Tyrants of Earth - The Legend of Artigan

It was seeing Milock that changed everything.

Ryan’s friend had broken his promise to take care of himself, again. Ryan did not feel as much anger as he should have, or at least it felt that way, especially after seeing what his friend had been working on.

The dead man’s switch. A letter to the rest of the world should Ryan die an untimely death. It had disturbed Ryan in a way he could not explain.

Responsibility, duty and depression.

That was the letter Milo had written to the rest of the world. Responsibility as a witness, duty as a friend, and depression because he felt helpless. Milock had written it in a way that made the world seem… hopeless, that they lived at the whims of the powerfully deranged and there was nothing they or the rest of the world could do.

A perfect message that would end up being a self-fulfilling prophecy.

In a sense, it was his fault. Not that the letter was being made—that was Milo’s choice and Ryan respected that. No, Ryan blamed himself because of the way it was happening, for Milo’s actions reflected his own.

His friend was trying to rise above the helplessness and take control in his own way. It was… similar to when Ryan had threatened the Witch Tyrant with mutual destruction. Grasp control no matter what, no matter how small it was.

Ryan stared out the airplane window and shook his head ruefully.

“I’m such an idiot.”

The orc just watched and said nothing.

Milo was in a private bedroom passed out on the bed because of course Seffara’s jet had separate rooms for different functions.

They landed in the dead of night and would see Clara soon. Then, after all this time, they’d be reunited.

And Ryan could finally put what he’d learned from the Kingdom of Valmere to the test.

——

Clara was having another regular day. She had taken a day off from work after… well, the incident, spent one day moping, then went straight back to her job.

She was a waiter at Fae Delights, a new swanky restaurant that served cuisine, not food. They had upholstered seating, they had a professional chef who updated their menu based on the season. It would make the job a pain because she herself had to spend some time in the kitchen and get grilled by their chef about all of the little details on their cuisine.

Yeah, Clara wasn’t great at that. What they did keep her around for was…

“Hey Christie! Hellock! Ooh short time no see! Another date night, oh I’m so jealous… That’s right, how is Boppers? Oh, he’s so cute, I wish you could bring him here during dinner service… I remember you liked the asparagus last time—well, don’t tell anyone else, but I think the asparagus is a little stale today. The Lessarrette has the same sauce though, and the dried herbs are actually imported from The Realm. I’ll get you a little extra.”

This wasn’t the fanciest restaurant, so you could get away with some level of informality. In fact, that was why she was even considered in the first place. Her little weapon that made her great with repeat customers.

She cared.

It also meant good tips. So when she forgot exactly what kind of magical herbs went into the Lessarrette from that hoity toity [Royal Chef], she wasn’t yelled at that much.

It was fun.

That was the thing. Clara liked people. She genuinely liked meeting people and getting to know them—and she could understand most people faster than, well… pretty much everyone else.

It did not make her a sociopath, thank you very much Milock.

Clara went back to the counter and punched in the orders.

Almost immediately, there were shouts back in the kitchen as it went through the organized chaos of a professional kitchen.

It kept her busy.

A child sat next to his mother. He waved at her and then started pointing at her. Clara dodged as they played a little game of ‘dodge-the-finger’ and she appeared on the table.

“Hey-hey, how’s my special little guy…”

She pinched the nose of the child sitting with his parents. She occupied the child’s attention while the parents enjoyed their child’s delight.

It was fun.

…

“Good work today, Clara.”

“Thanks Marcus, you too. Sorry about table thirteen.”

“Well, can’t have a perfect day when you’re around.

Marcus was someone who made his tips through professional demeanor and face. He gave the air of sophistication and judgemental which also meant more in tips from the customers with a stick up their ass or those who would only come here once and were expecting that level of service.

In other words, the polar opposite of Clara.

Marcus leaned in and whispered conspiratorially.

“Listen, me, Sher-bear, Fred and Zeniel are going out again, it’d be great if you wanted to come. Even out the chicks and dudes?”

He put his hands up in a friendly non-committal way. Clara had stopped coming out for drinks since after… the silly mistake with her parents. She couldn’t… be herself while drinking and especially not when she found out that Marcus and Zeniel had bets on who could get into her pants first.

