Categories > Games > Star Ocean: The Second Story > Senseless Melodrama
They'd waited in line all afternoon with no idea what they were waiting for; whatever it was, it must have been lucrative. After all, as Ashton had said, mercenaries were not religious people. The only thing that could get so many to line up in a temple of Tria was money, and a lot of it.
"Excuse me," Bowman said, taking charge of the group when the finally reached a clerk, "I'm not sure what all of this is about. We're just here to see about using an artifact from the temple to help our friend." He gestured to Ashton, whose appearance showed very obviously that they probably were going to use said artifact for the purpose they claimed.
"Of course," the clerk stammered, eyes impossibly wide when he looked at Ashton and the dragons. "Tria is always happy to help her followers when they're in need. What artifact did you need to use? I'm sure we can arrange it with the high priest immediately."
"Let's see... Celine, get out that book," Bowman said. Celine took it out, recieving evil looks from the dragons for it, and opened it.
"Oh, our exorcism relics. I should have known. You mean you didn't hear about the theft?" The clerk asked, pen poised over the ledger on his desk. "A group of bandits broke into the temple and stole our exorcism relics to use in some black rite! All of these adventurers are here to try and get them back. Would you like to register as an official hunter for them?"
Gyoro and Ururun bumped noses over Ashton's head. Ashton buried his face in his hands in embarrassed frustration. Bowman seemed to be pondering the idea, but made no move to answer for the group.
"Of course," Celine broke in brightly, clapping the book shut and slipping it back into her valise. "I assume that if we bring them back, we'll be allowed to use them to exorcise our friend here?"
"Certainly." The clerk nodded. "And there's a bounty of five hundred thousand fol on them, as well. Shall I write you down, then?"
"Five hundred thousand fol?" Celine echoed. "Absolutely!"
"No good can come of this," Bowman observed to Ashton.
"None at all," Ashton agreed fatalistically.
"Don't be silly, darlings, five hundred thousand fol's worth of good will come out of this," Celine informed them expansively, leading them out of the temple. "Now that I've signed all three of us up, we'll be eligible for the bounty! And of course we'll be able to exorcise you, darling, don't look so put out."
"Ma'am!" None of them heard the clerk calling out to Celine as they walked out, not over the sounds of the amassed mercenaries. "Ma'am, you forgot to write down your name!"
----------
"Maybe we should have bought a map," Ashton said nervously. They'd been wandering the woods outside of Seville for nearly an hour, and it was starting to get dark. "Or we could have waited until morning."
"And have someone else claim the bounty?" Celine asked, scandalized by the very idea. "You have to assert yourself and go after what you want, Ashton darling, if you want to get anywhere in life!"
"You say that every time we're about do something really stupid," Ashton reminded her. "Like that time we got captured by the demon tribe on El, when you said we had to go after the that famed lost treasure without worrying about unimportant things like danger...."
"Don't be silly, darling, this is nothing like that. We're in civilized lands now, and it's just a few bandits. Claude and I handled a mission just like this in Mars ages ago, and that one even involved hostages."
"This is stupid," Bowman said finally. "Ashton is right, Celine, we should go back for the night. This close to the front lines there are bound to be demons still around, maybe even a few that would be difficult for us to tackle. We can come back in the morning- if those bandits are smart, they're laying low until daylight and letting the monsters around here take care of the bounty hunters."
"Bandits are never intelligent, darling. That's why they're /bandits/, and not scholars or scientists or masters of heraldry." Celine tapped her foot impatiently on the ground. "Go back if you must, but I'm staying here."
"You said demons are never intelligent, too, and that's why they live in disgusting places like Eluria Tower, but then they took us prisoner," Ashton pointed out, fidgeting a little. "I think we should go back."
"Just down one more path?" She wheedled, "It's just starting to get dark. By the itme it's totally dark we'll be back in town."
"I guess," Ashton conceded, though he still sounded uncomfortable.
"No good can come of this," Bowman muttered for what seemed the twelfth time in two days.
"Don't be silly! We're hardly defenseless, after all." Celine protested, taking the lead. "If anything does come out- Fireball!"
"I'd say I told her so, but I don't want to end up like that," Bowman said quietly to Ashton, looking at the lizard-demon laying in a charred heap near Celine's feet.
