“So you guys up in the capital need help?”

“Not so much help, but we’d like some extra hands,”

“Well wouldn’t we all,” Laffer kicks his legs up on the table, “We’ve also the need of some charity, if you will,”

Apparently, Laffer was serious about moving shoppe so right now, we’re in some run down pub. The place is a wreck, the windows are boarded up but the musky niff isn’t that bad.

“We are being quite legitimate in this matter,” Dok states, “We had received some rather troubling inside information,” He glances at everyone gathered, “The Kingdom royalty have summoned the aid of a servant of the Idols,”

Silence reigns in the room. Granted, half of us usually didn’t speak even in the best of times.

“That is indeed troubling, comrade,” Lacer chimes, his countenance somehow sterner than usual, “Is your information reliable?”

“Very,” He nods, reciprocating the gravity of the situation, “But even then, we thought to check ourselves, and we have confirmed it so. So now I would like to ask of your assistance good sirs,”

“Sigh, as I said before. We’re also in no position to lend aid,” Laffer shakes his head, “Our objective in Joost ain’t done with, plus we got some bloody cultists in town, so we really can’t,”

It was an answer we all expected.

Dok taps his cane in thought, as another wave of silence lapses over.

“My good sirs, then I believe that after your problem is addressed, you could spare a hand or two?”

“Correct,”

“Alright, I have a perfect plan,” Dok knocks on the table, “How about we…” He gestures toward everyone present, “Move to the capital,”

Brilliant idea!

I give him a thumbs up, which also prompts my two companions to do the same.

“I’m afraid that option isn’t viable, comrade,”

Oh, how saddening.

“Rather irksome isn’t it? Though I guess that is simply the zeitgeist of the times,” Dok sighs.

Indeed it is.

“Wait a second,” Laffer holds a hand up, “Jeffrey, are you even on the same page as us?”

“Of course I am,” I say, chewing on a couple rose petals.

I contemplated just grinding up the rose in its entirety but those thorns would be quite bothersome. Therefore, I opted to just have the petals straight up. And let me tell you, these petals taste divine. Exquisite even. Its texture was rather different to anything else, it was smooth and soft on the tongue, the slight dew giving it a sweet taste, which harmonized amazingly with the bitterness of the petal itself. Producing a delicate, yet delectable tangy hit, which magnified the taste by folds. 10/10 I definitely enjoyed this.

And Lazari evidently also enjoyed the delicacy. She was outrageously cute as she put rose petals in her mouth. Lily… well, she’s a lost cause now. It disheartens me that my own bird would disappoint me so.

Hmm, I still have the stem and some leftover petals. Maybe I can make leaf water, but petals? So would that make it petal water? Heh, it still sounds ambrosial nonetheless. Wait, what if I marinated the stuff? I’ve heard puting extra setup for foodstuffs usually increases the outcome by folds.

*Gulp*

Just the thought of it gets my mouth watering.

*Snap!*

Laffer snaps his fingers, heartlessly breaking my reverie. Scum of the earth I dare say!

“Pay attention!” He yells with a bellow of spittle.

Tsk, what a bastard. Have some decency.

“Ahem Back on point, so, I’ve pinpointed their base of operations,” He circles a specific location on the street map, giving me a sidelong glance.

It’s some secluded slum location, and seems rather hidden amongst other buildings to be honest. Impressive. What isn’t impressive is his shoddily drawn circle. Like really now, it was as if it was drawn by a disfigured, infantile snake.

“Huh? I’d like to see you do better,” The man goads, but it’s a losing bet…

For him of course.

Taking his quill I trace a circle of infinitely better proportions over Laffer’s crude cave monkey attempt.

“W-What in the holy h-hell? Did you go to an art school?” His voice quivers in awe at my perfect circle. I have to say, even for a country boy like myself doing a bit of sketching is no biggie.

“Hmph, well I was the one who found the site so screw you!”

Must’ve taken quite a bit of effort, huh? I don’t think I could’ve done the same, so I’ll give him that.

“Well, unlike you, I was hiding out and observing the movements of local gangs and the traces of the serial abductions,” He lifts his chin up as he looks down at me with mockery as if to cover up his previous affront, “Using that information, I zeroed in on a couple locations, and checking them, I’d pinpointed the blood cult,”

He gestures with his hand, as if to say ‘applause please,’

He doesn’t get an applause. And rightly so! The bastard doesn’t deserve one!

Disappointed, Laffer moves on.

“For this task, we’ll probe them first, so we won’t be going all out, but we’ll still light their asses if we can,”

Sounds good. Sounds good. That means you’ll be going alone, right?

“It means that I’m going, but I’ll also be dragging your sorry ass along with me,” He hisses.

“What in your right mind makes you think I’ll be able to help out?”

“Touché,” He relents “But your still coming,”

Shite.

“Don’t worry comrade. I will give weapons loan,”

Loan? “I don’t like owing people…”

“No worries, I’ll place it under comrade Laffer’s name,” Lacer decides, very much to man in question's dismay.

Nodding to me, Lacer opens a steel locker, one of his personal possessions, snapping out what seems to be an intricately carved wooden stick, grafted with layers of cold steel.

It’s a rifle.

“It’s a shotgun,”

Shot… gun? Shotgun? “Isn’t that a rifle?”

It’s thin cylindrical body and prominent hammer and trigger, definitely alludes to its congruence to rifles despite its shorter length. Not this so called ‘shotgun.’

“You are correct, comrade, this is a scattershot rifle,” Lacer elucidates, “I have not a clue what comrade Laffer was talking about. Nor am I aware of what a ‘shotgun’ is,”

“You guys can’t be serious…” Laffer looks completely flummoxed.

You’re the one who isn’t serious. “Why are you calling it weird names?”

“It’s a shotgun! There’s straight up no difference!”

I am certain there is a big difference. Even though I don’t know what a shotgun is…

“You know what? Who cares, I’m wrong, it’s not a shotgun,” he confesses, “I’m wrong, you're right. You happy?”

It’s good that you know when to admit you're wrong. And yes, I’m very happy.

“Alright, comrade, remember that we do not have many scattershot rounds, so be frugal,”

Hah! That’s simple. I’m superb at conserving munitions.

He passes me a bag of cylindrical rounds, which I promptly tie to my belt, next to my bolts.

Grabbing the rifle, I inspect it. It looks rather different to other standard rifles. Barring the obvious length difference, it also didn’t have a bolt to reload, but had a forearm instead? It looked needlessly appropriated simply for a small ammunition difference.

Though I can’t help but feel like this rifle wouldn’t be as effective as initially proposed. After all, even if it had a high firepower, in the end, these were basic projectiles without any additional enhancements. Add in to the fact that these scattershot rounds were smaller than usual, I had quite a lot of doubts on its effectiveness.

“And you think your bolts can do better?”

No, “I just don’t expect this thing to be any bett-”

I say those words halfheartedly, but Lacer sharply cuts me off.

“Do not underestimate superior empire engineering,” Each syllable is stressed, resounding through me like the clanging of steel.

His gaze bores into me, causing me to timidly hide behind the rifle.

Yes, I’m scared, I admit. Now, where’s my mummy and daddy?

Wait, I’m an adult you say? That can’t be…