Arriving back in the hotel, Charlotte passed through the gate and the glass doors before giving a greeting to the receptionist who was busily going through papers.
“You seem quite busy there, something happen?”
“Oh miss Logan, welcome back. Well, we just had an interesting pair of girls book a room today.”
“Really? Why do you say ‘interesting’?”
“Well, the two just came here with nothing but recently bought clothes and a lot of money. If you ask me, I think the old one is a runaway that took an elf servant with her.”
“And what makes you say that?”
“You see, after I had helped her up to her room, I had a chance to talk to the older girl for a bit. She asked me a bit about the surroundings and about the guild, as it seems she was trying to find a job. But here’s the thing, according to her she’s a mage.
“Oh, so she’s a mage? Quite the impressive lass isn’t she?”
“I’m afraid most people aren’t geniuses like you Charlotte. I asked Victor after talking to them, and he said the two looked rather weak. That’s why I’m certain she’s got to be the daughter of some noble, otherwise I don’t see how she could have learned magic with how little talent she seems to have.”
“Oh, that’s a shame. Have any ideas why she would run away?”
“After interacting with her for a bit, she doesn’t seem like someone who goes out much or has contact with strangers. She most likely has lived a very sheltered life until now. My guess is that the lass was probably engaged to someone and when she finally got to know him, she was disheartened that he wasn’t the prince charming she had read in her books and decided to run away. Wouldn't be the first time something like that has happened. I’ve already sent contacted the higher ups as well as sending a missive to the guild to watch out for her and her servant, so they shouldn't push her towards anything too dangerous. Wouldn’t want to anger the wrong family by accident you know.”
“Is that so… And what’s the name of these girls, and in which room are they staying at?”
“Their names are Alex and Alice Morgan, pretty sure they’re using aliases however. They’re staying at room 713, two rooms away from yours. If you could, could you please take a look at them and see if you recognize them. Although I plan on seeing if there’s any family that’s reporting a missing person, it would help a lot if you could identify them for me. Is that fine miss Logan?”
“Of course, don’t worry about it. I’ll check them out later and tell you if I recognize them, alright?”
“Thank you miss Logan.”
Waving goodbye, Charlotte began making her way to the 7th floor where she and her companions rooms were located. Once she had made it up to the 7th floor, she began walking in the direction of her room but stopped before reaching it. Looking at the door in front of her that read 713, Charlotte began to smile before continuing on her way not to her room, but the room right in front of hers.
Knocking on the door, Charlotte stood outside patiently until a black haired man opened the door and came out. Greeting him with a kiss, Charlotte asked:
“Hey Ed, how was your day?”
“It went fine, I just stayed here and relaxed while reading a book my friend recommended me. How about you, how did your day go? You made it back pretty late.”
“Oh it went fine too, just met up with an old acquaintance I saw on the street. Hey Ed, do you know if those two are back from their date?”
“Mhmm, I don’t actually know. I don’t feel like knocking on their door to find out either…”
“Don’t worry, I’ll do it~”
With that, Charlotte began making her way to Allen’s room where both him and the princess stayed in despite her having her own room, all the while Edwards closed his eyes and released a sigh at what he knew was about to come. Charlotte meanwhile, Knocking on the door loudly, screamed:
“HELLO~ ANYONE THERE? OR ARE YOU TWO TOO BUSY TO ANSWER?”
A few seconds after her shouting was done, the door opened as an angry Allen appeared and yelled in a hushed tone:
“What do you want you crazy woman! Why are you screaming at night inside a hotel?!”
Hearing his yell, Charlotte put on an innocent face as she replied:
“Just wanted to see if you two were back, no need to be so mad~”
At her words, Allen turned his head and looked at Edwards as the man put on an apologizing face. Releasing a sigh, Allen looked back at Charlotte and said:
“Go get Zilva and tell her we’ll have our meeting in 10 minutes, Diana needs to change.”
Taking a good look at Allan who was wearing a white shirt and sweatpants with disheveled hair, Charlotte put on a sly smile as she said:
“Ohhhh, I see. Seems today went well for you two. We’ll, I’ll go fetch the elf. Oh, could you tell Diana to MAKE SURE SHE’S ACTUALLY READY IN 10!”
“OH FUCK OFF”
With a smirk on her face due to Diana’s reply, Charlotte made her way down to Zilva’s room. Before she could knock on the door however, Zilva opened it and walked out as she looked at Charlotte with a tired expression.
“Oh, hey there~”
“I’ll be in the lounge…”
With that, Zilva made her way to the lounge as Charlotte simply shrugged her arms and made her way to Edwards room. Before 10 minutes had passed, Charlotte and Edwards came out of his room and saw that the rest of the group was already there waiting for them. When Diana saw Charlotte, she glared at her while having a smug look on her face, to which Charlotte simply rolled her eyes in response.
Once they were all seated, Allen began the conversation by saying:
“When me and Diana passed by Ventome earlier today, we received a letter from Diana’s father with some new information and instructions. I’m afraid we’ll have more work to do during our time here.”
Continuing where Allen had left off, Diana spoke up as she said:
“Yes, not only do we now have to search for whatever was summoned by the cultist, but we now also have to track the Golden Hand on top of that.”
Then, taking the letter out, Diana began to read its contents to the rest of her party. The letter contained information regarding activity by the Golden Hand that they had managed to pick up, as well as the fact that the executive Love Machine had been brought to oversee the transaction. Due to this, it was clear that the transaction was something major and that it was required that the group provided aid to Ventome and his organization in discovering the intentions of Golden Hand, as well as finding out the specifics behind the transaction and with who it was they were dealing with. In case they came across Love Machine, they were to immediately retreat and call for backup unless the situation was extremely favorable for them. They would also be staying at Dene until the situation with the Golden Hand came to an end.
