After an hour or so since the latest addition of a fiasco for the trio, the three fled the center of the town for a more secluded, and rural area in which they can safely execute their plan—and thankfully, it wasn't a plan to bury the presumed dead merchant.

As they stood under the shadow of a large oak tree, the trio was silent as they gazed at the merchant boy who was tied to the said tree, still unconscious and motionless. Thankfully, the trio thought their plan through, even the way they would wake up the boy.

"Mik…" Joel began, "Hand me the jar."

As such, Mik reached for a glass jar that was filled with a dark substance to the brim. He carefully handed it to the former, before stepping back a considerable distance, next to Dolisa who was already far away.

Joel calmed himself down before he inhaled a large amount of fresh—clean air— before he held his breath. He turned his head away while opening the jar, holding it in front of the merchant's nose.

A few seconds passed before the merchant boy jolted up from the depths of unconsciousness to an unholy stench, one that made him gasp for air yet at the same time regret so, for he inhaled a larger sum of the horrendous smell.

He turned his head away while spitting, desperately attempting to get rid of any remaining smell he inhaled in his mouth.

"Hey, bloke! You're finally awake!" Joel greeted.

"What the fuck is that?! Put it away!" The merchant uttered in disgust.

"Well…" Joel mumbled as he closed the jar, "That is an extract of dear ol' departed Bob's last resting place. May God have mercy on his soul."

However, the merchant couldn't care less for what Joel said, for he was now mainly concerned by the sharp pain that stung the back of his head.

"Ow! What the— what happened to me?! Where am I?"

The merchant boy instinctively tried to hold onto the back of his head, alas he was dismayed when he realized that he couldn't, for he was tied with a ridiculously tight rope that kept him from moving any part of his body but his head.

"What?! What's happening?! What happened?!"

As the boy grew frantic, he looked around him, scanning the area in a desperate attempt to locate his whereabouts or seek help from someone or something. However, he was disappointedly met with nothing, before his eyes fell upon the sight of Mik standing next to Dolisia—a smug smile plastered on his face.

"Yo!"

"NO! Oh my God!" The merchant screamed as his eyes turned towards Joel, "Sir! Please, help me! This man is going to kill me!"

"The hell?!" Mik interrupted, "How come I am the bad guy when you're the one that placed a jar of shit on his nose?!"

"You almost gave him a lethal concussion. I'm sure he has the right to, at least, be scared of you." Joel explained.

Upon hearing Joel's reply, the merchant boy was horrified. The last person he expected to aid him, was an associate of the man who was after his life.

The merchant boy twirled around to try and slip out of the ropes, or maybe even break out of them. Alas, his skinny physique and muscles—or rather the lack there of—dictated otherwise.

"Woah, relax, keep chilling." Joel said as he sat down in front of the merchant, gesturing for Mik and Dolisia to come near him. "So, what's your name?"

The merchant was silent, he didn't want to answer, nor could he due to the paralyzing fear he felt.

"Oh come on. If we wanted to kill you, you would have already been buried, we just want to talk." Joel comforted, "Now come on, speak up. We don't bite."

"I…" The merchant was skeptical, he didn't want to answer. But he had no choice. "My name is Luke."

"Luke, pleasure to meet you," Joel said before he pointed to himself, Mik, and Dolisia respectively. "Joel, Mik, Dolisia. In that order."

"O…kay," Luke replied, his eyes fixated on Mik.

"So, Luke. You know who we are?" Joel asked.

"I thought I knew…" He replied, "But I don't think I do anymore. Did…did the blond man hire you? I never saw you with him."

"The blond man?" Dolisia questioned.

"Y-…yeah."

"Well, good news!" Joel exclaimed, "We don't know any blond man, so hurray for you! I guess this predicament is now cleared."

"I think…yeah." Luke agreed, cracking a nervous smile. "But…you guys are outlaws, right? I saw you, back in the other town."

Suddenly, the air grew immeasurably thick. The trio's once neutral expressions shifted into serious, menacing glares. As for Luke, he was on the verge of tears.

