Once Q jumped down from the booth, a small crowd of people approached her. This consisted of the Breckden representative, the Velorie representative and the player with the long-sword who was trying to calm down the crowd earlier. All three of these people were followed by a few others, most likely their trusted subordinates. The first to speak was the Breckden representative who stood towering above Q.

“Well little fox, I didn’t think that we’d be solving our fight this way.” Q simply shrugged as she looked at the crowd. It seemed that the players were being swarmed with both Breckdens and Velories attempting to recruit them into their ranks. Her attention was diverted from the crowd when the Velorie representative began to speak as well. “I suppose I should thank you for finding a solution to our dispute. Though remember this!” He said as he raised his nose in the air and pointed a finger at Q. “We definitely do not need your help! We could have taken on both you intruders and these barbarians without any problem.”

“What was that!?” The Breckden representative angrily shouted. “You were the first one to agree to allowing these outsiders to help! Obviously because you know that your puny magicians can’t stand up to the might of the Breckdens!”

“Oh?” The Velorie representative suddenly brought out his wand and began to charge a spell. Likewise, the Breckden representative brought out his heavy war-hammer and locked eyes with the Velorie representative. Q rolled her eyes and sighed as she watched the sparks fly between them, and addressed the other person who came along with these two. “So, what are you here for?” Q asked nonchalantly. For a moment, the man seemed a bit bewildered, but quickly regained his wits.

“Ah, my apologies, Miss…” He trailed off his words as looked at Q for clarification.

“The name’s Q.” She said as she stuck out her hand.

“A pleasure to meet you, Miss Q. Uh, is that spelt K-Y-U or is it...”

“It’s just the letter Q.” She replied as the man shook her hand and introduced himself. “I am Sir Albert Welfring the Third, at your service.” He said, and then proceeded to bow. Q almost let out a laugh at the display, but decided to play along instead. “Rise, Sir Albert.” She commanded, and Albert twitched for a moment before straightening his body and dutifully looking at Q with a perfect salute. Q smiled and said “At ease, sir.” to which Albert relaxed his body and wore a satisfied smile on his face.

“What is your purpose in coming here, Sir Albert?” Q said with a strangely haughty attitude.

“Miss Q, I have come here to express my deepest respect for the way you handled that situation. Me and my comrades here,” he indicated his followers, “Had attempted to control the situation, but to no avail. Yet your awe-inspiring words and imposing figure had filled us with courage and determination.” Albert said with shining eyes.

“Oh, you give me too much credit good sir. I’m sure that a man of your stature would have been able to easily quell the ranks of such unruly men with enough time.”

“Not at all. It was your fiery figure that burned in the shining sun which captured the eyes of the men, and caused our attention to shift towards you.” Albert said, as he continued to compliment her. My fiery figure…? Oh! My hair! Q suddenly realized why she had caught everyone’s attention. Well I did set my hair color to look like fire, but I didn’t actually think it’d look like fire. She looked back towards Albert as she continued to speak.

“Well, I thank you for the kind compliments, Sir Albert.”

“Not at all Miss Q, especially when you are so deserving of it.”

“Oh no, I’m sure a warrior like you deserves it more. Oh, on the subject of being a warrior, how did you obtain that wonderful blade?” Once she mentioned the sword, Albert’s eyes suddenly gave off a manic gleam as he pulled it out and began gushing all the details about it. “Ah, you see this wonderful sword was obtained in the depths of a dark and gloomy dungeon. Let me tell you all about it!” He began. Once he began to explain, Q noticed that his companions in the back wore tired smiles as if they knew what was coming next.

“When I had woken up in this world, I found myself in a dark room. Runic writings lined the walls, and taught me what information was required to survive. I got up to explore the immediate vicinity, and found myself within an ancient building, with darkness surrounding me, save for a torch I could see in the distance…”

As he continued to talk, Q gradually began to smile seeing his excitement.

“... and so after beating down those vile rodents, I had found a skeleton! Embedded within its rib cage was this very blade you see here. As you can see, the exquisite workmanship on the hilt and handle truly add to the charm of this blade. And the blade itself is…”

“Heh…” Q let out a little chuckle as Albert got heated up in his story.

“... but I had slain the skeleton just as easily as it had risen! Of course, it was no problem for me, as my sword skills were far superior to the skeleton’s…”

“Hehe... hahaha... AHAHAHA! I’m sorry… I just can’t… can’t keep this up much longer.” Q said while barely containing her laughter. Hearing her childish laugh, Albert let out a wry smile as he continued to speak. “I understand. Not many people are able to keep up with the rigors of maintaining a... certain attitude.”

“Haha, no problem. I used to play D&D with my little sister and friends so I’m kind of used to it, though I don’t think we ever got as into it as you are.”

Albert’s eyes instantly brightened once he saw that he had found a comrade in Q. In the blink of an eye, he began making rapid gestures with his hands and a window appeared in front of Q.

