Frontier Chef: My Cooking Skills Are Broken-Chapter 31: The Registrar’s Office

The girl wouldn’t wake up, even after Ezra tried nudging her shoulder.

He called her "gremlin", "brat", and "prick" at increasing volume but she still wouldn’t budge.

She was out cold on the floor, arms by her side and drool building on her lips. Patches was curled against her back. It was wide awake by the time Ezra said "brat".

He needed to get to Leyla’s office before the briefing tomorrow. He could claim the hearth right then but that meant more trouble with the family tree of Harken.

His back still ached from the brawl with Theron and he wasn’t exactly too excited for round two just yet.

Worse yet, he also needed to talk to Leyla about the debt, which according to Neve was something that could land him eight feet under.

Both conversations led to the same woman.

’I can’t leave her here, either.’

He crouched and tried to lift her off the ground. His hands went under her arms and she was lighter than a kid half her size should’ve been. Still, he adjusted her onto his back.

Her arms draped over his shoulders and her head lolled against his neck. Her breathing was slow and she made a noise that made Ezra flinch.

’If she wakes up, she’s going to bite me. Piggyback puts her mouth behind my head where her teeth can’t reach my face.’

He stood up and the weight registered as almost nothing.

Then he saw her soles, which were black with cracked skin layered over older cracks. How long had she been out here on the streets? Some of the cracks were fresh and the edges were pink underneath.

The volcanic roads in Harken were hot enough that Ezra shifted every few seconds. Being naturally aligned with fire thwarted most of the damage but it was damn hot.

This girl had probably walked barefoot since he’d first seen her and then some.

Patches trotted after him, less of following Ezra and more so tailing after the sleeping girl. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

The registrar’s office was through the eastern corridor, past the underground jail and deeper into the commons.

It was a carved-out room in the volcanic rock with a wooden door that had been broken into and rebuilt twice over.

Ezra knocked with his forehead because his hands were busy holding the girl’s legs in case she fell backwards.

Leyla opened the door with her quill behind her ear, her attention somewhere behind the clutter of paper on a marble desk.

"How can I help you?"

She looked at the trio and her smile left her lips.

"Nuh-uh."

"We need to talk."

"The answer is no."

Leyla slammed the door.

"You don’t even know what it’s about," Ezra said. The door closed on his foot and bounced. She tried again and again but the result was the same. "You done yet?"

"I’ll get my brother."

"Want me to tell your mother that you failed to aid a party of the Emerald Avian?"

That seemed to work.

She stepped aside and brought her palm up against his chest, inches from contact.

"The Ossalaka stays outside."

Ezra shrugged. "Don’t matter to me."

The door shut behind Patches who was now stabbing at the door. Leyla let out a sigh before gesturing to a stone slab.

"Please sit down." Her voice was higher, somewhere between professionalism and utter annoyance.

"I’ll stand, thanks."

Leyla’s blue eyes twitched once. "Of course."

She made her way behind the desk and sat down.

Through the stacks of paper and books and the ledger that probably had all the crimes Ezra had committed in the span of two days, he could barely make out her eyebrows.

"What do you want, Frontier Chef?"

"First." Ezra shook his head from the girl’s prodding fingers that found his nose. "The kitchen has a hearth. It... belongs to me."

Leyla tilted her head.

"I need to claim it," he finished.

She pulled the ledger from the top of the stacks and skipped to the oldest pages.

"The hearth hasn’t been active in over two centuries. The charter lists it as communal infrastructure but nobody’s contested it because nobody’s had reason to." She saw the blank face on Ezra and sighed again. "It’s up for grabs."

"So I can have it?"

"The old women who cook there would be glad to hand it over to someone who can actually use it." She pulled the quill out of her ear and dipped the tip in tar. "File a claim with me and I’ll note it in the record. Nobody’s going to fight you for it."

’That was easier than I expected.’

"Okay, how do I do that?"

She wrote something on a paper and stamped it with a red ink ball. "Done," she said, folding the paper in half and tearing along the crease. She handed the lower piece to Ezra.

He opened his mouth.

"You’re not serious."

"Dead serious."

Leyla rolled her eyes and stuck the piece between his teeth.

"Second thing," Ezra said, his words garbled but decipherable. "Neve—I mean, the Emerald Avian told me to talk to you about a debt. Something about Harken custom, when a man touches an unmarried woman."

Her pale face went flush, a color that didn’t quite match her steady blue eyes.

"She said what?"

"That when a man puts his hands on an unmarried woman in Harken, he owes a debt. And that I should talk to you about it."

Leyla sank into her chair and let the tar on her quill harden against the thick heat. Whether it was the room or her cheeks or both, Ezra couldn’t tell.

"There is no such custom."

"Huh?"

"There is no such custom."

"Yeah I heard you, but what the fuck?"

Leyla cleared her throat and fixed the collar of her robe.

"That’s... made up." She dipped the quill back in tar.

Neve was smiling when she walked away. He remembered that now, the first time he’d ever seen her smile and she’d spent it on sending him to a registrar’s office to confess a debt that didn’t exist.

She made the whole thing up. And Ezra fucking believed her.

Worse yet, he’d walked here with a sleeping child on his back.

And to what? Tell this woman he owed her something for putting his hands on her chest?

"Wait. But your mother brought the accusation up, which meant you accused me, right?"

Leyla’s face flushed again, this time regaining her composure. "That, was Mother’s idea."

’Okay, now that’s just fucked up.’

"If you want to burn things up, do it outside and not in here where Harken’s documentation resides," Leyla continued.

Ezra’s palms were smoking. He closed his fists and looked her right in the eyes.

"I have a third thing."

"I don’t care, you’ve wasted enough of my time as is."

"It’s about the girl."

Leyla’s eyes went to the kid drooling over his back.

"Not my problem."

"Who is she? Where are her parents?"

"Will you promise to go away?"

"Sure."

Leyla pulled a different ledger from under a dozen books or so. The papers were cleaner and obviously in the age of now.

"She has no name on record... found inside the walls three months ago after a supply cart departed. The cart master denied knowledge of her. No family has claimed her and no settlement has sent inquiry." Leyla closed the ledger. "She’s been fending for herself since. Stealing food, biting residents, sleeping in the holding cells because the volcanic heat underground keeps the air moist."

The little girl stirred in her sleep, mumbling something before resting her chin beside his shoulder.

"She bites anyone who tries to help," Leyla said, watching the girl’s lips twitch. "Two healers refused to examine her after the first attempt. The smith’s wife offered a bed and got teeth marks on her forearm for the trouble. Mother—the commander stopped assigning guards to watch her because the desert has been stirring."

"So you just gave up on her?"

"We gave her space. There’s a difference, y’know. Can you leave now?"

"I’ll leave when I want."

Leyla sat straighter in her chair.

She wrote something on a piece of paper and stamped something on it in the time for Ezra to notice the smug face that she had no intention of hiding.

"Why don’t you take care of her?"

The piece of paper fell out from his teeth.

Was this woman insane?

"Definitely not," Ezra said. "That’s not why I came here."

[ Ping! ]

[ Quest reminder: Befriend the little girl ]

"Isn’t it?"

Leyla hadn’t moved an inch.

She’d already won.