OVERLORD: OVERTHROWN VOLUME 1 - The Angels in Red
CHAPTER 2: NEW FACES IN E-MORTIS
Lying fast asleep in the back of the cart as dawn's light began to break across a waymarker saying this way to the town of E-Mortis, a large man in a well-worn hooded wool cloak of rich violet began to stir.
The cart was piled high with cages, and the chickens too were just beginning to wake. One brave hen found itself nestled under one of his arms, feeding off of the man's warmth.
"Cawww?" the chicken mused directly into the man's ear, causing him to wake with a start, knocking over a cloth bundle full of strange, hidden weapons that leaned against a cage to his left.
"What is it, buddy? Did I sleep in?" the man mused in a deep, well-worn, and gruff voice, like a child's image of a mysterious wanderer.
"Yeah, they'll wake you up!" the driver of the cart called back in a drawl dripping with a long life of farming. He gave a chuckle, and scratched his balding head before returning his faded leather hat to its resting place above his brow.
"At just the right time it seems, looking at the sun," the purple man said, looking up at the morning sky, the faint yellows and pinks peeling away revealing the beautiful blue hidden beneath.
"Yeah the ol' cocks ain't here to wake me, but the hens'll try their damnedest to fill in," the driver laughed, rolling his shoulder a few times with a faint crack accompanying each. "Still amazed you're headed for E-Mortis. Not a lot of folks heading into that town, but a hell of a lot coming out! Not much happens there, and what does; people would rather didn't."
"Sounds like the perfect town for a new adventurer," the hooded man replied, stretching out his legs as much as the small cart allowed, both clad in layered plates of steel over plain grey breeches and leather boots.
"Should have known, with all that armour you got on ya," the driver continued in his thick drawl. Peeking out from beneath the purple man's well-loved cloak and hidden partially beneath his dark grey surcoat was a suit of fine chainmail, intricate in design and clearly built for manoeuvrability. "So, gonna go save the world or something are you? You know, my brother wanted to become an adventurer!"
The cloaked man didn't respond, instead gazing out over the cages towards the pasture they were passing.
"Never really panned out for the bugger. Lost his tags in the woods the first day he got them, got laughed outta the guild," the cart driver continued. The hooded man wordlessly reached into his shirt and showed the driver a dog tag gleaming with faded copper. The driver spotted the metal and smiled. "Ahhh, starting from the bottom! You love to see it."
"The only place to start," the man said back, smiling as he let the tag hang, the sun's light glinting off it as the town of E-Mortis came into view.
Chester "Finch" Fitzgerald was taking a drink of water while leaning against a fence post as he watched a cart full of chickens roll it's way towards him, his messy strawberry blonde hair and sun-bleached striped scarf of cream-beige flipping about in the wind.
He held the waterskin upside down, casual disappointment lingering in his honeyed brown eyes that he'd finished it.
It was in that moment of curiosity that he watched a man clad in a hooded purple cloak leap profoundly from amid a cart of livestock, armour glinting in the morning sunlight, and land directly in a puddle of mud up to his shins. It splashed up to his boots, pants, and cloak, ruining any polish he may have managed.
This oughta be interesting…
He had only arrived by cart himself around a half hour earlier and was drawn by a sudden curiosity as to what brought such a heavily armed newcomer to this nowhere town today of all days.
However, before Chester had a chance to approach the man to ask about the bundle of strange swords he was fixing to his back with a leather strap, he watched as someone else stepped up ahead of him, emerging from one of the pastures. A sheep pen.
The new man's height didn't even near the purple-clad man's shoulder and half the width, yet he approached with the confidence of a commanding officer. His stowed bronze axe and shield embossed and sculpted with the face of a tough-looking dog with droopy ears clanked as he moved.
"Ey, you look like you know where you're going. You know where the Adventurer's Guild is?" the new man queried, approaching the man in purple. He spoke in a thick northern accent that reminded Chester of a dwarf he once met. His striking golden eyes stood out vividly next to his spiky black-brown hair and otherwise plain, albeit scarred face and a short nose that brought to mind a young pig.
