Sitting awkwardly in the kitchen while the director himself served some drinks and snacks from OUR fridge and pantry, I cannot help but avoid meeting Lucinda's glaring eyes. As was his usual motif, Director Carlyle was in the middle of giving a speech about how he might have deserved taking a hit or two but how the indecency of publicly attacking him in the doorway and yard had been too much to bear. It could have been considered humorous.
Now, taking his seat and a sip of some coffee that he had helped himself to, Director Carlyle takes a moment to look around the table at us before briefly flashing a smile at Poniard who was holding his tablet without looking away from the director.
Breaking the silence, the director says, "The fact that the little guy has not attacked me yet is a testament to good training."
"I only ever taught him how to attack and say a few words, the intelligence and temperament is all his," I say a little stiffly while awkwardly nibbling on some giant rice crackers. "So, Director Carlyle, for what reason did you come here in person and cause all of that to happen in the first place?"
Reaching up to play with his necktie that was already untied at this point, the director almost seems awkward as he says, "I came to come clean and explain everything to mamma bear, but it seems you beat me to it. I was originally under the impression Ms. Lucinda had been withheld at work for and was just trying to enjoy the time you freed up for me. I also came with a new suit of armor for you," he adds, pointing the pinkie of the hand holding his large coffee cup toward the Bureau box on the table.
"New suit?" I parrot a little foolishly, surprised that this was what was in the box. In all honesty, it had crossed my mind that he was bringing me a bomb he was going to try and have me plant somewhere.
Giving me a blank stare and several blinks of his eyes, the director says, "Well, of course. Even if we could only do the minimal hybridized grafting, your body would became at least half an inch bigger in every direction. Your other gear might have functioned, but the proto-suit would need replacing. For the record, I was always going to give you this suit for goodwill and all that, but you came out bigger so it came later."
"That could almost be considered thoughtful," I start with as I slowly pick up the box while suspiciously watching him instead of the box. "Coming from the guy who freaked out like a drunk high school kid when they saw my guardian, literally throwing me as you spurred the driver to burn rubber."
Nodding his head while stealing a glance toward Lucinda, the director says, "Things have been handled much differently and much better. Especially in the beginning," he adds with an attempt at a humorous frown from behind his coffee. Stealing another glance at Lucinda, he asks, "How much did you tell?"
"Be a man and just f***ing say it," Lucinda finally breaks her silence, also finally looking somewhere besides at me. Now the director understood why I kept my eyes on my food and drink like how he was now questioning the depths of life in the depths of his coffee.
Even though he could obviously beat this woman in a fight, her strength was not to be underestimated and her fearless ferocity was tremendous. She was a figure worthy of respecting. THAT WAS my GUARDIAN!
"I did not think you would actually do it," he says after a few moments of staring into his black but sugared coffee. "Kershaw was going to just follow you guys inside and wait until the first fight to take action. I honestly figured you would use the goblin as an excuse to get out right after entering. But… damn, right there in the entryway and pretty damn cleanly to boot."
"OF COURSE HE WOULD DO IT," Lucinda suddenly explodes, jumping up and splashing her coffee out to the side to draw the cup back before taking a swing at the director. "You're a director, one of the department heads in the Bureau and the man in charge of what happens with what portals! That man just told a sixteen-year-old to kill somebody after helping him illegally hide portal and party entries, what do you think that kid would think would happen if he opted out?!"
"I told him he could opt out of the portal and even go on the mission anyway, but those people were all but proven to have lured, back-stabbed, and far worse to three different people in portals my department cleared the use of," he argues as if this was an actual defense. "Still, he did it. This one F- ex F rank took down three E ranks. Sure he shot 'em in the back, but he double-tapped the first two in the head as they were falling or turning. That last guy, he left alive enough for his goblin to kill and we think he fed it the man's heart!"
"The fuck?" Lucinda asks with a look of absolute horror on her face as she turned her head toward me after having only swung once. Of course the director ducked and leaned away, throwing all attention onto me in any way possible. "What the hell is that?!
"It was a test! Kind of," I cry out and amend while cowering behind my arms for fear of the coffee cup. "He started digging at the slime cores so I let him eat one and then he went for the first goblin he killed and I let him eat its heart. Then I let him eat the rest while I checked out ahead. When I turned back around, he was already cutting into the man's armor. I could have stopped him, thinking letting him eat people would ruin him, but he's smart and there's this instinctive hierarchy when it comes to claiming kills so I let him eat the one heart. Poniard did not even look at the other two bodies afterward."
"He was probably just full!" Lucinda exclaims, turning around and hurling the empty mug into the sink just to vent some small amount of frustration. Even though the cup itself landed in the sink, quite a few pieces landed on the floor.
"No, pretty much all of the hearts were fed to the goblin," Director Carlyle reassures her as if that really made a difference, starting to sit up and relax with the disappearance of the lethal weapon. "We did not care because most of the slime cores remained as well as the goblin cores. How it is done does not usually matter, either, as long as it gets done safely. As I'm sure you understand, ma'am, this is an ugly but necessary line of work and I honestly believe Malcolm-"
"You STILL dare to say his name in front of this mamma bear?" Lucinda asks incredulously, looking at the table for another weapon. I wordlessly slid my cup forward. Director Carlyle looked at me the way a wounded animal would look at the barrel of a gun.
