It was after three in the afternoon in Vasconcelos, and Luke quietly made his way to the second floor as if he were going to take a sauna bath after another long practice session.
The shift changed time for the kitchen and cleaning staff, so the mansion was considerably less busy.
When he found himself in front of Ayumi's office door, Luke hesitated for a moment but moved on. He turned the knob and pushed the door forward. The knob latched.
'Yeah, obviously a Matriarch's door would be locked, dumbass.' Luke mocked his past self.
He looked both ways down the long hallway and focused his eyes on the staircase ahead. With his hearing sharpened by the focus of his vision, Luke did not detect a single breath in the surroundings.
Relieved, he knelt down and opened his inventory. 'I didn't bring a lock pick, but I think this should do the trick in opening this simple door.'
He pulled out a large kobold bone from the inventory, which looked like it had been part of a leg by the strong shape. Luke then removed a small fraction of that bone and saved the rest to perhaps sell.
'Who knew that would be handy.' Luke thought as he watched the sliver of bone is inserted into the lock.
The makeshift lock pick fitted perfectly into the lock's channel. Immediately, Luke began to force the bone shard upward while looking to feel for spring. As soon as he felt the spring tension, he kept pressing upward, and in a straightforward motion, he forced the spring back.
Tlec! The latch sound of the lock receding announced that the door was unlocked.
'Looks like I'm rusty anyway...' he judged himself, even though the series of movements took less than 10 seconds.
After opening the door, Luke did not find the tidy office he always found when he needed to discuss something with Ayumi. There were papers all over the floor this time, and the window, which was behind the Matriarch's big chair, was open.
The half-wolf closed the door slowly and went to the window to close it. However, before closing the window, Luke went back on his decision and kept it open; after all, he couldn't waste time tidying up the room, and it would be bizarre for someone to find the place messy and the window closed.
Careful not to leave footprints on the carpet and the sheets of paper on the floor, Luke's feet gently touched the floor, not making any noise.
Among so many papers, only two of them caught the eye of an illiterate Luke because they were not on the floor but on weight on the Matriarch's desk.
The first of them had a guild stamp, which was just a circle with a knife in the middle, both in red ink.
From the fresh smell of the ink, Luke could tell it was a recent stamp. He also identified the patterns of the odd symbols to see if it was a mission and concluded that it did not appear to be.
'A request for a private escort? No, it must be something more important.' He judged as he saw that on the paper, there was a much larger amount of text than on the posters and mission contracts.
Paying a little more attention, Luke noticed that there was another symbol underneath the Vasconcelos guild stamp.
This older stamp was a crooked tree whose diagonal trunk resembled the bonsai trees that the half-wolf used to see in the backyards of the wealthy part of Oukiwa.
After widening his eyes, he finally remembered where he knew this stamp from. 'This is the symbol of the Central Palace, or rather the council...'
The Central Palace is Oukiwa's main building and is located right in the center of the vast city.
Inside, criminals are judged and punished by a council of nobles handpicked by the Emperor, and it is also where the leading choices for the future of the largest city in the Broteforge Empire are made.
Seeing these two symbols together, Luke could only think of one plausible answer:
'Ayumi is sharing guild information with the council, or vice versa. Yeah, it doesn't matter; I'm not here to find out about that...' He said to himself and pulled out the second document that was on the table, which also had the council symbol on it.
However, as soon as he shifted his weight a little to pull the document out, a low squeak repulsed through the four corners of the office. 'Bbrrzz!
'What the fuck is that!!!' Luke wondered, looking at the paperweight, which was now emitting a frosted glow.
Then the object, which was shaped and weighed like an oval cobblestone, split in two, and the top part began to float, intensifying the glow of the artefact. A small man appeared between the two ends, whose identity Luke already knew.
The small projection of the guard Olive looked like an identical copy of him. "Ma'am, the other families have called a meeting for today. The rest of the Strogueher require your presence."
Fascinated, Luke tried to touch the small man's face gently, but his index finger went straight through the projection.
'Is it magic? No, it's impossible...' He didn't believe it could have been activated simply like that if it was magic. 'That surely must be very expensive... Wait, can he see me too?!'
Next, Oliver's figure continued to speak:
"Madam, I also have to report that the family's opinions about Stella have plummeted a lot since the real result about that test leaked out. They ridicule her for losing to a half-beast."
...
'Got it. I'll let her know about it; she's sure to be happy.'
Soon after, the projection from Oliver's back disappeared, and the glow of the artefact exhausted itself; simultaneously, the top of the object contracted once again.
"Whew... That looked like it was just some kind of recording, I don't know." Luke said, relieved. 'Wait, is someone coming!?'
Strong, harsh footsteps stopped in front of the office door, and as soon as the door opened, Martha saw the mess strewn about that room.
"Ouch! She forgot the window open again."
Barely, Luke managed to be quick enough to hide under the Matriarch's desk in time; however, as mobile is right in front of the window, the encounter between the two is imminent.
The 𝘮ost uptodat𝑒 novels are pub𝙡ished on fre(e)webno(v)el.𝒸𝑜𝘮