Book 3 - The Merchant from the Depths: Chapter 25; A Cleaning Hint

The screen turned on as the chapter title played "Chapter - 25; A Cleaning Hint".

Yuu had walked back over to Savanaclaw and was standing in Leona's room with Grim as Ruggie instructed them on what they're doing today or rather tonight.

Ruggie instructed, "Your job today is to clean Leona's room."

Leona was sitting on his bed as he told them "You'd better earn your room and board, herbivores."

Grim complains "Between Azul bossin' me around at work and Leona doin' it at home, I'm a mess. Uuugh!" But was ignored.

Ruggie instructed them "Start by putting all his randomly-discarded clothes into the laundry basket, then clean off his desk. Accessories go in this drawer. Books go on that shelf. Once the desk is clear, wipe it off with a dustcloth."

The Ramshackle duo decide to have Yuu pick up the clothes while Grim cleans the desk.

Grim grumbles complaints under his breath "You're not a cub. You should know how to clean up after yourself."

Leona hears something as he asks Grim "Hm? Care to run that one by me again?" Grim gets nervous as he tells him "Eep! I-I didn't say nothin'."

Grim then speaks aloud, albeit quietly, to himself while he starts to clean "Okay, I'll start cleanin' the pile of stuff offa this desk…"

Before being shocked by something and whisper-shouting "Whoa! He left some expensive-lookin' jewelry just lyin' around! And his wallet! W-with this much stuff around, surely he wouldn't notice one little thing goin' missing, right?"

Grim nods to himself before quietly saying "That's what he gets for not putin' his stuff under lock and key." before chuckling.

But this attracts Ruggie's attention as he walks over and hits Grim on the head before telling him "Don't even try it. That one's mine to nab- uh" But he notices and quickly fixes his mistake as he says "I mean, he'd know immediately if something was unaccounted for."

He then turns to Leona to scold him "I keep telling you to stop leaving your valuables out in the open, Leona. You're gonna get robbed blind one of these days!" Ruggie's ears flatten against his head as he scolds him almost as if he was a child.

Leona puts a hand to his head and tells him "Ah, shut your trap. What are you, my mom? So what if my stuff gets stolen, anyways? It's no big deal. I say if someone's got the guts to steal from me, they can go right ahead."

Ruggie puts his arms out in exasperation as he shouts at him "But it IS a big deal! That's my point! It's all fun and games being rich until the day you suddenly feel the penny drop. They're called "valuables" for a reason!" Ruggie then face-palms and whispers to himself "This is what drives me nuts about you silver-spoon types…"

Yuu during that whole conversation had froze as she thought back on what happened with the vault as well as her conversation with Tsunotaro as she came to a realization and shouted "AHA! THAT'S IT!"

But of course the shouting throws all of them off as Grim exclaims "Whoa! What's gotten into you, Yuu!?" Leona's eyes had widened in shock and his ears had folded back from the loud noise before he told Yuu angrily "Oi! Bring the volume down a notch."

But she's still out of it from her recognition that she shouts her discovery "They're in the vault because they're NOT unbreakable!"

Ruggie is confused about what she's talking about as he raises an eyebrow while making a "Huh?" sound.

But Leona gets what she's saying as he bursts out laughing before shouting rather happily "Of course! I get it now! That's an intriguing line of thinking."

Ruggie now has an idea what this is about but isn't sure, while Grim is just looking back and forth between the two as he asks "Huh? What'd I miss?"

Leona, now being in a better mood tells Grim "Here, I'll explain…" but the explanation is not heard as a screen wipe is used.

It then switches to after as Grim shouts "Ohhh, I getcha! NOW it makes sense! Now that we've got a weak point to exploit, let's bust into Octavinelle right now!"

He tries to fly off, but Ruggie puts a hand in front of Grim as he states "There's just one problem with that."

Grim makes a confused "Myah?" out, before Ruggie explained to Grim "If Yuu's read is right, then the Leech brothers are sure to show up and interfere. Honestly, they're a bigger hurdle to you guys than the vault itself."

Grim punches the air in frustration as he complains "For cryin' out loud…! We're so close, I can almost taste it!"

Yuu puts a hand to her chin as she thinks for a second before smirking and trailing off saying "So if the Leech brothers weren't present…"

Leona narrows his eyes as he tells her "Hey. I've got a good idea of where you're going with this, so I'll get this outta the way now… I'm not helping. No way, no how. The last thing I need is to get dragged into someone else's mess. Especially when that cephalo-punk is involved."

So their eyes move over to Ruggie who also quickly tells them "Same goes to me. Don't even ask."

Grim puts his paws on his hips as he rhetorically asks "Hmph. You guys're real fairweather friends, y'know that?"

But Yuu still has a smirk on as she tells Grim "Grim… Play along with me on this one, okay?"

The screen then fades to black as "To be continued" plays on screen before it fully turns off.