Paradis de Fou

Jed pushed open the curtains of the Big Tent and entered it. He saw that the entire tent was filled various leaders of adventure parties laughing and smiling gleefully among themselves or discussing the quest. He looked around and there he saw Sean discussing the plan with the other well-known adventure party leaders. It all seemed quite normal but the moment he saw the faces of the invitee party leaders, his facial expression turned sour.

He picked off Peg from his shoulders and said seriously, "… Dude, go out and have some fun while I take care of this side."

Peg pouted and grumbled, "Why!! Why should I be left out—Grrrr!! I get it! Come back soon!!" Peg looked at a certain individual and jumped off Jed's shoulders. Jed sighed and smiled lightly. He had just voided a great fight. He sighed in relief and then marched towards Sean.

Sean and the group of leaders noticed Jed. A wide smile appeared on Sean's face but before he could speak, another young man cried out in an aloof tone, "Look! Here comes the 'Ruler' of the rookies, The Rookie! How d'you do, rookie?!Did your mommy's milk dry off that you came here to find some, eh? Sorry to break it to you kid but this is a place for adults. Shoo shoo!"

The man who spoke was Custard Wilson. He had been an adventurer for about 3-4 years and had a glorious life only because of one reason. Money. Money his father, Bayode Wilson, paid to the Guild to increase his ranks. As for his party, half of it is filled with mercenaries from the Mercenary Guild and the rest half is filled with female slaves. Just like you imagine it, Custard is more of an insane quest contractor with a thrill of adventure than a real adventure and his only job is fooling around in the Guild, molesting the waitresses and bullying the weaker and lower ranked adventurers, Jed being one of them. He was a typical bully when Jed was really young and it was only later when he was taken in by Mesa, did he stop his bullying. But even then, he had quite a few tugs of war with Jed and Peg on a clashed quest. A clashed quest is one such quest where one adventurer or adventurer party steals the kills of another and claims the rewards for it. Custard's squad is famous for it and that's why most of the lower ranked adventurers stay away from it.

…

Jed smiled sarcastically and replied, "Man, even thieves today have a say in such detailed plans. Tell me, My Dear Little Custard, can you read that letter over there?! haha!!"

"Hmph!" Custard harrumphed angrily and replied, "Mind your tongue, young boy, or else someday I will snap it out of your little mouth. Hmph! Dirt should remain di—"

"Mind your tongue, Sir Custard!!" barked Sean, interrupting Custard. Custard looked surprised for a moment at Sean but didn't argue. He mumbled some curse words and turned to the map. Jed glanced at the map once and found it to be the map of the entire Black Lions' Gorge.

"So, little brother Jed, you finally accept the quest, eh?!" Sean asked in a victorious tone. Jed rolled his eyes and asked, "Why would you think that I won't in the first place?"

"Well, you know, you took so much time to come that I almost thought that you wouldn't come. You know, most of these guys were ready by noon. Haha!" Sean laughed with a gentle demeanor. Jed smiled slightly but when he thought of the trouble he was in, his face turned grim. Sean noticed the grim expression and asked, "Jed? Is something bothering you?"

"Yea!" Jed answered assertedly and tossed the jar containing the numerous Rank 1 Hell Insects at him and said with a sarcastic tone, "This is what is troubling me, Sean. You surely know what it is, don't you!"

Jed smiled meaningfully at him. Sean looked at it and in a jiffy his expression turned grim too. Everyone else looked at the jar closely and other than giving off vibes of curiosity, they didn't say anything. The only person who, other than Sean, got interested was his partner, who suddenly started giving off a chilly aura.

"Where did you find it?" asked Sean intently. Jed shrugged his shoulders and lied, "In the house of one of my colleagues on the West gate. I saw it this morning and was quite piqued by its strange nature. I did a lot of research and thankfully was able to discover only a part of it. And THAT is why I'm here. Sean, lemme tell you, if you do not have a good escape plan, I'm not going on with this quest." Jed said straight up.

Sean frowned in anger. He had dealt with adventurers before and he knew that Jed was telling him indirectly, 'Increase my pay, dumbass.' But in reality, Jed was speaking the truth, he only wanted to know the escape plan.

Sean sighed and replied, "Well, I intend to complete the mission in all costs, so the best escape plan is fighting all out. And trading all the information you have on your plate so that it can save us time, money and risks. So Jed, tell me when and WHERE did you find these insects?"

Sean's voice had a terrible change. It changed from its gentle tone to a more threatening one. Jed looked almost shocked for a moment but then even his expression had a sharp change. Anger flushed on his face and a silent gritting of teeth was heard.

