Demian

strike one.

from the side of the podium, demian bit on the back of a finger. he still had pieces to move, though he too was examining kagami's answers as their lot. there was not much to go on, given hugh had not spoken directly on his campaign, and brienne was likely needing to keep up appearances to ensure her reputation. if it wasn't possible to know how the elections went, they might have to try another tactic.

but demian spoke to his ally under his breath. "only someone from ordsea could've been able to pay them off."

there were the pages he'd delved into, and mistakes he could yet have made. so he rectified them with another look over, before walking towards the podium, finding himself comfortable there just the same. his eyes went over the audience, to the players present.

demian was hoping he wasn't going to draw their attention after this.

he caught percival's eye, and gave him a nod. "about the fire the other day. you mentioned that it was caused by lamp oil. knowing that it's a dangerous substance that shouldn't have been near the ushiame flowers, do you know who might've had access to it, or brought it in? do you keep logs of who's able to obtain lantern oil in srona, or is it possible it may have been brought in elsewhere – and if so, where in abundance? ... likewise, i understand on that day that some of your people had found culprits fleeing the scene of the crime. were you able to obtain some testimonies investigating the situation?"

and there were the questions he'd wanted to pose to dagan's leader, too, so he looked to the man and gave him a deeper bow. demian hoped his genuine respect would show proper, despite his protest from earlier. "tiberius. i understand the cave in put your people in a dire situation. this happened in the mountains, yes? ... how extensive is the cave network? are there any tunnels that happen to reach braso?"

finally, demian sighed, righting himself before addressing fudral. he was tense, needing to test his hunch. "i'd also like to ask about the transactions that might take place in hiring braso warriors. would all requests go through you, or some sort of treasury department in your nation before service could be provided? is there a possibility that your men could have been paid off to defect from your command?"

the man shook his head once he was off the podium. a lot was on his mind, and one last bit of rumination spilled out of him in a low voice as he returned to kagami's side. "done at the same time in five days. must cost a hefty sum. if you truly think it might be hugh, he does have a strong, radical supporting base. if it came to a re-election, he might've been able to hold sway over the other candidates. brienne did say she did win, but not by much."

"though, surely, there has to be more evidence than this...?"

"sabotage," demian stated plainly as he collected his documents from kagami. "i wouldn't put it past the narrative. after all – what's a cross nation hearing without a little bit of political intrigue. think we've come to the conclusion, that, and in our current position, i'd bet on hugh the same as you."

"the trick," he breathed, looking towards the leaders on stage, "isn't to do so without evidence, even if we're so certain. that's the reason why we're asking these questions – throwing accusations around without proof is going to get people riled up again." still, he too had the same burning question that his ally did, so the man gestured to kagami. "tell you what – let's go with that plan. it'll look less targeted the more questions surrounding the nations we ask. and, better yet, in the case it isn't sabotage, we're not working completely from scratch. certain as we may be, i wouldn't put it past cardinal to feed us a red herring once in a while."

so he started to walk, giving them a brief wave. "see you once i get off the podium. and, at least, hopefully things go well this time."

raidou was likely done by now. demian hadn't seemed as though he was paying attention, but he knew the wanderer had likely hit on the button they were trying very hard not to press. he glanced to hugh, trying to read the man for any signs of agitation from that firm, yet unsubstantiated conspiracy theory. with some luck, maybe he wasn't going to shell up immediately.

he just needed to buy time for kagami to pose their question.

demian took his spot on the stand. "hear me out, if you will." he raised a hand to srona's leader, giving him a nod. "percival. i understand there is the presence of a grove guardian that's guarding the ushiame flowers, is there not? your people risk their lives to gather what they need – and ideally keep a stash of a little more on reserve, so that others wouldn't need to face danger to seek treatment."

at best, demian was familiar that there were outposts scattered about the floor. but whether or not they were competent, or merely acting as security performance, he did not know. "is there not a squad of braso's warriors posted nearby to assist your people in gathering them? or is there a condition for their aid?"

following that he too turned to brienne with a wave. "likewise, miss brienne. i understand that you had a bodyguard present at the time of the attack. you also seem to have looked to fudral for assistance throughout the duration of this discussion – they say ordsea's got the brains, after all, so i'm not surprised they'd partner with the brawn." demian folded his arms, hoping his words wouldn't cause a backlash due to stereotypes. "is he an envoy? your bodyguard, i mean. or was he a hired hand? were you able to personally select him, or did fudral simply send his best man for the job?"

