76 An Emergency Quest

Even though Yubis is a holographic image, one could hear the change in his tone and facial expression which then turned serious.

"Is this another quest?" Ryuji cautiously asked. He sounded exasperated to the very least. While he is a mortal goblin but how come he gets sudden quests like this. He felt he was not the only person in this world. He still has yet to finish the first quest that was given by the Goddess of Dreams and now there is something that came up. He was reminded of his old life wherein a project that they were working on got suspended for a few months and then all the resources got diverted into a new project in a hurried manner. He remembered that his company was able to finish the new project despite several troubles. Some employees were even not able to adjust until the very end of the project due to the crammed schedule. Those overworked times probably sped up his death. Ryuji thought he had escaped something like that but after spending a few days in this new world, that same situation is pretty much happening in this world. At that point, Ryuji was inwardly cursing Yubis. If his tone can help him achieve refusal, he might as well do it.

"You could say that. You sounded disappointed." Yubis was not expecting this reaction from Ryuji. Well, he has no idea though that this is about his brother's safety.

"If I answered yes, would you strike me with thunder?" Ryuji replied. He was testing Yubis if he can weasel out from this upcoming quest. He really wanted to avoid doing several things at once.

"Ah, no. Most Asian gods would probably do that..." Yubis commented. He was serious for a moment, but he started speaking casually again. He was also testing Ryuji. The casual suggestion to deny a request from the gods is unheard of but here is one in live flesh. Overall, Yubis felt nothing against this denial, he was once a judge of the underworld where people who died most of the time denied their circumstances of death. Although he felt that this defiance may have something to do with the real identity of this goblin. It would be better to cautiously break the details to this person since they are suspecting him as a demigod. Even for gods, they want to avoid such violent reactions.

"Then can I say no to this quest then?" Ryuji still took a chance to ask knowing that it would be that the request would be forced to him either way.

"Probably you won't refuse this… Or rather you can't refuse this one." Yubis casually commented.

"I guess I have no choice." Ryuji sighed. It was the same thing when he first met with the other gods in the Realm of Dreams. He had no say in the matter. It is impossible but he would like to dream of denying such requests from gods. After all he wanted more information on this world, and he would like to allocate some time for it.

"Yes, you don't. Once you hear the quest, you might even volunteer for it." Yubis teased.

"I would doubt that. Let me hear what the quest is about first." Ryuji replied.

"Even if the quest is about your brother?" Yubis asked.

"What?" Ryuji froze. For him, it sounded like a rhetorical question at first. But he quickly remembered that time when he was in the divine realm. He heard that his brother had something to do with his rebirth and ending up in this new world. Why didn't he ask the gods before about his brother?

"I guess I have your att-" Yubis was about to say something but Ryuji was quite adamant.

"Tell me all the details. Don't leave anything out." Ryuji was flustered. If he could grab Yubis he would do so at this point.

Yubis was initially testing the goblin's reaction and got quite surprised and a bit scared. He was just teasing the guy but looking at Ryuji right now is not a good idea. He could feel something ominous with the goblin's eager stares. He looked mad and ready to pounce if he mentions something unpleasant. It was a good thing that this holographic thing was invented by Horus. He might not be able to handle this goblin if they meet face to face. He does get that Ryuji has attachments with his brother since he does have his memories from his previous life, but he never expected such a strong reaction. However, this reaction may be something that he could count on in saving Takehiko from danger.

"If I do that, we would be stuck for several days…" Yubis comforted the trembling Ryuji. He can see the myriad of emotions despite the goblin's face showing how scary even for a god. "I understand you haven't seen your brother for a long time, and you are eager to hear news about him. But time is not a luxury that we currently possess." Yubis veered the conversation back.

"Ok. Give me a rundown then." Ryuji asked.

Yubis started to give a summary of the scenario that he needs to accomplish. He described a short background of an elven party entering the Spring of Origin to investigate a certain magic that happened a few days ago. Yubis stated the priority objective is to save his brother Takehiko and Elan de Lunaris, the Prince of Valareth. There was a secondary objective which was to catch the assassin alive. There was another objective but Yubis was tight lipped about it, he only would tell if the secondary objective was met. There are several reasons that the informal members of the committee agreed on prior. Yubis was just conveying the objectives that were agreed upon to Ryuji.

Ryuji was silent for the whole time. He was contemplating the things he just heard. There are lots of questions right now but based on how short the objectives are he felt that it was quite lacking. 'First the papyrus pamphlet when he arrived and now his quest. This god is quite stingy when it comes to information.' Ryuji commented inwardly.

"Can't you give me the specifics of the third objective?" Ryuji asked. He was testing if Yubis can divulge the information. To be honest, he wanted the whole information on the goals, reasons. details involving this, and not some puzzle nor vague information. Vreta had some sort of riddle when giving her second objective which was delivering a piece of magical rock to a guardian which still annoyed him up until now. He does not even know what the guardian looks like and where it is located so he can be free of the quest. He felt Yubis acted like some supervisor dumping work on his direct report and says it's crucial.

"Well, it's sort of a hypothesis… we still need to work on that" Yubis was reluctant to answer. Yubis does have detailed reports and logs of the whole plot. But he felt that divulging information may raise flags on the pesky non-intervention rule set forth on this world. It wasn't only him and conferred to Horus the details to provide prior to this call and he too felt providing specific details may trigger the rule.

"Raiji what do you think?" Ryuji asked the older wolf brother. The rundown that Yubis provided is indeed short but from what he learned with his previous work, it's not sufficient to work on. The goals that this god provided was more of a flight of fancy for him and rather unrealistic. While this world has fantasy elements, adding them to the mix would still make the objectives of the quest impossible to accomplish.

"Master?" Raiji was surprised when he was asked by the master. They were listening to the conversation earlier. He was surprised that their master had a brother. Was it a goblin too? Moreover, he felt that he saw his master in a new light. Like Raiji, he is an older brother too. Though there are lots of questions raised by the gods.

"If you see your brother would get killed in a wolf pack, what would you do?" Ryuji calmly stated. This situation wasn't new to them. In fact, he had witnessed how Raiji would react in such a situation. But he asked the question still to confirm his insight on Yubis' sudden quest. There are differences in the previous situation and this upcoming quest perhaps, but the overall situation is the reaction of an older brother to protect his younger kin.

"I would save him, Master." Raiji honestly replied.

"Can you elaborate on that?" Ryuji asked. He asked Raiji specifically because he felt that Raiji can empathize with the situation presented by the quest. He is an older brother as well.

"I don't know…" Raiji whimpered. He does understand what the goal is putting himself in that situation, but he is also at a loss of what to do.

Seeing Raiji was at a loss for words, Ryuji spoke, "Was it like the one that you did when we first met?"