Darren and Queenie are at a boutique decorated in various floral arrangements where Queenie is conversing with a worker. There is a large gap between Darren and Queenie with Darren maintaining a safe distance from her. Despite the space between them, an awkward tension permeated within it.
After talking with the worker, Queenie speaks up to Darren, “You’ve been standing the entire time. Are you not going to help me out?”
One of Darren’s hands leaves its pockets and scratches the back of head. “Uh…No…It’s just that…You seem to be doing a good job already yourself…I mean, it’s not like we need a lot of people to turn in quests for us, yeah…?” He nervously stammers.
It was like what Sharon had pointed out, something was wrong with Darren.
Queenie: Something does seem wrong with you. Lately you’ve been tense.
Darren: O-oh…! Yeah…I was just lacking sleep…But it’s fine now…! I’ve been resting easy ever since we each got our own rooms at the inn…I’m a guy who values his personal space…
What he uttered wasn’t truly the case.
Darren (thinking): Actually, it’s because I finally got to be in a separate room to myself away from you and Tatsuo…!
Queenie: …That’s kinda what I thought. I figure you’d be more of a person who kept to himself…So I thought you and me would be similar in that way…But then your small outburst back at the guild hub contradicts that. It seemed out of character to me.
“Then…I guess you thought wrong then!” He says cheekily, but in his mind, he was flustered.
Queenie puffs up the side of her cheek.
Queenie: Well…It was really uncalled for you to do what you did back there, putting me in that position. It made me want to kill you right then and there.
Darren whimsically lets out a laugh, “Ha…! Ha! Ha! Ha…! Oh, you’re so funny Queenie…! It’s not like you really mean that, do you…?”
Queenie: Duh. Obviously. I’m not going to do anything to you.
At that very moment. All the intense pressure of anxiety in Darren left his body, replaced with a flood of relief. In his mind, he lets out a heartful sigh. Despite Queenie claiming so herself, he knew that he could never be too careful.
Queenie shies her face away, “I get that perhaps that was just you trying to encourage me… And it may be the same even now…! But don’t do that again please…! I’m an insecure person…So it’s just really hard for me to open up…You know…?”
From suddenly feeling relieved, Darren’s expression changes to that of bemusement. He momentarily looks down and puffs out a small sigh.
Darren: Well…Let's just forget about it. Sorry about that. We’re wasting time here. Let’s hurry this up so we can start doing the quests.
Queenie: Right…! Yeah!
Darren: I probably won’t be doing much still though. Cuz it’s true that you’re doing a really good job by yourself already.
Queenie: Then what was the point of you even coming with me?! I knew it! You really are just anti-social!
Darren scoffs back, “Please…I used to do trades myself. Why bother doing work when I don’t need to?”
Queenie begins to berate Darren, slapping away at his back. It was then that Darren had a closer understanding of Queenie’s character. While it’s obvious that she’s hiding something from them, she was right that he is a closed person. In that, they really are similar. That is why he knows everything that she shared with him just now…She meant it.
***
After some time has passed, the two return to the guild hub only to be met with severe disappointment.
Darren and Queenie look over at the quests that the trio made at the local quest board. The more quest papers they flipped through, the more their faces grew mortified.
Queenie: ….Guys. What are these quests…?
Queenie picks up a non-colored paper from the board - Provide 10 acres of Cornopia woods??
Queenie picks out another quest - Provide 10 acres of fertilizers???
Darren reading another quest off the board: Cull the entire Bjerk population in Flavrence??
Sharon: Sorry…Apparently it’s hard to make a blue quest…
“THAT’S NOT IT!!!” Queenie cried out.
Queenie: Obviously the Guild Association won’t accept these quests!! Are you guys trying to destroy the ecosystem here??!!
Sharon and Victor shrinks from Queenie scolding them. It was the first time anyone had every seen her get so riled up.
Victor: W-wait now…! I remember Darren telling me that those things are an invasive species here! So I thought, why not solve it by just ending them altogether?
Darren: Yes…But you do realize that the town needs those things for resources as well…right? That’s why that one quest we did had us not only eliminate them, but to gather their horns and wools…?
Victor: Oh.
Victor: Yeah, that’s right. Wow, it makes much more sense.
