Chapter 1: A Hard Day's Night (12:30 AM)
In the real estate explosion around twenty years ago in Ishim City, a lot of eccentric noblemen paid top dollar to have their mansions in the newly incorporated Agreste District. Mansion after mansion after mansion took up land in northern Agreste, and all sorts of architectural firms snapped up the jobs like hotcakes. Not all of them were particularly amazing; the proper word for most of these firms would be 'hacks' or 'two-bit failed art prospects who flunked out of Drawing 101 and decided to swindle some dumb rich idiot into letting them design their new house'. Indeed, most of the resulting buildings could charitably be considered an eyesore on the city skyline. Most of them, predictably, were sold off for cheap to whoever would take them; even the stupidest of the stupid wanted nothing to do with that mess.
Valiere House, of course, is not one of those cheap heaps of concrete, brick and sweet, sweet Midgardian rhea. One of the old mansions from the time when Agreste was a town of its own, Valiere House sticks out by actually looking like an actual mansion actual people might want to live in, looking like the kind of place you'd expect that kindly old gentleman who gives money to both kids selling matches and pregnant women to look like. Indeed, grand old Georges de Valiere was exactly that kind of gentleman, back when he lived up in Agreste. Of course, he got a little old for Ishim's glitziness, and decided to move out to the sunny beaches of northern Penultia. Being a shrewd old man, he kept his place back in Ishim, and rented the place out for parties and occasions. In theory, if you had the money, you could, for a night, live out in one of the finest mansions of Ishim.
The first thing you experience, waking up, is that pounding headache associated with drinking far, far too much alcohol. The room around you is a blur of red velvet couches, strewn-about cans of unidentifiable drinks, tables of abandoned plates with scarcely any leftovers and clothes of all sorts left abandoned on the burnished marble floor. Not exactly the lap of luxury at this point, but you're sure there was a crazy party.
Which is funny, because the first thing you remember is that there weren't supposed to be alcoholic drinks at this party. It was the only reason the Boss let Nico even
come out here to begin with; they made Nico check, once, twice and even thrice. That's why you're here; to make sure the Boss' sister doesn't get into too much trouble. Don't get it wrong, Nico was easily capable of handling herself in a fight; after all, she'd been up right at the front lines in Penultia, she'd run her fair share of missions with the Warriors- the Aviane Job dealing with that crazy bastard lich was one of the biggest ones she'd helped run- and she was retiring to become a cop; not exactly some easy plush job in the biggest city in Generia. The Boss, however, was really protective of their younger sibling; they'd insisted on getting only the best Warriors to protect their dear little Nico. So, on you went.
Which leads you to the realisation that the last four hours of your memory are a blank. You don't remember what happened right after getting to Valiere House, you don't remember where your weapons are, you don't remember if the drinks were spiked and worst of all...
...you don't remember where Nico is. And she definitely isn't in this room.
While this doesn't rate as the worst start to the night the Warriors have ever had, it's definitely in their top ten.
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"Wait, wait, wait, did you all say....blood?"
"W-what is this stuff? It looks like blood, but.....no, definitely not blood. Pretty sure it's....fake blood?"