"If you two are going to stand around all day, I'm leaving without you," she called back, walking on down the path. "Ugh, what in the world is that? Thunderbolt!"
She seemed to be serious about going on without them, because she was rapidly disappearing from sight. Ashton started to go after her, but stopped when Bowman yawned loudly.
"I'm going back for the night. Celine can take care of herself well enough to get out of here, I think." He stretched out his arms, the joints in his shoulders cracking as he did so. "Come on, there's gotta be inns still taking guests if there are so many adventurers in town. Mercenaries keep even later hours than this."
"Um, I really don't think we should leave her," Ashton said, biting his lip. "It is dangerous for someone alone, even someone as good with heraldry as Celine."
"Go after her, then." Bowman shrugged, and turned around. "I'm headed back- if you change your mind, I think I'm going to try for a room at that inn we stayed in last time we were near the front line."
Ashton nodded and waved, and walked on after Celine. Sometimes he really hated being the one to look out for everyone else- it was his own fault, for not speaking up to keep them out of the stupid situations they got into, and then for feeling guilty enough that he had to help them get out of trouble. He really needed to start taking his own advice- if he could write about it, he had to be able to do it, right?
"I'm going to tell her," Ashton convinced himself aloud, "Celine, we're going back to the city and not going on this insane hunt until tomorrow morning. I'm not going to let her convince me that five hundred thousand fol is- ahh!"
Something leapt out in front of him, standing in the middle of the path and looking up at him balefully. It was one of those little lizard demons, the same kind that Celine had fried only a few minutes earlier. And so Ashton, in a fit of manly character, did something he normally wouldn't do. He stepped on it (though he did wince as he did it, and was glad Celine wasn't around to see that- she'd never let him live down being squeamish about it).
As he walked on, he thought he heard something rustling behind him. When he turned around, though, nothing was there. And it was getting darker and darker- where was Celine? She hadn't been that far ahead of him! Had he gotten turned around in the woods? Had she decided to go back after all? Was she-
He had just enough warning, thanks to the indignant awrk from Gyoro, to roll out of the way and narrowly avoid being decapitated. This was no demon- this was a human with a sword. Great, it would be his luck to run into the bandits alone, wouldn't it?
Ashton drew his own swords, parrying a blow with his knuckles that was forceful enough to jar his wrist bones even through the metal plates on his gauntlet. His attacker moved out of the way gracefully, his cloak dark enough that the only real giveaway of his presence was the gleam of what little light there was left on his sword and shield, and Ashton cut through nothing but air.
Why was he really not surprised that Celine had been wrong about the bandits being easy prey?
He lunged to take another shot at the man, and he was dodging away from the parrying blow when Ururun reached out and bit the man's cloak, ripping it away and sending the man rolling out of the way of Gyoro's also-bared teeth.
".../Dias?/" Ashton asked in horror as he recognized the man, even in the dimness of late twilight. "You're a bandit now?"
Dias Flac made a deriding sound as he stood up, gathering the shredded ruin of his cloak. He seemed less than thrilled at who he'd run into.
"Don't be stupid." Dias examined the cloak, as if he thought he could salvage something from the remains. "The temple hired me to get rid of the bandits. They knew the people who signed up are all incompetent."
"We're... we're not all incompetent," Ashton said nervously, sheathing his swords again. "Er, well, Bowman and Celine aren't...."
"Like I said, incompetents." Dias tossed the tattered length of fabric aside, finally convinced nothing could be done with it. "Your dragon owes me a new cloak."
"Well, if you didn't go around attacking random people, it wouldn't have happened!" Ashton crossed his arms in front of him in a stunning (for him) display of righteous indignation. "I was just looking for Celine! She's out there by herself, and she could be anywhere by now!"
"Celine is an idiot, but she can take care of herself. By all means, keep yelling- you'll bring every bandit and every bounty hunter in the forest here." Dias turned around and walked onward, finished with the conversation.
He stopped, however, when the giant column of fire appeared in the sky.
"Oh, /Celine/," Ashton groaned, burying his face in his hands.
"Come on," Dias said flatly, turning back to face Ashton and waiting for him to catch up. "I am not dealing with that woman, and I'm going to have to clean up her mess if I want to get paid. If there's anything left of the religious relics to pick up after that."
