Rothenburg

"Of sorts," Ludwig said. "I'm not really from here." He didn't want to give away too much about himself.

He didn't think the other man looked intimidating, more likely to be frightened by them than they would be by him. However, he wouldn't discount anyone by this point after what had happened in the forest. He glanced at the other man cautiously, eying him up and to make sure that the other man didn't take anything from Matthew when they had bumped.

"We were about to head to the table there in the back," he said, then paused. "If you wanted to join us, I think you could." He was going to try to be more social, right?

Feliciano glanced at the man, who was looking really sorry for what just happened - which wasn't the case at all, he hand't done it on purpose, in the end.
He brightened his smile too, seeing that the other seemed a little bit less ashamed of the event, and willing to start some conversation. He looked nice, a bit shy maybe, and surely slightly too concerned about the situation. Or maybe, he was just naturally kind.

"Oh, yes, we are! I'm Feliciano, from the Kingdom of the Sun!" he said, promptly offering his hand. Ludwig's colder answer to the other's question didn't refrain him from telling his name and origin, but he luckily stopped at that point, because the warrior's suggestion of eating together brought him back to the fact that he was hungry.

"Right, you can join us!" this idea of meeting random travelers and eat all together was funny, he decided. After all, that was more or less the way he had met both Ludwig and Matthew two days before.

“You really don’t need to do anything, it’s okay, really,” Matthew told the traveler, returning the smile, “Though it would be nice if you joined us.”

He was a little surprised that Ludwig had been the first to offer the invitation. Though to be fair, he was still looking at the newcomer with a bit of suspicion. Matthew really couldn’t blame him after the events of the day before, but he really didn’t think the traveler posed a threat.

“Oh, and I’m Matthew, by the way,” he added, since the shorter of his companions had done so already and he figured he might as well.

“We’d better get the table before someone else does,” Matthew told the others, glancing over at some customers who had walked in after the traveler, who looked like they had the same idea as to where to sit as they did.

Toris was more than surprised at the sudden offer. It wasn't what he had expected, but the shocked expression quickly morphed into a gentle smile. After so many brush offs at simple conversation it was nice to be invited to share a table. He made sure to memorize the names he was given, Feliciano and Matthew.

"My name is Toris, it's a pleasure to meet you all," He greeted in return. He felt much happier than he had earlier, that was for certain. Then the slighter blo-Matthew, he mentally corrected, mentioned seating.

"You mean the one over there?" Toris asked, gesturing towards the free table, and then catching sight of the patrons who had just entered, "You're probably right." He gave a slight movement towards it, but waited for the others before moving much more than a step.

Ludwig walked over to the table and pulled up an extra chair for the newcomer. He made sure to flag over one of the waitresses. She seemed pretty enough, but Ludwig's attention was elsewhere, at least until he could really sort the whole thing out.

He waited for the others to come over and held out a hand to Toris. "My name is Ludwig." He hoped that no one saw the connection between his name and that of one of the princes. He didn't particularly need the publicity of being known as the prince in the town. It would make things far more complicated than he needed. He felt he could trust that knowledge with the bank, not with the public at large.

The waitress made her way over and Ludwig was curious how the Italian would interact with her. Not that he was jealous or anything. Not at all.

Ivan dodged the patrons littering the stairs leading down from the rented rooms, it was slow going and he had to take extra precaution so he did not trip or crush anyone. He made it down the stairs without any incident and promptly tripped over a dwarfs chair. He caught himself just barley a large wave of magic shooting across the bar. He needed to be more careful...he was lucky nearly everyone here was so short. The wave of old magic shot right over the heads of nearly everyone in the bar. He needed to remain as inconspicuous as possible. His king sent him to gather information and that would be a bit hard to do if he gave himself away before he even got on with the information gathering part. Ivan slipped onto the bar stool as inconspicuously as possible and ordered some of the famous beer everyone was talking about.

Feliciano followed Ludwig to the table. The room was getting crowded really fast, and he didn't want to miss their table. He sat down, looking to the waitress that the other had just waved at. She was the same that had been cleaning the table before, and as he had already noticed before, she was a real beauty.

She was tall, with long and fair tresses resting on her chest, small freckles dotting her pink cheeks and a small, round mouth with red lips. Definitely a girl to whom he owed to dedicate a song or two, he thought as he out down his mandolin next to him.

