Over the next few days, they didn't encounter anything out of the ordinary. They had rolled through several more little towns along the way, but they hadn't bothered to stop. Megumi felt much safer now that they had the wagon. It was slow, but it was much nicer than sleeping on the ground every night or risking an inn. She sat in the back, leaned up against the side and surrounded by blankets as she examined the map.

It looks like we should be about here.

She dragged her finger along the map and then poked Aurora, which was just a little farther at this point. Based on how long the journey had taken so far, they would finally be arriving at the capital today. A nervous excitement washed over her as she thought about how wonderful it would be to enact her vengeance on the king after all this time. How long had it been since she had visited Aurora, anyway? It had been at least twelve years, she supposed. When she was little, she came to this country fairly regularly. She was still pretty young still the last time she had come, and hadn't been allowed to explore the city. Her family had come here from their home country of Vaeliea to meet with the king who was supposed to have been a friend to her family.

The wagon hit a bump on the road and she bounced awkwardly to the side while holding onto the map. She cursed under her breath about how often that happened, and put the map away before climbing out onto the front seat of the wagon. It was still fairly early in the day, but the frost had all melted and it was warm enough. She slipped on some gloves and pulled her hood around herself anyway. Birds chirped on the trees and the sky looked as though there might be rain or snow headed their way later in the day. It was half covered with dark clouds, and the other half was pristine blue sky.

"They should really do something about this road! There are an unbelievable amount of holes in it."

"The bump woke you up?"

"Megu wasn't asleep this time, but it's still annoying!"

The road wound its way around the valley floor and soon, the large city came into view, far off in the distance. Even from as far as they were, she could see the familiar large walls of the city. Castellum was truly a country that valued defense.

"That place looks even bigger than Rivean. It's a good thing that this job pays well, because I imagine it's going to take us quite a while to even locate the thieves guild, much less rid the city of them," Poro-tan commented as he stared at the city.

"It won't be as hard as you think. Megu has a plan. Let's just focus on getting to the city and finding somewhere we can store the wagon."

"Aren't we going to stay at the Adventurer's Guild?"

"Maybe, but for the first few nights, we should stay at an inn."

"Waste of money, but you're the boss."

She nodded absently at the last comment and rubbed her gloved fingers together. The trip would take them another half hour or so she estimated and she spent that time coming up with a plan for doing in the king. There were a couple ways to go about getting into the palace, and one way would be a lot safer than the other. She hoped that the plan would work.

The wagon rolled to a stop before a large gate and two guards approached to ask them.

"What's your business in the city, travellers?"

"We're just here on Adventurer's Guild business." Megumi produced her guild card, and Poro-tan did the same.

"Very well, go on through. The Adventurer's Guild is near the noble district of the city. Follow the main road and you'll find it easy enough."

"Thanks."

The guard waved them through and she had to admit that the guild cards came in handy. It really paid off to be a card carrying adventurer; an ally of good. She almost had to laugh at that last thought, but stopped herself. The guards hadn't even bothered inspecting their wagon, not that they really had anything to hide, but it made for less hassle on entry.

Upon passing through the first large wall of the city, they came to an area that looked much the same as the other side. The only difference was that there were large pastures full of farm animals grazing. The city's walls were placed a decent distance away from the actual city and this surved the purpose of them being able to have farms to keep the city supplied in the event of a siege. The wagon rolled over a wooden bridge that spanned a river not long after they passed through the gates. This city was said to be able to withstand an indefninite siege if need be.

Generations ago, many armies broke their teeth trying to just past Rivean. None had ever made it this far into the country as far back as the records went. She thought the founders of this country must've been incredibly paranoid, but maybe it was a good thing in a way. Several minutes later they arrived at the city proper and it was as packed as she remembered it. The foot traffic alone made Rivean seem like a country village. Their wagon was stuck dead in traffic and it was clear that this was not the way to travel in the city.

While they trudged along at a snail's pace, she thought about where to invest her new TPs. She still hadn't done it over the past few days, and wanted to make the right choices. Poro-tan was becoming stronger, but he was still a joke to a lot of the stronger opponents they had faced as of late. Many times, luck had been all that had saved them from certain death and she wanted to change that if possible. He simply had to become much more powerful if he was to be her protector. She placed three of the four TPs into Soul Trap Mastery, maxing it out for her current level.