"Oh, yeah. I know," the purple man said in his baritone voice. They both sat in awkward silence for a second. The short man raised an eyebrow, and the big man shook his head slightly before continuing, "Oh, right! Directions, um, the man on the cart told me it was just down that road there, that I couldn't miss it. If I hit a smithy I'd apparently have gone too far."
"Well! How convenient, my cart dropped me a little ways out of town so I'm a wee bit turned around myself," the shorter man said in a tone that seemed to suggest there may not have been a cart, which Chester took as his queue to start making his way over. He could see the shorter man wore a sort of padded sweater over a suit of rusty and worn chain. His hands and feet were both in substantially large bronze gauntlets and boots, making him look almost childlike in his proportions.
"New adventurers, eh?" Chester chimed in, smirking and brushing his blonde hair out of his eyes as though trying to get a better look, "and already dressed to impress! Three swords, fine mail, and a cloak that fancy couldn't have been cheap. And you, your shield! What a piece! Had to be custom."
The hooded man staggered for a second, turning to face the new member of the conversation who the shorter man seemed to have seen coming to the point he didn't even turn. "Oh, I uh. Whole hometown pitched in."
"Then why the hell are you out here?" Chester joked, though there may have been a touch of envy in his voice. "I mean, surely you've got quite the name back home."
"It's a long story," the man in purple replied, looking a little uncomfortable with the line of questioning. His tired, grey eyes drifted to the ground nervously. Home's a sensitive topic for you, eh big man?
"One maybe he could tell you over a drink," the shorter man interrupted, looking sternly at Chester's mockery with his golden eyes, "If we're headed for the adventurer's guild, let's stop standing around like a bunch of bums and do these introductions as we walk."
"Name's Chester, some call me Finch, but my friends call me dumbass," said Chester, following the other two as they started to walk; past the pasture from which the short man had come, where a herd of sheep grazed under a shepherd's watchful gaze. A sheepdog barked loudly at one that wandered too far from the rest. "A pleasure to meet you, Shortstack! You too, Grape-juice."
"You can call me Heinrich," the purple man smiled, pushing back his hood, revealing a head of long, vibrant purple hair, tied back but for the very front part into a loose ponytail. His face was pale and fair, with rosy cheeks and not a spot of stubble along his chin.
"Maaan, I was right on the Grapes nickname. Where are you even from?" Chester said, taken aback. In the Re-Estize Kingdom, coloured hair was almost exclusively seen on those with demi-human blood to some degree, such as elves or half-elves.
"Small town," Heinrich replied frankly, pulling his ponytail out from where it had gotten wrapped in the hood. They were now walking past a line of wooden buildings topped in thatch, with plumes of homely smoke coming from many a chimney. They were getting into E-Mortis proper now, and despite its rustic nature the town had a deceptively large population.
"Hey, that makes two of us! Clearly build 'em differently where you come from though," Chester said, giving the big man a suitably big pat on his back. He got a decent feel of the bundle on the man's back, yeah, that's definitely three swords. Weird. "And what about you, Shortstack?"
"Shia," the shorter man replied in a dry manner. He was slow to get used to Chester's antics, and it was plain to hear in his tone. "Shia Reinfault. Dumbass, was it?"
"Oooh, we're friends already?" Chester taunted as they passed a pair of men with a mule pulling a cart of lumber planks, likely for repairs. "Okay. Adventurer's Guild… Adventurer's Guild… Ah, there we are!"
The middle of town felt different from the outskirts. Houses of well-masoned stone lined the dirt streets as they neared what seemed to act like a town square; two buildings in the square stood out from the others.
The first was a stout building of cut stone that seemed to be something of a guards' barracks. Outside sat a narrow-framed guard in perhaps his late 40s on a stool far too small for his long legs, flipping through what appeared to be a romance novel of some sort.
The second building stood nearly twice as tall as the surrounding homes, with a structure of arched roofs akin to a noble's winter lodge with a manor-like expansion rising up behind it. Stone foundations gave way to sturdy oak walls, which in turn gave way to tall arched windows which, along with the doors, appeared to be able to shutter firmly should weather or threats arise. To either side of the lodge laid stone extensions akin to a small keep in style, though far smaller in stature.
