The Plan( Part 2)

Isadora shrugged. " Every last member of the bureau will be dead by then, so I doubt they will feel much of the repercussions."

" ...…" Rumius was at a loss for words. 

"...…"

"….Please tell me that there are benefits." He finally pleaded. " And please tell me you have a plan." 

Isadora replied with a smile,

" Of course I do."

Trotting to her cloak hanging limp on the door hanger, Isadora reached in and pulled out a small square piece of paper, no larger than her palm. Almost thoughtlessly, she flung it into the air with two fingers. The paper sailed up in a small curve and floated where it reached the peak of its ascent. 

There was a rustling and slapping of paper on paper as the small fragment expanded like unfolding origami. A significantly larger sheet, slightly yellow and laden with intricate lines which Rumius saw through the thin material, floated down to Isadora's open hand. She walked over to the small desk and laid it out. 

" Come here." 

Rumius quickly scampered over to where his master was and climbed on chair. His eyes widened. 

' The parched sands, the first quarter, the second quarter, the black perch…'

" This is.." 

"…a map of Agravoss." Isadora nodded. Running her hands over the paper, she jabbed at a point in the city's centre, nearer to the second quarter, close to the eastern gates. On the point where her finger met paper, a small annotation contained the words Citadel of Order.

" What do you remember from the outlined plan?" Isadora asked. " We're going to follow it."

Rumius looked at his master with thin eyes and an exhausted expression. ' Your plan is to follow their plan? That's not a plan! '

Isadora glanced at her apprentice, expecting his answer, but only to see him turn away quickly.

'Phew…'

 " We start by working with the bureau to investigate our three suspects."

" The Treasurer, The Administrator( Right hand of The Overseer) and The Overseer." Rumius recalled slowly. " Umm, while we do this, the Bureau will make preparations to deal with the bandits out in the desert.

The plan is to subdue the corrupted official before the bandits can even step foot within the city."

Isadora nodded at her apprentice's words. " Go on."

Rumisu stole a glance at his master." Once we determine our suspect, we need to report back to the bureau. They will then dispatch a subjugation party to arrest the suspect. We will stand-by until they need us."

Rumius's memory trailed off. " I didn't read the last sheet…I think." He admitted meekly. 

The demons were using them to complete the hardest parts of the task. Then they would swoop in and take credit. While that wasn't of his concern as long as they were paid, why were they involving themselves in a obvious problem of politics? He wanted to get to Limia as soon as possible.

Could it be that master was interested in the rewards? 

Turning back around as she pointed to the same point on the map, Isadora traced her finger outwards along the Main Street leading to the Citadel Of Order and to a large square structure. Across the city, five other structures could be seen. 

" Here. This is the central garrison of the city. Do you how many soldiers it hosts?" 

Caught slightly off guard by the strange question, Rumius thought for a moment before giving an estimate. 

" Two hundred? Maybe three hundred?" He asked, to which Master nodded her head. " Good guess. It's should hold that many yes. But as of now, only thirty men are stationed here." 

Rumius's eyes widened in shock as Master brought her hand across the map and pointed to another square and said: " The same situation is happening at the western garrison. Right now, only the western and central garrison hold soldiers. The total force defending this city doesn't even reach fifty men." 

' Not even fifty men?' Rumius couldn't believe his ears. 

' Does this include ordinary law enforcement as well? If it did, then how many fighting men were there to even defend in the case of an attack? Why was the city so shorthanded?'

Rumius had an inkling to the last question. " Did one of the three suspects order them away?" He asked. 

Isadora nodded." Yes." 

With this in mind, Rumius suddenly had another question. He asked with a frown: " Wait, why can't we just tell who the corrupted official is from tracing who gave the order?" 

" If things were that easy then we wouldn't be having this conversation." Isadora scoffed, interjecting. " Think about who we're dealing with. Will they cover up their tracks? How will they do it? Why take such risks? Do you think they would leave themselves open by showing such a weakness?"

Rumius was taken aback by master's sudden rebuke. It left him temporarily speechless.

" It's true that we can follow the tracks of this order, and we have. However, the problem still persists which means…." She left sentence hanging for Rumius to finish.

" It was a dead-end." Rumius concluded, stammering. " Do they have some kind of really good excuse?" 

Isadora snapped her fingers as a smile of approval appeared on her face. " Very good." She praised. The rare compliment sent shudders through Rumius's body and heart. 

" Have a listen to this," Master snorted, talking on a sudden authoritative and declarative tone. She read aloud an extract in the plan's details. " To aid in the impending war against the Human Race, Lord Overseer of the city Agravoss pledges three hundred soldiers to the service of the Demon General Ausrot Of The Plains Of Blood. "

"To aid efforts to preserve safety of the routes moving in and out of the city, three hundred soldiers to assist the patrols of inland routes. "

" To aid the reconstruction of destroyed roads and bridges in the region, a hundred soldiers to be deployed to escort the builders and woodmakers." 

