”Pfftt…. You gotta be kidding me.” A mix of disbelief and amusement accompanied the blue haired male’s chuckle as he read the paper on his hand. He had grabbed the sorcerer’s news earlier that morning after taking breakfast downstairs. Kenzo had been in town to take care of some guild matters for the last couple of days. As luck would have it, it seemed that that was the same case with his friend Noel Raion. Being tasked with expanding Advent World’s influence in the city of Baska, both of them had agreed to stay at the same inn to share expenses. Even if his room was next to Noel’s, the two of them had barely had time to meet each other. Either way, it would seem that their stay in Baska would have to be cut shorter than what he had first expected.
”The magic council qualifies the act as ‘atrocious’, ‘inhumane’ and ‘against all laws of nature’” read one part of the newspaper’s paragraphs. According to the article at the front page, a slaughter had occurred in Port Astera. The male’s heart began racing as he read these words. Had they managed to know about the situation at the casino with Nuala? He had never thought it would be something that would come to bite him back. Yet, there had probably not been another massacre during the time of his stay. Right?
The male continued reading as he tried to calm a bit. When he finally managed to get through the trashy, yellow journalism bit, the male burst into laughter. Apparently, nature conservation groups were outraged by the killing of a large population of sea creatures. According to them, the species were endemic to the waters of Port Astera, and their numbers were on the brink of extinction. Kenzo repeated a couple of times the quote of an interviewed activist by the name of Greta Thurnstone as he tried to hold back his disbelief: ”HOW DARE YOU!? THESE POOR ANIMALS SHOULD BE PLAYING WITH THEIR FRIENDS HAPPILY AT SEA, YET YOU MANAGED TO EXTERMINE THEIR DWINDLING NUMBERS ALMOST TO THE BRINK OF EXCTINCTION. HOW DARE YOU!? SO INNOFENSIVE YET YOU SLAUGHTERED THEM IN COLD BLOOD!” The angry face of a girl was plastered along the passionate speech. ”Is she for fucking real? Should have let those beasts play with her at the sea…” The man lamented as he shook his head. This was beyond belief. Smacked at the center plane, the image of one of the dreary Kraken corpses laid on the ground. Those dangerous beasts were everything but harmless. However, there was little the man could do if they were going to take it as a slaughter fest.
As Kenzo planned to forget about it and laugh it off though, it seemed that his worries were far from over. Noel came crashing quickly at the door telling him the authorities were onto them. As he opened the door to see his guild mate rushing to his room, a pair of fliers fell out from the folded newspaper in his hand. ”Shit”
In full color, bounty posters for both Noel and Kenzo, “Perpetrators of the black week’s slaughter… Astera mourns.”
The two males jumped above Kenzo’s Dhuilin as they made their way out of town. Baska would have to wait until things calmed down a bit more. As the magical horse galloped at full speed and dragged Mustang along, the merc turned back with a proposition to Noel. ”Heard that Marigold Town is quite the quiet spot. How about a trip to the countryside?”
The two of them got far from Baska and eventually reached their new destination.
-EXIT-
[610/420] 30% Reduction from Mount. Noel is riding the Dhuilin so he gets reduction too.