*Sigh* “What did I get myself into this time?” The blue haired mercenary lamented himself as he walked down the streets of Orchidia city. He followed quite a peculiar person from behind. Suddenly striking a pose for the tenth time ever since they set out for their walk in the streets, the black-haired stranger suddenly shifted towards one of the many alleyways littering the streets and rushed his back towards the wall. Making a gun pose with both his fingers, he carefully and slowly picked his head outside the corner of the moss covered building as if trying to hide away from someone. Making an energetic signal for Kenzo to follow, the man placed one of his index fingers on his mouth, telling him to keep quiet. The merc simply rolled his eyes once again and begrudgingly followed the dude in his games. ”SSSHHHH!!!!! They will spot us… A detective’s priority is always to keep secrecy…” The afro man told Kenzo in a forced “Cool” voice while he struck a pose of smoking an imaginary cigar. ”Yeah yeah, I know that already. You’ve told me thrice that in this last couple of minutes. Can you ever tell me what the job you need done actually is?”

Pose man’s eyes widened as Kenzo muttered his question in a rather annoyed tone. ”SHHHH!!!!!! DIDN’T I JUST TELL YOU THAT SECRECY IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING??!!!” His hand had traveled at lightning speed towards Kenzo’s mouth, preventing the warrior from replying at all. ”I’ll tell you about it… I just need to make sure there are no villains hearing my master plan! Follow me over here” The guy took off his hand from Kenzo and motioned him to follow him deeper into the alley. Kenzo was getting fed up of his new employer even before the job had even started.

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He had gotten himself into this predicament himself though. Kenzo had made a fool of himself by not reading the small letters. Earlier that day, the merc had just arrived to Orchidia city. The travel up North from Baska hadn’t taken too long. He managed to arrive just as the early rays of the Sun shone over the mountain range littering the region. The place was rather peculiar, to say the least. It seemed like a very large city, with tons of buildings lining up the streets of the old place. It was also quite lively, tons of merchants made their way through the roads that travelled into the city trying to be the first ones to get to the marketplace early and secure a good spot to sell their wares that day. What caught the warrior’s attention though, was the items they carried with them. You see, Kenzo had already been witness to most of the markets of Fiore by that point. During the last year, he had made it his mission to get to know each and every major city of the land before deciding to settle in Oak. Through his travels, he had been firsthand witness to the prolificity of magic in Fiore. It wasn’t for anything that throughout the continent, everyone knew that the country he now resided in was the most magic dependent and developed of them all. Every time he saw stalls lining up morning or Sunday markets, more than half of them would exclusively deal with magical items, potions, ingredients or everything else related to it. It was almost exaggerated how much of trade revolved around it. However, there was a visible difference in Orchidia. He had come to understand it after walking through a couple of blocks, but it nonetheless surprised the magic-less warrior. Orchidia was a town that dealt primarily with weapons and melee combat related gear.
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Tons of warriors, adventurers and mercenaries had made a home in the northern city, so most of their trade was focused around them. From what he had heard, there were even rumors that the ex-local guild, Lamia Scale, was one that valued physical strength and prowess mostly above magical proficiency. Proof of this was the fact that Noel came from the very same city. For the entirety of his stay in Fiore, Kenzo had yet to meet someone as strong as his black haired guildmate. After hearing he was traveling to Orchidia to take a quest, Noel told Kenzo that he used to belong to Lamia Scale before joining Advent World with Finn. As he saw a martial arts academy while the thought crossed his mind, it was more than obvious.

Either way, the rarity of Orchidia didn’t end with their fixation of value physical work and non-magic use. Instead, it came from the looks of the actual city itself. It seemed as if a forest had invaded the town and taken control of the place as if it had been abandoned. Trees grew in weird spots through the streets. Most of the paved cobblestone road had been taken over by a thick layer of moss that grew also in the walls. Vines and tall grass grew in the walls and sidewalks. In other words, it was as if the administrators of the time simply didn’t care. After asking around, he noticed that indeed they didn’t. Even if people liked and appreciated them. It was evident for the townsfolk that the Muramasa family didn’t give a shit over what happened outside of their palace. For that reason, most of the law and order of Orchidia was entrusted to private investigators, some which were renowned and revered in the streets.

It was in this matter where Kenzo had committed a mistake. After hearing there was an impressive investigator, the merc decided that it would be a great opportunity to collect information if he took a request from him. Finding one in the quest board, the blue haired male was eager to meet with this famous fella. What he found instead, was a dude named Dex Miller. Ever since he got in an incident ten years ago, he had believed he was a real detective. In reality, he was simply an odd goofball. Since Kenzo hadn’t considered the fact that there might be more than one detective, he didn’t read the name of his employer when he accepted the quest. Now, he was stuck with the guy for the remainder of the day.

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”So, let me tell you my plan…” Kenzo listened attentively as he described the details of his failsafe plan. According to him, he had found a way for the townsfolk to take him seriously as a detective. Kenzo’s job was to create a fake crime scene to build his reputation. After hearing the complete details, the Advent World warrior sprung to action.

First, he retrieved a large bag of animal blood from a nearby butcher. Making sure to carry it carefully into the intended destination, Kenzo tried to keep it from spilling in the ground. After that, Dex told him to go to the local forge and gather some old rusty weapons for him. Without wasting time, Kenzo obliged and made his way to the smithy. He wanted to be done with the job as soon as possible. Initially, he was planning to steal the weapons, but after seeing heaps of scraps at the entrance, he asked the owner if it was okay for him to take them. The guy didn’t mind and gifted as many as he could carry to the mercenary.

Everything was going smoothly, until he was stopped by a local Rune Knight. Truth be told, he actually looked suspicious carrying so many weapons into an alleyway. However, the matter was quickly resolved as he explained to the guy what happened. The knight clearly knew about Dex’s shenanigans, and told him it was okay to continue, with the condition the council would look over the investigation to deter him from doing a scene like this again. Kenzo simply nodded and made sure to finish his job.

After attracting people’s attention, Kenzo saw a crowd form. Dex was ecstatic, his plan was actually working. After collecting his reward from the crazy man, the mercenary left to the closest inn. He was in no mood to stay around and see him make a fool of himself. He wanted a cold glass of beer.


-EXIT-

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