“Usual for you, then?” The boisterous bearded man at the counter greeted Jaid with a great-big grin. “One Luciri special!” he called out to the chef.
“Oi, does she want to try out our new meat bread?” the chef asked back. She of course did, so it was tacked into the order. The pair reminded her of a certain old couple who she remembered fondly—what memories she did have, anyways. It didn’t take long until she was handed a full serving-tray of food with almost a dozen plates on it.
She then turned around and began the arduous task of trying to find somewhere to sit. Even with this restaurant's exclusivity, it was always packed. Only the highest ranks in the organization could access that. For military, it was Captains and higher; Vice-Reps and higher for the politicians. And for every other department, they had to be at least an assistant director.
It was one of the best days in Jaid’s career when General Breach brought her here right after her promotion. The food beat out anywhere else in the headquarters, so she’d have at least one meal there every day if she could, assuming she wasn’t out on a mission. And most importantly, it was all free—well, billed to the organization.
With her pay raise from being promoted and the massive decrease in her food bill, she was making a decent living. It still wasn’t as much as… a past place she’d worked, but she was on the path to a good life. But even in this exclusive place, there were still annoyances.
Almost every table was completely full, and the ones that weren’t didn’t look open and inviting for someone to just come and sit down. But as luck would have it, just as she was about to give up and take her mountain of food elsewhere, a small two-person table cleared out against the wall.
She sat down and began to dig in, but after finishing only her third appetizer did another annoyance pop up. “Eating a lot like always, aren’t you captain?!” Dura sat down at the opposite chair and tried to slide his one meager plate into what little room remained on the table.
“You know you’re not supposed to be in here, Dura.” Jaid knew she was arguing with deaf ears, but she at least had to make an attempt publicly so it wouldn’t fall back on her. And she was in too good of a mood to let this bother her, so her words didn’t even remotely sound sincere.
“I know you’re allowed to bring guests in here with you, Captain. So I am your guest!” The monk insisted.
“And what would you do if I wasn’t here?” She could already assume the answer.
“Then I would be somebody else’s guest!” Dura was one of the few exceptions whose pendant would allow them into this cafeteria even without the appropriate rank. But that wasn’t because he’d earned it or had it as a special privilege. Dura was allowed just about anywhere in the headquarters—not because they wanted him to be, but because they couldn’t stop him.
If there was a room the monk wanted to get into, he’d get into it. Not because he had exceptional lockpicking skills or anything, but he’d just make the locks as durable as paper and break them. And if they added special locks that he couldn’t touch, he’d just rip through the doors or walls. So in lieu of property damage, they just made his pendant able to open any room except for the most confidential and restricted. That dissuaded him for the most part, but he barged into a lot of meetings where he wasn’t invited.
To his benefit, he acted so aloof and obnoxiously friendly that basically no one considered him an actual security threat. But Jaid knew he was really absorbing everything he saw, having one of the best memories and intellect of anyone she’d been acquainted with—willfully choosing to play the fool.
Dura would probably be the biggest internal threat to the Central Peace if he ever put his mind to it. But the boy was happy, and they kept him happy by pretty much letting him do whatever he wanted, so he had no reason to throw his allegiance elsewhere.
However, just as Jaid was about to start on her entrees, she remembered something she actually did need to be annoyed at him about. “You weren’t at training this morning.”
“Eh… it wasn’t on my schedule.” Even though Dura loved to talk, he was still a terrible liar—never really learning how to do it given his background.
“And where’s your schedule?” she pressed. “Show it to me.”
“It is in my other robe,” he looked away guiltily. “But there is something in this robe to make it up to you! Tada!” Dura slammed a bobblehead down onto the table. “Look at this little Captain!” The figure was of Jaid herself. “And the more you shake it, the grumpier she gets!” He wobbled it like crazy.
“Guessing you got it at that convention? I still can’t believe you went there,” Jaid sighed.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Yes, the Fiend Convention was a magical fun time,” he was eager to talk about it. “You should have come with me, Captain. We would have had many memories. Look, I even got a picture with Mr. Xard to show that there are no hard feelings, and that we are chum-friends again.” He pulled out a picture that was also tucked away into his robe.
You were never friends in the first place, is what Jaid wanted to say, but she knew he would just blather something about being everyone’s friend.
“And look, I got all of the Fiends For Hire to sign it!” He got even more excited and was practically shoving the picture into her face. “It may even be worth something one day, but I will never sell it, because it will always be worth more to me!”