Then, he felt a slight shiver down his spine, the kind of sensation he usually felt when someone with a high potential of magic had just casted a spell, or something alike. A bit surprised, he turned, but only to find that the room was even more crowded than before. He surely couldn't tell which one of the customers had used that little magic.
Shrugging his shoulders, he waited for the others to sit down, happy to see that Toris had decided to join them for the lunch.

Thankfully, they had gotten to the table first. Matthew sat down as Ludwig called over the waitress. He wasn’t really thinking about anything other than how hungry he was. Which wasn’t very, and his imagination was blowing it out of proportion, but still. Suddenly, he felt a wave of magic pass over his head.

Well, that was strange. From what he could tell, someone had used some sort of spell, one that swept across the ceiling. He couldn’t say he was familiar with the type of magic being used, but that wasn’t saying much, he was no expert, after all. But it felt foreign nonetheless, though that didn’t mean much either; they were in a town full of travelers such as themselves, after all.

He decided to ignore it; it was probably nothing to be concerned about. People cast spells all the time, in his kingdom, at least.

Toris took the seat offered to him, now that there was promise of food he let himself feel hungry. It smelled wonderful, but that could have been because he hadn't eaten recently. He watched Ludwig call over a waitress, and then he felt magic. He recoginzed it as magic from his own kingdom, but there was something... off. It was different, and he felt a knot form in his stomach. Old magic?

The schools he'd attended taught about old magic, more powerful, darker. He swallowed thickly, he couldn't panic. It might not have even been old magic at all. Still, he cast a wary eye over the bar.

Ludwig saw the others at the table looking around curiously. "Is something wrong?" He asked, hand at the handle of his mace and ready to stand from the chair he was seated in at any moment.

The tavern was getting more and more crowded, and he began to grow suspicious of the people around them. He noticed a few others in the crowd of people looking around strangely as well, though most seemed to have not noticed whatever it was that the others had. He was usually so alert, his senses better than humans, so what could they have noticed that he couldn't?

The waitress, one of the oblivious ones, made her way to the table and asked if they wanted to order drinks and think over what was on the board above the bar for their meals.

Ludwig cast a quick glance up at the board, which had quick etchings of the dinner for those who could not read. "I'll have a beer," he told her, looking at his companions for an answer to the strange occurrence.

The wooden door creaked as Alfred entered the tavern and a loud flood of voices hit him with full force. He grinned widely above the heads of small creatures while scanning the place for a free table. He stepped further inside and greeted everybody loudly, he noticed how he mostly got a grumpy huff or even a suspicious stare in return. "Dude. Relax," he said and raised his hands soothingly as a dwarf fingered his dagger to his side. What's wrong with the tense situation, he thought. He knew these were hard times, but had nobody ever heard of optimism before?

His mood dropped. "What an unfriendly place," he murmured, earning a deadly glare from the innkeeper - didn't really change his mind, did it?

Although Matthew had gotten over the strange magical occurrence, the next thing to happen would be impossible to ignore. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the door open, and a young man walked in. Matthew thought it odd that he bore a striking resemblance to his brother, Alfred, who he hadn’t seen in ages. He wondered where his brother was at the moment, and if he was doing well. Until the newest customer opened his mouth.

That was Alfred, no doubt about it. And Matthew could only gape in confusion.
“Why is he…? How did he…?”

His brother seemed to be getting into some sort of trouble with the other patrons (not surprising, actually), so he decided to stand up and wave in his direction to avoid any major incidents, if he could. Where he and his companions sat was pretty far back in the tavern, so Matthew hoped Alfred would look in their direction.

"Oh, no, I just thought that there was someone casting a spell, but maybe I was wrong." he shrugged again with a smile, and he turned as he heard the maid asking them what they wanted to drink.

"I'll have red wine! I trust you to bring me the best you have." he replied to her question, his smile widening while he leaned forward in her direction. The maid smiled back, nodding, and Feliciano was about to add something else when he saw Matthew standing up, waving at someone in the tavern, apparently.

He followed the direction of the gesture, but the place was so crowded that he couldn't really be sure who was the person Matthew was aiming at.

"Magic?" Ludwig asked Feliciano. It wasn't uncommon here. There would be those capable of it and travelers especially. It was then that he noticed Matthew stand and wave to someone else in the tavern. His eyes tried to follow Matthew's line of sight, but he didn't have any luck with that at all.

