She Takes Precautionary Measures

On the way there, Robin once more donned her mask, since she did not wish to be known by the soldiers.

At the soldiers barracks, Keith was quickly recognized, along with Christian. They were immediately granted access, and brought to the captain's office, after the two thugs were checked for any spells, potion effects, or poisons. The inhibitor potion was naturally confiscated. After confirming the negative, the unfortunate unconscious wretches were thrown into a cage to await judgement.

Robin was surprised at how quickly they worked, and how quickly they allowed Robin's group access to the captain's office, but also realized that it was most likely due to the two high profile persons she had arrived with.

The captain had gone out to patrol the area, and a messenger had run out to inform him about his guests. While they were waiting for the captain to arrive, Robin stared down at the floor, a thoughtful scowl upon her face. Christian, noticing, asked.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Well, from the sounds of it, this slave trader person is not any average person. I mean, if it was an average villain, you wouldn't need the royal inquisitor. You also wouldn't need to check the perpetrators for speech inhibitor spells, death spells, potions, poisons, and such.

This means that the person involved is, not your ordinary thug, but a careful and cautious villain. But, the fact that those two ruffians didn't even have a speech inhibitor spell...perhaps those two aren't that much of a threat to this trader guy, or..." Robin paused, and did not voice out her other ideas.

Her next idea was that the Trader might very well have an inside man or several among the soldiers barracks who were there to make sure that any people like the captured thugs were "offed" before any information could be extracted from them.

In fact, it was indeed probably the case that the Trader had one, or several inside men acting as informants. otherwise, the fact that he had evaded capture for this long, didn't make any sense.

The main areas where the informants were likely to be, in the case of an inside job, would be the soldier's barracks here in town, the bandits and towns on the route to the capitol, and possibly one or several of the soldiers within the capitol as well. In the worst case scenario, even the royal inquisitors could be involved. If that were indeed the case, then Robin had placed herself in direct opposition to a very powerful and influential villain.

In the case of inside men within the soldiers barracks, if the two thugs were not killed, then that meant trouble. Because that would mean that Robin's group would be targeted by the insiders. Although Robin's outward appearance had not changed, her eyes glinted sharply, before they returned to their normal appearance.

It was at that moment when a soldier arrived with a tray of tea and tea cookies.

"I thought I'd bring some refreshments while you wait for the captain to return." He explained as he set the tray down and stood back.

"Oh tea! Wonderful, I have a raging thirst after all that fighting." Robin smiled brightly as she picked up the teapot, then paused, and looked up.

"Is there anything else?" She asked the soldier, noting his face details down in her head.

"No, nothing." The soldier replied.

Robin nodded "Oh, good then! It's a bit embarrassing, but I am not in the habit of letting others watch me drink, as my tea manners are horrendous. These two, here, are still helping me learn court manners. So, could you please turn a blind eye as you wait for me to finish outside the door?" She asked.

While the soldier looked confused, and glanced at Keith for confirmation, Keith only nodded, acknowledging Robin's claims. Reassured, the soldier stepped out of the room.

"Robin, what are you-" Christian began asking, but Robin put a finger on his mouth, smiling dangerously.

"Hush. I need to concentrate in order to pour this correctly, otherwise it might accidentally end up being poured all over your head. Understand?" She said, winking an eye and tilting her head towards the door, hoping Christian would just take the hint for now.

While Christian didn't understand why Robin was acting so strangely, he noted that right now he should restrain his speech to about tea.

"Can I ask why you want to continue learning this right now?" he asked. (Why are you acting so weird?) he wrote magically in the air, out of sight from the door.

"As a precaution. We can't have everyone know that the Hero is a brutish commoner without any manners, after all." (because, for several reasons,i have reason to believe that the tea might be drugged) was her air written reply in a corner blocked by Keith.

"Well, first off, you are holding it all wrong..." Christian began.

While Christian began speaking about the rules of properly pouring and drinking tea, Robin smelled the fragrance of the tea first, then poured the entire steaming pot bit by bit into a leather flask, she had taken out. After that, she replaced it with a different flask from her magic bag, and interrupted Christian.

"Oh darnit! We drank all the tea up while I was practicing. I didn't even get to try the tea snacks yet!" Robin exclaimed, in frustration.

"Oh? And here I thought that we could end the lesson here. you don't want to get too bloated to be unable to drink tonight, after all." Christian joked.

"Just for that, I insist! Here, i have my cold tea that I prepared for the journey in this flask. why don't we continue our practice? Is there anything I need to know about eating the tea snacks?"

Robin quietly swept a quarter of the snacks into her magic bag, and crumbled another one placing the crumbs in places where the tea snacks were supposed to be placed.

When she was finished, she grabbed a few of her own baked cookies out of her bag, and handed them to Keith and Christian, who eagerly munched on them as they waited for the captain to arrive.

By the time Robin was finished, it hadn't yet been ten minutes. all the evidence for a potential drugging or potion incident had been stowed away in her bag for evidence later.

While Robin was busy gathering the tea and snacks, Keith took out a magic instrument, and tested the residue in the teapot, as well as the cup rims and handles. At this point he revealed his findings. (Sleeping drug in the tea, and Inhibitor potion in the snacks) was what he shared via magical writing.

"Can we put this to rest now?" Christian caught on, and yawned loudly. "Now you know pretty much everything. Wake me up when the captain gets here. I'm gonna grab forty winks."

"Hey...no fair." Robin also yawned, "I also want to catch forty winks. Have Kenmei keep an eye out."

Kenmei moaned. "These old bones aren't what they used to be. And you're the main witness. No need for my help. You'll do fine..." His voice trailed off into silence.

"Kenmei?....Kenmei??" Robin asked in a sleepy voice. A resounding realistic snore echoed in the room.

"Darned traitor.." Robin grumbled sleepily. "And here I am, unable to keep my eyes open...Stupid Captain, why haven't you arrived yet? I need my sleep too..." Then her voice, too fell silent as she also slumped over, pretending to fall asleep.

All was quiet in the room, aside from steady breathing, and Kemnei's snore. It was at that point when the door was opened. The soldier who had brought the tea, stood over Robin and grinned evilly.

"That's because the captain ain't coming. The messenger we sent out was a fake. He's still making his rounds about the town, leaving me with plenty of time to deal with you." He answered Robin's question.

Keith and Christian were too high profiled to be murdered in the soldier's barracks. But Robin was fair game. If he silenced Robin, then the main witness would be missing. He could always make up some story about how Robin stumbled out and killed the thugs himself, before running out into the night.

But, before the soldier could lay a hand on Robin, he paused as a knife appeared in front of his throat. A cold shiver traveled up his spine.

"Oh? I am very interested in how many people make up this "we" that you are talking about." Keith drawled lazily as Christian shut and locked the door.