——————[ Rescue! ]——————
The world-famous Mrs. Becky was kidnapped! Before the Heroine does… RESCUE MRS. BECKY!
— Time: 15 days!
— Reward: 2000 SP
— Fail: SP Loss, Villainess Karma Loss.
——————————————————
If you're still wondering who Mrs. Becky is, just give up. I was so afraid to ask more about this Mrs. Becky even in front of Robin (her horse) he might kick me off his back.
When I got to work, news about Mrs. Becky's disappearance had spread everywhere to the point where people in the street seemed to have gone insane about it. At that time, I got to ask Esmeralda…
"Who on Earth is Mrs. Becky?"
"Mrs. Becky is a bird."
"Alright, you'll have to explain it to me like I'm 6 years old… no, 3 years old… scratch that… Gogo gaga!"
"Alright, from the beginning. Around a year ago, this mysterious large flightless bird appeared on Albion. It is said to be the last of its kind and it was such a gentle soul that it became so popular among children like in birthday events and parties. After roaming Albion with its owner, it came to Elgard and built up a popularity."
"An ostrich?"
"I have no idea what an ostrich is."
"So… Mrs. Becky is a big deal, like a mascot I guess."
"I assume many famous people have started associating themselves with it. It is said that its owner has gained an honorary title in Buren and put it as a coat of arms for his newly established house."
"Okay. Just how do you know all that? And why haven't I heard of it before?"
"It is public knowledge, miss. And you are not a party goer last I checked, the last party you went to turned out to be a disaster as well."
"Guilty as charged!"
It seemed that my reputation of being a party popper preceded me. Not a partygoer, a party gunner, that's… pretty cool actually.
Either way, the day went by, Isabella dropped in, we had lunch in my office, and talked, she didn't think Dad would let me out of the house after last night's blunder but the renewable energy project—Project Power—that I am working on is a top priority to him by now, and so he can't let me stay idle, that's why he said my punishment was delayed.
If we transform all the smokestacks into windmills, and every waste disposal pipe into water turbines, not only will it be an environmentalist wet dream, but we will make a living and a killing of it.
Still, will things proceed peacefully?
***
When the work day was over, Vivian received an urgent summon to the Conglomerate building in the industrial district. She was accompanied by a group of knights who were watching her actions rather than watching out for her safety, a part of delayed punishment that was brought upon her.
Once she arrived at the large building, she was led straight to the meeting room where she once met the heads of the departments and the partners. There, all the department heads were present and every last one of them was surnamed Moore.
"Vivian! You have arrived at last!"
"Tell us what is going on, girl?"
Seeing that the meeting was being conducted without Count Julian, it seemed that the board got wind of what happened with Natasha Ivanov's business.
"I think the whole conglomerate is under internal investigation." Vivian replied and stood at the end of the table holding her hands together politely, "There was a traitor in our partners."
The whole room became silent and people started looking at each other.
"A traitor? Niece, this is no simple claim to make." Tristan Moore was the first to address Vivian.
"Yes, I understand. Unfortunately, as it is, I'm afraid it is the truth." Vivian replied.
Since she was invited to the meeting and her father left her without a note on what to say or do, she figured it would be useless to hide things from the department directors since it was all going to be public news either way.
"Well then, girl. Don't leave us in the dark. Tell us everything." Agatha Moore said.
Vivian started reporting all the findings of the investigation to the department heads and the atmosphere became very tense. With the actions of Natasha Ivanov and her disappearance, there is no way this is not a betrayal of the conglomerate.
Still, while the group was angered greatly by the news, they all didn't overstep their authority and waited for Count Julian who had to set the course of action for the conglomerate as the scandal waited to explode.
A few minutes passed and the main man finally showed up, with a stern face and a large group of employees on his tail, he sat at the head of the table.
"I trust Vivian had informed you of what went on." He said and got a nod from Vivian before continuing, "Well, I just came back from an inspection in every branch under Moore's management and I must say, we have dodged a cannonball this time around."
"My Lord, we are waiting for you to tell us about Natasha's situation." Tristan Moore seemed to be on the edge of his seat with a grim face.
"Natasha seemed to have joined hands with a criminal syndicate that manufactures and distributes an illegal narcotic commonly known as Bliss."
"Oh! For God's sake!"
"Seven Saints!"
The reaction of the group of directors was of genuine worry as it has been long since they have been walking on thin ice with the greater powers of the Empire. Now that a scandal of this magnitude has exploded into the conglomerate, some annoying officials will certainly take the chance to mess with the Moores.