Poro-tan turned towards her, eyes going wide. "What in the world was that? It was like a surge of energy flooded into me all at once. What did you do?"

"Megu just made you a lot stronger. You're welcome. Have a look at your status."

"By the gods. I can't believe it! That's absolutely amazing!"

At least for once he's showing some gratitude for what Megu has done for him. Now what to do with my last point?

Megumi gave him a smile and went back to staring at her options.  It was a hard decision, as she always preferred to strengthen her offensive spells, but she couldn't deny that Magic Skin had basically saved her over and over again. It was definitely becoming one of her most valuable skills. The downside of course was that even after putting a couple of levels into it, the drain on her mana was devestating. It was better than dying, but it needed to be better. 

A good defense is said to be the best offense. Megu needs to have that skill work more efficiently.

She placed the final TP into Magic Skin, bringing it up to level 4. If her plans went well in Aurora, she would be getting more TP to spend soon enough, anyway. She reached into her bag and pulled out the last of the weird fruits she had picked up in Oleander and took a bite out of it while waiting on traffic to move.

The magical bag had been a going away present from Cerberus before she had left to go her own way in the world. It had been invaluable. She couldn't even imagine doing all the travelling that she had so far without it. One thing's for sure though, she would have had a much rougher time, and would have had to endure tougher conditions. The properties of her bag had basically put whatever items she stuck into it into a form of stasis, and so even food stayed just as good as the moment she had put it into the bag. Dimensional magic was pretty amazing stuff.

She took another bite out of the fruit and juice ran down her chin. She hastily wiped it away and tapped the fingers of her free hand impatiently against her knee. 

This is ridiculous. Megu is going to rot away to dust before we get anywhere at this rate. There has to be an inn with a large stable somewhere nearby. 

The city itself was so expansive that it spread the entire valley floor and was pushed back against the mountains. From where they were on the road, she could see the palace nestled back against the far end of the valley. It had majestic looking spires and had its own little wall surrounding the base of it. There was a large crystal spire sticking out of the top that refracted light through it. It was beautiful.

The king probably feels safe behind those walls and surrounded by all his guards and attendants, but Megu will show him that walls mean little to her.

She itched to be on her way already, but forced herself to stay put. She scanned the nearby buildings and saw that just a little ways ahead there were several options for inns. 

"Let's go to that one, on the right," she pointed. "Megu is going to go pack up our belongings."

"Okay. I still think we should go to the Adventurer's Guild."

"Sitting in traffic for hours to get there because of this infernal wagon would be a nightmare. No thank you."

She climbed into the back and began shoving things into their respective packs. Poro-tan's bag had been a worthwhile investment as well, as the dimensional magic governing it allowed for even more storage than her little bag did. In just a couple minutes, everything was stowed away and she stared in satisfaction at the now empty wagon. She stared pointedly at the red stained wood where her blood had fallen. She didn't like the idea of just leaving this thing around, there were mages and others who could use a bit of blood to find her, or place nasty curses on them.

There wasn't much to be done about it for now, but when the time came, they would need to burn the wagon to be on the safe side. At least, so long as she had that large bounty on her head, which was probably going to be forever. If anything, the bounty would grow when she started taking on the Villain's Guild in earnest.

Megumi climbed back to the front of the wagon and saw that they had only moved a dozen paces. Enough was enough. This was boring, and she wanted to go get a room already.

Hopefully they don't charge an arm and a leg for a room and storage of this thing. We have a bit of money, but it needs to last us for the duration of our stay here. We really might need to go to the guild hall after a few days or so. 

"Megu's gonna go get the room. Keep the wagon moving. You should catch up in just a few minutes."

"All right. Are you sure you should be going anywhere alone? Remember what happened last time."

She ground her teeth, but nodded. He was right and she needed to listen to his advice once in a while. She would sit here. "Fine. Megu will wait."

Time dragged on, but eventually they found themselves in front of the large inn. They pulled the wagon off of the street and next to the stables along the back and hopped down. A stableboy came over to greet them.

"Staying at the inn tonight?"

"Yes," Poro-tan replied.

"I'll watch the wagon for you while you go check in. Bring back the slip that they'll give you at the front desk once you're done and I'll stow this away for you."

"Okay. Let's go, Poro-tan."

