Upon his inquiry, the bartender turned around, a mildly amused look on his face. The portly man set the glass he had been cleaning and tucked the cloth loosely into his slacks before approaching the counter. "I'm afraid we don't have such things here."
The corner of the young man's face dropped and he appeared to shrink down into the stool, effectively delivering the impression that he was rather flustered. Arasis tried to recover from his mistake, giving a somewhat uneasy chuckle. "You don't? Oh, I would have sworn..." He broke eye contact for a moment shyly, his gaze drifting off to the side, before he seemed to remember himself and looked back up to him. Drinks, drinks, drinks... what sort of plot am I going with, then? "May I have some red wine, then?"
The man nodded once, further illustrating his double chin, before turning to his drinks. He swiped a dark bottle of the crimson beverage and, grabbing a glass by it's thin stem just below the funnel-like opening, turned back to the bar and set the glass down. The bartender pipped off the cap and tipped the bottle, letting the liquid slosh down to fill the glass halfway, before raising the bottle in a rather grandiose manner to cut the supply off. He grabbed the cap off of the counter and screwed it back over the bottle, sliding the glass over to the young man seated before him before turning around and returning to his glasses.
"Thank you." Arasis grabbed it stem between two pinched fingers and tilted it towards his lips, sipping just barely at the drink as he looked over the glass and at the bartender. This one's not much of a talker, is he? He made an exaggerated sigh of satisfaction, setting the glass back down. Tastes way too sour. Absolutely garbage. "So," he began, well-mannered and conversational, "how long have you been here?"
It seemed to take the bartender a moment to register that he was being spoken to, but finally he turned around, somewhat satisfactory with the arrangement of the glasses. "About as long as this place has been here. Been in the business for thirty-two years."
Arasis settled his arms to be crossed over the counter. slumping his body forward. "Ah, how interesting." You must be as dull as you look. "I suppose you know your way around town pretty well, then."
In spite of the young man quizzically lifting his eyebrows, the bartender simply nodded and turned around to resume his swabbing of the glasses, seemingly already having lost interest in the conversation.
Arasis brewed over this in silence, fighting against the grimace that wanted to place itself on his expression. Okay, I guess there's no beating around the bush with this guy. He only then realized that his hands, clasped together over the counter, were shaking. The demon readjusted his position, slipping on arm into his lap and using his other to cup around his face. He allowed a short, quiet huff of exasperation, before tilting his head away so his chin rested in his palm as he tried again. "I'm new in town, y'see. It's been pretty lonely moving around all the times ever since my mother... ah..."
He smiled town at his glass and managed to a twinge of sadness to it, even though he felt an immense amount of satisfaction seeing the bartender turn in his peripheral vision, obviously having managed to grab his attention now. "I'm sorry to hear that," he consoled, genuine pity in his tone.
Arasis beamed forcefully at the bartender, sitting up and placing his other hand in his lap. "It's fine, that was years ago," he fibbed eloquently. As though trying to move away from a sore subject, he leaned in over the counter, placing his head in one hand again and making a pointing gesture with his other. "Y'know, I saw a gal the other day I just can't seem to take my mind off of."
"Oh?" He lifted his eyebrows at the younger man, seemingly genuinely interested in his wandering mind, at least to some extent.
The demon nodded a little, putting on a rather dreamy stare. "Oh, yes. I've never seen someone so beautiful. She had this red hair unlike anything I've ever seen, and..." His eyes widened, as though suddenly realizing something. "Oh, yeah, I almost forgot..." Arasis scooted his stool out just a little to allow his hand to slip into his pocket, and from there withdrew the photo he had of the girl. He straightened it out by pulling from either end snappily before he flipped it to present to the barkeeper. "I found this picture. I don't know if it's the same girl, but they look very similar."
The bartender approached the counter and stared for a moment before his expression altered subtly in recognition. "Oh, I know her."
Bingo. Arasis resisted the urge to look smug at that moment. Instead, he perked, eyes alight with excitement. "You do? Do you know anything about her?"
"Yeah, she..." The bartender rubbed the scraggly hairs on his chin with the back of his hand, taking a moment to think. "I remember, she was the one who helped me a few weeks ago. My wife got really sick." He folded his arms over the counter. "I don't know how it is where you're from, but a lot of the doctors here won't do anything if you don't have any money, but her? She's some kind of medical genius. Made my wife all better. What was her name? Le... Li..."
Arasis withdrew from the conversation as the man tried to remember her name. A medical genius? Then we're probably thinking of the same person. Sounds important enough for my employer to have such desperation to find her. His fingers drummed the counter as he began to plot his next course of action. So either she took some pity or she's some kind of vigilante. If the latter is true, then I know just where to look. Now, the important question here is...
"Lilliane. That's her name. How could I forget? I'm almost certain that's her." He shook his head, grinning a little. "I can see why you'd be so starstruck, young man. Didn't charge a dime."
Arasis adopted his beaming, ecstatic face once again as he pocketed the photo. "Well, that was awfully kind of her! She just did that out of the blue?"
The bartender bobbed his head, supposedly as enthusiastically as he could manage. "Yeah, I think she's just out there looking for people to help, bless her."
The demon put his face in his hand, effectively concealing the crooked twist his smile had taken. That's all I need to know. 'Finding my girl won't be easy,' you say? You underestimate me. Arasis glanced down at his wrist as though to check the time, though there was no watch on his arm, and he went back to hiding his arms beneath the counter. "Well, I'm afraid I must be going." He pulled a couple of bills from out of his other pocket and slid it over the counter, wittingly tipping the bartender too much. It doesn't matter, what with how worthless your currency is. What I'll be getting is worth so much more. "For the trouble," he politely concluded the conversation, ignoring the largely untouched wine and slipping off of his stool to exit the tavern.