Afternoon

Kiyomi tapped a button and closed her holoscreen when she noticed Sako stepping through the palace gates beside her.

“What did he say?” Kiyomi asked as Sako closed the gate.

“So, remember when Mod Aelis said the Demon Lord was cranky?”

“Yeah, and?”

“She ordered one of her generals to go out on a rampage as a retaliation. He razed Esuria. That’s a continent waaaay in the south. Or was a continent. Then he flew all the way up north where we are, probably looking for something interesting to destroy next. Something caught his eye in Essenhire—that’s the kingdom next to us. So, he stormed into the king’s palace and headed to the treasury, leaving a trail of chaos and fire. Then he took a red hair clip and walked out.”

“What… A hair clip?”

Sako nodded. “It turned out that one of the adventurers from that last set who had defeated the DL gave it as a gift to the king since his daughter wanted it. So, her general had then taken that and walked out, probably to return it to the DL. Another nearby kingdom, Lamentine, accused King Lancester of the destruction and said that it was his fault, that he had plotted it all with his band of adventurers—the same adventurers I saw. The group had spent most of their time in Aria, so Lamentine figured King Lancester had made them go to Essenhire to give the hairclip to lure in the DL’s general. And then Lamentine was afraid that her general would come after them next, which was why they summoned all those monsters and plotted an invasion on the capital, thinking that destroying Aria would stop King Lancester from making any more schemes against them. Aria and Lamentine had already been on bad terms, so something was bound to happen eventually.”

That was a lot. Kiyomi was surprised Sako remembered all that.

“And King Lancester said he had gotten all the information from various eyewitnesses, cameras—”

“They have cameras here?”

“They have these floating orbs, you know, like crystal balls. The orbs record stuff and take pictures. Where was I… Oh, and he also got info from his elite mages. Apparently, they can use special spells to recall past events at certain places. I don’t know exactly how it works, but yeah.”

“What else?” Kiyomi asked.

“He said his spies in Lamentine told him Lamentine was planning another attack. And there’s where we come in!”

“What’s the reward?”

“Lots of gold and gear.”

“How much gold?”

“Five hundred thousand.”

“And gear?”

“He let me take a look at the items, but… uh…”

“Yes?”

“They aren’t so good.”

“So they’re pretty trash and not even for wizards.”

“Yeah.”

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Kiyomi thought for a moment, wondering if the tedious quest would be a waste of time. The gold was good, but not the gear… And she didn’t like lore and interacting with people. All that was perfect for Sako though. She herself preferred grinding away for hours, killing stuff alone. Plus she wouldn’t have to listen to people bitching and sending death threats to one another. “Well, that’s your problem. Good luck.”

“Aw, come with me, please?”

“It sounds tedious and annoying.”

“But the gold…”

“I’ll grind for it myself. We’ll split up and make more progress that way. If anything, message me.”

“Alright.” Sako frowned.

“What about the rewards for fending off that invasion earlier?”

“Oh, right. I collected for both of us.” Sako swiped open her UI and pushed a few buttons.

Ping. Kiyomi opened hers and tapped “Accept” to the trade request.

The trade window opened.

Sako put in 10 million gold. “That’s half of what I got.”

“Cool.” Kiyomi tapped “Accept”.

She tapped “Accept”.

Their boxes closed.

“Here.” Sako handed her a card.

Kiyomi took it and stared at it. There was a picture of herself along with her info. Rank: D. What? She lifted her head. “What’s your rank?”

“D,” Sako replied.

She slowly shook her head in disappointment. These people must be brain-dead. They deserved at the very least, an S. She knew that much. The next time she saw Mod Aelis, she would ask her to modify them to accurately reflect their abilities because with these garbage grades, endgamers wouldn’t take them seriously.

“Isn’t that a bit off?”

“Of course it’s off. They’re all idiots.”

“Chelsea gave them to me. But I’m surprised she agreed with the grades so smoothly.”

“Chelsea…” Chelsea of all people. She had been there and saw exactly what they did. “I’ll ask Mod Aelis to fix the IDs later.” They couldn’t accurately measure someone’s abilities and assign a proper grade. For fuck’s sake. But then again, they weren’t teachers.

“He also invited us to a banquet tomorrow.”

“Which I’m not going to.”

Sako frowned again. “It’ll be rude if you don’t show up.”

“Don’t care. Tell him I have stuff to do. Important stuff.”

“Ugh. Why are you always like this?”

“Why are you always like this?”

“Because I like people.”

“Well I don’t.” Kiyomi turned her back.

Quick, light footsteps sounded behind them. “Sakoooooooo!”

That voice… That annoying voice. Fuck. Kiyomi knew who it was. Reluctantly, she turned around just in time to see Luna throw her arms around Sako’s waist and bury her face into her stomach.

Luna looked up into Sako’s eyes. “I searched everywhere for you but couldn’t find you! It’s been so many hours now. You didn’t answer my messages. And I started thinking that… maybe you… left… me…” A hint of sadness crept into her tone. She buried her head into her stomach again to hide her tears.

You obsessive crybaby. Kiyomi thought.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. Stop crying, I’m here.” Sako was stroking Luna’s hair to calm her down. “I’m sorry. We got caught up with talking to the king and—”

Luna looked up at her. “The king?! You must be really wonderful if he allowed you to see him. I just knew you were someone special.”

Sako laughed nervously. “Thank you… How about I make it up to you by taking you to the banquet tomorrow evening?”

“WHAT? YOU GOT INVITED TO THAT?”

Sako nodded. “I’m sure he won’t mind. He’s a pretty generous guy.”

“I’ll go! I’ll definitely go!”

Thankfully, Luna would be Sako’s problem, not Kiyomi’s.

Kiyomi had a long day ahead of her tomorrow…

They found an inn and stayed the night.