"Er, that's all right, it looks like she can take care of herself," Ashton said, backing away. "I think I'll head back, Bowman's waiting at the inn."
Then came three huge strikes of lightning in rapid succession.
"You're coming," Dias ordered, taking Ashton by the arm and dragging him along the path. "That woman can't reason logically, and I need someone just as insane to deal with her."
"Um, I guess- hey!" Ashton protested, the implication of that statement sinking in.
----------
"So this is the relic," Celine mused, picking it up. The exorcism relic in question was a chalice much like the one they'd found in the Mountain Palace in Cross, but the inscription on this one was in a different script. Behind her one of the bandits stirred- rather loudly and clumsily- and she immediately pivoted on one high heel, fixing him with both her glare and the thunder dancing from her fingertips. "You stay right there."
It had been pathetically easy to take out the bandits alone. So what if the hunting lodge in the forest didn't have a roof anymore? It wasn't as if it was used for hunting, not with the entire area the front line of the demon invasion. Even without an active invasion, there were still monsters and demons being formed from regular animals in the area, and no one seemed to know if it would ever end. There were rumors of heraldic devices and mechanical purifers being worked on in Linga and Lacour, but none of them were in use yet.
"Five hundred thousand fol is mine," Celine sang, putting the relic into her valise and stepping daintily from the decimated hunting lodge.
"Celine?"
"Ashton, darling!" Celine said, waving to him enthusiastically. "I've got the relic, so we can have you exorcised tomorrow! Oh, and who is that with you- /Dias Flac/, fancy seeing you here! Did you come on the bounty hunt as well, darling?"
Dias ignored her, going into the hunting lodge.
"What did I do to him?" Celine asked, frowning a little. "Is he that upset someone beat him to it? What bragging rights that will be, though, darling that we beat the famous Dias Flac to a bounty like this!"
"Can we go home now?" Ashton asked rather pathetically. He'd had his quota of manly adventure and assertiveness for the day.
"Of course, darling, let me just call for a- oh, there's one, come on, bunny! Oh, wait, no, that's an evil one. Starlight!"
Ashton started home without her- let her torch evil bunnies until she found a friendly one, if there was such a thing in the polluted lands near the front line.
"Excuse me," Bowman said, taking charge of the group when the finally reached a clerk, "I'm not sure what all of this is about. We're just here to see about using an artifact from the temple to help our friend." He gestured to Ashton, whose appearance showed very obviously that they probably were going to use said artifact for the purpose they claimed.
"Of course," the clerk stammered, eyes impossibly wide when he looked at Ashton and the dragons. "Tria is always happy to help her followers when they're in need. What artifact did you need to use? I'm sure we can arrange it with the high priest immediately."
"Let's see... Celine, get out that book," Bowman said. Celine took it out, recieving evil looks from the dragons for it, and opened it.
"Oh, our exorcism relics. I should have known. You mean you didn't hear about the theft?" The clerk asked, pen poised over the ledger on his desk. "A group of bandits broke into the temple and stole our exorcism relics to use in some black rite! All of these adventurers are here to try and get them back. Would you like to register as an official hunter for them?"
Gyoro and Ururun bumped noses over Ashton's head. Ashton buried his face in his hands in embarrassed frustration. Bowman seemed to be pondering the idea, but made no move to answer for the group.
"Of course," Celine broke in brightly, clapping the book shut and slipping it back into her valise. "I assume that if we bring them back, we'll be allowed to use them to exorcise our friend here?"
"Certainly." The clerk nodded. "And there's a bounty of five hundred thousand fol on them, as well. Shall I write you down, then?"
"Five hundred thousand fol?" Celine echoed. "Absolutely!"
"No good can come of this," Bowman observed to Ashton.
"None at all," Ashton agreed fatalistically.
"Don't be silly, darlings, five hundred thousand fol's worth of good will come out of this," Celine informed them expansively, leading them out of the temple. "Now that I've signed all three of us up, we'll be eligible for the bounty! And of course we'll be able to exorcise you, darling, don't look so put out."
"Ma'am!" None of them heard the clerk calling out to Celine as they walked out, not over the sounds of the amassed mercenaries. "Ma'am, you forgot to write down your name!"