"Um…can you please let me go now, please?" Luke pleaded with a whimper.

"Well, if you only asked that a second sooner, you wouldn't have been shit out of luck," Mik answered. "What the hell did you see?"

"Huh?"

"I said, what the hell did you see?!"

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"Wh-what?!" Luke mumbled, horrified.

"The town, motherfucker! What the hell did you see us do?!" Mik antagonized.

"Please, I'm just a lonely merchant!" Luke begged, tears racing down his cheeks. "I never even had a lover!"

"Luke, get a grip, damn it!" Joel said as he held the former by his chin. "You're not talking your way out of this. So you better keep answering questions, and you better answer them honestly since it's Mik who's asking. Now speak up, what did you see?"

"I…I don't know."

The merchant boy was honest. However, his answer was insufficient, and unsatisfactory for the mistrusting trio. Hence why Mik was forced to seek a more desperate, and grotesque approach.

"Listen, bloke." Mik said as he grabbed a handful of Luke's hair, pulling him closer. "I'm dead serious when I say that I will rip your head off with just my hands. But before that, I will pour this jar of shit on you and leave you here to rot for two days as the maggots feed on you while you develop the worst kind of disease known to man. Now answer, truthfully."

The young boy was horrified as he cried his heart out. He had a firm belief that he will meet his end today.

"Please! I really was telling the truth! I don't know what you did, I just saw the posters in the town! I heard some gossip, that you beat up a luminary or something, nothing more. Now please, let me go! I swear I won't tell a soul about it."

The boy had his head down, crying a river.

"And how can we be sure?" Joel asked, "That you won't tell anyone?"

"I don't know…I just want to go home, please."

"Afraid I can't do that," Mik said as he turned towards Joel and Dolisia. "I reckon we should just kill him."

Upon hearing the latter's proposal, Luke's eyes shot up at the trio—staring at them with widened eyes in both shock and confusion. He couldn't believe what he heard.

"…huh?"

However, the trio didn't respond as Mik knelt down in front of Luke before he held his face with a tight grip. He then clenched his fist, and pulled it back—presumably, ready to beat the merchant boy to death.

"Wait! NO! Please!" Luke pleaded in a muffled voice, "Please, don't kill me! I will pay! I will pay you a lot, just don't hurt me!"

Before Mik could swing his fist at the former, Joel tapped him on the shoulder. Upon doing so, Mik pulled his punch as he turned towards Joel, confused.

"What?"

"Let me talk to Luke for a bit."

"What? But this wasn—"

"Mik…" Joel said, raising his eyebrows.

"Alright, fine."

As Mik stepped back, Joel sat in front of Luke once again.

"So, Luke." Joel began, "What do you mean by what you said?"

"I-…I…" The boy stuttered uncontrollably.

"Luke, calm down. Just take a deep breath, speak up, and you might still have a shot to fondle some tits in the near future."

"O-…okay." He said, "You are strong, right? You beat up a luminary?"

"Yeah, I suppose you could say that," Joel said, a sour look directed at Mik as the latter shrugged.

"Well, I'm looking for an escort, to go with me to my next destination. I'm a merchant, and I have some important stuff that I need to transport with me. But I can't go alone, especially since the blond man is following me."

"Who's this blond man?" Dolisia interrupted.

"He's the one I thought you were working for. He's an outlaw, he's been harassing me and following me for a couple of weeks, and I'm afraid that he will take me by surprise one day when I'm departing alone. It's why I was afraid of you three because you were outlaws just like him. You also didn't dress or look like the people around here, just like him."

"And what's in it for us, blokey?" Mik questioned.

"I'll pay you, money. Good money." He explained, "Actually, I will even give you some of the profit I make from the sales when I reach my destination."

As Joel carefully listened to the latter's proposal, he deeply contemplated his next plan of action. As much as he wanted to stick to his original plan, he couldn't help but get tempted by this generous, yet risky proposal.

