Chapter 25: Chapter 25: Nah

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Mayor Takaw’s office was not the same office Nox remembers a month ago. No more live bands, no ten maids waiting by the walls, and no wife under the desk. It was a husk of its former gaudiness, a dark and dank room with the wails of a fat man echoing through its gilded walls.

“The last letter she sent was a week ago saying she’ll never come back again!” The Mayor cried into Jacked’s shoulder. “And her father had made a request to send my son over to their estate. She didn’t even bother to write it herself!” He cried some more, spreading snot all over his robes. Some of it had gotten to his beard.

“It’s going to be okay,” Jacked said in the most monotone way possible, patting his wide back as the Mayor struggled to breathe through the mucus.

They had spent the last fifteen minutes like this. Originally, they had come to his office to report their findings on the eternal sleep victims. Most of his personnel were gone, except for a few servants who were loyal to his ancestry. So they had to talk to him directly, which Nox hated despite being her job.

“Oh, how am I going to tell her? She’ll follow through with the divorce if she learns that Cletus was missing. Have the guards found him? Tell the soldiers I’ll cooperate with their stupid investigations if they find my son. I’ll give them all the names I know just to save my marriage!” He screamed and pressed his face against Jacked’s shoulder.

“Doesn’t seem like you care about the kid at all. I’d run away too if you were my father,” Jacked didn’t bother to lower his voice.

The Mayor–because of his sheltered upbringing–had developed selective hearing, making him unable to hear anything he doesn’t want to hear. Like the truth or any comment about his looks. Jacked knew this because in every interaction he got with the Mayor, he made jokes about him; each time his words never reached his ears.

“That is what we came here to report, Mayor,” Nox sighed.

“What, has my wife returned?” He whipped his head towards her.

“No, about the guards and the soldiers. 60% of the soldiers and 80% of the guards are dead. The rest that wasn’t included in that percentage are either still in a coma, dying, or bot. We lack the tools and resources to even identify what kind of ingredients were used or who made it,” she reported. Her eyes said that she was tired of it all.

“And what about the search for my son, any leads?” The Mayor was unfazed by the hundreds of dead people behind his house.

“The rest of the guards that were off-duty the day before the poisoning, are outside dealing with the growing mob. Their overall count isn’t even a tenth of the entire Townguard’s former force. They are already understaffed as it is. No one would be left to protect the town hall and you if you send them right now. My advice would be to hire someone else to track your son, perhaps someone from the Job Center or a hunter if he’s in the forest. That’s all I have to say,” Nox turned and started walking towards the door.

“Aren’t you one of the Job Center guys?” The Mayor looked up at Jacked with pleading eyes. He was on his knees and had his hands on his shoulders.

“No, he’s mine. I hired him first, and there’s still shit to clean up in your backyard,” Nox said as she left.

“Well, there you have it. I’m hers apparently. Good luck with your son and your marriage,” Jacked slipped away from his grasp.

“No, don’t leave me too!” He cried.

 

Jacked jogged up to her, yanking down one of the curtains and using it to wipe off whatever juices the Mayor smeared on him. None of the servants stopped him as they were too busy stealing paintings and various other ornaments off the walls and rooms. One of them removed all of the bejeweled door knobs, a piece of it was probably worth more than a year’s worth of their salary. He placed the curtain he used in a burlap sack that the maid dragged around.

“So, this all went to shit real quick,” he commented, helping some of the servants steal as they walked.

“Yeah, it was good while it lasted. I can’t wait to be unemployed like you!” she sarcastically exclaimed. One swipe of her sleeve and a vase was gone.

“Like old times, it wasn’t like you were doing much here anyways,” he shot a small pot into one of her sleeves like a ball.

“Which was exactly my plan,” she threw back the clay pot at him. “I don’t like this one. Get the other one with the gold trim instead,” she opened her sleeve like it was a hoop.

 

Outside, behind the town hall, were several rows of bodies laid down on the grass. A white sheet covered the body of most of them, accompanied by grieving family members or a lover.

