Turning back to Jenkins once more, she gestured for him to hand the Estocs' sheath over so the damn thing could finally be put away. Though it had certainly been useful.
Sliding the sword into the sheath loops on her hip and buckling it down, Delphina then proceeded to fiddle with her gloves to ensure a better fit. Of course, coincidentally running her hand over the interface bracelet as she did so.
As the bracelet unravelled and the screen sprang back to life, she kept it in the corner of her eye whilst she stepped forward in front of Pietro.
"Form into your groups, make sure everyone who wants to participate is warmed up. If there are individual squad members who don't want to participate, just let them handle first aid and refreshments later."
A resounding chorus of yes' and of course's swept the training area, before the sandy sparring arena became densely packed with various Hunters laughing and jeering at each other.
Shaking her head at their rambunctiousness, she was looking forward to working with everyone to beat up the Knights. Ah, wait, no, she meant 'working with everyone to have a productive training tournament'. Definitely.
Well, either way, someone was going to learn a lesson.
"Brother, thanks for suggesting that. Shall we head over to the Knights now and let them know about the tournament?"
Clapping Pietro on the shoulder, she moved back towards the building. Only to find her right wrist restrained by him once again.
"Does he not have anything better to do?"
Glancing over her shoulder at her 'brother' with an icy gaze, she pointedly looked at the wrist he had taken a hold of. Despite noticing this, Pietro only moved closer to her to whisper in her ear, as she had done to him not so long ago.
"I promise I'll make it up to you, sister. Seriously."
Giving her wrist a gentle squeeze, he stepped past and moved back inside. Delphina could see the remorse in his eyes as he walked past her.
"Hmm? It looks like I'll be getting a proper apology from him sometime soon."
Mentally giving him a thumbs up for the marked improvement in his attitude, she turned her attention back to the interface screen. Nobody had noticed it.
Fully unfurling it so the screen was visible was a dangerous gamble on her behalf; there was a chance only automata weren't able to see the damn thing. But she had some trust in No.69. That system wasn't totally clueless to its host safety, it seemed.
Pietro would have been the closest person here able to see it, and there was no difficulty for her to palm it off as something else.
Slowly following in the direction he had headed- back to the central training grounds, most likely. Delphina read through the message No.69 had urgently sent. Well, at least she assumed it was urgent. This thing hadn't even been on her wrist for twenty-four hours.
And she was correct.
[Delphina! I've just detected the arrival of the Burgesses Knights. There appear to be strangers with malicious intentions among their ranks.]
[Emergency Quest issued; Defeat the assassins hidden within the Burgesses' Knights. Time limit for quest completion- 10 hours.]
Furrowing her brow at this news, Delphina could only wonder at just how No.69 had this information. The 'strangers' must have done something that indicated they were hostile.
Taking a brief moment to think about what might be the issue, she mentally spat out a swear word as she realised the most probable situation.
"Jenkins, I'm just going to run to the bathroom. I definitely drank too much tea earlier. Go on ahead and let Pietro know I'll be slightly late."
Yes, my Lady. Are you sure everything is okay?
Oh dear, it seems she'd actually sworn out loud.
"Aha, well I don't want to get caught short, y'know… I'll be right back."
Heading through the double doors back into the building, she cut left down the corridor, the opposite direction from the way they had originally come in. She hadn't seen any sign marked toilets then, so they must lie in this direction at the very least.
Luckily, it took only a few minutes of striding past arches and closed doors before a delicate brass 'Ladies' sign came into Delphina's line of sight, from across an internal courtyard.
Practically scurrying towards the bathroom, once inside, a quick sweep indicated it was empty at this time.
Moving over to the sink, she turned a tap on to help cover up any noises that might leak out as she spoke to No.69. Gripping its edge, she leaned close to the mirror affixed to the wall above it.
"69, please tell me they haven't killed any of the Burgesses' Knights! They just knocked some out and infiltrated, right?"
[Excuse me, I'll take the liberty of turning on my screen.]
As the screen gently flickered to life, it swung around to match Delphina's line of sight in the mirror.
[They're dead, the bodies have been discarded in the woods behind de Velasques Castle.]
She squeezed her eyes shut, the leather on her gloves creaking whilst she tried not to destroy the sinks basin edge as her grip tightened.
A low voice echoed in the bathroom.
"How did you know?"
[As I, No.69, have mentioned before. I have an awareness of your surroundings at all times. But as you level up, the distance at which I can survey and record increases.]
[You are currently Level 8 due to your two high completion submissions yesterday and today.]
[This means the area I can remain aware of is just larger than the Castle's outer wall. It won't expand again until you reach level 10, and then level 15.]
[I'm sorry I didn't alert you sooner, but the Burgess Knights have only just come through the Outer Walls front gate. Noticing the discrepancies in the Knights, I searched for the issue.]
[Bodies matching some of the known Knights in my database were found to be disposed of around half an hour ago, judging by their condition.]
"Shit, so some 'assassins' have been hanging around looking for a way into the Castle for God's knows how long, and the incoming Knights must have just been too juicy a chance for them to turn down."
Splashing some of the flowing water onto her face, the damp cold brought clarity to her as she planned what to do next. Having licked a few droplets off her lips, Delphina quite literally stuck her tongue out at this situation.
"Messy bastards, the plan they have must also be slapdash then."
Watching the sinks water twist and bubble, the brief moment of stress she had felt flowed away with it. However, she still had a bone to pick.
"But why the quest? Couldn't you have just informed me?"
[…]
[Depending on how difficult the assassins are, you might jump straight to Level 15.]
[ლ(´ڡ`ლ)]
"Oh! Eat my ass, you selfish prick!"
Slamming her hands down as she said this, the counter-top let out an ominous creak, causing her to flinch and step back a little. But as she wasn't able to see any visible damage, all she could do was sigh in relief.
"69, by any chance, is… That guy with their Knights?"