In the middle of the city, there were a few places adults could truly go to be themselves. A location where the lower, middle, and upper class socialized without any worry for a showful display. This location was what many called the soul of the city.
From the outside, it posed as a regular wooden restaurant with a few tables set outside on a porch. But upon entering its mahogany walls, the world around seemingly shifted into one that withstood many decades of riots, battles, tears, and laughter.
On each of the pillars, which surrounded the building, were brightly lit lamps. On the ceiling were approximately two large chandeliers to fulfill the same purpose. Its orange light directly complemented the structure and architecture of the building. Some might say it was truly an artform that was now slowly being lost with the times.
In the middle of the building, shortly after entering its double swinging doors, was a long counter where various men were seated. The customer service was nothing short of excellent, as the employees often greeted guests with a wide, optimistic smile.
As Yuna’s heels tapped against the wooden floorboards, one of said employees took notice of the patron, and it was one who they had never seen before. Perhaps it was a tourist, or someone of importance that had come with the navy men. Regardless, with a hearty smile, they shouted at the top of their lungs.
“Welcome to the Brown Bear Tavern!”
There was constant noise, dozens of different conversations all blending into one. Despite her high-status clothing that she had bought a few minutes ago solely for this occasion, nobody seemed to even give her a lick of attention.
Closing in closely behind her was Tan, who tapped on her shoulder. “Heya! You sure you’ll be fine here on your own?”
Looking slightly over her shoulder, she leaned back and whispered, “I’ll be fine, just make sure you don’t get caught.”
With a nod, Tan calmly walked out of the bar, hoping to find some suitable vendors to buy ship materials from. Upon his departure, Yuna scanned the room for any navy men. Thankfully, due to their requirement of having to wear a uniform, it was only a matter of seconds before Yuna locked eyes onto her target.
Confident and proud, she walked towards the two navy men, who were seated at a small, round table facing each other. The night had only just begun for them, but they were already down a few drinks of alcohol.
“I can’t believe upper management is making us search this whole raggedy island! They even got two ships involved!” one of them, named Danny, blurted out. He was a rather toned man, no older than his forties. He had short black hair, with sprinkles of white strands leaking out of his hat.
“I feel like they’re absolutely stupid. I mean, if we can’t find them here, surely they’re either dead or gone, right? How long do we have to be on the lookout for pirates?” the second added on. His name was Izzy. He was much younger than Danny, possessing a taller stature and overall far more lean body build. He also had short, black hair.
They both wore pure white uniforms that were composed of long pants and a long sleeve shirt. It was apparent to anyone, especially the sailors, that this was not attire appropriate for the summertime. Blue stripes were scattered across the edges of the clothes, and a single patch flag was embezzled near the right upper breast area.
“My, we don’t get many sailors around here these days.” Yuna pulled up, making sure to accentuate her most feminine traits to them. Despite never really having been to the bar before, she knew all too well how to trick the minds of men.
The moment Yuna approached them, she recognized one of the navy men as the person that had asked her earlier on if she knew Fin or Maria.
“Lady,” said Danny, “if you’re trying to swindle us for some money, I promise you, we’ve had far too much experience to fall for it at this point.”
Yuna chuckled, “you look down on me, officer. If anything, I’m here to buy you drinks.”
Extending her arms, she grabbed the nearest empty seat. It had been occupied just a moment ago, its previous owner caught mid-motion as Yuna claimed it first. He stumbled slightly, frustration flashing across his face, but backed off immediately when she gave him a seductive wink.
“Now, where were we?” she asked, reaching into her purse and laying out five pure gold coins. Immediately, the men expressed their impressions, as five pieces of pure gold was enough to keep them drunk for the rest of the night.
Pausing, Izzy raised a brow, “what’s your plan, lady? There has to be a catch to this, right? There’s no way a random rich lady would be willing to buy two random sailors some booze and call it a day.”
Internally, Yuna cursed his quick intuition. Letting out a sigh, she slumped forward, losing all the dignified composure she was maintaining, “I’m a noble from Velion, and I just had to deal with a bunch of annoying aristocrats and businessmen, so can I please just wind down with some people to rant to?”
“Consider these drinks my payment for having to listen to me.”
Raising his hand, Danny requested another round of drinks. After a few minutes, three large, yellow pitchers hit the table, their foam overflowing off the top. Lifting their glasses, the three let out a cheer before promptly gulping down half of it in one go.
“—Pwah!! Nothing beats a hard day’s work like chugging down something to cut my lifespan.” Izzy blurted out, his cheeks rosy.
“You can say that twice!” Danny confirmed.
“It’s nice to see such tense people be so loose. I’ve always seen the navy work in the distance, but never truly had the chance to talk to one, let alone two,” said Yuna.
Nodding, Danny replied, “Yeah, well, we always get the short end of the stick, though. We’re mostly with the recon squad, so we hardly get any battles or action on the front lines.”
“Maybe that’s for the better,” Izzy added, “though I feel like the only truly eventful thing that’s happened in Velion was that thing that happened ten years ago. I wasn’t old enough to be a soldier back then, but I heard it was brutal.”
