The Conciege

August Intruder- Chapter 136- Not Control, Candor

“What are your terms?”

Melmarc remained on top of Ariadne. He had his hand on the small of her back but his eyes on Naymond.

“Death works.” His voice was still.

Beside Naymond, his mother’s expression cracked.

Well, that’s something, Naymond thought. But he wasn’t new to this. Not everybody that had spoken with War during his time working under her had been very cooperative.

Naymond shook his head. “Alternatives exist,” he said simply. ...

August Intruder- Chapter 135- Sit Down

Lightning filled the room. It charged the air like an overzealous heat storm. No crackling signs of electricity showed yet. There were no streaks or anything. Then the air grew cold, chilling. Deoti and David Swan breathed, mist leaving their nostrils with each breath.

Swan frowned, noticing it.

Deoti stood in place, waited for him.

“Now that you’re all big and strong won’t you attack?” she goaded. “I’m right here. And trust me, you do not want me to go first.”...

AUGUST INTRUDER- Chapter 134- A New Idea

Deoti made shushing sounds, hand held firmly over David Swan's mouth.

You’re not trying to kill him, she reminded herself.

Naymond said that they needed information about the Romanians. Melmarc’s mother, Madness’ wife, agreed. They had many different options, methods they could draw these pieces of information out of him.

Deoti had chosen this one for herself, fought for it. Naymond had been hesitant.

“There are more reasonable ways,” he had said. 2025-05-27 08:15:22 +0000 UTC View Post

ROTLE- Chapter 130- With Everyone Trying To Kill You

Sitting quietly on the ottoman in Zen’s room, Aiden stared out the only window present. He was lost in thought, slightly confused.

He had seen what he had seen. He had been sure of it. He’d missed the face, seeing it only for a fraction of a second. Even then, it had been barely a fraction of a second. But he could not mistake the face. In his past life he had seen it on portraits. The Order had a record of him somewhere in their archives.

Aiden shook his head. Someone said so...

ANNOUNCEMENT

Dear, free members,

I have wracked my brain and have come to the conclusion that I have no idea what would interest you. So, this is a post created specifically for you all.

Currently, my story, Rise of The Living Enchantment, has risen to 25 chapters ahead of royal road and will continue to rise. There has been no increase in August Intruder chapters yet.

That said, please comment on what would interest you all and we'll se...

ROTLE- Chapter 129- May The Land Bring You Blood

Aiden didn’t have the answer to Fjord’s question. At least not the right one. He had an answer, but he wasn’t so socially inept that he was willing to give it. Well… in all fairness, he had almost given it. His brain had only saved him a moment sooner.

Was Fjord really important to the team?

Aiden had spent too many years in the Order where the truth was far more important than it was to the outside world. In an organization that prized itself on information gathering and ...

ROTLE- Chapter 128- Evolution or An Error

“A riposte, a parry, a block. All different things.”

The sun was not yet out in the sky. First light in Trackback was a lot brighter. Anyone who hadn’t been to the city before would think it was midday.

When Aiden had woken up, he had spoken first with the innkeeper. He had found her, to his surprise, sitting quietly on one of the chairs in the waiting area. She had been staring. Just staring.

Walking into the space, she had turned her head to him in something of a rob...

ROTLE- Chapter 127- Playing With Corpses Is Not A Normal Thing

[You have used Class skill Double Edged]

His sword swung viciously, striking the gnarled ghoul in front of him. Drax felt his mana spill out of him as the skill took effect. The sword seemed to double, another, a soft green light to the eyes, flashing out behind him to cleave the second ghoul.

Spinning into the swing, he brought it down in an overhead strike on the ghoul behind him. His interface lit up.

[You have slain Putrid Ghoul Lvl 33!]...

ROTLE- Chapter 126- Trackback

“Two silver coins,” the merchant said. He was a mouse of a man, small with a pinched face. He wore a long, seamless garb with flower designs and a strip of brown cloth wrapped around his head. It wasn’t a turban, not quite, but it was close enough.

“Two silver is a steep price for a map,” Aiden muttered to himself.

His voice must have been loud enough because the merchant added, “Everything in Trackback is expensive. Dangerous place sells expensive things.”

Eit...

ROTLE- Chapter 125- Borrowed Guest

Zen didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he shook his head, as if dispelling a headache. He frowned lightly. Signs of the discomfort he felt in the earlier days of the skill, from what Aiden remembered. By the time they’d become full teammates in the Order, such things only existed in the stories he had told Aiden.

Everyone waited patiently. Save for Feira, each member of the team looked very confused and or discombobulated.

Feira inched her jepat closer to her brother. She pla...

