Paradis de Fou

Peg's perspective.

After informing Mother Chen, Peg searched Jed's entire room for all the flare shells. There was a total of 15 shells and 10 sticks, which he wrapped in a bundle along with the dinner which Mother Chen packed for both of them. He flung the bundle of ammunition and food over his back and dashed outside, towards the East gate, towards Larry's house.

On the way, he checked upon Old Yan. He didn't go inside but instead peeked from the hole in the wall. From there, he saw him eating the chicken and rice hungrily like a wolf. At that sight, Peg sighed silently in relief. He left almost immediately after checking on him and didn't stop until he reached the gates.

The gates had patrols and troops of soldiers guarding it all the time and it would've been incredibly difficult for either a dog or a human to sneak. But Peg was a mixture of both, he was a dog in body and human in mind and therefore it was very easy for him to sneak. Peg used the cover of the shadows of soldiers to mask his escape.

He then headed straight to Larry's. This time, the door was opened by Larry, who apparently was waiting for him.

…

"So—nom nom—where's Jed?" Peg asked Larry, as he chewed on a chicken leg. Larry, who too was eating chicken, replied, "Fattic… Gulp! I mean, attic. By the way, is that lunch from auntie Chen?" Larry asked pointing to the bundle. Peg frowned and replied, "Greedy boy!"

Larry didn't at least hide his emotions and asked, folding his hands, "C'mon, friends are there to share, don't they!!"

"Grr! Shut up or else I will bite you."

"Muuu!" Larry puffed his cheeks in dejection. Actually, Peg already knew that Jed was in the attic. Peg had various ability and each one of it has a tree-like upgrades to them, very much like games. After gathering sufficient amount of experience, he was able to upgrade his abilities. For example, after talking with Jed with telepathy for an extended period of time, he was able to detect Jed when he was in a radius of 150 meters and talk with him at a radius of 10 meters. So, as Peg was talking and eating with Larry, he already had a conversation with Jed where Jed informed him all about Larry's acting tricks and his broken hatchet.

Creak!!

Suddenly, the attic door was thrown open and a horrible smell and Jed's voice erupted from within. "Give me the bundle, Peg!!!"

"Ewwwww!!" cried Larry in disgust. "Hmph!!" Peg openly sneered at him and marched coolly towards Jed elegantly but in reality, the smell was nearly making him throw up.

"Hey, come down idiot! Or else how can I give it??!!" shouted Peg at Jed as he didn't have a single intention of going up. The smell was taking his insides for a ferry ride right where he was standing. He knew that he would be knocked up if he goes up.

"Fine. Throw it up!!" Jed replied almost instantly.

"Roger!"

Swoosh!!!

"Thanks!"

Bam!

Jed closed the door as soon as he opened it, relieving Larry and Peg from the dangerous smell. But even then, Peg wasn't happy. It was only now that he realized that he had given the ENTIRE dinner to him, which also included HIS dinner. And as it happens to be, he was very hungry.

"Thank goodness! Man, that smell was totally ruining my food. Fue! Come, Senior Peg, let's eat!!"

Peg glanced at Larry's smiling face and then at the plate full of chickens. A wide, evil grin spread over his face and he dashed at the plate.

"GIVE THAT TO ME!!!"

"What!! NOOO!!!!"

….

It was only after two whole hours did Jed come down. By that time, both Peg and Larry had eaten their lunch, had a game of cards and a small talk about the upcoming beauty pageant of Mie City. Jed, who was working this entire time, had a blank expression when he saw the messed-up room, filled with cards and lewd books.

"Can you guys please stop this nonsense for once?!"

"Oh!" cried Peg uninterestedly as he was viewing a book which displayed the perfect new and innovative postures of having s*x. He turned towards Jed after an entire minute and said, in an amazed tone, "Hey dude, look, look!! These positions are f*cking awesome!!! I bet these would fetch quite a price back, don't you think? Think they can make me an awesome playboy?!"

