Sylph: :D
Letha: She's been like that for awhile now. Nearly the entire time she was writing.
Sylph: :D
Letha: It's really starting to creep me out.
Sylph: :D
Letha: Oh God, somebody save us!
*A note falls to the ground as Letha runs out of the room with Sylph right behind*
"Reviews
"Angelic:
"I looove my foreshadowing~ I need a healthy serving every chapter~ ;) And I do NOT mash my 'N' button except when it comes off and I need to get it back on! For some reason brute force works better than fiddling with it carefully.
"The number for the equipment's cost...I don't know, cuz I have nothing else in the game to compare it with to figure out what would be expensive without being impossible. Letha knows, I'll leave it to her to keep that all straight."
x x x
Chapter 34: Judicandus Homo Reus
x x x
"Someone else was paying, and you chose clothes like this? Such a waste..." Judith sighed in mock despair over my lack of clothes shopping enthusiasm.
"Something wrong with my clothes?" I asked defensively, though I should have expected a reaction like this.
"No, nothing's wrong with them," Estelle was quick to assure me, "They're just... Well they're not very colorful," she tried to criticize tactfully.
Rita lost her patience, "She's brown, okay? Just go ahead and say it!"
"There's nothing wrong with that. I think I look pretty good in brown. And anyway, this shirt," I plucked at the turtleneck's sleeve, "is more like cream or beige."
"Brown is brown! It doesn't need any other names!"
"Mahogany, burnt umber, chestnut, sepia, sienna-"
"Knock it off already!"
"To be serious again," I smoothly switched off from teasing the short tempered mage, "it's not that I don't like more...fashionable clothes, but that's not the kind of stuff that holds up well when traveling." I looked over Judy and the princess as another thought occurred to me. "Speaking of which, I'm not sure how you two manage in your clothes. Especially you Estelle." The krytian's ensemble was of the jaw dropping persuasion rather than battle ready, and Estelle's outfit screamed nobility: aka, the least prepared of all of us. So why didn't they look more than just a bit weathered?
"Oh, I've been seeing a professional tailor in each city," the princess confessed brightly. "They make a new dress just like the one I'm wearing, and the old one is used to make clothes for people that can't afford them." I couldn't help staring at her. That was...actually very like her. Not only did it fit her growing up as a sheltered imperial candidate, but it also suited her generous personality that always wanted to help others.
So what did Judith do? I looked over at the scantily clad woman. You know, if she said her clothes just weren't enough of a target to hit in a fight, I'd accept that as truth. She shrugged at me, as if guessing what I was thinking. "I carry extras of what usually gets damaged. I'm very good at packing them so that they take up little space."
...Don't tell me she has a black hole in a pocket or something. I rarely see more than one or two rips on anything she wears...
"Anyway," Yuri stopped us from getting any deeper into the girl talk. "We'll get some rest for the night, and then see if we can learn anything about Phaeroh in town tomorrow."
"Oh? Don't any of you boys have anything to say about Letha's new wardrobe?" Judith asked coyly. Gyaaah, Judith!
Yuri looked at us blankly, "Why should I?" ...He reeaally doesn't understand the psychology of a woman.
"U-um, I g-guess she looks...nice?" Karol sounded like he was trying to guess the correct answer on a pop quiz. And was terrified of getting it wrong.
Raven facepalmed and shook his head. "Jeez, yer both hopeless. This is how ya do it." He turned to me and dropped down to one knee and took my hand, bowing over it slightly. WHU-? "Oh Letha my sweet," he practically oozed theatrical drama, "ya look as lovely as a bloomin' flower in spring!"
"O-oh! Um, thanks, that's actually really sweet," I was caught of balance. Being as it was Raven, I'd expected some perverted compliment or bad pick up line and had already been prepared to whack him in the head. Then I noticed something...he hadn't raised his head yet. And from the angle of his head and direction he was looking... I whacked him in the head after all. "Stop looking up Judith's skirt!"
"So that's how adults do it," Karol mused. Yuri sighed.
