A large, clean-shaven man stepped out of the curtains with white pants and a wide, baggy shirt with white and pink floral patterns. His brown hair was tied in a lush ponytail behind him.

He glanced around, his perpetual, half-lazy smile in full effect. He had a bottle of wine in one hand and two tall glasses in the other. “Hello? Hello? Pretty lady?”

Nico flipped the page. Of course it’s a love triangle. Considering the age of the book, love squares only became meta a hundred years later.

“Uhm, Nico my boy, where is—”

“I never said it was a lady.” Nico snapped the book shut, causing dust to spray Deodo’s shirt. The big guy’s smile trembled. “I’m quitting today.”

“B-but…the pretty lady,” he said, in a pleading voice. “Please?”

“I’m quitting today,” Nico repeated. By force of habit he found himself opening another book. He closed it and set it aside.

Deodo shook. He closed his eyes, mouthing curses more ancient than any of their tombs. “Why would you do this to me, Nico? After all I’ve done for you?” He stuttered forward, falling onto the counter with whiny noises. It creaked under his weight.

“You’ve held the door for me, once,” Nico said, and awkwardly at that.

“I was ready to propose to my red-head. Think of all the colors we could have gotten!”

“Red-hair gens are not dom—”

“But she is!” he said, thumping the counter. Splinters flew. Under all the baggy clothes and past the immaturity, Deodo was built like most Vanguards—muscle, muscle, and then some more muscle. It was more for the weight they provided than the negligible physical power it gave.

Shields prevented damage, but they didn’t halt momentum. Since a Vanguard role was to be the frontline, they needed to stay maintain their position even when taking hits. The mobility they sacrificed for it was made up by the other roles in their squad.

On the rare occasion that Deodo stood up with a straight back and fully opened eyes, he was somewhat intimidating, especially his squarish face and slightly dented jaw. “Was,” he said, much weaker.

“Can I remind you that this person never existed? Also, if she did, she would have been a brunette.”

He slammed the glasses in front of Nico, filling them both to the brim. “Nit-picking brat. Uh, thought you didn’t drink?”

“I didn’t,” Nico said, tossing his head back and pouring one down his throat. It was pleasantly warm. He had no idea what it was. “And now I do.”

“Uh, Nil, that’s not how you—"

Nico set down his glass, grasped Deodo’s before he reached for it, and downed it in one gulp too. With a shrug, Deodo began sucking on his bottle. “Got one more order for you bud. Came yesterday,” he said, walking back into the curtain while swaying left from right. “This crap too boring for you?”

“Brother got hurt yesterday. This petty Energy isn’t enough.”

“Oaf, that’s always a hassle. Did he—“

“Does it look like I, or anyone related to me, can afford healing potions?”

“Now that you mention it,” he said, poking just his head in through the curtains. “You do seem a bit, uh, shabby.” He came out carrying a large tattered book. Whatever the book-cover was before, it was now a beige gray.

Reluctantly, Nico opened it. Introduction’s To Oceanography. “Nope,” he said, pushing the book back.

“No?” Deodo said, looking noticeably hurt. “As in—”

“As in I have to leave today. I’m here to clean up.”

“Oh. Oh. Oh! I get it, but can you please do just this one?”

“You don’t sound like you get it.”

“Pretty please? Handsome please? Sexy please?”

“Repetition doesn’t work on me.” Fortunately alcohol still did. Nico felt like he lost half his weight.

“Finish it in the next few hours and I’ll add a bonus reward.”

That gave Nico a pause. “What type of—”

Deodo clicked his tongue, waving his finger back and forth. “You know mysterious rewards are worth more than non-mysterious.”

“Add 10 Energy and I’ll take it.”

“10!” He gasped, flinching as if Nico struck him across the face. “Does it look like I can afford that much?!”

“Isn’t that bottle worth—”

Deodo slammed the book in front of Nico. “Fine.”

Nico didn’t reach for it. He studied Deodo’s face as well as he could. Finally, he shook his head. He stood up. “I have to go.”

“Nil, Nil, please,” Deodo said, shaking the bottle. “I’m too drunk to do it, and the one that ordered it—the one that ordered will just slaughter me if I don’t deliver. Come on man, help a brother out.”

“If you’re my brother then give me Energy,” Nico said.

“Not that type of brothers.”

“Have a good day then,” Nico said. He walked towards the door. His heart was beating out of his mind.

“Nil,” Deodo said, his voice empty of its joviality. “Do as I say or I’ll break your knees.”

Nico turned his head around, a big smile plastered on his face. “Now you could have just begun with that and we could have saved so much time.” He walked back to the counter. Deodo wouldn’t meet his eyes. He didn’t apologize, though, and for that alone Nico still liked him. Nico stretched a cusped hand towards him.

Deodo looked oddly at him, then placed the book on top of his cusped hand. Nico chuckled and set the book down. He raised his hand again.

“It’s my favorite,” Deodo said. “Can you—”

“You either keep me here by giving me the bottle, or you keep me here by breaking my knees and tying me somewhere,” Nico said. “Let’s see how your client will like that.”

“That won’t be a good first impression for you,” Deodo said.

“At least it won’t be my last,” Nico said.

