--------///----Reina's POV----\\\--------

The officials that walked in had an air of strength about them but even though they were strong, something was telling me that there was something wrong with this situation. The main official was an elf taller then a meter and a half with short green hair and a slim frame. He had a green and brown striped uniform that seemed to resemble a military officers. At his side were two taller dog beastkin in a similar uniform that seemed to be giving off the similar vibe that the elf guy was giving off... That something was off about them. Eventually, Mr.Ganton came downstair and met them face to face. The elf seemed to be the commanding officer so he took the lead in the talks.

Since they knew where they were, they moved into the training area where all the crates were and handled their discussion in there. The elf was with Mr.Ganton while the dogkins were outside and standing guard. We all watched this happen and we were all curious, though for different reasons.

(Endis) " Any of you guys able to hear what's going on in there? "

(Male birdkin twin Vistal) "They've made an silence zone. Even with our enhanced hearing we wouldn't hear anything. "

(Female Birdkin twin Valorie) " Unless we intentionally tred to penetrate the silence zone, which would result in us being discovered, then we won't know what's being said. "

(Endis) " Well that sucks... You ok Reina? "

I wasn't focusing on their conversation but i kept looking towards the training hall. I just couldn't put my finger on what exactly it was about them that was giving me such a weird feeling. Though because i wasn't paying attention to their conversation, Endis noticed that.

(Reina) " Somethings wrong... I just can't put my finger on it... "

(Hari) " Hmm? Whatcha thinking there princess? "

(Reina) " I'm not thinking it i'm feeling it. Ever since they came in i've been getting this feeling in my gut that something's wrong. "

As soon as i said that, Endis and Mina seemed to have the same thought as they looked to each other and back to me.

(Endis) " Your instincts flaring up? "

(Reina) " Maybe? I don't know what else it could be. "

They looked back to each other then got up from the table.

(Mina) " We've got a room upstairs, it might get a bit cramped but let's head up. "

The members from the other party looked confused but decided to go with it as we all went upstairs into our room. Endis took the top bunk of his bed so there'd be space for everyone and Mina went to her usual spot. I sat on the top bunk and so did Hari while the birdkin took a bottom bunk each.

(Mina) " Then we have a problem. But we can't start a fight in the guild even if we have Mr.Ganton on our side. "

(Hari) " Whoa calm down. Can you fill us in rather then just talk like we aren't here? And why are you both just so ready to jump in with what she's saying? "

(Endis) " Whoops. Well to keep it short, Reina's instincts are pretty sensitive. That and she's our friend of course we're taking her side. Anyway, try it out. Stab at her and keep your intent out until the last second. "

(Reina) " Wait wha- CAN WE NOT TRY THAT!? "

She didn't even even give me a moment to prepare before she used her claws to try to cut me! If i didn''t get the warning from my instincts shouting at me then i would've been cut! I managed to dodge her claws by dropping off of the top bunk but i definetly felt like that shaved off years of my life.

(Hari) " Sorry but just had to try it out. "

(Endis) " That and they wouldn't believe me without actually seeing it in action. It'd be hard to convince anyone that a princess has shaper instincts then assassins. "

(Mina) " Still, you could've given a bit of a better warning. "

(Endis) " I could've but then that would've just undermined the whole thing. "

(Reina) " Maybe it should've been undermined! That was terrifying! "

(Hari) " You'll get used to people suddenly attacking you. "

(Vistal) " The sooner you become used to it, the more prepared you'll become against assassins or situations such as ambushes. It's good in the long run."

(Hari) " What he said. Anyway come sit back down. "

I walked back over, but i didn't sit on the top bunk this time. I sat on the top bunk next to Endis and thankfully we didn't have any other spontaneous tests but i stayed on edge just in case.

(Hari) " So, how're we going to handle this? We can't do anything just because of a gut feeling, we need evidence. "

(Endis) " I mean... We're assassins. We could always just tail them and see if anything shady happens. "

(Valorie) " I doubt they would take too kindly to being tailed by professional assassins. They're also government officials. If you are caught then the reprocussions of following them won't just be cast down onto you. Our parties will face reprocussions that may end up brandishing us as criminals. I for one am going to need more then just your insistance to trust her instincs. "

(Mina) " She has a point. If either of you get caught then we're going to be screwed. We can try to leave you guys out of it but if you get caught then we'll be in trouble. We've also got to make sure there's evidence or else we'll end up putting the guildmaster in a difficult spot too. "

(Endis) " All we've got to do is not get caught. It's only... one? So even if we don't have the night we still have the rooftops. And evidence is easy, we can grab a hostage and interrogate em. "

(Hari) " I'm all in for his idea. Besides we're career assassins, there's no way in all the hells that we're getting caught. "

