Secessus being guided rather forcefully below deck takes this chance to look around. At first, he wondered why there was no crew above deck, and the answer would be that they were all sleeping. The Cog itself is filled with a lot of crates and barrels, probably a mix of provisions and other stuff they have to smuggle.
Below deck, with a sword in the back of his neck, Secessus now stands before a door.
"Open it." Aya commands whilst watching carefully so that the shade demon doesn't do anything strange.
Secessus simply complies, not having any reason to kill the woman yet.
Opening the door, they get greeted with a far more luxurious room than anything else on the ship. The tapestry is colorful and in general just way more present here, and it's filled with these realistic-looking paintings of all different kinds of sea monsters. One has a Kraken completely crushing a ship, another has this gigantic turtle whose shell also acts as an island. Which could perhaps be a pretty nice experience if the turtle didn't have shark-like teeth and the eyes of a potential serial murderer.
Another door now stands before Secessus and Aya.
"Knock on it." She commands this time.
Again Secessus obliges not willing to uselessly make enemies.
After a short while an elder man opens the door still wearing his undergarments but at least with the dignity to pull on some sort of jacket.
"What is the meaning of this Aya?" The man asks wearily, frowning as he sees her sword pointing at my neck.
"I need your opinion on the validity of his report, your grace." Aya replies, revealing the identity of the older man before me as the grand duke.
She explains what I've told her in exact detail and her opinion on the matter. Which is whilst still wary, surprisingly positive.
"Drop the blade, Aya." The grand duke of Creseytesia commands.
"This is just a precaution." Aya replies, still pointing her cutlass at the back of Sol's neck.
"I hired you to hide me for a while. Not to play bodyguard."
With these words uttered rather harshly, Aya drops the blade.
"Do you all want anything to drink?" The grand duke days as he starts pouring some purplish wine in his glass.
"No."
"I'm fine."
Aya and Secessus both immediately refuse. Which makes the grand duke put away two leather jacks. He drinks slowly from the purplish wine and looks around the room a bit.
"Well, let's get to the matter at hand. Do you know anything about this assassin?" The grand duke asks whilst taking another sip of his wine.
"He's a member of "The Forgotten cabal" and has a hand tattoo." Secessus replies with what he knows.
"Well, at least if he succeeds, I'll get flowers on my deathbed." The grand duke replies sarcastically, taking another sip.
"And you're doing this because of the adventuring guild?"
"To promote to the gold rank."
"How old do you think I am?" The grand duke asks a rather strange question.
"I would say 60." Secessus responds, deciding to flatter the man who looks seventy.
"I'm a 110. Luckily I had some mana capabilities but nothing compared to the mages who turn almost immortal." The grand duke explains, clearly trying to make a point of some kind.
"You look good for your age."
"Haha, thank you."
"…"
"I'm just trying to say that I can recognize someone with a vast amount of mana. Especially if they're not using anything to hide it."
"Should I take that as a compliment?"
"No, because you're either arrogant or stupid to not hide it." The Grand duke responds scathingly to Secessus's question.
"But luckily for you, it reveals that if you wanted to kill me. I would also have been dead by now."
Aya has a clear frown from the grand duke's response. She twirls her still drawn out cutlass a bit as she looks at Secessus with eyes that clearly hide the expression, "bitch, he would be dead if I wanted to."
"So, how do you plan to catch my assassin?" the grand duke decides to ask.
"Well, I have his end goal in front of me." Secessus responds, trying to discreetly suggest something.
"You're using the grand duke as bait? I can't allow that." Aya responds interfering with the shade demon's suggestion.
"The assassin already knows that you have him. He will find this place."
"Your plan is way too risky. But you're right about something.' Aya responds, taking over the discussion.
"About what?"
"He knows that I have information about the grand duke. So he will be looking for me first. So you technically have two of the assassin's destinations before you."
"Aah, I see. So you're saying to not use the grand duke but yourself."
"Why would we take the risk of letting him get close to his target? I'll find another ship and send part of my crew to sail the ocean a bit with the grand duke. Meanwhile, we will stay here and ambush the assassin when he comes." Aya explains her plan, showing the leadership that made her leader of the smugglers in the first place.
"How long do you think it will take for the assassin to arrive?" The grand duke asks.
"Well, he was before me for a couple of days, but I managed to make up the distance. So if he's actually decent, then it would be in the next couple of days."Secessus responds, giving an honest guess.
"We don't have much time to waste. I'll contact some acquaintances. We will have you sailed out as soon as possible." Aya says, looking at the grand duke before she rushes out of the room. Leaving the 2 men behind.
Secessus feeling the silence get more awkward each minute looks around the room. His eyes automatically fall on the paintings again.
"Are you a fan of art?" The grand duke asks.
"Depends on the art and the mood that I'm in."
"These pieces were found in the Eastern Holy Empire. Or at least I should say were taken from The Eastern Holy empire. I doubt Aya actually paid for them."
"I thought they would be yours."
"I wish, The palace could use some better art." The grand duke's says, laughing a bit as he reminisces about different times.
"Am I needed here?" Secessus asks, trying to figure out why this conversation suddenly happened.
"If you're going to help me, then we should get to know each other. People should get to know everyone who's trying to help them."
"I must admit that seems inconvenient. Especially if you are a ruler. The amount of people helping you must be quite large."
"But it's worth it. How old are you?"
"Give or take 40." The shade demon replies, unsure about the time he spent walking around in the darkness and counting the years from his previous life.
"You might not yet realize, since you're likely going to reach the thousands if you don't get killed. But life is short, perhaps not that short for people like you, but it will be for a lot of people you know. You will live, and they will die and one day you stand on top of their grave realizing that this person who you cared for and loved. That you didn't know anything about them at all because you always thought you had plenty of time." The old man who looks around seventy but is actually 110 shares his knowledge for some reason.
"May I assume this to be a personal experience?"
The grand duke doesn't respond as he finishes the rest of his leather jack. He looks at the painting of the island sized turtle whilst his hand goes to grab a nearby book.
"You're dismissed now." He simply says as he grabs the book and return to his chamber.