The Insider System

Chapter 131: Errands Pt.2

After a few steps Lake could clearly hear someone following behind him and it seemed they might have a way to actually move faster than him even if it was a little loud. This meant he needed to rush the heal. Getting his potion out, Lake just poured some into his mouth, and got ready to intercept whatever attack had to be heading towards his back at the moment.

Spinning Lake just swung his knife out towards where he heard the footsteps, which was literally right behind him. He hadn't expected this attack to actually land and it didn't, but it had been more of a defensive thing just to keep them from being able to stab him again. "Listen, I understand why I'm being attacked at the moment, but I didn't do what you think I did. I've been set up to make the Temple attack the Alchemist guild."

This was clearly a lie but depending on who it was actually attacking him it might make them pause. Not being stabbed, Lake continued. "I'm Lucas's right hand man, why would I take a dagger I can't even use then keep it on me?"

Lake didn't know this line would have probably worked if they were actually able to track the dagger.

Sadly Tiff was tracking the Thieves guild badge and had actually been wondering why no one at the Temple had been able to track the dagger at all. It didn't make any sense because the place they kept the dagger normally was specially designed to hide the aura of the Holy Weapons, something that shouldn't be possible for the person who had stolen it.

This was one of the reasons she had suspected the Temple was lying about the theft in the first place, but this thief had just kind of said they had the Dagger on them and thought that was how she was tracking them. This meant they had something she cared more about than the Dagger itself, a way to hide it.

This had always been one of the biggest problems with her plan to go on the run, the fact that she would be tracked constantly by both the Temple and the Demon Lord's forces. It was a good thing this person was a thief because it meant she could probably hire them if she had the money the other thieves had said they would give her if she killed this thief.

It would be easy to lie to them, she just needed to offer to work with this thief to screw over the other ones; it was something every thief understood. Undoing her invisibility Tiff said. "Would you like to work for me for a while?"

Lake saw a woman appear right next to him which instantly confirmed what he had been thinking about the identity of who was attacking him. Not only just the fact that they were with the temple either this was the woman he had seen looking up at him the other day while he had been inspecting the city.

Not missing this chance Lake instantly marked her in case this was just a trick, and the fight wasn't actually over. "What do you mean work for you?" Lake was fine working for the Temple as long as he didn't end up in the middle of a war zone, the way he saw it this might just be easy money.

It would also probably help with the fact he was now definitely caught for stealing the Dagger unless he somehow killed everyone who was watching them at the moment. Any of them could be this woman's backup. He was sure if he tried to silence them they would all scatter making it impossible for him to get them all, or know if he had killed the right ones.

"Let's go somewhere less open to talk, you can pick the place." Lake appreciated that she had passed him the initiative because it showed they were probably about to actually have a serious discussion about working together; it could still be a trap though so he said. "Don't turn invisible again or I'll have to get serious."

He was of course talking about his poison that he had refrained from using up until this point because he didn't want to give it away before he was sure he would hit them but the only time that had been possible both his hands had been full making it impossible to uncork it. It gave him an idea though, something he could get the poison out of hands free with just the power of Poison Control.

If he made a poisonous cork it would probably only take him a few minutes to actually make this idea a reality. It was so obvious the fact he hadn't thought of it till now could only be attributed to his lack of battle experience. It was so obvious that he might need to be able to use his trump card when he couldn't reach it.

"Whenever you're ready." Lake took this to mean they were agreeing not to try anything, and that they thought he was taking too long to start their journey to somewhere private. "Alright let's head this way, I want to see if any of my guards are still alive before we get down to business."

There was no point in letting them bleed to death if they managed to survive till now. Thankfully because of how fast both of them were, their fight hadn't been very long even though a lot had happened, and Lake found all of them were still alive even if it was just barely.

The first guard who he had already healed was perfectly fine and Lake was afraid they would wake up at any moment, so he motioned for her to follow him away from them. If they woke up they would see him talking to the person who they would correctly assume had almost just killed them.

He was sure that news would make it back to Lucas and he would unfortunately have to lie to make it seem like he was just protecting himself by talking to someone who could kill him if he didn't cooperate. Lucas knew he could be persuasive, so he was sure Lucas would accept that he had talked his way out of a life or death situation, but why let him know at all if he didn't have to.

Finding a good place after running until the amount of people who could see them dropped to a minimum. Lake stopped and walked into a small business that had a broken open door. This was probably the best they could do because being alone was unlikely with this many people out gathering information while they could.

With them being inside however, if they wanted to hear what they were saying they were going to have to get much closer, so he was sure they would understand the risk associated with that and decide to move on. "Alright what kind of deal were you proposing?" This was going to be good, he just knew it.

