Chapter 296 - Epilogue - Misadventures Incorporated
A quiet sigh escaped Claire’s lips as she watched the seconds tick by. She was supposed to be manning the front desk, but with the customer count a tiny fraction of its previous high, there was basically nothing for her to do. The entire morning was spent sitting around, bored out of her mind with her elbows on the marble countertop and her face resting in her hands. Her hair, which had grown to a surprising length, was tied up in a ponytail, and her eyes were adorned with a pair of ear-agnostic glasses.
Sylvia was sleeping on the counter, Estelle was in the infirmary, and for whatever reason, there was a maid patrolling the premises and sweeping away any dust she found. They had liberated Nymphetel as well, but the soulless elf was nowhere to be seen. He had disappeared on the night of his rescue without a word to anyone involved—not that it mattered. There wouldn’t have been any work for him to do, even if he did wind up hanging around.
The shop no longer offered its job-related services. Without Natalya at the helm, it simply wasn’t possible to do all the work required. Claire couldn’t handle all the documentation by herself, not to mention her lack of knowledge made it difficult to evaluate an appropriate wage for a given task. Predicting her plight, Arciel had offered to lend her some staff, but the lyrkress had ultimately refused and changed the business model instead.
A few leftover items aside, the shelves were lined with nothing but potions and drugs—goods made by the doctor’s hand.
With no alchemy skill of her own, Claire had no way of contributing. There was nothing for her to do.
In her infinite boredom, the caldriess turned her eyes on her body, eventually focusing on the artifact strapped to her waist. She reached for its leatherbound cover, but quickly rescinded her hand after tracing her claws over its strap.
She had kept the diary on her person ever since the incident. It was one of the few mementos the cat had left behind, but she couldn’t convince herself to pry open its covers. Even the very thought caused her hands to tremble and her magic circuits to ache; only by petting her fox and playing with her fuzzy, orange tail did she return to her previous calm.
“Maybe I’ll try again tomorrow.”
Muttering to herself, she slowly raised her head to the door, right as it opened to reveal a customer. The lanky shark had no particularly defining features, but she immediately recognized him as one of the merchants that had come with the occasional request. He looked around the building, scratching his head and scanning the shelves as he plodded his way to the counter.
“Welcome to Misadventures Incorporated,” said Claire.
“Hey uh, so what do you guys do here now, exactly?” he asked. “It’s not the MACC anymore, right?”
“We take people on misadventures,” said the clerk.
The man cocked a brow, prompting Claire to breathe a sigh.
“Okay, let’s start over,” she said. Picking herself off the table, the caldriess greeted the man with a feline smile. “Welcome to Misadventures Incorporated. Who would you like me to kill?”
SpicySpaceSquid Hello! Thanks for sticking around until the end of V4. It’s been quite the journey, and with the title finally coming into play, I’d say we’re about halfway through the main story. Lia’s death was one of the key turning points part of the initial structure, but it ended up taking a lot longer to reach it than I had expected during planning. The idea behind the slice-of-life portion was to really drive the point home so that her death would feel more significant. Evil, I know, but I really wanted everyone to share Claire’s feelings. Evidently, this has worked better on some of you than others, and I’ll be mulling over the results. In addition to the presentation and plot development, I think that one of the problems with her character was that I pulled the punches and didn’t really include her as often as I should’ve in the various skits. In future revisions, she will have more presence and personality so her death will really hit home.
Speaking of future improvements, I’ve now posted the rewrite, which can be found here. The first book has been completely overhauled for the purposes of competition and possibly publication. It’s now roughly half as long and abandons some characters and events that were poorly done or not well received. The style is now akin to that of the later volumes, and the foreshadowing has been improved as well. One of the twenty-five chapters will be posted every day until it is complete. And unlike with V4, this won’t suddenly be cut short due to overtime or whatever. I’ve already done everything but the final pass, and I’ve taken some time off work to make sure nothing goes awry. Please be aware that the mainline story will be going on hiatus for two weeks in the meantime so I can better refine V5 ahead of its public release.
If you have any questions about the rewrite, or Misadventures Incorporated in general, feel free to post them below. I’ll be happy to engage in discourse. As always, your feedback is greatly appreciated.
Thanks for reading, everyone! See you in V5!
S.S. Squid, signing off.
P.S. Did anyone notice that Claire repeated Pollux’s pre-tower speech right back to him, or were the events too far removed?
P.P.S. Here's V5's cover, a picture of Claire in her new humanoid form.
