The dinner was awkward, at least we've established that much, and it was beyond annoying. However I achieved what I wanted to achieve, and that was to throw my father off my scent, and make him think he gas gotten what he wanted. For now though, I still had to take care of my affairs in the game, which was why I was logging in, almost as soon as we got back home and I was sure Ron was in bed. Tomorrow was a Saturday, and I wanted to spend the whole of it with my boy and Kira.....you know to foster relationship and all that stuff.
I opened my eyes to a rather silent villa. It was quiet, and somewhat cold, but I think that's to be expected. If the game's time is actually correct, this should be the early hours of the morning, while in the real world it was getting a little close to midnight.
Sky was sleeping on the bed beside me, and a soft tap from me woke her up. I made my way downstairs where I saw that everyone was actually up, and around. Honestly I thought that they would all be sleeping, so it was quite a surprise for me to see them here.
"Master Aaron, good morning. How was your night?" Mack greeted me.
"Hey guys what's up? My night was great Mack how was yours. Good I hope?" I asked rapid fire as I sat on the dining table beside them, Sky followed as she scrambled on top of the chair beside me.
Everyone including Dinah gave me varying degrees of answers, but ultimately they were all doing okay. Good, I guess it's time to get to work.
"Alright guys how far have you all gone with your assignments." I asked them.
It was Mack who answered me, pulling a bundle of papers out of an inventory as he placed them in front of me. For a moment I was dumbfounded, I just asked them to find some people for me, what brought an official report into the equation. Either way, I guess this was better than nothing.
"The Dark elf paladin is just like you master Aaren, someone from another world. However my sources tell me he's currently staying in an inn within the red light district of root city. He's just been discharged from his guild, and is known as a socially inept and lazy person. However he's an accomplished fighter, and a good dungeon hunter. According to the profile his guild has on him, he has the single highest record for solo dungeon clears among all his guild mates. Now I don't know how that record translates to the rest of the world, but he has a reputation as a capable fighter, his character just leaves much to be desired. This is the eight time he's been kicked off the guild, they'll probably come recruit him again, and he would be too lazy to say no. His name is Raven Song."
Well this guy's certainly complicated, and I had no idea how I would be able to rope him in, but I could just try my best anyway. I had a good impression of him, and the fact that he seems to be a good fighter was only just a bonus. As soon as I'm done here, I'm going to go look for him.
"And what about Qitar, did you find her?" I asked him.
"I did. Apart from the fact that it seems, everybody who survives a fight with you, gets thrown out of whatever organization they're a part of. She's just undergone surgery to have a bionic arm replace the one she lost. She was the captain of the golden suns, a special task force on the island of Patmos that dealt with investigating crimes the normal police force has no jurisdiction over. The king gave her a dishonorable discharge, and sentenced her by having her original arm replaced with a bionic one. She's currently recuperating in her personal villa, just and hour away from yours. Since she's the daughter of a noble, and a general, the king could not go too far with his punishment, but from what I've seen, this has caused a lot of dissent among the ruling power of the island.
The opinions of the people are split between being angry that she lost to you, and being angry at the king for punishing such a loyal soldier. But there's nothing to be done about it, Qitar was born and bred a soldier, with no other skills in hand rather than being a good detective, and very able markswoman. Her discharge has made it so that she won't be able to serve in any sort of military outlet on the island, heck because of the king's influence not many civilian outlets, if any would be willing to accept her. The only options left for her is to either just continue living her life, relying on all the money she's made, leave this place and go start life anew somewhere else, or become a mercenary. Safe to say she's hit rock bottom sir."
I felt bad for her, and that was mainly because she was in this mess because of me. I had to find some way to make this right, and my original plans for her might just be the answer I need. I wanted to help her, that and I also needed her skills.
"Alright Dinah, Jack and Darke, you guys are coming with me to go see Qitar. Mack and Zack, you're the eccentric duo, go get Raven Song here. Knock him out and put him in a bag if you have to. I have a feeling that guy just goes with the flow, so he wouldn't give you guys too much trouble. All right let's go!" I said to them all as I got up from my seat.
"Why do I have to go with you?" Dinah asked, feeling wronged.
"Well because I say so. Come on, move that sexy ass of yours, we're on the clock here."
"Fuck you captain!"
"Maybe later Dinah."
