Man, this one took a very long time to finish. But it's finally done!

Enjoy! ;)

Chapter 8: Not Your Average Templar

[BGM: Being Slow on the Waves – Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana]

As the ferry sailed slowly across the sea, we all took the time to relax as much as we could. In my case, I and Yangus were at one side of the deck having a chat while sitting each on a barrel (even though I was more focused on feeling the nice, calming breeze blowing in my face).

It was then that Jessica walked over to us. "Ah, there you are! So, what are you two up to?" she asked.

"Up to? Me an' the guv was just talkin', that's all." Yangus replied.

"Guv, huh? I've been meaning to ask you about that. You know, he doesn't exactly look like your governor. If anything, it looks like the other way around. What's the story?"

"Well, I'm glad you asked!" Yangus hopped off the barrel. "The story of 'ow me an' the guv fell in together is an epic tale, full o' laughter, thrills, and tears…" I…wouldn't say it was exactly that, Yangus… But, whatever. You do you.

"It is, is it? Well, why don't you just give me the highlights?" Jessica requested.

[BGM Pause]

"Awright, I will! It all started on a fine, summer's day… The sound of insects was deafenin'…" he looks up at the sky as he continues, "I'd just decided to make a clean break of it. I was well hacked off wiv the old bandithood. So I decided to leave the town I'd lived in me 'ole life and start fresh, like."

Well, I guess it's now time for you all to know how I and Yangus met. Flashback time!

Flashback

[BGM: Reminiscence – Dragon Quest VIII]

"I ain't exactly a looker as you can see. Perhaps that's why people treated me funny everywhere I went. Like I was a thief or somefin'. I didn't 'ave no place to go and not a penny to me name, neither, so I ended up goin' back to the old game. And that's when I run into the guv 'ere!"

It all started shortly after I, Trode and Medea left the kingdom of Trodain after the curse hit, and in order for us to get to the Farebury region, we had to cross a wooden bridge. And, as you might expect, that's where we met Yangus, who was standing in the middle of the bridge while trying his best to look intimidating.

"Hold it right there!" he exclaimed while doing a stomp, forcing us to stop. "Who gave you premission to use my bridge, then, eh?"

"Premission!? PERMISSION!? YOUR bridge lies within MY kingdom, you oaf!" Trode barked.

Obviously, Yangus didn't believe him. "Wot you on about? A creepy old codger like you, a king? Don't make me laugh!"

"I see your mouth is as vulgar as your face! Yes, I'M the King! And who exactly do you think YOU are!?"

"Me? Hearing my name is enough to make anyone wet their knickers!" Yangus twirled his axe, and did another stomp. "Yer talkin' to none other than Yangus, the legend'ry bandit, 'imself!"

"Yangus?" I tilted my head questioningly.

"The one and only! Time to cough up! You 'ave to pay if you wanna cross my bridge."

"The one and only Yangus!? What a shame there aren't more of you!" Trode mocked, then he proceeded to do a crude imitation of Yangus's accent, "Now, kindly remove your one and only self from MY bridge and clear off!"

This only made Yangus irritated. "Grrr! Don't push yer luck, you green-faced freak!" he growled, shaking in anger. "I would've let you go if you'd o' kept your gob shut an' paid up, but ya wanna do this the 'ard way, eh?"

With a war cry, Yangus leapt into the air and swung his axe down at me, but I quickly jumped back and the axe instead hit a plank from the bridge. Big mistake there, as when Yangus tried to get it off… "Eeyaaaagh!" he yelled as the plank plus the one he was standing on suddenly collapsed, leading him to hang onto the plank in front of him to avoid falling off.

Trode chuckled at his misfortune before addressing me, "Now, Eight, my boy! Now's our chance to cross!"

"Right!" I nodded and hopped across the gap as Medea neighed and did the same by gracefully jumping over it, then we crossed the rest of the bridge until we stopped at the other side. But the moment we did, I looked back at the bridge in alarm to witness Yangus's situation.

"Grrrr… Just my bleedin' luck…!" he grumbled as he struggled to get back up while the bridge itself creaked and groaned by his heavy weight… and so it wasn't long until the ropes started to thin out and snap apart, making the whole bridge collapse. "GRAAAAAHHH!" Yangus screamed as he fell, but luckily, he was able to grab one of the dangling ropes as I looked directly down at him, seeing him hanging on for dear life. I couldn't help but feel sorry for him despite him trying to attack me previously.

"Now that's what I call just desserts." Trode said in an obvious way that what happened to Yangus was well-deserved, but I disagreed with that. "As the saying goes, 'crime doesn't pay'. Let us carry on, then Eight, my boy!" he then looks at Medea. "There, there, my precious Medea. Did the bad man scare you?"