[Sir Albert Welfring the Third would like to register you as a friend. Do you accept? (YES/NO)]

Q let out a faint smile as she accepted the request, putting another strange person into her friend list. “So anyway Albert, what did you come to me for? Shouldn’t you be deciding which side to join instead of talking to me?”

Albert shook his head as he began to explain. “Actually, me and my comrades here have already decided on which house to assist, we only came here in hopes of recruiting you to join our cause.”

Q looked over at Sir Albert’s motley crew, finding that the large majority of them were men with simple swords and daggers. She gave a quick glance to the little mouse who was currently peeking out from the booth. When they met eyes she quickly ducked back down under, eliciting a small chuckle from Q. “Thanks for the offer, but no thanks as well. I already have a traveling companion of my own, so I’ll have to decline.”

“I see. Well, perhaps if fate allows it we shall cross paths again?” Albert said with a slightly dejected face.

“We’ll see in the future. Well, that and we can just message each other using the messaging system.”

“True enough. Well, I would not want to impose upon you any longer. May we meet again!” Albert said as he returned to his friends. What a swell guy. Q thought as she watched him leave. It was at this moment that the previous two representatives seemed to end their staring contest and paid attention to Q again. She turned to them and saw that they both looked a little bit ruffled, probably because they fought a bit without her noticing.

Before either of them could say anything, Q preemptively greeted the two. “Greetings house leaders, may I have your names?” She asked politely. The two men exchanged a look and proceeded to introduce themselves.

“I am Cadby Breckden! Head of the Breckden clan, the rightful rulers of this land!” The large man boasted.

“I am the great magician Malcolm Velorie,” the well-dressed man said as he gave a bow. “Head of the Velorie house, the TRUE rulers of this land.”

“What was that?” Cadby narrowed his eyes and seemed raring to go for another fight. Though Malcolm didn’t say anything, Q noticed that his wand in his hand began to give off a slight glow. Letting out yet another sigh, Q decided to intervene before they got into another fight. “So was this anything important or did you two just want to show off in front of a kid?” The two men stopped glaring at each other and looked a little embarrassed. Malcolm was the first to speak as he approached Q and looked her in the eye.

“You… ‘outsiders’ seem to have quite the talent for magic. More than half of you seem to have knowledge of one spell or another, and being a mage myself I am inviting all magic users to join my house.” Malcolm explained.

“Yeah, but why would you join these flimsy mages when you could join my strong warriors?” Cadby added.

“Why have brawn when you have no brains to use it?” Malcolm said with a look of disdain.

“Why have brains when you have… uhh… you guys are stupid!” Unable to come up with a comeback, Cadby let out a lame insult and glared at Malcolm with hostile eyes. Seeing that the two were ready to fight again Q rolled her eyes and left the area, hoping to stay out of their upcoming fight. On the way she grabbed Brie who was still hiding in the booth, and they both quickly left the area.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Once the pair had gone far enough from the crowd, Brie immediately retracted her hand and began complaining again. “Y - you! I have warned you not to touch me so casually!” Ignoring her words, Q continued to walk forward and began talking. “So… which side do you think we should join? To be honest I’d like to join up with the Velories but since we’re partying together I figured that I should get your opinion on the matter first.”

“H-hold on!” Brie cried as she caught up with Q. “And what do you mean join a side? You would willingly ally yourself with those men?”

Q stopped walking as she turned to look at Brie. “Well obviously I’d ally myself with them. If you’ve forgotten, this is a game and we need to get stronger in order to do anything significant. I mean, we don’t even have a class yet. We won’t be able to deal with any monsters if we don’t get stronger… Actually that reminds me, people can be crafters right? I guess they don’t have to fight all that much…” As Q began to mutter to herself, Brie simply gave her a strange look.

For Brie who had next to no interactions with men, the idea of working together with them scared her. Despite this, she was still a prideful girl and would never admit that, so she was stuck in quite a dilemma. On one hand, she did believe that they should get stronger, but on the other hand she definitely didn’t want to get involved with men. As she watched the muttering Q and was debating on what to do, a soft voice rang out from behind them.

“U-um… excuse me…” The two of them turned around and found a young girl who appeared to be around 16 years old with long locks of black hair that covered her eyes. “Are you two… could you… I mean…” Suddenly she crouched down and held her head as she began talking to herself. “Oh… I can’t even talk to people properly. Why did mother send me out to do this?” Q saw the girl’s figure and was immediately reminded of how Brie was just a few moments earlier. Laughing in her head, she approached the girl and crouched down, looking at her eye-to-eye.

“Hello miss. What is it that you’d like to ask?” Q said gently as she let out a smile. This appeared to calm down the girl a bit as she began to talk. “Ah, um… Would you two like to… Er, could you follow me? My mother would explain this much better.” Q turned to look at Brie, and seeing that she didn’t have any comments she answered the girl. “Sure, we’d be glad to follow you.”

Hearing this, the girl let out a bright smile as she led the two into one of the alleyways. They took a few turns here and there, and finally ended up in front of a large house. It had the design of a western-style house and as they approached the house it had slight signs of decay. Taking a quick look at the window it was dusty, and the inside of the house seemed empty. Just as Q was about to ask where this place was, the girl beckoned them over to a large cellar door which was slightly hidden by bushes and leaves.