Jacked and Nox tried their best to cure them, spending several hours under the sun to no avail. They both had no clue as to what had caused their slumber. The prime suspect, the head chef, was among the people in the yard, a white blanket covering his face.

During their time studying the victims, Nox had commented, “This foreign substance in their body, it kind of reminds me of our master.”

“Huh, what do you mean?” Jacked asked.

“Like how it was made and its nature, it reminds me of the old examples that he showed us. You know, back when we first started training under him. I still can’t identify what ingredients were used. It’s certainly not native to this continent,” she peered into the small vial made out of her own mana.

“Yeah, I can't identify it either. Master never took students after us, right?” Jacked asked, worry altering his voice.

“No, not from what I’ve heard lately. It would definitely be a problem if he did though.”

“Could you imagine if he did? Especially with his current views and mental state. The whole empire would be wiped out,” Jacked laughed at the thought.

“Hey, I think we need to leave soon. The leaders of the protesters are talking about raiding the town hall,” a maid whispered to another maid who nursed the victims.

“Well, that’s our cue, fuck all of this shit. Didn’t think they would raid this early. Change of plans, you’re going to help me pack up,” Nox grabbed him by the wrist.

“Am I even getting paid for this?”

 

Jacked peeked outside the town hall. A sea of people filled the rich streets; cars, carts, and carriages were unable to pass through it. The guards that weren’t present during the poisoning were outnumbered by 1:50.

Nox opened the door to her office, what greeted them was a huge mess. The stench of rotten food on her desk had attacked Jacked’s nostrils, Nox was used to it.

“Looks like they already raided your room,” he joked.

“I know you did, I saw some of my equipment in that whorehouse you call a home,” she brought out a cardboard box.

Looking inside the box was like staring into a starless night. It had similar magical properties to the robes the two mages wore, except that it didn’t negate any of the items’ weight.

“So, what are we grabbing?” He rolled up his sleeves.

“My chair and anything the people can use as a weapon. I’ll handle the potions and the rest.”

 

They got to work. Nox didn’t own many personal belongings; the majority of her items were weapons or used in alchemy. There was also a giant safe that was nearly the size of two dressing cabinets. A couple of people could fit inside it, which gave him an idea for the future.

While Jacked was trying to figure out how to fit the safe in the box, Nox browsed through the potion display she had. She picked out the dangerous ones and the ones that could be used in the future. There wasn’t much of it though as most of them were already on her. An old photograph caught her eye.

It was the one where she was bald, and they were on top of a mountain she couldn’t remember. Her cheeks flushed at the thought of the embarrassment and shame she felt during the time she was bald. The present had it the other way now, Jacked was the one without hair, it was replaced by a beard.

Her eyes met with the orc’s in the picture and relived the lessons and talks they all had during their travels around the world. There was nothing on her mind back then but to have a nice office and a simple life. For her now, it felt like it was still a long way to go before she could reach that goal.

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“Remember all those pranks and tricks we did to master when we were younger?” She asked Jacked with a smile on her face.

“Yeah, we got in pretty big trouble with some of them,” a sheen of sweat on his forehead.

“The poison back there reminds me of that sleeping potion trick we did, that was funny. Took us a whole month to figure out a formula that would work on him,” she laughed.

“What do you mean, ‘us,’? I did most of the work on the potion on that one. You were the one who administered it.”

“Oh, yeah. I had to get pretty creative with that one,” she placed the picture in her pocket. Her eyes lingered on its previous spot on the cabinet. Her eyebrows scrunched together and her gaze focused.

“Hey, you said something about seeing Cletus rummaging through my underwear earlier this morning, right?” She suddenly asked him.

“Yeah, yesterday. While I was stealing some of your equipment and materials, why?” He was done putting the safe inside the box.

She stared at the empty spot on the potion cabinet. A thick layer of dust was on the bottles and the surrounding area where the picture was. Pulling out the picture again, she flipped it around. There was a clean circle in the middle of it, in the shape of a bottle.

“No, it’s nothing. Creepy kid behavior. Maybe it’s something to do with his mom. She wasn’t there when he was healing. And you know how his father is,” she hesitated to say what she really thought.

“You okay? Want to talk about it?”

