What fun that sparring was, Jimmy thought as he walked away from the crowd, blending in with another crowd while passing the vendors of the marketplace.
He saw a bunch of items on sale, including various knick-knacks here and there to put some spark on one's appearance. Jewels, necklaces, or even full on tunics and shirts blessed in various colors such as maroon red, forest green and golden yellow.
His body felt the rushing force of another person crashing into him, a woman with black hair wearing an ivory shirt, falling to her knees.
"Oof." Jimmy spoke at the initial impact before turning to the woman. "Do be careful."
"I'm sorry." the woman spoke as she turned to look up to him, him giving his hand. She took it and was brought back up onto her feet.
"It's fine." Jimmy spoke as he got a good look on the woman's face. Such light, such piercing black eyes.
She turned away upon looking at him.
Probably shy, he chuckled, and began to walk away. He was not far from the entrance of the city, and soon he found himself on the old gravel path toward his cottage.
His personal cottage, the one he bought with his own money.
"Hey!" a voice called out to him. The walk hadn't even been about 5 minutes, and already something's gonna happen. He turned to see Xalt rushing to him, still having that giant blade on his back.
"You again."
"I'm not asking for trouble." Xalt spoke. "I just wanna confirm something." seconds of silence passed as he took the time to structure his question. "Is your last name..Stark?"
"Yeah." Jimmy confirmed, before turning his back and went back to his walking pace.
"No wait!" Xalt exploded in surprise. "Are you...Baron Eastwick's son?"
Those words stopped Jimmy in his tracks. Xalt's eyes noticed Jimmy's fists clenching.
Following a heavy sigh, Jimmy spoke, turning to Xalt again. "There's a reason why I don't talk to many people, people outside of my family anyway."
"I-" Xalt stammered. "I'm sorry. It's just that spar we had, you were more than reactive. Of course it sparked my curiosity, but I suppose I better keep my business to myself. That's the more honorable way."
Yeah, yeah, Jimmy thought, but hey, no more prying.
"But quick question: are you interested in being an adventurer? Perhaps going out there in the lands seeing new people, views and having exciting experiences?"
"Maybe, maybe not." Jimmy spoke. "I got some more important business to attend to."
"I see." Xalt folded his arms. "Well, IF you ever change your mind and actually have time, there's a call for some hunting requests in the center of the city. You've probably seen them, the bulletin boards?"
"Hunt people?"
"Uh, no. Beasts." Xalt spoke. "I'm not a bounty hunter."
"Normally I'd take off but lemme ask you something: you believe in demons?" Jimmy spoke. That question raised Xalt's interest.
"Yes. There's been reports of attempted possession over at some villages in the West of Gilvenheim. Back in the old days there were even tales of seductive demons: succubi, perhaps you're fully aware of the term."
Jimmy looked to his left, then the right, and finally the cloudy sky above. "Where are they?"
"Demons are not to be joked about Mr. Stark-"
"Call me Jimmy. I ain't much on formality."
"Yes, Jimmy." Odd name, Xalt thought. "Demons are said to wield unbelievable power, they can come in many shapes and sizes in disguise. Even a beautiful woman can be a demon underneath."
"Including companions and wives then?" Jimmy spoke in a laughing manner. Xalt rolled his eyes.
"Well, yes and no." Xalt spoke. "As long as they have kind and loving attention, then all should be well."
"But not all of them are in favor of a man who loves snakes?" Jimmy countered. "You said itself before."
Xalt widened his eyes. "I'm sure there's someone out there who understands your interest in snakes."
"All of them." Jimmy smirked. "I'll see you later, if I ever need to."
***
He shut himself into his cottage by the time he entered it. The window was opened slightly. He went to the kitchen, made out of the finest pinewood found back in the forests within the East. Jimmy remembered his father dealing with trading wood back in the old days.
Baron Eastwick, the title his father received. Jimmy had mixed feelings about that name.
"Tis only a label." He spoke of it alone in his cottage, built with a stern and strong amount of cement to accommodate the wood. "Titles are just special labels." he corrected himself.
Even his full name, James Avalior Stark IV was a special label for him to some degree, hence why he went by Jimmy for the most part. His father was James Stark the III, to differ between the father and the son.
