Chapter 42: Chapter 42 – Morning preparations

The next morning, Scarlett found herself walking into the dining hall of the Elystead mansion and saw both Allyssa and Shin, along with Fynn and Rosa, already sitting at the large rectangular table that took up most of the room. That didn't surprise Scarlett, as she had given them the freedom to treat this place as their own during the time that they stayed here. What did surprise her, though, was the fact that Evelyne was also here — in the middle of a conversation with both Allyssa and Rosa as they all ate what looked like a hearty meal consisting of bread, soup, and some kind of meatloaf with different sauces on the side.

Everybody's attention turned to Scarlett as she walked up to the head of the table and took a seat. While being in the same room as Evelyne this early in the morning wasn't the most comfortable way to start the day, she wasn't going to leave just because of that. "I see that all of you have already awoken and seem to be prepared for the outing later today," she voiced, moving aside the large silver lid on top of the plate that had been prepared for her to reveal her own meal.

"Who'd miss a free feast and service like this?" Rosa said, pausing whatever conversation it was that she had been in with Evelyne and Allyssa to wave a white piece of bread around. "I'd get up even earlier if this was what was waiting for me every day."

Scarlett saw Evelyne's eyes widen a little at that, but ignored it. "I am glad that you are enjoying the accommodations. You can expect more of this in the future, should you choose to continue being in my employ." She looked toward the two Shielders working for her. "And you? What are your opinions as of now?"

Allyssa looked slightly surprised by the question, the young blonde putting her hands up in front of her. "We're used to sleeping out in the forest when we have to. We can't complain."

Shin, who sat next to her, simply nodded his head. "We appreciate the generosity you're showing us. But like she said, it's not our place to object as it is right now. We aren't afraid to get our feet dirty when needed, though."

Scarlett turned to Fynn, who was in the process of wolfing down the food before him. He already had a couple of empty plates beside him. The sight did bother Scarlett's instincts somewhat, but at least he was using a fork. "And you?"

It took him a moment to stop his eating and look up at her. "It's very large here," he stated.

Scarlett waited for him to say something more, but that was all. "I suppose you are correct," she admitted. "And I suppose there has not yet been much time to form an opinion exceeding that degree either." Her eyes shifted to the white ring around his finger. "And what of my gift? Have you succeeded in familiarizing yourself with it?" In the game it took a while before he unlocked any of the special abilities related to it, so she wasn't expecting it to do that much for him yet.

His yellow eyes also turned to the ring. "...No, not yet."

As she expected. "I am sure you will eventually," she said before turning back to her meal.

"He got a gift?" Rosa asked from the other side of the table.

Scarlett gave a short nod. "Indeed."

"Can I ask what it was?"

"You can." Scarlett cut into a piece of meat with a silver knife and fork. "But it is not my place to answer," she added on, bringing the fork up to her mouth.

Rosa looked at Fynn, but he stayed quiet. "Secrets, eh? I see how it is. Then I won't pry."

The room lapsed into silence for a short while before the conversation that Evelyne, Allyssa, and Rosa had been in before Scarlett arrived seemed to get picked up again. Evelyne looked a little bit uncomfortable now—which could just be because of Scarlett's presence—but from what Scarlett could hear they were discussing the different places Rosa had visited across the empire. Judging from the woman's words, she'd moved around quite a lot.

"Right," Rosa said after some time had passed and their conversation had instead shifted to the places Allyssa had visited in her time as a Shielder. "Where is it that we're going today?" she asked, directing the question towards Scarlett.

Scarlett looked up from her plate at Rosa. "We are journeying north of the capital, to Temisbrook."

Allyssa turned away from Rosa to also look at Scarlett. "Temisbrook? What are we doing there?"

"We will be venturing inside Temisbrook Woods in search of an old location that holds items of some worth. It will also serve as a good test of your abilities, so that I am aware of your limitations for the future."

"Wait, will it be dangerous?" Evelyne suddenly asked.

Scarlett looked at the younger Hartford sister. "I do not expect any danger, no."

She saw Fynn's head tilt to the side from the corner of her eye. "That's a lie, though."

She stared at him. For a moment she felt like sighing. Right, she had almost forgotten he could tell lies apart. Later she would have to talk to him about that. Glancing at Evelyne, she was somewhat surprised to see that the woman's expression had darkened a little.

"To clarify," she said, pretending to not care about Fynn's words. "The location we are visiting will not hold much real danger for any of us. But, as there are certain groups that currently hold malicious interests for me, there is always a risk in embarking on these excursions. That is part of the reason why I have need of all of you. I believe this is something I already explained to Shin and Allyssa."

