A fiery scene takes place, flames roaring as plumes of smoke fills the air. A young boy covered in wounds cries at the center of it all. The boy hiccups repeatedly, unable to contain his woeful tears. A pair of blood stained hands reach out to the boy, caressing his face and capturing his attention. The boy grabs onto one of the hands, clutching to it oh so dearly. A feminine voice speaks to him, “why the long face?”
Her voice was weak and feeble, but to the boy, her words rang in his ears. It overpowered the sound of the falling charred debris crashing around him. It seemed as if the world around him was falling apart. Her voice begins to trail off as the scene begins to fog and fade away.
Female voice: Don’t feel sad…It wasn’t your fault…
Female voice: So could you please smile for me…
Female voice: …Tatsuo?
Tatsuo’s eyes abruptly open wide, snapping awake from his dream. He slowly sets himself up, processing the reality around him. He sits on his bed in a trance. His body begins heating up with guilt bubbling inside of him. Settled next to him on his bed is the stony structure that he bought at the auction house.
Somebody knocks on his door, distracting him from his thoughts. He tells the person to come in. Darren emerges from the door.
Darren: You’re still in bed again?
Tatsuo: …Yeah.
Darren: Everyone is all ready. We’re waiting for you downstairs.
Tatsuo: Kay.
As Tatsuo changes his clothes, Darren asks if he is feeling alright. Tatsuo reassures him that he is. The two then head downstairs where the rest of the group is waiting for them.
Darren: Just like we thought, he was sleeping.
Queenie: Again, huh…
Victor: That’s like, six days in a row already.
Sharon: You know…You’ve been sleeping a lot more recently. You’ve basically become like Darren. Maybe even worse.
Victor: I already said it, it’s that rock thing that Tatsuo bought. He even said it himself.
Tatsuo: What can I say? I’ve come to appreciate sleeping a lot more.
Darren nods his head in approval, “Finally. Someone that gets it.”
Sharon: Well, it’s fine. It gives me time to look through the guild updates.
Victor: Yeah, you’ve been fiddling around with that badge everyday ever since you found out about it.
Sharon taps the guild badge, activating it, “It’s just so useful! This thing provides so much information! Suddenly it feels as if the whole world has opened up to me! There’s actually an update article today about that magic crystal guy we met at the auction house! Shucks…I can’t believe I missed the opportunity to ask him about the Mardi Gracia…!”
Victor: Woah, really?
Darren: The heck’s he been doing to be featured on the news.
Sharon slides her finger across the holographic screen: Apparently he and his group are here to promote their technology, and help develop some of the towns here in Irene! Red Velvet now has a guild hub, and they’ve been promoting their brand of communication devices!
Victor: Oh! Is it the phone?
Sharon: Yeah! The cellphone to be exact. They’ve even fitted some cities with a new type of clothing line! It looks exactly like the same thing both Darren and Queenie wears!
Victor: So that’s where their type of clothes came from then!
Darren: I only have these cuz that’s what Sahara gave me. I didn’t know where these clothes actually came from…Until now, I guess. I assumed they came from Argonaut since some of the gang people there wore similar outfits.
Tatsuo: Hmm…Then maybe he was from Graphine then…Or he visited there.
Sharon taps the badge, closing the screen, “Well, that’s enough about that.”
Sharon: Let's get some quests done.
Tatsuo: Today is the last day, isn’t it?
Victor: So if we don’t get it today then…
Sharon hushes Victor, “No…! We’ll get it today…! We have to believe!”
Victor: If today’s the last day, then should we just try go for a full board clear?
Darren: You say that…But we’re already getting complaints from the guild members there with what we’ve been doing so far. It was a cool thing that impressed everyone at first. But now they’re getting mad that we keep hogging all the difficult quests to ourselves since those come with the best rewards.
Tatsuo: We began handing out the rewards for free though…
Darren: Some may not want to settle for that. They want it to feel earned and to gain experience.
Sharon: Hnnnngh…! It pains me to admit it…! But Darren’s right! I don’t want our guild to gain a bad reputation! If that happens, it’ll most likely deny us of our blue badge!