"I don't think you want to take the old man's advice on this..."
x x x
Rather than go straight to bed, I decided to go take a walk around the city for a bit. After being cooped up on a ship so long I wanted to enjoy the freedom of land. Though ironically I eventually found myself wandering down by the docks. Well, it was quieter than in the streets, and I'm the solitude loving type.
This meant I could hear the voices of people talking long before I saw them, and was completely unnoticed myself. It was near the pier where the Fiertia was docked that I realized the voices were familiar.
"'- the people struggled to stand against the oncoming disaster. Its energies all but spent, humanity's hope seemed lost when a pair of siblings appeared. This brother and sister together fought the calamity, and saved the world from annihilation. The sister they called Child of the Full Moon. After the struggle, she remained with the earth. Her brother they called Brave Vesperia, and he ascended to the skies to watch over the world. The end.'"
"Wow, I guess Letha isn't our only storyteller. You went and gave our guild a name with a lot of baggage."
Oopsie, didn't mean to start eavesdropping! I hurried off to leave Estelle and Yuri to their talk. I could remember the gist of what it should be, but manners are manners.
Finding another unoccupied (other than a dark and empty ship) dock, I took a seat and dangled my feet off the edge above the water. Estelle's story is actually pretty close to the truth, if a bit short on the details. Wasn't -er, that should be- isn't Brave Vesperia the brightest star because it's not really a star? It's actually some weird space satellite or something (maybe made from blastia?) that's keeping the Adephagos sealed away. And a helluva lot closer than the other stars.
I stared up at the steadily shining 'star'. "Now just how did they get you up there anyway?" Maybe a rocket ship? No. Probably through the sacrifice of the Children of the Full Moon.
Ugh. Now I was depressed.
Music would cure my depression! Only I had left my stuff back at the inn, including my neglected mp3 player. Looking around very thoroughly I confirmed that there was no one within hearing range. Tilting my head back, I began to sing softly.
"There are unsmiling faces in bright plastic chains
on a wheel in perpetual motion.
And they follow the races that play out the games
with no show of an outward emotion.
"And they think it will make their lives easier
for God knows up till now it's been hard...
But the game never ends when your whole world depends
on the turn of a friendly card.
No the game never ends when your whole world depends
on the turn of a friendly card.
"There's a sign in the desert that lies to the west
where you can't tell the night from the sunrise.
And not all the king's horses and all the king's men
have prevented the fall of the unwise.
"For they think it will make their lives easier
and God knows up till now it's been hard...
But the game never ends when your whole world depends
on the turn of a friendly card.
No the game never ends when your whole world depends
on the turn of a friendly card.
"But a pilgrim must follow in search of a shrine
as he enters inside the cathedral..."
My voice broke into a yawn during the last line so I fell silent again. Even if I didn't have a complete set of memories, this song still carried a strong feeling of nostalgia. Despite the hopeless impression of the words I somehow found it to be comforting.
I fell backwards so that I was lying on the dock, cold stone slowly warming under my back as I stared up at the stars and the barrier. The barrier's internal light made it difficult to see any but the brightest stars, but at least it wasn't as obnoxious as the cities back home. There's a trade off for everything. There are things I like better here, and there are things I really miss from back home... I hope I don't forget everything I loved, but maybe that would be a kindness. At this rate I may never see Earth again.
For once this thought wasn't accompanied by feelings of homesickness or anger. It was a calm, detached sort of acceptance that went deeper than intellectual acknowledgment. I really could be stuck here until I died. And even if I, by some miracle, lived through everything and even found all those heirloom pieces, I still may not have earned my ticket home. Either Nevys will decide he still has a use for me and zap me over to yet another world, or he'll just leave me here to spite me. Again, the knowledge sank in and was accepted. If that was how things would be, that's how they would be, but that was in the far off future still.
Yawning again, I decided it was time to head back for the night. But just as I was sitting up I heard a scream from the other end of the dock. "Eeek!" the sudden cry jolted me a bit, "H-help me... Someone, someone please help!" I scrambled up to my feet and rushed to see what the trouble was about.
I pulled up short when I saw not a familiar face, but a familiar costume. In game Yuri gets the Dark Enforcer costume if you follow a series of side quests about a vigilante who punished criminals in the dark of the night. Much like Yuri, which was a purposeful foil tactic by the game designers.