(Mina) " ... Then we'll handle the side with the guild master. We've already given him good intel before so there's a good chance that he'll take our side without any physical intel. "

(Vistal) " Hold on... Are you saying the intel that led to the raid came from you? "

(Reina) " Not directly, but yes. My mom took over... Well the old name was changed but it was the annoying kingdom that tried to sent an army through the forest. Then Phoenix found records about the port which we passed along. So we've already set a precedent of having intel that leads to results. All we have to do is tell him. "

(Hari) " But didn't the guildmaster take his time and send out parties to look to verify it first? These are completly different situations since those goods could get "lost" by the end of the day. He'd have to take the intel at face value and move to get help to keep track of the goods. "

(Endis) " He acted already when it came to the raid, so even though he's not going to have time he's still going to act... Atleast, i hope he does. "

(Mina) " Though we'll have to act in his place. He's not going to have time to gather any teams so we'll need to keep track of the goods and look for evidence against those officials. "

(Hari) " When you say "we", who is getting what role? I know me and Endis are taking the trailing detail but what is everyone else doing exactly? "

(Mina) " Well, Me and Reina are going to handle telling the guildmaster, you and Endis are trailing on the rooftops but for the twins... It'll be hard since overlooking brightly colored birdkin twins is practically impossible... Is there anyone that you can get in contact with that we can trust to help us? "

(Valorie) " We can gather the rest of our team. "

(Vistal) " But then what would we do? Outside of combat or scouting we will have no role. "  

(Hari) " Well looks like you'll have to be on standby... Sorry guys. "

(Valorie) " It's fine. Trying to fit us into roles that we aren't capable of will only hinder the mission. "

(Mina) " Then for now we'll have you stay on standby. For now let's just flesh out the plan. "

We talked for atleast another ten minutes before the plan was fully fleshed out. Hari and Endis would tail the convoy until they transferred the goods to the government. If the officials split from the convoy then Endis would follow them while Hari stayed on the convoy. We were counting on them to find some kind of evidence that we could use to justify the guild getting involved with these officials. After that, it was up to me and Mina to get Mr.Ganton informed, we would then work with him to make the process move as quickly and as smoothly as possible. The twins would gather their party, which was going to be difficult since at some point the hyena girl had gone off somewhere after coming out of the bathroom.

(Mina) " Alright, now that everyone knows their roles let's make sure we do this smart. "

(Endis) " We got it cous. As soon as they leave we move. "

We all left our room and went back downstairs to wait for them to leave. While we were upstairs, they had already started moving the crates out of the guild by shifting the walls of the training hall and taking the crates out one at a time. Mr.Ganton was overseeing it along with the officials but it seemed like it would take a while to safely transfer the crates out without any damages happening to them. We couldn't steal Mr.Ganton away without it looking suspicious so we just had to wait until all the crates were out.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

It was atleast thirty minutes later when all the crates, including the corpse, were loaded into the convoy and moved out. Endis and Hari moved out after them, The twins split up to go get their team and me and Mina went to Mr.Ganton. He saw us and seemed like he was going to say something but Mina cut him off, which seemed to be rude at the time but he let it go since me and Mina had serious looks on our faces. He led the way back up and closed the door behind him as we made it into his office.

(Ganton) " What is it now? "

(Mina) " Something about those officials is off. "

(Ganton) " And why do you say that? "

(Reina) " Instinct. "

(Ganton) " ... Instinct... No physical evidence? "

(Mina) " ... No. "

(Ganton) " So no evidence and just instinct... How do you expect me to justify any actions taken against the government with my sole reason being an adventurer's instinct? "

(Mina) " We don't. That's why we sent out Endis to get evidence. If there's any evidence that we can use they'll find it. "

(Ganton) " ... Please tell me i did not hear that right... You let a highly capable assassin shadow government officials who are transporting stolen goods from an organization that was just recently assaulted? All for the sake of instinct? "

(Reina) " We'll... When it's put like that it sounds way worse then what we thought, but yes. THOUGH we did get some information before. Endis stopped by a relay and was told that this branch just suddenly appeared, which was suspicious because they would've noticed an orginization just moving into their backyard. "

(Ganton) " Is that all? Even with that being the case i can't just take action against the government with unverified information. I need more then that... Hopefully they find information, or else i'll be forced to issue a punishment.  "

(Mina) " I believe in Endis. "

(Reina) " Me too. If we get a punishment then we'll take it. "

(Ganton) " ... Fine. For now stay in my office and pray that this decision does not backfire on any of us. "

We ended up waiting for two hours before Endis came into the office. At first the time didn't feel like it was passing at all, but eventually Jelly woke up and started demanding attention so that helped. Endis looked the same but he was dragging two unconcious bodies behind him as if he was casually taking out the trash. One of them seemed to be a dogkin that we saw from earlier. The other one though... Was someone i don't think i've ever seen before. It was another dogkin but he was older with darker brown fur then the dogkin officer. He was in a black hooded simple cloak that seemed cheap and disposable.

