Tales of Runeterra: Noxians In Bilgewater

 

Tales of Runeterra

Chapter 14:

Noxians in Bilgewater

                The wooden mug made a dull clunk as Darius slammed it against the countertop. The swill they sold in this tavern was horrible at best, but he didn’t have much room to complain. Bilgewater wasn’t the kind of place that was known for its quality exports, so he couldn’t even be surprised that their alcohol wouldn’t be out of place outside of a sewage puddle.

                “You gonna sit there and grimace all day, buddy, or are you going to order anything else?”

                Darius grimaced. Every instinct in his body told him that he should relieve the man of his head for such words. In Noxus, such insolence would be met with challenge or some kind of deeper political game. In that way, he was glad he wasn’t home. He loved his country, but he could do without the fancy words and the hidden meanings. He could leave such things to Swain.

                “I’ll take another mug,” he ended up saying. His voice was deep and gruff, which lent aid to when he was controlling the Trifarian Legion. In a small tavern in the middle of nowhere, however, it barely commanded him the respect he deserved while he ordered beer. “Make it taste better than this one.”

                The bartender, an old man with graying, receding hair and a little under two heads shorter than the General, smiled. Apparently those were the right words to say, because the man didn’t hesitate to sweep away to the back. He fetched a new mug, this one recently cleaned, and opened a barrel that was closer to the storeroom that Darius scoped out before he entered. He returned, that same wry smile on his face, before slamming the mug before the Noxian.

                A good amount of it was foam, and a good amount of that foam spilled over the brim and splashed against the abused wood that made up the counter. Darius looked at it, eyebrow raised, before turning back to the man.

                “Now that’s more like it, you blackened steel barnacle,” the man said. He leaned in while he spoke, and only seemed to smile harder as Darius sneered at him. “You don’t get by in this town by being civil. I’m not asking you to go around and murder everything you see—though there are idiots that try to—but don’t be afraid to put a little backbone in your words, y’hear?”

                Darius heard alright, and it was with this thought that he finished his first disgusting drink. It didn’t go down easy—in fact, he hated every second of it—but there was a certain kind of satisfaction that went with it. He met the bartender’s eyes as he picked up the second mug, and a certain kind of understanding went between them as he put the drink to his lips.

                “Maybe you Bilgewater punks aren’t as bad as you se—”

                Darius almost spit out the drink as it touched his tongue. This… drink… almost seemed worse than the first one, and the man’s famous scowl returned to his face as he turned to the still smiling bartender.

                “Just cause you speak the language doesn’t mean that everyone will go along with you. You Noxians respect strength, right?” the man smiled even harder, before rubbing his fingers together. “There’s a certain kind of strength in coin, if you know what I mean.”

                Darius continued his scowl, but the man hardly looked intimidated by it. This was the same scowl that stared down entire armies and watched the fall of cities. He had forced many a man into submission with that scowl, and yet here it was—beaten by an overweight, middle-aged man in the middle of the worst city-state in Runeterra.

                It was almost funny, the state of it all.

                “Fine,” Darius growled. He reached into his pocket once more and pulled out his satchel. He dropped a few pieces of gold on the counter—a reward for the man’s bravery, if nothing else—and watched as the man inspected it. After biting each of the gold he smiled and pulled out a glass bottle and set it before him.

                “A good lesson to learn while you’re here, Noxian,” the man started. He had already started to venture away to attend to another patron, but he stopped to leave that last bit of advice. “The best stuff you’ll ever get from this dump will always be imported from elsewhere.”

                The man started to smile again, and Darius couldn’t help but to grin in response.

                “Everything from here might as well be sewage swill, after all!”