“Ah. Mr. Arnae, I’ve been looking for you.”

A boy with orangey caramel hair and similarly colored eyes, stopped in his tracks. He wheeled on the green carpet, bowing with a smile; holding a hand to his heart whilst carrying an embroidered and gray folder.

“Good day sir, who might you be?”

The man who approached the boy wore a fine white suit accented in green and had a light gray hat with a single white feather in it.

“Oh, you need not worry, I’m a representative from the Yötiv Corporation, I’m here to deliver the necessary paperwork you requested regarding the legality of our most recent mining venture…”

The middle-aged representative extended a folder toward the boy with a smile. The boy lifted his free hand, graciously accepting the paperwork.

“Ah. Thank you for getting this to me on such short notice; Please give the Yötiv Corporation my warmest regards.”

The representative bowed with respect and walked down the brightly lit hall back to where he’d entered the building. The boy’s smile, Mr. Arnae’s smile, faded as the representative broke eye contact and walked out of sight. The boy quickly flipped through the folder full of documents. In them, numerous transaction spreadsheets and legal appeals had been written down.

All this ruckus about a single mine; I should look further into this.

He, was Wallace Arnae.

He’d been a small independent merchant until quite recently. The governor of Re’relihn had saw fit to appoint Wallace as the chief mercantile advisor for the city; As most of the city’s governorship had seen his quickly growing portfolio of trade and market exploits.

Young patriotic geniuses did not appear every day.

Ugh…as much as I’m benefiting from this appointment, it’s a really busy job…

For Wallace, he’d rather be pursuing his own interests and financial goals, despite his patriotism.

But what could Wallace say? He was powered by both appreciatory and monetary compensation.

After taking a few turns and going up a stairwell, Wallace arrived at a door where a lady who wore a traditional black and white maid dress stood.

“Good evening Utica, can you please run this down Mr. Firnay’s office?”

“Right away, milord.”

Wallace gave the maid the gray embroidered folder he’d been carrying. As the maid walked away, he slipped into the room that she’d been standing in front of. He closed the door behind him, and let out a loud sigh of fatigue.

“This is really one exhausting façade I’m putting on…”

He, was a Sidonian Infiltrator.

‘Wallace Arnae’ had not existed until a decade ago, and he wasn’t some young prodigy.

That’s not to say he was dull; for he, was the most important Infiltrator to his Lady. His rise to prominence started on a prayer; a prayer that the oldest and most experienced Nekomata would not be found out by the Inquisition as soon as he entered the city. Thankfully for him, and Sidonia herself, ‘Wallace Arnae’ had been cleared of suspicion with relative ease.

Wallace’s trick?

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He displayed a greed. A want. An ambition.

For this, was something that humans universally knew was a human, not a Nekomata, trait.

Wallace learned in his centuries of Infiltration within human towns and cities what this strange and foreign hunger was. Once he was sure of it’s components and signs, Wallace, being a Nekomata, replicated it perfectly.

He actively schemed for monetary sake;

He purposely expressed his ambitions for a high life;

All whilst having the intelligence of a genius, and not a crazy start-up.

All of this planning and faking had done it’s job, it solidified Wallace as the only Sidonian within Re’relihn. Of course, it did much more than just that. The government had taken notice of this youth’s drive and skill, and, in need of talented replacements, bumped Wallace up. From a simple independent merchant, to the head of all trade in the city.

Of course, he hadn’t been escalated to his current position instantly. He’d just been made an advisor, nothing else. But, as his efficiency and skill, thought to be only possessed by Nekomata, was noticed, there was no dispute in elevating Wallace even further up the chain of Re’relihn.

Sidonia, and Wallace himself, had never suspected that he’d be placed in a governmental position, much less being elevated to the head of his sector. This of course was like pure sugar to Sidonia and other Nekomata with clearance to know about ‘Wallace Arnae’; They simply jumped for joy at the prospect of having an inside ear to Andestine, right under Andestine’s nose.

Wallace stretched his back with a yawn, his vertebrae audibly cracking. He’d only have a moment of respite before the dreaded maid walked back to his room; He’d enjoy the solitude to his best abilities. He dropped the yellowed folder from the Yötiv representative on a desk, the contents lazily sliding across it.

“Man, I wonder what Sidonia and Serendipity are doing…”

Wallace voiced to himself. He frequently spoke to himself. The social interactions he had with humans were chores, and quite honestly, filled with dread. He hadn’t spoken normally to another Sidonian within the better part of five years, Wallace feared that he may have started losing sight of himself within the façade of ‘Wallace Arnae’. The thought of slowly and unknowingly converting completely to human thought terrifired Wallace.

Had it already happened?

Were his interests already plagued over with human ones?

Did he have any likeness for his friends, whom he hadn’t seen in decades?

But, one thing was for sure. Wallace had not lost his loyalty. He gripped his loyalty to Sidonia, even if his own personality faded into obscurity.

“Mrrow~!”

Wallace looked up from his existential face palm to a pure white cat with bright blue eyes, sitting atop his desk.

“Oh shush you. Won’t you ever go find some other Sidonian to bother one of these day’s?”

“Mnorrw~!”

The cat, abnormally, stood on it’s hind legs in a blur. It crossed it’s front paws and shook it’s head vigorously.

“Please, spare me the animation. Just let me take a breather in peace, won’t you?”

The cat looked away, somehow guilty. After a moment of silence, it slowly sunk back into it’s four-pawed lay, still not looking at Wallace.  

A knock was heard at the door, and Wallace’s moment of tranquility passed in an instant. He walked over to the door and clicked it open.

“Firnay sends his reply milord.”

The maid extended the same gray folder back to Wallace, though it was evidently heavier than it was before. As Wallace were about to open the folder to read it over however…

“Hey, out of the way servant.”

Without thinking, the maid meekly pushed up against the wall of the hallway, making room for a large figure. Wallace, upon recognizing the person, did the same.  The figure striding down the hall was none other than Jeremiah, the holder of the number one Hero seat in Andestine. He wore the typical massive and thick steel plate that most Heroes wore, on his back was a holstered pure red and gold spear. His face was scrunched and his eyes seemed conniving, but his jawline was straight and his shoulders were broad; more masculine than most male Nekomata.

“Hey, Arnae was it? Which way is somebody named Firnay?”

“Ah, that’d be down the hall and to the left, go down the first stairwell and the first door on the left is what your looking for, Hero.”

Wallace was proud of his confidence in his knowledge of this human building, and his own confidence in himself to give directions to a hero so non-challantly.

“Yeah, yeah-thanks.”

The large young man waved a hand and continued his stride down the hall, a trailing little girl with a staff to big for her stumbling close behind.  The maid stared in awe of the most powerful Hero so easily walking by.

Again, another visitor for Firnay; that’s the sixth this evening alone. I wonder if it has to do with that Yötiv mine…I wonder how much longer I’ll have to stay here.

A sudden and unexpected pang hit Wallace. But as soon as he started taking refuge in it, his escape was interrupted by his resolve.

Hmph. No matter what I feel, I must follow Sidonia’s orders. If she orders me to waste away being her eyes and ears in Andestine, then so be it. If she orders me to die, then so be it. There is no future for us Nekomata other than Her will. We, the inner circle, will see Sidonia through to victory.

***