" To aid my plans to mount a coup, five hundred bandits and two hundred men at arms of my personal army."

 Looking at him, master snickered with a self-deprecating laugh." Unfortunately for us, these are all valid problems and clauses. Agravoss is also unlikely to ever be attacked at all. Normally, the only entity with enough firepower in this region would be Limia."

 " I suppose those lofty generals in their great seats would have never expected a coup now of all times. " 

Then, as if realising that she had gone off topic, Isadora returned to the map. " In any case…if we don't have much choice but to follow their plan. We start here at the Citadel tomorrow. These are the main parliamentary seats of cities in the demon realm. If we visit other cities in the future, then you would be wise to remember them."

Isadora tapped her finger on the dot.

" The Administrator seldom leaves his office at the citadel. As such, we will be going to see him first tomorrow morning. The Overseer I will be the hardest to find. He rarely stays in one place. In fact, all we have is his face. Here."

Isadora handed Rumius the unseen fourth page of the plan's report. On it, Rumius saw a detailed sketch of the three demons, drawn in black ink with intricate detail. 

The portraits showed their appearance from the chest up, with all of them wearing a sort of a formal vest over a doublet. A variety of accessories hung around their necks as Rumius made his way up to their faces. 

" Master, are there different races amongst demons?" He asked. Isadora turned away from her map and gave her apprentice a quizzical look. " No. why?" 

Rumius pointed to the pictures. " I've just noticed that two of them are humanoid. But the other…" 

" Ah I see." She took the paper from his hand. " Well, you're not wrong about making that assumption. It's slightly complicated, so I'll make it brief."

Pointing to the pictures of the overseer and the treasurer, the former being a demon with long horns, a human-like face, and long bread while the latter being a younger, nearly middle-aged man, also with long horns but clean shaven.

" There two are True Demons, born with the blood of the Demon King in their veins. You can consider them to be nobility. As for this one…" 

She jabbed a finger at the portrait of the Administrator. " He is a Demon. Just an ordinary Demon. People like him are like commoners in demon society. That's the reason they don't resemble the Demon King. They are subject to the squall of nature's decisions." 

Rumius had always found that his master an apt way of putting words. Because in this case, it was really like so. Unlike the regal and refined aura that the other two demons had, The Administrator felt like a demon out of his element. Muscles bulged from under his formal wear, not appealingly, but in grotesque and painfully uncomfortable way that would result if an adult forced himself to wear the swimsuit he had when he was five. 

Topping it all off was his lack of horns and instead, he had the face of a horse complete with its buck-teeth and wide spaced, ogling eyes. 

Master returned the paper to beneath its three brothers and directed Rumius's attention back to the map. " That is also another reason we're going to investigate The Administration first. If anything, he is the most suspicious and influential of the lot. He also has the most to gain if a coup is successful." 

Rumius nodded slowly. " What happens if we're not able to find whoever is corrupt?" 

Isadora paused for a moment, them shook her head. " Unlikely. With their plan close to fruition, a sudden check will undoubtedly throw them off even by a little. Just leave this part to me. Like I said, I only need you to play your part towards the end." 

" Okay." 

" The rest will occur as detailed."

The plan was simple enough to follow. Frankly, a lot simpler than Rumius had thought it would be. Nevertheless, master still hadn't given him an answer that he needed. However, seeing how much she was invested in this already made Rumius question the need to ask the question. 

' Besides, she's signed a contract already. I can't afford to have her pay the price, so isn't that enough of a reason?' Rumius resigned himself with a sign. ' I guess we're doing this.' 

Seeing as the map had no more use, Isadora rolled up her map and crushed it with both hands. 

Rumius's cried out when he saw the scene, but a moment later, master's hand opened to reveal the map, once again in its original form that was the size of a post-it. Rumius's face flushed with heat as his Master returned the mystical map back into the folds of her cloak. 

" So, any questions?" 

" Um…ah…no. I don't have nany questions." Rumius said, twisting his tongue. 

" I see." Isadora said. "...are you not going to ask me why we are doing this? I remember that being one of your questions earlier." 

Not for the first time, Rumius jumped as his master showed her power to seemingly read his mind. Stammering out the answer which he had satisfied himself earlier, Rumius stood awkwardly as Master nodded her head in appreciation. 

" A very mature response." She praised. " But not always desirable." 

Isadora fixed her student with stern yet, to him, unprecedentedly warm eyes. " When doing anything, you should have purpose. Any goal without power and resolve back it up is meaningless, just like any power with no goal to direct itself to." 

Rumius bowed his head and nodded glumly. 

" Now, as for the reason why we're going through all this trouble, well…" Isadora chuckled. " It's for you."