ALL NOVEL Chapter 25: Darthmage
Chapter 25
*MAAAAAAAAAH*
“Why do we have to become adventurers!?” I asked. I was already mastering Qi on my own. Dungeon hunting just meant more responsibilities to me.
“Because…., after accounting for your eating habits, we do not have enough money at hand,” Allisa said, pointing at my flat belly as she looked at me with indignation.
“So in other words. You blew all of our budget buying yourself shoes,” I said.
The snobby elf trembled. Her back hunching back and forth from the comfort of her chair. Without making eye contact and fully closing her eyes, she tilted her head to the side. As if looking at her face at a different angle was all that we needed to believe her crappy argument.
“No, of course not, I merely took a few liberties with the way our money was spent,” Allisa said, pushing her left hand against her chest in order to make it look like there was some from of honesty in her statement.
I chucked loud enough for her to hear. She pretended not to hear, but her ears began blushing a violent red.
She carefully opened one eye to peek at me, scared of the embarrassment that was to follow. But I just stared back at her, silently.
The elf made many faces and gestures, but no matter how well performed they were, I just kept staring. This just made her entire face turn red.
Her lips finally trembled, and the elf allowed a quiet, and embarrassing apology to come out from her mouth.
“Y-yes, it was the shoes,” Allisa said, covering her face in shame. Her long blond hair falling down to the round table in which we were sited.
Seeing that the elf was utterly defeated, Joanne came to her rescue with a fake and short laugh.
“Money can always be regained as easy as it is lost, but friends can not,” Joanne said.
I was about to respond to Joanne’s faux moralism, when we were interrupted by the presence of an uninvited young man who was dressed in all black.
“Ladies, please, don’t fight,” he said. “I heard you four are having money issues. Well, I happen to know of a Quest that would fetch a great amount of coin for all of us. You do not have to worry about the dangers, for I, Darthmage would protect you with my blades.”
I choked on my own spit.
“Darthmage,” I said out loud. That was the stupidest name I had ever heard. It was so absurd. It had to be made up. The type of name that you use in a video game when you are an edgy kid. Yes, this idiot had to be without a doubt reincarnator.
Darthmage thought that the mention of his name meant that I was attracted to him. So he took a very embarrassing pose. Not much different from the absurd poses that superheroes do in comic books.
“Yes, I pledge that if any of you come to this quest with me. I will take care of the many dangers that there is. This I can attest with my honor,” he said.
“Dangers?” Joanne asked. Her voice trembled.
“Yes. Orcs, Goblins, Slimes, Trolls, Demons, any creature that stands in our way I will slay with these blades,”
‘Noooo, Joanne, you are so easy to impress. Damn it.’
“W-why would you do something so noble for people that you just met,” Joanne asked.
“Because, I am a Hero of Justice,” Darthmage said.
Allisa and I literally vomited blood.
Darthmage realized he had said something very cringe and began to blush in embarrassment. But Joanne, her eyes, they radiated like the stars. Upon noticing this, Darthmage’s face turned even more red.
It took a colossal effort for Nike not to draw her blade.
Our little conversation was interrupted when an unknown girl, not so different in age to Darthmage, walked up to him from behind and yanked him from the ear.
“I told you, do not bother strangers!” She said.
“Ay-ya-ahhhhhhhhh”
The poor reincarnator was getting punished like a bad dog.
“I am sorry,” the girl said to us. She bowed down a little bit, as she dragged Darthmage away. “He hit his head pretty badly when he was little, please excuse him.”
“Noooo, Elly, please, I was only telling them about The Undead Extermination quest.”
“Shut up. I walk away for a minute and you do this.”
“Ahhhhhhh,”
Poor Darthmage was dragged away out of the tavern by what seemed like his childhood friend.
There was a sudden, but brief silence.
“Is there a way to check how much that quest pays?” I asked.
“Yes…. There is one way,” Allisa said.
“And that is?” I asked.
Allisa forced us to walk all the way to the adventurer’s guild and look at a silly billboard. There, we found out that the Duke of Bandolier was paying adventurers a silver coin per every undead that they exterminated.
A single silver coin was more than enough for a meal. According to the quest, there was more than a thousand undead and there was a mention of a possible necromancer.
The guild girl at the reception desk mentioned to us that it had been centuries since the last time that a necromancer had managed to raise so many undead within the human realm. Which meant the regular army and the church were caught by surprise. It would take a week or two for their troops to rally enough men to exterminate the undead. As such, adventurers were more than welcome to contain the attack. No registration needed.
“Excellent, I say we take it,” I said.
“We must seek approval from The Grand Meister. Bandolier is almost a two day walk from here,” Allisa said.
“I doubt he would mind. He was the one who gave me this bracelet,” I said.
[Bracelet of Uncanny Illusion - He who wears this bracelet, might disguise an abnormal or absurd appearance. Observers who have never seen the wearer’s true form, will be unable to notice that the wearer has an appearance out of the ordinary.]
“Just because he is helping you hide your horns, does not mean that he is willing to let us go into danger,” Allisa said.
“You worry too much, it was your idea to resort to adventuring after all,”
Allisa responded with a grunt.
“Yeah that’s right,” I said.
I guess this is how I imagine Darthmage to look like.