Chapter 296 - Epilogue - Misadventures Incorporated
A quiet sigh escaped Claire’s lips as she watched the seconds tick by. She was supposed to be manning the front desk, but with the customer count a tiny fraction of its previous high, there was basically nothing for her to do. The entire morning was spent sitting around, bored out of her mind with her elbows on the marble countertop and her face resting in her hands. Her hair, which had grown to a surprising length, was tied up in a ponytail, and her eyes were adorned with a pair of ear-agnostic glasses.
Sylvia was sleeping on the counter, Estelle was in the infirmary, and for whatever reason, there was a maid patrolling the premises and sweeping away any dust she found. They had liberated Nymphetel as well, but the soulless elf was nowhere to be seen. He had disappeared on the night of his rescue without a word to anyone involved—not that it mattered. There wouldn’t have been any work for him to do, even if he did wind up hanging around.
The shop no longer offered its job-related services. Without Natalya at the helm, it simply wasn’t possible to do all the work required. Claire couldn’t handle all the documentation by herself, not to mention her lack of knowledge made it difficult to evaluate an appropriate wage for a given task. Predicting her plight, Arciel had offered to lend her some staff, but the lyrkress had ultimately refused and changed the business model instead.
A few leftover items aside, the shelves were lined with nothing but potions and drugs—goods made by the doctor’s hand.
With no alchemy skill of her own, Claire had no way of contributing. There was nothing for her to do.
In her infinite boredom, the caldriess turned her eyes on her body, eventually focusing on the artifact strapped to her waist. She reached for its leatherbound cover, but quickly rescinded her hand after tracing her claws over its strap.
She had kept the diary on her person ever since the incident. It was one of the few mementos the cat had left behind, but she couldn’t convince herself to pry open its covers. Even the very thought caused her hands to tremble and her magic circuits to ache; only by petting her fox and playing with her fuzzy, orange tail did she return to her previous calm.
“Maybe I’ll try again tomorrow.”
Muttering to herself, she slowly raised her head to the door, right as it opened to reveal a customer. The lanky shark had no particularly defining features, but she immediately recognized him as one of the merchants that had come with the occasional request. He looked around the building, scratching his head and scanning the shelves as he plodded his way to the counter.
“Welcome to Misadventures Incorporated,” said Claire.
“Hey uh, so what do you guys do here now, exactly?” he asked. “It’s not the MACC anymore, right?”
“We take people on misadventures,” said the clerk.
The man cocked a brow, prompting Claire to breathe a sigh.
“Okay, let’s start over,” she said. Picking herself off the table, the caldriess greeted the man with a feline smile. “Welcome to Misadventures Incorporated. Who would you like me to kill?”
SpicySpaceSquid Hello! Thanks for sticking around until the end of V4. It’s been quite the journey, and with the title finally coming into play, I’d say we’re about halfway through the main story. Lia’s death was one of the key turning points part of the initial structure, but it ended up taking a lot longer to reach it than I had expected during planning. The idea behind the slice-of-life portion was to really drive the point home so that her death would feel more significant. Evil, I know, but I really wanted everyone to share Claire’s feelings. Evidently, this has worked better on some of you than others, and I’ll be mulling over the results. In addition to the presentation and plot development, I think that one of the problems with her character was that I pulled the punches and didn’t really include her as often as I should’ve in the various skits. In future revisions, she will have more presence and personality so her death will really hit home.
Speaking of future improvements, I’ve now posted the rewrite, which can be found here. The first book has been completely overhauled for the purposes of competition and possibly publication. It’s now roughly half as long and abandons some characters and events that were poorly done or not well received. The style is now akin to that of the later volumes, and the foreshadowing has been improved as well. One of the twenty-five chapters will be posted every day until it is complete. And unlike with V4, this won’t suddenly be cut short due to overtime or whatever. I’ve already done everything but the final pass, and I’ve taken some time off work to make sure nothing goes awry. Please be aware that the mainline story will be going on hiatus for two weeks in the meantime so I can better refine V5 ahead of its public release.
If you have any questions about the rewrite, or Misadventures Incorporated in general, feel free to post them below. I’ll be happy to engage in discourse. As always, your feedback is greatly appreciated.
Thanks for reading, everyone! See you in V5!
S.S. Squid, signing off.
P.S. Did anyone notice that Claire repeated Pollux’s pre-tower speech right back to him, or were the events too far removed?
P.P.S. Here's V5's cover, a picture of Claire in her new humanoid form.
