NoGift 155 Initial Planning

"STOP it, both of you," Argent said exasperatedly, disentangling herself from both Aurum and Viper's grasp.  "Let's not waste time and just proceed to the necessary introduction."

Aurum understood her brother's temperament.  So she no longer fought with the snake and behaved properly.  But not before giving one last glare to Viper.

Viper, knowing Argent was probably already on the verge of getting p.i.s.sed off, also converged.  "My codename's Viper - the most amazing a.s.sa.s.sin of Dreich Gallere."

Lynx rolled his eyes when he heard that.  "Who's the most amazing?  Raven is definitely more amazing than you."

Viper turned to him.  "How could a guy with a forever deadpan expression be more amazing than me?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Everything!  It's the reason why Master never gives him any complicated a.s.signments.  Because he couldn't act for s.h.i.+t," Viper sneered in disgust.

"So what?  We're a.s.sa.s.sins not actors," Lynx countered.

Viper snorted.  "If you really think that, then you should go back to training."

Lynx blushed in embarra.s.sment.

"If you're done with your little t.i.t-for-tat, could you continue to introduce yourself?"

When Lynx heard the duke said that, he blushed even more.  Good thing the quality of the human skin mask he's wearing was really high or else his red face would be seen by everyone here.  That would be even more embarra.s.sing.  

He ignored Viper and turned to the duke.  "My codename's Lynx."

Argent raised one of her brows.  Viper, Vixen, Lynx, and the one they mentioned earlier - Raven, did the master of Dreich Gallere have a penchant for animals that's why he picked those as the core members' codenames?

"I'm Argent, this is my sister, Aurum, and that guy over there is Clay," Aurum said.  "Now that's over, let's proceed to the more important topic."

"Are we going to talk about how we should kill the Pope?" Viper asked excitedly.

Argent glanced at him.  "If the Pope could be killed that easily, he wouldn't be the Pope."  

That's why in the overall plan she made, it didn't involve the death of the Pope.  Because once she included that factor, things would just get more complicated.  Their purpose of going here in Victoria City was to take back their mother, not kill the Pope.  That's their top priority.  So she built a plan around that.  

Because she knew it would be hard to kill that b.a.s.t.a.r.d.  If he's alone, then yes, they might have a chance.  But this was his territory.  He could easily set up a lot of traps behind.  Once could also add the hundreds of knights in this city that was more than willing to protect him.  Not to mention, those pesky Apostles.  They would surely be around.  

So far, they only knew the Gifts of two of the Apostles - the ones who were in that island in Xing.  The Gifts of the rest were still unknown.  Trying to kill the leader of a powerful organization when their information was sorely lacking was just pure suicide.  Doing that would be very foolish on her part.

But that didn't mean that she wouldn't retaliate at all.  She swore, before she left this city, she would definitely deal a huge blow to the Temple.  Something that they couldn't simply solve by having their Pope make some speech.

"Besides, if he was really so easy to kill, I think your master had already done it long ago," she added.

Lynx brows furrowed.  Because that sentence felt like the duke was saying that the Pope was comparable to their master.  Which was unacceptable.  "That's only because Master only thought of targetting that Pope recently.  If Master considered him as an enemy years ago, then he definitely wouldn't be alive now."

That's right.  It's only recently that their master started inquiring about everything related to the Pope.  When he happened to ask Arachne - the member who was asked to gather information about the Pope - about it, she said that it was because their master found out that the Pope started searching for some ancient artifacts.  Lynx thought that it probably had something to do with the Mythos Continent.  That's the only reason he could think of why their usually eccentric master would be so bothered by it. 

"Shut it, pipsqueek," Viper said, interrupting Lynx.  Their master's business needn't to be told to others.  Even if that other was Argent.

That succeeded in getting Lynx attention.  "Who's a pipsqueek?!"

"Who do you think is the shortest one here?  Of course it's you!"

The one thing Lynx hated the most was people calling him short.  Yes, it might be true but that didn't mean people could just tell it straight to his face.  So he attacked Viper and the two started to exchange blows.

