[Parcis]

Parcis departed from Romalia with a mission and a smile on his face. It was his first ever time actually having a plan and while it was by no means a truly well thought out one, he figured that people asked him to tell his father to fix their woes and problems all the time so he should be very capable of changing the end receiver of the issues without having to do much of anything different. It was like starting a business. He was going to make a fortune if he could play his cards right, and almost none of the money would be coming out of his pocket other than buying a building to set up shop in. He slid his way through wherever it was that he had castled to and made his way out of the city, not a single adventurer paying him any mind. He even had to say excuse me to a few of them that didn’t get out of the way. Any Lander he walked by was more than quick about giving him space. His position of privilege was lost on these homeless barbarians from another world it seemed.

But the barbarians were to be his source of income. He had to make a guild, and the concept was there but he needed a name for it. It had to convey the purpose of it, a guild wherein he would be having his fellow people of the land voice their problems and then recruit these new virtually unkillable heroes to solve them. Obviously Problems Guild was a good name technically, though in practice it would most likely just lead to adventurers avoiding it, thinking all of the possible quests would be petty problems. Something grand would be necessary. Something truly extraordinary and eye catching. Someone that would jump in your face and scream “I WILL PAY YOU TO KILL GOBLINS!”

But his mind was blank. Almost as empty as the road he was walking on his way back to Tivali. Last time he walked this road he had to hire some guards and while a few adventurers proposed to, he had recently managed to figure out a spell on a new page of his Grimoire. The words he could not translate suddenly became clear and with a simple chant and a running leap, Parcis found himself atop a Skinfaxi, a steed worthy of his status. The hooves of the beast thundered down the road, drawing eyes and leaving many Landers with no time to prostrate to the Baron’s son, as much as he would like them to. This would cut the time in half, no, in a quarter! His Skinfaxi was draining stamina fast but he had a good hour of uptime most likely and that should be exactly what he needed!

The Baron saw many adventurers on the road as well. It had seemed that after a week, the brutes had found out that there was an entire world outside of Romalia and they must have thought it was theirs for the taking. Ahead of him, a family of Landers was taking their wares to Romalia, most likely to sell to these new warriors that took over the poor city, though they were stopped barely outside of Tivoli by three adventurers, low level, barely 400 EXP between them but still. It was more than any lander and it worried him even more that he was so outclassed by these nobodies who only had a few days to be alive in this world. What worried him more was that they were seemingly asserting dominance over his own citizens! There was no protections on the road, the guard kept to the city and only occasionally would a group of them walk the road at this time.


He had to think fast. These people needed help and Parcis needed to help them, but he would not last a second against one, let alone 3 adventurers, especially knowing that they would remember his face and just come back for him after killing them. With rival Landers, some nobles were happy to duel a and dispatch of an enemy but with this new threat, a duel meant little more than a setback for the adventurers and the end of everything for the Landre. It was a tricky situation. But it was a situation he could not solve. Parcis had an opening. The Skinfaxi, while not only fast, made his image blurry, and he was not the only person who would wear green in this world. He gripped the reigns tightly and with a bit of mental communication ordered his summon to charge at the three, but not to stop. He yanked the reigns and the horn of the Skinfaxi began to surge with energy as the two rammed into the three adventurers, no intention of stopping. They began to shake and buzz with electricity as well as being flung a few feet out of the way, their hit points dropping almost a quarter as well as the Electrocute condition hitting them. The 20s it would take for them to recover gave the landers enough time to find a few of the kinder adventurers who offered their help. He did not see what happened after that, as the Skinfaxi carried him to Tivoli but he felt like he had done the bare minimum. A real hero of the people would have stopped.

But he wasn’t aiming to be a hero, he almost wanted nothing more than to best the adventurers. Those Landers probably would have lived and lost nothing more than some money, so it wasn’t like a life was saved. All he really did was hurt some random people. But it felt good to see them fly back and shake like that. An “A Pezzi”, or “in pieces” in the common tongue as he heard a few say. He had yet to figure out what the meaning of the insult was but just knowing that that is what he was referred to, along with the other inhabitants of this world, gave him a bit more reason to hate these newcomers. Other than Maruem and Axi. Those two got a pass.

He was lost in thought before his focus was broken by a guard running out and holding a spear toward him. At this same time, his summon began to flicker as his MP ran low and started to fade out. He had just enough time to dismount and let the Skinfaxi run into an ethereal fade before disappearing before the guard. Upon his form leaving the blurred area, though, the guard fixed himself right up. He nearly threw the spear away as the only noble left in the area returned to his city infested with adventurers, and as soon as the guard addressed him as “my lord” the brutes descended upon him.

He could only hear one thing. Gibberish and a repeating syllable that would come out of all of their mouths at one point in their sentence. Blah blah blah “Quest” blah blah. He didn’t have time for this but he also couldn’t escape.

