Ryuji returned to North Ridge the next day. The ruins weren't all that far from the town, and that was one of the many reasons they accepted the seemingly easy job.

He needed to turn in their findings to get the reward as well as drop off his deceased member's adventure cards. As he walked through the muddy streets, he was reminded of how much he despised this smelly backwater place.

He finally arrived at the local guildhall. The building was small and looked way more like a western-style saloon than any kind of guildhall. Ryuji approached the door and reluctantly opened it. Fierce smells bombarded him as soon as the door flew open. His nose crinkled while he instinctively gagged.

"Ah, great! Smells as good as always. Beer, beer, sweat, more beer, and ah with just a small hint of piss, fantastic."

After entering the establishment, he beelined it straight for the guild counter, which also happened to be the beer counter. He heard small tidbits of conversation along the way.

"I hear North Kevic finally won that civil war. I wonder how they pulled it off?"

"I hear it's cause they have guns that don't need magic to work!"

Ryuji froze upon hearing this frightening piece of news. 'The rapid industrialization of this world frightens me to no end.'

"Hey, I saw the legendary Sword Saint around here the other day!"

"Yeah? And last week, you saw Freiheit cultists doing a circus act in the graveyard! I just ain't buying it, Phil."

"Yall hear about that strange shit going down near Bear Root? Apparently, some god is gathering up kids. Thank Illumine that bastard ain't up here instead!"

"Cheers to that, man!"

Ryuji finally made it through the drunkards and to the guild master drunkard behind the counter. Ryuji took out a pouch and dumped its contents out. A single jewel fell and clanked against the wood.

"Here's what we promised. Now about the reward?" He just wanted this done as fast as possible before the drunk assholes around got wind of what was happening.

The bartender/active guild rep took out three bills that each read 100,000 ISH and handed them to Ryuji.

"I need you to take these too." Ryuji passed the six adventurer cards whose owners no longer needed them. The cards would be taken, deactivated, and their names would be put on a memorial in the capital.

The owner took the cards and put them in a bin. After doing all that he had come here to do, Ryuji swiftly turned around and left. New rumors floated around as he made his way out.

"Oh, the infamous black cat strikes again!"

"How many dead parties does that make? Four?"

"No one will ever be stupid enough to let him join their party ever again."

"I told Elizabeth he was trouble, but that dumbass just had to invite him."

Ryuji's brow twitched, and he clenched his fist.

'Good person thoughts. Good person thoughts. A good person wouldn't turn around and beat the ever-living shit out of that guy. Yeah, that's what a bad person does. Oooooo, but it's so tempting!'

He exited the piss bar and went towards the local inn. He was still way too exhausted, and he didn't really know what to do next. After all, as the great philosophers of the bar pointed out, no one would want to adventure with him anymore.

'Do I really need to be an adventurer though? I could just as easily become a farmer or something and still be a good person. Ah, but if I become a farmer, I'll never find this Raeg piece of shit.'

The injustice of life, known as the truth, came bearing down on him. He wanted to find the man who sent an assassin after him but adventuring alone was suicide, especially for him, who seemed to always find himself in terrible situations.

"Ahhh! I just don't know what to do!"

As he shouted into the sky, everyone on the streets looked at him.

'And now I'm part of the local crazy people list, great.'

Ryuji paid for a room and made his way up, gear in tow. He laid down on the bed and quickly fell asleep.

In his dream, he saw fire. He saw bodies; he saw death. He saw his own death. Vivid images burned into his mind. Then he saw Elizabeth's face. Her glassed over eyes, the blood spilling from her chest. Fear and guilt tormented him. He was drowning in these feelings just as he did every night until he heard a voice.

"Hello there! Sorry to interrupt your lovely dream time!" A voice that reminded Ryuji of plane attendants shocked him out of his stupor.

Instinctively Ryuji thought-

'That's not the voice... wait, what voice am I even talking about?'

Ryuji found himself in an infinitely expanding room. It was as if he was sitting in the middle of outer space. He sat in a chair made of golden wood, and sitting opposite from him was a woman in an identical golden chair.

She had long flowing golden hair. Laden in her hair were numerous jewels and other treasures. Her dress was just as gold like everything else and held as many gems as her hair. Her eyes were bright and shiny like gemstones, but the actual color didn't stay the same for very long. They shifted to every color in the rainbow.

"Um, who are you?" Ryuji asked calmly, but his mind was anything but calm.

"I am, drumroll, please!" She pointed past Ryuji, but when he turned around, he saw nothing.

Despite this, to Ryuji's dismay, he could hear drums being played in the back of his mind.

"Ishtar! One of the seven lights and holy protector of Illumine also The God of Fortune, among other things!" She stepped up in her chair and began proclaiming her titles loudly. Ryuji was reminded of how middle schoolers acted when they had too much sugar.

"Uh....huh. So why are you in my dream?" He remained skeptical, and rightly so. Most gods wouldn't take the time of day to speak to some random guy, much less a god with so many impressive titles.

"Well, I wanted to apologize to you. It seems that some cruel, unjust punishment has been given out to you, by....me." Her sentence trailed off as she began twirling her hair in her hands. Ishtars eyes wandered off as if she felt too guilty to look him in the eye.

"What the hell did you do to me?"

"Well, do you know about blessings and curses?" Her remorseful tone made Ryuji assume the worst, but he wanted to make sure, so he played along.

"Yes, blessings are gifts given by the gods, and curses are ill intentions given to people the gods don't like. Right? Don't tell me you gave me the critical blessing." The blessing was pretty useless unless you were half dead, so he would definitely see why someone who gave that under the guise of a blessing would feel guilty.

