Chapter 48: Wrap-up & End of Second Story Arc
Anne led Lupy into the usual bakery. As they passed through the back room, the usual men were hanging out, scarfing down pastries. When Lupy reached the office, she realized that same man who had tested her earlier was standing there waiting. The men who had been eating in the previous room also stood and walked over to the office. Lupy flexed her hands, getting ready to grab her weapons.
“Hold on, Lupy,” said Anne. “We just have questions to ask you.”
“Questions?”
This time the man spoke. “We’ve been looking into your background to make sure you’re not hiding anything from us. We do this for everyone who comes to work for us.”
“He still hasn’t found all my beautiful ex-girlfriends!” one of the bozos in the back shouted.
“Not now. Lupy, what has your adventuring friend Vulp been up to lately?”
“Vulp?” Lupy thought about what to say. “Rufus helped her pick out a shield and then his family adopted her, I think?”
“Have you heard that she’s being praised for her performance during the battle?”
“What? No! Why does she get—“
“Uh, Lupy… What I really want to know is, what is your friend trying to accomplish by cozying up with the new Lord’s family like that?”
“Accomplish?”
The man made eye contact with Anne and then looked back to Lupy. “Why did she allow herself to get adopted so suddenly? I think everyone in the city except for Rufus’s father realizes she’s not really going to marry him. What’s her motive here?”
“…Snacks?”
Anne slammed her palm to her face, but she let her partner continue the questioning.
“And is that why your white mage friend is suddenly spending all her time receiving special lessons from the Church?”
“No! She said the food at the Church is bad.”
“Then why?”
“The Church asked us to help bring a priestess to a dungeon so she could learn, uh, why the world goes around the sun. And how fast.”
Anne noticed the man’s puzzled look and jumped in. “Lupy, why would that result in your friend learning at the Church?”
“It was a trade. We help their priestess, they help Kat learn to heal two people at once using only one hand, I think?”
“A—Anyway,” Anne continued, “do you realize who your black mage friend is training with lately?”
“Harold! He lives in a dirty place and brings rats back to life.”
“Y—Yes. How is it that you and your friends convinced a necromancer to teach you such unusual magic?”
“I don’t know. He’s weird and his home smells. Rats are kinda gross.”
The man stepped back into the conversation. “Lupy, the last member of your Guild group has been spotted performing some suspicious acts. I’ve heard rumors of special agents from the Guild, but they’ve never been confirmed before. Is it possible—“
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“Oh!” Lupy’s face lit up. “I know this one! She’s a Guild Agent!” Lupy looked around, confused, as everyone around her seemed stunned. “Oh, wait, I’m not supposed to… Don’t tell anyone I said that. Please!”
“I…” Anne stumbled over to a chair and sat down. “I give up.”
The man shook his head. “She’s…”
Anne finished his thought. “She’s either the best undercover operative in history or she’s exactly what she seems like.”
The men by the door patted Lupy on the shoulder and returned to their table. One of them congratulated Lupy, although she wasn’t sure exactly what she was being congratulated for.
“Lupy, your skill is not in question, but we just needed to verify you weren’t secretly working for someone else. With so many suspicious circumstances surrounding your friends, we had to be sure,” Anne explained.
“Okay.”
The man took over. “As you’ve probably figured out, we serve the greater good, but we’ll take on anyone who threatens our family and friends, whether they be a hoodlum in the street or the Lord of the Twin Cities himself. That’s why—”
“Oh! So you’re the ones who took care of the previous Lord?”
The man stumbled backward in shock.
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As entertaining as Lupy’s antics were, DM had to turn his attention over to other matters. He’d scold her later for revealing Bandit’s job, even if it ultimately worked in her favor. She'd also revealed quite an interesting secret...
DM would need to transfer his many adventurer prisoners over to the Twin Cities soon. They still had adequate supplies, considering how much the invasion force’s numbers had been thinned, but he couldn’t take responsibility for the rest indefinitely. Fortunately, Bandit was on her way back to the Guild with the other girls. She’d work out the details with the Guild Master. DM expected that they would be released so long as they didn’t say or do anything stupid. As far as DM could tell, they had been forcibly included into the Union’s invasion force.
Daphne was at her inn, being consoled by her party members. Apparently, the Guild’s desire to reward her for best thinning the Union’s numbers didn’t help her mental state any. She told her friends that the spirits were suggesting she return home, not permanently, but just until she felt better. One by one, each of her party members sighed at the prospect of traveling west yet again, but each one gave her a cheerful thumbs up.
Coincidentally Barney was also at his inn, albeit in a different nation. DM charmed Barney and then wrote a short letter explaining the recent events in the Twin Cities and Barney’s future orders. The orders were pretty obvious though: Investigate why the Union took the actions it did, what the fallout was, and what they were planning to do next.
DM had a nagging feeling he was forgetting something but he really wanted to check in on Sasha’s party. He’d been neglecting keeping an eye on her with how busy things had been around the Twin Cities lately.
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The Guild Master put his pen down and looked over his shoulder at Bandit who had snuck into the room. “You’re getting quite good at that.”
“Thanks.”
“What happened?”
Bandit provided the exact story DM told her to, although it wasn’t terribly far from the truth. Bandit’s friends had journeyed to the Lower Gordu Dungeon soon after the battle to find Vera and bring her back to the Twin Cities. Vera, having been injured in all the chaos, was healed by Kat. They were just about to escort her back to the Twin Cities when Bandit arrived. She hid her true goal of being there on behalf of the Guild Master and pretended to be searching for her friends. From Kat and the others, she learned that the Dungeon Master had wiped out all the soldiers in the vicinity using his monster army and imprisoned the adventurers.
“Wait.” The Guild Master held up his hand to silence her. “There are over 100 adventurers held captive in the two dungeons right now?”
“Yes. Kat said the Dungeon Master mentioned he wants to transfer them here as soon as possible.”
“Things just got even more complicated.” He stared at Bandit. “This is a bit beyond your abilities right now.”
“Guild Master?”
“I’ll make the arrangements with Davidson to get them over here, and I’ll insist the Guild gets first crack at them all. There’s something I need you to do.”
“Yes?”
“Lord Davidson, and likely several others, are going to get summoned to the capital, I reckon. I’ll insist that adventurers go along to help with security, especially since a certain member of the Guild is likely to get an invitation as well.”
“Vulp?”
“Yes. The five of you will go as part of an official quest. Once you get there, tell Thaw or the capital Guild Master that I need Thaw back here right away.”
“To deal with all the adventurers from the Union?”
“Quite so.”
“All right.”
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DM’s vision shifted to Sasha’s. He half-expected to find her party engaged in battle against another wyvern, but that wasn’t the case this time. Instead, he saw something more surprising.
That nagging feeling that he was forgetting something was itself forgotten as he tried to figure out what was going on over in the Empire. The system message he had received before the Battle for the Twin Cities, when the dungeon reached LVL 11, remained unaddressed, at least for the moment.
>Additional creatures now available.
>The following additional LVL 11 creatures are available: Worm, Lich, Greater Demon, Dragon.