Since today is harvest day across the entire world, we have a veggie-heavy lunch. There's a not-spinach frittata that's to die for, and even Aoi likes it, probably because of the eggs. My favorite part of the meal is the crunchy bean pods, but the vegetarian fajitas come in at a close second.
Allura is the most hesitant about eating this exotic food, and she prefers the more meaty dishes or the ones with flour, like pies, but she still eats at least a serving of most of what's available, probably to be polite.
"Now that I think about it, don't you Verners have your own embassy?" I suddenly ask them.
"Of course, we do, but it isn't as big as this one or as comfortable," Léonne answers matter-of-factly.
"And it'd be harder to spend time with you," Allura blurts out, then flushes embarrassedly at her own answer.
"That, too," her mother agrees with a teasing smirk.
"Yeah, I'm fine with this," I hum back.
And fox mommy nods. "Of course, you are."
For the afternoon, we continue our combat training, but we don't immediately go heavy on it because we want to keep an eye on Yunia as she meets with the Thieves Guild.
We also tell the Verners what we're doing, and Léonne's response is…
"You could've just asked me for an introduction," she flippantly replies, sounding mildly offended. "We keep them on a tight leash around the Misty Low Forest, so I know the Council by name."
"I-I'm sorry, mother, we're not used to sharing information and asking for help," Alissa reflexively apologizes, surprising me with how averse she is to disappointing her mother. But then again, it shouldn't be surprising considering how far Alissa went as a Blood Slave to make her family proud.
And Roxanne immediately goes for some banter to lighten the mood, "Someone was simply too eager to extract information from our captives and then meet with a shady organization. It's almost like scheming is in her blood."
Yunia doesn't reply or even acknowledge the taunt, but her internal feelings say she's very annoyed… and a bit embarrassed.
Léonne seems to understand (and possibly even relate to Yunia) as the fox matriarch quickly calms down and starts to deliberate, "Individual meetings also have their advantages since the Council puts on masks whenever they meet, so I guess this shouldn't hurt."
And we simply nod along sheepishly in respect of our senpai from the Rupegian school of scheming.
Anyway, Yunia dons a shabby cloak to hide her stunningly beautiful elven features, and then she, Romy, Aneta, and Kyora take a [Gate] to an alley in the undercity.
Romy peeks out of the alley and remarks as she looks around, "Don't let anyone get close, Your Highness. I've seen thieves steal gems from armor after a mere bump."
Kyora grunts in agreement and adds, "They have a sneaky spell that's like [Manipulate Metal], but it instantly melts the armor around the gem, and they swipe it before you even feel the heat."
"How daring," Aneta hums as she adjusts Yunia's hood to make sure her face is well covered.
"We are in a shortage of enchanting gems, after all," Yunia remarks, wishing that Aneta wasn't wearing gauntlets so that she could kiss the hands of her diligent protector.
"Not for much longer, hopefully," the loyal silver elf brightly adds with a smile, then lowers the visor of her helmet and pulls up her hood.
"Hm," Yunia hums in agreement, and the other two bodyguards mirror Aneta.
The undercity/underside is the city under the surface, dug mostly by dwarves, but it still has a strong imperial flair. The area they're in is in the lower-class section, so it's a chaotic mess of roads, streets, and alleys that surround large apartment-like buildings that rise up to the ceiling.
It's kind of like Goloria in its design, but bad. At least the elven capital of the Eastern High Forest has maps and identifiable landmarks, but this part of Mac Gantus' underside has neither, and any long-range view is blocked by the tall buildings.
Luckily, the thieving duo we have captive know this place like the back of their hands, so they gave us clear instructions on how to reach the Prancing Little Ronti tavern.
Since it's a day of Fis, even the underside is filled with nature spirits, and a good number of the commoners that roam the streets are paying attention to the cute little plushies, but then the spirits start to stare at Yunia as she passes.