----------
"Maybe we should have bought a map," Ashton said nervously. They'd been wandering the woods outside of Seville for nearly an hour, and it was starting to get dark. "Or we could have waited until morning."
"And have someone else claim the bounty?" Celine asked, scandalized by the very idea. "You have to assert yourself and go after what you want, Ashton darling, if you want to get anywhere in life!"
"You say that every time we're about do something really stupid," Ashton reminded her. "Like that time we got captured by the demon tribe on El, when you said we had to go after the that famed lost treasure without worrying about unimportant things like danger...."
"Don't be silly, darling, this is nothing like that. We're in civilized lands now, and it's just a few bandits. Claude and I handled a mission just like this in Mars ages ago, and that one even involved hostages."
"This is stupid," Bowman said finally. "Ashton is right, Celine, we should go back for the night. This close to the front lines there are bound to be demons still around, maybe even a few that would be difficult for us to tackle. We can come back in the morning- if those bandits are smart, they're laying low until daylight and letting the monsters around here take care of the bounty hunters."
"Bandits are never intelligent, darling. That's why they're /bandits/, and not scholars or scientists or masters of heraldry." Celine tapped her foot impatiently on the ground. "Go back if you must, but I'm staying here."
"You said demons are never intelligent, too, and that's why they live in disgusting places like Eluria Tower, but then they took us prisoner," Ashton pointed out, fidgeting a little. "I think we should go back."
"Just down one more path?" She wheedled, "It's just starting to get dark. By the itme it's totally dark we'll be back in town."
"I guess," Ashton conceded, though he still sounded uncomfortable.
"No good can come of this," Bowman muttered for what seemed the twelfth time in two days.
"Don't be silly! We're hardly defenseless, after all." Celine protested, taking the lead. "If anything does come out- Fireball!"
"I'd say I told her so, but I don't want to end up like that," Bowman said quietly to Ashton, looking at the lizard-demon laying in a charred heap near Celine's feet.
"If you two are going to stand around all day, I'm leaving without you," she called back, walking on down the path. "Ugh, what in the world is that? Thunderbolt!"
She seemed to be serious about going on without them, because she was rapidly disappearing from sight. Ashton started to go after her, but stopped when Bowman yawned loudly.
"I'm going back for the night. Celine can take care of herself well enough to get out of here, I think." He stretched out his arms, the joints in his shoulders cracking as he did so. "Come on, there's gotta be inns still taking guests if there are so many adventurers in town. Mercenaries keep even later hours than this."
"Um, I really don't think we should leave her," Ashton said, biting his lip. "It is dangerous for someone alone, even someone as good with heraldry as Celine."
"Go after her, then." Bowman shrugged, and turned around. "I'm headed back- if you change your mind, I think I'm going to try for a room at that inn we stayed in last time we were near the front line."
Ashton nodded and waved, and walked on after Celine. Sometimes he really hated being the one to look out for everyone else- it was his own fault, for not speaking up to keep them out of the stupid situations they got into, and then for feeling guilty enough that he had to help them get out of trouble. He really needed to start taking his own advice- if he could write about it, he had to be able to do it, right?
"I'm going to tell her," Ashton convinced himself aloud, "Celine, we're going back to the city and not going on this insane hunt until tomorrow morning. I'm not going to let her convince me that five hundred thousand fol is- ahh!"
Something leapt out in front of him, standing in the middle of the path and looking up at him balefully. It was one of those little lizard demons, the same kind that Celine had fried only a few minutes earlier. And so Ashton, in a fit of manly character, did something he normally wouldn't do. He stepped on it (though he did wince as he did it, and was glad Celine wasn't around to see that- she'd never let him live down being squeamish about it).
As he walked on, he thought he heard something rustling behind him. When he turned around, though, nothing was there. And it was getting darker and darker- where was Celine? She hadn't been that far ahead of him! Had he gotten turned around in the woods? Had she decided to go back after all? Was she-
He had just enough warning, thanks to the indignant awrk from Gyoro, to roll out of the way and narrowly avoid being decapitated. This was no demon- this was a human with a sword. Great, it would be his luck to run into the bandits alone, wouldn't it?
