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Ch. 53 — The Calamity

Quest Complete! Tying up Loose Ends

Requirements:

* Dispose of target: Ruie Vokasha.

Rewards:

* Rank 5 Shadow Auditor skills unlocked

* 2000 XP

“What the hell?”

Naba’s demeanor suddenly changed. Her jubilant, cocky smile twisted into a scowl, and she began to swat at the heads of her fans, demanding to be let down from where she was crowd surfing. They obliged confusedly, their cheers bubbling into silence as she escaped the gaggle of limbs.

“What the hell?” she repeated again. She hopped over the ropes, and knelt down by Ruie’s unmoving body, pushing her fingers to the nape of his neck.

Her eyes widened.

"Ref," she barked, delivering a sharp slap to Ruie’s cheek and knocking her knuckles against his jaw. "Wake up, pretty boy. What the hell? Is there a healer in the crowd?"

“Let’s go,” Akemi said, urgently grabbing Bamo’s wrist. “Fight’s over.”

“Wait—” Bamo resisted, eyes glued to the stage. “I–is he dead? That kind of hit shouldn’t have been enough to kill him. Lay him unconscious, sure. But…”

“None of our business,” Akemi reiterated, tugging at his wrist another time. He gave her an agitated look, one which quickly melted when Akemi glared at him. She wasn’t going to wait around to see the outcome of this, even if there was nothing incriminating her.

“Poor Naba,” Bamo said as he finally let himself get lifted from the stands. They began peeling through the sweaty, adrenaline-dazed crowd. “If Ruie really is dead, The Calamity's going to have her head on a pike by next week. There’s no way she can keep working that waitressing job after this. She’ll have to flee town.”

“The who?”

New Quest Acquired! Tying up Loose Ends (II)

Requirements:

* Fight The Calamity (0/1).

Akemi stopped in her tracks, the System message pinning her in place.

“Fight the Calamity?” she muttered, utterly confused.

“Fight? It won’t be much of a fight,” Bamo continued idly, not realizing that Akemi was no longer talking to him. “Ruie’s dad is a Titanium ranked Pit Fighter. Naba just won her way into Silver. He’ll mop the floor with her. Or better yet, he’ll have one of his friends do it off the books, so it won’t touch his reputation. The man’s more popular than most gods around here.”

Before Akemi could form enough words to tell him to shut up, she was being interrupted by a fist colliding straight with her back. She hit the door of the venue with a spine-rattling smack.

“You,” Naba U’zaki’s terse, bloodthirsty voice filled her ear. The woman flipped her around so they were facing each other. The waitress looked, in a word, murderous. “I checked my System logs. You’re the one I split the experience with. You’re the one who killed Vokasha junior.”

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“I have no idea what you’re—”

Persuasion Check (Impossible)

Failed!

Naba dug her cherry-red nails around the collar of Akemi’s shirt and seethed. She looked like a crazed, rabid dog, her breath as hot as the kitchens she worked in.

“You absolute piece of shit. This is all your fault. I’m going to have to drop out of the league because of this. There’s no way I’ll be able to fight in a pit in Kerbes ever again without The Calamity’s teeth on my neck. My career is over.”

Breathing heavily, Naba reared her fist back, poised to strike. Looming behind her, Akemi could see the entirety of the arena staring in anticipation. To them, this had just become the encore show. The hawkers had even begun selling the next round of drinks and popcorn.

“If it helps,” Akemi started, raising her hand ever-slowly, so Naba wouldn’t notice the movement. “I think I’m doing you a favor. The food at that restaurant of yours is probably giving you cancer.”

“Oh, you fuck—”

“[Chloroform]”

Akemi cupped her hand around Naba’s mouth and nose, and white-blue steam zipped into her nostrils. Naba’s eyelashes began to shutter, but the woman managed one hit before she collapsed. Her fist went straight into Akemi’s stomach, like a blunt hammer to the gut. Akemi seized, her eyes flashing from white to black, and she crumpled to the floor.

Her and Naba lay side-by-side. One unconscious, the other seconds from the same.

“Bamo,” Akemi muttered. “Pick me up, and get us the hell out of here.”

“But—”

“Bamo.”

“Fine.”

So.

Akemi knew one thing now.

Nocturne was out for her blood.

It didn’t surprise her. She knew it was inevitable. The part that maddened her was that she didn’t know the precise reason why: had this been his intention from the beginning? To have her discover the Viscount’s plans, then kill her off before she could do anything with it? Or had he just now realized that she had betrayed him, and was coming for her?

She lay in the back of the carriage as it bobbed along the dark road, her bruised ribs aching. Her mind turned around the possibilities. But there was really only one that made sense.

This had to have been his plan from the beginning.

He wouldn't have let her go that easily if he had thought she was lying about the location of the documents. No, he would have tortured her for the true intel if he hadn’t been convinced. He had to have believed she was telling the truth, and sent her in the opposite direction of where he thought the documents were buried. She had sent him south, so he had sent her north.

Well, he had done more than just send her astray; he gave her a mission that would end up with her pissing off an incredibly powerful man. Someone to do his dirty work for him.

That was the title of the quest, after all—tying up loose ends.

She was the loose end.

She clenched her jaw, regretting ever pursuing the mission. She had assumed fulfilling the quest would buy her some goodwill with Nocturne. That it might make her look even less suspicious. But it didn’t make a difference in the end. To him, she had always been a disposable rat—good for digging up things, easy to throw back into the sewers of reincarnation once he was done with her. It was a type of pragmatism that Akemi could only really admire.

Raphael ‘The Calamity’ Vokasha has put a hit on you.

Your Bounty has been increased by 40,000 silvers.

She groaned.

“Bamo,” she yelled from the back seat. “Heads up, but I think we’re about to have a lot bigger nuisances than some angry waitress hunting our tail. My bounty just skyrocketed.”

“I’m already carrying around the world’s biggest nuisance in my passenger carriage,” he huffed, unbothered. “I can’t imagine it getting much worse.”

She rolled her eyes.

Despite it all—despite the very likely possibility that very high level heroes would soon be hunting her for sport—she wasn’t afraid. If anything, this was good news. Nocturne was more than likely on the other side of the Plains, searching for treasure that wasn’t there. And his diehard lackey was behind a desk, sorting paper, none the wiser.

All she had to do was avoid civilization for a little bit longer, and she’d have her hands on a prize much more priceless than any silly bounty. She’d have a double-reward cheat code.

She fell asleep smiling, and dreamed of Pyre at her desk, slamming her head into a spreadsheet.