"Yeah, Kat told us about the people who attacked you two before," Allyssa said.

"Attacked?" Evelyne's head spun to look at the young Shielder. "Are you talking about the time she left with that Shielder for some random trip two weeks ago?" She turned back to Scarlett. "You told me they were bandits."

Scarlett paused. She had said that. This was probably a conversation she should have waited to have later.

"It is not unprecedented for bandits to have ulterior motives," she said after a moment.

Evelyne frowned. "That's not what's important here. Doesn't this mean there's actually someone who's trying to kill you?!"

"Evelyne." Scarlett held a slightly steely tone as she spoke now. This wasn't the best place to get into another argument just because she was bad at hiding these things. "I have the situation under control. It is not something you need concern yourself with."

"You're saying that a lot lately."

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"Because it is the truth. If you wish to further discuss this we can do so at a later time."

"When is that?" Evelyne asked. "You're not returning until right before the Proclamation, are you? You want to discuss it when we're busy preparing for that?"

"Then we can discuss it after the event," Scarlett said.

"Right. After you've risked your life to go on your little trip." Evelyne looked her in the eyes. "Do you even know what would happen to the house if you were to just die?"

Scarlett didn't, actually. She had assumed it just meant Evelyne would be the new baroness. But maybe it wasn't that easy. "I will not die. The purpose of this 'trip' is precisely to preclude such a possibility in the future."

They both stared at each other for a good ten seconds. Then, finally, Evelyne stood up from the table. "Fine. Do what you want. I'll stay here and do all the work you pushed onto me, as usual."

She turned to Rosa and Allyssa. "It was a pleasure meeting and talking with you. I hope we have the chance to speak more in the future. I ask that you take care of my sister while you're out there." With that, she walked off and left the room.

Scarlett watched the door Evelyne had exited through. That didn't exactly go well. To think they'd had a productive conversation just the day before. Glancing at the others, who had all been quiet during the whole exchange, she saw that Allyssa looked a bit awkward about the whole thing, while Fynn and Shin looked like they didn't care about any of it. Rosa's expression was unreadable.

"Perhaps we should discuss today's matters," Scarlett said, feeling a bit embarrassed.

 

 

Later that day, Scarlett and the others sat in a carriage as it began the journey to leave Elystead. This carriage was a little bit bigger than the one Scarlett had used before—apparently it was the one they kept in the capital, so if Scarlett counted right the Hartford family had three or so of them around—but it wasn't as adorned or comfortable as the other two Scarlett had used. She wasn't going to complain, but it was slightly distracting that the carriage rattled as much as it did when it moved. She hadn't considered it much before, but there probably was some kind of enchantment on the other carriages she'd been in.

Next time she might use the fancier carriage for a trip like this, though that probably meant it'd need a few days of cleaning and maintenance before she could use it again. It had been pretty dirty when she originally returned from Whistlecreek.

The district in the capital where their mansion was located was called Eastgate and was, unsurprisingly, located in the eastern part of the city. Oddly enough though, there wasn't actually a real gate anywhere in the district as far as Scarlett was aware. Elystead, unlike many of the other cities in the Graenal Empire, wasn't a city that was surrounded by walls. She was far from the best when it came to the history of this world, but from what she knew the main reason behind many of the empire's cities being walled wasn't to ward off sieges and the like, but rather to keep away monsters. She didn't know how large of a problem it actually was—there were without a doubt dangerous monsters in the wild, which you encountered all the time in the game—but it wasn't as if the world outside the cities was a hostile wasteland. There were plenty of smaller towns and villages, like Whistlecreek, where people lived mostly peaceful lives without such defensive measures. Maybe monsters were attracted more to places where a large number of people were gathered, or maybe things like that were more an issue of the past and things had changed since then. Scarlett didn't know. What she did know was simply that Elystead, at least, never had to bother with those things because it—along with the immediate area surrounding the city—naturally repelled the majority of monsters. You had to get a decent distance away from the city before you would even start running into any of them.

Officially, this was due to the city being blessed by Ittar back when the empire was founded. Unofficially, Scarlett knew that it wasn't quite that simple.

Although the Eastgate district was far from as active as the other parts of the city, being mostly where only the more affluent members of society lived and all that, there was still a decent amount of activity on the roads this morning as their carriage moved closer to the borders of the city. Anywhere they passed there were large lights set up along the roads and some of the buildings. Different symbols representing the sun also decorated many houses, and every now and then she saw adults and children walking around with paper lamps on tall sticks in their hands. The Light Fest had officially started, and things were in full movement for the celebration.