From this structure, Chester found it simple enough to deduce what they were looking at, "so they bui-"
"They built an adventurer's guild around a tavern, will ya look at that!" Shia completed, though Chester was not sure if the interruption was intentional or merely incidental. He was a hard one to read. Either way he seemed not to acknowledge it. "Well, that's convenient."
But he was right, as they approached the sign that hung out front it quashed any doubt in the conclusion they'd both come to.
Fall Staff Inn & E-Mortis Adventurer's Guild, it read, with the symbol of a mage's staff crossed over a beehive beneath it.
"Well, no time like the present," Heinrich shrugged, sweeping towards the tavern, his cloak billowing behind him.
"Well, leave it to Grape-juice to find the drink I suppose!" Chester japed, jogging to keep up with him.
The smell was the first thing to hit Shia Reinfault as he pushed through the swinging doors into the guild.
He sniffed as comforting scents of warm honey, herbal teas, and fresh bread coming from herbs strung up in the rafters buried any of the typical wafts of alcohol and body odour that filled most taverns he'd seen back in the city of E-Rantel.
"You know you could just take off your boots," Chester prodded Heinrich behind him, who was taking the time to rather unsuccessfully wipe the mud off his boots on a small mat by the door. Besides Chester and Heinrich, the sounds of patrons at ease filled Shia's ears as he gazed across several long wooden tables. No threats presently, but that could always change. Chester continued, "though I don't think anyone else cared too much."
"I'll take what I can to get cleaned up," Heinrich said, continuing to attempt - and fail - to clean his armoured boots on the small mat. "And no, I'm not taking my boots off."
"It'd be a wild look though, pretty top-heavy," Chester chuckled. Shia shook his head; these two wouldn't last a week if they didn't learn to take themselves seriously. He hoped that whatever adventuring party he got assigned to were more functional soldiers.
Stairs to the left lead up to what one could imagine were the inn's rentable rooms, while a door to the right of the bar was hung with a sign labelled Guild Access Only, and a door to its left presumably led to the kitchens.
Four points of entry, he noted, and three may only lead deeper in. Defensible.
"W-Welcome to the Fall Staff Inn! New adventurers?" the voice of a timid boy of 14 - maybe 15 - years cut through the sounds of the establishment. He was approaching them, and for a moment the room went silent but for the sound of jingling adventurer's tags from over ten turning heads. "T-Thank you for coming to E-Mortis!"
"Yeah, I'm just not really feeling the barefoot look right now," continued Heinrich, completely unaware of the boy or the room's entire patronage putting their eyes on him, looking the heavily armed purple giant over for any sign of recognition.
"Hey there, we're here for guild registration?" Shia said to the boy loud enough that the other two couldn't miss it. The moment they find they don't recognize us, we're the freshest meat on the block, he thought, might as well rip the bandage off.
"Oh perfect! We're g-going to be posting today's quests on the bounty board within the hour," the boy said, gesturing to a large board to the left of the room hung with a New Quests Coming Soon sign. "For now, uh, Mia can help you guys with like, sign-in and all that at the bar!"
"B-But no need to rush, feel free to grab a seat! We have a special deal, I'm supposed to tell you, where adventurers come in, and they are able to, uh, eat less for more!" he continued, getting progressively more distracted by Heinrich and his bundle of swords in particular, the pommels of which were starting to show from the bundle.
"Pretty sure that deal's supposed to be the other way around, kid," Chester quipped, taking this opportunity to get a closer look at the swords himself. "You mean an adventurer's discount?"
"Yeah, okay, wow. Is that three swords?" the boy asked excitedly, barely processing that Chester had spoken.
"They're a set," responded Heinrich with a shrug, finally taking a moment to notice the attention the inn's other guests were giving them. He seemed a little sheepish at all of the eyes, but not unhappy. "They uh, do different jobs."
"Hey, quick question," Chester asked, smirking at the boy.
"I'm going to go register," Shia sighed, realizing this was the beginning of another one of Chester's bits. He may have had a poor sense of humour, but Shia Reinfault had a knack for reading people.
"Wait a second, this is important for you," Chester continued, putting a hand on Shia's shoulder. "Kid, can you drink here?"
"Yes, th-this is a tavern, of course you can drink here. Best mead in Re-Estize!" the boy awkwardly explained.