And on his knees before the dark vigilante, pleading for his life, was the first of the corrupted people the player has the privilege to see judged. A balding man on the pudgy side, wearing purple silk and too many rings on his fingers. His back was to me, and the vigilante (Clay...wasn't it?) was too intent on him to notice me standing in the empty ship's shadow.
"Not only do you team up with the tipsters to rip off innocent customers, but then you kidnap people who couldn't pay their debts and do away with them! You dirty piece of slime...this is what you deserve!" Clay's sword swept across from below, shining bright gold with aer, and cut down the con man. His dying shriek echoed in my ears long after it faded from the night.
Clay looked up, the suddenness of which suggesting he'd heard something, but now he was facing the other end of the dock. With a quick dash he ran off the docks, practically dissolving into the shadows thanks to his dark costume.
I realized I was shivering violently and hugged my arms in tight. "Cold blooded..." I murmured. Moving forward on legs that felt like the muscles had turned to gelatin, I stumbled forward and dropped to my knees besides the prone body. My hands quickly felt for a pulse, even as my eyes took in the long bloody gash opening his torso. It was deep, I could see flashes of white from bones in the wetness. Mercifully there wasn't enough light to make out what dark shapes were which organs...
The pulse my fingers found was weak, and even as I felt it fluttering ever so faintly I heard a last gurgling gasp, and then the pulse stopped beating. Even if I'd had Estelle's healing artes, I couldn't have done anything.
"Letha..."
I looked up, and saw Yuri had come up to stand on the body's other side. With the angle his head was at, looking down at me, I couldn't see his face. Gently, I placed the dead man's fleshy hand on the ground. "He's already gone."
"You wanted to save him?" Yuri's tone clearly held the question of 'why?' He had heard what Clay said as well as I had, and realized that we both knew this dead man probably deserved what he got and worse.
Even so... "Yes, if I could. His dying this way...bothers me." My eyes were pulled back down to the gruesome sight. "People can change. It may not be easy but it's still possible. All he needed was a reason to want to change."
"Easier said than done. Some people never change, and will go one hurting innocent people unless someone stops them."
"And that's the really sad thing about this. Because this man," I indicated the corpse, "had to be stopped, someone else had to become a murderer.
"Self defense is one thing, but this was..." I trailed off as I finally remembered who I was talking to. Yuri. Yuri Lowell, who had killed Ragou. Even if I couldn't disagree with the need to stop the corrupted magistrate, by death if that was the only way, I had still called Yuri a murderer to his face. Saying 'that was different' would just be an excuse that I didn't even believe.
I resolutely kept my head down, eyes locked on my hands. My gloves and fingers were red and sticky from the man's blood.
"Letha, do you-" whatever Yuri was about to say (or ask) was cut off by the slap of several sets of running feet on stone and shouting. Crap! Other people heard him scream! I froze like a deer in the road, but only for the second it took Yuri to grab my bloody hand and pull me up onto my feet.
When he tried to lead me from the dock, though, I pulled back against his grip. "They'll see us if we leave that way, and I don't want my face on a wanted poster. This way!'
With a shrug that I nearly missed as I turned around, Yuri followed me to the far end of the dock and jumped onto the empty ship with me. Which was not empty after all, but the only other person was a sailor snoring loudly from his cabin. He'd left the door open and I wrinkled my nose at the stench of alcohol.
We hid around the far side of the cabin, and heard the rhythmic rises and fall of conversation, just a bit too quiet to make out actual words, back where we'd just been. Probably Palestralle guild members, since their guild seemed to serve as law in Nordipolica and probably enforced it as well.
"And what do we do if they come to search this ship?" Yuri asked while trying to keep his voice down. It was a pointed reminder that the Palestralle members were between us and the way out of the docks.
I shrugged and whispered back, "Hold our breaths and hope there's no really big fishies in the water?"
"One of us really has to be cursed or something."
Despite the casual joke, or perhaps because of it, I began to feel guilty. "I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"This. It's my fault. If I hadn't gotten hung up on something I couldn't do anything about we wouldn't be in this mess now."
