"Is this his first time?" Fixer asked. "I haven't seen him before."
Evening nodded her head and grabbed Ferris's injured arm tightly with both of her arms.
After securing him, she dragged him to the counter.
"It'll be fine, Fixer can fix anything!" Evening reassured as she placed Ferris's arm on the counter.
"Wait, we're doing this a little too fast, aren't we?" Ferris looked at the two women. They didn't seem to be worried.
He looked at Judas.
Even though Judas kept saying that he'd handle things from now on, he wasn't keen on helping Ferris in this situation.
"I'm practically a slave here for the villains. They treat me like I'm their caretaker for their junk." Fixer placed her nail gun on the counter, then dismounted her stool.
She grabbed something from under it, and when she popped back up, Fixer had a mischievous expression.
In her hands was a rusty saw grinder. "But at least I get to watch villain dogs suffer." She revved the grinder to the max rpm. The faster the saw was, the bigger her smile grew.
What kind of healing blessing is this! Ferris felt true fear for the first time.
It seemed that even though the kidnapped servants were tools for the villains, they still found their own ways of biting them back.
"Hold him down," she ordered.
"Got it!" Evening hugged Ferris's entire body and held his arm as tightly as possible.
Too close! Ferris was fighting two battles.
Without hesitation, Fixer ripped apart the bandage carefully placed by Judas. The dried blood mixed with dead skin stretched like melted cheese.
This might as well be a trap! Ferris prepared his mind for unimaginable pain.
Fixer turned on her grinder to the max before slowly drawing it closer to his wound.
Its blade and engine roared for the taste of blended muscles and chipped bones.
"Stop moving, it'll be fine!" Evening continued holding Ferris in place. "By the way, I haven't even asked what your name is."
Ferris was confused at first because of the stress, but he understood her question. "It's Ferris," he answered.
"Ferris? It sounds similar to someone I knew."
Someone I knew... Have I met Miss Evening before?
Ferris tried to recall his memories, but he didn't remember any elf he had met as crazy as Evening.
But before he could even begin thinking straight, the pain engulfed him.
He felt every single bit of it—his flesh being ground to small strips, and his marrow leaking out.
Even as a knight with a long history of battle, the feeling of pain never dulls.
And yet, he wasn't harmed in any way.
"It's healed now," Fixer said, finally turning off the ear-piercing noise coming from her grinder.
Looking at his wrist, Ferris saw that it was as spotless as a newborn's skin.
Although, the method to achieve such effective healing was questionable, so much so that it blurred the very lines of ethics.
I can't believe it worked. Ferris was honestly surprised.
His greatest handicap was gone, and with it a weight lifted from his chest, he felt a hundred times safer.
"Thank you," Ferris said, nodding his head.
However grateful Ferris was, Fixer was disturbed by it—evident by her getting off the stool and moving away a bit.
"What kind of villain says thank you?" Fixer said in a shaking tone.
This was obviously the first time such a thing had occurred.
Thankfully, Evening covered for Ferris's apparent kindness as a villain.
"It's alright, Ferris is just one of the nicer ones!" She patted Fixer's head.
Finding the head-patting too much, she shrugged off Evening's hand as if it were harming her. "Don't touch me, villain!"
Miss Evening laughed. "Alright, alright, thank you."
Fixer scrubbed the part of her hair where Evening touched, then sat on the stool before slamming her head on the counter.
"Urgh, I'm too tired... Kill me! Even though you can't!" She slammed her head multiple times.
She's way worse off than the bartender. Ferris felt a little bad.
"How long have you been here?" he asked in a curious tone.
Fixer turned her head on the table to look at Ferris. "Huh? A villain wants to hear my story, that's fucking fantastic, so I'll tell you."
"There was once a fresh graduate who wanted to use her repairing blessing to help society. But since she was planning on charging a hefty fee, God punished her—so she got kidnapped and was made into the villains' personal repair guy..."
"That was two years ago," she ended her short story by slamming her face once more.
"I can't even escape this city, and if I protest by not doing what I'm supposed to do, Lilith would just come and scold me..."
Ferris paused for a bit before leaning against the counter.
"Did she curse you?" he asked.
"She didn't. She only cursed the villains here so they can't physically hurt us." Fixer straightened her back and stretched. "She's freaky though, so don't get on her nerves."
Freaky... Ferris remembered that this 'Lilith' blew him a kiss when he was spying on her from a far distance.
Judging from what the bartender said and what Fixer just revealed, Lilith wasn't the type to go head-on in a battle.
She seemed more like the type to toy with her enemies, playing with them before doing anything important.
Even if Ferris could leverage Lilith's strange personality, there was no way he could beat a disaster-level demon villain.
I'm definitely avoiding her... Ferris concluded. Though, the real reason was Lilith's apparent interest in him.
If she had some obsessive crush, she could turn him into another servant.
"I'll keep that in mind, thank you," Ferris said.
Fixer was disturbed once more. If Ferris said thank you again, there was a chance she might figure out his cover.
"Fixer!" Evening suddenly shouted, "fix his sword too while you're at it!"
"Huh?! Why should I!" Fixer hissed.
Despite the obvious refusal, Miss Evening continued smiling at her as if waiting for Fixer to eventually give in.
Fixer sighed. "Alright, give it to me." She extended her open palm towards Ferris.
Finding nothing to lose, Ferris handed his sword over.
While Ferris was waiting to see what she did, Judas came up behind him.
"Should we really be trusting them?" he whispered.
Ferris furrowed his brows and leaned closer. "Just stay vigilant—
"What are we whispering about?" Evening whispered as well.
Ferris and Judas stepped away from Miss Evening as if she were the plague.
I forgot elves were silent. Thankfully she doesn't have her previous ears. Ferris was relieved to figure that out. "Let's just say it's none of your business."
"Yup, none of your business! Haha, totally!" Judas exclaimed.
Ferris twitched at Judas. What happened to your acting skills?
But even if Judas's skills had dulled, Evening didn't seem suspicious—at least not as far as Ferris could tell.
Her only reaction was a sweet smile and a tilted head.
***
Back at the bar.
The bartender was doing his usual routine of serving one glass per drinker.
There was one particular customer he had his eyes on.
An absolute mess of a villain, who looked ready to scruff with another.
"I saw you stole my fingers! You fucker, go kill your own heroes!" the ragged villain slammed his target's table and it looked like he was about to flip it over.
The bartender sighed. He could only watch them squabble.
Expecting another mess, he remained quiet.
But a mess wasn't going to happen.
Before the villain could flip the table, something bulged in the villain's pants.
Zzzzzzzz.
The villain staggered, feeling his zipper slowly growing larger. "Hic! W-what the fuck!"
What came out was a fresh Zipperman. A bit rough around the edges, but under the bartender's eyes, he seemed fine.
There was also a noticeable red hue on one of his arms.
Ignoring the stares around him, Zipperman approached the bar.
He grabbed one of the drinkers and tossed them aside like a ragdoll, even though there were plenty of empty seats.
He calmly sat down on the unoccupied stool and rested his palms on the cold counter.
"Milk...
Cold, if you will."