From deep behind the line of trees, Jordan stared at his base from afar. It’d only taken him another few minutes to get back here with his land drone. Though as he’d drawn closer, he had decided to desummon it and be a bit subtle in scouting things out first.

The lady who found him hadn’t been seen, yet. But while a part of him was tempted to gun hot-headed and ready to demand answers for what seemed to have been a prepared ambush, he forced him to remain calm. It wouldn’t hurt to just watch for a bit, and then try to see how she was behaving and go from there.

A few miles away, a column of smoke was only growing bigger and darker with each passing minute. It would have been hard to see at first, as most of the smoke was initially caught by the thick canopy that acted as a ceiling. Yet that was quickly changing to become easily visible to anyone who might have been around to look.

But while it was hard to say how much water was in the trees themselves, the ground of the forest had been practically begging for a wildfire to start. With a whole layer of dried leaves and plenty of dead branches and sticks around, along with what bits of vegetation could grow in the dim amount of sunlight, it was the perfect set-up for a blaze. If being the one responsible for setting the fire counted as him being the one to slay anything caught in it, then he would find out soon.

On the roof of his base, two figures came into view as they stood by the edge. One was the lady who had pointed toward the Crab. Even from a fair distance away, Jordan noted that her appearance had been considerably cleaned up compared to her earlier dirty and disheveled look. Beside her was a man that Jordan didn’t recognize. He just appeared to be on the larger side, and in contrast to the relatively young woman, at least looked to be in his early 40s or something around that.

Unfortunately, Jordan couldn’t use Appraise on either person. At least not unless he wanted to alert them to his presence. Yet while staring at the man for a few more seconds, Jordan squinted a bit.

Is that Joey, from yesterday? Jordan asked himself. It was hard to say for sure, as the lack of light around their meeting last night hadn’t exactly been conducive to his ability to see the other man. But just in terms of the vague outline of a person he saw yesterday through the darkness, it did seem to line up. And as the sun had now basically set and allowed the stars to take its place, it would soon be dim with just the starlight filling the clearing.

They’re both wearing dark, almost black armor. Leather, if I had to make a guess from just how it looks. I know Joey’s Class was listed as a Rogue, and their equipment being dark leather would fit that as a trope. So if that is him, then it at least looks like the other girl is also a Rogue. That was unless she’d swapped equipment, which Jordan supposed was possible. Unless the magic items, there didn’t appear to be any limitation on switching armor with other Classes.

As he stared up at them, the woman pointed the finger at what was likely the rising smoke. Though with how dark it was now, the glow of the spreading fire itself was probably also easily noticeable. As for what she said next, one might have expected it to be difficult to make out the words from afar. But luckily, she was more than loud enough for that not to be a problem in the slightest.

“Joey, what the fuck is up with that!?” She yelled, very helpfully confirming the man’s identity. “Did one of those shitbags set this whole damn forest on fire! I didn’t sign up to get caught in that for this shitty, sorry excuse for a Kingdom!”

Hey… well, screw you too! Jordan internally retorted. If she thought his Kingdom was so bad, then she was free to leave and go find one of her own instead.

Her partner was sadly much more calm and quiet in his response. Jordan could see his mouth moving as he appeared to be saying something, but he couldn’t hear any of it. However, whatever he said quickly seemed to have failed in placating the woman’s worries.

“Wait it out?! I’ll have you know, point Dexter, that we’re surrounded by fucking trees! Even if we clear the ground of leaves around us, the fire will be literally everywhere! If you want to-” She paused as Joey turned toward her, his face now away from what Jordan could see. A couple of seconds later, the young lady threw her arms up in the air with clear frustration.

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“Nah, fuck that, and fuck this! Feel free to either die in the fire or choke with all the smoke if you want! This shitty building doesn’t even have windows for air, if you haven’t noticed! Just a door that doesn’t go anywhere, and some crappy machine that doesn’t even work!” She then turned and stomped away from the roof’s edge. Though even while doing so, she continued to yell.