(Ganton) " Please tell me you have actual evidence to justify this. "

(Endis) " Yup. The army mutt was handed a few of the smaller crates and broke off to sell em to this guy. We got the crates but for some reason they tried to split before the deal was done. Neither of us were caught so something happened with the actual convoy. "

(Ganton) " You keep saying we? Who else is in on this? "

(Endis) " Hari and her party. What? We've got evidence! It's safe to bring them in now. "

At first when Endis said Hari, me and Mina looked over to him but he was right. With whatever information we could get from the official and buyer, we would be able to move. And we could get rid of the weight of consequences that was pressuring our shoulders. Endis left the two bodies in the guildmasters office, which Mr.Ganton locked and made a metal cage to keep them in while we all went downstairs where Hari's team was assembled and sitting by five crates that were laid out on the guilds lobby tables. As soon as we got there, the minotaur, Mirol made eye contact with Endis and tried his best not to look pissed. Though it looked Riva, the hyena seemed to be enjoying it. It even looked like she wanted to say something but Hari stopped her from doing it.

We all gathered around the table and the atmosphere immediatly got tense. The teams that were just lazing around or picking quests obviously noticed that the guildmaster was here so they all gave us their undivided attention. Mr.Ganton sat infront of the small crates and just looked at them with a hard look in his eyes. He eventually picked them up and signaled for all of us to follow him. But before we turned up to the stairs that led into his office, he turned around and addressed the parties looking at the situation.

(Ganton) " As of right now communications with the government are SILENT. Tread carefully and act smart, we'll be having more problems soon. "

Everyone downstairs tensed up and nodded at his words. We could all tell how seriously he was taking this and couldn't help but tense up a bit too. Though Endis just carried on as he usually did. Which was mind boggling since even Jelly was tensing up in her bag. We all went upstairs and into his office, which started to feel smaller due to the minotaur and twins taking up more space. The prisoners still hadn't woken up yet so that was good, but the look on Mr.Ganton's face wasn't.

(Ganton) " Tell me everything. "

(Hari) " Well, after Endis went after the mutt, the convoy kept going like nothing happened despite a few other officials seeing the mutt take some of the crates. From what i saw, there were some who actually looked worried while there were other officials that just didn't react at all. So something is definetly off about that. There were two other times when someone broke off with some of the crates but i couldn't follow them without losing the convoy so there's going to be some shit on the black market soon.

The ones that broke off were all differnt so it's not like it's just the mutts biting the hands that feed them. Though other then that, i wasn't able to get much out of it. The convoy made it to the governments territory with a majority of the crates though from my count, they "lost" ten crates, excluding the smaller ones in front of you. "

Mr.Ganton sucked in a sharp breath and slowly started to let it out, which sounded less like a breath and more like steam. He looked at the crates in front of him and over to the prisoners. 

(Ganton) " ... We need to move as fast as we can... Who can get information the fastest? "

(Endis) " If it's torture the- "

(Riva) " ME! ME! ME! Let me do it please! "

Riva had jumped up and was full of energy which she clearly didn't have before. She seemed to be bursting with energy just like a kid would after they've had candy for the first time in their life. Mr.Ganton looked at her then over to Endis and Hari.

(Ganton) " Any objections? "

(Endis) " I mean, i co-... Nevermind. I never said anything. "

Before Endis could finish his earlier part, Riva looked over to him with a crazed look in her eyes. Endis just shivered and changed course on the spot.

(Hari) " I can vouch for her, she's... Talented, when it comes to torture... Though you might want to have a silent zone up... "

(Ganton) "... Then get to it, i'll set it up so move quickly. "

(Endis) " Then what? The longer we wait the higher the chance that everything we got from the raid gets smuggled away. "

(Ganton) " I'm aware. But until we get information that helps us understand what we will be walking into then we can't act. I can try to pull some strings but i won't know where to pull them too. I need to know who to direct the investigation towards and i'll need concrete evidence to incriminate them. However since you're already mobilized, i'll need you all to track down the crates that have been smuggled and brnng them back. Moving as a single group will be too eye catching so split up. I trust that you both can lead your teams into the black market? "

(Endis) " Piece of cake. "

(Hari) " Consider it already done. "

(Ganton) " Then go. And remember act smart and tread carefully. "

We all nodded and made our way downstairs. When we got outside of the guild, we all turned to each other and split off with our respective parties.