Jacked was about to approach her when several windows broke as the mob outside threw rocks at the building. The raid had started. Screams echoed through the hallway.

“Time to go,” she whistled a little tune. Her broom was parked on the ceiling and lowered itself when she finished whistling.

They both hopped on the broom’s leather seats and wore their helmets. Nox fed the broom some Mana Crystals, which howled as it absorbed it.

“Wait, why did we get on it already? Shouldn’t we go outside first?” Jacked questioned, the heavy box sat on his lap.

“No time and I’ve used my legs too much today,” she lit up two bottles and threw them against the wall. It blasted a hole through it, sending debris their way. She tilted her broom up, aiming its thrusters towards the incoming debris and blowing them away. They flew out of the hole and into town.

The sun was just about to set, and the last few golden rays illuminated the ugly scene below. Angry and hungry, they funneled into the large double doors of the town hall. But it wasn’t large enough, the bottleneck caused people that were going in to be smashed against the doorway. They all looked like ants from where they floated.

“You’re officially jobless now, huh?” Jacked said. “Do you think they would kill the Mayor?”

“Nah, most of them are aware that he wasn’t the one making the major decisions, that he was just a puppet. He’s only mayor because of his name. The grandson of the hero who defeated the Demon Lord.”

“So, that makes Cletus a descendant of the hero, which explains the talent. But I completely forgot about his connection with the hero because of who his father was,” Jacked scratched his beard.

“Me too,” Nox stared at the chaos below, blank eyes void of direction.

Three pairs of wings zipped past them, a blur of red. They were heading in the opposite direction.

“Flying Foxes? What are they doing in town?” Jacked was bothered by the sighting. “They never go into places with high human activity. Especially not with the shit going on down there. That’s completely against their nature.”

“Maybe they’re angry and hungry too. We’re not the only ones that lost food in the area. Besides, look at the people below, they did all of that knowing they could get executed for a tenth of their actions. Everyone’s desperate,” Nox sighed.

“It’s just odd, and the sun isn’t even gone yet. Anyways, where are you going to stay?”

“Hmm, it did seem like there was a lack of whores in your whorehouse. Who do I talk to for the interview? I’m out of work.”

“You’d be a terrible whore. Sinta would somehow lose more customers if it was even possible.”

She hit his head with the back of her helmet. “Shut up, roommate.”

 

***

 

“That is all we have to report, Matriarch,” the flying fox said.

“You are dismissed, good job,” Soro said.

It was a small tent with a makeshift table in the middle. A hand-drawn map was displayed on top of it, an illustration of the town.

“We have to attack now! We cannot wait for the damn Goblin anymore. This is the perfect time to attack, while the humans are busy killing themselves,” Soro complained.

“No, we made a deal. The three of us will attack at the same time with the Ratfolk acting as our support from underground,” Krav said without opening his eyes. He sat at the other end of the table with his arms crossed.

“Do not worry we are here,” The Greatest One said from outside the tent.

“Finally,” Soro rolled her eyes.

“This is a great learning experience for us all. We are late because plans, no matter how much time and effort you put into them, will always go wrong at some point. Especially if there was no room for adaptability and flexibility. We may have lost a few minutes for our meeting, but we have gained a new ally,” The Greatest One announced.

A cloaked creature walked into the tent. It had three sets of eyes; the top one was crying, the middle one was full of rage, and the last one darted around the tent like an animal. Its four limbs looked like human arms, even its back legs; its hands were human too. Where you would expect to find feet were instead another pair of human hands. Devoid of fur, it was instead covered with a skeleton as if it was armor. Grotesque and absurd, this was the creature that the Goblin introduced.

“Did you make that?” Soro was taken aback.

“Oh no, we found it in the woods along the way. There’s nothing in this world quite like it,” The Greatest One said with a smile.

“Are you sure we can trust it?” Krav asked.

“It’s not human or any of the intelligent races is it?”

“H-e-l-l-o,” it struggled to speak. Its voice sounded like several people talking at once with a beast-like undertone.

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Nox Job Change: Mayor's Advisor -> Unemployed
Nox Joins Savepoint Bar

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