Chapter 194 – Next Jewel

“What’s the meeting for today?” Damian asked. He was bent over, holding a few tools and wearing a pair of goggles. “Update or something?”

“Yeah, kind of,” Yuki nodded, sticking his hand out as he read a few readings on a screen. “Can you pass me the disk?”

“Here ya go.” Yuki took the offered disk and slipped it into the interface of the screens he was looking at. “What else is the meeting for? Or am I going to have to wait or something?”

“Just updates and some more plans,” Yuki shrugged. “You’ll see when it starts. Which is in, let’s see, ten minutes.”

“What?”

“Yeah, you might want to get ready right now. Unless you plan on going to the meeting like that?”

“I mean, I could. I thought the meeting was going to be later though,” Damian frowned. “I would have sworn you wrote ten fifteen.”

“I wrote ten. I think you combined it with the part where I said the meeting would be about fifteen minutes.”

“Huh.”

Yuki returned his attention to the screen before him. A loading bar indicated that the data transfer to the disk was almost completed.

“We can go once this thing finishes,” he said.

“That the suit programming?” Damian asked.

“Yeah. I’m just making a hard copy right now. I’m going to transfer some stuff over later.”

“Oh yeah. I should wash my face right now then.”

“Probably,” Yuki replied, looking at him from the corner of his eye.

“I’ll go do that then.”

Seven minutes later and Yuki was standing outside the door of Damian’s room. He checked his watch, tapping his foot as he watched the seconds ticked by. Damian had gone in to wash his face about five minutes before. Yuki wasn’t sure what he was doing now. Then the metal door of the room opened up and Damian bursted out. He wiped his mouth and noticed Yuki who was standing beside the door.

“Why are you here?” he asked.

“I thought we were going to go together,” Yuki said. “What took you so long?”

“I drank some water and then realised that I needed to take a shit,” Damian replied. “So that took some time. But I’m good now.”

“Good to know.”

Yuki began walking to the meeting room, Damian following him. Along the halls, they passed by a few staff and guild members who greeted Yuki immediately to which he responded in kind before they went off to do whatever task they were given or wherever they were planning to go.

When they arrived at the meeting room, the scheduled time for the start of the meeting had come. Yuki took his usual position at the head of the table while Damian took his normal seat. 

“Almost late, Yuki,” Erica said with a smile. 

“Tell Damian that,” he replied. “But we all made it here on time. Including Sarah.”

“I was nearby,” Sarah said.

“Mmm. Well, I hope you can make it on time every time. Well, let’s begin?”

He clapped his hands, the room darkening and the familiar screens appearing above the table. He glanced over at Zoe who raised an eyebrow. Yuki shook his head in reply. There were a few things that needed to be taken care of before the main topic of the meeting. 

“So first things first,” Yuki began. “While there is other business to attend to, this is the time for our monthly check. We’ll take the first few minutes to do that. Uriel, tell me how things are.”

“Right,” Uriel’s voice replied. She appeared above the table. “For the most part guild operations are running smoothly. Current member count is sixty seven people. Around thirty are currently out on the field. The rest are either running operations in the guild or are in reserve.”

“Have any problems arisen or any potential problems that should be looked into?” Yuki asked.

“I’ve taken the liberty to increase the food supply for the kitchens,” Uriel said. “Food was running low due to the influx of new members. A few logistical problems were brought up, but I’ve dealt with them. You can look at the logs, if you want.”

“I’ll check them out later. How about the rest of you?” he said, directing his question to the people sitting at the table. “Anything that you want to comment on or report?”

“The workshop’s running a bit low of materials,” Damian commented.

“I know. I was already planning to a resupply,” Yuki replied. “Anything else?”

Zoe raised a few fingers. Yuki nodded towards her.

“There seems to be a small bug being passed around right now,” she said. “I’ve been getting more people than normal in the clinic. But it’s nothing to really worry about. Just a little bug. I might need one or two more staff for a bit.”

