Chapter 16: Need for adventurers

They all, including Yurek and the golden bird chick, were in the Bellete guild hall. Ready to cash in the quest that was ironically placed by Karakon himself. The receptionist blushed when she saw them, clearly having heard of there being an incubus in the party.

Just as Fen shamelessly prepared to flirt with the woman, Eleric stepped forward and pointed at Karakon.

"He won't be a bother. It is just that, he can't go back home at this time. Karakon will be traveling with us," the elf spoke, and the receptionist took out a bag with gold.

"Here, it is a bit awkward to pay the quest giver, is it not?" She murmured, as Eleric took the bag, and handed it to the dragon. "Anyway, if you have time, there is a merchant that just arrived from Farnata by ship. He is looking for adventurers to escort him safely to Mante."

"Well, that is where we are going," Fen said with a grin. "Where is the good man?"

"Oh, it is such a relief that you will take him with you. No one else wants to," that rang warning bells in the heads of the party members, but they didn't want to give up a quest now, that Fen had already agreed to it. Besides, they were going to Mante anyway.

The receptionist got out from behind the desk, and went to the sitting area. She came back with a young man who made Fen lick his lips. Clearly, the blonde man with his pale green eyes had an aristocratic beauty to him. Karakon saw the reaction of the incubus, and pulled him to the side.

"If he ends up with your tongue down his throat, or your dick in his butt, I will starve you for a month," the dragon threatened.

"Now, now, darling. Don't be like this. Harems are meant to be..." Fen was interrupted by the dragon crushing his lips against his in a bruising kiss.

"I will not accept even a single man more in this harem," Karakon warned. "You will not molest this man!"

Fen rolled his eyes, and then got his arm out of the dragon's grip.

"Fine, fine. Don't get your tail in a twist," the incubus said. He glanced at the merchant, who was staring at him with a tilted head. The incubus sighed at the lost opportunity and decided to let it go.

"Please, take me along to Mante," the merchant bowed low to Alistair, thinking him the leader. "No one wants to. I must bring the religious idol to the temple of Mante."

"What religious idol?" Alistair asked. This merchant didn't seem like he was very religious, unless money were his religion. He was richly dressed, in flowing silks with silver details.

"This idol," he took out a coin. It looked ancient, and had an anvil rather than the face of one king or the other imprinted on it.

Alistair snorted. This was the coin of the One-armed Smith. Few worshiped him, seeing as he brought fortune, and then misfortune to his followers.

"We'll take you there safely," Alistair spoke. "Just pocket that thing back before there is a mass panic."

"Why do you worship the One-armed Smith?" Anmu asked. He had never understood why someone would pray to the God of misfortune.

"He is the God of equal exchange. Everything is fair with him. It is my hope that, once I carry his coin to the temple in Mante, to be laid together with the other idols, more people will see that. Besides, I already had my misfortune. Only fortune is left," Yurek tilted his head to the side. This merchant didn't look like something bad had happened to him recently. Or, at all.

"What happened to you? And, what is your name?" Yurek asked. The merchant blinked at the goblin that was dressed like a human child and didn't stink and knelt, so they were eye level.

"Three of my ships sank to the bottom of the sea," the merchant told him. "The one that came back, brought this coin, and a single survivor of the crew."

Yurek's eyes widened. This was a sign, it had to be. The One-armed Smith had chosen this man.

"My name is Sebastian," the merchant told them. "And my fortune will turn when the coin is given to the temple."

"If you say so," Eleric said. If something like that happened to him, he would throw the coin back into the sea, not bring it somewhere where others could be faced with misfortune.

Fen and Karakon choose this time to rejoin them. Fen saw the coin, and reached out for it.

"I haven't seen one of those in the past century, at least," the incubus murmured. "May I hold it?"

Sebastian handed him the coin, and Fen turned it around in his hands.

"This one is cursed," the incubus noted.

"But it is a relic of a God," Sebastian protested.

"Still, it was cursed. I have just the thing to get rid of the curse. We are not going anywhere until I go through the ceremony," Fen spoke, and he turned around, with the coin still in his hands. Only to trip, and almost fall a couple of steps away from them. "See? It is cursed."

The incubus straightened up, and headed out to the wagon and the horses. He rummaged in Eleric's bottomless bag, and took out one bottle of the pond water. Then, he placed the coin inside and shook it.

The water colored a black color, and then cleared back to its original transparent self. The coin was shining now. The incubus emptied the bottle, and took out the coin. He threw it, then did a backflip.

Not only didn't he stumble, he caught the coin. Sebastian watched as the water made grass grow on the road. But it was not sweet grass. Rather, weeds. 

"I guess you were right," Sebastian told the incubus, and reached out for the coin. Fen handed it over, and then got another bottle with the healing water.

"Drink all of this today. You are still under the curse," Fen then got in the driver's seat, and the rest went in the back of the wagon. The coin shining brilliantly.