After getting up the next day, Aaron helped out in the kitchen and began thinking about what to do next whenever he had a spare moment. If he could help it, he absolutely did not want to spend his whole life doing odd jobs at this inn.
But Aaron was rather at a loss about his plans for the future.
As a casual player who enjoyed learning all sorts of background lore, Aaron did know something about Azeroth's history. Most of that knowledge, however, came from quests, dungeons, hearsay, and a few lore videos. Although he had a general idea of the course of the major events to come, he was much less clear on the specifics.
Take the matter at hand, for example. He had already remembered that Vereesa's mission this time was to escort a certain unpopular red-haired mage from Dalaran to Grim Batol to rescue Alexstrasza, the red dragon queen imprisoned by the Orcs. Beyond that, though, all Aaron knew was the joke that having Rhonin choke Deathwing to death would get rid of two menaces at once. He knew absolutely nothing about everything that happened in between.
That was roughly the extent of Aaron's knowledge of the various events in Azeroth. Profiting from foreknowledge of the plot was practically an impossible mission for him-was he supposed to run off to Lordaeron and tell the old king that his son, who was currently training with the Order of the Silver Hand, would one day run him through with a sword, unleash an undead Scourge, and finally become the Lich King, drawing countless murder hobos swarming in to farm his son over and over again?
So Aaron knew the broad course of the future for nothing. There was nothing he could do about it; he could only be a mantis that knew the wheels of history were rolling toward him but lacked the strength to stop them.
His biggest problem right now was still finding a way to earn some money, at least enough to survive here. But doing odd jobs only kept Aaron fed. As for putting aside some savings, that was nothing short of a pipe dream.
Or... could I trick Rhonin into hiring me tomorrow and earn a hiring fee?
Judging by how the later story went, both Rhonin and Vereesa definitely survived this mission. That should mean rescuing the red dragon queen was pretty safe, right?
The idea passed through Aaron's mind, but as he himself understood perfectly well, he knew absolutely nothing about how it actually unfolded.
After all, the Rhonin of the present was not yet the leader of the Kirin Tor who would wait for the murder hobos to defeat Algalon, Ulduar's hidden boss, and then shout, "Citizens of Dalaran, today another murder hobo failed to get Mimiron's Head, so he killed Algalon to vent..." He was a mage deeply mired in guilt over having caused his companions' deaths.
And the mission Rhonin was about to undertake was not safe in the slightest. Although Rhonin and Vereesa did indeed survive it, Rhonin's performance along the way absolutely lived up to his title as a raid-wipe star. Even Vereesa nearly became Troll food. As for the other characters, quite a few of them died. By the end of the mission, only three members of Rhonin's party survived.
While Aaron mulled over how to hoodwink Rhonin into letting him join the party, Vereesa was still waiting anxiously nearby. It seemed that Mr. Rhonin, the future Archmage and leader of Dalaran, was also a world-class no-show.
No one had expected Rhonin to keep Vereesa waiting for three whole days. Judging by the state Aaron occasionally saw her in over those days, when Rhonin finally arrived, Vereesa would probably beat the man up first to vent her anger.
As time passed, Aaron could clearly sense Vereesa's anger growing more pronounced. He had already begun seriously considering how feasible it would be to step in and help when Vereesa and Rhonin started fighting, then coax Rhonin into taking him along.
On the afternoon of the third day, Aaron had just emerged from the inn when he spotted a man with short red hair riding leisurely toward them along the road from the north.
Yet Vereesa seemed not to have noticed the man who should have been the person he was waiting for. For a ranger, her performance left something to be desired.
Of course, that might well have been because three days of waiting had exhausted Vereesa's patience. To Aaron, Vereesa was like a newcomer who had just finished school and started working: eager to get ahead, but short on patience.
Of course, anyone who could make a high elf wait this long had to be quite something, too.
At the sight of that red-haired figure, Aaron forgot all about his temporary work and eagerly rushed out of the inn, intending to greet this future Archmage first and try to make a good impression. Before Aaron could approach, however, Rhonin had already spotted Vereesa.
Just as Aaron had expected, their first encounter was thick with hostility. As a high elf, Vereesa naturally held a certain arrogance toward humans, while Rhonin, for his part, was a mage, another sort who thought highly of himself.
"I'm guessing you're Vereesa Windrunner." Rhonin stood behind Vereesa and spoke in an almost provocative manner-though he might not have realized it himself.
Vereesa spun around in one crisp motion, drawing her bow and nocking an arrow as she turned. By the time she faced him, the sharp arrowhead was already aimed straight at the speaker's throat.
Clearly, this high elf, who probably had little experience carrying out actual missions, was extremely tense. The agitation caused by Rhonin's late arrival had only heightened that tension, making Vereesa so sensitive to outside stimuli that she instantly overreacted.
There was no doubt that if Vereesa released the bowstring, the arrow would pierce straight through Rhonin's neck. Aaron worried that the slightest wrong move would get the fellow shot dead on the spot by the agitated, anxious, and highly strung Vereesa. To keep his prospective employer from dying before the mission even began, Aaron was ready to cast Divine Shield on the red-haired mage at any moment.
Yet Rhonin seemed unmoved by the threat, his whole person shrouded in an aura of negativity.
Vereesa looked him over from head to toe. It appeared that the elven ranger, whose patience had been worn away by his lateness, had finally realized that this man who had suddenly appeared was the mage she had been waiting for all along.
"You're Rhonin?" Vereesa asked tentatively.
"Wish I wasn't?" A seemingly mocking smile appeared on Rhonin's face, making Aaron's eyes twitch. Had something happened to this guy that made him not want to live anymore? Someone was pointing an arrow at him, yet he still wore that punchable expression.
Vereesa took a deep breath, apparently barely suppressing her agitation, and slowly lowered her bow. "They only told me you were a human mage."
"They only told me you were an elven ranger, too." Rhonin's seemingly provocative gaze nearly made Vereesa raise her longbow again. In all honesty, even Aaron, watching from the sidelines, was considering smacking Rhonin with a shield.
Rhonin clearly noticed Aaron, but he only gave him a sidelong glance before continuing to speak to Vereesa. "I imagine poor communication is what made our meeting turn out like this."
Vereesa, however, shifted to another accusation against Rhonin. "That's not all. I've been waiting here for three days! You've wasted three whole days!"
"Nothing I could do. Preparations take time." Rhonin offered only that single remark. Apparently, he intended neither to apologize nor to explain the specific reason for his lateness.
Seeing Vereesa silently go to untie her mount, looking ready to leave immediately, Aaron, who had been waiting on the sidelines for ages, hurried over to Rhonin. Looking at the mage with his long red braid, he gave a salesman-like smile and said, "Sir mage, are you setting out on a long adventure? May I ask whether you need a brave and fearless Paladin to safeguard your journey?"
The red-haired mage clearly could not process this sudden development. He stared at Aaron for quite a while before saying blankly, "Sorry, I didn't catch that. What did you say?"