Darren: Mmhm. Also, 10 acres of fertilizer? Where were you guys going with this one?
Victor: Well, you see, we thought it wouldn’t be so much of a problem if 10 acres of trees were deforested if we can help it eventually grow back faster by providing 10 acres of fertilizer.
Darren: …
Darren: …Okay. But how is anybody, or we, supposed to provide that many amounts of fertilizer?
“Oh, so I thought, since Queenie sat on the toilet in Argonaut for 3 days, she herself could churn out that amount for us.” Tatsuo says, jumping into the conversation.
As soon as she heard this, Queenie immediately died inside. She roared aloud, her face burning piping bright red from embarrassment, “THAT’S ALL BECAUSE I ATE VICTOR’S COOKING!!! AND WHAT KIND OF LOGICAL STRETCH DID YOU MAKE TO COME UP WITH THAT IDEA??!!” She turns her head to chastise Sharon.
Queenie: Sharon! I thought you said you were going to watch over them…??
Sharon apologizes again, shrinking her body even smaller, “Sorry…I really tried…But you should’ve seen the other ideas that these two came up with!” She couldn’t muster herself to lift her head up from the sheer embarrassment and disappointment in herself.
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Darren: You say that. But then there’s this quest asking to find the Mardi Gracia. This has you written all over it. – He says exposing Sharon’s fallacy.
Victor: Right??! See??!! Totally ridiculous!!!
Tatsuo: I had wanted to make a quest for someone to find Veloren for me, but she rejected it.
Victor: And I wanted to make a quest for someone to forge me a super awesome magic sword!
Tatsuo: Yeah! She turned down both our ideas but then she turned up with this!
Victor: How despicable!
Darren: Do you even know how to use a sword???
Victor: Nah. But it’s cool right?
Darren and Queenie fell silent. At this point, the two of them couldn’t be bothered to say anything, as any sense of reasoning would just fall through with these three.
Darren: And then there’s also this one…”Join our guild ‘Geld’....For 50,000 coins…Did you guys really just post a recruitment paper as a quest??
Queenie: Nobody is going to do these quests! This just makes us look stupid! Besides that, none of these quests are even blue, let alone colored!
Victor: Now…Stop right there! That’s not true actually!
Victor points towards a blue paper: Looky here! We actually made one!
The blue quest indicated by Victor reads:
* Assemble a 6x6 cultivation patch garden for rosemary flowers.
Victor: For this one, we just copied a green quest and adjusted some stuff. Kinda weird how this passed for a blue quest. Seems fairly normal. Very simple.
Queenie: It’s because guilds come in many different forms of profession. So for a guild that specializes in gardening or something similar, this would rank as a blue difficulty.
Victor: Ah…That’s right…Sharon did mention something like that…How not everything is related to hunting monsters and stuff…
Queenie: Yep. And you guys do realize that it’s the blue quest that we need to take in order to boost our promotion chance…? Now tell me. Do any of you know anything about gardening or cultivating rosemary flowers…?
Upon the realization hitting them, the three of them stand ashamedly in silence.
Victor: ….
Victor: Ah….Shit….
Their error that brought them into this predicament left Queenie in shambles.
The group then notices a guild worker posting new quests up on the board.
Victor: …Oh!
The board has been updated with blue quests.
Victor: Blue quests…!
Sharon: Those must be the quests from the town people!
Tatsuo: What are we waiting for? Let’s hurry up and take em.
Tatsuo walks up to the board and begins taking down the blue papers.
Queenie: Hold on! Wait…!
An angry voice calls out to Tatsuo - Hey! Hold it you guys!
Tatsuo gets confronted by a group of angry guild members.
Angry guild members: You’re taking all the good quests again?!
Angry guild members: We’ve been watching you all! For the past days or so, you’ve been swooping in and claiming all the good quests here! Have you guys not thought to leave some for the rest of us?! You can’t just continue to gatekeep all of us like this!!
Queenie (thinking): Oh no…! This is what I feared…!
Tatsuo: It’s not like that’s stopping you from competing against us to finish the quests. You all are just slow.
Tatsuo’s comment agitates the guild members further, while the group has their mouths open in shock by what Tatsuo said.