"lastly, to fudral." demian leaned forward, resting on an arm as he pressed himself against the podium. "is all of this information correct? from percival and miss brienne. is there anything you'd like to add about your operations and your distribution of men? ... likewise, not to seem as though i'm leaving them out, are they able to help dagan much as part of their duties?"

once he was satisfied, demian left the podium empty – presumably for kagami to have followed up behind him.

several things occurred at once. destin arrived on the scene, and his questions – err, half-accusations – were answered. demian would get to them in time. in his immediate perspective was one of the others who'd spoken on to the leaders before. they extended a hand – and he'd take it.

"Kagami."

"demian."

"So you also think it was Destin."

demian raised a brow. he was mostly concerned about his image now, and curious as to how kagami came to that conclusion. overall, he was certainly amused. "i imagined nothing of the sort," he spoke, slow. "elaborate this meeting may be, i can only acknowledge that it is intentional – by cardinal, more than by other means or forces. but, following your line of thinking, if there's any one soul to place blame on for having orchestrated this roundtable..."

he threw a sideward glance over to hugh. "'simply thought that it might be awkward', when addressing matters of the nations, indeed."

"You seem to know more than anyone here," kagami had said. it pulled his perspective on bistro's intel into question and called upon a dawning unease in his given notes. the first of their kind? demian thought it unlikely. but, if amongst all others present, he was the only one to have known anything, perhaps it made a little more sense to believe it than not.

he pulled the dossier from his coat, summoning them midway through from thin air. silently, he handed them to kagami. demian kept a watch out, making sure he wouldn't get caught.

"broker intel," he clarified, voice low. "had a player go through that questline on this floor right before the boss fight. a cave in, a fire – things you've heard before that got mentioned, likely. and a little bit more information about the floor from wandering about it for a while."

as kagami looked through the papers, demian was quick to point out the different sections pertaining to each individual incident prior before. and though the pages seemed confidential, at least his voice wasn't; he was audible within earshot. "they had a meeting the other day. about the floor boss, and the labyrinth guardian before it. latter was a golem, with a crystal core that had a myriad of colours in it. besides that, destin was the rumormonger for the questline itself, so it did originate with him."

he allowed them to sift through the documents a little more, watching raidou speak as they did. "... i've got a mind to ask more about the crystals themselves. might need a different strategy of attack before i drop it – destin just contradicted the information i was given. that, and the culprits percival saw at the fire, or if srona's got guards on loan from braso about the grove guardian. ... then there's ordsea, and the importance of the documents hidden across the estate – what for, too? talk about secrecy and obfuscation for some high level of security... but hiding them all over the place is a bit much."

"there's that death of the bandit, and the question of where the others went upon the quest conclusion, or fudral's apparent nonchalance at the disappearance of some of his men. either that, or the fact that he was guarded about that information to be told to the player. a good judge of character, or he's hiding something. it could go both ways."

demian folded his arms, now, having gestured about as he was explaining his thought process to kagami. if others were taking the stage, then he wouldn't bother just yet.

