A Friendly Dinner

With everyone gathered at the table, the dinner passes by peacefully. Only small talk and some general things about Alessia's process have been discussed until now.

"How long do you think it will be before Alessia is able to defend herself against the mages?" Pallas asks, getting to the matter at hand.

"I haven't had any experience with these mages, so I don't know. However, we first talked about a few months, and she has found her mana way sooner than expected. So the few months should still be the deadline." Secessus explains his thoughts on the matter, elegantly eating the chicken, as some manners have made their way into his head during his stay in the Talvit estate.

"What about 3 months?" Pallas suggests out of nowhere.

"May I know why?" Secessus asks politely.

"I trust my husband's judgment when it comes to new recruits, and he said that you will probably be even stronger than a gold rank and that doing bronze and silver ranked quest would just be a waste of time. Now, you still have to be tested, but that's not the reason I said three months." Pallas explains wiping the mouth of their youngest, seeing that the child has spilled some of his food.

"Your request for a party is different. If you truly are such a powerful individual, then you should join a party with similar expectations. Coincidentally, such a party will stop by here in Creseytesia for an escort mission. I'm thinking about joining you up with them." Pallas explains still sounding calm and elegant, she seems to have been trained in the manners of diplomacy or etiquette as everything she does seems to be calculated or trained to be refined.

"That's fine for me. But when will I be able to do the test? All these arrangements are useless if I don't pass." Secessus says, the faces of his companions immediately shrivel up. Showing that they see no way that he doesn't pass.

"Yes, but that's a matter that we shall discuss privately." Pallas says as she claps her hand, getting the attention of her children and husband at the same time.

"Dears, could you show our guests around in the garden? I will clean up with Sol here."

"Of course, dear. Claire, Chiara you go ahead, I will take Chasin." Kir says, urging his children to lead the way whilst he takes care of the youngest boy.

Chiara and Cornelius follow, not willing to disturb this seemingly important conversation. With everyone except Pallas and Secessus out of the dining room, they both start to clean up. Bringing the dirty dishes to the kitchen as Secessus stay there to clean up. Somehow they do have functional running water, perhaps magical in origin or just engineering that Secessus doesn't understand.

"I discussed the matters with my higher-ups, and they were unsure how to test you. Thus, they've decided to leave the matter to me."

"What's the catch?" Secessus asks, noticing that something more is going on.

"The party that if you are so capable should join can be cynical of new members. They will not accept you if you haven't proven yourself. They have had some disappointments in that department."

"And I guess you have the ideal plan to make them trust me?"

Pallas comes closer to Sol and looks around, making sure that no one is listenting.

"What I'm about to tell you is very confidential. Am I clear?" She says almost whispering yet still the urgency could be heard in her question.

"I understand." Secessus replies almost whispering back, matching the level of secrecy Pallas is showing.

"The escort mission of the party in three months will be the escort of the grand duke of Creseytesia. He will be going Laiqe to discuss some political matters with the King of Revay. Officially the adventuring guild doesn't dabble in political matters, but he wishes to travel in secrecy as assassinations to prevent him from going have become far more prevalent in the past months. And as you might know the adventuring guild is sponsored by the nobility and one of our most important sponsors is a loyalist of the ducal family and has threatened to stop sponsoring the guild."

*Sigh.* Secessus sighs, hearing that politics aren't that different in this world than they were in the other one.

"The higher-ups decided that protection of a secretive individual could be considered in the line of duty of a valid quest. We could theoretically not know anything about the political matters."

"But you do."

"Yes, but no one else needs to know that. Now, as said before, assassination attempts have become far more prevalent and word has reached the gran duke that an assassin of "The Forgotten Cabal" has been sent. We need you to track and kill the assassin."

Secessus is uneasy with the request instead of simply killing a monster, he's forced to kill another human. Even if he is an assassin, he hasn't killed a human yet. Besides, this matter could turn ugly.

"Is this all the information I'm getting?" He asks, his voice suppressed annoyance.

"It is, this "quest" is of the utmost importance, and it would be impossible for you to be rejected from the party afterward. However, I understand that this can be messy. So what about this? If you do this successfully, then I will make personally sure that our sponsors and the higher-ups are very much aware of your existence. Favoritism and connections carry far more weight than skill could ever do." Pallas says besides her elegant speech also shows how intertwined she is with the politics behind this organization.

Secessus is frustrated for various reasons. A quest he doesn't want and the realization that this world is probably as rotten as Lucille's Light is a hard truth to swallow.

'Why did I even want to be here?' He asks himself, questioning why he even left Lucille's Light in the first place.

"Fine, I'll do this stupid quest. I guess the manner in which I do it does not matter?"

"Just don't make a mess that cannot be cleaned up. For the rest, both parties are prepared to shovel some things under the rug."