"He's suitable for catch or kill missions and I want him but one of the reasons I came here was to further explain he does not belong to me," the director says expressionlessly in defeat, putting his drink down on the table and raising his hands above his head. "His instructor is in charge of military and Protector police drafting from the academy and the draft was in exchange for a benefactor in the neighboring field. I'm just the guy who was told to give him hell and candy to keep him on his toes, I'm sorry."
"Fuck, I can't fight that guy from up front," Lucinda growls, finally losing her wind and sitting back down to distractedly chew on her thumbnail. Her stress levels had immediately hit the ceiling. "If we could get him away from the academy-"
"Nope, no, that's not what we're here to talk about," I say quickly, ending her train of thought as soon as I realized what she was saying. "Besides, if anybody gets to punch that guy it's going to have to be me. You already got to punch this one."
Lucinda actually looked a little relieved by that, but then she turned on the person she thought she COULD fight and said, "Either way, he's not becoming someone's pet assassin. The life he has to live is bad enough and I will blow all of this up right to the Bureau president's ass if that's what it takes."
Unable to say anything to argue or defend in this situation, he instead turns to me after a quick nod and says, "As for the time being, you'll be back on the registry for dungeons as soon as you think you're ready. Give me your old equipment and stuff, I'll take it back to be worked on by my own people and bring it back once its resized. Is there anything else you will need worked on?"
"I want a C grade troll spine staff and troll skin armor for Poniard," I reply without really even thinking about it. "I want my gear upgraded to match and my ivory daggers will need to be enlarged. Otherwise, I want my big sword replaced with something ten pounds heavier, C grade, and Damascus pattern welded with a central block of matching grade steel-titanium alloy. If you have any nifty tricks and treats you feel like giving Poniard or helping me get a license for rearing magical beast, that would be great," I add as an after thought while picking my drink back up to sip and hide a smile.
"I'm trying to help you and you're trying to blackmail me," the director says to me in the same expressionless way of defeat as before.
"You not only tried to drug a minor but succeeded in doing so," I retort, raising my cup to him to reveal my smile.
"I can help you find a property of suitable size and security to house different numbers of different beasts and provide YOU goblin with equipment, but buying and training and everything after that is all up to. This is just to clean up the mess we've ALL made, here. If you want anything else from me, you'll have to-"
"He'll have to what?" Lucinda asks with an almost peaceful expression on her face.
"Work with me," Director Carlyle says simply. "Will I tell him to kill people? That won't be the jobs but it might come down to it. Will he be compensated appropriately? Yes he will. Have you measured him? He should only be in the upper E grade at the most."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Lucinda ask darkly. "If anything, that makes it even more inappropriate that he works for you."
"At higher grades you have a higher sensitivity to mana, you can get a feel for different strengths and can guess the actual grade of an unknown enemy," the director reply simply, dismissing the issue with a wave of his hand. "He's sixteen, an E grade, an academy graduate, and he's good. We can slip him into parties unannounced for any number of reasons from showing a lower level what higher level dungeons look like or keep him in same-grade areas. While there he can survey or outright investigate and if it came down to it… make the call."
"So he's judge, jury, and executioner?" Lucinda asks tiredly, running a hand through her hair.
"If it came down to it," he replies almost defiantly, finally putting his foot down. "If there are suspicious parties and patterns and happenings, the appearance of a variable they were unprepared for alone could stop a crime from taking place. If it came down to it, I needed someone uniquely capable of defending himself. Do you know WHY his instructor was able or even willing to introduce him to a connection like me? Because he spent the first six months at the academy fighting upper tier students to help the instructor weed out the different physical types. Then, the man took him under his wing and gave him personal training."
Raising a hand to get their attentions, I ask, "If I were to directly work for you in the event that avoiding his draft is unavoidable, would I be able to avoid his draft by joining the neighboring department?"
"Potentially, but he has friends in every department," the director replies with a quick shake of his head. Then, to Lucinda, "Including the guy who wipes the Bureau president's ass. Otherwise," back to me, "you would generally continue to work normally as a Protector but if an assignment in my department that was suitable for you came up I would have to call you to the office."
"The pay?" I ask with open curiosity.
Ready to stand back up all over again, Lucinda demands, "You aren't actually taking this seriously, are you?!"
"I'm considering all of my options in what are surely dire circumstances," I reply fearlessly. "It took most of your friends and favors in high places to pull me out of going to territories when I graduated, Instructor Luis is a higher grade so obviously has a higher contribution than you. If he were to actually make a push because that crazy warmonger wants me to be his reclamation grunt or deputy, I need to know my options."
"The pay will be separate from your regular portal income and contribution," Director Carlyle explains quickly, knowing everyone liked the sound of money and wanting to push while he had his foot in the door. "You won't get any contribution but the jobs will carry the same pay and rates as your portal income and both will continue to scale the same with the dungeon grade. With the exceptions of having to take action or… take out the trash."
Before Lucinda could explode again, I say, "Perfect, I will take your option into consideration and if every single other option comes up short you will be hearing from me at the very last minute possible. Thank you for coming, I'll have my equipment delivered this afternoon."
"By me," Lucinda asserts suddenly, looking at me instead of the director as if daring me to challenge her.
*