"Fortunately, Natasha wasn't working on the narcotic itself, she was working on a different version that almost saw the light of day. I am talking about Gratia, the new cosmetic that was supposed to be launched tomorrow. Thanks to Vivian, who exposed her scheme, we are now able to minimize the damage."
A credit was given to where credit was due and Vivian was seen in a better light by the board, albeit being thuggish and gun-crazed, she was the reason a crisis was averted. But then another bomb was dropped.
"After cooperating with House Black, we have arrived at what can be said to be the worst scenario ever imagined." The Count said in a foreboding voice, "It was known that Natasha Ivanov was the late daughter of Sir Victor Ivanov, who is a descendant of the ruined Ivanov family. House Black Agents have looked into the Ivanov family and their last known members, Natasha and Igor."
Seeing as how this has involved House Black this deeply, everyone in the room, including Vivian, became very concerned as they heard the next words said by Count Julian.
"We have looked into the records of the Ivanov Family and it is discovered that neither Natasha nor Igor Ivanov could be the children of the late Victor Ivanov. The time of their emergence in the Ivanov Family is adjacent to the rise of Victor's financial ability 25 years ago. At first, it was attributed to a few lucky investments hitting the jackpot but as it turned out… it was foreign funding."
There, everybody fell silent.
"So… Corporate Espionage?" Vivian was the first to ask.
"Yes, Vivian. I think that's a fitting term. Viktor Ivanov has realized the imminent fall of his family, he accepted the first offer he got to bolster his funds, and he helped in raising spies in our midst." Count Julian replied.
"But this makes no sense. If Natasha was indeed a spy, she should have acted conspicuously and not done anything this reckless." Agatha Moore said.
"Whatever her plan was, we would have been sabotaged badly if Gratia was to be sold to this many noble ladies." The Count replied.
"Manufacture the drug, sell it to rich ladies, threaten them to keep buying in order to alleviate their addiction, probably controlling their families along the way. While it seems like a series of risky moves, this is a surefire sabotaging tactic." Tristan Moore spoke.
"I agree. We've seen such schemes happen in Buren, Vellen, and most certainly Novark." Harry Moore, the director of development, added.
"We dodged a bullet with Natasha then. However, this doesn't mean that everyone else is clean." Humbert Moore, director of arms industries, added.
"Your grace, how do you think we should act?" Keith Moore, head of pharmaceutical industries, asked.
"Well, dear cousins, as much as I want to take immediate action, all we can do is go on martial law, internally investigate every little thing, and cooperate in a secretive task force. As for dealing with Natasha Ivanov, the Black Hand and the Metropolitan Police will leave no stone unturned to get her."
"The Black Hand's one thing, but the Metropolitan Police? Useless, corrupt. Those bobbies wouldn't find their own helmets in a bloody hat shop, I tell you." Agatha Moore said and almost everyone in the room laughed.
"Sadly, Aunt Agatha, it is out of our hands to catch her now." Lord Julian replied with a wry smile.
"If only one can take care of that Natasha before she causes more problems…" Agatha said.
"Do you prefer that she remains silent, great aunt?" Vivian asked.
"Yes, I do. Even if she spills the beans on some big spy business, it'll still backfire on the Moores. This is bad news, Vivian, really bad news."
"I see…"
Vivian thought of what Agatha Moore said and found it reasonable. No matter what allegiance Natasha turns out to have since she has worked for the Moores and is now a rogue agent, she will do more harm than ever before when it comes to the Moores. If caught, there is no end to those who can use her against House Moore.
While no quest popped up, Vivian knew very well what must happen…
She has to kill Natasha Ivanov.
***
The dark city of Archester had an even darker underbelly than the poor districts around the industrial areas and the gray temple district which is the densest urban area in all of Albion. At the westernmost part of the city was the Waterlow district, a place where rogues and thieves gather around smuggling rackets.
Crime thrives in this part of the city as Waterlow is the front of many powerful crime families and some of the city's largest imports go through this area. Coal, stone, and lumber are the most common commodities here but this abundance of raw materials helped create some of the scariest foundations deep underground.
While near the river, digging this deep in the ground is absolutely unadvised which makes most of those low damp and humid most of the time, however, this created a perfect cover with how tall and steady the nearby buildings are. Add the large maze-like sewers systems to that and you would have a four-story district full of criminals and cutthroats; The Rookeries (rooftops), the Narrows (alleys), the Warren (under alleys), and the Sump (sewers).
