Red awoke from an intensely deep sleep. He struggled to open his eyes for a long time, and once he finally did he was horrified. Around him, three bodies lay completely dismembered, torn limb from limb and strewn across the ground. Blood completely covered the area, splattered across the ground, Red’s clothes and the nearby buildings.
Red turned his head and threw up, thinking to himself, “This is insane! Who in the world would do something this violent? Was there still a Cait Sith running around after that battle?”
Red examined the bodies for a second longer before quickly turning his head once again. He instead looked around at his surroundings. With the ruins now bathed in the warm orange glow of sunrise, he was clearly able to see everything.
Red’s battle with the Cait Sith did significant damage to the ruins. Most of the buildings in the area were turned completely into rubble, and the purple blood of the monsters was visible in almost every area.
Red stepped over the pool of blood and body parts and walked over to where Big Ears body was. In place of the body, there was only a large metallic orb, a fascinating platinum color. Red picked it up and held it close to his body for a second, before placing in his small bag. He walked over to the other cores in the area, the majority of them were mostly the same. They were significantly smaller than the first one, and seemed to be made of wood or stone.
“There were at least twenty-eight Cait Sith, but I really only need to take sixteen cores back. I don’t have too much space, so I’ll take twenty and see if I can get some sort of profit from the rest.”
Red gathered the cores for a while, wiping away the dust and monster blood on them to the best of his abilities.
Sunrise had turned to high noon by the time he was completely finished. As Red turned to head back to the marketplace, he looked back at the bodies one more time.
“There’s no way, right? Did…did I do this?” Red thought to himself.
Red shook the thoughts out of his head and made his way back to the marketplace.
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Red nearly tripped as he attempted to place the cores he held in both hands on the counter of the guild stall.
A few of the spherical cores slipped off and hit the ground as Semaj and Red attempted to organize them.
Semaj bit his lip and looked in awe as Red finished setting them up.
“Is this real? You’ve only been gone about…twelve hours. How is that possible?”
Red sighed, “It would’ve been a lot faster if I didn’t tap out my mana reserves and pass out. I did a sweep of the area near the ruins, this is all of them.”
Semaj put his hand out and Red shook it, “Roalais Estremores, you have my undying respect. You can’t fathom the amount of resources and manpower I’ve been throwing at this problem and trying to fix it. Dozens of my guild members killed or dismembered trying to kill those beasts. That trade route being unavailable cost the city untold tens of thousands.”
Red nodded along, “So by the sounds of it, those untold tens of thousands the city lost are going to be going to me, right?”
Semaj laughed heartily, “That would be nice, right? The original poster of this quest passed away a while ago unfortunately. The family friend I told you about before you left? He was one of the first victims of the Cait Sith. There’s no one to pay you, the reward for this was me covering your guild fees and lodging.”
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Red rolled his eyes as Semaj carefully examined the cores. He held one up to the sun and whispered something to himself, and immediately his body became stiff and his eyes glazed over.
After half an hour in this position, Semaj jolted awake and gasped for air.
Red turned to him, “Did you like what you saw?”
Semaj turned to him with a concerned look, “You are incredibly lethal. It’s sort of scary,” he placed the orb under the counter, “Either way though, I shouldn’t attend to personal matters when I’m working. So let’s talk about this A rank mission I wanted to present to you.”
Semaj disappeared into the darkness of his still and reappeared with a small piece of paper.
Red examined the paper for a while, before looking at Semaj and shaking his head, “Semaj I cannot read this at all.”
Semaj laughed once again, “I know right? I couldn’t even post this quest when this was first handed to me, I had to get the man to read what he wrote to me.”
Semaj picked up the paper, “Essentially our unnamed quest poster has a missing child, he believes it's kidnapping.”
Red crossed his arms, “Unnamed? And how does he know it is kidnapping?”
Semaj shrugged his shoulders, “The guy refused to identify himself. Didn’t give much description on the kid either. Not even a name, he just said the boy is ‘moody’.”
Red nodded his head, “So how am I supposed to find this kid?”
Semaj grabbed a stack of similar notes under the counter and slammed it on top, “That’s where it starts to get interesting! There are many such cases. Several concerned parents have brought up similar suspicions and attempted to have them posted as quests. They haven’t had the funds to cover the posting fee or the minimum reward fee so I did have to turn them away.”
Semaj turned and pointed at a poster on the side of the guild stall. The big gaudy poster had large letters and bright painted colors.
Red fixed his eyes on it.
“Looking for transporters for human cattle,” He read it slowly. He turned to Semaj, “Wait, are they talking about slaves?”
Semaj put his elbows on the counter and rested his head on his hands, “The conservatives run this country. The young people don’t want to be leaders, so slavery is still legal here. It’s barbaric right?”
Red shook his head, “That’s unbelievable.”
Semaj closed his eyes, “And get this, they made it illegal to enslave people, but it’s perfectly legal to buy and sell them. Law enforcement doesn’t question them or where they source their slaves from so it’s a wasteland.”
“Nobody is trying to stop it?”
“A few of us, but we’re like flies trying to nag an elephant. Slaves bring too much money into our economy, so the government turns a blind eye to the more morally objectionable parts of it. In fact, the only reason I have this posted is because my boss made me put it up.”
Semaj slammed his hand against the flashy poster, shaking his whole guild stall, “Red I want you to kill these people. They are slave drivers, kidnapping kids from their parent's arms and selling them to anybody. These people have strong ties to Asthenic, our neighbor country so I can’t get anyone to accept this. Most of our guild members are vagabonds, they’re in and out of these countries constantly so they can’t afford to be fugitives of them. I get the suspicion that might not be as big of an issue for you though.”
“You make a lot of assumptions about me,” Red commented.
“Of course! One look at you and I’m certain about the type of person you are. I can tell you’re someone who can’t stand injustice! Someone who hates to see the weak trampled on. So that’s why I know you’ll accept this.”
Red snickered, “You might be right. Where should I start?”
Semaj scratched his chin, “In that first note I showed you, the man said he saw some strange activity on the far end of the coast, past Sola Dorma. My guess? It’s probably hidden by magic somehow.”
Red waved a hand and began to walk off.
Semaj called out behind him, “And make sure to bring me back the posting fee for this. My boss has a close relationship with them, so he didn’t even make them pay it upfront, he just told me to put up the poster immediately. Typically it’s 50 gira for the posting fee and 25 for the minimum reward but let's just go with 100 to make it easier. Anything else you find, you can keep for yourself. If you find any magic items or anything, I have a fence that can help you sell that as well.”
Red turned back to him, “Aren’t you supposed a hero for justice? And you’re talking about somebody buying stolen goods?”
“My motto is steal from the rich and give to the poor. And if you wanted to give a little extra that would be appreciated too. Do it in the name of justice. Or because you love my winning personality. Either way, it’d be going to a good cause.”
Red placed his hands in his pockets and walked towards the coast, paying no heed as Semaj continued to shout at him.