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waeziverse · 9 days ago

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Royal Punch (chapter 20)

Veronica was pissed. And for once, she was not good at hiding it in front of her employees.

One could hardly blame her as her arm was still hurting like hellfire. The expensive herbs had healed the broken bone, but the marks from the hippogriff would leave a nasty scar.

Veronica and her goons had found a tavern on the country road where they could keep low after the fight night fiasco. Inside the room Veronica had rented for herself, the gorgon sat on her bed and glared at Corny the Goblin and the oni twins Goz and Mez. Goz had an ice bag pressed against his forehead. Corny’s nose was still itchy after it had been broken and then healed too quickly.

The three goons were scared shitless as their boss had not bothered to put on her sunglasses and her snake hair studied the three of them.

“So…” Veronica drummed the edge of her bed while turning her glare towards Corny. “Where is Gon?”

Corny felt as if she was a babysitter who had lost a kid. “Um… Gon quit.”

“I see…” Veronica’s fingers tapped the edge of the bed so fast she could no longer keep the rhythm. “So not only did we lose the profits from the fights, not only did I still have to bribe the city guardsmen, not only did I lose the perfect location for the fights… I also lost my werewolf?”

Veronica widened her eyes, now glaring at Goz. The oni gulped as he dropped his bag of ice. He kept looking his boss straight in the eyes. He pissed his pants knowing what a gorgon's eyes could do but he dared not look away as that might make her even more pissed than she already was.

Veronica’s snakes hissed aggressively at the oni. “Goz, you promised me a bloodbath.”

“Bu-”

“I’m not even pissed that you lost. I’m pissed you went down like a little bitch in less than five seconds.”

“He tricked me, I didn’t think he was gonna punch me in the throat-”

“You didn’t think he was gonna punch you?”

“No, I mean-”

“What did you expect, a pillow fight?”

“Bu-”

"Goz..." Veronica's voice was calm yet sharp as a knife, making everyone in the room uneasy. "Why do you think that keeping you breathing would benefit me?"

"I... I don't know." Goz bit himself on the lower lip, he had answered without thinking. His brother Mez held his breath as he watched.

Veronica walked towards Goz while all the snakes attached to her head studied him. She patted him on the shoulder.

"You know..." Veronica placed a hand on Goz's chin. "My old boss, she taught me everything there is to know about the game. Like that a scared punk works harder than a dead one. Ya scared?"

Goz nodded.

"Well..." Veronica moved her hand from his chin to his and dug her nails into it. "She also let me get close enough to snuff her lights out! Maybe she wasn't that smart, eh?!"

Goz whimpered as cold sweat ran from his forehead.

He then screamed in pain as a small dagger was buried in his left eye.

Veronica took the little knife out of the oni’s eye-socket. “Fail me again, and it is the other eye. Capisce?”

“You half-blinded my brother!”

Veronica turned and looked at Mez the Oni who looked horrified. He had reached for his sword.

Veronica tilted her head, still with widened eyes. The veins around her temples started to bulge. “Is that going to be a problem? Really, I wanna know if I’m gonna have to deal with you or not.”

Mez didn’t even look angry. He was too scared to be angry. He had his fingers near the hilt of his blade… then he made a fist instead of going for the weapon. “No… No, boss. No problem.”

“Good to know.” Veronica put her shades on and left Gon who was still in pain while pressing a hand against the wound where his eye had once been. “Alright, tonight was a disaster... We are gonna have to move our operation somewhere else and cut our losses." She lowered her shades as she gave the three a final glare. "If any of you got a problem with that, then write a complaint and shove it up the ass of someone who actually cares. I’m going to get a drink, possibly some company. We will meet tomorrow at noon to discuss what comes next.”

As Veronica had left the room, her goons could breathe normally again and went to Gon to help him patch up his wound before trying to find a healer.

As Veronica had taken a seat at the bar of the tavern, everyone in the room stopped at what they were doing and looked at the gorgon. But after Veronica had placed a big bag of coins at the counter, everyone went back to what they were doing, if anything a bit anxious. The size of the bag meant she would be treated with respect instead of suspicion.

It didn’t matter if you were a one-eyed slimeball on fire. Money makes anyone suck up to you.

As Veronica was served a vodka and a half-elf sat next to her and tried to look more seductive than terrified, the gorgon groaned.

“Madam Xiuying was right.” She mumbled to herself. “Revenge is a sucker’s game.”

***

The only human who lived in Onyxville had just gotten on a boat. But as Kahaani the Human got on the boat, three humans got off it.

Amira carried two heavy suitcases. She blew at a lock of her dark-brown hair that had gotten in her eye. “This place looks like a dump.”

“Anything is better than the capital city.” Yìzé cracked his neck. Sailing always made him feel stuff like a wooden plank. “Let’s just hope that there aren’t too many orcs here.”

