Chereads / How To Save The Endangered Empire / Chapter 20 - Swindling A Swindler

Chapter 20 - Swindling A Swindler

An Excruciatingly long wait later….

Ashton was able to receive the analysis report of the contents inside the white parcel from the night of the Ball that concerned him so. Unfazed, his swirled blue eyes that shined like a dark diamond in the glistening sun remained when, upon reading, his suspicions were confirmed.

"Residue of a dark wizard's magic was discovered from the potion. Of course, I expected nothing less from such evil bastards." Ashton pushed back into his chair, sighing while hitting the cushioned chair with slight force.

The ceiling came into view, and with that, the brown carved ceilings and the illuminating chandelier of pure gold brought him back to the night of the Ball. The chandelier beaming above the talkative, carefree crowd who, unbeknownst to them, a threat has just been found.

"If I may offer my thoughts, I believe the Temple should be given approval to conduct a cleansing of the major parts of the Empire to prevent any casualties and drive out the wizards to flee to the outskirt areas." The deep and melodic voice of Ashton's most trusted knight, Reinfrid, interjected with his belief of force being a simple, easy solution.

However, Ashton immediately found fault with his plan, and Reinfrid knew he would too, based on the pause of silence Ashton took. In response to Reinfrid's easy yet flawed plan, Ashton scoffed and arose from his chair, his face full of pessimistic features that overshadowed the golden light directed from the sun to his golden hair.

Despite the sun's resplendent forming the rough shape of a halo, Ashton's face was twisted into a frowzy, drowned-in sunless atmosphere. The sun, which pointed to him like a spotlight, seemed dimmed and killed by Ashton's shroud of melancholy. It was as if he was blind to anything remotely optimistic, like a rain cloud had blocked him from all sides, pouring its cold and drenching rain that prolonged his everlasting sickness.

Ashton put to bed the silence, turning to Reinfrid with a glint of bitterness. "Such a plan won't work. The people should be the priority, and in the case of such a flimsy plan, panic will emerge."

"Instead, have there been any leads from the investigation I asked you to conduct?" The pitch in Ashton's deep voice remained constant and monotone. Like speaking to a robot, his voice carried bluntness rather than tenderness.

In the air was a frigidness from their cold formalities, forgetting that they had been the best of friends since childhood. Sadly, Reinfrid was now swept up in Ashton's sunless atmosphere, losing such happiness from when Ashton lost it all. "My apologies, Your Majesty. Due to my ignorance, we were unable to uncover anything from the investigation."

Devoid of color, the room felt as if it was shrouded in black and white; nothing was a shred of extraordinary to the atmosphere, but everything melted in the background. Nothing was the least bit different from the beginning. Ashton moved into the office because he was happy with familiarity, with something he knew well inside and out.

"I'd dreaded this option and hoped to avoid it, but I guess I'm left with no other choice. Contact the High Priest." Ashton sighed, begrudgingly accepting his decision for the sake of his people as the Emperor of Riphulon instead of himself, Ashton Radomir.

***

In the Capital of Riphulon, Aurilin, the most extravagant city in the Empire, Emris and Conan rode through in a carriage fitting the luxurious city with its gold garnishments and brilliant white wood, specially imported from overseas merchants. While riding in the streets past the residents and nobles who had been present for social gatherings or shopping, quick glances from them were stolen by the beauty of the carriage fitting a princess from a small kingdom, but unfamiliar to them was the emblem on the door of the carriage which struck surprise and arose gossip surrounding the two passengers.

Conan and Emris, stuck on the inside, victim to the murmur and stares, remained abnormally calm. With crossed arms and legs, Conan nonchalantly sat back in the comfy, well-cushioned seat, and Emris, with hand brought forward to hold and rub on one another, basked in the silence, staring at the passing trees that swayed their leaves in sync with the wind.

"Was it really necessary to bring a carriage of such caliber? Or shall I take it as an impulse to emit envy on those around you?" Blatantly, Conan insulted Emris' choice to arrive at their destination in such an attention-seeking carriage.

From her calm composure emerged a smile that countered Conan's single expression of frigidness. "Of course, it was necessary. The more attention, the better. What we need is to flaunt our wealth enough to catch the attention of enough people."

