I left the job to the two mercenaries and searched for a place to stay instead. I can't go back nor do I have anyone to rely on in this place. As long as they succeed, I can take another step to my next plan.
I found a relatively cheap inn to stay. I paid two gold coins to stay for five days, which means I have seven gold coins left. This money is the balance that I got from the driver earlier. Since I'm broke, I can't just throw away the money and say, "Keep the change."
That would be too stupid.
I climbed up the stairs and walked to my room on the right. My body must have reached its limit because as soon as I entered my room, my legs gave out and I immediately collapsed on the bed. I still have a lot to think about but my consciousness couldn't help but fading away.
•••
"Are you sure you want to do this, Wendy?" A bald man that was in a carriage with Valentina earlier asked the woman. They were wearing servant clothes in order to carry out their mission.
"We already reached this far and you want to back out? She also assured us that as soon as we finished this job, she'll give us enough money to leave this empire," she answered in a whisper. They walked side by side like a normal servant carrying out their duty.
"Can she be trusted? By the looks of it, she seems like a noble lady who was on the run. What if she just disappears after we finish this job?"
"It doesn't matter. We already received the advance payment anyway," she said nonchalantly. She's the type to not care about anything other than money. It's because she believes that's the only thing that she needs and won't ever betray her.
However, for some reason, the desperate eyes of the beautiful girl entered her mind. Her weak but calm voice is still ringing in her ears. 'Please. This is important to me. I will pay you however much you want but you need to do your job properly. I will trust you for that.'
"But personally, I think she could be trusted," she said after a brief pause. The man looked at her in astonishment. He never imagined that she would say something like that after the incident.
"Moreover, she already gave us clear instructions on what we need to do. We only need to change the location of the artifact without being caught."
"Seriously, who's the crazy bastard that plans to mess something as big as the Founding Festival? Don't they know that their entire lineage will be wiped out if the Empire ever finds out?" The man shook his head in disbelief.
"Don't need to sweat over the details. All we need to do is finish our job properly." They agreed that they don't want to know about the person that managed to set this all up in the first place. It's probably someone with a massive influence.
They were in a building that was located near the Plaza. The Plaza is a place where a big celebration or festival will be held in the Capital. A building was built near it in order to set up the tables for nobles at the Plaza. In front of the building is a big platform for the Emperor to give a speech.
In the building, they were walking at a certain pace. Each of their steps was as wide as 0.5 meter. They need to do this to avoid suspicion, since they have a standard operating procedure a.k.a SOP here.
"But what is S.O.P?"
"I don't know." She answered with a poker face.
"That young lady is using some strange words," he mumbled before stopping in front of a room. The man looked around and confirmed there's no one here at this time, just like the girl said. They looked at each other and took a deep breath before opening the door.
They could only gasped upon what they saw. A thing that could only be called a national treasure was here. A miraculous pot that said to have created a fountain and saved the people from dying of thirst during the drought. It was an artifact that existed before the Empire even founded.
"How are they going to duplicate this thing? Just one look and you could tell it was something that could only exist in myth." The man was still in awe as he was wondering. The woman already made a move and installed a mana device all around the artifact in order to move it.
"Can you just help me out already? From remembering the steps to getting the mana device, I have been the only one that work my ass off here. Why aren't you be useful for once?"
"Hey, that's rude. I'm the one that got us the servants uniform," he said in a defensive tone. But his body started to move and in a few minutes, they were done installing all the devices. The woman activated the device using mana and the displayed glass that contain the artifact began to float in the air.
"Let's go." As soon as they got out of the room, they were greeted by the guards that was supposed to stand in front of the room.
"Who are you? Why are you moving the artifact?" The guards looked at them in an intimidating way. The woman calmly stepped up and showed them a pin.
"We're under the order of the crown to bring this to the Plaza in order to display them in a public." The guards checked the pin that coated in gold with a symbol of the imperial family on it. They nodded to each other and let them passed.
"It's thanks to me that we managed to knocked those guys out." The man said with a smug. Their plan was simple. They only need to knocked the guys that was originally in charge of bringing this artifact to the Plaza. The difficult part was to bring it there before the people planted by the Duke changed the artifact. They need to quickly move before the guards realize the artifact hasn't been swapped yet, since they were also the Duke's people.
Despite the feeling of urgency in their heart, they still took a steady step with the same pace as earlier. They couldn't raise any suspicion during this critical step of their plan. At least not when the guards was watching their every step cautiously.
As soon as they turned in a corner and the guards can no longer watch them, they quickly made a run for it. They only have a few minutes before the servants that were tasked to swapped the artifact came. Thus, they need to quickly get out of here as soon as possible.
When they reached the backdoor, it was suddenly opened from the outside. A man was carrying a tray with an artifact that looked exactly like the inside of the displayed glass. They made eye contact with each other and the man was stunned.
"Gild!" The woman shouted and the man quickly moved to knocked the guy out of consciousness. She continued to walk while Gild moved the guy somewhere else so anyone won't find anything suspicious.