She grabbed his arm and dragged him towards the front of the inn. There were so many people, she wondered where they were all going. She stared at the sign above the door, the inn was called, The Laughing Jester and the sign was fashioned into a Jester's head with a big grin on his face. They opened the doors and stepped inside. The interior of the place looked just as any other mid-level quality inn that she had stayed in before. There were various staff members running around the large common room, cleaning and taking food to patrons who were seated at tables in the common room.

The common room seemed to serve a function of being a restaurant and it was absolutely packed. She noted the man up on a small stage dressed up like a jester who was juggling six colorful balls while telling a story she recognized as The Tale of Ivan the Foolish King. Megumi frowned at the performer as it reminded her how she had been so easily captured by that bard.

"How can I help you, miss?" A man's voice asked. "Would you like a table? Or perhaps do you need lodging for the night?"

Megumi blinked and turned away from the show. "Megu needs to know if you can house two horses and a wagon in your stables and what it would cost to do that. Also, how much is it to stay here per night. A room with two beds is what Megu will need, preferably."

The man pulled out a ledger and flipped it open. "The cost to house your wagon and horses is 30GP per night. We have a few rooms available that meet your requirements. One room is on the second floor and the rate is 50GP per night, and the other is a suite, which runs 90GP a night and is on the third floor."

80GP a day minimum to stay in the city. We're going to have to stir up some cash quickly if Megu is going to be able to get anything done.

Then she remembered something that Beera had told her. She couldn't believe that she had forgotten something so important. "Do you offer any discounts for members of the Adventurers Guild?"

"If you have your Guild ID, then we offer a 10% discount on all of the services we offer here."

"Great!" Megumi reached into her bag and produced the card. I

t's about time that this thing was useful for something other than getting through city gates faster. We should have been trying this at every inn along the way. Megu won't forget again.

The man examined the card carefully and then nodded. "Everything looks to be in order. So for the room and the stable fee, it will be 72GP per night. One meal per day will be provided free of charge. You can choose which."

Still pretty expensive when we're broke, but what we have left will last just about a week. At least we get a free meal every day out of it.

Megumi told the man that she agreed to the terms and filled out a short form before the man handed over the key to her room. She paid for three days up front. It wouldn't do her any good to pay for longer than they would need to stay and she wasn't sure exactly how long that would be. 

"Carl! Jerry!" the man called and two young dressed in the same style of clothing came running out from a back room and over to the desk. "Carl, can you show this young lady to her room, she's in room 2D? Jerry, go outside get their wagon into the stables."

The man handed Jerry a slip of paper and then Carl began to lead the two of them through the restraunt area to the stairwell at the back end of the common area. The food looked and smelled delicious, and she noted that the fool on stage was now standing on his head as he began reciting the third act of the story.

The staircase curved up to the second and then the third floor of the building. Their room was the fourth one on the left on the second floor. Once they got to the room, he put the key into the door and opened it, leading her inside before handing the key over to her.

"Is there anything else I can do for you today?"

"No. Thank you."

She closed the door. The room itself was fairly small. Two beds were in the middle of the room and there was a door that led to a balcony overlooking a busy street. Megumi was happy to see that the room also had its own washroom with a decent sized bathtub.

Megu is definitely going to use that later. It's been weeks of travel without a single bath. Megu probably smells aweful! But first, we have things to do that might make Megu smell worse, so it can wait.

"This seems like a pretty nice place! That juggler guy looked pretty good."

Carl had told them that the inn had different performers each night of the week and that the performances began at dinnertime.

"We have things to do here, we can't waste time watching storytellers perform."

Poro-tan wiped the smile off his face and sat down on the bed. "Right. So what's the plan? We're here to take out the Thieves Guild, right?"

"Megu has another reason for being here as well. You may as well know. We're going to assassinate the king."

He looked at her with an incredulous look on his face before replying, "You've got to be kidding me, Megumi! You want the whole damned country to come crashing down on us? You seriously have a screw loose if you think that the two of us can get anywhere near the man for one, and more importantly, why in the hell do you want to do this anyway? It will throw this whole country into chaos! I thought we were here for a job that would actually help people, not to commit regicide!"

"Keep your voice down!" she hissed. "Megu has her reasons, trust me when I say that this man deserves what's coming to him. On top of that, though, Undine is the one pushing this request on us." She was only telling half the story, but it would have to do.

