Zodiac Circle

Chapter 7: The Job at the Dragon Festival

In the morning, Tamie woke up late. She slept in her room in the Order building, in the basement which was the residence of casual members, while ‘Grandmasters’ – the stronger members – resided on the second floor. The third floor, as Tamie had found out, was for councils of the Overlord and his advisors (however, Edmund Jaeger had only one advisor – Tamie’s brother, Nick Wingfield).

Tamie readied herself and ascended the stairs into the hall, where everyone had already gathered and drank and chatted like before. Some people were already absent, gone on their jobs. Tamie walked up to the counter, greeted Erisa, and looked at the job papers spread out on the wall nearby.

Each job had its difficulty level – there was written which rank would do best for each one. Many jobs had middle-level ranks – from Rankless (thus Rank Zero) to Rank Six. Erisa explained that Rank Seven and the highest, Rank Eight, got their jobs on the second floor – the ‘Grandmaster Offers’.

*Hmm, as I am Rankless and have started pursuing the Writer Class only yesterday, I’d better take a simple job.*

Tamie eyed the papers. Soon she spotted a perfect job suited for her: the client demanded help from the Zodiac Masters for the local Dragon Festival event. The reward was not that high, but it was acceptable – 500 Yans (the currency of the Zariel realm).

“Now this looks perfect!”

Tamie wanted to grab the paper when a small hand clutched it simultaneously with her. She looked aside and spotted Tiger, who watched her back. Tamie recalled Riza’s earlier insults of yesterday and flared up:

“Excuse me, but I saw this thing first”.

“Um, sorry…”

Tiger let go of the paper. Tamie grinned with triumph and took the job paper for herself, but then she caught a glimpse of how Tiger’s big greenish eyes had begun to fill with tiny tears.

*Ugh, she’s going to cry now… She sure had it tough yesterday too. Maybe I should… But if we split this job, it will only serve 250 Yans for both of us. Such a miserly amount! Ugh, I hate being kind in situations like this, but because of what happened to this girl yesterday, I guess I have no other choice…*

She smiled at Tiger, who was about to burst into tears:

“Um, now that I think of it, I’m still inexperienced so… do you want to do this job together?”

Tiger’s eyes brightened:

“Really? You’d be willing to do it together with me?”

“Of course! After all, we both belong to the same order”.

“Haha, awesome! I am Tiger Braun!”

“Tamie Wingfield. It’s nice to meet you”.

“Well, what are we waiting for, Tamie? Let’s go!”

Tiger grabbed her hand, whistled to her three pets and rushed out of the mansion. Tamie could barely keep up with the energetic tiny maid. Her pets – the dog Blizzard and the two cats – ran after her at a full speed.

They soon found themselves in the city streets where many people walked around, and stores and shops were open. Some street musicians played nice, upbeat tunes, and the whole atmosphere was placid and cheerful.

“Oh, I’m so excited when I get to work with Tigers!” Tiger said. “I have one Tiger spirit sis, Cherrie. She is really cool and strong. She is a member of our order too. All of my sisters are in our order. Cherrie is a Fire Tiger so you can imagine how awesome she is, right? Totally a beast!”

“Hehe, that’s cool…” Tamie smiled politely.

*So there are fellow Tigers in this order? Nice… The ones of the same age as me…*

“So, if you are an Ox spirit, why do you love Tigers so much?”

“I don’t like being an Ox that much, especially now when I’m born a girl. Nasty people often used to bully me at school because of that, calling me a ‘cow’… But Tigers are so different – they are ferocious kitties!”

Tamie had pity on Tiger now – so she had experienced such bullying from an early age?

“I am sorry. I’m glad you’ve got many friends now whom you can call ‘sisters’”.

“Yeah… They’re like a family to me. We always help each other out”.

“So, you’ve even managed to make them befriend each other? That’s truly a talent!”

“Yup, I’m awesome!”

Tiger stuck out her tongue. They both laughed.

“Anyway, can I have your signal? Maybe we too can become comrades?”

“Hey, we are already brethren,” Tiger winked. She touched Tamie’s gadget and gave her the signal. “I’d like to have more friends, though. You seem a nice one”.

Tamie smiled and looked at her gadget – the symbols were a Maiden and a female Ox.

“Woah, you’re a Virgo? I love Virgo so much – one of my favourite signs!”

“Cool!” Tiger blushed, happy to be praised. “I see you’ve got Scales and a Tiger… so a Libra, huh? Libra is nice”.

“Hehe, thanks!”

Talking and laughing, they arrived in the town square where large dragon decorations were put out – it was the place where the Dragon Festival was being held.

“Here we are!”

“Ah, I assume you’re Rose Cruce members?” an elderly man approached them, smiling under his white moustache.

“Yup, you’ve got that right!” Tiger winked at him.

“Well then, welcome! We’ve been waiting for you! We hope on your support!” the man shook their hands. “I am Knut Goldreich, the holder of this festival. The job is not difficult at all – all you need to do is act as formal guards because, in truth, no one’s going to cause disturbances here. But we need people to know they’re safe in order not to cause panic. That is why this job was ranked as ‘Rankless’”.

However, this assuring speech didn’t ease Tamie’s mind at all once she heard the name of the old man – Knut Goldreich. It was the same surname as the one of the deceased magister of the Crimson Flame Order – Merlinn Goldreich, the previous Sun Lord, from Erik’s tale of yesterday – the exact one whom the Blood Dragon had killed.