Chapter 129: Opinions Pt.2
Returning and sitting in his seat, Lake gave Lucas the I'm ready look and waited for Lucas to say whatever seemed to be so important to him. "I don't know how to break the news I'm about to tell you to the guild and since you've shown the ability to spin ideas pretty easily and since you're one of the few who already know about the giants you're the best person for me to ask."
When Lucas said giant Lake instantly understood what he was about to be told and why Lucas was having a hard time with breaking the news to everyone else in the guild. It would be a lot easier to just wait for it to happen and let everyone figure it out like that. Why risk causing a panic a few days early when you could just let it happen naturally.
There was a reason to break the news early though; what would come after the panic. If Lucas was the one who told them he would become more trustworthy as a leader and if they were blindsided they would start to doubt Lucas's game plan for the war. It was the annoying game people like Lucas had to play because they were in power, it didn't matter what it was or what caused it, everything was your fault.
"You already know you have to tell them, so you just need help on how to phrase it?" When Lucas confirmed by nodding, Lake started to think how he would handle something like this. Quickly finding something he should ask about before he put any more thought into this, Lake asked. "Is there only one giant coming?"
When Lucas nodded again Lake said. "Then you don't really need to worry about it. The Temple already has a plan to deal with it, so all you need to do is spread that fact alongside the fact that the giant is coming." Lucas seemed to think it was a good idea but Lake could tell it wasn't enough.
"What's your problem with this idea?" Lake wasn't attached to this idea so if there was another problem he wanted to know so he could work around it. "Your idea will only work on the lower members of the guild; the higher ups will want to know where I got the information about the Temple before they believe it."
Lake saw the problem, Lucas was saying he couldn't just say something with no proof and expect everyone to believe it. The problem for him was his proof was actually what he had just lied about, or at least it was his source of information. When he had stolen the dagger the Insider had stopped him from taking the rest of the weapons by showing him they were powerful enough to stop the giants he had just seen.
In the vision Lake had seen the weapons used to fight against an equal amount of giants so the Temple should have no problem against one. "Well I'm assuming you received the news of the giant from the Temple when you sent people to them to ask for information, so why don't you just do it again? This time with a more directed question."
Lake was sure Lucas could get the Temple to say they were confident about the upcoming battle because it would make them look bad to say they weren't. "That's a good idea but we don't really have time for all that because the giant will most likely be here today." If the giant was arriving so soon, why did the Demon Worshipers even pull back in the first place?
It would have made more sense to him if they just stayed here and waited for reinforcements but he was sure they had their reasons. Lake realized Lucas was waiting for him to say something, so he said. "In that case you should just go with my first suggestion because even if none of the higher ups believe what you tell them they will be shown, possibly as soon as tonight, that you were telling the truth."
Lake was sure the giant would waste no time doing what it was sent to do, which was killing the Holy mage's that were protecting the city. He did wonder why only one was on its way when he knew for a fact that there were at least two and most likely a lot more than that. "So you really don't see a better way?"
Lake understood this question meant all he had done was reaffirmed what Lucas had always planned to do. "Sometimes there isn't a good choice." In situations like these the best you could do was make sure you didn't make the very obvious bad choice which was inaction in this case.
"Sorry, I'm only good for ideas when there aren't a million people holding me accountable." This was true in a way because the way he usually handled things no one even knew who he was, so there was never any repercussions unless someone found him. Thinking this made Lake start to wonder how they had found him at all.
Someone had actually told Lucas he was the person who had stolen from them which was true but no one should have been able to track him down because of Trespasser. This meant something he had been worried and careful about had actually happened. He had been tracked using an item he had taken.
Since the accusation had come from the temple it made sense they had been able to track the dagger through some method he didn't understand. This meant he would need to ditch it and this meant he needed to leave the guild for a while so he could take it out without Lucas knowing he had lied about being the person who had stolen it in the first place.