He then stood up, stepping a few paces away from the merchant boy before he gestured for Mik and Dolisia to come towards him. As they did so, the three then wrapped their arms around each other in a circle.

"So, I'm sure you heard what Luke said, and personally…" Joel began, "I am conflicted about it, but this might create some progress for us. Even some money, a lot of it."

"Joel, but what about the original plan? Weren't we supposed to scare him shitless and then knock him out? This sounds like a trap." Mik argued.

"Yeah, it was the original course of action." He explained, "But imagine if, what if, we do this mission and we end up making a butt load of money. This is just like an RPG quest, we can't miss the opportunity to take it."

"I agree." Dolisia said, "Yeah, it has some high risk of it being a trap to set us up. But, what if it isn't? It could be real, it could be bullshit. There's one thing we know for sure, it's a goddamn goldmine."

"How so?" Mik asked.

"If this is real, then we can get the mission done, no fuss, up to the end, and earn ourselves a generous paycheck AND a sales bonus. If we meet up with some outlaws, even better. We'll just throw Mik at them, defeat them, maybe sell them as bounties, become good samaritans, and we might even be pardoned by the luminaries. And even if this is a trap, the guy said he's transporting important stuff, right? Then we can just rob it. Moreover, we can even take him hostage if things go sour."

Mik and Joel turned towards Dolisia, trading a perplexed gaze as they eyed the latter. They knew that Dolisia had a love for money, but not one that exceeded the borders of intelligence and morality.

"Wow…you're…genius, but terrifying when it comes to money." Mik blurted out.

"Couldn't have said it better myself." Joel agreed, "But, Dolisia is right. It's a goldmine, and an opportunity to actually change something in this boring, pathetic reincarnation life we have instead of being dumbasses looking for jobs every week."

"So, it's a take?" Mik wondered.

"Hell yeah, it is!" Dolisia and Joel responded in unison.

Thus, as they closed off their meeting with a mutual agreement, the trio made their way toward Luke with a completely different approach. Unlike their previously vicious, and menacing glares. They now gazed at the latter with smug smiles that creeped out the latter even more.

"So, Luke." Joel said, "You have a deal! We'll gladly be your escorts starting tomorrow!"

"Actually, I need to be escorted today."

"We'll gladly be your escorts starting today!" Joel corrected himself, "So, it's a deal?"

Joel then knelt down towards Luke with his arm stretched towards him, awaiting a handshake. However, after a moment of awkward silence, Joel remembered that the latter was tied up and couldn't move anything but his head.

"Um…uh…" He mumbled, before he facepalmed Luke in the face in an awkward motion that slightly resembled a high five, but ended up too sloppy, yet hard enough to smack the merchant boy and leave a mark on his face. "Deal…yay."

Thus, as their deal was finalized, Mik and Dolisia happily walked away while Joel was grabbing onto his hand, traumatized by the awkwardness of that surreal highfive…hand-face? Faceshake? Facefive?

Regardless, it had him traumatized and mumbling curses at life and himself.

"There there, Joel." Mik comforted the latter as he patted his head, "It happens to all of us, don't worry about it."

As the trio walked away back to town, Luke was sitting next to the tree, still tightly tied to it. He was awestruck by the trio who, not only forgot about him being tied to the tree but also didn't pay any heed to him as they happily strolled back to town.

"Wait! You forgot about me! Wait!!! I am still here, you cunts!"

However, despite the trio clearly hearing Luke's calls for help, they couldn't pay less attention to it than they already did.

"God, what is his problem?" Dolisia wondered.

"I don't know." Mik shrugged.

"YOU FORGOT ABOUT ME!" Luke shouted at them from afar, yet no help was inbound.

It was only an hour or so later that the trio finally remembered the fact that Luke was still tied to the tree, and that they had blatantly forgotten about him.

Thus, it wasn't the beginning of the trio's journey with Luke, but the beginning of Luke's journey down a deep path of stress, frustration, and mental breakdowns.

Which, in the end, is but a mundane day for the gang.