- Shari -

Alright, Shari, what again are the things you should consider essential for a heist?

Yesterday, when I wasn't working practically, I was focused on planning how to go about this mission.

The objective is to obtain the documents within the vault and bring them to Captain Gareth.

This entails, getting inside the estate, past all the guards, hopefully without causing too much of a massacre since well, guards are also people, and not all of them deserve to die for working in the home security business.

Then getting into the vault, which should be easy with a generous appliance of dissolving.

This, hopefully, followed by an escape where we still don't have to kill too many people in our way or pursuing us.

Yeah, it can be said that those people know the risks and should be aware of who they are working for, but without a proper trial, I would feel bad for just slaughtering them unanimously.

This is why I came up with a tactic that should help us mitigate this point to almost non-existence.

As I hinted before, it involves a great amount of a sleeping drug.

I basically used up all my remaining supplies of ledia leaves for this.

Yet as I still don't deem this enough, I want to acquire some more assets today to hopefully make sure that everything will go well.

Once I confirmed by the existence of sunlight that the shops at the market should be about to open up, I say goodbye to the children I'm keeping in my cellar, fetch Liqu, and am on my way.

Since it's quite a distance, I make use of the time and explain my plan to Liqu.

It helps that not too many people are up and about this early in the morning, so while I still have to be cautious, it's possible to discuss this delicate topic without being overheard.

"So, what do you think?" (Shari)

"Not sure. Your thinking is always so complicated." (Liqu)

"I'm not too sure if 'complicated' is a bad thing per se. As long as it shows results..." (Shari)

"But if we do it like this we need to spend energy, while I won't be able to dissolve anyone. Don't like it that much." (Liqu)

"But you still think it should work?" (Shari)

"Well, I guess? If that man keeps his part we might be able to do it like you want. But there's still a risk. Especially, that last part might be a bit problematic." (Liqu)

"Yeah, that could need some more thought, but as long as the guard won't be involved we should be able to throw off any pursuers. Not to forget that we don't need to worry very much about an investigation." (Shari)

If Gareth was lying to us, he'd already know everything and would just need to knock at our door with a contingent of guards.

While that isn't exactly a soothing thought, it makes it clear that there's no point in worrying about prompting the guard to get involved.

The two of us eventually reach the market, where I'm about to acquire all the things one might need to break into a noble mansion.

First, I want to obtain the umbradow, which should be the most difficult.

Normally, I would ask Tamarah, but I'm not sure if she even has this.

Last time she said she isn't dealing in poison.

Also, I tended to her quite often recently and wouldn't want to impose too much.

So instead, I decide to go to my usual herbalist.

"Umbradow?! Seriously? I can't sell you that!" (herbalist)

So much for this.

"Why can't you?" (Shari)

"Excuse me? There are laws! Some particularly prohibiting open trade with assassination tools! Only an ignorant madman would sell you these!" (herbalist)

I'd like to make him acquainted with a certain alchemist in the capital.

"But I'm in the adventurer guild." (Shari)

"Nice for you? That still doesn't change anything. I wouldn't even know why you would need the silent death in this line of work, but if you'd use it in any other way, it's my responsibility for not checking your background enough." (herbalist)

"Uh, also, I have an alchemy store in the southern district." (Shari)

"My, aren't we diverse. How is the idea that you own a shop I haven't heard of in possibly the most questionable part of town going to convince me to hand out the deadliest ingredients?" (herbalist)

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"Fine, I get it. Bye!" (Shari)

"Please, come again!" (herbalist)

Shit!

"This didn't work well." (Liqu)

"Thank you for telling me, Liqu!" (Shari)

"No problem!" (Liqu)

"Sigh, we neglected your sarcasm training, didn't we?" (Shari)

"You truly had not much time for me recently. Only for the girl." (Liqu)

Great, now she's also jealous.

Anyway, seems like I have no choice now but to go to my first address for getting exotic potions.

Hopefully, she's in a good mood.

"Why are you here again? Bokkan already told me everything about the girl's state. You can be sure that he's proficient enough at narrating everything of interest to me. Quite fascinating, yet I wouldn't want to be close and involved if things blow up." (Tamarah)

"Uh, no. It's not about that. There was something else. It may concern my debt with you." (Shari)

"Since you brought her with you I surmise you're not here to assist me. Which leads me to believe that whatever you want isn't going to make me happy to hear." (Tamarah)

"Uh, I was just going to ask you if I could buy some umbradow from you." (Shari)

"Umbradow!? Who the heck are you going to murder now?!" (Tamarah)

"To be fair, it's more about avoiding just this." (Shari)

"Sure. But this doesn't change the fact that I'm averse to getting pulled into your schemes and likely having to face the backlash of whoever you're going to upset now. Especially, as you haven't even paid me yet for the last thing you acquired from me." (Tamarah)

She means the book.

