The Conciege

August Intruder- Chapter 87- Aurora

The force with which she was pulled from the portal was almost disconcerting. Aurora struck the ground hard, barely landing on her feet.

Around her, her teammates landed haphazardly. One hit the ground in a tumbling roll, as if he had been thrown by a powerful enemy.

Aurora ignored him, rising with an annoyed scowl on her face.

What the hell was that about?

The portal quest she had been sent on had tasked her and her team to find a monster that had been feedin...

August Intruder- Chapter 86- My Name

“But murder wrong. Melmarc tell Veebee this. Melmarc not murder.”

The words shook Melmarc to silence. It was true, he had technically told the creature that Murder was wrong. And even if the man had tried to kill his mother, it didn’t make murder any better.

I don’t care, Melmarc thought.

Dissonant.

Melmarc groaned, running a hand down his face. At this point he was beginning to wonder if there was really nothing he could do to turn it off. He...

ROTLE- Chapter 60- The Weight of Their Wool

The loud chime of the bell rang through the room. In all honesty, it wasn’t necessarily a loud chime, it simply rang to loudly in Fjord’s ears. Considering his only rising alarms were a rough tap or a kick to the feet—or the occasional loud noises of chaos—during his time with the poachers, a bell was loud.

Fjord turned in his bed in the servants’ quarters. It was a small bed, only wide enough to contain one person. The male had their quarters just as the female had theirs. 2024-10-08 16:53:00 +0000 UTC View Post

ROTLE- Chapter 59- The Church's Gift

When Aiden brought the axe down, the tension in the room came down with it. Emotions crashed into their owners. A few eyes looked away, faces turning away for one reason or the other. A few gasps filled the room.

The blade of the axe cut through the tension and embedded itself in the ground, right next to Belle’s head.

The woman had tears in swollen eyes and her breaths came from her mouth and nostrils in a way that seemed very painful.

In everything, she was crying.

ROTLE- Chapter 58- A Symphony of Silence

Valdan winced visibly when Aiden slapped Belle.

The action had surprisingly been like watching an adult slap a child. He’d just stood there, waited, then slapped her at just the right moment. In the eyes of some people, it would probably have been disrespectful.

But what worried Valdan was the emptiness in Aiden’s eyes. He looked down at Belle with eyes that didn’t even seem to see her. He was not lecturing her. He was not punishing her. Punishment, after all, was given so t...

ROTLE- Chapter 57- Palm Open

Power has always been the gift of the strong. With the weak, power was simply relative. Most people would have you believe that power in general was relative. But it was not. If you were an ant in a battle against termites you could argue relativity. But anyone who had seen two elephants get in a fight up close, or two gorillas batter at each other in pure unadulterated violence knew that power was not relative.

At least Aiden thought that.

So, it was always confusing to him when ...

ROTLE- Chapter 56- A Man With So Little Pride

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

Belle turned at the sound of Alev’s voice. She was currently standing guard at one of the back entrances into the building. It wasn’t popular to anyone, but guard duty was never to be taken for granted.

There was also the fact that if for some reason something went wrong, dereliction of duty by leaving her post could get her in trouble.

However, there were some things that had to be done. Honor could not be allowed to be left behin...

ROTLE- Chapter 55- Mage Radiant

Elaswit had the most politically correct smile on her face as they walked into the ball. It would’ve been hilarious to look at if it didn’t fit her expression quite perfectly.

“Why exactly are you here?” she muttered under her breath in an attempt to not make her words too obvious for anyone watching from afar.

“It’s kind of my party,” Nella answered, walking with a smile beside her.

“I mean here, beside me.” Elaswit did her best impression of having a plea...

August Intruder- Chapter 85- Oath-hood

The stairs were definitely the right choice, Melmarc thought as he ascended the stairs three at a time. Naturally, it would’ve been a dumb decision if you took time and strength and endurance into consideration.

But he had the endurance and the speed. And taking multiple steps at a time cut the entire process short by a significant amount of time. Besides, he wasn’t going to be the intruder that used the elevator after the chaos he’d just caused downstairs.

It would be reall...

August Intruder- Chapter 84- Shockwave

“No.”

It was all Melmarc could think to say. In fact, there was no need to even think about it. It was the default answer, as simple and correct as blinking. You didn’t even need to think about it.

“Why not?” Veebee asked, confused. “It is necessary. I personally—can I stop talking like this? Please.”

“Is there anything else that might need explaining for me to understand?” Melmarc asked.

“Yes,” Veebee answered.

“Then you’ll need to ke...