Emris' eyes glinted from the sun's beaming rays, illuminating the pools of pristine water fit for the gods mixed with a gaze of confidence from the crinkle of her eyes and the smirk that crept upon her face.

"Whether jealousy arises or not is an uncontrollable factor in my plan. You can't blame me for the emotions others allow themselves to experience, can you?"

Though she hadn't displayed the slightest bit of arrogance, her words rubbed Conan in a way that was distasteful to his ears and manner. However, because of the gift Emris kindly prepared for him, he decided to bite his tongue this once.

Emris, on the other hand, tried every possible way to bring herself to fathom the idea of being without Conan for so long. How could she manage the lies and bottled-up feelings for so long? Though she did so in her old world, this was different; this required more mental space that her mind could not now afford.

'After this, when will Conan and I be able to go on another outing? I want nothing more than to join him for those days he will spend in his world, but the air will kill me. Conan stated that it was inhabitable for a person like me, even more so when I was from an entirely different universe. It always seems to be that way, everything so close yet so far beyond my reach.'

Scraping her thumb against her polished, perfectly filed nail, her smile began to crumble to a knitted expression from her eyebrows to her frowning lips. As usual, Conan didn't pay her any mind as his mind was elsewhere, yet this did not bother Emris in the slightest as he had given her more attention than she could be greedy for.

'Can't I just go with Conan? So what if I die once I hit the atmosphere? At least I got to be with him in death…. my first friend. I wouldn't mind dying with that degree of comfort.'

Willing to throw her life away for minimal care and love was a sign of how deep her pain was rooted within her, rotting away her self-respect and love for herself. Having been deprived of any meaningful connection, Emris began to crave love enough to pour alcohol on an open wound without bandaging it, just continuously pouring it on an open wound and wondering why it was still hurting.

She was attached to Conan because of the inability to connect to herself; she found it safer and more comfortable, but she couldn't understand yet that she was comfortable only because she was familiar with neglect and hopelessness, confusing it for comfort only as it differed faintly to her family's abuse.

"Wait, where are we going? We were supposed to turn on Garnet Street to get to the information guild on Clarence Avenue in the Scarlet Vale District." Conan glanced at the map in the carriage compartment and corrected the driver through the overhead window, then closed it shut for the silence between Emris and him to continue.

Tired of the constant stares and the burning gazes from people passing by, Conan ordered the carriage to stop near a park with fewer people. "That's enough attention, isn't it? Let's stop this foolish game and walk the rest of the way. Come on."

Conan was grateful to Emris but couldn't bring himself to accept her as anything more than an assignment. He allowed her to order him around if she wished it, but any action he took towards her, which he believed, did not come from the kindness of his heart but from the duty he decided to uphold.

Neither were at fault for the gap misunderstanding between them, but they were also not completely blameless. Had Emris been straightforward with her friendship request, Conan would've been given the opportunity to reject it, and if Conan had been blunt with his intention for their relationship, all would have been resolved, and Emris wouldn't have hoped.

Sadly, their personalities and traumas could not allow for any of this. Emris, who gave every bit of love and effort she had, poured onto a non-existent heart, and Conan, who could not distinguish her efforts for care but only foolishness, turned away from her. Each of them had flaws that failed to be communicated as neither side could open their hearts to the other.

"Yes, I suppose you're right, Conan. This is more than enough attention than I could've asked for." Emris stepped from the carriage, a knight's hand guiding her down as her other hand grasped onto her laced blue dress to avoid the soles of her black buckled heels.

Together, they walked, the trees providing shade while letting light escape from leaves where the gap between had been wide. The warm sensation wrapped Emris' skin like a blanket in the cold, bitter winter. Her dress fit for the season suited her perfectly, from the sun hat on her head to the white socks providing a barrier between her shoes and bare feet.

Flowers intertwined with the gate along the park they walked by caught her daydreaming mind as she imagined frolicking through thousands of beds of flowers to ease her aching mind. She hoped that someday she and Conan could have a memory apart from work, a memory she could cherish till her dying day.

"Is this finally the first phase of your long-awaited plan? I hope you're confident it will work despite your unfamiliarity with this world." Conan's deep and slurred voice interjected her fantasy more accurately, her escape from an unfortunate reality.

