One of the first activities that the Fire Mage of Blue Pegasus participated in was learning about the merchant companies in the Middle District whose structure reminded him a lot of the previous, boisterous merchants from Orchidia Town. Back then, he had been doing a fair handful of deals with them, and he even bought some unique items from those old merchants - items that he still donned to this day, including the gauntlet on his left arm. It was, alas, sad to have his guild be disbanded and see himself set base in another town, but once in a while, Daiko would send letters to the merchants in Orchidia Town and gather information on new items or tools that he could long-distance-order.
 
The familiar atmosphere and hospital nature was a little absent here, though… when Daiko walked across the various, small but bricked houses and roofs sheltering the different shops that had been put up in the district, he mostly gained sharp, suspicious eyes from the workers and merchants. They didn’t think too kindly of a stranger like him walking among them at the time, but he didn’t get why they all glared so madly and venomously at him.
 
Coda would glare back at all of them with her sharp, judging eyes. Daiko, on the other hand, was desperate to find a proper merchant who would, at the very least, greet him with a more friendly nature. Why was Daiko searching for a merchant right now? Well, his green garments were torn once again, and he felt the need to go get some new clothes before meeting up with his guildmates nearby. Even if they didn’t weave the same type of clothes as he usually wore, he felt mature enough to be able to wear whatever new and interesting jacket, suit or armor that they could manifest.




WC: 308

One of the shops that he passed by was a blacksmith. The heat from the molten rocks used to melt the iron mixed with the steams and smoke from the waters and the sharp scent of hardening metal was new to him. He coughed a little, which immediately drew the present, tall smith’s eyes towards him; eyes that attempted to sting at him, telling him to shoo away and not get any closer. Daiko didn’t catch the signal at first as he spoke: “Uh, hello. I’m new around he-“
 
“We’re closed, for now. Shoo.”
 
Welp, that wasn’t very nice of him. Curtains were pulled to cover the smith’s oven and shop, so Daiko was literally pushed away by his uninterest. Meanie. Anyway, it couldn’t be that a smith would weave clothes, right? And even if he was making armor, look at what happened. Daiko would have to depend on someone else to fill his request.
 
… There was an open weaver shop at the other end of the various roads making up the Middle District It took a while to get there with how the roads were formed in this city, but Daiko’s patience seemed to reward him when the worker at the shop actually greeted him: “Oh, hi there! What can I help you with?” The greeting worker was young, around Daiko’s age or a couple years younger, and he was in the middle of cleaning up some newly sheared wool and… whatever that sticky substance in the bucket was. It was black, looked like tar, but Daiko didn’t ask about it. It was probably a professional matter that he shouldn’t stick his nose into.
 
“Ah, at last. I mean, I’m in need of some new clothes. Long journeys and stuff,” Daiko quickly explained to the young weaver, “I’m new around here, so I don’t know what to expect. Do surprise me, though! I’m sure I can do with whatever you have in store; as long as it’s proper clothing…”
 
“Roger that, sir! Come with me for a second; I got a whole catalog back here…”

WC: 347

Daiko eagerly followed him to the back of the shop inside of his small house, but it was pretty dark in here with the lack of windows and dusty air. It tickled his nose a little, so he scratched the bottom with his index finger while shooing Coda out to get some air above the roofs. As he was inside now, the young worker looked around his room; said room proudly showcased some fancy but pleasant styles and weavings, blouses, boots, belts, shirts, and even gloves.
 
“I got something veeeeery special inside this room,” the worker explained to him, “I think you’ll like it. Although, it’s not cheap, just warning ya!”
 
“Oh, wait, will I be able to afford-“ Daiko mumbled in worry; he hadn’t checked up on his savings yet. He pulled off his backpack and picked up his purse to check just how many jewels that he had saved - around a good chunk of a million for the time being. That would be enough for a whole new set of clothes, right?
 
“N-Nevermind, let me see…” Daiko spoke up with a soft smile as he walked into the room, oblivious to the fact that the worker slowly closed the door and left Daiko alone in what was an empty, grey room with one window letting light in. The window was at the edge of the wall reaching the ceiling, and it was donned with iron bars to make the room look like a prison cell. From the door that had been closed earlier, a man with a knife was lurking, and as Daiko was now closed in alone with him, the mugger slash criminal approached him from behind with the dagger in his hand.
 
The worker outside heard the noises being made in the room. He was sitting on his chair, simply waiting for the guy inside to finish his work and kill the suspected member of the Boulder Brothers who must have been the one to sabotage their caravans lately. It was only a matter of time.

WC: 341

All of a sudden, the worker from outside could hear loud, cracking cries from the room where he had locked Daiko in along with his older brother. He rose from his seat and hurried over to the door with sweat trickling down his face, for the cries weren’t Daiko’s… they were his brother’s! What had happened? Was Daiko too fast for the attempt and decided to harm his brother in any way?! Was his brother at the other end of the dagger?! Was he…
 
The door was slammed open, and the worker saw his brother’s arm being held by Daiko’s left arm wielding the gauntlet of his. The gauntlet was emitting an eerie light from the two, eye-like holes on the palm - there was a sculpture of some kind of weird, feline creature on the gauntlet - and the gauntlet’s power was activated, causing immense pain to travel through the arm that Daiko was holding.
 