Scarlett didn't really mind missing the first two days of the event due to this trip. She had never been much of a fan of festivals. But it had occurred to her that some of the others might not feel the same way about it. Although, looking at them where they sat next to her in the carriage cabin, they didn't seem to care too much about it. Rosa was playing a soft tune on her hurdy-gurdy as Fynn and Allyssa listened on, while Shin was immersed in a book that was almost as thick as Scarlett's forearm.

That was good. She was still pretty new to this whole 'boss' business, so it'd be kinda sad if she had already ruined the morale of those working under her.

She looked back out the window, casually taking in the sights passing by. This trip didn't worry her too much, though she did understand that Evelyne would be worried after learning there were actually people who were going after Scarlett. Or, well, she didn't quite understand it, apparently. She'd been under the impression that Evelyne would have preferred if she died so that she herself could inherit the barony and do something good with it. But assuming it wasn't that simple—judging from Evelyne's words—she wasn't certain what to think. It could be that Evelyne actually cared for her somehow—there were some signs that suggested that could be true—but it could also just be that there were some complications if a house head were to just die in this world. In the game you didn't deal with Scarlett until after you'd gotten definitive proof of her crimes, after all.

Nonetheless, Evelyne clearly didn't want her to just drop dead on a random trip like this. But Scarlett felt pretty safe with the current set-up she had going. As senior C-ranked Shielders, Allyssa and Shin were guaranteed to be decently strong fighters. In game terms, they would at least be somewhere in their late thirties when it came to levels. Rosa started at a slightly lower level when you first encountered her in the game, but she was also a support character so it didn't matter as much. Fynn started at level forty, and he was a powerhouse.

So while her group level-wise probably wasn't much stronger than the usual Cabal assassination groups that were sent after the player in the game, she was pretty sure they were more than strong enough in reality. And unlike last time when they'd been surprised by an ambush, any future attack was almost guaranteed to be noticed by Fynn well in advance. He was an expert at things like that. As such, unless the Hallowed Cabal decided to send someone actually strong against her—which she highly doubted, considering how low of a priority she should be, with them sending only a basic assassination group after her last time, and how busy their higher-ranked members were—she should be safe on that front. Besides, she wasn't actually expecting another attack from the Cabal for a while. In the game they didn't even come once a month.

No, what she feared the most right now wasn't the Cabal. Rather, it was the uncertainty of the situation with the Elystead Tower.

They probably wouldn't do anything to her, if she were to just judge from the interactions she'd had with the tower in the game. But there was always a possibility that they would. And she wasn't quite sure how to act if they did.

If they sent someone truly strong, like Rowley himself, then there literally wasn't anything she could do to stop him. There were no easy-to-get items that would miraculously help here, and she didn't know any people in the capital that were both strong enough to protect her and trustworthy enough that she could use her information to pay them. The Guild was an option, but they were occupied with their own business at the moment. The Followers of Ittar weren't all bad either, but getting involved with them this early would leave her tied to them on a level she didn't want.

She could try and turn to the Ustrum Assembly. They were the closest thing the Elystead Tower had to a competitor here in the capital. But they were also a lot more greedy than the tower, so making a deal with them to ensure her safety would essentially guarantee her getting entirely beholden to them. The Rising Isle was better in that regard, and they were definitely a powerful faction even in the Empire, but they didn't actually have a base in Elystead. She only knew that members visited sometimes, but that wasn't often.

In the end, she would just have to hope that if the Elystead Tower did try something, they wouldn't do it immediately. If she got a few days to visit both this dungeon, and maybe one more after the Elysian Proclamation, then she would at least be somewhat ready to deal with any potential attacks. Though she would still have to figure out an alternative to how she would get in contact with The Gentleman.

They were a bit shadier than she would have preferred, but she did have a couple of options in mind.

Of course, she couldn't forget the Proclamation itself, as the important event that it was. She was still woefully uninformed on what it actually entailed. And she was guaranteed to meet a lot of nobles that knew the old Scarlett there.

All in all, she had a lot of things to think about right now. In that way, this trip felt almost like a vacation to her. If you overlooked all of the risks related to it.

God. Things really would have been much easier if she had just transmigrated to this world as your ordinary adventurer. Then she could just have spent all of her time going from dungeon to dungeon at her own pace, not having to bother with all of this crap that got more complicated the more time that passed. But unfortunately, that fate just wasn't in her cards.

Well. For now, at least, she'd put all of the annoying matters at the back of her mind and focus on the dungeon they were visiting. Scarlett had been kinda excited about seeing it for a while now.

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