Chapter 13: 13: Gazebo of “Let me fill you in”

Taking a quiet sip of her tea, Kaitlyn sank a little more into her seat and thoughts, savoring that rich, rich, royal palace tea. 

She’d never admit to Jayce and Sasha, for fear of being yelled at, but the main reason she came by the royal palace at all was because of their food... it’s just hard to come by in other places...

Moving on from Kaitlyn and her subtle robbery, Sasha, focused while carrying out her duties, set her teacup down with a light clink, sighing, “So that’s how it was... we suspected something very similar to be honest. The country you all were summoned in had its fair share of... nefarious deals.”

“Yeah, they were adept in what one could say was... high-pressure negotiations,” Jayce nodded in agreement, smiling with a light chuckle seeing the otherworlder’s faces of shock, “Don’t be too surprised, we do have an extensive information network, every country has one these days.”

Leaning over to whisper in Josephine’s ear, Damien murmured, “This is literally the MI6 and... the like.. CIA and FBI, isn't it?”

Excitement surfacing on her face, Josephine muttered back with a grin as Oliver and Rachel held the conversation, “I wonder if there’s true crimeeeee! Wouldn’t that be amazing?!” 

With dead eyes, Damien retorted, “What?! No... that’d suck! Do you SEE?! Do you have eyes?! People in this world literally can slice through clouds!! You want a serial killer that can do that?! What kind of coo coo loony ka-stupid head are you?!”

“T... True...”

“Overall, however,” Jayce explained to Oliver with a genial smile, “We’d love to have you all in the country! We also promise we won’t train you all to be secret superweapons to wage war! It’s always just great to have some more powerful adventurers in the country.”

Laughing and almost spitting out his tea, Oliver thanked, a grateful smile on his face as he tried not to continue laughing, “We’d love to take you up on that offer, we’re a little... countryless right now after all. So a non-nefarious country taking us in would be highly appreciated.”

“Of course, of course,” Jayce grinned, Sasha nodding as well, “You all don’t understand your value, but to put it simply, being able to have another four future S-Rank Adventurers in the country is practically lifesaving!”

“Sign us up then pleaseee~” Josephine agreed, extending her hand out while doing an over-exaggerated bow, “We need a homeeeeee!”

Taking her hand, Sasha reassured, “No need to go to such lengths, we were already planning on taking you all in. But we also just wanted to discuss a few more details and fill you in a little on the world situation right now.”

Interjecting with an apologetic face, Kaitlyn coughed, standing up along with Dexter, “Hey, we’ll be back, we just want to talk about some stuff so we’re just taking this moment when we’re not really needed to talk... and while we’re in the nice royal palace gardens... but that has nothing to do with it.”

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Turning the clock back to a few moments prior, Dexter made idle conversation with a now quiet Kaitlyn, fully disregarding his responsibilities as a Guildmaster and ignoring the actual important dialogue. Piling a few more pastries onto his plate, Dexter asked before taking a gargantuan ruthless bite out of his pastry, staring up at the ceiling of the arched Gazebo, “Any plans after this, Kaitlyn? You seem to be back in... lost land.”

Gazing off into the distance, boredom flickering across her face, Kaitlyn replied, her words trailing off, “I’m not sure... There’s... not much to do. All I do is fight the people or beasts that need to be fought, but...”

“There’s no one to fight anymore? Or it’s all just really weak people?” Dexter reasoned, raising an eyebrow in worry hearing a little bit of depression creeping into her voice, “Let’s go on a walk then, we’re not really needed here for the time being and it's not everyday that we can wander around the royal gardens. I have an... idea? Or a favor you could say to ask anyway.”

Nodding, Kaitlyn stood up, giving a light wave to the rest of the group, giving a brief explanation as she walked out of the Gazebo towards the rest of the garden with Dexter behind her. 

Waving off a maid, letting her know there was nothing to worry about, they walked down the steps of the pure white gazebo, Dexter began, following Kaitlyn down the path with a few bushes and overarching trees, “So... A few things overall.”

“Yeah?” Kaitlyn pondered, looking up at the canopy they had just walked under, the trees having intertwined to form a sort of roof over their heads letting in bits of the sun through its gaps, “Forgive me, but I haven’t kept up with the news, so you’ll probably have to start a little more from the broader end...”

Laughing as his boots crunched on the path the pair walked down, Dexter commented, “I already expected that, so don’t worry too much.”

Turning the corner and pausing for a moment as the pathway opened up into an expansive garden, the trees swaying in the light afternoon wind, the bushes maintained to perfection, marking out a trail that sloped downward, the trail snaking around a stone center area sunken into the ground illustrating a colorful mosaic of the country’s past. 

“So, there are a few things that you should know about,” Dexter explained, walking down towards the mosaic, “The first is that the next monster wave is nearing, Miss Crazy, Chelsea, who’s the duchess guarding the frozen frontier wasteland in her country, has reported to all the countries that the monsters have started stirring once more.”

“First thing?” Kaitlyn inquired, raising an eyebrow, worry creeping into her voice “I feel like that’s already quite important, are there more... pressing issues going on?”

Patting Kaitlyn on the back, Dexter traced his hand along the color tiles on the ground, “Sadly, that’s only the beginning. A less important thing, the previous dwarven king has fallen ill, thus all the tribes are gearing up to fight for the throne; however, I’m pretty sure it will be a competition not a war and self contained in the Towers of Iron mountain range they reside in, so not much to worry about there.”

“Is there more...?” Kaitlyn asked, unsure seeing Dexter pausing after explaining the dwarven situation, “Because that doesn’t seem like too much... handleable per se...”

With a sad chuckle, Dexter stood up with a strained smile, “I wish, I wish, this is where shit hits the fan though, we’re very lucky that all of this stuff develops quite slowly...”