Which is actually a point.

To begin with, I don't feel good about having debts either.

If you are as inclined to keeping your bargains as me, a debt means that the other party has power over you.

Not like, in the case of the book, Tamarah wasn't very obliging and I'm profiting quite a lot from this deal, especially from the part where I could work as her assistant and gain meaningful skills, but it still leaves a sour aftertaste with me that I can't pay her off.

One might argue that the fact that she literally leeches off my slime might be put as a mitigating factor to help even my balance with her, but to be honest, all the ingredients I took, in turn, are probably surpassing that in value by far.

Nonetheless, as long as I have no access to the queen's riches to declare this as a mission expense I need to at least do the job I accepted from her.

"Can't you help me out, please? It's actually quite important that we do this. For the whole country basically." (Shari)

"First a philanthropist, now a patriot. You are assuming too much about me, my dear." (Tamarah)

"She isn't..." (Liqu)

"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry, I don't plan on challenging your position. Still, I don't see a reason why I should put myself in harm's way just because you're asking. If I recall correctly, the last week I was nothing but altruistic to you without getting much in return, yet you keep on coming with requests." (Tamarah)

Maybe I have a final argument.

"You see, this thing I have going might just enable me to pay you for the book at short notice." (Shari)

At least I hope that there's money in Moreau's treasury.

"Which is still a money-making scheme I wouldn't benefit from. We're still talking about your debt to me here. How you're going to pay shouldn't in any way be my concern." (Tamarah)

Sadly, she is right.

I did ask quite a lot from her recently.

"What if I make it worthwhile? I'll pay my debt plus interest if you help me here?" (Shari)

"Sigh. If I agree, will you stop pestering me then?" (Tamarah)

"Ehm, sure?" (Shari)

"Goddamnit, you hear me, three more gold, you're going to reimburse me one way or the other." (Tamarah)

At this, she writes something on paper and holds it in my direction.

"I can't believe I'm doing this. I don't have any umbradow here at the moment. At least not as much as you probably need. Here! Take this to the address I'm giving you. This is my personal herbalist. Just tell him I sent you. He'll hand it out to you and then put it on the pay list for my next delivery." (Tamarah)

I didn't miss here that she basically included the thing I asked her for in the price.

For this reason, I will gladly accept her offer.

"You won't regret this!" (Shari)

"I already do! Whatever, just go." (Tamarah)

I really shouldn't drag this on any longer.

With this, I can finally get this stuff.

Maybe I got a bit too caught up in this idea of mine, but now that I got so far I'm confident that it's going to work with this.

Once I arrive it all goes distressingly easy.

While I still get weird looks for coming again, just as he asked me to, Tamarah's name seems to be all I need to get those herbs.

Once I got these, it's time for the last part of my newest scheme.

The thing is, the umbradow isn't just going to be part of this plan, I want to make it part of my assets.

For this reason, now we're going to the blacksmith because I also want a way to apply the sleeping drug.

As I said before, umbradow is stupidly potent, which means that my blades would for sure simply infuse so much that it kills the target.

Which is pointless, as I already have a kind of poison that can do just this.

"What can I do for ya?" (blacksmith)

"I need something like this." (Shari)

At this, I pull out a drawing that depicts something like an arrow.

Well, the tip of an arrow with a small hole at the tip and a tiny container behind it.

They're a bit longer than the usual tips that go over the stick, with a metal cylinder that goes on after the sharp part ends, as that's where they're supposed to be held by my slime and contain their poisonous load.

These little things will serve as the tiny carriers of my wish to make them sleep.

The man looks at them for a while and then nods.

"Doesn't look too complicated. Can reuse some of the material I already have. How many of those do ya need?" (blacksmith)

"Ten would be nice. Or well, make it a dozen. But I need them today." (Shari)

"Huh, that's quite sudden. Even if ya wanna make this a priority job, I'll need a bit. Ya require a high precision job or just something that comes close?" (blacksmith)

"Close enough is fine. It's just important that the tip is hollow as you can see here. Doesn't have to be perfectly balanced." (Shari)

"Hah, I'm sure that's going to be a nasty surprise for something. Fine. Come back later. I'll make sure it serves the purpose." (blacksmith)

"Thank you very much." (Shari)

It actually makes sense for me, as now I have some time to prepare the sleeping agent at home and come back once he's done.

After this, I also buy meat for two silver, as I'm sure that every little bit of strength is going to be required.

It's nice if a plan takes form.

I'm rather confident about tonight.