There he stood in the streets of Magnolia town boldly wearing his armor fashionably stylised with a custom etched cape and scarf, along with his Zebstrika who wore matching clothing as well as his riding gear. The pair were waiting there for the rest of their party to arrive as Alice and her own companion were delayed as it seemed. The reason for them rushing ahead was to nab the cream of the corp for missions before the rest of the various mages and adventurers grabbed them for themselves. This was only possible due to them both reaching the board at about six in the morning and the weather being so unpleasantly cold and windy that all but the most well dressed were affected. He, himself remained affected even through the thick armor with his head being unprotected save for the scarf, his headband and blond hair. Through his thickly armored hands he scrolled through the various requests, most were just basic jobs that he had grown tired of doing. One peaked his interest the client was a local smith in the area who sold weapons and armor and he assumed crafted them as well.

He faintly remembered the name of the smith from somewhere long ago, only to realise that he was the very same black smith that made his armor though a tailor had some part in other portions of the piece to be fair. The request was pretty straight forward like all the other ones. It appeared that he had some suspicions regarding a new shipment of raw materials from a new supplier, because of this he seeked a mage to handle the delivery to said supplier to the smithy where he would later be. Going over the mission at hand a few times over having gathered all the information he could from the choppy writing of the smith to the stained paper, he rolled it up and slide it in a inner pocket for later use.

All that was left for now was to wait for his partner to arrive, in the meantime he withdrew a nice apple from one of the rucksacks and took a healthy chunk. He didn’t want to fight nor barter on an empty stomach if the mission led to either outcome. If it did mean fighting he wondered how Alice would feel to him potentially removing the issue permanently rather than going through official channels and arresting any criminals. “I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.” As he said so he watched as a figure followed by a smaller one walked towards him as the sun slowly rose from behind him. Assuming that was Alice, he would greet her and inform her about the request. “Hallo again Alice, I found this request here’s what we’re doing…..”

466/2000

There was only one reason that there was a delay for Alice to arrive at the town. She hated mornings more than anything okay that wasn't true but she didn't like getting up early and it definitely didn't improve her mood. However she had shut her mouth to not complain too much as she woke up early, apart from the fact that she didn't like it, she was super slow at preparing herself to get ready. Her long orange hair needed to be untangled from the braid that she mostly used at night and that was quite a work. It must have at least taken six minutes to do that, she would have to brush it at least three times, starting from the lower points up to the top of her head, with some slight muttering noises when it hurt. She didn't care, Konstantin was long gone before she had even finished her hair. With an eye roll she removed Ophelia from her lap, as the little Cleffa always took her spot on her lap when she was busy with her hair, or well most days. She went through her bags as she still hadn't unpacked. For some weird reason she couldn't find her clothing until she realized that she had of course stored it in her dimensional pocket. Her mind wasn't the fastest in the morning.

She held up her hands and simply transformed into a casual outfit, made her life a lot easier, especially at lazy mornings such as half past five in the morning. Her hair immediately turned into a ponytail immediately, would be useful in case for a job. She grabbed her backpack, put Ophelia in and headed to the kitchen to at least get something to eat for herself as well as her companion. With a cup of coffee to go and her leather jacket and a scarf she headed outside and with a quick thread hurried towards the city of Magnolia. It was around six o'clock in the morning, probably a few minutes after.

Ophelia didn't seem to be too excited for being stuck in the backpack and she wobbled and kicked that Alice had to take her out and it was getting later by the second as she followed the small creature to town. Thanks to it being cold, there was no one else around much, so the Cleffa could walk, "If only you were as fast as Sparky." She muttered not too happy, not much later she heard Konstantin and quickly grabbed Ophelia and waited to put her down the moment she stood next to him. "Oh good, sorry I'm late." She stared at Ophelia but she wasn't the only one to blame, she listened to the description of the request and nodded, she followed the streets to go to the place where they would meet the Merchant, interesting choice was all her mind could think off at that time.