"well. kagami, what are you thinking?"

bistro... had sent him a dossier. and a note, saying something along the lines of we have to make sure the boss fight goes smoothly! so this job's on you. no overtime pay.

so demian told her not to get her hopes up.

he was still present, however, when it came down to it – cardinal's antics had always been something to watch out for. call it personal interest to listen in on the overseer whose machinations ruled their day to day lives; demian figured he was being practical by attending, on behalf of others than of not. things seemed to be progressing well in the dialogue – the audience had made sure the leaders were getting somewhere with regards to their discussion – but out of nowhere, things just seemed to get a little... hazy.

accusations, threats; the likes, the works.

demian shifted his eyes, uneasy, between the stage, the players approaching the stage... and his notes.

the most recent speaker was also the most prominent one. his colleagues didn't like him – and now, he thought he could see why. but he set aside whatever biases they had and walked over to the front. hunched over, slow paces, hands shoved in pockets and his signature fur coat to broaden his silhouette. emmett would kill him for this, he thought, for getting involved in a scene such as this on behalf of their family name.

he sidelined the podium as raidou spoke. the threats he made – demian knew – weren't empty.

that was what was so important to consider. cardinal had the ability to kill them right then and there.

demian exhaled once, before speaking. "it's good and all for us outsiders to be threatening important leaders who didn't trust initially, don't you think?" the question was rhetorical – and demian wasn't going to let anyone else take away the microphone from him once he'd started. "and all this bloodshed sounds incredibly promising, but it won't get us to where we need to go."

"the key message is right, however – there's no point in declaring a free-for-all unless you'd wanted chaos in the first place." he glared at tiberius, wrathful. "is that you outing yourself now? for having orchestrated the attacks? in lieu of the absence of ronbaru's representative – are you mad, tiberius?" demian gestured to brienne, still peeved. "at least she gets to go back to ordsea and tell everyone how she won their vote against hugh – the outcome of which means they get to fend for themselves while the other territories starve them to death." he nodded to kagami. "it won't be pretty. and it is only going to be exacerbated given that destin, somehow, isn't here – ronbaru gets no head start."

"so why isn't he?"

demian let his words hang in the air for a moment, looking to hugh, expectant, as he contemplated his next questions. he shifted on the spot, trying to keep calm. he'd never known such agitation could make him jitter this much.

"i hope i'm not speaking out of line by saying this. the point of this roundtable is to quell the unrest that has existed between territories that has persisted since history. the invitation to others to participate is likely to obtain a neutral stance while settling this discussion, on the chance that the leaders' perspective may be biased."

a beat passed.

"i say we go back to basics, because this might be bigger than all of us."

"your regions are segregated by crystals, where only the ones at dagan, if i recall, can't be moved." demian was hoping tiberius would confirm this for him, before moving on to his next question. "can all the others? what do each of them do? ... and, dare i may be so bold, is there a possibility that there is a crystal we haven't found yet that's of all the colours we've seen thus far?"

Lv. 11 | Demian | HP: 200/200 | EN: 38/38 | DMG: 16 | ACC: 2 | EVA: 1 | MIT: 12 | REGEN: 4  notes: edit: exp not botched no more. Spoiler equipped Torres Special DMG III Enduring Stand MIT (12), REGEN (4) bauble. ACC II, EVA I br-inventory Teleport Crystal (1) Fruit Juice (5) | [23/10/20] +10% HP RECOVERY Fruit Juice (5) | [23/10/20] +10% HP RECOVERY Fruit Juice (5) | [23/10/20] +10% HP RECOVERY Fruit Juice (5) | [24/10/20]  +10% HP RECOVERY skills Spoiler mods: 0/5 STRAIGHT SWORD R5 stamina, precision, ferocity COMBAT MASTERY DMG R3 data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw== buffs Spoiler   data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw== sword arts Spoiler ST | x12 -> x15 | x20 AOE | x11 -> x14 TECH-A | x12 | STUN | 13EN TECH-B | x12 | DELAY TECH-F | x8 | AOE STUN  data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw==

and now he could see why bistro had chosen this floor out of all others. it was pretty, stationed right next to their warehouse-facade, with reasonable accommodations prepared for the man's living situation if he were to be acclimatized back into modern-day living.

of course, there was also a fairly safe forest nearby if he ever wanted to go camping. bugs abound of a higher level, yes, but at least their patrol routes were fairly predictable – because they were bugs.

