Greed God chapter 148

March 23rd 2016 Gemworld 11:00 AM EDT

Once  we got past the entrance, we walked pretty unhurriedly. The biggest  mistake people make when sneaking places is looking like they're  sneaking places. If you look relaxed and like you're meant to be  somewhere, then people will think you are. Granted, we didn't look TOO  relaxed, we were supposed to be servants here, and strolling leisurely  about would be as bad as sprinting. We kept up a competent, professional  pace, fast enough to look like we had things to do, but not fast enough  to be seen as suspicious or around interest of other types (people love  drama, and if you look frantic they might try to find out why).

This  played perfectly with the Ignorance Draught's effects, making it  unlikely for any of us to be noticed. As we walked, I called to mind the  map we'd managed to procure from the same place as the uniforms. It was  pretty vague, but the servant we paid off had sketched the palace to  the best of his ability, and given he'd been working there for years, it  was at least mostly accurate. A quick merge or two had upgraded the  thing to an H rank artifact that made this whole thing possible, and  which, while useless in any other place or time, was absolutely integral  here.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Mystic  Map- H rank. A magic map of  the Dark Opal palace, updated consistently  with up to date information on open routes and defenses. Does not  include information on non security related residents.]

It  was going to be a lifesaver, and help immensely with finding our way,  though the lack of information on servants and nobles was going to be a  pain in the ass. Still, we had Cherry and the Ignorance Draught, and  both of those should help us make our way through this place. I scanned  the map for the proper pathway to the vaults, and found it pretty  easily, but just as quickly realized it wasn't going to be a feasible  point of ingress because there were multiple guards stationed at the  entrance.

I traced another path, then a third, then a  fourth. Each one had potential roadblocks, but they all led to the same  spot anyway, where several guards were waiting. Eventually I decided on a  secondary route to a spot that came out behind the vault tower. We'd  have to scale the roof, which would be a bit dicey, but according to the  map there was a natural wear point in the defensive enchantments  on a  small spot in the back of the vault. Not a hole or anything that  obvious, but it was clearly the most likely place to pop a hole in the  wards. Which I of course already had a plan for.

I'd  considered about a dozen different ideas for getting us in there, and  eventually decided on a risky one. I was going to rank Cherry up once we  got there, using some of the gear I'd brought with me to hide it. It  was a risky play to do it last minute, but we'd decided that it would be  suspicious for two F rankers to be walking around as servants. My whole  story to the guards had partially been feasible because I was an F  ranked servant. It implied a high position in the court, which meant I  could get away with pushing things.

If two of us were F  rankers it brought our party to a new level of notoriety. It wasn't just  a high ranking servant toting around some hot pieces of ass for his own  amusement, it was a pair of powerful serving staff colluding, and that  kind of thing would draw attention. Instead, we'd decided to wait until  we got to where we were going and cloak her with the Ignorance Draught  (it was way more effective when you swallowed it, and she was going to  down the whole bottle) while she ranked up so she could get us in.

I'd  even picked up a specialty item from Sindara to use for the merge.  Nothing I made myself, but a specific infiltration tool that I was sure  would make this whole thing a lot easier. We headed for the entrance to  the building where the roof access was, and as we made our way, we  passed a flood of armored forms, blue striped faces twisted in  expressions of anger and determination. The guards were being called  out. It seemed like Carmine had really put their back into this one, and  I allowed myself a smug grin as we walked, since we were being ignored  anyway.

Sadly, it was impossible for everything to go  perfectly, and we found ourselves waylaid before we reached our goal by a  hawkish looking man with a silver mustache. "You!" He said imperiously,  staring right at us. I tried to keep walking, figuring her meant  someone else, but he repeated himself. "I say, boy. Cease your walking  and bring your strumpets to attention lest I lose my temper!" I stopped,  pretty sure that meant us. Which meant he could see us. I didn't think  it had worn off, which meant that this guy had some legit reason to look  at servants like us, which was annoying.

Turning to him, I  dropped into a low bow. I had no clue how servants should act to each  other, but I'd yet to meet anyone who was unhappy being bowed and  scraped to here. This guy was an F ranker himself, which made him  important as far as servants went, and while I could easily kill some  rando Opal being the dragonkin badass that I was doing so would draw  tons of attention to us, so humoring him was the better call. I put on  my best lickspittle tone. "Apologies, sir, I was simply distracted by  the commotion. How may I be of service?" I kept myself lowered in a bow  so he didn't see me rolling my eyes as I asked the question, because I'm  a master of subterfuge.

