Fighting Spark

"Morning, Roko!"

Roko yawned as he opened the door to his room to a cheery Helena, "What's going on?"

"We got official permission to go after this fight club that's been going on!" Helena grinned, "So step one is gathering information."

"How do we know they're even continuing?"

"Well, we could just ask the little birdie herself."

"...Right, I'll get ready."

"Why did I know it was going to be you?" Roko frowned.

"Whatdya mean?" Anna frowned, "You saying I've been up to something?"

"If it comes to money, yeah."

"What, do you need a loan?" Anna raised an eyebrow.

"You hear about this fight club going on?" Helena asked.

Anna squinted as she studied Roko and Helena closely, "...Noooo..."

"That's a shame, I was going to place a bet." Roko scoffed.

Roko could hear the gears turning in Anna's head as she stared at Roko suspiciously. Then she reached into her jacket and pulled out a small black notebook and a pen, "...How much?"

"So you do know!" Helena cried.

"Goddammit, fine, I know!" Anna moaned, "I've been keeping record of the bets that's been going on. Can you blame me?"

"Are you even part of the class?" Roko asked.

"No, of course not. I'm supposed to be the neutral party." Anna scoffed.

"So you know where their next meeting is going to be?" Helena asked.

"...Noooo..."

Helena held up her hand and Aves flew down from the rafters to land on her fingers.

"You're really bad at lying." Roko added.

"Dammit, fine." Anna growled, "I knew this was a bad venture to begin with."

"Then why'd you do it?" Helena asked.

"Why do you think?" Anna smirked as she rubbed the tips of her fingers greedily.

"Aren't you a princess?" Roko sighed, "Why do you need money?"

"Hey, you don't know anything." Anna snapped, "I'm not like my dad who got a small loan of a million dollars."

"Alright, fine." Roko rolled his eyes, "Just tell us where and when their next meeting is."

"Well, after you exposed their meeting place in the wildwoods, they're heading out to a private ring in Galia next."

"Where's this ring?"

"It's like in the basement of some sort of casino?" Anna said as she consulted her notebook, "I can give you the address, you're not going to have trouble getting in if you got a princess with you."

"And when's that meeting?"

"Tomorrow." Anna sighed as she closed her book, "8 P.M. There, you've made me into a rat, happy? Can I go?"

"What about any future meetings?" Helena asked.

"They only give me the details of the next meeting." Anna replied, "I'm not sure where their following meeting is, they don't plan past their next meeting."

"That's fine." Helena nodded, "Now we can prepare in advance for them."

"You aren't just gonna rat them out?" Anna frowned.

"Where's the fun in that?!" Helena grinned, "Also Zadkiel wants this dealt with discreetly and appointed us to deal with it."

"Sounds like he's just lazy."

"Hey, I don't look gift horses in the mouth." Helena shrugged, "Anyway, there's one more thing we have to take care of here."

"What?"

"We need to make sure you don't rat US out."

Helena brought Aves closer to Anna as it began to peck her.

"Ow! OW! Stop that!" Anna cried as she tried to shield her head with her arms.

"Calm down." Roko pulled Helena back, "We don't need to go that far."

"You think?" Helena asked, "I'm pretty sure Anna would betray us given the chance."

"She follows the flow of money." Roko replied, "So there's some simple things we can pull."

"Like what?" Helena said as Anna looked up.

"Anna, how much money is in the betting pool right now?"

"Huh? About 20 million gold."

"20 million?!" Helena cried.

"These are royal aristocrats making bets you know." Helena rubbed her head where Aves pecked her, "They aren't low rollers. We also have people not in the class making third party bets."

"And how much of that money do you take as commission?"

"About 5%."

"1 million gold is still a lot of gold." Helena muttered, "And you get that every game?"

"Pretty much."

"What if I told you that you could have the entire 20 million?" Roko asked.

"WHAT?!" Helena cried as Roko could practically see the money signs in Anna's eyes.

"If we catch and capture this illegal fighting ring, the betting pool will also be confiscated." Roko explained, "As this pool is mostly comprised of world leaders, their owners might not all be willing to come forward to reclaim their bet, if they don't want to get caught in some unsavory business. And since we're dealing with this privately, I can tell you I don't want the money."

"You don't?!" Anna cried.

"As such, the betting pool still needs to be dealt with. Now I'm not saying this as someone semi-officially appointed to investigate this matter because that comes with responsibilities. But if I do come across this betting pool or if someone else were to come across this betting pool, I wouldn't do anything with it. Don't know what I'd even do with all that money."

"..."

"And hey, if you keep working for them, I wouldn't know anything about it. I wouldn't notice if the money pool kept getting bigger. But all this only happens if I...we manage to end their operation. So I hope you don't mind if we come check up on you for information from time to time. You would be doing something good as well."