Boys.

“Sorry, I’m still not feeling great. Personal stuff, you know.”

Marcus took a double-take, he couldn’t tell that anything was wrong with her. Well, nobody could. He probably thought that it wasn’t anything that bad.

“Really? I mean, maybe a night out will help?”

“Hah, maybe next time.”

“Come on, we can go to [Firebolt’s] Tavern and just chill.”

“Nah, it’s fiiine.”

It took a couple more annoying words before she called a rideshare home. Normally she took the bus but… she had money these days and felt like splurging.

Normally this was around the time she would teleport to the Manager’s abode and start to talk to him about her day and everything. That was the thing, Clara was a Destined now, one with an opportunity she was pretty certain that no other Destined ever got.

She could say the Manager’s name and be summoned to the Manager’s abode whenever she wanted. A little exploit by the Manager apparently. For as long as she didn’t pick a class she could keep doing it.

She had used it as a convenient time stop and to talk at the Manager whenever there was nobody to talk at—uh, to.

That had gone on for a couple of weeks before the incident.

Now?

She looked at the id card stuck to the dash of her driver.

“Hey Jordan is it? How’s your day been? Oh not bad? Busy? Oooh yeah, heard it’s been getting busy because lots of people are visiting from San Kingsgrove. All those silly rich people living near adventurers and thinking things won’t change, they’re silly, right? Right? Hey did you hear about…”

This tale has been pilfered from NovelPhoenix. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

It was slightly harder to do this with people on the bus at this time of the day. Rideshare drivers however…

Clara still wasn’t in the best of moods when she got dropped off. She felt it, she was off her game, her heart wasn’t in any of it—for all that it took her mind off things. She sighed as she opened the door to her apartment and—

“Surprise!”

“AHHH!”

Clara screamed at the surprise as her small apartment was invaded by three people. An enormous green giant sat, taking up the entirety of her small couch. A Ryan Robinson and a Milock Latt was standing up to welcome her.

Her lounge was clean.

“Oh my gosh, you guys—”

Clara closed the door behind her.

They had cleaned her apartment, prepared some store bought sushi—which was nice but they had cleaned her apartment.

“Hey, we heard that you were feeling down and—”

Before Ryan could finish she threw her purse on the ground in outrage.

“AND YOU GUYS THOUGHT I’D BE HAPPY GETTING AMBUSHED IN MY APARTMENT? Oh god, it was so messy—I wasn’t my underwear out?”

Ryan’s eyes went wide and his eyes went to Barry. When the orc didn’t say anything, Ryan put his fist into his mouth and coughed.

“Yeah we helped clean up.”

Clara flushed a beet red, then she saw the looks on their faces. Morons. She expected it from Ryan and Milo but Barry?! Clara promptly picked her purse back up from the ground and threw it at the old orc’s face.

“And you didn’t tell them it was a bad idea?!”

The orc with an always-immaculate living apartment caught the purse with one hand, his enormous green hand almost making it look like a wallet. Barry lowered it, met her eyes and shook his head in disappointment.

“Always make your bed, rookie.”

“I’m going to kill you.”

Clara took two steps and raised a fist threateningly. She could totally take on the orc, Barry wouldn’t fight back so that meant she couldn’t lose. That was how it worked.

Ryan was there in a flash, holding her back lightly as she flailed in his arms, she stopped trying to hit the orc and looked for things she could grab so she could throw at the orc.

She was just about to kick her heels at Barry’s stupid face until—

And that was when the front door opened.

“Hey Clara, I heard—”

Her neighbor, a friendly but tough girl named Josie peeked in to see Clara freaking out at a giant orc not-quite-manspreading on her couch and a stranger holding her back.

The room went silent as Josie went for her purse. Possibly for a pepper spray, possibly for a gun.

Ryan stood up and raised his hands as Josie pointed a pepper spray at him, then she switched to pointing it at Barry. The orc had tensed then, when he recognized it wasn’t a gun and a mace, he relaxed and lifted a cushion and turned away.

