Orchidia Town was blooming—beautiful weather, happy citizens and a generally positive atmosphere. Seira Navillera was sitting inside a café and ate breakfast while watching the workers outside do their magic. The streets were extraordinarily busy today and the entire place was preparing for one big event. The Muramasa’s were going to hold an event, one big party—Seira, however, would probably be out of town by then already—and many noble families from all over Fiore were visiting. As a result everyone was preparing to make the town look the most beautiful it has ever been. Although Seira could understand the enthusiasm, she only saw this as merely another chance to make money and naturally the Sorceress had already found a way to do so. Seira had never been supportive of the richer families, ‘nobles’ as they called themselves and even though she was born into a wealthy family herself, those roots of hers were something she had let go off a long time ago. None of that mattered, however, and of course she wasn’t here to judge anyone but to do business. Naturally, security was a big deal in Orchidia and everyone wanted to present themselves in the best light.

They couldn’t possibly allow for anyone or anything to disturb the events or the entrance of the noble families and on their way to the castle everything had to be absolutely perfect. Granted, Orchidia had a large amount of soldiers preparing everything to make sure the noble’s arrival went by flawlessly, especially since they had to take the route through the forests and since most of them came from Crocus they weren’t as prepared for eventual hazards and monsters showing up as those who lived outside the safe walls of the capital. Her job for the day, however, had nothing to do with the bigger families or the protection thereof and even though she usually didn’t care much about what she was doing, as long as it paid her a good amount of money, Seira still had to frown when she read through the mission details. She had picked the mission flier up a day earlier from the request board as one of the first people who arrived there that day and it had only freshly been added to it. It’s appearance was also different from the others and you could almost guess that this matter was of utmost importance.

Seira and her client had promised to meet up in said café and although he was an extremely busy man (apparently) he took the time to be clear with her and sort things out, which made her curious about the whole situation. His name was Jelies Sov and he was the head guard of the noble family. Rumor has it that he wasn’t all that great to begin with, his work was frowned upon and not many people gave him the amount of respect you’d think they would, simply because something about him and his business was shady—but Seira honestly couldn’t care less. She only cared about the money after all. He arrived eventually, took a seat without ordering anything and explained the situation to her in detail. Today’s object of desire would be Leis who was, as Seira would now find out, Orchidia’s very own village-idiot. Apparently it was his speciality to cause ruckus in front of the castle and give everyone a hard time while making things extremely uncomfortable and awkward. While Jelies could usually deal with him or simply ignore him during any other day, this was now impossible since he had an image and the status of the noble family to defend. That being said, under no circumstances was Leis allowed to get close enough to the castle to be noticed by any one of the nobles or bystanders and it was Seira’s job to prevent him from doing so. He was in a wheelchair, which should make things fairly easy, but at the same time he was also a crazy old man who had tragically lost both his legs and his wife many years ago. It was a pity, really, but even though he acted up like that he town treated him fairly and more or less cared for him.

This event was simply an exception. Jelies and Seira cleared everything up and the girl positioned herself in front of the castle, waiting patiently for a few hours for the man to arrive. When Leis did arrive Seira put on her most charming smile and attitude and gently, almost wordlessly drove the man away from the crowd before he could barely even say a word in protest. He was very stubborn and sturdy, even for his age, but the woman chose words over violence and simply explained that she had been tasked, on this very special day, to take care of Leis personally and to ensure that he was having an excellent time during the festival events—just like everyone else. Strangely enough, that seemed to work out just fine. He still mumbled crazy things, rambled on and said a few things that could have been left unsaid but eventually slowed down in his tracks as Seira drove him through the city and made him pay attention to seemingly small things, such as beautiful flower decorations so he would lose his focus and become friendlier. They spoke normally to each other, and although he did have a moment here and there Seira was genuinely surprised by how gentle and melancholic Leis became as soon as he spoke about his wife. Losing your significant other was an impossible task for many, and it was no surprise that Leis ended up the way he did because of it. After more or less enjoying the day together inside the city, far away from the castle where he couldn’t bother anyone Leis asked to be driven home and even thanked Seira for spending time with him. The female wizard stayed friendly till the very end and made sure that old and crazy man was okay before she left to meet up with Jelies Sok, who was now at least ten times more stressed out than before but still glad that she had managed to take care of Leis. He paid her the promised amount and she returned to her hotel to rest.

[1051]
Quest.