Interlude I - A Bad Day to Quit Drinking

Kuro's Village

Kuro sighed deeply as he watched the elderly men climb into the driver's seat of the ten prepared wagons and shook his head. I never thought I'd see the day where I'd be enslaving my own people, even if only temporarily.

Kuro looked down at his shaking hands and focused on the long black chain capped with a collar in them.

Suddenly Simon's hand appeared behind him and steadied his shoulder, "You don't have to do this. I can do it, you know."

Kuro shook his head grimly, "No. I have to at least do this much. You're not even of this village, and yet here you are doing so much. I can't let you shoulder all of our burdens. Not only because I'm the village elder, but because I simply can't let you do it."

Simon nodded and quietly walked to the forward wagon before stopping to turn around, "Today certainly was a bad day to quit drinking."

Kuro suddenly gripped the chain in his hand tightly and lifted his head, screaming, "And whose fuckin fault was that you little shit?"

Simon chuckled quietly beneath his sad smile at Kuro's outburst, "Ah, sorry about that. I guess that is sort of my fault."

"Sort of?!"

Last night after the elder had gone to bed, Simon and Kayae had snuck around his house and removed all the liquor they found inside. After that, the criminal duo knocked on Kaxerita's door. She was a nice elderly woman whom the old wolfen was not-so-secretly sweet on and informed her of Kuro' recently developed drinking problem before handing her the considerable stash of alcohol.

Kuro had found out about the duo's late-night activities after one of the villagers noticed the sound coming from his frantic searching and informed him of the situation. He had been...quite livid to say the least when he found Simon standing around outside the mess hall earlier. He thought he had seen Kayae with Simon, but she had seemingly disappeared by the time he reached the grinning man.

Suddenly a womanly voice shouted from inside Kuro's house, "Kuro! You better not be drinking again!"

Kuro's angry red face suddenly went pale as his shoulders shot up, "O-Of course not. N-Not that I could anyway."

Simon suppressed a chuckle and breathed in deeply to stop himself from laughing. He couldn't do much about the smile, though, "Alright then, hurry up then and stop bothering Simon already. My shoulders are starting to ache again."

Simon couldn't suppress his laughter anymore and let it out all at once. Kuro's face reddened again, only for his focus to shift as a bell-like snicker came from inside one of the already loaded barrels. The laugher stopped instantly as both men approached the formerly snickering barrel.

Simon gave Kuro one look, and Kuro nodded his head, readying the collar in his hand.

Suddenly the barrel's lid was ripped off, and Kayae was pulled out by the scruff of her neck. The second her tiny feet touched the ground, Kuro slapped the collar across her neck and quickly clicked the lock closed before handing the chain to Simon.

"You deal with her. I've got other things to attend to," He said before leaving the stunned Simon and Kayae behind as he went along the wagon train's entire length and shackled the waiting elderly men to the driver's seat with a long black chain. He gave the slack-jawed duo one final wave of the finger with his back turned before entering the house and slamming the door.

Simon looked down at the stunned girl beneath him and quietly shook his head with a sigh.

A bad day to quit drinking, Indeed.