The moment Trode hit the reins, I knelt down to grab the rope Yangus was dangling on and began pulling it up…but due to Yangus' weight, it was way harder than I expected so I had to use a lot of force in order to pull him back up. Plus, it didn't take too long for Trode to notice that I wasn't coming along as I heard him running over to me after stopping and getting off the carriage.

"What are you doing, Eight?" Trode asked me.

"I'm…helping him…! Don't you…see?!" I replied in between grunts as I was now struggling to pull Yangus up.

"But he attacked us! Why the devil are you helping him?" Trode protested. "Just leave him! It's poetic justice! Nay, divine justice!"

I stopped pulling for a bit before addressing Trode, "Look, just because he tried to attack us doesn't mean he deserves to fall to his death! And besides, how is this even considered 'divine'? I just know that deep down, he has no bad intentions!" then, I resumed pulling Yangus.

After putting all of my remaining strength into my superior limbs, I was finally able to pull Yangus back up to safety… but geez, he was heavy! Thus, this resulted in me collapsing on my hands and rear to the ground while breathing heavily.

"Th-Thank you, guv'nor. I thought I was done for…!" Yangus thanked me, also breathing heavily.

Trode sighed. "What is the world coming to?" he proceeds to address Yangus, "Yangus, was it? You can show your gratitude by getting out of our sight!" Wow, how rude. That was honestly something very un-kingly for you to say, Trode. And you say you call yourself a king? But then again… perhaps it was due to being cursed that he started to act all grumpy while trying to take his high-authority status too seriously.

"Hahh… Hahh… Yer 'avin' a laugh!" Yangus scoffed.

"What? Still here? If you won't do us the favour of leaving, I'll be happy to provide some encouragement!"

At this point, I was able to regain my lost breath and I looked over at Yangus, who pushed himself back up before suddenly bowing low on his knees to me. "Mister Eight! N-No, guv'nor! I really owe ya! You saved me life an' ev'ryfin'! You're the bee's knees, guv!" he spoke to me with such loyalty that really surprised me as I blinked.

"Uh…" I awkwardly began, but Trode interjected:

"Guv? What is this nonsense!? Are you a complete imbecile? This boy is my retainer! If you're in anyone's service, it's mine!"

"Put a sock in it! I ain't talkin' to you. He's the one who saved me!" Yangus glared at Trode.

Trode flinched and shot back, "P-Put a sock in…!? Who do you think you're speaking to, you, you…good-for-nothing scoundrel!"

And then, they both started bickering at each other for the first time while I just sat there helplessly as I gave a sigh and shook my head, thinking that now our trip was going to get more complicated…

[BGM End]

End of Flashback

[Resume "Being Slow on the Waves" BGM]

"So that's how you met." Jessica said, now back in the present day. "But what happened to all the laughter, thrills, and tears?" Took the words right out of my mouth there, Jess…

"Well, I'm not finished yet!" Yangus exclaimed. "This is the best bit! I 'aven't told ya about 'ow the guv 'elped me go straight…" Oh, I don't really think that's necessary for her to know now, Yangus…

And she even seems to agree with me on that, as she started to walk away from us while saying, "Whatever. You can tell me all about it later. Right now, I need some fresh air."

Yangus turned back to me. "I shoulda known a bird wouldn't get a story like ours, guv. Still, no skin off my nose."

"Well, it was still a good talk." I said as I got off my barrel. "Now if you excuse me…" I started to walk off.

"Hey, where ya goin'?" Yangus asked as I stopped and glanced back at him.

"I'm just going to check out the cabin."

"Ah, gotcha. Go on ahead, I'll just stand 'ere."

I nodded in response and made my way to the cabin's door. Along the way, I stopped and looked to my right to see that Jessica was with the Gensokyo girls on the opposite side of the ferry, possibly getting to know them better now that she's joining us, and I could see that they were all happily chatting and laughing together.

That made me crack a small smile, seeing how fast Jess is getting along with the girls. After that, I focused on heading to the cabin and I opened the door to get in once I was close enough. Inside, I was already greeted with the sight of Medea, leading me to immediately smile and walk up to her.

"Hey, Medea." I spoke as I reached out my hand to caress her snout, earning a soft and happy neigh from her. With my other hand, I reached into my knapsack and took out an apple. "Here. You must be hungry." I offered it to her, in which she gladly accepted and ate it.

As she munched on the apple, I next pulled out a brush and proceeded to gently brush her delicate mane that used to be her hair, and she snorted in approval. I was just glad that after all this traveling, I could finally get some private time with my crush, even if it means tending to her instead of chatting with her. Despite that, just being at her side was enough to make me happy, regardless of her form. And speaking of which, I think she's still beautiful as a horse. I mean, horses already have the reputation of being considered majestic and pretty by many, but there's just something so different about Medea's beauty that makes her easily distinguishable from any other horse. That alone should make it clear that this is no ordinary horse, and rather an elegant human princess transformed into one.

