Nidra’s plan was so simple that Hirrus wondered why bother planning it at all.

But as soon as he began to enact it, he saw the value.

The guild hall for Intricacy was easy to locate. Considering the guild was one of the largest in the country, it was obviously the largest building in Denstad that wasn’t within the city’s defensive walls, though it had defensive walls of its own that were almost a match for those around the city. The manor itself was a huge sprawling building, with a huge central hall and five wings sprouting off of it like the legs of an injured insect.

At the end of each wing there was a wide bit that looked like a mansion of its own - not as large as the manor of Last of the Strong, but about a match for Clive’s mansion. The guild manor could have housed an army comfortably. Uncomfortably, the entire population of Denstad could have probably squeezed in safely in times of crisis.

Of course, adventurers would never serve the needs of others. In times of crisis, they were likely to lock their own adventurer allies out and laugh at them for lacking the foresight to build a giant defensible palace of their own.

Despite the extravagance demanded by the size of the estate, it was further exacerbated by the ideal location, being right on the river with its own little riverside dock. Hirrus considered that without Nidra’s plan, he would have used the Arcana he’d learned from Orlina to walk on the river’s surface to get to the dock and circumvent the defensive wall. But that wouldn’t have handled the biggest, most obvious problem.

The place was crawling with adventurers.

Some appeared to be patrolling the grounds with intent, but through the narrow gap of the estate’s gate, Hirrus could see over a dozen just milling about, either chatting, sparring, or just lounging on the lawn. Everyone entering the estate was being checked over by one of five adventurers assembled at the front gate. Even outside the walls, the surrounding neighborhood was heavily populated with them scurrying about, patronizing the stores and other businesses in the immediate area.

Hirrus’s plan - to rush in with violence from the start - was certainly viable. None of these adventurers had the clean, competent look of the more threatening members of Last of the Strong. But considering the density of them, he might be picking a bigger fight than the one he’d faced against Rumi’s forces.

It wasn’t a question of how many adventurers he could see from here. How many adventurers were there that he couldn’t see? Did they fill every building? Would the giant manor ahead disgorge an endless supply of them once the battle began? Were there reinforcements scattered across the whole city that would descend upon him once he started fighting?

Nidra’s plan wasn’t complicated. From the information her people had gathered, Intricacy was too big of a guild to be meaningfully managed without an unrealistic amount of discipline on the part of a spectacular number of people. Communication between that many people was constantly overwhelmed by the tremendous noise of adventurers spouting nonsense. Their organization and security was bogged down by the weight of their foolish pride. If someone approached with any sort of unsubstantiated story that was remotely believable, they would have to go to the source physically to confirm.

An unsubstantiated but believable story like the one Nidra had given Hirrus.

“Ahoy-hoy,” one of the gate guards said as Hirrus finally made his approach, the playful tone of voice in contrast to his bored expression. “The fuck are you?”

“Courier,” Hirrus said quickly. Deanna had told him to act impatient and bored at the same time for this part of the plan. Hirrus did his best to picture Alric telling a story with no discernable point to it. “I have a message for the officers. Any of them will do, but I’m not supposed to deliver it to anyone else.”

“Who from?” the guard asked with a sigh.

Despite the casual nature of the question, Nidra’s informants had told her that this was the key to penetrating the estate’s defenses. Intricacy was such a large guild that if the members wanted their needs and wishes to be heard by the officers at all, they would be forced to go to great lengths through internal channels. People often tried to skip the line with couriers, letters, singing telegrams, and all manner of other tactics. There were only a handful of names that would get Hirrus in the door from this point.

Luckily, he knew exactly the magic word to say.

“Fidelis,” Hirrus said, trying to mirror the guard’s routine-inspired boredom. “Of Last of the Strong in Inoha.”

The boredom went out of the guard instantly. In fact, the three of his nearest companions immediately stopped what they were doing and looked over as well.

“The fuck you just say?” the guard demanded.

“Fidelis,” Hirrus repeated, speaking slowly and enunciating clearly. “From Inoha. Last of the Strong.”

“I fucking heard you,” the guard snapped, seemingly ignorant of the fact that he’d just asked.

“What did he say?” another guard asked.

“Fidelis,” Hirrus said again.

