"So would you guys like a place to stay?", Mayor Burke offered, still sporting a fake-looking smile.

"Yes, that would be great. Thank you."

Hmm. Well, he is offering us a place to stay. So plus one point for Mayor Burke I guess. Wonder how the points will total up once my visit comes to an end. Which will hopefully be tomorrow.

"Blake", said Mayor Burke, clapping his hands.

"Yes sir?"

"Show these fine visitors to their rooms. Make sure they're comfortable."

"Ah, you wish sir."

Blake turned toward us.

"Follow me please good sirs."

Okay, so that -2 points for just I don't know. I didn't like how that was handled. -1 points now. Not looking good for him so far but there's still a while left for him to make it up.

Blake led us to separate rooms, one for me, one for Dob, and yet another one for Lob. Each of the rooms sat on one side of a long hallway that was adorned by a few paintings and a red carpet that stretched across the length of the whole hallway.

Okay well separate rooms for each of us umm. I would give that a point but that would be unfair since it doesn't tell me anything about him as a person other than the fact that he knows how to suck up to people.

"Okay well, I'll come to get you in the morning so that you can do your inspection. Is that fine with you?"

"Yeah. Thanks."

"No problem. If you ever need anything just come find me. That's what I'm here for after all", said Blake, a melancholy expression bleeding through his mask of professionalism.

-1 point yet again. That brings the total to -2 points. Hmm. Not looking good for you Mr. Mayor. Not looking good at all. Treating your workers badly is a no-no. I may have to do some kind of an intervention after I finish off Scorpion. Or help to finish off Scorpion... Based on this I can only assume that the mines will be a sorry sight. Not in terms of productivity but in terms of the worker's treatment. That's only an assumption though so I'll see how things really are tomorrow.

After Blake left I looked around the room. The number of things that had some form of gold or gem on them were astounding.

Jeez. This almost hurts my eyes. It's so ridiculously overkill. I mean who's he hosting? The king? It's a small town! Nobody that deserves this amount of flair will likely come here. His room must be like entirely made out of gold or something if a guest room is this gilded.

Oh yeah. He must get this money from somewhere. My bet is that the people suffer from it. Even if that's not the case I don't like how vain this is. It makes him seem like some rich jerk which he seems to be turning out to be.

Guess I'll just deal with that in the morning, I need my beauty sleep after all. Hehe.

Then I got ready for bed and went to bed.

Ah, this is so comfy. Is it like silk or something?!

And then I fell asleep. I awoke the next morning to a single loud knock on my door.

"Who is it?", I called out groggily.

"It's Blake sir. I'm here to wake you up. The miners start rather early and I figured you'd want to see everything."

"Ah thank you, Blake."

"No problem sir. Would you like me to wake the others?"

"Who?"

"The two people you came with yesterday. I believe you said their names were Dob and Lob?"

"Ah yes please wake them up. I still have to get ready."

I jumped out of bed and attempted to rub the sleep from my eyes.

Jeez, how early is it? Why the heck are these miners getting up this early?!

As I got ready I heard the sound of Blake knocking on Dob and Lobs' doors to get them up. After getting ready I stepped out of the room and into the hallway. It didn't take Dob and Lob long to get ready and when they had joined me in the hallway Blake started to lead us out of the house and to the mines.

As we walked I looked around and saw tracks left in the dirt by people seemingly going in the same direction as us.

Those footsteps must be from the miners. I can't believe they have to get up this early. Definitely -1 point for that. What is the score now? Hmm. Well, I don't really remember but it's definitely in the negatives and I have a feeling it's not going to go up that much, or at all.

"So how long do the miners work?", I asked Blake.

"From dawn to dusk", Blake answered with a weary expression.

"What?! You're gonna work them to death!", I exclaimed.

"Me? I don't do anything. Look don't tell anyone I said this but Burke is an oppressive jerk. He makes these people work for practically no pay and uses the money he gets from the guy he exports the ores to in order to give himself a more lavish lifestyle. People have tried to leave but none of the villagers are that good at fighting and his guards have a history of being very harsh. Fatally so."

I knew it! I have to bring this guy down. But I have to wait a bit. If I bring him down now it'll bring down the production of the mine which will make me look bad in Scorpion's eyes which might compromise my primary mission. I hate to do this but I have to do nothing until I finish dealing with Scorpion.

I need to let Blake know that I plan to help them but if I say that I'll help free them from Mayor Burke that would be bad as it would lower the production of the mine. If Scorpion got wind of that from his informants it might ruin all the work I've done thus far so I need to think of a cover story. Something that would help Scorpion, if it were true, while also letting Blake know that I'll help in the future.

"Blake. I have heard you. I will try to help at some point by making your mine more efficient while making it need fewer workers. However, I'm a bit busy right now so it'll have to wait a bit."

"Oh thank you so much! Here the mine is just up ahead."

"Actually um well I don't need to really see the mine anymore. I know that it's producing a lot and I can't really help with any big problems right now as well as I already said I'm currently very busy. Could we perhaps go back and sleep some more?"

"Ah yes of course. I'll bring you back at once sir."