"Hey, it's no big deal. Like you said, we can't do anything about it now," meaning I shouldn't feel bad about the man's death or nearly making us prime suspects for the murder. The grumble of conversation got quieter so Yuri chanced a look around the corner. "There, see? They're leaving already so no harm done."
I just nodded mutely, eyes still downcast. He sighed. "Come on, let's get back before our luck gets us caught up in something else." I winced at that, and he sighed again.
Quietly so as not to disturb the sailor (though a herd of Rhybgaro could storm through and he'd probably sleep through it), we crossed the deck and hopped back down to the stone dock.. The body had been removed, but its place was still marked by the pool of blood. My feet faltered for a moment, but picked up the pace again before Yuri noticed me lagging behind.
The walk back to the coliseum and its inn annex was uncomfortably quiet. I had killed any conversation way in advance. I was the serial killer of small talk. Yeah, with thoughts like that it was no wonder I didn't want to open my mouth. And Yuri was probably thinking about my little speech earlier, and how it might relate to his own actions and how the rest of the group might see him. Oooh boy, foot in my mouth...
Karol met us just outside, and in his excitement overlooked the tense atmosphere between his two guild mates. "You guys! Come on, I found something really cool!"
"What is it captain?" Yuri humored him.
"A trophy!"
With no better explanation than that, Karol practically slammed back into the complex building. "What the heck kind of trophy must it be if he's so worked up about it?" I wondered aloud.
"I guess we'll just have to see." And we had to be quick on our feet to catch up to the boy and not lose him in the corridors. At the end we found ourselves staring at some weird cross between a trophy and a chef's hat.
"You guys gotta touch it!"
"Touch it? Ace, just what are you trying to pull and who put you up to it?"
"I'm not pulling anything. The others have already seen it!"
Yuri shrugged and finally picked up the trophy. Smoke suddenly spewed from the top and obscured both the swordsman and the screwed up cup. "What the...?"
"SO YOU HAVE FOUND ME YET AGAIN! WELL DONE!" A familiar voice that wasn't Yuri's came out of the smoke.
"Oh God, no!" I gasped. Please don't let him be in the mood to cook fish!
The smoke cleared to reveal the Wonder Chef in all his wacky glory. Huge golden frying pan on his back and all. "Today is a marvelous day!" He was still going on. "Many have proven themselves worthy of being my students in the study of the fine culinary arts!"
"He was really happy when I said I'd bring the rest of our group to see him," Karol told me in innocent cheerfulness. The boy must have forgotten again about the attempted fish rehabilitation incident.
Why have I not already run away? I wondered to myself. As I couldn't think of a good reason I spun on my heel and tried to walk away very quickly. "Waiiit!" The Wonder Chef called out desperately from behind me, and suddenly tackled me to the floor! "You can't leave! Not until I impart my recipe for kebab sandwiches unto you!"
I stopped thrashing around and trying to elbow him in the nose. "Kebab?" I asked, daring to hope.
"Sandwiches!" he confirmed.
"No fish?"
"Never on a full moon! The lunar waves distort the flavor of all dishes that originate from the sea! Though it makes waterfowl especially tender." What. The. Hell?
"So no fish." Double checking.
"Not even fish shaped sandwiches."
"Uh huh. Alright, I can live with that." The Wonder Chef finally let go of his death grip on me, and then swept me and Yuri off down another corridor which probably had a kitchen at the end. My fellow cooking student had a very telling smirk on his face. "Breathe a single word, Lowell, and you'll regret it."
"I wasn't going to say anything."
"You were thinking about it."
x x x
After the lesson from Wonder Chef and a good night's sleep, the whole incident with the murdered man felt very distant and surreal. Easy to push from the front of my mind.
I was even in for a very pleasant surprise the next day. We had been walking the streets of Nordopolica, trying to find someone who might know something about Phaeroh. I was wondering how long until we bumped into 'Regaey' or if he would actively track us down, when I heard a man's voice calling my name.
Turning to see who it was, I nearly squealed in delight. "LUDWIG!" I leaped at the old veteran and caught him in a hug. He chuckled affectionately and returned the hug with a one armed squeeze. Still a bit awkward, but it was good enough for me. It had been so long since anyone had hugged me back...
