DD 202 Ch 32 (Patreon)

Chapter 32

“Thank you for having us.” The president of the UG was at my campsite when I woke up. He accepted coffee from Fayeth as I sat down.

“You’re welcome here anytime. To what do I owe the pleasure?” I hid my concerns behind a smile.

I could not help but notice the timing. I wondered if they knew we were responsible for the assassination.

“Cozy place you have here right next to the event.” He commented rather than getting to the point. “Crimson really knows how to pick the places.”

Elysara came and sat down next to me while Tish worked to get her something to drink. “I guess the question is if you are here to see my husband or me?” She was quick to point out the new relationship between us since this summer.

The president of the UG was a big man covered in scars. Though, Crimson often called him a scaredy cat and people knew who she was referring to when she used that term.

I had seen him fight once when the naga attacked. All of those scars lifted off of him to become winged warriors like valkyries. They fought in formations, and he’d been successful against the naga where many other high level adventurers had faltered.

“A bit of both. I caught Crimson at the bar last night and secured a portal over here.” He gave us a goofy smile. “But I have business with both of you. First off, I wanted to thank the elves for holding back the naga again, but I also wanted to remind you of our agreement to share information.”

Ely leaned against me showing her affection rather freely in front of him. “The Naga have pulled back their assault and we’ve moved up our forces to hold the entrance to the 70th floor safe zone. It’s a small group of elites led by my father. As I understand it, they’ve had minimal encounters with them since forming. Ever since Crimson destroyed their forces, they have been less aggressive.”

“She also tore through their area of the dungeon. Maybe she spooked them.” I offered.

“Or they think there’s a way directly to the human side of the dungeon.” The UG president offered and rubbed his chin. “At least the offensive that had the elves worried this summer has died down. I wish we could offer more than trying to send Crimson.”

Ely held up his hand. “It is fine. Crimson is an extreme outlier. I understand.”

Crimson sat down next to me eating potato chips and slowly slid over until our hips were pressed together.

I found myself comfortably enclosed with both of them against me. There was really no option except to put my arms behind and around them unless I wanted to feel claustrophobic.

That only made them press closer.

“Ken is making waves. One of these days, he might be up there with me as an outlier.” Crimson smiled. “As for the elves, if they need help they can request it through Ken. Maybe next time I’ll bring him and show him how to fight the naga.”

I swallowed. She’d take me to see the naga?

“Thank you Crimson.” Ely nodded. “If we need it, I’ll request it through the Silver Fangs?”

“That would probably be more appropriate.” Crimson smiled at me.

The three of us were solving our problems without the UG. The organization would love to be the source for the elf’s needs, but the president stayed quiet as the two ladies spoke.

“I’m glad you two can work that out.” He coughed into his hand to reinsert himself to the conversation. “I noticed that you requested to pull out of some of our trade deals.”

Ah. That was part of this.

Ely nodded. “A representative of SJS Financial Group treated me rather poorly. I’m weeding out the deals that work with them directly or indirectly. The pain of that is that they seem to have their hands in all of it.”

The UG representative winced. “Yes they do. Perhaps we could get their CEO here to make amends?”

“Did they send you here to do that?” I frowned. It was distasteful that SJS had so much influence.

“I’ve had a few people suggest it to me. Holding together the UG is my job, which means giving a number of people influence, while trying to drive the whole behemoth forward in a way that betters adventurers.” The president shrugged. “I think keeping relations with the elves stable qualifies.”

“The CEO, that would be Prince Albar’s father?” Ely asked. “Personally, I don’t see the value in having someone’s father apologize. However, Prince Albar made it clear that he holds extreme disdain for the elves. I can only assume that he learned it from somewhere.”

“His father would prostrate himself to not lose those deals.” The UG president offered.

“Uh huh.” Ely was unamused. “I’m sure that’s so he can hide his sneer while he does it. I have no faith in them changing their ways after experiencing Prince Albar firsthand.”

The president was about to argue when the flap to our tent opened up and Ami stepped in. “President. Master.” She bowed to both of us, but ignored the ladies. “Ken, would you like to step aside for something?”

“It’s okay. You can speak here.” I wasn’t expecting her to implicate me in a crime.

She inclined her head. “A friend of the clan reached out and let us know that Prince Albar attempted to pay them for a hit on you.”

The President of the UG groaned and covered his face.

