Well, that was dumb, I chided myself as Vodurn left. Run your mouth off in front of someone who regularly talks to the King. I really wasn’t cut out for this cloak-and-dagger work. At least Vodurn had said that he was going to keep our words in confidence. I wasn’t sure if I believed him, but he hadn’t needed to say that.

It wasn’t like I’d blurted anything really sensitive. I was pretty sure the King suspected that I was antagonistic towards Finley. If he was keeping track of his staff members, he might suspect matters had gone a bit further than antagonistic. I couldn’t believe that we hadn’t heard anything further about that.

But the next door knock was not some man in a ratty trench coat, just here to ask me a few questions about the other night. Instead, it was just a messenger, telling me that my personal audience with the King was scheduled for the morning, two days hence.

“I’ve lost track of whether this is early or late, and whether that’s good or bad,” I admitted to the room.

“It’s within the range they gave us at the start, so that’s normal, I guess?” Felicia answered.

“It means we’re heading back soon, so that’s good,” Janie opined.

“Nooo! I want to go to the fighting rings again!” Cutter complained.

I frowned. It wasn’t necessarily true that we’d leave after the audience, but that was probably the way to bet. That meant I wouldn’t be in a position to help Guild Master Voight, but it also meant that I wouldn’t need his favours. Still, I didn’t want to blow off his request entirely. Getting Finley caught in the act of treason sounded pretty good to me. I should see what I could get done quickly.

“Cutter,” I said interrupting his spiel of how glorious the fights had been to the one person — Rhis — that had been listening. “Can you get the guards at the front desk to send a request for a meeting with the Chancellor? Regarding… past tax records. At his earliest convenience.”

Cutter looked a little glum about even being associated with something as dull as tax records, but he dutifully repeated the message and left the room.

Chancellor, to my mind, sounded like the head of a University, but I was pretty sure that here it referred to the man in charge of the purse strings. Which was fine, I knew how to talk to money men.

He must have been interested in talking to me because a reply came back with an appointment for this afternoon. Was that just because he was curious about me, or did he have his own agenda? With a start, I realised that my case for Talnier’s existence was almost entirely financial, and the Chancellor was someone that I should have gotten on-side first of all.

Well, better now than not at all. At least I wasn’t going to run out of things to talk about.

I passed the time before the appointment commiserating with Felicia about how unreasonable the Alchemists were, and having lunch. When it was time, a guard escorted me through the restricted halls to where the Chancellor’s office was.

I kept my eyes open, and more than that, my [Sense Mana]. This was a scouting expedition, after all. There didn’t seem to be a lot of magical security in the hallway, but there was a field that covered almost all of the Chancellor’s office.

“Councillor,” said the man himself, coming out to greet me.

“Chancellor,” I replied, curtseying. “How good of you to see me at such short notice.” Rising, I looked him over as he led me into the office. He was an older man, with pale skin and dark hair. But the thing that caught my notice as we both settled into a pair of comfortable chairs, was his large blue eyes.

“I always have time for people who bring in funds,” he told me. He gave me a warm smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Most of my petitioners are seeking money in some form or another.”

“I see,” I said, and let him butter me up with inconsequential social chit-chat, while I sized up the room for magic.

The man himself was wearing three magic items. I recognised one of them as the same type of storage ring I’d gotten from Talnier’s dungeon. He wore another ring on his right — his dominant — hand. That one had an aura on it, but it only extended about a foot. The final one I couldn’t see, but it was hanging around his neck, under his clothes.

The only other magic in the room were the enchantments that lit it. The main magic field seemed similar to the alarms on our doors and windows. I suspected it linked up to the same security centre they did, but it was possible that it was set up for a more direct alarm after hours.

With the small talk out of the way, we moved on to the ostensible reason for my visit.

“Belatedly, it occurred to me that there might be some discrepancies between the records that I’ve been working with, and the ones held in the capital,” I explained.

“Discrepancies?” the chancellor’s eye twitched slightly, perhaps the only real emotion he’d shown so far. Despite his warm demeanour, and his baby blue eyes, [Charm] was telling me that this was all part of a routine facade.

“Why yes,” I said, attempting to imbue my words with the seriousness that the Chancellor probably felt they deserved. “Given Baron Marseau’s rampant criminality, it seemed likely that either he falsified the records he kept in Talnier or fed the Crown false information for your records. The only way to know for sure would be to compare the two.”

I patted the files that I had brought. They were part of the preparation for my big presentation, but they served equally well for this purpose.