Gify suddenly pops out of existence, and a few seconds later, the spirits suddenly lose interest in the girls. Then my little griffin pops back onto my shoulder, looking quite proud of herself.
"Thanks," I hum and caress her back, right between her wings.
"Gih~…" she chirps back, her wings twitching in sync with my movements.
The underside doesn't look particularly dangerous… as long as you don't attract attention, like by being an obviously wealthy noble wearing incalculably expensive and heavily-enchanted armor, but we also can't have Yunia wear nothing, and that's why she needs to wear a cloak over her Bastión armor. Even going without a helmet is already risky since it leaves a very obvious weakness open for assassins to attack, but with [Precognition] and Kyora's presence, this much risk is acceptable.
The streets they walk along are fairly well illuminated, but the alleys aren't, though at least everything is very clean. The people aren't dirty either, as expected of most towns in the empire, and even though it's underground, the air feels fresh, so despite this area not being high-class, it isn't impoverished.
The Prancing Little Ronti tavern is a bit out of the way, though, and it has a rougher, adventurer-like crowd in spite of its name. The tavern is made out of cobble and decorated with dark wooden furniture, giving it a very rustic look, but the air is thick with the smell and smoke of cigars.
Sending four women might not have been the best choice as the overwhelmingly male patrons immediately notice the presence of female prey. Even with them hidden under a full set of plate armor, some men just have a radar for hot women.
Romy and Aneta immediately pull back their hoods, showing that they're fully armored, then open their cloaks to display the swords at their waists. They're wearing standard steel equipment, not the eye-catching elven wood stuff, but it's enough to stop most of the lecherous gazes. Then Kyora takes off her helmet, and her face and size convince the rest to mind their own businesses.
The four sit down and flag the imperial mommy waitress, who's smoking a type of cigarette. I wish I went with them because she's kind of hot and her experienced air makes me think it'd be nice to flirt with her.
"Harriet recommended this place to us. She said for us to take a private room and a bottle of Red Pilfer," Romy immediately requests.
The waitress remains silent for a couple of seconds as she puffs her cigarette, staring intently at Yunia's cloaked face, then hums back, "Follow me."
This is so corny that I'm almost cringing, but it also seems kind of fun to act shady.
She takes them to the third floor of the tavern, which is merely a set of corridors that lead to many rooms. Then she stops in front of a nondescript door and knocks.
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"Poiopo, visitors from Harriet," she dryly announces.
"Let them in," a male voice immediately grunts back.
The waitress nods at our group and then simply walks away.
Romy shrugs as everyone looks at each other, and Yunia silently nods, so the Asian woman promptly opens the door. On the other side, they see a stuffy, carpeted office, also thick with the smell of cigars and smoke, where a scrawny imperial wererabbit man is working at his desk, and behind him, three fully armored dragonkin muscle-brains stand guard.
"Harriet, huh? I assume you're the Ryders?" Poiopo asks in an aloof tone with his long cinnamon ears flopped onto his shoulders and his dark eyes trained on them.
Our group enters the office, which would be quite the comfy place if not for the smell, and Yunia pulls down her cloak. "Yes, we are."
"Gods. Even your gait is that of a pisser," he grunts with a sigh and starts turning over the many sheets of paper, parchment, papyrus, and other unknown materials that cover his dark wood desk so that we can't read them.
"Excuse us?" Aneta sternly asks.
He glances at the ornate bottle of alcohol and the shot glass by the papers but decides it isn't necessary for now. "Your steps are too confident for an adventurer. Even with your hood, I could see that your chin is too perfect for a commoner, and you lack the perfume to be a concubine, so you could only be a Lord. But your cloak is shit; work harder next time."
Yunia calmly strides toward one of the cushioned chairs and gracefully sits down. Then she narrows her blue gems at him and harshly replies, "I won't."
He sighs as he takes a cigar from a drawer and lights it up. "Suit yourself. Just makes it a pain to work with you, and the harder a job is, the more we charge." Then he touches the tip of his cigar to a gem embedded in his desk, lightning it up, and takes a drag.
