Gnarl: Part four and we're still going strong. Recap if you please.
Maraxus: A scholar eaten by Zeph, a Silent Order monk pledging loyalty and an elf looking for Fay, before he got dropped into the abyss.
Gnarl: That last one cheered me up immensely. Let's get the next one in here.
An Overlady's Audiences Part 4
The newest visitor stood on the trapdoor hunched over so far Jinx could barely see his face at first. Tangled grey hair fell over his eyes from beneath a straw hat, and his clothes were almost nothing but rags. He was trembling all over, though the Overlady couldn't make out whether this was because of his fear for her or simply his old age.
"What is your business here? Speak," Jinx encouraged him, not in an unkind tone of voice.
After a brief pause the man dared raising his head high enough to look at her. "With your permission, Milady," he started, his voice as trembling and old as his body. "My name is Bob, of the Mellow Hills. I've lived in the Empire for the past twenty years, as a beggar."
"Of the Mellow Hills?" Jinx frowned. "I thought Rose was the only survivor from Spree, and all others had fallen to the ooze."
"I fled a few days before the eruption, Milady. The pumpkins told me something was coming."
"It surprises me he survived in the Empire, even as a beggar," Gnarl muttered up at her. Jinx smiled slightly. "The ooze is harmless now, Bob. I think you'll want to return home?"
"I wish for nothing more, Milady, and I thought you were the only one I could go to. As the area is yours…"
Jinx nodded. "I have decided to clean up Angelis, I can and will do the same for Spree." She exchanged glances with her advisor. "Spree will be rebuilt, and you will have a farm, the first, with as many men as want to work for you, my Minions will see to that. As long as you put in a word for me, of course."
"Of course, Milady!" Bob was smiling broadly now, so broadly his filthy, wrinkled face was almost smoothened out. He hadn't had this much luck in half his life, that much was clear.
"Spree and the lands surrounding it will be unconditionally yours, on penalty of terrible torture, I learned a thing or two about torture in the Empire, you see…"
"That's alright, Bob," Jinx carefully interrupted him.
"But I don't have to tell you anything about it, of course. You're the Mistress of fire and pain; it surprises me the screams from your dungeons don't reach up into the throne room…"
"Bob!"
The old man fell silent, his almost toothless mouth still open, until he closed it audibly. He bowed, abruptly and deeply. "I'm sorry, Milady, I'm a bit too talkative. I… I'm eternally grateful to you, and I look forward to farming again, yes…"
"Everything except pumpkins," Gnarl muttered to Jinx from the corner of his mouth. Jinx nodded. "Stay away from the pumpkins, Bob."
"Certainly, Milady." The old man bowed once more, then the red light flashed him back up, as if the Tower itself grew nervous with him.
Gnarl: I remember that chap back when Vessperion was just starting his era as Overlord.
Maraxus: Pumpkins told him to flee?
Gnarl: Sometimes it's better not to inquire further, though in the Mellow Hills Abyss there were living pumpkins, rather dangerous and second only to a huffy tomato.
Maraxus: I will never look at vegetables the same way.
Gnarl: Probably wise, review readers and of course all credit goes to Sunjinjo (Iris) for her story.