"Are you threatening me, Sean…" Jed asked in a far more threatening note but thankfully the situation was prevented from escalating as the other partner of Sean stepped forward.

"Please calm down, Mr. Jed." He said and pulled back Sean. He mumbled a few words into his ears which apparently calmed him down. He then turned to Jed and replied, "I'm really sorry, Mr. Jed for such a conduct of my junior after all this is the first time, he has left the Imperial quarters in such a long time. On the other hand, I would like you to apologize too … on the note of gentlemanly courtesy."

"Hmph! Why should I apologize to him?!!" Jed grumbled but the next moment, his anger calmed down. He heaved a sigh and apologized anyway, "I'm … sorry, Mr. Sean. Let's get this quest finished. Frankly, right now when I know this quest, it's a little hard to turn away from. I'm sorry for my rude behavior."

Jed's apology quite surprised the crowd and even Sean because adventurers aren't the ones to apologize first when threatened. Call it their carelessness.

"That's more like it!" replied the partner in jolly tone. He then turned towards the other party leaders and said in a loud voice, "So, my dear friends, let me brief you a bit more on this quest. As our dear friend Jed had already pointed out, I would again like to point out the severity of the situation. As it happens to be, these insects are a kind of lower Hell spawns, summoned by a black magic practitioner. We, Sean and I, Herald, come directly from the Emerald Dynasty, specifically to hunt this bloody bastard. Now, I want all of you to listen very carefully at the plan."

Jed smiled inwardly at the master way in which the man, Herald covered the fact that these insects were actually Hell Summons. The main difference between a Hell Spawn and Summon is that Spawns are mindless freaks, mostly like zombies, but Summons are sentient. And this Hell Insects were sentient enough to pick the ripe apple out of a bunch of thousands. Unfortunately, these are all Rank 1 and very weak, even to weaklings.

Herald drew a large inverted circle and two small inverted circles around the center of the Black Lions' Gorge and pointed out its five corners. He pointed at these points and said seriously, "Now, I want all of you to choose anyone of these 15 points and break the Guard talisman there. This talisman would look like an erected altar covered in this kind of insect. They are extremely hard but with enough strength of your team, I'm sure you can destroy at least one or two of them. In reality, destroying one would be enough but I want to make sure and destroy at least three in each. There is another altar, which is the main altar right in the middle of the formation. I want all of you to stay clear off it or else the black magician's spawns would tear you and your team to shreds. Is it clear?!"

"Is it all?" asked one of the leaders. "Yes," replied Herald, "Yes, this is all. The moment you destroy one of the altars, the insects there would disperse like flies and you would be completely safe. In addition to that, do take some insect-repellents, please. I don't want all of you to contract some unknown disease and getting admitted to the hospital with the tabs on us. Haha!!"

"Haha!!" laughed majority of the leaders. Soon, the meeting was disbanded and most of the leaders rushed out to gather their squads. Jed too was going outside when he was suddenly called by Herald.

"Come here a moment, Mr. Jed."

"Sigh…" Jed sighed tiredly and asked, "What is it, Mr. Herald? Don't tell me that you want to take revenge for your junior?"

Herald smiled and replied, "No, not at all. I'm not petty minded." He smiled gently but for some reason, Jed felt quite uneasy. He wanted to escape out as soon as possible but his shoulder was suddenly grabbed by Herald. Jed's heart skipped for a moment and right as he was going to get his hatchet, a wild wind blew past him and a terrible puking sensation arose in him. He was right about to puke but right then a hand grabbed his neck and pushed him up. Jed opened his eyes wide and saw that the person was none other than Sean. His kind smile had been replaced by a terrible grin, which expanded more and more.

"You think you're smart, kiddo?!!" he spat Jed. "What do you think that I won't be able to catch on that you were lying. Wrong! I'm from the Emerald Dynasty and puny flies like you will always be flies. I may sound like that idiotic Custard for a moment, but this is the real face of the world. Now. The truth is, I'm not really interested in your information. You see, we already know everything about the Hell-Pendant and we don't give a damn about it. We will get what we want and on the side note, we're just helping you folks by curbing a common enemy. Now, take this and f*ck off!!"

He released his grip on Jed's neck and fell on his face. A small pouch was thrown at his face by Sean. Jed huffed madly for air and from a corner from his eyes, he saw that the pouch contained glittering Gold coins. He glanced back once at the faces of Sean and Herald and found them to be sneering at him. Jed suppressed the anger inside him and slowly got up. He took the pouch of Gold coins and left the room, while massaging his neck.

…