I surveyed the intersection for any spots that I could hide in. The sun was right over my head, so I wasn't navigating around in the pitch black. Wait, sunlight? There must've been an entry to this place above me. Maybe I could enter from the top and jump in when I wanted to ambush them. No, it was far too high. Even if I could slide down slowly I would still make some sort of noise, there were too many risks. Plus, once I got down I'd be right in the middle. They may have run away out in the open that night, but in this secluded space, they wouldn't hesitate to attack some random person who had interrupted their meeting. Who knows what they'd do to a public servant? I needed to find my way into this area from my normal entrance. Any organization with half a mind would meet in the middle of the night, or somewhere near that time. These were anarchists though, they may object to the concept of time itself. I would show up early in the morning, if they said they'd meet on Drenadora, then likely they would meet at some point throughout the day.

Wait, what if they were meeting at the start of Drenadora? If their plans started at midnight, the message to meet there would still be correct. It was settled, I would show up here and lie in wait for an ambush the evening before. Even if I'm wrong and I find myself waiting a whole day down here that's better than being unprepared and letting them go through with their plans without a hitch. I couldn't get the guards involved, this place was way too far from any entrance that I knew of. There was also no point in trying to fight them openly, if the weapon they had went off during a duel we'd all be turned to ash before I could say "Darn." or "What in tarnation?" I couldn't see much of the place now, so I'd have to come back another time with a lamp in hand to scope out the room, they would probably have lamps with them or some other way of seeing clearly. I needed to hide in a place that they wouldn't think to shine a light towards. I made my way back out of the sewers, but on the way back I noticed that nobody was around, at least I couldn't hear them. I walked silently, maybe the guards had found the entrance to this part of the sewers. If they knew about Llora's Ladle, I'd be struggling to find a new entrance so I could ambush Kingfall. Maybe they would too, but I couldn't trust that they didn't know more than your average delinquent. Once I got to the heavy metal door it was just swung open. The big guys who loved to act tough weren't there glaring at me like they usually do. I didn't have the time to question what could've happened, if I waited around here long enough I might be next. I came back out of the same trapdoor that I entered through but I didn't see any guards outside. I made a break out of the run-down joint and sprinted back to East Prym. Maybe while I was scoping out the sewer intersection some of them came by and arrested everyone they saw. I should count my lucky stars if they had decided to do a thorough search right there and then I'd be toast. Thrown in jail, unable to interfere with the devious plots at hand. Maybe I got out before they decided to come back and do that search. Either way, I needed to check up on the Ladle again to see if I still had a way to get back to that intersection.

As I was running back to my Base of Operations, I nearly got run over by a carriage on the royal pathway. The guards who were assigned to protect it got off of their horses, and they were screaming at the top of their lungs. Something about how I'd accosted the greatest royalty to ever live, only second to the royal family themselves. How "her excellence" wouldn't stand for such a display of disrespect. What happened to the days when I could just walk around? These nobles don't have any idea what I do to keep them safe. Though I guess if I went looking for their approval I wouldn't be as good of a public servant. The carriage had been stopped for a while even after the guards had thrown me to the ground just to get me out of the way. What was with the exhibit of power, what were they even trying to prove? The carriage door opened and a young girl stepped out. She had straight dark black hair that only got just above her shoulders. It glistened in the sunlight, but it was odd to look at. It was almost as though she was taking in the light from around her, absorbing the things that got close to her. A woman who I thought was her mother exited with her, and she yelled at the guards to get the carriage moving. I looked at the girl for no longer than a second and she turned away. She must have been taught at a young age to not stare at a commoner. Whatever, it didn't matter. I didn't have the time to care about this obnoxious girl when the very future of, well, everything was at risk. She rushed back inside the carriage and closed the door as hard as she could. The carriage went back to going along the road, and the guards glared at me for as long as they possibly could before turning back and leaving me alone.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

I finally made my way back to the Base of Operations, and I immediately pulled out a piece of parchment. This is what I would use to fully plan out my sequence of events for Drenadora, and also what I would do in preparation. I knew about the location, but I needed to scope it out more with a lamp tomorrow. I didn't even know if I could, so the first order of business was checking in on the entrance to the sewers after a day had passed to see if the city guards had ransacked the place for all it was worth. Finding a new entrance would be a pain, so maybe entering through the opening that allowed light to seep through was an option I had to consider. Wait, where was that opening? Getting to the intersection wasn't easy, the sewers wound themselves up like a ball of wool, there was no way I could check every grate around the city, I'd waste all my time that way. What the hell was I going to do if the Ladle was closed off for good?

No, I couldn't spend the rest of my time worrying about this. If the Ladle was taken over by the guards, then the sewers would be too. That would mean Kingfall would have to meet somewhere new. But where would they meet? They definitely had a way of communicating with each other outside of slips of parchment, but even if they didn't who knew when a golden opportunity like the one those propagandists got would come up again? They told me they wouldn't participate anymore, so even the threat of increasing their sentence wouldn't motivate them to do anything. I had to operate under the hope that the Ladle wouldn't be closed down when I went to learn more about the sewer intersection tomorrow, otherwise, I'd just be a sitting duck thinking about all the ways my plans could go awry. At that point, I'd be better off grabbing the gal and leaving the city. Chief Rayner would object, maybe she'd even come after me, but that would be a risk I'd have to take.

If the Ladle trapdoor is still open tomorrow and I find a way to get a good look at that room, I need to know what I'm going to do next. If I'm planning to ambush them, I need to think of that strategy first. I knew nothing about their combat abilities, maybe one of them was a mage even. I had to think wider, I needed to use strategies that would work on any target. My ability would have to be my knight in shining armor here. I knew the basics of fighting, I knew how to throw a punch or a kick. The rest would have to come from seeing that future, seeing what they were gonna do. They wouldn't expect to go up against an opponent like me, hell, they'd probably be surprised that anyone could have a power like that. Even so, I needed to take care of them quick. This wasn't the time to gloat or show off, for all I knew they could be highly trained assassins. That type of belief always took in people from the four corners of the world.

Could I get the guards involved? I still was hung up on the sight I saw leaving the sewer system, what if the guards really had raided that place? If they did know about it, I could give them the slip and they would figure it out themselves. A little innocent act is all it would take, who wouldn't believe a good samaritan who just happened to find a slip of paper with some interesting information? I'm far too young to know what any of these words mean. "Kingfall?" Is that the name of a new dish? This was my other solution, but it wasn't surefire. If Kingfall was going for gold, they wouldn't just waltz into this situation unprepared, they wouldn't even consider this if they didn't have the least bit of physical or mental prowess. Maybe they were grunts, but no good orchestrator sends the village idiot to carry out the pivotal moment. The guards possibly couldn't stand against them, even if they tried to fight them away it's likely that Kingfall would just rush through. If the goal was to just activate the weapon, who's to say that they even needed to fight the guards? Who's to say that they even needed to meet again? If they knew that someone was on to them, they could just carry out whatever plan of action they'd already made. If possible, I needed to deal with them myself, and I couldn't let them escape my ambush.

The final issue to confront was the circumstance where they brought the weapon with them to this meeting. I'm sure they'd use it against me, basically hold the whole city hostage if I didn't get it away from them. Wait, if they don't have the weapon, they don't have a plan.

This thing is likely one of a kind, and I don't think it would come by cheap. Forget taking them down, if I could just wait for the right moment, I could take the weapon from whoever brought it with them and make a break for it back to the exit of the sewers.

That was the piece I was missing, that was the plan.