"HAHA!!" laughed Larry lewdly. He poked Peg and replied, "Senior Peg, you sure have some kind of humor, don't you!!"

"Grr!!" Peg growled at Larry but then he turned to Jed and asked in a much calmer voice, "What do you think?"

"Look Peg, I've some important stuff to discuss, so, can you please throw away these stuffs for now."

Peg clicked his tongue in annoyance but didn't reject it. He got the feeling that Jed wasn't in a mood of joking. He turned to Larry, who was still quite immersed in those books and ordered, "Kid, time to pack. You're still a kid, so don't look at them for long. Or else The Devil might just give you a visit and take your eyes as a compensation."

"Whaaatt!!" Larry said in an annoyed tone, but right then Jed shouted angrily at him. "GET THESE THINGS OFF HERE!! NOW!!!"

"Hai!!!" saluted Larry and darted off. Within minutes, the entire room was cleaned so thoroughly that not even a speck of dust was found. Larry even excused himself and ran downstairs so as to not anger Jed anymore. Thus, leaving only Jed and Peg alone. They sat across each other and Peg got the feeling that something was terribly not right.

"What's the matter, Jed?"

Jed pursued his lips and sat mutely, as if deciding on something.

"You know, we had a promise. we look after each other's a*s, don't we? That's the promise you made me when I agreed to be your companion, so, in hell's name are you keeping stuffs from me?" his voice turned into angry tone steadily. He was already quite angry at Jed for eating his entire dinner.

But Jed still wasn't quite satisfied. He still kept mum for another two minutes, before sighing tiredly. He placed his hands into one of his various pockets and took out a small glass closed jar. He placed it infront of Peg and asked, "Do you know what this is, Peg?"

Peg looked closely at the jar and saw a black mass inside it. With his curiosity piqued, he looked more closely at it and saw tiny bugs. "They are bugs." He replied confused. The only thing of importance was a red dot on its abdomen but Peg didn't think much of it.

Why was Jed showing him some random bugs? He thought, but Jed simply pushed the jar very near to Peg's eyes and asked, more intensely, "Do you see now?"

Peg did as he was told and ho! The seemingly small bugs weren't simple at all. The small bugs were actually hybrid insects. They had eight legs and a large rear abdomen, like spiders, but their mouths were completely different. They had strange mangled heads with small holes like eyes and a gooey red-green liquid was spilling out of their 'mouth' and strangely enough, this red-green liquid was somehow 'connecting' them together. Another special characteristic was that when looked at a completely different angle, their small red dots made a larger illustration like drawingwhich clearly depicted one thing. A Behemoth.

Peg frowned and asked, "A Behemoth? Is it one of The Devil Beelzebub's summons?"

Jed shook his head. "This is a sign. A sign that the summoning is in its last phases. There are Grade 1 Hell insects."

…

"… Are you sure?" asked Peg seriously. Jed nodded his head. "I'm completely sure. The summoning of the Hell-Insect Pendant comprises of the summoning of a vast number of Grade 1 Hell Insects followed by Grade 2 and so on. And … unfortunately, I've found quite a large number of them in the attic.All of them were glued with this strange red-green liquid and all had a distinctive Behemoth sigil."

Peg gulped and asked, "Then … do you mean that … the disaster has started." Jed's facial expression wavered for a moment before he resolutely nodded his head.

Peg's mouth gaped slowly at Jed's agreement and he stayed like that for the next minute. But then it dawned upon him that disaster wasn't far away and he woke up with a start.

"Goddammit!! No time! No time! We don't have the f*cking time!!! Jed! Jed!! This is not a time to laze around!!!!!!!"

"U-u-uh? Oh…" Jed sighed, waking up from his prolong state of shock.

"Why the hell didn't you pack up before you idiot?!!" cursed Peg as he saw Jed packing his stuffs NOW.

"I did!! But then I took them all out to make those special flare shells!!"

"You made Specials?" asked Peg with a cry of joy but it was soon dashed by Jed. "Don't get excited too soon! I've not test them and for your pleasure fact, I've lost 20 of them in experiments right now!!"