"Who couldn't be here?" he asked Matthew. He hoped the man wasn't seeing his "mindbear" again. It was one thing to do that in a small group, but in such a crowded place, it was likely to get the man analyzed by someone from Roderich's area of the domain. They had a few people there who were obsessed with the weak-minded and insane. There was, at least, a commotion at the front door, so whatever it was seemed to be very real.

If it was the mindbear, at least it was confirmation that Matthew wasn't entirely crazy. If it wasn't... well, something was there at least.

Toris looked at Feliciano, not sure if he should be relieved that he hadn't been the only one to have felt it.

"Did it feel, ah, strange to you?" He asked nervously. He had no idea how sensitive to magic the young man was, but he was sure if he noticed something odd about it there was hardly a doubt it was old magic. But that brought up a worse question, why was there someone using old magic? From the Kingdom of Winter no less.

Toris was dragged out of his thoughts when he finally noticed Matthew waving someone over. Actually he'd noticed Ludwig asking Matthew about it, which was strange because usually a tablemate waving their arms around was the sort of thing a person noticed.

"Is it the man that just walked in?" Toris asked glancing between the two. There was an uncanny resemblance.

Ivan looked up when a shrill, abrasive, annoying, voice clawed over the bars chatter. He cringed and and scanned the bar. Who could passable make such a horrific sound? He spotted the blond almost immediately and and looked away quickly. How could anyone possibly be that bight!? Ivan could feel the...positive energy bleeding off of the kid and and hitting his back like the sea at high tide during a summer gale. He gulped down his beer and signaled for another. The kids energy was more than enough to put his already frayed nerves on edge.

Alfred did see the other man, whose appearance was quite peculiar, given that he was of tall figure - and he did not like the way that man glance at him as if he was some kind of an eyesore and immediately turned away. He should have chosen another tavern. His smile became smaller the more he went in, and there he wanted to make a grand entrance, heroic as he was. He'd expected an avid welcome with the crowd clapping and cheering at him for some reason.

Just before he intended to turn around and leave the place for good, he noticed someone waving at him. He had to narrow his eyes a bit to focus on that man. He looked just like him, how odd. Then it dawned on him.

"Mattie!" He cried out, finding his beaming smile once again and he decided to ignore the disapproving glares of the others. "Brother bear! The beloved lesser half of my soul! The forgotten one! So great to see you, dude. Whatcha doing here?"

He advanced with jumpy steps and came right before his brother to a halt. He did not yet notice his brother's companion. "You don't know how glad Iam to see you, they're a real bunch of sour sacks - and that huge guy over there gives me the creeps. Seriously, what a sad place."

It wasn’t until Ludwig had spoken up about it that Matthew suddenly became very self-conscious. He stopped for a moment looked around, yet the only people who paid him any mind were the three others seated at the table and the waitress, who gave him a weird look. That was a bit humiliating, but he didn’t have to continue for much longer for Alfred to spot him.

“Yes, that man,” he told Toris. Before he had a chance to fully explain what was going on to the others, his brother was already on his way over. While still drawing attention and shouting out odd nicknames. Of course.

Matthew managed an embarrassed smile. “Nice to see you, too, Al. Do you think you could be a little more quiet, though? I think they can still hear you,” he told him quietly, gesturing towards the other customers. He glanced nervously at the ‘huge guy’ in particular. He could see what his brother meant, which is exactly why he shouldn't have said it.

He turned to the others with an apologetic look, even though most of the customers were now turning away in disinterest. “This is my twin brother, Alfred.”

"Mh, I wouldn't know. I'm not that expert, to be honest." he answered to Toris. Yet, the fact itself that he had been able to sense the magic proved that it was rather strong, otherwise, being Feliciano not that trained, he wouldn't probably have been able to notice.

Then, he heard someone answering (loudly even for him) at Matthew's gesture. He looked at the blond man approaching them, all beaming and smiling and evidently happy to see the other. He smiled in amusement as he heard him calling Matthew "brother bear" (thinking immediately of Matthew's sort of... um, pet?), but still couldn't place him as the other went on with all sort of ways to greet Matthew.

Instead, the reason of all that was clear enough when Matthew introduced him.
"You have a twin brother! Ve, this is amazing! Nice to meet you!!!" he waved at the other, who with no doubt looked really like Matthew. Except the length of the hair, maybe, and the self-confident, bright smile, for sure.

Toris furrowed his brow at that. It was something he'd have to keep in mind, but he really hoped it was nothing. The magic he'd felt had only been a small burst, but for it to be so strong... Toris was worried it was only the tip of the iceberg. He pushed those thoughts aside, there was nothing he could do about it at present.

