I wake up the next morning, face planted into the wooden table, with a agonizing hangover. I groggily get up and head into my room. Once inside I don't even bother to lock the door I just slump down on the bed. Getting drunk is not fun, or getting drunk is fun, getting the thing after is not. I close my eyes once more, I haven't got the energy to do anything today. Soon enough I am once more fast asleep. 

I am awoken by a knocking on my door. I try to ignore it, but it just keeps going. So I angrily get up and head over to the door and open it.

Mason: WHAT!?

That is when I see Sofie, some big dude and an older gentleman wearing some kind of robe. Sofie got kind of scared by my outburst.

Mason: Ah, hi Sofie. Sorry for the yelling.

Sofie: It's ok. You said that you needed to tell someone important something so I got them but we waited for you and you weren't showing up.

Mason: Ah damn, I am sorry for that. Got a terrible hangover, so didn't really have the will to come by. Are these gentlemen behind you the ones I want and need to talk to?

Sofie: Yes, on the left is...

Friedrich: Friedrich Goldberg, I am this guilds headmaster. Nice to meet you Mason.

Kahl: And my name is Kahl Ta'Zan. I am just a passing scholar and a friend of Sir Friedrich.

I look both at them, First at Friedrich. 

A larger man, older in age. By the way he stands and looks I could tell that he saw some good number of battles. And then I look down on the scholar Kahl.

Quite a smaller man, maybe a gnome or a elf, I don't really know. Looks old, if he is an elf that would mean he was OLD. He has a couple of scrolls on him, maybe even a couple of maps too.

Mason: Well, umm, nice to meet you. 

I shake hands with both of them. Both hands feel different. Friedrichs hands are rough, big and strong while Kahl has more soft, smaller hands, definitely haven't seen hard labor.

Friedrich: We heard from Sofie that you needed to talk about something. And she sad by the tone you said it it sounded more serious. I hope her intuition isn't wrong.

Mason: Well, Sir, the thing is. I took a quest yesterday with a couple of 'friends'.

Kahl: We haven't got all day boy, if it is something useless and we had wasted our time I would be disappointed in both of you .

He points to both me and Sofie. I would presume that by punishment he means firing her and maybe revoking my status as a Adventurer. Damn he kind of looks like an asshole right now. Hasn't got patience at all.

Mason: Fine, since it seems that this short ass here doesn't have any patience I'll get straight to the point.

As I say this I could see that Kahl gets pissed, but Friedrich has this small grin on his face.

Mason: I saw Father Simeon preforming a ritual of some sort underneath the temple. I don't know if the Church is in this or not.

As I say this information Friedrich loses his grin and gets quickly serious and Kahl from pissed to a more serious tone and rather confused. Sofie just gasps, and a worried expression shows on her face.

Friedrich: Is this true boy?

Kahl: What kind of ritual? 

Mason: Yes and I don't know. All I know there were lots of remains and corpses scattered around the place.

Kahl: Must have been sacrifices, and since those were bodies of people, must be some kind of dark ritual, either a summoning or a power acquisition.

Mason: He did say that he was trying to summon a Baron from the underworld, whatever that is.

Sofie: A Baron!?

Friedrich: If what you say is true boy, we are grateful for telling us that. Can you show us the ritual site?

Mason: Ehhhh...

Kahl: What do you mean ehhhh?

Mason: Well you can't really?

Friedrich: What do you mean by that?

Mason: Well, the room collapsed in on itself.

Kahl: Damnit, how could you have allowed that to happen?

Mason: It wasn't my fucking idea to make it collapse alright?

Friedrich: Calm down Kahl I don't think he wanted to do that. Tell me boy, what happened to Father Simeon?

Mason: He is dead, I managed to kill him.

Kahl: HOW?! Considering he was summoning a demon meant that he was as strong as maybe even Friedrich here. So tell me how did you kill him, a peasant boy like you.

Mason: That is a secret I can not give away. 

I could see that Kahl was furious, even preparing to cast some kind of spell on me but Friedrich stops him.

Friedrich: Calm down Kahl! Let the boy keep his secret, at least we know that Simeon is dead and the ritual has been disrupted. 

Mason: So what will you do about this? 

Friedrich: We would probably first investigate the temple, to see if they had anything to do with it or was Father Simeon simply acting out alone. And from there we will see?

Mason: Alright. I hope that it is just him and not a collective.

Friedrich: I hope so too. Anyway is that all that you had to say? If so, we would like to head out and investigate this matter more thoroughly.

Mason: That is all.

With that Friedrich nods and Kahl is snaped out of his thought by Friedrich tapping him on his shoulder. They both leave and Sofie just stands there awkwardly, I could see that she has questions just by the way she is acting.

Mason: Is there something you need Sofie:

Sofie: Ahhh....Ummm... Here is you 600 silver for completing the quest.

She hands me a small chest, inside is full of silver coins. That is a whole lot of money I just got there. I could live quite nice with this sum of money.

Mason: Hold on, wasn't the reward 200?