"Let me get a good look at you," he said, holding me at arm's length. "You seem well enough."
"Do you mean my health or my choice in clothes?" I asked impishly.
"Hrm," he looked me over again seriously, but with a slight twinkle in his eye. "I suppose both.. At least with these clothes I won't have to beat back as many suitors." I snorted, remembering the line in his letter forbidding me from marrying Chase. Perhaps this was Arcas' influence?
For his own part, Ludwig was looking very good. Salt and pepper hair and beard neatly trimmed, dressed in oil treated leathers appropriate for the road and unexpected weather, and (most telling) his jian and dao were strapped to his hip and back respectively. Back at his home he never carried them around, leaving both in his room unless about to give me a lesson or go deeper into the surrounding woods than usual. But now they rode naturally in their sheathes, and he looked complete for the first time.
"You're Letha's uncle?" Estelle asked as the others caught up with my...rather abrupt detour. "We've heard a lot about you and your guild."
Ludwig let go of me as he studied the group in front of us. "Yes, and you must be the friends I've heard have been looking after my niece."
Ingrained training (from parents I could barely remember even on one of my good days) urged me to make introductions. When I got to Yuri, my 'uncle' squinted at the other swordsman. "Yes," he said slowly, "I can just barely see the resemblance to those poorly drawn posters."
Yuri cocked his head a bit at the reference. "Do you have a problem with your niece traveling with me?"
My concerned 'uncle' opened his mouth to respond but was beaten to the punch by Karol. "Y-Yuri's a good guy! He's a member of our guild, Brave Vesperia, and we're a guild for justice. Letha's a member too!"
Ludwig's eyebrows rose as he considered the tiny guild boss. "I suppose I must trust in my niece's judgment," he conceded. "And as I was about to say, the stories I heard while staying at a certain inn suggest she might be the one's who's a bad influence." He gave me a stern look that had me shuffling my feet sheepishly.
With a slight shake of his head he let it go. "But I did not expect you to join a guild during your journey. Weren't you searching for..." He stopped, perhaps realizing my friends might not be privy to that particular detail that even he didn't know everything about.
And I had started internal panic mode. Ludwig didn't know I was using Sophia's research as a cover up and excuse for my own agenda and oddity of a tattoo. "Er-yeah, I'm still looking for it," I said with a smile and slight laugh. "And I found some of Aunt Sophia's notes," I tried to put a slight emphasis on her name, hoping only Ludwig would catch it and get the message. "Hopefully they'll put me on the right track."
Hey, since we're already on the subject... I pulled Sophia's note case from my bag. "Thing is, I can't get it opened. Do you have any ideas?" He took the case when I held it out.
"Yes... I recognize this..." Ludwig murmured while running his fingers over the engraved name. "Though it never had a locking mechanism before. Still," he returned the case to me. "I'm sure Sophia took good care of the key. Perhaps you even know what it is already."
"What? You mean you know?" I gripped the case to my chest so tightly my knuckles turned white to match it.
"Perhaps," he allowed.
"Since when have you liked talking in riddles?" But Ludwig only ruffled my hair with another chuckle before walking away. I stuck my tongue out at his back.
"Well that sure was helpful," Rita said sarcastically.
"Rita," Estelle admonished her, glancing at me as a reminder that Ludwig was my family. The mage just crossed her arms stubbornly, not in the least repentant.
"Well at least a hint is better than nothing at all," Judith said optimistically. "If you think about what he said and about your aunt, perhaps you'll figure out how to open it."
"Yeah," even I didn't think I sounded convinced. After all, it's not like I really knew a lot about Sophia. I'd had two weeks with some of her books and a handful of stories from Ludwig, not an actual life time of being her niece. Wait, shouldn't that make it easier? It was Ludwig who said I have the answer, and he knows about my situation. Feeling like I was already a step closer to opening that stupid case, I became much more chipper about the whole matter.
"You started all of this!"
"Huh? What are you talking about!"
