If a ray of light were a man, it would be him. His presence alone comforted and made you fear him at the same time. He held his head high, proud of his power, and he knew he was strong, but no trace of arrogance could be found on his face. Only determination and wicked passion.
He bore a confident, big smile from ear to ear. His eyes were wide—as if you could see fire and lightning glowing in them a yellow hue. His hair was like orange flames, longer and tied up in the back, but letting the rest of it drape down into a mullet behind him, along with long bangs over his forehead and between his eyes. A red cloak-like poncho with white flame cutouts at the coattails down to his thighs was the big signifier for who he was. Underneath him was silver armor, like that of a true knight, complemented with light gray belted boots. And the back of the poncho had a white dragon logo embroidered on it, symbolic of his Guild.
He stood a few feet behind the officer who had fired two rounds at me.
"Officer, please lower your weapon, and kindly uncuff my acquaintance if you would." Not a question, a demand. And with authority sown into each word as he politely handed him his Knight's Permit.
The officer's eyes widened as he beheld it. It wasn't just any Knight's Permit either. He looked back to him as if he'd made a huge mistake.
"Right—right away, sir!" he nervously but hastily obliged.
In an instant, they uncuffed me, and all the other officers put away their weapons.
"Thank you for your cooperation, officers! Now, if you wouldn't mind—this area needs to be cleaned up and citizens cared for. Especially the ones who reported to you, and also any injured, if any. I'm sure you would agree that is top priority right now rather than apprehending my acquaintance on a mere hunch?" A hidden slight in those last words telling them how to do their jobs and to stop instigating in a respectful manner. A true knight after the Kingdom's own code.
"Yes, sir!" the officer said, "but the deadline—"
"Is null. You see the Permit, yes?"
I glanced at it. There was a lot of words, but I got out of it was that I could still retrieve my eterna. Lucky.
The World Magistral Army saluted all at once to him, then got to work around the plaza, leaving us finally. Even without the Permit, and though only a knight of one of the Four Kingdoms, he outranked every officer here simply because of his Guild's ranking in the Kingdom—myself included, even with my Acting Captain's title.
By now, he was brimming as he stood, arms folded and chest out. "You would be wise to be more careful next time, Greed," He said to me out of relief. He had come just in time.
"And how exactly was I 'not' careful, Ryo?" I asked incredulously.
His full name was Ryoku, but I called him Ryo for short. He also didn't care for formalities and wasn't afraid to call me by name rather than title. It was nice to hear anything else aside from Captain.
"I was talking about the resisting part. I don't know what you did to strike fear into those officers, but even I felt it... whatever that was," he said. "Had I not been here when I was, who knows how that would have played out..."
I didn't speak yet. I continued to fix myself, dusting myself off from the fight I had just had moments ago. Then, I put my hands in my pockets. Finally responding, "I don't know what happened there, my bad." And didn't say anything else, implying to him I didn't want to talk about it anymore.
His orange, flame-flicking eyebrows lifted and gave me a look of concern from that of a caring friend. He didn't pry any further.
"OH, THANK THE KEEPER! YOU'RE OKAY, I'M SO GLAD! YAY!" Ophelia said happily, popping out from the ground from seemingly nowhere, wrapping her arms behind me and over my shoulders.
"Ophelia, babe… Not here please," I said calmly as she rubbed her head against mine.
Her expression changed instantly and released me, bending over in front of me as she said, "Babe, huh? I know what that means..." she said a little too coquettishly.
"Babe?" Ryo asked curiously, "Does this mean you two dating?"
"No, it means I need her to crush my head in her thighs later."
"Yo, Ryo!" Havoc waved, casually walking toward the rest of us, one hand in his pocket, and without a care in the world about what happened. He made his way toward Ryoku and gave him a forearm handshake.
"Oh, and hey, Cap, glad you're okay," he finally added, sarcastically disregarding me.
"Thanks, dick." I said, matching his sarcasm with a gentle fist to his shoulder.
He gave an amused, hissed laugh. It was short and weaselly; closing his eyes in a cheery manner and sticking out a tongue.
"No, but for real. I was around the corner, ready to let loose if you signaled. Glad I didn't have to. I didn't feel like transforming today…" he said, stretching like he did so much work today.
"Oh yeah, I'm glad you didn't have to lift a finger today either," I continued to tease.
Ryo burst into laughter. A bit much. It wasn't even that funny, but that's just how he was. Everything he did was over the top and intentional. It was a good energy to be around, complimenting my lack of one.
"Anyway, I'm hungry. Let's head to the rendezvous now, please," I suggested.
We headed off, bantering as the sky was turning orange and the day drew to a close.
***
The sound of chefs cooking and chatter from the small crowd filled the air. The smell of homemade food seeped into our noses. Stir-fried noodles were being served as the chefs put together the finishing touches.