"No, can you drink here. Like are you allowed," Chester continued. Shia's eyes locked on to Chester, suddenly suspicious as to where this was going and why it involved him.
"Um, I don't… one second, let me ask Mia," the boy said, before turning to call across the room to a woman with shoulder-length red hair in a neat ponytail behind the bar presumably named Mia, "Hey Mia! Can I have a drink?!"
"After your shift!" Mia called back in a surprisingly professional and subdued tone despite the volume, pouring a large mug of mead for someone, before sliding it down the bar expertly into the hands of a waiting patron.
"Apparently I can drink here!" the boy said with a bewildered expression. He definitely intended on getting a drink after his shift today. Or several.
Shia's eyes however were burrowing deeply into the side of Chester's head as a cheeky grin spread across his face. Don't you fucking dare.
"Eyyy, perfect!" Chester continued, giving Shia a pat on the shoulder. Were Shia's eyes weapons; Chester would have no skull remaining. "Good news for you buddy, you can drink!"
An audible chuckle went around the tavern. He had nearly forgotten all the attention they had garnered. He would remember this insult.
The young boy continued, "okay! Yeah. No, yeah, well, thank you all again for coming, w-we're always so happy when new people come to E-Mortis, and I hope you stay a long time. And remember we've got plenty of food despite the national shortages, plus our honey is some of the best!"
"Pleasure's all mine," Shia grumbled through gritted teeth. "Let's just go sign up"
"Okay, uh, cool," said the boy, still audibly frazzled.
The boy turned back to look at Mia who made a gesture as though telling him to move on, to which the boy responded by scampering away like a rat through the Guild Access Only door. Mia made a welcoming motion to the group, "please, feel free to approach the bar."
Shia was the first to clamber up onto one of the barstools, with Heinrich quickly pulling himself onto the seat next to him. Heinrich raised a hand awkwardly, like a student trying to get the schoolmaster's attention without incurring their wrath, "hey, before we start registration, could I get a mead?"
"Sure thing," Mia replied, grabbing a mug from below the bar. She poured the drink with her eyes still locked onto the group as she continued speaking, "I'm Mia Falstaff, I run this establishment and am also the local representative of the adventurer's guild. The boy is my employee."
"Chester Fitzgerald, some call me Finch, aspiring adventurer. A pleasure to meet you," said Chester, joining the two already seated at the bar right as Mia placed the mead on the bar.
The inn proprietress didn't waste a second reaching under the bar and pulling out a book from below the desk. "Chester Fitzgerald… And that must make you two Shia and Hendrick. Perfect."
"It's Heinrich," Heinrich corrected quietly.
"It sure would. I believe I paid in advance?" Shia replied, trying to get a read on the woman. She seemed tired, but not immensely so. Perhaps overworking herself, being the sole operator of both a tavern and a guildhall could not be easy. But still, there was a coldness in her eyes that seemed to contrast.
"Yes, all four of you did in fact," she noted something in the book then turned around for a second, opening a drawer in the shelves and pulling out a small box.
"Four?" Heinrich questioned.
Turning back, Mia stopped for a moment and seemed to glance past the trio. Shia followed her gaze to the door hung with the Guild Access Only sign, where a rather imposing man was making his entrance. The young-looking man was plated from head to toe in armour made of what appeared to be some sort of thick, overlapping reptile scales.
Likely magic, Shia thought. The man carried a haughty air and seemed rather irritated by the presence of others in the tavern, brushing back his white-streaked short brown hair as he made his way towards an empty table in the corner.
Around his neck sat a gleaming silver adventurer's tag.
"Again, I think they got my name down wrong there," Heinrich continued, unaware of the newcomers. He'll need to learn to be more assertive if he wants to survive in this career… And more aware.
Following behind him was a bubbly young woman with a head of light grey hair cut short but for a braid down one side over face. Her chainmail jingled as she walked with a skip in her step. She made eye contact with Mia and raised a hand and then pointed her thumb at herself in a popular tavern gesture Shia recognized as this rounds' on me.
"Will there be any drinks for the rest of you?" Mia said, turning to Chester and Shia with her ever-professional but gentle expression.