If he was going to do this, he needed to do it now before the giant got here and the fight started. He and Lucas seemed done with their business so Lake guessed he could go ahead and ask to leave for a while. "Lucas, would you be alright with me going outside the guild?" Lake technically was a field agent, so he could leave whenever he wanted without asking, but he was pretty sure if Lucas heard he had left the guild right after their meeting where he had been asked if he was guilty of a crime it would make him suspicious.
Him asking Lucas's opinion first would make it seem whatever he was doing was above board. "You can if you bring some guards with you. I wouldn't call them strong, but if you get into trouble out there they're really good at buying you time to run." Lake almost laughed at what Lucas said because it made him remember Joy trying to do just that when they had been attacked by Nelg.
"Ok, how do I get some guards?" Lake knew this would probably make a lot of people think there was a problem since the guards would be watching him, but Lucas had literally said how to get around this problem. Just get into trouble and when the guards laid down their lives to let him run, he would be alone.
He would be able to get rid of the dagger on the way back to the guild easily and then his problem would be gone. It was too bad that he had never been able to use it though, he had been so excited when he had taken it not to mention all the work that had gone into actually getting it in the first place but his anonymity was more important, and he couldn't let the fact that someone was able to track him just slide.
"Just head to the third floor and ask for five guards, oh and don't bring any that you care about." Lake understood Lucas was saying he shouldn't bring Joy since there was a good chance they would run into trouble. But the fact that Lucas knew what he was doing was so dangerous and was letting him do it anyway without a single question made alarm bells start going off in his head.
Lake could just look at it as Lucas keeping his word about letting him go out whenever he wanted but Lake knew he shouldn't just accept something like this just because there was a simple answer like there was now. He should operate like this was the worst case scenario of Lucas using this as a test to see if he actually did have the dagger and was trying to dump it.
This meant he was going to have to keep the dagger because someone who couldn't prove he had the dagger even though he did was a better opponent than Lucas who believed him but couldn't be sure, especially since he lived in Lucas's house.
Lake realized he was being stupid right after he said this to himself; he could just dump the satchel after cleaning out everything other than the dagger and moving it all to a new bag. He had been meaning to get a new bag soon anyway so he could probably make this seem like a normal outing to the Blacksmiths guild to do just that.
"Just making sure before I head there, is the Blacksmiths guild safe?" Lake was asking because he knew not all guilds had decided to stay neutral like they had and he didn't want to end up kidnaped and ransomed back to the guild. Not when that had already sort of happened before when they had to pay the Assassins guild after he had accidentally defended himself.
"Why do you want to go there?" Lake could tell Lucas hadn't expected him to go to another guild in a time like this but that was a good thing for him. You always wanted to keep someone who might be trying to test you on their toes. "I need to get a few upgrades to my equipment because it isn't that unlikely I'll be fighting at least in some capacity soon. I also want a new bag that's more suited to combat, this one's a little annoying sometimes because it takes too long to rummage through it."
"Well if you really need new stuff there isn't really a way around that." Lake thought the way Lucas sounded as he said this was a little unsure, but that didn't mean anything was actually going on or that he was being set up it just meant Lucas was unsure about the validity of his purpose to go into town.
"Ok well I'll need some money. That's how this is usually handled right? Anytime someone who lives in the spire needs to go outside of the guild to get something they need, you give them the money to do so, correct?" Lucas nodded, and went over to a small safe that was in his office. "How much do you need?"
The way Lucas said this made it sound like you could just abuse this system which you could kind of if you asked for things and let the guild decide the price of what they got for you that was how he had gotten this armor he was wearing and most of the weapons that were on him and in his room but it was different if you asked for money and when to get what you wanted yourself.
You actually had to get proof of how much you spent and bring it and whatever was left of the money back and that was only the case if Lucas approved your request like he had just done for him now. "I don't plan to spend too much so 10,000 will probably be enough." This might sound like a lot but for the guild it was nothing.
A few seconds later Lucas brought him a medium sized bag of gold. "Thank you guild master I'll be back as fast as possible." Lake headed straight towards the elevator so he could go to the third floor and get his guards. He needed to hurry so he wouldn't end up getting caught up in the battle that was about to happen.
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