearl Tusk Harbor was home to all manner of restaurants and taverns that catered to all manner of clientle at all hours of the day.
The one standing before this trio of reprobates happened to be one of the rare few businesses that operated on a 24/7 basis, but what they were serving was decidedly foreign to them: coffee.
“Ignacio’s Cafe: Coffee, Pasta and Pastries…no booze?,” Simos read off the sign over their heads
“What the fuck is coffee?,” Graff asked aloud.
“I’m not sure, but a plate of pasta sounds really fucking good right now. So I’m going in,” Victor stated before doing just that.
Simos and Graff looked at each other for a second and shrugged before following suit.
“Hope the food’s good.”
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*Ding-a-ling*
“Welcome to Ignacio’s. Take a seat wherever, and wave me over when you figure out what you want,” an older gentleman with a manicured mustache, in a bartender outfit greeted while polishing a mug. Presumably this man was none other than the titular, Ignacio.
“Thanks, will do,” Victor returned the greeting.
“Whoa…this place was fancy.”
“Smells nice too.”
As the trio entered the cafe, they greeted by the sight of exotic furniture and the smell of roasted coffee mingled with various spices both savory and sweet.
The cafe was empty around this time, understandably so given the late hour, but it didn’t stop the trio from discussing where to sit.
“Y’all wanna sit at the bar or at a table?”
“It’s our first time here, so I say the table.”
“Same.”
“Alright.”
As Victor, Simos and Graff settled in at their chosen table, the former noticed that written on the table that it had a short description/historical lesson on what coffee was exactly, while the latter duo noticed the menu sitting on top of the table.
“Huh…looks like all the pasta options are what you see at any other restaurant…”
“Yeah, but I never heard of some these sauce options. ‘Cod roe cream’? Can you even milk a fish?”
“I did hear about sea cows before…”
“Good grief,” Victor muttered with an eye roll.
Seeing as he probably wasn’t going to get the menu any time soon, Victor decided to busy himself by reading about coffee from the table inscription.
It wasn’t much, but it was something to do.
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Coffee was originally a beverage found exclusively on the Dozing Salamander continent, coming in a variety of flavors depending on where one went, but has been growing in popularity around the world as of late, especially in port towns.
The reason being that the bitter beverage not only lends itself to be mixed with other flavors surprisingly well, but the energizing effect was a godsend for porters, merchants, artists and seafolk alike, aka, the type of people who couldn’t afford alchemical solutions easily.
Unsurprisingly, even the alchemists love partaking of the stuff.
Ignacio’s prides itself as being the first on the Stampeding Bison continent to serve this wonderful beverage.
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“Energizing huh?,” Victor mused, “maybe I should order a cup of the stuff.”
“Hey, Victor!”
“Huh?”
As soon as Victor lifted his head from reading the table inscription, a red leather-bound menu was placed in front of it.
“Graff and I already know what we want, so have a gander.”
“Right…”
Victor looked over the menu for a brief moment, noticed that they had his favorite style of sauce and noodle, and proceeded to mentally mark that down as his order. However, he did also add a cup of black coffee on top of it.
“Wait, y’all are getting coffee too?”
“Yeah.”
“Wanted to try it.”
“Okay, cool, so he said to just raise my-”
“You’re ready to order?”
“Whoa!”
As soon as Victor raised his arm to signal Ignacio that they were ready, the old man suddenly appeared by their table side as quick as a wink.
It caught them a bit off guard, but they were too tired to reach with anything more than a simple, “whoa”.
“So what’ll be?”
“Okay can we get three black coffees and…”
With their orders squared away, Ignacio proceeded to take the menu and go through a door that presumably lead to a kitchen in the back.
The sound of sizzling meat and popping oil could be hears, accompanied by the smell of seasoning wafting in the air.
“Mmmm. Smells good.”
As the trio sat and waited for their orders to be prepared, they began to talk about the events that they had all collectively went through up until now and where to go from there.
Surprisingly, they all shared a similar mindset on that matter.
“So what do we do after we fill out stomachs? Find an inn to stay at or a quiet alleyway?,” Simos asked.
“I don’t know,” Graff answered, “but I am finding it a tad fucked that both options sound viable to me right now.”
“All I know for certain, is that after tonight, I am quitting this life of crime.”
“Wait, what?”
Simos and Graff were shocked at Victor’s statement and their faces showed this feeling as well.
While they had only known the man for the evening, they knew from the way he carried himself that Victor was definitely someone who had been working in the underworld elements of society for a really long time. The fact that he was telling them that he was retiring was shocking to say the least.
“I don’t know about you two, but after going through all of…this,” Victor vaguely gestured, “I am starting to rethink about living a life of crime if it involves getting dragged into things involving fucking monsters. I’ve dealt with near death for many years, but I’d rather not see what happens on the other side, ya dig?”
“That’s…understandable.”
Simos and Graff weren’t at the same level of veterancy as Victor was when it came to crime, hell they even appeared to be physically younger than the man by a decade, but they weren’t exactly greenhorns either.
They had spent several years doing petty lacerny and burglary with tonight being their first big deal and first contact with the wider underworld.
Neither them had expected what went down to go down in the first place.
As such, the prospect of getting out while the getting was good was very, very tempting.
Graff and Simos looked at each other for a moment, shared a brief shrugz before turning towards Victor with a decision made.
“Uh…Victor?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you mind if the two of us…tag along for this retirement?”
“Huh?”
Victor gave the two of them a weird look at the question. He could understand the sentiment of wanting to get the hell out of dodge in regards to this lifestyle, but he didn’t understand why they asked to join him. My
Simos and Graff both looked a touch conflicted after asking the question, having trouble believing that they were the ones asking in the first place, but eventually, the latter managed to come up with the words.
“Going to be real honest with you, the two of us are idiots. We have had been skating by the skin of our teeth and through sheer luck.”
“Even if we wanted to turn a new leaf,” Simos added, “we’d have no idea how to do that.”
“You’re arguably the smartest person we’ve met in this town, and we did just share a life or death experience together.”
“That we only survived because you coordinated us.”
“Right, so…can you lead us?”
Victor looked confused, yet touched at the two’s reasoning.
He was going to initially reject the two outright, but now…maybe not.
With a sigh, Victor agreed.
“Alright, it’s better to start a new life with friends than by your lonesome, right?”
“Right.”
“Right!”
“Order’s up. Try not to burn your tongues.”
In that exact moment, Ignacio brought the trio their plates of pasta and three cups of rich, black coffee.
The trio looked intrigued by the cups, but didn’t drink them down the moment they got them.
Instead, they each grabbed one, and raised it up for toast.
“To a new life,” Victor toasted, “hopefully devoid of demons and crazies.”
“Amen!”
“Cheers!”
*Clink*
The three of them sincerely hoped that this toast would be true for the rest of their lives…well…it was going to be partially true.
