Alright, that should do it...
As long as my core isn't damaged, I should be good.
Now, if Nemesis is here, that means that the other hounds of Red Order will arrive soon.
I better prepare; even for a rookie...
---
"We're here." Leonid announces and we jump off the carrier.
"Ahh~, nice to move around again~" Émile stretches as we look around the village.
"Usually, commissions aren't anything spectacular; usually it's adherent that we're going to deal with, not the actual Daemon." Virgilia explains as she walks towards a rather peculiar building. Unlike other houses, it has a red roof and seems more well maintained.
Going inside, I see various trinkets and maps; it's... Oddly familiar. I think me and my mom visited such a building when Sylvie was...
"Oh, Virgilia! Coming to our place again?" A voice calls out and we see a burly man greet us from his seat. I assume this is the head honcho.
"I've got a new rookie in my troupe. Want to rest his capabilities and all." Virgilia waves and he smiles "It's that skittish young man, right? I can see Aden is still living and kicking."
"Yeahhh..." Aden rolls his eyes "Anyway, Émile is still able to move, but they do experience more frequent pains..."
"Hmm... That's bad. Anyway. Choose the commission you want to take on! It's rather basic stuff, yet we still rely on outside sources because our magicians are too skittish to even do anything."
In front of us, there are three wanted posters, with detailed explanations on the back of the paper, Aden looks at them expectantly, while Émile with curiosity. Virgilia on the other hand just looks as if she's letting us choose which commission to undertake.
"Can I choose this? This should be easy enough for Fortune to take on..." Aden points towards the first and Virgilia looks at the fineprint "Hmm... No, from the records I could find, Fortune is most likely a melee specialist."
"Can I choose this?!" Émile points towards the third poster and Virgilia sighs "Émile, you will get Fortune killed if you pick this; I can take this one by myself later."
Then the second poster remains
"Then it's this one?" I ask and she looks closer. "That... Should be alright. I'll be a supervisor."
""Okay!!"" Both of them respond and we go on our way.
A local, albeit far away, pasture has reported that their livestock started to mysteriously disappear each night; and with it the farmer's daughter has also disappeared as well. They suspect it might be the work of a daemon.
"First lesson to learn is that if human victims are involved, it would be an extremely lucky occurrence for said victims to survive, let alone be in one piece. Usually it's a foregone conclusion; however we also can't simply state their status as dead. It's better to gather possible proof of their status before announcing it." Virgilia explains "Prepare to see a lot of dead bodies; be it our adversaries or victims. We're not heroes, merely employees." However that part lacks her usual harshness, it almost sounded like a regretful confession.
"Right now, we're going to gather intel. Usually such commissions fall under the category of "incidents"; incidents are a type of commission where you do the job of investigating the possible cause of the issue and then solving this issue - usually by exterminating daemons - and incidents are USUALLY caused by much weaker daemons who prefer to stay in shadows and not let themselves be known and it's our job to rat them out and destroy.
There are also general exterminations; those usually involve adherents or weaker in greater quantity. There are rarely any direct extermination orders on stronger daemons and if there are - those are done by much powerful magicians than us.
Some are more minor ones like delivery which don't necessarily require magicians to do them. Upper ranking magicians are disallowed from taking on them because of their power and avoidance of abuse of power. We can take those, but we're taking only the most excruciating ones - got it?
And finally, at least from more relevant ones - is occurrences, though they could be called "Phenomena" if they're much grander. These ones are the most dangerous - as those are caused by powerful daemons coming to a "hunt" as they put it. While in incidents, there may be a possibility of a human culprit: occurrences are STRICTLY caused by daemons, and more notable at that; unless we're talking about large criminal groups or syndicates that have access to magic resources. They affect the area around them and mortality rate is extremely high as a result - only magicians and strong warriors are even allowed in partaking in them.
We are usually avoiding occurrences like a plague and flee battles against stronger daemons; but if we have no other choice - we have to fight. We're not surviving phenomena though under any circumstances, as the threat is way out of scope."
"..."
"Oh! It's you! Hello there, you must be magicians who took upon my request!" An elderly man greets us and we awkwardly wave. He begins to explain the situation to us in full detail.
"I know... My situation may seem like it would be the work of the local fauna, but through my years of being a shepherd - I haven't heard neither peep or squeak of anything that could pose danger to our livestock. Our local hunters always took care of the wolves and such things... But each day for the past two weeks they began to disappear. I had roughly 100 of them, now I only have 14. Not only that... It seems they disappeared too, the hunters. My daughter went out looking for them, but now she's missing too! Please... I know this plea is useless, but please... Could you please find her?... I don't think my heart could handle it."
"... Alright... Please tell us the details of the disappearances... Maybe we can find certain clues..." Virgilia spoke with partial strain in her voice. Could it be...?
The old man begins to tell us how disappearances take place; and they usually occur during the night - and the hut of a disappeared group of hunters is located in the forest, not too far off from the pasture. At first we investigate the pasture itself... Or better said Virgilia does, as plant-life is her domain; she says that she found some foot prints and we go to their location. Upon closer inspection, it seems those belong to humans.
"Aden, please go ask which footwear the farmer family's using. Fortune - remember this very well: daemons do not leave footprints. They leave moreso their trail of energy, but not them specifically. Émile, can you sense any presence of it?"
"... No. Virgilia, I think my senses have gotten dull now. Slowly, I think I'm going to go blind... And deaf."
"Tch. It's alright, Émile - there's no fault of your own. Then... Fortune, do you feel anything?"
"M-Me?..."
"Ah, right, it's probably your first on field experience; but try to focus on your surroundings. I can't be a judge on how strong your sense of magic is - as if we're dealing with a weak Daemon, they have weak magical output that ordinarily is hard to detect - but please try, okay?"
Focus, huh?...
Closing my eyes, before me stands a rather different view. Everything is the same, but I can feel... Faint traces, leading into the forest... And here I can also feel people around me...
Virgilia has a rather weak glow, while Émile is much more radiant, almost blinding.
Hmm... It seems you finally got it.
You...
Do you think I'LL tell you? Don't be stupid. For me at least - that means you're one step closer to being a Daemon.
Is that... Possible for a mortal?
Of course not! What I meant is that your beloathsome ego is closer to fading and I can finally overtake you as my vessel. Your daemonic traits began to let themselves be known!
Tch...
Of course, that is still one of many steps; but still. Back then you felt absolutely nothing!
"Shut up!!!"
"Eh?" Émile tilts their head and I snap back to reality
"Umm... Virgilia! I felt something - and it leads towards the forest right here!" I point towards the direction where the trail was and I also hear Aden in the distance.
"Virgilia! Here are their shoes!"
He brings two pairs of shoes and Virgilia begins to compare.
"Hmm... Yes. Those are a match. And those that lead in the rough direction of the trail should belong to the shepherd's daughter."
"Trail? Did Émile feel that?"
"... No. Their condition seems to have gotten worse. It was Fortune."
"Ehh, Fortune did it? Didn't know you were weird like that. Congrats."
"Hmph."
"Consider this a payback." He winks and we both go towards the trail.
Shall we meet unimaginable horrors, or somehow a miracle will happen?... I want to hope for the better...