At last, I could just spend all the rest of my time with her in peace and quiet until the ferry reaches our destination. Nothing should interrupt us now-…

[BGM End]

"I did it! I did it! I finally did it!" Oh god dammit, Trode…

Because of this, I had to leave Medea so I could see what Trode was up to now. I went to the cabin's lower floor, which is where his voice came from, and peeked into the captain's quarters, where I found him sitting in front of a silver pot while celebrating.

"What have you done, Your Majesty?" I asked, slowly stepping into the quarters.

Upon hearing my voice, Trode hopped off the chair he was sitting on and moved over to see me. "Ah, there you are, Eight! Perfect timing! I've got something to show you!" he directs up to the pot on the table. "Ta-daaa! Looks like a normal pot, doesn't it? But it's actually a legendary alchemy pot!"

I stared at it blankly. "Okay… And how is that going to help me?" I raised an eyebrow.

"…I can see that doesn't mean much to you. Allow me to explain."

[BGM: Alchemy Pot – Dragon Quest VIII]

"The alchemy pot is an invaluable tool for making different kinds of items! It lets you mix different ingredients to create hard-to-find items, armour, and weapons."

I perked up. "Huh! That's interesting." And true enough; it was thanks to this little thing that I was able to create some of the things Trode mentioned during my journey… including the Dragovian King Sword itself! But one question still remained in my mind, "Where did you get that?"

"After my kingdom was cursed, I thought it might come in handy and managed to spirit it out of the castle. But that's not all. It is actually an ancient heirloom of Trodain, you see. But it unfortunately fell into disuse over the past years, so I spent night after night trying to get it working again." Well, now that's some dedication! "No, no. You can thank me later. Right. Well, it's always in my carriage, so feel free to use it anytime. It's surprisingly easy to use."

"Alright, got it."

[BGM End]

Just then, at this exact moment, a sailor barged into the room. "Captain! Land ho!" he reported to the captain.

"Belay the rigging and prepare to make port!" the captain ordered.

"Aye aye, sir!" the sailor saluted and left.

"Helmsman! Bring us alongside Peregrin Quay!" I heard the Quartermaster shouting from outside, prompting me to rush back out with Trode and Medea accompanying me.

Soon…

[BGM: Peaceful Town – Dragon Quest VIII]

Once the ferry finally came to a halt at the pier of Peregrin Quay, I and all of my companions walked off of it via a bridge. "Well, it looks like we've arrived." Trode said. "I'll meet you all outside town with Medea and the carriage. It wouldn't do to stir up the natives again with my extraordinary appearance…!" and with that, he ran off with Medea.

"Hey, wait! Don't you just need me like last time?!" Reisen called out, but the two had already left. "Okay…"

"Hold on, how is he even going to leave town unnoticed if there's already people there in the first place?" Youmu tilted her head.

"Who knows?" Marisa shrugged.

"Sometimes, even I can't understand his actions…" I trailed off, rubbing the back of my head.

"Well, anyways…" Jessica interfered. "How about we do some more shopping first before we leave?" she suggested while directing at the shops below.

"Sounds good fer me!" Yangus agreed, and we headed down to the shopping district. There, we decided to focus more on improving our defense, so we had gotten a Pointy Hat and a Chain Mail for Yangus, a pair of Slime Earrings for me, a Silk Robe and a Scale Shield for Jessica, and a Bronze Knife for later. Once we were done, we along with the Gensokyo girls proceeded to leave the port through the inn.

[BGM: Norse Wind – Ys IX: Monstrum NOX]

"Ah, a brand-new region to explore at last!" Remilia exclaimed as we exited into the open air of Maella, the name of the new region.

"And that probably means more new monsters to encounter." Reimu said.

"Indeed." Trode spoke up. "Let's go follow the road, and make sure you all defeat any monsters that dare to get in our way!"

"At once!" I acknowledged and we took off.

First, a Chainine came over and threw its collar at Remilia in an attempt to trap her, but she simply flew out of the way easily. "Oh, so you like chains, huh? I got your chains right here!" she smirked and took out a spell card. "Destiny: Miserable Fate!" she called out as she fired many chains made out of red magic at the Chainine who tried to flee from them, but it got caught by the chains before they exploded on it and killed it.

Next was a Bullfinch that charged after Yangus, who quickly veered out of the way while exclaiming, "Olé!" and then he immediately launched a Wind Sickles from his scythe, attacking the Bullfinch with wind before going in for a normal scythe attack to defeat it. Then, Reimu threw some of her needles at a group of Winkies straight in their eyes as they cried in pain, followed up by Jessica lashing her whip at them to finish them off… but then she suddenly found herself surrounded by Treefaces.

"Crud! I can't take them all at once with just a Frizz!" she exclaimed.

