>>6092216“I’m also pretty certain she’d find a way to sneak in if we didn’t allow her, and that’d only serve to make my workload larger. You aren’t sneaking out again, by the way.”
“I didn’t plan to.”
“Uh-huh, sure.”
“Commander, your food is getting cold.”
“Oh,” You forgot about that, “Right.”
It’s with a full stomach that you manage to convince Red to let you walk around the moonlit halls of the palace. It helps with digestion, after all, and the chirping of birds and bugs at night does well to mask the sounds of conversation. At least more so than the echoes of your large and mostly empty room. However, you take a slight detour in your mostly silent walk so that Red can “dispose” of Edith by forcing her upon your exhausted brother. The way the intense woman’s tail started to furiously wag at the sight of him and her child together was certainly a weird sight. But after all that, you find yourself sitting on a bench surrounded by hedges and flowers overlooking a large fountain. Alyssa sits next to you while Red looms a few feet away, arms crossed. By this time of night, only a few should even walk across the garden, and with your hushed whispers, they shouldn’t be able to hear any of your conversations.
“You were with Asher earlier, right? Was Marie there? What are they doing? I want to know everything,” You ask in rapid succession once Red signals that no one is around. Then you immediately catch yourself and eye the wolffolk demihuman, “Everything that you’re allowed to-”
“Kid, I’m a part of the Royal Family. I know everything everyone else here does, that includes your Stranger buddies.”
“Stranger buddies? That’s a rather nonchalant way to address what most people, including father, see as demons,” You goad to get her reaction.
Unsurprisingly she shrugs again, “I’m Adamantite, you don’t get that high up in the Guild without witnessing some crazy shit. Sure, this Inquisition shit is new to me, but it’s not exactly surprising. You get that?”
“What could be stranger than-” You catch yourself again, looking around for any spying servants or guards.
Red groans, “That’s not really important to you know, is it? Pretend I’m not here.”
“Hphm, fine. Alyssa, speak.”
The maid nods, “Asher has been working with Lord Beneger for most of the day, seeing about the application of the ‘Slaver’s Crest’ Cheat Skill you and him recovered on the Stranger he captured this morning, the one we fought against.”
You make a face, “They’re using that thing? How? Why?”
“It was under Lord Beneger’s orders, sadly I have no other knowledge. However, I also learned Asher underwent a ‘Phonecall,’ a form of strangetech communication, with another Stranger in Ivern who has apparently been compromised. Said Stranger has been instructed to hide until a train arrives to extract him. The train will leave early tomorrow, Asher will be onboard.”
You force yourself to continue, hoping to process that as Alyssa continues to talk, “What about Marie?”
