Ahh…
Where am I? I thought to myself as I slowly started to regain my senses.
My head hurts. I clutched my head tightly as I tried to remember what happened.
Oh yes, that girl. As I thought about her, only the beautiful blonde hair came to my mind.
The memories of last night slowly started to come back. Where is she? I looked around me, but no one was with me. I was in a dark room filled with old furniture and such—it was clearly a basement of sorts.
I tried to stand up, grabbing the nearest piece of furniture, then looked around once more. The entire room was dark with no light sources. It was closed off from the outside because the air felt stuffy—there was no airflow. And this smell… I couldn't describe it. It wasn't exactly bad, but it was still annoying.
Oh, there has to be a door or something, I thought as I started to look around.
There—I found a door. I tried to turn the knob to open it, but it was locked. So I banged on the door, hoping someone would notice the sound. And it worked.
The door opened, and there she was—the girl I met last night at the bar. We chatted for a bit, had some drinks, and then… what? I don't remember.
"Oh, you're awake," she said. The gentleness in her voice was gone entirely, now replaced with malice.
"Here's the deal—you have to give me 10,000 mora." As she said that, she smirked. "And if you don't, then I'll falsely tell everyone that you tried to put your hands on me last night."
As she spoke, she placed her hand on the upper portion of her clothes and pulled hard until they tore apart.
I stood there, shocked. What is she saying? I couldn't even reply.
"What are you looking at?" she asked, clear malice in her voice.
Then, I finally started to realize what had happened—she drugged my drink last night. That's why I was unconscious the entire night. And now, she was blackmailing me. If I didn't pay the amount, she could just spread that lie to the public, and everyone would believe her because last night, everyone saw me drinking with her.
And I was new to the town—no one would believe me. My arms started to shake fiercely.
"I… I don't have that amount of money," I replied timidly.
"Oh really? You have one hour to gather up the amount, or the story is going public."
A voice came from behind the girl—it was another woman's voice, much older than hers.
"Don't do this to me… my life will be destroyed," I said with shaking lips.
"Do I look like I care? Now go—fast. You don't have time."
"...."
"Oh, look at this one! This one looks interesting," Eddy said, pointing toward the quest board.
"Oh, a group of three girls—one middle-aged and the two young ones—are going around from town to town, drugging young adventurer' drinks, then asking for money. If they don't pay up, they threaten to go public with a false rape charge which destroy their reputation. They only target young adventurers who are new to town and don't have many friends. As of this commission, they've destroyed a total of six adventurers' lives who didn't have money to pay them. They are quite clever and change their location quite often, but as of writing this commission, they have been spotted in Boss Town, a small town next to the Mahi River. It is opposite to Luminous City. Posted by the Luminous City Guild, this is a bronze-ranked quest with a reward of 500 mora."
"My God, 500 mora! That's a lot of money just to catch some scammer girls! Let's take it," Viola agreed with Eddy.
It's been ten days or so since we met Viola that day. Now we are a team working together on quests, and as for me, I've gotten a lot more comfortable talking with her. Now I can talk without stuttering in front of her.
As for Eddy and Viola, they also came to a truce. I think Viola stopped treating Eddy badly in these ten days.
"Let's do it then. Before someone else decides to take the quest, let's register it for us."
"Let's go," I agreed with them.
"..."
"So, the two of you are going to take this?" the guild representative asked Eddy and Viola.
"No, three of us," Viola replied.
"Sorry about that. The thing is, I've never seen him taking a group quest, that's why I asked."
"Forgive me," the receptionist said to me.
I didn't have the courage to say anything, so I just smiled at her.
"And that will be it. Now you're officially handling this quest."
"So, we don't know how to get there. Can you share some information on that?" Eddy asked.
"No problem, sir. Go to the city dock and take a ferry or a boat to the other side of the river. It's that simple."
"Oh, thanks."
"Happy to help!" the receptionist smiled widely at us.
"Let's go then."
"..."
We finally arrived at the dock.
"Hi, we want to cross the river to Boss Town."
"Sure. The next ferry is going to leave in 10 minutes. It'll be 1 mora for each person."
"Oh, that's expensive," I thought to myself. 1 mora means 100 silver, but we have to go no matter what, so we paid the 3 mora.
"Let's wait for the ferry."
Nothing much happened as we waited for the ferry, or on the ferry.
