But right now, that damp chill was making her deeply ufortable.


    After a while, the innkeeper-a woman who''d been loudly arguing on the phone- finally hung up.


    With a toothpick mped between her teeth, she looked Ste and Joshua up


    and down, sizing them up.


    "Looking for a room?"


    Ste nodded. "We''d like two rooms, please."


    The woman''s tone was frosty. "That''ll be two hundred for both."


    "Alright."


    "Passports, please. I need to check you in."


    Ste''s voice was soft. "We... identally lost our passports. Is there any way you could make an exception?"


    The woman''s eyelids flicked up. She nced at them again, as if something had urred to her, then let out a short, derisiveugh.


    "Rooms are four hundred apiece now. Four hundred deposit as well. Eight hundred total."


    Ste didn''t bother to argue about the sudden price hike. She just nodded.


    "That''s fine."


    After handing over the money, they followed the innkeeper up the stairs as she jingled the keys.


    Three flights up, she opened the door to a room and flicked on the lights. "This is your room."


    It was a cramped double room, barely three hundred square feet. Still, the essentials were all there, and it looked reasonably clean.


    Ste, though, frowned.


    "We asked for two rooms."<fn51f8> The source of th?s content is Find_Novel(.</fn51f8>


    The woman''s voice was t. "This is thest one avable."


    "But... we just passed a few empty rooms. Their doors were wide open..."


    Probably to air them out, those rooms were clearly unupied.


    "They''re already reserved," the woman cut in.


    Ste started to protest, but the innkeeper didn''t let her finish.


    "You two can''t even produce a single I''m already taking a risk


    passport.


    letting would have


    you have a room at all. Most


    ces wouldn''t have let you


    s


    Pet


    This woman had run the inn for years-she''d seen every kind of guest. These two, with their looks and air, clearly weren''t ordinary travelers. Maybe they were some runaway couple from a wealthy family, pretending to ask for separate rooms, only to end up together in the middle of the night. She''d seen that routine before.


    s


    No point in wasting her energy prepping two rooms for nothing. Better to just put


    them together-it saved her effort and, if anything, did them a favor.


    Ste knew that, under these circumstances, having a roof over their heads was already a small miracle.


    She took a deep breath. "One room is fine."


    Outside, the rain picked up again, fat drops hammering against the windowpane.


    Going out into the storm now to find another ce wasn''t realistic-and it would only increase their risk of being found.


    The innkeeper turned and left without another word.


    The door clicked shut behind her, leaving the small room silent except for the steady drumming of rain.


    Joshua was the first to break the quiet. "I''ll take the floor tonight. Let''s just get through this."


    Sharing a room here felt very different from roughing it in the woods or sleeping in a cave.


    But right now, there was no point in fussing over details.


    The air in Germany was thick with humidity, and with the rain still pouring down,


    even the sheets and nkets felt damp and mmy.


    Ste turned on the air conditioner


    only to find it was blowing cold air


    She fiddled with the controls for


    while before realizing the heating


    function was broken.  s