“Ah. He also put one out on the princess.” Ami’s eyes were smiling, though even after spending time with her, I could barely tell with the mask on that she was enjoying the situation.

“What?!” The scarred man stood up in shock. “Please, Princess. We will not tolerate this.”

Ely smiled lightly. “Consider all trade with the elves cut off until this problem is resolved. He is representing one of the largest players on your side of the table. For him to take such action has spoiled all relations.”

“What about my trade deal?” I asked, already knowing the answer but enjoying making a point.

“Oh. Of course that’s still going on. I’m not letting you escape, and you are family with elves at this point. Completely different.” Elysara waved away the comment.

“Sounds like you are in a pickle.” Crimson crunched a chip. “I’ll run any critical deals through the Silver Fangs and the Nagato Clan, but both entities are going to take… three percent.”

I watched as his eyes drifted to the side, clearly doing the math.

“Two.” He countered. “Only the critical ones, and I’ll make sure they don’t involve SJS. At least, not at the moment.”

“Fifteen percent for anything that involves them.” Ely added.

I raised an eyebrow in question.

“Squeezing money out of them is more painful than killing those types.” She smiled until her eyes squinted, but there was no joy in it.

“We should take you back home.” Neldra said, interrupting.

“Are you not enough to stop me from being killed?” Ely batted her lashes at her aunt. “Besides, if I die, just revive me. There’s not much here that can stop you from doing that.”

Neldra’s jaw tensed and she blew out a heavy breath. “When did you become so willful? It must be this one’s fault.” She glared at me, but there was no heat behind it. “Oh well. If something happens to her it’ll just shatter relations between humans and elves. I’ll probably have to draw my sword and do something about that.”

“No weapons in the house.” Crimson turned her head up to face Neldra as she purposefully bit another chip.

My mind had already sped forward, working through the current situation. I would not accept any situation where Ely was under attack. “What if we bring this out into the open? If Ely cuts the purse strings, people are going to have a lot of questions. Powerful investors are all over these deals. Don’t let SJS make anything up, or better yet, don’t let them pin it on you. We have credible evidence that Prince Albar attempted to put out a hit on the next empress of the elves and her husband.”

“You open the opportunity for someone to try and frame it on them then.” Neldra added.

I shrugged. “Someone was already trying to kill her. I’m saying taking care of that problem seems the most prudent.”

“Neldra, we are trading a certainty for a possibility. I think that’s a move in the correct direction.” Ely made her decision. “That is of course if you’ll run the story.” She turned back to the president of the UG.

“Of course, but that opens the door to more detailed negotiations of what deals are still happening.” He smiled.

Ely grunted. “Sure. Give me something in writing and we can work from there.”

The man shifted his attention to me. “Then there’s the reason I came here. It seems the safe zone below this area is completely wiped free of anyone. There were several reports of dangerous activity there.”

“If there were reports, then why ask me?” I huffed, annoyed at the UG.

“Because they were never a priority, at least that’s the report I got. Truthfully, it stinks of hands in the UG.” He shrugged. 

I wanted to hate that he knew the situation had not been completely fair but could shrug it off. Yet it was clear that with an organization the size of the UG, along with the fact that it was fractured from its inception, the UG had always been a tangled mess to manage.

“I’m afraid I know nothing about the safe zone. Well, except that Penny’s father asked for a loan to get himself set up there. I figured they’d welcome someone big moving in honestly.” Even if I trusted him, there was no reason to discuss what happened on a job.

“Hmm. I had hoped with your proximity, that you’d know more.”

“We visited that safe zone. Kind of a bleak place and didn’t return.”

The president of the UG leaned back and rubbed his chin. “Bleak how?”

“A bunch of people without CIDs living outside a castle with people who have CIDs.” Ami cut to the chase. “It was my job to scout the safe zone before my master entered it.” She gave a plausible explanation.

As always, Ami knew how to expertly make a comment without incriminating us. 

“I had her get a few names and investigate it. Ami?” I held out my hand.

She pulled out a folder from her CID.

I intended to play the situation as if I didn’t have this information until just now. “You’ve gone over it? What are your thoughts?”

“They all had significant debt to SJS Financial Group as well as were considered missing. I included information on the other missing people but have not had a chance to compare that to the residents of the safe zone. Sounds like I never will.” Her acting was impeccable.

“Shame.” I muttered and flipped through it before handing it to the UG President, eyeing him. “You don’t seem surprised at all.”