“So if you want to say here and die for some concrete chairs and shit, be my guest! ‘Cause I’m out! If this place isn’t gone by the time the fire’s out, then I’ll come to claim whatever’s left to finish that damned Quest!”

Joey threw up his own arms as he called after her, loud enough for Jordan to hear him now. “Melody, don’t be like that! Melody! Hey, don’t just ignore me! Hey, come on, don’t be like that!”

So Miss High Temper’s name was Melody, huh? That was at least something. Far more importantly, it looked like she was about to make Jordan’s life a whole lot easier.

Because almost on cue with that thought, the front door of the building slammed open. Something they’d apparently been nice enough to finish and install for him, at least. Though it seemed that said nicety had been partially reversed now, as there was currently a visible crack in the wood that hadn’t been there before.

As Melody loudly stomped out the entrance, Jordan ducked behind the tree he was next to. The chances of her looking right at where he was currently standing were low, but not zero. Especially since Jordan wouldn’t be surprised if the Passive Skill for Rogues would allow them to see better at night. People whose jobs were being sneaky would be pretty bad if they just blindly stumbled around the best time to sneak around, after all.

Peeking around the tree a few seconds later, Jordan saw the woman’s back as she walked away in the opposite direction from him. Which was fair enough, considering that moving toward him also meant moving toward the wildfire. He glanced back at the doorway, but didn’t see the other man looking like he was about to come out to follow after her.

Well, alright then, I guess they just had a falling out? It did feel… a bit much, though. Did they spot me and exaggerate it to make me think that’s what happened? Like is this Melody chick actually walking away, or is she going to double back and get me from behind if I focus on the guy still inside? Jordan asked himself, frowning as he wondered if he was just overthinking it.

Either way, it didn’t much for what would come next. She had basically all but outright admitted that their intention had been to claim his Kingdom for themselves. But there was clearly an issue with that idea. When Jordan glanced down at the back of his hand, even with the gloves on, he could still feel the outline of the crown imprinted into his skin.

Unless there actually did turn out to be a way for him to willingly transfer ownership, someone would have to take it by killing him first. With how seemingly bloodthirsty this System appeared to be, he truly would not be surprised if overthrowing the Lord through death was actually the only method to claim their Kingdom. In any case, whether it was the man still inside or the woman who intended to come back only after the wildfire was done, their goal remained the same.

Which meant that there were only two main options left for Jordan to pursue. He could either take the pacifist route of being the one to simply walk away. If they couldn’t actually use the Transmuter, then the only thing useful to them would be the building itself as a fort. But if he got to keep the Title and the Kingdom remained in his name, then it would hypothetically be okay for him to just leave and go somewhere else. Whether that choice to leave was just for a while, or even longer for an indefinite amount of time.

Or there was door number two, which was to deal with them now and take back his base. What that meant was something the Jordan of Earth would never have thought himself capable of. But that Jordan was dead, literally, as of just several minutes ago.

While it had been reversed, what he experienced had been very real. Jordan’s breath quickened as he could almost still feel his skin bubbling, the sight of his arm simply being gone before the searing agony practically blinded him. His pulse sounded loud in his ears as his lungs remembered being burned to a crisp after taking just a single breath filled with fire. One hand placed on the trunk of the tree; there was a small crack as his fingers squeezed against its bark.

Even if the Crab itself had been the metaphorical bullet to hit him, they’d been the ones to point the gun at him. Doing so with the full expectation that he would die to open up ownership of his Kingdom, more than likely. It was one thing for someone to want him dead, but somehow, it just felt even worse that they had left the dirty work to be done by another. As if doing it themselves wouldn’t have been worth the effort.

Jordan’s other hand shook as it held his Energy Pistol. Not with fear, not from shock, not even from the trauma he’d just experienced. But with rage. Encountering the Crab was their fault. Now forever knowing what it was like to die in a fiery explosion was their fault. And he sure as Hell wasn’t going to forgive them for that, even if they went so far as to immediately surrender and promise to leave this area forever so he would never see them again.

It didn’t matter; things had gone too far for that to even be possible. They wanted him to die while they just waited somewhere far away?

Fine, he could play that game too.