Deodo groaned. “Don’t drink all of it.”

“I’ll leave some.”

With excruciating reluctance Deodo placed the bottle on the counter. Nico had to yank it out of his clutches. If he’s letting me drink now, then that means by the time it’ll wear off, his client will be here. Judging from the sheer size of the book Deodo gave him, it was just to keep him busy for some time.

So this should be safe. Nico pulled his head back and started gulping.

“Nil, come on man!” Deodo said, reaching over the counter for Nico. “I know you’re mad but—”

Nico leaned back out of Deodo’s reach, then fell laughing to the ground. He wiped his mouth as some of it got down his shirt. “Fuck this is good. I should do this more.”

“You should, but not now,” Deodo said. “I need you conscious and alive.”

Nico shrugged. He got up, then collapsed, giggling. “Fuck life and consciousness.”

“Come on man, it’s not terrible, just—”

Nico got up, this time catching the counter. He took another gulp before Deodo snatched it away. Nico reached for it unsteadily, though with their height difference all Deodo needed to do was raise the bottle to his head. “Uh—so,” Nico said, swallowing. “Deodo, ever been to Five Burgers around Block 154?”

“I see where this is going, and I will not be a part of it,” Deodo said, though he smiled anyway.

“Well my brother got cooked as bad as their hamburgers, and I get home—you know what happens?”

“What happens,” Deodo said, leaning against the counter. He took a gulp. Nico reached for the bottle but got his hand slapped aside.

“One brother is like—things are so bad joining a cult is my only chance at salvation. And my other brother is like, we’ve done great to survive this long, shit happens, I’m proud of you. And you know what my sister was like?”

“What?”

“Ah!” Nico said, throwing his arm up in the air.

“Uh-huh,” Deodo said.

“And the other sister was like, you know what I should do to solve everything? Get this—destroy the Iron House! So simple! Like, click and boom. All of them. Dead. And happy we become! Right? Because obviously my sheer charisma will be enough to pull that off.”

“I mean,” Deodo said. “If you do destroy the Irons, then you don’t have anything to worry about. You can try to be like the Nightmare of the 4th City, but like a smaller version, so I guess the Mini-Nightmare?” He shrugged. “I think she got a point.”

“And my point is now—is now you’re threatening me to stay here and read this thing. You can see why I’m suspicious, right? I need answers man, I need them bad.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t…well, actually, I totally can, I just might die a horrible death, so I won’t.”

“Huh,” Nico said, looking up. He hoped Deodo would read the disgust on it. “I thought you were different. That was my fault.” Nico stood up and stumbled away.

“It’s just business, Nil.”

Nico turned around. He clapped his hands together, but realized he didn’t have two, so his right hand just whiffed by. He laughed, tears in his eyes. “Then why did you apologize?”

“No wonder you don’t drink,” Deodo said, sighing. He scratched his head as if the problem inside it would go away. “Fine, I’ll only tell you what you should have figured out. No more questions after that—okay? I’m serious. My hands are tied.”

“Sure,” Nico said, stumbling back. He used a Heal. “At least you got them.”

“They kept the right.”

“I’m a leftie.”

“Oh,” Deodo said, pausing. “Anyway, uh, kinda been lying to you. We didn’t hire you because of your history—we hired you because someone told us to.”

“Until I Siphoned someone,” Nico said.

“N—” Deodo froze. He covered his mouth with wide eyes. He glanced from the empty glasses to Nico, more in fear and embarrassment than in anger. “Your healing skill removes alcohol in your bloodstream.”

“It is a poison,” Nico said, bowing. So it’s not until I Siphoned someone. There was a different condition. “Now actually do give me the bottle, or I will make sure that the person you got your panties in a bunch over will know you fucked up.”

“Not cool,” Deodo said, frowning. “Not cool. I talked because I took pity on you!”

“No, it’s because you’re drunk retard too,” Nico said, laughing. “You really fell for the oldest one in the books. So you know, bud. It’s business and stuff.”

“You don’t even drink,” Deodo groaned again. “And this is actual good stuff. I could get you the cheapest crap and you wouldn’t even tell them apart.”

“Yeah, well it’s personal too,” Nico said, taking the bottle. He didn’t know what was inside it, but he had to agree, for a few seconds, he did in fact forget he was doomed.

He got up, taking the book and went to his favorite spot—the corner. Any corner that could watch the entrance and exit of the room he was in, by another force of habit. Exposed space made him feel vulnerable. As Deodo just proved, Nico had good basis for doing that.

He fetched one of the light crystals attached at the end of the bookcases with his teeth. It was a small yellow stone attached to a stick much like a torch. He let it stand on the ground and laid down next to it on his stomach. He got started on the book.

The ocean is the largest—Nico flipped through the pages. Millions of monsters used to live inside…diverse fungi…the bottom…he flipped to the end and read the glossary.

Nothing. Nico closed the book and reached for the bottle. Around half of it was left. Nico pointed his head up and let it pour down his throat.

As the last drop fell onto his tongue, Nico’s head dropped on top of the book. Seriously, he thought as his body stopped functioning. How did drinking poison ever become a thing? He closed his eyes and went to sleep.