Her eyes caught on Conan's slicked-back parted hair that fooled her for a moment into thinking his hair was shorter than it actually was, but she remembered the day they met; his hair was like a curtain in front of his eyes. Still, his golden-rayed eyes beamed through like the sun shining on its brightest before exploding.

Emris put on a smile, while holding her hat in the wind as the baby blue ribbon tied around in a crooked bow fluttered. "Dear Conan, when will the day you trust in my plans come? Surviving doesn't come hard to me, you know, despite my lack of knowledge."

'From the moment my luck began to drop down a cliff, I became like an animal in the woods running from danger before it could reach me. Except, unlike an animal, my survival doesn't come from instinct. It comes from my crippling fear and anxiety. I learn, I observe, I act. As long as I do those things according to the situation, I'm safe.'

'Conan's just worried for his safety, it's understandable, so I have to do my best; it's the only way to reassure him. As a good friend, I must do all I can to make him feel at ease, so protect him, alright?'

"…We've arrived." He brushed off her words as a completely idiotic answer, passing her so close he grazed his shoulder with a warm yet abrasive touch.

Unbelievably, Emris, who had always been known to read another person's emotion, action, or anything they felt towards her, was blinded by her greediness to have one good thing, even if it meant being garbage crushed underneath one's foot.

Behind him, like a dog, she followed quietly and curiously while approaching a red-bricked two-story building dirtied a bit from its corners. Glancing around, Emris spotted a black metal-railed balcony above her head with small wooden tables and two chairs peeking a bit from the gap between the bars. The windows took a chunk of space from the front, revealing a cleaner-cut design on the inside compared to its outer look.

"It's sort of quaint, isn't it, Conan? Charming even." Emris tapped her nimble knuckle to her chin, chucking.

Though Conan didn't laugh, he remained silent with a composure of annoyance, as if he were on the last straw. He would leap on Emris, tapping her mouth shut. He sped forward, but Emris kept his pace and followed him even in her chunky heels.

Upon opening the door, a bell jingled from above their head, spitting a light echoing ring like a metal triangle tapping during a paused band performance. The smell of freshly baked cookies hooked her nose, activating her salivating taste buds, leading her to a reflective glass where their best-looking baked sweets were on display for all to see.

Conan frowned, finding her funny-looking as she pressed her hands up to the glass, revealing the sparkle of stars in her luminescent eyes the closer she got to the cookies. A smile attacked his lips as he thought of the random idea of her licking the glass to reach the cookies on the other side.

"What can I get for you, little miss? Are you perhaps interested in hearing about the sales we offer? We have many goodies, including our famous double chocolate cake with a raspberry filling!" A cute old man with hair as white as snow looped around the sides of his hair yet straying away from the smoothed-over top of his head, which radiated a shine from the sun's glare, smiled at Emris' actions.

Standing up straight, her gaze was no longer his height. For her, she had to look down at the little old man while Conan had to snap his neck to catch him in his sight. His eyes widened from the reflective glass of his glasses, and as he spoke, his puffy cat-like mustache bounced with his unnoticeable moving lips.

Before Emris uttered a word, Conan pulled her by the hand behind him, so she was swallowed by his black cloak that covered every bit of blue from her dress; not even the puffed short sleeves could be seen.

Conan glared sharply at the man, whispering a word Emris could barely comprehend as Conan kept her far from him and the little old man.

'What's going on? I can't hear anything! The poor man seems to have gone completely gloomy and blank; what exactly was wrong with what Conan said? While in the carriage, he talked about the usage of a secret word, but could it be that it meant something much darker than I was expecting? Is Conan lying to me?'

With a skeptical and distasteful look, Emris shifted a stare into Conan's head, which was visible to her as she hid behind him. Feeling unable to digest betrayal, she went straight into denial before the reality made her stomach sick with a virus. However, a boulder the size of a mountain seemed to weigh inside her chest, pulling her down to the ground, maybe even to the depths of hell.

A tiny old man jumped like a rabbit until his small body yanked on a lever, cranking down its rusty sound, indicating the few times the lever had been pulled lately. A dark alleyway in opposition to the quaint and cute bakery was unveiled from the moving white brick wall behind the counter.