"That's acceptable," she gently states, holding back on the elven smugness… for now.
He annoyedly stares at her for a couple of seconds and takes another drag before continuing, "So, what do you want?"
And she answers without skipping a beat, "The Graet Union of Enchanters has hired your services to steal one of our golems. We want to pay you to drop your contract with them."
"Return Harriet and Stanley first," he grunts annoyedly as he puts his cigar down on its tray.
"No," the elven Queen dryly states, her tone so poised that Poiopo immediately drops it.
"Then it'll be one hundred rose coins per month," the small rabbitman strikes back.
And Yunia narrows her eyes in displeasure. "Too expensive for the low quality of thieves you sent our way."
"[Gate] Masters are hard to come by in this line of business," he replies matter-of-factly.
"You can't seriously be suggesting that they're as expensive as one hundred Blood Slaves," she retorts with venom on her tongue.
But he becomes smug and shows an insolent smile. "We also miscalculated the danger of this deal, so we had to readjust the price."
Did he just give away that the Union is still hiring them to go after us?
"I'd be surprised if they weren't," Yunia remarks through [Bind], then snorts and dismissively replies to Poiopo, "Not only is that an outrageous amount, but I'm also competing with a merchant company, which will have an easy time out-paying us."
His smugness vanishes, replaced by irritation. "Why did you ask, then?"
And she finally unleashes her smugness as he has fallen for her trap. "I wanted to know if you're the kind who betrays your clients."
His floppy cinnamon ears press against his head as he grumbles through gritted teeth, "You-…"
But she interrupts him with a clear threat, "The Union's monetary power may be greater than ours, but we have other means to ensure that no other attempt is made on our golems." And her blue pair of jewels stare unwaveringly at the small, low-level bureaucrat.
The air quickly tenses up as the seconds pass, then Poiopo answers diplomatically after a short moment, "They could just hire other companies. The Guild is large."
"And we'll include anyone who supports them in our war," she delivers the follow-up with a chilling tone.
The dragonkin guards shift on their feet and put their hands over their swords, but Poiopo immediately raises his hand for them to stop, and they immediately relax. Then the little cinnamon rabbit remains silent as he considers his next words very carefully.
"A war with us will be costly," he quietly replies, his hand hovering anxiously over his cigar.
And now's the time for Yunia to drive it home, "You don't operate in the High Forest while we can use the Imperial [Gate] Network to cheaply and instantly send assassins anywhere. But also, let me remind you that we murdered a Decien and a Gifted and came out with minimal punishment."
He grabs the cigar. "It's known that your relationship with the Emperor is in a delicate situation."
"The Emperor doesn't care if some Thornian merchants die," she smugly replies.
Then he goes silent again as he takes another drag, then seems to calm down, resigning himself to his Fate. "I believe the cost of our services will soon become too expensive for the Union," he tiredly declares.
So Yunia pulls back on the intimidation and calmly states, "We'd be willing to pay for any information you have on them."
And he raises his eyebrows and floppy ears bemusedly, in disbelief of her audacity.
"We're thieves, not spies," he grumbles back with a snort.
"Information can also be stolen."
The bureaucrat sighs softly and states, "That would be a deal that I can't make by myself. I'll have to confer with the boss."
"But I already know that you're willing to betray your clients, so I expect a positive answer," she snobbishly replies.
His jaw tenses up in anger, and he snaps back, "What makes you think we won't betray you?"
And she calmly explains, "In this deal, we can afford to be betrayed, but I wouldn't recommend you do it. Dragons can be very vengeful, and they don't forget."
"Betrayal is generally unprofitable," he quietly states, though we don't know which betrayal he's talking about.
"Generally," she dryly repeats.
He takes a deep drag of his cigar and loudly exhales a cloud of smoke. He seems to have been completely disarmed by Yunia, so he deflects again, "The profitability of this deal can only be decided by the boss and his advisers."
