The Insider System

Chapter 355: A Fellowship? Pt.1

"Who\'s that?" Seeing the guy flying around above the city yelling about gold Lake felt like someone who was a lot like him had just arrived. "I don\'t know. Now follow me." Seeing the old man take off at the same speed they had climbed the stairs Lake had to ask. "Could we move a bit faster this time?"

He was impatient when it came to how fast people were moving apparently. He hadn\'t known this but it made sense when you took into account how fast he normally moved on his own. "Once we\'re down the stairs I\'ll pick up the pace. I don\'t want to fall again."

Lake found this statement ridiculous but quickly remembered this man was a mage and there was a possibility he didn\'t have very high stats in anything that would make his body faster. This paired with the fact he was very old, him being afraid of falling down some stairs made sense.

Ten or so minutes passed as they were making their way through the castle and eventually they made it to the place he had robbed just the other day. "Which room are we going to?" Lake was sure it would either be the tea room or the office but he wanted to know where they would meet with him.

"I don\'t know. There are a lot of people that will be involved so the tea room makes more sense but that\'s just a guess." Lake just nodded to this and started to look around to see if he could spot these people the old man was talking about. A giant group wasn\'t on the same floor as them so he started to look to other parts of the castle to see a large group coming through the gate.

With the battle that had been taking place when they arrived now over this made perfect sense and he assumed these people would be the guards the old man mentioned earlier. He didn\'t think all of them would be able to fit into the tea room though so the old man must be alluding to others when he said a lot of people would be participating.

"Alright wait here for a few minutes." Being left in the hall outside the office of the mayor, Lake started to look around again still trying to see someone other than the mayor who was in his office. Eventually he saw a group coming up the stairs and ended his search guessing the other people that would be with them when they got around to talking about the plan.

...

"Like last time all of you stay silent unless you\'re asked something while the discussion is happening." Donny was sure the guard gave him a look when he said for them to be quiet but that was fine since head been the only one to break this rule the first time. "Is that Hampton?"

Hearing someone ask about the famed wizard who had been around for almost as long as the Metal Domain itself like he was in front of them Donny looked forward to seeing someone who kind of looked like a mage. The man was too young to be Hampton though so Donny quickly ignored them, whoever they were. "That\'s not Hampton. Probably another mage that\'s here just in case."

After he said this he shut his mouth and looked back to the guard to see they were now looking at the young looking mage as well. Turning his head to see if the young man was looking their way Donny saw the guard and the mage were locked eyes as if studying one another.

...

Lake wasn\'t sure how the guard he had saved the other day was here when they were supposed to be in the Metal Domain but after a few seconds of the two of them staring at one another Lake remembered he had his face changed so the man wouldn\'t recognize him and was staring at him for another reason.

Lake didn\'t mind them studying him so he broke eye contact and looked at the other faces because he could tell by the armor that they weren\'t Oracle guards like this man was. The next face he also knew but wasn\'t able to remember from where right away. Lake had met a lot of people over the last few weeks so when he finally put his finger on the fact that this was the guy he had taken the shield from, Lake looked to the next face wondering if he was going to know all of them somehow.

Thankfully the next person was a complete stranger but he didn\'t think that would be the case for long because they had already closed the distance that had been between them when they first arrived in the hallway he was standing in and looked like they were about to talk to him. "Is the mayor inside?"

The guard was the one to ask this but Lake couldn\'t help but look directly into the eyes of the man he had taken the shield from as he answered since he was trying to remember what their name was. "Yes he\'s inside." It was a short answer and didn\'t seem to tell the guard everything he wanted to know because the man quickly followed it up with another. "Can we enter?"

Lake could tell they were all assuming he worked here which was why they were even talking to him but he didn\'t care to clear this misunderstanding up. "Sure, go right in." He was tired of being left outside of the room and he felt all these people charging in would solve this.

Taking his words as truth they all moved past him and opened the door to the office. Only the guard himself was able to enter before the two inside asked for the door to be closed. They didn\'t say for the guard to leave though and the man took advantage of this by closing the door behind him instead of getting out of the office which was what they had probably meant.

...

Seeing who had just walked in, the mayor briefly thought of telling them to leave and that they would be paid in a little while but soon realized they could still use the people from the Metal Domain as the sun was still yet to come up. "If you are here to ask to be paid the situation isn\'t over please take your men and wait in the tea room. We\'ll be holding a discussion for everyone who will be involved in the rest of the battle in a few minutes."

He could tell the guard wanted to ask if this had been an original part of their job but the man seemed to know if he refused and just took the food now it would be considered thievery and therefore had no leg to stand on in this negotiation. As he exited the mayor got another brief look at the man out in the hallway who was wearing Hamptons robe but the door was closed again before a second even passed.

He would have liked to get up and get another look at the face of the man who had robbed them peacefully standing in wait outside but they had already been interrupted once. "Like I was saying the man who\'s screaming about gold outside is an adventurer I hired thinking you wouldn\'t be back any time soon."

"How much did you spend?" He could tell Hampton was probably asking because he had to promise a lot to the thief outside to get them to come here but he had seen this which was why negotiations with the adventures guild took so long. "Only one thousand gold for the man outside. It\'s a good price and use of the gold if we find a way to use him in the operation we are about to undertake."

Hampton nodded to this and said. "In that case you should get him in here so we can include him. Also don\'t mention the thief is here or what they did once we leave this room because there\'s probably a decent bounty on someone like that and we don\'t want it to get in the way of what we\'re doing."

After Hampton said this he walked out of the room and the mayor moved towards the window to yell for the man causing a ruckus outside. "Come over here!" The man seemed to hear him and was soon flying towards the window. Not letting the man ask or say anything the mayor made sure to talk as soon as the man arrived. "We\'re about to start, follow me to the tea room."

...

"You follow me." Lake wasn\'t sure why the old man was leading him away but he knew where they were headed because the only room down that side of the hallway was the lab. Guessing the old man wanted a few words in private, Lake followed him into the secluded room and waited to hear what it was that the other people here couldn\'t hear.

"We\'re going to keep the fact you\'re a thief a secret so the others here won\'t try to arrest you or anything. Just say you\'re a mage that I\'m friends with while we\'re discussing the plan." Lake was instantly on board with this idea and quickly nodded. "Alright let\'s go then."