“The lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves.”

― Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince

“Before you go, the commander would like to have a word with you.” The guard commented as Greyson and Eloise were about to depart down the street. Inwardly, Greyson sighed a bit. He had felt like he’d dodged the bullet a bit if only having to explain the situation to the first group of guards.

“Yeah, where is he then? I’d like to wrap this up and get some food.” Greyson said resigned to have to wait even longer. Eli, for her part was content to just keep looking around at all of the people passing them by. While the bulk of the people appeared to be ‘standard’ humans, there were a few others every now and again.

Grey was directed to follow deeper into the gate station behind the guard. Pouting only a little bit at having her people watching interrupted and instead began to look around that the darkly lit, but surprisingly spacious corridor they were being led down. It didn’t take them too long to reach a large thick wooden door that had a number of iron bands reinforcing it. A quick rap on the door from the guard as he stepped off to the side to allow for Grey and Eli to enter the room at the call of who was presumably the commander inside.

A man with short cropped dark hair and at least a day or twos worth of stubble sat behind a large wooden desk littered with papers and what appeared to be maps. He head rested on one arm as the other held a report or something like it. Setting it down, he pulled his head out of his hand san slowly looked up at Greyson. Their stare down lasted for close to a minute before Grey got bored.

“If you keep looking at me like that you’re going to have to buy me dinner first” Greyson said coyly. Offering a small blush and looking away from him. This caused the commander to burst out into laughter as he got to his feet and came around the desk. For her part, Eli was looking back and forth between the two men and had it been possible, little question marks would have floated over her head.

“Nothing like that I’m afraid. I am just deciding on whether or not you’ll be able to help us on a matter and I can’t get a read on you.” He said in a bit of a gruff voice. For his part Gray decided to take a look at the commander as well.

Name: Titus Pollius Falco

Level: 11

Class: Kingdom Knight (Guard Commander)

Well, well. It seems that the commander isn’t just in charge for some familial connection but is actually one of if not the strongest guard I’ve seen so far.

“How about you tell me about the matter and I’ll let you know if I think I can or will help.” Grey wasn’t stupid. While he might want to keep some good relations with this village for now, he wasn’t so sure that he was going to want to stay here or tie himself to this apparent kingdom. This answer caused the laughter to fade from the commander and his square jaw took a bit more of a hard set. Apparently he wasn’t used to being talked to in this manner.

“Very well.” Falco crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back into the desk. His armor clinked and clanked as he settled himself into a more comfortable position.

“About two moons ago, a declaration from the Trokar Nations came this way stating they would be sending a delegation through the southern pass of the forest in order to negotiate a peace treaty with the King. Since then, we have been on the lookout for them. While they are not yet late, it is starting to be long enough that some of us here believe that they may have run into trouble.”

Grey listened with a bit more seriousness as the commander told them this. While he didn’t know any of the names or regions, he was able to get to the brunt of the matter.

“So, you’d like someone to head out and check on them?”

“Indeed. While we haven’t been in any direct war with the Trokar for many years now, there is no love lost between our two kingdoms. I am more worried about this either being a trap for a group of my men we send out or for someone to have ambushed them as a pretense for the Trokar to declare war on us.”

Falco stated gravely. Grey nodded his head as he mulled this over in his own head. It seems that Falco wasn’t just the commander for his level. He wasn’t sure if he’d have put together these possibilities for a group being late.

“Alright, so you’d like someone independent to take a look and make sure they make it here in one piece then?”

“Correct. My only real concern with asking you about this, is that we know nothing about you other than the fact you are strong enough to destroy that cursed cult. Not to mention, you are dressed oddly, wear no armor nor even carry a weapon. Frankly, you don’t add up and I don’t know whether or not I can trust you.” Falco bluntly stated. While in the kingdom, blunt speech such as this would have been seen as an insult. Had he said this to any of his men, he would have had to fight a challenge duel on the spot at the insult to their honor. Falco’s casual position belied his body’s readiness to spring into action. It wasn’t the greatest gamble based on Grey’s attitude so far, but he also wanted to see how he would react to the casual offense.