Knowing that I had learnt Sizz after fighting Khalamari, I proceeded to take action. "I got this! Sizz!" I shouted, incinerating all the Treefaces as they all burned down instantly.

"Ah! Thanks, Eight!" Jessica thanked.

"You're welcome!"

"Ice Sign: Icicle Fall!" next to me, Cirno called out as she launched icicles at a massive horde of Giant Moths, while Aya fired wind blades from her fan at two Hell Hornets to bring their demise as well.

Alice and Youmu found themselves facing a group of Dingalings, who immediately proceeded to call for backup by literally ringing themselves, and it made a Jargon appear from their call. "I'll handle those bells. You take on the big guy!" Alice told Youmu.

"Got it!" Youmu nodded. "Wah!" only to yelp as she barely avoided the Jargon's Sandstorm attack that would blind her if it got into her eyes. She first brushed off the sand grains that got onto her skirt before going for a spell card. "Soul Sign: Wheel of Pain of the Living and Dead!" suddenly, Youmu's phantom half transformed into an exact copy of her human body albeit transparent and the two began slashing the Jargon repeatedly while also firing danmaku for good measure, defeating it in an instant.

"Blue Sign: Fraternal French Dolls!" Alice called out as her dolls began firing blue-colored danmaku at the Dingalings, defeating only a few of them while the others dodged as they grinned mockingly… until the blue danmaku suddenly turned white and multiplied, catching the surviving Dingalings off-guard as more of them were defeated. And as if that wasn't enough, the danmaku split again while turning red this time, and those were enough to slain the remaining Dingalings.

"Hah!" Marisa yelled, firing a bullet of stars from her broom at a Lump Mage… but that only caused it to split into two. "Huh?" she then went for a potion toss that caused it to explode on contact with the ground, damaging the Lump Mages. Unfortunately, the smoke cleared out to reveal that more Lump Mages had been formed by that attack. "Oh, you are kidding me!" Marisa exclaimed in exasperation as all the Lump Mages laughed at her. "Alright…" she takes out a spell card, "Comet: Blazing Star!" and in the blink of an eye, she charges straight into the Lump Mages while riding on her broom at a very high speed, knocking them into the air where they would finally poof out of existence.

At this point, we already moved past the dirt path's 'S' shaped curve, where there was a small barn to our left surrounded by crops and grazing sheep, and we could make out some sort of tall building at the distance. Before that, though, a small group of Brownies charged towards us as I got in the way. "Okay, time to try out another cheese!" I said as I took out a piece of Spicy Cheese and offered it to Munchie, causing him to breathe more intense flames compared to last time and scorched the Brownies, who were attempting to clumsily avoid them but no luck. After their defeat, some Morphean Mushrooms soon came over to take their place.

"Illusion Bomb: Mind Starmine!" Reisen quickly took action, firing bullets from her eyes that suddenly exploded into several circles of shrapnel that hit the Morphean Mushrooms and instantly defeated them. But not long after that, Reisen didn't notice a Scorpion approaching from her side before eventually delivering a Poison Attack on her.

"Agh…! I've been poisoned!" she winced, and since I had also learned the Squelch spell too, I decided to aid her by first defeating the Scorpion before using the spell on her to ward off the poison effect.

[BGM End]

"There we go." I smiled.

"Oh! Thank you!" Reisen thanked. "All the poison in me is gone!"

"Well, it's a good thing that I also have the Squelch spell."

"You have a spell that can cure off poison?!" Aya asked in surprise. "Wow! That way, you can easily counter against Medicine's ability with no effort!"

I raised an eyebrow in confusion. "…Medicine?"

"She's talking about Medicine Melancholy." Reimu said. "Simply put, she's a doll gone youkai with the ability to manipulate and resist poison. But since you have this spell of curing off poison, you can very easily nullify her ability if she ever uses it on you."

"Ah, I get it now." I nodded. "Even so, I'd rather not come into contact with this living doll if I ever manage to come across Gensokyo…" I thought while internally sweatdropping.

"Ooh, what's that large building over there?" Cirno pointed to the tall building, which could be accessed via a bridge up ahead. "I wanna take a closer look at it!"

I couldn't help but chuckle lightly at her innocent behavior. "Let's go and check it out, then!" I said, and after we told Trode to wait out, we made our way to the bridge.

[BGM: Healing Power of the Psalms – Dragon Quest VIII]

By taking a closer inspection of the building and seeing a priest standing next to the entrance, I could see that it looked like an abbey of sorts. In case you don't know what an abbey is, it's basically a larger church with smaller buildings surrounding it, where monks and nuns who work here live. That's exactly what I explained to Yangus and the Gensokyo girls, as Jessica already knew about it. The area was brimming with vegetation around, torches were lit on the bridge we came through that split itself into a sideways 'T' shape, and a nice little fountain stood to our right.