"Whaaaaatt!! You f*cking mutt!!! Who then for f*ck's sake told you to make them?!! I pray that they work or I'm going to gnaw on your bones in hell." cursed Peg vehemently at Jed.

"Yea? I can also promise you that if they don't work, I'm going to gnaw on my bones first before giving them to you!! That was my hard-earned Silver, man."

"Well, then remember that when you fight those bloody monsters."

…

"Where are you guys going so late?" asked Julie who had just caught Jed and Pegon their way downstairs.

Both of them were completely dressed and armed with Jed wearing his leather jacket and holding his Wendigo in one hand and a crossbow in another. He was placing them both in their sheaths as he was coming down. This crossbow was called Arbalin and was Jed's primary darling, standing even before the super awesome Wendigo. It was a custom-made crossbow with a modern finish, a magazine bolt-holder, a bolt-action gas-propelled mechanism to add extra force on the strings. It boasts the strength of a catapult at the size of a crossbow and is a darling of both Jed and Peg. After all, it was the product of Peg's unparalleled knowledge of physics.

Other than that, Jed had a few pockets full of flare shells and other pockets with devil-warding ingredients. He even had two kilos of salt, which he had completely forgotten about, in his backpack. As for armor, Jed didn't have something definite. His entire body looked like a monster's hide with bits and pieces of metals attached here and there to cover what the hide could not. He had a rounded and beaten piece of metal as pauldrons, a long sheath of cold steel wrapped around his arms and knees with leather. It served the purpose of arm-guard and greaves and for the hand, he had a tough leather with studded metal bits. It was very weird for an armor, but it was clearly visible from the facts alone that this wasn't the work of an armorsmith. It was Jed's own creation with the help of his mother's sewing skills.

Peg, too was nothing much different that Jed. He too wore an armor, which was a thick leather armor, of the size of a puppy and studded with steel. The only opening was the head but that was also guarded by the Nazi 1940 helmet. The entire leather armor was specially crafted for Peg and therefore it looked more like an extra skin than armor.

Jed smiled awkwardly and replied, "U-uh… sister, we've got a job to do, so we gotta go. I'm really very very sorry, but we can't stay for the night."

"What?!!" she cried in shock. "But—but—but …"

She stammered in shock but right then, Jed clasped her hands and said in a determined voice, "Don't worry sis, we will return before dawnbreak. See you soon, sis!"

"SEE YA'!!" shouted Peg behind while dashing through the door.

…

"So, how bad do you think the situation is, Jed?" muttered Peg as they walked through the porch of Larry's house. Jed stared continuously at the bug in deep thought, completely ignoring Peg. Peg tilted his head in confusion and asked again, "Dude, what are we gonna do?"

"Sigh…" Jed sighed tiredly and smiled in an awkward fashion, "The first thing to do is to beat the crap out of Sean. Damn him for getting us muddled into such quests."

Peg shook his head and replied, "Ha… like you can do it. But before we beat the crap out of him, don't you think that we should get to him first. C'mon, lets get to the North gate as fast we can."

"Haha!" laughed Jed as he picked up Peg, "Why the hell do we need to go inside the City when our final objective is outside of it? Let me show you the greatest shortcut to around the City!!" Jed said with a grand emphasis, but Peg simply rolled his eyes. He knew that the only shortcut in and around the City are the sewers and he was sick of it. But in the corner of his heart, he had a tiny bit of hope that Jed would truly show something awesome and new to him. After all, it was him who scouted the area around the City whenever he had time.

Unfortunately, Peg was destined to have his hopes broken. Jed took him to one of the deserted and lonely corners of the East road, through the bushes and shrubs into a stinking clearing. The clearing was wet with dirty mud and quagmire like puddles and the only noteworthy feature was a large metallic cap. A sewer cap.

Peg gawked at it for three whole minutes before finally muttering, "… Are you serious?"

