Chapter 20: Conspiracy Cute

I slammed the door of my warehouse shut behind me the moment I’d issued orders.

“My Lady…”

“Shush, you.” Dee and Dum were unbinding the rest of my men outside, who were then to be given food and rest after the last of Arlo’s gang had left. Rel, on the other hand, I’d dragged inside to handle personally. I slipped a knife from her jacket, slicing the thick rope binding her hands and legs together.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t escape.”

“I thought I said shush.” I ran my hands up and down her arms, looking over the minor bruises. I grit my teeth.

“But I.”

I pulled the stupid girl into a hug. She stiffened. “Are you okay?”

“Y-yes. I’m fine.” She shuffled in my grip.

She was still taller than me, annoying as it was. But at the very least she could stop talking about nonsense like ‘breaking out’ and killing half a gang by herself while everyone else was being held hostage.

“Enough of that.” I took a step back, meeting Rel’s eyes. “You would have just gotten yourself killed. And you’re no good to me dead, Rel.” I shook my head. “No, this is my fault. You should never have been put in that situation in the first place.”

She said nothing for a second, mouth working soundlessly.

I sighed. “I just thought we’d have more time. I didn’t think selling a few shitty iron daggers would be such a big deal.” I crossed my arms. “And so they got the drop on me, because I got cocky.” The death of many a Villain, even those bigger and better than me.

Especially those bigger and better than me.

“Listen.” I cut Rel off again. “You’re safe, and that’s what matters. Now we can start focusing on the important things.”

Rel nodded slowly, still giving me odd looks out of the corner of her eye. “Like… what?”

I felt my features slip into a deep glower. “Making sure they pay for every scrape and bruise they left on mine, of course.” I folded my arms. “First though, we have to play… nice.”

Rel nodded again. “I’m here.” She straightened out her uniform, brushing the dust off the fabric of her vest. “What do you need me to do?”

I sighed. “What I need is for you to be very upset with me.”

Rel blinked. “Lady Via?”

“We made more waves than I anticipated,” I said, casting my eyes around the warehouse. “But even then, the Rusted Knives found us pretty quickly. Maybe I’m just being paranoid, and the guild scried us or something.” I huffed. Anti-magic defenses, yet another thing I needed to get started on. “But we’ve had a lot of people joining up over the last few days, which is not the way things normally go, now is it?”

“Not exactly?” Rel tilted her head. “But we’ve actually been protecting people, we haven’t even demanded any money for it. And then word started getting round that you were going to be hiring people for the smithy…”

“Foundry,” I corrected absently. I had started pacing now, winding up and down the dirt floor of the warehouse. “And that would explain some people, especially in an area like this.” I sent her a look. “But would it explain all of them?”

Rel frowned. “… Maybe not?”

I nodded. “And that’s why I need you to be mad at me.” I laughed. “It makes sense, doesn’t it? This whole mess is my fault, but a normal gang boss? They’d be looking for someone to vent their frustrations on. And that someone is you.”

Rel swallowed. “If that’s what you need, Lady Via.”

I blinked once as she bowed her head, twisting her cap in her hands. Then it hit me. “What? No!” I smacked her arm. “Don’t be an idiot. I’m not upset with you, I just need everyone else to think I am. So put that hat back on, and be ready to act all sullen when we go back outside.” I paused. “I mean, if you think you can pull it off.”

Rel paused for a second, glancing up at me through her fringe.

I sighed. “Oh for god’s—I’m not mad at you, so put your hat back on and tell me if you’re up to the job.”

“I think… I can act pretty sullen, Lady Via,” she said, toying with a strand of hair. “But, why again?”

“Because if there is someone, or someones, who tipped the guild off about us, I need to know who it is.” I gave a sharp grin. “And so I’m going to offer them up a juicy new source of information. As long as we’re on the outs, maybe someone will think they can flip you.”

Rel’s eyes widened in understanding. “And then I bring it to you…”

“Exactly.” I nodded. “So be upset with me, and put on your best show. If we’re lucky, they’ll even offer you some money for going behind my back.”

“Ah, uh.” Rel paused, looking back and forth nervously. “What should I do if someone pays me to… you know…”

“Betray me?” I raised an eyebrow. “Take the money of course, we can split it. Then…” I reached up, patting Rel on the cheek. “You come and tell me, and we show them exactly how I feel about traitors.”

Rel nodded.

“Good.” I spun away, mind moving a mile a minute. “That’s a start on the potential mole problem. Next I have to worry about the rest of this mess.”

Arlo had agreed to work with me, provisionally. He’d even been kind enough to send mostly low level adventurers over to attack me this morning, so he wouldn’t even be upset when I went and killed them all. You know, typical villain things.

The one thing he wasn’t onboard with were any plans to take on the Guild itself. They were too big, had too many friends, and he wasn’t about to start a war he could only lose. Survival instincts were something I could work with, though. All I had to do was show Arlo that we could do more than kneel beneath their boot.

Or else, force the issue.