"Meh, me 'n' churches just don't go together. Or me 'n' abbeys. Or wotever ya wanna call 'em." Yangus said dismissively. "Nah, I'm a pub man meself. Churches are good for 'avin' a snooze, an' pubs are good for 'avin' some booze! Hah hah!"

Jessica glared unamused at him. "Yangus, that wasn't very funny… At least show this place some respect!"

"Alwright, alwright."

We then went through the front door, entering a wide room and judging by the people knelt down and praying to a statue in front of us, this might be the main room where people can offer their prayers and confessions to their so-called 'Great Goddess' or something. I'm not a religious guy myself, so I don't really know much about this. Anyways, we silently passed by the praying people and went through a door on one of the four corners of this room, arriving at an outdoors square with a large fountain in the middle and up ahead was another big door, presumably leading to the sleeping quarters.

Unfortunately, said door was being blocked by two serious-looking knights. Despite that, we decided to approach them.

[BGM End]

"Halt! Who goes there?" the knight on the right spoke up.

"I don't know you! What are you doing in here!?" the knight on the left questioned as he reached for his sword on his hip, while the knight on the right walked over and towered over me… and then he rudely shoved me back.

"Hey! That was rude!" Remilia exclaimed in an annoyed tone, but the knight just ignored her and said:

"You all need special permission to enter here."

"Leave! Now!" the knight on the left demanded. "Unless you want to die by a Templar's sword!" Oh, so they were Templar Knights. Makes sense.

Just then, the sound of an opening window came from above as we all looked up to see that two other Templar knights had opened the window.

[BGM: Friar's Determination – Dragon Quest VIII]

But that wasn't all; another figure proceeded to walk over to the window and look down at all of us. It was a man with rather imposing physical features, possessing green eyes, an aquiline nose, and a stern demeanor. He had shoulder-length black hair that was slicked back and with a widow's peak, along with long and neatly trimmed sideburns, and he wore a Templar's uniform that consisted of a blue long-sleeved tailcoat with red inner lining, white trim, gold stitching on the front, and long square tails that reach down to his ankles, as well as a blue capelet with red inner lining and white trim that covers his shoulders and upper arms. He also wore blue pants tucked into tall leather boots that go over his knee, black leather gloves, and a gold ring worn around a chain on his neck. Finally, around his waist is a leather sword-belt that held a red scabbard with a rapier in it.

"I ordered you to keep strangers out, not to be rude. We have a reputation. Do you want to sully the name of the Templars!?" he spoke with a cold and harsh-sounding voice, which made me bat a suspicious eye at him. I don't know… even though this man is intending to peacefully break up the conflict between us and the knights…something about him is painting me the wrong picture, much like my initial impressions about Dhoulmagus back when he first came into Trodain Castle before even turning evil.

We watched as the two Templar Knights immediately kneeled to the man. "Marcello!?" the knight on the left stuttered.

"I'm sorry, Captain!" the knight on the right apologized in shame.

"I apologize for the heavy-handedness of my men. We've had some trouble with strangers of late." Marcello said to us with a sly smile. "Our duty is to protect the abbey. We cannot permit nameless travelers to wander around at will." A serious frown then formed on his face as he flitted his eyes away. "Matters within the abbey are trouble enough. But that's no concern of yours!"

We just stood there looking up at Marcello speechless, until he began to turn his back to us and snapped his fingers before saying, "These are the Templars' quarters anyway. I trust you have no business here, so I would ask you to leave. I warn you, my men are ill at ease. I may not be able to stop them next time." and with that, he left and the Templars that opened the window proceeded to close it back. I still thought something was fishy about this Marcello, but at least he was being honest.

[BGM End]

Shortly after…

Having no other way for us to enter the abbey any further, we all walked away from it by taking the bridge from the south. "Ugh, the people in there are just so snobbish and boastful. It's nothing like the church in Alexandria." Jessica groaned. "Who do they think they are, talking to us like that? What a bunch of arrogant idiots."

"I so agree with you there." Remilia threw in. "I never liked rude and boastful people like them anyways!" with a 'humph!', she crossed her arms with a pout.

"Says the one who boasts about her strength and wealth…" Marisa muttered under her breath next to me.

"But that Marcello gaffer bloke…" Yangus mused. "He just now came across as the quiet type, but 'e 'ad a glint in 'is eye. I don't reckon 'e misses a trick. I'd even say 'e keeps a pretty tight guard in that abbey. Dhoulmagus won't be gettin' in wivout a fight."

"I don't know about that." Alice said. "You saw what he did to Alistair, right? Dhoulmagus should be easily able to kill anyone, which means even Marcello could be in danger."

"Well, at the very least Dhoulmagus doesn't seem to be anywhere in the abbey… for now." Youmu said.