"delivery," demian called out, pushing open the door and dropping off multiple crates of potions. when basuke laid his eyes upon them, he was astounded.

"what's all this?"

"for your use," demian gestured, faking the devil's grin, "to pay back the tutor's fee."

dropping off the following:

another soul to the beast.

at least, if he was entirely heartless (hm. he was getting there), that's what the entire setup and introduction would've seemed like. but the alchemist had some amount of humanity left, he felt, so even if he offered up basuke to her, she wouldn't be too harsh on the kid.

case in point: his shop was leagues away from her own on the first. the relentless demands on the first would've never be cleared for someone who's heart wasn't completely in the shopping game – a fact that even demian could respect.

he held up a bottle from the batch he was going to haul off. "so i'll just take this to 'im, yeah?"

bistro hummed in return from the opposite side of the room. almost melodically. even that made her day, apparently – so he could take comfort in getting on her good side, with that.

retrieving:

dragon's breath. (133) | CRAFTER'S RESPITE | [x]

they got back to landon’s safe and sound. basuke barely remembered the route they took through the city to get there, because the moment demian entered the town of beginnings, the man had decided to stray from the main road and look to the back alleys. when basuke had spoken up about it (“hey! where’re you going? the shop’s down this way, isn’t it?”) demian shrugged his calls off. (“taking a shortcut. this way’s faster.”)

basuke had observed the man was incorrect in his judgement, but couldn’t determine if it was because demian’s walking speed had slowed down in accordance to basuke keeping up with him throughout the narrow streets.

in the shop, it was uncharacteristically quiet – but it seemed as though landon was fixing one of the strings on his lute. demian whistled as he noticed this – “hey landon. hope we’re not intruding – rocked out too hard earlier?”

landon laughed in response. “yeah, i suppose you could say that.”

“nice work.” he peered over the other’s loot window, trying to take a gander. “did you get all your materials yet?”

and basuke had completely forgotten he was here to do such a thing. so he looked to his quest log – and the prerequisite counter was filled. 

“oh hey! yeah, i guess i did!”

“good.” demian pat the boy on the shoulder once again, before walking past him, headed back the way they came from. “means we get more time to figure out how to work with the performance crystals once landon hands them to you.”

“ah, right!” 

closing his window, basuke ran to catch up to demian. the road back was long, and basuke didn’t mind, so long as they had something to talk about. on the topic of music and crystals, he did wonder what demian’s speciality was – he hadn’t seen him hauling around an instrument just yet.

so basuke returned the favour, directing his aggravation of having been picked up and tossed around towards the enemies with a series of forward strikes. his movements seemed sluggish, his swings too wide – but it did him fine to tear three of them into pieces, as the other darted towards demian, swerving off a near-by high ground. the warg lunged – basuke hadn’t even registered that they were wolves – and was promptly parried by the man’s sword. the boy looked to his own – flashier than demian’s generic piece.

“too slow,” demian commented, though his voice held no hint of accusation to it. 

with one shove, he repelled the lone warg. it darted about, trying to catch their attention – a distraction for the rest of the pack. basuke kept his eye on it, though demian had torn his away, turning to the three late gentlemen, strutting in with less ferocity. if they’d assumed their quarry was already torn from limb to limb, they would be required to reassess their position.

they went further out, towards the stone valley. as the landscape changed around them, so too did the monsters – basuke frequently made note to stay away from areas such as these when camping due to their aggressive nature. but it didn’t seem as though demian had minded. whilst they were walking through the forest, the man had his head held high – basuke’s kept his lowered, sunk into his jacket to protect himself. was demian already trained in fighting – so frequently that he’d stick his own neck out?

a long howl came from afar, and that’s when demian stopped. 

“they’ll approach us in a minute.”

so basuke drew his blade, too. he looked about, but he couldn’t see anything. rather, he could feel the trembles of his own familiar at the shriek of whatever was within the woods. “do you usually come out here to hunt?”

