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Arty tried to stop herself from staring continuously at the person called Lord Dark-grip but she couldn't help herself for she is wholly shocked on the inside that she's meeting face to face with one of the characters of her story.
But she managed to compose herself quickly before he noticed it. Still, it didn't stop her mind wandering as Lord Eric Dark-grip spoke to the other leader of the freedom fighters about the group, concerning their activities before they turn their focus to her.
And before they do that, she tries to calm herself so that nothing was amiss when Lord Eric turns to talk to her. After he finished talking with the other leader, he turned to look at her, his eyes gazing at her from head to toe like he's assessing her whole being to determine what truly the kind of person she is.
Arty looked cool and calm and bravely faced the noble and disguised Lord as she let him check her out and she prayed internally to herself that he won't notice something is off after he finished his staring assessment of her.
It only took about a few minutes of him staring at her with a studying intense look and once he was finished, he nodded like he seemed satisfied of something and then gave a kind smile while gesturing at her to sit down and have tea and snacks while having whatever conversation they will be talking about.
After they had good tea and their snacks, the conversation between Lord Dark-grip and Arty was short to the point and friendly, but she knew deep down that he doesn't trust her yet from the deep look in his eyes like he still suspects something about her.
However, she didn't show it and maintained a friendly persona towards him and answered any questions or inquiries from him about her and her friendships with the others of the freedom-fighting group. By the time, nearly a few hours had gone by and passed, their conversation ended and Arty mentally sighed in relief that it was over for she had felt tense throughout the whole thing and couldn't relax with the way Lord Dark-grip had been gazing at her suspiciously like she's still hiding something from him.
After their talk and then Arty was allowed to leave, she didn't relax until she managed to reach to her appointed room in the building with a slightly fast walking sprint, and once she got inside and locked the door behind her, she finally slumped relaxing with relief.
She never thought that it would be this tense and nerve-wracking when it comes to talking with Lord Dark-grip whose true identity that he's actually a woman beneath his disguise.
Arty wondered whether his trusted servant or the supporting leader of the freedom-fighting faction knows about his guise, but then she knew already that they don't know, considering how she noticed their looks or attitudes that they do not know Dark-grip's true identity.
If they did, then they would have been more overprotective of their lord considering that she's a woman in disguise from what she had known and written of this particular character in the story.
From what Arty knew about her creation and the origins concerning this character known as Lord Eric Dark-grip, he is actually Lady Eris Dark-grip, the unfavored daughter and black sheep of the Dark-grip family.
The Dark-grip family were the people infamous known among the rich noble society and they have been vastly known throughout that society by their various political connections and generous donations to charity. That was all on the surface outside of all their personas.
What is inside among them, however, is a whole different story.
The truth hidden in the Dark-grip family is that they are also a group of evil slave-traders. Though they have not purchased or employed any of the slaves in that inhuman trading, they do have the connections and wealth to make sure that the slave network bears fruit to their many clients they have in their clientele.
And that is the very reason why Lady Eris Dark-grip became born and known as the black sheep of the family. For she hated slavery and wanted to abolish it but her family doesn't know about that.
Arty remembered that she had written in the story notes that there are mysterious circumstances that Lady Eris has done to make sure everyone in her family, be it elderly to the youngest child have not escaped their doom in her hands so that there won't be anyone else doing the slave-trading anymore. She remembered she hadn't thought of what was the mystery of that for she had not finished or made it up yet.
Still, it looks like Lady Eris had succeeded and then made up her persona as Lord Eric and then put up the fake pretense of continuing the slave-trading, when in reality he's using this to free all slaves in that evil faction and after he and the freedom-fighting group have done it and finished, then he will make a move to fully abolish that inhuman slave-trafficking and everything.
Despite that Arty doesn't fully know everything, it seems to her that the story is playing out what she had written and created it to be, so it looks like that she's relieved that it is following the course of the story as she intended it to be. Hopefully, there won't be any more surprises like this kind of event keeps playing out.
Even though Arty fully knew about the mysterious origins concerning the Dark-grip Lord, she made sure that she didn't show it on the outside so that this character wouldn't know that she somehow knows the hidden truth about him.
Hopefully, by the next conversation they'll have, it will be a peaceful one and Arty might succeed into making a friendship of sorts with this one so that he'll be added in the role of helping the heroine of the story, just as how it's supposed to go or something.
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