The dust of the movement stuck to her throat, making it hard to breathe, while the chill of its appearance sent a shivering chill throughout her spine, reminding her of the pitch-black darkness of the room she'd remained chained in for what felt like an eternity to her. The chains in her memory anchored her lungs, tying around them until they were crushed and cut off from intercepting any more air. Frozen with dread, Emris found the instinct to run from the danger before being wholly consumed again.

"Are you frightened? You look as pale as a Sabiened." Conan's stone-cold grip remained firm on the skin of her wrist; tight, dry, and cold were what Emris felt when he touched her.

Emris raised her eyebrow, stuttering and tripping up on her words as it was hard to take in any breath to her punctured, choking lungs that felt reduced to nothing but dust at this point.

"Wh-What's a…ha…a Sabien?" Her eyes rippled like gems sunk deep in a pool reflecting from the light of the moon above.

Conan squeezed her shaking wrist, changing the frequency of his cold and nonchalant voice that would fail to soothe the trembling rabbit before him. "It's a monster from folklore in my world, one that drinks the blood of people who eat spinach, as spinach makes our blood purer."

Emris shook with vigor, her head falling to the ground.

'I guess that didn't help her at all. Wait…is she more terrified now?' He fidgeted, thinking Emris would burst into tears and fall victim to a fetal position.

Contradicting his thoughts, however, she was holding in her bursting laughter that eventually broke through her quivering lips. She gleamed a joyous smile, one an angel would be described as having, as she wiped the forced tear from her eyes, which folded in the shape of almonds.

'That's ridiculous! Didn't he just describe a vampire? But what's up with the spinach part? Where did that come from?'

"HAHAHA! Spinach?! Do you eat spinach, Conan?….HAHAHA!" Emris teased, her tone becoming lighter and as sweet sounding as the bell that rings in heaven. A shadow provided by her swept bangs was cast over her eyes, only bringing out the bright sparkle within them, a sparkle radiating in similarity to northern lights.

Conan found her deep laughter, which went up an octave compared to her voice, to be infectious, enough to invoke his own strange-pitched giggling. His eyes transformed when he laughed with Emris for a small moment; instead of stained gold, they became apparent to the sun rising in the early morning, bright bursts of gold and purples, although the purples were from the darkness around them, still to Emris it was a sight worth waiting ages for.

With Conan's support, Emris thought not only about the execution of her plan but also about the folklore she learned from Conan's world. Having her heart shrouded in doubt from before became a distant memory when she felt the coldness of Conan's grip on her wrist as he led her through the dark hallway.

Gold, pearls, and adorned furniture met them on the other side of a short hallway that felt ongoing from the lack of light. The furniture was encrusted with gems everywhere they glanced, but apart from that, the more extravagant things that caught their eyes were the objects that lay around as if being used as decoration, though they could've been much more.

A man opened a door underneath the wooden carved stairs with diamonds, sitting on the red cushioned couch with gold armrests. He motioned his hand and passionately smiled as though he was trying to charm them, but Emris felt disgusted to the core of her stomach, finding him appalling.

His greasy hair that reflected off the chandeliers burning candles and chapped lips peeled, leaving marks of red flesh from where the skin of his lip had fallen. Despite the luxury surrounding him, his dress style was lazy and uncoordinated, having put unsatisfactory colors with others that didn't match and styling his hair in a way that was randomly slicked back.

'This man has no sense of taste…' Emris sighed, eyeing him with atrocity as if she was looking at a pile of poop in front of her. 'He only knows how to hoard luxury, not to differentiate anything with taste.'

Finally, after putting aside her criticizing thoughts, Emris pulled from Conan's side and walked over to the couch, sitting on its comfy softness that hugged her body. She hinted for Conan to sit down beside her, and like a loyal contracted guardian, he did as was told, watching Emris as she turned her head in every decoration with awe.

"So what is it that you seek, aye, for having come to our fine establishment?" He sat on the couch across from the provided space between both couches, with a coffee table in the middle. Utterly confident, he leaned back, his head resting while he seductively, in a predator way, gazed at Emris, spreading his legs widely in a way that a hoodlum would.

