"You're late." Carmilla was standing outside next to the carriage, Ima and I had just gotten to the western gate as she chided us.
"Apologies, Royal Assistant." Ima bowed apologetically, her being able to switch gears effortlessly was praiseworthy.
"Sorry about that, I was being difficult." I'll spare Ima some saving grace, I don't want Carmilla keeping a mental tab on her.
"Whatever it was, I do not care-" She spoke to us as she kept writing things off of her clipboard.
"Board the carriage, I will join you shortly- I must hand off some final paperwork before we go." Before I could ask anything of her, she had already begun striding away in her short heels to a crimson knight standing ahead of the carriage.
"After you?"
"..." Ima opened the carriage door and stepped inside, I followed suit, closing the door behind us.
It was now Ima and I sitting alone together in a modest, but comfortably sized inside of the carriage; Ima pressed the advantage of us being briefly alone to tell me something important.
"Do not harm the Royal Assistant." She told me as she kept her head forward, our knees were touching on the seats.
"I'm not stupid, I got the gist from Flaur- both before and after you were 'aware'."
"Hmph- I do not mean that by simple physical harm, Kai." Was she dropping the 'sir' because she was familiar with me now? Or because she didn't respect me anymore? Either way, I didn't like it.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"I mean, do not harm 'the' Royal Assistant." She emphasized.
I thought about what she meant by it for a moment, and I understood.
"The image- the title."
"Correct." She repeated.
"Harming her will harm her Majesty- avoid that at all costs." She straightened her back up from the seat and went silent, we heard the carriage door open.
Carmilla entered wordlessly, she looked engrossed into whatever was on that clipboard of hers, her brows were knitting endlessly over its contents; she was mulling over something.
But she then looked up, just as the carriage began to move.
"Has the maid debriefed you, Sir Kai?" She pointed her strange looking pen at me- it looked like solid black shard of metal with a sharpened converging point, it had slowly oozing ink at its end.
Ima remained silent, as if she was no more than decor in the carriage at this point- I guess it was now just me and Carmilla for the duration of the ride now.
"Yes, I know that we are investigating a Count Saleos over the suspicion that he is harboring Royalists."
"Correct." She sifted through some documents on her clipboard; she was looking for something.
"Here-" She took out a thin sheet of paper from her clipboard and handed it to me.
"I have been informed by her majesty about your 'predicament'." Carmilla spoke, she kept her eyes dead set on mine; she didn't once glimpse at Ima who was still staying eerily silent next to me.
"Ultimately, I do not care about your 'issue', as it does not affect my work."
"However, as you have been assigned to 'assist' me on this venture, there are some guidelines you must follow if you are working with me."
I looked at the sheet she had given me, it had tons of information on the Count ranging from what was likely public knowledge, to straight up espionage on his private life.
"Do not speak unless asked of, do not leave your assigned premises unless asked of STRICTLY by me, report all information you gather directly to me, and lastly-"
She lowered her clipboard; she scanned my eyes as if she was probing for a weak point in me.
"Do not do anything that will raise suspicion of our true intentions." For a brief second, I could've sworn I saw a slight smile creep up on the corners of her mouth.
"Beyond those guidelines, you are free to do whatever it is... that 'you' do." She returned back to her clipboard, her strict gaze at me having finally broken away.
She felt a lot more intense than when I had first met her two days ago- that was probably due to the whole, me being a Mana Eater thing being a result of that now.
"Study that sheet and have it memorized by the time that we arrive, we are expected to be there by mid-day."
"Do these guidelines apply to Ima?" I asked, I could feel Ima's knee on mine fidget slightly having asked of that.
Carmilla didn't look up from her clipboard as she answered me.
"No- she is your charge, and a maid, she has no bearing to Count Saleos anyway."
At first, hearing her say that could be applied as Ima being a free agent in all of this.
But in truth, I knew what it 'really' meant.
She's my responsibility, so it's up to me to deem what should be a 'given'.
Otherwise, Carmilla will have my head for it; as if she really could anyway.
"If that is your final question, I would ask of you to not disturb me any further, I have some preparing to do."
"Prepar- WOAH!?" To my utter (virgin) shock, Carmilla had begun to rapidly strip on her seat.
"Sir Kai, hand me the contents of the chest next to you." Carmilla, who was down to her surprisingly grandma-ish beige underwear, pointed to a small box next to me; I complied, still in bewilderment of her unexpected strip in front of me.
