A trusted account

Just like he had been asked on his last visit and even Kayla had jokingly hinted, Jay offered something for Ms. Dime to trust him. Not that him telling her about the situation before was no such show, but it of course was nothing she could directly check on.

Like this, it was his next words that on one hand surprised her, on the other changed the situation drastically.

"Then what about if I promise to make a scene like you asked me to? Whit this I would be a companion and it should prove I really mean no harm, no?" J.

"And you would go this far to gain my trust?" Ms.D.

To his silent nod, the green haired woman visibly eased up. Leaning back in her chair, she began with that she still could only tell him a part and show no proof until his part of the deal was settled.

Her main investor really was a noble of the royal court, but that was all she knew as well.

Other than Lady Kendra and two other nobles from some remote counties, that one only got in contact with her over a middleman.

That nasty man had even come there a few times and after cashing in, watched the production of scenes for a bit. The name Jay heard next was one that was not new to him: Lord Falconclaw.

To his question if she really had proof for that, Dime asked for the same trust she had given him. She would even give the names and documents about the other investors, tough she still had nothing about the one he really wanted to learn more about.

With a bit of mutual trust established, Jay left the woman's office, but not without getting accompanied to the door by her.

On their way she asked Jay when he was going to settle their deal, to what he couldn't help but ask why she was so eager and if she would take part in it.

It wasn't like he had really believed a businesswoman like her would do it, but as she started to chuckle and shake her head, he still got a little bit downhearted. She was a beauty after all. What was more, she even looked slightly exotic with her green hair and bombshell figure.

The next second Jay felt a certain part of just that body pressing onto him and got pulled from his thoughts. After Dime had opened the door for him, she had suddenly leaned a little bit closer while still holding the door.

"Depending on your performance in the upcoming scene, I might be up for a private one as well. Of course only if you prove your skills and don't betray my trust!" Ms.D.

Jay gulped audibly in surprise but promised to come back for the scene and certainly satisfy her, bringing them both to chuckle until Makko came and escorted Jay to the front entrance. A second after he exited, Jay turned around and hinted the bouncer to watch out and be careful of agents in the coming days.

There was a high that someone would come knocking on their door, but Dime was already informed.

Done with what he could find out at that place, Jay once again summoned his horse and rode the steep road up to the Workers District. From there he took the canal route to the bridge connecting to the Cathedral Plaza which he then crossed and took the long bridge over to the Trade District.

As it was the middle of the day, it took Jay quite some time to reach his destination even though he had chosen the fastest route. The last part of the short trip he had made on foot as the moment Jay had reached the Trade District, riding had become troublesome.

After fetching himself some snacks from the stalls under the giant oak, Jay ascended the luxurious looking stairs to the building opposite to the Adventurers Guild.

It had finally become time for Jay to pay the Bank of Arathor a visit.

Still chewing on the sandwich in his hand, Jay passed the high pillars made of marble and leisurely entered the wide hall behind the open double doors. He completely ignored the stares of the guards posted there and looked for a free counter.

To his right, he found a single free counter and marched over. The reason no one had been queuing there got obvious once Jay reached it as there was no one on the other side of the thick iron bars. But a small bell had been set up there, so Jay fetched it and began to ring it.

As he kept ringing it for a while, Jay felt like all eyes in the whole hall were on him.

And he was right with that.

Just as he wanted to put the bell back onto the counter, a small, slightly clawed hand held his and slowly guided it to out the bell down.

Jay let go of the bell and pulled his hand back, but couldn't help and kept staring at the person he saw on the other side.

The small green creature was nothing other than a Goblin, and it seemed like a very sentient one.

Though he had encountered some Greenskins that cooperated with humans not long ago in the mines, the one in front of him was different as it was dressed in a business suite what made it look really comical.

Jay got pulled out of his slight stupor when in the next second it began to talk with it's same harsh and squeaky voice like the ones Jay had heard from any other of it's species:

"Okay, okay, we all have heard you. Don't you see this counter is unoccupied?"

"Well, now that you are here it no longer is unoccupied, right?

I'd like to open account…" J.

As he answered the unfriendly Goblin in a similar kind, Jay shoved it a platinum plate over the counter and waited until it grabbed the big elliptic coin. Turning the coin in its ugly hands a bit and inspecting it from all sides, the green creature suddenly bit on it with its sharp teeth.

And then Jay had the feeling he saw the banker turn pale, if that was even possible for Goblins…

While grabbing the platinum plate tight, the banker asked Jay in a completely changed voice to wait for a few seconds as he would need to call the bank account manager for him. Watching the small man swiftly wobble to the side and through a door, Jay really only had to wait for a few seconds until it came back.

The banker kept standing to the side while still holding tight to the platinum plate Jay had given it until another person arrived. This one was the complete opposite to the small creature and Jay had once again a hard time pulling himself back and stop staring to not ruin the first impression.

A relatively tall woman with long dark chocolate colored hair and fair taint came walking his way with a stern expression. The black pencil dress and white blouse with a red necktie she wore couldn't hide her slender figure and plump bosom at all. Jay only glanced over latter and unintentionally tried to analyze her.

As there came no result, he knew she either had taken measured against something like this or simply was of too high level for him. Either way he knew she was not someone insignificant from this result.

Against Jay's expectation, she threw him a smile instead of being angry that he had tried to analyze her, but then she turned to the Goblin.

To her question if the banker has already had the platinum plate checked, latter hung his head and then shook it. Without wait the Goblin jumped into a funny sprint and again vanished through a door in the back.

At about the same time, two of the guards had appeared behind Jay and the beauty behind the counter asked him to follow their lead. The men would bring him to a waiting area until the authenticity of the plate got proven.