My stomach growled, but a look of disappointment was all that I wore on my face.
"I thought you were dying to come here. Why do you look like this now?" Havoc joked, knowing exactly why.
This noodle house was on the other side of town from the plaza we were last at. It was the best noodle house here. This was the rendezvous we had set. We always enjoyed a meal together as a team after any mission we completed together.
On our commute there, I checked in "mission complete" on my authorization scroll with Ryo's Knight's Permit sectioned into it. I felt like I was buying something online with a discount code.
With this, regardless if the mission had a specific deadlines, the Knight's Permit—more specifically, Ryo's Knight's Permit could null the deadline and enable rightful compensation to a mage. I didn't know the specifics of it, I just wanted my eterna... well what was left of it.
**Moments earlier**
Around this time, Ryo was speaking, and we were going over the rewards from the mission. "Ah, yes, remember to account for the miscellaneous charges. Here's the list:
- Plaza damage that was made during the fight: 2000 eterna.
- Twenty floors worth of broken windows from the skyscraper you jumped off: 1800 eterna.
- An injured pedestrian from debris when landing from the skyscraper: 500 eterna—"
"What? Was it that lady who was there? She just got a 'little' dirty from the monster splatter… but other than that, she was fine!" I interrupted.
Ryo replied, "Nope. This was another pedestrian who was there. Male, and I believe he was behind a tree…"
"Oh, come on! I didn't even see that guy!"
"However, that young lady you saved pressed charges, so that's a 150 eterna fee…" he subtracted that from the amount.
"Are you fucking kidding?! What's that for? A damn therapist!?"
Havoc and Ophelia butt in with their snickering laughter at my misfortune. I whipped my head around and scowled at them.
"And then you have the fine from the World Magistral Army for resisting arrest," he paused for a good while before finishing, "500 eterna."
"Well, that's not bad. I was expecting more. I've always wanted to donate my eterna to the World Magistral Army like the good Samaritan I am—SAID NO ONE FUCKING EVER. ARE YOU GODAMN KIDDING ME, RYO?"
Havoc and Ophelia now hysterically laughed in the background.
"Well, my Knight's Permit is golden sealed, it takes any Kingdom allies outside Kingdom laws under its safeguard, regardless of unrelated missions, even from the World Magistral Army—excluding Generals and above… but it does not cover fines or fees the W.M.A. decides to place on you. Prime example, you intimidating those officers before I came. Regardless of whether you meant to or not, they still saw it as a resistance to arrest. So it's directed toward you as an individual rather than against the Valley. Unfortunately, that's fair game," Ryo explained academically.
I let out an annoyed exhale and kept quiet, hands in my pockets, and merely wore a frown on my face as we strolled along.
Ryo, patient with me as always, let me be for a few seconds before throwing an arm around me. "Well, enough of that! How about we count up that reward eterna you earned!"
We summoned the reward eterna from the scroll, and by magic, it appeared in a tray, already stacked and banded.
Five thousand eterna was the reward. Nervous sweat ran down Ryo's face.
"What's with that face?" I noticed.
"Well… um…"
I started counting the money and segregated the expenses, which disappeared and went into an account as I did.
Five thousand eterna… Minus two thousand for the damage. Eighteen hundred for the windows. Five hundred for random injured dude. One hundred fifty for the annoying girl I saved. Five hundred for W.M.A. Which left me with…
"Fifty fucking eterna…"
I slumped and basically shattered from the sound of it.
Havoc and Ophelia wheezed, patting each other on the back as if to help each other up, unable to keep composure. Ryo, trying to make me feel better after counting the profit, patted me on the back nervously as we continued on to the rendezvous, with me slumped over and visibly depressed.
**Back to present**
The four of us stood in front of the noodle house, salivating. The sound and smell of food invaded our senses. My face was gloomy as ever, but I was so hungry I probably could've fallen over too.
Fifty eterna was all I had. I could probably buy us all a meal with that, but afterward we'd be ass broke. And I didn't bring any extra with me. We used up what we needed before coming to this town. I couldn't even remember for what. Why was my name Greed if I couldn't even keep eterna to save my life?
"Fuck it," I said and barged into the noodle house first, with Ophelia and Havoc following closely behind.
Ryo came in last. "Here's my e-card. Please keep it on file until my group and I are finished. Whatever we get, please put it all on this," he said to the hostess.
The noodle house was open all night. We filled ourselves with good food, alcohol, and laughs—leaving every important topic at the door and for the next day.
My only wish was that the others were here as well, but we'll eat a meal together when we get back to the Valley Kingdom.
"You know, for someone named 'Greed,' you sure spend more than you collect!" a drunken Ophelia joked, nearly including the table next to us in our conversation as we shared a laugh.
We simply enjoyed the rest of the night carefree, and the tab was more than fifty eterna from what I remembered. I went on to the next day without realizing how it was paid for.