“So… what is your name?”

  How many hours had it been? This new elf just kept trying to talk to her. It was deeply annoying, shouldn’t he be crying by now? The statuesque woman turned to him and sighed deeply.

  For her sanity, it seemed she had to speak.

  “None of your concern,” she said.

  “Wow. That only took five hours,” the elf mumbled. “Well, I am Marco. Do you think there is any way to contact people on the outside here? I want to talk to my friend named Acheron.”

  “Did you injure your head as a child?”

  Marco lowered his head. Hearing insults from a voice that sounded like the sweet thrums of a lyre.

  “I just wondered if you knew a way…” Marco wrapped his hands around his knees in disappointment.

  She nodded in slight understanding. This child would now finally lose hope and start crying.

  That would be better than his constant blabber.

  “Well, nothing to worry about,” the elf suddenly slapped his cheeks.

  She couldn’t help but wonder what could make this person suddenly change his tune. Then she felt a little surprised at herself. Had she fallen so low to wish someone would cry hopelessly instead of annoying her?

  Perhaps the allegations placed against her back at the Academy weren’t completely baseless. The derisive thought made her lower her head, and the cloth on her rustled.

  “Whatever makes us suffer… it’ll go away soon.”

  The elf’s whisper spread through the dark depths of the holding cells.

  It fell only on the ears of the desire. The desire that all the captives shared.

  ***

  I saw Riziel in the distance dragging along Jonathan as if he were a dead body and she was hiding her hunt. The sight was almost surreal.

  I went closer and noticed that this ‘deadness’ wasn’t coming from pain, but instead, a smile was plastered on Jonathan’s face. If he smoked weed, he would have the same look as he does right now. Did he do drugs?

  Riziel noticed us and waved her hands to greet me and Tanien.

  “What’s wrong with him?” asked Tanien as he poked Jonathan with his shoe, but Jonathan didn’t even move. He then slapped his cheek lightly and Jonathan was still immobile.

  “This bastard!” Riziel muttered. “He got out of one of the brothels and has been like this since! Useless. I am just going to hand him over to those skull bastards now.”

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  “Hehehe… hehehehe…”

  “Uh oh…” Tanien muttered. “Sir, that isn’t good. Those guys might have administered something to him…”

  Was there no place without trouble here? I sighed and gestured at Tanien to pull him up. Riziel helped him by holding Jonathan from the left, the two pulled him up like a punching bag.

  I blew on my fist and—

  —SMACK!

  Jonathan suddenly stood up and puked out. If he was injected with drugs this wouldn’t help, but I was hoping a shock to the body would bring him back to his senses.

  And it did. Jonathan puked out and started coughing. After creating a scene too disgusting for me to describe without wanting to puke myself, he looked at us with betrayed eyes.

  “Why…”

  “What did they give you in the brothel?” I asked.

  Jonathan looked away.

  “A…a… I can’t say it without losing my dignity…” He pressed his face in his hands.

  “We don’t care about that,” said Riziel. “Did you eat anything?”

  “N-no…” Jonathan said again. “Even though I was trying to hide it, if you guys are going to force it. I’ll tell you…”

  “We really don’t care.”

  “Yup. Don’t give a shit.”

  “Did you pop your cherry?”

  “I… I got a kiss… Hehehee… on the cheek! Does that mean we are married now? It does right!?” The same blush from before spread on Jonathan’s face as he started slowly going back to the limp dead body power-saver mode that helped his brain overcome sensory overdrive.

  All three of us stared at him with disdain, especially Tanien who was expecting better, what a fool.

  “So, I saw those skull thugs from the cafe just a while back,” said I. “Do you want me to call them?”

  “No, let’s hang him up and let ordinary people stone him first, they’ll find this guy eventually.”

  Brutal. Riziel wasn’t to be messed with.

  “You seem experienced with bringing people back to their senses.”

  I looked at Tanien, then at Jonathan whose stomach pained enough to stop him from entering the power-saver mode, and then at my hands which had a little bit of blood.

  “I run into people.”

  ***

  The four of us sat again at the park bench near the trash pile at the corner of the third vein of the Star Dune. The center of the city was rather close to us. The throne of the Garbage King overlooking the Colosseum... now empty.

  “Did you find anything?” asked Riziel. “It’s unfortunate, but I couldn’t find anything about the information guild that knows everything. We asked around, and there were mostly imitations and bad actors. It’s good we didn’t have any money or we would have been swindled.”

  I reached into my pockets and handed two wallets to Jonathan and Riziel each. Each.

  “Huh?” she muttered. “Sir adventurer… this is.”

  “Just call me Acheron. And this is not my money, don’t worry.”

  Riziel tilted her head.

  “There were people who tried to pick my pockets so I picked theirs first. Just take it.”

  Riziel was shocked but accepted it. Jonathan too grabbed the cash, bowed, and was about to head back to the brothels but Riziel’s glare was enough to make him stop.

  “Well, we didn’t find anything either,” I said and Tanien nodded.

  “This is a problem…”

  “No,” I intervened. “This is the perfect start. You see, from the beginning, the plan was to attract attention.”

  Riziel gave me a small ‘oh’ while Tanien and Jonathan looked on in confusion.

  “If a guild that knows everything was out in the open it would be a lie. Since they know everything, they would also know that we want to find out about them. I asked you to inquire around simply to spread the word. Two knights and two adventurers are looking for the guild that knows everything.”

  “By that logic, shouldn’t we have been found by them?”

  I shrugged.

  “They might not want to deal with us.”

  “What do we do then, sir?”

  “Simple. We make it impossible for them to not want to reach out to us.”

  Jonathan nodded. “My knowledge about thighs makes me think your words are plump with the truth. What do you suggest?”

  “Oh simple, let’s become the champions of the Colosseum from Galar the Beast King and then break apart the markets of Duke of Damning Deals.”

  “Ah, sounds simple…” Riziel nodded. “Wait what the fuck!?”

  You already said simple.

  No takesies backsies.