In one of the underalleys, a pale-faced black-haired man, who bore the insignia of an aura knight associated with metropolitan police, crashed against a wall as he started crawling for his life. The water-filled alleys were almost drawing him on a few occasions but he would always try to stand on his remaining not-so-good leg and would push with his opposite not-so-good arm against the wall before eventually crumbling to the ground.
ARGH!
AAAAAAH!
"HELP!"
Behind him, the pleas of the policemen who served under him filled the air as they were getting mauled, battered, and slaughtered.
He fell to the ground as a bludgeon flew right beside his head and he continued to crawl all he could knowing that death was right behind him. While a knight, he was barely a 1-star Bronze Knight, lowest of the low in terms of Aura but still a man who can completely overwhelm at least five ordinary adults in a frontal fight. Still, overwhelming a single woman with no prior combat experience was something out of the realm of possibility at the moment, after all, that single woman with no prior combat experience tore through his whole patrol like a monster possessed.
"PLEASE! STOP! I BEG YOU!"
"Beg me? Eddy, you leech! After all that time we worked together, you want to gain credit for catching me? Wasn't our agreement to escort me in case something happened?"
"Please! I was wrong! No! Miss Natasha! Wait! No no noo…"
CLANG-THUD!
SPLASH!
One feeble woman, formerly known as Natasha Ivanov, left behind her a trail of corpses as she walked in an old brown dress that was battered from all the beating and gunshots she received. Those policemen whom she contracted to extract her in case everything goes south turned on her and if she couldn't snatch that heavy mace from them at the last second, she would have been subdued.
Natasha was never an Aura user, she couldn't risk getting revealed so she relied on her talented brother. However, that brother who could have turned the world upside down for her was killed in action, his life was snuffed in a second and everything went down.
Matilda Ambrose!
Vivian Moore!
Edith Black!
Those three bitches were the reason it all went south.
She was almost about to perfect her product which would make every woman of the high society fiddle to her will. However, while the effect of Gratia was too potent, it was too good nonetheless.
She worked tirelessly for years in order to perfect the design but since the concept was impossible to apply, the magical herb she needed landed right in her hands when the General Director of the Moore Conglomerate handed her three seeds of the Spirit Lotus to research their medicinal effects.
He would have never done that if he didn't trust her enough, she was almost looking at success, almost feeling it.
But it was all ruined the second she looked away.
Now she's on the run with nothing on her but an old dress she took from a maid to disguise herself as a common woman, a mace she snatched from the treacherous policemen, and three tin containers of Gratia that she grabbed on the way out.
Gratia (Grace) ought to be called Miraculum (Miracle) instead, the powers granted by this one product were crazy good albeit taxing on the bones and joints. Natasha knew the risks and had a cure, a dense extract of nutritions that would substitute the losses her body suffered. Sadly, she doesn't have access to a lab at the moment. She had to be careful of the usage or else she herself will fall to her own poison.
Still, impervious skin, everlasting glamor, unnatural bursts of strength? Gratia is all she needs to survive and what she has is enough to last for a week.
So, what can she do now? She's all alone, a beautiful woman in a dangerous outcrop of the city… and now the vaulters are starting to gather. Thugs, cutthroats, killers, all drawn to the scene of homicide she left behind.
Something good ought to happen in their wretched lives if they stayed near corpses, that's the logic of vaulters. After all, they can all fly off when real danger comes…
BANG!
And it was here.
The vaulters retreated back inside the narrows, above the rookeries, and into the warren, for no one was safe when the large vipers lying in the Sump would start to reveal their heads.
"I trust your ride here was uncomfortable!" A voice came as a well-dressed man walked out with a lantern pointed at Natasha and a gun in his other hand.
"Trust nothing, friend. Doveriye vedet k smerti! (Trust Leads to Death!)" Natasha replied.
"I've heard what happened to Igor. The Moores, eh? That's the second operative we lose to them. That damn daughter of the Moores knows her guns." The man said and approached closer, kicking the corpse of the Elgardish knight Natasha just smashed.
"I want out." Natasha said.
"Your work is still far from over. You will be reassigned." Said the man.
Natasha sighed and didn't look at him anymore.
"For now, descend into the sump, meet a man they call the Underking, and get him to transport you to Roseshire. If you reach it alive, we'll prepare you for transport to Charlotton."
"Avalon?"
"Trust me, Natasha, your life in Albion is over." The man said and walked away, leaving Natasha with the lantern, before turning to her and speaking one last time, "I cut a deal for you, they preferred you'd not make it."
"Spasibo, stareyshina. (Thank you, elder.)"
"S Bogom! (Godspeed!)"
And so Natasha Ivanov descended into the sump on her road to flee Elgard.