*'Doki'*

'This is just one of those days...'

I sighed deeply.

'My companions are incompetent scaredy-cats, and we're on a fetch quest. Talk about boring.' I thought whilst dragging myself down the dirt path in front of me. Somewhere far behind me being the idiots I work with, the idiots that went on full panic because of some bandits, the same idiots that get distracted by everything causing them to stop. If they could walk ANY SLOWER I may give them an award, if the game didn't give them an achievement beforehand.

Maybe I was a BIT annoyed at the lack of trust they had in me. Maybe I was frustrated at trying to explain my motives, for it to fall on deaf ears every time. But I think the fact that I only just remembered how the clan out for us went to another city, so all this caution is really for no reason, is my true reason behind being annoyed. I mean, without their presence the others wouldn't walk at a snail's pace, turning over every rock before daring to continue!

I internally ranted about the situation I was in, trying to make my own entertainment whilst we escorted Thorborg to her goal. I could hear gossip and laughter in the background, but I didn't bother to pay attention to it, now walking ahead of them.

We, well I, could see the 'city' of Skimmington on the skyline, about thirty or so minutes away. I took this as a chance to rest, grabbing some bread from my pockets, I sat down on the field next to the path. 

'It's about noon anyway, it's their fault for being so slow.' I thought, condoning their over-caution as I ate happily in spite.

I was used to the chill wind flowing through my hair, airing out my sweaty body as I relaxed. A mixture of the hot summer's day, the cooling winds and the peaceful location made me feel so good that I managed to fall asleep whilst there.

-

I woke up to loud voices tearing through the peaceful atmosphere.

As I looked around to make sense of it, the booming voices continued.

"Y-you traitorous scum! Y-y-you WILL pay for this!" A familiar voice shouted, clearly distressed. As Doki tried to think of who this voice belonged to, an unfamiliar voice butted in.

"We already have Mr. Crossfield. You're the one who forced my hand. This 'diplomacy' and 'freedom' is a joke, your only job was to end it. This world was made to be ruled, not released. If you don't let us have our way, we will kill you and all the happy go lucky fools under this fake banner. Oh, wait." the voice paused for a moment, the scrumping of paper could be heard.

"P-p-please, give me one more week... PLEASE!"

Harrowing laughter broke the silence."Ha ha ha ha ha ha HA HA HA! You've made too many mistakes already, Mr. mayor. It's time for a new puppet to be made, or better yet. War. Consider this us cutting ties with you. So long traitor!"

Without thinking, I followed the voices. The clinging of weapons started and ended swiftly. By the time I arrived, the mayor, Jacques Crossfield, was starting to vanish. Across from him, a bulky devil in a fine suit handed his weapon to one of his colleagues. He turned his back to the scene in disgust, walking away with his posse of fellow demons.

As I was about to butt in, a hand grabbed my shoulder. I turned around and met LOD's stare.

An awkward silence was maintained between us until the devil had gone for good.

Completely confused, LOD broke the silence, asking "W-what was that? W-was that... The mayor!? And what the hell was that thing!?"

Thinking about the situation, I released a mumble in awe, "Hm. Interesting..."

"Eh?" LOD tilted his head at this mumble.

"Turns out this place is a juggling act of corruption. The being you saw before was a devil, with the elves I saw earlier, it's the second race I've seen trying to make Fourth Island their own. Seems like things are truly this bad. By the way, keep this from the other two. It'd be bothersome for it to become public knowledge at this point, are they're bound to spill the beans with exclamations." I explained, hoping that I wouldn't have to repeat myself.

Nodding in content, LOD noticed my glare.

Sometime later he worked out that it was his turn, so started to explain why he was here, "We were just behind you when you got up. Being the lazy gits that they are, they asked me to chase you. They should still be in the field from before."

I started walking to where I was, with LOD in the lead. Constantly wondering how deep these devils were into this country. 

After a moment of walking, the familiar laughter and chatter that surrounded me for the last week reached my ears again. It was the other three, who soon noticed us appearing out of the treeline.

"Where did you go Doki?" "Didn't you notice us coming?" Jeehan and Nio, in that order, asked me their questions without time to answer either.

I shrugged off their questions with a half-arsed answer, "I heard something in the trees, sounded like a bear. It was just a hobgoblin."

They tilted their heads, demanding more. I sighed and continued walking to the city. They begrudgingly followed me.

-

When we got to the city, we waited to let Thorborg take it in.

Her eyes were wide, trying to take in as much of the city as she could. 

An awkward silence built up before she finally screeched, "T-this is a city!? Wow!"

It was as loud as I expected, leading to a few stares from onlookers making the situation that more awkward. With some awkward smiles and arm movements, the onlookers soon looked elsewhere.

Looking around the city was still going on strong, the main street we were on was obnoxiously loud. Hundreds of people socialized with others on the pavements, the roads were filled with carriages carrying various supplies, smiles and laughs were spread throughout them. 

'Hm, seems like our little fight made this city a bit too carefree.' I thought, after seeing the fragile nature around their happiness and peace was built on. Thinking back to how the mayor of this city working with devils and all, who then declared war on him. 

I reached the conclusion 'Actually, it's probably best for them to make the most of this peace. Not like it'll last long anyway. I might as well join them for now, who knows when I'll get the chance to annoy people this casually again?'

Whilst thinking, the other three seemed to be planning a tour of the city for our client. I missed a lot of the conversation but picked it back up near the end.

"Wait, so where do you wish to go first?" Nio asked, talking over the other two's attempts to dictate our path.