Instead he focused on the new arrival, he flashed a timid smile, "Hello, Alfred." Then his eyes widened a little in surprise, "Oh! You'd probably like a seat."

Toris stood up and offered his place, after all a brother had more of a reason to sit with them than someone they had just met. He didn't want to make a burden of himself.

The far too energetic young man blinked in surprise. "Huh? I'm too loud? Sorry."

Matthew appeared to be with company, he eyes them curiously and found them to be an interesting constellation of people. He nodded cheerfully as his twin brother introduced him to his friends. The first to greet was someone who looked as if smile had never left his face. In his mind he weighed out which name would fit the beaming person the best.

The second one was another nice fellow with shoulder length hair and polite eyes. He jumped up and offered Alfred his seat, though the blond laughed and waved it off. "No way man, I'm not your king or something. Just stay seated okay?" Alfred turned to Matthew again. "I like your friends!"

He excused himself for a moment and asked a neighbouring patron if he could take the unused chair at his table, he expressed his gratitude as he was given permission. Not long after he was among the newly met friends. "So, what brings you guys to this town?"

Ludwig could immediately tell which of the brothers he preferred, but he said nothing and gave a faint nod of greeting to the exuberant young man. "We are just traveling and encountered one another at the borderlands." Again, he didn't say much. While he felt he could trust Matthew, he had a feeling that the man's twin would be likely to blab anything told to him, even if unintentionally doing so. "Were you looking for your brother?"

He had to wonder how two such unlikely siblings could occur, but considering his own bruder, it wasn't , perhaps, such an odd thing at all. Gilbert was... Gilbert. There were no other words to describe his own sibling. Knowing how he felt sometimes about Gilbert, he really did pity poor Matthew.

"I'm Ludwig," he said, then looked back at the waitress. "Could you just bring a bottle of red wine, a few pitchers of beer and water and plenty of glasses? I think that's the only way we'll move this order along." She smiled at him, putting a hand on his shoulder, then told him she'd do just that.

There had been something about the way she'd said it. Had that been a bit of a flirting tone in her voice? No, it couldn't have been. The only one really eying her up at the table was Feliciano.

Alfred turned his head to the man who spoke to him, he'd not failed to recognise him of course but he hadn't considered the possibility that he might have belonged to the group, for he was so very different than the rest. Stoic and, well, manly as he was, he did not seem to fit.

"Hi Ludwig, my name's Alfred," he still stared at him even though the other had turned towards the hot waitress. He then leant back and smiled.
"To be honest, It's coincidence to find you guys here. I was just wandering around, at these times of hardships people need heroes more than ever. And I'm merely on stand-by, in case a person in need requires my help and protection - Fuck yeah! I did sound epic right now." The first part though, was spoken earnestly and with serious passion.

"So, I'll just ask again. Why are you here?"

Ivan couldn't help but follow the blond across the tavern. He shifted in his chair to get a better view, bringing his beer to his lips. He inhaled sharply when his eyes settled on the long haired brunette and he turned back to the bar, coughing and trying to rid his nose of bear foam. He sniffed and wiped the tears from his eyes and glanced back at the table. It couldn't be...He hadn't seen Toris since...well...since his king sent him off for some untold reason when he was 7. Who didn't want horses with wings?. He leaned on the bar and watched the smaller man while trying not to look like he was doing so. He looked so happy surrounded by his friends. A muscle headed Griffin prince...the sunny Italian prince...and the Woodlands heirs...all in one tavern. It was his lucky day~

Matthew let out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding. This wasn’t going nearly as bad as he had feared, but that may be because he didn’t give his brother enough credit at times. Although Alfred could be annoying at times, he always had good intentions and was quite friendly. Though it didn’t completely make up for his shortcomings, in Matthew’s opinion, it prevented matters from being much worse. All three men seemed to tolerate him at least, which was good. Well, maybe Ludwig a little less than the others, but Matthew expected as much.

“Still intent on being a hero, eh?” Matthew asked his brother with a smile. He knew his twin was serious about it, and he respected that. Which wasn’t to say he understood Alfred’s aspirations completely, or at all, really.

“What do you mean?” he asked Alfred when he had repeated his question even after Ludwig had answered him, albeit somewhat vaguely. Although Matthew trusted Alfred more than the others did, he still thought it was best if Alfred didn’t know of their situation in full detail.