Victor: We better pray hard then…
***
At the guild hub the group is having difficulty picking out which quests to complete. People in the background can be heard whispering amongst each other in depreciation of them.
Victor watches as Sharon, Darren and Queenie thoroughly scan between quest boards, not understanding why picking out a quest was hard for them.
Victor: …I thought we were just going to pick the hardest ones? Well…At this point, there really isn’t a hard one at all, since we’ve done all of it…The hardest quests here would be something that’s just normally difficult.
“I know…But…” Sharon says with her eyes turned behind her to the bystanders.
Sharon: The whispers! I can hear them talking in the background…! I know it’s about us…!
Victor: Who cares what they think? What’s done is done. You’re probably reading too much into it.
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That was easy for Victor to say, Sharon couldn’t help but remain conflicted.
Tatsuo: Let's just have Queenie pick some out for us.
Queenie: …Huh?
Tatsuo: She’s a part of the guild right? Let’s see what she has to say. After all, she’s smart isn’t she?
The group turns to Queenie.
Queenie stammers: U-uh…Well…I mean…I’m fine with anything. I…Don’t think it really matters…As long as we do our best…
Tatsuo stares at Darren to which he notices Tatsuo staring right at him.
Darren (thinking): What…? What is it? Why are you staring at me like that…?
The more Tatsuo stares at Darren, the more unsettling it becomes. ‘Stop that…! Do you want me to do something…? Is that it…?! What the hell do you want me to do..?!’ Darren thinks, in an attempt to rationalize what Tatsuo wants.
Soon in Darren’s mind, Tatsuo’s gaze shifts from disturbing to a threatening one, laced with an intimidating aura.
Darren (thinking): No…If I don’t do something…Then HE’S going to end up doing something to me…! Damn you…! Why do you have to get me involved…?!
Darren immediately assumes control of the conversation, “You don’t think it really matters?! Wha-What’s with that attitude Queenie…?! Like Tatsuo said, you’re very smart! Come on…We’re a guild! So we should all work together! Look at your friends!”
Darren gestures his head towards Sharon and Victor to which Queenie’s sight trails to see the two’s troubled faces - “Don’t you think we could use your help?”
Darren fakes a smug grin on his face: “Or is that attitude of yours because you don’t like being here with us…?”
Queenie stares at Sharon’s troubled face, ‘Oh no…! Not this again…!’ She says in her head, unable to bear seeing Sharon’s pitiful expression.
Darren (thinking): Whew…! I…Don’t know if saying all that bullshit actually worked…But at least I tried…
Queenie’s face suddenly twists towards Darren with a harrowing expression that sends chills to his body. Her cold glare pierces through his soul, depriving him of his willpower.
Darren while visibly sweating (thinking): Ah…I know that look…It’s over for me…From one devil to another…Why do I keep sinking further down this shit situation…? – Darren’s wry smile begins to twitch.
Darren’s sight zooms in on Queenie’s face: Yep…That’s an expression that says she’s going to murder me. Dammit, with the way her eyes shines the way it does, it makes it even worse….!
“I-It’s not like that!” – She turns to both Victor and Sharon, trying to salvage their trust back.
Queenie (thinking): It’s okay…I just need to keep this facade up until we reach Odale…
Queenie: I just wanted to respect all of our choices…But if it’s really ok for you all to listen to what I think…
Sharon gasps: Yes! Of course! That’d be a huge help! You probably have a better idea than all of us on what to do!
Queenie: Then…While it may take some time…What we can try to do is make our own quests.
The group takes a moment to register what Queenie said. Nope. They had no idea.
Queenie explains to the group: “It’s a strategy that some guilds do to quickly climb through the ranks. By creating their own quests and taking it on, it allows a self-imposed challenge that also gains attention towards the Guild Association. The other method would be to do what we are currently doing right now where we take on the most difficult quests, but on an extreme level. Such as a white level quest. But there’s no such quest here so we just have to create our own challenge. Furthermore, this can also give us an opportunity to patch up our public image and relationship with the guild members here. We can show good sportsmanship by providing them quests with generous rewards. We have no shortage of wealth on our hands after all. Raising our accomplishments and reputation is what will earn us our next color promotion.”
