Bigger Problems (2)

\\\ Jessica ///

“It’s bad enough that you have to come back late with blood all over you, but why are you dragging me out of bed so late at night?” I asked. “I’m so hungry…”

It was dark, the road was dimly lit by street lamps, but we had already gone far enough off the road so that I had to use a flashlight to see anything. My eyes were still adjusting to the lack of light when I saw traces of blood. There was quite a lot of it spread across the field in front of us.

“What a mess…” I said while surveying the scene. “Is this what was keeping you so late, Trigger Happy?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Now, about that thing I needed you to do-”

“You want to clean this up, don’t you?” I said, finishing his thought. “Sure, but I want to know what exactly you were doing here before I do anything.”

“I encountered Marion Blazebane-”

“That name sounds vaguely familiar… who is she?” I asked.

“The demon princess from Lavaland-”

“The demon princess from Lavaland?!” I repeated. “What’s she doing all the way in Shadow Shore? Wait, where is she now? How come-?”

“Would you mind not interrupting me every time I talk?” Trigger Happy said, although now he’s interrupting me.

“Just hurry up with your explanations then. If you don’t wanna be interrupted, stop giving me time to butt in.”

I heard him grumble something to himself before continuing, “She was travelling with another kid-”

“Does he have blue eyes, brown hair, and a shisu blade hanging from his right hip?”

“Yes, but stop interrupting me,” Trigger Happy grunted. “A word of warning, don’t go after her. Even if you could overpower them I don’t think they’re any real danger as long as they’re left alone. But I don’t want you getting involved with them. Don’t tell anybody about them either.”

“Okay fine…” I sighed. “But out of curiosity, did the boy have an elemental core in his sheath?”

“Jessica… you’re not thinking about doing something rash after I told you not to get involved with those two, are you?”

“I won’t do anything rash,” I said. “I promise.”

…

\\\ Oliver ///

“Why are you telling us about the part where you promised not to get involved?” I asked.

“Because I’m demonstrating my superior intellect by showing you how flawlessly I can remember the scene from last night even though I was super sleepy at the time,” Jessica said.

Jessica was now sitting where I used to be, I had moved to the same side of the table that Marion was at so we could ‘negotiate’ but right now she’s just wasting our time.

“We weren’t there for the scene in the first place, so how are we supposed to know what it went like?”

“That doesn’t matter blinky, what matters is that now you two know I’m the one who covered your sorry butts.”

“Stop calling me that, I have a name you know.”

“And I know your name,” Jessica responded. “But who even cares?”

“I-”

“Exactly, no one.”

“Don’t just interrupt-!”

“Can it dry eye,” Jessica interrupted yet again. “Stop wasting time, we need to negotiate. Right, Princess?”

“Yes, I would like to get to the point,” Marion said. “What exactly do you want from us?”

“Well what I want is something he has,” Jessica said as her gaze turned towards me, or rather, towards what was fixed to my hip.

“You want my sword?”

“Not really, I don’t exactly know how to use a sword and I don’t care to learn,” she said. “What I want is the elemental core inside your sheath.”

“The fire core?” Marion asked. “What do you want with that?”

“Oh good, so you do have a core inside there,” Jessica said as a mischievous smile spread across her face. “And what’s better it’s one I don’t have yet.”

“Wait, you didn’t even know if we had a core?”

“Of course not, don’t you remember my recollection?” Jessica said. “Trigger Happy didn’t answer any of my questions about you two because he didn’t want me to get involved.”

“And yet here you are…” I said.

“Are you insinuating something?” Jessica asked. “I think you need to remember the situation you’re in right now.

“Right now, I have the power to make your lives hell. All I have to do is suddenly yell that the demon princess from Lavaland is here and every adventurer in the tavern will spring on you in less than a minute. The only thing you can do to ensure your safety is buy my silence.”

“Don’t you remember your recollection?” I said. “You told Trigger Happy you weren’t going to tell anyone about us. So are you just a liar or what?”

“I have no intention of telling anyone about you two,” she said. “Because you can’t be dumb enough to think I won’t change my mind if you refuse me.”