"True." I chimed in, and then I looked up at the sky. I saw that it was already sunset, leading me to sigh. "Looks like we'll have to look for another place to spend the night again…"

Soon, we came across a fork on the road leading up to a hill. There was a sign on the rightmost path that said, "WelcoMe, pilGRims? You arE nOw enteriNG SImpLeTOn!" and yes, it did feature these odd capital letters in the middle of some words. Gosh, I sure hope this town we're going in isn't, as its name suggests, full of idiots…

Either way, we still took the right path in order to get to this Simpleton.

[BGM: Quiet Village (Night) – Dragon Quest VIII]

Much like Alexandria, this village was unsurprisingly small. However, unlike Alexandria, this one only had a measly three wooden houses of different sizes: the smallest one being the local 'church', the middle one being the local inn, and the largest one being a two-story pub. Well, then I guess that the actual meaning of 'Simpleton' could be that of a simple town instead of what I originally thought of. And if it really was, I have to say… that's quite an interesting stealth pun right there.

"So this is Simpleton." Reisen said, taking in her surroundings. "Doesn't really look like it's a town full of idiotic people, at least…"

"If it was, then someone here would definitely feel right at home…" Reimu said as she and the rest of the Gensokyo girls turned to look at Cirno.

"…What?" Cirno tilted her head.

"I 'ear that most o' the folk that go prayin' at Maella Abbey stay over in this town." Yangus said, scratching his nose.

Hearing this, my eyes perked up and I looked down at Yangus. "Is that so?"

"Yup. There used to be a bit more goin' on round 'ere in the old days, but that's about the only place left now."

A smirk formed on Jessica's face. "Well, now isn't that convenient! If there's someone from the abbey here, we'll probably be able to find out more about it!"

"Heh, that's right! Genius, eh!?" Yangus grinned.

Glancing at the pub and remembering what I and Yangus did back at Farebury, an idea sparked on me as I said, "Hey! I have an idea! We should go to the pub!" I directed over to it. "Maybe someone knows something! Let's try that before we call it a day!"

"Good idea, guv!"

"And we'll have to wait out here again, right?" Aya guessed.

"Yes." I nodded. "Don't worry, we won't take long." and after the girls nodded in response, I, Yangus and Jessica headed over to the pub's entrance and went in.

[BGM: Boogie-Woogie in the Bar – Dragon Quest VIII]

Now comparing this pub to the one at Farebury, this one was much wider and spacious. Therefore, more customers filled this place more as a result. And while this pub had the exact same elements as the previous one (lively music from a piano, the strong smell of ale, and loud talking from customers), it appeared to look more on the 'poor' side since there was nothing 'fancy' to see in here.

As we looked around, a sight of two people playing poker on a table next to the piano caught our attention, and we slowly approached them. When we got closer, we could easily make out what these two people looked like. One of them was just an ordinary burly and hunky man who had his face covered with a yellow helmet with horns (he kind of resembled the weapon shop salesman, weirdly enough), and right behind him were two decently-muscular guys, which I believe were his henchmen. But the other one – the burly man's opponent in their poker game – was more interesting.

It was a tall and attractive young man with silver-white hair that frames his face, and a long ponytail that reaches halfway down his back tied with a black ribbon. He has blue eyes and his facial features were somewhat similar to Marcello's, only less cold and harsh. He wore what appears to be a red version of the Templar uniform that Marcello wears, which consists of a red long-sleeved tailcoat with white lining and brass buttons on the front and two long tails on the back worn over a black long-sleeved shirt, red pants, and a red capelet with black lining that reaches down to his hips which he wears over his torso. He also wore dark brown leather gloves, and dark brown shoes covered by white spats with brass buttons on the outsides that reach up and cover his knees. And lastly, around his waist is a leather sword belt with a green scabbard on his right side where a rapier was sheathed.

Judging from his appearance, we could tell that he must be a Templar Knight, so maybe he could help us! So I started off by getting his attention, "Hey, excuse me…"

But he instantly responded by raising one of his hands at me, and without even turning around, he replied, "Not now! I've almost got this game in the bag!" He opened his eyes and made his play…while flashing a rather devilish smirk at his opponent.

"What!?" the burly man shouted in disbelief at his loss, shaking his fists in anger before he suddenly stood up and slammed his fist against the table. "You little runt! You must be cheating!"

Then, Yangus walked up to him to try and console him while patting him on the shoulder. "Take it easy! No need to get excited! I know it 'urts when ya lose an' all, but…" Meanwhile, I looked back at the Templar to see that he just made a dismissive hand gesture as he proceeded to drink from his glass of wine.

"What!? …Oh, I get it!" unfortunately, the burly man did not take Yangus' consoling kindly… and he emphasized that by pushing Yangus back with such force that it made him lose his balance as the back of his head hit an unoccupied table from behind him, toppling it over and falling on top of him. "You're with him!" the burly man scowled, taking a quick glance back at the Templar.