Jed nodded without turning his head. Instead, he handed Peg a face mask he made himself. Peg took it silently and wore it under his already masked face. Jed too wore it and said in a jolly tone, "Lets go on a new adventure!!"

"You know that I'll curse at you at the end of it, don't you?"

…

"Motherf*cker!!!"

"Oh! God! This smell!! I can't take it, anymore!! I'm gonna throw up! Buaaah!!"

"Jed, my brother Jed, don't leave me behind!! There's rats here!!"

"AAAARGH!! THESE F*CKING RATS ARE MESSING WITH ME!!!"

"JED, JUST YOU WAIT!! I WILL GNAW ON YOUR BONES UNTIL YOUR LAST BREADTH THE MOMENT WE LEAVE THIS HELLHOLE!!! AAARGH!! RATS, RATS!!!"

…

Jed and Peg had a true adventure inside the sewer tunnel, with Jed again being the most profited one and Peg, the loser. Jed left the tunnel with a big smile on his face, a Silver Coin in his one hand and a swinging hatchet on his other, while Peg had several bite marks on his leather armor and many more on his face, just like kiss marks left by hundreds of fans, females of course. The hatchet that Jed swung was covered with blood and gore, apparently of the Swine Rats, but he wasn't a least bit cared about it.

He simply smiled foolishly at the Silver Coin. They were walking through a small thicket but it soon gave way to an open space, full of tents and peddler stalls.

"Armors for your kin!! Buy and gloat about it for the next century!!"

"Swords and axes for your enemies! They are as buttery as the butter your enemies are. Don't spare a single one with this might axe!!"

"What is more important?!! Killing or being not killed!! Premium shields at a premium price!!"

"Pocket friendly potions for your pocket friendly hearts! Buy and win my lovely heart! Muah!!!!!"

Jed finally took his gaze from the Silver Coin and looked infront of him. Infront of him was the Northern market, the biggest unofficial market of the Mie City, after the Black-Market. Run entirely by the Adventure Guild, it is the best place and the most cheapest place to buy supplies but only if you're smart and good at haggling. Otherwise, this place can be your worst nightmare. This place is also where most of the expeditionary parties stack up their supplies before heading away.

Jed and Peg walked slowly into the market and looked for the biggest tent he could find because that is the only place where Sean and his party would be.

…

They came across a lot of people whom they knew, friends mostly and some enemies too but most didn't pick a fight. Jed didn't know why but he felt that the reason was the 3 Gold expedition. Finally, they spotted the biggest tent among all the existing ones and headed towards it but on the midway, a burly half-naked man wearing a bear overcoat noticed Jed. He had a terrible scar on his right eye and right as he noticed Jed, he smiled like a maniac. A smile which can even givechills to the most experienced adventurers.

"Yo, Rookie! What's the f*ck are you doing here?" he cried out like a ruffian, alerting everyone near him. Since, all the people in and around the Adventure Guild knew the identity of 'Rookie' and so, they looked astonished at Jed. Jed, sighed tiredly and turned towards the burly man. He smiled sarcastically and replied, "Even I didn't know that Sean invited an idiot like you, Gross."

Gross was the nickname of the burly man. He had got his name for various reason but mostly because of his f*cked up sexual preference. It's not a crime whatsoever the Church tells about homosexuality but the way how he behaves in the crowd and towards all the straight guy who crosses his path can only be described as. GROSS.

Strangely, he has a sexual preference of wanting 'straight' guys rather than gays even when he himself is a gay. Strange….

Gross smiled through his teeth and said, spitting out, "Yaass, baby. Truth be told, I already knew that you were going to come. After all, you're such a cheapskate and scrounge that I, Gross, can hardly compare. Infact, I'm more curious on what you will be using so much money for? Gosh! It's a whole 3 Golds… why don't you come to my room 303 in inn 'Road To Travels' and we can … Ooooohhhh" he cried like a girl as he slapped his fat butt, thus garnering disgust from all the straight guys around. But Jed was already quite familiar and accustomed to Gross' action. He smiled gently and replied, "I'm sorry, Gross, but I've got work, unlike you. As for what I'm going to do with the 3 Golds, you don't need to worry about it. I can assure you that IF I return back alive, I will spend a few Copper for your funeral. See ya'!!"

