8 Heated Negotiation
Infiltrating the castle was very easy than I thought with almost all of those agents out there spying whoever the crown deemed noteworthy, and the main barrier magic surrounding the castle was the type to withstand a siege.
What I need was only my C-rank presence concealment and active camouflage tech embedded inside my attire as assurance, and with a flash, I was already in front of the library door.
Entering the room, I deactivated the camouflage and found her sitting on a sofa while sipping tea. I didn't know whether she was expecting me or this is just her taking a rest.
"Oh? Isn't this Will, what do I owe you a pleasure?" well I think it was the former reason. She smiled gently though I have a feeling that was not her intention.
"Well, I'm just visiting the neighborhood when I see the castle front door left unguarded then I decide to visit the beautiful Onee-san that lived here" with a playful smirk, I casually answered.
"Is that so? Then I'm flattered."
"Huh? Who was saying that Onee-san lived in this dusty library?" a tick mark suddenly formed on her forehead while her gentle smile grew menacingly.
"You know Will, don't your parents teach you a saying to not step on a griffon tail?" killing intent sharply rose and filled the room. Huh, did she have appearance complex or something? Looks like it's time to go serious.
"Let's cut the chase nee-san, and honestly you are beautiful in my eyes nee-san" I sat on a sofa across her.
"Hmph, like flattery from a brat mean something to me" Oi Oi nee-san, didn't you just say the opposite thing earlier?
"Well, I need something from you"
"So I thought when I felt your presence in the front door, then what do you need?" whoa, so she already detected me. Looks like my hunch was true, she was either one of those agents or a direct subordinate to the queen or the king though I'm sure it was the former.
"Ah, it's about the king plan for Naofumi-san tomorrow morning" I started with my secondary objective since I was sure this will be her priority. And I accidentally read the king plan when I sneaked to his chamber.
"then it's hopeless, the king won't listen to me and he is too blind to read the queen order" she continued with a grim tone, "And with the stealing of the castle treasury, I fear he will be pinned with another baseless crime and the worst scenario he will be executed" then she stared at me like a hawk "we tried to stop the news to reach outside the castle, and will you do have something to say regarding this incident, don't you?"
"I'm afraid I just holding them hostage, nee-san" with a sweat I divert my eyes from her. Whoa, I never thought it will come to this, granted I thought the king won't become this fool to execute a guaranteed soon-to-be hero.
"Will, I know you're not an ordinary boy the moment when reports came in from my subordinate who got traumatized when they tried to spy on you" holding her forehead in frustration, she even didn't care when blurting out a supposed to be secret information of her "but this? You know how many hours we spend to devised many plans and tried to convince the king to stop his blind contempt on the shield hero and your deed just makes him more justifiable to punish him!" she was struggling to hold her composure.
"I just can't help it when something shiny shoved in front of me you know" that was partly true when I can just waltz in inside the treasury.
"Sigh, there are still a few hours and you can return us the things you have stolen"
"Only 80% of them, don't you feel pity about two kids stranded in another world without money nee-san" I won't go down without a fight even this go down until tomorrow and Naofumi-san ended up dead I couldn't bring myself to care about that. My priority was to secure at least the crafting materials and the metals.
"Half of the treasury is not a small sum to recover within years, will and since when I cared about two little thieves? I just need to arrest you right here right now" the room once again permeated with killing intent as I felt numerous presence headed into this room.
"Hoh, is that so nee-san?" looks like I need to play my card, I thought as motes of blue particle materialize above me and three blades emerge from it and point it to her. I don't need to show more than this, as I intend to intimidate her.
The blades were not a mere blade as they were the failed prototype noble phantasm I made from Excalibur Morgan borrowed from Altria as she has every her counterparts Noble phantasm and weapon, but so far she was only able to unlock the twin Excalibur heroine X wield. It may be failed and didn't have even an ounce of the original power still it's a demonic blade that oozes strong killing intent enough to makes veteran marines piss in their own pants.
"Fine, I will return 95% of it with the exception of material and metals" I can't let the worst to happen as I haven't achieved my main objective yet.
"Hmm, fine at least we can put someone into a scapegoat with this and return it to the king" she complied easily than I thought but I was grateful for this and I can at least read some of her plan regarding that.
"Sorry nee-san, I didn't mean for this to be this way" I returned the blades into the inventory as the numerous presence I felt stopped halfway and merely observing us outside.
"Sigh, you make me worry when you started to summon those swords, then with this we conclude our negotiation and also you need to return the gold soon" she was very eager to cease this conversation, though I won't leave her with just this!
"Of course and actually, I have one more thing nee-san" I chuckled softly.
"sigh, just make this quick and I'm very tired right now" whoa, she sure sigh a lot. Was it like this when Altria often saw me sighing at her?
"No, I just want to know have you heard the legend of the golden city?"
"Every adventurer and scholar at least ever heard of that legend, you want to investigate it do you?" looks like her brain is in the maximum throttle as she must be thinking to quickly quit this conversation
"Yeah, and perhaps do you know at least some clue of it"
"Please wait a minute" she stand up and went to her desk, grabbing a parchment she wrote on it after a while she return and sat back to the sofa. "here, take this to the village southeast from here, there you will meet an old lady by this name, she is an old friend of my master and I'm sure she has the information you need" grabbing the perch I stored it in one of my pockets.
"Thank you Nee-san and can I dropped the gold here?" she tilted her head in confusion
Not waiting for her answered her, I pulled and dropped every single gold to the floor from my inventory. She seemed unfazed by this and too tired to raise a complain as I see her eye twitching occasionally,
"There nee-san, I included the last 5% of the gold as thanks for the letter though I still take 100 gold for myself"
"Sigh, thank you will, and do me a favor not to do these kinds of things anymore"
"As an apology offer, here take some of the desserts I made," I said as some desserts materialize on top of the table.
"Uhm" she smiled, thank god she accepted it. I don't know what to do if the next time I met her and she started to hold some kind of prejudice towards me.
I stand up and said my farewell to her, "see you next time Nee-san" as I opened the nearest window facing the town, then jumped through it.
"really, that boy is very handful" shaking her head as she gazed at the window Will jumped through. Turning to the pile of gold behind her, she claps her hands "all right, let's clean this up and report to the queen" then various figures instantly appear inside the room, no doubt helping her to clean up the mess Will made and her usual endless working hours.