"Well first I'll need the dagger back." This was a problem, Lake knew there were still people outside who would be able to tell something was up the moment he pulled the dagger out so he said. "Not now, let's wait till we're alone for real." Lake could tell by the look on the woman's face she was fine with that and it made him realize he still had his face covered and he could use this opportunity to change it then he would introduce himself as someone who wasn't Lake.

Switching to Jon Lake said. "My name's Jon by the way." And took off his helmet. Lake didn't actually care about who he was talking to but he was sure they would and him telling them would make him seem more trustworthy while he was actually laying the groundwork to lie his way through this problem if it ever became one.

The woman pulled her hood down so he could get a better look at her face even though he had already been able to see it and said. "I'm Tiffany." Lake nodded and said. "Ok I've agreed to hand over the dagger, so is that all, or do you actually need more from me?"

This was going to be the hard part for Tiff because she needed to convince Jon to work for her even though she didn't technically have the money to pay him yet, but there was one thing she knew she could tell him to make him mad enough to work with her, but it would give away the fact that she couldn't track the dagger.

There were a few problems with him knowing this, the main one being he might decide to keep the dagger and ditch the badge she was using to track him because she wouldn't be able to find him any more. This meant she needed to lie while making it sound believable and convincing enough that there was grounds for their cooperation.

Picking her words carefully Tiff said. "I was told by the Temple to find the Dagger, so I started where anyone who was looking for something that was stolen would, the thieves guild. I didn't need their help but I figured you'd be there and while I was looking around to see if they knew anything about you I got an interesting offer. 100,000 to kill you, and a better, less finicky way to track you."

Tiff thought this sounded believable but what she didn't know was Lake could tell when people were lying and he wasn't happy. He did plan to keep this fact to himself though and play along because he could tell where this was going, he was going to get part of this 100,000, and he planned to make sure he got all of it but he needed to actually pay attention to what she said so he knew which parts weren't true.

"I don't believe they have any intention to actually pay me though but I have some information that I can use to blackmail them into giving me it, and I'm sure they will be more than happy to play along if they think you're actually dead. Once I have the money I'll hire you to hide us from the Demon Lord."

Lake stopped her here because he didn't know what made her think he could do something like that. He wasn't going to say he couldn't because she would probably lose interest in working with him but he was pretty sure he could get more information without directly asking what she wanted. "You said us, how many, and who are they?"

This made it sound like what she wanted from him had limits so he hoped she would explain her plan he had been added to in her mind already. "I don't know but there wont be more than four others and there's a good chance it could be only me." This didn't really give him anything he didn't already know so he asked. "And how long do you want my services?"

"How expensive is your time?" Lake didn't have a number set because he couldn't even do what she wanted from him so he said. "Lucas pays me a thousand a day and that's when what he has me doing is safe." Lake stopped here because he knew he had made his point. If she didn't say something he liked he was done here.

"As Long as your skill or whatever you use to hide stuff is good enough, what I want from you, will be safe." This was what he wanted all along or at least enough that he could put it together. The dagger that he was hiding on his person, she couldn't tell he had it and she wanted to do what he did to it on her and he guessed her family that she would be bringing with her. There was a problem though he didn't think he could store people using Booster Bag

"Who are you running from, and what are you trying to hide from them, that they will be using to find you?" Lake thought this sounded like something someone who could actually do this would ask, but truthfully he just wanted to know to see if it was actually safe or not to work with her.

"We'll be hiding from the Demon Worshipers the Demon Lord sends after Holy Magic users like us and for what you'll be hiding the Aura anything that interacts with Holy Mana gives off like you're doing with the dagger right now." Lake nodded and said. "We've probably already spent more time than we should have talking, but I have one more question. Why are you running?"

It didn't make sense to him that she would want to leave the Temple when everyone knew the Temple was the only place that could keep people like her safe. "We're going to lose, at least the city. I personally think we'll win the war, but me and my friends won't be alive to see it."

Lake had been right to ask the way she looked right now told him everything he needed to know about her, and at this point he was pretty sure it would be easy to take the money after they had it because he was dealing with someone who didn't have any other options than to trust him when he said he would help her.

It was too bad she had offered him money before asking for help because he needed the money bad enough that he was willing to go through this elaborate plan to get it. If she had just said she needed help he would have just said no and she wouldn't be about to get screwed over by him.

She would have never done that though because she thought he was just a normal thief who always wanted money, so that was how she opened the dialogue between them. It was a lesson in not showing your cards too early even if you think it's your only option. Looking at her, Lake said. "How are you going to convince them I'm dead?"