A continuation of the prologue.
Schein finally meets the people his going with....and he doesn't like what he sees.
Expedition
Chapter 1
Meet the gang!
“Everything alright?”
A voice came out of nowhere, startling Schein out of his reverie and almost making him drop his Mage Staff. The blonde haired young man turned quickly and found himself staring into Starlite’s Ring Master, Wisp.
Only inches taller than him, the older Titania exuded a sense of tranquility and confidence that very few people posses. Looking into the Ring Master’s kind gaze, Schein felt that he should be relaxing, except that he….can’t.
“N-nothing wrong, sir.” Schein supplied quickly, straightening his posture. No matter how casual or friendly the man may look, Wisp is still his Ring Master and proper decorum must be maintained.
“Really?”
Schein fought the urge to facepalm. Why did everyone have to go out of their way to doubt him? He appreciated it, thank you very much.
“I’m sure, sir.” He forced himself to say.”I’m just thinking about the expedition.” Definitely not about the crying sister he left back home.
Wisp studied him thoughtfully, disbelief plain on his features.
Whee! What a surprise! His Ring Master noticed the mad twitching of his left eyebrow!
Thankfully, the experienced enchanter chose to not comment on his unfortunate facial circumstance (he needed to learn how to lie better). “If you’re that eager, I guess you’ll be disappointed after hearing my news.”
Schein’s right eyebrow flew up to join its twitching counterpart,” What do you mean?”
“The thing is….” the older man began, gesturing the crowd that has began to form around them,” that the expedition will most probably be delayed a bit more.”
The blonde haired man frowned in confusion. Was Wisp saying that they have to wait for more men to come? Well, he could certainly see the reason for that. By his reckoning, only half of Starlite’s members were present in Eastern Acronia Plains meeting spot. At a closer glance, he realized that only a few of the Ring’s lieutenants were present in the area.
There was the cross-dressing bard slouching at one of the tables present in the meeting place, playing with a small yellow chick that she was so fond of. Schein scrambled his brain for a name.
What…was it? He passed the short-haired bard a few times and was on friendly terms with her, but for of the love of all things divine, he couldn’t remember her name!
It was something like ….Tyr?
Fyr?
“Mirr! Stop torturing the poor chick, goddamit! He’s gonna explode from all the sweets you keep giving him!” A stern female voice thundered, grabbing the startled chick out of the boy…err girl’s hands. Schein recognized her voice and immediately identified her as his field captain, Kouha.
“What the-!” Mirr cursed before lunging for her lost pet. “You have no right! Gimme my poor Chiki back, you stupid knight!”
His captain roared back her challenge, long, flowing raven hair swaying in the wind as she sidestepped the desperate bard with the ease of a graceful dancer. Chiki safely stowed in hand, she beat a hasty retreat back to the safety of the Eastern gates.
Mirr was immediately hot on her trails, spewing ultimatums and death curses at the fleeing knight, and that was not the only thing that Mirr was spewing. Small, holy bolts formed around the Bard with a single swish of her hand and with another decisive swish, she sent them speeding towards Kouha like attention seeking missiles.
“Come back here, you....you lumbering beast!”
“Umm…Aren’t you going to stop them?” Schein sweat dropped at all the commotion that the two –grown?- women were making while Wisp only shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.
“They’ll be alright. Yuichira or Sorenka will break them apart if they get too violent.”
True enough, the young sorcerer saw a tall, heavily built knight separate himself from the crowd and followed the two raging women at a safe distance. His gait was calm and confident, but Schein, for one, did not miss the telltale sign of his shoulders slumping resignedly.
The other person in question, Sorenka, made no effort to move from her spot at the tables. She was nursing a mug of hot green tea on her hands while watching the events unfold peacefully from her spot.
“Well…at least Yuichira would.” Wisp amended,” but in any case, my other lieutenants had other pressing matters to attend and regretfully, could not accompany us to the expedition. Louiss, in particular, ditched me for a stupid festival in the Northern Kingdom!” The older Titania glared at a particularly offending pebble at the ground, muttering some well chosen curse words for the trader.
“Anyway, we couldn’t proceed on the expedition with such lack of manpower,” he further clarified once he got his tempers reigned. He tapped the spine of his leather bound book thoughtfully. “and so I have sent several inquiries to the other guilds to see if they’re willing to come with us.”
When Wisp did not continue his explanation, Schein prompted him again, feeling both irritated and yet curious.” ...And so? Who will we be travelling with?”
“Effervescent.”
A pause
A particularly awkward pause
Schein blinked back confusedly at the man, still quite not getting it. ” Effervescent? THE Effervescent??” His voice rose several pitch at the end. The same Effervescent that his sister was currently in?
The Ring Master looked amusedly at him before nodding,” Yes, THAT Effervescent agrees to lend a few men for our expedition.”
Schein did not seem to be listening as he was busy processing the information. Are they really travelling with THAT Effervescent? The young man shuddered uncomfortably at what that implied,” Are we talking about the same Effervescent, sir?” At Wisp’s raised eyebrow, he continued, flailing his arms madly. ” Well…you know….the trigger happy, gaudily eccentric, I’ll-ditch-you-for-a-container EFFERVESCENT?”
CRACK!!!!
A thorny whip sailed inches past his head and hitting the lamp post beside him with a resounding THWACK!!!
Schein scrambled to bring his Mage Staff at the ready as he swung to meet the enemy, the incantation of Arcane Bolt at the tip of his tongue.
