The God of Jesters
Chapter 492 - 8.01.5 The weird stick.

Chapter 492: 8.01.5 The weird stick.

Raja understood what his choices would lead to, how his actions might annoy the Nobles as a whole, and how he might end up causing massive damage to Bartender Guild’s reputation.

Exposing a customer so easily will be looked down upon no matter what happens. How could people trust the Guild when they have the habit of revealing the dealings?

This was scary to people, no one wants to be exposed while dealing with shady things but considering the importance that was given to Heroth, and the promises they made to him during his earlier visit.

This much needed to be done, otherwise, something much worse could happen than some lost reputation. And Raja doesn’t expect to want to stay long enough to know what that is.

As for the Azure Dragon? Those foolish bastards can die for all he cared. They had warned the Family to not escalate the situation nor harm the Pawn shop owner as there was someone very important behind him. But they didn’t listen, they had to go and mess with him for no reason whatsoever.

"Foolish bastards... this is why I hate these nobles." Raja understood the mistake he made couldn’t be overlooked and after giving directions to his men, he went ahead and called the headquarters, informing them of the situation.

And their reaction, was as Raja expected. "We will send you some spirit alcohol, go there personally, and gift it to him. Also, plead to placate his anger." Was their response.

’Spirit alcohol?’ hearing this term, Raja shivered for a bit.

This alcohol alone cost 10 million Dirium a glass at the cheapest and was said to be made by Archmage level Potion maters, holding soothing properties that can even affect a legendary mage. But you can rarely buy it at such a price normally, as that alcohol was rarely sold in the market to begin with.

"That old man... I knew he was important, but this much?" Fear and some understanding suddenly came to Raja, where he sighed and felt that the decisions he made earlier should be correct. As he didn’t receive any reprimand by the headquarters, instead he was even praised somewhat over his response.

’Or I am the sacrifice, I might die if I go to that old man now...’ Well no matter what happens, Raja understood that he has to do this job on his own and no one else can replace him. This is the only way to show goodwill to the Bartender’s Guild.

’If I survive this, those bastards from Behrouz will suffer.’

*****

"Hmm..." It was around night when Rosso finally found some time to take a rest.

As he had expected, for the past few days, he had seen some odd people appearing from time to time. And through his eyes, he had been able to notice them clearly no matter how hard they tried to hide.

’There are strong ones here... I won’t be able to escape if I want to.’ They were obviously looking for a trace. Wondering who Rosso worked with and why he was here, so anyone he meets from now on will also be scrutinized by the individuals.

As for who they were? That was the part that was hard to know until the individual exposed their strengths.

Hopefully, they didn’t belong to the government, or the church of Truthful deceit, considering they had their own ways to extract information out of their enemies without fear of the soul pollution.

Even the Four Auspicious Beast families, which can be considered the protectors of the church held similar talents.

’Well whatever the case is, I can’t play my cards so early.’ It was with such thoughts that Rosso was planning on going to sleep.

Well, that was until his chest vibrated. "Hmm?" And with the vibration came a set of information in his head, which explained what this vibration meant.

’...’ Looking around and making sure that no extra eyes were looking at him, Rosso slowly brought his hand closer to his chest, which divided to expose his modified organs, all laced with runes and artificial augmentations that made Rosso appear far from a human, but Rosso was not mortified with such a scene, he didn’t even worry about it at all, as this was too normal for him.

What attracted his interest was the object below his two beating hearts. "??"

It was a rectangle stick with a shiny glass in between.

Taking it out while his chest closed up again, Rosso cleaned up the muck and the organic juices the stick was floating in, before noticing a green light on what seemed to be a button of sorts. "..."

And tapping it, the glass bar on the stick lit up with simple words. "I see you are well and alive."

It was a message, an odd message on an object that he had never seen in his life before, but for some reason, he understood what it was, with a simple push, a small keyboard appeared carrying the common shorthand letter. Which he used to send a message in response. "Are you the creator?"

"..."

"..."

It took around a minute before he could see a response, which amounted to a simple no. "I was sent to this city long before."

Then after another minute, a new message arrived. "Have my own mission."

"... Who are you?" Asked Rosso. Curious about whom this person was and why this object activated only now after so long.

But it would seem that he had to place his expectations low, as he didn’t obtain a direct answer. "Can’t say for now."

"But we might be able to help each other."

’This.’ It would be a lie to say that Rosso didn’t feel relieved thinking that there might be others who followed his master, people with their own targets. Which meant that his failure was not the end of his master.

But then again, the information on this stick also scared him a bit. ’I might find out.’ What happened to his creator, had some inkling of it. The disaster that led to his creator’s demise, turning into a slave of greater wills outside of Rosso’s perception.

At least in his case, his Creator gave him the freedom to choose what he wanted and how he wanted to do it. But his own Creator? He was nothing more than a dog now.

’My master’s creations can be used against me... this person might be an enemy. Using the stick to mislead me. I can’t believe this person prematurely.’

Considering this stick came online just now, goes to show that it had limited proximity and the two things might be able to sense each other.

If not for the fact that in his memory, there were details over details on how safe this device was, Rosso would have already destroyed it. ’A new friend, a new variable I have to take care of.’

Variable doesn’t always mean it will be bad for his goal, they were unexpected and can go either way. ’Well depending on the situation, I might make use of this variable.’

There were eyes on him, and now there were fools that came to him on their own asking to be victimized. Which can be considered a betrayal towards one’s potential companions, but Rosso didn’t mind harming them. For the second life lesson he learned from memories was pretty simple as well.

’Depend on no one besides yourself... the world is your enemy.’

******

The world really was Rosso’s enemy, there were many keeping an eye on him, but unlike what he had expected, virtually all of these people belonged to the Bartender’s Guild. They hadn’t informed the overlords of this district over the newbie that had just arrived, nor went on to inform the Radiant Order of the young man that was showing interest in him.

No, they did none of such stuff as they were not as foolish as Rosso had expected them to be.

As long as they were unsure of Rosso’s background, they wouldn’t make a move. This was a survival tactic that they had developed after surviving in the grand city of Rudrain for a century at least.

Know your enemy, that was the core tenet of their rule, their existence. Foolishly antagonizing people will only lead to their destruction, a scene that has been repeated countless throughout history.

But none of that meant that they wouldn’t keep an eye on this target of theirs, all they required was understanding and whether they could afford offending this individual. It would be then that they make the move.

"There had been a callback, we have to go into hiding for a while." And just like that, the little eyes that were on Rosso disappeared as well.

All of that caused due to the mistakes of the Azure Dragon Family. The fools that shook the hornet’s nest were going to suffer in the coming days.

Which started with a simple murder of a Bartender Guild’s associate in a Bar. "Murder." Cried the waitress, before countless Adept Knights surrounded the cabin with a bunch of youngsters from the Azure dragon family.

This was the start, a simple excuse to push the inciting incident from a simple harassment of window breaking to this.

No one will think about what happened before, everyone’s eye will be on this incident where the Azure Dragon youngsters accidentally killed someone important in the bartender’s Association, and hence were beaten to a pulp for it.

Which would be followed by the cancellation of all contracts. An escalation that looked a bit rushed to some insightful people, but considering there was money to be made, everyone still had to bite this tasteful bait.