August Intruder- Chapter 83- Existence

The rain was heavy. Surprisingly, however, Melmarc felt nothing of the cold.

The street had a few people traversing it, walking with umbrellas over their heads or covered in raincoats of varying colors, mostly yellow. There were others that walked around in hoodies, allowing the rain to drench them.

It looked like a regular night in a business district. Wet tarred roads, black and shimmering, reflecting the lights from the skyscrapers around. The buildings were mostly covered in g...

August Intruder- Chapter 82- Good Weird

<<I’m hungry, can I have him?>>

The portal creature’s stub of a hand was pointed at Saxi and Saxi’s bladder gave out a little. He felt a drop of fear stain his underwear in the form of a drop of liquid. He’d never in his life imagined that this was how he would end.

Taken by a portal being.

Would Madness fight for him? He knew the answer but felt like he could hope. Still, he took a reluctant step back. No matter how invincible the thing might be...

August Intruder- Chapter 81- One Without Honor

The entire room was silent. The symphony of the damned had been cast into nonexistence. The walls held silence in its stillness. Faces with mouths that had once moved stood statuesque. Imploring hands implored no more. Yet, the flames of white sat carefully atop open hands. That did not change.

Each face held a grey indicator above their heads. Countless as the faces on the walls. Above them was a single harmless title.

[Damned(F)]

Pain still riddled Melmarc’s mind. It dan...

August Intruder- Chapter 80- You Are Not Worthy

There were probably a thousand rules it was almost breaking, but Veebee wasn’t sure it could bring itself to care. For one, it was helping, for another, it was having fun.

It looked at the interface in front of it once more before turning its head to the side.

At the other end of this part of the path between worlds two of the sentients that had come in with the Oath of Madness sat on the ground, refusing to finally exit the portal. A man and a woman.

They looked, from Vee...

ROTLE- Chapter 54- A Troublesome Younger Brother

“You have a healthy size for a young man your age.”

“I could be larger,” Aiden muttered.

Chibor, the tailor of the Naranoff family, looked up at him from his place taking measurements of Aiden’s ankle. “Are you a strength based class?”

Aiden looked down at him and shook his head.

Chibor returned his attention to his task. “Then I see no reason for you to add any more weight at your age.”

Chibor was an elderly man with skin as brown as oak. He wa...

ROTLE- Chapter 53- Tarot

He sat in his chair and stared off into nothingness. The room around him was aptly full. A wide space, though it was, it was so filled and cluttered that you could scarcely find a place to place your feet save the straight path leading from the door to the table.

Scratching his jaw in slow confusion, he sat back, rested his back against the chair. This was interesting, that much he could admit. But it was also terrifying.

There were only a handful of people that could avoid his ey...

ROTLE- Chapter 52- Fate Walker

The forest was dark. Night had fallen and taken reign. It was a moonless night, leaving the faintest of starlight to guide anyone. The sky had broken a few minutes ago, bathing the world in its dramatic rain. It alternated between heavy and light, raging downpours one minute and slight drizzling the next.

It was as unsure as Valdan’s decision to remain in the service of king Brandis fourth of his name. Unlike the rain, however, he was not fickle. He was a man of duty and honor. A man ...

ROTLE- Chapter 51- Locked

Cold steel in hand leaking mist of equal cold, Aiden stood opposite Voshret. In normal combat, you were taught to gauge your enemy’s reach. A spear was longer than a sword. It made it difficult to fight against from a point of safety.

But while he was taught this, Aiden had also been taught that this was a world of magic, of fantasy. This was a world were the impossible was possible.

The reach of Voshret’s spear was not the only reach the man possessed.

Aiden twirled twi...

ROTLE- Chapter 50- Not His Justification

He wasn’t surrounded. Out-numbered, yes, but definitely not surrounded. Aiden held his sword to the side and lowered his stance. If blood would be shed today, he would have to shed it fast.

But there was no ifs about it. Blood would be shed.

The man in front of him raised his arms like an archer and drew it back. Knowledge is power, they always said on earth, and Aiden had enough knowledge to know how true the saying was.

He darted forward, stance kept low. H...

August Intruder- Chapter 79- Oh! Damned!

Melmarc stared up at the hulking humanoid wolf. He was baffled and confused. How much of the portal had Delvers gotten wrong?

A portal summoned help was supposed to be a translucent form of blue-ish white or white-ish blue. Yet one stood in front of him in the varying beautifying colors of any living creature. Such a creature was also supposed to be mute, known to only do what it had to do to clear the portal, fight whatever creature was the reason for its summoning.

