Sarah's Story Chapter 024 - No Violence in the Guildhall

At closing, she helped shoo the lingering Adventurers out the front door along with the bar maids, and her first night’s work was complete. No fights. The bartender, a Guildhall employee, signed a small slip of paper formalizing the job completion for the night, and handed her eight copper pieces.

Sarah was confused. “Doesn’t this go to my tab?”

The bartender smiled and shook his head. “No, you pay off that tab with the receptionists during normal business hours. And, if I can give you some advice, don’t be in such a hurry to pay off a tab for training that you don’t have any money in your pocket. What if some emergency comes up and you need coin in a hurry? Better to have some money you can use rather than needing to go borrow from… well, loansharks, to put it frankly. You really don’t want to owe a loanshark money, not in this city.”

“Uh, okay then, thanks…”

“Jacob.”

“Sarah,” she replied, smiling. “I’ll keep all that in mind.”

Jacob nodded. “Have a good night, Sarah. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

After a moment’s consideration, she slipped the copper coins into her pocket with rocks, not wanting to disturb her pocket full of sand. And then she headed home and went straight to bed.

The next day was much the same. A morning of study, in which she learned the days of the week and what clocks were, and how to read them, as well as studying a map of the city and surrounding area, focused mainly on Dungeon locations and the minimum party Rank to enter each. It turned out that today was Tuesday, and her basic education course would end on Friday, and then the day after that would be Saturday. Sparring day. Something to look forward to, at least. And then followed another afternoon and evening of guard work.

No fights this night either, and another eight copper pieces in her pocket.

When she returned that night, she found a small pouch on a leather strap for her earnings, to wear around her neck, tucked into her shirt.

In the morning she thanked her mother for the gift and returned to the Guildhall, today learning about various monsters: chiroptera, talpidae, araneae, treants, and so on.

That evening, there was finally some action. An adventurer had too much to drink and got a little too handsy with one of the barmaids, and when she told him to keep his hands to himself, he got upset and reached for his sword.

Immediately Sarah’s [Threat Awareness] drew her attention and she dashed forward. In less than a breath she was on him, hand on his wrist stopping him from drawing his sword, with her foot behind his, and leaning to put him almost entirely off balance. Drunk as he was, it was all he could do to keep standing, let alone keep harassing the bar maid.

“It’s time to go home, Swordsman,” she said, as sternly as she could. It was hard to be intimidating to a full grown man over a head taller than her.

“Who the feck are you, bit–” was as much as he got out before Sarah decided he wasn’t going to go peacefully. With a shove and a sweep of her foot she took him to the ground, slamming his head down with her other hand and knocking him out cold.

The bar fell perfectly silent, and Sarah stood up again, facing the bar maid. She gave her a stern look as well, and the bar maid brought her hands up, palm out, showing them empty.

Sarah was perfectly aware she had been about to draw a knife from a hidden sheath, probably strapped to her thigh.

“Gee, thanks so much, Sarah! You took him out in a flash! My hero~” the barmaid shamelessly flattered Sarah.

“Ahh, Brad’s let the ale get the better of him again.” A man stood up from a nearby table. “Sarah, was it? Sorry about that, he’s been having trouble at home lately. I’ll get him out of here, if you don’t mind.”

Sarah turned to face this new person, crossed her arms in front of her chest, and looked up at him sternly. “No violence in the Guildhall.” Then she turned and swept her gaze across the bar area, making eye contact with everyone. “Got it?”

The bartender was stifling a laugh while everyone else gulped nervously and nodded.

Brad was taken home still unconscious, and Sarah returned to her leaning spot, watching over the Guildhall. Soon enough, the bar was back to how it had been before Brad’s near outburst.

That night, Jacob the bartender gave her two silver pieces and four copper pieces. Sarah’s eyes sparkled and she couldn’t hold back a grin as she slipped the coins into her coinpurse.

Jacob smirked, and imitated Sarah’s high pitched voice. “No violence in the Guildhall, got it?” Then he chuckled.

Sarah felt her face grow hot, but before she could muster a response, Jacob raised his hands. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Thanks for the good work tonight, Sarah. That could have been a lot worse without you breaking it up.”

He turned to finish closing down the bar and looked back over his shoulder. “Have a good night.”

“Y-you, too,” Sarah managed to mutter before she hurried out the door and through the dark streets back to her inn.

The next morning, at breakfast, her mother had some stern words for her about how she handled the fight the night before.

“Sarah, you can’t just stop fighting in the middle of things to have a talk with the people you’re fighting. What if that barmaid had stabbed you in the back?”

“But Mom, I know Jess, she wouldn’t do that!”

“Sarah, you’ve known Jess less than a week. And okay, say she didn’t stab you in the back, what if she had stabbed, uh, what was his name again?”

“I think it was Brad,” Sarah answered.

“Okay, Brad, what if you were holding down Brad’s sword arm and Jess came around and stabbed him full of holes before you could react? And don’t tell me you would have been able to react until after you’ve actually fought a Knife Wielder.”

Sarah paused, chewing a mouth full of pancakes topped with strawberry preserves as she thought. They were so delicious~ She swallowed, then drank some water to stall for a little more time before she answered. “Okay Mom, I see what you’re saying. That would have been bad.”

Helen’s eyes narrowed. “And do you see what you should have done instead?”

Sarah tilted her head slightly. “Knocked him out immediately, instead of talking to him?”

Helen shook her head slowly. “No, because if Jess–” she paused a moment, “or anyone who was the other person in the fight was out to kill Brad, you’d just be helping them out.”

Helen took a bite of her own pancakes and quickly resumed. “It depends on the exact circumstances, of course, but from how you described it, I would have thrown Brad across the room, towards the door. That gives you a few more seconds to assess if anybody else is going to pursue him or start brawling in general. You could even, at that point, tell everyone to freeze or get down, and then anyone who doesn’t do that is fair game. Then you could deal with Brad, who if he was really drunk, might not even be able to stand up properly.”

“But Mom, Brad was a really big, full grown man! I can’t just throw him across a whole bar like that!”

Helen gave her daughter a look. “And that’s why you need to keep training. You also could have knocked them both out, as soon as the barmaid reached for her knife.”

“But Jess was the victim!” Sarah protested.

A frown formed on Helen’s face, and she really gave her daughter a look. “Sarah, brawls may be fun, and you may be doing a guard job, but anything can happen in a fight. Your number one priority needs to be your own safety, then anything else after that. If you’re in a dangerous situation, you can’t hold back and you can’t get hung up on worrying about how it’ll look after the fact. It’s better to be alive and despised than dead and honored.”

Silence fell between them as they finished their breakfast. Helen stacked their plates and silverware and glasses to take back to the scullery, and came around and fell to one knee next to her seated daughter, and looked up at her.

“Sarah, promise me that if it gets dangerous, you won’t hold back.”

Sarah looked down at her mother and her breath caught in her throat when she saw the intensity of her mother’s gaze. After only the slightest hesitation, she nodded. “Yeah, I promise I won’t hold back.”

Helen squeezed her daughter’s hand, then embraced her tightly, and then stood up, once more poised and in control. “Good, now get along, don’t be late for your morning classes.”