Not For Sale
"I will not have my capital stolen from me by some naïve Oresrush bumpkin, an admittedly-expensive prostitute, and two children," Roque ranted as he looked over the group that Partitio had brought with him.
"Excuse me, Mr. Roque, but I ain't stealing anything! I paid for that steam engine, just like you agreed to," Partitio objected. "And Mr. Osvald can wear whatever he wants, thank you very much!"
"Wait, does he mean...me?" Osvald said flatly. He glanced down at himself before looking back at Roque and shouting, "I'm an Arcanist, you utter buffoon!"
Partitio still wasn't sure where the outfit had even come from, but he supposed he shouldn't question anything magical. Magic was just the answer. Maybe the Arcanist back at that island had just conjured it from...somewhere.
At any rate, that was beside the point. Partitio threw an arm around Hikari's shoulders and added, "And you best not be insulting my friend, the king of Ku!"
Hikari laughed awkwardly. "It's fine, Partitio. I know I'm short..."
Roque snorted. Pfft, kings. He had way more money than any king. He could buy a kingdom if he wanted to. He'd already bought a whole island!
There was silence for a few seconds, only broken when Temenos cleared his throat and said, "So, you aren't going to defend me, then?"
Partitio moved out of Hikari's personal space and folded his arms. "Well, you didn't defend me when I saved that stray dog, now, did you?"
"You brought that one on yourself, Partitio," Temenos replied flatly. "Of course I didn't."
"Excuse you?" Roque spat. "You'll defend random stray dogs after you literally fired arrows at Garnet? What is wrong with you, Partitio?"
"Hey, that ain't my fault! Thurston made that doggie fight me!" Partitio objected. "You can blame him for that one, not me."
Roque didn't care about the details. Partitio had beaten up his precious guard dog, and that was all that mattered!
"This sale is cancelled. Permanently."
"B-but the contract, Mr. Roque!"
Roque rolled his eyes and silently reminded himself to never sign contracts with the children of former business partners ever again.