Victor: I see…When you put it like that…It makes sense… – He says barely following along.
Queenie: With that said, we cannot just suddenly bloat the quest boards with difficult quests ourselves as that would raise skepticism about us, and may cause some misunderstandings.
Sharon: So how do we get away with making lots of quests without it all being made by us?
Queenie: We can bribe some of the town’s folk to turn in quests for us instead.
Victor: Ooh. Smart. I guess money really does solve a lot of things.
Queenie: It’s unreasonable to think we can make a white or red level quest within these parts. So we should try to make as many blue difficulty quests as we can.
Tatsuo: I take it that the difficulty of the quests corresponds to the color of the guild badge?
Sharon: That’s what I’ve been thinking too…
Victor: That’s true! Is that why the quest papers are colored that way?!
Queenie: Correct. The more blue quests we do, the faster we’ll get promoted to that color.
Victor: Oh wait. But that slime quest that we did back in Pillberry didn’t really have a color. If anything, most of the quests here don’t have a color at all.
Queenie: Quests that don’t follow the color code are freely accessible for anyone to take. They’re quests that haven’t gone through the proper evaluation procedure to be officialized by the guild association, which is why I said it may take a while. Think of it as freelancing.
Victor: Oh…
Victor did not understand at all.
Darren: But if we’re creating blue quests, can we still do them then…? We only have a green badge.
Queenie: The badge color we have does not disqualify us for taking different colored quests. The colors are just the guild association’s way of distinguishing the difficulty and how dangerous the quest is, as well as how willing the organization is to provide us support and information.
Victor: Okay then…So what kind of quest should we make…?
Darren points his thumb at Tatsuo: I’d say, just make a quest where it challenges Tatsuo to the last man standing.
Tatsuo: Oh? So I'd just have to beat everybody here. It’ll show we’re stronger than them. Straight to the point. I like it.
Sharon: Uh…! No! Let’s not do that! That would make us look even worse! That’s a quest color beyond blue! Why do you guys have to be so violent??
Queenie: In any case, you guys come up with some quests. I’ll go on ahead to have people turn in quests for us.
Tatsuo: Wait. You should take someone with you.
Tatsuo’s suggestion sends Sharon into a panic: Wait…! No! We can’t have you doing the bribings–!
Tatsuo: Oh, I won’t be the one going with her.
Tatsuo places his hand on Darren’s shoulder: He will go with her.
Darren in a dumbfounded expression: I’m sorry??
“Oh…” Sharon sighs, relaxing. “Thank god…”
On the other hand, Darren began frantically panicking, “Wait…Hold up…! Why does it have to be me? How about Sharon? She seems to be the closest one with her!”
Tatsuo: Hm? Why do you say that? Because they’re both females? Just what are you implying?
Darren looks up to Tatsuo thinking angrily to himself, ‘This asshat…! After what I did for him…!’
Sharon apologetically clasps her hands together, “Sorry Darren. But under these circumstances, I cannot leave the two of them with each other!”
Darren: …Then Victor can go with her! He’s worked at a restaurant before, right?! He should have more experience in this than I do!
Queenie in a tone dead voice: No. I want Darren to come along with me. I’ve decided.
Darren’s body jolts in terror.
Darren (thinking): No…! I…Can’t go with her..! These guys don’t see it…But I do…!
In Darren’s eyes, he sees Queenie’s face lavished with sadistic excitement. ‘She’s smiling….She’s sinisterly smiling at me…!…She’s going to kill me…!!!’ He says mourning for himself in his head.
“What are you waiting for Darren? Let’s take the time to get to know each other better.” - Queenie says with a hollow smile.
Sharon: That’s great Queenie! It’s good to see you eager to get close to us!
Victor (thinking): I see…So she’s now set her eyes on you as part of her harem huh? Good luck…
Tatsuo gives Darren a thumbs up, “It’s okay Darren. Don’t worry about us. We have experience with this already. Now go.”
Darren (thinking) YOU BASTARD!!! WORRY ABOUT ME DAMMIT!!!
With that, Darren and Queenie separate from the group into the streets of Flavrence.