Black Online-Chapter 124: Up-And-Down Inn

[Up-And-Down Inn]

The frozen sign dangled above a door of a modest-looking building, creaking softly in the winter wind.

Creak!

In that moment, Fang Raon pushed the door open and entered with Rock right behind him.

They looked around and saw the innkeeper standing behind the counter—looking slightly pale—and there were some locals sitting around tables, whispering something to each other.

"...More players..."

One of the locals saw Fang Raon and whispered with almost disgust.

"...Hmph, the players sure like to bring their troubles here. It would be better if they all just disappeared."

"...Yeah, why do we have to suffer in this war between players?"

It wasn’t all that hard to not hear them, and it was almost like the two locals wanted them to hear.

"Ignore them. These two are refugees from Hollyhatch Village. Grinding Grief killed their family, and everyone they knew about. They have a good reason to hate us players."

Rock said.

"...Mmh."

Fang Raon nodded, walked to the innkeeper, who flinched at the sight of him, and then forced a smile.

"Sorry, young man... I am a little jumpy these days. I am sure you can understand why... What may you need?"

"You should be housing some players here. Can you point me in their direction?"

"Ah, sure... They’re on the top floor, in the third room on the right. I am not sure how many there are, as a group of them left about half an hour ago."

The innkeeper said with a tired voice.

"Alright, thank you."

Fang Raon thanked the innkeeper, then went straight to the top floor and looked for the third room on the right.

It didn’t take him any time to find it, and he knocked on it straight away.

Step~ Step~ Step~

The door opened, and with a recently woken-up yawn, Niall peeked outside the door and immediately looked surprised.

"Team leader, you’re back!"

"Niall."

Fang Raon nodded and was let inside the room and saw that Niall wasn’t alone, as there were two people sleeping in the bed.

They were Joanne and Ira, but since they were both girls, they just decided to sleep in the same bed.

There was another bed, where Niall was just sleeping.

The three of them just stayed awake all night, as they were on the night shift.

"Everyone else is outside?"

Fang Raon asked.

"Yes, they went to patrol. The situation is quite fragile, I am afraid. There are some locals who are not very happy with us, so we are never leaving them out of sight."

Niall said.

"...Whose idea was that?"

Fang Raon asked.

"Well, it was Machary’s... He was the interim team leader when you weren’t here, and seeing the situation, he thought it was better to just keep an eye on them at all times."

Niall said and scratched the back of his head.

He was wondering whether it actually wasn’t a good idea, but he thought it was the safest option.

If they let locals get out of their sight and they started plotting something, it might be too late for them to stop them.

"The locals might think that they are our prisoners, and even the peaceful ones might become agitated."

Fang Raon said with a frown.

"Good point, Raon. I heard some stuff that happened on the 33rd floor when the Guild War sparked there. The locals became hungry because they weren’t fed by players and couldn’t even sleep because of the constant sound of fighting.

"In the end, the locals murdered the sleeping players. You shouldn’t underestimate them, as locals can also become very dangerous."

Rock said with a serious look.

"Ah..."

Niall exclaimed.

He didn’t even think about that.

"I’ll contact them to return."

Fang Raon pulled out the party chat of Fourth-Liners and wrote a simple message.

[Fang Raon: All of you, return to the Up-And-Down Inn immediately]

And after a while, the entire party responded with "ok’s."

Amidst them talking, Joanne and Ira woke up, and they looked extremely tired, as they barely slept for an hour.

"...Team leader..."

"...You’re back..."

They mumbled, but it sounded very cute coming out of their mouth, as if they were babbling in their sleep.

"Sorry for waking y’all up. You three can go back to sleep soon, but I need to talk with the whole team first."

Fang Raon said.

They nodded and sat back up while trying to shrug off the sleepiness for a while.

A while later, the door opened, and led by Machary, the Fourth-Liners entered the room and greeted Fang Raon.

"...You’re back."

Machary said.

While he looked calm about it, he was actually quite relieved, as he felt like he would lose hair if he was team leader for any longer.

Even though he wanted to become team leader, he didn’t want his first team leader experience to be Guild War.

He really couldn’t help but pity Fang Raon, as he had a lot of responsibilities on his shoulders right now.

"Update."

Fang Raon said.

"Last night, Niall, Joanne, and Ira discovered a group of locals that might be trying something. They were meeting late at night."

Machary said.

"Hmm... What about the war? What are the Grinding Grief and Monsieur Rascals doing? I heard they’re besieging the village."

Fang Raon asked.

"They’re just staying outside the village for now. They haven’t tried entering the village even once, and I don’t blame them because it is Safe Zone, after all."

Machary said.

"It does sound like they’re planning to make locals turn against us by making them hungry. They besieged and did nothing because they already did the thing they wanted.

"And that was to cut off the food supply."

Fang Raon said.

They "ah’d," as it sounded like that made a lot of sense.

"He is right."

Rock said, and sat down.

He thought about giving a hand to Fang Raon to help him get situated as team leader.

It wasn’t easy being team leader, especially during the wartime, but he realized that he didn’t need to.

Fang Raon was extremely calm.

"And I don’t think the locals will attack us. They like Della, I believe, from what I’ve seen whenever I’ve been in the village.

"They trust her, and... They like being here, so I don’t think they’re plotting anything nefarious, but I think I know what they’re planning to do."

Fang Raon said.

"What is it?"

Machary asked curiously.

"I think they’re planning to leave Snowberry Village, and escape the war, but unfortunately, they will be killed if they do so.

"Grinding Grief and Monsieur Rascals have most likely locked the nearby area tightly with no possible way out."

Fang Raon said.