"I haven't heard of the guy committing any atrocities or anything. I don't see why he would deserve it. Everyone I've talked to seems to love the king. Sure, he misses important things like the alchemist, but that doesn't mean he deserves to die. Also, why in the hell would the high lady of Rivean want the king dead?"

"Megu doesn't know. Maybe she wants to become queen or something. Megumi has heard the prince is away to the south, so maybe she wants to kill the king and marry him. It doesn't really matter though. Megu is not here to kill the whole royal family, just the king. The important thing is that if we don't try to do this, then she threatened to have us killed. It's not like anyone would believe Megu over her if we tried to come clean anyway."

"So in other words, we're fucked either way. How in the hell do we always manage to get into these kind of messes?" Poro-tan rolled over onto his stomach on the bed with a groan.

"Don't worry so much. Megu already has two plans for this situation. Let's go, we need to see if its possible to do this the easy way. To do that, we need to find the Thieves Guild."

Megumi stood up and headed towards the door. Poro-tan groaned again behind her, but got up and followed. Once they were on the streets it was time to find what she was looking for. They spent some time familiarizing themselves with the city and after getting some directions, it didn't take long to find the slums of the city. There were beggars in the street and run down looking homes smashed tightly together. It looked like the city guards had forgotten the place existed as there weren't any in sight as soon as they got close to this area. She wondered why the king didn't even bother to clean up his own city if it had fallen into such a bad state in this area, but then she remembered that nobles rarely cared about the poor. No matter how good they told themselves they were, no one cared..

The place smelled awful and she saw that there was literally excrement in the gutters where the destitute had done their business. Megumi was looking for a particular kind of person though and they continued wandering around the area. Nobody approached them, Poro-tan probably looked intimidating enough that no one would mess with them in broad daylight, but everyone seemed to have their eyes on the two of them.

Finally, Megumi saw what she was looking for. A bony looking man was casually leaning up against the entrance to a dark alleyway. His clothes weren't quite as ragged as most of the people that they had seen here and he had a dagger in his hand that he was using to trim his fingernails.

The two of them approached the alleyway and the man who was leaning against the wall sneered and spat to the side before addressing them, "Looks like you're in the wrong area, Princess. If you know what's good for you, leave and go back where you belong. Accidents happen here all the time." He eyed Poro-tan.

"We're here for a business proposition. Megu is looking to hire some skilled individuals for a job. Know anyone who isn't afraid to get their hands dirty?"

"Even if I did know someone, why in the hell should I trust you? You look too good to be true, I smell a trap. Get lost, girl. Final warning."

"Megu wasn't talking to you. Do you look like a skilled individual? No. Megu was talking to him." She pointed into the shadows of the alleyway where another man sat on the ground dressed in rags. He turned away quickly when he realized she caught him glancing at her.

"I ought to slit your pretty little throat for that insult, bitch." The man began to advance towards them with his dagger at the ready. Poro-tan drew his sword with a flash and had the tip of the purple tinted blade at the man's throat before he had even taken two steps.

The man in the rags stood up and brushed himself off calmly. "Back off, Georgie, looks like we have a couple of people here with balls. What is it that you want from me and my... associates?"

Megumi leaned in conspiratorially before she whispered, "Megu wants to get into the palace. Once we're inside you can rob them blind, while we complete a different kind of task. What do you say? We could help eachother."

"I say that you're stupid if you think we can just waltz into the palace and get away with it. We don't have nearly the muscle to pull something like that off if and probably when we get caught. I don't know what it is you're looking to find in the palace, but give it up. Something like that would be far from easy and could take weeks to plan."

"We'll be your muscle if the need arises, and it probably will. We intend to kill the king. If all goes well, we can be in and out before anyone even finds the corpses, meanwhile, you can loot the place. I know exactly where the treasury is."

The man's eyes widened in shock at what she revealed. "Come with me. We'll hear you out at least."

The two men led Poro-tan and her deeper into the alley and down into an abandoned looking cellar. Megumi couldn't help but grin at how easy it was to get in. There was still a huge chance that this was a trap, and the thieves would try to murder them once they were off the main street, but it was a chance they would have to take. She wasn't worried in the slightest about these two, and if she had to go with her back-up plan to get the king, then so be it. It would just be a matter of rearranging her job priorities. After all, she intended to kill every single one of these thieves once her task was done in order to both kill any witnesses to her crime, and to collect the reward from the guild.