Rief's Misfortune

"Can I get something now, Matthew?" the Mercury Adept asked impatiently, eyeing a battle mace in the Belinsk weapon shop. Rief hadn't been able to even hold a single weapon all day, being stripped of everything except worthless armor and the wooden stick he came into the party with.

"No," the blonde replied, smacking Rief's hand away from the mace he tried to touch yet again. Matthew turned to his other friends, picking out what they wanted. Karis, Amiti and Tyrell - and of course Matthew because he carried the money - were allowed to get whatever they wanted, so why not Rief?

The small boy whimpered. "Matthew, you haven't let me get anything since before we left Harapa." He gingerly rubbed the hand that Matthew slapped. A stray tear fell from his eye and he wiped it away.

Matthew sighed, putting on an angry look and turning towards Rief. "You'd waste all our money," he stated simply, now turning back around and emptying his bag of coins into his hand, counting out the money needed. Four master rapiers, his and Tyrell's shields, Karis and Amiti's circlets…that came out to almost fifty thousand.

He shrugged, handing over the coins to the beastman behind the counter. In exchange he was given the items, which he handed out to everyone, mistakenly giving a rapier to Rief.

"Oops, not you," he said, taking it away from the Mercury Adept and instead handing it to Tyrell.

Rief's face fell. You would think that five-or-so towns after Harapa that Rief would finally get an upgrade but he was always in the backup party…alone. He whimpered again, crossing his arms and backing away from the group. He had his pouting face on.

"Come on, Rief," the leader said, walking out of the shop.

But Rief didn't follow.

Instead he ruffled through his pockets, searching for any amount of money that he had. After a few moments he came to the conclusion that he didn't have any; instead he found in the old robe he still wore some pocket lint, a cricket that he had no idea was there(and he screamed when it jumped from his hand), and some grass. So either he had to go fight some monsters and earn some money, which wasn't possible considering how unequipped he was, or steal.

He chose the latter.

…

"Where's Rief?" Karis asked suddenly when the party was looting the opera house. So far they had found a nut, a sleep bomb, and about five coins. Nothing really of use.

"Who?" Matthew asked.

Karis sighed. "Rief." She put a hand on her hip. "You know, the Mercury Adept, always wants something?"

"Oh, him," he said. He shrugged and hummed "I don't know" and resumed searching for stuff.

She shook her head, walking away from the group. "Rief?" she called. No answer.

"Rief?" she tried again. No answer.

"Hum." She walked back over to the group. Maybe he was just out talking to the locals or something - whatever Riefs do.

...

The blue-haired boy sneaked his way around the massive city, looking for empty houses. Why didn't anybody leave their house here? Rief sighed. This wouldn't be of any help to him. He was forced to be stripped of everything worth something and to use wooden sticks for the rest of his life.

He huffed and sat down on the ground, right in front of the library.

"Hey! Give that back!" a voice shouted from across town. Rief's head shot up, his eyes staring at a scene. There were two beastmen, a squirrel and a bear. The bear seemed to be mugging the squirrel, pushing him forcefully back. Rief stood up, ready to stop the fight, but before he could, the bear smacked the squirrel across the face, causing the squirrel to fall down. Some coins fell out of his pocket and the bear ran away.

Rief ran over to the squirrel, contemplating. On one hand, there was an innocent citizen lying unconscious on the ground, in dire need of healing. But on the other hand, there were countless coins on the ground next to him - and Rief wanted a weapon. He looked between the two, biting his lip.

"Shit," he half-yelled, and knelt down to the squirrel. He put his hands out in front of him and pushed out a Ply, at least enough to keep him alive. Once he was sure his work was done he eyed the coins and opened his pockets, stuffing them with as much as he could.

Beside him, the beastman stirred. "Hmmm..." He opened his eyes and stared at Rief.

"Wh-what? - are you do - "

"Thanks for the coins, bye!" Rief yelled, running away from the squirrel and hurrying into the weapon shop.

"Could I get a master rapier, please?" he asked the beastman behind the counter.

The beastman raised his eyebrows. "Say, weren't you just in here - "

"Rapier, please," Rief repeated, eyes narrowed. He slammed his hand on the counter, startling the other shopkeeper in the building. She averted her eyes awkwardly.

"Um, sure," the beastman replied uncertainly. He retrieved the weapon from a shelf behind him and set it on the counter. "That'll be sixty-eight hundred coins - "

Rief flung out the coins from his pocket at him, grabbing the rapier and cackling madly as he ran out of the store.

...

"I have a rapier!" Rief shouted from the center platform of Belinsk, grinning and breathing hard.

"Oh, there you are, Rief."

Rief turned around and saw Karis and the rest of the group. He still grinned.

"I have a weapon!"

Matthew stepped up to the platform where Rief was and grabbed the rapier.

"No, you don't," he stated simply, chucking it over his shoulder, causing the others behind him to duck. A screeching cat was heard in the distance(but it is unknown whether it was a beastman or just a regular cat).

Rief sank to the ground and wept.

A/N: So I feel a little stupid writing this, but whatever. It's just, whenever I replay DD, I get to the point where Amiti joins and I just ditch Rief and sell most of his stuff for coins. He never gets upgrades until the very end of the game, before I beef everyone up to fight Dullahan. And...yeah. Rief's just annoying, honestly. He's nothing like Mia and he needs to shut up. So I decided to express my unjust hate towards him in this one-shot. It was funnier in my head, though, probably. Hope you liked it!