“It would be embarrassing to get contradicted during my audience with his Majesty,” I continued. “And if there was an error, it could take some time to find out where it came from. So I thought it would best to check now.”

“Of course, of course,” the Chancellor replied. He glanced at the young man — a footman? — that was standing against the wall. “Fetch the records for Talnier for the last three years.”

I smiled graciously and thanked him for assuaging my concerns. Truthfully, while faked records were a concern, it wasn’t really a concern of mine. My case was built on projections going forward, which were a sharp break from the past. Revelations about the Baron’s prior misdeeds weren’t going to change that.

The Chancellor didn’t appreciate being lied to though, which was what my suggested possibility amounted to. He insisted on helping me go through the figures, and once we’d successfully checked all the records, he let a small sigh of relief slip out.

“It seems I was worried over nothing,” I said, as I started packing away my files. “I am sorry to have troubled you.”

“Not at all, dear lady. The cost of correctness is rigorous checking for errors or falsehoods. It’s been a pleasure to find someone as dedicated to bookkeeping as myself.”

Was I fooling myself that there was now the tiniest bit of warmth in those eyes? I decided to push things a bit. When he called for his subordinate to return the records, I spoke up.

“Actually, do you think I could see how your own system of record-keeping works? There might be some lessons for us in Talnier.”

“Of course!” he said and showed me into the back room. Or back rooms, rather, because it was a whole complex back here. There were five people scurrying about sorting and indexing files, and Agenor, as he suddenly started insisting I call him, was only too happy to explain what everyone was doing and how everything was organised.

The full tour took half an hour, but there were only a few things I needed to note. First of all, the records room did have its own exit — I didn’t need to tramp through his office to get there. Secondly, the room didn’t have any security, aside from the normal fields on the windows and doors. And third, one of the clerks had left his key sitting on his desk.

The final thing was when, with a casual wave of his hand, Agenor indicated where his personal correspondence was stored.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Felicia said, worrying. “Even if you don’t get caught, surely he won’t be keeping incriminating documents in his main office?”

“Maybe not, but I need to check the obvious place first,” I said. I paused, giving her words more consideration. “Also, nothing that Agenor has done is actually illegal. Whatever his arrangements with the Lyrans are, I’m pretty sure he’s got a sign-off from the King to negotiate. Finley's actions are all part of the sting. Whatever he does, it doesn’t impinge on Agenor at all. Finally, if Agenor has set up a secret communication channel to Finley… well, talking to people isn’t illegal.”

I shrugged. “Maybe you can make the case that using it to warn him is traitorous, but until he does that, it’s all above board.”

“Wait, so are we the criminals then?”

“Yep!” came the cheerful reply from Janie. I gave her a mock glare.

“I’m coming to terms with the idea that legal or illegal is what the King says it is,” I said slowly. “If I get caught, I’m probably a criminal. If Finley goes down, we’re probably heroes. Anything in between is… eh.” I waggled my hand. “Could go either way.”

With that comforting final thought, I was off.

There were a few things that had to go right for this to work. Having them go wrong was pretty low risk though — I should be able to back out and try again another time.

Getting past the guard — they still had them in position throughout the night — was pretty easy. The first actual test was when I got to the archive room and looked under the door. It was dark, which came as some relief. If someone was burning the midnight oil there wasn’t much I could do while remaining undetected.

The magical alarm was a slight concern, but by now I was used to manipulating the security fields out of my way. The second test was actually coming up next.

[Phantasmal Object].

I cast the spell silently and gazed pensively at the key that appeared in my hand. I was fairly confident that it was good enough a copy to turn its lock. I was less sure that it was the key to the door, but how many doors would that clerk have a key to open? Still, there was only one way to find out.

Click. The soft sound of the lock opening was both music to my ears and terrifyingly loud. That was just my nervousness though, the guards at the end of the corridor never stirred. I cast a [Static Image] on the door so they wouldn’t notice it was open, and stepped carefully inside.

I made sure with [Mana Sense] that no additional security had been applied after everyone had left, but it was all good. I couldn’t see anything else though. The corridor was lit, but the light was being blocked by my image, so all I had was the moonlight through the windows.

Not a problem for an adventurer though. I slipped out a Darkvision potion and drank it in one gulp. It tasted like cough medicine, but it swiftly got to work on my eyes, raising the apparent brightness level. This potion gave vision in pitch black, so the indirect moonlight was plenty.

I turned to the section that Agenor had indicated and went to work. I was going to have a long night ahead of me.