Jed waved at him and headed into the big tent, leaving Gross' and all the other adventurers nearby with a heap load of questions and doubt. Gross was the first one to understand Jed's meaning, as his all-time lewd expression dimmed down and a menacing aura surrounded him.

"What do you think he meant, brother?" asked one of the young adventurers.

"I don't know… but should we believe in him and his words? he is an adventurer after all." Replied the guy beside him, who also seems to be a rookie.

"What are you saying? You are an adventurer yourself and he is The Rookie." Cried out another rookie with a hint of admiration and idolism.

"But then should we give up on a 3 Gold early compensation expeditionary quest." Said another.

"I … I don't know…"

"I can't. My family has been going through tough times for a whole month and my daughter haven't eaten for three straight days. I can't back away." Said one of the thinnest looking man in the world. He was barely living and it was shocking that he still wanted to join in on an expeditionary force.

"Neither can I…"

"B-but I think we should… y-you see I-I once worked with The Little Rookie and his team once and they are, especially his little sister, are very meticulous with details. I'm sure he has his reasons for saying so." Said a timid looking adventure.

"Idiot!! He doesn't have a sister!!" cursed another.

Finally, as the crowd started becoming more and more rowdy, Gross stepped up and clapped loudly with his thick palms, which sounded like thunderclaps.

CLAP!

CLAP!

"Now, now guys, there's no need to think so negatively. I'm sure its all a strategy of the Rookie to test your mettle. He does so very often with his subordinates to eliminate the ones with the weak wills. Infact, many superiors of expeditionary teams do so, so you need not worry. And what are you all worried about when THE ROOKIE, THE SERPENT, THE KIOSK, MUSTANG and all the other high-class adventurers are there. it's going to be a piece of cake."

"Are you sure?!" asked one of the young girl adventurers in nervousness.

"Yes!" replied Gross courageously and manly, lifting off all the doubt in her heart. She sighed in relief and thanked him, "Thank you, big brother."

Soon, all the rumors turned from negative to positive and the hearty mood returned back to the crowd. Gross sighed in relief and muttered, "I'm going to kill that bastard for spilling the beans like this. Doesn't he know that this are the secrets of the upper echelons of the Guild."

"Stop saying it like that. It's nothing of a secret and more of a logical conclusion drawn out from experience. Infact, isn't it heroic in one way that he warned all of them before the disaster. I would be mesmerized with The Rookie than you, dad." cried the little girl, who too like Gross, was nearly half naked. Only the most private parts were covered by black leather garments and a black leather half-coat she wore above her shoulders. She kept on chewing a grass and wore thick black eyeliners and black lipstick on her face. She didn't look a single bit like Gross and was terribly small and skinny to be his child. But it was indeed true that she was his daughter. Only daughter, Criss.

Gross clicked his tongue and replied, "I'm only bringing motivation."

"You're using them as pawns. Not cool, dad." she counterattacked. Defeated, Gross didn't reply. Instead, he simply sighed and muttered, "Maybe, it was really bad to bring you here. If what Jed says is true then …"

"Nothing is true." Interjected his daughter. She sighed emotionally and looked directly into her father's eyes, "Dad, I won't and can't live in this f*cked up town on my own with 3 Golds. Those monsters would **** and enslave me like they do to other girls. I don't want to live like that dad, and so, if it means to die, I will die by your side. Everything is more colorful with you on my side." She smiled cutely at him.

"Oh, my girl… huhu!!" Gross shed a few tears and patted her head. "That's ma' girl!! Don't worry, neither you nor daddy is gonna die so soon. After all, we're blessed with your mother's blessings."

"Yes!" she replied, energetically. Gross, then turned towards the merry crowd and to the dark night sky and muttered, "Jed… I hope that just this time, I get to fight beside you. And … I hope … that this time be the one time you're wrong."

….