On the ferry, it was packed with adventurers, businessmen, and others who were crossing the river. The view was breathtaking. We were in the middle of the river, still able to see the faint shore from where we started our journey, and we were surrounded by water. The wind felt chill compared to the shore wind, as it was getting cold because of the water.
When we finally arrived at Boss Town's dock, it felt small compared to Luminous City's dock, which wasn't that surprising, actually.
"Let's visit the guild first for some more information. Also, I'm getting hungry."
"Not gonna lie, but I was getting hungry," so I nodded to show my cooperation.
"....."
"Oh, that guy is selling something good, I can tell just by looking," Eddy said energetically. "I'll check it out."
We finally arrived in front of the Boss Town guild.
"Ah, I need to use the restroom super quick," Viola said to us as she stormed toward the guild hall, leaving me and Eddy.
"Barren, wait here, okay? I'll go check what he's selling. I'll bring something for you too. If we both go, then Viola might not be able to find us."
"Okay, that's fine with me," I said, but the hunger in my stomach didn't agree with that and growled loudly.
My cheeks flushed with embarrassment as I looked toward Eddy, but luckily, he didn't even notice and was already on his way to the food stall, leaving me alone in front of the guild.
"Ah, this feeling of being alone, I know this very well, but spending the days with Eddy and Viola changed my vision, and I don't like being alone anymore."
Something was going on outside the guild.
People started gathering there, and I could faintly hear a female voice screaming.
Something definitely happened, so I started to go there, pushing through the crowd in front of me.
It was a girl, a crying blonde-haired girl to be specific. Her clothes were torn, like she had fought with someone.
"What happened? Why is she crying, and who is that boy?" Everyone in the crowd started mumbling, and then I noticed the guy beside the girl. He was tightly bound with rope and sitting on the ground. The boy had an evident expression of fear, his lips trembling. I think he got beat up by someone.
The girl started telling her story. She said she met this guy last night, had some drinks, and then the boy allegedly poured some drugs into the girl's drink and tried to have his way with her.
I listened to the entire story she was telling, crying and screaming, which made the crowd angry.
From "what happened to the girl", the crowd quickly changed to "Lets teach this guy a good lesson" in an instant.
I was there, hearing the entire story. I felt sympathy toward the girl, but I didn't know why, but when I looked at the boy, I felt something was wrong. That expression—it wasn't one of guilt; he was scared out of his mind. I felt sorry for the guy.
I was looking at the boy, sure that the crowd was about to turn into an angry mob at any moment,
NO, Something is wrong. I don't know why I felt like that.
"I didn't do anything," the boy mumbled, his lips trembling as he said that a guy from the crowd stepped forward and kicked the boy's face hard.
For a moment, I thought to myself, *That wasn't a liar's plea. This is wrong*, but I didn't manage to say anything.
The guy who kicked the boy spat toward him and said, "Let's teach the leech a good lesson. What do you say, brothers?"
The boy stayed there, his nose bleeding from the kick, but he wasn't even fidgeting, nor saying anything. He was just sitting there. He had given up.
The crowd cheered, "Let's teach him!"
As they were about to go towards the boy, my body moved automatically, and I found myself standing in front of the boy.
*What am I doing?* I thought to myself.
I stood there, in front of the guy, trying to defend him.
"What are you doing?" the guy asked, the one who had kicked the boy.
I looked toward the guy but didn't say anything. My voice was stuck.
The girl's expression twisted with annoyance as she pointed at me.
"He's with him," she said, her voice sharp and irritated. "Teach him a lesson too."
The crowd murmured in agreement, their anger shifting toward me now. My body tensed as several men stepped forward, their fists clenched.
I swallowed hard. What have I gotten myself into?
But despite the fear creeping up my spine, I didn't move. I couldn't just let them beat up a guy who hadn't even defended himself.
"Move aside, kid," one of them growled. "This isn't your fight."
I clenched my fists, my heart pounding.
"No," I said, surprising even myself with how firm my voice sounded.
The crowd fell silent for a moment, the tension thick in the air. Then, one of the men smirked.
"Looks like we've got a savior," he said, cracking his knuckles.
I braced myself. This was about to get ugly.
The boy behind me looked toward me and said in a low voice, "Thank you," before he fainted from blood loss.
To be continued…