“So does that mean you lied to Trigger Happy?” Marion said. “From your flawless recollection you seemed at least a little familiar with him. If we can’t trust your word with people you’re actually close to, then why would we even trust that you’d stay quiet if we did accommodate you? If we trust your word then that means we can’t trust your word. It’d honestly just save us a lot of trouble to get rid of you as soon as you leave this tavern.”

“Huh? B-but you wouldn’t-”

“Anything’s possible…”

As Marion spoke, a familiar feeling began to seep into the air. It’s not quite as potent as yesterday, but I can still notice it from here.

Bloodlust.

I don’t know if this is something I should be worried about, but she definitely doesn’t seem like she’s joking about that threat.

A cold sweat ran down both mine and Jessica’s necks, but for different reasons I’m sure. Also, I don’t know why I’m noticing Jessica’s neck sweat but whatever…

“Mmm…” Jessica murmured nervously.

“Furthermore, I want to know your true reason for coming here,” Marion said.

“Huh?”

“You really didn’t need to come here to try and blackmail us for Oliver’s fire core. You said yourself that you didn’t know if he had one or not, and if you knew we were dangerous then you wouldn’t take a chance like that for something that might be the case.”

“No, that’s exactly why I came here,” Jessica refuted. “I need all the elemental cores that I can make a Philosopher’s stone! Because I need one no matter what…”

“Why?”

“To… bring my parents back from the dead?”

“If you’re actually pursuing a Philosopher’s stone, then you should already know that they don’t have those kinds of capabilities.”

I think I lost track of this conversation a while ago. Philosopher’s stones? What are they even arguing about again?

“Alright, fine!” Jessica said, throwing her arms up in defeat. “I’ll admit I’m not trying to bring my parents back from the dead or anything like that.”

“Then-?” Marion tried to ask, only to be interrupted.

“But you don’t have it all right,” Jessica said. “I do need a Philosopher’s stone, just not for a simple reason like that.”

“Then what do you need it for?”

“I need it for my art.”

“Your art?” Marion asked as the bloodlust dropped. I guess we’re okay on that front for now…

“Yes, my art, my very livelihood, the very reason Trigger Happy came to me to get that mess cleaned up.”

“So I guess you take pride in your art?”

“Correct, but I’m always hungry for more,” Jessica said. “Every night I’m haunted by the fact that my art could be better. That I haven’t yet achieved my peak. But in order to do so I need a Philosopher’s stone… and that’s not exactly something one comes by easily, especially when-”

I then heard a low rumbling sound. It was a sound I’ve come to recognize all too well during my years volunteering at that orphanage.

“When’s the last time you ate?” I asked.

“I don’t remember!” Jessica said haughtily. “I’m a starving artist in the most literal sense so I’m always-!”

The rumbling sound came back to interrupt her as she hunched over at her seat.

“…hungry…” Jessica finished.

“Then why don’t you get something to eat?” Marion suggested.

“I’m too poor to afford food…”

“Wait, you don’t have any money on you?”

“It’s not that I’m completely out of money, but I have to save all the money I currently do have,” Jessica said, “I don’t have enough money left over for even basic necessities…”

“What’s more important than basic necessities?” Marion asked.

“The future.”

“Huh?”

“All the money I have left is going into my chance at getting into FuzzyCoats Academy. So even if I have to continue on with barely enough food, I can’t spend it…”

“Then we’ll get you something.”

“Really?”

“Hold on, I’m a bit lost,” I said, interrupting their conversation. “Are we or aren’t we at odds right now?”

“We’re not at odds anymore,” Marion answered.

“Yeah, man,” Jessica said. “Don’t get lost in the flow of a single conversation.”

Heh?

Who does this girl think she is? Insulting me so casually after trying to blackmail us? The nerve…

“So, what do you want to eat, Jessica?” Marion asked.

“I appreciate your kindness, but I can’t accept,” she said.

“Why not?” I asked.

“The true reason I’m out of money is because I’m in debt,” Jessica explained. “And as such I’ve been temporarily banned from eating at this fine establishment.”

“Huh?”