“Uriel, do we have any registered medics?” he asked.

“A few. Three are inactive right now since we’ve haven’t had any real need for a while,” she replied. “Want me to contact them?”

“Zoe, are you fine with three?” 

“That’s fine.”

“Contact them,” Yuki nodded. “Anything else?”

Shakes and silence answered.

“Wonderful. Then let’s move on to some more interesting topics,” he said. He swiped a few screens away. “Remember. If you want to tell me something that you might have forgotten that’s important, just tell me. Anyway, Zoe.”

She nodded and went to the front to stand beside Yuki, standing a few inches taller. Yuki brought up a file case with a few deft taps.

“With the retrieval of the Heart of the Wyvern, we’ve gotten one of the elemental jewels that needed to be obtained. Zoe here was sent to find the naturae one. That’s what she’s here to report on.”

Yuki stepped aside to let Zoe take the stage.

“Thank you,” she nodded.  “As I said last time we were here, I know where the most powerful naturae jewel is. The one that I was tasked with locating is the second strongest one. The good news is that I’ve found. It wasn’t the hardest.”

“What did you do?” Tiar asked. “I can barely find my keys in the morning. You found the thing in a day.”

“I knew who had it. It was simple enough to follow the trail to see who has it now,” she replied. “And so I’ve tracked it down to another household.”

“More rich people?” Damian sighed.

“Of course. They’re the only ones that can afford to pay the offered prices for such powerful jewels. Of course, this is where the bad news comes in. This jewel’s circumstances are completely different.”

“How?” Akira asked.

“I’ll leave that to Yuki to explain,” Zoe replied. “The jewel was purchased from the person that I knew who had by a family quite a few years ago. It’s been with that family ever since. They’re more quiet than the Hyrins. They keep to themselves for the most part.”

“How did they get rich then?” Damian said.

“Smart investments,” she shrugged. “That’s mainly it.”

“But that’s not really important,” Yuki interrupted. “Thank you, Zoe. I’ll explain the rest now.”

Zoe went back to her usual seat while Yuki retook the head of the table.

“So. Like Zoe already said, the jewel is held by another rich family. However this family is less powerful and more quiet. This is their home.”

He pulled up a picture of a two story house that seemed to be right in the middle of a forest. 

“Oh, that’s not that big,” Damian commented.

“The Lewins, the family here, own some land as well around their house.”

The image zoomed out and highlighted a gigantic area of forest that was as big as a moderately sized town.

“Holy fuck.”

“They’re favorite pastime is hunting,” Yuki continued. “Their house and property is one that has been passed down their family for generations. They have investments in various companies that have been giving them a steady income, so they’ve been satisfied with what they have.”

“They’re not planning to the sell the jewel then, right?” Erica asked him.

“Nope. They have under lock.”

“Then do we really need to steal it? Can’t we just leave it with them?”

“No, because one of their investments is Mason Inc.”

“Oh. That’s not good.”

“Mhm. That’s why we need to hold it for them for a little bit,” he said. “You all can probably guess what I’m about to say next right?”

“We’re going to go take it?” Erica said.

“Yup. And it just so happens that they are having a little family reunion in a few days. It’s the perfect time for us to strike.”

“Who’s going?” Akira asked.

“Team of four are going directly. The teams will be announced the day of the mission. But the ones that are going will know about it before then.”

He glanced over at Damian.

“What? Am I’m going?” Damian said, frowning.

“What? No,” Yuki replied, shaking his head. “Why would I tell you to go?”

“I dunno. You never know.”

“You’re participating, but not at the location. You’ll be watching over things. I’ll explain more later.”

“Oh.” 

Yuki check the time. Fifteen minutes had passed since the start of the meeting.

‘Perfect.’

“That’s it for today,” he said. He waved his hand, the screens disappearing and the room brightening. “Remember. We start on Sunday. You’re all dismissed for now.”