Getting some firewood inside, Jimmy went outside and set up a rotating skewer above his makeshift fire. Stones were placed neatly in a perfect circle, and wood was scattered on top of it.
He went back inside and returned with the tiny orange bottle of Fiery Liquid. He took out a drip of the liquid with a small dropper.
Flames emerged from the wood as soon as the drip of the Fiery Liquid made contact with the couple of firewood scattered in the fireplace. The fire began to form, and soon he had pieces of chicken and Brimstone beef all set up on to the skewer. He rotated it slowly.
As his fireplace was near a cliff, he sat down on a log, and admired the blue sea, while the meat was cooking. Upon taking the beef from the skewer and onto a plate, he did the same for the chicken, and soon he walked both plates to a smaller building, built on his terms by some hired hands.
"Hello everyone." Jimmy greeted the dozens of snakes in the building. They all turned their heads toward him, some had eyes that were gleaming in joy, causing him to chuckle.
"No fighting." Jimmy spoke. "Everyone gets a share." he placed the plate filled with pieces of chicken, before many of his multicolored snakes began to chomp on it gently. He smiled widely.
If it were people, then it would be too much of a ruckus, he thought before looking around the place. "Where's Fayre?"
His ears perked up at the sound of a snake hissing not far from here. Getting outside, he struggled to spot the source of hissing.
"Fayre! You better not be fighting something twice your size!" Jimmy spoke in annoyance. He then saw a green emerald tail waving out in the distance. The waving was hard and wild.
"Dammit!" Jimmy shouted, running towards the location. "Fayre!" He found the green emerald snake but also spotted another snake, much darker in color, with a few shades of gray and white.
It seemed like the dark beauty of a snake. Jimmy furrowed his eyebrows as the dark snake saw his face, and yelped in a high pitched voice.
"Wait a damn minute." Jimmy spoke by the time the dark snake began to slither away. Though the snake attempted to slither away as fast as possible, Jimmy's hand picked it up by its head, his fingers pinching it slightly.
"Ow!" the snake cried out, before it's dark eyes widened in horror at the sight of Jimmy. "Um.."
"Snakes don't talk." Jimmy said in a scornful tone. "Not even female snakes."
"Wait! Don't hurt me! Please."
"I don't hurt snakes, well, the normal ones at least."
"Please let me down, I can explain better to you."
Seconds passed following a glare from Jimmy, who placed the snake gently. The snake soon was engulfed by a beam of dark and purple light, eventually forming into a woman.
"You." Jimmy recognized the black haired woman as the one he bumped by accident in town. "What the hell kind of a game are you playing at?"
"I-" the woman stammered, but maintained her posture. "My name is Belva! I was supposed to-"
"Supposed to what? Kill me?"
"No." she then placed her fingers together, before looking down. "Sed-"
"What?"
"Seduce you."
Jimmy laughed his ass off, he felt his insides wanting to die out of immense laughter. "So you're a succubus then. Well now!"
"It's not an easy job for me to seduce humans." Belva raised her voice. "Especially if they're high in energy and awareness like you."
"Oh yeah sure it't aint easy for you."
"It isn't! And I'm doing this for a reason."
"Do tell." Jimmy furrowed his eyes. Belva took a step backward. The wickedness this man showed, the high energy he had. It didn't seem like insanity, he was still speaking properly, but humans wouldn't act like this.
"I was told by another succubi that you were infused with magic when you were born!" Belva exclaimed. "We saw you before from afar, when you fought that adventurer out of sport."
"I didn't realize there was an additional audience."
"Well you were filled with high octane energy at the time to fight, so of course you didn't realize."
"Well here I am now realizing that a dark colored snake isn't really just a snake at all! Now explain yourself."
Belva held her hand against her arm, biting her lip in nervousness.
"Now." Jimmy's eyes started to turn pitch black, and gray smoke began to rise from his back. Belva gulped in terror when she saw Jimmy's piercing gaze, almost snake like.
"We need help from Cerrits like you." Belva spoke quickly before the palm of her hand glowed in purple, and pressed Jimmy's chest. A large transparent screen soon popped up.
[JIMMY STARK. LEVEL 13]
She yelped as Jimmy grabbed her wrist, and stared at her.
"Don't." he said roughly and shook his head. "Don't ever say that term."