(Endis) " Since we're going for the black market we'll have to take a roundabout way of getting in. I could directly get in contact with the branch that's here but we're going to have to be careful about it. "

(Mina) " How dangerous are you thinking? "

(Endis) " Danger? None. Difficulties plenty. I'll be using my name but that won't stop whatever contracts that might be on Reina. " 

(Reina) " There are contracts on me?! "

(Endis) " You're a literal princess. Of course there are contracts on you. The only reason people wouldn't take them was the protection you had in the castle. Your mom stomped down a whole kingdom too so there might be some assassins from there that might hold a grudge. So when we step into the branch make sure you listen to your instincts. "

(Reina) " Can't i just hide my face? "

(Endis) " Nope. There's been enough time for the branch to know we're in a party together. So when me and cous walk in and any assassins that are just killing time spot someone that fits your build then they're going to put two and two together. "

(Reina) " Ugggh... I can't wait till we finally leave and go on an actual adventure... Cities are so stressful. "

(Mina) " Then after this is done we can head out. We already have a good map and some knowledge on the local and some other areas. All we'll have to do is finish and return the manuals then we can just take an outwards hunting quest and leave. "

(Endis) " Wait, what about my date!? "

(Mina) " As i was saying, we can leave after that and just go on an actual adventure. "

(Reina) " I'm all for that. Let's finish this quick then. "

(Endis) " ... Haaah... Guess i'll have to call of my date with that elf then. "

We kept walking and eventually made it to a relatively normal looking tailoring shop that had two floors, a gray spider spinning a shirt as the logo above the shop along with the name of the place. "Madam's Parlor"

~ If that isn't the most suspicious name for an assassins entrance that i've ever heard then i don't know what is. "~

We walked into the shop and saw a scene similar to the clothing store. The walls were white but they were slightly grayer and had spider web like designs going along the wall. The first floor seemed to be normal and had fitting rooms for humans, elves, and human sized beastkin while there was a staircase that led upstairs The first floor had a few racks on the sides while there were compartments that held materials like silk, cotton, beast fur or feathers and other cloth making materials on the left side of the floor where the employees checked the items out. There were two employees, a human and an aracne female in human form.

Aracne were an interesting species. The aracne had a lifespan of five hundred years and were capable of having a human form that hid their spider halves but had them retain their purple skin and their spider eyes. They started off as monsters that hunted other monsters and even some beastkin but over the centuries they slowly started to change. No one knew when it happened but the number of Aracne that were seen slowly started to decline until they just stopped. Then it was thought that they were going extinct until decades later they just started appearing again, but this time not as monsters. They stated their intentions of wanting to be peaceful and even managed to get their integration with other intelligent races approved by the other races. From the books i read, it all started when a queen with the ability to think rationally was born.

At first she had little power and couldn't do much but as she grew and matured, she was able to birth other aracne with the ability to be rational. However they were considered threats and killed by the other members of their race before they could fully mature. The queen was naturally outraged but she didn't have the ability to kill the primary queen and cull the rest of their kind. So she waited. She kept giving birth to children but made sure those that could think knew what would happen if they were caught. She imprinted that knowledge into them before they even hatched. She made sure they knew of her plan and knew that they had to wait until they had enough kin to fight back. Eventually when they were capable, they started a war.

The queen and her children that were capable of thinking had won because they could use tactics and create weopns and traps that helped the war efforts. Eventually they took the time to build up their forces and wormed to cull the other hives and change their species as a whole. They wiped out the monsters in their species and slowly but surely refilled them with the demi humans they are now. This war happened in the shadows only to be learned about by the demi human aracne that transcribed the incidents as they were told by elders. The queens could even live for two thousand years but since it's been way longer then that, the queen that started it all was long dead. But her impact on the aracne species as a whole didn't stop there. After even more time, the aracne had finally become capable of using magic / elemts, cementing them as a true demi human species.

(Aracne woman) " Hello there, what can i help you with? "

(Endis) " Hey, i need to order a custom cloak. "

(Aracne woman) " Understood, what will the requests for it be? "

(Endis) " I'm thinking enough to catch silk to catch a dozen wyrmlings with would be great for it. "

After Endis said that, the look in her eyes chhanged and she smiled.

(Aracne woman) " I understand. If you would follow me i can show you to the finest silks we have. "

We followed her and started to go up to the second floor but suddenly we stopped partway as she pressed her hand against a side of the wall and pushed some of her poison into it. The wall started to change color and the wood started to split as the passageway leading down opened itself for us.

(Aracne woman) " When you wish to leave, infuse any magic into the other side of the wall. I shall know and come to retrieve you. "

(Endis) " Thanks... Haaah... Now let's hope this all goes to plan. "