"Bunch of kids," Aurum muttered disgustingly while looking at this scene.

Clay who was sitting near Aurum heard this and he almost didn't laugh.  "I remember there's a certain young lady who fought with a certain 'kid' earlier," he teased.

Aurum felt her face heating up.  "That's a verbal fight, it's different."

"Yes, yes," Clay good naturedly said less Aurum also started a verbal fight with him.

Argent who was watching all of these at the side was really starting to get p.i.s.sed.  It's already been awhile since they all gathered and yet they still haven't discussed anything important.   She launched herself from where she was sitting and dashed forward.  In a blink of an eye, she was already standing at the middle of the two.  She blocked the fist of Viper and held Lynx's wrist.

She let go of the hands of the two with force.  "Are you done?"

Lynx was a bit stunned.  He didn't expect this duke to move so fast.  He even had the reflex and the strength to stop both him and Viper.  And here Lynx thought that he was the smart type who was naturally weak and didn't have any fighting power.  Maybe he should change his evaluation of this Argent Blackbourne.

"Sorry, please don't be mad," Viper immediatly said, acting pitiful when he noticed that Argent might be really p.i.s.sed this time.  

Argent looked at Viper who was like a big puppy with its ears down and could only sigh.  "Then stop with all these interuptions."

Viper nodded vigorously.  "If you're not planning to kill the Pope, then do you have other countermeasures?"

"Yes, everything is almost ready.  All we have to do is wait for the day of the festival.  I will explain the full plan later.  But first, I want to talk about some other thing first," Argent said.  "I want you to help Archbishop Stillwell deliver an elf as one of the products of the Midnight Auction." 

It's been three days already since they went to that mansion to 'convince' the Archbishop.  And they were indeed successful.  Argent left a small camera at the Archbishop's study so she knew he'd been trying to get his hands on that elf.  But sadly, she overestimated him and he still hadn't made any considerable progress.  

Because of the strong suggestion Aurum left in his conciousness, he increasingly became more and more agitated as days pa.s.sed by that he didn't get his hands on the elf.  If this continued, he might turn crazy.  Not that she cared.  It's just that, her plan to push the blame for the disappearance of the elf to the Archbishop would be destroyed.

If the Pope thought that it was the Archbishop who took the elf, then he probably wouldn't suspect her.  Which would save her a lot of trouble.  With this, he would definitely punish the Archbishop.  He might even kill him.  Then the Temple would lose one of its five Archbishops.  It's like killing two birds with one stone.  

That's why Argent wanted the Archbishop to be the one to take the elf from wherever the Pope was hiding him.  But since Archbishop couldn't do it with his own ability, then she could only help him.  This was where these two a.s.sa.s.sins entered the picture.

"An elf?  Are you actually asking us to help this Archbishop to search for an elf?" Lynx asked incredulously.  "You do know that they're not weeds that would just grow anywhere, right?"

The duke turned to him and looked at him as if he was stupid.  Lynx scratched his nose and turned his gaze away.  He probably should just let the duke finished what he was saying.

"The elf is somewhere here in Victoria City.  You just have to contact the Archbishop and help him.  I don't care what method you use, you just have to deliver the elf to the Archbishop and leave clues that points the elf's disappearance to him.  Of course, these clues should not be so in-your-face.  Something subtle would do," Argent continued.

"This elf, is it with the elf?" Viper asked.  He wasn't really surprised at the existence of this elf.  After all, their master was a golden dragon.  There's nothing more shocking than that.

Argent nodded.  "Could you do it?"

Viper grinned.  "Of course.  Something like this is just child's play to us.  Isn't it, shorty?" he said turning to Lynx.

Lynx glared at Viper.  "Don't call me that!"  Then he looked at the duke and just nodded.  

It's not like he could refuse.  The task their master gave was to a.s.sist the duke in whatever he planned to do here at Victoria City.  Even if he wanted them to kill someone, they wouldn't hesitate to do it.  Well, in Viper's case, Lynx thought that even without their master's orders, he would probably still do whatever the duke asked.

Argent was satisfied with their answer.  "Then let's talk about the main plan."