The next morning, Ikku plans to provide security for a royal advisor.

Apparently, a royal advisor needs well-trained guards for an important meeting. It's to meet with an official from Brunich to discuss the current food crisis happening over there. The short notice of the meeting has made it difficult to find the necessary guards needed to secure the area, and that's why the Capital is willing to hire sellswords.

"Know anything about this royal advisor?" asks Anne.

Arlo shrugs. "Not much. Just some diplomat, from what I hear. Not even the main one in charge, either."

Ikku walk into a hallway and see the diplomat. She's a woman in her thirties. Quite beautiful. She has long, black hair and blue eyes—a rare combination. Arlo stares a little too long.

Anne hits Arlo in the side with her elbow. "What, never seen a woman before, Arlo?"

Arlo snaps out of it.

"I'm glad you're here," says the advisor. "My name is Lady Meishan."

"A pleasure to meet you, my lady," Arlo says.

She nods. "I want to make sure all of the entrances are guarded. I'll need guards keeping watch outside of the building. I'll also need the diplomat from Brunich escorted into the main hall, where he'll greet me. I don't want much formality…I'd like to get straight to work."

"Sounds like you're trying to keep people out…aren't we supposed to be protecting you?" asks Anne.

She shakes her head. "No. You'll be protecting the diplomat. As you're probably aware, Brunich isn't very popular right now. Threats of war from the north…I worry someone might attack him and start a war. I don't want that."

Arlo nods. "I see…"

"I think the only thing he heard was that we're not supposed to focus our protection on her," Anne whispers to Ikku and laughs.

"So…think you can handle the job?" Meishan asks.

"How many guards do we have?" Anne replies.

"About five," says Meishan.

"About five, or exactly five?" asks Anne, this time with a more serious tone.

"At the most, five…at minimum, four," Meishan replies.

"What's with the uncertainty?" Ikku asked.

"We can't seem to reach one of the guards; this is all short notice, so perhaps he's simply out."

Anne nods. "We'll assume four guards, then."

"Right…I'll leave security preparations for you."

Meishan leaves.

Soon after she leaves, a guard from Brunich walks in and introduces himself as Captain of the Guard for Diplomat Varum. He tells you that Lord Varum will be bringing a small escort of three guards, including himself.

Anne sighs. "Why so few?"

"Lord Varum doesn't want it to look like we're bringing a small army; besides, with fewer people, we can enter the Capital unnoticed more easily."

Ikku find out that there are three stages. The first stage is Lord Varum arriving at the city gate by carriage, then walking to the building for diplomatic meetings. The second stage is the actual discussion, which includes a small meal. The last stage is an escort back to his carriage.

Ikku decides to send Arlo to go meet Lord Varum.

During the diplomatic discussions between Meishan and Lord Varum, the guards well be placed on patrol. Meanwhile, Ikku will all be inside the main hall; the meeting is expected to take three hours, depending on how well it goes.

Arlo meets Lord Varum outside the city gates and escorts him to the meeting. He complains that the number of guards Ikku brought makes him stand out too much. Arlo doesn't encounter any issues on the way there.

Lord Varum walks into the hall and is greeted by Meishan.

"Hello, Meishan," Lord Varum says.

"Lord Varum…please, call me Misha. Would you please sit down? How long was the journey?"

Meishan and Lord Varum make small talk for several minutes. Ikku order the guards to take their positions. Two of Varum's guards are also in the room.

The meeting has begun...

Ikku went to check on the roof and didn't see any guards there. Then, Ikku see one guards and one of Varum's men standing watch there. They nod at Ikku as he arrived. Everything seems to be in order.

Ikku decides to check on the guard who is on patrol outside. Suddenly, several armed men rush toward the entrance. Some are upstairs, as well.

The guards unsheathe their weapons. Ikku, Anne, and Arlo do the same.

Most of them seem to be going after Lord Varum, but a few attack Meishan as well. One tries to chop Varum in half with a battle axe, but Anne blocks the blow just in time. Arlo is quick to protect Meishan.

Arlo is fighting two swordsmen simultaneously. "These men are well equipped," he mutters, then suddenly jerks his head to the side as one of them nearly cuts it off. "Not to mention well trained."

"Who do you think they are?" yells Anne between blocking sword strikes.

"Hard to tell…they could be soldiers…or they could be—"

One of the men head-butts Arlo in the face. Arlo staggers back. A crossbow bolt grazes Anne in the arm, causing her to drop her sword. She pulls out two daggers and throws one, killing the archer, then she uses the second dagger to stab a swordsman in front of her in the leg. He continues fighting despite the pain, shouting obscenities at her. He quickly takes a bandage off his head and wraps it around his leg to stop the bleeding, then he orders two men to attack Anne. She dashes for her sword and slashes at the first attacker, who falls to the ground. A pouch the man was wearing comes open, and Gold Pieces spill out. Rather than concern himself with his injury, he rushes to pick up the Gold.

"Sellswords…" Anne mutters.

Ikku run over to Meishan, where Arlo is fighting off several assailants at once. He sighs with relief when he sees Ikku. Together, they managed to fight off the sellswords. Ikku grab Meishan and rush her to safety.

After the fighting is over, Ikku return to find Anne wounded and Varum dead.

Anne shakes her head. "There were too many of them…I took most of them out, but one got a lucky shot with a crossbow." She suddenly collapses to the ground, and Arlo calls over the healers.

The head of Varum's guard approaches you. "This will not bode well. His death will only increase the tension between our two nations."

Ikku then notice that he looks relatively unscathed from the battle.

"And where exactly were you during this whole thing?" you ask.

The head guard frowns "I was patrolling the perimeter and securing Varum's carriage. I had no idea what was going on inside."

"Right," says Arlo. "So you left the one person you were supposed to guard…and didn't spot any of the attackers. Yeah, I’m sure Brunich will understand that completely…"

The head guard storms off angrily.

Anne scowls. "He left just around the time of the attack…"

"What are you implying?" Ikku ask.

She shrugs. "Nothing…I don't have any proof of it. But if I had to take a wild guess…I think he might have known about this. Not everyone wants our two nations to have peace."

Arlo nods slowly.

Meishan approaches Ikku and Arlo, somewhat angrily. "You failed to protect the diplomat from Brunich. This will set our diplomacy back quite a bit."

Arlo frowns. "I'm sorry. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision."

Meishan sighs. "I suppose I owe you my life…even if you didn't get the job done. I'll pay you half of what was promised."

She hands them some Gold. Ikku nod and decide to head back to the castle. Being in the Capital right now might not be the best idea...