Unpaid debt

I looked at Turek and saw that his left cheek was red. It looked like someone had slapped him.

"Uh.. its nothing. Nothing really. Don't worry about it."

I saw that he was also empty handed. Didn't he have any clothes?

"Where are your clothes? Why are you empty handed?"

"Uh.. I couldn't bring anything. It's no problem. After we do another quest, I should be able to buy some clothes."

Before I could say anything more Cleo asked "Did someone attack you? You don't have to lie to us Turek. If you tell me who it was, I will beat them up. They wouldn't dare to attack you after that. Was it those two thugs from before?"

"No no, it wasn't them. I think they would be too scared to do anything stupid at this point. It was… it was Jina. She said I was ungrateful for leaving after they had raised me since young. She wanted me to continue working at the shop. I guess she thought I hadn't paid them back yet."

"What? That bitch did this? I thought she didn't like you and wanted you to leave?"

"I guess not. I think she just didn't like me but wanted me to continue working for them"

"Were you getting paid to work?" asked Cleo.

"No, but I had a roof and would get to eat the leftover food. I got really good at cooking too because I would cook everyday."

I sat their speechless. Wasn't this too much?

"I thought Peter liked you? Didn't he defend you?"

"Well Peter tried but he can't really handle Jina. I didn't tell you this but Jina used to be an adventurer and is quite strong. I am not sure exactly what happened but she married Peter. Peter was always just a normal shoemaker. He couldn't really defend me again Jina if she really wanted to hit me. When he tried to help me, she casually threw him down on the floor. She then slapped me and threw me out of the door. I am actually worried about Peter now. He might have to face her anger now."

Cleo's face was getting colder and colder as she listened to Turek. She was just about the get up when Turek said "No Cleo. Please don't. I am fine. I don't want you to do anything. You might think she was harsh but she is right as well. She had no reason to help raise me, my father was not her friend after all. I have lived under their roof all this time but I haven't really paid them back. I will solve this on my own. I will gather money and pay them back. I don't want to live in that debt. Fighting with Jina won't solve anything."

Cleo continued to look at Turek with sharp eyes and frosty look for a few more seconds. Turek was slowly backing up from her out of fear. Even I felt afraid and she wasn't even looking at me. Finally after a few more seconds, her eyes returned to normal but her face was still a bit cold.

I let out a sigh of relief. She can get really scary when she is mad. I never want to make her angry at me, that's for sure. I thought a bit more about how Turek had said that Jina was a former adventurer. We didn't know how strong she really was. Even if Cleo fought her, she might not win.

"Sigh… Alright. Since you want to handle this yourself, I wont butt into it."

"Thanks." He looked around and asked "So we have 3 beds, one for each?"

"Yeah, we already took these 2 beds. The last one is yours."

Turek went and sat down on his bed. He looked around to examine the room. He said "It's not big but its not bad either. How about food? Is it any good?"

"Well we can go down and find out. Meals are included in the rent". I was a bit hungry and wanted to go down for some food.

"Umm. about that" suddenly Cleo said a bit awkwardly.