Emris was disgusted by his display that failed to meet elegance and his burning stare that was considered rude enough for her to step on him with all the force in her body to crush the toe inside his crass-looking dress shoes.

'In my world, this man would have already gained many restraining orders and flicked heads with thoughts filled that questioned whether or not he stared at a child in the same way.' Ruthless in her thoughts, Emris clicked her tongue and crossed her arms, becoming more pale as she caught his glances.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I was hoping you would graciously help us with the information we seek." A smile of love and acting plastered over the frown, making it clear she was on the verge of throwing up her breakfast and lunch before.

In order to please him, Emris bore the attitude of a young, loving, naive girl who knew nothing of struggle and only of kindness. The appalling man couldn't help but gawk at Emris in a way that imprinted the image in front of him in his mind, almost as if flowers were infused in the aura around her.

"Ahem….yes sweetheart, What do you need us ol' bastards will be able to find it for you?" Desire streamed from his look like a waterfall as long as the drool that fell from his peeling lips.

'This son of a… How long does he plan to stare at her with such a predatory glint in his eyes, and this foolish girl is only allowing herself to be prodded by such a filthy moron.' Conan gnashed his teeth, sharpening the blade-like glare he displayed toward a man who marveled at the idea of looking at Emris, developing his own strange fantasies of her.

"The magic scroll, any information you have, fetch it for us immediately." Branded as the ideal bodyguard, Conan crossed his legs, nipping his lunatic mind in the bud before he memorized every etch of Emris' face and body.

Though contradictory to his beliefs, he stole a quick moment of Emris' body, specifically the sight of the necklace around her neck she fiddled with in her hand. It was a black jewel the size of a walnut cut in the shape of a tear surrounded by beads of gems and hoisted with a pearl chain.

"Alright, tall fella, I'll go put in a word with the Boss. Just wait here with the pretty lady." From sickening to devious, his countenance changed the minute the necklace was manifested in his mind.

Goosebumps formed on the tips of her arms while the hair on her body stood up, watching his glued-on gaze on her from the entire time he climbed the wooden stairs to the end of the hall and clicked the door behind him. All the tension in her heart and mind was released in a deep breath, and she could not take in small as he was eyeing her every action.

***

In the other room, away from Emris' naive deer-resembling eyes, the man's knees were flat down on the floor before a black cushioned chair measuring a comedic height. The candles were blown by a wind coming from whoever sat in the ridiculous-looking chair.

In the silence, a ceiling fan creaked from its rusty hinges, helpful enough to fill the dreading abyss that leaked into the room. "How did it go with the new customers? I hear they were the ones in the extravagant carriage parading through the streets. Their emblem was even the image of roses surrounding a proud knight with unique plated armor from the kingdom of Lealon."

"Yes, my lord, and hear this, sir. The little miss sitting in the waiting room is as stupid as they come, a real empty-headed idiot." Bringing into mind the honest smile that made him see through her, he, there cautions to the wind, convinced Emris was a naive woman. "The lackey sitting next to her is a pain in the ass, though, but as long as I convince her, he'll do all she asks."

Abruptly, the seat turns, releasing noises of its squeaking hinges into the dead quiet of the room, sounding louder than the ceiling fan. Behind the chair, a tan man was smiling, his vampire-adjacent teeth scraping together as he thought of the words he was waiting to hear.

"So the necklace in her possession….are you able to retrieve it from this weak, air-headed woman?" The magnitude of greed in his voice was emphasized as he tightened his fist as if to punch someone or squash a fly.

Eyes that lost their humanity, their sparkle of a world filled with wonder dissipated long ago, and in its wake was rage and darkness, sin that would soon take a deadly root. For the man who effortlessly took a step down to someone he deemed all-powerful, he internally cackled from the look of smug wiped across his face, nodding with arrogance glinting in the iris of his eyes.

"Eh… Who do you take me for, Boss? A simple use of my charm and that valuable Safrite necklace will be mine to give to you." - Rising from the floor, he brushed off his mismatched outfit, remembering the innocent look on Emris' face that smiled at him without a hint of awareness to the situation she was in. - "She was so innocent it'll be like snatching candy from some lil' ol' child."

