"You want to do WHAT ??"
'Now where did I hear that one before..'
Dow had been called back to headquarters right away, and he was not entirely satisfied with the way things were happening.
Bishop Anderson, in turn, was quite displeased with his response.
Baoba, however, was glad to witness a spectacle like this right before his shift ended.
"Be quiet." Said Anderson in a stern voice. " This is an absolute secret, you cannot let your temper get the best of you. Now, in case you didn't hear me correctly, I will repeat myself : you will officially give up on the mission, and we will allow Evans' party to accept it."
But the fake adventurer had heard it right the first time. Therefore, he was still somewhat heated.
"Right, but will you tell me why the FUCK would we do that ?"
A hard stare later, Dow calmed down and muttered an apology.
"Sorry. I am confused, father, because I was working under the assumption that we were working towards the exact opposite. Please, enlighten this helpless subordinate with your holy knowledge."
"Don't push it. There has been new intel, a change of plans is thus required."
He explained the situation. Hearing about the incoming assault, a strange light flickered for a second in Dow's eyes, and he confirmed almost hurriedly : "Are we finally proving our worth ? Outside of the city ?"
"Yes. We will send a force to deal with the heretics after their hunt. All we need from you right now is to forgo the mission as soon as possible. You may leave now, and don't be seen."
"Yes, sir !" Dow kept a solemn expression as he left the building.
He was a loyal one. Not actually a newcomer at all, but he had gotten a complete makeover for his role. He was the one that sacrificed the most for this, so his outburst was comprehensible.
That, and the fact he had always been a little weird. He never used to talk to anyone before all this.
'This church really came alive because of us.'
Baoba wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad one.
...
'No, it's definitely a bad thing. Makes this so much harder.'
***
The next morning.
The radiant Bishop would receive the humans in just a moment. Right now, he was trying to get in the right headspace.
Practicing his mysterious glares, praying for success, preparing to not curse out this bunch of heretics, things like that.
Baoba did not have time to wonder how much he did that in private, though.
Ten feet soon resonated on the edifice's cold stone. They had arrived.
They all looked as serious as ever, there was even a trace of anger in their steps. Evans did not look like he noticed Baoba at all.
'It would have been surprising if that guy was not a good actor at this point.'
Anderson did not turn to them right away. "Good morning." He said, still in a pious pose. "I hope my message has found you well." With this line, he slowly opened his eyes and turned only his head to look at the visitors.
Baoba caught himself before he whistled in amazement.
'Wow, look at him go with his double entendres. I wonder how many of those he's got in his sleeve.'
Evans pretended not to understand to ominous half threat. "Good morning. May the sun shine upon you, Father. We did receive your letter, although I cannot say we fully grasped its meaning. I can't help but wonder why you have summoned us."
His face showed such genuine confusion, Baoba almost forgot his own plan. It really was impossible to tell that not even 24 hours ago, Evans had made a deal that would bring him this exact situation. In reality, the guy knew exactly why they were here.
'Damn, he's good.'
Julius Chance, surprisingly, seemed even better. He looked like he couldn't contain himself anymore, and started walking slowly towards the holy man.
"I'll have you know, Father, we haven't gotten a good night's sleep since we finished your last insanely difficult mission. If I didn't know any better, I could swear you are planning to intentionally tire us."
That performance was surprising. It really felt like he did not know what he was here for. Of course, this was perfectly natural for anyone else who had interacted with him even once, but to Baoba, it really didn't make sense.
Baoba did always pride himself on being able to grasp people's characters. He had long developed a profile on each one of his enemies.
Mr. Chance was supposed to be bad at acting and self control. He must have been told to take a backseat. And he certainly would not disobey direct orders. Why the outburst ? Unless...
'This maniac. Did he seriously not tell them ?'
The elf had to reviewe his analysis of Evans for what felt like the hundredth time. Man, this guy was hard to figure out.
Stopping Julius with an arm, Evans took the lead back. "My apologies. We're tired, you see." He threw an accusatory look to his interlocutor, all the while maintaining his oblivious facade.
For a moment, it seemed a fight might break out.
But of course, this wasn't the purpose of this visit. Anderson held on to his warm, gentle smile as he calmed the tensions : "I understand. We only took the liberty of summoning you so quickly because we have good news. Please do feel free to go back and rest, it could wait for you a little longer, with some luck."
Without waiting for a reply, he continued talking in a relaxed tone : "However, since you are here already, it would only be a waste of time to go through such a procedure, I will simply tell you now. You see, Dow has abandoned the mission you had tried to take on. I thought you might be interested."
Seeing the group's reactions, Baoba was now certain it was the first time they had heard of it. Evans' acting was also flawless, as usual.
It was starting to be annoying, honestly.
They were stunned silent, without their captain's orders to refrain from speaking, a sea of questions would have flooded the room already.
Instead, they had to bide their time while the captain in question feigned being deep in thought.
After a perfectly plausible amount of time, he finally nodded. : "Then we would like to apply for this mission, please."
'Does this guy ever say anything that is not strictly required ? Did I even ever see him smile ?'
Surely it had to have happened once, right ?
Yeah, he was just not remembering properly. Had to be.
Short words of goodbyes were said, and the team, still mostly dazed, was leaving.
It had all gone perfectly.
Not a single problem in sight.
All according to plan.
...
'Then why do I feel like it's all going to shit ?'
The feeling from yesterday had not stopped. That, too, was starting to get annoying.
Once again, Baoba asked himself what could possibly go wrong. There was a lot, actually.
The plan was to stay back as Anderson sent most of his personnel as well as himself to fight the human team. Who won didn't matter.
Of course, it would be an additional bonus if they suffered a setback here, but this wasn't the goal.
The goal had always been to ask Noti, the knowledge deity, how to get blessed while hiding from the Lord. The problem they were facing was that they simply could not ask that question and stay undercover. And there was no way to ask it privately. So, the only option was to steal them.
And the problem about that, was that the vault was always closely guarded by five heavily armed guards, who rotated every couple hours. Any access to it was also verified and watched closely, by even more guards.
It wasn't usually like this, but because the damn bishop was so vigilant, he had been warned and was on high alert ever since.
Therefore, the vault was completely off limits.
But, if the majority of the weapons and manpower was out fighting, then... Then there would be a chance.
This was the plan Baoba had come up with ever since he saw Evans and his squad in this town. And a lot of things could go wrong with it.
Baoba could get forced to come out with everyone else, there could be too many guards left, he might be discovered and chased out before the assault, they could run into issues with the getaway... But those were already accounted for. He had contingencies for those scenarios. They weren't supposed to still bother him.
'But I'm still worried. I still have a feeling I'm overlooking something. No matter what I do, that feeling just won't go away... What more could go wrong ?'
He could get sick right at the crucial time, the general might die before Evans gets to it, the vault might be sealed shut, Noti could be protected by a mystic shield no one knows about, he could get fired...
'Stop.' He sighed deeply. ' I'm doing it again. The reason I can't find the issue is probably because there isn't an issue. Just like the first days.'
He was a bit paranoid, after all.
'The plan is going great. All probable failure points are accounted for. There are no other ones.'
He almost succeeded in convincing himself, but could not stop the same, stupid thought for popping into his mind.
'Still... Better to be safe than sorry, right ?'