Friend was a word I hadn’t used many times in my life. I had students, acquaintances, lovers, colleagues, thralls, and the like - but none I could see as equals. Starting from the bottom again, there was part of me that was disgusted with the thought of joining a Party. Naturally, there was another part of me that was intrigued.

“I’m not sure we are looking for a Party,” I smiled politely at the woman and turned back to Basil. Maybe it was just my ego at the reins, but I thought I could handle a simple F Rank trouble-maker on my own. Well, with the help of Basil.

“Just because you’re a big lug doesn’t make you invincible.” The woman stumbled out of her bench and came to stand beside our table with hands on her hips.

I winced as I looked into her eyes. Fervour - I had seen that look in plenty of Heroes I had put to the blade, or worse. Her deep red hair was up in a bun, and her bright green eyes glared down at me. She was reasonably tall, given that I was a giant among men myself, and she was above my eye level. Youthful and pale, but there were past wounds going on behind the stern expression. Her leather armour was well worn, too - they were comparatively less green behind the ears the more I looked.

Her companion, however, was less enthused about making our acquaintance. I turned to look at him as he sat and tried to bury his face in embarrassment. Most likely, neither a couple nor siblings. Family friends, perhaps. I had once prided myself in my ability to read people. Once you had seen enough of them, spent century after century around them, you saw the personality patterns and the little signs of how they ticked. The woman had something to prove; the man had been dragged along for the ride because he couldn’t make a decisive action on his own.

“Well, I take offense to being called a lug, miss.” I raised my eyebrows and made a show of seeming well-spoken, yet simple.

“You’re obviously strong,” she sighed and folded her arms across her chest. “I just hate seeing ego getting in the way of success.”

Plus she could probably use some help in taking grasp of her own slice of success, despite her ego. Sometimes people said the quiet part out loud. They looked more like hindrances than help, as it stood.

“Sell yourself to me,” I steepled my hands before my beard. “Convince me.”

Her mouth moved silently as if the script she wanted to read from had suddenly been taken away. I could tell by the quiet one that the woman probably got her own way in a lot of things by being loud and controlling. I was not about to be harrassed into carrying two humans across the finish line, just because she made my ears ache.

“We almost had our F Rank,” the man spoke up, finally relenting to join the conversation, “twice, in fact. But we’ve had bad luck with Party members - we just need someone more dependable.”

“Sounds like you are cursed,” I grinned and raised an eyebrow at the woman. “My name is Victor, by the way - since you hadn’t asked.”

Two acts of humility and politeness had all but taken the wind from her sails. Just as she was gathering the pace back up, I pointed at my companion. “This is Basil.”

My butler nodded politely. “Pleasure to meet you, Miss, Sir.”

“You’re a lot more well-mannered than first appeared. My apologies.” The woman gave an award curtsy. “My name is Florence, and this is Jakob.”

Jakob gave a short wave and a struggled grin. He still looked like he wanted to sink into the shadows and avoid any further human contact. Not an entirely alien concept to me.

“Please, Miss Florence,” I beamed, “we are yet to even fill in the forms, so we are unsure as to what really lies before us.”

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She nodded and gestured to sit at our table. Basil shuffled to the side and she sat beside him, and with a sigh, Jakob came and sat beside me. The woman smiled awkwardly and gripped the edge of the table with her fingers.

“What Class are you both?” I asked. Partly I was worried some of my vampiric nature had become somewhat tangible and they were slightly perturbed by it. Some ice breaking questions might get us on level footing.

“Well, you only get your Badge once you’re properly ranked,” Florence bit her lip, “but I’m a Mage, and Jakob intends to be a Ranger.”

“Maybe,” the man shrugged. “We’ve struggled to find a tank, so I’ve been a bit of everything in the last year.”

“Ah,” I smiled and nodded. “So you see a big lug like me, and perhaps someone of priestly nature - you think we’d fit the gaps you are missing?”

Florence wrinkled up her nose. “To a point, yes, but-“

“But!” I interjected, “If myself and Basil here are the hard part of Party composition, surely we are the ones who can dictate how to fill in any gaps - and with whom?”

Silence filled the table as it had been figuratively flipped. Woodsworth had meandered on about some of the rules the Guild enforced - some of them I had even taken to remembering. One of these things was that a Party was limited to five members. If you wanted to get credit for the Villain kill - you had to get permission for something larger. A Raid, they called it. It seemed like something arbitrary, and I had no idea how they intended to enforce that. However, I had also seen my share of the weird things that magic was capable of.

“True,” Florence eventually relented, “but we’re giving you the easy option - we’ll be right here as you’re assigned a Quest, you won’t have to go and search around for other newbie adventurers.”

“Bad season for it,” Jakob added, “a lot of adventurers have headed out to the East, so we’re more in demand now.”

They provided some interesting points. Although I had started the day emotionally recoiling from the idea of having a Party to drag me down - these two humans were amusing in their own way. If I were meant to be doing good in my renewed life… then helping these mortals get their Ranks would be a good step on that ladder.

“What do you think, Basil?” As unfair as it was to put the skeleton on the spot, he had a keen read on things even further detracted from emotion than even me.

The now-elf looked between the two humans and then regarded me, his eyes narrowing slightly. It looked as though he was trying to decide how brazen he could speak his mind. I gave him the slightest of nods.

“It would be beneficial to our cause to have assistance in our first Quest. It is important we get our first ranking. These two have enough experience to be more of a benefit than a hindrance.” He gave them both an attempt at a pleasant smile.

“My thoughts exactly,” I nodded. Near enough, anyway. I could tell from his look that he expected me to put up a little more fight and continue being a social outcast for as long as possible… but you learn by doing, and this was something new - experience is what I craved. “Florence and Jakob, I accept your invitation to assist us in completing our Ranking Quest.”

“Not quite how I worded it,” Florence grinned, “but excellent. I have a good feeling about this group.”

“You said that the last two- ack” Jakob flinched as the woman had kicked him under the table.

Banter wasn’t really my thing. I had spent enough years where I had honed my tongue against language and revelled in the craft of wit and poeticism. For the most part, it looked like petty squabbling, which was long behind me. I had a tired soul, and despite the clean wash that recently scoured it of any foul misdeeds I once commited, it still retained the memories of it all.

I should have done this sooner.

“Papers are ready… Victor,” Basil bit his tongue in almost calling me Sire.

“Thank you,” I gave him a polite nod as I took them, and gestured for the group to leave the table. Mostly so I didn’t crush the prospective Ranger beneath my trampling feet.

I returned to the front desk to find the young man still languishing in boredom. “Here you are.” The filled papers were returned gently. Despite his lackadaisical regard for his job, he was the one that held power over us Ranking up - or at least was the current barricade to that progression. The dark side of me wanted to rip the top of his head off and prod around for where we could steal the merits unfairly.

“Great, that’s… nice, thanks.” He winced as he pulled the paper towards himself, my soft attitude making it difficult for him to work his pent-up ire on me. “I’ve got your Quest here - are you forming a Party, too?”

“Yes, please.” I grinned. “Just the four of us.”

He looked past me towards Florence and Jakob, “Okay. Good luck.” Hand extended, a crumbled and aged piece of paper was thrust into my waiting mitts.

Wanted it said at the top, followed by a rather unflattering picture of the target and some brief blurb about them.

I held it up to show Basil.

He worked his jaw. “Rank F Villain,” he read out, “Foul Alchemist Frank Jurgett.”

“Ol’ Frank,” I murmured to myself, the reality of this new life settling into my stomach.