“It was. But thanks to that event, we got a new Empress who actually knows what she’s doing, and we joined the Guild Alliance. So I guess it all worked out in the end,” Danny said, taking another gulp from his pitcher.
“I suppose we should all be grateful there are no wars left in this world. At least not yet. Say, I thought you looked familiar,” Yuna pointed at Danny. “You were the one looking for pirates, right? Is that why you’re stationed here?”
Izzy replied to Danny, “Yeah. We heard these two up-and-coming rookie pirates had a battle here. Headquarters sent us out ASAP, but by the time we got here, surprise surprise, there’s nobody who’s even seen them.”
Internally, Yuna was shocked nobody had reported them. Perhaps the people of the city had really bad memories?
“How terrifying. I hope I never run into pirates,” Yuna sighed while tapping on the table.
“Well, the era of pirates is slowly declining these days anyway. It’s only a matter of time before the Citrus Isles are all taken away by a different nation. I personally think it’s for the better, since that means a bunch of islands will finally have proper financial support,” Izzy finished.
“I agree,” Yuna nodded.
“I don’t mean to intrude, and you don’t have to tell me if you don’t wish to, but have you two ever actually seen a pirate during your recon missions?”
Danny shook his head. “Unfortunately, no. We’ve had colleagues that had to call in the emergency ships once, but we were out over at, uhh, those one islands. Ugh, I can’t remember the name. But yeah, we haven’t.”
“That’s so peculiar. I’ve always personally been interested in how operations work in various different industries. Like how many ships are often sent to investigate pirates, or how beer is made. I think watching something happen is one of the true magics of life,” Yuna said, signalling the bartender for another round.
Danny raised his pitcher to drink the rest of his alcohol before the next batch could arrive. With a smile, he added, “Ah, we usually send around…”
But before he could finish, Izzy interrupted him. “Hey! We can’t go around disclosing information to civilians!”
As their next drinks arrived, Yuna started gulping down the alcohol faster than the men. Slamming her pitcher down, a hiccup flew out of Yuna’s mouth, her face beet red and eyes half-closed.
“Pweaseee, I wanna knowwww,” she nagged, lurching forward towards Izzy. Her large, round breasts pressed against his arm.
He wasn’t sure whether or not it was the alcohol playing into bits of mind control, but jealous of his teammate, Danny reluctantly answered her request. “We send around five-ish battleships.”
Izzy held a stare of disappointment, but then, after taking a second look at Yuna’s state, decided that might be alright, since someone so drunk couldn’t possibly remember such information. Besides, if she was a noble, then she would be risking far more to leak such details than they would be.
As a token of gratitude, Yuna leapt towards Danny, embracing him the same way. A perverted smile curled across Danny’s face, satisfied that all it took for such an experience was to let a noblewoman know of something so seemingly insignificant.
“‘KAY!!! I’m going to outdrink alllllll of you!” Yuna slurred her words, pointing at the two navymen. Just as she gestured to the bartender, she felt a hand pull her back. Her heels and drunken state nearly caused her to fall, but she was caught by a manly pair of arms.
Both navymen stared as a younger man apologetically smiled at them. “Sorry, officers. I let her out of my sight for a tad bit and she’s gotten like this. I’ll be sure to take her home safe.”
Worried for her safety, Izzy called out, “H-Hey, lady, is he really—?”
“Yep!! This is my bestie westie! Donchu worry ‘bout me anymore. Kay?!”
“Those coins are on me. Hehe.” she hiccuped again, before pulling herself away towards the exit, her arms wrapped around Tan’s arm.
The men shrugged their shoulders and returned to drinking once more, a bit saddened that such a beauty left their side all too quickly. They both discussed how they should have taken their alcohol consumption a bit slower so they could hang out with her longer.
“Hey, did that guy seem a bit familiar?” Izzy asked.
“Did he look like the people we’re looking for?” Danny replied.
“No.”
“Then it’s probably your drunk ass talking.”
The moment Yuna and Tan exited the bar and were out of sight, Yuna’s back straightened out, letting out a labored sigh. “Finally, that’s over.”
“I didn’t know you were capable of acting like a drunk so well.” Tan nervously chuckled.
Yuna waved his claims away. “Nonsense. I was a horrible actor. The only reason why those fools believed me was because of my womanly charms. The minds of men are truly comparable to solid stone.”
“More importantly, did you get the materials needed?”
“Yes ma’am I did,” Tan replied. “They said they’ll start having the parts ready by tomorrow. So we can just hang out a bit longer, or go straight back to the estate. It’s up to you.”
Staring into the night sky, Yuna took a moment to ponder upon the offer. She could return to the estate, but there would be essentially nothing of importance to do. In their current state, they were time-locked.
Plus, since it had gotten so late, there would be a possibility that dinner might have been served at the estate already. But the off-chance that the cook was Fin terrified her.
“We can wander a bit.” she stated, flipping her hair confidently and taking the lead.