The Plan

The door to the Tavern opened as the three headed in. Shinto who was at the forefront of the group sat down by one of the many empty tables as he took out a piece of paper with the logo of the hotel stamped on it.

"...What's that?" Greld asked as he scrunched closer to Shinto to take a look at the paper. The moment his eyes met with the paper, he saw that the contents of it were regarding the Monthly Pass provided by Lavida's Hotel.

"As you can see, this is the documents about the monthly pass stuff," Shinto answered. "They appear to be quite serious about the whole terms and conditions thing before accepting the monthly pass..." he sighed. He hadn't expected for the acceptance process to have taken quite a long while.

"That attendant lady emphasized on reading through everything which hurt my brain!" Frey said. "But at least that's over."

"I still don't get it, why did you go for the monthly pass?" Greld questioned, "...I'm sure you know that it's a scam... So why?"

"As I said earlier, we needed some insider info on how things work in the hotel as a monthly passer. So, Frey ended up taking up the pass. Although there was another way to get information without having to take up the pass, she insisted," Shinto said.

"But master! That way you suggested would take way too long! So just leave it to me and I'll do the information finding for you two!" Frey showed a thumbs up on the two, "I just need to find out info about the quality of food, the equipment and the quests given there right?"

"Yeah. While you do that..." Shinto quickly turned towards Greld. "You'll also be bringing in food made by Greld to tempt the people inside the hotel to give Greld's food a try."

"Got it!"

"Food made by me? What food should I make?" Greld asked.

"Anything quick to make, and delicious would be good. We just need something that has a rich aroma and out of the ordinary that the restaurant doesn't serve," Shinto said.

"Something quick to make and delicious with a rich aroma, hmm..." Greld thought to himself. "How about rice cracker bun?"

"Hmm, well, when you eat bite into the rice cake for the first, the aroma will spread around."

"Oh! Rice cake! Their so crispy, delicious and sweet... Their so perfect to eat! It should be good to tempt others right?!"

"Is it really?" Shinto questioned.

"Of course! I'm sure everyone would enjoy eating rice cake!" Frey said, "Have you not tasted one before?"

"...Not really."

"Hah?! Then you better try it! Mr Greld! Can you make a batch up?!" Frey shouted out, "Master has to try it!"

"Haha, I will make a batch up," Greld laughed heartily, "Would you like normal ones or spicy?"

"Ooo! Spicy is delicious! Can we have that? Master, you're fine with spicy right?"

"It's fine, I don't need to eat it," Shinto kindly rejected. "You can enjoy the spicy cakes yourself."

"Eh?! No! Food is enjoyable when there are more people to eat with! Do you not like spicy rice cakes is that why? Then we can go for normal ones!"

"...It's really okay," Shinto said helplessly. "We still have the plan to discuss about-"

"No, we eat spicy cakes first!" Frey pouted. "Plan can be later!"

"...Seriously?" Shinto blinked at such a declaration from Frey.

...

Within an unknown place, a man sat behind a desk as he tapped his fingers on it whilst reading through a report in his hands. While he read through it, he heard a knock from the door by the front.

"Come in," the man answered.

As the man answered the door, an attendant entered into the room. It was Amy.

"Amy? What brings you here today?" The man asked. Do you wish for a rise in your paycheck?

"I would very much like to have a rise in my paycheck, but, however, I am not here to barter with that today," she answered.

"Oh? Then what do you want?" The man averted his eyes away from his report as he locked them onto Amy's.

"I've come to report something interesting that happened today."

"Hmm? Go on."

"It seems that Greld is on the move again. It appears he is trying to make one last-ditch effort in order to save his business."

"Greld? The tavernkeeper?" The man laughed as he heard the name. "What can such a man do? If he keeps this up, he will suffer more losses than ever."

"Well, just this afternoon, he brought in two new adventurers to the hotel."

"And?"

"Those two adventurers appear to be planning something. Though I am not sure what, however, one of them, a person called 'Frey' signed for the Monthly Pass."

"Isn't it typical that Greld will bring in adventurers to our establishment? He asks them for help in hopes that they'll do something to save his business, but it ended up being in vain," the man shrugged. "He's just helping our business at this point with his many failed attempts. So what's so different today?"

"Well, usually, the adventurer's that he brings in would switch over to our side after some talk and temptation while they investigate the hotel,"

"Yeah? So what's so different than the last time?"

"This time, Greld followed the two adventurers to the hotel."

"And what does mean? He must have come to make sure they won't switch sides so soon."

"Yes, I was under such impressions as well, however. Those two adventurers that came with Greld were somewhat different, especially the man who was with him."

"How so?"

"The adventurers that Greld brought in gave off a different feeling than the previous people who he asked help from," Amy said. "During the tour, the man would oftentimes ask me questions about the hotel and once answered, he would then be keeping something in check. It is as if he's meticulously planning something."

"One of them was meticulously planning something? Hah. There shouldn't be anything to worry about, my dear attendant Amy," the man scoffed. "Even if they aren't those naive little adventurers that Greld would often ask help from, this wouldn't be the first time that there was one among those adventurers that knew what they were doing."

"...I know that. But I feel wary of him."

"Amy, you know that people can easily be swayed, yes? Those cases that I have mentioned, we can easily bring them to our side by casting a bigger bait. If it fails, we can always go down the dirt path," The man smirked.

"Still..."

"Do not worry about such miscellaneous things. What can one person do? You said that one of the two adventurers took up the pass, yes? So there would be nothing to worry about then," The man calmly said. "However, if you are, then just keep them in check. It should be easy with the many eyes in town, yes?"

"Yes, I will do so," Amy nodded her head as she left the room.