It sounds like a fight. Like sharks scenting blood, the crowd began to converge on a single point. This was the home of the coliseum; the people here all loved a good fight. Two men with swords, one with a broad curving blade I'd heard referred to as a scimitar sometimes (...though apparently not all scimitars look like this one) and the other I vaguely remembered was something called a koo...something. Kukri? Seemed about right. It stuck in my mind because the blade bends something like a boomerang.
And trying to stand between the two snarling men was Regaey. Looking ever so timid and helpless in stopping the fight. "B-both of you, s-stop this nonsense! M-making a scene like this out in f-front of everyone..."
"Mind your own business!" the man with the kukri snapped and raised his blade as if to hit Regaey with it. An action I'm sure nearly everyone missed as Yuri was in front of him in a flash, his own katana flashing up and diverting the shorter blade harmlessly to the side. The kukri man scowled at him. Which meant Yuri had successfully taken his attention away from Regaey.
"You'd better put that away before you hurt yourself," he warned. The gleam in his eye and slight curl to his mouth said clearly that he'd be just as happy if the thug wanted to try his luck.
The scimitar man realized his challenge was in danger of being usurped by the newcomer and was not pleased that he couldn't settle whatever grievance he had. "Who the hell are you!" The scimitar was raised up threateningly with Yuri's back as a very inviting target.
And he fell back in surprise as a spear swept up in front of his eyes. No wait, that's a halberd. When did Judy upgrade her weapon? The man had been in no danger of being cut, but the shock of having a weapon pass in front of you that fast (it was in Judith's hands after all, meaning it was nearly a blur) can be even more startling than an actual strike. It didn't do anything to cool his temper though. "Hey!"
The beautiful krytian smiled serenely at him. "If I'm wrong for doing this, you'll have my apology later. But I think it's you two who are in the wrong, here."
"Damn it..." kukri man cursed. He and scimitar man shot heated glares at each other, but both seemed to have decided that having to fight through a pair of outsiders just to fight each other wasn't worth it. They turned away, taking different paths away. Most of the crowd dispersed along with them.
"Are you okay?" Estelle nearly materialized in front of the 'nice man' Regaey. She's too good at doing that. Maybe the Children of the Full Moon have fairy blood! That would be a weird twist and surprisingly good explanation...
"Oh, th-thank you so m-much!" Regaey looked us over and 'recognized' us. "You were w-with M-madam President K-Kaufman..."
"We're the guild, Brave Vesperia!" Karol tooted our horn. No, he didn't have an actual horn, it's a figure of speech. Forget it...
"Come on, you're like a walking billboard!" Lucky for Karol, Rita was standing close enough to hit him when she said that. And I guess she was afraid of using fireball since Estelle was standing next to the boy and might get hit along with him.
"Heh heh, let him have his fun," said Judith indulgently.
"You're Regaey of Ruins' Gate, right?" Wrong. "You might want to work out a little before you go trying to stop any more fights. Even more wrong! You're wracking up a losing streak here, Yuri. Where'd your annoying perceptive observation skills go now? It was probably a testament to Yeager's skill that even Yuri didn't seem the slightest suspicious of his intentions. Though I might also be a bit unfair to the swordsman on that one...there wasn't any reason why he should automatically try to judge the underlying motives and secrets of everyone we meet.
"Oh, yes. I'm sorry. Th-thanks..." The stuttering...Piglet... I had to struggle not to laugh at the image of Regaey dressed up as piglet and following Pooh Bear Alexei around. Actually, Alexei was probably Christopher Robin. So who's Pooh...Cumore? Now that was pure crack! "Oh, umm, th-there's a f-favor I wanted to ask of you..."
"Far be it for us to ignore a request from Ruins' Gate!" said Karol, sounding somehow both gracious and overly eager to please.
"Well, it depends on what it is," Yuri tempered the enthusiasm of our boss. "What did you want to ask us?"
"P-perhaps we could discuss this s-somewhere else... Could you come to the coliseum? W-we could talk about it there." And the timid old man jogged off on his own, nearly stumbling over his own feet before leaving view.
"Whatever he has to say, he doesn't want anyone else to overhear... Sounds pretty suspicious to me," said Raven as we all watched the archaeologist wannabe vanish inside the coliseum building's doors.