She nods and hums, "So be it. I'll wait for your answer."
Then he diplomatically cautions her, "I have to warn you that the Union can easily pay for many other companies to target you."
"But who would agree to do business with dead men?" she smugly replies.
And that draws a dark chuckle from him.
The meeting went… better than expected, really. The Thieves Guild isn't a warring faction like Katasko, so they're more responsive to military threats. But we aren't aiming to form a strong relationship with Poiopo. All we want is to see how much we can get out of them. We'll also contact other companies that are members of the Thieves Guild and buy information on the Union from them too so that we can compare the results. As long as the Guild doesn't unite in a big conspiracy to screw us over with bad info, which is unlikely, it might be a good way to learn more about our foe.
But now that the scheming is over, we focus on our training.
Hana's visit to the Knight Academy was very enlightening for my efforts toward creating a humanoidization skill, and now it's time to put that lesson into practice.
As I use [Mana Body] to hide my draconic features, I ponder upon the meaning of "becoming human." My first instinct is to think of how I was before I became a weredragon, but I don't want the skill to change my personality to how I was back then, so I need a different approach… or rather, I need to ensure that my personality doesn't change with the skill.
While [Dragon Transformation] completely changes my form, [Humanoidization] should change much, much less, so it doesn't need to be a complex skill. My draconic parts are also already magical, so [Mana Body] shouldn't be a requirement.
I meditate as I imagine my current self becoming human in body only, merely what I'd look like if I weren't a weredragon, but it can't be something new. It has to be what I already am. These hands that I make with [Mana Body] aren't truly my real human hands. They're something that I made.
Aoi didn't choose her human body, so I don't think I should choose mine, either. I just have to "bring it out." Unlike a dragonkin, which is a race on its own, a weredragon is a fusion of two races, so I should have a completely human body hidden within the "fused" one.
This is just me going wild with my theories, but it does make sense, and it feels like a good mindset to have as I try to create this racial skill. I do feel that my humanoidization with [Mana Body] is becoming easier the more I meditate, so I think I'm at least doing something right.
Alissa continues her training with [Dream Veil], and she's managed to create puffy iridescent clouds that stick to her face like a beard. And so, Rainbow Santa Alissa is born.
The curious thing about [Dream Veil] is that it's completely invisible on one side, so it's used as a perfect camouflage or disguise. We do also have a ghillie suit (that we stole from a Dawn of Fire spy) enchanted with a curious camouflaging spell, so I take it out for Alissa to study.
Roxanne actually manages to cast [Annihilation], making it appear in her "Magic" tab with the (weak) suffix, though it's just a cute little light, so it has no practical use as she lacks both enough levels in [Space Magic] and the "Magic Power" to use it properly. Even so, she focuses on adding the spell to her [Explosion] to see how much it can improve its firepower.
Hana continues to neglect her [Illusion Magic] training in favor of [Draconic Body] since the skill has more practical use than the magic school. She also meditates while practicing the skill like I am, but in her case, she imagines what it would be like to "evolve" and become a stronger version of herself.
Ciel plays around with [Redirect Mana], curious about how she could use the Chimeric high-capacity mana storage gems to boost spells to ridiculous levels. It works through the same principle as the gems of staves: similar mana has a positive feedback loop, boosting the power of spells. But there's a point at which the spell becomes unstable, and she wants to find the point where efficiency starts to drop.
Lina and Aoi spar with magic only. Lina wants to increase her [Earth Wall] speed while Aoi uses her as target practice for her water ball control. They destroy the training courtyard with their spells, turning it into a muddy wasteland, but that's what the training yard was made for, and the embassy employees will restore it after they're done.
Yunia practices [Spirit Magic] so that she can use it more reliably. Her [Soul Blade] is the ultimate dueling weapon, but it's expensive to use and takes a while to chant since she still doesn't have enough levels in it to instant-cast the spell, but she'll get there eventually.