"...Roko..." Anna cleaned up her hair as she stood up, "You...are the best business partner I've ever had!"

"I assume we have a deal then?"

"Of course we do!" Anna grinned, "Put er there pal!"

"Are you sure we can promise that?" Helena whispered as Roko shook her hand.

"Have you been given any orders regarding their money?"

"No."

"Hm. Well I guess it's up to us then." Roko shrugged.

"Alright. If we see each other in that casino, we don't know each other." Anna said in a low tone, "All I can provide you is information. I can't get you into the meeting place or anything, got it?"

"That's fine."

"Then I hope to see you there." Anna winked as she walked away.

…

"So where is this on the sliding scale of morality?"

"I feel like it was pretty lawful neutral."

"What's lawful neutral?"

"Don't worry about it."

"So you're heading into a casino?" Kaguya raised an eyebrow, "The only casino in Galia was only recently established a few months ago. They haven't been doing well but that's mostly because they've been spending most of their money to up their presentation."

"Whatever they're doing, they've gotten a big influx of cash for hosting this fight club." Helena sighed, "Not that there was probably any other place they could have used to host."

"Galia's a simple harbor town." Momo noted, "A bit of a strange place to start a casino."

"We're not connected to a lot of towns." Kaguya replied, "Galia's the big one and even they aren't that big in the grand scheme of things. This could just be a big play to try to bump Galia up on the world stage or it's just a foolish person attempting to bring extravagance to a simple town."

"From what I've heard, the owner isn't that ignorant." Momo said, "Though there are rumors that he worships some sort of god."

"Uh oh." Helena grinned as she looked towards Roko, "Could we be dealing with these foreign gods again?"

"...It's been ten minutes since Helena and I found the location and called for a meet up." Roko said, "How do you know all this already?"

"Information networks." The three princesses replied nonchalantly.

"Your information network pulled all this out in ten minutes?"

"Roko, the information market isn't built on what people need to know, it's built on what people already know." Helena smirked, "A weird golden casino in a relatively temperate harbor town is worth investigation and rumors even without us asking for an investigation."

"Individual investigation is really like 7% of the information market." Kaguya explained, "The rest is composed of readily available information compiled concisely and information from nosy dealers making their own investigations for profit."

"Don't quote us on those numbers though." Momo laughed, "Though if you have the right connections you could get information for free without even having to deal with the open market, as more in-depth as the market can be at times."

"...So where is Corissa?" Roko asked.

"Corissa has her hands full training her slime." Helena reported, "She's been going out to get material from the wildwoods to feed the hungry thing. That also means Varis has to take care of his unicorn himself on top of guarding Corissa on her forest visits so I'm afraid you won't be seeing either of them on this mission."

"I see."

"Corissa was really sad about losing her clothes though." Momo chuckled, "But Zadkiel said she'd replace them for free."

"Is that really such a big deal?" Roko asked.

"What, you don't know?" Kaguya said, "Zadkiel is a world famous fashion designer on top of everything. She rarely releases any products now but students of Memoria Auspice are allowed to request a custom made uniform made by her upon enrollment. For a considerable fee of course but once you graduate you could sell that uniform for the price of a small castle."

"Wait, for real?!" Roko cried, "I just thought some of the students were customizing their uniforms. Are your uniforms all made by Zadkiel as well?!"

"Yep." Helena replied with a smile, "The uniform's base color is black but we do get to request certain details. I got a sky blue trim on mine."

"I went for pink." Momo grinned, "That's the color of my country after all."

"I wanted something like purple but Zadkiel gave me red trim instead." Kaguya sighed, "Well, I can't say it doesn't look good."

"Is my uniform custom too?!" Roko cried.

"Of course it is." Helena smirked, "This is a girls school. The uniform is only for the girls. Your uniform is probably the only male uniform ever made."

"You could probably sell that for the price of a small town." Kaguya added.

Roko looked down at his black and silver uniform, "...I'm wearing a fortune..."

"At any rate, Varis won't be carrying us through this event, sadly." Helena smiled, "You got us though. And our knights."

"I'll do my best!" Momo nodded enthusiastically.

"And where are those knights?" Roko asked.

"Roland's being forced to spend more time with his sea goat as punishment for trying to join the fight club." Helena explained.

"Mikado is teaching him how to take proper care of an aquatic animal." Kaguya added.

"Well...I can't say Roland didn't deserve that." Roko shrugged.

"So what do you think?" Kaguya asked, "Are we in for more of those monsters?"

"...Has there been any reports of any strange incidents in the town?"

"Nope." All the girls replied.