"I'd bet it has something to do with the Coliseum since that's where he wants us to meet," I hazarded to guess. Well, that's not really a guess since I already knew exactly what it was about. But I could make it sound less like prescience and more like a very thought out inference. "The coliseum's the city's main attraction, so it's not a great meeting place to talk about something in secret. If he's willing to risk a chance that people might hear...then it must be because there's a good reason for being in the coliseum." That works right? It makes sense? Or am I imagining it?
Well, the looks they were giving me were thoughtful instead of 'what the hell just came out of your mouth?' so it must have worked well enough.
"If Ruins' Gate recognizes us, it'll help improve our reputations as a guild..." Karol finally said.
"Get too greedy with jobs and you'll end up neglecting all of them," Yuri cautioned. "Our job for the moment..." he looked straight at the princess, "...is to look for Phaeroh and to escort Estelle."
"Yeah, you're right... I'll try to be more careful."
Estelle hesitated a bit before asking, "But couldn't we at least hear what he has to say first, and then decide whether or not to accept?"
Yuri rubbed his chin, "Yeah, maybe you're right..."
"If he asks too much, we'll just say no," Rita added. "We don't have the time to be getting wrapped up in more craziness." Was it just me, or was everyone eying Yuri, Estelle, and I when Rita said that. Ahh, right. Yuri's cursed, I'm a trouble magnet, and Estelle practically throws herself at trouble.
Yuri probably noticed the looks as well, but didn't let them bother him. "Let's go and stop by the coliseum then. We can at least hear him out." Karol and Judith nodded, Raven gave a long suffering sigh, and Repede yawned from where he'd curled up on the ground ages ago.
So back the way we came to meet up with Regaey at the coliseum. And then throw Yuri to the gladiators. This should be interesting to see, I grinned with anticipation.
x x x
What Are We Here For?
Estelle: A town with a coliseum sure attracts a lot of different kinds of people, doesn't it?
Judith: Yes, people are here for all sorts of reasons. Some come to fight, some come to watch.
Rita: Then there's people like us, too.
Estelle: I wonder what other people think when they see us on the streets?
Judith: Well, I'd say they think we're here for the fights...
Rita: Maybe for you and Yuri, but I couldn't imagine Estelle as a gladiator if my life depended on it.
Karol: What about me?
Rita: Hmm...a lost child?
Karol: Hey!
Letha: And me?
Rita: Probably a tourist that doesn't know what she's doing.
Letha: That...sounds about right...
Raven: Well then, what about ol' ... Nevermind. I know where this is goin'.
x x x
Regaey was waiting for us in the same room where Karol had found the Wonder Chef trophy. Which was conspicuously absent now. I coughed a little and went along with everyone else to the corner where Regaey was waiting with his hands folded timidly in front of him.
"Ahh, you have c-come. M-my thanks to you all. Now, please come with me."
"Relax. Nobody's said we've decided to take the job yet," Yuri told him as we followed the Ruins' Gate boss (and Leviathan's Claw boss in disguise...) to a more out of the way section of the coliseum. "That can wait till you tell us what this is all about."
"A-all right. I would like you to s-stop the man who is trying to t-take over Palestralle."
"Take over...?" Karol exclaimed in shock. "This city?"
Judith folded her arms. "Hm, the plot thickens," she said in a relishing tone much like my feelings when reading a particularly interesting book.
"Why are you so interested in stopping them, though?" Rita inquired. Having been the type to look out for herself (and her blastia) and no one else for so long, she had yet to fully switch to another way of thinking. Or at least to understand why people, including herself at times, did something so illogical. "It's not your guild, so why not just let it be?"
"Y-you see, we have been commissioned by Palestralle to investigate the r-ruins at the coliseum." ...And you were probably hired by Cumore to trip up Flynn whenever possible.
"Huh. Yeah, come to think of it, this city's supposed to be super old," Karol looked around at the architecture of the corridor we were in, which was a good example of this. I don't know what I'd compare it to...something Roman? But that usually makes me think of pillars and the like, which this area lacked...
"If s-someone else took c-control, it would be discourteous to the Entelexeia." I frowned at Regaey slightly, starting to feel bothered by something he'd said...or was about to say.