ROTLE- Chapter 124- Too Weak

Aiden let himself be occupied by the bow resting on his lap. He studied the intricate shapes and colors, even if it only had the one color.

Aiden let himself be occupied by the bow resting on his lap. He studied the intricate shapes and colors, even if it only had the one color. As for the shapes, they were nothing but thin scars that marked the weapon’s length. Gentle things, white and thin as strands of hair.

His finger traced a path along the knuckle guard of the weapon. The ...

ROTLE- Chapter 123- Pain And Fear

Thwack!

Everyone heard the sound in the distance. It was dark and Feira most likely couldn’t see much of what had happened, but she would know.

Aiden intentionally didn’t look at her. He had given his all into that singular shot. As for her bet? He hadn’t been hesitant to take it because he knew Zen well enough. Feira giving him a chance to only lay out his terms and conditions was a rookie move. He knew how to place an offer that Zen would find himself unable to re...

ROTLE- Chapter 122- Yes or No, And That's It

Feira sat quietly with a frown on her face. Beside her, Zen was doing his best impression of trying not to laugh.

“You’ve got to admit,” her brother said. “It’s actually quite funny.”

“It’s not,” she grumbled, pouting just a little and hating it.

Zen turned, lying on his back. He stared up at the clouds above. “It kind of is.”

Feira still couldn’t believe it. Even now, hours later, she still flushed in embarrassment just from thinking about it.<...

ROTLE- Chapter 121- The Domain of An Overgrown Gorilla

The woman stood at least six feet and five inches tall… give or take. It could’ve easily been seven inches instead of five, though.

Instead of a gambeson like her companions, she wore strips of leather. Her upper body was left bare, save for the brown leather that was wrapped around her breasts. Aiden guessed that it didn’t just conceal them—it served to keep them from bouncing.

A large loincloth covered her groin, falling as low as her knees. When Aiden gave it a little m...

ROTLE- Chapter 120- Then There Were Five

Aiden moved through the trees, sidestepping the focused rays of light that slipped through the canopy above. He moved cautiously, feet carrying him in a rhythm as the Order had taught him. He kept himself crouched low, his center of gravity adjusted.

His head bobbed to the side. An arrow missed him by an inch. He tilted slightly to the side, bending at the waist in a boxer’s weave. Another arrow missed its mark.

In a normal setting, dealing with a crowd of enemies like this requ...

ROTLE- Chapter 119- Try Not To Kill Anyone

The sewers of Dentis weren’t so bad. It smelled of piss and shit, as all sewers tend to but not much else. You could tell what age demographic of people occupied a place by the smell of their sewers. The same could be said about the level demographic as well.

If it smelled too deeply and too terribly, you knew that tthe children were of a greater population. It also meant that there were a lot of people who were not yet of the age of eighteen. On Nastild only those people were constan...

ROTLE- Chapter 118- Yeah... No

Aiden stood his ground, tired and fatigued. The pain remained in his chest, unwilling to leave. His hand clutched at it, grabbed a handful of the fabric of what was left of his coat—as if he could somehow take hold of his own heart.

Around him, the muffled sound of the battle was slowly sliding back into place. Sound was given greater life until it could not be ignored. The explosions grew louder. The flashing sounds of skills as mana came alive in the air were given life.

Throu...

ROTLE- CHAPTER 117- That Is Your Sin

A streak of lightning grazed Ebube and his eyes widened a moment before an annoying buzz went up his spine. It felt like being electrocuted as a child. It didn’t necessarily hurt, but it was enough to give a slight spasm.

In front of him, Aiden was already face to face with the still staggering guard that he was fighting. In an impressive display of athleticism, the guard threw a kick from an awkward angle. Aiden jumped high, tucking his legs in to lift himself over the swinging leg. ...

ROTLE- Chapter 116- Living Enchantment

Reaching level fifty had granted Ebube an interesting enough manifesting skill. King Oyedi had said that his manifesting skill had been gained in a different manner from what was common—a special manner.

Apparently, people struggled to get into level fifty, with men and women spending their entire lives stuck at level forty-nine. Those that eventually got to level fifty usually had to struggle for it, achieving the skill necessary in different ways, most of them life-and-death situati...

ROTLE- Chapter 115- What Have You Done, Aida?

The night air was stale. It didn’t blow into an evening breeze and it didn’t slither like a snake crawling over your body in the middle of the night while you slept in the forest hiding from enemies.

Valdan hated nights like this, when the tension seepped into the atmosphere. Back where he grew up, there was an old woman, a beggar, who liked to say that human emotions affected the weather just as easily as they affected people. If they were happy, the bright harsh sun could feel lik...

ROTLE- Chapter 114- What Is That?