“if i’m on this floor when i need materials,” demian said, turning to face him. “sure.”

to demian, it seemed like a waste of a good profession. so he sighed, and placed a hand on basuke’s shoulder – the act of which made the young player flinch.

“okay,” he said.

“okay what?”

“i’ll teach you how to make music.” demian raised a finger. “not teaching you how to play an instrument, just theory – the basics. you get to decide what to pick up, and then maybe i’ll find someone to help you out for a cost. deal?”

basuke’s eyes lit up as though he saw all the glowsticks raised at a concert from the perspective of a celebrity. when demian offered his hand, basuke shook it, excited – because though he had no experience in the field, making music on its own did sound like an intriguing proposition.

“yeah! deal!” the boy grinned, feeling demian’s arm slide around his shoulders to pull him close as they walked. and he was ecstatic, feeling just as cool as he believed demian was.

“great. now let’s get that quest completed before we take the next steps. c’mon.”

“aye aye!”

but he toned it down a little in lieu of demian’s sourness. “or a close acquaintance. we went on an errand for someone together on the ninth floor the other day!”

mostima clapped her hands, excited. “oh! so that’s what you were busy with!” she directed her gaze to demian, who was trying not to be noticed in the conversation. the scarf she wore curled around his back, despite the lack of a draft. “you know, if you gave us more information about things like these, we wouldn’t have to keep pestering you about your whereabouts all the time.”

“it was nothing,” he returned, to the stronger hold of mostima’s arm around his waist. despite being shorter than demian, and only slightly taller than basuke, she seemed like the stronger of the two with the way she was holding him by force.

“you were out making a new friend! it was everything.”

demian failed to elaborate further, and basuke was too busy considering himself in blond hair. in the following days, whilst he was unaware of the busyness of everyone else in their involvement with the boss fight, he went about looking for hair dye. the shops on the first didn’t help a lot, so he got in contact with demian about the possibility of finding something (a recipe?) that might.

demian responded in a few hours: not by text, but by showing up at his campsite.

“woah! hey, it’s demian!” basuke had called out, partway through drying his hair after having pulled himself out from a lake (he was swimming. er, showering?). he didn’t even think twice about how the man was able to get his location in the middle of nowhere, or about where he’d gotten the dye from. but demian was quiet, apparently aggravated from the way he hunched his shoulders forward in an almost brooding manner.

Lv.11 | Demian | HP: 230/230 | EN: 38/38 | DMG: 16 | ACC: 4 | EVA: 3 | MIT: 30 | REGEN: 4 | LD: 3  note: handing basuke the following: Berry Crumb Bars | LD III | [19/04/20]  yaki hatahata. | TIER 1 MEAL | MIT III beef stew. | TIERLESS MEAL | OVERHEALTH III Fruit Juice | TIERLESS POTION | HP RECOVERY II | (10) smores. | TIERLESS DESSERT | EVA II Spoiler equipped Torres Special DMG III Enduring Stand MIT (12), REGEN (4) bauble. ACC II, EVA I br-inventory Teleport Crystal (1) Fruit Juice (5) | [23/10/20] +10% HP RECOVERY Fruit Juice (5) | [24/10/20]  +10% HP RECOVERY skills Spoiler mods: 0/5 STRAIGHT SWORD R5 stamina, precision, ferocity COMBAT MASTERY DMG R3 data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw== buffs Spoiler Berry Crumb Bars | LD III | [19/04/20]  crème brûlée. | TIERLESS DESSERT | ACC II smores. | TIERLESS DESSERT | EVA II yaki hatahata. | TIER 1 MEAL | MIT III beef stew. | TIERLESS MEAL | OVERHEALTH III data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw== sword arts Spoiler ST | x12 -> x15 | x20 AOE | x15 -> x18 TECH-A | x12 | STUN | 13EN TECH-B | x12 | DELAY TECH-F | x8 | AOE STUN  data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw==