"Life is how life is, you know. Not that it matters that much to you what I do." Ryo told them, getting a little snicker out of Kevin. "What, do you find me funny now?" Ryo asked, a bit of a scowl forming.
"Oh, no, I just find it hilarious that you still think about us. Do we still live in your head? Do you miss being part of a party?" Kevin asked him, a layer of arrogance placed over his words, dipped like a blade into poison. "I wouldn't be surprised. Who else here would hire a now-broke Hyandean?"
Ryo really wanted to activate Psychokinesis. He may have gotten over his hate, but anyone would reasonably get a bit pissed off listening to the incarnation of a bad attitude go off on them. However, he knew that this'd draw unnecessary attention to himself. "For your information, I'm only here to sell some stuff and purchase some goods." Ryo told them, holding the small bag up, containing fifty large silver coins.
Andreas, the Assassin, moved at an incredibly fast pace, appearing behind Ryo, attempting to place his hand on the bag in order to steal it. However, Ryo, using a reflexive speed he hadn't felt before, flicked the bag over Andreas' head. He teleported the bag of coins to his other hand, putting his now-free right hand to the flat of his back, pushing Andreas forwards. Andreas hit the floor, the sound of a small amount of fabric tearing against the ground being heard by everyone present.
"Really, Andreas? Is the Rising Sun party so broke that they have to try and steal from a 'now-broke Hyandean'? Have you really fallen that low?" Ryo asked, snickering slightly. "Have you guys really started to fail without me? No offence, Uriza." Ryo continued, making sure not to throw shade at the innocent Wizard.
"Shut it, scum." Andreas scowled at him, getting up from the floor while holding his hand over his left arm, presumably covering his newfound tear. He disappeared, attempting the same trick once more. Ryo used Teleportation to move the bag back to his right hand, getting a real chuckle out of Andreas, noticing how he tried to grab at his left hand again, this time from the front. He stood there, stunned for a second, wondering how the bag vanished.
"Scum, huh?" Ryo pondered, giving a kick to Andreas' leg before pushing him away with his left hand, sending him back a slight bit. "Then what does that make you and your party?" Ryo asked, looking at Kevin as Andreas stumbled back towards them. "After all, if I'm that low, you not being able to steal a simple bag from me must make you even lower, right?"
"Oh, you'll pay for that, Hyandean." Andreas told him, standing up and staring down Ryo. He was about to make another move, when Kevin walked up behind him, grabbing his shoulder.
"Don't waste your energy on this prick." Kevin told Andreas, glaring at Ryo. "You should know your place in this world. You're not at all comparable to us Utopians."
Ryo started laughing. Not a fake laugh. An actual, honest-to-god belly laugh. He held his sides, his laughter echoing off the buildings nearby. "Oh, you're so rich! I should be calling you guys the pricks!" Ryo managed to get out in-between chuckles. "And you're right, I'm not at all on the same level as you guys! You're so, so, so, so much lower than I am!"
Kevin, now visibly enraged, began drawing his longsword that was sheathed on his waist. "Oh wow, you're really going to pull something like that in public? Aren't you just the smartest tool from the smithy's toolbox?" Ryo insulted Kevin, further angering him.
Kevin actually made a slash at Ryo's neck, further showcasing just how little he cared about Ryo. Ryo decided to be a bit creative with his application of Lightning magic. He used lightning to create a thick, almost carpet-like barrier around his neck, repelling attacks by creating a magnetic force that would adjust itself to always repel incoming attacks.
The sword nearly touched him, but the blade flew backwards. Kevin looked at him with a mix of shock, rage and fear. "Lightning?! You never used that while you were with us!" Kevin screamed, outraged.
"Yeah, you don't know a lot about me, Kevin. Thank you, though. If you hadn't fired me, I never would've obtained the courage to do what I'm about to do." Ryo responded, a smile creeping onto his face, mocking Kevin and his party. Kevin took another swing at Ryo, but he vanished. He disappeared into thin air.
Kevin, now thoroughly bewildered, looked around and saw Ryo walking towards the market street, back facing them as if he was intentionally disregarding them. Kevin ran up towards him, trying to attack Ryo with his sword from behind, like a coward. Ryo turned around, and vanished yet again. He appeared behind him, giving him a flick on the back of the head, repeating this every single time Kevin tried to attack. The other party members watched on in horror, seeing Ryo appear around Kevin, flicking him each and every time that Kevin took a swing, as if he was toying with them.
"What the hell are you?!" Kevin yelled, swinging his sword around in a circle. "You were never able to do any of this before!" He cried, earning himself a flick to the forehead this time.
"I'm just 'scum', Kevin. A 'now-broke Hyandean' 'prick' who's currently embarrassing you in front of the people you call teammates." Ryo told him, grabbing Kevin's sword with his hands, covered in the Relic that he had obtained from Aragoth's dungeon. "And yet, you still couldn't land a hit on me unless I wanted you to." He mocked, letting the blade go.
Ryo noticed that they were attracting a small crowd, some people laughing, other people looking on in fear. Adventurer in-fighting? That was never a good sign. "Well, I figure it's time to make myself scarce." Ryo told Kevin, putting his finger to his lips, an absurdly devious smile on his face. "You'd be wise not to come looking for me until you're stronger. A lot stronger."
