by Funa
“How is it you got yourself such a young and smokin’ wife!”
“Sh-shut your mouth!”
After talking in circles for ages, the owner and his wife—perhaps simply because they were too tired to keep resisting—finally agreed to talk about the House of the Maiden’s Prayer.
According to the owner’s explanation, the situation was as follows:
For as long as the two inns had been in business here on this same road, they had always been rivals, but their competition was a friendly one. Because they were in the same business, they had the same worries and frustrations, and they always gave each other advice and helped one another out when times were tough. They had always gotten along well and been close friends, even during their parents’ times, and their grandparents’ times before that.
In their youths, the owner of the Wild Bear, Dyllus (the son of the Maiden’s Prayer’s owners), and Aila (third daughter of the owners of the local general store) were thick as thieves, all being close in age. Indeed, until they were all of marrying age…
“So then, Miss Aila of the general store became your wife…”
“No, that’s not it.” The owner immediately shot down Mile’s conjecture.
“Well, that’s where it seemed like the story was going! I mean, how could you manage to snag yourself a hottie like her without having made an impression on her while she was still an innocent child?!”
“Just how much sass is in those little mouths of yers?!”
Reina’s exceptionally rude phrasing had pushed the owner to his limit.
“I met Lilieze in the forest while gathering food and firewood one day, back when my parents were still managing this inn. Our paths crossed when I came across her being attacked by a monster and risked my life to save her.”
“Of course you would have met her in the forest! You are a bear, after all…” Mile chuckled.
“Shut up!”
“Ahh, how wonderful! Why, to your wife, you must be her knight in shining armor!” praised Mavis.
The owner scratched the bridge of his nose, blushing slightly.
“So, what kind of monster was it?” Mavis continued. “A goblin? A kobold? Don’t tell me—was it an orc, or something even worse…?”
Suddenly, the owner averted his gaze, in a way that suggested he was not keen to answer. Seeing the suspicion on everyone’s faces, his wife answered quietly from beside.
“Um, well, it was a ferocious monster known as a ‘jackalope’… I wasn’t really concerned about there being a jackalope nearby—I mean, it wasn’t very big, and even if it had struck me with its horn it wouldn’t have hurt much—but my husband here came rushing out, yelling, ‘Watch out! That is a deadly, ferocious Poison Jackalope from Hell! Take cover!’ and risked his life to save me from it…”
This was the scam of the century.
Mavis looked at the owner as though she were gazing upon a pile of muck.
Reina and Mile appeared utterly weary.
And Pauline wore a face that was almost congratulatory, seeming to convey a sense of, Well played, sir…
“From the looks of it, your wife is at least ten years younger than you! Just how old were you at the time, you bastard?! Th-that’s… That’s absolutely criminal!”
Mavis must have been deeply affected by the situation to use such strong language. She looked about ready to leap up and grab the owner by the throat. Quickly, his wife stepped in.
“It’s all right, I understood the situation from the beginning. It would be one thing if I were a sheltered young maiden living in some sanctum in the capital, but there’s no way that someone who grew up around here wouldn’t already know about jackalopes. Honestly, I thought to myself, ‘Ah, what an amusing and witty person, he wanted a chance to talk to me so badly…’ I had no idea if he was joking or serious, but honestly I thought the fact that he would make up such a ridiculous excuse was pretty adorable.”
“Wh-what?! You knew…?”
“Of course I did, you silly bear!”
The owner was stunned at this revelation, and his wife tittered to herself. The two of them stared deeply into one another’s eyes, and…
“Gwaaaaaaaah!! You two save that for later, when we aren’t here!” Reina screamed.
She hadn’t the slightest interest in witnessing a pair of strangers’ public display of affection. Especially if one of them was a bear.
Deep down, the other three wholeheartedly agreed.
“Anyway, this is all beside the point! After you went and got yourself a wife all on your own, those other two got close, right?”
The owner nodded.
“Even after we all married, we still remained friends. Lilieze became a part of our group, they had children, and we all lived happy lives… At least until five years ago, when Aila suddenly took ill from a plague and passed away. Me and Lilieze did what we could to help out with the children and lent a hand wherever else we could, but things were tough for them…”
“………”
The four girls were silent.
“And then last year, Dyllus, their father, passed away as well. The eldest daughter, Meliza, was only fifteen, and the youngest, Alile, was no more than seven. I can’t believe that idiot…”
The owner trailed off, his expression one of regret and sadness.
“Of course, that wasn’t all. After Aila died, there was no way that Dyllus could be expected to raise three young girls and also run a business on his own, so in addition to the young chef he had been employing up until then, he hired on an old bag from the neighborhood to work as a waitress-slash-bookkeeper. The oldest, Meliza, started helping out at the inn, while the middle daughter, Lafia, both worked and looked after her younger sister, Alile. They all made do somehow, but once Dyllus died, those girls were really in a bind.
“In order to keep the business that their parents left them going, and so that they could continue to live together as a family, the sisters steeled themselves through their sadness and started to drum up ways to keep the inn afloat. Until, that is, that bookkeeper made off with all of the inn’s money and their savings, too. And then, while they were still in the middle of this new crisis, that chef who was working for ’em tried to get his hands on the girls so that he could make the inn his own. He went after all three of them…”
“Wh…”
Since yesterday, the Crimson Vow had been struck with shock after shock, but this was the biggest surprise of all.
He should’ve at least left it at only the oldest girl… they all thought—though of course that was not really the biggest problem here.
“The old lady was eventually caught, but they never got the money back, and the girls and all their loyal customers got together to drive that cad of a chef out. After that, the girls felt that they couldn’t trust folks anymore and decided they were just gonna run the inn and dining hall all by themselves. Those girls did their damnedest, and everyone in town who knew their story did what they could to help out—even the merchants’ guild gave them a loan to help keep the place afloat, which doesn’t happen every day. Soon enough, those girls started to earn enough for them to live a normal life. But then…”
“But then?” Mile interjected.
The owner knitted his brows, and replied, “They got greedy.”
“Ah…”
Suddenly, the Vows understood.
The sisters, no longer able to trust the adults around them, had decided to milk the help that had been extended to them for all it was worth. And then, they probably realized that they could use their status as sweet, tragic young girls as a selling point.
“Plenty of people tried to advise them, but they wouldn’t take a word of it. Even me and Lilieze tried to talk to them, thinking they might listen since we’d been family friends for so long, but they just thought that we were trying to ruin the Maiden’s Prayer or take them over, and they refused us. I mean, I can’t blame them. They were betrayed by their trusted employees one after the other
, but we’d known them since they were babies, so we were really kind of hurt…”
A sadness crept across the owner’s face.
“After that, they apparently decided that we were their rivals. They started spreading rumors that we were obstructing their business or sending in unsavory acquaintances to harass them and other things like that… I mean, as far as obstructing them? The only thing that’s happened is that Meliza slept in late one morning and by the time she got to the town market I had already bought up all the cheap, choice vegetables, and the like. And there are always unsavory guys on the road, aren’t there? At those prices, you’re gonna end up only getting guys who won’t complain about paying up to stay in a place staffed by cute girls—guys who might get the wrong idea and act out of line, aren’tcha? So really, this is all their own doing.”
“Ah…”
The Crimson Vow expressed their condolences with their expressions alone.
“I mean, the crowds of overnighters and diners have always been split between our two places, so that’s no big deal. Besides, in a little town like this, everyone already knows everyone else’s business. Even the way things are now, we aren’t really bothered. It’s just…”
“Just?”
“In a year and a half, this’ll all be over,” said the owner, continuing to explain. “Everyone’s got a lot of compassion for those three girls, especially while they’ve still got Alile, who’s only eight years old, under their wings. They feel for Lafia, in particular, who’s only thirteen and working her hardest to take care of that little girl. But in a year and a half, those girls will’ve had two more birthdays.”
“Oh…”
Indeed, after two more birthdays, the two girls, now thirteen and eight, would be fifteen and ten, respectively. At fifteen, you were considered an adult. And ten was the age at which most people took up a proper employment. At ten, you could officially register at the Hunters’ Guild or take up an apprenticeship at a shop or workshop to receive instruction in craftsmanship. In other words, even if you were not yet an adult, you were recognized as a member of society and a true and proper worker.
The three sisters would all be of normal working age. No one would have any compassion for three adult sisters all working to run a business that they owned themselves. There was no reason for anyone to pay an exorbitant amount of money to a group of three adults who had a higher collective household income than they themselves might.
No longer would there be a place for the people who would pay high prices merely out of sympathy. Plus, any travelers would be wont to change establishments the moment they heard the inn’s rates. If the Wild Bear Lodge were full, they would just keep walking on to the next town or simply plan to stop at another town the next time they were in the area. Most of the customers who stopped at the inn were regulars, anyway—merchants who passed through the town time and again or other travelers making round trips from the big city to their hometowns. Even now, the number of overnight guests at the Maiden’s Prayer was already dwindling.
In other words, it was as the owner had said. The House of the Maiden’s Prayer had only a year and a half to go.
Pauline handed down a ruthless sentence. “They’re definitely going to go bankrupt. They’ll probably still get guys coming through there with their eyes set on the oldest and the middle girl, but that won’t be nearly enough to keep things running. Plus, if they only have customers like that, those guys will be at each other’s throats, and whenever a new client shows up, they’ll assume he’s a rival and send him packing. As a result, fewer and fewer people will start coming by. Eventually, it’ll become a haunt for only a few repeat customers, and soon the end will be upon them, without a doubt.”