The sun was low in the sky. Midday had come as quickly as it tended to and was now on the decline. Evening gazed in from around the corner, peeking, waiting, an ever-patient herald to the usurper that was the night.

Aiden turned his head skyward, allowed himself to bask in the soft touch of the evening sun. He rode his jepat in slow strides. His legs ached a little but did not hurt. They were certainly not numb either.

To his left, Ted rode quietly, eyes staring off into the dista...

ROTLE- Chapter 113- Fate, Too, Isn't Working Properly

There was a long moment of silence. It settled on Aiden and Ted like an itchy blanket, asking for something to be done. Anything.

But there was nothing to be done.

Aiden stood and waited, the orange glow of the burning trees around them still illuminating the night, casting the world with their flickering existence in a chaos of light and dancing shadows.

Around him and Ted, Ted’s summoned creatures slowly began evaporating into black mist. Aiden watched the darkness activ...

August Intruder- Chapter 133- Do Not Fight Back

For a moment, Ariadne couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Melmarc was a [Faker]. How had he stopped Anji’s charge?

Anji was a B-class [Juggernaut]. It made no sense that Melmarc had been able to stop his charge, even if he had copied his skill in that last moment.

Anji was a [Juggernaut] that Naymond had invited into the house from the streets for the purpose of protecting the house. He did it in all the houses he owned. He went out, found a young [Juggernaut] with nowhere t...

August Intruder- Chapter 132- Deoti

David Swan came awake with groggy eyes and heavy lids. He felt as if he was waking up from a very deep sleep but couldn’t remember sleeping.

He frowned at the discomfort. Moving his arms, he tried to stretch but they didn’t obey him. It took him only a moment to realize that his arms were not being disobedient, they were simply being restricted.

Struggling once more, he confirmed his restriction to be true. Someone had tied him to a chair. But who?

Memories came to him s...

August Intruder- Chapter 131- No

This was bullshit.

Melmarc stood with a whisper of a frown on his lips. He stood right next to a cab door as he closed it.

“Are you sure you won’t be needing me to take you back?” the cab driver asked.

Leaning down at the passenger window, he gave the man a kind smile. The man was on the older side. He wore a front facing cap, the type old people liked to wear for some reason. He had freckles all over his face and Melmarc knew that he wasn’t Gifted.

Th...

August Intruder- Chapter 130- Third Oldest Secret in Existence

Swanda froze so suddenly that Theresa felt it even without looking at him. Still, she turned.

“Are you expecting someone?” she asked, but the look of terror on his face told her that he was not.

Swanda shook his head very slowly. “Are you?”

“No,” she answered.

The moment the word left her lips, Swanda was already moving. Abandoning the barely touched pasta in front of him, he moved away from his chair like a man attacked.

“Leave the dishes, dear,”...

August Intruder- Chapter 129- Use Your Words

The entire process of letting Naymond go had been very simple. Alfa had a key, with it she opened the [Sage]’s cell. Naymond had given a great big stretch as if being unshackled from a bed after years in confinement.

As great and big a stretch as it was, it felt subdued.

Melmarc had expected Naymond to do more. Maybe a great big yawn as well. Maybe even do a little jig just because.

Naymond did none of these. He gave his stretch and that was all of it. His eyes, however, h...

ROTLE- Chapter 112- Infinity Plus One

A starry night and a beautiful forest were always a part of a camper’s dream. There was often very little that could usurp such beauty in their minds. Very little.

Drax stared at the sky above and just couldn’t bring himself to smile at it. As beautiful as the Nastild sky looked, he couldn’t bring himself to appreciate it. He couldn’t call himself a camper, but he had been out camping enough times to appreciate nature. Tonight, however, he was not in nature, merely close to it.<...

ROTLE- Chapter 111- An Angry Older Brother

Ted sat in the darkness, doing his best to ignore how uncomfortable the ground beneath him was. Not too long ago, he had been lying down, eyes closed, thinking. The path beyond the threshold was right in front of him—all he had to do was grab it.

He was almost there. He could feel it. Then again, he had been feeling it ever since Fjord had interrupted him at the inn at the border town.

Frowning, he adjusted where he was sitting. His ass was beginning to hurt. For all the flexibi...

ROTLE- Chapter 110- Darkness Obeyed

“Please, I beg of you, if I have offended you in any way, I am sorry. Truly and deeply sorry.”

Ted was on his knees, pleading, like a man begging for his life.

“I have sinned and fallen short,” he pleaded. “I know this. No one knows this more than me. So, please don’t do this to me, Aida.”

Aiden sighed and rolled his eyes. “I’m not doing anything to you. And let go of my pants.”

Ted did not obey. Instead, he held on tighter, grabbing on to the fabri...