And with that, Ryo vanished into the crowd, using Teleportation to move himself far enough away so that Kevin could only barely see his red hair in the crowd. Kevin starts chasing him, but the groups of people block his path. He screams out Ryo's name, but Ryo obviously doesn't pay attention, walking away to deal with the main reason he was in town.
He wanted a nice chair.
Ryo had entered Eilera for the sole reason of getting a nice chair for him to read in at the front of the library. He looked through the shops, stopping by a carpenter's shop. He walked in, the smell of dust in the air, as well as wood oil. He saw many different pieces, from outdoor benches with metal handles to rocking chairs, cradles to fancy chairs.
Every chair there fit well inside his budget, fifty silver coins, which made him happy, but none of the chairs actually suited him. He wanted one that had a bit of personality, but was still comfortable. Maybe a bit of feathers in the seat? That could just be a notion, however. He decided to go up to the counter where you'd pay for a purchase.
"Hey there! Sorry for the disturbance, but do you guys do custom orders?" He asked the man at the counter, a stocky, built man with a rock hard set of biceps standing there to greet him.
"Indeed we do, boy!" He told him, small amounts of spittle flying into his large, black beard. "We do all kinds of stuff. Chairs, thrones, benches, the works. Anything that can be done with wood, we can do!"
"Thrones? You mean to tell me you make thrones for royalty?" Ryo asked with skepticism in his voice.
"Oh, god no! We create imitation thrones out of wood. Royalty use those as reference for when they get their own group of craftsmen to create their personalised ones. We also make them for people who plan to be sitting for a while, generally in a study or something similar." The man told him.
"Would I be able to get something like that? I recently obtained ownership of a library, and I want a nice chair to sit in and read books for hours on end." Ryo told the man, his eyes gleaming with the possibility of a lovely imitation throne to sit in.
"Well, let me ask you. Do you have a good few large silvers on you? The cheapest one we can custom make is around thirty." The man told him, sighing. "The price of materials has gone up drastically in recent times. Something about Monsters blocking supply roads, but I think that's a load of bullshit. Each convoy has a group of adventurers with them."
"I know, I used to be with a party. About half our quests were protection quests." Ryo admitted, taking his adventurers license and placing it on the counter. "I might make my own party eventually, but not at the moment. I just want to read."
"A-rank, huh? You're pretty accomplished, aren't you?" The man asked, eyeing Ryo up and down. "I don't care if you're Hyandean, Utopian, or any other race. If you can pay for the throne, it doesn't matter."
'Of course, he only means Human races, but good on him for having a clearer mind.' Ryo thought to himself. "If you have any comfortable thrones in the back that haven't been sold, I wouldn't mind taking a look at them." Ryo told him.
A small glint appeared in the man's eye. He lifted up a hinge that Ryo hadn't noticed before, creating an opening for Ryo to get through. "Come here, let me show you something most people don't know about carpenters." He beckoned Ryo, bringing him to a back room.
Ryo followed him, entering a large storeroom. Inside were piles upon piles of different items, from chairs to cradles, coffins to cathedral chandelier frames. "We make thousands of things every year for custom orders, but about half the people don't collect, since they pay on collection. We just have this huge excess which we sell at reduced rates."
Ryo looked around with awe, seeing what had to be tens of small gold coins, if not many large gold coins worth of product. The way money was structured was quite simple in the Human countries. One hundred small coppers makes a large copper, then one hundred of those makes a small silver, then a large, then a small gold, and finally a large gold. It was an easy system. Seeing that many imitation thrones brought a small smile to Ryo's face.
The man noticed, taking a look at Ryo. "I'd be willing to sell one of these to you, at a reduced rate of course." He offered, gesturing to Ryo to take a look around. Ryo took him up immediately on his offer, and he began searching around for what could be the perfect chair.
He climbed over heaps upon heaps of coffins - maybe people weren't dying as often - and cradles, pulling chairs out like they were a sword embedded into stone. After about three other piles, he finally found something, a diamond in the rough. It looked like an exact replica of the throne that the King of Utopia had, during his one visit.
"You recognise it too, right? The King's Throne?" The man called out, a smile on his face. "The King demanded us take it back without compensation, so it's just been sitting there. It's almost exactly the same as the one the King has, except it doesn't have any of the fancy gemstones in the handles. Honestly, it makes the throne look worse, in my opinion." The man told Ryo.
"I'll take it off your hands. How much for it?" Ryo asked, pulling out his bag of large silver coins.
"Sure, I think ten large silvers would suit? This was made at a time when materials were a lot less pricey, so I don't need to charge nearly as much to make a profit on it." The man told him, extending his hand. Ryo dropped ten of his finest large silvers into the man's hand, and placed his hand on the King's Throne replica.
"Spin around, and I'll be gone just like that." Ryo told the carpenter, who followed his instructions.
"I'm really not sure that you could do something like that, but sure, why not?" He said while turning. When he faced Ryo again, Ryo was gone. Just like he had with Inquisax, he had vanished.
Ryo appeared behind the desk in the Library, the King's Throne beside him, already in the perfect position.
"I'm back!"