The last problem was the forge. I needed to make steel. So far, the imps and I still hadn’t managed to completely work out the process, so, of course, I’d lied my ass off that Guild lady in order to get a better deal. Fortunately, it had worked, and so I had a lucrative contract with the Guild that would earn me good will as a good little peon who knew her place.

Unfortunately, it also meant I was on the hook to provide steel weapons to the Adventurer’s Guild.

“We’re going to need to scale up production.” I opened my status screen, looking at my new stat points and the skill I’d earned after making a deal with Arlo

[STATUS]

“You said Soul is regeneration, and Attunement is mana pool?”

Rel nodded. “That’s what I managed to learn.”

“Good enough.” I split my points between the two stats. I was going to need plenty of both to make this work. As for my new skill, “How common are truth telling skills in this world?”

Rel jolted. “Y-you have one?”

“I just got it.” I waved a hand.

“They’re not very common, but… people can almost always tell when they’re used, unless the other person is a high enough level.”

I glanced over at Rel, who was doing her best not to look at me, a light blush on her cheeks. For a moment, I wondered if she could possibly be a plant. But no, not only did I pick her up at random, she’d been nothing but helpful and forthright with me. If I started to doubt Rel, after one little falter on my part…

Well, then I didn’t deserve to have her loyalty in the first place, did I?

“I haven’t used it on you, don’t worry.” I huffed.

Rel paused. “You… haven’t?”

“No.” I shook my head. “And I don’t particularly intend to.” I gave her a wry smile. “So you can keep whatever secret you were worried about me sniffing out, as long as you promise to always tell me what I need to know.”

Rel stopped for a moment, before she laughed. “Just like I’ve been doing so far, Lady Via?”

My smile turned a bit more genuine. “It’s worked so far.”

She bowed. “I promise.”

“Good.” I cracked my knuckles. “Now, we have some work to do.” I felt a tingle go down my spine as I started to fill up my increased mana pool. “We’re going to have to organize more people to go down to the ocean. I’ll need more demons for this.” I banged on the top of the forge. “As for you two, any progress?”

A sooty black head popped out of the coals.

“Zhruka m’darrrrrn!” Mr. Burns grinned up at me.

I blinked. “It worked?”

“Zhruka! Zhruka!” He scampered back into the forge. There was a brief moment of hissing and yowling before he and Coaline hauled a lump of iron out of the back of the forge. I paused. No, that wasn’t iron glowing cherry red in the mouth of my foundry, was it?

I plucked a hammer that I’d acquired from the side of the foundry. “Hold it there.” The imps nodded happily. I hefted the hammer and swung.

The metal rang beautifully as I hit it. But more than that, there was a noticeable dent from the hammer. Now, I wasn’t a smith, but I’d worked with more than a bit of our melted wrought iron the past few days, and this, this was steel.

“Perfect.” I grinned. “We’ll have to tear out the wall to give you more room to melt the bars and add the carbon. The new charcoal, it worked?”

“Phrrkramer dvvvot.” Coaline swayed her head back and forth. “Frmardrrrr gwrrkkwala zzzravak!”

I nodded. “I’ll get you more, just keep track.” I let out a breath. “At this rate, we might actually make that delivery deadline.”

Two things taken care of, then. All that remained was my plan to stick a knife in the Guild’s back. I sighed. That was also the hardest one of the lot. I was never the type of villain to say ‘damn the artillery’, which was the reason I was still alive and kicking. Idiots like Black Noon and Cypher were so confident in their own abilities that they would take on impossible odds just because they knew they’d manage to win.

Past tense.

After a moment, I shook my head. For now, I’d have to work with what I was given. In a few weeks, I could turn my ragtag little gang into a force to be feared. In the meantime, I’d need much more firepower if I was going to hit the Adventurer’s Guild.

I turned to Rel. “Ready to put on a show?”

Rel gave a sly smile. “Yes, Lady Via.”

“Good. Let’s go… rally the troops.” I strode towards the double doors of the warehouse, Rel following half a step behind. From the corner of my eye I could see how she’d hunched in on herself not daring to look at me.

Perfect.

I threw open the doors to the warehouse, stepping out into the evening light. Then I paused.

Standing in the middle of the dirt road was a blond haired woman. “Hey there, Empress!” Electra raised a hand, sheepishly. At her feet, Dee was spasming on the ground. “Sorry, but, he attacked me first?”

I spared a glance at Dee. He’d… probably be fine. “Get him into a bed, someone make sure he doesn’t throw up or something awful.” Then I turned back to Electra. “And why, exactly, are you here again?”

“Well, I came back from my first quest, you see.” She rubbed the back of her head. “And I kind of ran into the Guild, not really a big fan of them right now, not gonna lie, and… Empress why are you smiling?” I felt my grin stretch wider. Electra took a step back. “No for real, why are you smiling, it’s creeping me the heck out.”

“Oh no reason.” I walked forward, grabbing the hero by the shoulders. “You’re just exactly the thing I was looking for.”

“But I’m a person.”

“Details.”