It was a woman about roughly his size, with chocolate hair tied neatly in an upward ponytail. She was very attractive, Schein observed. The woman’s face was pixie like and she looked very stylish with her cowboy-style leather jacket. The thing that drew his attention the most though, was the fearsome scowl on her lips. Before he could continue his internal dialogue, the woman lashed out, sending the vine-whip expertly coiling at the top of his staff. With a sharp jerk, his staff was sent cluttering away and out of his reach.
“H-Hey!” Schein shouted indignantly at the newcomer, sounding properly ruffled and surprised.
The woman’s left eyebrow ticked and it was all the warning he got before the whip cracked again, this time hitting him in the ribs.
“How dare you take that tone with me, you lowly inbred!” The woman shrieked, her voice not surprisingly high pitched and haughty. “And how DARE you call us ECCENTRIC?!” The –devil – woman cracked her whip threateningly before turning to Wisp, who was lounging quietly by his protégé’s side. She pointed an accusing finger at him,” I demand you teach your underlings manners, Master Wisp!”
Another brunette – no, it was amber actually, Schein painfully noted as he cradled his bruised ribs, ran towards the group or to the –devil – woman side to be specific. “M-Magda! You can’t go whipping Latte’s little brother like that!” To Wisp and Schein, she hurriedly gave them each deep, awkward bows,” I’m sorry about this. Magdaleine didn’t mean any harm with it.”
“What do you mean I didn’t mean him any harm!?” The –devil-woman or Magdaleine shouted back at the amber. “It is the solemn duty of us nobles to teach the commoners their place! This brat is no different!” She cracked her whip at the ground as if to prove her point. The amber-haired girl sent a pleading glance to her friend, which the –devil – woman ignored. “Latte’s brother, you say?”
At this, Schein stood straighter and attempted to glare the woman down. Who the hell does the woman thinks she is!?
“Doesn’t look like her and Latte’s manners are far more superior than his.” The devil of a woman waved airily as if swatting a particularly irritating bug. “I can’t imagine our Latte sharing the same bloodline as this brat.”
“Why you-!” Schein growled and stomped forward to the –devil – woman until they were standing neck to neck, glaring at each other’s eyes.
“If I may get this back on track….” Wisp raised a placating hand before sliding in between the two of them, forcing them to break apart. “Lady Magdaleine, Blademaster Colette, it is an honor to have you both on our ranks.” He nodded at the two of them respectfully and gestured to the still seething Schein behind him. “This is my young friend, Schein. I’m sure you can get to know him more later on.”
“Like hell we will.” Magdaleine muttered under her breath, earning a distressed cry of “Magda!” from the Blademaster.
“In any case,” the Blademaster – no – Colette coughed,” Elem and Yust will be joining us shortly. They were doing last minute checks on our belongings.”
“I see.” Wisp nodded. “What about the others?”
The –devil – woman crossed her arms in front of her chest and answered,” Jokky is busy searching for people to duel to death, Shiki is currently revising his world-dominion scheme, and the last time I checked, Yuri is busy bashing people with her harp. That leaves Kaistern and Latte to keep the rest of the guild running.” This was all stated in a flat and to the point tone. “Oh, and Alceus is on god-knows-where doing god-knows-what.”
And here he thought Effervescent is crazy!
They were clearly beyond that!
How could his sister stand to be the same room as these guys? He shuddered at the thought (his respect for Latte raised several notches). He’ll be damned if he were to stay in one group with that devil of a woman.
“Well, I’m sure that’ll be enough. Am I to assume that you will be the appointed leader of Effervescent, Lady Magdaleine?”
The woman in question shook her head before gesturing to the girl beside her. “Nah, Colette can do it.”
“W-what!? M-me!?” Three pairs of eyes stared at the stammering Blademaster, whose cheeks are beginning to show the slightest tinge of pink. She shook her hands hastily,” N-no! I don’t want to be the de facto leader again! The last time I did that you guys forced me to be the loot warden!” She glared at Magdaleine accusingly, who in turn gave her a smug smirk. “I don’t want to be the score keeper for this one too!”
Loot warden? Score keeper? What in Tita’s flaming hair are they going on about!? Schein looked at his Ring Master, who looked helplessly back at him. There went the thought that Colette was actually sane, Schein sighed. The Effervescent must have listed “insane” or “eccentric” as basic perquisites for joining.
Not for the first time, Schein wondered why his shy, well-mannered sister enlisted to be a part of such ragtag misfits.
“Hey guys! We finished the checks and are all set to go!” A new voice cheerfully piped in.
Schein turned to see two men strolled up to them.
The owner of the voice waved his hand cheerfully in greeting and jogged the rest of the way to the group. Judging from the easy grace the man carried himself with and the iron claws that he was gripping, Schein smartly deduced that the man was an assassin.
The other man clearly was an elementalist. He was wearing the garbs for one and was carrying the staff too. Unlike the other Effervescent member, the man was refreshingly poker faced and greeted them with nothing but a slight nod of his head.
“Ah!” Colette exclaimed happily, pounding her fist to her open palm as if finally figuring something out. “Yust can be our de facto leader.”
“Wait what?” The assassin looked startled as the topic of the newly entered conversation suddenly shifted to him.
“Sure, why not.” Magdaleine asserted.
Elem nodded quietly at Yust’s side.
“Wait guys! What are we talking about!?”
“There you go, Master Wisp!” Colette supplied cheerfully, ignoring the assassin. “Problem solved.”
“Uh…well…” Starlite’s Ring Master sweat dropped,” …why not? Uh….if you’ll excuse me, I need to prepare my guild for departure.” With that, he quickly left, leaving Schein standing awkwardly in front of two grinning, one poker faced, and one confused Effervescent member.
Oh dear….
He’ll be travelling with this kind of people?
How he wish he listened to his sister and stayed home…..
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