[LOTM Roleplay] The Clandestine Meeting 1/2

As the sun was setting over Trier I found myself standing in front the nice restaurant that I had made a reservation at earlier in the week. I was here to meet with the girl who could possibly read minds and the suspicious artist that I had met earlier in the day. As I entered the restaurant the waitress that I had talked to earlier in the week recognised me and brought me towards the private room that I had reserved.

As I entered I heard a shout come from inside.

"You!"

I stepped into the room and examined my surroundings, the girl and the artist were already inside and sitting across from each other.

The girl was frantically pointing at the artist.

"You invited someone who doesn't know anything about Eminence."

It seems like the discussions had stared before I arrived.

The girl then quickly pointed at herself.

"And apparently invited me even though I don't know anything about whatever criminal investigation he's talking about."

Unfortunately I also have no idea what the criminal investigation he spoke of was, but I’m sure that will all sort itself out.

I then calmly sat down in the free seat at the head of the table, as the girl lowered her hand with a contemplative look on her face.

"...You did that deliberately, didn't you?"

I was hoping she would be a bit more cautious at a suspicious meeting, but apparently she was still full of questions.

Once the room quieted, everyone looked to me expectantly so I began to explain.

“Recently there has been an increase in criminal activity throughout Trier.”

I then gave a purposeful look towards the artist. I wasn’t quite sure what his connection to the criminal activity was, but I felt like he would be quite useful to me in regard to that half of the investigation.

I then looked towards the girl before continuing.

“I have reason to believe that the group you know as Eminence is connected to this recent surge.”

The girl I was looking at quickly sat up straight and pulled out her notebook, before asking.

"Connected how?"

That was exactly the response that I was hoping to see. It seemed like she really was interested in learning more about Eminence, or she was just a really good actor.

“Eminence as you know them, attempted to carry out a ritual in Lenburg a few weeks ago. Fortunately due to the intervention of the Church of Fate they were unsuccessful. However following an investigation into the incident, it was discovered that the materials that they used were sent from Trier.”

I then paused for a couple of seconds considering my next words.

“Now that I’m here, I am attempting to find more evidence in relation to this incident.”

The room remained silent for a moment, until the girl spoke up once again.

"You want us to help."

“Correct.”

She looked towards the artist as if to gauge his reaction, then turned back towards me and asked.

"And in return?"

She then smiled proudly and clarified.

"Someone has been teaching me not to accept mysterious jobs without asking what I get."

I suppose that wasn’t a bad lesson to learn, however low level beyonders were quite easy to convince for two reasons. The first was that they were nearly all desperate for formulas, ingredients and money. The second was that they had no idea just how dangerous certain jobs could be.

So I simply asked.

"What Pathway?"

The girl blinked in shock before replying.

"Mine?"

I nodded slowly once again.

"Oh! Savant."

That was surprising, I really did think that she was a spectator. Perhaps she had an artifact or-

"Well, technically Paragon Pathway, but I started as a Savant."

I stared at her for a moment, I suppose her possible mind reading abilities aren’t really important at the moment. So I instead asked.

"And your Sequence?"

The girl paused for a moment before replying hesitantly.

"...Sequence 8, Archaeologist."

I gave her a small nod. Thankfully I could offer a sequence 7 formula as a reward without much difficulty at all.

However my nod didn’t seem to assure the girl as she asked.

"Why?"

But instead of responding I asked her another question.

“Have you digested your potion?”

"My potion?"

She replied shifting slightly, caught off guard by the question.

"Mostly, I think. It's been progressing really quickly lately. Snow knows why, but she's being incredibly annoying about explaining it."

This was the second time I had heard her mention this Snow person, the first time she said she was violent and now apparently she was also annoying.

But that didn’t really matter to me, so instead I lead the conversation back on track by asking.

“Do you know what comes next?”

She paused slightly before replying with a frown.

"...Actually, no."

She then thought for a second before continuing.

"I was planning to start looking once I finished with Archaeologist."

That was exactly the response I was hoping for. So I told them the reward for the mission.

“I can offer you your next potion formula.”

"...Wait."

The Archeologist replied instantly, before she quickly tried to clarify as if not believing what she heard.

"My actual next potion formula?"

I nodded slowly.

"You can actually get it?”

I didn’t bother responding to that question. We all knew that the offer was completely worthless if I couldn’t.

"So you asked our Pathways because..."

"To know what to provide."

"Oh."

My simple response seemed to confuse her for a second before she asked in a tone filled with suspicion.

"Why?"

That was a fair question so I decided that I would answer it honestly for a change.

“I need help with this investigation and you both seem to need the resources that I can provide. It is simply a mutually beneficial arrangement.”

"Okay. That's actually a pretty good deal."

The Archeologist seemed satisfied with my reasoning, but then her suspicions seemed to return.

"Suspiciously good …but still good.”

I decided to seal the deal with a bit of a bonus reward, so I added.

“I can also ensure that you are both able to find all the ingredients that you are looking for.”

I had added this bonus offer for one main reason, if they managed to advance before the investigation began then they would be more useful to me.

Just then the artist finally spoke up, as if thinking that this all seemed too good to be true.

“How?”

I knew that I would have to share some information about myself if I wanted them to trust me, so I replied.

“I will make you both luckier.”

The Archeologist stared at me in disbelief before asking.

"...You can do what?"

“It is not a guarantee that you will be able to find all the ingredients that you are looking for. So I will imbue you both with enough luck to find the resources you need to make your potions.”

The room then went silent as everyone considered what I had just said. Until the Archeologists eyes suddenly widened as she shouted out.

"YOU DIDN'T KNOW WHERE THE POST OFFICE WAS!"

…

She then stood up and pointed at me accusingly.

"You really were just walking around until we found one!"

How exactly was I ment to respond…

She was right, but I couldn’t really admit that. So I relied on the familiar tactic of remaining silent.

The artist seemed quite confused about the whole situation so the Archeologist turned toward him and explained.

"I asked him for directions! He told me to follow him, and then we just wandered around until a post office appeared!"

She turned back toward me and stared.

"That was luck?!"

I tried my best to remain composed under her intense glare.

She then muttered in a defeated tone.

"...That's cheating."

After hearing that I quickly tried to change the subject.

“I can also offer you both an advanced payment on the investigation so that you can acquire your ingredients.”

The mood in the room instantly shifted as both of the young beyonders seemed very interested in the offer of money.

The Archeologist then hesitantly raised her hand and said.

"...Actually. This is embarrassing but I might need a little money before potion ingredients."

She then pulled the two unsent letters out of her notebook and explained that she had been teleported without preparation.

Apparently her family and savings were in Backlund. And she wanted to send them letters to let them know that she was okay. Unfortunately for her international postage was quite expensive.

I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about, but she seemed more than willing to get involved in the investigation, as long as payment was involved.

After that the discussion continued for some time, however my intuition told me that something was still missing. I didn’t quite know what it was, but I told the group to meet again in the same restaurant tomorrow night anyway.

The meeting then ended and I left the restaurant. It had actually gone quite a bit better than I had expected.

It seemed like the artist was actually investigating criminal activity instead of being involved with it.

It also didn’t seem like the Archeologist was a spy, but I couldn’t be 100% certain. Especially when it came to the Reverent Society, however as long as I remained cautious I should be able to stay one step ahead.

At this point all my preparations were complete, I just had to hope that all the groups that I assembled were successful in their investigations.

________________________________________________________

The Archeologist is u/Scarlet-Rose10

The painter is u/Foolish_Chair

Thanks to u/Raven_fs for putting this event together