The pawn's second life

Chapter 9 - Plan

A week later the awaited letter finally arrived at the Vaspertine duchy. The place of exchange along with the time were written clearly to avoid any possible sort of confusion.

The meeting was supposed to be held in a pub located in district 3 - a place arranged by the guild leader.

At midnight, Valentina again left the house secretly and was the first to reach the destination. She was directed towards a private lounge which looked as if it wasn't a part of the shabby pub. A while later her guests showed up, their eyes held curiousness but they were extremely vigilant, not yet trusting the surroundings completely.

Valentina - ( *Swirling a glass of wine* ) There's no need to be so cautious of this place, required arrangements have been done.

Even though the place had been prepared by the leader, Valentina had done required inspections after coming early to ensure their plan won't be leaked and essential security was present.

Alexis - Why did the lady set the meeting in such a place?

Valentina - ( *Sigh* )Well we can't discuss about the ruin of a high-class noble in a place full of people now, can we?

Alexis - Is the lady really confident that it is definitely going to bring ruin to Duke Elois?

Valentina - If I didn't have the confidence then none of us would've been standing here talking like this today.

Artemisia - Is the information you are going to present today verified?

Valentina - With my own eyes. ( *Keeping the glass down* ) If the interrogation is over then how about sitting down? We can't stay here for the whole night afterall. As soon as the daybreaks, people will start flooding the streets and it will be impossible for us to move in secret and once that happens, there's no way we will be able to avoid the emperor's eyes as we are able to at this hour.

Alexis - You are right. Let's start the meeting. ( *Sitting down* )

Valentina - ( *Thinking* ) Duke Alexis looks quite serious today. It's justified anyway since he loves his sister so much. The concern and curiosity is just natural.

Artemisia - What information does her highness have for us?

Valentina - First let's drop the titles for now, we will be working together for a while so we must make it a habit to not refer to each other by our titles whenever we are out and working together.

Valentina - If it's fine with both of you, I've already created alias to help.
Duke Alexis will be called Alex
Lady Artemisia's alias will be Sia
And mine would be Ina.
The names are just a part of our real names so I believe they won't be hard to remember.

Alexis - I'm ok with this. What about you misi? ( *Looking at Artemisia* )

Artemisia - I don't have any objections either.

Valentina - Lovely, then it's settled. Now then let's come to point, shall we? ( *Smirk, shady look* )

Valentina - Have you ever heard about the haunted house located in district 7? I believe Alex had stopped by the place a while ago.

Alexis - Yes I had. I found the rumour fake but since I was in a hurry I couldn't investigate it.

Valentina - What if I tell you it's real?

Alexis - ( *Flinch* ) You mean the ghost?

Valentina - Well precisely the rumour - anyone who goes inside the house never comes back.

Alexis - Are you implying even though the story about the ghost isn't real, the rumour is?

Valentina - Yes. But because district 7 is a place accomodating lower-class commoners, the cases of the missing people were all closed without proper investigation.