“You see, I’ve racked up quite the tab here, and I meant to pay it off but by the time I was supposed to I had recently bought this metal core,” she said while holding up a shiny ball of metal about the size of a baseball.

For some reason I could tell there was something different about it. Something special. It didn’t seem like it was just a regular ball of iron.

“As soon as I saw that it was available for purchase I knew I had to buy it to further my art. Unfortunately, the staff here didn’t appreciate my explanation… At all…”

“Wait, if that’s the case then shouldn’t someone be throwing you out right now?” I asked.

“They can only throw me out if they know I’m here,” she explained. “Currently I’m in a blind spot, so the bouncers won’t be able to see me unless they come over here to check, which they won’t do without good reason to suspect my being here because that might disrupt the patrons.”

“So basically, the more you think about it, the worse your plan was from the get go?”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Jessica answered. “The possible rewards far outweigh the numerous risks.”

“What exactly are you trying to get again?”

“Because my original plan has been thoroughly derailed, I guess I might as well tell you anyway…

“My original plan was to make you think it was your fire core I’m after, which I kind of am but that’s beside the point. After you two resigned yourselves to my blackmail I was going to offer you a different way to pay for my silence-”

“Since Marion’s a princess you figured we’d be travelling with loads of cash, didn’t you?” I asked. “So you wanted to make us pay off your debt?”

“Close but no cigar my friend,” Jessica answered. “You may want to better read the situation before interrupting someone who’s still speaking to you.”

Heh? How’s she getting off to telling me not to interrupt people?

“I didn’t want you to simply pay off my debt,” Jessica said. “Even though you must have a considerable amount of cash with you I doubt it’d be enough to cover my debt-”

“How far in debt are you?” I asked.

“That’s not the important thing,” Jessica said, brushing off the subject. “The important thing is that I’ve been given the option of clearing up my debt by doing a special quest, but…”

“But you don’t think you’ll be able to do the quest by yourself,” Marion said, finishing Jessica’s sentence. “And you wanted our help.”

“Mmm… something like that…” Jessica murmured. “You know… from what I gathered I figured you two must’ve been pretty powerful and for the particular quest I’m stuck with I need a bit more power than I currently have, so… if you could… maybe… please help me…?”

Ah, so that’s what this has all been about. She’s in trouble and needs help. Honestly I would help her, if that wasn’t such a terrible idea to begin with.

Like, where do I even start with this whole situation? The blackmail or how annoying she’s been? On top of that, I don’t even know what quest she needs done, so that’s already too risky.

“Look,” I said. “I’m sorry, but-”

“-We’ll do it,” Marion interrupted.

“Really!?” me and Jessica both said in surprise.

“Yes really,” Marion answered.

“Marion, can we talk for a sec?” I said in a low voice.

“Yeah, sure Oliver,” she answered in a similarly hushed voice. “What do you need?”

“I’m not so sure we should do this.”

“Really?” Marion asked with a confused look on her face. “Why do you say that?”

“Because this seems like a terrible idea.”

“Well I have a good feeling about this.”

“I’m glad you feel good, but that doesn’t change the fact that-”

“Just trust me on this one, Oliver. I have a plan.”

“A plan? A plan to do what?”

“Can’t say or it most likely won’t happen,” Marion said. “So please just trust me until I can tell you.”

“Hmm…”

“The moment things start looking like they might get out of control, I’ll pull out and tell you everything, okay?”

“I guess it’s fine for now…” I said before turning to Jessica. “Before we agree to anything, what quest is it that you need to do?”

“Oh, yeah… I probably should tell you…” Jessica said. “Well, you see, the thing is…”

“Just spit it out already!”

Jessica murmured a bit more before pulling out her mini-board and showing us the screen. On it read:

~

Special Quest: Hunt Down the Beast in Preternatural Forest:

There’s reports of a monster in Preternatural Forest attacking adventurers and travelers alike. This threat is making travel between Shadow Shore and Dragons Hollow difficult, and multiple adventurers have already been taken down. Due to claims by surviving adventurers who’ve encountered this beast, we believe that this is a rogue kaiju shifter as opposed to a regular kaiju.

Jägers requested.

~

“…!”

Oh hell no!