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
*ding dong*
I waited for the door to open, trying to not get annoyed at Dinah as she scuffed and dragged her feet on the ground from annoyance. I get that she didn't want to be here, but this was getting childish. Jack just stood politely to the side, a victim of Sky's pranks as she took her time to whip her trunk at his but, releasing loud smacks into the crisp morning air.
The door opened, and Qitar stuck her face out, she looked at everyone in front of her, before turning her gaze to mine. Her eyes narrowed, and to be honest I felt as if she was about to attack me.
"What do you want?" she asked me, not at all masking the coldness in her voice.
"Well nice to see you too Qitar, long time no see." I said to her with a smile on my face. But all she did was blink and stare at me, making me feel very awkward and like a complete idiot.
"I came to talk, and to see how you're doing."
"We have nothing to talk about, and as you can see I'm fine." She turned around about to slam the door in my face. But I moved fast and slipped into her villa, and Dinah, Jack and Sky followed close behind.
Qitar looked flustered as she didn't expect such a brazen action from me. I placed my focus on her, as I looked at her new left arm. Whatever the fuck that was, I don't think that's how a bionic arms is supposed to look like. It was Incredibly messy, and looked more like a robot crane built by a kid in the fifth grade.
"What the fuck is that! Which bastard made such a shoddy and shitty work? How could you let them do this to you? Damn it, this gives engineers with a PhD in bio mechanical prosthetics a bad name. Hey captain, we need to take her back to the ship, using it's new Nanite immune matrix system, I can build something better for her with the remaining materials. If we leave her arm like this, she's going to be in constant pain, and her nerves would suffer irreparable damage, not even magic would be able to help her." Dinah complained as she closely examined Qitar's very ugly looking prosthetic.
"I don't need any help from you people!" Qitar said as she wrenches her metal arm back from Dinah's grasp, wincing in the process as she was wracked with intense pain.
"Listen to me Qitar, I came here for you. And I'm not leaving without you, especially now that I know that you're in such pain." I said to her.
"And who's fault is that!?" she yelled at me.
"It's your governments fault, totally not mine I can assure you that." I said to her as I raised my hands up in a placating gesture.
"......"
Yeah, she was not the only one with dumbfounded expression on her face. Even Sky had a look on her face that screamed 'what the hell'. I'm sure they were thinking that Qitar was in a very fragile position right now, and an answer like mine, was probably insensitive. But I knew what I was doing...….I think.
Qitar was somewhat like me, a soldier who served her country. And she's as hard as a soldier can get, which is why I know sympathizing and coddling her won't work. She was fighter, and she needed to be approached with a fighters tenacity, I had to give her that respect. But I also had to be honest too.
"Your people captured me, took my battle beast away, and put me in a life and death fight. Heck they even set me up with someone they were guaranteed would kill me in the first fight. So what the fuck was I supposed to do! Just roll over and die. I'm a soldier Qitar, and a father too. I'm here for a reason, and the fate your people had planned for me, threatened everything I was fighting for. You should understand better than anyone Qitar, we fight for our loved ones, for our country, regardless of the situations we find ourselves in.
And I admit, this whole trial of revelations is just one big cluster fuck of problems. And shit tends to hit the fan every ten seconds. But the only thing I can do, that we can do, is to make right our wrongs in whatever way we can. So please let me help you, I understand what it's like to loose everything and have nothing, to be left without a purpose and be lost.
So let me give you that purpose, let me help you. To make right the wrongs that mind you aren't my fault. If you want revenge, I'll let you take it. But you could be meant for......"
"Okay let's go."
"Yes you must understand that you must let go to.....wait what?" I asked confused.
"Your speech is annoying, and it's making both my missing arm and my head ache. I know what the second trial is all about, you need a crew, and I need to get off my ass and stop feeling betrayed and sorry for myself. Not when I can't do anything about it, so let's go. If I help you win, then that's the best revenge imaginable. So whatever it is you're offering, I'm taking."
"Ummmm? Okay I guess? Let's go." I said to her, completely confused by the sudden turn of events.
"Great let me go get my stuff." And then she walked away.
"No offense captain, but with your boring and cringe worthy speech giving skills, do you reckon it was supposed to be this easy?" Dinah asked me as she watched Qitar move up her stairs.
"I have no fucking idea, what the heck just happened?"