And yet, one ...

August Intruder- Chapter 78- Gratitude

There is a small pain to holding onto something you have always craved yet finding yourself unable to still have it.

Melmarc felt it in this moment.

A way home stared at him and he stared back. He had it in his hands but was denied it. His interface stared at him and he stared back. It told him things he did not want to read. Things that wanted to break him.

In this moment, he almost hated Veebee.

[Incomplete Quest Detected!]

…

[Personal Quest Detected!]<...

August Intruder- Chapter 77- Exit

They had not walked long before Axe had joined them. He’d stepped out of the room, throwing a door open with a kick. Despite his size and his power. The door simply swung open violently, slammed against the wall, and closed back.

He opened it a second time and walked out with a slight touch of annoyance. He nodded in friendly greeting when he saw Melmarc.

Despite his size, he was a teddy bear. Or at least that was how David believed his children remembered the tank. He was the o...

August Intruder- Chapter 76- Responsibility

Melmarc stared at his father. They were both seated, opposite each other.

He had seen his father and just known that the man was unsure. He didn’t have the foggiest idea of how he’d known it. Maybe he knew his father well enough. Maybe he’d simply assumed that a father would be unsure in his situation. Maybe he assumed his father would be unsure because he was unsure.

In summary of the truth, he didn’t know. And ‘dissonant’ agreed.

They were done shaking hands an...

August Intruder- Chapter 75- August Intruder

Deoti looked down at Melmarc’s forearm. A touch of worry danced on her brows, they furrowed, then squeezed somehow, then relaxed.

She had extricated herself from their hug, giving Melmarc some reprieve. He felt a little bad to say it but he had really felt embarrassed to be hugged in front of everybody. There was just something about fighting for a couple of days and being taken seriously just to end up being hugged and babied by your aunt that was discomforting.

Deoti raised hi...

ROTLE- Chapter 49- Lesser Than The Less

The [Gambler] class was a class of luck. By every means known to Aiden, the system of Nastild had no [Luck] stat. Not among the humans or the non-humans. He didn’t know of an animal that had it, a general monster that had it, or even a unique monster that had it.

And if the Order knew about it, then it was in the archives hidden within the archives. The library nobody knew the Order had. Not even the Order itself… perhaps. With the Order, it was hard to tell, they were so wrapped in...

ROTLE- Chapter 48- A Risk And A Waste

There were rules to a group fight, patterns to follow and rhythms to obey. In movies on earth they made it seem simple. One actor would turn and move, head on a swivel, eyes darting about. In that, they weren’t very far off. Where they failed, however, was on the part of the assailants.

Nobody, alone or otherwise, was nice enough to give you the luxury of coming at you in turns. Most of the comics and manhwas—mostly the manhwas—Aiden had read did it best. A character would claim t...

ROTLE- Chapter 47- A Sharp Sense And A Gentle Breeze

Aiden spun on a third step, like a dancer on a particularly quick beat. The moment his second foot hit the ground, the mantis lost its third leg.

The creature dropped heavily to the ground in a thud. Still, it refused to stop putting up a fight. Around Aiden and the beast, the grassland was upturned at different spots not vastly too far from each other. They were evidence of the beast’s failed attempts to skewer him in one way or the other.

The creature struggled to reach for hi...

ROTLE- Chapter 46- Reward Status

The next day Aiden opted for a simple stroll to the adventurer hall. From what he’d been told, it wasn’t very far off. Naranoff’s territory had two branches for some reason, one built closer to the Lord’s manor while the other stood easily wherever it was in the city.

Negotiations and conversations over the years had brought the branch head of the Naranoff territory’s adventurer society to sit in the one closer to the Lord’s house.

The guards gave Aiden odd looks at th...

ROTLE- Chapter 45- The Mysterious

It was early in the morning, barely an hour past first light when Aiden ducked the blade of a swinging sword. The training ground was empty today. Seeking a peaceful practice, Aiden had planned for an early arrival. There was no point making a fool of himself in public.

It had been three days since he’d woken up. And while he no longer found himself lacking in motivation to do most things, that was only for the mundane and monotonous tasks. What he was here for was to test the more co...

ROTLE- Chapter 44- By Force

Aiden studied Valdan for a moment. The knight was displeased but not angry. Most people often assumed that both were one and the same. They were not. Displeasure and anger most often hold a thin line between them. It was a thin line that separated having your head chopped off by a king’s decree and having your request turned down.

While synonymous, anger and displeasure were not the same.

“I’m waiting,” Valdan said.

Aiden realized that he didn’t want to share. When...