Incline 10: Bossman Hrurim

"Joke?" Ivahstar asked me with a clear glare on his face.

"No, the Madame is refusing because of other issues." I somewhat awkwardly answer while turning towards his daughter for an easier sight. But even she was annoyed by this outcome.

"This aaain't faaair! We did aur jab!" she rightfully complains as she also slams her paws onto the table.

"I know, I know. You will get paid, trust me in that regard. It will just be coming a lot later than planned..."

"We no stay. Urgent!" Ivahstar growls as his well-known set of bad circumstances is reiterated.

"Please try to work with me here, Ivahstar. By the morning tomorrow, you will get your pay." I sincerely tell him as there was simply no way my guys would take longer than this night.

"Work is paid!" he snaps before he gets down from the table. I then watch with some anxiousness as he opened the door to a balcony and slammed it shut behind him.

"Heiya... Can you honestly tell me that he understands what I am saying?" I ask her as she seemed to have it together a lot more than him. Yet, knowing him, he was probably in a better state than Heiya.

"Yaaah..." she answers bitterly and quietly.

"Look, I know it is not much. But here is something out of my own pocket for now. Think of it as a bonus, I guess." I say with a sigh as I slide over a hefty but not particularly big bag of Workman's Effort. They put in the effort, and now they had the proof.

"I'll ga tell him."

"Can you also say, then, that I am willing to pay for your dinner? You don't have to spend a single Effort from that bag." I add on before I grumpily pull out my pipe. Snorting at the no-smoking sign before I step outside to work my stress-reliever.

Shortly after, someone opens the door after me, "Were hunting."

"You can still do that." I tell him with an annoyed shrug as I tip out some of the ash that had already formed. My need to literally burn off the worries and grievances went through my loaded pipe quickly.

"Little reason." he replies as he moves up to sit on the balcony's wall.

"So how are things looking up for you, anyway?" I ask in an effort to move my mind to other topics. Even if I knew I basically set myself up for a reminder about his delayed pay.

"Bailiffs coming." he answers rather monotonously while he inspects the gun he had strapped to his leg.

"I did warn you about getting involved with that mafia or whatever you called it." I remind him. Smirking when he made a breath-like chuckle.

"Got to payback." he says as his voice suddenly takes on a darker tone.

"Right..." I say slowly and thoughtfully as I recall how he suddenly stopped talking about his wife. I suppose I could infer that she was killed intentionally or accidentally by them.

"Heiya safe. Important." he gruffly continues with a shaky lift of his head towards the girl indoors.

"She'll be safe within this town. They don't come up here, do they? Especially when a friend-by-coincidence is around." I point out to him, looking down at one of the Union's boys as I did so. And as if to prove my point, the one I looked at suddenly sprung into action against someone who came out running.

"H-HEY! LET GO!" the quickly captured man roared before a single punch from an armoured gauntlet knocked them out.

"They not up. We down." he tells me as his gaze locks itself on his daughter.

"My offer is still up, you know. Got an old house up north you could use to just settle down in. No one would know you are there." I decide to remind him as my pipe starts to run dry.

"Home below." he reminds me in turn before he pats my arm and hops down.

"Listen, Ivahstar... I know I don't even recall what they are called. But you can't do something like this on your own. You either need to let it go or you'll really lose it all."

"Prophet says help come..." he tells me sternly while he repeats what he learned during his superstitious habits.

"Now I don't know about that, but, for now, we'll assume it is something to fill you up." I joke to him before I wash my pipe in the decorative drain water beside me.

"Good meal." he nods happily, at least, I assume so as he was still stoic-faced even now.

"So, as I have said I'll be buying. How do you wish to empty my bank account?" I ask them. Now in a much better mood now that I was able to just go through a pipe's contents.

"Steak."

"Steaaak."

"Motrtha's skills, why not." I concur as I picked up a menu to see what else they had. Yet, once it came time to buy it, I did not add much on. So I marked down what we wanted and handed it to the waiter.