The carriage hit the cobblestones with a thunderous crack, Mercy's landing sending a
physical shockwave of wind screaming through the courtyard.
"We can't introduce our main character like this, partner," the Male Narrator grumbled. "Oh,
settle down. Let's watch this drama unfold," the Female Narrator snarked. "But we have a
job—" Her voice trailed off as the carriage door creaked open.
Inside, Rosalind was saddened once she could see the group clearer, they all looked out of
sorts to her except a familiar face among them, expectations shot, this wasn't the welcome
party she had hoped for, her welcome party though small looked like a pack of dangerous
vagrants. To show her disappointment, she decided to establish immediate dominance to
drive an apology out of them. She unleashed her Vim, flaring it much fiercer and denser than
she had during her encounter with Samantha earlier that day. A chilling, visible pressure
rolled off her like a tidal wave.
But as she stepped down, her soul withered. They didn't even flinch. The pressure she
intended to be a crushing weight simply slid off them like a light breeze. She immediately
panics as she didn't expect there to be no reaction at all,
"Oh... I was expecting a welcome party," she whispered, quickly raising her arm to hide her
panicking expression. "Was I a bit too early?"
"I'm sorry, Your Grace, but a welcome party fell through! Folly of artificial forces!" A jester
suddenly appeared, swinging upside down from the carriage door. "I am Jocelyn Valjubi
Viveca, Jester of Hearts! Should I call you 'Your Grace' or 'Miss Rosalind'? Why 'Your
Grace'—is it some kind of fetish? Why not 'Your Highness'? Is there some kind of historical
context?"
The jester crawled into the carriage knee-first, looking for loot. "There isn't any luggage here!
What do you think, Emmerich?"
Rosalind turned, startled by sharp hissing noises from the rear.
"The luggage is here. Liesl Brigitta and I will carry them," a calm voice said. Standing behind
the carriage was a tall boy in a navy-blue apprentice cape, adjusting his black-framed
glasses. Beside him, a girl with living, gray-green hair was using a prehensile strand of her
own locks to loudly blow her nose.
Rosalind froze confused at what just transpired. They had moved to the back of the carriage
so fast she hadn't even seen them blur and they made no sound either. Panicked, she peeks
at their Codexes, praying for a way out.
she started with the jester a glowing panel in the form of a playing card with a blurring jester
bowing in the backdrop of the codex, the codex consisting of various pink colours flickered
into existence, and Rosalind's vision began to swim as the codex of one of this jester was
nothing short of chilling, one would think twice after seeing it. She wasn't able to see the full
codex but she was able to make out:
Name: Jocelyn Valjubi Viveca
Sex: Female
Specie: Enhanced human (Wonderlandian)
Role: 731st Inheritor of the Jester of Hearts
Vim Capacity: Deep
Vim Density: Adamant (practically indestructible spirit)
Index: Trickster, Adept Fighter, Jester, Teleporter, #########, Valjubi.
The remaining information where marked restricted Rosalind had never experienced
something like this before she quickly looked away from the jester to appraise the other two.
The boy, didn't seem all too impressive until she noticed he had a special characteristic, it
also seemed to have restrictions too stopping her from fully accessing his Codex, from him
she could only make out:
Name: Emmerich Orion Wilhelm
Sex: Male
Specie: human(villager)
Role: 278th Inheritor of the Astronomer brother of the brother Grimm four brothers
Vim Capacity: Boiling
Special characteristics;
Vim Mana 350,000 Index:
Watcher, Mystery.
Rosalind has heard rumors about vim mana, vim was the primary source of power but on
extremely rare occasions due to the roles a person is going to perform or bloodline one can
get other types of vim either vim ki and Vim mana. Vim Ki is a Vim that can only be used on
one's body to boost physicality and Vim mana was used for spells and magic inscriptions.
This usually serves as a substitute for primary Vim to save it for later, Rosalind could not
imagine a lanky dude having a metric of over a 100,000.
But it was the third codex that broke her, the codex of the girl that crying and wailing just a
few seconds ago, it was the true definition of don't judge a book by it cover:
Name: Liesl Brigitta von Gretchen
Sex:Female
Specie: Gorgon, Lamia, #####, human
Role: 413th Inheritor of the Lazy Tailor
Vim Capacity: Star (Yildiz)
Index: Tank, Scientists, storage,healer, shape shifter, Living hair, Nightmare.
Special characteristics;
Alternate Energy source.
Rosalind felt a cold sweat break out. This girl, who looked like she hadn't showered in days
and possessed the posture of a wet noodle, was a walking supernova with a vim capacity of
Yildiz. Her Index had things like Tank, Shape-shifter,Nightmare. Rosalind realized then how
pathetic her attempt at intimidation had been. It was like a house cat trying to roar at a
sleeping dragon.
"Excuse me, Miss Rosalind?" A floating figure caught her attention. "We are your assigned
welcoming group from the Hearthstone Tour Guide Club. Here is our pamphlet." She
stretched a paper toward Rosalind. "Sorry if we made you anxious. I am Viera, the Little
Match Girl. The jester is Jocelyn, the boy is Emmerich Orion Wilhelm—you can call him
Mord—and the girl with the moving hair is Liesl Brigitta, the Lazy Tailor. You can call her
Bridge. And over here is..."
Viera turned toward a figure that was all too familiar to Rosalind.
"Amelie Vesper Lenore Valory, the Evil Queen. You can call her Ves. She is the head of this
group. Ves, please say hi to our guest!" Viera floated over and pushed Vesper forward.
"Hi, Lynn. Or should I say 'Your Grace' as well?" Vesper inquired, preparing a mocking bow.
"Please, don't do that!" Rosalind snapped, snapping a fan open from her bag to hide her
nerves. "I thought we were going to pretend we hadn't been standing in front of each other
all evening. Are these your friends... or perhaps underlings?"
The air grew cold as Rosalind and Ves locked eyes, the intent behind their stares hard to
fathom.