Noble Quest

It took a while for Jak to actually get to the WGC, having taken the time to actually clean up his old room before leaving. Wiping away the dust from the walls and floors, scrubbing away the grime, and reorganizing the entire room to what he believed to be a better layout.

It was only after he had tidied up that he closed the door to the room and made his way back to Branch #257.

Now that the redhead had gotten all the information he had needed, having perused Mako's Information Orb before leaving, he was all set on learning what he could about the Bird Massacre. As far as Jak could remember, the WGC kept logs on each and every guild, It's quest, it's members, and even particular events that happened to each and every one of them. If anyone were to have an in depth analysis regarding that fateful day, it would be them. There were things that the common masses wouldn't know hidden in the confines of the WGC. Things that were either unknown or completely confidential to the general public.

Either way, Jak needed them.

The trek back to the Center was far easier than the day prior and Jak attributed that to having gotten a nice hot shower before leaving. It also helped that he had actually gotten a full night's sleep for once, wasn't fighting in 8 times gravity, and wasn't being thrown off of a waterfall.

So yeah, easier.

Unsurprisingly, when the young Rookie made his way up to the WGC's main entrance, he found the large oak doors barred, the large passageway tightly shut and locked from the inside. Milling about on the outside of the massive gate were dozens of individuals, adventurers and non adventurers alike, awaiting their chance to go in and attend to their own business. Due to the Trials still being in the Year End phase Jak had already half expected the occurrence when he had set out, that he would have to wait his turn just like everyone else.

Letting out a sigh, Jak moved forward to join the wandering masses.

Surprisingly, instead of having to wait in the back of the line, the moment the fiery redhead moved to take an empty spot at the rear, a section of the crowd parted. Murmurs and adamant whispers filled the air as Jak made his way to the front of the pack. Though this was slightly bothersome, the youth merely nodded at those who moved before ignoring everyone else. He could feel jeering eyes at the back of his head and sense the number of hands pointing towards him. What puzzled him the most was the fact that it felt as if they were pointing towards his cape rather than Jak himself.

It took almost an hour for the doors to open, though it felt like much longer.

Junji was the first to greet Jak as he made his way through, giving the redhead a slight bow as he lead the people past the gateway.

"Good Morning," Junji greeted as he made his way back behind the receptionist counter. "Welcome to the WGC. How may I be of assistance?"

Jak opened his mouth to answer but was immediately cut off as Margaret and Flora made their way from the Trial room. They weren't quiet about it either, their loud footsteps echoing through the WGC's innards. Junji, despite appearing to have readied himself for the job as receptionist, immediately retreated away from the desk, allowing the purple haired Margaret to take his place.

As a fellow human who cared not for human interaction, Jak could respect the decision.

"Good Morning Jak," Margaret exclaimed merrily. "How may I be of service to you today?"

"I'm in need of information," Jak said simply. "I would like to look at some archives."

"Yes sir," Margaret responded. "And which archive will I be fetching for you today?"

"The Bird Massacre. Fairy Festival. Flaming Sparrows Guilld. Elemental Rookies."

Margaret reached behind her desk while Jak quickly rifled off his words, her nimble fingers typing into something Jak couldn't see. After a few seconds, the receptionist looked back at Jak and gave him a smile. "Very well, please step to the side while our WGC staff fetches the requested archives."

Jak gave a short nod, stepping out of line. He hadn't expected everything to go that smoothly but he wasn't one to complain as he situated himself out of everyone's way. All he had to do now was wait.

This time though, he didn't have to wait very long.

A staff worker walked over to the young Rookie around five minutes after Jak had moved out of line. Clutched in his left hand were three small orbs the size of marbles, objects that closely resembled Information Orbs except these particular spheres were a murky pink rather than translucent. Jak hadn't seen them often but he vaguely recognized them as Archive Spheres, special objects designed to hold certain information and to even collect information regarding key topics. Any details collected by the WGC were carefully cataloged and kept track, each and every Archive being updated frequently from every branch throughout the 3000+ worlds. The only one who usually wielded such large scale spheres were large factions such as nobility and royalty, of which the WGC was included.

Handing the small orbs over to Jak, the worker gave the youth a nod before walking away, leaving Jak to take a seat at the other side of the building.

Wordlessly, Jak wasted no time in diving into the thick of the matter. Rolling the three Orbs onto the thick table, the redhead tapped the surface of very first one.

A small rectangle with the words "FAIRY FESTIVAL" popped into existence. Without hesitation, Jak clicked it open.