Wordcount: 506/2000

The request mentioned the destination for the pickup, an alley on the outskirts of town where they would need to go in order to pick up the supplies. This would be interrupted though as they would pick up the jewels they would need at the smithy which was he obtained from a half-asleep Barras who swiftly closed his door to avoiding letting any cold air into his room. The location of the stop off point set him off guard already however as he was accompanied by not only his Zebstrika companion, Sparky as well as Alice and her own companion he felt perfectly safe. As they moved through the town with the citizens all soundly asleep, Kon would make light idle conversation between Alice, even apologising for making her get up so earlier and not recognising that the weather would be so poor. The wind had picked up so much in fact that his cape was now freely flowing against his frame and the cloth had was fastened to his Zebstrika was equally erratic. Despite the difficulties that the wind alone proposed the party eventually reached the destination. The alley itself was unkempt due to it's out of the way location, dirt and muck lined both the walls and the floor. There in front of the group, a heavily damaged caravan could be seen with two individuals standing in front of it. The first a sleazy, heavy gentleman and the second a fitter one who seemed to be the employee of the other. Their presence was detected first by the fattier man then the other directly afterwards.

Confused about their presence at first, the man barked at them. "Who are you and What do you want?" Unsurprised by the hostility Kon replied in a calm tone. "We're here to pick up a shipment for Barras, he's hired us to inspect your goods." A fleeting smile came and went as the well-armored mage spoke. Casually he moved towards the two along with his Zebstrika who would take the position of the current stead who seemed worse for wear. As they moved closer however the employee spoke out before blocking their path. "Pay my boss first before you put your blasted beast on this caravan."

Looking at the two men weighing them up if they tried to do anything such as flee or mug them, they would likely lose be outpaced by his startlingly fast Zebstrika or be quickly outnumbered more than 3 to 1 if he were to include all of the summons that could easily surround the two in the event that there was an issue. Probably have the wolves at the rear of them and the rat to the left side of them so his companion would still have a clear sight of them. Letting the insult slide though with his companion notably taking offence he handed the money over to the merchant before calling out to Alice. "Hey babe, would you mind checking on the goods for me while I talk with these gentlemen in the mean time, I'll look after your companion if you want of course."

986/2000

Alice shivered on their way to the smithy. It was not a pleasant spring weather as she hoped and her t-shirt was a bit cold. Since she was wearing her jacket it was okay but she wouldn't mind to change clothing and it was more easy than normal. She didn't need to go anywhere. Although she decided not to, first this job, it would probably make her warm to walk. She was slightly disappointed in the fact that she couldn't see into the building of the smith, he must sell weapons, she was highly curious about that and thus let Konstantin handle the talking to the customer and tried to see through the window. She smiled apologetic to the smith himself before she followed Konstantin to go to the meeting point that Barras just told them about.

She waved away the apology from Konstantin when they made small talk while on their way to the meeting point, it wasn't bad. She just had to get used to it, it was better for herself too. That wouldn't mean it was happening every day now or so she hoped. She hid the lower part of her face in her scarf, "Can't wait for better weather." Alice walked two steps behind Konstantin, mainly because she was not that fast yet as her brain was still waking up, she had at least thrown the to-go cup of coffee away already, so she was already closer to completely waking up. Once she spotted the damage caravan as well as the two people in front of there and the rudeness, she simply woke up at that moment and narrowed her eyes a little but kept a casual attitude to not show how suspicious she was.

It was good that Konstantin was with her for she would have yelled something back that wasn't nice either. Not really how it worked, really. She simply looked at Kon for a second before looking back at the two and crossing her arms. Alice looked at the caravan, up and down, the horse that was pulling it, the guys and the alley. Something was off but she was sure Konstantin knew that as well, she held her hand out to transform after the rudeness of the aide, but she tried to tell herself to calm down. That's when Kon asked her, she was not entirely sure what he thought for obvious reasons, she let the backpack with Ophelia slid off and hand it to Konstantin, "Yes please. Take care of her." She passed the two on their right and her left to climb up on the caravan, before she could however the tough looking guy grabbed her left wrist and told her it was not possible to go in there, they would simply give them the delivery, she shook her wrist lose and gave him a push to his broad shoulders, "If you have nothing to hide, you better let me check." So she climbed in and stared at the ore, still there must be something wrong.

Without realizing what the aide guy did she too late felt a hand around one of her ankles and she was pulled out of the caravan or well, she fell face forward but managed to catch herself without breaking a wrist, "What the hell?" She simply kicked her attacker in his face and scrambled upright to transform into her Lancer Gear and holding on to her Straight Spear.