Angry guild members: Wow! So you’re really just rude! Well guess what! A lot of us here have already reported you guys to the guild workers here! Everything that you do here won’t get recognition if you continue with that shitty attitude of yours!
Tatsuo: So what? Like I care. Besides, we made these quests ourselves.
Tatsuo’s comment leaves the entire group shattered, as he wasn’t supposed to reveal that; any sane person would know that.
The angry guild members hysterically laugh, and begin to mock Tatsuo. The escalated scene gains the attention of everyone else in the guild hub, who joins in mocking Tatsuo and his friends as well.
‘This…This is the worst case scenario…’ Queenie says in her head mentally distraught.
Victor: Hey…Uhm…Tatsuo…
“Silence Victor.” Tatsuo says, striking down Victor’s feeble attempt to salvage the squabble.
“I am speaking for us.”
Tatsuo: Laugh at us all you like. How about this.
The room turned silent. Everybody pauses to listen to what Tatsuo will say to further stroke the sparked flames of conflict.
“All these blue quests that I have here in my arms right now. Everybody in this room, against just us. You can all work together, regardless of whether you’re in the same guild or not, or if you’re even a part of one.”
Tatsuo: If you guys complete even a single quest before us, then we will disband our guild.
Tatsuo’s comment leaves the group in complete internal turmoil.
Sharon: TATSUO??! UM…NO…!! LET’S NOT GO THROUGH WITH THAT!!
Tatsuo: Silence Sharon.
Sharon: Excuse me…?!
Tatsuo: I am giving us all a quest.
Random side character sitting in a chair, “Ha! And you’d think we’d all go through with that?!”
Another random side character: You’re just a joke! Why should we even bother?!
“Nobody is taking you seriously! You’re just making you and your poor pals look stupid! Just drop those quests, and get on outta here–!! And disband your guild while you’re at it.” Another guild member says mocking Tatsuo while slumped in his chair tilted, and his legs above over a table.
Tatsuo: Well in that case, I guess you’re all just losers then.
The air in the room fell dead. Tatsuo’s comment triggered the slandering guild members. While no one made a sound, the depiction of all the guild members' temper in the room could be heard bubbling, escalating into a rumble of vengeful fury.
Pissed off guild member: You better not regret what you’ve just said! You b*tch!
Another pissed off guild member: You’re about to get humbled! Shitty bastard!
Tatsuo turns his face to some of the guild workers, “You heard all of that, yeah?”
Random guild worker: H-HUH??! Err…Yeah…!
Initially, Queenie flew into panic on how far their issue had blown up; but then, a sense of realization occurred to her.
Queenie (thinking): Hold on…Isn’t this the most ideal situation for me…?! If we lose here, then that gives me the perfect excuse to leave these guys!
Queenie (thinking): I feel bad that the guild would have to disband, but they’ve been provided with more than enough money to simply make a new one…! In that case, I should…
As Queenie ponders to herself, Sharon in angst fury, stomps towards Tatsuo, “Hey!!! Tatsuo!!!”
Sharon bonks Tatsuo on his head, only to hurt herself instead. Sharon clasps her fist, cinching in pain.
“Damn you…! What were you thinking spouting crap like that…?!” She grumbles, holding her shaking hand.
Victor: Yeah…There was no need to go that far…Weren’t we trying to uphold a good image?
Darren: Now we’ve made everyone here our enemy…
Tatsuo: So what? Our image was being ruined already anyways.
Sharon: Even so, what on Beria were you thinking jeopardizing our guild like that?! It’s the end of us if anyone here beats us to a quest first!
Victor: And since these are blue quests, I reckon they’ll be difficult to do…
Tatsuo: Sounds like you guys better bring your A game then.
“More importantly.” Tatsuo looks at Queenie, bringing her attention to him.
“Let’s not waste this opportunity that Queenie gave to us.” He says confidently smiling.
Tatsuo’s comment makes Queenie’s heart skip a beat. She finds herself again emotionally conflicted. Could she really go through with having them lose?
Queenie (thinking): Well…Whatever…I can wait a little longer…This will be over when we arrive in Odale.
“And besides…We’ll win this. I’ll guarantee it.” Tatsuo says to the group sincerely.
“You guys just have to leave me by myself.”