This led Dura into a long monologue where he recounted all of his adventures at Fiendcon, even the ones he’d already told her about, and rambled into anything else he could think of. He still showed no sides of wrapping things up when Jaid was finishing the last bite of her last dessert—her stomach stuffed to bursting—so she couldn’t help but mutter, “I can’t believe you ever used to be a silent monk.”
That quickly interrupted Dura’s flow, and he didn’t say anything in response for a few breaths, but then he asked. “Have I ever told you how I became a Fiend?”
“Yes, a hundred times at least,” Jaid groaned. “I could recite it. Some other pompous monk with power forced you to write scrolls with fake scripture and pointless gibberish until your hands went numb so that he could sell them at an insane markup to tourists. So in return, you wrapped wet cloths around the supports of the wooden platform he meditated on every day that was perched off the edge of a cliff for some reason.”
“Once the wood lost enough durability and rotted, it snapped and he fell to his death, making you a Fiend. The end.”
“You left out many details,” Dura criticized her storytelling. “But yes, that is the simple of it. Now have I ever told you why I was kicked out?”
“I would assume due to murdering the other monk.” It was the easy guess.
“No, they didn’t care about that,” Dura shrugged with a smile. “No one liked him. He was a big ass. Even though they knew it had to be me who did it, they blamed it on nature and Cosmos smiting him for his malduties.”
“Why they kicked me out is because I could no longer shave my head after becoming a Fiend. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stay bald. Every morning I would wake up with just a tiny bit of hair, but that was enough for them to say I was besmirching their practices—all written and hand gestures, by the way, in case you have forgotten our culture. This is all to say, monks are stupid and illogical, so I am happy to no longer be one.”
“Yet you still dress like one every day,” Jaid had to point out.
“Comfort is comfort,” Dura laughed. “I can not tell you how nice it feels to be wrapped and breezy at the same time.” Jaid couldn't stop herself from eking out a smile either.
“Luciri, I thought I’d find you here,” a familiar fatherly voice boomed from behind, prompting Jaid to whirl around before he could put his hand on her soldiers like he typically would.
“Sir, we were just about to finish up here,” Jaid reported. “But we can pull up a chair if you’d like, or we can meet somewhere else if there’s something you’d like to discuss.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Breach refused the offer. “I only came to find you in person since I was nearby. Urgent mission. You’re being deployed with Izma in twenty minutes.”
“Understood, Sir,” Jaid accepted without question like a good soldier, but that still didn’t mean she couldn’t ask for specifics. “Another revolution, Sir?” That was the usual reason for urgency lately. There were a lot of attempted coups going around, mostly small groups that believed they could take down entire governments with just a handful of insurgents. Some would get decently far, but that always stopped when the Central Peace arrived.
It seemed that since countries couldn’t fight each other, it just spurred the desire for infighting—always someone else to blame for their problems. And while sometimes they were justified, pointless death wasn’t the answer. A few coups had been completed successfully since the CP’s founding, but those were ones that were well orchestrated with minimal bloodshed. Those that failed only thought about violence and nothing else.
“Not so simple this time,” the General shook his head. “And a bit more dangerous. Apparently there was an unauthorized monster breeding facility in Lulalan. And those monsters have breached containment. Right now, their local authorities have the area contained, and most of the monsters are just happy to be wandering outside, but it won’t be long before they turn vicious and try to establish their territories.”
“So you and Izma are being deployed by launch. We’ll send a few platoons behind you in skycrafts. And…” Breach’s eyes wandered over to the monk who was now stacking the dirty plates on the table like a house of cards. “There’s one more pod, so take Dura with you. It’ll keep him out of trouble for the afternoon.”
“Woo, I love the launch!” Dura threw up his hands with enthusiasm, knocking into the plates and sending them toppling off the table. At least he’d had the sense to increase their durability first so they didn’t shatter. “A fun mission, Captain! I’m so excited! Aren’t you?”
She was not. Jaid wasn’t partial to the launch, and especially for such an urgent mission, she wasn’t jazzed to bring Izma along either. However, with their current tech, the launch couldn’t be performed without her obelisk, err, coffin. So they were a package deal. And even though she’d been getting better in the field, and despite their Curses having fantastic synergy, Jaid still found her quite tedious to work with.
“A porter’s already heading that way with your gear,” Breach informed them. Jaid really didn’t like that part since it meant they went into her room without her permission to get her armor and sword. At least she had a spare set of her combat outfit near the launch site, so they didn’t have to dig through her dresser too. “Now get dressed and get going. Dismissed!”