"Entele...what?" Karol had to ask.
"Ah, oh yes. M-my apologies," Regaey spluttered self consciously, pulling off his glasses and wiping them with trembling fingers. "...D-do you not know of them?" He placed the glasses back on his nose, though nearly dropped them in the process. "I have heard that th-they are the ancient race who built this town, and a-allow the guilds to b-be here."
There. There it is. 'Allow the guilds to be here' implies that the 'ancient race' hasn't died out yet. Why hasn't anyone else picked up on that? But the dialogue continued as expected, without any outward signs that the others registered that this ancient race continued to exist.
"An ancient race, huh?" Yuri repeated thoughtfully, then frowned slightly. Wait, did he get it? But he only glanced at me for a brief second and didn't press for details.
Instead it was Karol who spoke up again. "Like the Kritya?" Of course that made everyone look at Judith, who just smiled a bit at the attention and brought her hand up to swipe a strand of hair back behind a pointed ear.
"Okay, so then who's this guy who's tryin' ta rock the boat here?" Raven reminded us about the real point of what we'd been discussing.
"H-he's the champion of the coliseum." And thus came the false explanation about the champion planning to use his victory streak to get close to Belius and kill her. Which was ridiculous, because I knew it was actually Flynn we were talking about. Though I couldn't remember what exactly the point was of him entering the coliseum...well, as the champ they couldn't chase him out even though he was a captain of the knights, but why did he need to be in Nordopolica? Except for the crap that would happen later...
The others were hooked at the point where Regaey mentioned that the champion was backed by Leviathan's Claw, which led us to the roundabout conclusion that Cumore was involved. Ha haa...
And naturally, we accepted the job to join and beat the champion. Though Judith again curbed Estelle's enthusiasm by pointing out that she was getting off track again. And asked the question, 'what is it that you really want to do?' making the girl stop and think silently for a long time. But since Judy was the first one who outright said we'd take the job, this time she didn't sound like the bad guy for making the princess question if it was right to help people.
"So then, who'll be entering the tournament?" Raven asked pragmatically.
Karol frowned and looked around at our group, "Well, we can't ask Estelle, Rita, or Raven to participate. After all, this is a job Brave Vesperia will be doing fr Ruins' Gate."
"They probably wouldn't accept a dog, even if Repede is capable of beating half their guild on his own," I added, earning a prideful bark from the hound.
"Okay, so..." Rita stood with hands on her hips while eyeballing the choices that round of eliminations left.
"No hard feelings, but I'd rather not have to go up against Judy," Yuri put out there.
"Hm?" Judith pouted playfully. "And I was just getting ready to enter. Oh well, I suppose I can sit this one out."
"The boss here shouldn't have to trouble himself with this," the swordsman continued, giving the still at times cowardly ace an excuse to gracefully decline from entering. There was a clear moment when we could all see the relief on the boy's face. So all that was left was my excuse for not joining and- "So it's up to Letha and me then, right?"
"Wait, I have to join too?"
"Well, ya'd have better chances of gettin' all the way ta the champion if more than one person joins," Raven pointed out oh so helpfully. I shot him a look that told him I didn't appreciate it.
"Do any of you seriously think I'd get that far?"
"Well..." Meaning 'no'.
"Even if you just beat one opponent, that'll still make it easier for me," Yuri said, "and anyway, I kind of want to see how you'll do."
"See how I'll do? What's that supposed to mean?" Even as I asked a thought occurred to me, "...Aikido?"
"Well, it's not like these are death matches."
Goddammit.
x x x
"The Turn of a Friendly Card" by Alan Parsons Project. Is there anyone who knows them? It would make me so happy if someone did!
And aww yeah, did anyone guess I'd pull that piece of side quest in? Accessblade, when you get around to reading that part, I'm hoping it makes up for Letha missing the whole scene where Yuri killed Ragou. I told ya I had plans down the road for this!
And yeah, there's a point where you have the hundred man melee, right? And Repede is also able to join, right? Does that actually make sense to anyone from a realistic point of view? It doesn't to me, and I also wanted a reason for why Repede doesn't also fight here. Because a little detail like that was actually bothering me. Yesss.