I could hear the sneer without  even needing to look up, and confirmed it when I did. The hawkish man  wasn't bothering to be subtle with his disdain. "You can attend your  assigned noble as per the emergency protocols boy, I'll not have you  slipping off to rut your whores while an emergency is going on. You'd  best hope I don't decide to report your to chief steward Raggan for  this. If you were the first I'd seen attempting it I would, but so many  of you lazy little bastards are trying to take serious matters as an  excuse to slack off I can't be bothered to learn all your names."

That  got a blink from me as I looked up, meeting his eyes directly and  realizing...gods damn it, this asshole actually was still under the  effects of the Ignorance Draught. He didn't actually care or wonder who  we were. Busting random servants was such a common occurrence to him  that he was almost doing this shit on auto pilot. I swept into another  bow, determined to play the role properly s0 I could keep him from  becoming suspicious and we could get the actual fuck out of here. "My  most sincere thanks for your mercy, sir. I shall of course hurry off to  join the retinue of my assigned noble. He's decided to hole up in the D  corridor, so we must make haste to catch up."

D corridor  was where we were actually going, and this guy had given is a useful  excuse for why we were heading there. He sneered at me a bit harder,  eyes seeming to clear slightly for a second, but the Draught won out,  and he just waved me off with a disgusted flick of his hand. "Go. It was  hardly a surprise to catch you animals. As if being young is an excuse  to act like mating rabbits." A small smirk tugged at one corner of his  lips. "Though I suppose I can't exactly complain about promiscuity of  castle maids. I was young enough to indulge myself once." The partial  smirk was wiped away nearly as fast as it appeared. "But there's a time  and a place boy, remember that."

I nodded again and we set  off. As we walked away, Zee sidled up next to me. "Can I just say how  offensive it's getting that everyone we meet assumes you're only  dragging us around for fucking? Because seriously, even given our ACTUAL  sex life, it's getting a bit insulting. Not to mention I'm getting  pretty sick of people finding fun new ways to call me a whore right to  my face." Her tone was waspish, and I didn't bother to fight back my  snicker as I patted her on the back.

"I know." I said  consolingly, patting her on the shoulder. "I think the servants here  suffer from the same problems as the villagers to a larger degree. They  get so bored and miserable they need an outlet. Add in abuse of power  and I suspect someone my rank keeping a pair of beautiful women of lower  standing around has certain implications. As for the whore thing, yeah,  it's pissing me off too. If it makes you feel any better, we're going  to rob the living shit out of these people. You can think of it as a way  to vent your anger."

Even before her Branding, I'd  disliked everyone here looking at Zee as a sex object. I mean, she often  WAS a sex object, but she was MY sex object, and it was grating to hear  people talk about her like she was something freely passed around. Now  that I had bound her to me, it was even more irritating. It wasn't  reeally fondness exactly, more that thinking of her as a sex toy ignored  her usefulness. Zee was a powerful and useful sorceress, and people  were debasing her value by ignoring these things. I knew that was useful  here, but it still pissed me off. I was just as eager to rob them in  retribution too.

I'd thought that I was pretty cavalier  about how I thought of my girls, but even I was reaching a breaking  point with the casual sexism here. I felt like I had to constantly be on  guard against everyone lest they try to fuck one of my women, and I  would be glad to be back in Amethyst, where people at least pretended  they didn't want to fuck every pretty woman they passed. I mean, they  still did obviously, but the Princess was female, so there was really  only so overt the nobles could be about seeing women as tight holes to  be used whenever they felt like it.

We made it to D  corridor without any more interruptions, which was a relief because this  part was always supposed to be the easy portion of the plan. We  followed the map until we found a closet tucked away and then climbed up  through a hole in the roof of that closet to an access to the parapet  above us. They had these all over the palace for archers are long range  attackers to mount the roofs in case of defensive necessity. Luckily the  Carmine forces were pulling the guards away toward the middle of town  for the moment, so the way was clear.

We followed the  parapet around until we came to a spot against a wall that seemingly  looked no different than the walls around it, and I checked the map to  be sure before turning to Cherry. I passed her the Draught, which she  took and tossed back like a shot, grimacing at the taste as a wave  of...grey, began to surge over her skin, like she was in an old black  and white movie. I had a good reason to look and plenty of intent, so  fighting it off was possible, but even with the Brand to call my  attention and my draconic will, it was kind of tough to keep my focus.  Once it was done though, I reached into my pouch to fish out the needed item. Now to upgrade my thief.