“I uh, I don’t have any quests! I guess... I could use help with a personal errand. Would you um... people? Be interested in that?” He asked. He looked almost disgusted at the adventurers. After all, they were in his face. The guard were trying to pull them away but the sheer number of them (which Parcis will exaggerate later) were overwhelming the singular guard!

The beasts almost started panting like a dog at the notion of being told what to do. The dogs were begging for a treat and Parcis found himself at their attention. He hadn’t even noticed but he activated one of his abilities as a level 1 Courtesan. The three adventurers were all over him for a second. He had them enthralled and all he needed to do was give them what they wanted. A quest.

“As you know I am the Right Honourable Parcis Mediatrium, son the the Baron Mediatrium and Lord of Tivoli! Therefore, all business I do is to be done perfectly in order not to bring shame upon my house. Can you three outsiders handle such a task?”

He smiled and looked up at them. Two men, both some type of fighting class and a woman who seemed to be a support. They were enthralled by the little Lander noble. They nodded up and down frantically. “OF COURSE WE CAN! Oh man this might be plot guys? Did we just discover the first part of the main quest? What if that’s the way out!?” They all spoke to each other in the common tongue but almost none of it made sense to Parcis.

He continued. “Because I am to hold a conference with the people of Tivoli. And I need help gathering the citizens. Would you three be capable of spreading word to the other citizens to meet in the park nearest my manor. You heroes from another world should find it simple to do with your charm and wit. Not everything can be brute strength hmm?”

He smiled at the group who turned their back and began huddling and whispering. Parcis tried to listen but nothing ended up getting loud enough for him to hear. The guard slowly made his way back to his post but kept an eye on the newcomers. As their whispering ended, they all nodded and turned back to face the noble.

“Yeah we’ll do it for money. Give us 30 gold each and we’ll do it.” They said, well, the woman of the group said. The other two stood behind her and looked menacing. Parcis was not shaken, he had actually saved up a bit of gold and had 90 to spare. He presented the bag of gold, his magic menu automatically filling it with the perfect amount of coin and held it out to the girl who hesitated to grab it. She flicked her finger in the air, fumbling with a menu. She seemed to be unaware of how to simply grab a bag.

“This is 90 gold. Perfect for this er... quest. Why don’t you just take it? It IS what you asked for right?” Parcis barked nervously. He was confused as to why the three adventurers started to look more and more frustrated.

“WHERE IS THE TRADE MENU GOD DAMMIT”

“Trade- what? Just... pick the bag up!” He barked back.

One of the men stomped forward and snarled at the noble. “That’s no way to talk to a LADY!”

“I was not aware that none of you were capable of even picking up a simple bag of gold. Here, what if I THREW IT AT YOU! Maybe then your nerves might. And imagine a simple homeless adventurer thinking it right to RAISE their voice to a noble! Don’t you know who my father is? In fact. CANCEL YOUR QUEST. I am keeping the gold and I want you out of Tivoli. Begone from it’s borders by sunset!” He shouted. He had no authority to do that, and the inaction of the nearby guard certainly shoved this point home. The three adventurers were frozen for a moment before realizing something Parcis had not. They were outside of the city still. They weren’t threatened by some in game system to prevent combat. With a flick of their hands, weapons and armors found themselves on the bodies of the adventurers.

“Yeah, big talk coming from a little Lander so far from his walls. I heard you guys don’t even respawn. I wonder if that’s true.”

Parcis, however, was in step with them. He threw out his arm and a flash of color brought an Alicanto into being. He was only at half mana but it would be enough for his plan. He jumped back and threw his arm forward as the Alicanto flew toward the city. A swift cast of his new Blink ability put him about 15 feet in the air and with a spin he vanished, Castling and unsummoning the Alicanto with the last remaining third of his MP. The three adventurer’s couldn’t even follow what had happened. They expected him to cower or fight but he... just left? They couldn’t believe how cowardly that was.

Inside the city, Parcis made his way to the Fief he called home. He heard whispers of the adventurers begging for work and the complaints of goblin attacks in the woods but that was all. He closed himself in, a wayward maid greeting him but for the most part ignoring the young baron who she need not obey a single command of. In fact, his father had ordered them to ignore any request other than special cleaning instructions that did not cause more work to be needed, such as changing his sheets an extra time.

He would remain indoors until the next morning. During which he was awoken to a clattering of hoofs and a trumpet that sounded the Baron’s call. It was a messenger. With a note. Parcis was slow to get up but a maid nearly threw him into a respectable set of clothes and pushed him to the door. “Honestly young master it is nearly 11AM and you are still in bed while a courier is arriving from who knows where. You are the only one here who can receive this notice so go and do so. I will not be applying your usual makeup as we need to get this done NOW so go!” She said, shoving him out the door.

Outside, he barely had time to respond. A man with a large flock of pigeons around him carried a scroll and a trumpet. “Lord Mediatrium, this letter is for you. That is all! I’ll be off!” was all he said before a bird flew the scroll over and the man began marching away, the birds all fluttering around him as he left town. Parcis was too tired to respond and just walked back inside to read.

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Word Count: 2341

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