The owner nodded sadly in agreement. “We want to do something to help them, but they keep refusing us. If we tried to force help on them, they could call the authorities or have their regulars chase us out of town. At the very least it would provide them with public proof that we were interfering with their business. Of course, most of the people in town already know the situation, so it’s not that big of a deal, but…
“All those guys feel pretty good about themselves, thinking they’re doin’ those girls a favor, but not a one of them realizes that all they’re doin’ is tying the noose around those girls’ necks themselves and ruining all their prospects for the future. They probably all think that they’ll be able to get one of those girls and run the inn with their new wife and sisters-in-law, but they don’t realize that by the time it comes to that, there won’t even be an inn to run.”
“………”
“Well, I guess we’ve solved the mystery, so let’s get back to bed,” said Pauline. “We’ll head out to the next town first thing in the morning!”
“Huh?”
The owner and his wife were dumbfounded.
“Y-you’re not gonna go talk to them for us…?”
Here was a group of girls who had followed the conversation with interest, understood the issues, and seemed to have a keen sense for business. Naturally, the owner and his wife had expected that they might be able to lend a hand and share their knowledge with the sisters. Therefore, they were somewhat bewildered by Pauline’s abrupt speech.
“I mean, it’s really none of our business. We were just curious as to how they could have so many customers at that inn despite charging such ridiculous prices. Now that the mystery has been thoroughly solved, there’s no reason for us to remain in this town any longer. It’s none of our concern if an inn that laughs in the face of fair business practices goes bankrupt, and you can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped, right? Factor in the reality that we stayed a night here in this inn, and they’ll probably end up thinking that we’re a bunch of rivals, too…”
Unable to refute Pauline’s logic, the owner and his wife were silent. An unpleasant atmosphere filled the room.
“Hup!”
Mavis lightly smacked the top of Pauline’s head.
“Eep!”
“You shouldn’t be so cruel to someone who’s in trouble.”
“……”
Indeed, the girls were nothing but a group of children who had lost their parents and sought desperately to protect the business they had left behind. Pauline, of all people, could not overlook that fact. Perhaps her words came merely from a place of anger at seeing people stray from the scruples of an honest merchant, or perhaps she didn’t want to make them waste any more time on this town for her sake. Which it was, Mavis and Reina didn’t know. Only Mile took Pauline’s words at face value.
“Are you sure about this?” asked Pauline.
“Do whatever you want. We aren’t in a hurry, and it’s not as though we’ll run out of money if we don’t take on another job straight away. The only reason we even prolonged our stay here in the first place was because this seemed like an interesting situation it might be fun to stick our noses into. We may as well see it through to the end. I mean, we can’t just throw our hands up and run out just when things are gettin’ good!” said Reina, grinning.
Pauline couldn’t help but smile as well.
“Hee hee hee…”
Seeing that wicked grin, Mavis, the owner, and the owner’s wife all felt their lips twitch up in the beginnings of smiles.
“Um, you can’t just throw your hands up and run off in the middle of a job, either…” Mile muttered, but no one seemed to hear.
“So a-anyway, you’ll talk to them? Do you have some good ideas, then?” asked the owner.
Pauline replied with a grin. “Of course, I do! If things go on the way they are, then that inn will be ruined in a year and a half, won’t it? The way to guard against that is simple. To keep them from being ruined in a year and a half, we must ruin them now!”
“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!”
From Pauline’s tone, it sounded as though she were making a perfectly fair suggestion. However, no one in the room could accept this…not even Mile.
“Wha…? But that wo
n’t solve anything!”
This seemed like a reasonable reply.
“Well, I mean, if they won’t be persuaded, then the only choice is to physically drive them out. If we can’t convince them that that inn is already devoid of any value, and that we aren’t after their property or their money, then no matter what we say to them, it’ll be useless. Therefore, what we have to do is drive them to the point just before total ruination. If we get them to a point of ‘as good as ruined’ or ‘the end is just a matter of time now,’ then I think they might be interested in listening to what we have to say.”
The owner and his wife were silent.
It was up to Mavis to ask the obvious question.
“So what, precisely, is it that you intend to do to convince them to listen to your advice? I mean, brute force is obviously out of the question. If we go out of our way to ruin them, won’t we just wind up with all their hatred and resentment coming our way—and drag this inn’s reputation through the mud at the same time? Besides, they might end up calling their customer posse or the town guards on us…”
Naturally, Pauline was not one to overlook such a fundamental issue.
“The Lenny Gambit.”
“Wh…?”
“If the Maiden’s Prayer’s selling point is ‘three beautiful and tragic sisters,’ then this inn just needs to provide exactly the same thing.”
“Wha…?”
“You remember when Lenny had us work as waitresses, tending to the customers? We need to recreate that but an even more amped-up version. An inn where the rates are cheap and the food is good that’s staffed by ‘four tragic young beauties’ who were driven from their home country. All the customers will be ours!”
“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!”
And so, the waking nightmare began.
***
“How odd…”
Meliza, the eldest of the three sisters running the House of the Maiden’s Prayer, tipped her head.
“What’s wrong, sister?” asked Lafia, the second sister, as she exited the kitchen.
“Mm, well, somehow it seems as though we don’t have nearly as many customers as we did yesterday…”