Angered, Yangus got back up while launching the table up and behind him, which was surprisingly strong enough to make it snap in half once it hit the floor, and then he stormed over to the burly man and glared at him as a lightning glare effect appeared between them. "Oy! You wanna watch it! Don't go throwin' accusions about! You don't wanna get on my wrong side!"

And suddenly, both of them got splashed with water… that came from a water bucket being held by none other than Jessica, much to my surprise…and did I just hear the Templar whistling at her? "Take it easy, you guys!" she scolded. "What are you, a couple of cavemen?"

I snapped out of it and tried to intervene, but then the burly man's henchmen came over to Jessica and surrounded her on both sides. "Aw, what are you doing!?" the man on the left questioned.

"Think you'll get away with that just cos you're a lady?" the man on the right added.

I watched as the Templar stood up in alarm while reaching for his rapier and looking to his left… and as he did, a table was hurled…somehow (because I don't really remember what happened there), and it flew past him and me as it barely hit the both of us while Jessica quickly stepped back a bit to avoid it as the two men surrounding her were hit by it and were knocked down.

At this, everyone else in the pub stopped at what they were doing to instead turn their attention to the conflict happening where we stood. When I turned to look at Yangus again, I saw that he was now holding a chair above him… while there was a guy that didn't even bother to get off of said chair still sitting on it with a shocked expression. "'ey 'ey, wot's wiv you two, eh!?" Yangus barked. "Two blokes gangin' up on one bird! Behave!" Behind him, an old man began cheering him on, in which he responded by giving a thumbs-up with a proud smirk.

It was then that the burly man had enough, "That's it, you oaf! Those are my mates!" he proceeded to lunge at Yangus but he threw the chair at him and hit him square in the chest, knocking him on his back. At the same time, one of the burly man's henchmen attempted to tackle Jessica, only for her to nonchalantly move out of the way, resulting in him tackling a table instead.

And as for me? I just stood still in the back with a bewildered expression on my face as I watched the chaotic brawl ensue in the pub. Bottles, plates, barrels, glasses and chairs flew all over the place… and for some strange reason, these all kept missing me and were instead hitting the wall behind me. Fed up with this, Jessica put her hands together and began charging a fireball, intending to try and put a stop to this chaos. Uh, I don't think that's a good idea, Jess… You might instead cause severe property damage in here…

[BGM End]

Thankfully, the Templar stopped her by grabbing her arm and dragging her out of the pub, while also guiding me along by putting his other hand on my back. As I was leaving the pub with Jessica and the Templar, I glanced back to see Yangus easily wiping the floor with those mean dudes… aaaaand then Trode just suddenly appeared from out of nowhere in order to cheer the ex-bandit on. Seriously, how does His Majesty even do that?

[Resume "Quiet Village (Night)" BGM]

Once the three of us were back outside and came to a stop, Jessica huffed as she forced the Templar to let go of her arm by pulling it away from his grasp, and after that, we looked over to see the Gensokyo girls coming to us.

"There you are." Remilia said to me and Jessica. "Sounds like you just got into a ruckus inside."

"It's…complicated." I sweatdropped.

Meanwhile, Aya was more focused on the Templar as she was taking pictures of him…in which he actually decided to play along by doing a few poses. "There! These pictures of yours are perfect!" Aya exclaimed.

"Much appreciated, young lady." the Templar replied charismatically (oh, Remilia's got competition now…), then he turned his attention to the rest of us. "So who are you all? You don't look like Simpletons to me…"

"…You do realize that by saying this, it almost sounds like you're actually trying to call us a bunch of idiots, right?" Reimu deadpanned, folding her arms.

The Templar chuckled. "Oh, I'm aware of that. But it's fine as long as you understand what I'm really talking about, isn't it?"

"I guess…"

"Anyway, I owe you and that bandit friend of yours one." the Templar addressed me. "Thanks to you two, I managed to pull that little caper off without being caught." He demonstrated that by flicking the right side of his capelet, letting some extra poker cards fall off to the ground.

"Oh, so you WERE cheating…" I thought with a deadpan…only for that expression of mine to immediately shift into a surprised one as the Templar suddenly took my right hand for a handshake. "Erm… You're welcome…?" I replied with an awkward smile so as to not offend him.

He let go of my hand and spoke smugly, "He was such an easy mark, I got a bit carried away." …You don't say? I was just about to say exactly that to him when suddenly, more loud noises coming from the pub sounded out as it caught our attention, then the Templar patted my shoulder. "Still, can't hang around. Don't want any more trouble!" he looks back at Jessica, in which he proceeds to leeringly examine her from bottom to top. Oh boy, I know where this is going…

"…What!?" Jessica asked impatiently, her hands on her hips.

"I hope you weren't hurt by my little jape? Are you all right?"

"You're out of luck! I'm fine! Apart from you leering at me!"