“P-P-PLEASE! I’M S-SORRY, PLEASE LET GO OF ME- AAARGH, THIS FUCKING HURTS-!”
 
“Just why did you try to stab me down?!” Daiko demanded him to answer his question by clenching his hand and sending more waves of pain to the poor brother, “This is my first time in this awesome town, and the first thing people want is to either ignore me or kill me!? That’s the dumbest shit I’ve been through in ages!!!”
 
“H-Hey, let my brother go!” the worker shouted in protest as he charged towards Daiko, but the Fire Mage simply flicked the older brother out to his younger one, causing them both to crash up on the wall next to the door. A moment of silence passed by as Daiko considered just leaving this place and reporting the assault to what authority was in town, but what the older brother told his younger brother afterwards altered the situation a little.
 
“I-I… Bro, I… He d-doesn’t, he’s not the one… he’s new, he’s not with the B-Boulder Brothers…” the exhausted and injured older brother told his younger brother with a grunting voice. Daiko heard him clearly and added: “Damn right I’m not! I don’t know what you guys have against these Boulder Brothers, but I’m a mage from Blue Pegasus! Ever heard of us?”

WC: 373

“Blue Pegasus…?” the young worker repeated to ty and clarify his own mind in order to remember that Blue Pegasus, or the name of that guild, had been told to him earlier, “… W-Wait, you guys…!” He was about to rise up, but his older brother was heavy, so it resulted in a weakened grunt. “… You guys are all wizards, right? S-Sorry, I’m so sorry…” His face showed regret of his actions now, and he didn’t want to leave Daiko hanging without any explanation.
 
“It’s just… please listen-“
 
“I’m listening.” Daiko replied quickly, showing the black mark on the back of his neck. It was faint to see with the lighting, but the rays from the upper window helped.
 
“… T-Thanks, and sorry for setting you up like this. I… thought that you were working for the Boulder Brothers.”
 
“Never heard of ‘em… but yeah, elaborate. I still got half a mind to throw you both in jail-“
 
“N-No, please, you don’t understand-“
 
“Okay, okay, just speak up!”
 
And so, the worker began explaining things to Daiko, and the Fire Mage managed to get some of his earlier questions answered about the atmosphere in the Middle District. Seemingly, they uh… weren’t familiar with jewels. Jewels, as in the currency, was new to them, because they had been dealing and brokering in another way before. They used silver, and the price of silver was a more controversial matter, and along the road, it stirred trouble between the Boulder Brothers and the Silk Sisters. Funny name; even though Daiko just met two male workers for the Silk Sisters, they were mainly occupied by women - aunts, their mother, and many of their sisters who faulted the namesake.
 
“… It doesn’t sound like you got anyone else but yourselves to trust,” Daiko spoke back to him, “Me and my guild came here to, y’know, spread our name and stuff, you get the deal. A war between those two wouldn’t help much, so how about this; I find the culprit who’s attacking your stores, and in return, you give me a discount on… uh, let me see…” Daiko quickly took a look around the store; his main objective was to get a set of clothes, remember? He quickly locked his eyes on a black suit with a cape, jagged iron barns around the shoulder-plates and with reddish nuances on the underside of the cape and on the front.
 
“… Yeah, let’s deal with that after I’ve caught the real asshole.”

WC: 417

So, from what Daiko had been told from the brothers from the Silk Sisters - heh, funny - someone had been damaging their shops around the Middle District, burned their clothes and items, and even attacked other members including their own sisters. That was most of what Daiko now knew, so the first thing he did was go to the unfriendly smith who shut him off before he even got the chance to greet him. He had a few questions to ask…
 
The mean smith had opened his shop again, and he was even talking with someone else. That would probably mean that Daiko was dealing with the Boulder Brothers right in front of him - not all of them, but a couple of them. But there was no sign, though… usually, shops would proudly state their name for profit, but it was perhaps different here and now. With the accusations that the Silk Brothers had given them, Daiko could understand that they didn’t want to be recognized, but then again - a huge smith’s oven was right in front of him. It was silly, really…
 
The following actions occurred; Daiko greeted them again, but this time, the new guy approached him and proceeded to push him away from the shop. As Daiko was clearly not in the mood for being friendly right now, he pushed the man back so hard that he fainted by crashing into the grinding table. The smith’s eyes widened, and he accused Daiko of being the culprit who had been working for the Silk Sisters to sabotage their work in order to drive them to bankrupt and then gain control of the silver currency. That was new information to the Fire Mage; apparently, both sides now accused each other of sabotage, attacking each other’s caravans on their journeys to other towns etc.
 
