Chapter 105 - In The Mansion

Slowly the dusk fell, and another day went by….

3 days before the Banquet.

All of them prepared their gears and arsenal, early in the morning they decided to leave for the Diesswrin county, 

– Aaris - PoV –

It's still 6 in morning and we all prepared ourselves for the raid, we all took a light breakfast and walked out of the cottage door, 

"Please be careful and return safely!" Bisca stood close to the door holding Cecelia's wheelchair captain made with basic alchemy manifestation magic.

Me, captain, Zia, Melvi, and Styrmir, all of us wore a special black cloak for the quest, 

"We will thank you for everything you have done for us, if everything goes well we will do our best to fix everything for you too." Captain smiled and nodded at them.

"Um- sister Bisca?" Zia looked around, 

"Hmm… what is it, lady Zia?" Bisca moved her gaze to her, 

"I don't see Jane, where is she?" Zia looked concerned, even I was a bit worried why didn't come to say goodbye.

"Oh lady Jane! You see, she isn't feeling well so she is still in bed, don't worry she will be fine soon, I give you best wishes for the mission from her side!" She looked at me with a big smug smile.

"Very well, please tell her to take care." All of us waved at them and started walking away. I was still a bit worried and then I heard a voice calling my name, it was Cecelia.

"Rise, would you mind going behind the cottage for a while?"

I looked back and she was smiling at me, 

I don't know why is she calling me there but I guess it won't hurt checking it out, when Bisca and Cecelia went inside, I looked at captain Historia, 

'Captain, you go ahead, I forgot something.' 

"Make it quick!" She shouted and I sprinted from there, 

I made it back to the cottage, there was no one around, I was waiting for a minute, two minutes, 5 minutes but no one came, 

'Ah! I can't afford to be late! They'll kill me!' My patience was getting tense thinking about what will the captain do if I return late…

'Damn it! I guess it was a misunderstanding!' I school my head and raise my foot, 

"Wait!" Then I heard a voice coming from behind,  I turned and saw Jane peeking from the wall, with free hair and still in a nightdress, I averted my eyes.

'Jane! Are you alright? How's your fever?' I walked close to her and her face and ears suddenly got red! 

Guess she is really sick and she was avoiding eye contact.

'You shouldn't be here! Go and take rest-' I moved forward, but suddenly she wrapped her arms around me, and hugged me tightly, her body was warmer than usual, I could feel her temperature by her cheek touching mine.

'Ja…ja…jane! What are you!' 

"You better return alive!" She whispered and released her right grip, "that…that was for saving me and if you…if you…succeed in the mission…

.

.

...I'll give you a better…re…reward!" She was blushing and wriggling her fingers, 

'Wha-' she said that in such a low voice, I am thinking I misheard something…

"Tsk! Go now, idiot!"  She kicked me on the leg and shouted!

'Okay! Okay!' I jogged backward-looking at her, she was nervous, at least I could tell this much…

I waved at her and shouted, "I promise! I will save you and everybody! Till then wait for me!"

And then dashed in the forest.

– Jane - PoV –

Take care and I'll wait, 

I went inside the cottage and thanked Cecelia to listen to my request, while sister Bisca was just staring and smiling, 

"Aha! What a fine lady you have grown into milady, fufu!"

'It's not like that!' 

***

As soon as Aaris caught with them, they sped up, hurriedly making their way to Diesswrin they sneaked into the city.

They went to an inn, nearby the town and hall and then Historia gave everyone a commute orb.

"Alright, as planned from here we'll split from here, the teams will be the same as before, but remember when we made it into the mansion, we'll split again and individually search for the pendant.

Once the pendant is secured we'll return and then we'll head to the capital of the kingdom to inform the emperor about the plan, and ask his co-operation and include us in the working force." Historia finished and reached out his fist…

Gradually all of them bumped their fist, "remember, this mission is important, so be prepared for anything!" 

"Roger!" They all huffed with high spirits.

After an hour as their plan, they sneaked into the grocery transporting carriage, whose in-charges were staying in the inn.

They were supposed to haul the groceries from another territory and the inn sneaked the intel to Historia about it.

They charged into their room and captured and hid them in the inn's basement.

They took their 2 carriages, Historia and Styrmir one ahead and Aaris and the rest of them were following them and set off to the mansion.

In a while, they reached the main gates and a guard stopped them, and checked their carriage, after a thorough check he came forward,

"Show me your business guild card." 

"Sure, sure!" Styrmir gave them the card Historia took and forged from the captured drivers.

The guard took a good look at it and nodded to the gatekeeper, and the gate was opened for them.

"Thank you!" Styrmir lowered his hat and they went inside, they moved to the storage house and they unloaded the groceries, after the work Historia created clones and sent the carriage back from the back gate.

"Infiltration is not completed from here. Be extra cautious, it's the storage house, it's separate from the mansion, but from here we can enter the mansion without much hassle." Historia looked at everyone and nodded.

From now on their plan will be followed, as Diesswrin mansion has three parts, first is the resident part, the biggest manor of the kingdom after the emperor's castle.

The second is the Diesswrin work office which has a separate grand building, also his elite troop lives and trains here, while the third and last part of his property is the storage house.

It was decided that Styrmir and Historia will infiltrate the Aaris, Zia and Melvi will search the mansion, sneaking from the guard's security, they managed to do so.

Though Historia was still unsure about something, she looked concerned and Styrmir noticed, 

"Captain, what happened? since we came here you are looking anxious, is everything alright?" Styrmir whispered.

"Steam, don't you notice something?" Historia and Styrmir slowly made their way unto his official building, they disguised themselves with their troop uniform, and were walking cautiously…

"I did, now you call my nickname so much nicer than before!" Historia smacked his head with a strong knuckle, 

"Not that you idiot! I am talking about the security, though the haul of groceries was planned by Ovyrus but ever since we came here the security inside is looking way too lenient than we heard.

Moreover, this is mansion supposed to be heavily guarded, here Diesswrin keeps all the important documents and also the weapons for its troops, the number of knights here is supposed to be thousands but I barely noticed hundreds wandering around, something is not right."

Historia moved her gaze, whichever hallway they turned to, only a hand few of knights crossed their way, without pecking their sight in them.

"Bow you tell me, I guess so, when we first tried, even the gate security looked impenetrable, I wonder what happened." Styrmir and Historia move to Diedswrin's office, 

Meanwhile, Zia, Melvi, and Aaris side, 

"Captain said, in this 5 storey mansion, Diesswrin lives on the top floor and his family has their rooms on the 4th floor," Aaris said calmly, unlike Historia dressed as butler and maids, and pretended to clean the mansion, they decided to split up,

While Melvi and Zia will be together searching in first 3 floors Aaris will search on the other floors 

Aaris was pretending to clean the walls along with a horde of maids and butlers preparing for the banquet. 

"You are late you fucking idiot! Get your ass here and move your hands." An old maid noticed Aaris and shouted at him, 

"Yes ma'am" Aaris galloped there and started cleaning the walls, he was waiting for his chance to get away from there and start his search and was cleaning swiftly…

"Woah! Aren't you an amazing brat!" The old maid noticed Aaris and walked to him, and started looking at him while squinting her gaze, 

"Wait a minute, I never saw you, who are you?" The old maid growled at him and all servant gazes fixed on Aaris, 

"I am here for the cleaning ma'am" Aaris replied bowing with proper etiquette, 

"You haven't answered my question though, who is-"

"They are my guest Marth!"