As disgusting as Emris believed him to be, he spat in the pan beside the door. A pause diluted the room while the man in the chair, the one who believed Emris to be no threat, pictured the necklace in her possession and knew of its high-intensity value.

'Being one of its kind, that necklace has garnered a reputation for being worth millions. Safrite is a rare gem, far too rare to be on the neck of some worthless princess. It should be mine! It's destiny, a sign from the Goddess that such a refined necklace should be in my possession.' Thinking with a mindset of pure delusion, he bypassed the idea of Emris rebelling; such a weakling to him would be nothing to get rid of. All he could care about was feeding his endless greed and making another valuable item a knack in his overstuffed market.

"What did she say her purpose was for coming again? The magic scroll?" Holding back his laughter, he kept his composure, but the thin sting of hair that lay in the spot of his eyebrows twitched, not in shock but in reaction to Emris' stupidity for asking for something that had long perished.

His answer, which could've been long and detailed, was shortened into a nod and a quick intake of breath before he spoke his piece. "That little miss must be some idiot curious kid who wants to look for crap that was lost centuries ago. What do you want me to say to her, My Lord?"

He smirked, enjoying letting Emris squirm, thinking that he had her hands bonded down as she was stupid enough to try and seek information for something everyone knew was scarce and mysterious. Beside his spinning chair was a bookshelf with large scrolls sticking out from its front while neatly stacked; he quickly pulled one out, having memorized which blank white one was.

"Give her this, and I assume you know what to do from there." Handing the white school to his devoted servant, he glared as if transferring the information he had in his mind to his servant. "I don't care about the method you use. Just make sure to bring me that necklace, understood?"

***

"What the hell is this!?" - At the top of Conan's lungs, in the room of silence, his voice echoed within the walls, bouncing from its golden embezzlement. His eyes shot almost the color of blood red, indicating his verge of bursting into flames and burning down the information guild. - "For the scroll, you want her necklace?! What kind of deal is that?!"

To have seen such a calm man, even under high-pressure situations, show his veins bulging from his skin startled Emris, her heart beating rhythmically now going a mile a minute. In the fit of Conan's anger, Emris almost lost composure, but quickly, with a deep breath, she took hold of the situation in front of her.

"….I'll do it, so please hand me the scroll now."

A flick and then their heads turned to her, but she remained unfazed, keeping an innocent smile of purity that had not seen any kind of cruelty or corruption. Her eyes, the color of starlight, melted the tense atmosphere between the two.

'It used to be hard to tell what Conan was thinking, but now his eyes are telling me that I'm a crazy woman. However, I'm desperate and willing to do whatever it takes to get me home.'

His face was two-sided; deep down in his subconscious, he felt elated to have gotten exactly what he wanted and tricked a wealthy young woman. Then, the face on the outside was one of hospitality; reaching out, he grabbed Emris' hands and bent his knee, thanking her for her wise decision.

'If I touch her naive heart just a little more, she might give me more than I requested. This little miss is my ticket to the good life.'

His hands, which felt as rough as sandpaper, sent chills through Emris' nervous system. She gazed back into the eyes of greed and gestured with kindness that would make any man lower their guard.

Conan, though, did not condone this behavior and snatched the scroll from his pants pocket and used his forearm to push his sticky palms from Emris. The roaring flare of his gaze could not be put out even when Emris whispered in his ear to calm down.

"Hand over the—" Impatient to hear the rest of Emris' words, Conan unraveled the dusty page that had naturally retained its curled formation over time. With a wave of his hand, he pushed away the lingering dust that covered, to his surprise, something that flared the stomach acid to turn into fire.

His cravat, on the verge of bursting, clenched the rubbish paper in his fists that pulsated from his bulging veins. "You call this crap information?" Looming in the seat beside Emris, their aura turned straight to darkness at the mere scam this man was trying to pull.

Out of rage, Conan jolted from the seat, his knees kicking away the table between them. He flung the useless paper at lightning speed to the man's oily face. "This piece of shit is nowhere near enough the price of her necklace! All you've given is the name of the place where the Magic Scroll disappeared! Do you think we're stupid enough not to know that!?"