I looked through the chest and found three things: A risqué grey dress, and underwear that could be described as nothing less than two hopeful thin strips of frilly black linen tied together; it made me embarrassed just holding them.
I handed the clothes to the waiting Carmilla who in turn began to immediately strip down from her beige underwear.
Carmilla wasn't my type, but I could definitely appreciate the bitchy office lady appeal she had going on- was this going to be my first ever (non-internet) nude lady scene in my life, never mind this new world!?!
Just as Carmilla was about to drop her bra, I felt a tap on my shoulder from my left.
I looked over to Ima, but she wasn't looking at me- instead, she was still facing forward silently as she had the ride so far.
Whatever, maybe it was my imagination? I looked back at the visual nirvana waiting for me just before my ey-
She was done dressing.
...
Recovering from my soul being shattered to a million individual pieces just earlier before, Carmilla had been applying make-up on herself as she occasionally muttered something under her breath on the ride.
"What's all of this for?" I asked as I pointed to her dress, but more importantly to her boobs, as they we're one bump on the road away from spilling out; not like that was problem.
But Carmilla didn't answer me, she looked entranced into whatever she was doing; I guess I won't get to her.
I took this as my cue to study the sheet I had been given and make note of some key details about the Count.
First,
as Ima had told me before, Count Saleos, or Saleos Kross, is a pacifist-
But it goes deeper than that.
He was a non-participant for the civil war five years ago; neither pledging his support to either the Royalists or the Usurpers. He instead chose to use his family's Manor and mostly farm fields then, as a neutral zone for refugees to seek asylum to escape the war, accepting people who lived on the fringes of the designated warzones that bordered the capital.
His neutrality didn't come without a cost however, as now after the war, even though he hadn't fought against Flaur and her usurpation, he has been barred from participating in future court and from growing any private militia for his lands; this was done to make him dependent on the crown for safety.
But with negatives aside, his action of being committing to a neutral zone had made him a local hero for the peasantry in the kingdom. Many of the refugees who had come to his estate for asylum ended up staying after the war had concluded, in turn growing his then farming hamlet into a sizeable, small city; it named after his late-wife, Rezabel.
Even though he can't grow a private army to defend his property, the fact that his estate's population is loyal to him is without question; they'd likely lay down their lives to protect him and the city that they live in.
A gallant but gentle hero of the people, his reputation is rock-solid.
Two,
He is secretly a massive,
womanizing,
pervert.
And three,
Rumors of him harboring Royalists span back to reports of unfamiliar workers tending his fields by patrolling guards from the crown as they're posted there for months on end and grow to recognize the usual field tillers.
If they're brought in for questioning, the Count would 'coincidentally' come to visit and vouch for them as a new inhabitant of Rezabel, and are here on account as a relative of an already established family in the city. This would occur for four more times, and with the Count's clout apparent, the guards were powerless to press on any further.
Said suspects would then visit his Manor during the night and would never again be seen after that- the Manor was closed off to Flaur's loaned guards.
Only personally invited individuals could come and visit the Count's manor-
I looked up at Carmilla, it looked like she was done with applying make-up; she caught my gaze.
"How do I look, darling?" Catching my look, she begun to speak in a seductive voice, scaring the living daylights out of me with the sudden switch of character.
"R-Royal Assistant?" She got off of her seat and creeped towards me, she planted her arms onto my knees- she stared at me lustfully.
She moved her face, closer and closer to me- her lips were inches away from mine.
"How. do. I. look?" She repeated.
"Uhh, U-Uhh..?" I could only stutter with being cornered by her like this; I was out way out of my element.
"Useless." Her normal voice returned, her lustful gaze replaced by the cold and calculating squint that she usually had; she let go of my knees as she politely sat back down onto her side of the carriage, she began to scribble away as she usually did on her clipboard.
Seeing her look like a starlet writing off on her clipboard felt like she was just pretending.
"What was that for!?" I've had my pitiful manhood teased twice within the same hour today, I demand some questions damn it!
"You read the sheet, did you not Sir Kai?" She drew on lipstick onto her lips, a deep seductive red, as she also readjusted her dress; her already visible cleavage was widened out even more, her frilly black bra was visible now at the seam.
"So, this is what you were preparing for."
She gave a small nod as she pursed her lips, the lipstick aligned perfectly.
"Yes, this is unfortunately, a 'necessity' for the success of the investigation."
"For I am visiting the Count not solely as 'just' the Royal Assistant."
She gave a small sigh as she checked through the curtain hiding us from the outside.
"But as a woman as well."
...