“Jesus Christ,” the new guard cursed, reaching up and taking off her hat. “Really?”

“You better let him in,” a third guard said.

“If Jason hears that Fidelis sent word and you held it up at the door, he’s gonna have your head,” the second guard said, fidgeting with her hat.

“Pfft,” the first guard scoffed. “Jason. Acting like you know him or something.”

The second guard’s cheeks flushed, but she didn’t disagree.

“Can I go?” Hirrus asked, gesturing at the estate beyond the gate.

“Yes,” said the second and third guard immediately.

“No,” said the first guard, along with the other two at the gate at the same time.

Hirrus crossed his arms. It took a long moment for him to convince himself that this was Nidra’s plan, and if he was going to be working with her, he couldn’t just murder all these people for thier foolishness.

“Okay,” the first guard said. “We compromise. He goes in, but Lydia, Roronoa, and I go with him to make sure there’s no funny business.”

The other two at the gate seemed mollified by the compromise. The three adventurers took up positions cautiously surrounding him as they walked him through the gates towards the manor. Apparently such a thing was commonplace enough that they didn’t draw attention as they approached the enormous palace of a building that served as the guild’s manor.

The entrance hall was an enormous ballroom. Ivory-white tiles with golden accents ran from wall to wall. Giant pillars of marble with veins of gold running through them stretched up to the high ceiling, where a hexagonal glass skylight framed in gold let the sun in, reflected brightly on every surface. A spiral staircase of sunlit marble with a golden banister ran up along the side, with landings against every wall of the hexagonal room. There were even four separate string quartets quietly playing in different corners of the room, even though there was obviously no event going on.

Just more aimless-looking adventurers milling about.

A few of them had even set up little workbenches in the middle of this picturesque hall and were mending clothes or sharpening weapons. Someone had set out an anvil and was hammering dents out of a breastplate while three others were critiquing their technique loudly and rudely. Even this beautiful scene had become mundane to these people.

The first guard was the man leading them, and he started towards the spiral staircase. Instead of leading them up it, though, he led them to the space beneath it, where there was a smaller, less decorated door.

“Where are we going?” the second guard asked. Hirrus guessed that she was Lydia. “The officers will be in their offices upstairs.”

“Obviously,” the first guard snapped. “But I don’t like this. We’re taking him down to the bunker first. Make sure it’s secure. And then you can run and fetch one of them to come down.”

“Good thinking,” the other guard said. “Make sure you inconvenience the officer as much as possible. Smart.”

“Shut up,” the first guard grumbled, shoving open the unadorned door and leading them down a much darker staircase into a hall that looked shockingly like a dungeon considering the gaudy opulence only a few feet above.

These halls were empty. There were not dozens of adventurers milling about or wasting time here. Hirrus wondered if this space was somehow off-limits, or if they just didn’t want to be down here because it wasn’t as fancy and nice as the ballroom above.

Either way, it was time to move the plan into phase two.

“One moment,” Hirrus said, coming to a stop.

All three of the adventurers immediately whirled on him in a panic. The first guard whipped out a simple greatsword. The other man - Roronoa - pulled out a curved chisel-tipped blade in each hand. He had a third blade in a scabbard on his back, though Hirrus didn’t know why a man with only two hands would need three swords. The other guard jumped back, getting some distance, and while she raised empty hands, Hirrus could tell easily that she was bringing her Arcana list to mind to prepare to blast him.

“I’m not entirely comfortable with this arrangement,” Hirrus said. He started to turn and head back for the stairs back up to the ballroom. “I’m here to deliver a message, not be locked up and questioned.”

As expected, all three of them jumped to dash in front of him, physically blocking his path.

“You’re goin’ nowhere,” the first guard said, menacing Hirrus with his greatsword. “Not without our say so. You can either get into the cell over there,” he continued, gesturing at the nearest door to Hirrus’s left. “Or the only place your message is getting delivered to is a shallow grave.”

“Jason’s not going to like this,” Lydia said, though she was still barring Hirrus’s way alongside the other two guards.

Hirrus shook his head, scoffing at their foolishness. Even now they had to find something to argue with each other about. They didn’t even realize their fatal mistake.

They were now standing in a tiny little clump. Perfectly arranged to catch all three of them with Peppered Breath at the same time.