Ren was only there out of desperation. It was rare for him to depend on other humans for his basic needs. But he was not used to the desert environment. Luckily enough for him, he had done several ‘jobs’ and acquired the currency needed to exchange with goods. The bartender placed a glass of water in front of him and he remembered something, “Could you refill this as well?” he requested as he handed his water pouch over to the bartender, to which the bartender said ”Of course,”. Perhaps such request was not odd at all.
The door to the tavern swung open and the place halted to a silence and heads were turned. Naturally, Ren followed. He wanted to know who had caught their attention. If Ren didn’t close himself off from society, perhaps he would’ve immediately recognised the man as well. But alas he had no idea who the man was. The people in the tavern raised their glasses to the man, celebrating his arrival.
’Ironic.’ he thought. A bit amused. Perhaps it was someone well known to the locals.
The person walked up to the bar, a few seats away from where he was. There was something about the man. Something that Ren simply could not put a finger on. He then noticed the, uhh, cat? that followed the person around. It reminded him of the cats he once looked after during his Joyan days. But there was no time to reminisce the past. He still had to find a place to take shelter in for the night. He took the glass of water and drank them all in an instance, before placing a sum amount of money on the bar.
”Will this be enough?” he asked as he stood up, to which the bartender gave a glance at the sum amount and nodded his head towards the ronin.
Ren lacked the experience with money, he’s oblivious to how much an amount is worth. He didn’t rely on them anyway. But apparently the amount he gave the bartender was quite a lot and this had attracted the attention of a few people. As he was heading out, a group of four people stopped him. “Hey, we saw that you have a lot of cash to throw away, why don’t you treat us a bit?” One of them said as he slung his arms across Ren’s shoulders.
”I do not know what you speak of.”.
The group of men just laughed at his reply, ”He speaks weird man,” one of them said. ”Oh c’mon, it won’t hurt, just give us some cash and we’ll be out of your way.” The person with his arms over Ren spoke softly. The person then brought out a knife and pointed it at Ren, hidden from the others.
Ren grew up in the wilderness. So naturally his primal instinct kicked in when he saw the sharp object. He moved his arm to knock the knife away before kicking the man right in the stomach, launching him a few metres away, knocking over a table. That was when Ren realised his mistake and learnt what turning over a table meant in a place like that.