Sofie: Well considering that the other two comrades are dead, and that the quest was more tougher than it was listed, this is a sort of compensation. I hope that it is enough.

Mason: Really, that is more than enough. I mean, thank you. But I guess you have more question you want to ask?

Sofie: Am I that easy to read?

Mason: Kind of.

She get's slightly sad as I say it but I couldn't really lie to her.

Sofie: Ummm... Are you ok if I ask a couple questions?

Mason: Why wouldn't I?

Sofie: Well, I would have expected for you to be a little distraught by such an event.

Mason: It happened and there is nothing that can be changed, I'll probably feel down for some time but it'll pass. Do you want to enter?

Sofie nods and walks inside your room, it is a bit of a mess but she doesn't seem to mind it. Didn't expect any guests so I didn't bother cleaning, but I probably should. She sits on the single chair in the room and looks straight at me.

Sofie: I hope you don't mind me asking, but, what happened. What happened on the quest?

I sit down on my bed and give her a debrief of what happened. Of course leaving out the details of how I killed Simeon, telling only half truths of the fight. Thru ought the story she let's a couple of gasps but mostly listens with full concertation, nodding at points, showing that she is listening.

Sofie: I am sorry that has happened to you. I can't believe that he would do such a thing. He was a nice man, always like to help out, always was so calm and composed.

Mason: Greed does terrible things to ones soul. Turns good souls into monsters who would do anything for the sake of their own benefit.

Sofie: That is true, I know a couple of instances, but not like this. Not to this point, to make a pact with a demon, and a Baron at that. Only a mad man would do that.

Mason: Sofie, can you tell me what these Barons are, and are there higher ranks?

Sofie: I guess you are just a little village boy. In the underworld, or other words, the demon world you have different rank, species and types of demons. Some are harmless, even to some extent even friendly and considered welcomed to this world. An example would be a household guardian, they are demons technically, but they guard the home and from you expect to be rewarded, be it with food or money.

She then gives me a whole 2 hours lecture on the demons. I didn't want it to turn into a long lecture, but I guess it was all useful information. From what I understood, you have your typical demon like Oni's, Succubae, ghouls, undead, and a whole different sort of beasts and other demonic creatures. Those are considered lowly ranks, just normal demons. Then there are the pure blood demons, all who come from a lineage of demons. They are assigned noble titles, like there are in this world. So you have Esquires, Knights, Barons, Viscount, Earl or Counts, Margraves, Marquess, Dukes, Archdukes and of course the Emperors or Kings. And as you climb up the ranks the more powerful they become, or more influential. It seems though that not all demons are necessarily evil, some just simply want to live, not wanting to get involved in conflicts and politics, just like us. Overall, all the information was valuable. And for a human to summon a demon they must posses some amount of power, to be able to endure the summoning process and the weight of the contract or pact.   

Mason: Thank you Sofie for telling me this. Do you have any more questions for me?

Sofie: No problem, and I do a couple.

Mason: Ask away.

Sofie: Are you sure that you are alright?

Mason: A little shook but I will be alright, don't worry that much about me.

Sofie: I don't want anything to happen to Marie's favorite. 

Mason: How is she by the way? 

Sofie: Well, I probably shouldn't be saying this, if she found out she would kill me but she misses you. And is thinking of maybe leaving her place and come with you, anywhere you go.

Mason: Damn, I got that much of an impact on her.

Sofie: Well you see, she is quite lonely. I am basically her only friend, people don't really trust her because she is a witch. And folk around here don't have to many fond memories of them.

Mason: So that is why she lives in the middle of the forest.

Sofie nods, damn it is kind of sad to know this. She is a loner, and not a voluntary one. Honestly, even though we did know each other for a short time I do miss her too. I hope that she might decide to join me, or I'll have to come over there and get her. 

Mason: Any more questions?

Sofie: Ahh yea...ummmm... how do I say this. Would you like to go out for a drink sometime?

She is blushing, I can tell that she doesn't mean a drink like work buddies would have, more like a date. Damn, so I got a date in two days, I mean, I wouldn't mind going out with Sofie. She is nice, cute and joyful and somewhat clumsy but that does add to her charm. And considering that I did get a huge sum of money it won't be much of a problem financially. I wouldn't mind having a harem, I mean, who would. But would they mind, I don't know how they would react.

Mason: Sure.

Sofie: Really!

She is really happy with the answer. 

Sofie: Would it be a problem over the weekend,  I am don't work then.

Hmmm. Considering that on Friday I have a date with Miriam, and I do suspect that it will end a little wildly better not choose Saturday. 

Mason: Would Sunday be good?

Sofie: Yeah, I don't have anything planned then.

Mason: Well, I'll see you then.

She has a large smile on her face, nods at me and gets up and leaves the room. I close the door behind her and lay down on my bed once more. This new life does have it's ups and down, I wouldn't mind expanding my harem if I do manage to form it and all the women don't find it problematic. This is every boy dream. I close my eyes and fall asleep once more.