"Ah, well, can't say I've got the cash actually" Chester replied. He held up a tattered coin purse which quite visibly held but a single copper coin that threatened to slip through its holes.
"No need, an anonymous patron's got this round." Mia smiled, opening the small box she'd taken from the shelf. "But while you think on that…"
She rummaged through the box and the sound of small metal plates clinking could be heard. Tags. "Ah, copper, there we are. Chester Fitzgerald, here is your adventurer tag. Allow me to officially welcome you to the Adventurer's Guild!"
A round of applause and cheers went through the tavern, a notable exception being the scale-armoured man, who had taken to the time-worn passtime of sitting at a table in the corner and scowling.
After this, attention seemed to dwindle on the newcomers and people began to return to their own conversations; the volume returning to what was more expected of a popular inn.
"Always an exciting moment," Shia said as Chester put the new tag around his neck. He watched Mia tidy up the remaining tags in the box, including the telltale glint of iron. "I think I'll have what my tall associate here's having, you can't beat a good mead."
"Just you wait, I'll be Platinum rank soon enough," Chester said with a hearty laugh, striking a heroic pose with his new tag that drew some applause from the nearest table.
"So when do we get assigned our parties?" chimed in Heinrich, somehow not even remotely catching on to the fact that had already become blatantly obvious to both Chester and Shia. "I'd love to meet the other three I'm going to be spending the foreseeable future with."
"Well, you've met two of them already," Mia said with a satisfied smile. Shia figured not having to make the introduction appeared to take a weight off her shoulders. It added a weight to Shia's. These buffoons? "Your fourth, Émile, will not be joining us I'm afraid. One of our Iron-ranked parties, the Seven Severed Staves, found his skin about a week back in the forest just out of earshot of town. Some had begun to assume the rest of you had met the same fate."
"His… skin?-" Heinrich began to say.
"- Well I suppose it's better the fools you know," Shia interrupted, avoiding the topic of the fourth party member to try and salvage the mood. If he wanted to lead these people, as foolish as they may be, he needed to show them he could keep morale up.
"Hey now, you guys better not secretly be assholes," Chester added, he looked more than happy to not talk about the skin situation. Can't use jokes to bury every discomfort, eh? "We'll need a party name…"
"No promises," said Shia, well aware of how direct he could be, as Mia slid a tankard of mead into his waiting grasp. "Could steal the Seven Severed Staves bit. Short, Stubborn, and…"
"-Spurple?" Heinrich joked to none but Chester's laughter, falling for Shia's distraction. "But honestly though… Mia, what other parties are there here?"
"Well, for starters there's Rhogad, party of one, only silver rank and he is very aware of that fact," Mia began, gesturing at the scale-armoured man, now glaring at the empty bounty board while he waited. "Only one above him is Geraldine, our patron gold rank, who should be along soon enough. Neither play well with others, but are real good at what they do."
Rhogad met Shia's eyes for a second, and the scaled man rolled his. Mia continued, "Then in iron rank, we've got the aforementioned Seven Severed Staves, who are still out on a quest from yesterday," she continued, pouring an ale for another customer and handing it off to them with a nod.
"What, are there seven of them?" Chester joked with a smirk.
"Did they kill seven wizards?" Heinrich added with legitimate curiosity.
"There are also the Four Left Fingers," Mia said, nodding to a party in the corner. Only two of them were present, a mage and a fighter of some sort, but they seemed fairly formidable. They have to be to survive to iron rank.
"And finally there's Grey Parade," Mia gestured to where the grey-haired girl had sat, joining a part of 3 other grey-haired individuals; two more women and one boy. She smirked a little at Heinrich. "Careful around them, Hendrick, you're their type."
"Wait what?" Heinrich stammered, not understanding her meaning whatsoever.
"Gotta admit, hearing all those names just convinced me more we need a real good one…" Chester mused, tapping the side of his head with his finger.
"Well we'll just have to earn a name then," Shia declared, a bit of foam on his lip from the mead. "Until then we'll just be Shia, Heinrich, and Chester."
"Our first quest: get liquored," Chester said, turning to the bar. "I'll follow the grape's lead; a mead for me as well!"