"Then I don't think we'll need to worry about strange monsters and gods on this excursion." Roko sighed, "There's always a chance I'm wrong but the activities of this foreign power aren't exactly easy to hide."

"Fair enough." Helena nodded, "Anything else we need to address?"

"No, I think it's best we prepare for our trip tomorrow evening." Momo stretched, "I need to get some more training in."

"That's true, if we're to get in, then we need some good disguises." Kaguya nodded, "Best not to show too much of our hand just in case."

"Then me and Roko will follow up on our other lead." Helena grinned.

"Other lead?" Roko frowned.

"Yep. I'm sure you already have an idea of who it is too."

Following Helena around the school, she lead Roko down several different halls in search of somebody that she refused to name or describe. Roko just followed her quietly until she spotted someone sitting in a small alcove and excitedly dragged Roko to her. The girl in question was playing with a small winged cat with a vaguely human face. So entranced she was in playing with her creature that she didn't notice their approach until Helena spoke up.

"Excuse us."

"AAAHHH!" The girl jolted as she looked up at them, "C-C-C-Can I help you?!"

"We just wanted to ask you a few questions." Helena said with a friendly smile, "Do you mind?"

"A-A-About...what?" The girl looked around nervously.

The cat creature meowed and leaped off her lap, walking up to Roko and pawing at his leg as it stood up and meowed cutely.

"A-Oh!" The girl stood up as she looked at Roko, "You're the one who was fighting that bear and griffin back in the forest!"

"That's me." Roko said as he reached down and picked up the cat creature, "I thought I recognized you in the sidelines as well, though I wasn't quite sure."

"I was there!" The girl smiled, "Your fighting was very impressive! Little Nyinx in particular was very pleased to see you defeat that griffin using a riddle!"

"A riddle huh?" Roko held up the cat as it pawed at his face,

"Yep! Nyinx is a baby sphinx so she loves riddles and the like! She's a big fan of you now!"

"Is that so?" Roko said as Helena took the baby sphinx and laid it across the top of Roko's head.

"Ah!" The princess yelped as if she just realized something, standing up and bowing deeply to Roko, "Sorry! Because of me you had to go through all that!"

"I thought so." Roko said, "Then that makes you..."

"Let me introduce you." Helena smiled, "Thea, this is Roko. Roko, this is Princess Amathea, Heir to Kingdom Fallor and the princess that the knight Gaurav has supposedly sworn his service to."

"Sorry!" Amathea bowed again, "I'm sorry for my knight!"

"This is starting to sound familiar." Roko sighed.

"Huh?"

"Nothing." Roko picked Nyinx off his head and handed her back to her owner, "We have some questions regarding Gaurav."

"Don't worry, we won't bite." Helena nodded, "Just need some answers. No action required."

"I-I can't tell you where they're going to meet up again." Amathea yelped, "T-They don't tell me. I just follow Gaurav whenever he heads out."

"We're not asking about that." Helena nodded, "Just some simple whats and whys. For example, do you know why Gaurav's doing this to begin with? This fight club?"

"Ah...well..." Amathea looked down, "He...he's a bit brash and arrogant but he means well. Honest."

"I don't think anything of what he's been doing means well."

"I-I..." Amathea lowered her head, "I'm sorry."

"Why don't you stop him?" Roko asked, "Do you not agree with he's been doing?"

"I...I don't but..." Amathea looked away.

"You're scared of him?" Helena guessed.

Amathea fidgeted, unable to quite admit it except for a slight, shy nod.

"Why'd you hire him as your bodyguard then?" Roko frowned.

"Gaurav is...the strongest knight in Fallor. He has his vices but he genuinely is good at his job."

"Yeah but I don't think you need the absolute best knight for your protection at a school." Helena replied, "You could easily replace him."

"Gaurav, he..." Amathea's voice lowered to a soft whisper, "He promised to help me get more confidence."

"And has he done that?" Roko scoffed.

"Umm...uhhh...m-m-maybe!"

"Listen to yourself." Helena sighed, "Whatever. At any rate, you don't mind if we try to stop whatever Gaurav is trying to do right?"

"..."

"Remember that your knight is running an illegal animal fighting ring." Roko said, "Even if you don't want to make him mad, it's not going to look good if we go public with this. Both for him and you."

"I know..." Amathea closed her eyes, "...I know...I won't stop you but I don't really know how I can help you. Umm...I-I don't think Gaurav will listen to me."

"How about you tell us what creature he's supposed to be taking care of?" Helena asked, "That thing doesn't look like anything I've seen before. It looks scarily strong."

"Yeah, it's pretty scary." Amathea nodded, "Even Mr. Stephen needed to do some research to pin down what kind of a creature it was."

"Can you tell us what it is?" Roko asked.

"Ummm...apparently, it's something called a Questing Beast."