“In the high society of nobility, even the children dance in a vicious battleground of deceit, intrigue, and faces. Many play to the machinations of people bigger than them, and even more carry no awareness that they are being led by the nose at all times. Know that their kind are worse than beasts, worse than monsters, for cruelty and arrogance are but second nature to them. They wield their fangs made of lies and claws made of seduction.

  Beware the beasts draped in silk.”

  -Unknown man from the gallows

  Lodur

  A certain teen with rat-covered hands was currently driving a carriage, well driving is a stretch, he’s just holding two ropes attached to horses who’ve been induced into a trance-like state via witch magic. Lodur was currently acting as the coachman of an extremely large delivery carriage filled with horse meat. Said carriage containing several bandits and his friends. They spent a whole hour packing people inside the

  He’s the coachman because the staff of Trisha Berfast are unresponsive to anyone but him. All of them suspiciously had blindfolds, tinted glasses, or hoods that covered their eyes, which is pretty weird to the point that everyone pointed it out audibly when they first saw them. They appeared to be hostile to anyone that isn’t him, hence the whole coachman outfit.

  Lodur knocked on the gate and took out the papers from his coat, papers he had no way of reading on account of his illiteracy. He held it upside down and called out with a commanding voice.

  “DELIvEry....”

  He had a little dip in his voice, but it’s probably alright. This must be the thing Rob’s been saying, pu-pyuber-thy or something. Gah whatever, it’s probably not a lifechanging event so I’ll just ignore it for now.

  After a few second, an eerily silent maid walked out of the gate.

  “Hi....ummm, we got horse meat.” Lodur pushed the pile of papers to the maid and mirrored the silence that the maid showed. The maid then went inside and he heard the turning of gears, before the gate opened to let them in.

  That went better then expected.

  He followed the path inside to a building for meats and cold storage. A beautiful woman with black hair draped in white silk was waiting with several attendants infront of said building. She was barking orders. She looked a few years older than him for about two or three years.

  She turned her head to meet his gaze.

  “Ah marvelous, the meat is here!” She clapped her hands and moved next to the slightly mentally altered horses.

  “Yes ma’am, we got the horse meat right here.” He went down and tapped the side of the carriage.

  “Great...well can I see it?” She gave a blank smile.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Ah, just one moment ma’am.” Lodur panicked, he couldn’t open the carriage or else she’d see the bandits mixed in the horse meat.

  Think Lodur think! He was wracking his brain trying to figure out what to do. This was completely an unforeseen problem, one that he hasn’t accounted for.

  Then he had a flash of brilliance. He’s heard Beelza share stories by the campfire about adventures, romance, and horror. Maybe he could do that here.

  Trisha

  She’s been standing for nearly a minute in silence, staring at the coachman as he mumbles to himself behind the carriage.

  “Umm here you are ma’am” The coachman said as he held the door with a hand which appears to be covered in rat-like material. She squints her eyes and it might actually be a dead rat, like a literal dead rat.

  “Ma’am...” The man hid his hands and pointed at the inside of the carriage with another hand which also has a dead rat.

  “hmm?” She turned her head to see several horses jammed inside the carriage into the shape of a square. One of them even had it’s neck bent into a perfect 90 degree angle, while another one didn’t have any legs at all. She furrows her brows and looks a bit closer.

  Is that the foot of a human fetus?!

  “Umm ma’am...” He closed the doors. “I’m are ready to unload the cargo now...”

  “By yourself? All alone?” Her face warped into something that resembled a mix of disgust and concern. Honestly she doesn’t even have a name for this emotion. She just grimaced and kept a healthy 1 meter distance away from the weird child worker. Her servants formed a barrier to protect her from any potential diseases and fleas she could have caught interacting with the unkempt individual.

  “Right...” She cringed. The boy had greasy hair, a grime filled face, and an odor that was worse than horse shit.

  She clapped her hands. “Servants! Open the gate and bring the delivery to the cold room.”

  “Also I think I need a second bath today, servant 3 to 8 assist me in my preparations. Also nobody touch the filthy child, as soon as he’s done unloading the meat push him out of the premises with a stick. Use the spiked one if you have to, just don’t let that dirty dirty boy inside longer than you have to.” She whispered to her closest servant, which nodded and quickly disappeared.

  Ugh, filthy plebeian. As soon as this ball is done, I’m going to have every commoner permanently cleansed. Oh, and that reminds me.

  “You there, meat boy!”

  “Yes ma’am?”

  “For your troubles.” She tossed a fist sized ball of cheese filled with maggots. She grinned and walked away as soon as the boy caught it with his dirty dirty rat hands.

  Lodur

  He smiled as he reached the cold room. He was absolutely elated to receive a fist sized ball of cheese. It was slowly writhing in place, but it was probably a fancy noble cheese thing. He couldn’t wait to munch on it after the mission. The lady was so nice too.

  He was currently accompanied by two maids, one who carried a large mallet and another who carried a spiked mace. Awfully nice of them to accompany him like this. But he should probably incapacitate them now.

  He walked close to the carriage door where the two maids were on and pretended to trip and touch their skirts.

  “Oh, whoops” In a flash, the two maids were covered in a cage of flesh in the shape of a moose. He knocked on the carriage and signaled to the others.

  “Signal!” His signal was the word signal itself. At the utterance of the word,

  Bandits crawled out of the carriage, pouring out of every hiding spot they could imagine. The planks unraveled and floated out of the way to reveal well equipped teams of black robed individuals. Rob came out of the seat Lodur was sitting on, while Beelza fell from under the carriage.

  “Oof, my back is killin’ me.” Rob complained. He spent an hour or two under him, which made Lodur hold in his farts. Which reminds him.

  *poot* He let go of the pressure he was building up.

  “Did you just fart boy?” Number 1 said underneath his black cloak and mask.

  “No” Lodur lied to save himself.

  “You just did, in a cold room no less. A windowless room with maybe twenty people.” Beelza said as she was lighting a small scented candle.

  “Heh, you’re fuckin’ gross dude.” Rob playfully punched him in the shoulder.

  “Oh enough of that dearie. Now that the team is here, everyone spread out into positions and move stealthily. Everyone remember the plan, we steal anything that’s not nailed down when the ball begins. It’s only a few hours from now, move, move, move!” The soup grandma said.

  “Lodur and Rob, you two should clean up use your maid outfits and infiltrate the staff, you’re the only ones the staff aren’t outwardly hostile to. Decoy Lodur, wear the coachman outfit and go to the meet up point with the others, you guys are our ride out of here. Beelza, you’re in charge of the flying squad. Everyone else, get to your positions.” She began barking orders.

  Apparently she was a spy in her younger years, as she insisted on wearing a white tiger print leotard. She moved with such grace that defied her appearance. In just one jump, she managed to reach the roof. She had hidden wires and grappling hooks. Also she was surprisingly fast and agile, like a ghost.

  He and Rob were now left with number 4, a hooded figure carrying makeup tools and wigs. They smiled through their mask with such glee. They had a whole bag of expensive beauty tools they stole from their last scheme, most of which Lodur didn’t even know the name of.

  Rob sighed. “Well, let’s get this over with.”