Deciding to not make a scene, Jay followed them and after they went to a door next to the entrance, Jay got led into a small and plain room with some chairs and a barred window. He somehow knew that in case of the coin being a counterfeit, he would be directly brought from there to jail without detour when the two men shut the door from outside.

Five minutes later, the same woman that had him wait there walked into the room with a very apologetic face and asked Jay to not hold it against her. She then introduced herself as Lorette and if he wanted her to, she would be at his service in the bank from now on.

If he would give her his ID, she would gladly open an account for him and explain the benefits to this. But first he would have to follow her to a more appropriate environment.

Giving her his Adventurer ID, the beautiful banker asked Jay to follow her and he got led to the opposite side of the entrance into a wide staircase. On their ascending over the stairs made of marble like most of the bank, Jay did no longer hold back and stared at the woman's firm butt as it swung on each step. The guards no longer followed him as well, so he had nothing to fear.

On the upper floor, Lorette gave his ID that she had studied on the way to some man and ordered him to hurry and prepare the formalities.

A few steps later she opened a door to the side for Jay and stepped back.

The room they ended in looked like a luxurious living room with two big sofas and a small table in the middle. After Jay and Lorette took a seat, she asked if he would like her to explain the benefits of the bank and if he wanted something to drink.

To Jay taking her up on both offers, she walked over to the side while she started her narration.

"To make it short, the bank of Arathor has branches all over the continent and even is connected to other banks all over the world. If you want to deposit or fetch some of your money, you can simply go there, show your ID and do so anytime.

Of course in your case I should add that the booking of large sums normally takes a lot of time…" L.

"Then what is considered a large sum?" J.

"That depends on the region. In the capital for example, a few hundred gold shouldn't pose any problem, but at some more remote places, even a few gold would be the maximum." L.

"Then what about the costs?" J.

"Well, in your case I had arranged VIP status, so every booking after your first cash deposit is free. And it comes with a local personal vault at the bank." L.

"VIP status? Why is that?"

"It's not like it happens very often that someone opens an account with a rare platinum plate worth 100.000 gold. Moreover someone this young…" L.

"Then what does this VIP status cost me?" J.

"The bank only demands two percent of your highest sum deposited. But in your case I will halve the share for the trouble we had brought you.

Again, please excuse that mishap of mine." L.

"Then what is your share in this case?" J.

"Sorry?" L.

"How much of the sum do you get from this transaction?" J.

"Oh, that will be a quarter of the banks share I guess…" L.

To her honest answer, Jay took out four more of the platinum plates he had. As he shoved them over to her on the low table in exchange for one of the glasses of most certainly wine Lorette had prepared for the two of them, Jay saw shock on her beautiful face.

He himself had gotten a big surprise to learning of the installment of the bank in itself and even more to the sheer absurd wealth in his inventory he simply has had no idea of.

But it was nothing in comparison of how Lorette felt when Jay made the single super rare platinum plate a whole of five.

It took her a while until she got herself together and explained to Jay that those plates would have to be checked as well.

If they turned out to be the real thing, it would make his account one of the hundred biggest ones.

A knock on the door broke the eerie silence in which none of both knew what to say next. It was a clerk that had delivered the contracts to sign and Lorette directly went to read them after she send the man for someone to pick up and check more money.

Back on the sofa she directly changed the sum and proceeded to read out aloud to Jay what was written there. While Jay played listening to her and partially even did so, he once again tried to analyze Lorette.

__________

Lorette (Banker LVL 15)

Base LVL 25

* Arathi * Age: 32 * Gender: female *

HP 525/525 * Mana 50/50

[Haggling LVL 4]

[Service LVL 3]

[Persuasion LVL 2]

[Space Magic LVL 1]

[Alcohol tolerance LVL 1]

__________

While he was still wondering about her [Alcohol tolerance] skill, Lorette seemed to not even have noticed him analyzing her. Jay has had the hunch it would work out by then as he had seen her name displayed in his HUD since she had left behind the counter.

Half and hour and a glass of sparkling wine later, Jay was back on the streets with five of his platinum plates less, but a big bank account more.

It wasn't like he had too many of them, but other than that he still had thousands of gold and until then no need to spend many.

The whole process had taken quite some time and as the sun was long past its zenith, Jay decided to ride back the same way he had come from. Yrel had asked him to pay a visit to the church when he had time, so she could explain the benefits of a blessing in more detail and somehow Jay was reluctant to let the intimidating woman wait.

Passing the plaza next to the bank and swiftly walking through the smaller alleys connecting it to the canal route, Jay finally was able to summon his horse on the bridge over to the Cathedral plaza. From then on the trip didn't take too long and soon Jay ascended the stairs to the Cathedral of Light.

Once he entered though the wide double door, he got greeted by an old clergyman whom Jay asked to inform Miss Yrel. The aged man led him to the first row in the middle-ship of the cathedral and asked him to wait there for a moment.

Jay first looked around a bit but as he saw the few guests there all sitting in silence or praying, he felt a little guilty staring at them any further.

Like this he decided to make use of the time and sort his inventory a bit. The last time he had done so was quite a while ago, so it had become a complete mess.

While the first few rows in it were still like last time, (only the counts under some icons had changed) anything that had been put inside after his first visit to Sentinel never got any care from him. Some of the items inside it he hadn't even noticed, while others like the armor parts he bought in the back alley not too long ago, Jay simply had forgotten about.

He barely managed to sort through and put the same categories like materials, weapons and armors together when suddenly a big shadow fell upon him.

As Jay looked up he saw the intimidating figure of the blue woman even Mia trusted, standing before him with her hands on her hips and a smirk on her face...