“Ever heard of the phrase ‘follow the money’?” He scoffed as he started to flip through. “It starts to feel like all the crimes roll up in some way to the ones that hold all the money. Damn, there are a lot of these. All of them are missing?” He asked Ami.

“Yes, Sir. It could be other reasons, but it's quite the coincidence.” She shrugged. “I was going to advise my master to steer clear of the safe zone after my investigation.”

He grumbled something about not reporting it to the UG and flipped through several more times before sighing. “Mind if I take this? I’ll get the news to pick up the attempted hiring of an assassin and have someone send agreements your way.” He rubbed his forehead. “Do I need to worry about you, Crimson?”

“Nope. I’m happy teaching my class. Well… I guess if there is trouble with my class maybe there will be trouble.” She smiled too nicely at him. “There’s no point for me to go solve this though. Ken will just kill anyone they send.”

I enjoyed her confidence, however, there were certainly ways to kill me. “We’ll be going into the raid and then back here. Neither of those situations make it easy for them to get us.” I said with calm confidence. 

“We’ll be there.” Neldra added in. “No chance she leaves my sight when there’s this threat on her.”

“Oh. Does that mean we get to watch next time? Humans are so prudish, but she was screaming last night.” Tish had some sort of roll in her hand that she was munching on.

“Conversation for when we don’t have guests.” Neldra said. “He’s human and might not appreciate your openness.”

“Sorry, sir. I hope I didn’t injure your sensibilities.” Tish gave a half-hearted apology to the president of the UG.

He grunted. “I think this is my cue to head out. Too much to do and too little time.”

“When you are done hiding behind that desk, maybe you’ll join the rest of us diving the dungeon.” Crimson teased him.

He smirked back at her. “Oh. You seem to be the one hiding behind your students, no?”

“I’m waiting for a suitable team that can keep up with me.” She put her head on my shoulder. “Ken already spars with me. It’s interesting fighting someone who’s even faster than me.” She waved her hand and opened a portal in a clear dismissal.

The President of the UG nodded his head in thanks and stepped through before Crimson closed her fist and the portal snapped closed.

“Two questions. Why do you always call him a scaredy cat or coward?” I asked.

“Oh. That goes back to when we did a level fifty-two raid. He was adamant about being the one to wait by the door. Des’ father organized the raid, and the only way he’d join was if he got to wait by the door and escape if things went south.” Crimson chuckled. “So among the high levels, it's a bit of a joke.”

“He’s a summoner so it doesn’t matter much where he stands?” I asked.

“No, but that doesn’t mean it’s acceptable. He did a great job on the raid and provided revives multiple times. Still makes him a coward.” She popped another chip in her mouth.

“Sounds more like a healthy dose of survival, but I understand. The rest of us are a little nuts with how we put our lives on the line.”

“It takes a certain type to dive the dungeon.” Crimson agreed. “The second question?”

“When do we go into the raid?” That was on everyone’s mind.

“Training today and tomorrow. Then I’ll portal everyone to the raid and go in with you all. The one who breaks her sword all the time can go too.” She smirked at Neldra. “But you don’t get to advise or help. Maybe revive because it’s tedious.”

Two days of training and then we’d be thrown into the raid. “We just get the day at it?”

“Yep. Then you’ll rotate out with the other schools. One day each. So you’ll get a stab at it every four days. I’d recommend you guys do as much as you can each time and then just return and focus on training. It’s going to give you guys about the best gear you can find unless you are over leveled and spending daddy's money. Just an example.”

I smirked at the idea of Prince Albar begging his father for more money right now. “Good, that leaves us time to settle the accounts from the betting. I really hope we snuck in enough bets while my odds were low to break any potential earnings, maybe even reach into his pockets.”

“I got fantastic odds.” Crimson chuckled darkly. “It was free money and he had the gall to think of me like an object.”

Her reminder hit me and I nodded. There was no time to waste sitting around and enjoying breakfast with a bet like that hanging over my head. “Right. Well, we can’t sit around all day. More training. Tish I want to fight you more.”

“Your funeral.” Tish shrugged and winced at whatever expression Ely was making. “I have revive. Worst case, I just use it.”

“He dies all the time, don’t worry about it.” Crimson egged her on.

“Yeah. Well, let’s try and not kill me.” I dusted off my pants. “Ami, please inform my grandparents of what transpired here. I’ll be busy.”

Equipping my weights, I went back to training. There was no way I was taking a day off and risking losing the lead I had already built.