“Well, there are dwarves.” Gary the Human looked at two dwarf girls who had just been to the barber. Gary glared at them. “Damn traitors… there is only one thing I hate more than orcs, and that’s dwarves…”

***

Pyotr, or Pete as most called him, was a swan-type harpy at the age of fifteen. And he had been arrested.

Or maybe arrested was the wrong word… Well, he was being escorted by a very stern member of the city guard squad. A very large buffalo-type minotaur, so big that getting him a helmet the right size had been a problem. Heck, his leather cuirass looked like it was too small for his massive body. Perhaps that was why he was constantly in a bad mood.

Pete moaned. “I swear, mr officer, I haven’t done anything wro-”

“Shut it, kid.” The gruff ox-man named Bogo had his massive hand on the swan-boy’s shoulder as they marched toward his apartment. “You are lucky they only gave you an earful at the post office.”

“But-”

“Not to mention that I’m in a good mood.” Bogo said this while looking like he had been told that his birthday had been canceled. “Bet your mother won’t be too pleased, I recon.”

As the two creatures arrived at Pete’s apartment, Bogo knocked on the door. “If this ain’t your home, then I’m really gonna be cross. Attempting to steal mail is a very serious offense.”

“But-”

“Shut it.”

As the door was opened, a creature of the age of sixty appeared.

“Oh, that’s the last straw.” Bogo glared at the teen harpy. “You thought you could get away with not getting me to your apartment?”

“But I-”

“Shut it!”

Daisy looked at Pete, then at officer Bogo. “Sorry, what is happening here?”

Bogo nodded at the lady. “Ma’am, sorry for the disturbance. This little swindler was trying to-”

“Mamma, tell him he made a mistake!” Pete looked extremely embarrassed.

Bogo blinked. “Sorry, what did you call her?”

Daisy the Satyr adjusted the flower she had behind one of her massive horns. “Excuse me, what exactly has my son done, officer?”

The massive minotaur was at a loss for words. “Ah… Well, ma’am, your… son… you son has been caught in…” Bogo felt his cheeks get warmer as he looked at the harpy who was very annoyed and then looked at the satyr who glared at Bogo. “It’s like this… trying to take someone else’s mail is a criminal offense-”

“Yeah, I know.” Daisy nodded. “That’s why I gave him a written note with my personal stamp for when he went to the post office for me.”

“The dude at the post office looked you up in their card index when I gave them the note.” Pete pulled himself free from Bogo’s grip. “Since you couldn't possibly be my mother, she then called the guards on me.” Pete glared at Bogo. “I tried to tell this massive jerk that they made a mistake.”

Bogo wanted to say something but felt like he had messed up enough that he wouldn’t risk saying something ideotic.

“Pete, don’t call the guard a jerk.” Daisy wrapped an arm around her son, then whispered; “... To his face.”

Pete held his hand around his beak as he snickered.

Bogo coughed. “Ma’am, I’m very sorry. We just assumed-”

“Hey, it’s a common mistake to think I’m not his mom. After all…” The satyr nuzzled the feathers on Pete’s forehead. “I’m old enough to be his grandma.”

Pete giggled. “Mamma!”

“I will just… I’m awfully sorry.” Bogo nodded to Pete, looking as if he wanted to just crawl down a hole and hide. “Very much so. Good day.”

As Bogo left, Daisy and Pete went inside the apartment to have tea.

“He didn’t scare you, did he?” Daisy looked for the dried raisins that was her son’s favorite snack while Pete had taken a seat at the dinner table. “I could go to the city guard office and make a complaint-”

“Mamma, I’m fine.” Pete dipped the tip of his beak into his cup of tea. “It’s just annoying when it happens.”

“This wouldn’t have happened if your dad had gotten that new mailbox for us already.” Daisy groaned as she took a seat at the table as well and poured herself a cup. “But also, why leave a note at our door saying we got a letter instead of just leaving the damn letter at the door? Hot does THAT make sense?”

Pete shrugged. “Maybe the letter has money in it?”

“Kiddo, no one sends something that important by letter.”

Daisy was right that there wasn’t money in the letter.

However, this very letter could change the fate of the whole kingdom…

***

Pater the Human sat alone in his prison cell. The room was big, but he couldn’t walk around it due to the chains that kept him from walking any more than three meters from the wall the chains were attached to.

But he wasn’t bored since Mayari had smuggled him his favorite book. Pater had spent half an hour reading The Wraith of the Auditorium, thinking it was a shame that so many were not aware that it was a book before it became a musical. Especially since the musical barely scratched the tragic past of the Wraith.

Pater then heard the door to the dungeon creak. He quickly hid the book into the hole on the wall and hid the hole with a brick.

The unshaved human with unkempt hair looked towards the stairs… and was surprised by who had come to visit him. It wasn’t the guard who brought him his pathetic meal. It wasn’t the orc princess who came with the meal he actually ate.

Bathala, the orc king and the conqueror of the kingdom Nesredna crossed his legs as he sat in front of the former human king.

Pater respectfully lowered his head. “Your majesty.”

Bathala sighed. “We need to talk.”

END OF BOOK TWO…

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