Ashton drew his own swords, parrying a blow with his knuckles that was forceful enough to jar his wrist bones even through the metal plates on his gauntlet. His attacker moved out of the way gracefully, his cloak dark enough that the only real giveaway of his presence was the gleam of what little light there was left on his sword and shield, and Ashton cut through nothing but air.
Why was he really not surprised that Celine had been wrong about the bandits being easy prey?
He lunged to take another shot at the man, and he was dodging away from the parrying blow when Ururun reached out and bit the man's cloak, ripping it away and sending the man rolling out of the way of Gyoro's also-bared teeth.
".../Dias?/" Ashton asked in horror as he recognized the man, even in the dimness of late twilight. "You're a bandit now?"
Dias Flac made a deriding sound as he stood up, gathering the shredded ruin of his cloak. He seemed less than thrilled at who he'd run into.
"Don't be stupid." Dias examined the cloak, as if he thought he could salvage something from the remains. "The temple hired me to get rid of the bandits. They knew the people who signed up are all incompetent."
"We're... we're not all incompetent," Ashton said nervously, sheathing his swords again. "Er, well, Bowman and Celine aren't...."
"Like I said, incompetents." Dias tossed the tattered length of fabric aside, finally convinced nothing could be done with it. "Your dragon owes me a new cloak."
"Well, if you didn't go around attacking random people, it wouldn't have happened!" Ashton crossed his arms in front of him in a stunning (for him) display of righteous indignation. "I was just looking for Celine! She's out there by herself, and she could be anywhere by now!"
"Celine is an idiot, but she can take care of herself. By all means, keep yelling- you'll bring every bandit and every bounty hunter in the forest here." Dias turned around and walked onward, finished with the conversation.
He stopped, however, when the giant column of fire appeared in the sky.
"Oh, /Celine/," Ashton groaned, burying his face in his hands.
"Come on," Dias said flatly, turning back to face Ashton and waiting for him to catch up. "I am not dealing with that woman, and I'm going to have to clean up her mess if I want to get paid. If there's anything left of the religious relics to pick up after that."
"Er, that's all right, it looks like she can take care of herself," Ashton said, backing away. "I think I'll head back, Bowman's waiting at the inn."
Then came three huge strikes of lightning in rapid succession.
"You're coming," Dias ordered, taking Ashton by the arm and dragging him along the path. "That woman can't reason logically, and I need someone just as insane to deal with her."
"Um, I guess- hey!" Ashton protested, the implication of that statement sinking in.
----------
"So this is the relic," Celine mused, picking it up. The exorcism relic in question was a chalice much like the one they'd found in the Mountain Palace in Cross, but the inscription on this one was in a different script. Behind her one of the bandits stirred- rather loudly and clumsily- and she immediately pivoted on one high heel, fixing him with both her glare and the thunder dancing from her fingertips. "You stay right there."
It had been pathetically easy to take out the bandits alone. So what if the hunting lodge in the forest didn't have a roof anymore? It wasn't as if it was used for hunting, not with the entire area the front line of the demon invasion. Even without an active invasion, there were still monsters and demons being formed from regular animals in the area, and no one seemed to know if it would ever end. There were rumors of heraldic devices and mechanical purifers being worked on in Linga and Lacour, but none of them were in use yet.
"Five hundred thousand fol is mine," Celine sang, putting the relic into her valise and stepping daintily from the decimated hunting lodge.
"Celine?"
"Ashton, darling!" Celine said, waving to him enthusiastically. "I've got the relic, so we can have you exorcised tomorrow! Oh, and who is that with you- /Dias Flac/, fancy seeing you here! Did you come on the bounty hunt as well, darling?"
Dias ignored her, going into the hunting lodge.
"What did I do to him?" Celine asked, frowning a little. "Is he that upset someone beat him to it? What bragging rights that will be, though, darling that we beat the famous Dias Flac to a bounty like this!"
"Can we go home now?" Ashton asked rather pathetically. He'd had his quota of manly adventure and assertiveness for the day.
"Of course, darling, let me just call for a- oh, there's one, come on, bunny! Oh, wait, no, that's an evil one. Starlight!"
Ashton started home without her- let her torch evil bunnies until she found a friendly one, if there was such a thing in the polluted lands near the front line.
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