"Listen, My lord, a deal's a deal, so the necklace now should be mine in exchange." The man's words stemmed from sarcasm and criticism. Conan knew well that this man didn't respect him enough to use proper manners, so he realized it was a form of insult.

"Why I oughta—!"

"Stop!" - Emris arose with grace and pulled at Conan's jet-black coat that held him with elegance despite his display of rampage. - "Please stop; this is utterly ridiculous, Conan. He's right. This necklace, as per the agreement, is now his possession."

"What!? Are you stupid!?" Conan went ballistic as Emris stripped the tear-cut black gem that resembled a galaxy with burning stars trapped within it. The chain she slipped from one side and jumbled it in her right hand.

"Thank you for your time." The corners of her blue dress were gripped in both her hands as she bowed her head like the princess she claimed to be.

Upon seeing her glistening hair that glowed like freshly cut fruit, he felt the urge to grasp her, but Emris arose and backed toward Conan's side when she felt a disgustingly horrid chill of desire that slid down the tip of her spine.

"Shall we leave now, Conan?" - The man followed to show them out, but Emris flashed her batting eyelashes and lavish eyes that were the picture of luxury, which kept the man occupied, thinking of only lust. - "Would you mind if my partner and I showed ourselves out? There's no need to escort; I'm sure you must be busy."

"Ah, alright, be on your way then, and thank you, little miss, for your integrity." In his mind, the word integrity was replaced with naivety, and Emris, having dealt with all sorts of colorful lies, knew this was the case, but as before, she threw it all away and became numb to accept the other's disrespect.

They opened the door to hear the final jingle of the bell and headed back through the floral scenery that brought solace and dreams to Emris' waking hardship. Each step she took in a body that didn't belong to her felt better, having witnessed the flowers sprout toward the shining Ball of fire that was their salvation. She, too, looked up and allowed, through the cracks of the leaves that were also falling, the sun to beam down its warmth and revive her.

"Toward the next destination, please!" Conan ordered in a commanding voice as if made to be a military leader toward the coachman; upon his order, the carriage increased in speed and took off in a bolt.

Conan crossed his legs, his pants scraping together, the material making a noise of almost a paper being ripped in half, and dead stared with locked eyes onto Emris as she brushed aside the curtain and pinned it up to see the people as they passed from view. "The spell…would you like me to apply it now?"

"Yes, that would be good; it's been long enough; they've probably hung it up like some kind of ornament by now. What idiots." Emris didn't bother making eye contact but instead maintained a hypnotized mind on the passing of faces she knew she would not see again.

His magic floated in the air like a sparkly green mist that captivated both Emris's heart and eyes. She found it enchanting as the necklace materialized from the mist and descended from the air to his stretched-out palm. However, her enchantment didn't last long, as her social battery had been depraved after dealing with such a vulgar man.

Having been attached to Emris's side for a long while now, Conan thought she was some strange woman with no sense at all, and yet there were times when that didn't seem to be the case whatsoever. Times when he looked into her eyes and saw that her soul was in need of escape, of freedom, as if behind that smile of gold, everything else was trapped in a cage.

"…You know…" - Emris' head turned when Conan's mouth uttered a sound. Her head lifted from its resting position on her hand where her chin lay. Her mind dipped into dreamland until Conan, someone important to her, spoke to her. - "What those men did was despicable. I've never lived in this world, so I may not know how it works completely, but in my world, many would have brought shame from the animal god, so corruption and trickery were scarce."

"What I'm trying to say is, are morals simply something to take lightly?" Conan had droned on, but Emris listened to the very last word and found that it was more in tune with emotions than she thought.

At that time, both sides discovered something new that they didn't know of each other before, and whether it would change their whole perspective of each other was unknown to them.

"This world is like a reflection of my own. Yes, morals do exist, but many, regardless of the consequences, choose to ignore them. Maybe because it's in the nature of people to be selfish." A void unearthed from within her possessed the spot where her twinkle resembling the ocean or rising sun used to be.

"Regardless, you did a good job with your acting, Conan. Your performance was compelling." Her tone became soft yet dreary from the little bit of exhaustion she felt, and in the back of her mind, the memory of her freedom still lingered.