With Diana finished reading the letter, Edwards decided to speak up saying:
“Does this mean that we’ll be changing our plans for tomorrow?”
The one to answer his question was Charlotte, who turned to him and said:
“I believe it would be for the best if we make a few modifications.”
Now looking around at the entire group, she saw that everyone was paying close attention to her. Nodding her head, she opened her mouth and began proposing her new plan.
“With the Golden Hand being here, it would be for the best if don’t all go on our separate ways. Diana and Zilva should go together to the guild and talk with the guild master before following Diana’s planned patrol route together. Allen and Edwards should both travel together and map out the more suspicious parts of Dene together. That way if something happens, they’ll be better able to defend themselves. As for me, I’ll continue with my usual route as well as oversee Zilva’s route and see if I find anything suspicious. Even if it takes us longer to properly search the city this way, we no longer have the time limit of a week to worry about.”
“Won’t you be in danger by yourself?”
Asked Allen with a rare look of worry for the little mage on his face.
“No I won’t. After all, I have the best stealth capabilities in this group. I’d actually be in more danger walking around with one of you.”
With that, the group decided to accept the general Idea of Charlotte’s plan, although they continued to discuss for the better part of an hour the specifics of the routes they would take, as well as the time they were expected to meet up with each other again. Thus, with their plan for tomorrow ironed out, the group went back to their rooms as they tried to get a good night's sleep, before their long and tiresome mission began tomorrow…
Oh, Alex, you poor fool. Getting chatty with the staff when you know you're under scrutiny. tut tut.
Charlotte's, like, the royal spymaster or somesuch isn't she? That would explain why she's so despicable.
I was a bit harsh with my comments a few chapters ago. Charlotte is an antagonist I love to hate and it's probably insisting on reading the chapters as they come out, giving events too much time to cure, that make this sequence seem drawn out and meandering. If I were to read all at once, it would probably flow pretty quick and not give too much opportunity for eyerolling.
I wouldn't call her an antagonist, yet and considering everything, it'd be a shame if she would not become an ally instead, although there is something, someone who is most likely the reason why she has not joined the dark side, though most likely might become it.
She really does not make for a good antagonist due to the fact that if she was one early, the story would be over, however if she was latter (when Alex becomes able to stand up to her), she would be over to easily.
Antagonists, usually rather villains, tend to hide behind an organization rather than getting into the action after they showed how much more powerful they are and don't take the protagonist serious. That applies to that antagonism which actually entails "action" and is a reason why many prefer another kind which rather includes political maneuvers, being group vs group for group vs weak individual does not make for an intriguing story when the group should be very well aware of the danger potential (which Charlotte here should have).
As evident by how many villains and antagonists are written terribly especially in the action genre, it is very difficult to write them well and one should seriously consider sticking to tropes/cliches which per se are not bad, heck, they often are simply (more) common sense (than some genius making many utterly dumb decisions so that the plot does not end early). Hiding one's abilities may be used very often, enough for it to get a tag but obviously it is a viable strategy... unless you got some Royal Spy on yer behind.
The choice one has here is to either write some amazing feat lest the character will be wasted (and anyway the quality would be reduced) or one smoothly pulls of those "cliche" i.e lover who had such little development (to the point of being forgotten) gets killed by/due to allies, offering a point of attack, a weakness to exploit. "Smoothly" simply means that like always the plot should not be forced.
@SakuraKoi Charlotte's motives are quite obscure as yet, but I do still think she is an antagonist. An antagonist does not have to be at absolute odds with the protagonist to qualify. In Order of the Stick, Elan's father Tarquin tried to get Elan to join him damn near to the end and the Azure City paladin whatsherface just dragged the group to Azure City to fulfill her mission (in the most lawful assinine way possible, but still). An antagonist could also just be a rival without any direct conflict at all such as cooks in a cooking show.
Charlotte qualifies as an antagonist because she has essentially imprisoned the protagonists, threatened them on numerous occasions, and made it very clear that they are in her control. She has pit herself against them for. . . whatever her purpose is, studying doppelganger. Her base (a seemingly fragile thing to be sure) is also currently situated with the people that would kill Alex and Alice without a second thought should they find out what the duo are. That is not to say she could not move away from being an antagonist in the future, just that she is one now.
I don't think she would make a good ally simply for that she has shown to be quite capricious and fickle. Without her being mind controlled, there's just no way to work with her and with the current level difference I doubt that's going to happen. Of course, there's also the bit where she's a raging PoS and really annoying.
Have to wait and see what she does once she's done studying doppelganger. If Alex doesn't f up and reveal even more that should be kept secret that is.
Can't wait for Charlotte to be tempted to join Alex's slave family. With the temptation to learn any magic she wants, like that dark magic she want so badly, only a matter of time XD
why do that, when she can simply torture and forcefully make the MC talk to her ? Even more when the MC talk so easily, and let slip so many intel all the time ??? Even more when she know about the "after effect" to become a slave from the Kng himself ?!
@Ombre37 She is a King Maker and Alex is her New Project.. She a Good Guy Because she can manipulate the king. But here! Here she can Raise a Demon King! Remember the Power at full power the king can give her up to 1024 skills at Max... She is Drooling! She wants not to be a slave she wants to be the king's Right-hand Slave! she can see how the demon lord treats her slaves and what is anyone in a feudal society but a slave to the King anyway? All she be doing as the demon king's slave is becoming the subject of a more powerful king she can shape. That can share that Power!
Now that we new that the mage definitely knows that the being that was summoned escaped, it becomes very clear that it was very dangerous of Alex to give away her true story and not just copy the half elfs background story ir something. Though I guess that would also have had its risks, especially considering how famous and well-known the half elfs mother seems to have been, although we still don't know quite how well the mage knew her family circumstances.