A wall of text and different tabs flooded his face, an overwhelming amount of information that made the redhead do a slight double take. Though he quickly recovered, he struggled to find exactly where to start.

After closing a number of blue rectangles, Jak finally organized everything and quickly scanned through the Orb.

It happened during a monster festival like Mako had said, down in a small town called Liweqo near the south end of the Eastern Continent. Apparently, according to multiple witnesses, a small pack of fairies was accidentally released from their cage and began praying on those who happened to be nearby, including the very person whom released them. Before they could be properly put down, they wreaked havoc upon festival goers and even fellow monsters, throwing everyone into a panic, making it that much harder for Adventurers to fully erase them. There was a list of victims that followed the general information as well as a long list of witness and witness testimonies. However, beyond that, Jak failed to pinpoint anything new aside from what Mako had already told him.

Which made sense seeing as Mako had probably already had the exact same thought to go through the Archives.

Despite that, Jak made a mental note about a few key details such as the time, place, some witnesses and even their testimonies. After memorizing everything he wanted, he shut the orb down and immediately opened the next one, the orb regarding the Flaming Sparrows Guild.

This one in particular he didn't truly need to look through every single bit of information.

Mainly due to him knowing most of it. Their members, ranks, quests, everything within the last four years, he knew it all by heart. The only thing he was truly looking for within the Archive was the particular day relating to what could only be regarded as the worst day of Jak's life.

The Bird Massacre.

Pawing through each and every tab, each and every member, from the very hour the day started to the time of their demise, Jak scoured through it all.

However, just like the Fairy Festival Archive, Jak was unable to allocate anything of use. Everything within the orb could only pertain to things that others witnessed or relating to the aftermath, things that others found after it was all said and done.

As someone who witnessed everything almost personally, it was all worthless to him.

Letting out a small sigh of frustration, Jak shut down that orb and rolled it gently away from him, reaching out to grab the third and final one, the one that had to deal with the Bird Massacre directly. However, before he could actually boot it up and access the information, Flora Symone plopped down into the chair across from him, a small transparent orb held by the tips of her fingers.

"Greetings, young Jak," Flora smiled as she rolled the orb towards the youth. "It's good to see you're still doing well."

"Flora," Jak said, acknowledging her presence. He reached out and tentatively secured the rolling Information Orb. "What do you want?"

"Huh. Don't want to exchange any pleasantries first? No small talk?" Flora tilted her head slightly. "Guess you really have changed. Time sure changes people, but I guess that's to be expected considering what you went through."

"Yeah," Jak said bluntly. "What do you need from me?"

"I want you to take a que-"

"No."

"You haven't even heard what I got to say. Don't you wanna know the details? Or at least let me finish my proposal?"

"No."

Flora let out a sigh. "Very well, then I guess I have no choice."

"Huh?"

"It's nothing serious," Flora responded, gesturing to the Orb. "Just open that and we can get started."

Frowning even more than he already was, Jak quickly double tapped on the translucent spheres surface. He was already irritated at having been interrupted during his info dive, and now here he was being coerced into something he didn't wanna do. If he could stand up and walk away, he would have.

Except for the fact he wouldn't be able to avoid them for long. It was best to deal with it now.

DEBT OF J. YANDA was the first thing that appeared.

Immediately Jak regretted ever opening the sphere.

Looking up, Jak stared at Flora with a blank expression. "Fine. What do you need me for?"

"Oh, it's nothing too big. It's a noble quest fit for your status as an Elemental Rookie." Flora smiled as Jak rolled the orb back over to her, swiping it off the table and stuffing it into her uniform pocket. "One where you can showcase your skills as an adventurer and truly prove your might to everyone around you. To make your name kno-"

"What is it?"

"A subjugation mission in 'Ard Araml."

"The Desert world?" -Jak

"Precisely." -Flora

"Rewards?" -Jak

"A Million Gold for a successful live capture. 250 thousand for a dead one."

"I want information as well." -Jak

"You just got information" -Flora

"The classified stuff. I know you have it."

Flora let out a small breath, looking over her shoulder briefly, she looked back at Jak. "How about instead, I point you to someone who can give you something similar."

Jak gave a perplexed look. "An info broker?"

"Something like that." Flora smiled. "She's more than just some run of the mill info broker. She's the best on the market, hands down. Pay her well and she'll treat you well."

"And all I have to do is do this quest?" Jak queried.

"Either that or pay the full debt," Flora said bluntly. "If I recall correctly, you're sitting at a solid 7 million big ones. I'm not sure how well your travels were but I hope it's big enough to cover such a handsome sum."