Q and Brie exchanged a look, then descended into the cellar. The girl followed behind them and closed the doors, drowning them in darkness, but the bottom of the cellar suddenly lit up as a hooded person holding a torch appeared. “Welcome back Lily, are these two are new recruits?”

“Uh, they’re uh… maybe?” Lily didn’t seem sure as to what to say which caused the hooded person to sigh.

“Don’t tell me you didn’t explain to them what they were getting into.”

“I… I thought that my mother would be better at explaining it.” Lily said with a quiet voice. Letting out another sigh, the hooded person beckoned the three of them towards her. “Come this way you two. Our leaders will explain the situation to you. As for you Lily, go wait in the hallway. I’m coming back and giving you a good lecture you hear?”

“No Sheila! Please! Your lectures are so long and boring!”

“What was that!?”

“Nothing! I’ll go now.” Lily bowed to Q and Brie as she headed off into another direction. “All right, follow me.” Said the hooded person as she led them through the cellar. Q was quite excited at the developments going on. Could it be that they had stumbled upon a hidden faction? If that was the case then they were very lucky. On the other hand, Brie was quite nervous as she faintly recalled a similar situation in the past. She got even closer to Q as they continued to go through the cellar.

Eventually, the three of them reached a large door and the hooded person opened it. A bright light shone out from the room and temporarily blinded Q and Brie. Once their eyes became adjusted, the hooded person guided them through and what they saw surprised them. Inside the room was a large group of girls, all talking, sipping tea, and doing other miscellaneous activities. The walls were made of granite and the floor was covered in hardwood. All sorts of decorative items laying about, such as ornaments or rugs. Looking up, Q realized that the source of light came from a large dome of glass which made up a large part of the ceiling. At the center of the room two women were talking, and their eyes focused on the newcomers as they approached.

“Welcome, travelers.” The woman who spoke first had long voluminous hair, which was shockingly blue! She was dressed up in a frilly dress and sipped tea as she looked at the two of them. “I am Sharon Velorie, one of the two heads of the Velorie house.”

“Oh, so you’re Malcolm’s wife then. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Q bowed. “My name is Q, and this is my companion Brie.”

“My, what a polite child.” Sharon responded with a giggle.

“Hey now, don’t forget about me!” The other woman stood up and faced Q. She had short brown hair and wore rough clothing, giving her an impression much like a warrior. Her build was a bit bulkier than average, and she wore a wolfish grin on her face. “I’m Marilyn Breckden, the other leader of the Breckden house.” she said as she reached out to shake hands with Q.

“Hold on a second,” Q interrupted. “Aren’t the Velories and Breckdens supposed to be fighting each other? How come you two are on good terms?” Hearing this, the two women exchanged looks, then let out loud laughs which caught the attention of the other girls around the room.

Once they had finished laughing, Sharon quickly answered Q’s question. “Well, the answer to that is quite simple you see. Our husbands are indeed at odds with each other, always fighting to see who’s superior, but me and Marilyn grew tired of their constant fighting every day. After debating between ourselves, we just decided to leave them to fight each other and instead gather here, where we could peacefully chat and exchange pleasantries.”

“That is... not what I expected at all.” Brie spoke out. The focus of the conversation shifted to her as she continued talking. “Surely you two have some sort of enmity with each other. I would not expect this dispute between your families to last for so long if you did not.” Sharon let out a slight laugh at this as she replied. “Well, I can tell you the whole story but it would take a while. But before we get into that, are you two willing to join our little group here?”

“Sounds interesting,” Q said. “but what is your group and what do you do?”

Marilyn spoke up as she explained, “We’re known as the Prim Roses. I know, names a bit sissy but it fits well. As for what we do, basically what you’re seeing right now. We girls just gather around and don’t really get involved in the conflict between the houses. So how about it?” She continued, “Do you want to join?”

A sudden message appeared in front of Q and Brie.

[Notice] - You are now able to join the hidden faction of Foria: The Prim Roses. Note: Available only to female players.

“One moment please.” Brie quickly replied as she pulled Q over to the side. “Do you want to join? Because I would like to join this group.”

“I expected as much.” Q said with a grin. “I mean with the other groups consisting of muscleheads and vainglories, I didn’t think you’d want to join them. Well, not to mention that they’re mainly filled with men.” At the last sentence, Brie nodded her head and then they both turned to the leaders and said ““We would be honored to join your group.” ...Jinx!”

Brie gave Q a strange look as a window appeared in front of them.

[You have joined a group!] - You have now joined The Prim Roses. You may now take on exclusive quests and grow stronger by assisting your group in whatever they need.

Prim Roses influence: 1%

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A/N: Hello all. Well, I don't have much to say this chapter but if you have any questions regarding the story then feel free to send me a message or write in the comments below. I'll be happy to answer any questions you have.

Fun-fact: Q and Brie were supposed to enter the Velorie's side.