Arno's New Accomplices

As soon as the sun rose, Cal and I made our way to the fish market. Our meeting with those two guards wasn't until noon, but I wanted to stake out the area beforehand to ensure they weren't setting us up.

"Alright we scoped everything out. We have a few hours until this meeting, I say we go get a drin-... Oh, nevermind... I forgot we can't..." Cal sighed.

"You can go a few days without alcohol. Right now we have more important matters to attend to." I responded.

He ignored me and continued babbling on,

"You know what, I'm an alchemist. Making my own alcohol should be nothing. All I need to do is find some yeast."

"Enough of your alcoholic nonsense! You're not going anywhere. It's best we err on the side of caution. This could be a trap for all we know." I scolded.

"But wouldn't those guys have arrested us already? They had an easy opportunity back in the barracks."

"That may be the case, but when you've lived all long as I have, you learned not to be so trusting."

"So we're just going to sit around and wait for three hours?" He asked.

"Yes, I intend to wait here all the way up until this meeting. I'm not taking any chances."

For the next few hours, we sat around the market, staying vigilant. There was nothing particularly out of the ordinary that I noticed. For the most part, all we saw were people buying fish from merchants. So far, it seemed like those guards were being sincere in helping us, but I couldn't drop my guard just yet.

After a few moments, the two of them showed up, dressed in casual clothing.

"I'll approach them first to be safe. Stay out of sight until I wave you over." I said.

Cal nodded.

I waited about five minutes then began walking over as if I just arrived.

"See Ryo, I knew he'd show up." Kuro said.

"Huh, I guess he did. I honestly thought he might bail on us, bro." Ryo responded.

I glanced around suspiciously, it seemed like they did come alone.

"Yes, I've come to at least hear you two out."

"Is your buddy coming too? I was hoping to formally introduce ourselves." Kuro asked.

"He'll be here any minute."

It seemed safe enough, as of now. I put up my hand to signal Cal to come over.

Cal for whatever reason had an excited look on his face as he came over.

"Hey Arno, I found a jar of yeast in my bag. Looks like we're in business."

"Are you guys baking bread or something?" Ryo asked.

I shook my head.

"Nevermind him."

Kuro smiled.

"All right then, I guess we should get into this. First and foremost, my name is Hako Kuro and this is my friend Ota Ryo. We're trainee's for Unk-... I mean Nekotropolis' guardsmen."

Ryo spoke up next,

"Yep, Kuro and I are best buds. We've known each other our entire lives."

Cal laughed.

"I'm Cahlem Alchimia, but you can just call me Cal. You guys are kind of like me and Arno, here. We've only known each other for a short time, but he and I are basically best friends."

"I wouldn't go that far. I'd say we're more like acquaintances than anything... Anyways, I don't think it's wise we say much more out in public like this. Let's continue this discussion somewhere more private.”

"That's fine with me. I'm good with talking wherever." Kuro agreed.

✨✨✨

Kuro and Ryo followed us back to the inn. Already I was having my doubts about these two. Just the fact that they blindly trusted me enough to follow us to a secluded location, showed just how naive these teenagers were.

*Click*

I made sure to lock the room's door for safe measure.

I spoke bluntly,

"I want to know what motivation you guys have for helping us. You mentioned back at the barracks that you thought the shogunate was being made a mockery of, but there has to be more than that. What do you two personally have to gain from overthrowing the Shogun?"

Kuro got a very serious look on his face.

"Well...to tell you the truth, this has to do with one person in particular. There's this girl named Sato Shiina and she was one of the former Shogun's most trusted advisors. Ever since Ryo and I got on with the guard, she's had a personal grudge against us for no reason whatso ever."

"Yeah that Sato chick is the worst. She intentionally assigns us to the worst posts in the city and just to mess with us, she convinced our commanders to revoke our sword privileges, so all we get are these dull wakizashi. That psycho is a total sadist!" Ryo added.

"So you have a personal grudge against this advisor, what does that have to do with helping us?" I responded.

Kuro continued,

"You see, the thing is I have a particular anonymous source that's given me some insight to a conspiracy that's been going on at the palace... Apparently, Shogun Takashi had been wanting to retire for sometime, but due to the traditions of this country he couldn't step down until someone defeated him in a public duel. Sato-san was tasked by Takashi-sama to find someone worthy to replace him. She of course picked Erika-san, which leads me to believe she had some kind of agenda of her own."

"Who exactly is this 'anonymous source' of yours." I asked.

"Unfortunately I can't disclose that."

"Then how do I know this information you're giving us is reliable. You could have made it up for all I know."

In all honesty, this information was nothing I couldn't have deduced myself. I was more curious about what sort of connections they had. There was also the matter of this Kuro kid's ability. Somehow back in the barracks, he was able to know instantly that Cal and I were hiding and then he somehow seemingly teleported our sleep powder away from us.

Kuro persisted,

"I'm sorry, but I really can't tell you this person's identity."

"Then I suppose this meeting is over then. I'm not really seeing how the two of you can be of any use to me. From all I can see, both of you are just ignorant teenagers." I rebuttaled.

"Aren't you being a bit rash here Arno, I mean we haven't even fully heard them out yet." Cal chimed in.

*Crinkle* *Crinkle*

Kuro pulled a slightly crumpled, folded up piece of paper out of his pocket.

"Maybe this will make you change your mind."

I took the paper from his hand and proceeded to read it.

"...hmm... I suppose maybe you could be of some use after all. I'll reconsider letting both of you help us, but I want to have a word with you privately, boy.

Kuro nodded.

"That's fine with me, but I'm not sure if I can actually tell you everything you want to know. Let's just say I'm under certain obligations."

This kid made a fairly gutsy move, but he managed to spark my interest with what was written on that note.