A look of annoyance and displeasure spread across Ishtar's face at the question.

"Uh, no. My blessings would never be as crude and barbaric as that. It's just that I kinda....cursed you." Her hateful demeanor fell away as she slowly spelled out her misdeeds.

"WHAT!? WHY!?" Ryuji had definitely never done anything that would constitute a reason for him being cursed.

"Well, ya see you didn't use to be ya know, you, and I kinda didn't like that kid, so I put a curse on him. But now you aren't him anymore, so it's really confusing for me, and I kinda feel bad." She held up her fingers in a way to measure just how much she felt bad.

"Then take the curse off!"

"I can't do that! Curses can't be removed, and only certain blessings can be removed. After a god decides to do this sort of thing, they can't take it back." She spoke matter of factly, and Ryuji wondered how this made up for in any way what she had done to him.

"Then at least tell me what this curse is all about."

"Right! Well, it's a curse of extremely terrible luck. A kind of bad luck that will always lead you to tragedy. Say, for example, you were a farmer. Your harvests would always come up short, or there would always be a famine around you. If you were, say a merchant, every shipment you bought would be flawed, and you would never make a profit."

A welling of emotion came up from Ryuji. If this was how the curse worked then, what if? If it was true... Ryuji started to feel sick to his stomach, but he still managed to ask the question.

"....And if I was an adventurer?"

"There would always be an enemy stronger than you. Someone or something you can't beat. Of course, the curse doesn't take your blessing into account, so you've managed to scrape by so far, but that won't always work, you know." Ishtars words hammered home the truth that he feared. People who were around him would always experience tragedy and end up like Elizabeth.

"So... it was my fault then. If I wasn't there, they wouldn't have... So I guess this means my adventures are over, huh."

"I wouldn't say that!" Ishtars peppy voice made Ryuji confused.

"Huh?"

"The curse only really affects you. It doesn't take into account your allies literally at all. All you have to do is find people way stronger than you, and you'll never be in trouble ever again."

"How the hell am I supposed to do that?"

"Well, that's why I'm here tonight. I said I feel bad, and since I can't reverse it, I figured I would at least try to help."

"Help how?"

"Everyone has a group of people known as soul partners. Meeting these people is like winning the lottery. But if you do meet them, you'll be friends for life! Of course, since this is just an aspect of luck, I can see where these people are for you. So as reparations, I'll tell you where to find one of these partners."

"Please do!" Ryuji jumped out of his chair and entered a bow with a sorrowful look on his face. He was on the verge of tears from the great news.

"Go to the city of Carcim and request an audience with the local king. When you meet him, tell him you are the fortunes hero. If you do, you will have your friend." She smiled, and the radiancy of it lit up the space they inhabited.

"Thank you. Thank you so much!"

Tears rolled down the still bowing Ryuji.

"One last thing." Ryuji looked up from his bow and noticed that the space they were standing in was fading to static. Ishtar looked at him and waved goodbye.

"Safe travels!" Her smile burned into his mind, and he thought about how the next time he passed a shrine, he would definitely offer her a prayer.

He awoke and felt like a new man. He had a newfound purpose, and that was to make way to Carcim. Carcim was a city about a week away from where he was.

Ryuji headed to the caravans heading down toward the capitol were leaving for their yearly trip soon. After making it to the caravan, he bought a place on one of the wagons and sat down.

There were about fifty wagons in total. Some carrying goods, some carrying people. He paid quite a bit of money so that he would only have to share this wagon with one other person. Since Ryuji was super anti-social, this was a must.

'God, I hope whoever gets on this thing is at least a tolerable being.'

He heard the clanking of metal as his wagon compatriot stepped up to their ride. Ryuji's eyes almost popped out of his head as he looked a the beauty that arrived at his wagon.

She was in knightly plating from head to toe except for a helmet which, she held in her left hand. The armor itself looked to be of the highest quality imaginable. All of her attire was colored a dark scarlet that shone in the sun. Emblazoned on the chest was a phoenix, the symbol of Dengal.

'Someone important as hell, I suppose.'

At her hips were two swords, one on each side. The one on her left was a very expensive looking longsword. The one on her right was also a longsword that had a very sinister-looking sheathe. At the hilt was a skull, and the glyphs down the side of the sheathe read "Reaper."

'Oh, well, that's not ominous at all.'

The vibe it gave off sent chills down the spine of Ryuji, and he found that he didn't like looking at it too much.

Though he did find that he liked looking at the woman. She exuded complete confidence and power that outshined her beauty. Ryuji felt that by just being in her presence, he was a whole lot safer.

He wanted to say hi or something, but his super virgin mentality wouldn't allow him to make such a comment first.

The girl herself was a head taller than Ryuji at about 180 centimeters tall and looked far more intimidating than Ryuji ever could. Her face was stern and strong, but yet still that of a woman. It could only be described as tomboyish, but at the same time, it had an elegance and sexiness that Ryuji couldn't describe even if he wanted to.

She had scarlet hair that matched the color of the armor, and at the moment, it was put up in a ponytail. As she entered the wagon and sat down, she looked at Ryuji.

'Oh, God.'

Her gaze was full of intelligence and power. They were fierce amber eyes that pierced through Ryuji and struck him at his very core. It looked as if she concentrating on something, or perhaps her eyes just naturally looked that frightening. Either way, Ryuji was stunned by them.

He couldn't help but look down at her gaze. He felt her shuffle herself, and when he looked back up, she had turned around facing the opposite way.

'Great first impression Ryuji just greaaat.'

The long and awkward caravan ride started, and Ryuji knew that it was going to be extremely uncomfortable.