Wordcount: 1095/2000

Spell:

Kon gladly took Alice's companion as she handed him her backpack containing the small animal as she moved towards the caravan by herself. Tensions between the two groups grew as one of the members attempted to stop Alice from looking inside the caravan itself, causing raised voices a series of flailing limbs to be seen along with cries of pain as both Alice and the large gentlemen started to fight. Confused by the incident in question but still wanting to help his comrade and partner. Kon looking directly at the man that had grabbed Alice and drew up his hand causing two of his undead beasts to literally rise from the ground itself on each side of the man with the other sides being blocked off by the caravan and Alice. The beasts in question the first his white wolf weaker than his other summons fast nonetheless, the other his other wolf noticeably stronger than the other wolf summon. Wanting to ensure that at least two pairs of eyes were on the merchant, he rose his hand up once more and summoned his rat would now rose from behind the man, meanwhile, as this happened he flicked his finger and called his companion that briefly turned his head before he pointed at the merchant.

With the men now considered an enemy by his companion, he proceeded to charge up a variety of spells, first boosting his speed in case he needed to avoid an attack by stomping his feet which also allowed him to gather up an orb of lightning energy on top of its mane. Before letting his companion and summons have their way with the two he would question them as his Zebstrika continued to hold his spell. "Who are you and why did you attack us?" Oddly despite their most likely demise the merchant merely responded. "I am merely a merchant that took what had been left behind as for why my employee attacked you admittedly the goods have been stolen and I'd have preferred you die before revealing the truth." Having heard enough already, Kon with Alice's companion still in his hands called all of his beings under his command with a single order. "Attack." Mercilessly he would watch as the merchant would be torn apart by his rat after being struck by multiple bolts of lightning, meanwhile his guard didn't fair any better he might have been the agiler of the two, however, he too was outnumbered and soon succumbed to the fate of fighting the undead.

All this took place in a surprisingly brief amount of time with Kon barely having to do a single thing save hold Alice's companion raise his hand a few times and talk about. Wanting to ensure that Alice was alright regards of the outcome he began to question her about the incident. "Are you okay?, What happened?, I hope I didn't scare you with my summons as it might be a bit different from when you were fighting them after all they weren't covered in blood." As he said that he immediately regretted it. In an attempt to minimise the carnage, he swiftly cast away his summons before touching each of the individuals to take harvest their souls, the merchant was successful turning his body into ash whilst the other remained. "I'll have to come back for the other one it seems." As he looked at the sun which was signifying the start of a new day.

Word Count: 1565/2000
Mana: 1815/1940

Spells used:

Body:

Centurion Armor:

   Companion:
Companions Mana: 380/480

Zebstrika:

Companion Spells Used:

The guy she kicked let out a yelp of pain, it wasn't nice to get a kick in the face but she wasn't really glad with him. The hell was wrong with him? She had only checked if the ore was there and it was, she had no time to listen to a conversation that might be going on. She dipped into her magic and changed into her battle gear, her lancer gear in this case and held on to her straight spear. She was glad for the fact that Konstantin was holding onto Ophelia, imagine her falling with her little pet on her back, what shock would the dear Cleffa feel. Which made her even more angry, man she hated mornings now more than anything else and that said a lot. She had someone else to hate more than anything in her life and she would still have to find Lacie and scream at her for that. Before she could jump out of the caravan she noticed the two wolves and smiled shortly, she at least needed a safer ground to stand on, but this guy knew how to fight back and to throw the two wolves off from time to time, he knew how to avoid her spear, grab her at her waist and throw her over his shoulder. Which wasn't the nicest way to hit the ground, she couldn't help but let out a sigh that hid her pain. Before she simply got up, the whole fight done by Konstantin was already over and she rolled on her stomach and got up, her spear had already disappeared during the fall, she would not let someone use it again as Isaac had done in Era. Something she didn't want to think about, Magnolia gave her enough else to think about. Her eyes stared at the summons though but she quickly got up when Konstantin came to her and she took Ophelia from him, "I'm okay." Ophelia used her spell so her back felt a lot better, "I was only checking out the ore and he grabbed me at my ankle to pull me out of the caravan, or that's what I think. He lifted me up out of the caravan and simply threw me over his shoulder. But Ophelia fixed me fine." She eyed the summons shortly when Konstantin mentioned them, "I'll be okay." she said again because she wasn't actually sure what she thought about it. "What happened?" was the only thing that she could ask because it was something that she needed to understand. Or well it felt that way. She wasn't entirely sure how to or what to think and handle this, she simply looked at Konstantin, followed him with big brown eyes. At least the job was over and the ore was stolen that's what her mind told her now. She had heard what was said, she was atleast glad to feel the pain go away after the spell from Ophelia.

