Jacob did his best to stifle his groan when Arisa hit him square in the stomach, but he didn't have to bother. By then the crowd was too wild to notice anything wrong with him, and soon enough Lyrio and Arisa were separated completely by a wave of people pushing in.<br/><br/>"Oh, are we running?" mused Lyrio, who seemingly had little trouble pushing his wide frame through the crowd with or without Trinia ordering people aside. He seemed in his element in all this chaos, and not at all bothered by the palpable hostility in the crowd. Did he plan all that, or was he just reveling in the chaos he could spark? He reached out and gripped Trinia by the shoulder, making sure they weren't parted, or was he making sure she couldn't escape? His fingers were surprisingly strong. "So? Where are we going, Hero?"<br/><br/>Arisa meanwhile, after losing sight of the other two, found herself the new center of attention. While the rest of the crowd watched Trinia lead Lyrio away with consternation, some others turned on the woman they'd seen escorting Lyrio. "What the hell, Arisa! What were you doing with a guy like that?"<br/><br/>"And you're married, good gracious," someone else pointed out.<br/><br/>"Shame about that, you still look pretty good to me," teased a drunk stumbling out of the tavern. The few, and clearly jealous, women in the crowd didn't take kindly to the innkeep strutting about with her hair down like that, and a few made sure to pinch their husband's or boyfriend's arms and ears if they caught them staring the wrong way at her!<br/><br/>And out of nowhere came Jacob to the rescue. He struggled forward through the crowd and put his arm around Arisa's waist while waving down the crowd to speak up. "You heard 'im! He's the tax man, and we're all in trouble if we don't pay up! What else ya gonna do?" he exclaimed, which quickly changed the conversation and caused the crowd to break up, most likely to rush home and check under their beds and count coins. Jacob took this chance to tug on Arisa and pull her away from the mess, if she'd let him!