That all happened in a split second.

Clara finally jumped in between the two—hoping that—

And that was when the sudden movement made Josie flinch and press down the button.

Clara half shouted.

“Manag—”

Clara was in the Manager’s Abode. She slammed her forehead in front of the entity’s desk. It had been pretty cool, being able to appear in the Manager’s abode and have time be stopped. Now she saw the smiling face of the kindly old Manager and she felt her stomach squirm.

“Did you call?”

“I hate you. Send me back.”

“As you wish.”

Her soul left the Manager’s Abode and it turned out she hadn’t needed to worry because Ryan was in front of her. A light blue aura expanded out from him and covered the

Josie’s eyes went wide as her first reaction was to press down on the button harder before Ryan quickly and gently snatched it away from her.

Josie was stunned at the clear display of what she probably thought was magic.

Clara just sneezed.

“Aw, now my apartment’s going to smell spicy forever, thank you guys.”

…

“And you’re sure they’re safe?”

“I told you about them, they’re idiots, not dangerous. I said they’re friends, didn't I?”

“Yeah but you’re friends with everyone Clara. I don’t know how close you are with them.”

Clara scoffed. “Excuse me, I went on a trip with them. That’s pretty close… I think.”

Josie leaned over Clara and took a better look at the adventurer in their midst. Ryan was looking a little abashed with his sleek gloves and casual clothes. She went back into the girl-huddle with Clara.

“And you two aren’t dating, right?”

“No!”

Clara outrage-whispered. There might have been a brief period where she considered it but this Ryan was too crazy for her. Even now he was changing too much and was exhausting, she wanted—no needed some damn normalcy.

Josie then pulled Clara outside of the apartment and leaned over, whispering to her.

“Well if you’re not dating and since you said he’s not dating anyone, can you give me his number?”

She and Josie had spent more than a few nights talking about Ryan and his relationship with Valee. It was more, Clara kept it vague while Josie guessed at what was going on… it might have been why Josie assumed she wasn’t actually close friends with Ryan.

“Well—”

Clara took a quick glance at Ryan, then she went back to huddle-whispering.

“I don’t know if he can handle a relationship right now?”

Josie rolled her eyes.

“I’m not expecting a serious relationship with an adventurer. But like he is an adventurer right? You’ve got to try at least once, no?”

Clara rolled her eyes. Ugh, girls. She leaned in close and whispered to her friend’s ears.

“You know adventurers mean really, really good hearing right?”

Josie blinked a few times, her eyes went wide and raised her head to peer back into Clara’s apartment. Ryan scratched his chin and shrugged in a helpless ‘I can’t help listening’ kinda way.

Josie blushed then waved back shyly, gained some courage and—

“Get my number from Clara if you’re interested, byeeee.”

Clara facepalmed as her friend ran away in a somewhat familiar style.

Finally, after the pest was gone, Clara waltzed back into her apartment, plopped herself down in front of her small round dining table and started shoveling sushi into her mouth. No utensils.

She choked down a bunch of sushi and then beat her chest. Then Clara came to a realization. Clara peered at Ryan who was still standing because there was nowhere to sit.

“How’d you guys even get into my apartment, anyway?”

For an answer, both of her friends glanced at Barry. Clara stopped eating and glared at the old orc. Had Barry picklocked into her room?

“Did you… break into my home?”

Barry just shrugged.

“I saw a mess through the curtains. Had to check.”

Barry and Milo had been by her place during the months that Ryan was away. Her lounge was normally always neat which might have contributed to all of this.

Ryan scratched his head and looked at the others.

“I told you we should have shown up to her work.”

Milo looked up from his laptop.

“Nah, that would be weird right Clara?”

“No! You should have! I could have at least used you all as social clout so I can properly intimidate Marcus! That would have been so much better than—than this!”

Clara waved her arms at the completely cleaned lounge and the sushi they had neatly prepared. She continued to ignore the utensils and popped another piece of sushi into her mouth.

Ryan halfway into reaching for his own sushi stopped. His eyes narrowed slightly.

“Someone needs intimidating?”

Clara waved her hands in the air.

