女神归来的夏天

Chapter 188: The Heist of Bellvia XIII

Sally looks at me in frustration. That Holten sister was flirting, and next time I\'ll be sure to stop that. That butler, Trumen, has some serious boundary problems. "You could have stopped her from doing that, you know... I know you aren\'t mine, but I don\'t like seeing or hearing that from other women when they talk to you... It makes me feel like I have to compete..." I feel really bad now. I didn\'t know that\'s how she\'d feel about that. If the situation were reversed, I wouldn\'t feel too happy. So I can see why this causes problems, I look at the clothes she has in the dressing room, and she looks to have picked out two of them. She sees me looking at them. "I really like the red one..." So the red one is the one I\'m buying. I lift it from its spot and take it to the counter with me.

Sally follows behind me, and once at the counter, the cashier is wearing a big smile. "Will this be all you want today?" I nod my head, and she tells me the price for the red dress and leather hood. I pay the price, and I pick them up from the counter. I place the dress in my inventory so Sally or I won\'t have to carry it around. I equip the hood, so my features are now hidden. We leave the store, and many of the guards have their hands on the hilts of their swords, looking for a reason to draw them. We walk away silently and proceed to head to gathering places for old people. If we can\'t find anything, then I\'m going to need to change my plan. I need a crew for my plan to work, and so far, I\'ve got nothing. As Cera and Sally continue their search, three brothers are having a conversation in their hideout. Creatureman is discussing what to do about this person with his brothers.

Both Krialder and Ghostzero have the same thoughts I do. This person is exactly who we need for our plan to work. The mercenaries we hired didn\'t even get a chance to test him. He found them out and dealt with them. It takes a person confident in their power to threaten bonafide murderers for hire. "I think we should wait until they are done searching for today. After that, we can approach him and see if what we think is true." Ghostzero speaks as we throw around ideas on speaking to this man without getting into a fight. I have no doubt we can win, but I don\'t want to blow our cover here. We are so close to our revenge. We all sit in silence, contemplating the simple solution that Ghostzero has provided.

It\'s actually quite sound, but I\'ve noticed that the easier something is, the more things that could go wrong. Just walking up to him and talking in private isn\'t something that would normally happen when you\'re looking to pull off a job. That would cause one to panic and cancel anything they are doing. He could even rat us out if we reveal ourselves. We are infamous, after all. "While I love how easy the job would be if we did it that way, I can\'t see it going right. Something will screw up, and all the work we have done will go to waste." I voice that it\'s too good to be true. We can set up a meeting with him, give him a reason to come to us. "Didn\'t he recently withdraw a large sum of money from a poorer bank? We can use that to set up a meeting with him." All three of us contemplate this plan.

It will allow us to bring him to a neutral location and not reveal our identities. That way, if he says no, we can continue our plan unhindered. "I\'ll send some mercs to cause a ruckus at the bank they were at. We\'ll use the people at the bank as messengers, they\'ll send him to a location of our choosing, and then we\'ll talk to him. No identities and no risk." Krialder sums up the gist of the plan that we were all thinking of. It allows us to maintain control, not for his sake. For ours, we have too much to lose if we screw this up. We all nod our heads in agreement, and Krialder leaves the room to send the mercs to the bank. I don\'t like scaring innocents, but sometimes the hard choices are the safest ones. We have to be safe no matter what.

I look at Ghostzero now that it\'s just the two of us. "Do you think we\'ll succeed? As brilliant as the planning is, we are missing a vital piece. A distraction big enough for us to kill our targets. If we can\'t find that distraction, then we\'re screwed." He is right in that regard. We need someone to distract everyone at the palace while we do our thing and take revenge. "Do you really think this person is going to be hitting the palace too? Cause if so, this could be our golden ticket." I can only hope that this is the case. All the information we have gathered on this person is very little. The targets we are after will be easy to reach once inside. Getting inside is the hard part. An able distraction will create a blindspot, one we can exploit to get inside.

I take a seat and relax my mind. Now, all we have to do is wait for Krialder to come back and tell us everything is set up. He\'ll be selecting the location, and he is just as skilled with those decisions as the rest of us. "Rest while you can Ghostzero, the next few days will probably be full of planning and scouting locations of weakness. I can\'t remember the last time I got a full 8 hours of sleep since we arrived here in Bellvia." Even as I say the word sleep, I get physically tired. While we are a very powerful group, everyone needs sleeps. We aren\'t an exception to that rule. The three of us could probably walk into the palace and take our revenge, but much innocent blood would be spilled, and we don\'t fight our battles like that. Not our personal ones, at least.

I see Ghostzero take a seat and release a long sigh. He has been less energetic ever since our mission with the Saintess ended. He never got a true chance to ask her for a proper date. "When we finally get our revenge after all these long years, all these near-death fights. All the friends we have lost along the way. Do you think it\'ll feel worth it in the end? That we did the right thing by pursuing this... We are just entering our 20\'s, and all I can remember from my childhood was fighting and death." I have often thought like that, and when I do, I remember what they put her through, our mother. That makes the fuel burn hotter and brighter every time. So to me, it\'s worth it, more than anything. Once we are done, we\'ll be free to chase whatever our hearts desire.

I take a breath and relax as much as possible while I still can. "Yes, it\'ll be worth it in the end. The events in our lives have forged us into the men we are now. When it\'s finally done, I\'m taking a vacation from everything. Alone." I watch Ghostzero nod his head in agreement. Everything in our lives has been a result of another\'s actions. After this final job, no one who committed those sins oh so long ago will be alive. Zelly can be washed from the shame and pain of those days and move on with her life. All of us raised in the orphanage will be free from sharing the same existence and time as these monstrous scum. "Where do you intend to go once this is all done? I plan on traveling around Gaia. Making up for the lost time..." There are many continents I have never seen. Places I want to check out.

I know that Ghostzero hasn\'t made up his mind about anything regarding this subject, but it doesn\'t hurt to see where his current thoughts lay. "I\'m going back to Zelly. She\'ll need help with the new batch of orphans on the giant property. A little after that, I\'ll head to The Holy City and ask a girl a question I was too afraid to ask..." Ghostzero might have a shot with Saintess Lucy. She wasn\'t rude or meant to him. She was kind. Ghostzero must have made a great impression on her when he stood up for her honor, even though she could kill both of us at the time with the swing of her sword. She seemed thankful for the kind gesture. I was led to believe her pride wouldn\'t let that happen. I was wrong, and so were many of the rumors. I chuckle, thinking back to that mission. Meeting Fenrir was an experience I\'ll never forget.