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The cutlets and fish sizzled on the plate and gave off the most delectable aroma. The pottage was also good, its texture surprisingly thin and had a rather homely scent that reminded him of father’s similar soups. Ernst took it all in and shook his head appreciatively, whipping out his trusty personal spoon -- which he himself fashioned out of a goat’s horn when he was but eight years old! -- to taste the pottage first. The simple but welcome flavors danced on his tongue and gave him the shivers. So many weeks of living on but dried meats and isolated vegetables and fruit, but now he was eating the meal that he well and truly deserved. Perhaps he was a bit too preoccupied with his food, however, as he almost ignored Vidic.

“‘Chosen?’”, he echoed, while pulling the spoon out of his mouth to get another dip at the soup. “Well, actually, I just happened upon one of the message boards near the trivia and decided to come here and see what it was all about. I’m glad it isn’t a scam; really, this whole contract is rather weird, but I’ll give it a try. And yeah -- I may not be a professional, but I was bloody well trained by the best of them!”

He rolled up a sleeve and showed off a lean but thick bicep. “See this? Baby can draw an easy ten stone on the longbow. Gotta thank the local lords for sending men to train us village folk, and gotta thank them even more that they didn’t decide to kill each other and conscript us for war. The lessons came in very handy for hunting, and there was a lot of elks in the pine woods near home so it was put to good use. I was both a farmer and a hunter, and I am proud of my skills as a woodsman, let me tell you -- my steps are light on the forest floor and my eye’s keen like an eagle. Be it man or deer, I can nail one in their eye from a hundred yards without them even suspecting it coming. Okay, maybe that’s pushing it; perhaps not the eye, but definitely the chest. That’s a sure kill.”

He rolled down his sleeve and took another sip of the pottage, before cutting a little piece of pork with the bread knife on the table, blowing on the piece, and then stuffing his mouth with it. His eyes sparkled and widened, and he turned to the side to call for the tavern keep.

“Oi, tavern keep! Make me lunch as good as this before we go and I might just let you fuck my sister!”

Ignoring the keeper’s verbal counter-attack, he turned back to his meal grinning and reset his eyes on Vidic, this mysterious and young-looking man whom he knew very well underestimated him, much to his annoyance. He wouldn’t express it, though.

“Ah, he makes such good food. So, anyway, what about you, Vidic? You look like a priest. You here to give us spiritual guidance? Band like this, that’ll be quite hard.”