“Huh, yeah I guess I can see that.” Grey said trying to mull over what Falco has said.

“Well, I have armor and weapons, just not your normal kind of ones.” Grey said as he casually had a tendril of mana weave itself into a one of his favorite seax knives. The blade came to approximately twenty-five cm and while, it being a knife made from mana, had a number of runes that appeared to be carved into the blade. He kept talking as the knife wove itself together and he absently moved the blade around as he spoke with his hand.

“From what I can tell, I’m probably one of the strongest if not the strongest person around here, so I wouldn’t worry too much on that end either. Not really sure if there is anything that I can do to help with the trust thing though. Guess we’ll just have to figure something out there.” Grey said as he idly used the conjured knife to scratch at the back of his neck.

For his part, Falco attempted to remain as neutral as he could to the display of magic in front of him. It was unheard of for magic to be cast without a chant or some preparation with circles and other malarkey that he’d never truly wanted to learn. Whatever the skill was that allowed this Greyson to do magic so casually certainly meant he was dangerous, far more dangerous than his level had previously shown at the gate. While he watched the two, a plan crept up in his mind. While he didn’t like it much, he didn’t see much of a choice either.

“Yes, you do see our problem. So while you go and investigate where the delegation is, how about we look after the child for you? That should keep her out of any danger and give you a reason to come back to us here.” He said it as matter of factly as he could, making sure to point out he was helping and not keeping Eloise as a hostage, despite that being exactly what she would be.

Eli, who had only been half paying attention to the conversation and instead watching Greyson’s magic with rapt attention, jerked up to look at Falco at this. Her eyes immediately went large at this and she wrapped her arms around Grey’s waist in a tight squeeze, burying her face into his hip. Grey also froze at this, one arm dropping down to silently rest on Eli’s back while the other, knife still in hand stopped its scratching on his neck.

“Now why did you have to go and do that.” Grey sighed.

“Here we were having a pleasant conversation and you had to go and do the one thing that could ruin it.” All of Grey’s casual demeanor vanished and his usually kind eyes hardened into granite. For his part, Falco could feel the killing intent rising in the room slowly starting to press in on him from all sides. Where he thought he had been ready for anything, he had apparently not assessed this man correctly, who was clearly far stronger than anyone had any right to be.

“So here’s how it’s going to go, Eli and I are going to go and have a nice meal and I am going to sleep in a bed for the first time in much too long. After we’ve had a nice breakfast, we’ll swing by here again where you can give me a map of where you expect this delegation to be coming from. I’ll take a look around there for them and make sure they get here safely before we leave this kingdom.” It wasn’t a threat or even said in any threatening manor, and for that Falco felt his concern rise further.

Falco coughed briefly to clear his throat and give himself a moment or two to collect himself as he felt the pressure around him lessen.

“Erm, of course. I was merely pointing out that this area is still yet to be tamed and it could be dangerous for a small child to travel. It must be a cultural misunderstanding, no one here would ever look at harm your child there.” Falco backpedaled.

Eli looked back up out of Grey’s hip and glared at Falco, but Grey just relaxed and allowed the knife to dissipate into a small cloud of light motes.

“Ahh, sorry about that then. You don’t need to worry about the danger though, I’ll make sure that anything that threatens her ends up meeting whatever gods they believe in” Grey said and chuckled a bit.

“Quite right, I’ll make sure to have that map ready for you on the morrow. Additionally I’ll have one of my guards show you to one of the best inns the village has to offer. Have a pleasant evening.” Falco said, clearly as a dismissal. Grey and Eli turned around and left the room, the guard outside showing them the way out.

A few minutes later, another armored figure came into the office.

“So, what’s the plan boss?”

“Make sure to have someone follow them. They have to be as discreet as possible. Oh, and whatever you do, make sure that no one from our kingdom threatens that kid.”

“Alright, I have someone in mind for following them, but really? Is the kid that dangerous?”

“It’s not the kid I’m worried about. I’m not sure what will be left standing if anything were to happen to her.” Falco stated. The other armored figure, Caius, just nodded his affirmative and left to make preparations.

“Would we even have a kingdom anymore?” Falco mused to himself once the room was empty again.