Arcadia

Skirmish!

A little over an hour has passed since the group arrived at the fortress town of Freya....

The four of them decided to stay at Leon's room for the meantime. It was quite a dark room, lit by orange-tinted light at the corners. Several bookshelves line up the walls, and Leon's table was decorated with twin sculptures of what looked like two knights. He took his seat on a rolling chair behind the table. 

As if routinely, a person in a suit entered with a tray of hot tea. He offered everyone a cup, but Leon was the only one who took his cup. Taking a sip, he put the cup down and opened the conversation with the group.

"Alright, now that we got most of the welcoming stuff over with. So, what it is that you wanted to talk to me about?"

In preparation for it, Yura took a place at a comfortable sofa inside the room. Ren and Yukiko remained standing, while Jet crashed down the floor with a bored expression on his face.

"I think you know where this is heading," said Ren, who abruptly replied to Leon. "The Pale Phantom incidents... you knew about them, right?"

"Not interested."

"You are leader of this city in El Aldo, perhaps we could ask for some aid in getting to the bottom of this. Arcadia would appreciate your help."

"Still not interested. So you came here because your self-righteous city wants our help? I have no interest in giving aid, after how we were treated after the dimensional storm years ago."

"Dimensional storm...?" asked Yura, but she was quickly cut off by Ren.

"That's foolish, Lord of Freya!" Ren, standing at the middle of the room, pointed at the leader.

Yukiko grabbed him with a worried expression. "Careful, Ren-chi..."

Leon kept a composed expression and drank from his teacup. He ignored Ren for a while, allowing him to continue.

"A crisis has been brewing now, and you decide to wave it off as nothing?"

Having enough of Ren, Leon decided to finally speak up. "I already told you. I couldn't care less for people outside Freya. It is outside my jurisdiction, and that cold and that Pale Phantom rumor are just some petty activities by the cultists residing at the temple at the far north."

"For months, they have been messing around, but those cowards don't have the guts to invade Freya! You're worrying far too much." 

Yukiko finally stepped in "Please reconsider. It's for all our good..."

"Tch! Now even you are telling me what to do now? I guess there's a reason why the two of you seemed so close to each other."

"It's not that, Sir, I mean..."

"This is getting boring, I'm outta here!"

That came from Jet, who stood up from lying on the ground and walked out of the room. Yukiko promptly appraoched Leon to tell him to leave Jet alone.

"So disrespectful.." muttered Ren. With Yukiko's suggestion, Ren settled down as well under Yukiko's advise. 

Yura, who mostly stayed quiet, remained so, seated on her sofa.

~~~~~

Mere minutes after leaving the main fortress, Jet found himself sitting at the front desk of a bar structured like a middle-eastern hallroom at downtown Freya. With it being night time, the place was extra busy, and it kinda reminded Jet of his stint with Yura in that diner. The place was noisy and smelled of liquor and some cigarette smoke. Jet seemed perfectly fine with the environment though and comfortably sat with his legs crossed.