“Not like that! Like hey get a hint the first time moron. Like when I say I’m not in a mood to go out I mean it, but that annoying thing is still better than BREAKING INTO MY HOME AND DOING MY DISHES!”

It was a good thing that Milo’s silence bubble was up because Clara’s shouting would have definitely brought more people over.

Both Ryan and Milock shuffled around awkwardly and she couldn’t even bring herself to hate them. She rolled her eyes, she could see how it all happened as well.

“Oh hey, look at me, I’m Barry. Her room looks messy, let me just pick the lock because maybe there’s an emergency.”

“Oh hey, I’m Ryan. I see a problem, let’s help clean up her messy room, I’m sure she’ll totally appreciate it.”

“Oh hey, I’m Milo. I don’t want to do any of this but I’ll follow along anyway.”

Clara said all of this out loud for the rest to hear. All of it in exaggerated mock tones that sounded totally much like them.

Milo leaned over to Ryan.

“I told you she’s a sociopath.”

Clara picked up a wooden chopstick and threw it at Milo’s head. He ducked.

She then picked up the other chopstick and pointed it at Ryan.

“Do you even have time to be here? Shouldn’t you be out saving the world or something.”

Ryan scratched his cheek.

“Nah. I mean you were always there for me, both of you were. So why shouldn’t I be there for you guys when you’re all in trouble? Also, it’s kind of been nearly two hundred days since I last saw you guys. I had about a hundred and twenty days in the time chamber. I missed you guys.”

Barry looked up as Clara blinked, thinking about that for a bit.

“Was that, a hundred and twenty actual days? In a chamber, alone?”

“Oh yeah, it was fine.”

The weird part was that Ryan did look fine. Was he wearing a mask too? Did he need this more than she did?

There was a real and a fake mask that Clara put on, the one that was her but also masked her hurt cracked a little as she tried to imagine a hundred and twenty days of isolation.

A wave of guilt and sympathy hit her at the same time. Guilt for hiding details about the Manager, sympathy for Ryan who was clearly putting on a mask at the same time—one she could no longer see through. A hundred and twenty days of practicing alone, in an empty chamber.

How was it even possible?

“Are you okay?”

Ryan blinked, confused.

“Oh yeah, I’m totally fine.”

“Really?”

“Yeah?”

Clara was getting the feeling she had made a mistake in her assessment of Ryan. That or he had just gotten real good at lying. Even Barry seemed doubtful of Ryan’s sanity.

“You really spent a hundred and twenty days alone? Without experiencing the skill orbs?”

He knew something of how difficult that level of isolation was. Even for him who was mostly a solitary man er, orc, a hundred and twenty days…

Ryan looked perfectly fine though.

“It was a hundred and forty seven days before I used the orbs. I mean if it was a couple months ago I think I would have gone nuts, but yeah. I learned a lot from the sixth trial and found some peace, made it all bearable, you know?”

“No, we don’t know Ryan.”

Ryan smiled at that then put his hands together in a light clap.

“Well, that’s why we’re here. We’re all going to do an after-action report.”

Clara rolled her eyes.

“Yeah duh—wait we?”

“Of course. It’s just been me doing it the entire time but that’s not fair. Milock’s gone through a bunch of shit himself and we haven’t talked about it. You just had a boss encounter with your parents, what better time than for all of us to talk about it and get better together?”

Clara was disgusted.

“Only you would call that… that. Meeting my parents wasn’t—wasn’t—”

In a rare moment, Clara trailed off, lost in her memory.

Ryan raised his hands.

“Hey, if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine too. I’ll start us off and then you can tell us something about work instead.

She took a proper look at Ryan. This was not the erratic energy she normally expected when he had one of his mad schemes. There was a sense of calm and genuine serenity about him now.

Before, Ryan had believed that he was doing the right thing but was always a little uncertain about his actions and the future.

Now Ryan looked as if he knew his actions were the right thing. Genuine confidence that things would work out.

Clara blinked, then shook her head and pointed to her kitchenette.

“Get me my boxed wine.”

And the first after-action report for the three as a team truly began.