The Templar pulls out his right glove with his teeth, and removes a silver ring with a blue gem from his finger. "By way of thanks for helping me, and as a memento of our… 'encounter'…" and then… he grabs Jessica's wrist and gently slips his ring on her finger while giving her a flirtatious look, much to her annoyance. "The name's Angelo. I live at Maella Abbey."

With a swift movement, Jessica once again pulls her arm away and removes the ring on her finger, but Angelo didn't seem to mind and just chuckled amusedly, then she walked over to me while placing her free hand on my back. I was at first confused as for why she did that, but I guessed it was to keep her distance from him and she only felt safer by standing next to me.

After putting his glove back on, Angelo began to turn towards the village's entrance in order to leave, but not before saying, "Show them that ring if you'd like to see me. I'll be expecting you! Au revoir, for now! Maella Abbey, all right? Just ask for Angelo! Don't forget!" with that, he ran out of the village.

"Well, this Angelo was rather…interesting." Youmu remarked. "But I'm still not sure what to think about him…"

"He does owe us an explanation, though." Alice interjected. "Considering what Marcello informed us, Angelo shouldn't be neglecting his duties in protecting the abbey in a time of crisis like that."

"Oh, 'ere you are, guv!" just then, we heard Yangus calling out as we looked over to see him running up to us, presumably having already settled the score with those three men in the pub. "I been lookin' all over for ya."

"So, what happened?" I asked.

Yangus flashed a smug grin. "Gave that lot wot for! He he he!"

I smirked and patted his shoulder in approval. "That's the spirit!"

"Alright, enough blabbity blab." Jessica interjected. "We're going back to Maella Abbey right now to give this ring back to that smarmy cheat. Whether he likes it or not!"

I sighed. So much for calling it a day… "Okay, we're going." I said, and we all left the village from where Angelo had left out.

To be continued…

Man, how is it that it's (almost) always the eighth chapter where I would focus on something about Eight in my stories?

Eight: Yeah, that sure is a big coincidence... Anyways, you promised me and the readers that you would explain how two certain scenes from this chapter inspired my personality traits that you gave to me in your headcanon.

Ah, that's right! But in order for you and the others to better understand my explanation, I need to go all the way back to my early plans for this saga and start from the beginning! So it all started when after I already made the decision of including the four Dragon Quest Heroes in the saga, I would give each of them distinct personalities in order to not make them look bland due to their status as the player's avatar in the series, and instead make them more compelling. To do that, I did a lot of research about their backstories so that I could know what they went through in their quests, while at the same time looking up at how each of them behaved in their respective games by watching playthroughs on YouTube. Obviously, Arusu and Solo were the hardest for me due to their games being in 2D (as their sprites didn't show any expressions at all) while Eight and Eleven, with their games being in 3D where the characters were more expressive, were the easiest ones. Another thing I did was listen to each Hero's voice clips in Smash Bros Ultimate's Sound Test, so that way I could fully define their character by analyzing the tone and emotion in their voices.

In the case for Eight, most of his main personality traits were defined from these two scenes I've been referring to: one where he saved Yangus from falling off the bridge, and the other where he was just watching the bar fight with a hilarious bewildered expression. Respectively, those scenes inspired me to make him a very nice and kind-hearted guy who's able to see good in others (because if he weren't, then why would he even save Yangus in the first place?), but he's at the same time awkward in some situations and possesses a few childlike behaviors (which is ironic since he's the oldest Hero out of the four) such as innocence and being full of energy. Despite that, he knows exactly when it's time to get serious (just take a look back of when he defeated Bowser in Princess Jewel 64, or when he defeated Splutterton in Prince Trifle Galaxy) and will never hesitate to drop out the "Mr. Nice Guy" act like that.

Finally, for my analysis of listening to Eight's voice clips in Smash in order to fully complete his character: to me, his wordless expressions of exertion when attacking sounded the less aggressive and less 'serious' out of the four Heroes, his grunts and screams of when he gets launched didn't display a lot of agony (especially the clip of when he gets Star KO'd), he's the only Hero who yelps "Otta!" (Japanese equivalent of "Oops!") when he's balancing on the edge, and for his second voice clip where he's KO'd by just being launched offstage, he lets out a...pretty narm-sounding grunt of pain. And there you have it! That's basically what I did to develop each Dragon Quest Hero's personalities!

Eight: Dang! I never knew it was such a long process for you! But it sure was a great idea of doing this, Fairy. Without those distinct personalities, then I'm pretty sure that every story that featured me along with my three comrades would feel bland and...well, lacking in personality.

Exactly! So, with you being a really nice guy and basically being the Heart of the group, I figured that you could easily encourage the Gensokyo girls to better themselves with your kind words!

Eight: Aw, how sweet of you to do that!

Heh heh, I love it when your kind and friendly side kicks in! ^^ Anyways, I'll end it off here. Until the next chapter!