“… Ugh, not you too…”

WC: 312

There was a lot of explaining to do. At first, the smith didn’t want to talk, so Daiko threatened to tip over his oven, which quickly got the smith to talk. No luck trying to attack Daiko from behind as the Fire Mage kicked back the dude from before who, given by the cry of the smith, turned out to be his close friend. Daiko didn’t want to hurt them, but he was getting impatient. The quicker this problem was solved, the better.
 
After hearing their side of the story, things got a little clearer; someone had been attacking their sales and caravans, and someone had also been attacking the Silk Sisters. They both accused each other of sabotage, and Daiko’s vein was popping. “Why the hell don’t you both just admit fault? You’re making things worse for everyone else around you…” Daiko scolded the smiths, but they insisted: “No, you don’t understand! We really haven’t done anything like that! Trust me, I’m a high-standing smith in my family’s business, and never have we planned to assault any of the Silk Sisters’ works! That would be a breach to our trust and positions here in Myras!”
 
Clearly, Daiko didn’t believe them. Criminals such as those would never admit fault in front of a stranger like him, so he just walked away. If they really were that stubborn and immature with hurting each other like that, then he had half a mind to just watch their companies crumble down.
 
That was, until he walked outside at night, his stomach having a hunch of something. What if… no, wait, yes, what if… what if a third party was involved? Daiko got the idea just after having seen the shadow of a person venturing the roofs at night - Daiko was training Coda to fly around in the darkness, and that was when things took a turn…

WC: 314

Daiko was quickly in pursuit of the stranger who jumped over the roofs at night in a city like Myras. It wasn’t exactly his business to stalk people like this, but after everything that he had been through, this better bring him something good. He merely prayed that his hunch was right, while his feet worked him ahead towards what looked like a fancier house than those harboring the shops from earlier. It wasn’t’ a mansion, but it was big and seemed to house a lot of people given by the lights emitting from the windows.
 
Daiko hid behind a wall and watched the ninja-like individual put down a bag and pull something up from it - whatever the item was, the entity snuck into the house with it. It looked way too suspicious to be left alone for the Fire Mage. Daiko decided to climb in through the window himself, sacrificing most reason to satisfy his craving for beating some idiot down for having caused all these issues between the two families - yes, that was his hunch. A third party must’ve been involved!
 
He was in a very dark room. Since it was night and nobody was here, the room had no lighting, and Daiko could barely see his hands ahead of his face. His eyes glowed up, activating his Heat-Vision that he used to spot the ‘burglar’ plant what looked like a brick down near a chest in the room. The burglar jolted and looked behind him when Daiko illuminated the room with a single flame in his hand, and that was when Daiko realized that the brick was actually a clump of leather wrapped around and smeared with oil. The burglar was holding what looked like a lighter in his hand, but Daiko didn’t notice that yet; he was immediately assaulted by the burglar who tried to push him away to make a run for it.
 
…
 
A lot of crashing noises could be heard, so most of the woke family went upstairs to light up the room. They spotted the burglar on the floor and exhausted along with the cloth next to him, and he was immediately accused of having attempted to blow up a valuable item hidden in this room. Daiko wasn’t there to witness it, though; he made a run for it to prevent himself from being accused. He made it all the way back to the Silk Sisters, or Silk Brothers, and knocked on the door wanting to tell them about what had happened.
 
“… Wait, you think you got the real fucker?”
 
“Yes, I’m pretty sure it was him. He had some oily cloth in his hand, but he like snuck into someone’s house all sneaky - kinda like a burglar…”
 
“Cloth and oil? Shit, that can be lit up with ease and burn down an entire building over a single night. It’s primitive but effective… doesn’t sound like any from us. Would that be the same asshole who ruined some of our caravans too?”
 
“… I guess. So, what now?”
 
“Well, those Boulder Brothers might not still trust us completely, but we can try and talk tomorrow. You should come, too; witness and everything…”
 
And so, they all met again at the center of the Middle District, and Daiko introduced himself to the Boulder Brothers as a mage from Blue Pegasus. The Boulder Brothers family had held the burglar in custody, and they even identified him as some dude from a forgettable company that was significantly smaller than the two present here. He didn’t want to admit his doings with the Silk Sisters, but overtime, it became more and more apparent that he was the one who had messed with both of them. He seemed to have a grudge against the two companies and their influences in the business here in Myras.
 
After they had exchanged apologies, they opened their shops again. The smith didn’t shoo Daiko off this time, and he even wanted to apologize by giving Daiko a discount on armors and weapons. While a sweet deal, Daiko wasn’t in need of it right now, so he decided to let the smith wait for the Fire Mage to bring more Blue Pegasus members with him to continue the talk. Right now, Daiko had been in need of new clothes, and the two brothers from the Silk Sisters had given him discount on this fancy suit called ‘Elder Hunter’s Coat’. It was a little tight at first, and Daiko found himself scratching the suit to loosen it in places, but alas… it was better than nothing.
 
“Hey, thanks for, uh… whatever you did that night,” the younger brother would thank him again, “You wizards sure are dependable even without asking you for any help. If you Blue Pegasus Wizards wanna make other deals, we’re always ready for business!”

WC: 809