CH499

“God damn Greed, I wasn’t expecting to see you here,” Ben laughed, thrilled to see his friend again despite the situation he was in. “No nation has you tied down?”

“You kidding? Sticking to one place is a good way for some bastard or ex-fling to find me. Just having my shows on is giving me enough headaches with people showing up uninvited, if you know what I mean.”

“Ha, I can guess. Glad to see nobody’s eaten you without me around to save the day.”

“Well, there’s been a couple of close calls but luckily I can afford to have some muscle around. I told you our little ordeal would make me rich and I meant it. Actually, Jeeves, do me a favour and hand me over, would ya? Go take some lunch while I catch up.”

Ben reached out to take the crab as his guard, Jeeves, gave a small nod before leaving, promising to find him again in an hour.

Which means I’ll need to stick around for a bit, even if I’m not going to fight with this group. Oh well, it will be nice to catch up.

“So, are you going to introduce me to your friend?” He asked, eyeing Sachel. “Don’t tell me you ditched sparkles already? It would put a real damper on my show if that got out.”

“Huh? Oh no, absolutely not. Greed, meet Sachel, the Oracle of Myriad. Sachel, this is Greed, the guy I was stuck in the dead god’s trial with. As for Thera, we’re still going strong. Was actually about to try and figure out why they decided to split us up for this. Hope you don’t mind being carried along for that.”

“Ha, sounds fun. Who knows, maybe if you cause enough chaos I could end up with a good encore for my show.”

“Ha, I doubt it will be quite that bad, I just want an answer or two.”

They kept up their chat as the three of them pushed their way to the front where a tall, imposing man was standing, waiting for the crowd to gather before he’d begin talking to the lot of them about where they’d be going and what was expected of them while they were there, or so that was the plan until Ben pushed his way to the front, trying to seem friendly, even as he was already connecting to the man to dig through his head for anything worthwhile.

“Hello there,” He started cheerfully, not seeing a need to start a fight if he didn’t have to. “Sorry to bother you but I was hoping you could help us out. Both me and her were split up from the individual parties we’re a part of when we were led to believe that sort of thing wouldn’t happen. We were just wondering if that was some sort of mistake or if there was any particular reason this happened?”

“The planners who arranged things must have judged you’d be useful enough at this gate that they did it,” He said apologetically. “I understand this isn’t the most desirable outcome, but please understand the situation we’re in. We have to try and do our best for the survival of the world as a whole.”

It sounded plenty reasonable to anyone listening, enough that Ben may have even felt just a tiny bit bad about the fact that he going to completely ignore their decision, if not for the fact that he was watching a memory in the man’s mind where he’d been told to try and guilt anyone who wasn’t happy with the arrangements the ones who’d planned this has made.

Still, Ben tried to keep up a polite appearance as he went on.

“Alright, are any of these planners around so we might be able to get an answer as to why we’d be useful at our given location instead of with our parties? I think it would leave us significantly more comfortable with the outcome.”

“I’m sorry, but there aren’t any around. I could try and arrange a meeting for later in the week after everyone is gathered and we go over the necessary information.”

Ben just stared quietly into his eyes for a minute before giving a small nod. “So there’s five of them here, got it. Okay, we’re going to go talk to them so don’t wait up.”

He gestured for Sachel to follow him while he carried Greed, only stopping at the feeling of a hand grabbing his arm.

“Are you really going to put your feelings above the world?” The man asked, sounding incredulous. “We’re talking about the safety of everyone here, don’t be selfish, be smart. I understand why you might be bothered about this but these arrangements were made with the utmost care. This is for getting the best results.”

“Listen man, I won’t let myself be guilted by significantly more powerful people than you so you’re not going to have much luck. I’m already aware you lied about no planners being here, I’m just going to get an actual answer so let go.”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Still, he wasn’t released, instead getting a firm look Ben suspected was supposed to be intimidating that just left him to sigh.

“God I fucking hate doing this,” He muttered before speaking up. “I said to let go, or do you intend to restrain an apostle and oracle in something that’s meant to be voluntary?”

That got him to finally let go, the man taking on a surprised look while Ben made sure to slip away.

When in doubt, always play the apostle card.

“Still finding trouble everywhere, huh legs? Of course, if this ends with a bit more money in my pocket like last time I won’t complain.”