"Yes, well, it was all thanks to your ingenious plan. I was only an actor in your well-orchestrated play." Opening his clutched hand around the necklace, he placed it in her hand and returned it to her.

***

Thrust with the man's ogling desire toward her necklace, Emris remained unaware of what he truly wanted, keeping a gracious look in her eye and a composed posture until he disappeared from sight.

"Conan?! Listen to me carefully!" - Emris jumped at Conan with urgency as her false stature fell to reveal her thoughts - "Can you do a recovery spell? If you can, please place one on my necklace immediately, no questions asked."

He was confused with everything Emris just stated, being tossed up in the air; scooting away from her an inch, he refocused his thoughts and spoke with meaning. "I will need more information before I cast a spell like that. Remember, what affects you affects me, so we must hear both opinions."

"Alright, but we don't have much time. Okay, so first things first, that man has been eyeing my necklace since the moment we walked in. I guarantee he will use the scroll to his advantage to get it, and most certainly, that scroll will be a scam. Still, we have to act like dimwits once they present us with it, and you have to play the most important role; you must act with reluctance to really sell it that were are not reverse scamming them."

In a minute, Emris spoke more rapidly than any singer or any conductor of an auction. Her eyes vibrated with haste, anxiously shifting between the door and Conan in case the man returned.

Understanding her words, Conan wasted no time. He grabbed her necklace, squeezing a green light in the color of a bright meadow into the necklace. The two colors of black and green clashed until the spell receded, and the blackness consumed it.

"Alright, it's done; anything else?"

Emris shook her head, and the door creaked open; the man wasn't quick enough to hide the greed Emris saw in his eyes and rehearsed the words in her head, picking what she would say to the responses she predicted from him.

***

"I've been meaning to ask since then, but how did you know you would be given false information?" Conan's curiosity spilled when revisited with the memory of Emris' prediction.

"The Duke accidentally mixed an investigative report into the papers I requested regarding the market and regulation laws of magical objects. That report consisted of a list of their possessions."

Emris completely went into a full-depth explanation after reminding herself that Conan should know her plans and everything else, as he was her friend and contractual partner who would help her get through this living nightmare.

"I was never after the information for the magic scroll; I'm not stupid enough to think that there would be anything useful if it hasn't been found for over 150 years, but as I read the list, I found that they had a talisman that was said to be a magical enhancer."

She held up the talisman she stole from the guild, as she had spotted it already when they first walked in. Diligently, Conan removed his ability to speak and heightened his hearing to listen to Emris as she revealed her thoughts and the steps that came to creating such an intricate series of events.

"With this talisman, I hope to find a way to extract its effects for our product. I will also write up a business report to the Duke, describing where their business operations were held and how to infiltrate secretly, as well as their illegal alchemy possessions, as payment for helping me.

"Once finished, I'll slip it in his desk so he can arrest those men for their illegal activities, and that was my entire motivation for visiting in the first place."

Ending with a pause, she glanced up from the floor of the carriage into Conan's eyes to see how he reacted to her story, and instead of a stern man with a face like iron, she saw a warm opposing smile, a playful aura, and a light bouncing from his golden eyes.

"You did well; I had no idea how far you had gone to accomplish something this great." - The arm length of a model reached out, relaxing his muscles as he patted her head with a light, non-aggressive touch that competed with his usual cold attitude. - "It's praiseworthy."

'I can' reveal it without spilling more of the past, but I just hoped to bring justice to swindlers and liars so they can never have the chance to trick another again.' Those thoughts of her remained gloomy, but hope, and energy returned to her tired posture and her lazy gestures with the sudden touch of someone whose presence she needed to go on.

'With this big leap of progress, maybe, and I mean maybe, I've finally started to be let into Conan's world the same way I slowly am trying to let him into mine. It would've been absolute hell without him, worse than when I had been living in my other life, but I feel like the noose around my throat has lost its grip.'

Emris's face was pale before, and her energy had been depleted, but it glowed like a candle with a fragrant smell once the clouds had been moved from her vision. They were no longer fogging up her mind; Conan's short but meaningful affection had blown them away.

"My Lord and Lady, we have arrived at our destination."