Wordcount: 1615/2000

As it turned out Alice had been pulled out of the caravan just as quickly as she had got on it, it mattered little now considering she had her companion ready and able to heal her at a moments notice. Happy to see that she was otherwise unscathed, He replied to her question whilst slightly bending the truth. "Well turns out these guys stole the goods and wanted to silence us so kill us, I decided I didn't want that to be the case so I may or may not have killed them both..." It just seemed like the easier option to do, thinking to himself briefly "the tricky thing now is to explain the matter regarding the goods and this dead body..." kicking it as he trailed off. Remembering other times in which he needed to use his surroundings, he lifted up the corpse before talking to Alice once more. "Right I'm going to find a place to store this for the time being just wait here." After throwing the body underneath some rubbish in a side alley further inwards, he returned to the caravan and hopefully Alice. Recognising the need to inform both Barass and the Rune knights of the crime, he would go with his companion and most likely with Alice and her own to first their client who revealed he suspected that it was a trap and forced them to take the reward. The two were invited briefly into the man's smithy which eventually led to the man commenting on the armour that Kon had become accustomed to wearing, stating it suited him with the changes that were made to it versus when he first smithed it. After spending an hour or so there in the smoke-filled building, they would go to the official rune knights building within Magnolia town and report their finding there as well along with the location of the caravan itself.

Once they had completed the request, Kon would leave Magnolia town on his Zebstrika either with or without Alice by his side hopeful by his side as there was no need for him to race back to the bed and breakfast save for to cuddle up near the roaring fire that the caretakers would likely have lit for them and the rest of the guests. If Alice chose to come back along with him they would be able to continue talking about how each other felt about the mission itself. He, himself felt that it went over quite successfully but there could easily be other effects that have occurred from his surprisingly violent nature which was remarkably different from his normally gentle side that Alice has seen.

[Exit]

2011/2000

Ophelia didn't seem to be calming down easily, she had been probably worried about Alice and well Alice was glad that Ophelia seemed to like Konstantin for that made it a lot easier. She held her in her arms, making soft hushing noises as her pet was wiggeling and muttering in unknown noises. She crawdeled her like a baby to make sure she was alright while she looked up at Konstantin. She frowned a little as she listened to the story, being new to being a Rune Knight she didn't really understand that concept. Was it out of protection? She hadn't seen one of the guys really attempt to kill her but she held her mouth and simply nodded along, may or may not.. weird way to form sentences. Konstantin continued and she again nodded, "It's easy to found out if it's stolen. The headquarters would know that as well." She didn't want to comment about bodies or killings or anything. She had left Phantom Lord because she was afraid she would have to kill someone and now there were two people dead and she was on the other side of the line. With open mouth, because she didn't know what to say, she watched Konstantin and quickly turned her back to the situation by hushing Ophelia and making sure her companion was alright, maybe she thought the same and being but a child of an animal, she couldn't stop hiccuping and crying about it, she hunched down to put Ophelia back into her little blue backpack and simply continued to hush and hold her.

Without much further ado she followed Konstantin back to their client, in which she quickly tried to forget about the situation at hand and fangirl over all the weapons, armours, helmets and moldings that were there. Everything was so beautiful and she wished that she had money enough to buy it but damn that would be difficult and it was so pretty. She didn't really forget what happened but it was over for now, she would think about it later, as she did with so many things. Konstantin had to ask her multiple times if she was ready to go for she was quickly distracted by finding something new, the smith seemed to like her because she had good taste. With a better feeling and a happier feeling she said goodbye and headed to the Rune Knight building to help fill in the report. She didn't need to do much.

She followed him along with Sparky to the Bed & Breakfast, she was now at least wide awake but would never say no to go back inside to a warm place near the hearth and just consider what to think at all while be with Konstantin. She did mind and yet she didn't as long as she didn't have to do it herself or be blamed for it. She should get possibly used to it and mainly understand his way of thinking. Being in the same job was maybe not the best idea but she would also get used to that. She let Ophelia go, let her walk around the room for she couldn't do anything dangerous, she made sure of that and also kept an eye on her.

Wordcount: 2210/2000
Exit