164 Visit to La Vive (1/2)
Days since last Beast Tide: 37. Current Kill Count: 1261 (70 since yesterday).
***
In a scenic seaside town near the borders of La Vive, a man walked into a bakery.
”Bonjour!” he called out loud and clear.
”Bonjour!” the baker called back, smiling in a friendly manner. They chatted for a short while, the man bought his bread, and the baker sent him off warmly.
Then, Mindy walked into the bakery. The baker watched her enter and look around wide-eyed at all the baked goods. She noticed him eyeing her and hurriedly bobbed her head in greeting. ”H-hi…”
His face darkened. He frowned.
”I-I mean…” she scrambled to think back to what Remian said when they arrived. ”B-bonjour.” That last scarcely came out as a whisper.
The baker's face darkened even more. ”What do you want?”
”Um… I was just looking… seeing how good your goods are… you know, compared to everywhere else…”
”My goods are the best!” the baker said, loudly. ”You will never find quality as good anywhere in the world! And don't you forget it!”
”R-really?” Mindy looked really nervous at this point. ”The best in the world…? I'm not so sure, I mean the world's a really big place…”
”Get out.” The baker said flatly.
Mindy blinked. ”What? Really?”
”Get OUT!” the baker roared.
Mindy hurriedly scrambled out.
Sitting on the bench facing the main street nearby was Remian. ”How did it go?”
”I… I don't know! I don't know what happened!” Mindy shuddered, then turned and got angry. ”He was so rude! I can't believe it! What kind of shopkeeper treats his customers that way?”
”What did you do?” Remian asked.
”Nothing! I just greeted him, you know, like you said, and then talked about his goods, and he said it was the best in the world, and I said I wasn't so sure, I mean, I hadn't even inspected them yet…”
”Just how did you greet him, exactly?”
”I said, 'hi', just like you told me to.”
”Was that really what I told you to do?”
”You said to greet him!”
”Greet him HOW?”
”Uh… say 'hi', in their language, which was 'bonjour', I think?”
”Is that all? What else did I say?”
”Uh…” Mindy thought back. ”That's all you said! You just told me to yell 'bonjour' when I got in, which meant 'hello' in their language.”
”Did you do it?”
”Do what?”
”Yell 'bonjour' loudly when you entered.”