Whilst being asked, Thorborg's stomach started to grumble. As a result, she blushed and meekly replied, "I don't mind going to a cafe or something."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

With that said, we continued to walk straight, dodging other people as we walked down the street. We were heading for the commercial district, and whilst Jeehan and Nio taught Thorborg the ropes, LOD and I broke into our own conversation.

LOD caught up to me, and lightly jabbed me in the side whilst exclaiming, "So where are your fan-girls Doki? The sight of people only looking at you is unusual, to say the least."

I flinched, as about one-third of my health was removed. Noticing this I replied relatively angrily, "Huh. You realize that actually removed health from me, right? Mind if I take it back?"

Without giving him time to answer, I swiftly chopped his headless lightly. I got my health back, I considered it successful and giggled slightly. 

Without answering his question, I changed the topic to a more deep one, "By the way, I've been wondering. Do you three actually trust me or not?"

Taken aback, LOD paused for a while thinking of his answer. I was curious since their actions dictated that they seemed to not trust me, but they actually try to stop me...

He tried to delay his answer for as long as possible, not wanting to annoy me, but sooner or later my stare broke him.

"W-we don't. Sorry, but we've known each other for like a week, and your apathetic stance and habit of thinking miles ahead of us makes it really hard to emphasize with you. That's our reason for doubting you..." he sheepishly answered.

I shrugged, understanding but still annoyed at their antics. I've tried to explain it how many times again? At least three to my knowledge, and not a single time did it go through their thick skulls!

I sighed in despair, my sigh was met by an awkward silence between us as the others talked and laughed with glee behind us. 

We got to the commercial district about a hundred meters ahead of the others, maintaining an atmosphere so thick you could cut it with a knife. We both decided to wait for them since we didn't know where our client wanted to go.

-

Jeehan noticed us waiting, so they sped up a bit, catching us up in a minute. I was bored by then, so decided to playfully annoy our client.

"So where do you wish to go, mistress?" I asked, successfully hiding my sarcasm and swallow my ego whilst saying it. I was curious as I saw her reactions, so was let down when she only blushed mildly.

If she was in my fan-club I'd expect her to start drooling or something. Pity, my attraction bonus isn't that strong on her. It seems to work differently on different people.

I followed it up with a bow, still out of curiosity. Her reaction of feeling wheezy, making her lose balance made me content, I guess that was her type of something. She didn't fall, fortunately, but had to be supported by Jeehan to continue walking again.

Her brain still melted by my little act, she gave up on trying to talk, instead pointing to a shop called 'La Cafe de Soleil', so we went entered with a little bell ringing as we did.

"Welcome masters," two girls wearing a full maid ensemble greeted us on arrival. They looked at us with flawless smiles aimed at us. Their eyes brought out by the colour of their dresses, and the cat ears on their heads. I noted how professional they seemed to act, effortlessly giving out such a pure aura.

I was only looking to see their response to me, an incubus who was cheating with an attraction bonus, compared to their natural prowess. 

I wasn't let down, as their smiles turned to wide open mouths, probably in awe, when they met my eyes. They both broke character, starting to look me over. They noted each article of clothing I wore with annoyed clicks of the tongue, becoming more infatuated with me by the second. Their eyes fixed into deep, emotionless stares.

I puffed out my chest as I concluded my victory over them. I couldn't help but feel like playing around now. It was good stress relief and since I was bound to get tied down in the war between the races anyway, removing stress now seemed like a good thing.

Now waiting for them to end their trance, I looked around at the cafe itself. I seemed really fancy, with glossy white wallpaper, pristine tables with fresh flowers in the middle. Even with all of this, people around them and food in front of them, the majority still looked at me... Was the attraction bonus really that high?

LOD stabbed my back with his elbow in a jeering taunt. "You sure you should be an adventurer? Even professionals can't match you in terms of cuteness."

I noted that this was the second time today he called me 'cute'. 

'Is he just jealous, or was he switching teams?' This question popped into my mind, as I tried to find my answer to both. Both would serve to be annoying, but the latter would be more so since I have no interest, and risked him breaking from the team in response. 

I thought back to my now numerous fan-club and sighed in defeat. I wasn't interested in any of them either, so one more face to ignore wouldn't really matter to me.

As I made my conclusion, the two girls got their posture back.

"S-sorry masters, let us show us to your table now. A party of 5, correct?" one asked, scouting the free tables to find one to fit us.

"Correct. We have no real preference on where our table is, so don't worry about giving us the best one." Nio replied, as casually as possible.

He seemed to glare at the cat-ear a little too much, was he into that sort of stuff?

"Oh, don't be so modest masters. We have one or two large tables to spare, so please pick which one you want." the other maid asked, moving her arm as to welcome us in.

There were two large tables, one was a window seat and the other was near the back. Not wanting to be watched by people walking by, we decided the back table was the better option. With another annoyed tongue click, the maid surrendered and allowed us to sit there.

When we had sat down, we were handed a menu. And looking at the prices, a cold sweat broke out on most of our faces.

'Huh. So who's paying for this again? It better not be me...' I thought, in the hope that the others would forget that I had over 100k in my pocket.

It wasn't that I couldn't pay, but compared to the other restaurants that would charge maybe 500 gold for a top tier cup of tea with limitless sugar and milk, they instead charged 1200 gold for the bare minimum. To say this cafe over-priced things was an understatement. I was only going to get a soft drink, so to foot the bill for everyone else's meal didn't sit right with me.

We made our orders, the other's costing ludicrous amounts and talked whilst waiting for it to be served, we discussed things from where we were going next, to how nice the summer weather was.